"Tiki Moon" drabbles by Christopher

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 91

Tiki Moon #91

We stood there at the rail for several minutes, just breathing in the cool salty air. She still had her hand on top of mine on the railing, and the heat that was radiating from her was more than just body heat. There was sexually charged electricity sizzling all around her. It was clear she and Morty hadn't been intimate for some time. And judging by the vibes emanating from her she hadn't been getting it anywhere else either.

I turned, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her to me. She looked pleasantly surprised as I kissed her lips...

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 90

Tiki Moon #90

"You can thank me when we get all this mess resolved," I said.

She sidled up next to me and leaned against the railing, "But, what if I want to thank you sooner?"

She put her hand on mine. I didn't think I'd be able to resist her gratitude.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not in the habit of dipping my quill into another man's inkwell. But it was patently obvious their marriage was at an end. Divorce would just be a paperwork formality. Any chance of reconciliation went out the window when he hired me to kill her...

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 89

Tiki Moon #89

"Do you have some place that you can go? Anywhere but L.A. But not a vacation home. Morty might check on things to make sure everything went according to plan."

She nodded, "I have a home at the base of Mount Shasta, which is all the way up at the Oregon border. Mort doesn't know about it."

"That's good," I said, "get yourself there and wait to hear from me. Make contact with no one. Do you understand? You can't trust anyone in your organization. You have to appear dead."

She grinned, "I understand, Jake. Thank you for helping me."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 88

Tiki Moon #88

"So, you see, it isn't just a matter of taking my husband down. I've got to know if Nick is in on this too."

"Okay," I said, "then I guess we're going to have to make ole' Morty believe you rented some space in Davy Jones' Locker. When we leave the last port, which is Manila, you're going to have to charter a plane to get back to the States and lay low. I'll report that you were on the ship when we left the Philippines but now you're gone. They'll investigate and determine that you fell off the ship."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 87

Tiki Moon #87

"What d'you mean by something wrong?"

She looked out over the water. It was getting darker as the sun was sinking down into the horizon. It was getting colder too.

"The vice president of my company is an ambitious young man named Nick Berman. I hired him personally because I believed in him. And he's very talented and smart. He and Mort have become friends. I just think maybe he's in on the plot to kill me because he thinks he'll be made the president. I think he's the one Mort was talking to on the phone about Mr. Saint."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 86

Tiki Moon #86

"He makes an absolute ass of himself at those parties. He gets stone drunk and acts like a fool. If they're laughing at him for anything it's for that and that alone."

"I believe you," I said. "So, how are we going to resolve this? If you don't want to go to the police then what?"

"Well, the reason I wanted to hire you isn't just about my husband trying to kill me."

"Okay," I said, dragging out the word, "what else is going on?"

"Something's wrong inside my company. And I think Mort has something to do with it."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 85

Tiki Moon #85

She laughed so loud that the couple playing shuffleboard looked over at us like we were the ones disturbing the peace and not their two little brats that were running around everywhere like Indians on the warpath.

"That was a joke! I can't believe he took that seriously! And as far as him being an emotional punching bag, the fists go two ways. He loves beating up on me emotionally just as much. And as far as the so-called rich friends, I don't have any friends, rich or otherwise. I have cocktail parties for clients and for business associates."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 84

Tiki Moon #84

She continued, "And he probably got some perverse pleasure out of using a club I built to plan my demise in. He's a vindictive little shit."

I leaned over the railing, "You know, he seems to think all the problems in your marriage are your fault."

"That's not surprising. What did he say? This ought to be good."

"He just said you were always belittling him in front of your rich friends, that you just wanted him for an emotional punching bag, and that you tried to get him to change his last name to yours when you got married."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 83

Tiki Moon #83

"So," I said, "your husband met with the man that he wanted to kill you at a club that your company built? How big an idiot is this guy?"

"The jury's still out on that, Jake, but there wasn't any danger of me seeing him there. I've never even been there. It was just one of many projects my company handled. You've probably been in a number of buildings my company built. All over L.A."

"It's still stupid. Someone connected with you could've seen that meeting taking place."

"Well, I never claimed he was the sharpest knife in the drawer."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 82

Tiki Moon #82

"But I didn't even know his name until I was told he had died in a car accident a few days ago. Let me guess: it wasn't an accident?"

"Well, apparently someone plowed him over with a car and didn't even break stride. It could've been accidental, but I doubt it. I found a matchbook from the Tiki Moon at his apartment."

"His apartment? Wow, you are thorough, Jake. It's not so strange that he would've frequented the Tiki Moon. My company built the place, so he might've been on the crew that worked on it. I'm not sure, though."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 81

Tiki Moon #81

That was the name of the company where Harrigan's hit-and-run victim Phil Garfield was employed. This just got even more complicated.

