4 Kaua'i Me a River (26 page)

I
grabbed the jug and went to find my stepmother.

CHAPTER 32

I pushed
through the master bedroom door. Sunny was sitting in an armchair wearing a
white terry cloth robe. She’d wrapped a bright blue towel around her head and
she was chatting on her cell.

 “What are you doing barging in
like this?” she said, popping up. “As you can see, I’m on the phone.” I was
holding the anti-freeze jug behind my back, and when I brought it out where she
could see it, I watched her eyes widen.

“I gotta go,” she said to the
caller. Then she threw the phone on the bed.

“Look what I found in the
kitchen.”

“What are you doing going
through my stuff?”

“You liar. You knew all along,
didn’t you?”

“Don’t believe that old man,
Pali. It just like I said. Robert started it. Phil just grabbed the bat.”

“And clubbed them both to
death.”

“Look, I promised your father
I’d—”

I advanced on her in attack
position. “Don’t you
ever
refer to that murderer that way again. Philip
Wilkerson killed my mother in cold blood.”

She stepped back and grabbed a
lamp off the nightstand. Then she yanked the cord out of of the wall. “Don’t
come any closer.”

“Why’d you poison Peggy?” I
said. “Were you afraid she’d contest the will? Or was she blackmailing you?
Threatening to air the Wilkerson’s dirty secret unless you threw a few bucks
her way?”

 “I don’t know what you’re
talking about. Peggy died in a car crash.”

“Yeah, after you’d laced her
drink with anti-freeze. And then you sent her over to me so I’d be the last
person to see her alive.”

“You’re nuts. All that Homeland
Security crap must’ve turned you paranoid.” She parried the lamp toward me as
if goading me to try and grab it.

“Put the stupid lamp down,” I
said.

She threw it against the
opposite wall and as my eyes flicked toward the moving object, she reached into
the nightstand and pulled out a pistol. It was a small nine millimeter,
probably a Kel-Tec PF-9 or maybe a Walther.

“Okay. I don’t want to use
this,” she said pointing the gun at my chest. “But I just need some time to
think.”

She sidestepped to the bed and picked
up her cell phone. “Timo, I need you to bring the car around.”

There was a pause and then she
said in a tight voice, “No,
right
now.”

I watched her bearing like I’d
read a martial arts opponent. What were my odds? I ran through the likely
scenarios and then acted.

I ducked and Sunny fired. So
much for not planning to use it. The shot was not as loud as I’d imagined it’d
be, but it was certainly loud enough to bring Timo running. I brought up one leg
and caught her square in the sternum. She crashed onto her back, but still somehow
managed to keep her grip on the gun.

With Timo on the way, my best
recourse was to bolt. There was no way I could hold off both of them. The
master bedroom had a door that opened onto the lanai. I figured it would be
locked, but I managed to twist the lock open and make it outside before Sunny had
a chance to aim.

Blam!
I didn’t bother to
turn around and see where the bullet had gone.

I headed toward my rental car
but then remembered the keys were in my purse. Just as I hit the steps of the
ohana
,
I heard running footsteps coming up on my right.

Timo.

“Stop right there,” he said.

In the split second I had to
react, I made my decision. I hit the door of the
ohana
with just enough
time to make it inside. But not enough time to lock the door behind me.

I dodged into the den and hid
behind the door. I could hear Timo’s heavy breathing as he came through the
open front door.

“I got no beef wit’ you,” he
said. “Come out. We can talk.”

I controlled my breathing as
best I could but I knew it wouldn’t be long before he’d start searching the
house. And the den was the first room on his right. I hadn’t had time to notice
if he was armed but I knew I should assume he was.

His heavy footfalls echoed on
the hardwood floors as he came closer. I thought about my mother’s last moments
and in a flash of resolve I knew what I had to do.

I waited until his bulky frame
threw a shadow in the crack between the door and the frame. Then I pushed the
door into his face as hard as I could. Even so, it wasn’t enough to knock him
down. 

“You bitch,” he screamed.

Now he knew my position so there
was no sense staying trapped behind the door. I jumped out, ready to throw a
punch or a kick or whatever I could manage against an opponent twice my size.

