Death by Facebook (17 page)

I
only had to wait a moment before I heard the faintest bit of
laughter. Playfulness and maybe, I wasn't sure about this part, a
listening ear. Perhaps it could sense me as well.

I
turned back to the sea and saw Star and her friend kissing there on
the small beach, just as the sun leaped above the waters. Whales
were splashing gently just beyond the reef and small seabirds began
darting back and forth.

As
a very light wind stirred the palms into song I felt as if the entire
universe was full of love, something I never would have thought of
when I was still James Madison Turner. I laughed a little at that.
I had grown up now, spiritually. Turning toward Janet again, and the
baby, my heart grew bigger. Bigger than any man's heart could ever
be. I felt as if I was the entire world all at once, part of that
infinite love that seemed to now be everywhere. And I forgave her.

16

Shirley
gently roused her sleeping husband from the couch, where she had
found him before dawn. She was up early, as always, to read and
enjoy the peace of their mountain-view home. Fresh coffee was
steaming in her other hand.

“
Honey.
Larry,” she lightly pushed his shoulder. “Wake up.”
Nothing was working, so she pulled the cover off of him and put it
on the chair next to his couch. Walking back over to the kitchen
counter for another dollop of cream she said softly, knowing he would
hear it, “You said you were going to go
flying
this morning...”

“
Huh?
What...what time is it?” Larry groggily asked.

Shirley
smiled to herself. The magic word in this house had always been
“flying”. She could say it from across the large custom
built home and Larry would hear it across the yard and down inside
his old lava tube wine cellar.

“
It's
about twenty minutes before dawn,” Shirley said. “Did
you stay out late?”

Larry
was sitting up now and running his hand through his hair, waking up.
“Not too bad. Alex and I had quite a day.” Standing up
and making toward the coffee he picked up a sweater hanging over a
chair and put it on. “It took a bit of debriefing at the Lava
Lounge.”

Shirley
had a fresh cut strawberry papaya and a steaming cup of wake-up
waiting for him. “Did you drink a lot, debriefing?”

Larry
laughed a little. “No, honey. But we did stay there past
closing, trying to solve this wild mystery.”

Shirley
picked up her other half of the papaya and her coffee and moved to
the outside deck. “Coming?'

“
Sure,
let me find my slippers.”

Moments
later they were both in their oversized chairs, watching the first
rays of the sun reflect off Mauna Loa, still holding onto her winter
snows. They took the luxury of time, only couples with history can,
to enjoy their coffee moment before talking.

“
So,
what's all this talk about mystery? Is this something going on at
the Lava Lounge?”

Larry
finished his long sip of the exquisite Kona bean before answering.
“No. Actually it's something Alex was dealing with, with
guests at one of the cabins.”

He
took another long sip. “It's almost too crazy to believe.”

“
What
could possibly be happening in Volcano that would be crazy?”
Shirley asked with a raised eyebrow. “Is it vog related?”

