Too Hot Four Hula: 4 (The Tiki Goddess Mystery Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

in town, and you can only get it once you get through security.”
    “Louie?” Em turned to her uncle. “You want to get fried rice?”
    “Sure. Best on the island. I just hope they’re not out of it already. It’s already going on seven a.m. you know.”
    “Probably best if we stick together,” Em said before she noticed Kiki wasn’t with them. “Trish,” she called out to one of the sanest members of the troupe. “Where’s Kiki?”
    “At the bar,” Trish called as the automatic door to the cafeteria swooshed open.
    “It’s not even open yet.” As the group surged forward, Em was pushed into the cafeteria on the crest of a Hula Maiden wave.
    “She likes to stand outside and look in the window,” Flora said. “She says a girl can dream.”
    Just then the cafeteria door opened and Kiki leaned in. “The Pali Boys are setting up out here in the lobby to play for the tourists. Forget the rice. We’ve got time for a couple of dances!”
    Em and Louie barely got out of the way as the Maidens all dropped their carry-ons, purses, and backpacks at the nearest table and stampeded back out the door.
    6
    INSIDE THE BOARDING area at Gate 6, Em clung to her go-with-the-flow attitude and paged through the latest edition of the Garden Island news. The all caps banner headline screamed “Activists Claim GMO Corn Causes Zombies.” Her mind wasn’t on the story but kept drifting to Phillip. She wondered if her ex had changed at all and wished she hadn’t agreed to meet with him.
    The Maidens had just filed in. Too late to get seats together, they were scattered around the room chatting about their successful appearance in the lobby and how they’d left travelers cheering for more. The plane had arrived and was waiting in view at the end of the jet way.
    Flora wedged into the seat beside Em and was fanning herself with a lau hala fan. She leaned over and said, “One tourist came up to me and said he nevah saw anything like us in his life.”
    “I’m sure,” Em said. Before she could add anything, their flight number was announced. All around the room passengers began pulling out their boarding passes and grabbing their belongings.
    Big Estelle came bustling over to Em. “No one has seen Mother.” She glanced into the Gate 5 waiting area on the other side of the long, narrow room.
    Em took one look at the straw bags and heavy leather pack Big Estelle was wrestling with and said, “Let me run out to the lobby and look for her.”
    Big Estelle sighed. “Sorry, Em. That would be great. You can go a lot faster than I can.”
    “Watch my stuff for me.” Em hurried out into the open air corridor outside the boarding gate. She headed along the cement walk to the lobby where passengers could not only enjoy the cafeteria or the bar and live Hawaiian music, but could also grab a bottle of water, gum, candy, or a newspaper from one of the smaller stores but also that last minute flower lei to take with them.
    Em’s sandals slapped against her heels as she ran through the lobby, ducked into the cafeteria and then the bar. Not even Kiki was there. She even looked behind turning display racks in both the sundry and flower shops, but didn’t see Little Estelle.
    How could they have lost an old lady in a wheelchair? Em figured Little Estelle must have rolled off on her own while the others were dancing.
    Airport security lines fed into the lobby. Em walked up to the glass dividers and watched travelers grab their bags and belongings out of plastic bins rolling off the conveyer belt. Uniformed TSA agents were eyeballing every move. A gray-haired Hawaiian man in uniform manned a podium at the exit.
    “Did an elderly woman in a wheelchair go by?” Em asked him.
    He looked her up and down with an expression reserved for crazy haoles . He nodded toward the area marked off for more thorough screenings. Em spotted Little Estelle standing beside her wheelchair, one arm outstretched, one hand braced on a countertop for balance, as