We disconnected and I immediately checked directory assistance. They had a listed number for Juliana Rollins, and it was no surprise when Kai answered the phone.
“You figured it out,” she said.
“You’re testing my patience, kid.” Grumble as I might, an open line of communication gave me hope.
“I knew you could do it. You’ll help me prove Juliana didn’t kill Mrs. Kraft, too. Won’t you?”
“I’m trying to work the case, but I keep having to find this runaway kid. She’s becoming a pain in the tookus.”
"What's a took us?"
"Never mind, kid, you're too young." In the background, I heard a familiar sound. “What bus are you on, anyway?”
“Thirteen,” she blurted.
The 13 was my route. It ran from the University of Hawai‘i all the way over to Nu‘uanu. It went right through Chinatown.
“Are you coming to see me?” I joked.
Someone near Kai said, “‘Scuse me.”
“No can do. I have to meet someone.”
“Can I call you back on this number? You’re not going to ditch the phone, are you?”
“No way. This is Juliana’s. She’s already going to be mad because I borrowed it. I hope she’ll understand. It was an emergency.”
“Right. Call me when you get to your stop, okay?”
“You’re not calling my mom, are you?”
“Not yet.”
“Okay.” She hung up before I could say anything else.
I dialed Alexander again. “How far from me are you?”
“Traffic’s awful. Can’t believe I lost her.”
“She’s slippery, but I know where she’s headed. At least, I hope so. Are you on your way back here?”
“I’m just comin’ around Diamond Head. I can pick you up in ten minutes.”
“Perfect. See you then.”
I put the bottle and receipt in the shopping bag, then pulled out my phone. I had to reach Chance. With any luck at all, we could lay a trap for Kai Palakiko even she couldn’t escape.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When Alexander arrived, I was standing in the parking lot with my bag of goodies at the ready and my attitude hopeful. He barely came to a stop before we screeched out onto the street. We hadn’t even exchanged hellos when I told him my plan.
“My goal is to have us meet her at Wong’s Apothecary. Once she’s inside the store, between you, me, and Chance, we should be able to make sure she doesn’t slip out.”
Alexander stared glumly at the road. “I ain’t never seen a kid so much trouble. I got a good mind to turn her over my knee.”
I snickered. “You wouldn’t do that. First, she’s not your daughter. Second, you’ve never hit your own kids. You’re just mad because she tricked you.”
A smile spread across Alexander’s face and he began to chuckle. “She got away from her mom twice in two days. She got you and Chance workin’ fo’ free. What you got planned, big mastermind?” He began laughing harder, then slapped the steering wheel. “We gonna see if you smarter than a ten-year-old.”
Smarter? Could be. Trickier? On that score, I might be able to keep up.
If I was wrong about Kai, the word in Alexander’s ‘ohana would get out sooner or later—Kai Palakiko pulled the wool over McKenna’s eyes. Ugh. Maybe I should think about moving to Tibet. I cleared my throat. “You don’t get to gloat until I fail. For now, Chance is on his way to Chinatown. He’ll stake out Wong’s from across the street. There are a couple of storefronts where he can loiter and not look too conspicuous.”
“A haole loitering in Chinatown? You think that ain’t gonna get noticed?” He laughed even harder. “You want me to call Cousin Carl? He’s the owner.”
“Is he closer to you or to Kai?”
Alexander thought for a moment. “If I tell him we’re doing this for Kai’s safety, he gonna help us out.”
“Great. Do it.”
Alexander made the call. Between the background noise, the truck's speaker system, and Cousin Carl's heavy accent, I was having a tough time understanding what he said. Alexander, on the other hand, appeared to communicate with his cousin easily. I’d met several of Alexander’s relatives. Most had been open and friendly, but the conversation with Carl was quite different. At best, it was strained.
By the time the call ended, things had settled down and Cousin Carl assured us he’d delay Kai until we arrived. Even with an agreement in place, I could see something was bothering Alexander.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Strange. Cousin Carl always got a joke, you know? One of those guys always gotta keep you laughin’.”
