“Oh, she has a way of keeping her paws in everything that takes place in the house. Have you eaten yet?”
“I’m a fairly early riser, so I’ve been enjoying some of that wonderful fruit Nathan brought over—and one and a half of the cinnamon rolls. I think that’ll keep me going until noon or so.”
I laughed at her obvious guilt about eating more than one cinnamon roll. “I’ve found that nothing from Agnes’s Bakery remains in the cupboard long enough to go stale.”
At that point, Keoni joined us with his tall mug in hand. “All I ask is that I get two of them for myself.”
“That shouldn’t be an issue, Nathan brought three dozen,” I observed.
“Speaking of food,” said Joanne, “I thought I’d call Lieutenant Dias and see if he’d allow me into Miriam’s kitchen. While prepping for Keoni’s party, Izzy overstocked our pantry. The refrigerator is full of fresh veggies, some leftover chicken adobo and I don’t know what else. She was planning to do some batch cooking and freeze a lot of meals for us for while she is house-sitting for her niece for a couple of weeks.
“With Samantha having returned to the women’s shelter and Miriam….We might as well bring a few food items over here,” said Joanne, wiping a single tear that had appeared on her cheek.
“I’m sure that will be fine with John. I don’t think any of his people are going to be preparing any meals in Miriam’s home. We’ll just verify his approval and find out when it would be good to go over. Maybe you could do that, Keoni.”
“Sure. It’s going on eleven and I was ready to check in with him. He’s probably about finished with his follow-up investigations for the morning.”
Keoni then went inside to use the land line. Through the window I could overhear his responses to John’s comments on the case. Shortly thereafter, Keoni opened the back door and beckoned me inside.
“It’s your turn, Natalie. JD has a few questions for you and then he’ll be on his way to Miriam’s.” Passing me the phone, he went into the garage.
Not knowing what we might discuss, I remained in the kitchen and kept my voice at a low volume. Aside from a warm greeting, John was all business. “Natalie, you said that the wire you saw in the hands of the perpetrator was dark, even black. Is that right?”
“Yes. It definitely made me think of the wires in Auntie Carrie’s old piano.”
“Okay. Now I want you to picture the wire in the man’s hands. What color were the wooden pieces at the end of the loop of wire?”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to view again the murder scene. “Well, it was awfully dark in the room and there wasn’t much contrast with the wire, so I guess I would say the wood was dark.”
“So, if I offered you golden oak, cherry, or walnut finishes, which would you say was the closest in color?”
“The sticks were closer to walnut. The fact that I could tell the pieces were made of wood, and there was some contrast with the wire, makes me sure they weren’t black. But it’s not like they were finished like a piece of furniture. I think they were rougher, worn—like they were plain wood that darkened with use, from oil and dirt on the man’s hands.”
“On a more general note, I want you to picture the killer the first moment you saw him, coming up from the beach. Are you sure he was in a scuba suit—not just black pants, shirt, and maybe a ski mask?”
“No, John, he definitely wasn’t wearing black street clothes. First of all, everything was form-fitted, close to his body. And there were the shoes—I’ve seen those booties fairly often—especially here at this end of our beach, where it’s a bit rocky.”
“And his headgear?”
“Again, it was really close-fitting, like a glove. I think it’s called a skullcap.”
“One thing we haven’t discussed is odor. Are you able to smell things in your visions?”
“Sometimes.”
“So, was there any scent emanating from the man?”
“Not really. The primary scent in the room where Miriam died was lavender. I don’t remember seeing fresh flowers, but she seemed to have candles in every room. Besides that? Well, when he passed through me, I think there was a slight smell of…I guess it was a combination of rubber and sea air—like from his scuba suit and the ocean. And when I was in the back yard, I could smell dirt and strawberries and vegetables—what you’d expect in a garden.”
“Okay. At this point I think I only have one more question. Was there anything the man looked at with particular attention, or touched? Or, maybe there’s something that one of The Ladies has said is missing?”
