by Toby Neal
Keiki pricked her ears at the sound of her name. She was sitting next to Stevens on the futon. He rubbed her broad chest and she swiped him with her tongue.
“She certainly qualifies. I think we need to plan for a bit of a long haul until we catch this guy.” He stopped, took a breath, seeming to steel himself. “I’m your superior officer, at least on the murder investigation, and as such I’m not supposed to be having a relationship with you. I mean, the kind of relationship we seem to be heading toward.”
Lei pulled her legs in on the couch, wrapped her arms around them.
“We aren’t dating,” she said.
“I know. Technically. But it would be wrong for me, as your colleague, to take advantage of you while I am voluntarily providing security. It’s an emotional set-up, they tell us in the training manual.” He smiled at her, but it was forced. “So, no more kissing until this is over.”
Lei set her chin on her knees, thinking it through.
“You’re awfully quiet. Are you okay?”
“It’s complicated,” she said. “I’m kinda relieved on the one hand because in case you haven’t noticed, I have some pretty intense issues. But it’s been fun and . . . I’ll miss you.”
He held his arm out. “Come over here.”
She got off the couch and sat against him on one side, Keiki on the other. He put his arms over each of them, squeezing them at the same time. She felt that bubble again under her sternum, almost joy but something else. Keiki panted happily, leaning into him.
“This doesn’t mean we can’t be close,” he said. “I want you to know, I’ll still be here when this is all over and we can kiss all we want.”
“You don’t know what you’re signing up for.” She laughed, a sniffly chuckle. “I’m pretty messed up. You better deliver on that.”
“That’s just the kind of thing a guy likes to hear. Sends us dudes with commitment issues running for the hills.”
“You think you’ve got commitment issues,” she said. “What a pair.”
“If you can work on trusting me, I can work on waiting.”
“I guess so,” she said. She and the dog snuggled against Stevens until they fell asleep in a pile on the futon. Lei didn’t remember her reading until the next day.
Chapter 22
He watched her for the second morning, this time sitting still behind a fern tree. He had that feeling again—anticipation. His favorite part of the hunt. Even though he’d had her already, she didn’t know that. In a few minutes, she would.
She woke slowly, groggily, turning onto her side, moaning a little from her injuries. She sat up, realizing she was naked, and reached for the now-grubby sheet to cover herself, the handcuffs clinking. She scanned the clearing. He felt sure she would see him behind the scrim of fern, but she didn’t.
She seemed to be taking inventory of her body, feeling her breasts, and then looking down at them. They were blotched with suck marks, and she gave a little cry of horror. The hair stood up on his neck. She felt lower, her stomach, her thighs, her vagina.
She closed her eyes. He saw the blood drain from her face, and in the pearly dawn light she collapsed, curling into a fetal ball, weeping. The sight was so arousing he felt himself getting hard, and reached down, unzipping his pants and stroking, his eyes still on her. She cried and moaned, hugging herself.
Suddenly she jumped up, swaying a little but standing, her legs spread wide. “Fuck you!” she yelled. Her voice was like a cannon in the forest, silencing the birds, stilling his hand.
“Fuck you, you fucking coward! Come out and fight like a man, you cocksucker! Look me in the eye when you rape me, you bastard!”
He sat paralyzed, shriveling. She threw back her head and screamed, again and again, roars of rage and pain. She kicked over the ice chest, bashed her cuffed hands against the poles of the shelter until it collapsed. She ran to the edge of the tie out cable, yanking at it, then back to the other end where it was padlocked to the tree, scrabbling at it until her hands were bloody.
Terror held him still. She’ll kill me if she finds me or die trying, he thought. He waited until she finally sat on the fallen ice chest. He could see her trembling, and the asthma was back, muffling her voice as she cursed him.
