Paradise Crime Mysteries

by Toby Neal

  Keiki went apeshit barking, and getting her under control gave Lei a few minutes to regroup and act casual by the time Alika cut the engine and ran out from under the slowing rotors to her gate.

  “Surprised?”

  “You could tell?” Lei teetered down the porch steps, introduced Keiki to Alika. “You sure know how to make an entrance.”

  Lei gestured to the Abacans, who’d poured out of their house en masse and clustered on their porch. The oldest Abacan grandkid, a gangly boy in ragged cutoffs, approached. “Can I see the inside?”

  “Eh, howzit,” Alika said, giving the kid a fist bump. He must have appeared the ultimate in cool. “Sure.”

  The other two kids ran over.

  “Have fun with that,” Lei said. “I’ve got to go grab my jacket.” She left him showing the inside of the helicopter to the kids as she clomped back into the house, shouldering into her jean jacket and picking up the small black handbag she never used. On impulse, she slipped her Glock inside.

  “A smart girl’s always prepared,” she muttered, feeling ambivalent. She fluffed her nonexistent hair in the mirror by the door and tucked the purse under her arm, a little surprised at how much better she felt with the weight of the gun in it. She clip-clopped out to the helicopter.

  Mrs. Abacan rounded up the kids as Alika opened the curved Plexiglas passenger side door for her, giving her a courtly boost under the elbow as she stepped onto the strut to get inside. She waited until he got in to give him a good stare.

  “You a safe driver? I have trust issues.”

  “Been certified to fly helicopters since my stint in the air force. I’m a half owner of this little beauty. I wanted to show you more of the island, some things you wouldn’t normally see. Put your harness on.”

  He showed her how to buckle it. The straps pinned her against the molded seat, and she immediately felt claustrophobic. She stuck one hand into her pocket to touch the black stone, sucking a few relaxation breaths.

  “This is a Bell 206 Jet Ranger,” Alika went on, telling her about the various functions of the dials and knobs in front of them. Lei looked out of the curved window of the Bell and did a few more relaxation breaths. It didn’t seem to be working.

  “Put your helmet on,” Alika said. “It has audio built in.” When she made no move to take the bulky plastic headwear, he set it gently on her head, adjusted the strap under her chin. His voice came clearly through the audio.

  “You okay? You look a little off.”

  “Okay.” She gave a wan smile and thumbs-up. “Let’s just do it.”

  He reached over, patted her leg, and began their takeoff procedure. Minutes later they rose slowly, Keiki watching from the porch with her ears flattened.

  Chapter Thirty

  Lei’s anxiety began to recede as the glorious topography of Kaua`i opened up beneath her. Fertile Hanalei Valley with its patchwork quilt of taro patches, rugged, lush mountains, cerulean ocean, and plumed waterfalls distracted her with wonder.

  Alika made an effort to fly as smoothly as possible, as they followed the dramatic curve of the coast to the Na Pali cliffs. As they hit the ridgeline, the wind swatted at them, causing stomach-dropping bumps until he lifted the collective and took them up and over, spinning off toward the center of the island.

  “Where are we going, exactly?” Lei asked.

  “Somewhere special. You won’t see this any other way.”

  She took it all in, pressing her forehead against the window. Sheer miles of trackless jungle flowed by without any human stamp. Alika brought them to a wide mesa that overlooked the ocean, marked by a tall green spire. He gently set the chopper down and cut the engine. As the rotors whined down, Lei realized terror had morphed into euphoria, an expanding bubble of joy. She took the headset off and threw her arms around him.

  “Wow,” she said. “Wow. No wonder the tourists do these helicopter tours. I never understood it before. Thank you.”

  He tipped her chin up and tried to kiss her, but she didn’t have time for that and pulled away, opening her door and hopping out, forgetting she was in heels and promptly landing on her butt in the tussocky grass. He was laughing as he came around the front of the Bell and gave her a hand up.

