Murder of the Hula Dancers

by R. Barri Flowers

  "That's what I'm afraid of," she said contemplatively. "And that might be exactly what the killer is hoping for—"

  * * *

  At the crime lab, Leila and Chung met with Naomi and Delfino, who had made a breakthrough on evidence retrieved from the crime scene where Virginia Upton's charred corpse was found.

  "The CSI team found a cigarette butt in the field not far from Yoshie Akiyama's torched vehicle," Delfino told them. "I gave up smoking years ago, but this person apparently hasn't gotten the message that cigarettes kill. Big mistake. We were able to collect DNA from the cigarette and CODIS did the rest—"

  Leila could see the excitement in his eyes with regard to the Combined DNA Index System of the FBI that was used to identify criminals. She could only hope that the findings supported his preamble in this investigation. "So what did you come up with?" she asked, as if she had to pry it out of him.

  He deferred the response to Naomi. "I'll let you do the honors..."

  She smiled. "Thanks, I'll be happy to. There was a match within the Convicted Offender or Arrestee Index, as well as the Forensic Index. The DNA came from Drew Takiguchi, a thirty-five-year-old ex-con. And here's the interesting part... He served time for taking a knife to his girlfriend. Cut her up pretty bad."

  "Looks like we might be onto something here," Chung said expectantly.

  "That name sounds familiar," Leila muttered thoughtfully. After a moment, it came to her, courtesy of Rachel, who had kept her in the loop on their investigation. "He's the boyfriend of Judy Upton, the daughter of Virginia Upton."

  "Damn!" Delfino cursed. "Takiguchi has definitely dug a hole for himself as a probable serial killer and arsonist."

  "We need to bring him in," Leila said urgently. "But we also have to find the knife and gun used in the murders to make our case. Also, tracking Takiguchi's cell phone to see where he was when all of the crimes were committed will go a long way to build our case against him—"

  "Do you think Judy Upton was in on any of the murders?" Naomi asked.

  Leila wrinkled her nose in deliberation. "That's a very good question."

  "Let's go get some answers..." Chung said.

  Leila nodded as she followed Chung out of the lab.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Armed with a search warrant, the detectives and accompanying officers converged on the one-story cottage on Iliwai Loop in Kihei.

  Leila, wearing a bulletproof vest, glanced at Chung; then at Rachel, and Ferguson—who had given them the lead with the good possibility that the suspect was the Hula Killer—before turning to bang on the door and shouting, "Police, open up!"

  She expected a possible showdown with the suspect, but instead, the door opened and a young Hawaiian woman with long, dark hair opened the door.

  "What do you want?" she asked fearfully.

  "I'm Detective Kahana," Leila told her. "We have a warrant to search the premises." She handed it to her. "Who are you?"

  "Darcy Takiguchi."

  "Who is Drew Takiguchi to you?" Leila asked, thinking she looked young enough to be his daughter.

  "He's my brother."

  "Is he home?"

  "No," she answered without pause.

  In Leila's experience, this suggested she was telling the truth. If he wasn't home, that was good, as it gave them the element of surprise when searching the place. But it was bad in that it meant Takiguchi was still on the loose and a potential danger to every woman on the island.

  "Where is he?" Leila asked firmly.

  "I don't know. He never tells me where he's going," she said. "What's this about anyway? Why are you looking for him?"

  "It's a police matter," she answered simply. "Just stay out of the way and you won't get in any trouble..."

  They kept an eye on her while storming inside in search of any evidence of violent crimes, namely, a long-bladed knife and a .38-caliber handgun.

  Wearing nitrile gloves, Leila moved about, trying not to run into anyone or miss something in the process. She had come up empty-handed, thus far, in what she hoped would be enough to tie the murders decisively to Drew Takiguchi.

  Chung approached her in the living room. "Look what I found..." His gloved hand was holding up a shiny .38-caliber gun like a trophy. "The asshole was too dumb to get rid of one of his murder weapons."

  Leila was happy they had found what seemed to be the weapon that ballistics would be able to link to the bullets that were fired into Virginia Upton.

