Maui Magic

by Terry Ambrose

  If this jerk wanted to intimidate me, he was doing a good job. Why had Chance left? Once again, I was alone.

  Myers turned his head sideways and glared at me. “What kind of crap are you pulling, McKenna? You didn’t buy that stupid fish because you like stuffed animals.” He straightened and took a menacing step toward me.

  “I’m not the one who planted a tracking device on me.” I crossed my arms, clutched the toy to my chest, and stared right back at him. “You’re way too paranoid for your own good, Cap.”

  “You think I don’t know how sneaky you are? I said you’d double-cross us.”

  Chance appeared in the entrance. He moved like a ninja, but Myers must have seen my eyes flick in Chance’s direction. Too late, he turned to face his attacker. The kick Chance delivered swept Myers’ legs out from under him. He dropped like a stone, smacking his head on the counter as he fell. He tried to roll when he landed, but Chance pinned him to the floor.

  Jeez, this guy was indestructible. I forced back my trepidation. “I might be sneaky, but at least my conscience is clear…again.”

  No matter how hard Myers twisted from side-to-side, he couldn’t escape Chance’s hold. He was down. Chance had him. And I was emboldened by this sudden turn of events.

  Myers craned his neck at me and spat, “You’ll be sorry for this.”

  I would have said, “Not likely,” but a movement by the entrance caught my attention. A man and a small boy walked in, saw us, and ducked back outside. Rats, busted. “That sucks.”

  Chance glanced at me. “Visitors?”

  I nodded, at which point he grimaced and slammed Myers’ head down on the tile floor.

  “Time to talk,” Chance said. “Or it will get a lot worse very quickly.”

  It had to be quick. We probably only had a few minutes before the airport cops showed up. I knelt next to our captive, encouraged by our short reign of success. “You’re going to tell me who your boss is. If not, Chance will split your head open.”

  The commotion outside took on a frenzied tone. Almost chaotic. Pounding footsteps grew louder. Voices yelled for people to make way.

  Myers glowered at me. “I’ll bury both of you for this.”

  But, I wasn’t paying attention to empty threats. We had a bigger problem. Two security guards with weapons drawn.

  “Everybody freeze!”

  34

  Rats. The two airport cops watched us from the entrance. One was a serious intimidator. The other, hard to take seriously despite his weapon. Too much junk food, not enough exercise.

  The tough-looking guy stepped forward. He was a big man with a buzz cut. The sort who ran the Ironman for some afternoon fun. Yeah, he was not someone I wanted to mess with. Even though Myers was a prisoner with no leverage, he appeared unconcerned by this development.

  Macho Cop’s partner, a pudgy man with soft features, had a demeanor to match. He guarded the entrance to keep out prospective patrons while his partner did the heavy lifting. At a wave from the tough guy, Dough Boy craned his neck and murmured into his lapel microphone.

  A woman’s voice responded with a harsh “10-4” confirmation. Two more cops showed up moments later. One wasn’t even breathing hard. The other could have passed for Dough Boy’s younger brother. The reinforcements secured the entrance, which freed up Dough Boy to move behind our guy, whose real name was Phillips.

  “Gentlemen, we’re all going to the security office.” Phillips’ gravelly voice suited his tough-as-nails appearance and left no question he expected full cooperation—from everyone.

  Cooperating seemed like the only option to me, but Cap Myers was the wild card in this whole little skirmish. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of Myers making a break for it and getting himself tasered or shot or something else painful. I liked that idea.

  I regarded Myers for a moment, contemplating what “people skills” Phillips might have. He was most likely proficient in all the basics—headlocks, tackling a fleeing prisoner. He probably had a closetful of black belts. Tai kwon do, kung fu, and that who-do voodoo thing the spy schools taught. And, I wouldn’t be surprised if he developed his marksmanship while in the crib. There was no question I’d love to see Myers make his play.

  With the new additions, four security guards controlled the scene, but then a fifth man, this one with salt-and-pepper hair, strode through the door. He, too, bore the ex Navy Seal look, but the lines and wrinkles on his face placed him in the way more “ex” than the rest of his crew. Our newcomer had some juice because the others all deferred to him. The new arrival walked right to where Chance still had Myers pinned and gazed down. The prisoner glared up at him.

