If Hooks Could Kill - By Betty Hechtman Page 0,108

bag and I saw a tissue-wrapped packet. He ripped open the top and I saw the owl and one of the bullion stitch flowers.

“Adele really told you that?” I said, getting agitated.

“Told might be the wrong word. It was more like I overheard them in the bookstore café. It doesn’t really matter. I wanted to get these things before I left.”

“You were the one who came to Kelly’s door. You were the one who shot her,” I said. The words tumbled out before I could stop them. Stone stood up and stared at me. He was wearing his usual khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirt and sandals, but his manner was different. The laid back surfer dude had been replaced by somebody with a cold stare.

He responded with a dismissive laugh. “Don’t be silly. I was in Denver trying to close the deal for the energy drink. I showed the cops my boarding pass. It said departing Kahului arriving Denver.”

“But with all the time changes, the detective didn’t notice that the flight took longer than it should have.” I had his rapt attention now. “Because the plane made a stop in Burbank before continuing on to Denver,” I said. There was no plane change and therefore no need for more than one boarding pass. Since it was more than a two hour stop, they gave you the option of getting off the plane, didn’t they?” I didn’t mention that the information had come courtesy of Mason’s travel agent.

I had his rapt attention now. “I know about the cab,” I said. “You took it to your sister’s and then back to the airport and got back on your plane.”

Adele hadn’t been willing to ask Eric my question, so I’d talked to him during my break. Between being a motor cop and working the production, he was very aware of what vehicles for the production were parked on Kelly’s street. When I’d mentioned remembering seeing a cab, he’d been certain it had nothing to do with the filming.

Stone listened with a stoic expression as I continued with my final piece of evidence. “I knew that somebody else had a key to the lock and that person must have contacted the storage company about moving to the new unit. Not only did I find out it was you, but that Kelly’s locker was originally rented to you. You left a credit card to be charged each month, but it expired. They tried to contact you and the phone number you’d left was Kelly’s. According to their records, she took over paying for it and put it in her name. I’m guessing you must have left the second key with her.” I knew all of that thanks to Mason’s contacts.

* * *

“Well, aren’t you the amateur sleuth,” Stone said. He went to take the packet from my tote bag and I made a rush toward the door. All those years of surfing had given him lightning reflexes, and he got there first and pulled down the unit’s door. Almost simultaneously he grabbed my arms, pulling them into a vicelike grip behind me. All the surfing had left him with muscles like steel and when I tried to move my arms, the pain was excruciating.

“I didn’t plan to go to my sister’s house,” Stone began. “But I didn’t want to end up with just a royalty for the coconut water energy drink. I wanted to be a partner, and that meant I had to invest in the company. I was just going to go to the storage unit, get some collectible coins I’d left there and get back on the plane. I thought I’d sell them when I got to Denver and use the money to buy into the business.”

He seemed quite comfortable holding onto my arms. I was not. “Imagine my shock when the coins and other things were gone. I had kept one key and left the other in a box of things I left at my sister’s when I moved to Hawaii. I knew that she must have taken the coins. I went to her house to ask for them. She said that she didn’t have them anymore, that she had sold them all. I didn’t believe her.” His lips were in a straight line as he relived the moment.

He stopped and I thought he might have been finished, but his hold grew even tighter on my arms. “The way she kept looking around that room of hers, I was sure she’d hidden them