Black Sands

by Colleen Coble

  “Before or after she kissed you?”

  “How’d you know she kissed me?”

  “Buddy, I’ve seen that besotted look she gives you when she thinks no one is looking. That’s a woman in love if I ever saw one. Did you scare her?”

  “I don’t know what I did. I kissed her, and she kissed me back. Then she shoved me away and wailed, ‘no,’ and ran into the house.”

  “Women don’t know their own mind half the time,” Jesse said. “Tell her again tomorrow, and it will probably be fine.”

  “You’re a lot of help,” Mano said with a grin. His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID to see that it was his mother. “Hi,” he said, answering it. Jesse motioned that he was going to the kitchen to make coffee. Mano nodded.

  “I’ve got the number you wanted, son,” his mother said. She rattled off the number, and he jotted it down on his notebook then stuck it in his pocket. “Mahalo, Makuahine.” He hesitated before he rang off. Maybe she’d have some idea. “Can you answer a question for me about women?”

  “Women in general or one woman in particular?” She sounded amused.

  “Annie. If a woman cares about a guy, would she run away if he told her he loved her?”

  His mother was silent for a minute. “I think she’s afraid, Mano. From what I could see, she seemed the typical middle child who always wants to please her parents. Her father seemed the kind who is never pleased. That can generate a lot of fear in a woman’s heart. She may feel she can never live up to expectations. Going into a relationship, the expectations of the other person are as high as Haleakala. She probably is afraid of failing you.”

  “But I love her.” It shocked him to confess his feelings to his mother, of all people. But she seemed to understand.

  “Then woo her gently. She’ll respond.”

  “Mahalo.”

  “You’re welcome. It seems I didn’t return to your life too late to give some advice once in a while.”

  He could hear the smile in her voice. “Love you, Mom.”

  “I love you too, Mano. Sleep tight.”

  He clicked off the phone and whispered a prayer of thankfulness that he had a mother in his life again after all these years. The clock on the mantel said it was almost ten. It would be early afternoon in Tehran. A perfect time to call. He dialed the number and waited.

  “Asad, my friend, it’s Mano.”

  “Mano, my good friend. Too long I have not heard your voice.” Asad’s voice was as vibrant as Mano remembered it.

  “I need a favor.” Mano explained the situation.

  “To my family you have given a new life. Such a small request I could never deny. I will set it up and let you know when the package is ready to be picked up.”

  “You’re a good man, Asad.”

  “I am honored, my friend, to be of service.”

  Mano disconnected the call. He thought about calling the Tagama house to tell Tomi but then rejected the idea. It would be soon enough to tell him once the rescue was set up.

  Sam had come and gone with the old familiar promise to do what he could to find Leilani. He questioned Tomi while he was there, and Annie could see he still suspected Tomi of the murder. She didn’t believe Sam would find Leilani. Not any more. It was going to be up to her to find her sister. Tomi paced the living room floor, and her father seemed even more shrunken and older after hearing what the caller said. He shuffled down the hall to bed after Sam left. Annie longed for Mano, but she resisted the urge to call him.

  A notebook in her hand, Fawn sat beside her on the sofa. “Okay, let’s make a list of what we know. See who our possible suspects are.”

  “Tab Watson was the last to see her,” Annie said. “The Ku cult she’s involved with. Or the casino people.” Fawn’s eyes questioned this last one.

  “They’ve got our house now,” Tomi said. “And wouldn’t they have used her to strong-arm us into selling?”

  Annie shrugged. “It’s just that we know Tab works for them.” She looked at her brother. “And I can’t ignore that she disappeared right before you showed up. This seems to be tied to you.”

  Tomi shook his head. “Other than the Iranians, I can’t think of anyone who would have a grudge against me. And why pick on Leilani?”

  “I’m adding the Iranians to the list anyway,” Annie said. She rubbed her forehead. “I want to check out the cult. If we could just attend a meeting, maybe we could find out something.”

  “Kauhi likes me. Maybe he’d take me to a meeting,” Tomi suggested.