  “Well, well,” said the new guy. “If it isn’t Mr. Alvarez. How’s the jet set, Frank?”

  Alvarez? Oh, great, Cap Myers was an alias? Whatever his name was, he sneered up at Mr. Big. “Get me out of here, Seagrave. These two attacked me.”

  These guys knew each other? I peered at the man’s name badge and felt a small knot forming in my belly. “Uh, Mr. Seagrave, how are you two acquainted?”

  Seagrave eyed Alvarez, who still strained against Chance’s hold. He smirked. “No worries, Frank. Your boss will want to get this all tidied up.”

  “You’ll be fired for this.” Alvarez ground out the words between clenched teeth.

  “By who, Frank? Exactly who do you work for? I’m dying to know.” When Alvarez didn’t answer, Seagrave nodded at Phillips. “Secure Mr. Alvarez. He and I have a lot to talk about.”

  As Phillips knelt next to Chance and secured Alvarez, Seagrave looked at the other first responder. “Carlisle, take these two gentlemen to the interview room.”

  “We didn’t do anything!” Okay, knee-jerk reaction. Stupid. I’d behaved like a child on the school ground. They had no alternative but to detain us.

  How many of the airport’s rules of behavior had we violated? We could start with the one that states, “Play nice with others,” and coin a few others from there. Besides, defiance would only provoke trouble for us. These were cops. They had radios. Reinforcements. All we had was a stuffed fish. Carlisle stepped forward.

  I raised my hands. “No worries, we’ll go without a fuss.” I cocked my head toward Alvarez. “But, who is this joker?”

  “Watch what you say, Seagrave.”

  Without thinking, I glared at Alvarez. “Making threats while you’re pinned to the floor? That’s gutsy.” And stupid. He should be at the top of the Mr. Arrogant Award list. My stomach clenched as the realization hit me. “You don’t know who he works for, do you?”

  “All I know is he works for some mainland security company—I think. These are the kind of people who fly around the world for business meetings in private jets. Mr. Alvarez’s boss is a man with a serious privacy obsession. In a couple of hours, some tight-lipped lawyer will show up to threaten everyone involved with a lawsuit if we don’t release his client. What we’re about to do with him is no more than a dance. In the end, he’ll go home alone. One of these days I’d like to see him become a liability and find himself out of a job.”

  “Ain’t gonna happen,” Alvarez snapped with a smirk about the size of Kansas on his face.

  As we made our way to Security, I couldn’t stop wondering about Alvarez working for a mainland company. There was no sign of any such link in the dream. Could Seagrave be wrong? At the office, Phillips kept Alvarez under wraps while our interrogation began. I went through the story about Mandy’s murder, the possible connection with Alvarez, and the tracking device TSA confiscated. When I finished, Seagrave pointed at my wrists.

  “What happened?”

  “Alvarez and his driver kidnapped me and threatened to kill me.”

  His eyebrows rose, and he leaned forward. “Did you file a report?”

  “No. It was my word against theirs. And I was afraid they’d kill my friends.”
<
br />   He made a note on a scrap of paper, then slid it aside. Try as I might, I couldn’t read the writing.

  “So the reason he cornered you in the restroom was because you turned on him?” Seagrave asked.

  “I realized I couldn’t live with the knowledge that I was a chicken, so I bought a stuffed toy. It was my hope Alvarez would get suspicious. Basically, we—laid a trap, and he walked into it.”

  “So you thought you’d make yourself a hero in my airport?” Seagrave pulled the note he’d made out from its safe place, scribbled another note, then sighed as he put it away.

  Chance cleared his throat. “Mr. Seagrave, are you planning on charging us?”

  “I’m not sure yet. My men said Mr. McKenna wasn’t involved in the altercation. But he just confessed to conspiring with you to confront Alvarez.”

  “Alvarez attacked me!”

  Chance and Seagrave both frowned.

  In response, I sat back in my chair and grumbled, “All I did was buy a fish.”