  “Why’d you tell me to wear something nice?” she grumbled. He gestured toward a little cabana that had been set near the edge of the mesa, and Lei tripped again, gasping at the sight. “Oh my God.”

  He wrapped an arm around her as they made their way over to the little striped tent. A folding table had been set up with a couple of chairs on a Persian carpet; an aluminum bucket held chilled champagne in melting ice, and a big wicker basket hinted of a tasty lunch to come.

  “Oh my God,” Lei said again. “I don’t know what to say.”

  His smile gleamed with satisfaction. “Speechless. I like it.” He pulled her chair out and she sat, taking in the enormous vista. “Champagne?”

  “Hell yes. Make it a double.”

  Lei propped herself on her elbow and fed Alika a grape. He’d thought of everything—not only the folding table, but the carpet with a futon and a pile of colored pillows. They’d been kissing for what seemed like hours, and she knew it was the moment of truth as he looked at her with his half-lidded golden eyes. Waiting for her decision.

  She squelched a last blink of doubt. This was what she wanted, who she wanted. He would help her get over Stevens once and for all. She sat up and peeled the silk top off her head, unzipped her jeans and wiggled out of them. She wore her best underwear, a lacy black bra and panties. He pretended to lick his chops, and pulled her toward him by the hips. She laughed as he buried his face in her stomach, growling as he swirled his tongue in her navel. She leaned backward to support herself as he trailed kisses down her abdomen, and her hand landed on the fringe of the carpet.

  She found herself holding something that was caught there. He was still kissing her, moving lower down, as she brought the object up in front of her eyes.

  A thin gold bracelet.

  She pushed his head away, sat up. Turned the bracelet in her hands. It was a classic Hawaiian design with hibiscus flowers and maile leaves around the outside, and inside, in delicate script: For Lisa with love, Alika

  She looked up at him. She never would have imagined his face could be so pale. His eyebrows stood out like black slashes. He reached out and took the bracelet from her, and his hand trembled.

  “Impossible. Lisa always wore this.”

  “Unbelievable.” Lei grabbed her black tank, hauled it on. Stood up and yanked her pants on, zipped them up. He was still lying there, holding the bracelet. She grabbed her purse, whipped out the Glock, and aimed it at him. “This the rug you rolled her up in to dump her body?”

  “What?” He looked stunned, face pale and eyes wide. “No. I didn’t kill her. The rug was just sitting in my garage.”

  She kept the gun on him, began searching the carpet. Lifted the corner.

  “Get up.” He did. She pushed the lightweight table, moved the chairs. Adrenaline hummed in her ears. Keeping the gun on him, she hauled the rug one-handed out from under the cabana. She flipped it over. In the center, a rusty stain.

  “Unbelievable,” she said for the second time. “You were gonna make love to me on the rug you used to dump Lisa!”

  “I didn’t kill her,” he said again. His voice was low.

  “Tell it down at the station. You’re under arrest for the murder of Lisa Nakamoto.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Lei kept the gun on Alika as he piloted them straight to the police station without protest, face bleached and set in the reflected light of the controls. Lei hardly noticed the view, all her attention focused on Alika, watching for any attempt to sabotage their flight.

  “I didn’t do anything to Lisa,” he said, as they descended toward Kapa`a.

  “Save it. I should have known not to trust a guy like you.”

  “Like me?”

  “A player. Too good-looking. They’ll lo
ve you in prison.”

  A long silence filled with the whine of rotors, the ground coming toward them.

  “It wasn’t like that. But I don’t expect you to believe me.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Lei said, pronouncing the end of a relationship.

  Lei paced back and forth in the peanut gallery outside the interview room. Her ears buzzed and her stomach roiled. She did relaxation breathing, rubbed the black stone. None of it was helping. The captain sat imperturbably, his fingers laced over his waist, waiting.