“I don’t think so. The Ladies haven’t mentioned anything being different or missing. I’ve been thinking about anything I might have overlooked. But nothing new has come to mind. It’s horrible to say, but the man came for just one thing and he did it…he killed Miriam.”
“Mmhm,” he said. “When you first revealed your vision, you said you hadn’t realized the victim was Miriam. So, let’s say for the moment that there hadn’t been a murder and you were just walking through a stranger’s home. How would you describe the person sitting in the chair?”
“Well,” I said, closing my eyes again to picture the scene. “As the man walks into the room, I don’t have a clear view of the figure in the chair. What I do see is the long blond hair—so I know it’s a woman.”
“What was she wearing? Never mind what you saw when you looked in the room with Joanne the next morning. I want to know what you remember from your vision regarding what the woman wearing when you saw her slumped over the chair’s arm?”
“Hm. I can’t tell what kind of garment she had on. But it was patterned with several colors on a vanilla background.”
“All right, Natalie. I think that’s all we need to talk about, unless you have something else for me.”
“I can’t think of anything else, John. Keoni and I should be here most of the day. Let us know if you need anything else.”
At that moment, Keoni came in from the garage and reached for the phone. “Hey, JD. I forgot to mention I’m about to pick up those Jeep brochures we talked about, so you might want to go through them with Natalie sometime later today.”
The volume on the phone was set so high that I could hear John’s response. “Good idea. Right now I’m going to Miriam’s to catch up with Ken`ichi who’s checking on the forensic team’s final sweep for additional evidence. We’ve already got Miriam’s computer, cell phone, and legal papers. With the house being such a immaculate crime scene, I don’t think there’s any reason to keep it in lock down much longer.”
After I hung up the phone, Keoni came to me with an uncertain look on his face. “Well, that brings up the issue of The Ladies. It sounds like they might be able to get back into the cottage sooner than I thought,” he said.
While Keoni was gone on errands, I began reorganizing a few kitchen cupboards. With the party over, I had more available space. And with my having provided my limited input to the investigation, it seemed like a good way to keep my hands busy. I was not overly interested in domesticity at the moment, but the mechanical decisions of where to move pots, pans and pantry items kept my mind off the tragedy burdening so many in our community: How had one of our dearest neighbors come to meet such an unlikely death? Hearing the noise I was creating, Joanne came in and offered to assist. Obviously, I was not the only one who needed a break from the tragic circumstances surrounding us.
With our little project completed within a couple of hours, Joanne set off on errands of her own. When Keoni returned, we sat down with the Jeep brochures he had brought for me to consider. As predicted, what I had seen was a recent model, complete with an enhanced sound system. When John dropped in, I was able to identify the vehicle I saw and heard by make and model.
“It was a 2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport Utility in a deep Cherry Red color. From the sounds I had heard, it seemed
like the vehicle had an automatic transmission. And it did not have a top. If it was a rental, it was the soft-top model.
I invited John to join us for a late lunch but he declined. “Thanks, but I don’t want to slow the momentum next door, or delay returning to the office. We may not have gotten anything useful from the security company this morning, but with the info you’ve provided, we can start checking licensed owners of that Jeep model, plus rental companies that have featured it. It’s a long shot, but there’s always a chance the driver may have seen something that will add detail to your vision. You did say the driver was alone, didn’t you?”
“Yes. It was a single guy. I could tell he was dark skinned and I got the impression he was young. But the car went by so fast. I couldn’t see anything else—it was just a flash of red and a guy enjoying his music.”
Keoni jumped in, “That begs the question of why a young guy would be out here alone? That is, if he’s not a resident of the area. We haven’t seen the vehicle around here before and there’s nothing public at this end of the beach to attract a solitary tourist…or any guy by himself.”
“Maybe he’d just dropped his girlfriend at her home and was heading back to his house, a B and B, or even a hotel in town,” I suggested.
