I'm Kona Love You Forever (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series Book 6) (27 page)

Lili and I exchanged a look.

“I was actually talking about what happened with Charlene,” I said.

“I know,” said David. “That’s what I want to ask my dad about.”

***

I called Farrah
to explain why I wouldn’t be coming home as planned. The call went to voicemail, so I figured she was with a customer. The store was open fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, so even though it was Sunday, she’d be at work. As I hung up from leaving a message, I wondered if maybe now that she was married she’d cut back on her work schedule. After all, she had a life now. And a husband who wanted to spend time with her.

Thinking about that
probably wasn’t a good thing for me right then. It only highlighted the fact that I didn’t. Worse yet, I’d been offered such a life and I’d refused. Well, not exactly refused; I’d flinched. Of all the ways you can lose a martial arts fight, flinching is about the worst. No, it
is
the worst. No question.

Farrah called back ten minutes later.

“Are you here?” she said.

“No, that’s why I’m calling.
Some stuff happened last night and I wasn’t able to get out of here this morning.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah.”

“
Are we talking major bummer or minor bummer?” she said.

“Major.”

“Like somebody killed somebody?” she said.

“Like somebody kill
ed herself.”

“Wow, a woman
‘offed’ herself? That’s like a
total
bummer. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “But
, besides witnessing the suicide, I’m upset because the woman was just about to tell my bride, Lili, who her mother was. Now, we’ll never know.”

“Maybe
the dead woman was the mom,” said Farrah.

“Maybe.
But, like I said, now we’ll never know. And Lili gets to spend the rest of her life wondering.”

“Harsh
,” she said. “But let’s talk about you. I don’t want you to be mad, but I told Hatch you’d be back today. I also told him you wanted to talk to him.”

“What? I
asked you not to say anything.”

“I know, but you were wrong. You two don’t do ‘shock and awe’ very good. It
always turns out to be way more shock than awe. I figured telling him might get him more ready for what you wanted to say.”

“But
, now that I’m not coming back this morning, he’s gonna think I’m avoiding him,” I said.

“No
, he won’t. He knows if there’s mayhem anywhere within fifty miles you’ll be smack dab in the middle of it. He’s used to it; in fact, we’re
all
used to it by now.”

“Well, I’m not. I want to come home.”

“Oops, hear that?” she said. “A customer just came in. I gotta run. Call me when you land, okay?”

I hung up and wen
t back to the cabin to pack. There wasn’t much reason for sticking around. I’d drop David off at his dad’s and take Lili with me out to the airport. Beyond that, my work in Kona was done.

***

As usual, Lili and David climbed into the back seat for the ride to Pono’s. I’d come to accept my position as their chauffeur, but was glad my weird role as wedding planner/detective and stand-in parent was nearly over. Since I hadn’t taken a deposit on their wedding I probably wouldn’t see them again. When they turned eighteen, they’d probably just run down to the courthouse and keep their whacko families out of it. I sure wouldn’t blame them if they did.

I pulled in front of
David’s dad’s place, but didn’t turn off the engine. “Lili, how about you sitting up front with me for the ride to the airport?” I said.

She locked eyes with David.

I went on. “You
are
still planning on going back to Maui today, right?”

They kept the stare going.

“David wants me to come inside for a few minutes,” she said.

“You can come, too,” David said. “I just need to ask him a couple of things
, and then I’m heading back to Hilo.” His face lit up as if a fantastic idea had just popped in his head. “Hey, how about we go in and see my dad and then all three of us go out to the airport? It’ll be easier for me to pick up a ride there.”

“
That’s great,” said Lili. “Then you and I can spend a little more time together.”

Not how I saw this going, but it was doable.

We got out of the car. David and Lili practically skipped up to the house; I lagged behind. Pono hadn’t struck me as the kind of guy who entertained frequently, but I hoped he’d at least offer us a cup of coffee. I had a feeling after last night’s bender he’d be needing some for himself, as well.

We kicked off our shoes at the door
, and David walked in without knocking. Pono was right where we’d left him, sacked out on the sofa. The place smelled a bit less like beer and more like sweat than it had the night before, but other than that, everything was the same. The TV was still on and the tossed beer bottle was still in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Dad, get up,” said David. He went over and rousted his dad by wiggling his shoulder. Pono tried to shake him off, but David persisted.

Lili stood primly at the end of the sofa, seeming to take in the squalid surroundings for the first time. Was she finally putting two and two together and realizing the grumpy guy under the ratty afghan was her future children’s grandfather? When I contrasted beer-soaked Pono to Lili’s concerned pilot father showing up at my house to demand I help him find his daughter, it made me shudder. No doubt it did her, too.

“Dad, we need to talk,” said David.
“Just for a few minutes. Then I’ll get out of your hair and let you go back to sleep.”

Pono writhed on the sofa
. He was either trying to sit up or to get away from David’s insistent shaking. It was hard to tell. Finally, David gripped his dad’s shoulders and heaved him upright. Pono blinked in dismay, but seemed to accept his fate.

“Okay, Dad. I want you to tell us what you meant last night.”

“About what?”

“About M
om. About making a ‘deal with the devil.’ What’d you mean by that?”

Pono shook his head, as if dismissing the
reference. “Nah, I was drunk. I don’ know nuthin’ about that.”

“Do you remember
a woman named Charlene Cooper?” I said. “She was the midwife who delivered David.”

