by Neal, Toby
“Are you here for Jay’s investigation? Because he hung out here. I wanted to put these posters around on the tables.”
“I can’t talk about it, Kelly. Just know we are doing all we can and things are progressing. Good initiative on the posters.”
“I have to go back home soon. I have to get to work.” The girl’s eyes filled. Lei took a paper napkin out of the dispenser, handed it to her. Kelly dabbed her eyes. “No one seems to know anything. Jay’s dad is offering a reward.”
“Well, if you get any leads, make sure they come to us at the police station. All I can tell you is that we have more manpower on the case and a full task force going. We are taking Jay’s disappearance very seriously.”
Kelly stood up. “Okay. Call me. Keep me informed.” The green in her changeable eyes glittered. “I’m serious.”
“Of course.” Kelly handed her a few of the posters and walked out.
Lei let her breath out in a whoosh, looking around. No one was paying attention. She picked up the posters and tacked one onto the front of the bar, her stomach knotted.
Jay’s eyes could accuse her from everywhere in the café now.
Several hours later she turned off the main road onto a rugged, rock-strewn dirt track leading uphill at a steep angle. She put the truck in four-wheel drive and bucked her way up to the cleared area at the top, parking next to Alika’s black Tacoma.
Alika leaned against the hood of his truck, working his cell phone. He looked up and waved. She snagged her swimsuit off the seat, slipping out of her underwear and wriggling into the bottoms. She reached behind and unhooked her bra, slipping it off one arm and then reaching in with the other hand to pull the bra out of her sleeve without taking the dress off. She dropped the polka-dotted top over her head and reached backward under the dress to tie the strings, then whipped the dress off and gave her scalp one last rub, enjoying the springy softness of fledgling hair without the scratchy wig.
Alika whistled as she got out of the truck in nothing but the yellow bikini and her rubber slippers.
“That was amazing. I kept hoping to get a glimpse of something, but you have changing in the car down to a science.”
“We local girls know a few tricks.” She put her hands on her hips, swiveling to take in the view.
They were halfway up a precipitous mountain in a rough clearing. A boulder-strewn path led farther up the incline. She could look down the road and see the ocean, a wind-whipped blue tumult in the distance. Jungle stretched away in either direction.
“So where’s the swimming? Don’t tell me you lured me up here under false pretenses.”
“Oh, there’s swimming, all right.” He shucked his shirt off over his head. “You’re not the only one who got sweaty today. I had to spend the day filling in for one of my carpenters, who called in sick.” He reached back into the cab of his truck for a couple of towels and tossed her one. “Follow me.”
He turned and headed up the trail. Lei wrapped the towel, a huge bath sheet printed with palm trees, around her torso and hurried up the trail after him.
The path ended at the lip of a cavern. Lei caught her breath at the soaring depth of it, rough stony edges softened with hanging ferns. She glimpsed the black shimmer of water far below. “Oh my God. This is awesome.”
A draft of cool air wafted out and poured over her. Alika was already picking his way down the steep path inside to the water. His upturned grin gleamed in the dim light.
“You said you like go swimming.”
Chapter 24
“What’s this cave called?” She picked her way down the precipitous rocky trail. “You can’t even tell it’s here from below!”
“It’s Waikapala`e Cave. This is an old lava tube, and the water comes through the stone from underground springs.”
They reached the bottom of the cavern, where crystalline water lapped at the shore, and Lei stuck her foot in. She shrieked and jumped back. “It’s freezing!”
“You wanted to cool off.” Alika tossed his towel over a nearby rock. He climbed onto an outcrop on the side of the cave. Small, sparkling white stalactites dripped into the pool. Maidenhair fern clinging to rocks reached for light coming through the cave mouth far above, a lacy scrim trimming the jagged lava.
Alika dove in, then burst up out of the water with a Tarzan yell, shaking his head.
