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“HONEY, LISTEN. SPEAKING of Iker Legazpi, I just had an idea.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“I was just talking about this with Betty Jackson. We’re writing a paper together, and we’re trying to make sense of the data. She said when you get stuck for an explanation, try reversing the causal arrow. If it looks like the rooster crowing caused the sun to rise, consider it might be the other way around.”
“And then?”
“So maybe Melanie wasn’t looking this information up to have something to talk about with Iker Legazpi. Maybe she was asking Dr. Legazpi about it because she was already interested in the topic for some other reason.”
“Like what other reason?” Honey asked.
“I don’t know. But this thing with Melanie researching financial regulations, and talking to Iker about it, she would never make such a monumental mental effort unless she had a really good reason. So, I don’t know. Maybe she was involved in a scam that went bad?”
“I could hire someone to look at her financials. Not sure it would tell us who killed her or how.”
“No, let’s hold off on hiring anyone.”
I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay Honey’s fees, let alone any extras. Donnie had no reason to pitch in for my legal defense now.
“Maybe it was just part of Melanie’s mission to one-up me. Canoe paddling with my best friend, flirting with my fiancé, and it looks like she even wanted to buy the Brewster House. Maybe she was trying to learn about business and get a job in the College of Commerce?”
“I don’t know,” Honey sounded unimpressed with my theory. “Professors cannot just move from one field to the other. The training’s too specialized, ah?”
“And yet, here I am. With my Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. I should be the one teaching the Jane Austen elective. Except if it were up to me, it would be a Kafka elective.”
“Nah, lucky you ended up in the College of Commerce, Professor. It was good to have a female role model. Not a lotta wahine in the College of Commerce. You know my parents didn’t want me to leave the island, not even to go to law school. But I told ‘em about you, not from here, no family here or nothing, and you were making it work.”
“But now you’re back in Mahina,” I said.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to be away from my parents for too long. They’re getting older.”
Honey’s parents were probably my age.
I found Fontanne Masterman sitting in her great room, gazing out at the view of the Hanakoa River gorge. I joined her on the rattan couch.
“It’s a shame about you and Donnie, dear. When Doc passed away, I didn’t know how I would go on. But I did. And you will too. In fact, I hear you have a new suitor.”
“Nothing terribly serious. I’ve gone for coffee with a colleague from IT. That’s all.”
“And as far as the financial aspect,” Mrs. Masterman continued, “I believe you’ll be able to...”
Her voice was drowned out by a moaning sound beneath us. The sound swelled, so deep and intense it made my internal organs vibrate. Mrs. Masterman sighed in a resigned way and waited.
“What is that noise?” I asked when it had died away. I heard a quaver in my voice, and realized my hands were shaking. I must still be feeling a little on edge from standing out on the balcony, I thought.
“Oh, it’s nothing to fret about. It doesn’t happen very often. As I was saying, I believe you can afford this house without Donnie.”
“I can? How do you know?”
“I’ve seen your salary information.”
“You have?”
“Of course. All state employee salary information is available to the taxpayers.”
“It is? I had no idea—”
The wailing rose up again, more terrible than before. Outside, across the gulch, trees lashed back and forth in the wind.
Fontanne Masterman was used to this, apparently. She was like someone accustomed to living next to an airport, halting her conversation for the unearthly cries the way someone might pause as a noisy plane passed overhead.
I made a mental note to call Leilani Zelenko. I was ready to look at other options. The Brewster House was beautiful and historic and everything, but really, it was far too big. Who needed all those rooms anyway?