by Toby Neal
In the bath that evening, Lei leaned her head back against the cool porcelain, taking one of those deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth her therapist had recommended, hoping this time it would be different. This time she’d be able to reclaim one more thing he’d taken from her.
It was getting to be more and more important that she manage the weird memory loss and blackout moments she’d struggled with since she was nine. She thought back over the conversation with Stevens, and decided the moment that had triggered her was when he said “she’d been a happy, normal kid.”
She saw Kelly’s bloated, empty face again in her mind’s eye and felt her heart squeeze.
At one time Lei had been a happy, normal kid too-but she’d already been messed up by her dad’s arrest and her mother’s lifestyle by the time Charlie Kwon got his hands on her.
These thoughts weren’t helping her relax. She closed her eyes, but as soon as she did, she smelled the Stetson cologne Charlie always wore. She took another relaxation breath, blowing out the remembered scent. The next second Charlie was there, leaning over her, the soap in his hand.
“Let me wash you,” he said. The pupils of his eyes were wide and black, swallowing her with their need.
Lei reared up, the water sloshing. Keiki, who’d been napping on the bath mat, lunged to her feet. Dripping suds, Lei reached out a trembling arm to pet the dog’s wide chest.
“My guardian. It’s okay, girl, I’m safe now.”
Keiki subsided with a whuff, her ears still swiveling for possible danger. Lei’s heart was still thudding, and she dried a shaking hand on a towel and thumbed open her phone, speed dialing Aunty Rosario at her restaurant in California.
“Baby girl!”
“Hey Aunty. How’s the rat race treating you?’
“Not bad. Been getting some new customers from the ads my busboy put in the mailboxes.”
“Still serving the lilikoi pie?”
“Of course. My regulars would mob me if I didn’t. ’Sides, how else can I say I serve Hawaiian food?”
“What about those poi rolls you were doing?”
“Turns off the truck drivers. They won’t eat anything purple. So what’s new in Hilo?”
They chatted and when they hung up Lei was waterlogged and ready to get out, the flashback gone but not forgotten.
She wondered if she’d ever be able to take a bath without his appearance. Charlie’d had a way of getting to her, twisting everything he did to her into something she’d wanted. Most of her childhood memories remained mercifully elusive but she knew the bath had been bad.
The only thing she remembered for sure were his eyes.
That night she hung her holster from the bedstead and fell asleep with the matte black, boxy shape of the Glock only inches away.
Chapter 9
Lei took extra time in the mirror the next morning, whisking on a little mascara. She mashed in one last handful of CurlTamer, trying to get her hair to lie flat. It refused, as it usually did. When she realized what she was doing, she gave up and went to the station. She didn’t care what she looked like, she told herself, and felt the lie stick like a chicken bone in her throat.
“Hey.” Stevens met her at the coffeepot in the break room, dark hair damp and spiky and cheeks red with razor burn. He smelled like soap. “Ready to get started?”
“Of course.” The station was quieter than normal-Sunday mornings being more about church and hangovers in Hilo, and staffing allocated accordingly. Lei plunked down her coffee and booted up a workstation in the computer lab. Stevens sat next to her on another machine.
“So what’re you looking for?” she asked.
“I’m rolling through Haunani’s cell phone calls. I want to see if I can find any connection with Kelly’s stepdad or anyone else interesting. I think we’re going to have to track down and interview everyone she has in her contacts.”
“Oh.” Lei keyed in her password and logged on to the server. She began searching under “black Toyota truck.” The page loaded with entries. She opened each one and began screening the DMV information against the early-to-mid thirties male profile.
Stevens printed something, and then hopped up from the workstation.
“Gotta check something out.” He snagged his black leather jacket off the back of the chair. She envied that as a detective he didn’t have to wear a uniform. “Call me on my cell if you see anything likely.”
“Like what?” She swiveled the chair around. “‘Sugadady’ on a license plate? How the hell are we going to investigate all these dudes anyway?”