His face was smeared in blood.
The door must’ve caught his nose. He looked even more frightening than before
but I wouldn’t allow myself the luxury of being terrified.

In a display of despicably bad
sportsmanship I shifted my weight left, cocked my leg and aimed right for his balls.

Timo went down like a harpooned
whale. His howling was so pitiful I felt a flush of guilt but it evaporated
when I saw Sunny’s Kel-Tec on the floor where he’d dropped it. I grabbed the
gun.

“Get up,” I said, pointing the
gun at him

“I can’t.”

“Fine. Stay there.”

I grabbed my purse off the
coffee table and ran to my car. I had no idea where Sunny might be and no clue
whether she had just the one gun or an entire arsenal. I stuck the key in the
ignition and sent up a little prayer of thanks to the Ford Motor Company when the
engine turned over. I bounced down the rutted road and had nearly made it to
the gate when I had to slam on the brakes. A police car with lights flashing
was blocking my way.

CHAPTER
33

Detective Kiki Wong used her
onboard bullhorn to tell me to put down the gun and get out of the car with my
hands up. I thought the bullhorn was unnecessary, maybe even a little melodramatic,
but why have all the bells and whistles if you never get to use them?

I did what she’d ordered.

“You’re under arrest,” she said
as she told me to put my hands behind my back. She clamped on handcuffs. I was
surprised at how much it hurt when I tried to wiggle my wrists.

“You have this all wrong,” I
said.

“Wow, that’s a new one,” she
said. She opened the back door of the cop car and put her hand on my head as I
ducked to get inside. She leaned in. “Really. You win the prize for most
original comment made during an arrest by a citizen in a starring role.”

Once she and her partner had climbed
inside, I went on. “No, I’m serious. That wasn’t my gun. It was Sunny’s. She
pulled it on me when I confronted her about the anti-freeze.”

At the mention of ‘anti-freeze’
the two cops glanced at each other. Then Detective Wong’s partner, Akuna, turned
and looked at me. “Do yourself a favor and save it for the interview, okay?”

We got to the station and Wong
and Akuna escorted me to the same room I’d been in the day before. “Don’t you
guys have more than one interview room?” I said. “Because I’ve been here four times
now and I always get put in this same room.”

They chose to read me my rights instead
of answer my question.

After a grueling hour of
questioning I asked how long I was going to have to wear the handcuffs.

“Oh, my bad,” said Akuna. “I
forgot.” He winked at me as if we were sharing a joke. My wrists were red and
starting to swell so the humor was lost on me.

In mid-afternoon they brought me
a sandwich and a Diet Pepsi. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I’d taken
a bite. Then I wolfed down the rest of the sandwich in less than a minute.

“You still hungry?” said Wong.
“I could get you a candy bar or something.”

“How much longer is this going
to take?” I’d already told them everything I knew about Phil and Arthur’s cover
up of the murder of my mom and my uncle Robert. I’d explained about finding
anti-freeze under Sunny’s kitchen sink and how it pointed to Peggy’s
unexplained intoxication before her accident and my vomiting that morning. It
seemed to me their time could be better served corroborating my allegations
than asking me the same questions over and over.

“You’re no longer a suspect,”
said Wong. “We’ve dropped the arrest and upgraded your status to witness.”

I looked around the interview
room. “I’m a witness?”

“That’s correct.”

“I have a degree in criminology,
so I know the drill. You can’t hold a witness against their will.”

“That’s also correct.”

“Then I guess I will have that candy
bar. And I’ll buy it on my way out of here.”

***

I flew back to Maui without
retrieving my overnight bag at Sunny’s. I called Steve and he came down and
picked me up.

“A lot has happened since you’ve
been gone,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Farrah and Shadow had a falling
out. Seems Farrah got in Shadow’s face about something to do with Hatch.” He
looked over at me as if hoping I’d talked to Farrah and could fill in some details.

“What? Don’t look at me. I’ve
been on Kaua’i.” But I had a hunch I knew what it was about. And bless Farrah.
I couldn’t wait to see her.

