Moonlight Cocktail

by William Cassidy

  “Right after I finish making my calls to Keoni and the east coast.”

  “Jack, I’m really looking forward to dinner at the Club tonight with the Grant’s.”

  “So am I.”

  Katherine stood up and Jack pulled her to him. They embraced and kissed, and Katherine left for the Halekulani. Then Jack walked into the kitchen and called Keoni Campbell at the Plantation.

  “Good morning, Keoni. How are things on the Big Island?”

  “Everything’s in order. We’re roasting this morning, and the tourist trade has picked up.”

  “At the Plantation or on the internet?” Jack asked.

  “Both. I’m going to start asking visitors how they learned about us.”

  “That would be a useful piece of information. Maybe we should beef up our website.”

  “Let’s see what kind of feedback I get.”

  “Good idea, Keoni. I’m going to call those damn chefs and restaurant managers on the east coast this morning and try to persuade them to move into the 21st Century.”

  “I don’t envy you, Mr. Sullivan.”

  “No, dialing for dollars has never been a favorite pastime of mine.”

  After calling twenty restaurants in New York and ten in Washington, Jack decided he’d had enough of that for the day. He was not comfortable asking people to buy his coffee, even though he believed it was the best in the islands. He headed downstairs to the elevator, looking forward to another day of botanical research at the Bishop Museum. As the elevator doors opened on the lobby, Jack saw Arthur Fairbanks striding in from the courtyard.

  “Arthur, good morning.”

  “Good morning, Jack. And how do you do?” Arthur inquired with a slight bow and tilt of his lightly feathered crown.

  “I’m fine. I understand from talking with Peter that we’ll be sitting together at the opening of his radio show.”

  “Indeed. Did he ring you, as he did me, early this morning?”

  “He did. He’s very excited about it.”

  “Quite. And I must say that I am as well. It will restore a charming part of Hawaii’s past. Now Jack, have you heard anything more about Derek Reynolds?”

  “Not much, Arthur. I assume the police are conducting their investigation.”

  “Yes, they rang me yesterday. Interrupted me just as I was about to dial my bootmaker in London. They’re interviewing everyone who was at the party. Strange, they asked me quite a bit about the Lane’s. Have you been interviewed?”

  “No, but I’m sure I’ll get a call.”

  “A sad event and such a bother for the Club,” Arthur said.

  “Yes,” Jack responded. “Speaking of the Lane’s, Arthur, how well did they know Derek?”

  “Extremely well. As I said the other night, they were colleagues in Hollywood until Derek chose another actress for the lead role that should have been Sidney’s. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, I had dinner at the Poinciana on Tuesday night with Stanton Char, and we got talking to the maitre’d. Stanton knows him. He told us that Reynolds caused quite a ruckus in the dining room last Saturday night when he was having dinner with Hypatia and her sister Jennifer. That must be the scene you told me about on Monday night at the cast party.”

  “Yes, no doubt, but what possible connection does that have to the Lane’s?” Arthur asked.

  “They were in the restaurant when it happened. They must have seen and heard it, but they just got up and left the dining room without so much as acknowledging Derek’s presence.”

  “Maybe they didn’t want to embarrass him,” Arthur observed.

  “Maybe, but they also unexpectedly checked out the next morning.”

  “They probably couldn’t stand the thought of being in the same hotel with Reynolds. Given their history with him, I can’t say that I blame them.”

  “Where do the Lane’s live here on Oahu?”

  “They have a spectacular place out at Lanikai on the Windward Shore.”

  “Big?” Jack asked.

  “Quite, and it’s marvelously landscaped with every imaginable type of tropical plant and flower. Sidney and George fell madly in love with Hawaii when they moved here and set out to learn everything they could about Hawaiian customs and traditions. Their house and gardens are modeled after those of Hawaiian royalty. You really should pop over and see it. I’ll mention it to them. I’m sure they’d be pleased to show it to you. Well, I shall look forward to seeing you at Dillingham’s show on Monday afternoon. God Save the Queen!” Arthur proclaimed before marching off through the lobby.

