by Kay Hadashi
“That’s a gray area in the law. Money actually has to change hands, or accounts in the case of the internet. But by identifying them, getting personal backgrounds and knowing what else they’ve bought through online auctions, we’ve been able to digitally triangulate those purchases to common sellers.”
“That narrows the field of potential places to look for whoever is stealing the stuff, right?” she asked.
“Exactly. It also helps pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy who our sellers are. We’ve come up with three possibilities, with two here in Hawaii, and one on Maui.”
“This trafficking of historical artifacts from Maui has been going on for a while?” she asked.
“Probably since the missionary days, when things were sent back to European museums to fill displays of Polynesian crafts. But Native American Indian objects of unknown origin have been coming up for both live and online auctions for almost a year. Nearly everything has been in the same condition as these latest artifacts, of not being cleaned or preserved professionally.”
“Now it’s started here on Maui. It sounds like we never would’ve known about it if they hadn’t stolen from the museum.”
“Which has been our conclusion. We’ve been able to talk with an expert in Hawaiian culture and history from the university on Oahu, someone familiar with recent excavations in Hawaii, and who has done university and Office of Hawaiian Affairs-sanctioned digs, and he said some of the richest areas on Maui for finding old things is on the south slope of the West Maui mountains.”
“Which is just behind my house,” she said. “Do you suppose the trespassers we’ve seen have something to do with the relics that are for sale? Maybe somehow they found a cache of the stuff and raided it, and are now secretly selling it off piece by piece?”
“Let’s not turn these jokers into Indiana Jones, Melanie. But, yes, that’s something we’ve been mulling. How often did you say you’ve seen trespassers? When did they start?”
“About four times, I guess, and just in the last few weeks.”
“Which fits our time frame for the items turning up for auction. I bet if you guys could pin down the exact dates you saw them, it would closely correspond with the starts of new items for auction.”
Melanie moved Kenny over to her other breast. “And all this time we thought they were harmless hikers, just being pains in the butt by walking through our property. We never would’ve guessed they were tomb raiders. That’s all they are, after all, tomb raiders. Most of those things were old weapons, and warriors were often buried in caves or lava tubes with their weapons, or with the weapon that killed them.” She stopped for a moment, something bothering her. The idea seemed so familiar, as though she’d recently talked about it or had seen the same thing in a movie. “Is there anything else?”
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, something that just went on auction yesterday is a bone with an arrow tip in it, along with two other similar arrows and a spear tip. It’s being auctioned as a group. That goes with what you were saying about a warrior being buried with the weapons that killed him, right? An arrow tip stuck in a bone?”
Another stroke of déjà vu hit her. “Uh, yeah. Could be. What bone?”
“A spine bone. I’ll send you a picture of what’s online.”
Melanie waited for a moment. When the image showed up, it was a police image, a blow-up of what was online. Sure enough, it was a stone arrow tip stuck deep in a vertebra, something that likely would’ve caused a lethal injury.
“Yeah, that would do it.”
“Mayor, while we’re on the topic of things being in a gray area legally, maybe you could do me a favor?”
“I can consider it.”
“Is Mrs. Winston still staying with you?”
“She’s gone to church with the others. For some reason, we’ve become rather religious in this household, and I’m beginning to think it has something to do with getting away from the cranky lady who owns the place. Why?”
“Did she happen to take her phone with her?” he asked.
“”I don’t know why she would. I haven’t heard it ring yet, and she barely knows how the thing works.”
“Maybe you could do me a favor and take a look at the history in it?”
Seeing Kenny sleeping in his bassinet, she got out of bed. “Got nothing else better to do. May as well go on a caper. I can call it physical therapy.” She went to Addie’s room. Finding the door hanging open, it almost seemed like an invitation to go in. The phone was on the nightstand, turned on. She tapped a few times until she learned how to use it. “What do you want to know? The numbers she calls, or the numbers that call her?”
“The most common ones in either direction.”
“Okay, this is odd. Almost every call she’s made since she’s been here has been to the same number, and that has a Hawaii prefix. A few have been to me and a couple to Josh, but very few others, and none to the mainland.” She gave him the number. “The other weird thing is that her personal number is a Hawaii prefix, not mainland.”
“Maybe she got a local SIM card when she got here?” he asked.
Melanie kept scrolling. “No. The calls that have gone back and forth are months old, long before she ever got here a couple of weeks ago.”
“I hate to make you dig, but are there any saved texts?”
“You know, this is how Trinh and I discovered her husband was cheating on her, by looking in his phone when he wasn’t around. Somehow, I get the idea there could be just as much trouble this time, but for me.” She put the phone back where she found it without looking for text messages. Just as she was getting back to bed, there was the clatter of the back screen door opening, followed by the sounds of small feet running through the kitchen. “Detective, my family just got home and I’m about to be invaded. Just keep me informed on whatever you learn, okay?”
“Momma!” Thérèse announced, just before she bashed into the side of the bed, misjudging where she was. Getting up off the floor again, she climbed up onto the bed. “How’s Kenny?”
“Maybe a little quieter, Sweetie. Kenny’s just going back to sleep.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry, Kenny.”
