by Kay Hadashi
“I’ll talk to her. What’s for dinner, anyway?”
“Kenny will be wanting two bottles of free range milk pretty soon. Since we have a houseful again, maybe get a couple of pizzas. Your mother can even have meat on hers.”
“You’re letting meat come into the house?” he asked.
“Not on our side, but she’s welcome to sit over at Trinh’s and eat whatever she wants.”
Chapter Eighteen
On Tuesday morning, the people left the house one or two at a time, with Josh leaving first for his job at the college in town. The plan was for Addie and Dottie to take Thérèse to preschool before making a trip to town for Addie to buy new clothes. It was Melanie’s sneaky way of them getting to know each other better.
“Dottie, you know your way around the island better than Addie does. Be careful driving my truck. It’s peppier than what you might think.”
“We’re just going to the mall,” Addie said. She looked as put out as Dottie did.
“You know where to go? It’s right in the middle of town. You can’t miss it.”
“What are you doing while we’re gone, Melanie?” Dottie asked.
“Probably watch Kenny sleep. Otherwise, I’ll find something.”
She watched the two women drive off, pretending to be friends for some reason. With nothing else to do, she sat in a chair next to Kenny’s bassinet and stroked his cheeks while watching him sleep. Pulling the sheet up over him, she checked the latches on the sides of the crib and closed the blinds.
“Okay, little buddy. Time for your mommy to take a long and undisturbed nap. After that, you’re making your public debut.”
Two hours later, Melanie wore the reversed baby carrier on the front of her, Kenny wearing two layers of sunscreen and a tiny camouflage boonie hat, while she walked through the grounds of the resort. She’d stop at each tree or plant, tell the name, take a selfie, before strolling again. Every now and then, a vacationer would stop and ask about the baby. It finally came time to go to the bench.
She popped open an umbrella for shade and offered him a meal. While he suckled, she drank water. His eyes were barely open when he finished and he was arranged safely on the bench, but he seemed to gaze out at the ocean in front of them.
“That’s where you’ll learn to swim someday,” she told him. “I learned there and your sister is learning there.”
He fussed a little. Checking his diaper, he didn’t need changing.
“You’re worried about those little waves? That’s the best part. Once you learn to enjoy waves splashing over you, you won’t ever stay out of the water. Maybe someday you’ll be a champion surfer here on Maui.”
“Hey, Mel. Already making the kid an uber-achiever?”
Melanie looked over her shoulder. “Hi, Trinh. How was your run?”
“Not as easy as they used to be.” After sitting, Trinh used towelettes to wipe her face and hands, before picking up Kenny. Just in a tank top and shorts, she was in a full-blown sweat from jogging. She played with the baby for a moment until he smiled. She held him close. “Wedding is on again.”
“I thought I heard some celebratory activities on your side of the house last night.”
“Not the first time for you to hear Harmon and me.”
“The first time for Dottie and Addie. Is there a date yet?”
“Next month, unless I call it off. Hey, what was the deal with that Kenny? I never did hear how that all shook out.”
“Talk about high-maintenance.” Melanie explained how if she agreed to drop trespass charges against him, he wouldn’t seek a lawyer to bring a suit against the county for how his mother had been treated.
“That’s not so bad,” Trinh said.
“A part of his mother’s nanny contract is that I need to find him a job with the county.”
“Easy. Put him in charge of cleaning storm drains after every rainstorm. I’ll even pay his wages.” Trinh chuckled when she set Kenny aside. “Now that you know he’s alive, are you going to keep calling your Kenny that?”
“Josh and I were talking about that last night. We might secretly change his name, but keep calling him that as long as Addie is our nanny. Once she’s been replaced, we’ll call him something else.”
“Just come up with a cute pet name for him. What would you call him?”
“Oh, after our grandparents, I guess.”
“Jack Francis or Francis Jack?” Trinh asked.
“To keep peace in the family, Francis Jack. I’ll probably stick Arthur in there, too.”
“After my dad?”
“Why not? Mom’s last husband. She was happiest with him.”
“Mel, you are the sappiest of them all.” Trinh’s sports watch alarmed. “Rest break is over. See ya.”
“That is very sentimental, Honey,” someone said after a moment.
“Mom! How long have you been here?”
“I’ve been sitting here waiting for you all day.”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“Because Trinh was coming. Is it okay if I hold him?”
“Of course. Please.”
Melanie watched as a pair of slender arms picked up the baby, holding him close. She saw her mother for the first time in quite a while. “You look so young, Mom.”
“Believe it or not, I was young once. And before you ask, no, I don’t have any control over it. I guess I’m just feeling very young today, holding this little guy.”
Melanie looked out at the ocean, the same way she always had as a kid growing up when they came to the bench for a long talk. “This is so weird, how you come and go, showing up and then disappearing again.”
“I wish we could meet more often.”
“I wish you could be my nanny. Is that at all possible?” Melanie asked.
“Sorry.”
“Me too. Is Dad around?”
