Shattered Palms (Lei Crime Series)

by Neal, Toby

  “Well, good. I’m so glad you two made the stop here.”

  “Yes, I hear Aunty Rosario isn’t feeling well,” Stevens said, lifting his brows, inquiring.

  “No, she’s not. But she wants to talk with you about it herself.”

  Lei dropped her bag and purse and hurried through the untidy and dimly lit house. Her aunt was in bed, propped up against pillows, the television muted on the wall as she opened her arms to Lei. “My girl! You look wonderful.”

  Lei embraced her aunt and patted the bed beside her. “Move over. I’m getting in.”

  When Rosario took Lei in at nine, after her mother’s death, Lei had slept in the same bed as her aunt for two years. Only when she’d been physically close to Rosario could she relax enough for sleep. Now Lei climbed onto the bed with her aunt, putting her arms around the older woman. She was alarmed by Rosario’s gray color, weight her aunt had lost leaving wrinkles in its wake.

  Stevens came in and Wayne followed, bringing a chair for him to sit on. “I’ll go make some coffee,” her father said, heading back to the kitchen.

  “Aunty. You wouldn’t tell me what’s wrong when we were on Maui. What did those tests say?”

  “I have cancer. Pancreatic cancer.”

  Lei gasped, and her arms tightened around her aunt. She didn’t know much about cancer, but even she knew pancreatic cancer was inoperable and often a rapid killer. “No, Aunty! No!”

  “I’m sorry, sweet girl.” Rosario stroked Lei’s tumbled hair. “I don’t want to go any more than you want me to.”

  “What are they saying about your treatment?” Stevens asked, hunched forward, his hands resting on his knees and his eyes shadowy.

  Rosario just shook her head, but Wayne had reappeared in the doorway. “She’s decided not to have treatment.”

  “I don’t want to spend my last few months on this earth sick and miserable just for the possibility of a few more days. I’d rather feel okay more of the time and keep my hair all the way until the end.”

  Lei had been bracing herself as best she could for something like this, but there was no buffering this news—her beloved aunt was dying.

  “Oh, Aunty,” Lei choked, and tears overflowed.

  “Michael, why don’t we give them a minute. I’ll show you where your room is,” Wayne said, and the two men left, pulling the door shut behind them.

  Lei sobbed, and her aunt held her, weeping into Lei’s curly hair. Finally, Lei lifted her streaming face out of Rosario’s bosom. “Where are the tissues?”

  Rosario handed her the box, and Lei sat up, blotting her face. “This sucks,” she said, wads of tissues against her eyes.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Rosario said. “I feel really sick some days, can’t keep anything down, can’t work much. Having Momi and your dad put their lives on hold makes me feel terrible.”

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “I got the diagnosis two months ago.”

  “Aunty! You should have told me!”

  “And ruined your wedding? No way.”

  Lei subsided, blowing her nose. “I have to stay with you longer. Take some leave.”

  “No. I have plenty of support right now, and usually I’m at the restaurant in the afternoons, just was feeling crappy today. I still have a lot of tread on these tires. Maybe later…closer to the end.”

  “Dammit!” Lei exclaimed. “There has to be something we can do! I can’t stand hearing ‘the end’ like there’s no hope.”

  “There’s always hope.”

  “I take it Dad’s got his church praying.”

  “There are many documented miracles from prayer,” Aunty said. “And the doctors aren’t offering any solutions I can live with, pardon the pun.”

  Lei lowered her aching head onto Aunty’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Aunty. Now I’m wishing I was pregnant after all so I could share that with you.”

  “You were?” There was no mistaking the excitement in Rosario’s voice.

  “No. Just a scare.”

  “Well, having a baby when you’re married to a loving husband and making good money is nothing to be ‘scared’ of.”

  “I don’t want to raise a child without you, Aunty! I need your help, your advice!” Fresh tears welled.

  “Don’t.” Aunty gave Lei a shake. “The Lord will bring people into your life to help—your friends are terrific. I’m sure that Tiare is full of all the advice you’ll need.”

