by B K Johnson
Rod was well aware of Tommy’s physical strength and ability to defend herself, so he really wasn’t excessively worried that she would be harmed. He’d seen her box, and had been amazed. She also knew martial arts, but preferred the aggressiveness of the boxing ring. But Rod thought Dave must have been badly hurt, to scream in pain on the phone as he had, and that unnerved Rod. Dave was tall, and athletically built, so why couldn’t he have defended himself against anyone seeking to kidnap him? And if that person could take Dave hostage, wouldn’t he or she be able to grab Tommy the same way? Wouldn’t it take more than one person to accomplish the kidnap? Was this Loke working with some gang, or Tong, trying to squeeze money from Dave and his family? Were they intent on dragging this out, not having contacted the Lees, just to increase the level of fear and up the price of ransom?
Round and round these thoughts ruminated through his head. Rod began to doubt his own ability to maintain calm in the face of calamity. He felt totally responsible for Tommy. Male chauvinism be damned, he was going to find her and help her, wherever she was and in whatever situation she found herself. He really didn’t know Dave all that well, but because he was Tommy’s good friend, he counted. And Rod wanted Tommy to know that whoever mattered to her, mattered to him, too.
And so it was, as they drove round and round Kailua, thoughts and suspicions reverberating in both their minds, Rod and Manny continued to pull over at the lit up houses, and check the numbers on the doorways or mailboxes. They could not know that at that very moment they were only two blocks away from the house where Tommy was chained to a chair, and Dave to the floor, and a dead man laying within a few feet of each of them.
Where Loke was now a woman possessed by her obsession. She was crazed, screaming and yelling obscenities. She still held the gun in her hand, but knelt beside the body of her kumu hula, pummeling him with her fists, and the butt of the weapon. It appeared she didn’t even know she had killed him. His inability to respond to her accusations did not seem to trouble her at all. She was in a world of her own.
“You piece of shit,” she wailed. “You, and you alone, knew why it was so important to me that my son be a heterosexual. You may not have known everything, but you knew it was my sacred vow to have him raised by my sister as such. I can’t believe you betrayed me and my trust in you. You’re just like his father, you perverted piece of crap.”
Loke bit her lip, and nodded her head up and down. “Yes, I had to kill him, didn’t I. Everybody thought it was the Yakuza, but what did they know? Just because I used his gun, and took it away with me, making it look like a hired hit man did it. It’s all shouting in my head now. I can’t get rid of it.”
She shook her head from side-to-side. “I loved him so. But he abandoned me when I needed him most. I had to deliver Kekoa in Hawaii with my sister Maile helping me. I contacted him after Kekoa’s birth, and then he said he didn’t want anything to do with our son. He did, however, send me several thousand dollars, trying to buy me off. I took his money and used it for Kekoa. But I thought I could get him to come back to me, to help me raise our son as a loving couple. That he would divorce his wife, and move to Hawaii with me and give up his deceptive lifestyle.”
“But the last night of our show in Japan, after pleading with him and getting nowhere, he banished me. I wept in my hotel room for hours. You knew, Leleo, how upset I was. I begged off the performance, and you had to substitute Nani for me at the last minute. I finally shrugged off the rejection, and got up and got dressed. I was just going to see him one last time, and tell him I would always love him. That our son would be a constant reminder to me of the one great love of my life.”
Loke continued her soliloquy. “And then I took a cab to the apartment, the one he kept in Tokyo for our liaisons. I took my key and opened the door. I didn’t call out, because I had been banished. But I thought if he saw me, how beautiful I’d made myself, and how subservient I would be to his will that he would reconsider. Or at least allow me a little of his love. I softly walked to the bedroom, and heard the unmistakable moans and groans of lovemaking. At first, I was hesitant to push the door open, thinking maybe his wife came to visit. But then I got mad. He had another lover, and never even bothered to tell me I’d been replaced.”
Tommy dared not interrupt Loke in her one-sided conversation with a dead man. She needed all the time she could buy to rid herself of the chains binding her to the chair. And how volatile Loke was showing herself at this juncture did not bode well for her treatment of either Tommy or Dave.
