by Kay Hadashi
“A mess?”
“There’s stuff everywhere and half of it is broken.”
“I don’t understand. I was there last evening when they finished searching. It was fairly neat and tidy. Not immaculate, but tidy.”
“It’s a mess now. Do you suppose someone could’ve been inside since then?” she asked.
“Exactly what I was thinking. You know, I’m not far from there. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Melanie stood in the middle of the small apartment, snapping pictures with her phone camera while Mrs. Winston picked through the junk that had been a part of her son’s life only a few days before. Akani left before the detective got there a few minutes later. He nodded to Melanie before going to Addie, greeting her warmly.
“This isn’t how we left it last night,” he said. “The door was locked just now when the manager opened it?”
“She used two keys to open the door,” Melanie said. “She looked like she was surprised also before she left.”
“Why would somebody do this to Kenny’s things?” Addie asked, looking at the bread toaster than had been roughly pulled apart.
The detective uprighted a chair for her to sit, before setting up another for Melanie to use. She waved it off to make another call out in the hallway.
“Maybe we should have a long talk,” the detective said to Addie, just as Melanie left them.
Once she had some privacy, Melanie called Josh. “Where are you?”
“All the way to Kamaole Two, still looking for free-range coconuts. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. I need to put my feet up pretty soon, though.”
“Want me to take you home?” he offered.
“Once we’re done here in Kihei. I plan on napping for the rest of the afternoon, and if you’re nice to me, I’ll let you rub my feet and ankles.”
“Ooh, that’s sexy.”
“And that’s all you’re getting for a while. Just keep going to Kamaole One. We might be a while here in the apartment. Get Tay a shave ice at the food truck that’s parked down there. She likes…”
“Rainbow flavored. We’ve been living on rainbow shave ice all summer.”
“That’s what the two of you do every day while I’m at work? Get snacks at the beach?”
“Pretty much.”
“I want to be three years old again,” she muttered.
“You mean being mayor while having a busy surgical practice, while pregnant, isn’t your fantasy life?”
“Hardly. And you’re responsible for one of those. Remember that when I eventually have my nervous breakdown.”
“If you can, try to schedule the breakdown for after the delivery. It would be easier for everyone involved.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Melanie said.
“How’s it going in the apartment?” he asked.
“Somebody ransacked the place. Really made a mess looking for something.”
“Looking for what?”
“I don’t know, but there’s a lot more to this Kenny Winston than meets the eye.”
“Like what? What could a gay surfer dude from Arizona have to hide?” Josh asked.
“First, we don’t know he was gay, so don’t bring that up again. Second, he’s not so squeaky clean as his mother makes him out to be.”
“How so?”
“They’re still looking into his past, and anything else I say might be a part of their investigation,” Melanie said.
“I’m your husband. Who am I going to tell?”
“I’ll tell you when I can.”
“Yes, that’s right, by the book Mayor Melanie Kato. You’ll never get anywhere in politics if you insist on being honest, Melanie.”
“The only place I want to go in politics is out, thank you very much.” She saw Addie and Detective Nakatani come out of the apartment, the cop locking the door carefully with the keys the manager left behind. Addie had a shopping bag in her hand. “It looks like we’re done. I’ll meet you at the restaurant next door to here, the Surfside Grill.”
The detective excused himself to go talk with the apartment manager. While he took the stairs down, the two women took the elevator again.
“Did he let you keep something?” Melanie asked, wondering what was in the bag.
“The silliest thing. Kenny kept the letters I wrote him. Why would I want these? I wrote them. But that was about all there was that still connected us.”
“Maybe you can put them with the ones he sent you? Make a little book out of them?”
“He never wrote to me. He always called.”
“Well, I think it was nice that he kept them. Only a good son would do something like that,” Melanie said, hoping it would sound encouraging.
“That detective told me a few things about Kenny.”
“Oh?”
“I guess he had a police record at home. Maybe that’s why he came here, to hide out. Did you know that?” Addie asked.
“I heard something about it just a little while ago. But I doubt he was hiding out. From the sounds of it, he answered to whatever problems he had at home before coming here.”
“He never said a word to me about all that.”
“It’s all in the past now, Addie.”
“Everything about my son is in the past.”
The mood that was setting in was plummeting out of control. At least until they saw Thérèse waiting outside the restaurant with Josh.
“Momma! Aunt Addie!” Instead of taking her mother’s hand, the girl took Addie’s hand as they were led to a table along a set of windows with a view of the beach. Climbing up onto her chair, she knelt on her shins and knees to sit. “Can you push me in, please, Auntie?”
Addie nudged the girl’s chair closer to the table. “You certainly are a polite little girl.”
“Sometimes,” Melanie said, looking over the top of her menu at her daughter. When she caught the kid’s attention, she faked a glare, her silent message to be quiet.
Conversation came hard now that Kenny’s secret life of crime had been revealed.
“I still think you should put your letters to him in a notebook, and maybe make some notes about your memories of his life,” Melanie said, unable to keep quiet any longer.
