Murder at Volcano House
After a difficult case,
the “Surfing Detective” journeys to the remote Volcano
House hotel on the Big Island, whose quiet rooms overlooking steaming
Kilauea crater afford him the serenity he needs to unwind. But
it’s not to be. His first morning there, a frantic woman
who recognizes him claims that her husband, a controversial third-party
candidate for governor, has been murdered. While taking a sunrise
stroll along the crater’s edge, Stan Souza has vanished and
his wife wants Kai to investigate. He hikes the crater rim trail
in Souza’s footsteps, halting at a gaping steam vent whose
sulphurous odor also carries the unmistakable stench of burning
human flesh. Only Madame Pele, Hawaiian fire goddess, apparently
witnessed his demise.
Months later, when Big Island police have exhausted their leads
and classified the candidate’s death as “accidental,” Mrs.
Souza hires Cooke to prove her husband was murdered. The P.I. doesn’t
have to scratch deeply beneath the surface of island politics to
discover that Souza’s third party candidacy, though he had
small hope of winning, threatened rivals in the two major parties,
potentially tilting the election to one or the other. Though Kai
does not suspect party officials of murder, he certainly does their
cronies. To complicate matters, Souza had made other enemies as
an outspoken state senator and judge. A half dozen suspects line
Kai’s growing list, not the least of which is Madame Pele
herself, whose mythical powers are not subject to man-made laws.
Did Pele take Stan Souza as a sacrifice? Or was some human agency
involved? As Kai discovers, the answer hides in the sulphurous
fog of Kilauea crater, and equally foggy atmosphere of island politics.
|