“I put my hand on the door, and little by little quietly opened it,” Loke continued. I saw the gun lying there on the dresser. I picked it up, thinking only to threaten him with it. And I saw then that he lay on his back, moaning with pleasure while a hump under the duvet moved up and down. Somebody was sucking him, doing what should have been my pleasure to give him. I walked over, still obscured from his vision by the moving bedclothes. I spoke, then, pointing the gun at his head.”
“So, this is why you want me gone, eh? Another little lady in the sack who pleases you more than me? And the head under the covers came up to look at me. I saw then that it was a young boy, no older than 15. I had been replaced by a young mahu. Without thinking, I shot him in the head and killed him. As he slumped over, I went straight up to my lover, and asked, “Why?”
All he said was, “I prefer men, the younger the better.” He was resigned to his fate. And I put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.”
“I was just 18 then. And scarred for life. Only you, Leleo, only you could still be a mahu and be worthy of my love. There was no way I could have a son become what I despised, that which had taken my one true love away from me. A mahu,” Loke screamed. And you, you dared to make my son that despicable thing which you are. You killed him. You! I hate you! May Pele hound you through all your lives. I spit on you!”
And Loke spit on the dead man’s face, as if he could feel it.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
“Damn, this woman’s wacked,” thought Tommy. “She’s a total psycho. Just now, she killed her beloved kumu hula right in front of me. Twenty-seven years ago she killed Kekoa’s father, just because he was fucking some dude. And since Kekoa died, she’s murdered at least four other people I’ve known. Two of those were judges, one a district attorney and the other a corrections officer. Who knows how many other people have died because she’s so twisted. She’s tortured my best friend until he’s a sad and limp animal. And if I don’t do something now, I’m going to be the next carcass on her garage floor.”
These pronouncements flew through Tommy’s mind as she continued to struggle against her bonds. She had not been idle. Right after Loke left, apparently to pick up the doomed Leleo and bring him back here, Tommy repeatedly flexed and unflexed her tremendous calf, thigh, biceps and shoulder muscles. She strained and relaxed, over and over, exhausting herself. All the time she’d chanted, “Hiiaka knows me, she will release me. Pele, let me go.” She began to feel a loosening of the chains around her waist and shoulders, but the wrists and ankles held tight.
Occasionally glancing over to her Dave’s comatose body, she knew she could not now look to him for support. He was way beyond struggling to save himself or to assist her. And it sure didn’t look like the cavalry was coming, although she’d peppered the trail as best she could. Why Rod wasn’t trying to find this house stymied her. She’d given him the only address she had, and there certainly couldn’t be that many 462’s on a Kai street in Kailua.
Tommy knew she’d been right to suspect the murderous psychopath, and only hoped Rod could find her in time. While she had gained quite a bit of wiggle room, her hands and feet were still mostly unmovable. And those were her usual weapons. “Think, Tommy,” she urged herself, “You don’t have a lot of time here.” She continued testing the chains binding her even after Loke’s return with Leleo.
Now, Loke was still beating on Leleo’s chest, loudly berating him for his betrayal. She seemed o
blivious to Tommy’s machinations, or anything for that matter but for the dead kumu hula. But Tommy wasn’t fooled. Psychopaths are aware of every lurking threat to their own rise to king of the hill. And this Asian queen of the hill was obviously a very dangerous foe. Tommy knew she wasn’t a lot smarter than Judge Julie, or Dave, or Larry. And they’d met their match in this pint-sized homophobe.
As if she’d heard Tommy’s thoughts, and felt the pheromones emanating from Tommy’s wriggling body, Loke swiveled her head around to impale Tommy with her malevolent and mad eyes. “You, haole. You are the cause of this. If not for you, I would never have harmed my beloved kumu hula. You told me of his treachery. I would not have known of it but for you. His death is on your hands, and I will avenge him.”