  Alika sat on a hard metal chair in the interview room, hands cuffed behind him. The room was designed to make suspects uncomfortable: plain windowless walls, a small steel table, shiny expanse of observation mirror, and two chairs for interrogators set at angles to increase their influence.

  Fury and Flea came in. The captain had chosen them for their experience and the fact that neither of them knew Alika. Flea went and turned on the camcorder on the wall. Alika’s voice came clearly through the speaker. After the preliminaries, Alika spoke first.

  “I don’t know what she told you, but I didn’t do anything to Lisa Nakamoto.”

  “Yeah, it’s a little farfetched that you would,” Fury said. Lei went still and then remembered stage one of interrogation—build a connection with the suspect. “Important guy like you, got standing in the community. You wouldn’t risk all that for a piece of trash like Lisa.”

  “Exactly. Not that Lisa was trash—she just liked to party.”

  “Oh, so you knew her. Socially.”

  “Yeah, we knew each other since small kid time.” His use of the colloquialism made bile rise in Lei’s throat. She sat down, pinching the web between her finger and thumb to keep herself in her body.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder. Glanced up. Stevens, his hair damp, his eyes intent on the interview. She shrugged his hand off, got up and paced again.

  “So you didn’t have a relationship with her.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say that. We were friends.” Alika sat as proudly as he could with his hands behind his back, his bulky shoulders bunched. “I would never hurt her. Can I get these cuffs off? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Sure.” Flea unfolded his height and undid the cuffs as Fury leaned in.

  “So what’s your theory?”

  Alika rubbed his wrists. “Maybe she was into something that was over her head and someone shot her when she tried to get out. That’s what I think. I tried to help her, but she paid me back by robbing me.”

  “So she was endangering your business.”

  “No, no.” Alika shook his head. “Lisa was a good girl. Whatever she did, she did because she was an addict.”

  “Yeah, but who got her addicted?”

  “I heard it was her boyfriend. Name of Hines.”

  “We got the Hines guy on Oahu. He’s saying you’re the one who got her into drugs.”

  “That’s a lie!” Righteous anger in the raised voice, flared nostrils and wide eyes. “I cared about her. I tried to help her!”

  His conviction gave Lei a quiver of doubt for the first time. Maybe it was too easy, that the rug had been in his garage, the bracelet he’d given Lisa caught in the fringe. It was awfully convenient for someone and awfully stupid of Alika—and he’d never struck her as stupid.

  “So she was your girlfriend.” Fury was even and relentless, facing Alika from one side of the table, Flea watching inscrutably from the other side, arms folded on his chest.

  “Not my girlfriend. A friend. Yes, I cared about her. I was worried about her.”

  “Friends with benefits,” Fury stated.

  A single nod from Alika.

  Lei’s stomach pitched and she pushed out the door, running down the hall to the bathroom, where she vomited up the last dregs of grapes, champagne, and romance.

  When she felt a little better, she went back to the gallery. The captain and Stevens were intent on the drama taking place inside.

  “Okay, I had a thing with Lisa. An off and on thing. She told me Hines was pressuring her to make meth in the Island Cleaning building; he was threatening her. She didn’t know how to get out of it. I knew she was giving in when the break-ins happened; she would never hit my mother’s business unless she was desperate.”

  “So that’s why you killed her. Betrayal.”

  “No! I warned her I was calling the cops, that she wasn’t going to get away with it. She begged me not to, said she had to have the money and my insurance would cover it.”

  “Why did she need money?”

  “For the supplies, the distribution. I don’t know! I just told her it was over between us, and I was going to the police. And that’s when I met Detective Texeira.”

  “And what a tasty piece of tail she turned out to be.” Flea spoke his first words. Both Stevens and Lei recoiled.

  “Settle down,” the captain said. “Flea’s just trying to provoke him.”

  Sure enough, Alika turned to stare Flea down.

