Page 36 of Loving a Billionaire

“I was.” The blond man nodded.

Kurt reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a picture. “This woman was having breakfast that morning. Do you remember her?”

The overweight man’s gaze narrowed as he studied the picture. Slowly, he nodded. “I think I do. If I remember right, she was waiting for her friend.”

“Do you know if her friend ever showed up?” Talia asked, coming closer.

The man scratched his double chin. “Yes.”

“By chance,” Talia continued, “did you recognize him as someone of importance here in Honolulu?”

The man frowned. “I don’t remember thinking that at all.”

“Do you think,” Kurt added, “that you could describe him?”

The man breathed in slowly, and then exhaled. “All I can remember was that he was a good-looking man. He and the woman looked good together because they were both very well-dressed people. I do remember that they argued about something, and then the man left before the woman.”

“Thanks for your help.” Kurt pointed to the wall behind the cash register. “One last thing. Is that a security camera?”

“Yes.”

Kurt continued. “Are there others?”

“No.”

“Could we get Sunday’s recording?”

“I, um...” The man scratched his double chin again. “I’ll have to get the manager’s approval.”

“Would you call him right now?” Talia asked. “We could get a search warrant if the manager doesn’t comply.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The overweight man hurried back into the other room.

During the wait, she scanned the occupants, again. One man faced her and kept raising his gaze to her and Kurt. When he caught her looking his way, he quickly lowered his gaze and leaned across the table as if he was talking to the woman sitting across from him.

“What’s your theory?” Kurt asked her.

She snapped her attention away from the couple and walked to the bench near the cash register and sat. “I think Kalama met one of the men on her list to try and bribe them into going with her new call girl business. And, just like what happened with Austin, I think this guy rudely refused her and then stormed out of the restaurant.”

“What about the poison?” Kurt lifted a leg, resting his foot against the bench, as he met her gaze.

“Well, that gets a little tricky. I suppose she had tried to bribe this man, or even blackmail him before, and he was tired of it. He could have met her here with the poison, ready to pour it in her coffee. Maybe he could have tried to stop her from doing something that she’d threatened to do, and when things didn’t go his way, he could have poured the powder in her coffee when she wasn’t looking.”

“That’s plausible.” Kurt stroked his trimmed beard, the familiar way he’d always done when he was deep in thought. “I do agree with you that Kalama was trying to blackmail him or threaten him in some way.”

“You do?” Strange how he agreed with her now, but he couldn’t agree with her about Austin.

“Yes. Kalama had control of the meeting, because if she hadn’t, her male friend wouldn’t have stormed out of here.”

“That’s a brilliant theory.” She smiled.

“Excuse me,” some guy snapped at Kurt as he came to pay for his meal.

Kurt moved away from the cash register and stood on the other side of Talia.

The woman waiting for the man at the register had her head bent as she pretended to dig through her purse. Unless the lady was trying to find the kitchen sink in there, Talia didn’t believe the woman looked like she was searching for anything of importance.

The girl with the blue section of hair rang the man up and gave him back his change. The man and the woman rushed past Talia with their heads turned, as if they didn’t want her to see them.