  However, that still left the knife or knives that were used to stab to death Yoshie Akiyama and Jackie Furomoto.

  It would remain that way, as other than some standard kitchen knives, there was no knife found that corresponded to the deep wounds found on the victims' remains during the autopsies. This was very troubling to Leila, as tying Takiguchi to the deaths of Yoshie and Jackie would be problematic without them.

  Solving this mystery and locating the murder weapons would hinge upon finding the suspect and taking him into custody.

  * * *

  Officers Natalie Yuen and Conrad Spinelli came upon the black Ford Fusion that was registered to murder suspect, Drew Takiguchi, for whom an APB had been issued. The vehicle was in the parking lot of a Kihei convenience store on Piikea Avenue. There appeared to be no one inside.

  "Better call it in," Natalie said, following procedure.

  Spinelli did just that and then said: "Uh oh, that's him. I recognize him from the mugshot."

  Natalie observed that he was with a thirtysomething, shapely, red-haired woman. Neither one seemed to be concerned that there was anything to be worried about.

  Wrong! she told herself and then said: "We can't let them get away."

  "Not on our watch," Spinelli agreed.

  They got out of the squad car and approached the suspect with their guns drawn.

  "Drew Takiguchi!" Spinelli's voice boomed. The suspect swiveled around. "You're under arrest. Put your hands up!"

  Given the belief that he was the infamous Hula Killer or, at the very least, the murderer of a woman left in a burning car, Natalie thought he might have removed a weapon, bolted, or even tried to use his lady friend as a shield.

  Instead, he put his hands up and they arrested him without incident.

  "You have the right to remain silent..." Natalie told him, as she went through the routine of reading him his rights.

  The woman, identified as Judy Upton, was also taken into custody as a material witness.

  * * *

  Leila and Rachel sat across from Drew Takiguchi in the interrogation room. He appeared smug and even disinterested. At least in Leila's mind. She suspected that Rachel felt the same way, especially given that she had already interviewed the suspect, whose alibi had been that he was in the company of his girlfriend, Judy Upton, at the time her mother was murdered.

  The evidence suggested otherwise.

  "You're in big, big trouble, Takiguchi," Rachel muttered, shaking her head.

  He flashed a look of bewilderment. "Why? What did I do?"

  "For starters, you lied about being with Judy Upton when her mother went up in flames with two bullets in her."

  He scowled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Cut the crap!" Rachel spat. "We have your .38-caliber pistol. A firearms examiner was able match the bullets you pumped into Virginia Upton with that very weapon. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. We also have your fingerprints on the weapon—and only yours. Then there's the DNA we found on a cigarette butt you left behind near the scene of the crime. As if that's not enough, cell phone location information shows that your phone was in that area at around the time the blaze started. You're guilty of cold-blooded murder, Takiguchi. There's no getting around it. The only question is: did you act alone? Or did your girlfriend, Judy, help out—?"

  "Actually, there's more..." Leila said, leaning forward. It was her turn to put the squeeze on him, as she and Rachel had planned. "Where's the knife?"

  He cocked a brow. "
What knife?"

  "The knife you used to stab to death two hula dancers."

  "I didn't stab anyone," he muttered flatly.

  She narrowed her eyes. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that. The car you set on fire with Virginia Upton inside belonged to Yoshie Akiyama, a hula dancer who was murdered, along with another dancer. Unless you can convince me otherwise, I'm pretty sure we have a strong circumstantial evidence case against you as a serial killer in the making. Your cowardly luck has finally run out—"

  Takiguchi had begun to sweat, visibly shaken by the potential myriad of serious charges he was facing. "All right, I killed Virginia Upton and set the car on fire," he confessed. "I did it for Judy. She wanted her mother dead so she could collect the insurance money to pay off debts and have a little left over for herself. But I swear I had nothing to do with the deaths of those hula girls..."

  Leila took in his chilling confession to murder and arson, even though he was claiming innocence of being the Hula Killer. Could there be another killer on the loose in a bizarre and coincidental crossing of paths by murderers?

