The Yoshinobu Mysteries: Volume 2

by John A. Broussard

  Qual had agreed to meet Rissa at his favorite Honolulu restaurant. A half-dozen blocks from the beach at Waikiki, it was just far enough away from tourist traffic to force the owners to depend chiefly on repeat local business for their livelihood. The result was a quiet, unhurried atmosphere, air conditioning which didn't turn patrons into icicles, and food which was worth the price. Qual had a beer. Rissa turned down the offer of a preluncheon drink. Qual was amused when he saw her actually shudder at the mention of it.

  Qual waited until the after-lunch coffee before bringing up the reason he had given Rissa for wanting to see her. “You probably know Wayne Harlan better than anyone else does. What can you tell me about him?”

  Rissa sat back, obviously taking the time to gather her thoughts. “ I've known him now for fifteen years or so. I've lived with him off and on for most of those years, so I guess it qualifies me as knowing him fairly well.” Again, a long pause.

  Qual waited.

  “Since you're his attorney, you probably already know the worst. You've heard of Pete Hanford, haven't you?”

  Qual nodded. “You mean the man back in Nevada?” “ Right. Which tells you something about Wayne. Jealousy, for him, is an addiction, like drinking or gambling for some men. Pete and Anton weren't the only ones who ran afoul of him. He had several arguments with men over me, and got into at least a couple of fightsserious onesas a result.”

  “It seems he had reason.”

  Rissa smiled. “In some ways he did. In some ways he didn't. I told him, before we got married, the marriage wasn't going to change my habits.”

  “Why did you marry him?” “ For the usual reasons.” Rissa fumbled nervously in her purse, clearly fingering a cigarette packet. “He was a good provider. I wasn't eager to spend eight hours a day in an office, and that's really all I knowclerical work. I can't even take shorthand, though I guess that's not in much demand these days. I'm a lousy typist, and computers scare the hell out of me.”

  Qual decided to let her work her own way through her story.

  “Wayne's a good provider. I never had to beg him for money. Except for his jealousy, we really got along fine.” Her forehead wrinkled in thought. “ There was something else, though. Maybe if it had been just jealousy, it wouldn't have been so bad, but Wayne isit's hard for me to put my finger on ithe's unforgiving. Worse yet, he's unforgetting. One of the counselors we went to after the trial in Nevada gave it all a fancy name. He said Wayne was some kind of compulsive. Another counselor said Wayne was paranoid, but I guess jealousy is just a form of paranoia. My own therapist called Wayne a perfectionist. I think she had something there. His perfectionism can be even worse than his jealousy sometimes.”

  “Do you have any examples?” “ Sure. Lots. I'm a pretty good cook. So is Wayne. If I cooked a meal and it didn't measure up, he'd not only tell me, he'd also remind me about it for days afterwards. He was just as hard on himself, which took some of the curse off the trait, but I still had to keep telling myself he couldn't help being the way he was.”

  Rissa stopped, her eyebrows indicated a question, and she looked Qual in the eyes. “You've never really told me why you want to know all this. Wayne said your firm is representing him, but you've never explained why you need to have all this information. What's going on?”

  “If Wayne comes to trial, we're going to have to have character witnesses.”

  Rissa's face cleared at the answer. “Oh! I get it. If I sound good, you'll call me to the stand.”

  Qual smiled and nodded. “Naturally we're out looking for witnesses who'll make him sound like someone who wouldn't have wanted to have Anton killed.” Rissa shook her head and, in an emotional voice, said, “You've come to the wrong place. I know Wayne. His only regret after he shot Pete was that he didn't kill him. There's no question in my mind but he felt the same way about Anton. He not only wanted Anton killed, I'm as sure he's the one who killed him as if I'd been standing there watching. I couldn't testify otherwise.”

  Qual knew she was adamant, so there was little more to be gained from the interview. He decided to try catching an earlier flight back to Elima.

  As they were leaving the restaurant, Qual asked one last question. Rissa had barely reached the sidewalk before lighting a cigarette. After a deep inhale, a puff of smoke, and a clear indication of relaxing, she replied. The answer surprised him. It seemed to even surprise her. “No. He never laid a hand on me, no matter how mad he got, and no matter what he did to the man involved. Maybe things would have been different if he had. I might not have given him any reason to be jealous if he'd hit me the first time.”