  As Jack stood in the Royal Hawaiian’s driveway waiting for his Jeep, he realized that today’s research could be very important.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  By leaving Waikiki at ten-thirty in the morning, Jack avoided both the rush hour traffic on H-1, and the late morning lunch crowd heading to Waikiki’s hotels for a surfside noon meal. Maile smiled as Jack entered the library stacks and waved at him.

  “I heard your meeting with Papa David went well. He was very impressed with your preparation.”

  “You talked to him?”

  “Yes, he called this morning to tell me how much he enjoyed meeting you and to suggest some books you may want to take a look at.”

  “What a guy. He’s very thoughtful.”

  “That’s his line of work, Jack, helping people.”

  “I’ll have to call and thank him.”

  “You can tell him the next time you see him. He’s sure you’ll be by again soon.”

  “He’s probably right about that.”

  Maile gave Jack a list of several books that Papa David had asked her to pass on to Jack. Jack took the list and walked to the stacks. The books fell into two categories: medical references and Hawaiian customs and traditions. The medical books identified poisonous plants and ways to treat people who had come into contact with them. Jack decided to start with them.

  Unlike the treatises he had examined on his previous visit to the museum, these references featured enlarged color photographs of the plants. Jack was struck by the range and beauty of plants that were toxic enough to kill a man.

  When he saw a large color photograph of the Be-Still Tree, he recognized its yellow flowers immediately; he had seen them on the lanai outside Stanton Char’s house. He also recognized the enlarged photograph of Oleander, which lined the driveway of another friend’s house on Oahu, creating a very private and, he now knew, very dangerous path to the front door.

  Jack realized that he had also seen the Angel’s Trumpet, an attractive tree with cream and yellow-colored trumpet-shaped flowers that hang upside down, all over Oahu. And he recognized its relative, the Jimsonweed, by its thorny apple-like berry. In fact, as he looked at each photograph, Jack realized that he had frequently been in close company with many of Hawaii’s poisonous plants but hadn’t known they were so dangerous.

  The medical literature confirmed Papa David’s description of the effects these poisonous plants have on humans who consume them, but went further. These books also contained detailed descriptions of the symptoms that would be evident in someone who had consumed one of the plants and recommendations for appropriate medical treatment.

  Jack then turned to the other references that Papa David had provided, the ones that described the roles plants played in Hawaiian customs and traditions. He thought it just might be possible that the plant that did Derek Reynolds in was rare enough that it might not be seen by toxicologists in a lifetime, but might be one that had been used in ancient Hawaiian ceremonies. If so, it could have been discovered by someone who researched the use of plants in Hawaiian customs.

  He found a wealth of information about the use of plants in Hawaiian traditions and rituals. In one custom, a statue of Kalaipahoa, which Papa David said had been carved out of poisonous woods, was used in an elaborate ceremony of near death and recovery. Cups of kava, a pepper root drink, would be prepared for the ‘kahu’ or priests, and one of the ‘kahu’ would scrape po
isonous wood from the Kalaipahoa statue into one cup of kava and drink from that cup while the other ‘kahu’ drank from cups that contained only kava. The ‘kahu’ who had consumed the kava with scrapings from what was regarded as the body of Kalaipahoa would then pray for the life of the king, the chiefs, and the people as he began to gasp and turn red. At that point, the other ‘kahu’ would give him an antidote to the poison by applying a bark that was regarded as a healing substance to his lips, and the poisoned ‘kahu’ would recover.

