Perhaps Rich had been killing off his competition. Maybe Mike, Lucie and Ronnie had all been crystal meth dealers, and Rich had killed them off to corner the market?
The flip side to that was that someone else had been doing the killings, and Rich himself might be a target.
But Tommy Singer didn’t connect to any of them-Mike, Lucie, Ronnie or Rich. How did he fit in? I felt sure that there was something I was still missing, and that was the one thing that would point me in the right direction.
I headed toward the Kam Highway for the trip south. I tried not to think about what was going to happen, but by the time I arrived at the station I couldn’t avoid it. Most likely, Ruiz and Kawamoto wouldn’t be happy about getting outside help. I know if I was in their position, I wouldn’t want anyone else butting in on my case.
It was one thing to get help from an outside source, an expert, say. And if I’d been undercover on this case from day one, the way you might be on a drug case, then no one would have any cause for resentment. But now it would be clear to Ruiz and Kawamoto that Sampson wasn’t happy with their progress, didn’t trust them, and felt they needed somebody else.
Me. That was the second part of the equation. I wasn’t every cop’s favorite person, because my sexuality and my notoriety combined to make me an outcast. Sampson would not have an easy time bringing me back inside; but that’s why he was the lieutenant.
The best thing would be for the detectives to accept me, and leave me on my own. I’d be happy to report in, pass along whatever I found out. I didn’t need to be on the inside, looking over their shoulders, questioning everything they did. I just had to make them understand that.
Though I knew it was the coward’s way out, I waited in the parking lot for Sampson, so we were able to go inside together and meet with Ruiz and Kawamoto immediately. He was wearing what I had come to realize was one of his trademark polo shirts, this one black, with gray slacks. He did not look happy.
“I don’t like to do this, Kimo,” he said to me in the parking lot, looking around to make sure no one could hear us. “But I’m going to ask you to keep an eye on these guys. If you pass on information, I want to know that they run with it as necessary. Any time you feel they’re ignoring you, I want to hear about it.”
“I need to know what I’m walking into, Lieutenant. Do you suspect something is going on?”
He frowned. “I just don’t know. But I looked at the evidence you came up with, and I don’t see why Kevin and Al didn’t find out at least some of it. I mean, you just looked the three surfers up on the Internet and found they’d all been in Mexico, right?”
I nodded.
“So why couldn’t they? Jesus, they’ve got computers, and they’ve both been to training classes. They aren’t stupid guys-they’ve got a damned good clearance rate. Which makes me think there’s something fishy going on.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to be back at headquarters in an hour, so we’re going to have to make this quick. Come on.”
Sampson led me inside, and once we met with Kevin Ruiz and Al Kawamoto, he got right to the point. “When I took over this investigation, you guys told me you were having trouble getting information,” he said. “You thought that the surfers up here didn’t trust cops and wouldn’t tell you what you needed to know. Am I right?”
Kawamoto’s posture, slouched back in his chair, accentuated his fat belly and made him seem even more like dumb country boy. That was reinforced when he started to argue, and Sampson cut him off. “Am I right?”
“Yes,” Ruiz said. Ruiz, on the other hand, was still looking slick, as if he’d visited some fancy men’s clothing store on his way to work.
“So I brought somebody in who could talk to the surfers for you. Contrary to popular belief, Detective Kanapa’aka did not turn in his badge. Instead, he has been working undercover to supplement your efforts.”
Kawamoto started to speak, but Sampson held up his hand. “Notice I said supplement, not replace. Kanapa’aka has been reporting directly to me. He’s now prepared to share everything he has found with you, with the idea that you will remain the primaries on this case, and he will remain undercover. But from now on, he will pass his information directly to you. Are we understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Ruiz said. “I spoke to Detective Kanapa’aka yesterday and I was impressed at the information he had gathered. He emailed some materials to me yesterday evening that I think can help us move along our investigation. I’m sure we will all be able to work together.” He shot a look at his partner that I’m pretty sure Sampson missed, one that said, ‘keep your mouth shut.’
