Leia tried the door and found it unlocked. The sounds around her seemed loud, and even her breathing was harsh and labored. She stepped inside the dimly lit, one-room cabin. Koma didn’t have much of a kitchen—just a cabinet at the back of the room with a sink that held a hand pump to the water catchment in the back. She felt like a Peeping Tom as she advanced into the house. The air smelled stale and musty and held a hint of tobacco from the spittoon by the easy chair.
The room was cluttered with old Hawaiian memorabilia from bouncing hula girls to old movie posters of the Elvis movies made here. A stack of books sat beside the chair, and she glanced at the titles. They were all about the old Hawaiian kingdom. A small cot was pushed against one wall. She peered under it but found nothing except dust bunnies, a whole nest of them. If she were Koma, where would she hide her most prized possessions? Surely not here. He loved the jungle. This place was where he came when he was finally too tired to roam the wilderness.
She didn’t really know why she was here. Maybe she’d hoped to find a treasure map with a giant X. She smiled at the thought. She stepped out the back door and found several old pails for cleaning—not that it looked like they’d been used much. They held cob-webs and the remains of some spider’s meal. She suppressed a shudder and stepped off the back stoop into the yard. A frayed yard chair sat beside a firepit. Koma had spent a lot of time out here. She looked around the yard, trying to see where he might hide something. Her gaze stopped on the old banyan tree at the edge of the jungle. Koma had told her stories about this tree. He loved it.
She approached the massive tree, its aerial roots now massive, intertangled trunks so thick it was hard to see between them. Tipping her head back, she gazed into the branches loaded with leaves and birds. Koma used to climb this tree every day and sit and meditate, he’d told her. She glanced at her shorts. She’d get her legs scratched, but she couldn’t leave without at least climbing to the platform she could see the tip of.
She kicked off her slippers, then wedged her foot into the crook of the tree and heaved herself up. Once on the first branch, the climbing became easier, and her fingertips soon touched the lip of the platform. When she at last stood on the platform and looked down into the surrounding yard and jungle, she felt like Tarzan. She glanced around the platform and saw that an old wooden chest was nailed to the tree.
Could it be the treasure? Her pulse skipped, and she rushed to throw open the lid. Inside lay a jumble of bones, and she shrank back and slammed the lid. It had to be something from Koma’s weird religion. She didn’t know what kind of bones they were, and she didn’t want to know. Who knew what animals he’d sacrificed? This had been a waste of time. She was preparing to descend the tree when she heard voices below her. She shrank back. Who else would be exploring Koma’s property? She dropped to her knees and peered down through the branches. The murmur of voices grew louder, but she didn’t recognize them. They stopped about ten feet from the tree. She hoped they wouldn’t see her slippers at the base of the tree. Their voices carried in the clear air. Leia could see their heads through the leafy cover beneath her, but their backs were to her and she couldn’t identify them.
“I thought sure she’d come this way. We must have lost her somewhere. Old Koma might have told her something. We’re getting nowhere by ourselves.”
“I’ll grab her tonight.” The second man’s voice was high and whiny.
“That’s what you said last night,” the first man growled.
“Yeah, well, she had the guy staying there. I wasn’t going to tackle him. He’s ex-military.”
Bane. They were talking about her and Bane. Leia put her hand over her mouth. Last night had been an attempt to kidnap her. Fear rose in a wave, and she fought it back. She had to figure out who these men were and what they wanted. Did they think Koma told her where the treasure was? If so, how could she convince them she knew nothing?
After dropping Kaia at the airport, Bane drove back toward the harbor. He saw the dive shop up ahead and decided to stop by for a minute. He told himself he really needed to check on Candace. Tony would expect it of him, especially now that she was being tossed out of the business on her ear. He didn’t see Leia’s little Neon parked in the lot, though there were several other cars. Maybe someone had dropped her off. She should have been here half an hour ago. He pulled into the first available slot and shut off the engine. The dirt road had left a scum of red dust on his rented pickup, and he made a mental note to get it washed after work tonight. The place was nearly deserted, and he saw only one customer perusing the display of swim masks on the shelves.
Candace was looking out the window on the door. She chewed her lip. “I was hoping you were Leia,” she said.
“Isn’t she here?”
Dirk lifted one eyebrow. “We were just wondering what happened to her. She’s late, and I’ve got a group to take out on a dive in about fifteen minutes.”
“She left for here two hours ago.” Bane thought of last night’s intruder. “There was someone lurking around Ipo’s last night. I hope she’s all right.”