Moon over Maalaea Bay (2 page)

Was it a match made in heaven? Yes. But due to the terrorists, it had started out in…well, the other place. Since that day, his life hadn’t been the same. How could it be? He had fallen in love with a twenty-six-year-old Miss Universe who had an IQ rivaling Einstein’s?

You fool. It’s your wedding night. Stop gawking at her from forty feet away. Get the coffee, buy the necklace, and take her home. The moon isn’t going to hang over Maalaea Bay forever.

He took one more longing look, mustered the strength to pull his gaze away from Jennifer’s shapely form, and hurried towards the espresso stand.

Unlike the nearly deserted back row of shops where Jennifer waited for him, the sidewalk along South Kihei Road was filled with tourists enjoying the warm evening. The aroma of freshly ground Kona coffee could almost create a caffeine buzz simply by inhaling it.

Lee ordered two iced lattes. While he waited, he looked westward, above the gently swaying palm trees lining the beach. The moon was full, a bright silver disk in the western sky. Unlike the light pollution of Seattle, the lights of Kihei did little to dim the twinkling stars sprinkled generously across a field of dark-purple.

By the time the barista handed him the two icy drinks, he felt an ache deep inside. Lee smiled, realizing he already missed Jennifer. This was the longest time they’d been apart since they left for SeaTac Airport after their wedding ceremony. What would it be like if they ever had to endure a long separation?

He hurried down the aisle between the shops towards the back row where Jennifer hopefully had found her necklace.

Lee didn’t see her as he approached the jewelry shop. She must have moved to the opposite counter.

A brightly clad Hawaiian lady now stood behind the counter, straightening her wares on the shelf above. Good. They could purchase the necklace and then—he stopped. Jennifer wasn’t at the opposite counter. Apprehension began incubating in his heart. He stepped to the display counter and tried to shut off the incubator. “Excuse me, ma’am. Did my wife find a necklace here?”

“Your wife? Since I returned from my break I haven’t seen anyone.” She shrugged and shook her head.

His apprehension now transcended incubation. “She was just here. About five foot two, long, dark hair, very beautiful.”

The lady gave a frown. “No, I haven’t seen—”

A commotion three shops away interrupted their conversation. A wide-eyed woman scurried towards the street, clutching her cell phone.

When he didn’t see Jennifer there, he turned his attention back to the shopkeeper. “If she returns, tell her to wait for me. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Check the ladies’ room. When women disappear, nine times out of ten that’s where they are.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” He turned to search another row of shops, realizing his heart had shifted into a higher gear.

Lee wove back and forth through several adjacent rows, then looked down several perpendicular rows of shops. A nagging worry again tried to intrude. He squelched it.

He would check the ladies’ room next.
Until I’ve done that, I’m not going to worry.

He noticed a sign directing shoppers to the restrooms. He followed it.

A middle-aged lady with a pleasant smile approached.

He pulled out his wallet. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

“Yes?”

“I seem to have misplaced my wife. While you’re inside, would you mind checking to see if she’s there? Her name is Jennifer.” He slipped their engagement picture from his wallet and held it out for her to see. “Here’s her picture.”

The woman’s eyes immediately focused on his ring, then her gaze went to the picture. A wise woman. “Sure, I’ll see if—my, she’s a real beauty. I’ll let you know when I leave, or I’ll send Jennifer out to you.”

“Thanks, ma’am.”

As the lady entered the building, the wail of a distant siren grew louder. It was joined by several other sirens. The knot forming in his stomach tightened. When the sirens converged on the side of the shops bordering South Kihei Road, he felt a strong urge to run towards the flashing red and blue lights. But he needed to wait for the lady. He might be worried about nothing.

What’s taking her so long?

The door opened, and the lady walked towards him, now frowning. “Your wife isn’t in there, and no one inside remembers seeing her.”

“Ma’am, are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, but she’s not there.”

“Thanks.”

A sinking sensation sent his stomach into a nauseating freefall. His rising panic drummed in his chest. Lee whirled towards the flashing lights along the street and trotted in that direction.

Three police cars had parked hurriedly in disarray near the curb. A small crowd of people gathered near them. The buzz of their conversation was too far away to understand any of it.

While Lee jogged towards the street, he passed an open-air sports bar, where a large, flat-screen TV flashed a bright red message. People crowded around it, excitement mixed with concern on their faces.

Lee stopped when he saw the two large words, “Amber Alert.” Another message scrolled across the screen. He maneuvered between two taller men to read it. “Teenage girl abducted from Kihei shops at 7:00 PM. Description Asian, five foot one to five foot three, sixteen or seventeen years old, last seen wearing a red tank top and white shorts.

It was Jennifer’s description on the screen. Being petite, she could have easily been mistaken for a younger person. He glanced at his watch. 7:15 PM. She had disappeared at 7:00 PM. With his heart pounding out the tempo of terror, Lee sprinted towards the ominous lights of the police cars.

2

Lee ran towards two policemen engaged in conversation beside the nearest patrol car. As he approached, they spun to him, their hands simultaneously reaching for their guns.

He stopped, shoved his palms towards them, and yelled between breaths. “The kidnapped girl!”

The tall officer had drawn his weapon, but kept it pointing downward.

The shorter policeman met his gaze and studied his face. “Do you have some information about her?”

“Yeah. She’s not a girl. She’s my wife, Jennifer Akihara, now Jennifer Brandt. We’re here on our honeymoon. One second she was here, then she was gone.”

“And you are?” The taller officer said, holstering his gun.

“Lee Brandt.” His trembling fingers struggled to pull out his wallet. He took one agonizing look at the photo then handed them the wallet-sized, engagement picture. “Here’s a picture of her.”

The two officers studied it for a moment.