  “I want to go too,” Annie said.

  “Let me see if I can talk him into it. He’s up until late. I could run over there right now.”

  “I’m coming with you.” Annie rose. “I’ll never be able to sleep anyway.” She followed her brother to the door.

  “Me too,” Fawn called.

  “This isn’t your problem,” Tomi said. “You’d better let me and Annie handle this.”

  Love was the pits, Annie decided, looking at Fawn’s crestfallen face. She wanted to be with Tomi, and he was too dense to even see it. Mano’s face floated before her mind’s eye, but she wouldn’t think about him. She couldn’t bear to disappoint him.

  She didn’t say anything on the short drive to Kauhi’s. Tomi parked the car in the bright moonlight. “Let me do the talking,” he said.

  “Okay.” He helped her along the boulders. He paused on the path to the cabin and held his finger to his lips. She nodded, and he knocked on the door.

  The door creaked, then swung open to reveal Kauhi dressed in warrior garb with his face painted. Annie saw a dozen other men and women crowded behind him in the room. She stifled a gasp.

  Kauhi’s glower was all the more ferocious with the paint on his face. “You are trespassing.” His anger waned when he saw Tomi and recognition lit his features. He nodded to Tomi. “Take your sister and come back another time.”

  “We’d like to talk to your friends about our sister.”

  Annie recognized the girl who worked at the fruit-smoothie stand and the man who worked at the gas station in town. The others were strangers. “Please,” she said. “Have any of you seen my sister, Leilani?”

  Their closed faces told her nothing. She tried to crowd past Kauhi, but he blocked her path. “Your sister is none of our concern. She was not serious about her worship, and we expelled her. Look for her somewhere else. We are readying for our holy night tomorrow.” He closed the door in their faces.

  Annie beat on the door for several minutes, but it remained closed and barred to her. Just like her sister’s fate.

  Twenty-four

  Aholy day tomorrow. Annie turned it over in her mind. Tomorrow would be the night of the full moon, the akua. She and Mano had just talked about it. She shivered. “I think we don’t have much time to find Leilani,” she whispered to her brother. “If tomorrow is a holy night, she may be sacrificed then.”

  Tomi glanced at her. “If that’s even what’s happening. I can’t imagine someone going so far in today’s day and age. It’s ridiculous.”

  “What else could it be? There’s something else. I’d dismissed it, but it keeps nagging at me. In that first phone call I got where the voice was altered, the person boasted that they’d sent Mother to hell.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Annie wasn’t sure why she hadn’t talked about it. “For one thing, it was preposterous. We have a suicide note from her. So it was a lie I didn’t want to think about. But what if whoever has Leilani really did have something to do with our mother’s death? Maybe she was forced to write the letter.”

  “Do you still have it? Maybe we should reread it.”

  “It’s in my room.”

  Tomi parked in the driveway. “Go get it while I call Mano.”

  “Mano? What for?” She yearned to see him, to know that she hadn’t hurt him too badly, but she didn’t think she was strong enough yet. Avoidance would be better at this stage.

 
; “I want to see if he made any arrangements for Afsoon.”

  Annie relaxed. At least he wouldn’t be coming over tonight. “I’ll get the letter.” She went inside. Wilson greeted her at the door. She picked him up and carried him down the hall. Her father’s room was dark. What a blessing that they didn’t have to explain anything to him right now. She dropped Wilson on the bed and went to her jewelry box. Though she didn’t have much jewelry, she treasured the few pieces of her mother’s that Leilani hadn’t cabbaged. And the letter was in the top compartment.

  She lifted the lid and pulled it out. Though she hadn’t been able to throw it away, neither had she been able to read it since the terrible night she’d found it. The envelope was creased and stained, and she always wondered if her mother had been weeping when she wrote it.

  Tomi appeared in the doorway. “Find it?”

  “It’s right here. What did Mano say?” She sat on the edge of her bed.

  Tomi dropped into the armchair by the door. “He got hold of his contact. The guy is going to call when she’s ready to be picked up.” He nodded at the envelope in her hand. “Read it to me.”

