Banana Split (39 page)

“What happened?” Sadie asked again. “What happened the night she disappeared?”

“She called from the motel,” Bets said, her voice a whisper. She wiped her fingers across her cheeks.

Darryl cut in. “You told the police you weren’t there when she called—”

“Please, let her talk,” Sadie interrupted, giving him a hard look. He closed his mouth, and Sadie nodded for Bets to continue.

She wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone as she spoke again. “She started leaving a message for Darryl, asking him where Ho’oka Beach was.”

“Ho’oka?” Darryl repeated.

Sadie shook her head at him; he lowered his chin as a sign he wouldn’t interrupt again.

“She wanted directions?” Sadie asked Bets.

“Yes. I picked up the phone before she finished and asked her why she was going to Ho’oka. Darryl and I . . . we used to go out there and watch the stars at night. It’s very . . . private.”

“Where was Darryl?” Sadie asked, tensing herself for what might come next.

“In Kapaa, not far from Ho’oka.”

When she didn’t continue, Sadie turned to Darryl for an explanation.

He cleared his throat. “I’m part of a group of local churches who pray together and plan community projects. We meet once a month, and I always forward my cell phone calls to the house so I’m not interrupted. Bets knows where to reach me if there’s an emergency, but she said she didn’t get the call and there was no message.”

“So you never knew Bets spoke to Noelani that night?” Sadie clarified.

Pastor Darryl shook his head.

Sadie turned back to Bets. “You gave Noelani directions?”

Bets nodded. “She was upset, and I thought . . . I thought she was taunting me by having me tell her how to get there, but I told her anyway.”

So she could catch them,
Sadie thought to herself.

Bets crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from her husband as she spoke. “Darryl warned me that his meeting would go late, and his cell phone was forwarded so I couldn’t call and check up on him. I just . . . I just had to know.”

“You followed her all the way to the beach?”

“Almost,” Bets said. “She stopped at a convenience store and bought something. I thought maybe she’d go back to the motel—maybe I was overreacting. But then she got back on the highway, heading toward Kapaa. I turned off my lights when she turned onto Paapa Road and pulled off before the final turn into the beach parking lot. I walked the rest of the way. She was already heading toward a truck that had its lights on, pointed at a boat in the water.” Bets closed her eyes and ducked her chin. “She was yelling at someone standing on the dock, saying something about Charlie and going to the police. I didn’t understand what she could mean. When she turned back toward her car, a man tackled her from behind, throwing her to the ground. Another man jumped out of the boat.”

“There were two of them?” Sadie asked.

Bets nodded.

“Then what happened?” Sadie asked in almost a whisper to keep her voice from cracking as the scene took shape in her mind.

“I couldn’t have helped her,” Bets said, as though justifying her inaction. She lifted her chin and sent a pleading look toward her husband. “I was scared for my life. I ducked behind some trees, but I could hear them fighting. Noelani was yelling at them. One of the men told her shut up and . . . there was a thud . . . and she did.” She paused, and everyone in the room was silent. “When I dared look again, the two men were carrying her to the pier. She wasn’t moving. . . . I watched them put her into the boat.”

“You wouldn’t have written that note unless you
knew,
without a doubt, that she wasn’t coming back.”

“I knew she wasn’t coming back,” Bets whispered. “Only one man took the boat out. The other stayed by the truck, smoking and talking on his phone. I was afraid to leave, afraid he’d hear me. The boat came back about an hour later, and Noelani wasn’t in it. The man in the boat threw some bags onto the dock. The man by the truck headed toward them and yelled, ‘You got rid of her?’ The man in the boat said she was gone.

“As soon as I felt I could get away without them hearing me, I went back to my car and came home. Darryl came home within twenty minutes.” She paused. “When almost a week went by without a word, I sent Charlie the note. I thought it would help him feel better when she never returned. I thought . . . it was the right thing to do. I never imagined they’d find her.”

Sadie had to take a deep breath to remain calm. She wanted to ask Bets why she hadn’t called the police. She wanted to ask how she could be so callous in regard to Noelani’s death but so compassionate toward Charlie’s loss. But those were the types of questions that would shut down the conversation, and Sadie needed to keep Bets talking.

“Do you know who the men were?”

Bets shook her head. “I didn’t get a close enough look. The only lights were the headlights from the truck and the lights on the boat. I didn’t recognize their voices either. I don’t think I know them.”

“What about the truck or the boat? Do you remember anything about them?”

Bets looked at the ground. “The truck was red, a two-door something or other. The boat, though, had a name on the back.
Serenity,
I think. It was written in silver lettering along the back and reflected the headlights of the truck.”

“
Serenity
?” Sadie repeated, sickened by the irony.

Bets looked up at Sadie. “Maybe I should have done something,” she said as though just now realizing it. She flicked a look at Darryl. “Even though she was in love with my husband, maybe I should have at least tried to help her.”

Sadie shook her head, struggling to even look at the woman who had let another woman die, perhaps in part because she didn’t want Noelani around. “She wasn’t in love with your husband,” Sadie said. “He was counseling her.”

Bets shook her head. “No. It was more than that.” Her voice shook, and she seemed to be pointedly avoiding her husband’s eyes, which, if Sadie weren’t mistaken, were wet.

“Jim wanted you to think it was more than that,” Sadie said. “But he had his own reasons.”

Bets’s eyes filled with tears as she shook her head, her chin trembling. “What do you mean? What reasons other than the truth?”

“Melissa,” Pastor Darryl said.

Bets turned her head in his direction but wouldn’t look at him.

“Jim’s ex-wife?” Sadie wanted to make sure they were talking about the same person. Gayle still stood behind Pastor Darryl. Intentionally or not, she was blocking the door.

“He’s never forgiven me,” Pastor Darryl said.