The icy splash sprinkled Lei and she gasped, goose bumps erupting. She followed him up onto the outcrop and jumped in, holding her nose. The cold hit her like a fist, driving the air out of her lungs in an explosive burst, and she surged up to the surface with a matching yell. They laughed spontaneously, the sound echoing around the chamber and making the fragile ferns shiver.
“Follow me.” Alika struck out for the shadowy rear of the cave. A little hesitantly, Lei followed. He swam all the way to where the rock face touched the surface and pointed down into the deep, clear water. The reflection of distant light was captured in the lime-lined depths, and she could see the cave went on underneath.
“We need to dive under and swim through a short tunnel. We’ll come up inside a chamber. It’s something you have to see to believe. You game?”
“Of course.” Lei’s heart pounded so hard it hurt her ears.
“Okay. I know my way, so I’m going to hold your hand. Just keep your eyes open and swim after me. It’s less than thirty seconds. Let’s fill our lungs.”
They both oxygenated their bodies with deep breaths; then Alika took her chilled hand in his and dove under. She sucked in one last big breath and followed him, kicking and swimming with her free hand as hard as she could. With her eyes open she could see the light reflecting off the bottom of the cave far below, but above her head was terrifying black. Imagining being held beneath the water with nowhere to escape to pumped adrenaline through her veins and used up oxygen faster than it should have—so when Alika swam upward, she flew up beside him into the underwater cave with a gasp.
They treaded water, assimilating their surroundings. The water glowed, lit from reflections beneath, filling the dark, enclosed chamber with an eerie blue light.
“They call this the Blue Room.” Alika’s voice echoed in the roughly spherical space. Lei looked up—blue reflections danced across the rough ceiling, bounced off the walls. Her limbs looked foreshortened in the water, azure and alien.
“Follow me.” Alika struck out for the side of the chamber. Along one wall, nearly invisible, was a narrow shelf. He hauled himself out of the water, turning to sit. He reached down and grasped her wrist, and with one powerful heave pulled her high enough for her to clamber onto the ledge. She turned around and sat beside him, their feet dangling into crystalline blue.
“This is amazing. Magical.” Even though she whispered the words, they sent ripples around the enclosed space.
“Being here with you is magic.”
“Bet you say that to all the girls,” she said, trying for banter.
“None of them ever had the nerve to come here.” His words fell like stones in a pond, sinking into her.
When his hand touched her chin, turning her face toward him, she felt like the only woman in the world. His lips were the point of heat in that universe, and she sank hungrily into the kiss, welcoming his tongue into the cave of her mouth. Her arms came up and around him just as he reached for her, the coldness of their bodies clashing on the narrow ledge in a timeless embrace.
She couldn’t get enough of him. Her hands flew over him, rubbing marble-cold skin into warm pulsing life. His hands were all over her too, friction between them bringing her to the edge of frantic desire. He pushed her top aside to touch her breasts, and her nipples became tactile points of intense sensation. When his hot mouth touched her there she cried out, and the sound of it bounced around the cave. She moved up and onto his lap, powerful legs encircling him, a haze blinding her—and that was when she felt something odd.
Something poking her in the knee. Something small, roundish, hard. Something that shouldn’t be t
here. She raised her head from where she’d been biting his neck, stillness falling over her like a cloak.
“What’s wrong?” His harsh whisper had a ragged edge of desperation to it. “I don’t have a condom, but . . .”
“It’s not that.” She moved off his lap and he groaned, reaching for her. She pushed him away, patting the ledge beside them until she found the object. Held it carefully. Moved over to sit on the ledge and lean out over the water for whatever reflected light she could pick up.
It was a cylindrical shape a little bigger than a cigarette butt, flared at the ends, light and slightly porous to her fingertips. Even in the dimness she could tell it was bone.
She straightened her top back into place. Continued to pat the surface of the ledge carefully as Alika watched, brows drawn together.
“What are you doing? Are you okay?”
“I found something important.” She kept feeling, then shoved him. “Get off. I need to check this whole ledge.”