“Good. I’ll leave you to it, then.” He got up and walked out of the room.
“I’ve only worked for him for a couple of weeks,” I said. “He always like this?”
“He wants results,” Ruiz said. “We haven’t delivered. You have.”
I pulled out my notes, really just a rehash of what I had emailed the evening before. “Okay, I’m ready if you are.”
Kawamoto was largely silent the whole time Ruiz and I talked. I went over every step of my investigation with them, beginning with the lucky break of running into Brad Jacobson at the North Shore Marketplace.
“I thought there was something fishy about your story, but I figured it had to do with sex,” Ruiz said. “Like you met him in a chat room or an X-rated bookstore.”
“You were right, I was holding out. But not any more.” I walked them through Brad’s makeover one more time, then meeting up at the bar with all his friends.
“Like a gay grapevine,” Ruiz said, nodding. “We could never have tapped into that.”
“He tapped into it with his dick,” Kawamoto snorted.
I stood up. Though my heart was racing, I tried to keep my voice calm. “I’m only going to say this once. I know you don’t like me, and that’s okay. We aren’t going to come out of this as drinking buddies. But I earned my badge just like you did, and I expect you to respect me. If you can’t do that, I have nothing more to say.”
“I don’t have to like you or respect you,” Kawamoto said. “But I do have to work with your faggot ass, so sit back down and stop throwing a hissy fit.”
“I’ll throw your fat ass through that door if you call me a faggot one more time.” I paused. “And I won’t bother to open it first.”
“Ladies, ladies,” Ruiz said. “Let’s all be friends here, all right? Kimo, you work for HPD, Al, you do too. Let’s agree not to talk stink about each other, at least for as long as this investigation goes on? Please?”
He looked at Kawamoto, who didn’t say anything for a long beat. Finally he said, “All right.”
“Kimo?”
“Fine by me.” I sat down again, and laid out for them what I had learned from each one of Brad’s friends.
“Let’s talk about this guy you say hates surfers,” Ruiz said. “What’s his name?”
“Rich Sarkissian.” I showed them what Sampson had dug up on Rich. “I haven’t had a chance to go through it all, but I will. For now, he’s the only strong lead I have.”
“You have a connection to The Next Wave, too,” Ruiz said. “Lucie worked there, and your guy said that’s where he thought her drugs came from. Why don’t we see if we can do anything with that information.”
“We can cross-reference with Vice,” Kawamoto said, finally contributing something useful to the conversation. “See if any other known dealers have connections there.”
We agreed that they would continue the up-front investigation, as well as looking into The Next Wave. I would keep investigating Rich Sarkissian, and keep surfing, hoping somebody would swim along who had the clue we were looking for.
Investigating Rich
Driving back up to Hale’iwa, I felt a surprising sense of relief. I hadn’t liked working behind the backs of fellow detectives, even if I didn’t particularly care for them, like Al Kawamoto. And it was good to know that I was no longer alone on this investigation, that I had Ruiz and Ka
wamoto to back me up if I needed them.
I stopped off at The Next Wave for a cappuccino and to go over my notes and see what I was missing. The only employee on the floor of the store was Ellie, an older woman whom I’d most recently seen as a barista at the Kope Bean. “Had to close down,” she said, making me a mochachino. “No more customers. Luckily Dario hired me.”
“Where is he?”
“In the office,” she said, nodding toward the rear of the store. “Been there ever since opening. Even when I call back there and tell him I need help with customers, he doesn’t budge.”
I took my coffee back to his office, and knocked on the closed door. There was no answer, so I tried the handle. The door was locked. “Dario? It’s Kimo.”
“I’m busy,” he called from behind the door. “Go away.”
I considered saying, “I’ll let you suck my dick if you open the door,” but decided that probably wasn’t my wisest move. Instead I went back to the coffee bar, which Ellie had abandoned to ring up a pair of sunglasses for a haole tourist at the front register.