“Didn’t sound much like a comedian to me.”
“I know.” Alexander nodded. “It ain’t like Cousin Carl at all.”
"Neither was the guy I talked to on the phone."
"Yah, he got some old guy workin' fo' him now. He don't speak hardly no English."
It took us another fifteen minutes to drive to Chinatown, five more to find parking. Red brick buildings, colorful signage, old storefronts, and new renovations all blended together. The modern-day hodgepodge made up today’s version of Chinatown. We were three blocks from Wong’s and both of us kept searching the narrow sidewalks for Kai. She was nowhere to be found. Around us, a blend of Asian languages and dialects filled the air. I could tell there were differences, but that was the extent of my understanding.
Chance stood at the pay station of a municipal parking lot across the street. “Why didn’t we park there?” I asked.
“You paying?” When I didn’t answer, Alexander said, “Didn’t think so.”
I started to voice a complaint about him not even asking me but stopped. Alexander knew me too well. There was no point in even trying to BS him.
The buildings on this block were all old brick construction. Some painted, some not. All had second stories. The apothecary was two doors away. Chance gestured at the store and gave me a thumbs up. Did he mean that Kai was inside? He checked the traffic on the one-way street, then dashed across.
“She showed up maybe five minutes ago,” he said.
“You guard the door. Don’t let her out. Alexander, come with me.”
A blend of scents filled the inside of the store. We walked down the middle aisle of products. An assortment of boxes and jars, most labeled in Chinese lined the shelves. I whispered to Alexander. “I wonder what this stuff is.”
“Don’t ask.” He nodded at a small man in a flowered shirt standing behind the counter.
When the man came from behind the counter, I saw he also wore tan shorts and slippas, the shoes the rest of the world calls flip-flops. He greeted us with a curt, “Hey, Cousin.”
The man peered at us from behind a pair of thick lenses. A jewelers loop he’d attached to the tortoise-shell frames of his glasses tilted upward. His voice was raspy, sounding as though he might have a permanent coating of phlegm in his throat.
“Cousin Carl, how you been? Long time no see, brah.”
The two men shook hands, then Alexander introduced me. “This is McKenna. I'm sure you heard about him.”
Carl studied my face for a moment. When his visual inspection was complete, he said, “Kimu always did like the underdogs.”
I fought back the sudden urge to belt Carl. Almost every single relative of Alexander’s said exactly the same thing. Did they have a script or something? Maybe it was a conspiracy? I forced a smile. “Thanks. We seem to get along well. Where’s Kai?”
“Back there.” Carl hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“You left her alone?”
“She ain’t going nowhere. I got her locked in the restroom.”
My first thought was that Cousin Carl was nuts. We were dealing with a regular escape artist. "Don't the restrooms lock from the inside?"
He shook his head. "This is one of the old ones. Long time back someone just added a toilet to the storeroom. She can't get out."
“Okay,” I said.
If Kai was out of the picture for a few minutes, I might as well find out about the receipt and the bottle while we had Kai detained. I pulled both from the bag.
“Do you recognize this receipt?” I asked, handing the piece of paper to Carl.
He inspected it with narrowed eyes. “Yah, I wrote that.” The muscles in his jaw tightened and he snuck a peek at the door. A moment later, he was eying the bottle in my hand while he also tried to sound nonchalant. “How’d you get it?”
The guy would make a lousy poker player. Cousin Carl’s attempt at a breezy attitude stunk. He was nervous, like a bad poker player who’d just bet his life savings on a pair of deuces. “What is it?” I shot back.
He stiffened. Alexander cocked his head to one side and watched my face. “What’s happening, McKenna?”
I shook my head. The answer would have to wait. I had alarm bells ringing in my head from his cousin’s reaction.
When I didn't answer, Alexander’s eyebrows went up. “Carl?”
