Sun Kissed (Orchid Island #1) By Joann Ross
1
Portland Police Bureau Detective Donovan Quinn was not filled with what the residents of the neighboring Hawaiian Islands would call the aloha spirit. He was hot, thirsty, tired, and cursing his decision to come to Orchid Island. Back in Oregon, the idea had made sense—a remote, tranquil place to escape the demons that had been haunting him. And worse yet, the sense of drifting, almost like those people who claimed to have near-death experiences, floating above their bodies, watching their lives and souls drift away.
He’d talked with the department chaplain. With the shrink who’d offered to prescribe anti-depressants, which he wasn’t yet prepared to take. He’d also gone out to dinner with his best friends, only to belatedly discover that they’d planned an intervention.
“You’ve been there,” Nate Breslin had reminded him over fried clam strips and shrimp po’boys with him and Tess Lombardi at Bon Temps on the coast in Shelter Bay. “It’s a tropical paradise. Lush greenery, palm trees, sparkling beaches, turquoise waters, and the most beautiful women found anywhere on earth.”
The horror novelist had turned toward his fiancée and given her a quick kiss. “Present company excluded, of course.”
“Thank you, darling.” Her smile suggested that he’d be rewarded for that qualification once they got home to Sunset Point.
Then she’d turned back to Donovan, her expression turning serious. “When Nate took me to the island to meet his family, I was tempted to stay. And I swear, within the first few hours of landing, I was more relaxed than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Given that the Multnomah County deputy district attorney had recently escaped a harrowing ordeal that had nearly cost Tess her life, that had been saying something.
“You’d probably be out of work,” he’d countered. Especially given her workaholic habits. Though he had noticed that she’d actually begun taking time for a personal life since falling for Nate. Even more so since returning from their Thanksgiving trip to the Pacific island. “Given that there’s undoubtedly even less crime on Orchid Island than here in Shelter Bay.”
“That would probably be true.” She’d snagged a clam strip from her fiancé’s plate and dipped it into the restaurant’s signature comeback sauce. “But I was seriously tempted. And if you’re not going to go there for yourself, Donovan, please do it for me.” She’d reached across the table and put a hand on his. “Bad enough that you landed in the hospital because of me; you’ve recently been through a horrible personal experience. If you’re not going to stick with therapy, try the meds, or cancel that damn speech you agreed to give in Hawaii, the least you can do is steal some additional time for R and R.”
“I can’t cancel the speech, because I gave my word.” Which had been nine months ago. Before his life had begun unraveling at the seams.
So, he was going to give the speech. But, as Tess had known he would, he’d caved in on taking a side trip to Nate’s home island.
He should have taken the three-hour flight delay before departure from PDX as a sign. The delay had him arriving in Honolulu with minutes to spare before giving a speech on Pacific Northwest serial killer clusters at a joint Oahu Police Department and FBI conference. The speech had been booked by the special agent in charge of the Portland FBI field office, who’d been actively recruiting him for the past year.
It would not only polish his credentials for the lengthy acceptance procedure, Donovan had been told, but hanging out with some agents in a social situation would allow him to get a feel for the type of men and women he could be working with.
His speech, centered on possible reasons for the high body count in an area of the country FBI profiler John Douglas had once referred to as “America’s killing fields,” had been well received. The Cascades Killer had terrorized the mountainous region from southern Oregon up to the Canadian border for nearly a decade. After inheriting the case when the original detective retired, Donovan had upped his professional profile by apprehending the serial killer by using methods he’d learned from the FBI Behavioral Research and Instruction Unit.