Dario’s business was going downhill fast, as were a lot of businesses on the North Shore. If I didn’t find the killer soon, the economy of the whole area might crumple, leaving a lot of people out of work and in dire financial straits. Not to mention Dario’s sanity, which seemed to be evaporating as fast as his business.
I recapped what I had learned, trying to put it all into perspective. The chain of events seemed to begin with Lucie Zamora, a girl with dreams who needed money. She had begun selling ice, getting her supply from someone at The Next Wave. Ruiz and Kawamoto were going to check with Vice on that. I entertained the thought briefly that her contact could be Dario himself, but I decided that was wishful thinking on my part. If I still felt threatened by him in some way, I couldn’t depend on the law to lock him up. He was my problem to deal with.
Lucie had probably recruited Mike Pratt and Ronnie Chang to bring back crystal meth after attending the Mexpipe competition. I would see Harry the next day and find out if his snooping into their bank accounts revealed anything, but I already had anecdotal evidence, from Trish and Will Wong, that both had extra cash on hand after their trip.
Something had gone wrong after they returned from Mexico. Mike had been upset about the damage to his board, and his experience with the Christian surfers in Mexico might have given him bad feelings on moral grounds, too. Either way, he had been complaining and somebody might have seen the need to shut him up.
Lucie and Ronnie had been killed a few days later. Had Lucie figured something out about Mike’s murder and challenged the killer? She was just ballsy enough, and cash-hungry enough, to have tried a blackmail scheme. Perhaps she had implicated Ronnie, relying on his computer experience to track her supplier’s funds.
If that was the case, it was a wrong move on her part, because it had gotten them both killed. But I still stumbled when I came to a connection between those three murders, and the killing of Brad Jacobson and Tommy Singer. I closed my eyes and tried to let my mind run free. Where was that elusive connection?
Suddenly, with an electric jolt, my eyes popped open. Could it be that I was the connection? I had been sent to the North Shore to investigate the three murders. Suppose the killer knew that, and wanted to throw me off the track. So he or she killed Brad, knowing of my relationship with him? That was bound to put a whole new spin on things-maybe even to remove me from the investigation.
It was a strange idea, but not the strangest. There were many cases on record where a killer had attacked someone close to an investigator, either as a warning, a tease, or a distraction. Who knew I was looking into these murders? Who could have been threatened?
I started making a list. I had talked to Trish, Melody, Rich Sarkissian, and Tepano about Mike Pratt. Frank, Lucie’s old boyfriend, the bartender at the Drainpipe, had filled me in on her life and directed me toward Butterfly. Brad and his circle of friends: Jeremy, Ari, Rik, George and Larry, all knew I was looking into her death. Since Ari was in business with both Dario and Bishop Clark, I had to assume that they might have heard from him, at least in passing. I had talked to Ronnie’s parents, his high school teacher Victor Texeira, and his old friend Will Wong, as well as his boss, Pierre Lewin. I’d spoken with Lucie’s mother, too.
The only people, besides Lieutenant Sampson, who knew I was officially undercover were Terri and Harry, but both of them were so far removed from the case I couldn’t imagine them having an impact. Anyone on the first list, though, could have been the killer, or could have passed the word on to the killer that I was nosing around.
I let my mind wander on Rich Sarkissian. I knew he was jealous of surfers, that he hated the way they trespassed over Bishop Clark’s land. I realized I’d never checked to see who owned the property where he lived, and I went online to the property appraiser’s office. The cottage was owned by Melody Isaacson, from the halau, so I figured she had made some kind of deal with Rich. Perhaps she was even sleeping with him, though I’d seen her kiss Mary at the bar.
I needed to give up analyzing other peoples’ sexuality. My own was confusing enough.
Back to Rich. Could the case be as simple as that-despite everything else I’d discovered, perhaps Rich had simply killed Mike, Lucie, Ronnie and Tommy because they’d all trespassed. Brad had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Or maybe Rich was dealing ice, too. Those prosthetics had to be expensive, and he lived in a lovely cottage that he couldn’t afford on a security guard’s salary. Maybe he had killed the first three as part of a turf war. He had access to a lot of weaponry in Bishop’s cabinet.