“Not for a while. He’s quite happy about this little guy, though, and proud to be one of his namesakes.”
“How could he not be? But we might switch out Kenny for Arthur.”
“He’d be happy, too.”
“Did Dad and Arthur ever meet?” Melanie asked after a few minutes of them sitting quietly.
“Oh, yes. Arthur was funny about it, too. He actually went to visit your father to make sure it was okay with him that he marry me. Completely behind my back.”
“That’s so romantic or gallant, whatever the right word. Apparently, Dad approved.”
“Oh, yes. He even wanted to hold an LA reception for us at the hacienda. They still get along quite well.”
“You mean now? They’re both dead.”
“Doesn’t mean they can’t be friends, Honey. They often play golf or go to church together. They saw you there a while back.”
“Dad and Mister Park go to church in Kihei together? Wait, are they…”
“The two men Thérèse was asking about, the ones holding hands in church?” Melanie’s mother chuckled while she set the baby back in his little nest of blankets on the bench. As soon as she let go, she began to become transparent. “I’ll let you figure that out on your own.”
“Wait! Mom!” Melanie looked around for anyone close enough to hear her. “Oh, come on! You can’t leave me dangling like that!”
She got the baby bundled up again and headed off for a shadier place with air-conditioning. After a stop in the restaurant she owned to have a salad and iced tea, and to show off the baby to the waitresses, she went next door to the hair salon.
“Well, look who finally showed up!” Lailanie said, quickly taking the baby from Melanie. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for this cute little guy to come see his Aunt Lailanie.”
The other stylists crowded around to ooh and ahh, at least until Lailanie sent them back to their customers. Melanie filled in the blanks of the story of why she needed the emergency surgery on her back right after giving birth, but everything was back on track now.
“I have time if you’d like me to do someth
ing, Melanie.”
“Not really why I came in, but since my son has abandoned me by dozing off, you may as well.”
Once the baby was in a crib with a clean diaper, Melanie was given a style magazine to look at while her hair was washed.
“Time for a makeover, lady.”
“Maybe. I was thinking it might be time to go back to that funky blonde pageboy you gave me a long time ago?”
“I like the short and funky idea. Something to bring out your natural wave a little more. This year that’s called deconstructed.”
“Which is exactly how I feel these days,” Melanie muttered, flipping through pages in the magazine. “Deconstructed.”
“There’s also a trend starting of going not completely blonde but just on the tips.” Melanie was taken to a styling station and given some salon photographs to look at. “Okay, don’t freak because those are guys in the pictures, but I really like the style and color of that for you.”
Melanie shuffled through photographs of several men. She did like the style, being loose and shaggy, long in front and short in back, much too effeminate for men. But what caught her eye were the faces of the men. When she got to the last picture, she held it up. “Are these guys salon customers?”
“Yeah, that style seems to be popular in the island gay community right now. Does that make a difference?”
“Well, no, not as far as a style goes. But these guys have been your customers?”
“For the last few months. That guy in your hand started coming here about a year ago. If I remember right, he’d just moved from the mainland and was just coming out then.”
Melanie shuffled through the pictures. “And these other guys?”
“They were all referred here by that first guy. I guess they were gay. I don’t know why they all had to have the same hairstyle, though.”
Melanie didn’t pay any attention while the stylist combed her wet hair, only sorting through the pictures again. She picked out the two that were most familiar, but not Kenny Winston. “You remember these two guys’ names?”
“Probably in the appointment book. Why?”
“Is it breaking any kind of privacy laws if you tell me their names?”
“Like patients at the hospital? No, but we don’t really share that stuff so easily.”
Melanie made eye contact with her trusted friend and long-time stylist. “Please?”
With a sigh, Lailanie got the appointment book and brought it over to where Melanie waited. She started flipping through pages. “It was about three weeks ago since the one was here. We don’t get so many men as women, especially ones that make appointments. Yes, here it is. That first one is Danny Benet, pronounced the French way, he said.” She flipped a few pages looking for another name. “And that other one is William—not Bill—Lockhart. They both spoke like they were from the mainland but were trying to fake local accents as though they were trying to fit in. They’ve been here twice each.”
Melanie wasn’t convinced. She got the picture of the third man with dyed blond hair that Lailanie had manufactured, the one that looked least effeminate of all of them. She tried to imagine if that face belonged to the head that had been found by a scuba diver. “And this guy?”
“Been here only the one time. Angelo Davis. I don’t know why he changed his hair. He was hot to begin with, and I had a hard time believing he was gay, but he said he was sent to get the exact same thing as the others. If I was twenty years younger, I would’ve tried…never mind.”
Even if they were the three men that had been found floating in the ocean recently, those names might not be their real names. “What’s this guy’s name?” she asked, holding up the last picture.
“I don’t have to look for him. Kenny Winston. Regular, once a month. Real cheapskate, too. Full service client but never left a tip. Not even so much as a thank you before he bolted for the door.”
