by Mary Deal
One evening, long after dark, someone rang Sara's front door bell. Officer Makamai would not come after dark without first calling, she was sure of that. She peaked out of the upstairs window but saw no patrol car. A few neighbors' cars were parked in their driveways, but no one parked in the street or in front of her house. Birdie wouldn't ring the doorbell. She had been given a key after the accident and would let herself in and then call out to say she had entered.
Sara's senses shot up on high alert. She quietly crept downstairs, barely breathing, and looked through the peep hole in the front door and saw no one. With the help of a street light shining nearby, something barely showed and moved at the bottom of the area she could see through the peep hole but she couldn't make out what it was. Had someone rung her doorbell and then stooped down? Another shot of adrenalin raced through her.
Did someone mean to do harm when she opened the door, just jump up and catch her unaware? Sara gritted her teeth, determined not to let anyone get the best of her. Adrenaline rushed through her nervous system. She slipped away from the door and into the kitchen and telephoned Birdie.
“Open your door.” Birdie laughed into the phone. “Just open it.”
“Can you see who's there? I think someone has stooped down so I can't see them.”
Birdie snickered. “Just open your door. It's okay.”
Sara hesitated at the front door. If Birdie could see her doorway and say it was okay, then….
She slowly opened the door. On the stoop sat a huge potted bouquet of luscious silk tropical flowers, leaves and vines. Sara gasped and put her hand to her mouth. She stepped outside and looked over to Birdie's house. Birdie's face poked over the rock wall with a most delightful smile. Just as Sara was about to walk over, Huxley stepped away from the side of the house where he had waited.
Chapter 31
Sara screamed, couldn't move, couldn't close her mouth as it hung agape. Tears sprung from her eyes. Then they ran to each other. Huxley swooped her up in his arms and turned circles on the lawn. Finally, he put her down. Tears made Huxley's blue-topaz eyes sparkle even more. Yet, he looked worried and weary. He wore a tasteful aloha shirt and dark slacks.
She remembered the first time she saw him at Esmerelda's hospice. He wore an aloha shirt, drove away before they could meet, and left her wishing to know that dashing, mysterious and elusive man. Sara didn't know how long they stood entwined. Before going indoors, he retrieved a piece of carry-on luggage stowed at the side of the house.
“Thought silks would be best for indoors plants.” He hesitated but intensity was there. “Live ones would miss you and die when you're gone.” That one statement attested to the depth of his commitment and how much he missed her.
The next three days were spent indoors and mostly in bed. At times, Huxley seemed preoccupied with thoughts. Her intuition said he wasn't saying everything that was on his mind, but preferred to enjoy the few personal moments they had together. These precious hours were all about them. The rest of the world seemed non-existent. Both remained in bed clothes or partially dressed for the all too short time, sequestered from the world they could forget for one brief period.
Wise old Birdie knew better than to invite herself over. Her only intrusion was to call and say food was waiting on the lanai and the fish had to be eaten or put into the fridge right away. Caught with little food in the house, Sara gave thanks for her nosey neighbor.
Sara found the tray of fresh cut vegetables, and a bowl of fresh avocado dip under cover on the lanai table. There was a large dish of poke, the island favorite raw fish salad. Beside that was a huge koa wood bowl of fresh papaya, mango, loquat, rambutan, star fruit and others.
All too soon, they had to acknowledge the world again. “When can you return to the Delta?” Huxley dived into a thick slice of juicy sunrise papaya.
It really would be easier for them to see more of each other since he was frequently in California, in both San Francisco and Sacramento. With him searching for both his brother and Esmerelda's daughter, he was Esmerelda's most frequent visitor and support in the effort. Too, the Kauai house was only a stopover R&R point. She never meant it as a permanent address for herself though she had begun to love the island and saw herself participating in many local events. Yet, Sara needed to be back on the Mainland to support Huxley and the Orson Talbot Foundation.