It seemed like forever before she stood up, looking at the sun. She examined the contents of the ice chest, spilled on the ground. He had left a sandwich wrapped in plastic for her, and more water bottles. There was a bag of ice. She put the ice, food and water back in the chest, righted it. He could see her weighing where the drug might have come from, tearing a hole in the ice bag, taking a handful out and sucking it.
Good. He didn’t want her drugged all the time, she could die too soon.
She propped the shelter poles back up. Her body was trembling all over now, and the asthma was strangling her. She saw the inhaler where he had left it for her to find, and she pounced on it. Then she paused, considering, her wheezing, constricted breath audible even where he crouched among the ferns.
She must think it’s a trick, or drugged. He smiled in satisfaction. Gotta keep her guessing.
Finally she took two puffs of the inhaler and sat down, holding the vapor in her lungs as long as possible, sighing with relief as it took effect.
He moved away slowly, as one does when stalking something wild, careful not to make any noise. Eventually she would get hungry enough to eat, and the sandwich was fine. All of the water bottles were doctored, and he had a back up plan if she didn’t drink any. Wouldn’t it be funny if she deprived herself for nothing?
The thought was so satisfying he smiled, almost forgetting how terrified he had been of her—but not quite.
Chapter 23
Lei and Keiki pounded along Hilo Bay, past the hotels, under the massive banyans that buckled the sidewalk with their roots. It felt good to really stretch herself physically after the tension of the last few days, and she and the dog pushed their limits until Lei felt the knots inside loosening. By then they were at the park, jogging along the levee.
Weathered old fishermen dotted the canal with their bamboo poles, fishing for pan-fryer papio (jack) and ama`ama (mullet). Lei went into the center of the park under a big kamani tree and put her foot up on a cement bench, stretching. Keiki flopped in the damp grass.
Her cell rang and she dug it out of the nylon jacket pocket she wore to conceal her gun. It was Lono, the detective working Mary’s case.
“The hair your stalker sent wasn’t a match to Mary.”
“Good,” Lei said, still a little out of breath. “Do you have any leads?”
“We interviewed the bar guy. Just like you said, she ordered her usual beer and grilled cheese sandwich, went back to the bathroom to change and freshen up, and never came back. That had happened one other time when she got an emergency call, so the bartender didn’t think much of it.”
“What about the boyfriend?” Lei said, feeling guilty. Poor Roland. He’d seemed so distraught—but when a woman goes missing, it’s usually her boyfriend or husband, she reminded herself.
“We’ve been looking at him but so far nothing there. He was at work during the time frame when she disappeared. We’ve also been looking at people she busted, like that. She wasn’t working on anything interesting.”
“Thanks,” Lei said. “From all regular officers, everywhere.”
“Well, you know. Nothing specific, nothing too intense,” he said. “Anyway I’ll keep you posted. We’re searching her apartment tomorrow.”
Lei clicked the phone shut, shocked that another police officer could just disappear in broad daylight and no one had a clue what might have happened. She scanned the park, her hand on the butt of her gun.
The exercise high vanished. Mary would have told her if she knew she was being stalked. Whose hair could it be? And how did he get the underwear? Thoughts whirled through her mind. She snapped Keiki’s leash and the dog lunged to her feet, tongue lolling. Though it was still early, volcanic emissions from Kilauea Volcano th
at the locals called “vog” already blanketed the Bay. She turned back toward home and picked up her pace again, still puzzling over the situation.
“Hey,” she heard. She turned her head. Tom Watanabe pulled alongside her, running easily, his Nike net shirt streaked with sweat.
“Hey yourself,” she said, not slowing. Keiki flicked him a glance but kept up the pace. “I’ve never seen you run down here.”
“Got an inspection, needed to get my run in early.” He wasn’t out of breath at all. They jogged along side by side.
“Any more weird notes?” he asked.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact.”
“Like what?”
“I can’t discuss it. Have you seen anybody around my house?”
“No, and I’ve been keeping an eye out.”
