Livin' Lahaina Loca (30 page)

Damn,
I hated feeling so helpless.

CHAPTER 30

When
I turned the corner to my block, a white Ford Fairlane was parked in front of
my house. I pulled around back and came in through the kitchen door. There were
voices coming from the living room, so I went to check.

“Here
she is,” said Steve. He beamed as if I’d popped out of a birthday cake.

“Are
you stalking me?” I said, glaring at Detective Wong. He and his partner were
seated on the sofa side-by-side; Steve was in an armchair across from them.

“Now,
is that any way to greet our guests?” Steve said.

“They’re
not guests, Steve. They’re just trying to cover their tracks.”

Steve
lurched out of his chair. “Would you two please excuse us?” He grabbed my arm
and dragged me back through the swinging door into the kitchen.

“Are
you insane?”

“No,
I’m not. I haven’t had a chance to tell you what your boy toy’s been up to.
Those two are running interference for whoever killed Crystal Wilson. I’m not
sure why, but I think it has something to do with them being on the take from
the local drug pushers.”

 “Uh-uh.
No way. I don’t believe it for a minute,” he said. “Besides, that’s a pretty
serious allegation. You can’t just go around spouting off stuff like that.”

“Trust
me, it’s all backed up by facts.”

Wong
pushed the kitchen door open, startling us. “We don’t have time to sit around
while you two
talk story
back here. I need to have a word with Ms. Moon
and then we’ll be leaving.”

Steve
mumbled his good-byes and left out the back door. I returned to the living room
and took the seat Steve had left. Wong resumed his seat next to his partner.

“Ms.
Moon, I’ve been more than forthright with you about my expectations regarding
this investigation and you’ve ignored me every step of the way. Now, I’m
afraid, I’m going to have to impose sanctions.”

I
shot him my best bored teenager scowl.

“You
called me to come into the station this afternoon on my day off. I came in,
happy to take your statement. But now you’ve done your civic duty, or whatever
you think it is, so it’s time for you to back off—completely. I’m warning you:
if you attempt to meddle in this matter any further, you’ll force me to play
hardball.”

He
probably expected me to ask him what he meant by that, but I just stared him
down.

“I’m
not messing around here, Ms. Moon. If I hear, see, or even suspect, that you’ve
been snooping around or talking to anyone about this I will charge you with
obstruction of justice and impeding an official police investigation.”

“Yeah,”
I said. “You mentioned that before. I’m really scared.”

“You
should be. I can hold you for forty-eight hours.”

“Ooh,
that sounds cozy.”

 “This
isn’t a joking matter, Ms. Moon. I’m dead serious. No more bullshit, no more
games.” He stood and his partner followed suit. “Oh, and one more thing: I have
reason to believe you’ve been harboring a wanted fugitive. That’s also a crime
punishable by jail time. Do yourself a favor and stick to your wedding cakes
and bridal veils and leave the investigating to us. You hear me?”

I
didn’t answer, nor did I bother to get up and show them out.

I
called Sifu Doug, but had to leave a message. “Sifu—this is Pali. I need you to
call James and tell him
not
to talk to the cops about Beni for any
reason. I repeat, call James as soon as you get this message and tell him the
deal with the cops is off. I’ll explain it all when you call me back.”

Ten
minutes later the phone rang. I picked up, expecting it to be Doug, but it
wasn’t. It was Hatch.

“Hey,
how’re you doing? I’ve been thinking of you,” he said, his voice husky.

“I’m
okay.”

“I’m
off today. Back on tomorrow. I was wondering if you’d like to go out and grab a
bite, or maybe come over here for some wine and
pupus
. I miss you. And
Heen’s been missing you too.”

“
Mahalo
for the offer, but tonight’s not good. I’m not feeling a hundred percent. I
think I’m going to turn in early.”

“You
sick?”

“Not
big sick, just kinda hinky.”

“You
still worrying about that missing girl? I’m sure she’s fine. Probably just went
back to the mainland without telling anybody. I haven’t seen anything on the
news, have you?”