  Lei snuffled a laugh. “She definitely has a lot of opinions.”

  “And I’m not so perfect. I’ve made my share of questionable decisions—keeping you and your father apart, for one. But that’s not the only one.”

  “What do you mean?” Lei sat up, blew her nose again.

  “Never mind. We have enough to deal with now. Come here.” Her aunt drew Lei’s head down on her shoulder, and they eventually fell asleep that way.

  Chapter 27

  Lei and Stevens lay facing each other in bed in the guest room of her aunt’s house hours later. She’d snuck out of bed with her aunt to join him. Lei’s head thumped with a terrible headache, the aftermath of heavy crying. She felt her whole body tighten and contract with pain as once again she remembered the bad news. “I still can’t believe it. My aunty. It’s so unfair!”

  “I know.” Stevens folded her even closer, so her head was tucked under his chin. “I’m so sorry, Sweets.”

  She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent, warm and a little salty. She felt it becoming embedded in her own DNA—they’d begun to share a smell, too.

  “This is so wrong,” Lei whispered. “It’s not like I have a lot of family to lose.”

  “Maybe we should get started on expanding your family, after all.”

  She stiffened. “I don’t know. We’ve just had a threat we still have to run down. All my personal issues aside, is it really fair to bring another person into this dark world, where we have real enemies?”

  “We’ve always had enemies. We’ll always have enemies. We fight them. It’s what we do. We’re the thin blue line.”

  They were law enforcement: that thin blue line between good and evil, anarchy and peace. That line was flawed, broken, and stressed, but Lei, Stevens, and their brothers and sisters in arms, in all their humanity and courage—they were all there was.

  Lei turned her head to kiss the hollow of Stevens’s throat, feeling his heartbeat under her lips. “All right.”

  “All right.” His voice was a rumble of satisfaction. He kissed the top of her head. “Not tonight, though. I feel too weird with your dad on the other side of the wall and those sounds you make…”

  She tugged his chest hair. “You mean those sounds you make! Let’s get home and see what happens, but I think that’s the least of our worries right now.”

  Much later the next day, Lei tucked Aunty Rosario into bed, pulling the antique Hawaiian quilt up under her aunt’s chin and patting it into place. “I’ll be in the next room, Aunty.”

  “I know,” Rosario mumbled, eyes already shut. Stevens was out, doing some shopping for the family. They’d spent a couple of hours in the morning catching up on pictures and stories from the honeymoon. Then, suddenly as a light switching off, her aunt had wilted and declared she was going to bed. Lei shut the curtains and went out into the hall, closing the door. She met her father in the tiny living room.

  “She’s really going downhill,” Lei said, and her eyes filled. “Oh, Dad, I’m not ready for this.”

  He was settled deep in his La-Z-Boy, angled toward the big-screen TV on the wall. He flicked it off, making a welcoming arm gesture. “Come here.”

  Lei had found her father only four years ago, after his lengthy incarceration had separated them, so she wasn’t used to being physically close—but snuggling in her father’s arms to grieve felt like a necessity. She bent down, hugging him in the chair, and let him draw her onto his lap, her head on his shoulder, his arms around her.

  Lei had a good cry, soa
king her father’s soft sweatshirt, wondering even as the tears flowed at how far her little family had come—only to be separated by a barrier that couldn’t be crossed in this life. Wayne patted her back, and she felt five years old again. It was as if all that had come between them, all the years they’d lost, had folded like a ribbon to connect them in this moment. The feeling she had, lifting her streaming face, was gratitude.

  “Thanks, Dad. I needed that.”

  His dark eyes were shiny too. “You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve been crying. Every day.”

  Lei hauled herself out of the La-Z-Boy and stood up. “Once you’re in this chair, it really gets ahold of you.” She sat down on the nearby couch, pulled some tissues out of a box, and dried her face, blew her nose. “I’m going to stay as long as the job will let me.”

  “What about your husband?”

  It still surprised her to hear Stevens called that. “He understands. He has to go home tomorrow, though. Work.”

