O'ahu Lonesome Tonight? (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series #5)

by Bassett, JoAnn

  “I wish,” he said. “I’m a bartender there.”

  “Yes, thanks to Stu,” Natalie added. “Jason’s had a few scrapes with the law. If it wasn’t for Stu who knows where he’d be.” She shot Jason a ‘don’t forget your place’ look.

  “She’s right. Stu got me the job. He and I go way back.”

  “So I’ve heard,” I said. “Were you working the night Stu fell in the canal?”

  “I was. In fact, I walked out with Stu when we closed. Last thing I saw he was heading to his car. He even offered to take me home, but it’s in the opposite direction from where he was going so I told him I’d take the bus.”

  Natalie seemed irritated at being ignored.

  “Did the doctor come out yet?” she said.

  “No. Moko’s going in to check, so hopefully we’ll find out something. I guess Barry’s still in there.”

  “That Barry,” said Natalie. “If I find out he’s in there bothering Stuart about work stuff, I’ll get his name taken off the visitor list.”

  The three of us lapsed into an uneasy silence. “I guess I’ll go back and see if Moko found out anything,” I said. “You want to walk back with me, Natalie?”

  “You go ahead. I need to make a stop at the ladies’ room.”

  She didn’t make a move to get up. As I pushed through the glass doors I glanced back. Natalie had an unlit cigarette clamped between her lips and she was digging through her voluminous Fendi purse like a terrier after a bone.

  ***

  Moko was sitting in the waiting room when I got back. He was talking to Barry—‘the big boss.’ I walked over and they both stood.

  “Pali, I’d like you to meet my boss, Barry Salazar.”

  I stuck out my hand and gave him the ‘Homeland Security Special’—a handshake we practiced in air marshal training: grip and grin while locking on the eyes searching for tells. I threw in a mumbled, Nice to meet you, even though it’s not technically part of the protocol.

  Barry eyed me like a guy in the market for horse flesh. “The pleasure’s all mine, I’m sure,” he said. Barry was what my Auntie Mana, the woman who raised me, would’ve called a ‘fancy man.’ He had a sort of Mediterranean flair: swarthy complexion, thick shock of salt and pepper hair, and gold jewelry adorning fingers, neck and wrist, not to mention an oversize diamond ear stud.

  “You were in with Stu earlier,” I said. “How’s he doing?”

  “Not so good, I’m afraid,” said Barry. “Stu and I had a quick meeting at the club on Tuesday and I guess after I left Stu got into a little scuffle. Somehow, he ended up in the canal. They brought him here to the ER and patched him up and he was fine. Now the docs are saying the leg’s gotten infected. Figures. Guy shows up sound as a dollar and after a few hours in this place he turns into a full-blown pus factory.”

  I held back a wince. I didn’t want to encourage him.

  “Do they have a prognosis?”

  “They call it, guarded, whatever the hell that means. His leg’s blown up like a damn balloon. Gunk draining outta it looks like rotten mayo.”

  I clenched my hands then made myself release them. I practice martial arts. The first rule of winning is to psych out the opponent. Don’t kid a kidder, I thought as I shot Barry what I hoped passed for a pleasant smile.

  “By the way, where’s the little wife?” Barry looked around the waiting room.

  “She’s outside. She needed some air.”

  “Poor thing,” he said. “She’s been through a lot these past few months.”

  “She’s tough, though,” said Moko. “Her people are from China. They’re used to disasters. Stu says when she was a little kid she was shipped off to Hong Kong with some relatives. He said no matter what happens, he’s never seen her cry. He says she’s probably gonna be one of those ‘tiger moms’ to their kid.”

  “I need to get back to work,” said Barry. “We’re in the middle of something big and with Stu out of commission I’m going to be doing double duty. Can I give you a ride, Moko?”

  The offer of a ride seemed to be a not-so-subtle hint that Moko was expected to take a page from Natalie’s book. Suck it up. Get back to work.

  “I think I’ll stick around a little longer,” Moko said. “Jus’ to be here when he turns the corner.”

