Lana'i of the Tiger (The Islands of Aloha Mystery Series) (12 page)

Ono gave me a hurried kiss. “I
better get going. Let’s talk after you hear if Wong’s been called in. We might
be able to get together after all.”

***

Detective Glen Wong showed up a
half-hour later. Apparently he’d called me at my rental house and he’d even
gone by there, but he knew where I worked so I wasn’t able to elude him for
long.

“Miss Morton,” he said in that
fake jolly voice that’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. He came inside and
pulled the door closed. “I hear you’re a slow learner.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“It seems you’ve got yourself
involved in another tourist crime. Is there something about the phrase,
butt
out
, that you just don’t understand?”

“I’m not involved. What are you
talking about?”

“Well, before I left this
morning, I had a chance to chat with a Mr. Tyler Benson at the Wailuku jail. He
claims you’re his alibi witness for his whereabouts last night.”

 “Oh.”

“Is that true, Miss Morton? Are
you prepared to sign a sworn affidavit to that account?”

“Uh. Well, I—”

“Let me make myself perfectly clear,
Penny,” Wong interrupted. “If you have
any
intention, on
any
level, of signing the name ‘Penny Morton’ to a sworn affidavit, then we’re
going to have a problem. Do you read me?”

“Yes, sir. Loud and clear.”

“Now we need to decide where we
go from here.” He sat down on the sofa and I took a chair opposite him. “I’m going
to be lead detective on this case, so I’ll be based here on Lana’i until we finish
the investigation. But as soon as that’s handled, you and I need to seriously
consider our trip to see the family.”

He rambled on about Disney
World, punctuating it with nonsense about my ‘cousins’ inviting all sorts of
‘family members’ to join the reunion and what a great time we were going to
have. I couldn’t understand why he felt the need to couch everything in goofy
coded language. Did he actually think someone would bug the White Orchid?

Before Wong left, he pulled a
white envelope from his inside jacket pocket and laid it on the coffee table.
“Here. I brought this for you.”

“What is it?”

“It’s part of my job to deliver
official correspondence. It’s no doubt something regarding your upcoming mainland
travel plans. I’m assuming it might be a day pass to Epcot Center or something
of that nature. The family likes to show its appreciation to people like you
who are coming from so far away.”

***

By the time Wong left I was
drained and it was only noon. I went to the kitchen and scrubbed the counters.
Then I wiped off every spice jar in the cupboards and generally got the place
in shipshape order for Darryl and Ewa’s arrival on Friday.

The manual labor energized me. I
went back to the great room and noticed the white envelope on the coffee table.
I hadn’t opened it after Wong left. The last thing I needed was a bit of
bribery from a bunch of federal bureaucrats who didn’t give a damn about me,
but merely saw me as a minor cog in their behemoth crime-fighting machine.

I picked up the envelope and
stuffed it in my apron pocket.

Ono called on the White Orchid
phone line at about two o’clock. “Is the coast clear?” he said.

“Yeah, for now. But Wong was
assigned to the case. He’s going to be sticking around for a while.”

“Can you sneak out?”

Sheesh, I hadn’t heard that
phrase since high school.

“I don’t know, Ono. If I get
caught…” Yeah, definitely high school.

We agreed to go to the first
overlook on the Munro Trail. Ono would drive, and I’d walk up and meet him
there. I wanted to meet somewhere out of town. Lana’i City was a tiny place and
I didn’t want Wong to catch me with Ono. They’d met before on Maui and I
couldn’t risk getting busted fraternizing with someone from my former life.

I took the shuttle up to the
Lodge and then started up the trail I’d walked the week before. After a night
of little sleep it was slow going. About fifteen minutes into the climb, a Jeep
skittered to a stop beside me. Ono’s grin–and the promise of a lift—buoyed my
spirits.

“Hey, you’re a sight for sore
eyes,” I said as I climbed into the passenger seat.

“Well, you’re pretty easy on the
eyes yourself,” he said. Okay, maybe we were taking the high school thing a bit
too far, but I was loving it.

We drove to the overlook and
parked.

“I found out some more stuff
about that Benson guy,” he said. “And I’m not too happy about it.”