Melanie got out her phone to make a call. When she felt Lailanie begin to comb again, she told her to hold off for a moment.
“Detective Nakatani, I think I have a lead for you.” She explained about seeing the pictures of the three men, their circumstances, and provided their names. “Not trying to interfere. This just sort of happened.”
“You’re where?” he asked. “I’d like to get those pictures and compare them to the bodies in the morgue.”
“Tropic Flowers in the retail area of Napili Winds Resort. It’s not far from…”
“I know the place. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
After Melanie ended her call, the stylist sprayed water. “Time to get started.”
“Yeah, you know what? I might not have time today. I got the idea I would need to go with that detective to look at something.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Melanie dug through her bag to find a magazine picture folded up. “This is a picture of my mom a bazillion years ago when she was working in Japan. Josh thinks she looks totally hot with her hair pulled back and in a little bun like that.”
The stylist found the same part in Melanie’s hair as in the picture. “You do realize it’s a little weird for your husband to think your mother looks hot.”
“As long as he doesn’t think Trinh looks hot, I’m good with it.”
Just as Lailanie was putting the finishing touches on Melanie’s tidy, sleek bun, Detective Nakatani showed up.
Lailanie beat Melanie to him. “Detective Nak, good to see you. You’re not due until next week.”
“You know him?” Melanie asked her friend.
“He’s a regular. Once a month.”
Melanie beamed at the detective and watched his face closely to see if his cheeks turned red. “Why, Detective, I never would’ve expected you to come to a girly place like this.”
He seemed put out. “Those pictures?”
“Oh, yes.” While Lailanie provided the names for each picture, Melanie got the baby ready to leave. Once he had what they thought were the correct spellings, he called them in to the station for background checks and rap sheets.
“You’re sure cozy with him,” Melanie whispered to Lailanie. “Anything I should know about?”
“I’m not guilty of anything, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Not of the body, but what of the heart?”
“Maybe once a month, I let my imagination go off on its own for a while. So what if I spend a solid hour on a haircut that would take ten minutes? He doesn’t complain. He gets it for free.”
“Get’s what for free?” Melanie asked in her quietest whisper.
“In my imagination, anything he wants. But don’t tell Duane that.”
Melanie chuckled. “Or Josh. But I knew it would never work out between us when he saw me puke at the beach.”
Sure enough, the detective wanted Melanie to go to the hospital morgue to compare dead faces with the pictures.
“The baby is five days old. I’m not taking him to the morgue,” she said as they drove along. “Get Bobby Brown from the ER or Benson the pathologist to help you with that. They’re already familiar with the bodies and your investigation. Can’t you get digital photos and run them through a facial recognition program?”
“Not with their heads all bashed up. Maybe with the decapitated head. That was still pretty intact.”
“Okay, have fun with that. Just drop us at home, if you don’t mind.”
***
“You did your hair different,” Josh said that evening after Thérèse was in bed and the baby was down. Addie and Dottie had retired to their respective rooms. Melanie and Josh were on the couch watching an old Hitchcock movie with the sound turned down.
“Lai did it for me. I know it’s against everybody’s orders to go out, but I needed to go for a walk with the baby. It’s a mother’s right to show off her baby.”
“It’s okay. You know what’s best for your back.”
“Lai almost did something different but we didn’t have time. Are you ready for a surprise
yet?”
He touched the bun, still intact, and the hair that was combed tightly back from her face. His hand slipped to her neck, and then around her shoulders, pulling her close. “It’s not a surprise if I know about it.”
“Well, in that case…”
Melanie’s phone rang. She almost didn’t answer when she saw the calling number.
She took the phone in the other room. “Detective Nakatani, I’m busy with something. Can this wait until tomorrow?”
“It won’t take long. I ran those other names I got from Mrs. Esposito and all three have mainland rap sheets. None of them had been here long, and each was from Arizona. We’re currently trying to find any associations between each of them, and between them and the Winston kid.”
“So, for once I was able to be helpful without interfering?”
“You were, and thank you. Once I have anything else on them, I’ll let you know.”
“Detective, just exactly how well do you know Mrs. Esposito?”
“Once a month, I spend an hour with her. Why?”
“An hour doing what?”
“Nothing worth gossiping about. I’ll give you a call in the morning.”
Melanie watched Josh in the other room use the remote to change channels to a sports channel. She knew the moment they were about to share was almost gone. “Detective, I’ll make a deal with you. If you don’t call me with updates every few hours, I won’t interfere with the investigation. In fact, the next time either of us hears the other’s voice will be when there’s an arrest, okay?”
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning played out the same as the day before, with Addie and Dottie taking Thérèse to preschool, leaving Melanie alone at home. Since they were going to town to look at cars for Addie to buy and use as the nanny-mobile, Melanie called the dealership to give them the okay on the expense. Once she was done with giving the baby the first of what was turning out to be several lunches a day, she put him in his bassinet.
“Okay, little buddy. I need to abandon you for a few minutes to pick some vegetables from the patch. I won’t be long, I promise.”