  "Sing me a lullaby," Rachel said mockingly, unmoved. "If you didn't cut up those poor hula girls, tell us how you came to be in possession of Yoshie Akiyama's vehicle. And you better make it good—"

  He sucked in a deep breath. "I stole the car."

  "Stole it from where?" Leila asked dubiously.

  "From the side of the road on East Lani Ikena Way in Wailea. Someone abandoned it, but left the keys inside."

  Rachel rolled her eyes. "You expect us to believe that?"

  "I'm not lying," Takiguchi insisted. "I needed a ride and I found one, with no one asking questions. I never saw anyone else by the car and just took it."

  Leila continued to have doubts about part of his story. But, with no murder weapon found to link him to the stabbing deaths of Yoshie Akiyama and Jackie Furomoto, she had to consider the possibility that he did not kill them. There was one way to prove it.

  "Would you be willing to take a lie detector test to back up your claim that you played no part in the deaths of the hula girls?"

  "Yes," he uttered expressionlessly, as if hoping to lift a weight off his shoulders.

  Leila and Rachel, along with their partners and Seymour, watched outside the room as polygraph examiner Fanny Benitez questioned Takiguchi pointedly about both hula murders and the murder of Virginia Upton.

  Takiguchi passed the test with flying colors. He was charged with the murder of Virginia Upton, arson in an attempt to burn away the crime, illegal gun possession, and more. He was cleared for the murders of Jackie Furomoto and Yoshie Akiyama.

  Now they were back to square one in the hunt for the Hula Killer, which meant they would have to intensify their efforts to find him with no time to waste in making an arrest.

  In spite of the two cases no longer being connected, Leila accompanied Rachel to an interrogation room where Judy Upton was waiting.

  "Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" Judy asked testily.

  "Do you want to or shall I?" Rachel asked Leila amusingly.

  "It's your case, so you get the honors," she replied dryly.

  "All right." Rachel sat at the table and glared at Judy. "Your boyfriend just confessed to murdering your mother."

  "What—?"

  "Nice try, but spare us with your fake surprise," Rachel told her. "We know that you conspired with Drew Takiguchi to kill your mother for the insurance payout. And don't bother denying it, as we have proof to back it up. The sooner you come clean, the sooner we might be able to help you get out of this without having to spend the rest of your life behind bars."

  The half bluff worked. Seemingly resigned to her fate, with the damning statement from her lover and the likelihood of doing hard time, Judy Upton confessed to spearheading the plot to murder Virginia Upton, while hoping to get a lighter sentence through a plea deal.

  That would be up to the lawyers, but Leila applauded Rachel for getting the suspect to confess, thereby speeding up the process for all concerned.

  In the meantime, Judy Upton was charged with first degree murder in the death of her mother.

  * * *

  Seymour was relieved that the Virginia Upton homicide had been solved. He was disappointed that the hula dancer murders were still an ongoing investigation, but knew that they would not let up till it too had come to a successful conclusion.

  Late in the afternoon, he waited for Shichiro Gutierrez to emerge from an area in Wailuku where there was a hotbed of drug activity.

  Before Gutierrez could get into a white Mazda MX-5 Miata, that was no doubt bought and paid for by drug money, Seymour grabbed him. He twisted his arm behind him and slammed Gutierrez up against the car.

  "I'm Lieutenant Seymour of the Maui Police Department," he spoke brusquely. "I need a word with you—"

  Gutierrez tried to break free. "What the hell do you want?"

  Seymour sighed thoughtfully. "I want to know how long you've been doing business with one of my detectives... Detective Jonny Chung—"

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  Seymour twisted his arm more, causing him to wince in pain. "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. If I have to ask you twice, your arm just might snap and it'll hurt like hell and never be the same again."

  "Okay," Gutierrez moaned irritably. "We've been doing business for a few years. He takes a cut of my action. In return, he looks the other way and tips me off if the cops are about to show up."

  "Sounds like you've got a good thing going," Seymour said sarcastically.

  Gutierrez, who failed to pick this up, said: "If you want in, just say the word, man."