“So anyway, Shadow moved to a women’s
shelter in Wailuku and she’s applied for unemployment benefits.”

“Don’t you have to have had a
job in the first place to get unemployment?” I said.

“Yeah, but she’s saying she
worked at Farrah’s store.”

“You’re kidding. But Farrah’s a
sole proprietor. She doesn’t have employees.”

“Bingo,” he said. “So now
Shadow’s gotten her in big trouble. She told them Farrah made her work off the
clock and she paid her under the table. She also claimed Farrah’s been doing it
for years with Beatrice.”

“But Bea just comes in a few
hours a week. And Farrah pays her in groceries,” I said.

“I know. But the State of Hawaii
doesn’t see it like that. You’re supposed to pay minimum wage, and workman’s
comp and taxes and stuff.”

“Great. So Shadow’s gotten her
in trouble with the state.”

“Unfortunately, that’s the least
of it,” he said.

I looked over and he looked
genuinely troubled.

“What else?” I said.

“Shadow’s decided she doesn’t
want Farrah to have Moke after all.”

“
What
?”

“Yeah. I guess she called Farrah
a bunch of names and said she’d changed her mind.”

“But they had a
hanai
agreement,”
I said. “We had the baptism.”

“It’s her kid. She can do what
she wants.”

By then we were approaching
Pa’ia. “You want me to drop you at the Gadda?” he said.

“Yes, please.”

Farrah looked positively
haggard. Luckily, there weren’t any customers when I got there.  I went behind
the counter and gripped her in a tight hug.

“I heard,” I said. “I’m so, so
sorry.”

“I loved him so much,” she
whispered. “I only had him two weeks but I loved him as if he was my very own.”

“I know.” Her shoulders shook
with her sobbing. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and went over and locked the
front door.

Screw the pot-head craving the
Snickers bar. This was a family crisis.

***

I called Hatch that night. I
wasn’t sure how it would go. Could we get through this or had we finally
reached the tipping point?

“I’m back,” I said.

“Hey, I wanted to call, but… anyhow,
did you hear?”

“About Farrah and Moke? Yeah, I
heard.”

“I feel real bad,” he said. “Kind
of like it was my fault or something.”

“Ya think? She and Shadow were
friends, Hatch. You two hooking up was just—”

“What? You think I was doing
that? Look, can I see you? I don’t want to talk about this on the phone.”

 “I don’t know, Hatch. This is
serious. I’ve just been through hell with this thing with my mother, and now
you sneaking around like this. Farrah’s my best friend and you’ve betrayed us
both.”

“Stop. Let me come up there.
I’ll only stay five minutes.”

“I’m not in the mood for a sales
job, Hatch.”

“No sales job. Just hear me out.
I think I deserve that much.”

 “How about I come down there?
Steve’s making dinner for Steven up here tonight and I’d rather talk about this
without an audience.”

When I got to Hatch’s he’d
already poured two glasses of wine. “You want some cheese and crackers?” he
said. “How about chips? I’ve got some taro chips around here somewhere.”

He looked trashed. Two-day
stubble; dark circles under his eyes. His slumped shoulders made him look two
inches shorter.

 “Okay,” he said. “Before you
start yelling, let me explain what happened. And then I never want to talk
about it again. Deal?”

“Go ahead.”

“That girl started coming on to
me from day one. When Farrah was here she kept her in line, but after Farrah
left, the little bitch put on a full-court press. I told her to cool it and she
promised she would.”

“I wouldn’t call her little lingerie
show after the baptism exactly ‘cooling it’.”

“I know. She was calling my
bluff. I’d warned her if she pulled anything in front of my friends I’d kick
her to the curb. But she used those kids like hostages.”

It added up.

He ran a hand through his hair.
“Look, I was stunned when she came parading out like that. You may think I’m
just a dumb smoke-eater but I
know
when I’m being played. When you left,
I was fighting mad at you.”

“Mad at
me
? What’d you have
to be mad about?” I said.

“Mad that you had so little
faith in me. Mad that you thought I was such a dumb-ass that I’d wreck us for
the likes of her.”