“
No,”
Larry shook his head. “This is way beyond vog.”

~~~

Hilo
airport was normally a very quiet place. You could park your rental
car, drop the keys, get your boarding pass and be at the gate in
under 12 minutes. No tourists expected this and so everyone was
always far too early. Waiting on a plane after that was a lot like
waiting on a car ferry, there was a lot of time to waste, with few
stores to explore.

“
Well
guys, this year's adventure was outstanding!” Pat said. “And,
thanks, Everett, for the blinking head lamps. I think we made quite
an impression on the locals.”

Everyone
laughed at that, subconsciously reaching into their packs to make
sure they still had their head lamps.

“
I
know Dave sure made an impression on the locals,” John laughed.
“They want to initiate him into their bloodsucker club!”

Dave
demurred to his friends humor, expecting a razzing all the way back
to San Diego. “You know,” he added. “Another
couple of beers and I could have overlooked the bleeding hands.”

Tim
shook his head and added “Now Dave, you know you've always
said you would never go out with a girl that could out drink you -
in case she decided to paint your toenails. Again.”

“
Hey!”
Dave exclaimed. “That only happened once!”

The
airport bar was closed for some reason no one seemed to know. The
lone security guard said it might be because it was Sunday. The five
guys, friends since high school in Honolulu, watched their
interisland plane land on a nearby runway and roll out of sight.

“
You
think that guy Larry will ever figure out what that crazy Private
Turner mess is all about?” Everett asked no one in particular.

Pat
shook his head no. “I doubt it. But, he did seem to light up
a bit when we told them we first met her hiking out to Halema'uma'u
that night.”

“
Oh,
yeah,” Tim said. “That was definitely the same good
looking redhead from the bar.”

“
I
wonder what ever happened to that guy she was with that night?”
John pondered. “We never did see him at the bar, did we?”

Dave
looked down at his shoes a moment and shook his head no. “That
poor bastard must be the guy they're all looking for. Private
Turner.”

Their
Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717 finally taxied up to their gate and the
rapid activity on the ramp began. The picture windows had a great
view of Mauna Kea and her observatories, all topped with brilliant
white snow.

“
Well
Dave,” Tim said. “I think your record of never hitting
on a married woman is still safe.”

Dave
looked at Tim with a confused look, begging explanation.

“
How's
that Tim?” Pat asked.

“
She
was already a widow when she showed up at the bar,” Tim said.

“
What?”
Dave asked. “How do you know that?” John, Pat and
Everett all listened in.

“
Easy
guys,” Tim laughed. He sat down in a chair facing the far off
snow. “This guy was last seen by who? Us. Where? Hiking out
to the lava pit, at night, with no one else around. She had probably
never planned on seeing even us, but fortunately for her we were just
leaving.”

“
No
way...” Everett murmured, thinking ahead.

“
Yep,
she took him out to the lava, to Halema'uma'u and pushed him in
somehow.”

The
Hawaiian Air gate agent called the flight for boarding of small
children, their parents and any military members.

“
She
must have fallen, or the guy fought her,” Tim continued.
“That's how she got those hands that Dave was so attracted to.”

“
What
a bitch!” Pat said. “Wait here, I'm going to go buy my
wife a gift real quick.”

“
Yeah,
but why try and pretend she was her husband?” John asked. “I
mean cutting her hair like that and telling people she was him.”

Tim
shook his head. “I can't figure that out.”

“
Maybe,”
Everett offered. “It was to buy some time, or to steal his
money. The ultimate identity theft.”

“
More
like just plain crazy,” Dave offered. “If she were
calculating enough to do an identity theft thing, she would have left
Volcano right away. The fact that she was a drunk monkey wanting me
to lick up bloody wounds was nothing short of...”

“
Boarding
all rows now!” The gate speakers bellowed.

“
Crazy!”
Dave repeated. “Nothing else can explain it.”

They
boarded last, getting a few looks from some military police types but
garnering none of the admiring female glances they used to a decade
ago.

Fifteen
minutes later, their friend Captain Reid Emminger was taking them
through fifteen thousand feet, carving a slow circle around the
majestic peaks of the Big Island.

Tim
watched the spectacle through his window, the peaks of Mauna Kea and
Mauna Loa appeared to be islands themselves, surrounded by their own
ocean of clouds.

These
two magnificent volcanic peaks appeared different depending on how
you looked at them. If from the ocean bottom where they really
began, they were the tallest mountains on the planet. If from the
coastline they were the familiar wonders everyone had grown up with.
And, now, as Everett leaned over to look as well, peeking out from a
mass of clouds the tops appeared as two small lost islands in a sea
of gray and white.

“
There's
another side to that crazy Private Turner story Everett. We're just
not looking at it from the right angle,” Tim mused, still
watching the mountains as they fell farther and farther away.

“
I
hear that buddy,” Everett said, his head back in the seat, eyes
closed. “I hear that.”

~~~

Several
outstanding mornings had drifted down upon Janet and her host
Starshine Aloha. The weather had, naturally, been absolutely
perfect. Warm days, but not hot. Cool nights, but never cold. The
stars had been putting on a show and the moon slept in a hour later
every evening, eventually so late that it graced the mid-morning
skies.

Janet
had discovered a ravenous appetite for papaya and coconut, and the
occasional sashimi treats the guys brought back from spear fishing.
She swam in Champagne pools every day and in the open ocean at night.

Star
worried about her a little. Whoever she was and whatever her story
was it was clear to Star that the young woman needed this place.