“Good point. All right, kids, I’m going to take off. Ken`ichi and I’ll be in an out of Miriam’s home for a bit longer. To be honest, there’s not much of a paper trail in Miriam’s life. But we still have to go through everything, if only to fill out our own paperwork. We’ve got one unit working on the financial institutions she dealt with. Another is going through her phone and credit card records. But like I said, since the perp wore gloves, brought his own “tools,” and came and went from only one room, there’s not a lot for us to pursue in terms of on-scene forensic evidence. Tomorrow we’ll be dropping in for a consult with Miriam’s attorney, but I’m not expecting anything unusual to pop up.”
Since it looked like we were not needed at the moment, Keoni and I took off for a swim. When we came back, Joanne had already gone over to Miriam’s to clean out her refrigerator.
“I put things away as best I could. It’s good the party leftovers are gone, or there wouldn’t have been room for what I brought. I hope you won’t mind, I went ahead and fixed a salad and seasoned some chicken for grilling tonight...with just a touch of Louisiana hot sauce.”
“Thanks so much, Joanne. I hadn’t thought about dinner, but it sounds perfect.”
By the time we had showered, the day was pretty much over. Thanks to Joanne’s preparations, we had an easy supper and enjoyed an evening of summer re-runs on TV. The next morning our guest announced she would be gone most of the day, having both doctor and dentist appointments. Since Keoni needed to check out potential clients downtown, Miss Una and I were on our own for several hours. Although we set out for a walk together, she parted company with me in Joanne’s garden.
“You’re right, little one. It’s a great place to hang out. Even the smell of the dirt is nice, let alone all the foliage.”
Demonstrating her concurrence, she plopped down in the shade cast by a large tomato plant and I sauntered to the beach alone. On my return, I found no sign of Miss Una, Keoni or Joanne. With no looming deadlines, I luxuriated in the multi-head shower for several minutes longer than necessary. At least the new rain catchment system made up for the few times I took a long shower.
Refreshed in mind and body, I checked both my landline and cell phone for messages. With all the activity surrounding Miriam’s murder, I was glad that Margie and Dan O`Hara had found something to do with their time in the Islands. Rather than idling at their O`ahu timeshare, they had opted to trade a few days at another timeshare on Maui.
“Hi. It’s Margie. We’ve had a great time on the Valley Isle. Since we haven’t heard from you, we’re going on to the Garden Isle of Kaua`i for a little fun in what passes for a river over here. I don’t mean to be too light-hearted about why we’re not getting together, but you and Keoni need to avoid being around crime—especially murder. Haha. Give a call when you get a chance.”
Well, that was one phone call I could not make until I had a firm proposal for scheduling some R and R with them. One call I did make was to Anna Wilcox. After I caught her up on the murder investigation, she gave me a profile of the tenants who were moving into my old home. The only other call I needed to make was to Izzy. She seemed to be holding up emotionally, but was already tired of her stint as a house sitter.
“Oh, Natalie. It’s good to hear your voice. I’m settled in at Malia’s and the biggest challenge I face is walking the two dogs several times a day. I don’t know how my niece manages to do that, plus taking care of her home and husband and kids. I can’t wait for the next week to go by. God forbid I should sound snoopy, but is there any news on, on Miriam’s…murder?”
I did not want to give Izzy false hope that there would be an official proclamation any time soon. “I’m sorry to say there’s nothing tangible to report. The police are finishing up their analysis of the cottage and Miriam’s personal affairs. Until that’s completed and the initial autopsy report comes in, we won’t know anything more.”
With the afternoon half over, I did not think I would be hearing from John. But I was wrong. About three-thirty he called and asked if I was available to come over to Miriam’s for a short meeting with him and Nathan.
“Keoni’s out on business calls and we’ve got leftovers for dinner, so there’s nothing I need to do for a couple of hours. When’s Nathan coming over?”