  “If you’re thinking of charging us, I’d like to make a phone call,” Chance said.

  To my surprise, Seagrave nudged his phone toward Chance and opened his hands wide. “Dial away.”

  35

  Chance called his dad, who told Chance he’d be back to him in ten minutes. Without an immediate resolution, my initial concerns deepened. What happened to people who broke airport rules? Were they shipped off to rot in a terrorist prison?

  “I see where this is going,” Seagrave said as he slid a business card across the table.

  Sure enough, Seagrave’s landline chirped a few minutes later. The conversation didn’t last long, at which point Seagrave placed the receiver in its cradle and scowled at Chance. “Don’t ever cause a problem in my airport again.”

  “Right,” I said, then nudged the kid, who echoed his agreement.

  Chance and I studied each other while Seagrave made a show of pulling out his bottom desk drawer. He laid a second business card next to the first. “The last time I saw Frank Alvarez was a few months ago. He was bragging about how he’d hit it big. He said he worked for a security firm and gave me that card. If you somehow got a copy of it…well, I’m not sure how that would happen.”

  It took Chance about five seconds to bring out his phone, snap a photo of the card, and push it back to Seagrave. Seagrave returned the card to his desk drawer.

  “I don’t like Alvarez anymore than you guys do because for all his bragging about this big corporation, it’s all a lie. That company doesn’t exist. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I had at ferreting out who he’s working for and what they’re up to.”

  “We’ll keep you in the loop if we come across anything. Right, Chance?”

  The kid nodded and gave us both a thumbs up.

  Seagrave expelled a frustrated sigh before continuing. “For now, all I can do is keep him busy until his boss’s attorney shows up. Like I said earlier, he’ll throw a fit and demand I release Alvarez. Once that happens, he’ll be back on the streets in no time.”

  Benni and Lexie were waiting for us outside the security office door. Lexie rushed to Chance and flung her arms around his neck. It was a warm welcome that left me jealous because mine wasn’t even close. Benni still bordered on just shy of hostile.

  “I’m still mad at you, McKenna. You disappointed me. Big time.”

  “I disappointed me, too. How come you stayed?”

  “Because Lexie asked me to give you the opportunity to explain.”

  I moved to touch her hand, but she pulled away.

  “You tell me what went on, right now, or I’m changing my flight and going straight home.”

  The fire in her eyes turned the last of my resistance to cinders because I knew, deep in my soul, if she left now she’d fly to the Big Island and never return. There would be no more “we.” I’d spend the rest of my days as a lonely, angry man—precisely where I’d been before we met. I took a deep breath, unsure of where to begin.

  “The short story is I was kidnapped this morning by Cap Myers—I mean, Frank Alvarez. That’s Myers’ real name, as far as airport security knows. Frank Alvarez. He works for some big security firm doing who knows what, and his boss must have decided I needed to be neutralized.”

  My breaths came fast and shallow. My head swam with a flood of uncertainty. If I wanted to keep this woman in my life, I had only one option. Tell the truth. All of it. Now. Could I be totally honest? Persuade her I was? There was only one way to find out. I started and left out no details. The longer I talked, the more it looked like she might be almost sympathetic. That is, until I got to the video in the car and decision they forced me to make.

  The fire returned to her eyes, and she effectively blocked me out, crossing her arms over her chest and giving me an icy stare. “You expect me to believe someone wanted to kill you because you wouldn’t take their money?”

  “No…” I stammered. “No, you don’t understand.”

  “Oh, I do. You chose a payoff over helping your ‘ohana, and now you’re trying to justify your decision.”

  The airport noises and crowds surrounding us were like a barrage of artillery. I had to block it out…to focus…but, I couldn’t. All I could process was the din of people, overhead announcements, and constant movement surrounding us. It was like I’d returned to that cane road...felt the rumbling vehicle behind me…and then, I blurted it out. The road. The truck. Even the smell of dust in the air. I finished by telling all of them about the threats to their lives if I didn’t accept their bribe. “I know,” I stammered. “It’s blood money. People are dying and I was going to prosper. Go ahead. Change your flight. I don’t even want to be near me.”