“I have a witness from the high school who says she saw the guy in the black Toyota. If we can show her the license pictures, she might be able to pick him out.”
“Nice. Thanks for sharing.”
“Just find the guys who fit the profile, print their pictures and make me a folder.” He shrugged into the jacket.
“For giving up my Sunday I expect to be at the interview,” she said, giving him her best stare. Arrogant asshole, she thought-not for the first time.
“Fine. I’ll check in later.”
She watched him go, enjoying her tiny victory. It was a nice view, and she grinned as she spun her chair back around and got on with the boredom. A thought occurred-she opened another window and tapped in Kelly’s stepdad’s name and a second later, stared in astonishment.
James Reynolds drove a 2007 charcoal Toyota Tacoma. She hit P RINT and pulled the page out of the laser. Heavy brows and a receding hairline bracketed a square jaw; dark eyes looked truculently at her. She threw the page into the growing pile, then fished the dog-eared card out of her pocket and punched in the number.
“Stevens.”
“Stevens, the stepdad drives a dark Tacoma!”
“I know. We’re looking at him pretty hard. Alibi’s holding up though.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? He doesn’t fit the profile, too old.”
“Sorry, I meant to. I’ve been pretty damn busy,” Stevens said. “That’s what I have you for now. Thanks for checking.”
“I’m putting him in the pile with the others.”
“Why don’t you expand the search, add navy blue, charcoal? Maybe our witness was confused on the color. We’ll be bringing Reynolds in again.”
“What’s the alibi?”
“Tell you later,” he said, and rang off.
She snapped her phone shut, rubbed her chest briskly.
That’s what I have you for now. The butterflies or bubbles or whatever they were that had flown up at those words were still there. They were enough to fuel the long day of poring over records, and at the end of it she had a folder of fifty-seven printed license photos, one of whom was James Reynolds. She set it on Stevens’s desk, leaving a note on the front:
Looking forward to the interview.
Monday came too soon. She had Criminology class that night, and hadn’t studied. She let Pono drive and she read factoids aloud to him from her textbook, one ear tuned for a call from Stevens to help with the case.
“Did you know seventy-nine percent of long-term prisoners have at least one diagnosed mental health disorder?”
“Maybe we should be spending a little more on treatment and less on punishment,” Pono said.
“Now you’re sounding like a Democrat. I don’t give a shit why they do what they do-dysfunctional childhoods, economic challenges-whatever. Criminals should be locked up where they can’t hurt anybody.” The words came out more heated than she meant them to as she thought of her father, incarcerated for dealing. She hated him for what he’d done: first for being taken from her, and then for forgetting about her after he was gone.
“C’mon, you know better. Mostly victimless crime like drugs around here.”
Even in Hawaii where they tried for a more rehabilitative approach with innovations like Drug Court where a defendant completed incarcerated rehab in lieu of a sentence, the jails were overflowing.
“You do the crime,
you do the time.” Lei flipped the page.
“I just wish the stats were better for Hawaiians,” Pono said. “There’s got to be a reason so many of our people end up in prison.”
“It’s the cycle of addiction, they call it.”
“We need more things fo’ the young people, so they no go into the game,” Pono said. The topic was getting him down. He’d slipped into pidgin, and he absently rubbed his lips with a forefinger.
“Hey, did I tell you Stevens came by? He roped me in to helping him on the case Sunday.”
“Seriously? Did he kiss your ass to get you to do it?”
“Properly, thank you.”
“Glad you’re on the case. You wanted it bad enough.”
Lei looked up. They were in Haunani’s neighborhood, as if the discussion on drugs had led them there. Lei wondered if Stevens had ever got back to re-interview Haunani’s mother.
“Slow down.”
Pono did, and they rolled along the cracking road until they came to the plywood door in the shadow of an extravagant plumeria tree. Sure enough, Nani sat there, cigarette smoke curling upward in a ribbon around her head.
