1
Magic Sands
Magic Sands Beach, Monday, February 13th 2012.
Christine Ross was the top producer at the firm she had worked at for the past five years. She was well known and liked in the local real estate community.
She had her ear buds in and was listening to a motivational sales podcast as she jogged along Alii Drive that morning at 5:30 a.m. It was the perfect time to run every morning because there was little traffic and hardly any people out yet. She always wore reflective running shoes that made her easy to spot as she jogged on the side of the road.
Unknown to her was a man working from the top producer’s list for the west side of the island that had her name at the top. Christine Ross had the highest gross sales that year on the island and the only way he was going to top her numbers was to kill her.
He had waited for her behind the rock wall next to Alii Drive as she neared the mile marker four sign. It was the perfect place to take her. It was still dark and he had stalked her earlier in the month and knew she always started her week off jogging early in the morning while it was still dark.
He spotted her reflective running shoes in the distance as she approached from the south. When she ran past the four mile marker sign he stepped out from behind the rock wall and grabbed her around the neck with a garrote as if he were roping a calf. Under the cover of darkness he pulled her behind the naupaka growing next to the wall. The garrote cut off the air to her windpipe before she could scream.
He dragged her body from behind the bushes fifty feet down the rocky beach into the water of the small bay. After putting on his fins, mask, and snorkel he had hidden on the beach the night before, he swam Christine Ross’ body out a couple hundred yards and let her go.
Earlier that morning he had brought a bucket of chum and carried it out to the rocky point at the edge of the bay and left it there until he needed it. When he swam back to the point after letting go of Christina Ross’ body, he dumped the five gallon bucket of chum into the water. His plan was for the sharks to dispose of her body. What he didn’t expect was the ocean current that morning to wash her body up on Magic Sands Beach before the sharks could get to her.
Just after sunrise, a jogger running by the beach noticed a body lying in the surf. The waves rolled up onto the sand as if trying to pull the lifeless woman into the sea.
Another competing real estate agent had been removed from the island and now his slice of the pie just got bigger. He didn’t need to kill all of his competitors, just the ones who were the most productive.
2
Sunset Cruise
Sam fired up the twin diesel engines of the Cabo fishing yacht after everyone was on board. It was a perfect evening for a sunset cruise along the Kona coast.
Sam and Jessica had invited Gabbie to come along for an evening of whale watching as they cruised the Kona Coast. It was the perfect time of year to see the humpback whales that came down every winter from Alaska.
Gabbie was new to the island and was excited to go whale watching again. It would be the first time that Henry had ever gone. Sam and Jessica couldn’t wait to see the look on his face the first time he saw a cow and her calf near the boat.
It was about 83° and the trade winds were blowing, which made for the perfect temperature as the boat left Keauhou Bay. The seas were calm and the sky was clear. So clear in fact that Sam said to Jessica, “I bet we see a green flash tonight.” Before Jessica could reply, Henry blurted out, “I want to see the green flash!” Jessica smiled and said, “We’ll see, honey.” Then cut her eyes to Sam, shaking her head.
Sam, Jessica and Henry were sitting on the flying bridge. Gabbie was down below in the fighting chair. She was hoping for the stinger pole they had rigged, as they were leaving the harbor, to catch something for dinner.
Henry crawled up on Sam’s lap so he could steer the boat, as Sam explained to Henry how important the rules of the road for a boat captain were. He also kept an eye peeled for the first whale, and Jessica climbed down the ladder to go keep Gabbie company for a bit.
“When I’m out here on the water, the entire world changes,” Jessica said. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the salty air, and slowly let it out. Gabbie nodded as she kept an eye on the fishing line behind the boat.
“Thar she blows,” Sam yelled in his best imitation of a pirate voice as he pointed off the port side of the boat. Henry was jumping up and down in Sam’s lap causing him to grimace. He picked Henry up and set him in the chair next to him, to prevent any further damage to his manhood.
Jessica and Gabbie almost fell over the side of the boat from laughing so hard. They quickly turned their attention to the mother and baby whales who had breached the surface in unison near the boat. The looks on both Gabbie and Henry’s faces were priceless. They had never seen whales that close before, much less whales that had breached the surface of the ocean, causing a splash twenty feet in the air.
They skirted the pair of whales, heading toward Maui, for twenty minutes before momma and baby disappeared below the surface for good. Minutes later as the sun set on the horizon, they all turned their attention to it to see if there would be a green flash. Sam and Henry swore they saw it. Gabbie and Jessica swore it was their imagination.
Sam turned the boat around to head back toward Keauhou Bay. Gabbie had gone back to sitting in the fighting chair, watching the lure skip across the surface in the boat's wake. Just outside Keauhou Bay, she saw it dip below the surface and heard the fishing reel scream, as yards of line reeled off of it in a matter of seconds.
“You better hope that’s not a Marlin,” Sam said jokingly. “I don’t want to be out here all night.” Gabbie didn’t pay any attention to him because she was too busy reeling what was about a fifty pound mahi-mahi.
It was only about a 15 minute fight to get the fish to the boat. It was still light enough to see the translucent gold and green colors just below the surface of the ocean, as the fish came alongside. Sam put the boat in idle and held onto Henry as it rocked heavily back and forth. Once the fish was alongside, Jessica gaffed it and pulled it inside the cockpit and quickly worked to unhook the beautiful fish and get it on ice.
When they got back home that evening, Jessica filleted the fish and they grilled it on the lanai barbecue for dinner. After Gabbie had taken her first bite of fresh mahi-mahi, she said, “That is the best tasting fish I’ve ever eaten in my life.” Sam and Jessica nodded and smiled, as they both filled their mouths with tasty morsels of the catch of the day.
After dinner was over Gabbie said, “Okay, make-believe world is over, I’ll see you in the morning.” It was the end of a perfect afternoon, and would be the last one like it, for a long time.
3
Honl’s
Honl’s Beach, February 14th.
The plan wasn’t to strangle Nora Hobbs that evening. She just happened to be a convenient victim and he just happened to hate her guts. Not because she was a top producer; the reason was the deal she had screwed him out of earlier that year–it had cost him a lot of money.