Murder in Honolulu: A Skye Delaney Mystery Read Online Free PDF

and wrought iron.
There was a masonry garden wall and an entry blocked from the
street by an electronic gate. Palm trees and high shrubbery
surrounded the property like guards sworn to protect its
occupants.
    A touch of envy overcame me as I remembered
the nice but modest place we called home when we were married.
Carter had obviously moved up quite a bit in the world since then.
And so had Darlene as a result.
    My thoughts turned to the reason I was there
gawking at my ex-husband's exquisite accommodations. At precisely
ten a.m., Darlene Delaney emerged from the house with her daughter.
With the telephoto zoom lens of my digital camera, I honed in on
the two.
    With her hair in pigtails, Ivy was wearing
an pink dress and matching shoes. She held her mother's hand
seemingly under protest.
    Darlene looked relaxed and stylish in an
olive pantsuit and high-heeled mules. Her shoulder length hair hung
loose. She removed sunglasses from an oversized purse and covered
her eyes before heading toward a bright red BMW in the circular
drive.
    I disappeared from view as the car sped past
the gate and onto the street, whizzing by me as though my
comparatively inexpensive vehicle was insignificant. Was she in a
big hurry or what? I wondered while starting my car. Or was this
just Darlene's normal reckless way of driving with her daughter in
the car?
    In any event, I had to put on the burners
just to keep up.
    During my surveillance, I considered the
irony that Carter may well have been getting a major dose of the
same medicine he had once dished out to an unsuspecting me. After
sulking for some time, I finally got past it and on with my life.
So had he, and apparently never looked back.
    Till now.
    Then I found myself wondering what Carter
would think of Ridge. And vice versa. They were about as different
as night and day, but had enough common ground to get involved with
me. At this stage of my life, I couldn't help but think I was much
better off with Ridge.
    These musings drifted away as I followed
Darlene to a day care center on Ala Aolani Street, where she
literally dropped Ivy off before going it alone to some unknown
destination. For a time, she seemed to be driving just for the sake
of driving. Or maybe to see how many heads she could turn in the
cars she left in the dust.
    This exercise in tire wear came to a head
when she turned onto Kalakaua Avenue and parked at the Royal
Hawaiian Center, a four-level
shopping mall in the heart of Waikiki.
    I parked not far from her and waited while
Darlene took extraordinary pains to redo her face and hair,
primping for someone apparently other than her husband. Normally I
had a feel for whether or not a spouse was having an affair. But in
this case, my instincts were undoubtedly flawed. Spying on your
ex-husband's current wife probably nullified any objectivity. But
something told me there was more to it than that. Judging by
Carter's complaints about Darlene, the marriage seemed more or less
doomed whether she was having an affair or not.
    Or was that perhaps wishful thinking on my
part?
    I doubted it. Why on earth would Carter want
to stay married to someone who mistreated him and apparently
neglected their daughter? On the other hand, if Darlene was willing
to fight me "tooth and nail" to keep the life and luxuries she had,
why would she risk it all by having an affair that she seemingly
did not give a damn if her husband was privy to or not?
    It didn't add up, making me even more
suspicious, even though I knew as well as anyone that marital
triangles rarely added up to everyone's satisfaction. I was living
proof of that.
    Darlene left her car and headed inside the
mall. I followed from a safe distance, dressed in my foot
surveillance inconspicuous attire of a blazer over a mock halter
and slim leg pants. I wore casual flats for practicality and
brought along a nondescript handbag with all the essential elements
of the trade.
    An unlikely place to meet a lover, I
thought, but not impossible.