Chapter 11

The next morning, Janet and Terri ate breakfast on the terrace without the men present, except for Frank, who kept his distance so as to give the women some privacy. Jack had gone to his conference, Thomas had an early-morning meeting, and Jonathan had to take care of a pressing matter regarding the estate.

"I'm glad we have some time alone," Janet confided.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Jack asked me to return to LA with him last night."

"He did?" Terri said, genuinely surprised. "What did he say?"

Janet looked thoughtful. "Well, he kinda threw the suggestion out there with not much leading up to it, but he said he's serious about me returning with him."

"What if this danger follows you out there?"

"I know," Janet said, setting down her coffee cup. "That's what I said. But what he said sorta makes sense, too. I mean, would they really follow us all the way to LA? For what? It's not like I know anything."

Terri frowned. "I don't think the problem is them following you to LA. I think the worry is would you make it as far as the Honolulu International Airport?"

"Gosh, Terri, I hadn't even thought about that."

"Are you considering returning to LA?"

Janet leaned back in her chair and let the morning sun warm her face.

"I don't know, Terri. I'm so confused. It was on impulse that I decided to join you here, but I have come to truly love this place. Until it all got so ugly. I honestly don't know what to do, and it makes me mad that I'm letting these guys, whoever they are, run my life."

"But you have to be careful, Janet."

"I know, I know. But I'm going stir crazy here, Terri. I need to be doing something. Anything. This waiting to see what happens next is driving me crazy."

"Can't you do more work for Thomas?"

"I've asked him, but he says I'm so efficient that he's now caught up. I heard Jonathan typing yesterday, and I asked him if I could type up his memoirs. But he said he types as he writes, so he doesn't have much in the way of notes. I don't know. Maybe I should go back to LA with Jack. At least, I'd have something else to focus on."

"But would you feel safe, Janet? That's the important thing."

"I don't know. That's the problem, Terri. I don't know anything anymore!"

Sitting across the table, Terri could feel Janet's frustration and wished there was something she could do to help her friend. But short of capturing the members of this gang, she didn't have a clue what she could do to make her friend's predicament any easier.

Rick found Thomas sitting at the outside bar, drinking a cup of strong black coffee.

"Hey, Thomas," he said, moving to stand behind the counter.

"Why did I have to come here so early?" he complained, rubbing his temples.

He hid his eyes behind dark glasses and wore his Detroit Tigers cap on his head.

"Because I have some news for you, pal."

"What kind of news?" Thomas asked, willing the caffeine to kick in so he could concentrate on what his friend was saying.

"It turns out one of the waiters who worked your birthday bash knows the Pinedas."

"Yeah, so?"

"Guess who he saw here that night following Janet and her friends around?"

"Who?"

"Carlos Pineda's brother, Enrique."

"Why would his brother be following Janet around?"

Rick shrugged. "That's the $64,000 question, I guess. But didn't you say that when Rafael overheard something this gang said, he was living with his uncle? Could this be the same guy?"

The caffeine and adrenaline had most definitely kicked in.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"What are you gonna do?"

Thomas stood, threw some change on the counter, and straightened his baseball cap.

"Pay a visit to TC. He owes me a helicopter ride to the Big Island, and I'm going to claim it right now."

"Speaking of paying," Rick said, but Thomas was already making a hasty retreat, "didn't you say something about paying your bill in full the next time you were here?"

"Gotta go, Rick. This is a pressing business matter. I'll catch up with you later."

"Thomas!" Rick yelled, but all he got was a wave as he watched Magnum run full speed towards his red Ferrari.

"One of these days," Rick muttered, as he collected the change and threw it into the cash register.

But he couldn't help but to be hopeful that maybe Magnum had gotten his first break in this case and that soon this ordeal would be over for Janet and the others.

"Go get 'em, TM," he whispered, as he wiped the counter and waited for the next customer to appear.

Terri didn't have to be at the hospital for another two hours, so she convinced Janet to sit out in the sun for just a little bit before it got too hot.

"Maybe it'll relax you a little bit," she coaxed.

Janet doubted it, but she had been spending entirely too much time alone. She enjoyed Terri's company and decided to take her advice.

"Can I ask you a question, Janet?"

"Sure."

"Since you've been working for Thomas, have you gotten to know him very well? I mean, do you guys talk about things other than business?"

"Not too much. We'd been keeping things pretty light as far as our private lives were concerned. Why?"

Terri sat up a little straighter on the chaise lounge and removed her sunglasses.

"Did you know he has a daughter? A very young daughter?"

"No," Janet said, shaking her head. "I had no idea. How do you know this?"

"I was in his house last night. When I got home from work, you and Jack weren't around, and it didn't feel right to me. I thought maybe you were with Thomas. He invited me in, and I saw a really nice photograph of the two of them on his coffee table. Of course, I had to ask. He told me her name is Lily and that some people, but I don't know who, are trying to make him think she's dead. But he said he knows better and that he knows she's alive."

"Wow, that's amazing," Janet said. "I had no idea."

"I wanted him to tell me more, but he said he couldn't. It's like I find out another tidbit about him, and then I can't go any further. It's so frustrating."

Janet smiled at her friend. "You really like him, don't you?"

"Yes," Terri admitted, her voice wistful. "I do. But I'm afraid there's so much I don't know about him that if and when I find out his life story, I'm going to be too overwhelmed to deal with it. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Janet said, her voice sounding far away. "I know exactly what you're talking about."

"You're thinking about Phillip now, aren't you?"