  Chapter 15

  Kay had dropped by Wayne's condo and found the mysterious key was indeed a duplicate for the apartment. “Something else to tell Hank,” she said as they headed out to their cars.

  At the station, Kay was impressed with how well Wayne handled Hank's questions. It was easy to dismiss Hank as a hick policeman, but Kay had seen him in operation and had considerable respect for his skills at questioning suspects. Corky and a police stenographer were also sitting in on the interview.

  Wayne described receiving the blackmail note and his speculations concerning who had written it. He was as unfazed by Hank's interrogation regarding the hit man as he had been by Kay's questions. He identified the knife as almost certainly being his. “It's definitely the same brand,” he said. “Rissa bought the set through a mail order house, so I don't imagine it's sold locally. I doubt there's another one like it anywhere on Elima, so it must be the same one. It's a really good set, by the way. That's why I kept it when I moved into the apartment instead of selling it like most of the other stuff from the house.”

  “You have no idea how it got from your kitchen drawer into Anton's chest?” Hank was being openly skeptical.

  Wayne shook his head emphatically. “None.” At Hank's insistence, Wayne went over the details of the appointment and what had happened from the time he'd left his office up to the moment Anton fell out of the elevator. “I expected to find an impatient Anton waiting for me outside my apartment door, but now it looks as though he actually went inside, since he had a key to it.”

  Kay reflected about how she had never encountered such a confusing case before and, from the look on Hank's face, she was quite certain he was thinking essentially the same thing. Knowing Anton carried a duplicate key to Wayne's apartment along with the key to the service elevator did nothing to lessen the confusion. Wayne was still unruffled and didn't bother to point out the obvious, that if he had indeed hired someone to kill Anton, it was an incredibly badly botched-up job with all the trails going back to Wayne.

  On the other hand, Kay thought, it could have been done on purpose to make us think the way both Hank and I are thinking right now. But so what? What does confusion do for anyone?”

  Hank was showing the irritability typical of him when he encountered an insoluble problem. “We'll need another signed statement from you. The stenographer will have it finished in an hour. If you want to, you can come back sometime this afternoon to sign it. Notify us if you intend to go off island.”

  “ Where does all this leave me?” Wayne asked after he and Kay had left the station. He was leaning on the door of Kay's convertible which she had parked next to his Lincoln in the police station lot.

  “ We really aren't much worse off than we were before,” Kay said as she looked at his surprisingly unruffled features, “except you might have to come back and answer a few more questions. Be sure to let one of us at the office know if you do get called. If I'm in court, Sid or Qual will come over with you.”

  Wayne shrugged, went over to his own car and slipped behind the wheel. It made Kay uneasy to think how little this suspected murderer was bothered by his situation.

  *** Kay got to the office in time to meet Qual who had just returned from Oahu. She quickly filled him in on the most recent developments in the Harlan case. “Time for a conference,” Qual said.“We've just been chasing our tails so
far.” Kay immediately thought of their young tom, Bluebeard, who would suddenly burst into a demonic session of tail chasing to the point where he would end up sitting and actually panting. The comparison seemed particularly apt in this instance, and she was grateful to Qual, noting he had not pointed out she was the only one really doing any chasing.

  It was almost five before the four attorneys were able to gather in the office conference room. Qual began by saying, “Since it now looks as though Wayne's going to be charged, the rest of us had better give Kay a hand. Maybe the best thing we can do is for each of us to write up everything we know about the case and give it to Leilani in the morning. Kay's done the lion's share of the work, but the rest of us do know something about it.

  “ Once Leilani gets the write-ups, she can put the material together along with the police reports, the pm, and anything else that's relevant. Then she can give us each a copy of the packet. Does anyone have any problem with that?” He grinned. “I guess silence means consent. There's so much new information popping up all over, we're going to have to get it organized. For someone who was virtually out of the quicksand, Wayne sure seems to have gotten back in, up to and over his ears.”

