Page 3 of Wired Fear

The receptionist left, shutting the door behind her, and Jake dealt with the tea until they all had what they wanted. Sophie wrapped her fingers around her hot mug as the beverage steeped, warming her hands. “Kim. Please continue. When and how did you begin to suspect something was wrong with the festival’s funding?”

“I helped facilitate the grant to the Festival. I’m not on the Board of Directors, so I don’t have access to the financial reports. But the same sponsors were being featured, and the budget is available to organizers to view, and it’s the same too. Only this year, PR and advertising aren’t nearly at the same level as in the past. Everywhere I turn at the planning meetings I’m hearing that we don’t have the money, but I knew the overall budget was similar to last year’s.”

Jake frowned. “Hmm. You don’t have anything more tangible than that?”

Kim looked down at her hands in her lap. “That’s why we can’t go to the police yet. And when I say ‘we’ I’m talking about me and mykumuhula, Esther Ka`awai.”

Sophie jerked, feeling as if she’d been zapped with a red-hot wire. Esther, a well-known Hawaiian wise woman, was Alika Wolcott’s grandmother, and Alika was a painful subject to be avoided at all costs. “Isn’t Mrs. Ka`awai on Kaua`i?”

“I am studying under her. Esther provides cultural advisory oversight to the event. She was the one to put the pattern together and really bring it to my attention. She is able to do a lot long distance.” Kim was oblivious to Sophie’s discomfort. “She and I decided to try to get more information without tipping anyone off that we were looking into it.”

Sophie squelched apprehension at the thought of interacting with Esther Ka`awai. “Who, exactly, is the client?” Sophie looked down at the application in front of her. “To put it bluntly—who will be paying the bill?”

“The Tourism Authority will be hiring you. I went to them with our concerns, and they gave us a budget.” Kim named a figure. “Can you work with that?”

“We certainly can,” Jake said. “To start, we will need all the names and contact numbers that you can give us for everyone involved with the Festival.”

“I have that on computer. I’ll email it to you.”

“We should get eyes on the different players and areas involved,” Jake went on. “Do you have a plausible way to introduce us, bring us around to meetings and such?”

“Something closest to the truth is always the best,” Sophie said. “Jake tends to stand out as a cop or investigator no matter what. Bringing him around as a private security expert to help make sure nothing’s stolen or unsafe makes sense. My skills lie behind a computer. I’ll be looking for the money trail from the bank. Let’s come up with a plan and timetable on how to proceed.”

“I’d like us to get started right away,” Kim said. “The Festival is in a month, and the sooner we find out where the money went, the sooner we can get the funds back and put them to work to make this the best event ever.” Her brown eyes shone almost feverishly. “We owe it to everyone who gives so much to make this event the magnificent cultural event it is.”

Chapter Three

Seated on the top step of his front porch, Terence Chang surveyed the Chang family’s former compound. Terence was proud of how neat the place looked now: he’d removed the many junked cars, the rusting freezer, and the pile of barrels his cousins had stored meth-making chemicals in. His two brindled pit bulls wandered and sniffed around the yard, marking their favorite spots.

Terence sipped his coffee. He liked it black, and fresh, made from one hundred percent Kona beans grown on his own plantation, one of his several legit businesses. He let the fragrant brew roll around on his tongue and settle on his palate, as he gazed down at the expensive black basketball shoes that were one of his few indulgences.

He had tried hard to go straight.

He had made many good changes.He’d gone to college. Built up his own businesses and run interference for the family via computers and managing the Chang family’s legal affairs. Until his cousin Byron, head of the family, had been gunned down, that peripheral role had been enough. It hadn’t been long since the brutal slaying, but the Chang empire already seemed to be coming apart at the seams since Terence’s psycho cousin Akane had escaped just after his trial.

There were those in the family who thought Akane should take over in the vacuum left by Byron’s death—that his brutality and bloodthirstiness were signs of strength.

Terence knew better.

He sipped, trying to regain the simple pleasure the beverage had given him only moments ago.

Shehad liked his coffee, too.

He refused to let her name arise in his mind—but it did anyway.Julie Weathersby.His own personal Kryptonite.

Julie’s face filled his memory: her wide blue eyes, happy smile, those pale freckles on her nose. The little sounds she made in his arms. The way she snuggled into him, trusting as a puppy.

He’d never been anyone’s hero before.

Terence tightened his mouth bitterly. The coffee tasted like ash.

He’d rescued Julie—picked her up on a deserted road, running for her life from Akane. He’d prevented that brutal rapist batshit crazy serial killer from tearing Julie apart, emotionally and physically.

What he hadn’t counted on was falling for the girl.

Hadn’t counted on letting himself hope he could have some other kind of life and share it with someone special.

But he couldn’t have her.Or that life. Because the worst thing that could happen to the Changs, and everyone around them, would be for Akane to take over the business.

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