Even though I was pretty sure
what was coming next, I kept quiet and waited for him to continue.

“Seems he told the cops he was
with
you
all night.”

Oh great. This was really
getting sticky. I decided a strong offense was preferable to a weak defense. “Where’d
you hear that? This town is full of gossip, you know.”

“Don’t worry about where I heard
it. Is it true?”

“Okay, let me start by saying I
know Tyler Benson. When he first got to Lana’i he stayed at the White Orchid.
But when Deedee showed up, he spent most of his time up at the Lodge with her getting
ready for their wedding. Last night when he found out she called the tabloids,
he came down to talk to me. He was pretty steamed. He sounded like he was thinking
of calling off the wedding. I wanted to help him get his mind off it so I
offered to drive him down to the harbor to watch the sunset.”

“You two went out to watch the
sunset? Like on a
date
?”

“No, not like on a date. I was
helping an upset friend get a little perspective. I thought if he got out and
focused on something other than the paparazzi it might help him stop ranting
and raving.”  

“Look, Pali, one of the reasons
I like you so much is you’re a really nice person. You help people, you care
about people. But this is nuts. Think about it. You’re already in witness
protection and now you’re hanging out with some Hollywood Joe who whacks out and
tosses a guy off a balcony and then stabs his girlfriend.”

“Tyler hadn’t killed anybody
when we went down to the harbor,” I said.

We looked at each other, both
realizing what I’d just said.

“You think he did it,” said Ono.

“No, I don’t. But it doesn’t
really matter what I think, does it?”

Turns out, it did.

CHAPTER
15

Luckily for me, I was back at
the White Orchid when Detective Wong showed up again at three-thirty.

“Bad news from the medical
examiner’s office,” he said as soon as I’d opened the door.

“How so?”

“Seems Miss Diamonte was killed
sometime between six and nine p.m. last night,” he said. “And the other victim,
a Mr. Romano, died during the same time period.”

It took me a minute to process
the significance of what he was saying.

“Oh. I get it. That’s when Tyler
and I were out looking at the sunset,” I said. “So if I could corroborate Tyler
Benson’s alibi, that would bolster his defense.” 

“That’s correct, Miss Morton.
And since you’re already in WITSEC, there’s no way we can allow you to do that.
As far as we’re concerned, he remains unaccounted for during the time of the murders.”

“That’s nuts. You expect me to
throw Tyler under the bus?”

“Perhaps there were others who
saw Mr. Benson during that time period?”

“Look around, Wong. There are
less than three thousand people on this whole island. During the hours you’re
talking about, Tyler slipped away from the paparazzi and we went out to
Kaumalapau. Then we came back here. I’m the only person who saw him, and I’m
the only one who can vouch for him.”

“Maybe Mr. Benson shouldn’t have
been so camera shy.”

“Detective Wong, you and I have
had our differences in the past, but as a sworn law enforcement officer, I’m
sure the last thing you want to see is justice denied. I was with Tyler Benson
during the time his fiancée and that reporter were killed. You have to allow me
to speak up for him.”

“Miss Morton, I appreciate your
eagerness to get in the middle of this. After all, it’s your
modus operandi
,
is it not? A mainland tourist gets into trouble with the law and you jump in to
save the day. Well, this time I’m afraid I’m going to have to nip any such
notion in the bud. I’m warning you. If you so much as breathe a word to anyone
about corroborating Mr. Benson’s alibi, I’ll have you on the next thing smokin’
out of Hawaii. Are we clear?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even
nod. I just glared at him.

***

After Wong left I went to the
kitchen to make myself something to eat. I wasn’t really hungry, but I hadn’t
eaten anything since breakfast and, besides, it gave me something to do. I
slipped my apron over my head and felt the crinkle of the envelope I’d stashed
in the pocket.

I took it out. Maybe the powers
that be at WITSEC had something to tell me that would shine a light on when they’d
be finished with the drug sting. Then maybe I’d be free to lend my voice to
Tyler’s defense.

I slit the envelope open with a table
knife. I pulled out the contents, surprised to see it was a Christmas card with
a funny Santa in a grass skirt under a palm tree. Santa was flashing the
shaka
sign—the ‘hang loose’ with thumb and little finger extended. Inside, the card
said,
Mele Kalikimaka
, the Hawaiian way of saying, “Merry Christmas.”