  Seymour chuckled without humor. "Actually, what I want is Chung. And I also want your drug-dealing ass off of Maui for good."

  "Yeah, well we can't always get what we want, Lieutenant," he snapped toughly. "Breaking my arm won't get rid of the island's drug problems. And Chung is too greedy to ever give it up, so why don't you just let me go and we can pretend this little incident never happened."

  Seymour was amazed at his arrogance and ignorance at the same time. He twisted the arm nearly to the breaking point and then released it before the bastard started to cry like a baby. "You're free to go, Gutierrez. But not back to your old life—"

  "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked warily, rubbing his arm.

  "It means you're going on a nice little vacation," Seymour said. "Only it won't exactly be paradise..."

  Seymour turned his head and nodded at a tall, brown-haired, well-built man who came forward.

  Gutierrez cocked a brow. "Who the hell is this?"

  "DEA Agent Yamanaka," the man said. Whipping out handcuffs, he bellowed: "Shichiro Gutierrez, you're under arrest for trafficking drugs, turning Hawaiians into addicts, and being a general pain in the ass."

  Seymour put his hand on Yamanaka's shoulder in a gesture of appreciation. "Mahalo," he said.

  Yamanaka grinned. "We're helping each other out. Now there's one less dealer on the streets of Maui."

  "Yeah, that's certainly a step in the right direction," Seymour said musingly.

  Now he had to deal with Jonny Chung as a crooked cop, something he wasn't looking forward to.

  * * *

  Half an hour later, Seymour stepped into a popular watering hole for cops called Drinks on Dairy Road in Kahului. He spotted the man he was looking for at the bar, nursing a drink.

  Eddie Naku was a former homicide detective with the Maui PD turned private investigator. Seymour considered him a friend, even if their busy lives kept them from seeing each other much since Naku left the force.

  "Hey," Seymour got his attention.

  "Aloha." Naku stood. Native Hawaiian and in his mid-thirties, he was well-built and a little taller than Seymour. He had long dark hair and intense dark eyes and was wearing black jeans, a beige shirt, and boots. They shook hands.

  "Your grip is as strong as ever," Se
ymour said earnestly.

  Naku laughed. "Look who's talking."

  Seymour grinned. "Thanks for coming."

  "You piqued my interest," Naku said and then looked toward the bartender. "What are you having?"

  "Scotch on the rocks," Seymour said.

  Naku ordered a second beer for himself. "I heard about this Hula Killer case. Making any progress?"

  "Slowly but surely," Seymour said confidently, ignoring the setbacks along the way. "Leila and Jonny Chung are heading the investigation."

  "In that case, it's only a matter of time before you solve it. Leila, for one, certainly knows her stuff."

  "Yeah," Seymour agreed. He knew that, like him, Naku had some history with Leila. Both had come up short and she had wisely chosen someone outside the force to pin her hopes on for a solid relationship. "We could always use your help, Naku, if you ever decide you want to come back to the department."

  Naku chuckled. "Don't hold your breath on that. I'm happy being on my own, thank you."

  Seymour smiled. "Just thought I'd throw it out there." He couldn't help but think that Naku as a cop would be a welcome replacement for Chung, who had worn out his welcome as a member of the team after getting mixed up with the likes of Shichiro Gutierrez.

  After the drinks came, Naku asked: "So what are we doing here?"

  Seymour tasted the drink, ruminating, before saying: "A decade ago my wife and I adopted our little girl, Akela, when she was an infant."

  Naku raised a brow. "I didn't realize—"

  "It's not something we've advertised," Seymour told him. "Mele couldn't have children, but we both still wanted a child, so adoption was the next best option. We love her as if she were our own biological child."

  "That's good to know," Naku said.

  Seymour paused. "Mele has suddenly become curious about the biological mother."

  "How curious?"

  "She's gotten it in her head that somehow this woman will come looking for Akela and, I don't know, try to worm her way into her life or something."

  "Was it a closed adoption?" asked Naku.

  "Yes."

  Naku sighed. "As I understand it, in a closed adoption the birth mother has no access to information on the adoptive parents, so you have nothing to worry about."