The Yoshinobu Mysteries: Volume 2

by John A. Broussard

  “Lamerne? The money was stolen. How could she have expected to get any of it?”

  “Well, it seems like her old manand you gotta meet him, Kay. Hes a good deal of the explanation for why Lamerne is the way she is. Believe meshe has both environment and heredity against her. Getting back to your question, he seemed to think they had some rights to the money because there would have been no way of determining what was Mortons and what was Hawaiian Harvests. My guess is he was thinking through a hole in his head, but Lamerne sure seemed to have bought the argument. I talked to Jeff Bentley about it. He just grinned and said if anyone was in line besides Hawaiian Harvest, the First National Bank would be right behind old H.H. Sullivan Jabagat said pretty much the same thing except he had the State of Hawaii second instead of the First National.”

  “It sounds like I really didnt miss much.”

  “Oh yes, you did! Lamerne brought her trolls along. Lucky for the security guard he had reinforcements. It took two burly ones to keep the monsters from swinging on the drapes. Even so, they damn near scaled the fence around the pool. If it had been up to me, Id have looked the other way about then.”

  After Kay had hung up and pondered the news for a moment, she changed her mind and decided she might actually have missed something. It might have been worth my while to have been there just to see what the cars looked like when the partygoers drove up.

  ***

  Craig had outdone himself. Ordinarily an excellent cook, today he had been truly superb. What was supposed to have been a lunch, turned out to be a feast. Sitting in the front room with the others afterwards and sipping coffee, Kay was convinced Sullivan really didnt believe Craig had been the creator of the magnificent spread. He probably thinks theres a Filipina cook hidden away in a closet someplace.

  The pork and chicken, cooked to tender perfection with a sauce, whose ingredients Kay knew Craig would never divulge, quickly disappeared. Mounds of hot rice, platters of exotic vegetables, bottles of San Miguelthe luncheon guests did all of it justice. After all the good food, Kay was feeling sleepy when Sullivan brought up the missing money.

  Qual had long ago informed Sid and Kay about how Sullivan was a true watchdog of state finances, and today his concern for the lost loan indicated how thoroughly he played the role.

  “Never, never should the legislature have granted that loan guarantee.” Sullivans hands went nervously to his pocket, and Kay knew they were seeking for the long familiar but now absent packet of cigarettes. Sullivan had been a chain smoker, but had forsworn his habit some months ago.

  “What happened to your idea the money would be in the safe, Kay?” Sid asked, a note of amusement in his voice.

  Kay shook her head. “I didnt claim it was there. I just said it made sense for Morton not to have it with him on the mainland. In fact, Im more sure than ever he intended to come back for it. According to Corky, nobody at Hawaiian Harvest expected him back for at least another week. He must have heard about the windstorm and decided to come back earlywhich makes me think even more he had the money hidden away some place on the island.”

  Craig, whod joined them with his cup of coffee, asked Sullivan, “Whats the state going to do nowwhat with all the money gone missing?”

  The accountant sighed. “I havent had a chance to review the loan grant. Naturally it was secured. But, from what I hear of Hawaiian Harvests financial situation, Im not sure what the value of the security is. It seems, more and more, how everything Hawaiian Harvest owned was mortgaged one way or another.”

  “Wouldnt the state have insisted on something substantial in the way of collateral,” Qual suggested, “Something like unencumbered land.”

  Sullivan nodded. “Which makes matters even worse. Even in the best of times, the state has an incredibly difficult time recovering debts through land sales. Imagine what it would be like these days with land prices so depressed.”

  It was only too clear to Sullivans audience the accountant was thoroughly unhappy at the states dubious prospects of recovering the missing money. While they continued to explore the ramifications of the loss the phone rang, and Craig went to take it in the kitchen. In a moment he was back. “Its Leilani.” Turning to Sullivan, he added,“She says your office wants you to call back right away. She said theyve been hunting all over to find you, but your cellphone was turned off.” Waving his hand toward the back of the house, he added, “You can call from the den.”