Tommy could not allow Loke to have even the slightest edge over her, and a simple plan was forming in her sharpened mind. She taunted back, “And what a good mother you were to your son, huh, you narcissistic bitch. First, you got knocked up by a mahu, then gave your little boy to your sister, and then killed his father.”
“Oh, and you didn’t stop at that, did you? You made that poor young man ashamed of his sexuality, driving him over the years to despise what he was. Just as you despised it. He knew you could not love him. He couldn’t live with that. All his young life he’d tried to get you to accept him, to make a home for him and you together. ”
“Did you know he danced just so you would notice him? I learned from Kekoa how hard it was for him, as much as he loved Maile. And he so admired you and your fascinating life, traveling the world and entertaining thousands of people with your hula. How he wanted that!”
“And when at last he got good enough, and you finally took notice of him, he couldn’t help falling in love with Leleo. You threw them together, time after time, convinced your son was a heterosexual. You never saw the lustful looks he gave your kumu hula, or the wishful glances Leleo sent back his way. As long as you were the star, the center of attraction, all the world would bow to you, right? And no one, especially not your son, would dare disobey your wishes. Isn’t that right, you old bag?”
Throughout this diatribe, Loke’s eyes grew into huge white orbs, flashing with spearheaded bolts headed Tommy’s way. She was transfixed by Tommy barbs, alternately shaking her head in disavowal and nodding in acceptance of the charges. Tears were streaming down her face, and low, deep. keening wails racked her body. “Oh, Kekoa, my beautiful boy. I am so sorry I let you down. I should never have slept with your father. I should have known he was perverted and unworthy. If only you’d had a father like mine,” she lamented.
Becoming convinced that her words were having a deleterious effect on Loke, Tommy started to soothe her. If she could just keep the beast at bay by bringing out the nurturing, loving woman Loke surely must have been at one time, Tommy could turn this situation around, she was sure. Tommy had no idea nurturing had never been one of Loke’s talents. Tommy hated to play this game but felt she had to appeal to some vestige of compassion Loke might harbor. Otherwise, she might not be able to save Dave and get them free of this madwoman.
“What kind of father did you have?” Tommy asked, thinking this might be the best approach. Just keep her talking and thinking of her past, not the present.
“He was glamorous,” remembered Loke, “and every woman in town loved him. So handsome, and so charming, he had all the wahines he wanted. My mother always told me it didn’t matter to her that he bedded other women, since he’d always come home to her. I loved going to chicken fights with him, seeing how all the other girls were jealous of me. He’d hold my hand, and tell me which cock was the better fighting bird, and why. He’d lift me onto his shoulders so I could see the fight better.”
“I was only five when he held me on his knee and showed me how to become a woman. He touched me between my legs, pulling my panties down. He kissed my cheeks as he stroked my sex, saying it was a beautiful flower, with petals and a bud. It felt so good.”
My mother threw him out of the house after that, and I never saw him again. I despised my mother after that. I searched for him all over the world during my travels, but couldn’t find him. I never felt that wonderful love ever again, no matter how many times I bedded strangers. That’s why I was so ready to believe that Hisao, who was so much older, might just be the one. Maybe he could slake my desire, but he was nothing like my papa.”
This trip down memory lane sounded so sick and achingly heartrending to Tommy that she almost forgot this woman was her enemy. Little did it matter what caused Loke to become the devil who tortured a sweet man like Dave. Tommy was no social worker, and although she had understandable empathy for helpless children harmed by the very adults charged with protecting them, she held firmly to the belief that you made yourself what you became. After all, she was a child victim herself, and she hadn’t murdered anybody yet, except in self-defense. And right now, Loke was, and should be, her target.
Loke raised herself up from the floor and declared, “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to keep me from claiming Kekoa’s vengeance.” With that, Loke picked up the weapon and was sighting the short barrel at Tommy’s heart.
Ever closer Loke inched her body towards Tommy, unwaveringly holding the gun aimed at Tommy’s chest. Her finger massaged the trigger, and Tommy feared a bullet would fly accidentally, even if not intentionally. Not a foot away now, Loke leaned her head down slightly to look into Tommy’s eyes, as if she was seeking absolution for killing her.