“No.”

“So
there you go. By the way, what’d you do this weekend? I was hoping you’d call.
When you left the other night I was a mess. I’m sorry I flipped out on you like
that.”

“That’s
okay. I’m sorry you had to relive that.”

“Maybe
you’re feelin’ funky ‘cuz we need to get together and do some making up.”

“Sounds
fun, but I’m just too tired. I really need to hit the hay—catch up on some
sleep.” The lying was beginning to take a toll and I was actually starting to
feel kind of sick. “How about a raincheck?”

“Yeah,
sure. I was hoping we could get together before I have to go back on shift, but
that’s okay. How ‘bout you come by the station tomorrow if you’re feeling
better?”

 “Sounds
good.”

I
hung up feeling like a traitor. I’d spent the whole day with Ono and it never
crossed my mind that Sunday was Hatch’s day off. And lying about being sick was
pretty low, but there was no way I could tell him the truth of what I’d been
doing all day. I’d go by the fire station on Monday and try to make amends.

***

Ono
pulled in front of the house a half-hour later carrying a big brown bag
emblazoned with the Home Depot logo. Ever since Maui made plastic bags
kapu
on the island, most people carried around their own shopping bags or they
recycled good paper ones. In any event, even though the bag said otherwise, I
was pretty sure Ono hadn’t picked up dinner at a big box hardware store.

“Hey,
you found my house,” I said as I opened the door.

“I
hope you’re in the mood for fish and chips.”

“Always.
Thanks for picking it up. It smells
ono
.”

“How
‘bout that—two
onos
for the price of one,” he said. We went in the
kitchen and he put the bag down on the table. “So hey, how’re you doing? You
still bummed out about what we saw today?” He leaned in and kissed me lightly
on the lips.

“Yeah,
that and more.” I told him about Wong coming by the house. “He said he could
throw me in jail for forty-eight hours.”

“That
dude worries me. Nothing worse than a crooked cop. But don’t worry—you’re this
close to sewing it up.” He pinched his thumb and forefinger together. “Once you
get the state cops involved we’ll see who’s going to jail.”

We
sat down and Ono pulled out enough food to feed a pee-wee football team: two
kinds of fish—
mahi-mahi
and
opakapaka
, a small Styrofoam bucket
of freshly chopped cole slaw, a white bag with about a pound of crisp fries, a
coffee cup full of tartar sauce and two cold beers.

“I’m
a little short on drinks,” Ono said. “But there was a big line so I didn’t want
to ask her to go back for more.”

“It’s
perfect,” I said. “And besides, I’ve got beer here and a bottle of pretty
decent wine.”

We
dug in and for the first time in days I didn’t think about Crystal or Beni or
drug dealers or crooked cops.

“I’m
glad you’re able to eat,” said Ono. “Some people who see stuff like you saw
today lose their appetite.”

“What?
Is that a nice way of saying I’m pigging out?” I wiped my chin.

He
laughed. “No, I’m serious. I admire a woman who can roll with the punches.”

“Oh,
I roll. Believe me, these last few days I’ve been rolling like a Michelin on
fresh blacktop.”

I
got up to clean up the mess and Ono came up behind me and put his arms around
my waist. He leaned in to nuzzle my neck and I jumped.

“You
sure you’re okay? You seem kinda fidgety.”

I
turned around and looked into his soft blue eyes. His face started to lose
shape, like I was seeing his reflection in a funhouse mirror.

“Hey,
hey,” he said, swiping a tear from my cheek. “What’s this?”

“Nothing.
I guess I’m not rolling as well as I’d like to think. I can’t shake the image
of Crystal’s body lying in that hole. Oh, and thanks again for not making me
take the pictures. I’ve never seen a dead body like that.”

“Wish
I could say the same. When I was on the streets, I saw more than my share of
bodies. But first time or tenth, it never gets easy.”

“I
can’t imagine you homeless. You seem so normal.”