“Hopefully soon.” She still had not started remodeling like she intended and knew it may not get started for some time. However, the house was quite nice as it was. “We never know how these cases will play out, or how soon.” She explained the facts of Leia's case. “I'd like to see this thing through, if it's possible.
Huxley folded his paper napkin, not looking at her. “Soon, okay?” His serious expression had not changed. “Do you remember that I told you about a key, about a small Hmong boy who wears it on a string around his neck?”
“Yes, an American made key.”
“Well, coincidences do happen.” He pushed his plate away. “Our vets just teamed up with a group called JPAC out of Honolulu. We—”
“Wait, what's JPAC?” She cut a wedge of mountain apple. Sara hadn't yet tasted some of the local fruit. She continued sampling. Then a realization hit her. “You were in Honolulu?”
“Yes, out at Tripler Army Medical Center. Haven't had a chance to tell you.” He leaned across the table. “But if you think I would come to Honolulu and not come to see you…” He looked hopeful. “I have to get back right away. We've got our next trek to Nam approved, thanks to JPAC. The guys and I have months of planning to do now and new people to work with.”
“So tell me about JPAC. What's that group?”
“Very shortened for Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command. Based out of Tripler.”
“So you'll be involved with them looking for MIAs?”
“Sara, listen to this.” He left his chair and went to sit in the one beside her. “They claim they'll not stop till every missing service person is accounted for. They have the world's largest and most cutting edge forensic laboratory.”
“That's a huge break for you, Hux, and such a commitment from them.”
Huxley had not relaxed back into the seat. He leaned with an elbow on the table top as he faced her. “On average, every four days an MIA's remains—when available—are identified. Oh, and that includes unknowns from other wars too. Unknown soldiers' graves are being dug up and identified. The families want it.” So much excitement came through Huxley's voice that, surely, he felt a deluge of hope for himself and the others of his team.
“But you've got to find an MIA's remains first before an identity can be made.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But listen, in one case, they sifted through eighty tons of earth at a helicopter crash site in Nam and found the crown of a tooth.”
“Eighty tons and only a crown?”
“JPAC confirms that the ground in Nam is extremely acidic, like we already know, and that possibly very little human remains will be found after all these decades.”
The acidic soil would explain why Huxley's group's first find consisted only of a dog tag and a wedding ring and no bodily evidence. “This time, we found a fragment of a tag and links from a gold chain, but again, no trace of human remains.”
“Exactly. Maybe only metal and such will be found but we'll get our dog tag identified. It's almost a sure thing.” He paused only a moment, excitement pouring from him. “At that chopper site they talked about, that one fragment of tooth was found and nothing else.” He finally relaxed back into the chair. “It was through mitochondrial DNA that they were able to identify that it belonged to the chopper pilot. Until then, it wasn't known if he died or walked away from the crash site and was captured because his tags were never found.” Huxley seemed momentarily saddened. “I shudder to think his tags along with body parts must have blown far afield when they crashed.”
“Maybe the VC took them to prevent an identity.” Sara pushed away the bowl of remaining
fruit. “So you brought the fragments we found to JPAC? I understand what this means for you, Huxley. I really do.” They had gotten side-tracked with so much to share and so little time. “So what's JPAC got to do with that key the little boy wears?”
Huxley sat forward again, his expression full of hope and renewed vigor. At that moment, he was intense, focused, like he could burst from being full of news. He definitely held something new inside his mind. “JPAC's also heard of that boy! Not only will our team be traveling with JPAC on the next trip, specific members of their staff have been assigned to scour the trail we searched to help locate the others. They'll push ahead, too, from where we left off.” Huxley had tears in his eyes. That kind of help meant he stood a good chance of finding his brother's remains, especially if that boy in Vietnam could show them the exact location or even the vicinity where the key was found. Hope was alive and well, but that's all it could be for the time being.
Neither had a chance to sample all that tropical fruit and food. “We'd better stop before we gorge ourselves.” She cleared the table of the plates and the bowl of fruit rinds and seeds.