  But the remedies used by sorcerers really caught Jack’s attention. One skilled in the art of sorcery or black magic was known as a ‘kahu ‘ana ‘ana’ or as a ‘kahuna ‘ana ‘ana’. They used prayer as their primary method of treating illness that had been caused by the sorcery of another. First, they said a prayer to drive sickness from the patient by removing the evil influence that had been visited on the patient by the sorcerer. When the prayers for release were as powerful as the wrongdoer’s prayer for harm, the evil influence would be eliminated. A secondary treatment was known as ‘hai haia’. Here, the ‘kahuna ‘ana ‘ana’ would try to cure his patient by acting insane in an effort to prevent the gods from hearing the rival’s curses, drawing the curses to himself, and thus freeing the victim. Then, with his superior ‘mana’ or spirit, the ‘kahuna’ would drive the curses away and direct them at the rival sorcerer. One way that the ‘kahuna’ would act insane was to drink potions that contained poisons, such as ‘Auhuhu, a slender legume used to poison fish; Ipu Awa Awa, a gourd whose pulp was used as medicine; ‘Opihi Awa, a nonedible limpet used in sorcery; Kumimi, an inedible crab used in sorcery; and ‘Akia, a shrub whose bark, roots and leaves were used to poison fish.

  Jack’s interest was immediately piqued by the potions that contained ‘Akia, the poisonous plant Papa David had said was rare but nevertheless found on Oahu, particularly because ‘Akia was the only source of poison listed that was a shrub whose bark was poisonous. Dr. Wong had been clear about the poison that killed Derek Reynolds: It had been extracted from a shrub that had bark on it.

  Jack knew he had to learn more about ‘Akia. His eyes raced down the list of books that Papa David had recommended and focused on one that explained the roles that plants played in the ancient rituals of Hawaii. He searched for ‘Akia and found it in the middle of the book. Four words on the first page of its description leapt out at him, “extremely poisonous if eaten.”

  The text echoed Papa David’s words. It described ‘Akia as a shrub with many branches and green oval-shaped leaves. Its yellow flowers develop red fruits or berries not quite half an inch in diameter, and its bark is extremely strong. In fact, because of the strength of its bark, Hawaiians had used it as a binding material. But the description of this member of the Wikstroemia genus was secondary to the warning about its toxicity. Although harmless to the touch, ‘Akia was extremely poisonous if eaten.

  Indeed, it had been used by ancient Hawaiians in a potion concocted for two purposes: suicide and the execution of criminals upon the order of a chief. For the latter purpose, the ritual, like all others, was prescribed with particularity. The doomed man would be presented with the poison in a cup and then toasted by the executioner with the sarcastic expression, “He wahi mea ola ia”, which literally means “This is to keep you alive.” Today, Jack thought, the executioner would probably say “To your health and prosperity.”

  Jack read further and learned that the fluid in ‘Akia affects the central nervous system and that Hawaiians had also used it to catch fish. They would place it among stones at the bottom of a tidal pool and wait for ten minutes. The fish would then appear near the surface, swimming aimlessly in a drugged state until they died. As with the symptoms manifested by Derek Reynolds just before he collapsed, there was no violent seizure evident in the fish that had consumed ‘Akia.

  Now he needed to find out where ‘Akia grew. Turning to another reference book that listed every plant in the islands, he found its botanical name. More than twenty species of ‘Akia could be found in the Hawaiian Islands. Just as Papa David had told him, with the exception of one species on Oahu, they were either harmless or only mildly toxic.

  Jack now set out to find the toxic species of Wikstroemia Oahuensis. He knew that Papa David was his best shot at finding where on Oahu this poisonous plant grew.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Jack called Papa David from Maile’s desk and asked if he could drop by for another visit. When Papa David said he had the afternoon free, Jack was ecstatic. Maile smiled and wished him good luck as he hurried out of the stacks.

  The sugar cane fields were a blur of green and red as the blue Jeep sped along the highway. Jack was riveted on his discovery of ‘Akia’s use in Hawaiian traditions and its glaring absence from lists of the most common poisonous plants in Hawaii. As he passed Schofield Barracks on his left, his cell phone rang. It was Katherine.

  “I’ve got some news for you,” she said. “The flowers and plants that Jennifer said she would send from her wholesaler just arrived, and I have the florist’s name. It’s called Tropical Flora. Do you want the phone number?”

  “No, just tell me where it is.”

  “It’s in Kailua on Kailua Road right in the center of town.”

  Katherine gave Jack the address and then hung up to talk to a customer who had just walked into the shop. As Jack put his cell phone down, he had a premonition that he would find ‘Akia on the Windward Shore of Oahu, not far from either Kailua or Lanikai.