Lei held her hand up, the small circular burn on it suddenly itchy.
“I need a minute.”
“Here we go again,” Pono groaned, but pulled over. Lei got out, straightening her duty belt with its heavy accoutrements, and strode across the tufted grass. Without a word she took one of the beach chairs from its leaning position against the wall, flipped it open, and sat down next to Nani.
“How you stay?” she asked in pidgin.
A shrug of the narrow shoulders, a heavy drag on the cigarette, but Nani’s eyes looked clear if sunken.
“I’m sorry about your daughter.”
Again the shrug.
“Did the detectives ever come back and talk to you?”
Slight shake of the head.
“We need to know anything we can about who might have done this. Who was Haunani seeing?”
“Someone she shouldn’t have been.” Nani’s voice sounded like it came from the bottom of a rusty metal bucket. “She wouldn’t tell me. Had that damn cell phone going all the time, got her pot for free and never gave me notting.”
“What kind of vehicle did he drive?”
“Black Toyota truck.” Another drag. This time she let the smoke curl up from her bottom lip, inhaling it into her nostrils. “I could tell he was too old for her, I told her not to see him, but I never could do notting with that girl. I told you, she get one hard head.”
“So how old was he? Did you ever get a look at him?”
“Saw him one time, picking her up. Not too tall, dark hair. That’s all.”
Lei thought of Reynolds, who was 6’3” and on the bulky side. But, his hair was dark and it would be hard to judge height sitting down in the cab of a truck.
“Did she have any special jewelry or clothing on her the day she disappeared?”
“Nothing special. Just her gold ring-had an initial H on it. Her grandma gave it to her.”
“Anyone else who might want to-hurt her? What about her father?”
“Haven’t seen his sorry ass in ten years. Never gave me one dime of child support.”
“So where is he?”
“I told you, ten years since he got popped.”
Lei sat with that a minute. Another father incarcerated and gone from a child’s life, abandoning her to a druggie mother. Too much of a theme. Well, so much for the theory of a vengeful father. That left the questionable boyfriend, mysterious enough to be a candidate.
“Well, thanks for talking with me. Detective Stevens may be back by to talk to you again.”
“Probably won’t be here.” She dropped her butt into the cigarette-clogged water jar, stood up and went back into the house.
Lei got out of the chair and headed back to the cruiser, speed-dialing Stevens on her cell.
He hadn’t been back to talk to Nani, and after grilling her for details, he thanked her.
“You’re good at taking initiative. Just check with me first next time, okay?”
“Got it,” Lei said. “We were just in the neighborhood, thought we’d just try, save you some time.” She closed the phone, got in the cruiser and slammed the door, putting on her seatbelt.
“We?” Pono rolled his eyes, and dropped the Oakleys down over them. “‘We nothing.”
“Well it worked out okay, didn’t it?”
“Just because she didn’t get you with her cigarette this time?” He shook his head. “You got lucky she wasn’t high at the moment, is all.”
“Well, if I keep getting lucky, I might just catch this killer.”
Chapter 10
Lei drove to the University of Hawaii campus at the end of the day, eating her favorite Whopper Junior in the car. She pulled in under the spreading African tulip tree next to the Social Sciences building and retrieved her book bag from the backseat, glad to have a distraction from her obsession with the Mohuli`i case. All day she’d been thinking about the trash, the stepdad, Kelly’s clothes-in part to keep from remembering Haunani’s empty white stare and the smoke curling up into Nani’s nostrils. Driving around on patrol with Pono just didn’t feel like she was doing enough, and Stevens hadn’t called her back.
Once in class, she got caught up in the lecture on social control theory and the factors that tend to predict criminal behavior. Lei hadn’t finished her reading, so she skimmed as the lecture progressed and took notes in the margins of her book. She couldn’t help noticing she had most of the “risk factors” herself: child of parents with addictions, father incarcerated, victim of abuse and neglect. The only reason, according to the research, she wasn’t a criminal herself was her Aunty Rosario taking her in and providing a stable home.