  “ His problems are coming from all directions,” Laura said. “I just had a long phone call from Corky. The police knew about the hit man even before Wayne showed up with the blackmail note. Hank's sent off a request to the Honolulu PD to pick Surrette up for questioning, and Corky's moaning about how she'll probably have to be the one to fly over to interrogate him. She sure hates to fly. But the most startling piece of information is that Anton was probably knocked unconscious before he was stabbed.”

  “Damn!” Kay said, as Laura repeated third hand the material in the final post mortem report. Qual gave an exasperated sigh. “Why didn't we know about that sooner? We'll have to pick up a copy of the report. Does anyone have a timetable on Wayne's movements on Saturday?”

  Kay flipped back through her yellow pad. “He left his office at about 12:15, arrived at the parking lot at the Nikko Arms two to three minutes later. He says he went up the stairs to the first floor and pressed the elevator button the first time at 12:20. He checked his watch because he was late for his 12:15 appointment with Anton. It was probably 12:22 when he pressed the button the second time. We've checked with him, with the security man, and with several other witnesses. No one has the exact time, but that's probably no more than a minute off either way. Anton fell out of the elevator no later than 12:25. Victorine gives him maybe three minutes survival timeabsolute maxfrom the time he was originally stabbed. He says something under a minute is more likely.”

  “ Bad as it looks,” Sid said, “I just can't see Wayne hiring someone to kill Anton with Wayne's butcher knife, in Wayne's apartment complex at the same time Wayne's in the building. There's Wayne pushing impatiently on the elevator button at the same instant his hit man is killing Anton with Wayne's knife. No. It makes absolutely no sense.”

  “ Wayne's knife!” Kay's voice rose to an unaccustomed pitch. “Could it be possible? Could he possibly have hired a hit man but still wanted to do it himself? So he settled for the hit man doing it with his own kitchen knife.”

  Qual looked puzzled. Laura shook her head. Sid spoke up for the three of them. “Aw c'mon Kay. Even for you that's pretty farfetched.” Kay's face broke into a self-deprecating smile. “I guess it is, but it fits so nicely with other ideas I've had. It would explain the keys, for example. Wayne gave them to the hit man so he could go up unobserved in the service elevator and into his apartment to wait for Anton, and he put them into Anton's pocket after knocking him out.”

  “Just to confuse the issue?” Sid's half question brought furrows to Kay's brow. “ Why not?” Kay answered with a question of her own. “I'm getting the feeling, more and more, that Wayne is doing his absolute best to confuse the issue, and the keys look like one more item of confusion.”

  It was Qual who brought them back to the original purpose of the conference. “Whether Wayne's just rattling our cages or actually telling the truth, we need to start seriously checking out what he's told us so far. We need confirmation of the time he left his office. We need more interviews with his business contacts, including the manager of Elima Real Estate. If Anton kept an appointment book, we want to check it out. Did Anton have a secretary, by the way?”

  Kay shook her head. “Uh-uh. Not a regular one. His business was just a hole-in-thewall operation a few blocks from here. He had a part-time secretary/bookkeeper who used to come in. I'll check with her. Hank says he went through the place on Sunday morning, but I get the impression it was a hurry-up inspection.”

  “Someone should check with Norman Kurohara. We have to find out as much as we can about his business relationships with Wayne and with Anton.”

  “I'll take care of that,” Laura volunteered, writing it down on her pad. “This is going to cost Wayne a fortune.” “ He seems willing enough to spend it,” Qual said. “From the looks of things, he's going to need as many supporting witnesses as we can muster, and his wife certainly isn't going to be one of them. If we're lucky, the prosecution won't look her up.” He then described his interview with Rissa.

  “ I'll check out the new girlfriend, Karen Schwartz,” Kay said. “That's not exactly the best relationship for a witness to have with the defendant, but she might have useful information, even if we don't decide to make use of her as a witness. She has an apartment in the Nikko Arms. If I have time, I'll look up Margaret Bowan again. I've been meaning to check on her to find out how she's coming with those panic attacks she's been having. I suppose I should see if her daughter can add anything to our eyewitness accounts. Corky says she's a sharp kid, but I can't see where a six-year-old can contribute much.”