"Deborah, did you have an employee at your construction company named Phil Garfield?"

She got a funny look like she didn't know if she wanted to admit it or not.

I looked her in the eye, "Deborah, if you lie to me or keep things from me I swear I'll jump off this tub and swim back to California."

She grinned, "As amusing as that sight would be it's not necessary. Yes, he worked for my company."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 80

Tiki Moon #80

"So I had to become the bitch that my idiot husband is so fond of calling me. I got hard and I got mean. But I gained the respect of the owner of the construction company. And when he retired he didn't pass the business to his ungrateful bratty kids. No, he passed the business to ME!"

She had tears starting to well up in her green eyes. Her voice began to quiver but she soldiered on.

"And I turned the Commonwealth Construction Company into a million dollar business."

Wait, the Commonwealth Construction Company? Where had I heard that before?

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 79

Tiki Moon #79

The more this woman talked the more I liked her.

"My classmates never let me forget it. I was shunned. I didn't belong to a sorority. I didn't date. I went to no parties. I worked and I studied. And then when I graduated with a business degree I went to work for a construction company that had only one other female employee: the secretary. Do you know how hard it is to try and get respect from a bunch of beer-swilling Neanderthal construction workers? They didn't see their supervisor. All they saw was a nice pair of tits."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 78

Tiki Moon #78

"I already had that strike against me. Secondly, I wasn't content to live off my family's money. I wanted to make my own way. While my siblings were all playing polo and lounging by the pool, I was working in one of my dad's factories to pay for college. Everyone at the factory hated me because I was the boss's daughter, even though I asked for no special treatment and got none. Everyone at college looked down on me because I was working my way through school instead of letting daddy pay for it and that made them look bad."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 77

Tiki Moon #77

Well, she had me there.

"You would've asked why some woman claiming to be a secretary called you at your office and made an appointment with a man when she didn't even work for him. You wouldn'tve just walked away until you had some answers."

I grinned, "Where's your crystal ball?"

She smiled, "It wasn't soothsaying, Jake. It was research. I'm very thorough and I have a wide reach."

"I believe it," I said.

She turned and looked out at the water, "I'm a hard ass, Jake. But I've had to be. I'm a female in a male-dominated world.”

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 76

Tiki Moon #76

Part of me was wishing this had been a garden variety divorce case. This was going to get messy. And I don't like messes.

"Okay," I said, "it seems to me your whole plan rested on your husband believing that I was the real Mr. Saint. What if I had introduced myself to him as Jake Randolph? Or what if he had said "Mr. Saint?" to me when I walked up? Your whole plan would've been shot to hell."

"I researched you, Jake, before I called you. I knew either way you would've wondered what the hell was going on."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 75

Tiki Moon #75

I continued, "This can't be swept under the rug. You can't keep this from the police. And the guy, Mr. Saint, he is a hit man with ties to the mob. Your husband obviously had already talked to him and set up the meeting at the Tiki Moon that night. I got your husband out of there before the real hit man showed up, but they may cross paths anyway. I don't know how much info Saint got when the meeting was being set up. Either way, you are in serious danger."

She smiled, "That's why I'm hiring you, Jake."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 74

Tiki Moon #74

I nodded, "Yeah, that's the conclusion I would've drawn too. Okay, the next question is why didn't you go to the police?"

She shook her head, "Come on, Jake. It was his word against mine. Plus, I'm a very prominent businesswoman. I can't afford the scandal at the moment. I have several business deals pending and I need this taken care of quietly."

Now it was my turn to shake my head, "Deborah, I can prove right now that your husband was trying to hire a hit man to kill you. He hired me, for God's sake. Money changed hands."

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 73

Tiki Moon #73

I turned and leaned against the rails, resting my elbows on top.

"But what made you think this Mr. Saint was a hit man your husband wanted to hire to kill you?"

"When things are said like 'And he's professional? This can't be messy' and 'I just want out of this life and if this is the only way then I'm willing to see it through to the end' then I can put two and two together. The final clue was my husband saying 'she's going on a cruise to the Orient soon so he can do it out there.'"

Jake Randolph in "Tiki Moon" Pt. 72

Tiki Moon #72

She smiled back and suddenly the sun sinking toward the horizon didn't look so beautiful anymore.

"Okay," I said, trying to collect my thoughts, "the first thing I need to know is when and how you found out that your husband was vying for Widower Of The Year."

She smiled again. "When was about two weeks ago. How was I overheard him on the phone to someone setting up a meeting with a man named Mr. Saint. From his end of the conversation I could tell that neither he nor the other person knew what this Mr. Saint looked like."