  “He’ll turn that corner whether you’re here or not,” said Barry.

  Moko bit his bottom lip and nodded. “You’re right. Maybe work’ll keep my mind off it. Pali, you call me right away when you hear anything, okay?”

  Barry and Moko left. A few minutes later Natalie showed up alone.

  “You want to go in with me to see him?” I said.

  She shook her head. “Like I said, I’m not good with hospitals. The smells, the machines, the blood. I’m barely able to handle being here in the waiting room.”

  “You planning on a home delivery with that baby?” I said.

  She scowled.

  “Look,” I said. “I think it’ll help if we see him. Sometimes things sound a lot worse than they really are.”

  Boy, was I wrong.

  CHAPTER 17

  A metallic tang hit my nose before my eyes had time to take in the visuals. The shades in Stu’s room were drawn; it was dim except for the stripe of blue-tinged light from the half-open door to the bathroom. The room was crammed with machines, humming, beeping, and plinking. I half-expected to find a Star Wars robot in the bed rather than a living, breathing person. The patient in the center of it all appeared vaguely human, but he looked nothing like my brother Stuart. First off, his face was swollen, his eyes closed. His hair had been shaved off the right side of his head and his scalp swabbed with a yellow-brown liquid. A cottony white bandage covered his ear.

  Stu’s arms were on the outside of the waffle-weave blanket, neatly aligned alongside his rigid body. Below his waist, the blanket had been tented above his body and a length of clear tubing snaked from under the blanket to somewhere beneath the bed. God knows what sort of outflow the tube carried. I had zero desire to peek beneath the bed to check it out.

  “Oh, no,” said Natalie.

  I’d almost forgotten she’d come in behind me. I turned and caught her eye.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” she whispered.

  I rolled a padded stool from over by the door. “Here, take a seat,” I said. “I’m sorry. I should have come in first and checked it out.”

  Natalie sank down on the stool and grabbed at a near-by IV pole as if she was having a hard time keeping her balance. The door opened and a nurse came in, squeaking toward us on thick rubbery soles. Her hair was covered in a blue cap and she wore a billowy blue paper gown and blue face mask. Her hands were sheathed in latex gloves.

  “How did you get in here without gowning up?” she said from behind her mask.

  “We just came in,” I said. “No one told us about—”

  “There’s a sign on the door.” Even with her mouth covered I could make out her fierce frown.

  I helped Natalie to her feet and we left.

  “I guess we need to put all this stuff on,” I said as I lifted a blue paper gown and disposable cap from a cart outside the door.

  “I can’t do it,” she said. “I’ve got morning sickness. And this is not helping. Besides, he’s not even awake.”

  “Stu may not look awake, but I’ve heard that even people in comas know what’s going on around them. They can recognize voices and they understand what people are saying even if they can’t respond.”

  “Well, Stuart wouldn’t want to hear anything I have to say. I mean, he looks terrible, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, he looks pretty bad,” I said. “I thought he just fell in the canal. But Barry said something about a bar fight before he got there. I wonder if that’s when he injured his ear.”

  “Who knows? But I’ve got to get out of here and get some air.”

  “Natalie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No smoking, okay?”

  She
narrowed her eyes but said nothing as she clip-clopped toward the swinging doors that led out of the ICU.

  I slipped on the required blue garb and went back into Stu’s room. Now that the initial shock had worn off, he didn’t look so bad to me. His face was discolored and puffy, but I could still make out Stu’s distinctive sharp nose and high cheekbones. And, even in sleep, his mouth bore the same near-smirk as I’d seen on my father’s face a few months earlier.

  “Hey, Stu.” I leaned in to whisper in his good ear. “It’s me, Pali. I see you had a little mishap, but you’re going to be fine. I got bitch-slapped by the nurse for breaking the rules, so I know they’re serious about taking good care of you.”

  A doctor-type bustled in followed by an entourage of four younger people I assumed were ‘almost-a-doctors’. Everyone was covered, head to toe, in the blue sterile gear. They looked like a Smurf family.