  After Sullivan left to make the call, Qual said, “Ill bet you people didnt believe me when I told you how seriously Sullivan takes his job. He really feels personally responsible for the money, even though hedidnt have a thing to do with either the loan or the supervision of it after it was made.”

  Sid and Craig were on the verge of making a bet concerning the whereabouts of the missing money, when Sullivan came back into the room. Kay was aware something significant had happened. Sullivans dark skin had paled, the blue eyes seemed to be hidden behind a veil. Everyone else in the room waited as he suddenly became aware of the expectant faces turned toward him. “The call was from my assistant. The office received a package addressed to me, from the mainland. He opened it and found a note saying, „Please return to Hawaiian Harvest. The package contained hundred dollar billsabout a million dollars worth. There was no return address. No sender identification.”

  Various gasps and comments of disbelief greeted the announcement. Sullivan looked nervously around, reached into his pocket, then asked,“Does anyone here have a cigarette?”

  Chapter 9

  Kays feelings were mixed as she sat back in the taxi watching the driv er maneuver through the incredible traffic on the Nimitz Highway. Napua, and especially their isolated acreranch high up on Elimas hogback, seemed ever so much more precious at such moments. The thought she might have chosen to stay with some downtown Honolulu law firm in the midst of this madness was frightening. On the other hand, she was looking forward to seeing her parents. It had been almost two months since her last visit, and much had happened since then.

  Although her father had retired over five years before from his restaurant business, he had still kept his large house and garden in Ewa Beach, while making more or less regular rounds of the restaurant chain now mainly under his younger brother Nathaniels control. Her parents sudden decision to move to a condominium had caught Kay by surprise, but a long phone call to them had assured her the reason was an offer for their old home which they had simply found irresistible. “Besides, your father isnt getting any younger, you know,” her mother had added.

  Kay remembered her mother's comment when her father opened the door to their new apartment. Always frail in appearance, he now seemed more stooped, certainly more gray, but there was still the ready smile, the one which seemed to say the world was very amusing and how, perhaps, he was the most amusing part of it.

  On the other hand, her mother was much the same as ever. From her earliest childhood, Kay could remember the same smooth lovely face, the shiny teeth flashing as part of fleeting smiles, the long hair brushing forward when she bowed. And the one sure thing, which never seemed to change about her parents, was the warm relationship, spiced with the friendly bantering Yoshito and Etsuko Yoshinobu exhibited to the world.

  Kays father had marrie d several years after World War Two. The war years had been difficult ones, ones he never spoke of. But Kay knew that, though he was barely a teenager, he had been the main support of his younger brother, three sisters and mother, while his father had been taken off to a detention camp for “enemy” aliens. Etsuko had been just out of high school when she married the, by then, successful restaurant owner. The years eventually brought two children: Kay and her younger brother. The years, and a lot of hard work, also brought a half dozen more restaurants which became one of the more famous chains on Oahu.

  The new condominium was a spacious, four bedroom affair, each with its own bathroom. It included a large dining area and an equally large front room. The kitchen was magnificent, well u
p to her fathers standards, while a balcony lanai of impressive proportions looked out onto an only partially obstructed view of the Pacific. Since the condominium was close to Waikiki, Kay assumed it was expensive. Even so, she wasnt prepared for the sum her mother mentioned.

  “Your father isnt completely retired, you know, Keiko. He wanted to be here near what he calls his “flagship,” The Hokkaido. And theres the mens club down by De Russy. I think hell be happy here, and hes planning on using the lanai for his orchids.”

  “ But the money!” Kay couldnt help but exclaim, since her parents had always been frugal.

  Etsuko laughed, and the laughter triggered off memories for Kay, memories of the rippling laugh. “I was appalled, butyour fathers accountant pointed out how much we would have to pay in taxes if we didnt move from our old house into something this expensive.” Now the repeated laugh was accompanied by a shake of the head. “Its a funny world where you have to spend money to save money.”