“It was the funniest thing. When I was there in his apartment, all I wanted to do was clean and go shopping to stock the refrigerator. He had almost no food in there at all.”
“Maybe he ate out?” Josh offered.
“He made it sound like he barely had the money to pay rent. I doubt he could afford to eat in restaurants. And he hated fast food. He was very meticulous about what he ate.”
“We’re vegerarians,” Thérèse said, beginning to eat her finger food salad. “But Daddy eats hamburgers after church when Momma’s not with us. He always say, ‘Don’t tell your mother’.”
Melanie shot Josh a dart. “That’s okay, Sweetie. I already know. I can smell it on his breath when you guys come home from church.”
“You don’t eat any meat? You’re so big and strong for being a true vegetarian,” Addie said.
“She packs away the rice and noodles,” Josh said. “And if something can be made from soy, that too.”
Melanie gave Josh an insincere smile, the one that meant, ‘We’ll talk later.’
Chapter Seven
The next morning, Melanie could hear Josh trying to control Thérèse while Addie fussed over something in the living room, getting ready to go to church. Finally deciding to wear dark sneakers instead of pumps, something that still fit her feet if she loosened the laces completely, she had to hurry.
“Wait for me,” she said, trying to hurry out to the living room before they left without her.
“Momma coming with us?” Thérèse asked, with a confused look to her.
“Yeah, what’re you doing all dressed up?” Josh asked.
“I thought I’d go with you for a change.” Melanie tugged here and there at the last maternity dress that fit and look
ed good enough for a trip to church. “Not that this can be considered dressed up.”
“You look lovely,” said Addie. She was wearing something from Trinh’s daughter’s closet, a little too colorful for a lady in mourning.
“Are Trinh and the kids going?”
“Everybody, Momma. Even you.”
“Maybe I’ll ride with her and Wilson and Scarlet can ride with you and Addie, Josh. I have some mayor stuff to talk with her about.”
As soon as they had everybody loaded into cars, with Thérèse bookended by Scarlet and Wilson in the back seat of Josh’s car, and Addie in the front, they took off with Trinh leading the way.
Even with the car seat all the way back, Melanie still worked the imaginary brake pedal while Trinh hurtled along the highway, outpacing Josh.
“What mayor stuff did you want to talk about, Mel?”
“Not really anything. I just can’t take another depressing car ride with Mrs. Winston.”
“She just lost her son. How do you expect her to behave?”
“I know. But this was supposed to be a week off from stress while I wait for Sofia to come, not to show a grieving mother around the island.”
“You’re the one who invited her to stay with you, which by the way is insanely kind. Nobody else would do that.”
“That’s what Josh said. But Thérèse sure has taken to her.”
“And Addie to her,” Trinh said. “Whenever she sees Thérèse, her face lights up. It’s like for a few minutes, she forgets all about her troubles.”
“My daughter, the social worker.”
“Has she said when she’s going home?” Trinh asked.
“Not yet. She needs to wait for the coroner and the police to release the body. The coroner never did his autopsy until last evening. He’s supposed to call me later with his findings. Then I’m supposed to reconnoiter with Detective Nakatani.”
“Reconnoiter?”
“I don’t know what I’m talking about. This mayor thing is just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
“You’ve never done anything stupid, Mel.”
“That the rest of the world knows about. But can you do me a favor? Just cover for my mayor stuff for a few days, at least until I get a grieving mother home with her son and this kid out of me.”
“You take care of the Winstons while I handle everything else. Believe it or not, Maui should be able to muddle along without your help for a few days. But hey, why are you going to church today?”
“Just thinking about Dad a lot lately. I also called Father Vincent and told him about Mrs. Winston. He’s going to have a special prayer for her son. Where’s Harm? He doesn’t come with you and the kids?”
“They have cases to do at the hospital.”
“Anything good?” Melanie asked. It would’ve been her usual weekend to be on call for emergency surgeries.
“Nothing for you. You’re a lady of leisure for the next four weeks.”
Melanie pressed on the brake pedal again. “Riding in a car with you is leisure?”
Lailanie and her husband Duane were talking to others outside the church’s front door when Melanie and Trinh got there. Duane was an old teammate of Melanie when they were in the Air Force together many years before, both working in Search and Rescue. Duane smiled from ear to ear, while Lailanie called their two smallest kids over from where they were playing.
“Hey, Zito.” Melanie leaned in to give him a one-armed hug.
“Howzit, Dog?” he said. They still used their old military call names with each other.
He was swatted by his wife. “How many times do I have to tell you, don’t call her that!”
Duane ignored his wife. “What brings Melanie Kato to church? Was there a death in the family I didn’t hear about?”
Again, he was swatted. “Duane! Quiet.”
Melanie quickly explained about Addie, who was just coming up the walk to the front steps, being led by Thérèse who had a tight grip on her hand.
“Just a semi-official visit today. I need to make sure the competition is playing fair with people’s souls.”