“How was church?”
“No for go church.”
“Oh?”
“Went on a big drive. Sawed lotsa ocean.”
“Really? What color was it?” Melanie asked.
“Blue. The mad parts were white. Did you know there’s ocean all the way around us?”
“Sure did. That’s why Maui is called an island.”
Josh came in. “We decided to take a lap around the island. Addie wanted to see a little more before going home later.”
Melanie heard Addie’s door close, sparking some worry about the phone. It seemed she used it more than what Melanie realized. “How’s she doing?”
“Pretty cheerful today. Probably excited about finally leaving for home. Did you guys have a talk about something?”
Melanie sent Thérèse to her room to change clothes. Once she was gone, she said to Josh, “I forgot to tell you. I asked her to be our nanny.”
“Addie?”
“Think about it. She’s perfect. She knows our routine. She and Tay get along great, which is half the battle with any nanny. Doesn’t seem to mind eating vegetarian. And acts as though she likes Maui. So, I offered her the job.”
“Except for one big thing. She lives in Arizona. I think she said once she’s lived there her entire life. You really think she wants to move to a place where her son recently died? Plus, she has a plane to catch pretty soon.”
“I don’t know. She seemed interested yesterday when I offered it to her.”
“Let’s not get too excited about that. I have a gal coming by tomorrow for you to interview, and another on Tuesday. Hopefully, you’ll find someone satisfactory.”
“Where’s your mother?” Melanie asked.
“We dropped her at church. She said she’d get a ride home from Trinh.”
“Sounds great, exc
ept this is Trinh’s weekend to work. You know she goes to church only every other week, and not always that often. When she gets off work on Sundays, she takes the kids to a movie and goes grocery shopping. You know that.”
“Mom’s stranded in Kihei?”
“Worse places to be stranded than Kihei. Your mother is resilient. She'll figure out something.”
“She’s resilient in a Wyoming ranch kitchen, not in the tropics. She’ll melt out there, Melanie. Or fry like a slice of bacon.”
“I’m not the one who dropped her off and left her behind, Josh.”
Addie came to their door, her travel suitcase at her side. “Okay if I come in?”
Melanie pulled the sheet up. “Sure.”
Addie carefully sat on the edge of the bed near the baby. “How’s Kenny?”
“Couldn’t be better. Thanks again for letting us use your son’s name.”
“I’m glad you did. Somehow, it seemed fitting. How’s your back?”
“Kinda achey, but I have feeling in my legs and that’s what counts.”
“Which reminds me,” Josh said. “As soon I get home from the airport, you have physical therapy to do, and don’t try and weasel your way out of it.”
Stroking her fingertips over Kenny’s forehead one last time, Addie stood. “Well, if you don’t mind, we should be on our way.”
“Addie, I’m terribly sorry about what’s happened. I wish there was some way of helping you.”
“You already have, Melanie. Much more than you’ll ever know.”
Melanie felt genuinely sad when she heard Addie say goodbye to Thérèse, and wondered if the girl really understood she would never see her again. When Josh’s car started up and drove off, she looked at Kenny, still dozing. “Maybe I should just stay home with you. Watch you grow up. Be there when you walk for the first time. Teach you how to use chopsticks. Hear you speak your first words. Would you like that?”
Thérèse came back in and climbed up again. “Time for our nap, Momma?”
“Time for mine. You can play in your room if you want.”
“Better in here. When’s Daddy going to the hospital?”
“Why do you want him to go?” Melanie asked.
“I been there. You been there, and Kenny got borned there. Time for Daddy now.”
“Well, let’s hope he doesn’t have to go to the hospital, little one.” Melanie stroked the hair from her daughter’s eyes. “Can’t call you little one anymore, huh? You’re a big sister now.”
“Maybe big one?” the girl asked, yawning.
“Not for a few more years. I’ll have to think of something.”
Melanie never did get to sleep, and Thérèse was just waking up from her nap when Josh got home. He had brought his mother with him, who had been walking along the road in Kihei. She immediately went for a shower and to put her feet up.
“Before I get started with my physical therapy, can you change the dressing on my back?”
“What do I do?” he asked, after she turned over onto her belly.
“Not much to it. Just pull off the old one and describe what you see.”
Thérèse sat close, watching intently. “Momma, you have a big owey on your back.”
“I know, Sweetie. I got that in the hospital, remember? Josh, is it red?”
“No, everything is okay. Just normal looking skin. What do I do with it?”
“Put another gauze pad on there and stick it down with tape. By tomorrow, we should be able to use a large Band-Aid.”
“Momma, is that how Kenny got borned? He came out of there?”
“No, that’s how the doctor fixed my back so I could feel my legs again.”
“How Kenny get outta your tummy?”
“Well, that’s very complicated. After you go to school for a few years, I’ll explain it, okay?”
“Can I go play dinos?”
“Sure can.”
Once the girl was gone, Melanie went to the living room to start her physical therapy, Josh helping her.
“Addie had a decent send off?”
“She seemed sad to go, but said she would be happy to get home.”