On the facing page, someone had
written me a note in longhand.

Hi, I know I’m not supposed
to put your name on this, but you know who you are anyway, ha-ha!  I miss you.
I didn’t want Christmas to go by without letting you know how sorry I am about
the way we left things. Stay safe. I couldn’t bear to have anything happen to
you. Merry Christmas. Love you, Hatch

PS  Wahine says bow-wow
(which means I miss you too).

I put the card down and stared
at the back wall. Why had Wong agreed to bring this to me? I know he and Hatch
had worked together some time ago at the Honolulu Police Department, but from
what I’d seen there wasn’t much love lost between them. Especially since Hatch
had given up being a cop to become a firefighter. I couldn’t imagine why Wong
would be willing to break the rules for Hatch Decker.

Then it hit me. I was thinking
about the how and why of the card showing up to avoid thinking about the card
itself. I missed Hatch. I missed Farrah. I missed Steve and Keahou and even
Hatch’s dog, Wahine. I missed every person, every dog, every palm tree, every
wide sandy beach, every towering green mountain. I missed
everything
about
Maui.

I missed my life and most of
all, I missed my sweet fireman
ipo
, Hatch Decker.

***

At seven o’clock that night the
phone rang. It was Darryl.

“Hey,” he said. “I hear they got
some trouble up at the Lodge.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t involve
locals.”

“Good. So how’s everything
going?”

 “It’s going okay,” I said. “But
I’ll be glad when you guys come home. I need to spend some time at my own
house. The cockroaches have probably rearranged the furniture by now.”

“We’re booked on the
eight-thirty flight Friday morning. My mom’s making noise about us not sticking
around for Christmas, but Ewa’s anxious to get back home and get the baby
settled in. You gonna be able to help out? We’ve got folks coming in for the
week between Christmas and New Year’s. In fact, we’re totally booked.”

“I’m not sure, Darryl. Can we
play it by ear? I’ve got a few things stacking up.”

“Sure, no worries. I just think
it’s gonna be kinda crazy with the new baby and all of our rooms filled and
all.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Oh, and
do you have a way home from the airport?”

“Yeah, we got like six offers
for a ride. Everybody wants to be the first to see Ekana.”

“So you’re going with the
Hawaiian name?”

He whispered, “As long as I’m
within earshot of my mother-in-law I am.”

We said our good-byes and hung
up. I felt bad running out on them when they needed help, but I felt even worse
thinking about not spending Christmas on Maui.

That night I walked back to my
rental house with a lot on my mind. Tyler was in the Maui jail probably
wondering why I’d hung him out to dry. Ono had come to Lana’i to see me and we
were sneaking around like teenagers breaking curfew. And Hatch had sent me a
‘miss you’ note via Wong, which must have been hard for him since they’d been
rivals for the same job in Honolulu and Wong had won out.

I should’ve been pleased by all
the male attention. Too bad instead of making me feel flattered, it just made
me feel guilty.

CHAPTER
16

On Thursday morning I slept late.
It was nearly eight o’clock by the time I unlocked the front door to the White
Orchid and went inside. I glanced out the side window and was surprised to see
Ono sitting on a stone bench in the garden.

“What are you doing here?” I
said as the screen door slapped shut behind me. “Your Jeep isn’t out front.”

“Hey, it’s great to see you
too,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…you
know. I thought you were going to call first.”

“I did call. Check your
messages. I got tired of waiting for you to show up, so I just came over. I
parked a block away so Wong wouldn’t notice the Jeep. Aren’t you glad to see
me?”

“Of course I am.” I must’ve been
feeling the impact of Hatch’s sentimental Christmas card, because I was having
a heckuva time getting back in the mood with Ono.

“Is something wrong? You worried
about that Benson dude hanging out in jail?”

“Yeah, that’s been weighing on
me.”

“And how about your buddy Wong?
You think he’ll come by here again?”

“Who knows? But his nickname on
Maui is ‘Peeping Wong’ so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s watching us right
now.”