But it was a far cry from anger over trespassing to murder, and there was nothing that tied Rich to either Brad or Tommy. Unless, as I reminded myself, Brad and Tommy had been killed to put me off the scent.
My cappuccino had gone cold. I threw it away and drove back up to Cane Landing, where I spent the next couple of hours going through all the material Sampson had sent, searching for something that would be a clear implication of Rich Sarkissian. He knew I was nosing around, asking questions about Mike, and it was certainly possible that he could have heard I was looking into Lucie, too, either from Bishop Clark, his employer, or Dario Fonseca, his previous employer.
It was incredibly frustrating. I felt that the solution was there, just beyond my reach. A storm swept in from the center of the island, rain lashing at the French doors, and the upset in the weather seemed to mirror the turmoil in my brain. I spent a couple more hours going over the material on Rich, reading it again and again and getting nothing new. After dark I tried to read a novel, and then to watch TV, but I couldn’t focus on anything.
Friday morning I surfed, hoping I could accomplish two things. First, that being out on the water would help clear my brain. And second, that some random surfer would come up to me with the solution to the mystery. Neither happened. I quit around noon, stopped at Fujioka’s for some weekend food supplies, and was on my way back to Cane Landing when Harry called my cell phone to say he was passing Matsumoto’s and needed further directions.
I met him at the entrance to Cane Landing and buzzed him through the gate. “Your surf killer is all over the news in Honolulu,” he said, as I helped him carry his stuff into the house. “They say people have left the North Shore in droves.”
“You’ll see when we get out to Pipeline. The place is deserted.”
I showed Harry to the guest room. “Your mother called me this morning and she sounded pretty frantic,” he said. “She really wants you back home.”
“She called you?”
“She wanted me to persuade you to give up and come home. I told her you wouldn’t leave until you were ready.” He paused. “I got that information we discussed. But I don’t think it’s anything you didn’t already know.”
“Then we can look it over later. Right now I think we should just go surf.”
We grabbed our boards and headed for Pipeline, where we
got in a couple of hours of heavenly surfing, the beach almost totally to ourselves.
“Man, I’ve never seen it this empty,” Harry said, when we took a break and collapsed on the sand. “I don’t think I’ve ever caught so many big waves in one day in my life.”
“And you have a serial killer to thank for it.”
We rested in the warm sun, then surfed again. Around four o’clock we dragged ourselves and our boards back up to Cane Landing, where after showers and a couple of Kona lagers we were ready to tackle dinner. I’d bought steaks, which we fixed on the fancy grill in the house’s back yard, accompanied by grilled peppers and baked potatoes. Finally, we sat down at Harry’s laptop a little after eight.
He brought up some spreadsheets he’d created after looking at bank records for Mike Pratt, Lucie Zamora and Ronnie Chang. Lucie’s was the most interesting, because there was almost no activity there. She made the occasional cash deposit, and wrote checks for things like the HECO bill-Hawaiian Electric Company- and the phone bill, to Verizon. No checks to Butterfly, no checks that resembled rent or car payments. Like Brad had said, Lucie was a cash basis customer.
Both Mike and Ronnie had made large cash deposits shortly after they returned from Mexico. Mike had made two deposits, about a week apart, for $5,000 each. “The government requires the bank to fill out forms for amounts larger than ten grand,” Harry said. “That’s probably why he split it up.”
Ronnie had made one deposit, for nearly $7,000. We figured he’d spent the rest on gifts for Lucie and his new board.
“What do you think Lucie did with her ten grand?” Harry asked.
I shrugged. “No clue. But she might not have had the money yet-remember all that crystal meth that I found in her apartment. Maybe she was holding out for a higher price, or waiting for demand to go up.”
I sat back. “This is all interesting, but there’s another guy I’m interested in now.” I told him what I knew about Rich, what I’d learned from Sampson’s reports, my own searches, and my conversations with Dario and with Rich himself.
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