At the end of the service, Father Vincent sought out Addie for a chat. When he promised to bring her home later in the afternoon, Melanie wasted no time at all in getting Thérèse corralled and in the car for their trip home. Trinh went off in one direction with her kids while Lailanie and Duane took their brood home.
“Momma, can we have lunch in a westerant?”
“Anywhere but not hamburgers.”
“Aki’s?”
“What’s it called now?”
“Island Beegs?” the girl offered.
“Close enough,” Josh said.
Twenty minutes later, they were shown to a table in their own restaurant. As soon as she sat, Melanie’s phone rang with a call from the coroner.
She went back outside to take the call. “Doctor Benson, what have you learned about Kenny Winston?”
“Manner of death was blunt force trauma to the chest. And if that hadn’t done it, blunt trauma to his head would’ve. He also had cervical fractures that were consistent with rapid demise.”
“So, he died three times over,” Melanie muttered. “He really did go quickly.”
“I doubt he felt any pain at all. Whatever hit him was large, heavy, and carried a tremendous amount of energy with it to do the damage that was done to that poor boy. The police are now conducting the case as a homicide.”
“Anything else you can tell me about him?”
“Small patches of hair were missing from his scalp, which might help the police. If they can find matching hairs on a hull of a speedboat or cabin cruiser, that makes it the murder weapon. Or would at least imply manslaughter.”
“There wouldn’t happen to be the name of the boat in his wounds, would there?” she asked.
“No, but there was a discernible imprint on his skin. It would’ve been the leading edge of whatever hit him.”
“Anything about his condition before the injury?” she asked.
“As in a tox screen? Nothing. No alcohol, no drugs, not even the usual trace amount of THC that I’d expect in his demographic.”
“What about his other injuries, the broken rib on the opposite side and his jaw?” she asked.
“The mandible fracture is consistent with being punched, most likely by someone left-handed. The bruise on his chest over the rib fracture matches a boot toe, just like you said, a steel-toe work boot.”
“All we have to do is find a left-handed man on the island that wears steel-toe work boots instead of rubber slippers, and we have someone to interrogate. I have no idea about what, though. Have you told Detective Nakatani about that?”
“Just got off the phone with him.”
“Great. Anything else?” she asked.
“When are you due?”
“Scheduled for Friday at noon.” She stretched the kinks from her backache, which no longer brought relief. “But honestly, I’m ready right now.”
After offering wishes of good luck and congratulations, he let her go. Just as she was going back into the restaurant, her phone rang with a call from Nakatani.
“Detective, I just heard from Doctor Benson about his autopsy findings. Do you have anything to add?”
“Not much. I was hoping for a lead, but got more of a dead end.”
“What about the skin imprint?” she asked.
“Probably an edge of something on the hull of a boat. I talked to an old guy at one of the marinas, about what kind of boat would do the damage to a human body that was done to Winston. He said it would have to be a small boat going at high speed, like a cabin cruiser or speedboat. Sailboats go slower and their skippers watch the water for what lies ahead. A container ship’s cushion of water would’ve pushed him out of the way before swamping him. I also checked on ocean liner schedules, and there were none on the day and night before Winston was found in Lahaina.”
“What about that bruise in the shape of
a steel-toe boot?”
“There could be something there, but I can’t go through the closets of every man on the island.”
“Any idea why he got beat up? And why would he go surfing not long after?”
“I honestly don’t know why people surf at all. But no, it doesn’t make sense. If I had just suffered a broken rib, I’d go home and park on the couch for a day or two. Those really smart.”
“Tell me about it. Did you find anything in his apartment the other day? Contraband, drugs, historical artifacts?”
“Nothing. I doubt whoever turned the place since then found anything either.”
“Any idea when you’ll release his body to be shipped home? His mother will be wondering. She can’t stay here forever.”
“Give me a few more days to try and figure out what happened, and why.”
“Well, from Thursday through next week, I’m out of commission. You’ll have to talk to Mrs. Winston directly about her son, and to Trinh about mayoral issues. Right now, my lunch is waiting, followed by a long nap and paying someone to rub my feet. Interested?”
“As delightful as that sounds, I think I’m too busy right now, writing speeding tickets along the highway.”
Melanie laughed and asked to be told about any developments before going back to where Josh and Thérèse were already eating.
“Anything exciting?” he asked.
“Not much different than what I expected.”
“Which is nothing you can tell me about, right?”
“Right.” Melanie barely ate. “Can we go home now?”
As they drove up the gravel driveway to their house just across the highway from where they ate lunch, Father Vincent was just coming down.
“Everything okay with her?” Melanie asked through open car windows.
“She just needs some rest and to mourn.”
“I hate to ask, but are there any parishioners Addie could stay with?”
“I could ask around. She’s thinking of having him buried here, once the police are done with him.”
“Well, until this happened to him, he seemed to have a better life here than back home.”
Melanie waved and thanked the priest.