Page 34 of Maliea's Hero
He pushed thoughts of the future aside and focused on the present.
To keep her excited daughter occupied, Maliea dug into her purse and pulled out what looked like a kludged-together, homemade book. She handed it back to Nani in the backseat. “Here, read Papa’s stories or at least look at the pictures.”
Maliea straightened in her seat and stared out the front windshield. “I just don’t know what’s happening,” she whispered.
“I don’t know what your father had of value in his apartment. But it appeared as if they were looking for something in particular.”
“Just like in mine,” Maliea said softly.
“The empty bookshelves in the front entry and the living room struck me. They stripped your father’s desk entirely.”
Maliea turned toward him, her brow dipping. “My father had a lot of books, especially books about Hawaii. And his desk was always stacked with papers. Some of those papers could have been student dissertations or test papers he might have been grading. He wasn’t the neatest man, but he had his way of organizing things. He had dozens of books and journals on the shelves.”
“When was the last time you saw those papers and books?”
“Nani and I visited my father the day before his trip to the island.” She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. After a moment, she continued. “His shelves were just as I remembered them. Every other time I visited, the shelves were full of books, journals, and notebooks. And his desk was stacked with papers. I can’t imagine he cleared any of that before he left for that trip.”
“Well, it was all gone,” Reid stated.
“Why would they take all his books and papers?” Maliea asked.
Reid struggled to answer her question, but he had an idea. “When you were talking to Andrea at your father’s office, she said your father kept a journal with all his notes from his interviews with Islanders about the Redbeard Treasure.”
Maliea nodded. “Andrea said my father had his journal with him when he left. They found my father and Taylor but, as far as anyone knows, the journal is at the bottom of the ocean. My father didn’t go anywhere without that journal.”
“You know your father, and if he had it with him, you’re right. It’s probably at the bottom of the ocean.”
“When I spoke with the Teacher’s Assistant, Heather,” Maliea said, “she mentioned that she worked with my father and Taylor, taking notes in their meetings. She also said that my father didn’t share much about his research on the Redbeard Treasure.”
“Would your father put that information on his computer at work?”
Maliea shook her head. “No. He kept his research on the Redbeard Treasure strictly on his time and the interviews and notes in his personal life. He would not use university time or equipment chasing down what most people considered only a legend, a piece of fiction found in a California newspaper.”
“I think someone is hoping that your father made notes elsewhere. They took books and every piece of paper out of his office in case he stashed something away that could give them the clues they need. Maybe they hope to find his notes on the research he’d done so that they could go after the lost treasure of Red Beard.”
“But who would know he’d been researching the treasure?” Maliea asked.
“His secretary, the Teacher’s Assistant, people he interviewed on the various islands,” Reid suggested.
Maliea frowned. “He’s been searching for years. Ever since my mother died. I thought it was good for him to have something to occupy his mind. The research eased his grief. It gave him something else to think about—but he still made time for me and Nani.
“They trashed my apartment, my car and my father’s place. Why haven’t they trashed his office? Or Taylor’s, for that matter?”
“I noticed the university hallways have video surveillance,” Reid said. “That could’ve kept them from so blatantly tossing those locations.”
“Surely, by now, they’ve realized I don’t have my father’s notes. Hopefully, they’ll leave us alone.”
Reid wasn’t so sure. They had been pretty ruthless with the contents of both apartments, and they’d tried to drag Maliea under a car. To do what? Reid’s mind went through several scenarios, and he liked none of them. “We don’t know if they’ll leave you alone. In the meantime, you can stay with me until we have a better handle on who is behind this and why.”
He headed for the other side of Oahu, to the little cabin he’d rented for the duration of the Kualoa Ranch assignment, going over every detail he’d learned that day and coming up with no answers.
One thing was clear—he couldn’t leave Maliea and Nani to their own devices. These people were dead set on finding whatever it was they were looking for and might not stop at stabbing sofa cushions.
CHAPTER 8
Maliea stared at the road ahead as they drove across the island, going over everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours, from the break-in at her apartment to finding her father’s apartment similarly trashed.
Now, she was heading to the tiny cabin she and Nani had holed up in earlier that day before they’d met the man Tish had insisted was a good guy who would protect them with his life.