  She didn’t want to. The thought of reliving the horror sickened her. Her fingers were stiff as she pulled the single sheet of paper from the envelope. Her mother’s familiar handwriting made her eyes blur. She blinked rapidly until her vision cleared.

  “My dear family,” she began. “I’m so sorry this sorrow must come to you. It appears the only honorable way out for me. At the volcano, I will find the strength to save you all. Always remember how much I love you, and remember me with fondness. Your loving wife and mother.” Annie looked over at her brother.

  Tomi’s head was bowed. “I never got a chance to say good-bye. I was gone when the funeral happened. In Iran, I read the paper online and found out what had happened. I’ve been so stupid. This was my fault. She was despondent over my supposed death.”

  Annie rose from the bed and knelt beside him. “Don’t say that, Tomi. She was grieving you, but rereading this note, I’m not so sure she killed herself.”

  His head came up at her words, and he stared at her through eyes wet with tears. “What are you talking about?”

  “It doesn’t sound like a normal suicide note, Tomi.” She stared down at the letter again. “This part about finding the strength to save us all at the volcano. At the time, I assumed she meant to save us from herself and her depression, but now I’m not so sure. What if she went to the volcano for a different reason?”

  “You’re grasping at straws. What possible reason would she have for going out there? And what could it possibly have to do with Leilani’s disappearance?”

  Annie slumped. She didn’t know. Who knew what was in her mother’s mind?

  Annie read the Psalms as Fawn had suggested, then asked God to help her conquer her fears. Though a strange peacefulness descended on her when she turned out the light, her subconscious had a different agenda. She barely slept all night. Her dreams were punctuated with scenes of her mother calling to her from a lava lake. Her gut told her Leilani’s disappearance was tied to their mother’s death, though she couldn’t see how the two were connected. Getting ready for work in the morning, she decided she couldn’t let it ride. Though she wasn’t ready to see him, Mano had a logical mind. Tomi was too guilt-ridden to be much help.

  The doorbell rang as Annie put the last plate in the dishwasher.

  “I’ll get it,” Tomi called. He bounded to the door and admitted two men in suits.

  Annie joined Tomi and her father in the living room. The men went over the details of the sale pointing out the clause allowing the Tagamas to stay in the house for six months. Her father hesitated, then signed the paper slowly. The men handed over the check and left.

  It took only half an hour to sign away their way of life. Instead of elation, all she felt when she looked at the large check was trepidation. Her life was going to change, and she didn’t know if she could handle it. She glanced at her watch and realized she was going to be an hour late to work. She grabbed Wilson and went out the door.

  Rain drummed on the roof of her SUV. Moisture dripped from ferns and trees along the route. The rain forest was living up to its name today. She called Mano from her cell phone on the way to the observatory. He answered on the first ring. “Mano, it’s Annie.” It was all she could do to choke out the words.

  “Annie. Are you okay?”

  Typical how his first thought was of her safety. “Yes—no, I don’t know. I need your logical mind on a problem. Could you meet me for lunch?”

  There was a pause. “Sorry, I was swerving to avoid a mongoose in the road. Not Wilson, by the way. Sure, I can meet you. In fact, why don’t I bring lunch to you, and we’ll have a picnic if it quits raining?”

  At the last picnic, they’d shared their first kiss, but she refused to dwell on that. “Okay. Just come to the observatory. We can eat out on the observation deck.”

  “Fish tacos okay?”

  “Love them.” She ended the call and wiped slick palms on her jeans. It was stupid to be so nervous. While tossing and turning last night, she’d mulled over what Fawn had said about getting over her fears. She wanted to try, especially with Mano, but what if she failed him? Still, she couldn’t think that way. Living meant embracing the possibility of pain, and she didn’t want to just exist any longer.

  She parked and carried Wilson through the downpour into the observatory. Flinging water on the floor when she stepped inside, she hurried down the hall toward her office. She sat at her desk and fired up her computer. The phone rang. She glanced at the display. Banos LLC. Was there a problem with the sale? Her hand hovered over the handset; then she picked it up. “Hawai’i Volcanoes Observatory.”

