by Kay Hadashi
Hands were grabbing at her by then, but she wasn’t letting go of her nemesis.
“What did I ever do to you?” he whined.
She squeezed him even tighter to get the point across. “You dissed my best friend’s rep, then you talked trash about her to the newspaper. Admit those were lies, Andrew.”
“Somebody get her off me!”
By then, most of the tugging at her had ended, leaving her to force a confession out of Andrew.
“Admit you lied about Trinh, and I’ll let you up.”
“Okay, okay. I lied about your witch friend. Happy?”
She pressed his face into the concrete. “Say she’s a good nurse and you’re glad she works at West Maui Med.”
There was tapping on her shoulder. “Melanie, that’s enough. Let him up.”
It was Detective Nakatani talking to her. When she felt his strong grip try to pry her hands loose from him, she finally relented. Once she was up, he walked her back while two uniformed police officers talked to Andrew.
“You alright?” Nakatani asked, getting in Melanie’s face, blocking her view of what was happening to Andrew.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look pissed off.”
“Sometimes pissed off is fine. Why are they putting him in cuffs?”
“Because he’s under arrest.”
She tried looking past Nakatani but he blocked her view again. “For what?”
“For starters, assaulting you. But from what I just saw, you got the best of him.”
“Believe me, Detective. He’s lucky something’s not broken. Why are you here, anyway? Surely somebody didn’t call you because they were afraid that little piece of excrement might hurt me?”
“Uh, no. Had I known the two of you were going to face off, I’d have put you in a cage and charged admission to see the fight. But I just came from his office. His secretary said he comes here after work each day. Even if you hadn’t, um, subdued him for me, he still would’ve been under arrest.”
She finally had the chance to pull off her vinyl cap and tossed it aside along with her goggles. “Would it be too much to ask what for?”
“Accessory to the preparation and commission of felony crimes. Several of them, including trafficking of illegal drugs and accessory to murder.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I just don’t see how a hospital administrator gets involved in drugs and murder.”
“When I’m done with him in an interrogation room, I’ll give you a call.”
Georgie came out with the kids. Thérèse hugged Melanie’s thighs.
“Momma, did that boy hurt you?”
She lifted up her daughter in one arm and took Chance in the other. She kissed their cheeks. “No, he didn’t. He’s gone now.”
Nakatani smiled at the little scene that had unfolded in front of him. “You know, I’ve always wondered if you were a better surgeon or better mayor. I realized just now that neither of those compare to you being a mother.”
“Is my momma in trouble for fighting?” Thérèse asked.
“No, not this time. But I’ll want to talk with her later about this,” Nakatani said, before following the two officers off the pool deck.
Chapter Fifteen
It wasn’t until late that evening when Detective Nakatani called Melanie. She sat out on the back porch to talk with him in private.
“It’s not too late to talk?”
“There’s something I have to talk to Josh about anyway. If I don’t do it tonight, I never will. Talking to you is just delaying the inevitable. What did Andrew have to say?”
“At first, a lot of gibberish. It turns out that not only was he complicit in helping get the ephedrine needed to make high quality meth, but he’d recently started using the stuff. I just don’t understand the hold that stuff has on people.”
“Was he high at the pool today?”
“He admitted he smoked some right before going there. Even if he gets treatment, he’s destroyed his career.”
“You said something about him being an accessory to murder? What was that about?” Melanie asked.
“Those charges might not stick. This deal with the dead grifters and the teddy bear full of meth is one for the books. I can explain, if you have the time?”
“Got all night, if you need it. I don’t sleep anymore.”
“In one way, the Taylors apparently weren’t exactly innocent bystanders. In another way, they were.”
“Please don’t make me figure out any puzzles, Detective. Were they pulling a con job here on Maui or not?”
“Just like you discovered the other day, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got electrocuted quite accidently while skinny-dipping in the water near Carlos Cabrera’s boat that night. Andrew Carson and Ozzy Simpson were apparently getting the boat ready to use for a shipment of product to Honolulu, using a generator for lights to see what they were doing. It was his frayed generator wires that fell into the shallow water at the beach, and they must’ve drifted around and shocked him. Just like Trinh’s friend said, Ozzy went to the hospital for treatment for his own shock but skipped out on paying his bill. When he returned to his boat and discovered what had happened to the Taylors, Andrew had left to get a load of meth to put onto the boat, leaving the Taylors in the water to, whatever you want to call it.”
“Die would be the right word,” Melanie said.
“Ozzy shut down his generator and pulled them out of the water. By then, they were dead. Not knowing what else to do with them, he got them dressed and hid them in the little rowboat until he could figure out what to do with their bodies later.”
“But he just left them there?” Melanie asked.
“According to Andrew, yes. He happened to be there at the time, bringing a load of meth to the boat to take to another island. Your friend Harmon was mostly right when he reported what his patient had to say, that a generator fell into the water and shocked him. That happened to be Ozzy Simpson. But once he was feeling okay, he gave them the slip, never paying the emergency room bill.”
“Sounds like something he’d do. But what about the teddy bear full of meth?”