Cousin Carl grimaced, then licked his lips. “You didn’t give that stuff to nobody, did you?”
I repeated my question. “What is it?”
“Comes from the monkshood plant.”
“Doesn’t answer my question.”
“Aconitine. The lady who was with Kai bought it a couple of weeks ago.” He cleared his throat. “I went to a lot of trouble to get it for her.”
“What’s it do?”
“It’s dangerous. Hard to control.”
“Dangerous, how?”
He dismissed my concern with a flip of his hand. “Controls pain.”
Alexander scanned the bottles lined against the wall behind the counter. He stepped closer to Carl and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. “You got a lotta different stuff here, Carl. How come you had trouble getting this…Aconitine?”
Carl took a deep breath and said, “It’s poison. And there’s no known antidote. After I heard about the lady on the North Shore, I got worried.”
“So you think this is the murder weapon?” I asked.
“That's up to the cops, yah?”
“Did you sell this Aconitine to anyone else?”
“Just the lady with Kai.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Poison? Aconitine was a poison with no known antidote? And I had it in my hand? Carl’s voice quivered just like my hand shook. He had to be worried about his connection to Juliana and the deceased. I was more worried about dropping the bottle on the floor and killing us all.
I…I'd acted like it was a bottle of aspirin. Harmless. I gulped. This was not something I’d anticipated.
Now I was the one who was nervous. My hand trembled as I held it out. “Uh, Carl, can you take this?”
“No worries,” Carl pulled a latex glove from his back pocket, put it on, then took the bottle from my hand. “It should be no problem. I just gotta be cautious.”
No worries? Easy for him to say, he had gloves. “What is that stuff, death in a bottle? Why would you even sell it?”
Cousin Carl didn't appear concerned. “Chinese medicine used it for ages. That’s why it’s called ‘alternative’ medicine.”
He smiled, but this was not the time or place for humor. Alexander’s face showed how unhappy he was with the development, too. Chance, who had snuck up on us while I was entranced by the brown bottle of death, appeared unconcerned as he spoke.
“Carl, what else is this aconite used for?”
“Aconitine.” Carl went behind the counter and placed the bottle in a glass-enclosed cabinet. He removed his glove, then discarded it in a nearby red trash can. “Aconite is the plant. Like I said, this is a pain reliever. Can cause tingling and numbness when applied externally. You can’t use it on open wounds. If it gets into the bloodstream…” He made a slicing motion across his neck.
“You sold this to Kai?”
“No, no. Her friend bought it. She told me she was a nurse. She knew all the precautions. Quite knowledgeable. Kai was with her when they came in. She was very protective of Kai.”
Alexander craned his neck and gestured at the back of the shop. “I think we need to bring her out.”
“She may be the only one who can tell us what Juliana was going to do with a bottle of kryptonite.”
Carl grimaced. “Aconitine.”
“Whatever.” I gestured at Carl. “Get Kai. We need some answers.”
While we waited for Carl to return, I glanced around the store. A couple of customers had entered during our conversation, but they appeared to have left. Most likely, nobody wanted to bear witness to a discussion like the one we were having.
When Kai entered the room, she scowled at me. “Not cool,” she said. “That is so not cool.”
“You hired us to prove Juliana’s innocence, Kai. But, you keep interfering in the investigation. I can’t work under circumstances like this. You need to let us do our jobs. And let's begin with you leveling with us about why Juliana bought a bottle of poison.”
Rather than getting upset, Kai waved off the accusation with a flip of her hand. “It was for her pain. She had a bad accident a couple of months ago. The stuff she bought kept her off the super bad drugs.”
I blinked hard and gaped at Kai, unable to believe what I'd heard. "You don't consider poison bad?"
“She told me her family had a history of addiction,” Carl said. “Her father was an alcoholic. She said her mother got hooked on street and prescription drugs.”
I watched Carl’s face for a moment, reading between the lines, but it was Kai who said what the grownups wouldn’t.