  When the three of them had settled down in the comfortable front room, Yoshito and Etsuko gave Kay a current rundown on immediate relatives. One of Etsukos sisters was living close-by though, at the moment, off on a trip to the mainland. Yoshitos three sisters were scattered across the United States, but there was some talk of a family reunion in Los Angeles at Christmastime.

  Uncle Nate, Yoshitos brother, would be by for supper and would be staying overnight, but had to go to an important restaurateurs convention in San Francisco on the following day.

  In the morning mail, Kay's parents had received a long letter from Kays only sibling, her younger brother working in public health in Egypt. The letter was soon passing from hand to hand.

  After finishing the letter, Kay said, “Its too bad Brian cant be here.”

  Etsuko nodded. Yoshito laughed and said, “Even with all our rooms (he waved his hand to encompass the width and breadth of the condominium), he would have still had to sleep on the floor.”

  Kay look puzzled and Etsuko answered her unasked question. “Well, you know your Uncle Nathaniel is coming for supper. Hes staying overnight and will be flying out tomorrow. And, do you remember Haruko Utada?”

  Kay nodded. Haruko had been one ofEtsukos closest friends but, unlike Kays mother, Harukos married life had been a tragedy. Her husband, who had been about Yoshitos age, had been a drinker even before their marriage and had soon become a complete alcoholic. After some ten years of a thoroughly unhappy marriage, the husband managed to kill himself in a traffic accident. Not long afterwards, Haruko had married again, this time far more successfully, and moved with her new husband to the East Coast. “How could I forget her,” Kay answered. “She used to babysit me. Is she going to be here?”

  “No. Shes still in Philadelphia. But her daughter is coming to Hawaii. Do you remember her? Her names Marcella. She visited here once with Haruko and Jim, maybe fifteen or twenty years ago.”

  Kay did have vague memories of a solemn little girl sitting very primly on the old damask sofa in their house. A teen-ager, herself, engrossed at the time with an adolescent love affair, she could now bring back nothing more than a fuzzy image of the silent figure.

  “Shes going to graduate school at the University,” Etsuko continued. “I told Haruko she could stay with us. But, you know how young girls are these days. She wants an apartment of her own. Shell be here for supper and for the weekend, but when I spoke to her over the phone, she said she would be out apartment hunting near the Manoa campus on Monday.”

  Kay gave little thought to Marcella. It was the other guest, Uncle Nate, who she was looking forward to seeing again.

  It wasnt until after lunch when Kay found the opportunity to bring up her most recent case and to ask her parents if they knew any of the officers of Hawaiian Harvest.

  “Ive known Joe Demos for years,” Yoshito said, surprisingly. “There was a while there when he was our exclusive supplier of macnuts, just after Nathaniel opened the Madame Butterfly.”

  Kay remembered only too well the Madame Butterfly. Uncle Nate had been a twenty-year man. With his army retirement pay, and a small loan from Yoshito, he had opened his own restaurant. Yoshito had shaken his head over the name and the fare, an eclectic menu Uncle Nate smilingly referred to as American-Japanese-United Nations. What surprised everyoneUncle Nate included, as he admitted many years laterthe Madame Butterfly was a smashing success.

  “Yes, I knew Joe when all he owned was a fifty-acre orchard over on the Big Island. Etsuko knows him to. Yeah? He was never out to the house, but we went to one or two of those parties he used to give for his customers.”

  “What was he like?” Kay asked.

  “He changed. When I first met him he was a hard worker. Yeah? Hed bought those acres of lava field over on the Big Island about ten years before. Cleared it all himself, blasted and bulldozed the rock, dug holes for the trees and put it all into macnuts and windbreaks. When I knew him, he was running the farm. Instead of selling his crop to the big processors over there, he bought the husking and roasting and packaging machinery and went into business for himself. And then he did all his own marketing. Well, prices were real high for macnuts back then, and he did all right.”

  “You say he changed. What happened?”

  Yoshito smiled. “Success, I guess. Yeah?”

  Kay gave an answering smile, thinking how little her fathers success had changed him.