Tommy dropped her head to her chest, and then rapidly uncoiled all of the muscles she’d managed to loosen from the chains, and reared up in her seat, bringing her head up and under Loke’s chin, slamming it as hard as she could. Loke’s own head was thrown back, and came forward at a rapid speed. Even more quickly, Tommy reacted and once again used her head. She brought all the force to bear that she had, now smashing it down on Loke’s forehead. Loke fell to the ground, but in the fracas a bullet discharged loudly from the gun.
Still just a few blocks away, Rod and Manny trolled slowly through the darkened streets, one cul-de-sac at a time. An ear-splitting blast jolted Rod in his seat. It was just Manny’s cell phone, playing George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” at high volume. Manny flipped it open and said, “Manny here.” Rod watched as Manny’s excitement grew, a few “no shits” punctuating his side of the conversation. After what seemed like an hour, but was more like just five minutes, Manny snapped the cell phone closed and looked over at Rod.
“Shaka, bro,” he shouted, bringing his thumb and forefinger up, rotating his wrist in the Hawaiian “howzit” sign. “Success is ours. Pete struck gold. He located an annual at Kaneohe High School, and found a picture with three girls in it identified as sisters. Two of them carried the name of their mother, Kaulili, and the last called herself Rose Cabotaje, using her father’s surname. He located a map with a house in Kailua on Ponokai Way with the numbers 462 on it, owned by a Maile Kaulili. And we are just a stone’s throw away from it, my friend.”
Excited now, Rod exclaimed, “Well, let’s get a move on then. Or do I have to jump out of this car and run?”
Manny pulled into a driveway and turned around. He looked over at Rod with a big smile on his face and responded, “Your wish is my command, you love-struck haole.” Laughing now, and with purpose, he sped through the quiet streets to a destination he now knew he could find. As to what they would find there, he had little clue.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Tommy’s head was throbbing, the ear-splitting blast of the gun still echoing in her skull, which had been further damaged by her use of it as her only weapon . She assessed her position, which seemed to be really strange. She was lying to one side, almost out of the chair. Looking down, she saw that her left arm was bleeding from the elbow to the wrist, and that the chain which bound that arm was dangling to the side. The errant shot from the gun as Loke fell must have struck the chain and freed her.
The wound hurt, but Tommy was so ecstatic to
see that the bullet, in threading its way up her arm, had also blasted the lock in two. She quickly looked around her, and saw Loke still lying unconscious at her feet, Leleo’s corpse just above hers.
“Damn,” Tommy said out loud. “I must have the hardest head in the world. No wonder it’s a chore for anybody to knock me out in the ring.”
Just at that moment, Dave groaned.
“Get yourself together, sweetheart,” Tommy said to herself. She knew Dave was beyond hearing, still bound and suffering from his many swollen and bleeding toes and fingers. Some of them had already turned so black that Tommy was afraid he’d have to lose them, even if she could get him to safety. She saw the gun within reach on the floor at her feet, if she could just get to it. Summoning all her strength, Tommy leaned her still limber body as far over as her torso would go, stretching her copiously bleeding arm toward the gun.
She got purchase of the gun, right around the barrel. Her fingers withdrew quickly of their own accord, as the metal was still hot to the touch. The movement jarred her arm, which in turn sent a loud and painful message to her brain. Gently, Tommy slid her bloody fingers down to the handle, and got her index finger into the trigger. She slowly brought the weapon up along with her body, until she had almost righted herself. The gun threatened to slip out of her hand, which was getting slicker with her own blood by the moment. She settled the gun in her lap, and wiped her hand and arm across the middle of her sheath. “Well, I’ll never be able to wear this one again,” she murmured aloud.
Her hand now mostly dried of her blood, she picked the gun up from her lap with her left hand, and sighted the weapon at her right arm as best she could. Afraid she would hit that arm with a bullet, further disabling her, she bit her lip and pulled the trigger, this time prepared for the reverberating burst of gunfire. The lock on the right hand snapped in two, and Tommy’s wrist was only slightly nicked in the process.