  “Are you his wife?” the doctor-type said to me.

  I considered my options, but went with the truth. “No, I’m his sister, Pali.”

  “Very well. Only family allowed in for the next twenty-four hours.”

  I nodded.

  He turned to address the wanna-bes. “What we have here is a male Caucasian, approximately thirty years of age, brought in by paramedics two nights ago after being pulled from the Ala Wai Canal. The patient presented with signs of mild trauma, was treated in the Emergency Department, and released. This morning, he experienced severe pain in the right leg and head wound. He also began to run a fever. He was transported once again to the ER and admitted to the general surgical ward. But once we realized the possible cause of the patient’s infection we brought him up here. The lab’s working up a full panel. He’s—”

  From that point on, the guy lapsed into doc-talk, a language I don’t speak. I heard words like ‘sepsis’ and ‘contusions’ and a few other words that have crept into normal everyday language, but most of it was a jumble of Latin-sounding mumbo-jumbo that I couldn’t decipher.

  The doc then proceeded to bombard the mini-docs with a flurry of questions. One guy in particular stood out as the Jeopardy winner. He was a good foot taller than the rest, but since they were all well-hidden behind their matching blue gowns, caps and masks, there’s no way I could’ve picked him out in a line-up.

  There was a lot of nodding heads and squinting eyes while the docs discussed Stu’s situation, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the discussion. Besides, it was hard to make out who was saying what behind the blue paper masks.

  At the conclusion of the teaching moment, the main doc came over to Stu’s side and gently lifted one of my brother’s eyelids. He shined a penlight into the eye and made a noncommittal sound like ‘hmm.’ He allowed the eye to shut and then went around the bed and raised the blanket tent over Stu’s legs. He squinted his face into what I considered an unprofessional-looking scowl, but he said nothing.

  He gestured for the others to leave and they turned and marched out.

  After they’d shut the door he turned to me. “Do you have any questions for me?” he said.

  “How’s he doing?”

  The doctor looked at Stu and then back to me. In a gentle voice he said, “We’re doing everything we can. But just in case, are you aware if your brother has his affairs in order?”

  CHAPTER 18

  I was unprepared for the charge of emotion that shot through me when the doctor inquired about Stuart’s ‘affairs’. The room blurred and I felt a fist of pain in my chest. A few deep breaths relieved most of it, but just in case, I eased my fingertips down to the edge of Stu’s bed and steadied myself.

  “I’m sorry to shock you,” said the doctor. “But false hope doesn’t serve anyone. We’re prepared to go the distance to save your brother’s life, but I’m afraid it may require some sacrifices. I’ve been a hospitalist here for over twelve years and I’ve never observed a patient decline so quickly. I wish I had better news.”

  His eyes looked genuinely sympathetic.

  “You think he might die?” I said. A second after it was out of my mouth I remembered what I’d said to Natalie about coma patients and I felt guilty.

  The doctor put a hand on my shoulder and walked me to the door. In a low voice he said, “We’re doing all we can to get him through this. But there are no guarantees. We’ve got to get the upper hand on this infection. Once we do, I’ll be in a better position to give you a prognosis.”

  “Did he get this infection here in the hospital?”

  “I sincerely think he didn’t. And the preliminary results from the lab bear that out. The type of infection we’re treating here is most likely associated with fecal contamination.”

  “Like from sewage?”

  “Could be.”

  “Like from the millions of gallons of crap they’ve dumped in the Ala Wai Canal since the rainstorm started?”

  “I can’t speculate on the source of the bacteria, but I can assure you this particular strain is not consistent with any typical hospital contamination. As you can see, we’ve gone to great measures to isolate and contain the situation.”

  “Mahalo, Doctor. I appreciate everything you’re doing.”

  “Is there anything we can do for you or your ohana?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, just in case, I’ll have the nursing staff notify social services to get in touch with you. They’re a good resource at times like this.”

  He left and I went back to Stu’s beside. “Hang in there, bruddah. You’re going to get through this. And when you do, your big sista is going to teach you how to tell time on your big fancy Rolex watch.”