Hux walked up behind her at the kitchen counter, spun her around, and kissed her. Then he slowly smothered her face with more endearing pecks. He kissed the healing wound on the top of her head. Upstairs after a brief nap, and after making love again, they lay entwined and sated. Still, she could feel his mind return to the searches. She was right.
“I need to see that key.” He rolled over to face her, leaned on an arm and spoke softly. “That Hmong boy was given it by an uncle and told never to remove it. Rumor has it, he won't take it off even to bathe.”
“Why do you think it has anything to do with your brother?”
Huxley was deep in thought. “Wonder what happened to her.” He was almost mumbling.
“Who, Hux?”
“Emma… Emma Ellis, Rocky's girlfriend in San Francisco. Rocky seemed serious about her, but none in our family got to meet her before he shipped out. My sister has a few pictures of them together though.”
“She never contacted your family over the years?”
“Quite a few times.” He lay back again. “Emma seemed really distraught, but I guess she just got on with her life. Her letters ended at a time when she had been sending at least one a week.”
“What could she have been talking about?”
“Emma and Rocky knew each other a while. They traveled a bit, talked about it in her mail. Mom and Dad clung to any news of Rocky. Then Emma's letters stopped unexpectedly and she never answered the ones Mom sent. All Mom and Dad could do was read and re-read her mail so they could feel close to my brother. I was only a kid but I remember it like it was yesterday. Seeing Mom and Dad suffering was when I set my mind to doing what I'm doing now.”
“And I remember you saying later is when your wife divorced you because of your constant involvement with the searches.”
He raised a eyebrow and half shrugged. “Yeah, some commitment she had.”
“If that key is your brother's, maybe you should try to locate Emma.” No matter where Emma's life took her, she could also be hanging on the edge through the years wishing for closure.
“I thought of that, but everything hinges on the mystery of the key.” Huxley was silent a moment, deep in thought with eyes closed. Then he spoke softly. “Before the uncle died, he told that boy that someone from America may come looking for that key and he was to give it to them.”
Chapter 32
After Huxley's emotional departure, Sara had difficulty sleeping. She didn't want to wash the sheets and clung to the pillow that Huxley shared, breathing in every possible trace of his scent. She felt torn between returning to the Delta, or staying on Kauai. The puzzle of the missing little Leia begged to be solved and Sara was onto something.
The Kauai house also needed some improvements, although those projects could wait. “This is the state of your life.” She mumbled the admonishment. She sighed, standing beside the bed wishing to see Huxley between the sheets. “This is obsessive!” She tore the sheets and pillow cases off the bed and made it up fresh.
The next morning, Sara woke with a revelation so strong she leaped out of bed before clearing her eyes. She threw on a Bali print beach cover up dress, ran fingers through her hair without looking into a mirror, then hurried next door seeking validation from one who understood the island ways.
Ka'imi met her at the gate and nearly tripped her as she hurried to the rear lanai.
Birdie poked at potted plants outside her greenhouse and still wore a short nightgown. Her legs resembled toothpicks dangling from a balloon as the breeze billowed the gown. “You didn't bring a hot mug?” She feigned surprise, even disappointment. She led Sara into the kitchen where fresh coffee was brewing.
Sara wished to avoid Birdie's chit-chat. She petted Ka'imi's head but didn't want to play just then even though Ka'imi pawed and licked. What Sara needed to know was important, even urgent. “Tell me more about kapu, Birdie.”
“It means forbidden, I told you that.”
“What about the old laws that many still follow? The meanings for the indigenous Hawaiians? I heard many still follow the old ways, in fact, some are trying to bring them back.”
Birdie went to the refrigerator and brought out a small tray of pastries. “Cream cheese blueberry scones. Want me to heat you one?”
The aroma of fresh brewed coffee invited. Sara's stomach rumbled. “Would be nice with the coffee.” She poured herself a cup and sipped while Birdie put two scones into the microwave, then poured another cup for Birdie.