  “You’re newlyweds. I’ll be worried if he understands for too long.” Her father winked.

  Lei laughed, a damp chuckle. “You’re right. It will be hard to be away from him, but this is about as important as it gets.”

  “Speaking of important. There’s something I want to get your opinion on.” Wayne hoisted himself out of the recliner with the aid of a lever on the side of it. He rummaged in a nearby closet and came back carrying a plain brown cardboard box, the top opened. “This came in the mail. Fortunately, I intercepted it before your aunt saw it.”

  He set the box on the coffee table in front of Lei, opened the flaps. As soon as Lei saw the white linen fabric inside, she gave a cry—and wished she had her crime kit. “Auwe! Don’t take it out! There might be explosives or something!”

  “Too late,” Wayne said. “I opened it without realizing and took out these big pieces of material. There’s nothing else in the box but a note.” He took the fabric out and set two folded, fat squares of the linen on the coffee table.

  “Here’s the note. It was at the bottom. I’d already taken the fabric out by then, shaken it out to see what it was. I still wasn’t sure until I went and Googled ‘long white linen fabric’ and it came back with ‘shroud’ as the most likely answer.” He handed Lei the note. She took it, holding it by the edge with a piece of tissue.

  It was a creamy white card stock square, hand lettered with black block lettering: plenty of these to go around.

  Lei suppressed a shudder of revulsion and anxiety as she held the card by the edge. “I know where these shrouds came from—a place on Maui. We got a brochure and the receipt for them boxed and given to us with our wedding presents. I was wondering what happened to the actual shrouds. We’ll take this package home and have everything checked out.”

  “What do you think this is about?” Her dad’s craggy features were chiseled with worry, his brows drawn together.

  “Someone’s threatening our family. Packaged the receipt, gift wrapped it, and gave it to Michael and me in an attempt to ruin our honeymoon, which we didn’t allow it to—and then the bastard mailed the shrouds to you guys to scare you. It’s kind of a sick twofer.”

  “Twofer?”

  “Two for the price of one.”

  “Who do you think is doing this?”

  “Most likely our new enemy, Terence Chang the Third.” She filled her dad in on the case last year that had ended Healani Chang’s life.

  Stevens returned, arms loaded with groceries, and his eyes went straight to the box on the coffee table between Lei and her father. His gaze sharpened and brows drew down. “The shrouds?”

  “You got it.”

  He dropped the bags of groceries on the table and rummaged under the sink, returning with a large plastic garbage bag. “Dad’s fingerprints are all over the box and he handled the shrouds,” Lei said.

  “Not a problem. We have your prints, right, Wayne?” And Lei couldn’t believe it when Stevens winked, man-to-man, at her father.

  Wayne laughed. “You sure as hell do. Not everyone gets to add a convicted felon to the family cop tree.”

  “We’ll just eliminate your prints.” Using the edge of the bag, he guided the box inside and tied it shut. “Not a problem.”

  “Don’t you want to see the shrouds?” Lei asked.

  “No,” Stevens said, and carried the bag into the back bedroom. Lei knew he was compartmentalizing the threat, like he was so good at doing with his police work. He returned. “Time I got home. Lei’s staying a little longer.”

  Chapter 28

  Lei had spent the morning with Rosario at the restaurant. Her aunt’s best hours seemed to be in the morning, and when she felt good, she insisted on going in to work. In the kitchen, swathed in her plumeria-print apron, working alongside Momi, Rosario seemed almost her old self. Lei saw the affectionate gestures that passed between the women and the one time that Momi actually kissed her aunt on the top of her head.

  That day as they drove home at lunch, Lei tackled a situation she’d suspected for a long time.

  “Aunty. You and Momi—you love each other, don’t you?”

  Her aunt turned from gazing out the window to frown at Lei. “Of course I do. She’s my best friend in the world and my business partner.”

  “I mean love, love. Romantic love.”

  “There are all kinds of love.” Rosario looked away. “We don’t need to put words on what we have.”