“They both died. It’s not like I didn’t know.”
“Right,” I said. “So, Kai, what else do you know about Juliana?”
“I know she didn’t kill Mrs. Kraft.” Her gaze was steady and sure with the confidence of youth not yet disappointed by others.
I did not want to be the one to initiate this girl into the real world. “Do you know how we can reach her?”
Finally, Kai made a mistake—she dropped her gaze to the floor. I took her avoidance to mean she did know how to reach Juliana. Before she could answer, I held out my phone. “Call her. Now. If you truly believe she’s innocent, we need to ask her more questions. Nobody’s calling the cops and she can disappear into the streets if she wants.”
“Stop! Let her be.”
I recognized the voice. It was Juliana and she was standing one aisle over. She wore the same dark hoodie as last night, a white tank top beneath that, and jeans. She approached us, her flip-flops slapping against the bottoms of her feet as she walked.
“Juliana!” Kai’s face lit up and she rushed into the woman’s outstretched arms.
My heart broke at the realization. No matter what I wanted, I might be destined to disappoint Kai. I saw tears on Juliana’s face as she knelt in front of Kai and kissed her forehead.
“You are the dearest, sweetest, friend anyone could ever have, but I can’t let you ruin your life.” She turned her gaze to me. “I would appreciate it if you would call the police. Since Kai won’t let this go, I have to turn myself in.”
“No!” Kai glowered at me. “Don’t you dare. And you’re not doing this. I won’t let you.”
“Someday you’ll learn that you can’t control everything, Kai.”
I thought about the wad of money Kai’s mother had given me. If nothing else, I could donate it toward Juliana's looming lawyer’s fees. It was a pittance, but it could help. “Before we get carried away, I have some questions. Kai, it might be best if you went in the back room with Alexander.”
The big guy put a hand on Kai’s shoulder, but she shook her head. “I’m not leaving Juliana.”
I nodded. “I can see that.” I nodded and Alexander backed away. “When we talked before, you said you didn’t kill Mrs. Kraft. What can we do to prove your innocence?”
Juliana contemplated the shelf of herbs before her. “Not much,” she said. “You see, I had the means, motive, and opportunity. I doubt if ther
e’s much anyone can say to save me. I might as well confess so I get a better sentencing. Isn’t that what they always tell the accused to do? Confess and the court will go easy on you. Maybe that’s what I should do.”
“Not if you're innocent,” Chance said. “You should fight this. Don’t just roll over or they’ll put you away forever for something you didn’t do.”
“Even if I fight, they'll put me away,” Juliana said. “You already know I was the one who blew the whistle at Madigan. I’ve lost jobs, been dogged by the press, even had death threats, so how could prison be any worse?”
“You’d be free,” I said. “If you’re in jail, you become an even bigger victim. You swear you didn’t commit the murder?”
Juliana’s eyes defocused once again as she stared at a spot on the wall. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she said, “I didn’t murder Trinity Kraft. At least, not on purpose.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
If it weren’t for the traffic noises coming from the street out front, we might have been able to hear the proverbial pin drop. Even Kai stood rigid, saying not a word after Juliana’s almost-confession. For my part, a combination of relief and anxiety took over. My breath came in short bursts while I considered what Juliana's bombshell meant. We had a losing hand. Even Chance, who maintained a light and breezy view of the world, had a pinched look on his face.
Outside, a delivery truck rumbled by, its diesel engine echoing down the narrow street. “Why do you, um, say you might have caused Mrs. Kraft’s death?” I didn’t want to hear the answer but had to. It might be the only way Chance and I could keep from breaking a little girl’s heart.
“It was Friday night—three weeks ago—no, four—and I went into the Tiki Trades bar in Halei‘wa. It’s a little place off the main road. I’d heard some of the nannies met there on Fridays to compare notes. I was upset because Trinity had put off paying me again. She said the Palakiko’s weren’t paying her and she was negotiating with them.”
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