At the break, she got up and stretched. Her uniform was one of several in the room. Most of the criminal justice majors were law enforcement or parole officers. She headed over to say hi to her friend from Puna station.
“Hey, Mary.”
Mary swiveled away from the guy she was talking to. She was a tall, shapely girl, her hair a black waterfall over her police uniform. Her big dark eyes glittered, mischievous.
“If it isn’t Texeira! Lei, this is Ray Solomon.”
“Howzit,” Ray said, shaking her hand. He had the smooth brown skin of mixed, hapa, Hawaiian blood.
“Good to meet you,” she said. His grip was solid, and she smiled up at him.
“My pleasure. I love women in uniform.”
“What about out of uniform?” Mary teased, flicking her stiff navy lapel.
He laughed. “If I can get you there.”
“This is too rich for me. Mary, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Don’t run off, shy girl,” Mary teased, pulling one of Lei’s curls. “Lei’s a local but grew up on the Mainland. Kinda like you, Ray.”
“Oh yeah? Where’d you end up?”
“San Rafael, California. From Oahu before that.”
“I did my mainland time in Riverside,” he said. “Solomon’s a Kaua`i family. You know them?”
“No, sorry,” Lei said. This was part of the ritual of meeting someone in the Islands-telling where you were from, who your people were.
“Lei was hanai ’ed to her aunty in California,” said Mary. Hanai was the informal adoption practice used by Hawaiian families-when a family had challenges or problems, children were raised by relatives in an open-ended but committed relationship.
“What you telling him my business for?” Lei punched Mary’s arm.
“Well, Ray get same kind story,” said Mary, falling into pidgin. “Family problems, the uncle wen’ take him in…”
Ray’s face seemed to shut down, his hazel eyes going opaque.
“Boring stuff,” he said.
“She never stop running her mout,’” Lei said. “Come, I keep you out of trouble.” She pulled Mary off to the side. “He’s cute, but quit trying to set me up. Anyway, he seems pret
ty into you.”
“I wouldn’t mind a piece of that, but Roland and I are pretty serious,” Mary said. “You’re the one who needs some action. Why don’t we all go out to Puna Music Club tonight, have a few beers, listen to some music?”
“I’ve got work and so do you. And Keiki’s waiting for me.”
Mary rolled her eyes as they went back to their seats. After class Ray fell into step beside Lei as she headed down the hall.
“More theories about what makes a criminal.”
“I’m not buying it all. There’s no excuse. People make choices.”
“Texeira’s Choice Theory,” he said. “I’m sure it’s out there. So, working on anything interesting?”
“Yeah, but you know I can’t discuss an open investigation,” she said, smiling to take the sting out of her words. He cocked his head, a glint of interest in his eyes.
“C’mon. I’ve got an application in to the academy myself. Maybe another perspective could crack open the case.”
“Sorry, but good luck with your application. They should snap up a smart Hawaii boy like you.”
“Maybe not,” he said, still smiling, but his gold-hazel eyes had gone opaque again. How did he do that? “I got into a little trouble in my youth,” he said.
“Didn’t we all.”
“Yeah. Well, I’ve got a record. I’m hoping the Criminal Justice degree will tip the balance.”
“It’s worth a try, if you really want it,” she said. “You could always work for a law office, be a private investigator or something, if it doesn’t.”
“I guess,” he said. They had arrived at her old Honda, and Ray lifted a hand in a wave as he headed across the parking lot.
After class, Lei drove home, preoccupied. She wished that for once in her life she could just go out with an attractive guy without getting all wound up and paranoid. Life was short-Kelly and Haunani reminded her of that, and maybe she owed it to them to learn to live a little. She glanced in her rearview mirror-the headlights behind her loomed uncomfortably close. She sped up. The tailgater sped up too, and finally pulled around her, cutting her off.
It was a black Toyota truck.