“This kapu business really spooked you, didn't it?” Birdie sipped thoughtfully, leaning against the kitchen counter and staring at the floor. “In the old days, if a person broke kapu, it was an immediate death sentence.” She explained that breaking kapu often meant a threat to spiritual power, or the theft of mana, which may be someone's personal power.
Sara went to sit at the table. “So those were the old ways. A lot of Hawaiians try to honor the original culture, but this is today.”
“So it is, but the meaning holds. Symbols of kapu are used to mark an area as forbidden, or to signify an object or something that shouldn't be touched or moved. No one should violate whatever the kapu applies to.”
“What about kapu with a pig skin? Surely, the skin is symbolic. Didn't you say it meant that a person should stay out of an area where someone hangs a skin?”
“Well, yeah. If you see a pig skin, you turn around and walk away.” Birdie's eyes opened wide. “Like the pig skin on the trail.”
Two possibilities existed. Someone hung that warning to keep people in general out of the area, yet, with all the threatening occurrences happening to her, Sara wondered otherwise. “Do you think the kapu was meant for me?”
Birdie swallowed another sip of coffee as the microwave buzzer went off. She placed the scones on plates and came to the table. “You were already past the area, weren't you? You saw it after you were coming down.” Sara shook her head in agreement. “The person either didn't care or wasn't aware that people were already in the area.” Birdie blew on a tidbit of her scone to cool it and then fed it to Ka'imi. “Even so, the message is clear, but no one's going to be killed for being up there on that trail. It just doesn't happen like that anymore.”
“Okay, so what about this? One guy seemed dead serious about leaving, even threatening. One of the other guys waved shaka.” Sara held up her hand with the thumb and pinkie projected and the other fingers curled in like she had seen it done by others so many times. “Like this, right? I thought this was a sign of friendship.”
“It is, but some local words and actions mean several things.”
“So one guy seemed threatening, another one's pretty loose. What's with that?
“Just different reactions to the skin, I'd assume.”
Sara propped her elbows on the tabletop, dropped her chin to her clasped hands, and remained quiet momentarily. “Birdie, someone d
oesn't want hikers up there on that cliff. It's called the howling cliffs because the dogs sense something beyond human ability.”
“And you think the skin was a warning message to you because someone learned that you're involved in missing person cases?”
“Could it be?” Was it such a farfetched idea considering the life threatening acts perpetuated against her? Till then, she had little time to investigate deeper into the two perverts whose investigations by the police were at dead ends. Yet, they were long gone from Kauai with one now dead. Another person or persons meant to stop her from exposing the truth. Someone knew that she had gotten involved in little Leia's case and that it could be re-opened by the police and the perpetrator caught. That's why the life threatening accidents were directed at her. Leia's case was the only reason. The perpetrator was someone still on the Island and probably never left. She reached over and clutched Birdie's hand across the table. “There is something up there in those cliffs that someone doesn't want me to find.” She tapped her chest. “The kapu was meant for me!”
Sara continued her walks, gaining back strength lost in the accident. Her strength was almost normal, but her vigilance had heightened. She visualized the howling cliffs. The idea that someone didn't want her up there only goaded her into wishing to know why.
One late afternoon, she had gotten as far as the Arboretum. She debated whether to climb to the cliffs or return another day when she had more time to investigate. Ka'imi drank from her bowl of water. She was faring extremely well and it seemed as though the treks helped ease her arthritic condition. A trek up to the howling cliffs would tell Sara if her own reflexes and stamina had returned to normal.
Sara took Ka'imi off the leash, allowing her a taste of freedom. It hadn't been a strain to make it to the top. Sara's strength had endured, as did her spirits. She could consider herself recovered from the effects of her concussion, at least as far as her physical stamina was concerned.
Ka'imi, however, surprised her and seemed to be ailing again. She had lagged behind several times and Sara had to coax her to catch up. Ka'imi probably wouldn't get lost among the switchbacks but Sara preferred having her close by. It was strange behavior considering her past enjoyment of sniffing along the mountainside.