"It was just all so strange, Terri. I thought we had so much in common, and then, out of the blue, he accuses me of being jealous because Jack is with Vicky! What kind of sense did that make? If he wanted to get out of marrying me, he should have just said so. I would have respected him a lot more if he had been honest with me instead of putting it on me that I didn't love him and that, deep down, I wanted Jack. Have you heard anything as crazy as that?"

"I have to be honest, Janet. I supported you then when you made your decision to break it off with Phillip, and I want you to know that I will always support you because you are my very best friend, but I can't help but wonder if maybe, on some level, Phillip was right."

"What?" Janet said, looking at Terri as if she'd lost her mind. "You agreed with Phillip?"

"Not totally," she hastened to add. "I think he had some issues of his own, and Jack became a convenient excuse for him, but I think, whether you or Jack realize it or not, there is something between you two. A certain connection the two of you share. And I think, given the right circumstances, there could end up being a lot more than friendship between the two of you."

"C'mon, TC. I need your help."

Immediately upon arriving at Island Hoppers, Thomas began to plead his case for TC to take him to the Big Island.

"I told you I can't today, Thomas. I already have a scheduled flight to Maui."

"So after that, drop me off at the Big Island."

"Oh, just drop you off on Kona? Like I can do that in my spare time? Don't I have to hang around to make sure you get off the island safely?"

Thomas shrugged. "Well, that would be nice, but..."

TC shook his head. "What's so important you have to go to Kona, anyway?"

"Rick got some information about a possible lead regarding the case I've been working on involving Janet."

TC glared at Magnum and shook his head. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?"

He threw down the wrench he had been using to tighten a screw on his helicopter.

"Let me make a phone call. Give me ten minutes."

Thomas gave him a dimpled grin. "Take all the time you need, TC."

Following the directions he had been given by Carlos Pineda, Thomas arrived at Enrique's house. He discreetly inspected the premises and then decided to ring the doorbell. He had been given a description of what Enrique looked like and believed he was the one who stood before him, but wanting to be certain, Thomasasked the man with the jet black hair and big brown eyes if he was Enrique Pineda.

"Who wants to know?" was the clipped retort.

Thomas held out his hand, but the man did not shake it. "My name is Thomas Magnum. If you are Enrique Pineda, I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Like what?" he asked, his voice suspicious as his eyes darted back and forth.

He held the door closer to him as if ready to slam it in the taller's man face if need be.

"Like why are you stalking a very nice lady who's never done anything to you by the name of Janet Wood?"

The door was about to be slammed, but Thomas stopped its progress with his forearm.

"You know who I'm talking about, don't you?" he demanded, his voice rising an octave.

"What's it to you?" the younger man spat out.

"I know there's been some gang-related activity lately in Oahu involving your nephew. What do you know about that?"

"He got careless and now he's paying the price. That's not my problem."

Thomas' hazel eyes narrowed. "What do you mean he got careless?"

The man shrugged. "Careless. Stupid. He wasn't taking care of business."

"What kind of business?"

"If my brother sent you to talk to me, tell him he knows exactly what kind of business I'm talking about."

And then, before Thomas could stop him, he did slam the door in his face.

"Something isn't adding up, TC," Thomas lamented on the ride back to Oahu. "But I can't put my finger on it."

"It sounds like some kind of family feud to me," TC offered.

"But why the gang involvement? And why did Enrique willingly give me some information? At least, I think he did."

"Maybe Rafael was involved with the gang at one time and was trying to get out."

"I don't think so."

"What's your next move?"

"I think I'm going to talk to Carol Baldwin, the Assistant District Attorney."

"Not Lieutenant Tanaka at the police department?"

"Not yet. I gotta sort this out, TC. Lives are at stake here, and I can't make any more mistakes."

"What do you say, Zeus? Apollo? Walk with me to the tidal pool?" Janet said to them, as they remained at her side inside the house. "It's too nice a day to be cooped up. Let's go for a run."

The dogs sat up and barked at her words as if to tell her she had a brilliant idea. Janet thought she did, too. Frank would be watching her, the dogs would be with her, and she would be doing something other than thinking about her ordeal and wondering if she should, in fact, return to California with Jack.

After changing into a T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes, Janet, with the trained dogs at her side, headed for the tidal pool that connected to the private beach. They were running in the direction of Diamond Head when suddenly she heard a noise in the nearby foilage and saw darts flying through the air heading straight for each dog.

"No!" she screamed, when she realized what was happening.

Frank appeared as if out of nowhere, but he was too late. The dogs had been tranquilized, and two bulky men with beards and menacing dark eyes held a gun on him and Janet.

"Come any closer and you'll regret it, I assure you."

A moment later, a woman with unruly reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes appeared and stood confidently between the two men.

"Where did you come from?" Janet asked, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as she tried to catch her breath while willing herself not to have a heart attack at the sheer terror of being held at gunpoint. "Who are you?"

She tried to display some bravado, but she knew she'd failed miserably. Where was Magnum? Higgins? Jack? Who were these people and how did they manage to get on private, secured property?

The woman answered Janet's question as calmly as if she'd asked about the weather. "My name is Melinda Hanson. I'm Carlos Pineda's girlfriend."

Janet eyed her suspiciously, but she knew she had to take her word that she was who she said she was since she had never met Mr. Pineda's girlfriend.

"What are you doing here?" Janet asked, her stomach muscles clenching and unclenching as the men never took their eyes or their guns off of either Janet or Frank.

Janet prayed that the silent alarm had gone off and that help was on the way, but Frank assumed, correctly, that their intruders had somehow found a way to bypass it.

"We're here to take something, or should I say someone, nice and quietly," one of the men beside Melinda informed them, his deadly tone enhanced by an annoyingly ominous laugh.

When the second man made a move towards Janet, she knew, without a doubt, her worst fear had just come true.