  “Your going to have your hands full, Kay,” Sid said. “I can fit in a visit to Anton's office in the morning if you want me to.”

  Kay grinned. “I'll bet you're figuring you're taking over the chore is going to free me in time to cook supper tomorrow night.”

  Sid tried to look innocent. “Why, such a notion never even occurred to me.”

  “Good thing, too, because I've got a meeting with the League tomorrow evening. Remember?”

  Sid's face fell. “I clean forgot about it.” Kay laughed at his expression. “Cheer up. There are three different casseroles in the freezer and a bottle of good white Burgundy in the fridge. You won't starve. And I'm sure the cats will remind you to feed them, so there's no danger they'll go hungry.”

  “ The main thing you have to do, Kay,” Qual said, ignoring the banter, “is to sit down with Wayne and go over his life story. How about having him come to the office? Maybe you could make it a long taped session.”

  “ Can do,” Kay said. “Since Sid is going to check out Anton's office, I'm sure I can fit in an interview with Wayne. If you're around, Sid, I'd like to have you there too. With him, it's a good idea to have two on one whenever possible. I have to be at the courthouse all morning and I'll try to catch Karen Schwartz and Margaret Bowan later in the afternoon. Karen's an interior decorator and does a lot of her work at home, so I should be able to set up an appointment with her fairly easily. I'm sure Margaret's not going to stray far from the Nikko Arms. Her attacks are more likely to happen when she goes out.”

  “ I'll check out Anton's office first thing in the morning,” Sid said, “which should get me back in plenty of time for the interview with Wayne. Stall him if I'm late. What about other suspects?”

  “ I'll do what I can,” Qual said. “Rissa was no help at all. She said she didn't know any of Anton's friends, never mind any enemies he might have had. Anyhow, she's so convinced Wayne did it, I doubt she even seriously considered my question. I'll also run down the private detective. The one Wayne hired to follow his wife. The agency's located in Honolulu, but they have someone working over here. While Sid and Kay have Wayne here, I'll drop around Elima Real Estate and snoop around. Can anyone think of any loose ends?”

&
nbsp; “Yes,” answered Kay. “We should find out why the case against Wayne was dropped so easily…or if it even was.” Qual smiled. “I can't picture Wayne being a fugitive from justice, but I'll look into that. I know an attorney in Las Vegas. I'll give him a call and see if he knows anything about it, or if he can find out anything. So much for the work we have cut out for us. Anybody have any guesses as to who did do Anton in?”

  “ I'm holding out for a mugger,” Laura said. “I know this is complicated, but I think Anton met someone in Wayne's apartment. Whoever it was went off with him to the elevator. The elevator was empty, the mugger hit him on the head, stopped at the third floor, stabbed him…” She trailed off.

  “ Doesn't work particularly well, does it?” Qual asked.“Where did those keys come from? Or are you going to adopt Kay's explanation and have the mugger plant them on Anton? And if he did plant the keys, for God knows what reason, why wasn't Anton's wallet missing? If he had time for key planting, he certainly had time for wallet lifting. And why stab him in the elevator rather than in the apartment? Why stab him at all, if he's unconscious?”

  “ It has to be a hit man,” Sid said, “even though I can't explain why Wayne showed up when he did. My guess is Wayne had a second change of heart and hired a local, which explains why the whole thing was so badly botched. Wayne set Anton up, and the murder was supposed to have taken place in the apartment, but Anton saw what was coming and ran out to the elevator.”

  Kay laughed. “That's a wild one, Sid. Here you accuse me of having far out scenarios. Even if it did happen the way you describe, you still have the problem of explaining why Wayne showed up while the murder's occurring. He might just as well have done it himself if he was going to be there.”

  “Sure, but then he wouldn't have had an alibi.” “ He doesn't now,” Kay said. “Not if he's suspected of having hired the killer. That's really the most puzzling thing of all. I'm inclined to agree with you this was a botched up, premeditated murder, but I still can't see how it could have been so botched up that Wayne showed up right when it was happening. His being there right on time blows my mind, but I'm still convinced Wayne's responsible for killing Anton.”