I bet you have, she thought cynically. Suddenly it occurred to her that the stalker could have been watching her from outside and seen her underwear that way. She relied on her chain-link fence for security in the back yard, and the plumeria tree blocked her window, so she didn’t always close her curtains. Someone might have been able to spy on her from a distance . . . including Tom.
“Well,” he said. “You’re in shape.”
“I guess.” He sure had a way with words.
“I was thinking . . . maybe we could go out sometime,” he said.
This was an interesting twist. Lei slowed down, stopped. She bent over, touching her toes, buying time.
“Sounds fun,” she said, with forced cheerfulness. He was attractive, and she didn’t want to keep being paranoid. On the other hand, he was the easiest candidate to be the stalker. Take a chance, you might get him to reveal something. “What did you have in mind?”
“How about a run in the park and lunch at the Volcano House?” She looked at his face for the first time. He seemed nervous, and sweat popped out on his forehead. He swiped it away with his forearm.
“I’d like that,” Lei said.
“How about Saturday?”
“Sure.”
He nodded, smiling for the first time, a flash of white teeth. Damn, he’s good looking, she thought. But this was just a fishing expedition. Stevens’ skeptical look flashed into her mind—he wasn’t going to like the idea.
“I’ll pick you up at 9:30 or so,” he said. “I’ll drive. I’ve got room in my truck for your dog, if you want to bring her.”
“Okay.” More like, hell yes she was bringing Keiki.
He turned off at his house with a wave. “See you Saturday.”
Later, she was on patrol with Pono when her cell rang. She dug it out of her pocket while steering the Crown Vic with her left hand.
“Hi, Stevens.”
“Hey. Sorry I wasn’t around when you woke up, I had to get going early this morning. The futon was a big improvement and my back thanks you.”
“Least I could do. What’s up?”
“I’m meeting with the lab techs who’ve been working on the crime scene trash. Can you come back to the station? After we find out the results we’ll be planning strategy for the rest of the week.”
“Sure.” She clicked her phone shut. It wasn’t the right time to tell him about her date with Tom Watanabe—especially with Pono sitting next to her, all ears.
“What’s Loverboy up to?”
“Shut up. We’re not like that.”
“You wish you were,” Pono said, taking the lid off his drink. He liked to slurp them and crunch the ice. He was just getting started on a Big Gulp from the 7-11 and he had to hold it with both hands as she cranked a U-turn, hitting the lights as she headed back to the station.
“Damn, girl,” he grumbled. “Didn’t know it was an emergency.”
“I’m in no mood to be hassled.”
“Whatever. You never answered my question.”
“Stevens is meeting with the lab techs. Wants me to come down.”
“Okay. So you didn’t tell me about the package. I had to hear it from Sorenson in the lab. He was all hot and bothered over your panties.”
“That’s just great,” Lei said. “Real professional. I love the thought of Sorenson pawing over my underwear with his little blue light and telling everyone about it.”
“Hey, chill out. He told me because I’m your partner. My point is, you should have told me.”
“God, you’re so high maintenance.” She elbowed him. His drink sloshed into his lap.
“Shit!” he exclaimed.
She laughed. “We’re even now. So FYI, those weren’t my actual underwear. Sorenson can keep them for all I care. But, they are the same kind as mine, which means the stalker got a look at them somehow and was able to get another pair to creep me out with. I just realized this morning he might have seen me through my window. I have to go outside and look for vantage points.”
A flush made its way up Pono’s brown neck. She glanced at him.
“This is why I don’t want to talk about this with anybody. It’s embarrassing.”
“Sorry,” Pono mumbled, dabbing at the spill with a paper napkin. “It sucks that this is happening. I like catch this guy so bad.”
“Glad I’m not the only one.”
Lei hurried into the conference room. District Attorney Hiro Harada, Lieutenant Ohale, Jeremy, Stevens, and two new detectives assigned from Hilo District sat around the big conference table with three lab techs from Oahu and an open box of Krispy Kremes.