  Her brow creased into a line of concern. “Can you prove this? How do I know this isn’t another one of your dreams?”

  I shook my head. “There is no proof.”

  “McKenna, I don’t know why I should trust you. This is beyond farfetched. You’re expecting me to buy into this wild tale about you having a near death experience while I was in the shower. On top of it all, you survived and didn’t tell me about it.”

  I snorted, disgusted by my own complicity in my undoing. “When you put it that way, even I wouldn’t believe what happened. But, in my defense, it wasn’t just…”

  “Stop talking, McKenna. Show her your wrists.” Chance was watching me like I was a moron.

  “What?” I had no idea what he was talking about.

  He rolled his eyes and pointed. I glanced down, saw the red, angry rash, and the light came on. Oh, thank you Frank Alvarez.

  I held out my hands. Waited.

  Benni examined the marks from a distance, then took hold of my right hand.

  “They weren’t so bad this morning,” I muttered.

  Her brows furrowed as she ran her fingers over the abrasions. Never had I yearned to be tormented physically—but for once, I’d gladly accept it for Benni’s touch. I waited, savoring every morsel of pain.

  36

  Benni finished her inspection, gulped, and her eyes misted over. She held my gaze. “Do they hurt?”

  “They’re getting worse as the day goes on.”

  Chance stepped forward. “McKenna had good reason to be worried. The guys he tangled with are connected to powerful people. Someone involved in Mandy’s murder has a lot of juice.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment, the memory of this morning’s encounter all too vivid. There was a tickle on my cheek. When I rubbed it with my fingers, they came away wet. I bit my upper lip and whispered, “I couldn’t let anything happen to you.” Realizing how that might sound to Chance and Lexie, I added, “That goes for all of you.”

  “Stop while you’re ahead, McKenna.” Chance winked at me.

  “You did awesome.” Lexie hugged me, then looked at Benni. “Come on, Ben, give the poor guy a break. If so
me bad dudes took me out to a deserted cane road, I’d pee my pants.”

  I must have looked pathetic when her eyes flicked up and caught mine. “Me, too,” she muttered.

  Hopefully, she’d never undergo the same type of ordeal, which would mean she’d never have to make such a gut-wrenching decision. What I felt sure about was I couldn’t stand here outside of security much longer. My back ached, the blaring announcements were driving me nuts, and the woman who’d been attempting to reason with her two screaming brats had me ready to commit murder myself. How did people concentrate in the middle of this…chaos?

  I held out the stuffed toy. “Peace offering? Can we find someplace less manic?” The fish stared at me with one eye, at Benni with the other.

  Lexie tweaked the fish’s mouth, making his lips simulate a movement resembling a pucker. “He’s cute.”

  “You bought that thing for me? This isn’t one of your dreams, McKenna. Don’t expect miracles.”

  Okay, she wasn’t impressed. “I know a stuffed toy can’t make up for what I’ve done. All I’m asking for is a little time. And your help. We still have a lot of work to do and I need you. We all do. Hisao, Mrs. Nakamura, all of your ‘ohana are counting on you to stay. Besides, we’ve talked about the dreams before. About Kimu.”

  Benni hugged herself tightly and stared at the flight listing on the wall. I suppose she could be analyzing flights to see how she’d get back to the Big Island, but she wasn’t blinking and I hoped that meant she was finding her way to acceptance. The corners of her mouth turned down and she glanced at Lexie, then Chance. “Why me? You three can work together.”

  I shook my head. “You’re somehow tied into this. Kimu wouldn’t have put you in the dream if you weren’t. You don’t believe in him? In the dreams?” And the unspoken, in me.

  “Up until now, I did. That was easy, though. They were kind of a novelty.”

  “Benni,” I pleaded, “I never asked for your great grandfather to start guiding me. Whether you believe in all that or not doesn’t really matter. What does matter is you not making the same mistake I did when I moved to Hawai‘i. You know my past. You know I was a lonely, grumpy…do you want me to go on? I’ve got plenty of adjectives. I’ve heard them all.”