He dropped into the water. She continued her slow patting of the ledge, then moved up onto the wall. About two feet up near the middle she hit pay dirt—a hollow depression in the wall, with a cache of bones in it. She touched them lightly, enough to feel their contours, but she didn’t want to disturb them in situ and it was too dark for her to see into the depression.
She needed to see if the bone was what she thought it was. Lei tucked it deep into her swimsuit top, tightened the strings so there was no possibility of losing it, and slipped back into the water.
“What’s going on?”
“I think I found something major. I need to bring some backup in here. They’ll have to bring scuba gear.” She swam for the entrance to the cave, the enchantment of blue light lost on her.
“What? What is it?”
“I think it’s human remains. Seems like someone’s been using the ledge for some sort of shrine.”
“Oh shit. Now, there’s a mood killer.”
“I have to get to my phone. C’mon.” She swam to the wall, looked underneath it to the tunnel, and gulped a few quick breaths. Before Alika could catch up, she ducked and swam through the tunnel, coming up on the other side and breaking into a fast crawl across the pool. Alika was just getting out of the tunnel when she climbed out of the water and wrapped herself in the bath sheet, digging the bone out of her top and holding it up to the dim light.
“Finger. Maybe toe,” she muttered. She pushed her feet into rubber slippers and bounded up the precipitous trail. Alika finally caught up with her back at her truck, where she was placing a call to Becky.
“Becks—I have something for you to check out. A bone.” She held it up so the setting sun could light the macabre little object. She was almost sure it was human.
“So bring it in tomorrow.” Becky’s voice sounded tired. “I’ll take a look if I have time.”
“No. It’s more urgent than that. I think this might be part of the big investigation I’m working on with Stevens.” She described the bone. “It’s a little blackened, as if it might have been in a fire.”
“What about it being old? I mean, this could be part of some Hawaiian burial site or something.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it.” Lei described the cache of bones in the hollow in the wall. “The Hawaiians did hide their high-ranking dead in the cliffs in caves—but not a wet cave like this. And the bones at this site are small, nowhere near enough to be a whole body. That’s why I’m calling you first. I want you to check it out, see if it’s worth calling out the full team for.”
“I won’t get paid overtime, but okay.” Becky sighed. “Give me forty-five minutes or so. I have my kit in the car, fortunately.”
“Do you have scuba gear?”
“What?”
“Scuba gear. I think it would be worthwhile to check out the bottom of the cave, and you have to have your swimsuit and some dive lights at least, since you have to swim in through an underwater tunnel.”
“Oh my God.” Becky’s voice went to a high-pitched squeak.
“Okay, fine. I’ll call Stevens. He can help you; he’ll want to be notified anyway.”
“I’ll do it if you call Stevens. And yes, you’re in luck. I’m certified for scuba and own my own equipment,” she said. They wrapped up and Lei pushed the worn button on her phone to call Stevens.
His voice was colder than the ice water in the cave.
“I told you Jenkins was your liaison.”
“I think you’ll want to know about this.” She filled him in on her discovery. “I need you to hold Becky’s hand. Come out and see the site for yourself.”
A long pause.
“On my way.”
She closed her phone, heaved a sigh. The sun was dead ahead, almost touching the darkening sea. She looked around for Alika and spotted him sitting on a promontory of rock, sunset gilding his torso. Evening cast a chill that bit through her wet bathing suit and towel. She climbed up next to him, snuggling against his warmth.
“Help’s on the way.”
“Good.” He wrapped an arm over her. “Now, where were we?” His lips found hers. She put up with it for a few seconds, then withdrew.
“Sorry. I’m distracted.”
“Some other time. It’s cool watching you in cop mode.” He shook his head a little. “You’re so focused. The bad guys don’t stand a chance.”
“I wish. Listen, you don’t have to wait. They’ll be here soon.”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
They watched the sun disappear, staining the clouds crimson, peach, and gold. Lei shivered.
“Let’s get you into the truck, turn on the heater. I’ve got some food in there too.”
“Food! Oh God, I think I love you.” She laughed.