“You reminded her I’d send Kenny’s body home once the police release it?”
“Yes. And please don’t assign me assistant vice mayor tasks anymore. That’s hard to do, tell a woman her son would be shipped home in a box as soon as possible.”
“I got a call from Detective Nakatani this morning. He has a lead on who the culprits might be.” She explained how they were in the process of finding potential links between previous buyers and current sellers, and how the seller might be a Maui resident, and that the stolen items never leave the island until they are shipped to a buyer. “We both agree that they might be using the trails up into the hills behind the house as an access point to finding and stealing from ancient Hawaiian graves. Just like the hikers we’ve seen a few times.”
“Now we have to watch out for people and make citizen’s arrests?”
“No, but it sounds like the police might set up some sort of sting operation. A pattern has emerged, how two days after something is sold, something new shows up at auction. We figure on that day between is when they go up into the hills to get something new, bring it down, give it a cursory cleaning, and put it online.”
“Clever scheme. They don’t have to have stolen stuff sitting around their home looking like incriminating evidence. But it sounds like they went to the well a few times too many.” He helped her turn over to do a new set of exercises. “But Melanie, you need to leave it alone. You have Kenny to take care of, and your back to get strong again.”
“I’m not chasing down any perps. I’ll be glad when I can walk from one end of the house to the other without having to take a rest halfway.”
“You’re sure it’ll be okay for me to go to work tomorrow?”
“You can’t miss the first day of the new school year, buddy. You have to show off new baby pictures to all the other professors, and make a Baby Kenny PowerPoint to wow your students. Anyway, Trinh will be watching over us like a hawk. The schedule is Trinh takes Tay to preschool and you’ll pick her up on your way home from work. We have everything covered for this week.”
“Poor kid,” Josh said. “First day of school and her own parents won’t be taking her.”
“She’ll live. Her aunt has known her all her life, knows her as well as we do. May as well just turn her over to Trinh to raise. Do a better job than I ever could.”
“By the way…” Josh started to say.
“No, you may not marry Trinh if I die. I don’t care how lonely you get or what excuses you dream up about the kids needing a mother, you may not marry Trinh.”
“I was just going to ask what you want for dinner.”
***
On Monday morning, Melanie had the house to herself and Kenny after Josh had gone to work, and Thérèse was at preschool. Even Trinh had stayed away, going into town for the day. After her first shower in days, she put the baby in his bassinet and did her physical therapy exercises. Going to the kitchen to reheat some morning coffee, she opened the window blind that looked out at the little parking area for their cars. Her pickup truck was there near the carport, and her trusty old surfboard on a rack built onto the side of the shed, seemingly mocking her.
She took a sip of her coffee and went back to the window.
“As soon as my back is strong again, you and me have a date,” she said to the surfboard.
When she heard the sound of a car engine at the lower end of the long driveway, she figured it was the first of two young women coming to interview for the nanny job. Waiting for her to come to the door, she reviewed the application materials and reference letters. When no one came, she went out to the porch.
Instead of a small sedan, something she’d expect a young woman to drive on Maui, it was a four-wheel drive pickup truck stopped partway down, its engine still idling. Trying to figure out if it looked familiar, she waved.
The engine revved once and stayed at a higher RPM, but no one got out. Surprising her, a man ran past her, wet and muddy from the knees down, an old knapsack on his back.
“Hey! You can’t come on this property!”
Unable to make chase, Melanie could only watch as he kept going and tossed the knapsack into the back of the truck. Even before he got the door closed, the truck revved up and sped off down her driveway, kicking up gravel and dust as it left.
Melanie grabbed her phone and dialed Nakatani’s personal number.
“Did you get the license plate?”
“HRD, but not the numbers. It got away before I could get a second look. It was full-size, red, and four-wheel drive.”
“Ordinary truck for this island, but that’s a Honolulu plate. Should be easy to spot. You said the guy tossed a knapsack into the back of the truck? Any idea of what might’ve been inside? Nothing was sticking out? Did it seem heavy?”
“Couldn’t really tell. Just an old green knapsack, like book bags kids would use, but old and worn out. The guy was dirty, like he’d been hiking through the fields and up into the mountains.”
“Well, that’s proves our theory about the timing. That batch of stuff that had been on auction, the one with the arrow tip in the bone, was purchased last night. I was just trying to arrange for a couple of officers to stake out the trails up there. Maybe have one somewhere near the trailhead, and another further up. Looks like I’m too late.”
“Find that pickup truck and you have your guys, Detective.”
“I need probable cause to search it. If an officer can see the knapsack without searching, that would be good enough. But if they’ve already taken the stuff out and hidden the sack, we’re out of luck.”
“But you have a witness that saw someone come from the trail that goes up into the mountains, and an ID on the truck,” she said.
“I have a property owner who witnessed a trespass, who has not informed me of anything being stolen from said property, and a partial on the plate, and not even the make or model of vehicle. That’s how legal defense would frame it, and the ADA wouldn’t be able to bring charges without better evidence.”
“Come on. You know me better than that. So does the ADA. I’m the mayor, for crying out loud. Don’t I get bonus points for that?”