One set of bad news followed the next. The trash in the abandoned cars only had prints that matched those of the vehicle owners, and the debris from the campsite had been through too much weather to yield much. Even the propane canister was frustrating, marked with smudges that were too degraded to make out. The moldering sleeping bag yielded some hairs that matched Haunani’s, which seemed to confirm the theory that she had been meeting her boyfriend there. There were other hairs, but they remained unknown.
The canister Lei found in the trash at Kelly’s house had Reynolds’s prints on it. His story was that he had been using his propane stove for some beach barbequing, and when checked, the stove had sand in the folding legs. Nothing conclusive had been found at the Reynolds’ house but the picture of the girls on the computer.
An elite team of technicians flown in from Oahu, a mountain of possible evidence, and nothing useful found. Lei felt a pang as she glanced over at Stevens, sitting with his hands folded on the table as the techs went over the reports, his head lowered. Jeremy held the same posture, his mouth tight.
At least they’d finally got more manpower.
When the reports were finished along with the thank-yous and better-luck-next-times, the techs departed for Hilo Airport leaving the group seated around the table. Lieutenant Ohale finally grabbed a Krispy Kreme and ate it in two bites, the savage way he tore the donut a little unsettling.
Harada, small and dapper in Brooks Brothers, spoke up. “I need blood, fibers, something from the crime scene. The picture on this computer’s incriminating but defense will argue he doesn’t have the camera to take it, there’s no hard evidence, blah blah. I can’t believe those Oahu techs couldn’t make a connection for us with anything from his house or the campsite.”
“So what do we know for sure?” Stevens got up and went to the white board, began listing key words. “The girls were raped by someone very careful. He drugged them and restrained them. He knew about forensic evidence because he cleaned up after himself to the point that we can’t find anything. He chose his site carefully. He drives a dark Toyota truck, though we don’t know that for sure. He may have cultivated a relationship with one of the girls, which shows planning and forethought.” Stevens looked around at the rest of them for more facts, but no one said anything. “So what are we thinking about Reynolds? And where do we get more evidence?”
“You said he cultivated one of the girls,” Lieutenant Ohale said. “Haunani’s ‘sugar daddy’ drove a dark Toyota truck according to two witnesses. I think it could be Reynolds, and I say he cultivated both. You’ve al
l seen the pictures of Kelly.” Nods went around the room.
“I like Reynolds for it,” Jeremy seconded. “I think we should search his business next. Maybe he’s got another porn stash somewhere, or a storage locker where he keeps his photography equipment.”
Lei’s stomach wouldn’t let her take a donut though it growled with hunger; the talk had brought back memories of the girls. She rubbed her hands on her slacks under the table, feeling once again the slick wet strands of Haunani’s hair.
Stevens nodded. “Let’s put in for another warrant, expand the search of Reynolds’ house to car and storage facility. Lei, I want you to do a database search for kidnap rapes with the same M.O. Maybe he’s just begun killing his victims. Jeremy, you and I are going to re-interview Haunani’s mother, if we can find her. She hasn’t been at that house the last couple times we went by. Henderson and Na`ole, you guys can come and re-canvass the neighborhood with us. Gotta shake something loose.”
The meeting broke up. Lei approached Stevens, feeling the frisson of awareness between them like static.
“I’m really worried about Mary. I think she might have been grabbed by this guy, or even be running away from Roland. He seemed pretty possessive.”
“I know. I haven’t forgotten about her either. But she’s nothing like the girls—she’s older, an experienced cop, not easy pickings. I think if you find a pattern of kidnap rapes that matches the M.O. of the girls, we’ll know more about what kind of victims he chooses.”
“Okay.” She turned away, and felt his touch on her shoulder like a brand.
“Have a donut. You look like you need one.”
She managed a smile, avoiding his eyes, and took the donut he handed her. She made herself choke it down as she headed for the computer lab, and dusted the sugar on her fingertips against her slacks. Somehow the tiny grittiness of it replaced that other feeling.