  “I’d like to speak to Jason Sarris.” The voice on the other end was gruff.

  She didn’t know whether to feel relief or disappointment that the call wasn’t about the house. “He doesn’t work here.”

  “I realize that, since he’s our employee. But I’m having trouble tracking him down. He’s not answering his home phone, and this is an alternate number I have for him.”

  “His mother works here.” Annie was becoming more and more curious. Could Jason be involved with the casino project? How strange no one had ever mentioned it.

  “Could I speak to her?”

  “She’s not here either. Did you try her house?”

  “Of course I did. I just said I couldn’t get him.”

  Annie flinched at the man’s testy tone. “I could have her call when she gets in.”

  “Don’t bother. I’ll track him down.”

  The phone on the other end clattered in her ear. She returned the handset to its cradle. If only Mano were here now to talk this out. Could Jason be the one behind it all? She remembered him saying he’d seen men outside their house; she’d wondered then if he was stalking Leilani. She should take a hard look at him.

  She looked at her computer. No time like the present. She launched her Mozilla browser and typed in BANOS LLC CASINO. Hundreds of hits popped up. She began to go through them one by one, marveling at the width and breadth of the company. They had projects in dozens of countries and many of the states. She ran across a blog of someone who railed about the company’s scare tactics to get him to sell his property. Annie pinched the bridge of her nose. That hadn’t been the Tagamas’ experience with Banos.

  People began to file into work. She closed her browser and pulled up her data. Working would help the time pass until she could talk this over with Mano.

  The aroma of the fish tacos made Mano’s stomach rumble. At least that’s what he told himself. It was better than admitting his heart echoed with loneliness. Woo her, his mother said. How should he go about wooing someone who was as likely to take flight as a Hawaiian honeycreeper?

  He parked beside Annie’s Nissan and ran through the rain. Muddy water splashed on his legs and over his feet clad only in rubber slippers. Just inside the door, he shook
the rain from his hair and went to Annie’s office. Annie sat at her computer wearing an intent expression. Unobserved, he let his gaze roam over her face.

  Small, even teeth caught her lower lip in an expression of intense interest. Her busy fingers twiddled a paper clip. She was so tiny, so perfect for him. He just had to convince her of that. She looked up, and color ran up her neck to her cheeks.

  She dropped the paper clip and stood. “You startled me.” She swept her hand toward the window. “So much for our picnic, huh?”

  “I was sure it wouldn’t dare rain on our day.” He stepped into her office.

  Her gaze turned uneasy, and she nodded toward the door. “Shut the door, would you?”

  “Sure.” Something was up. He saw it in the stiffness of her shoulders. He hoped she wasn’t going to tell him she didn’t want to see him anymore. “What’s wrong?”

  “Jason Sarris. I found out today that he works for the casino developer.”

  “Gina’s son? How’d you find out?” Mano opened the sack of food and handed her a fish taco and chips.

  She took it. “A guy called this morning from Banos LLC looking for Jason. He said he was Jason’s employer.”

  “It’s unlikely they’d hire workers when they’re still six months away from ground break.”

  “And the night we stayed with Gina, I talked with Jason the next morning. It sounded like he might have been a little obsessed with Leilani. Like maybe he’d been stalking her. We’ve never really checked him out.”

  “No, you’re right,” he agreed. “I’ll go have a talk with him, and we can talk about it tonight over dinner.” He said the last with a hopeful tilt to his eyes.

  She laughed, a soft sound that gave him hope. “Okay. But I’m cooking.”

  “I can fix a mean salad.”

  “In that case, you’re on.” The color came to her cheeks again.

  When he left her half an hour later, he was whistling. The sun had finally come out, and its rays sparkled on the wet vegetation. He drove out to the Sarris house, but no one answered his knock. He got back in the car and thought. What about Aki? If Jason really was involved with the casino plan, maybe he and Aki were connected. It was worth a try.