  I reached over to squeeze his hand, but pulled my hand back at the last second. Instead, I patted the blanket next to his arm and left the room. I tossed my disposable blue gear in the ‘biohazard’ container outside his door. As I pushed through the swinging doors to the hallway outside I rehearsed how I’d break the news to Natalie. But no matter how I framed it, there was no easy way around the facts. Stu had a steep road ahead of him.

  ***

  Natalie wasn’t in the waiting room. I collapsed in a chair and watched as a noisy group of ten or twelve people came in and staked a claim to the far corner. While the grown-ups talked, their boisterous keiki began a game of follow-the-leader through an obstacle course—over and under chairs, across tables and around lamps in the waiting room. After a few minutes, a toddler-aged boy fell as he attempted to crawl across a side table in the wake of an older, more nimble girl. I heard the little guy’s head crack on the edge of the table as he went down. There was a half-second of stunned silence and then the screaming started.

  “Ahhh,” he yelled. “Keohi made me! Ahhh.”

  “Why you do that?” barked an older woman from the group. “You keiki stop that. This a hospital, not a playground.”

  A younger woman went over and scooped up the crying kid. “You’re okay. Come sit in mama’s lap, okay?”

  The kid kept yelling.

  “Keohi, come get your brother,” she said.

  The little girl crossed her arms and stood her ground. “Why I gotta get him? I didn’t do nothing. Luka started it.”

  For some reason, observing the everyday push-pull of normal ohana life brought back the pain in my chest. I got up and went down the hall to see if I could find a cup of coffee.

  As I passed the glass doors leading outside, I glimpsed Natalie and Jason on a bench on the far side of the courtyard. I went outside to ask if they’d like to join me for coffee, but before the door closed behind me, Natalie leapt to her feet. “Don’t you see what’s going on?” she hissed at Jason. “How can you be so stupid?”

  I stopped. I was in that no man’s land between wanting to dash back inside before they saw me, but realizing they probably already had. I sucked it up and kept going.

  “Hey, you two. I thought I might find you out here.”

  “Hi, Pali,” said Jason. “How’s our guy doing?”

  “He’s hanging in th
ere,” I said.

  “I wish I could see him. But they say only family can go in.”

  “You wuss,” said Natalie. “Barry went in. Tell them you’re his brother. What do you think they’re going to do, demand a birth certificate?”

  There was an awkward moment of silence. Then Natalie grabbed her purse and stomped past me on her way back inside.

  “What was that about?” I said.

  “Beats me. I s’pose she’s gotta blame someone. But at least she’s just bitchin’ at me. She’s got it in her head that Barry did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “Tossed Stu in the canal. She wants to go to the police, but I’m trying to talk her out of it.”

  “Why would Barry do something like that?”

  “Because Stu owes him a ton of money. Stu told me Barry’s had a tough time of it lately and he wanted to sell the boat yard. He had a buyer lined up and everything. But Stu talked him out of it. He said he’d loan him a bunch of money after his dad died. Even talked Barry into ordering a new crane and some new equipment. But I guess when it came time to pony up, Stu gave him excuses instead of the cash.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “Hey, I’m not only Stu’s best friend, I’m a bartender at a private club. Most guys would rather bend my ear and leave a big tip than pay a shrink to listen to them. Anyway, Stu told me he was working on bringing in another investor. But Barry said he was done with Stu’s promises. I never thought Barry would go so far as to hurt Stu, but Nat seems to think he did.”

  “Tell me about the scuffle that took place at the bar on Tuesday,” I said.

  “Oh that. There’s this guy, Robert Torstrick. He’s kind of a jerk. He owns two or three car dealerships around the islands. Mercedes, Lexus, that sort of thing. Anyway, he gets up in Stu’s face. I didn’t hear what it was about. Next thing I know, there’s some shoving going on. Stu got his leg caught on one of the metal rungs of a bar stool and it tore his pants. I didn’t know he’d gotten hurt until later. Anyway, I told Torstrick to take a hike. We don’t allow that kind of stuff in the club.”