“There
are a lot of
normal
people on the streets—war vets, guys out of work,
even families who went broke taking care of a sick kid. Believe me, you don’t
choose that life, it chooses you.”

He
leaned in and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
After the heartache of the past few hours it felt better than I expected.

I
wasn’t quite ready to pull away when there was a knock at the front door.

“Probably
one of Steve’s friends,” I said. “I’ll just tell ‘em he’s down at the Ball
& Chain.  Don’t move, I’ll be right back.”

As
soon as I went through the kitchen door I recognized the face peeking through
cupped hands at the picture window. He’d seen me too—no retreat.

“Hatch,”
I said, opening the door. “What’re you—”

“I
figured what the heck, you’re always bringing stuff over to me,” he said,
thrusting a covered casserole dish at me. “And if you’re gonna get well you
need to eat. So here, I made you some soup.”

“That’s
really nice. I don’t know what to say.”

“How
about, ‘Why don’t you come in?’ That works.”

“Uh,
sure. I’m kind of…uh, I don’t know.”

“No,
don’t worry, it’s not like that. I’ll only stay a minute, I promise. I know you
want to get to bed.”

Ono
came out of the kitchen. “Everything okay out here?”

There
was an ugly silence while everyone sized up the situation.

“Oh
great,” Hatch said. “Joke’s on me, I guess. When you said you were going to bed
early, I figured you were going there
alone
. Rookie mistake. My bad.” He
turned and rattled down the porch stairs as fast as I’d ever seen him move.

“Hatch!”

He
threw a hand in the air, waving me off. There might have been a single finger
salute in there, but it was getting too dark to tell.

“Hey,
Pali, I didn’t know,” said Ono. “I’ve been accused of a lot of things, but
horning in on another guy’s territory isn’t one of them.”

“
Another
guy’s territory
? Really? What do you think I am, a tree that’s been peed
on?”

“No,
that didn’t come out right,” he laced his fingers together and cracked the
knuckles. “I guess I better go.”

“You
don’t need to leave. Hatch was out of line just showing up like that.”

“Yeah,
well, whatever.”

He
grabbed the doorknob.

“
Mahalo
for going up there with me today,” I said. “And I really appreciate the chopper
ride, too.”

“No
worries. That’s what friends are for.”

He
dashed out the door and clattered down the stairs almost as quickly as Hatch.

I
sat in the shadowy living room, too spun out to turn on the TV or even a light.
What a couple of weeks it’d been: first realizing that Crystal had disappeared,
then Wong lying and threatening me, and Keith and Nicole vanishing and leaving
me holding a wad of drug-infused cash. Then, in just the last twenty-four
hours, I’d lost track of the only witness to Crystal’s vicious murder, and I’d
actually witnessed her bullet-ridden body. And, as if that weren’t enough, I’d
managed to run off the only two guys who’d shown any interest in me in ages.
Detective Glen Wong might be a dirty cop, but there was no doubt in my mind I
should’ve taken his advice and stayed completely out of it. Would’ve saved me a
ton of heartache.

I
waited an hour before I called Hatch. Time for him to cool off, and time for me
to figure out how to ‘fess up and make amends. Sure I was attracted to Ono, but
he walked a tougher stretch of town than I was used to.

Hatch’s
phone rang once and went directly to voicemail.

I
left a message. “Hatch, I’m really sorry about what happened. I should have
told you I had plans. Please call so I can explain.”

When
he hadn’t called by eleven o’clock I went to bed. I tossed and turned. The last
time I looked, the clock said it was just after one in the morning.

I
was half-dozing when I heard the creak of the hinge on the front door. I’d
forgotten to lock it. I wasn’t concerned, though, because it was just Steve
coming home from the bar. He usually parked his car in the garage and came in
through the back, but sometimes when he’d been out this late drinking he was
smart enough to ask for a ride from a designated driver. I flipped my pillow
over to the cool side and blissfully drifted back to sleep, glad to have him
home.