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  “I think it was,” Fury said. “I think you called in the cops, but with every intention of monitoring every move they made, because money is what you need. It’s your real estate business that’s going down the tubes. The meth lab was a way to bail out your business, and the burglaries were a way to get some insurance money.”

  A long pause.

  “I’d like my lawyer now,” Alika said, sitting back. “I can see where this is going. I’m not saying another word.”

  And he didn’t. Eventually Fury and Flea left after allowing Alika to make his phone call.

  “Okay, show’s over,” Captain Fernandez said. “Stevens, take her home.”

  “Roger that,” Stevens said. He walked beside Lei as she clip-clopped in her pretty shoes down the hall, arms folded tightly over her aching belly. The jean jacket wasn’t enough to keep her warm.

  They went out to the unmarked Bronco and he beeped it open. They got on the road. Lei couldn’t think of a single thing to say. She leaned her forehead against the window, and that reminded her of the helicopter ride. What an incredibly romantic gesture Alika had made—on a carpet soaked with Lisa Nakamoto’s blood. How could he be so arrogant, so stupid?

  In her heart she knew the answer—he wouldn’t be. He was involved all right, but she didn’t think he’d killed Lisa.

  “I don’t think he did it.” Stevens said what she was thinking, like he’d often done in the past.

  “I don’t either. He’s too smart.”

  “He’s involved somehow though. I wouldn’t be surprised if the burglary and insurance angle Fury came up with are in the ballpark.”

  “More will be revealed.” Lei blinked, surprised to feel wetness on her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry. He seemed like a nice guy.”

  “Bullshit. You hated him.”

  He said nothing. They drove on. Lei fell asleep.

  She woke up with a gasp. Charlie Kwon was coming down over her, black pupils expanding to block out the light.

  Sometimes the worst nightmares were memories.

  “You okay?” Stevens looked over as he pulled up to her house. “You up for this FBI thing tonight?”

  “I guess I’d better be,” she said, getting out of the Bronco. “Thanks for the ride.” She didn’t let herself look back at him as she went into the little house—the concern in his voice brought tears to her eyes, a thousand tiny pinpricks. She didn’t relax until she heard the sound of the Bronco pulling away.

  Her phone buzzed at her side; she looked at the number and groaned. Esther Ka`awai. Well, time to get it over with.

  “Hello, Esther.”

  “You arrested my grandson. He never did nothing to Lisa!” The older lady’s voice vibrated with outrage.

  “I’m sorry, Esther, but it sure looked like he did. He’s involved somehow, at the very least.” Lei pinched the bridge of her nose, hard.

  “We paid the bail. He’s out. I hope you’re happy.”

 
“I’m not happy, Esther. I liked Alika. In fact, more than liked him.” Her voice caught. “I’m just sick about it.”

  “Well, if you liked him so much, you could believe him. You could give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  “He lied to me!” Lei exclaimed. “He served me lunch on a rug covered with her blood. I found a bracelet in the fringe that said 'Love Alika’ on it! What do you expect me to do?”

  A long silence. Esther cleared her throat. “He told me all that, but it sounds worse when you say it.”

  “Try being there. It started out as such a romantic picnic. I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. I can’t discuss his case. The other case though—can you give me a list and locations of the heiaus and sacred sites all along the North Shore? It’s important.”

  Another long silence as Esther considered.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll have it for you tomorrow. Come to my house.”

  She hung up.

  The last thing Lei wanted to do was go out to Esther’s house. She felt guilty, angry for feeling guilty, then just sad.

  More feelings than she ever liked to have in a day.

  Lei pulled up at the safe house well before time for the cult celebration. The case had to come before anything else, including her upset over Alika. She uncoded the locked gate and knocked on the door.

  Marcella opened it. She was in a deerskin vest that ended below her rib cage and a fringed skirt that started mid-hip. The expanse of skin in between showcased a lot of sit-ups—or belly dancing.

  “All set for a little orgy crashing,” Lei said. “Nice outfit.”