Poe's First Law: A Murder on Maui Mystery

like we were close friends.”
“Were you aware that he tried to blackmail your grandmother?” I asked.
“Not at the time.”
“That’s surprising,” Foxx said.
“Not really. I don’t work for my grandmother. She doesn’t share business details unless there’s a need for me to know,” Tavii said.
“Just curious, why didn’t you go work for the family?” I asked.
“My grandmother always encouraged me to get into politics. She wanted me to be Hawaii’s governor. There’s no chance of that now.”
“I asked your grandmother who she thinks might have killed Eric. She couldn’t provide me with any specific names,” I said.
“I assumed you were going to ask me the same question. I could only come up with one person. Lee Walters.”
“Who’s that?” Foxx asked.
“He worked with Eric. My grandmother got rid of him after everything that went down.”
“He was part of the blackmail scheme?” I asked.
“My grandmother certainly thought so. Lee and Eric were best friends. No one thought it was possible that Lee didn’t know what was going on.”
“That includes you too?” Foxx asked.
“Absolutely. Those guys were practically inseparable.”
“If they were such good friends, then why do you think Lee may have killed Eric?” I asked.
“Because Eric ruined Lee’s life. Lee was making a lot of money from my family. Eric screwed all that up with his ridiculous scheme. Anyone who knows my grandmother would realize she’d never agree to a payoff.”
“Is that because she’d have other ways of dealing with it?” Foxx asked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tavii asked.
“I think it’s obvious,” Foxx said.
“My grandmother’s no pushover. She wasn’t about to let some guy like Eric Ellis take advantage of her, especially after everything she did for him. That guy came from nothing. Anything he had was because of her generosity. That’s how people are, though, aren’t they? All they care about is what’s in it for them.”
“Do you know where Lee Walters is now?” I asked.
“He’s still on Maui, as far as I know. I don’t know what he does to make money.”
“There’s no one else you know who might have wanted to murder Eric Ellis?” Foxx asked.
“No. He’s the only one. Of course, I’m not saying he actually did it. I have no idea. Now, I’ve told you both all I know. I trust you won’t call me again.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Mayor,” I said.
“Any idea what you’re going to do when your term is up?” Foxx asked.
“Go to hell,” Tavii said.
“Go to hell? Why did you say that?” Foxx asked.
Tavii slid out of the booth and left Harry’s without saying another word.
Foxx turned to me.
“What did I say?”
“The guy’s ruined, Foxx. You just reminded him of something he didn’t need to be reminded of.”
“No, I didn’t. I asked him a question.”
“How do you think our first interview went?” I asked.
“We got one lead. That’s better than nothing. I guess we need to track down this Lee Walters guy.”
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed. I looked at the display but didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello.”
“I’m calling for Edgar Rutherford.”
“You’ve got him.”
“Mr. Rutherford, my name is Josh Parrish. I’m a detective with the Maui Police Department. I’m hoping we can meet.”
Alana’s prediction had come true, but much sooner than I’d thought it would.

6
The Detective
Since I had some free time, I agreed to meet with Detective Parrish immediately. Okay, let me rephrase that to make it more accurate. Since I didn’t want to go home and potentially get sucked into more endless talk about Hani’s wedding, I agreed to meet with Detective Parrish immediately.
He suggested we meet at a coffee shop not far from the police station in Kahului. It was a bit of a drive for me, but I didn’t mind considering that the gorgeous weather of the morning had decided to stick around. I hopped into the convertible (top down, of course) and threw on some music from jazz musician, Wes Montgomery.
I was obviously going through a jazz phase. If you’re going to have a phase, though, it might as well be that one. Better than a tattoo phase that you’ll regret decades later when you’re in the nursing home and that cool tribal tattoo is now a misshapen design on sagging skin.
The coffee shop wasn’t the most original of meeting places. It was a popular hangout for the local cops, and they did serve excellent coffee, or so I’m told. I’m not a huge coffee drinker, and I usually end up ordering something else.
As I entered the coffee shop, a tall man in the back corner stood and walked over to me. He was about my height at six foot two. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. I estimated his age at around thirty.
“Mr. Rutherford, I’m Josh Parrish,” he said, and he extended his hand, which I shook. “You may not remember this, but we’ve actually met before.”
“Yes. The holiday party. How’s your wife doing?”
“She’s great. Thanks for asking.”
“By the way, you can call me Poe if you like. But it’s really whatever makes you most comfortable.”
“Sure thing, and please call me Josh. I haven’t gotten used to the whole Detective Parrish thing yet.”
“Of course.”
I followed him back to his table, and we sat down.
“Do you want anything to drink?” Detective Parrish asked.
“No, I’m good. So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked, although I thought I already had a pretty good idea.
“I understand that you’re a consultant with the department and that detectives are free to call you if they think they might need help.”
“That’s right.”
“This is only my second case. The first one wasn’t much of a challenge and I had it wrapped up in a few days.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks. Then they dropped this new one on me. It’s formidable to say the least.”
“Is it the Eric Ellis case?” I asked.
“You know about that?”
“One hears things on a small island.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Not much, only that Eric Ellis went missing five years ago and his body recently turned up,” I said.
“His remains were found by a man hiking with his dog. He