“Why does he hold you responsible?” Sadie asked, remembering what Shawn had told her over the phone and knowing that Bets needed to hear it too.

“We were all friends,” Pastor Darryl said, his gaze cutting between Sadie and his wife. “We all worked with the outreach program together.”

“Until you and Melissa started getting so close,” Bets said, finally looking up at him, though hesitantly.

“She came to me for help,” Pastor Darryl defended. “She needed advice.”

“Did you tell Melissa to leave Jim?” Sadie asked.

Pastor Darryl shook his head. “I would never tell anyone what to do,” he said. “Only how to seek direction from their Sovereign. Melissa was unhappy, and in time, she felt she received the answer to leave Jim and remove her boys from a disintegrating relationship. Jim was a good dad to those kids, but he wasn’t always a good husband. You know that, Bets. You heard them.”

“Heard them?” Sadie asked.

“They fought,” Pastor Darryl said. “A lot.”

“It was none of our business,” Bets said, a hint of anger in her tone.

“She came to
me,
” Pastor Darryl said. “In my capacity as her pastor. I counseled and prayed with her. I encouraged her to seek out professional counseling or to at least let me talk to Jim so he would understand how serious she was about needing changes. She said she felt God wanted her to simply leave, to end the marriage that she felt was abusive. She was afraid to try to make things better, afraid he would hurt her, and so when she made her decision, she left immediately. I know it was devastating for Jim. I know it broke his heart to lose his family, but for him to blame me is his way of avoiding his own responsibility.”

“You could have warned him,” Bets said. “You were his friend.”

“And I was Melissa’s
pastor,
” Darryl said, shaking his head. “I’ve questioned my own actions a hundred times and asked God to confirm I did the right thing. He has answered me. I did the only thing I could do. Melissa came to me for counsel. Jim never did anything to fix things. They each chose the paths they took, not me.”

“Was your relationship with Melissa anything other than that of a pastor?” Sadie asked because she felt she had to.

“Of course not,” Pastor Darryl answered sharply. “I have never had an inappropriate relationship with another woman. I love my wife.” He looked at Bets, who was staring at the floor again. “I have only ever been in love with you, Bets. Only you.”

“Just a tip, then,” Gayle said from where she stood behind Pastor Darryl. “Keep your hands to yourself so people don’t wonder if that’s true.”

He looked over his shoulder, shocked by Gayle’s words.

Sadie shook her head, warning Gayle that now wasn’t the time, but Gayle continued speaking. “The whole time we were at the church you were touching me—my back, my arm, my shoulder.” She shivered. “I didn’t even know you. It was creepy, and Sadie said you did the same thing to her when you first met.”

Sadie winced but tried to keep her expression calm as he looked at her in confusion. “The spiritually hungry are often starved for appropriate touch,” he said.

“Your interpretation of
appropriate
can send a confusing message,” Sadie said, looking at Bets. “And it makes people wonder.”

“I don’t care what people think,” he said automatically. But then he took a step toward his wife, realizing that she thought the same thing other people did. “I have never been unfaithful to you, Bets, not with my body or my heart.”

Sadie tried to reroute the conversation, turning her full attention to Pastor Darryl. “I think Jim used Bets in an attempt to exact revenge for what happened with his wife,” she said. “Bets went to him for help in getting Noelani out of your apartment, and that created an opportunity for him. He’s been feeding her lies about your relationship with Noelani ever since, and he’s managed to undermine Bets’s confidence in your vows to her.”

Bets tucked her hair behind her ear, folding her arms and holding herself even tighter, like a little girl getting scolded. Sadie sensed that she still wasn’t convinced of her husband’s faithfulness.

“And he’s planning to tell you that he and Bets have been having an affair,” Sadie finished.

Bets stiffened and raised her head, her beautiful eyes wide. “What?” she said, horrified. She turned to her husband. “Darryl, I never—”

“Mandi’s in on it too,” Sadie said, making sure the people deserving of blame shared it equally. “She broke into my motel room with Jim’s help, and then planted this list in your room.” She pulled Charlie’s list from her bag. “There’s also a prayer in the prayer box at the church from someone with the initials ACR. I’m thinking—”

“You read the prayers!” Pastor Darryl cut in, horrified. “Those are private.”

“For you to read, right?” Sadie countered. “I’m thinking the A stands for Amanda. I can only assume Mandi expected that you’d eventually read her prayer and perhaps pick up on the hints she’s been dropping. I also think she gave Bets’s sweater to Jim to use as proof that Bets had been in his apartment. Pastor, I don’t—” She stopped herself, reminded of why she was there. She turned to Bets. “All of this can be worked out later. Right now, you need to take us to Ho’oka Beach. You need to show us where Noelani died.”

Slow-Cooked Kalua Pig

3 to 8 pound pork shoulder, butt, or picnic roast

3/4 teaspoon Hawaiian sea salt per pound of pork

1 teaspoon liquid smoke per pound of pork

1 banana

With a steak knife, pierce pork several times—don’t be shy. Rub pork with sea salt and then with liquid smoke. Put in slow cooker. Slice an unpeeled banana down the center and lay the halves on top of the pork, peel side down. Cook pork on lowest setting for 8 to 16 hours, depending on the size of the roast and how low you can set the temperature of your slow cooker.

Halfway through the cooking time, remove and discard the banana, and turn roast. Remove pork from slow cooker 1 hour before serving and let cool for 10 minutes.

Remove pork drippings from slow cooker to a container and place in freezer to allow fat to congeal. Once the pork is cool enough to handle, remove the fat (and bones, if necessary), and shred the meat with a fork. Return shredded meat to slow cooker. Once the drippings have congealed, skim fat from the top with a spoon and discard. Add drippings to the shredded pork.