“Cabrera, the Simpsons, and Andrew were using stuffed toys to hide the meth while they moved it. Once they were stuck with two dead bodies on their hands, Andrew had the big idea to toss a teddy bear full of product, thinking it would distract us from doing too much of an investigation. We were supposed to think the couple had died from a meth overdose.”
“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” Melanie said.
“Except it’s not exactly right. I wasn’t comfortable with how easily he was giving up information, so using what you told me the other day of how to sweat him, I fed him a ton of coffee. Once he started to fidget like he needed to go to the bathroom, I leaned on him a little more. That’s when he confessed to know the Taylors from a few days before.”
“How did he meet them?” Melanie asked.
“The Taylors conned Andrew out of twenty thousand dollars.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be amused, but I am. What did they do to him?”
“From what he told us, it was an old-fashioned real estate con. They pretended to be realtors on vacation when they met him at one of the resort bars one evening. They told him they had acreage in California available, and with only a one percent deposit, they could hold it for him until the three of them could meet in California.”
“That was the twenty grand in cash you found in their room safe?” she asked.
“Exactly. He had skimming money from Cabrera’s take for several months, depositing it in several banks. The cash we found was from a recent sale. That’s why it was all wrapped up the way drug money usually is.”
“Andrew was skimming from a prominent drug distributor? Isn’t that risky?”
“Once Cabrera found out, and he eventually would’ve, Andrew would’ve been a dead man, no doubt about that. Your old boyfriend is much b
etter off going to prison than if he were to stay on the street.”
“So, Andrew fell for a con, and even though he wasn’t directly responsible for the Taylors’ deaths, he was caught up in it anyway. Why was the teddy bear delivered to my office, if it was meant to traffic drugs?”
“Andrew had heard you were going to Honolulu for a meeting between all five Hawaii mayors and the governor.”
“That’s been postponed until this summer, when the state senators can join us,” Melanie explained.
“He didn’t know that. Anyway, he figured you’d take the family with you. He also figured your daughter would’ve demanded to take her new teddy bear along, and when it went through baggage, dogs were supposed to sniff the drugs inside, which would’ve got you in trouble for trafficking drugs.”
“But it didn’t work. That teddy bear brought all kinds of bad luck to my family. That’s why I left it behind on the park bench. Unfortunately for the Taylors, it brought them even worse luck. I should’ve just tossed the thing in the trash, but who can throw away a cute little teddy bear?” she said.
“Well, it brought all kinds of bad luck to Andrew Carson, Carlos Cabrera, and the Simpson twins. When Andrew found the dead couple, he got their room keycard and went through their hotel room looking for his deposit. We found his prints throughout the room, including on the room safe. When he found the same bear Ozzy dropped off at your office, he took it back later and tossed it in the rowboat with the dead Taylors, hoping to create confusion.”
“It worked,” she said. “Ozzy was the one who left the bear at my office?”
“Andrew couldn’t risk being recognized by your office staff, so he sent Ozzy. Even though Cabrera ran the gang, Andrew considered himself the brains of the operation while Ozzy had to do most of the dirty work, to take the risks of possibly getting caught.”
“It really was a brilliant idea, trying to implicate me in drug trafficking by hiding meth in that bear. I’m sure Thérèse would’ve insisted we take the bear along with us, but too bad for Andrew, the conference was delayed a few months.”
“Too bad for Andrew he had been using too much of the stuff to be thinking straight lately. You know, he has no recollection of confronting you the other day, even after seeing the video of it.”
“I don’t know what to think of that, but I’m not letting him off the hook for being a jerk, just because he was high at the time,” Melanie said. “But what about the real couple that won the trip?”
“Good news with them. We located the Steinhoefler-Gubler couple. Nothing wrong with them at all. They really did win the trip on a game show, but they had just been here not long ago, so they sold the prize to the Taylors, and went to Mexico instead. Sadly for the Taylors, it was one of the few legit things they had done, actually buying the game show prize instead of conning the Ames couple out of it. The Steinhoefler-Gublers even showed a receipt for a legal transaction. Other than a touch of Montezuma’s Revenge, they had a great time in Mexico.”
“Lucky for them and unlucky for the Taylors. A case of tourista is a lot better than being dead. It might not seem like it at the time, but it passes.”
“Passes rather quickly, from what I’ve heard,” he said.
Melanie tried not to laugh. She had picked up a case or two of it in her travels. “It sounds like Katie Simpson was involved?”
“She was picked up in Honolulu and interrogated by Honolulu PD. They’re holding her for pharmaceutical diversion and trafficking. As far as we can tell, she had nothing to do with the Taylor’s deaths. She was able to corroborate much of what Andrew told us, though.”
“So, you have Andrew and Katie locked up. What about Cabrera and Ozzy?”
“Still at large. Hopefully, over on Oahu where Katie Simpson was picked up. It’s only a matter of time until they are. We know what boat he uses now, and which beaches to watch.”
