Second Honeymoon Part 53

With a playful tug, Charlie pulled Melissa into his arms, gazing deep into her eyes for a second before kissing her soft lips. As she kissed him back, the thought seemed to hit them both at the same time.

What a spectacular place to make love.

Slowly, the two made their way down to the gra.s.s, never once letting go of each other. So in love, so full of pa.s.sion.

So caught up in the moment that they didn't see the man standing behind them.

Chapter 83

COME OUT, COME OUT, wherever you are...

Faruth Pa.s.san had all the information he needed about young Charlie and Melissa Cosmer, including a photograph of them. It came straight from the wedding section of the New York Times, a candid shot of the smiling couple on the dance floor during their reception at the St. Regis hotel.

VOWS, said the headline above them.

I know you're out there, Charlie and Melissa. Where are you hiding?

Faruth kept to the trail previously used by the tour group that the happy honeymooners had ditched. With each step his eyes moved like the second hand of a watch, scanning in a circle, covering every inch of the terrain around him.

They called it Haleakal National Park, but it was really more like a jungle in most places. The trees, the arching branches, the incredibly lush and green leaves-it was so dense it was almost dizzying.

It was loud, too.

The chirps, squawks, and calls from the more than forty species of birds in the park were relentless, but they were nothing compared to the wall of sound created by the various waterfalls along the route.

As Faruth approached one of the largest, Makahiku, he was already well aware that there was no offshoot from the trail that led to the very top of it.

Of course, that didn't mean an adventurous young couple wouldn't give it a shot.

Pus.h.i.+ng his way through the banyan trees, Faruth almost gave up and turned around. He was so close to the falls, but that was all he could see.

Wait just a second. Hold on.

Amid the tall gra.s.s near the very edge there was something moving. With a few more steps forward he saw what it was. Make that who it was.

Talk about an element of surprise.

Faruth smiled. How could he not? These two don't have the slightest clue that someone wants to kill them.

Oh, well...

The smile left Faruth's face as he took a deep breath, his hands hanging at his waist. His fingertips were mere inches from the knife strapped to his belt.

It was time to break the news to Charlie and Melissa.

Their honeymoon was over.

Chapter 84

"YOU'RE NOT GOING to believe this," said Sarah, hanging up the phone in our makes.h.i.+ft FBI command post, which was really a spare conference room in the New York Times building.

I couldn't get a read from her face. "Were they found?" I asked.

She broke into a laugh. "Oh, they were found, all right," she said. "In fact, that was the park ranger himself who did the honors. Turned out the two had ditched the tour group their hotel had arranged for them."

"So where were they?"

She told me. Including what they were doing when the ranger found them. "Can you imagine?"

I smiled. "I'll do my best."

That got me one of those half-amused, half-disapproving looks that women have been perfecting since the Stone Age. "Would it help if I dimmed the lights?" she cracked.

"It might."

"Maybe put on some Barry White?"

"Now we're talking. I think I have the picture now."

No one could blame us for kidding around a bit. And as my father used to say with his hand wrapped around a Ballantine Ale, "Screw 'em if they tried."

After a ridiculous number of phone calls and a considerable amount of maneuvering, we'd finally managed to account for all the remaining Vows couples through local police. They were safe and sound. For some reason the killer had spared them. Now, why was that?

As for Charlie and Melissa Cosmer, they were currently packing up their suitcases at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, in Maui and heading home with an FBI escort, courtesy of the Honolulu office. Needless to say, they weren't too pleased. But better to cut short their honeymoon than their lives.

Sarah reached for her cell. "I've got to call Dan back," she said. "He's waiting to hear where we stand."

Of course, Sarah's first call to Dan Driesen hours earlier had been to let him know that the John O'Hara Killer wasn't, as she put it, "the only game in town." He had company. The Honeymoon Murderer, we were calling him.

Unfortunately, coming up with the name was the only thing that was easy. Coming up with anything else-his motive, why he chose some Vows couples and not others, and how he knew where they were honeymooning-was proving a little more difficult.

Trying to link the victims together was like twisting a Rubik's cube. We looked for similar names, schools, jobs, socioeconomic backgrounds-anything and everything, from hair color to how the couple first met. But we kept coming up with nothing. Bubkes.

"Hey, before you call Driesen again, we need to make another call first," I said.

"To whom?" she asked.