“Whatever it takes.” He tried to nuzzle her neck, but she’d jumped up and was heading for the vehicle.
They were sitting in his truck, the engine and heater on, eating beef jerky when Stevens’s police Bronco bucked its way up the steep track. Becky’s face was white as she clung to the dangling safety strap, and the flashing light bar testified to the speed Stevens had used to get to the remote spot.
They all got out. Lei tightened the towel, tucking the ends in.
“Hey, thanks for the fast response. Check this out.” She held the bone out on her flattened palm. Becky snapped on her Maglite. She picked it up, examined it in the harsh light.
“Human. Looks like it’s been in a fire. Can’t tell how old.”
Stevens was already going around to the back of the SUV and opening the tailgate, revealing a pair of oxygen tanks and a welter of scuba equipment.
“Hi.” Alika stepped forward, hand extended. “I’m Alika Wolcott.”
“Becky Banks.” The lab tech shook his hand.
“Oh, sorry,” Lei said. “Becky, Stevens, this is my friend Alika.”
Stevens looked up, a regulator in his hands. Lei couldn’t see his expression in the dim light.
“Hey.” His voice was terse. “How did you guys find the bones, anyway?”
“I brought Lei out for a swim, wanted to show her something special.” Alika draped his arm over her in a proprietary gesture. “Guess it was even more special than I had in mind.”
“Yeah, a big surprise.” Lei slipped out from under his arm. “Did you bring enough equipment for me?”
“Oh, sorry. No,” Becky said. “I’ve only got two rigs. Are you certified?”
“No, but I figure, how hard can it be? Damn. Well, we can show you where it is, anyway.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” Stevens said. “We can take it from here.”
He’d wrapped a towel around his midsection and was pulling on swim trunks and a wetsuit vest. “Becky, come get into your gear. The sooner we check this out, the sooner we can get on home.”
“Sure.” Becky hurried to obey. Alika and Lei watched, and it wasn’t long before Alika led them back up the trail. Stevens and Becky had the only two flashlights, an
d Becky gave an involuntary gasp as the cavern opened up before them. The flashlights bounced around the dramatic interior as they looked it over.
“Wow.” Becky shone her light on the trembling maidenhair ferns around the surface of the water. “I wouldn’t mind coming here on a date.”
“It wasn’t a date.” Lei stumbled as she picked her way down the trail.
“I thought it was,” Alika said, his voice mock-injured.
“Stay focused on what we’re here for,” Stevens said, shutting down any further discussion until the group got to the bottom of the cave.
“This is gonna be cold,” Alika warned, dropping his towel. Lei reluctantly surrendered hers as well, and Stevens and Becky waded forward into the vast inky pool, rinsing their masks and turning on each other’s oxygen tanks. Lei stuffed down a stab of jealousy as Stevens tapped Becky’s oxygen readout, adjusted her straps, and gave her a thumbs-up. Lei turned and pushed forward into the icy water, following Alika’s sleek head as he swam for the far wall of the chamber.
The water, previously enchanting, was now frigid, and the darkness so complete that without the flashlights lancing through the water below them, Lei would not have been able to see her hand in front of her face. It was disorienting—like swimming in freezing space.
The bubbles from Becky’s and Stevens’s regulators glittered silver gems as they swam beneath Lei and Alika, finding the tunnel and swimming through it ahead of them. Alika took her hand silently, and they pumped their lungs full, then ducked under and swam after the trail of lighted bubbles.
They surfaced in the Blue Room, which, without the eerie daylight effect, was only a roundish cave filled with black water. Stevens and Becky surfaced, shining their flashlights around the room.
“Over here.” Lei headed for the ledge. In seconds, the flashlights had the little hollow pinned in their white glare. Becky climbed up on the ledge with a boost from Stevens, balancing with difficulty on the edge. She shone her light into the hollow containing the bones. Without a word she got out her camera, and the flash burned the scene onto Lei’s retinas over and over, a grisly tableau she’d never be able to forget.