“If I had my druthers, they can stay there.” She chuckled but didn’t feel the humor in her heart. “All this only because Andrew got conned out of twenty grand in a real estate scam. His year-end bonus is probably bigger than that.”
“No, all this because he got involved in drug trafficking. He would’ve been caught eventually.”
“A lot was destroyed in his wake, though, along with some good reputations.”
“Mayor, I want to thank you for your help with this case. If you hadn’t found those discrepancies in the incident reports, and hadn’t thought to look in your old yearbooks, we’d still be chasing our tails.”
“I wish I could offer a heartfelt ‘you’re welcome’, but I’m not feeling it right now.”
“I honestly think you’ve been very lucky not getting hurt or finding more trouble for your family. I really wish you’d stay out of police business, though.”
“Detective Nakatani, you can count on that. In fact, you can count on seeing a whole lot less of me in the future!”
When Josh came looking for her, she ended the call. “Ready for that talk you’ve been wanting to have?” he asked.
“Yeah. Georgie is here and the kids are in bed,” she said. She took Josh’s hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Every heart-to-heart talk Melanie had ever had in her life had been conducted at the bench on the resort grounds across the highway from her home. It was exactly the right place for what she had to tell Josh that night, and she led him straight to it.
“What’s all this about, Melanie?”
“Well, first, we’re in luck. Trinh is moving in with Harmon this weekend. That means Dottie and Pop can stay in her place until your mom is strong enough to go home to Wyoming. It’ll give all of us the breathing room we need, and more privacy. Your parents are great, I really like them, but sometimes we’re all a little too close for comfort.”
“They’re planning on going home in June, once my school year is done.” He shifted uneasily, but finally looked at her. “I’m going with them.”
“That’s what Pop said, that you’ll spend the summer with them watching over your mother.”
“About that. I might look for a job while I’m there.”
“He said that, too. Are you coming back in the fall?”
“I don’t know. If I get a teaching job at the college, I might stay there.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes.
“Do you think you’ll come with us?” he asked.
“Maui is my home, Josh. Thérèse and Chance’s, also. They were born here, and Thérèse is making friends these days. I see no reason why we should leave our home.”
“Wyoming is mine.”
Melanie felt a strong breeze blow through, rustling the palm fronds. She watched as a boat slowly came to the beach, reversing in until it nudged up into the sand. There were other things to pay attention to right then, though.
“Josh, is Wyoming more important to you than me and the kids?”
“Is Maui more important to you than raising the kids in Wyoming with me?”
“Yes.”
Josh shifted uncomfortably and Melanie did her best to withhold tears while they sat quietly for a few more minutes. Her little scene at the bench, while it seemed calm from outward appearances, was tearing her up inside. Even so, what the two men dressed in dark clothes were doing at the motorboat caught her attention for a moment, until she forced herself back to the bench and her dissolving marriage.
“So, that’s it, then?” she said after a few more minutes.
“I can’t think of anything else to say or do.”
“Well, when you move your mother and father into Trinh’s side of the house, you’ll be moving in there with them.” She looked him in the eyes for the first time since they sat down. “In fact, just move into Pop’s room tonight.”
She waited at the bench when Josh went home. Letting a few tears run unabated, she was surprised there weren’t more. But distracting her from the major breakdown she really wanted was the little scene at the boat. A car had parked nearby and two men in dark clothes were
carrying shopping bags from the car to the boat.
“What the heck?”
With no moon in the sky, the park-like setting of the resort grounds was nearly pitch-black. It was hard to see exactly what they were doing, but the motorboat was parked in the same spot as the small rowboat had been two weeks before. Hoping they wouldn’t see her if she got a little closer, Melanie crept to a hiding spot behind a palm tree. She was closer, but still didn’t have the vantage point she needed to see what they were carrying to the boat, or to get a good look at their faces. It was obvious they weren’t going fishing. Using a shrubbery hedge to hide behind, she dashed to the palm tree closest to them, now only ten yards away.
‘That’s Ozzy,’ she thought as she peeked from behind the palm. ‘It has to be him. Tall and lanky, stupid look to his face. I wonder if that’s Cabrera with him?’
She crouched down as low as she could to make a call. Thinking better of trying to talk, she sent a text to Detective Nakatani.
Found Ozzy at Napili Winds beach.
She waited and hoped he would take her lead and text back instead of call. Two minutes later, her screen illuminated with a text.
On my way. Stay away from them!
“A little too late for that,” she whispered, her words barely louder than breaths.
She had no idea where he was, if he was bringing uniformed officers, or how long it would take for them to get there. The beach was fairly long, and it could take a few minutes for them to spot the boat, if Ozzy and Cabrera were even still there when Nakatani showed up. Even though it was dark, she didn’t want to risk being seen if she tried backing away. If they were armed, they would shoot her down and leave her body for Nakatani to find. As it was, all Melanie could do was sit and wait for something to happen.
The van that had come to deliver whatever they loaded onto the boat started up and drove off. All she could see was the color and make, but not the license plate.
“Well, there goes one.”
Then an idea struck.
“Take a picture with your phone, dummy.”