“To be honest, he should be here shortly, since he was already in Kailua. Until I spoke with him, I hadn’t thought of including you in the project I have in mind. Why don’t you come over in about fifteen minutes? Officer Horita will let you in the back door.”
We hung up and I wrote a note telling Keoni and Joanne where I had gone. By the time I had filled a metal bottle with water, it was time to head over to Miriam’s. As expected, Officer Horita greeted me and escorted me to the living room. There I found John and my brother in conversation. After we all said hello, the detective turned to the purpose of our meeting.
“I’m glad you could join us, Natalie,” he said. “As I was telling Nathan, the CSI team is through with its final sweep of the house. On the outside, it looks like the perp interacted with only the front gate, the security system, and the front door. Inside, it appears the only contact he had was the front door, the hallway and the room in which Miriam was murdered. Despite that, we had our videographer shoot the entire property in case anything else comes up. But since nothing seems to connect to Miriam’s housemates, we couldn’t see disrupting their lives any further. So depending on what Curtis Leighton—that’s Miriam’s attorney—says about disposal of her property, I’ll be telling The Ladies they can move back into the house.”
“Nothing will bring them peace about Miriam’s death, but I’m sure they’ll appreciate having access to all their belongings and being able to settle back into a routine. Of course, I won’t say anything until you give it the green light,” I responded.
“The reason I wanted you two to come over this afternoon is actually upstairs. So, if you’ll follow me, I’ll explain what I mean.”
Walking up the stairs, I thought of the last time I had been there—retrieving Miss Una, during her social call. Moving forward into Miriam’s suite, I saw that most everything was as I remembered it. But with some items, like her chair, having been moved downstairs to the maid’s quarters, it seemed a bit empty. Also, the bed had been stripped of linens and like much of the house, there was evidence of fingerprint dusting.
“You’ve been here before Natalie, right?” John asked.
“Yes.”
“Does anything look different to you?” he asked.
“No. Well, of course her chair has been moved. By Keoni. He put it down in the maid’s quarters after Miriam broke her leg.”
&n
bsp; While John and I were visiting, Nathan looked over Miriam’s extensive library.
Glancing at him, John said, “You’re getting ahead of me, Nathan. Part of her collection of books includes Miriam’s own work—published and unpublished. You see all those blue binders on the shelves under the window and on the shelves to the right?”
We both nodded.
“Well, those are Miriam’s journals. They cover nearly every day of her life, from college on. I guess that’s something a lot of you shrinks, uh, psychiatrists, do, right, Nathan?”
“Mm, yes. By the way, I’m not a psychiatrist, John. But you’re right that a lot of analysts, regardless of category, journal as part of their continuing study.”
“Correction noted. To be honest, we’re nearly at a dead end in this case. I’m wondering if there might be some hint of discord in her personal thoughts that could help us in solving her murder.”
“What do you mean—you’re at a dead end? I asked. It’s only been a couple of days?”
“Natalie, you’ve been through this before, with Ariel’s case. As you know, the first thing we look at is the victim’s family and inner circle. When we looked at your family, it was small, but your grandniece had a wide range of activities and contacts among family, school, and work. But despite all those potential persons of interest, we didn’t get anywhere with Arial’s case. To be honest, it really was only through an accident of circumstances that we learned the truth about her demise.
“With regard to Miriam’s family, we’ve only found one of Henri’s cousins. She’s actually a second cousin living on the mainland who only met Miriam a couple of times. The victim was retired and had a heart condition that prevented her from continuing her public speaking. Regarding other interaction, nothing has materialized from the list of gardeners, cleaners, and other service providers, including the security company she’d used for more than two decades. In short, there’s only a small circle of people in her life for us to consider.
“The next issue is motive. We can’t find any reason for someone to off her—recently or in the public record of her past. Unless something shows up in the autopsy, or microscopic evidence in her clothing, the yard, front hall or maid’s room, there’s not much for us to pursue.
Murder on Mokulua Drive Page 15