“I can’t thank you enough, Regan,” Will said to her quietly. “I wish I could hire you on a permanent basis.”

“Well, I promise to come back and visit.”

“They’re going to auction the leis in a little while. For my taste they can’t be out of here soon enough.”

“I can well imagine.”

Regan’s cell phone began to ring. She had it out on the table. When she looked at the number, she saw it was Jack. They had talked several hours ago after the twins were arrested. Smiling, she turned to Will. “Excuse me. I’ll go outside with this.” She got up and started to walk toward the door. “Hello there!” she answered.

“Regan, where’s Kit?” he asked briskly.

“She’s here at the ball. Why?”

“Is Steve Yardley with her?”

“Yes. What is it, Jack?”

“I just got word about the prints from the beer bottle. This guy has a criminal record and goes by a number of aliases. Yes, he worked on Wall Street, but he was fired for embezzling funds. He’s run a number of scams since then. He rents a house in an expensive neighborhood with lots of part-time residents and gets people he meets to invest in his schemes. Then he moves on. He had a girlfriend who disappeared about ten years ago and has never been found. He has a bad temper and is considered dangerous if you make him angry.”

“Oh, my God,” Regan walked back into the room, the phone at her ear. The band had taken a break, and no one was on the dance floor. She looked over at her table. Kit and Steve’s seats were empty. The main course was being served. “Jack, I don’t know where she is.”

“I thought you said she was there.”

“She was a few minutes ago, but then she and Steve got up to dance. Now they’re gone. Maybe they just went for a walk,” Regan said, worry filling her soul. “I’m going to look for her. I’ll call you back.”

“Regan, be careful! This guy is dangerous.”

Regan closed her cell phone and for a brief moment had the surreal feeling that she was leaving her body. Kit. Oh, Kit. She turned around and bumped into Gus. “Have you seen Kit?”

“I just interviewed her outside. She and Steve look as if they’re so much in love. I think they’re going for a moonlight stroll.”

Regan ran out the door toward the beach.

“This is so romantic!” Kit said giddily as they strolled along the beach.

“I just want to be with you,” Steve told her quietly. “Not with all those other people. Some of them are so annoying. Let’s go sit on the jetty.”

They took off their shoes and gingerly stepped onto the rocky surface. Steve tightened his grip on Kit’s hand as, in the darkness, they carefully made their way out to the end of the jetty. A breeze was blowing, and the wide open sea lay endlessly before them. When they couldn’t walk any farther, Kit laid her head on Steve’s shoulder.

“Come on,” Steve urged. He crouched, moved down among the rocks that faced the ocean, and turned to reach for Kit. “It’s our own little place here. No one will bother us.”

Kit smiled as he carefully guided her down beside him. They sat, wrapped their arms around one another, and nestled in their private cove. The water lapped at their feet.

“This is so wonderful.” Kit sighed.

Steve turned his head and started to kiss her. Hard. Too hard.

Kit pulled back. “Steve,” she protested, trying to laugh it off.

“Ow!”

“What’s the matter?” he asked gruffly. “You don’t want me to kiss you now?”

“Of course I want you to kiss me.” She leaned back in toward him.

“I want you to kiss me the way you did last night.”

He kissed her again, biting her bottom lip as his right hand yanked the back of her hair. Kit pulled away for the second time, fear rising in her. “Steve, you’re hurting me.”

He grabbed her arm. “Do you think I would hurt you? Do you think that just because you’re best friends with Regan Reilly all your boyfriends should be checked out? Is that what you think?” he demanded as his grip around her arm tightened.

“No, I was just kidding,” Kit protested. “Regan looks out for me, that’s all. She’s my best friend. She likes you…”

“No she doesn’t. I saw the way she was looking at me.”

“She does like you. We want you to meet her fiancé Jack. He’s great…”

Steve squeezed her arm and shook it. “He’s a cop. I don’t need the two of them asking me a lot of questions. That’s what Dorinda Dawes did. She started poking around my house and asking me everything about my life. She thought she was so smart. I had to shut her up!”

Kit’s brain, which had been slightly clouded by the wine she’d been drinking, suddenly snapped into focus. The realization that Steve was Dorinda’s killer hit her with sickening force. I’ve got to get out of here, she thought. “Let go of my arm,” she said as calmly as she could. “You’re hurting me.”

“You’re hurting me,” he repeated in a baby voice, mocking her.

“I’ve got to go.” Kit started to stand but didn’t get far. She screamed as he pulled her back down.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Yes, I am!” Kit insisted fiercely as she turned away and hurriedly began to climb up from the rocks. But Steve pulled her back again. She stumbled backward and screamed out for help. He quickly pressed his hand over her mouth, held her struggling body close to him, and dipped her head into the swirling dark ocean.

Out on the beach, Regan frantically looked around. There was no one there. “Kit!” she called. “Kit!” She kicked off her shoes and ran down to the water’s edge. “Kit!”

All was silent.

“Kit!”

Then Regan heard Kit’s scream. It sounded as if it were coming from the jetty where Dorinda Dawes often sat. Oh, God, Regan thought, thinking of Dorinda’s fate. Don’t let the same thing happen to Kit! Regan started to run toward the jetty. Then she heard two more short screams. It’s her, I know it. Regan was frantic. My best friend. Please, please let me get there in time, she prayed.

Regan stepped onto the jetty and ran across the slick rocks as fast as she could. She slipped and fell, her knee scraped by a jagged rock. Barely feeling the pain, she got back up and raced to the end. The sight of Steve struggling to hold Kit’s head under water sent a jolt through Regan’s system like she had never felt before. In an instant, she jumped down onto Steve’s back and hit him in the back of the neck with a strength she couldn’t believe she had. He grunted, released his grip on Kit, and threw Regan off his back. They both fell into the ocean. As Kit lifted her head out of the water, Regan yelled to her. “Get back on the jetty!”

Kit was coughing, but fury had overcome her. “No way, Regan.” She jumped on Steve and scratched at his face. He threw her off and then pushed Regan below the surface. Regan swallowed a huge gulp of the salty ocean but managed to knee him in the groin. She resurfaced just as Kit clawed his left eye with her nails. He screamed in pain, turned away, and began to swim out to sea. But his escape was short-lived. A police boat located him twenty minutes later. His stint in paradise had come to an end.

After all the excitement died down and the police had Steve in custody, Kit and Regan, now wearing dry clothes, returned to the ballroom in time to see the delayed auction of the royal leis. A benefactor purchased both of them for a lot of money and donated the pair back to the Seashell Museum. He didn’t have too much competition. “Trouble surrounds those leis,” he noted. “They shouldn’t be separated ever again. They belong together on display. People should know their history and that they once belonged to members of the Hawaiian royal family. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know how that poor woman Dorinda Dawes got her hands on Queen Liliuokalani’s lei. That’s a secret she took to her grave.” Jimmy beamed while the curator of the prestigious Bishop Museum looked crestfallen. He had hoped the leis would go to his museum.