  “Don’t you think, now, with your health the way it is…you might want to come out of the closet?”

  “Stay out of my business, girl!” Rosario snapped. “You don’t know a thing about it.”

  Lei felt her cheeks flush. Her aunt barked at her so seldom it hurt as if she’d been physically slapped. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

  “Your father would never understand, and she’s married,” Rosario finally said, her voice a whisper. “Not that we have ever been like that, you know. Physical. But I would like to have her by my side at the end.”

  “And you will,” Lei said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  Her aunt’s hand stole over and clasped Lei’s. “Thank you. I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

  “I just love you and want you to be happy. I’m sorry if I had the wrong idea.” They were both in tears as they pulled into the driveway, and Lei supported her aunt into the house and back to bed for a nap.

  Lei took her phone and went outside. The street was deserted during the middle of a workday, and she had a lot of calls to make. First she called Stevens. He’d just landed on Maui.

  “It’s windy here,” he said. “I wish you were with me.”

  “I know. I’ll be home when the captain says I’ll be cleared to come back on the job, but I need to be with Aunty as much as I can.”

  “I love you. There. You’ve had your daily dose of love.”

  “I wish I’d had my other kind of daily dose of love,” Lei said, smiling at the sidewalk. In all the turmoil, they hadn’t made love since Yosemite.

  “God, I know. I won’t wish you’d come home sooner. That wouldn’t be right. Just know I’ll be missing you.”

  “Love you too.” Lei cut the connection, hardly able to speak. She walked rapidly back and forth on the sidewalk, breathing and getting her emotions under control. She called Pono and asked him about the interview with Rinker.

  “I can send you the recording if you want,” Pono offered again.

  “I don’t want you to get in trouble. Just gimme the lowdown.”

  “Well, he basically corroborated the confession. He agreed to testify against Kingston in return for reduced charges for his role in covering up the body. The DA’s on board with that, and so was Rinker’s lawyer. Captain was pleased.”

  “But why did he agree to cover up Jacobsen’s murder? And what about the poachers?”

  “He claims he doesn’t know anything about the poachers, and he agreed to help dispose of Jacobsen’s body since, quote: ‘He was already dead, and Kingston’s research n
eeded to go forward,’ unquote. Both these guys say they planned to anonymously call in the body dump after the research was published.”

  “Man, they seem to think the research justifies anything! So how’s Kingston doing with his injury?”

  “Slowly improving. Takama’s been charged with attempted murder, you know. Captain told me she was dickering with the DA over charges against you too; they’ve decided on criminal negligence in the care of prisoner, which is a misdemeanor. Captain’s working on a disciplinary plan for you to come home to.”

  “Great,” Lei muttered, rubbing bloodshot eyes. “Thanks, Pono.” A car swished by, putting her back in her body. Well, at least she wasn’t going to jail. She had to focus on the positive.

  “How’s your aunty?”

  “Hanging in there. But something bad has happened.” She told Pono about the package.

  “So that’s where the actual shrouds ended up. Someone’s playing games with your whole family! Pretty theatrical gesture.”

  “I think it’s in keeping with Terence Chang’s personality. In fact, I’ve got to call Sophie Ang about the poaching order on the birds, and I’ll check with her about her impressions of Chang.”

  The next morning, Lei borrowed Aunty’s car while she and Wayne were at work and drove to the Marin Headlands. She set out on a sandy trail through the park, letting a good run sweat out all the worries she was struggling with.

  The rolling hills, carpeted in golden dried grasses and punctuated by the dark green of live oaks, surrounded her with a different beauty than the lush green of Hawaii. San Francisco Bay’s muted, steely blue water glittered far below her, and the sky smoldered with sunshine banked by fog forming on the coast.

  Her heart thudded as her feet pounded, and eventually, that metronome drowned out the buzz of her thoughts, circling endlessly around questions she didn’t have answers for. Finally, she sat on one of the rough wooden benches poised in front of the view, did some stretches, drank some water, and took out her phone.