  Less than an hour after he left the Bishop Museum, Jack was bounding up the porch steps of Papa David’s house. The elderly man met him at the door with a smile.

  “You’re a quick study, Jack.”

  “Let’s just say I got lucky, because I can’t say that I’ve mastered the subject matter yet. But I do have enough to act on, at least preliminarily.”

  “Come in and tell me what you’ve found.”

  Jack told Papa David about the Hawaiian ceremony that incorporated ‘Akia in the potion given to condemned criminals and the accompanying sarcastic toast to the condemned man’s future well-being.

  “Yes, that is an old custom,” Papa David said. “And ‘Akia would have been the constituent that caused the criminal’s death. But why do you think that’s relevant to your case?”

  “Because the toxicologists would have been familiar with all the other commonly encountered poisonous plants and would have recognized their properties immediately. This is one plant they rarely see and, as far as I can tell, it’s the only plant with poisonous bark that was used to make those potions the kahu’s drank. Plus this one had a certain irony in the way it was administered to criminals.”

  “You mean whoever put this in Derek Reynolds’ Mai Tai, would have enjoyed seeing him toasted before he drank it?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Well, Jack, your theory has a certain diabolical logic.”

  “That’s what I think. Plus you can find it if you do the research.”

  “Where would you like to go from here?”

  “I’d like to go to wherever it is on Oahu that the one strain of poisonous ‘Akia grows.”

  “That’s easy enough. I know it well. I’ve seen the virulent form of ‘Akia in only one place on Oahu - a field just above Kailua.”

  Bingo, Jack thought. “Can we go there now?”

  “Certainly, but let me get some gloves and a pair of shears. I’m sure you’ll want to take a sample back with you.”

  “Papa David, you’re one step ahead of me.”

  “Just barely, Jack. Let’s call it a half step.”

  Jack helped Papa David climb into the Jeep, and they drove north and then east from the North Shore of Oahu to its Windward Shore. When they arrived at the town of Kailua an hour later, Papa David directed Jack to turn off King Kamehameha Highway and drive west on the road that led to the hills above Kailua. When they reached a field, Papa David told Jack to stop. They got out of the Jeep, and he led Jack across the small plain towa
rd a line of low-lying light green shrubs that grew together, close to the ground, at the back of the field.

  “Jack, this is ‘Akia.”

  “It looks just like the photo I saw. It’s hard to believe it’s dangerous.”

  “Hold this branch so I can cut it. It’s harmless to touch but wash your hands before you eat and don’t touch your mouth or your eyes after you touch this bush.”

  Papa David took the shears in his gloved right hand and reached into the bush. With some difficulty, he cut a long branch with several pairs of leaves and pulled it free of the shrub.

  “Is that enough for analysis?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, but if we need more, these bushes aren’t going anywhere.”

  Jack held the branch in front of him and examined the green leaves, red berries, and reddish bark. He studiously avoided breaking the skin on the berries or cracking the bark. But as he turned to walk back toward the Jeep, Jack noticed a white spot on the ground beneath one of the bushes, several feet from the branch that Papa David had cut, and pointed it out to him.

  Papa David crawled under the bush and examined the small white object that looked, at first, like a piece of coral.

  “Jack, I think we’ve just found evidence of prior human interest in ‘Akia.”

  “What is it?”

  “A cigarette butt.”

  “Let me take a look at it,” Jack said as he crawled under the bush.

  “A Camel. Must be a tough guy. Or gal.”

  Jack looked deeper into the shrub, above the cigarette butt, and noticed that several branches appeared to be arranged in an unnatural fashion. Peering into the shrub, Jack found what he was looking for - the stub of a branch that had recently been cut close to the bottom of the bush.

  “Papa David, this branch was cut with a very sharp blade. As hard as this bark is, it’s not broken or shredded. Someone came in here with a tool that could cut through very hard things, someone who must have known how hard the bark of ‘Akia is.”

  Papa David leaned forward to look for himself.

  “You’re right, Jack. This is a clean cut that took off a large branch.”