Pono’s eyes grew so wide I could see white all
the way around his brown irises. His hands trembled as he gripped the afghan tighter to his body.

“Yeah, what about her?” he said.

“We were talking with her last night, and—”

“She’s a liar,” he said. He dropped his head for a second and when he raised it he
said, “The whole thing was her idea. Like I said, that woman is the devil. I didn’ want to do it, but she made me.”

CHAPTER 32

We all were speechless after Pono’s rant. If Charlene Cooper had been his “devil” then I assumed his “deal” had something to do with her.

“
What
was her idea?” I said.

“To switch the kids,” he said. He sounded exasperated, as if he’d already
been perfectly clear and he was annoyed to have to explain it further.

“Dad, you’re not making sense. What kids are you talking about?”

Pono ran his hands down his face. “What’d she say about me?”

I seized the opportunity. “She said you’d tell us
everything. She said she was sorry and she’d take full responsibility. She doesn’t blame you at all.”

“Really?
Well, good. Because, at first, I wanted nothin’ to do with it. I told her I thought it was
pupule
—crazy. A real bad idea. But she kept saying how it was best. ‘Everybody wins’—that’s what she said, ‘Everybody wins.’”

“Why don’t you tell us how it
all went down?” I said. “From the beginning.”

Pono sighed and hung his head. “I didn’t do right by Malia,” he said. “I know that now. But
, back then, I was mad with her, ya know?”

The air in the room seemed to heat up to near scorching as we waited for him to go on.

“She kept makin’ those girl babies, ya know? I mean, what could I do? I had that gardener job but I hardly made nothin’. What with paying the rent and puttin’ gas in my truck, there wasn’t much left for food and clothes and all the stuff you need for
keiki
. Especially girl
keiki
. After four girls, when she got herself pregnant again, I said, ‘That’s it. You give me a boy this time, or else.’ She thought it was funny, her making girls like that, but I wanted a boy and she knew it.”

He looked down at the beer bottles still lined up in front of the sofa. He had a look on his face like he wished he’d saved a few swallows for a time like this.

He went on. “The day Malia goes into her labor, I call the midwife. She comes over and tells me it’s gonna be quick, ya know? ‘Cuz Malia had all those other babies and she knows what she’s doin’. And sure enough, right away the baby came. Charlene comes out and she got her face all squished up, like she’s mad or somethin’. I ask her if I got my boy and she says, ‘Yeah.’ Then she says, ‘An’ don’t worry, ‘cuz I’ll handle the other one.’

“
The other one
?” I said. “What did she mean by that?”

“Hold on, I’m
gettin’ there,” he said. “So, she tells me Malia had two babies—one girl, one boy. Malia’s a big
wahine
, ya know? Nobody knew she was plannin’ on having two. Anyway, Miz Cooper tells me, don’t worry about havin’ another girl. I’ve got a family all picked out for her. They’ll give her a good home, and I’ll make sure you get your
hanai
money.”

Pono
’s eyes had been locked on David’s face, but at that point, he twisted his neck to face the wall as he finished his story.

“So
, that’s how it went down,” he said. “Charlene found a home for the baby girl, and Malia and me got a little extra money for our ‘
ohana
.”

The pieces were falling into place and it wasn’t a pretty picture.

“You
sold
your child?” I said in a whisper.

“I didn’t
sell
nothin’. Charlene said it was—how’d she say?—oh, yeah, ‘customary.’ She said it was customary for people who got a
hanai
baby to give something to the parents. For
mahalo
.”

“How much?”
I said. I was aware David and Lili were hearing all this. It troubled me to imagine what must be going through their minds.

“I don’ know.
Few thousand, maybe five.”

“Five thousand dollars?”
I said.

“Somethin’
like that.”

“What did Malia think of this arrangement?” I said. “Was she onboard with handing over her
baby in exchange for some new kitchen appliances?”

Pono scrunched his face in confusion. “What you talkin’ about? I didn’t buy no kitchen
‘pliances. I had bills to pay.”

“Answer the question, Pono
,” I said. “How did Malia feel about giving up her daughter?”

“She didn’ know,” he said. His voice was barely a whisper.

“Oh, come on. The woman gave birth and didn’t know she had twins?”

He shook his head. “
Charlene gave her some kinda medicine to make her forget stuff. You know, to help with the pain.”

“And then
she took the baby girl away before Malia saw it?”

“I guess.”

I was dumbstruck. I flicked my eyes to David and Lili. They looked like two kids fully engrossed in a video game. Blank faces, staring eyes.

The whole sick scenario was starting to
come into focus. The
hana
i baby girl, the unsuspecting wife, the scheming midwife, and the desperate baby daddy.

“But
last week, Malia figured it out, didn’t she?” I said.

He
shrugged.

“
I don’ know what she knew or didn’ know,” Pono said. “Charlene tol’ me not to worry. She said to meet her at the house and she’d handle it.”

“
So, Charlene Cooper asked you to meet her at Malia’s?”

He nodded.

“When was that?” I said. I knew my questioning probably sounded like a police interrogation, but what the heck? Pono’s confession could definitely use a rehearsal.

“You know, last week.
On Monday.”

“The day she died,” I said.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t s’posed to go that way, you know?” he said. “Charlene tol’ me she was just gonna talk to her. Help her see it was for the best.”