  Surprisingly, Etsuko broke in and said, “Zoe.”

  Yoshito nodded in agreement.

  Kay asked,“Did you know her too?”

  Her mother and father looked at each other, then both nodded. Yoshito said, “We knew her before she married Joe. Before she even met him. Yeah?”

  “She worked in our Pearl City restaurant,” Etsuko added quietly.

  Yoshito nodded in agreement. “I hired her as a waitress. She was a good one too. She was married to one of those navy divers. „Seals, they called them. They did demolition work. Yeah? Then, one day, he got killed. It was all over the papers but, Keiko, you were too young then to remember. It was a big explosion in one of those ships in the harbor. I told Zoe afterwards she could come back to work anytime. But she never did. Then she met Joe, and they got married.”

  Etsukos comment was, “She changed a lot too.”

  To herself, Kay said, Wow! What a change. The Pearl City restaurant had been one of Yoshitos more humble though not least profitable restaurants. For Zoe it was, to say the least, quite a step up from hashing in The Sushi Maru to being mistress of the Lady Mac.

  As it turned out, neither of Kays parents could contribute much about the social life of the Demoses. But her father described in some detail how Joe had managed and then mismanaged Hawaiian Harvest.

  “A business is like a plant. You cant neglect the fertilizer. Yeah? Joe put a lot of time and effort and money into the business up until about ten years ago. Then it began to slide, and slide and slide. Yeah? I suppose, if someone didnt know much about business, it still might have looked pretty good, four or five years ago, but Joe and Zoe, they got more interested in yachts and fancy cars and trips to Europe. You cant do that. No?”

  When Kay moved on to the other officers of Hawaiian Harvest, Yoshito had little to offer. Etsuko remembered the “tall haole” woman with the Korean name whod been at one of the parties given by Hawaiian Harvest, but could say little else about her. As expected, Uncle Nate was referred to for more information on Richard Hanamoto.

  “Oh, yes, Keiko,” Etsuko said, “Nathaniel went to high school with Richard. They were close friends.”

  Close friends, Kay thought. Thats what I was hoping for.

  ***

  Corky had just come into Hanks office, a cup of police station coffee in hand. She plopped herself down into the overstuffed second-hand chair making do as office furniture.

  The lieutenant looked up from the papers hed been flipping through. “How can you drink that stuff all day? If I have a cup of it after noon, I toss and turn all night.”

 
“Bad conscience, Hank. Besides, you go to bed too early. Stay up until after midnight, and it wont matter how much coffee you drink during the day.”

  Hanks answer was a non-committal grunt.

  “You get the final pm on Charlotte Dyer yet?” Corky asked after a swallow of the acrid tasting concoction.

  “Thats what Im looking at right now, and our rabbity prosecuting attorney is going to love it.”

  “It could have been an accident. Right?”

  “Yeah. At least according to Clyde. No skin or blood under her fingernails. No bruises other than the one on her head, which could easily have come from the floor lamp. Plus her thin skull. Damn! Sid or Kay will be in court for sure with an order, and Emil will drop the charges.”

  “Isnt it better to drop the charges now than to drag OHearne into court and then have him found innocent?”

  “Yeah? What makes you think it would be so likely?”

  “Because even if it was murder, everything now points to someone else besides OHearne.”

  “Why so?”

  “The money, Hank. The money. Doesnt it look to you like someone talked Charlotte into opening the safe, then maybe killed her by accident? So then the killer panics and sends the money back. Its kinda like getting rid of the blame by getting rid of the money.”

  Hank stared at his Sergeant. “Where in hell did you ever get ideas like that?”

  “Ive been reading up on the psychology of criminals.”

  The answer brought another grunt to the surface.

  Corky ignored the interruption. “And you gotta admit if money was the motive, OHearne couldnt be the killer.”

  Hanks eyes narrowed. He pushed the papers away, saying. “OK. Lets see you explain the psychology behind that. Do you mean OHearne wouldnt kill someone for money?”