“Matches the description we got,” the shorter one said.

“I’ll say it does, but not many women can match her.” The taller officer pursed his lips as he turned towards Lee. “Let me give you some advice. It’s not a good idea to run up to officers here like you’re going to attack them. There’s Maile Amber Alert; we’re in the process of locking down this entire area.” He paused. “Now, can you tell us anything else about her disappearance?”

What had been circulating on the periphery of Lee’s conscious mind suddenly became an intuitive conclusion. Whatever the consequences, he decided to go with it. “Officer, this isn’t a random abduction. And she’s an adult. She’s twenty-six.”

The shorter officer flashed him a glance. There was sympathy in it. The first encouraging thing he had noticed in the last half hour.

“I’m Officer Yagi, Mr. Brandt.” He stuck out a thumb at the taller guy beside him. “This is Officer Kaai. What makes you think this was a targeted attack?”

Lee took a calming breath. How should he tell them this story? He just needed to state the bare facts. “Jennifer and I recently amputated one arm of an international sex-trafficking ring—a fifty-million-dollar-a-year arm. Somebody’s unhappy about what—”

“Yagi, it’s that babe, uh, lady from Seattle. This story broke a few weeks ago.”

“I remember her. Who could forget?” Yagi looked at Lee and pointed to his patrol car. “We’ll need you to come to the station with us. This case is going to get elevated in a hurry. I’ll call in what you’ve told us and send the picture ahead while we’re on the way. We will need to get the FBI invol—”

“Call the Seattle Field Office.” Lee interrupted. “Agent Peterson there has been on the trafficking case from the beginning.”

“I’ll pass that on. But there are official channels we need to use for notifying other agencies.” Yagi opened the back door of the patrol car and gestured towards it.

“Fine.”
I’ll use my own channel.
Lee pulled out his cell and climbed into the back seat, a cage that felt like a prison. Being locked into the confined space was getting to him. He needed air and used his call to keep his mind off the rising panic.

With Kaai driving, Yagi’s words flowed in a long, steady stream as he passed information to the local police.

Lee hit Peterson’s FBI cell number on his speed dial, placing a call the agent would answer if at all possible. There was a long delay while the call went through to the mainland. The delay was followed by several rings.

Come on, Peterson, answer.

“Agent Peterson here.”

Lee looked out the window and up into the night sky.
Thanks.

“Peterson, Lee Brandt. Someone abducted Jennifer here on Maui and—”

“What!” Peterson boomed out, followed by a rare expletive. “You two are on your honeymoon. Who would…”

“It’s got to be an international component of the trafficking ring. I think they’re trying to make Jennifer an example. But someone here thought she was a teenager, so there’s an Amber Alert out for her.”

“That’s a good thing. Using the alert, I can lock down the whole island. All of the islands if I have to. Where are you now, Lee.”

“In a patrol car on the way to the police station in Wailuku.”

“Good. Tell them everything you know and even what you only suspect. We need to get every law-enforcement wheel turning. I have to go now, so I can notify the appropriate people. If this plays out like I believe it will, you might see me very soon. Whatever it takes, we’ll get Jennifer back.”

“Thanks, Peterson.” Lee closed his cell. Peterson might come. Lee prayed he would.

Officer Kaai’s eyes were staring at him in the rearview mirror. “Who were you talking to, Brandt?”

He stared back at the shadowy face in the mirror. “Agent Peterson, FBI in Seattle. The guy I told you about.”

Kaai dipped his head. “Guess it can’t hurt. I’m just not used to seeing people make cell calls from the back of my patrol car. Makes me a little nervous.”

Lee looked at the reflection of the officer’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “If I know Peterson, he’s about to make all of us a little nervous.”

A few glimmers of hope had been tossed to him, but the darkness of his circumstances sent Lee to a place he couldn’t bear to visit. He fought against the pictures invading his mind, but he relived those moments when he had nearly lost Jennifer six weeks ago. Though he was sure he’d lost her, God had rescued Jennifer, and He had used Lee to help in her rescue. In less than two hours, he had gone from the depths of despair to elation. Would that happen again? Could he be as fortunate a second time?

Reality set in. These were wealthy, international criminals. Their attack had obviously been well planned. Someone had closely watched Jennifer and him. The abductors had chosen their time carefully and grabbed her at an opportune moment. These facts alone told him the odds were long that he’d ever see Jennifer alive.

As despair set in, he held onto one hope. Jennifer was twenty-six years old, so the traffickers hadn’t planned for an Amber Alert. At least one monkey wrench had been thrown into their plan. But would it be enough to save Jennifer?

3

While the patrol car rolled across the island towards Wailuku, Lee tried praying, but questions interfered—a myriad of questions. However, they all led to the same one. Why?

The knots in his writhing stomach and his panic brought on nausea. Soon, fighting the urge to vomit also interfered with each attempt to pray. And then the questions returned.

Why on their wedding night? Why did God allow it? Jennifer was so brilliant, so beautiful, so full of compassion for lost and oppressed people…why her?

Dark fields gave way to dark, shadowy palm trees. Soon scattered lights appeared on the hill to the left, and the lights of the city lay only a short distance ahead. A few more minutes and he—a thought jarred him. How could he have forgotten to ask?

You’re an idiot, Brandt! An INTJ idiot.
The Meyers-Briggs personality assessment made him understand himself a lot better. It sometimes even led to an intuitive, brilliant leap of logic.

He leaned forward. “Officer Yagi.”

Yagi twisted in his seat. “Yeah, Brandt?”

“An Amber Alert means there was a witness. Who saw the abduction? What did they see?”

Yagi looked at Kaai and waited.

After a few seconds Kaai nodded.

Yagi turned back towards Lee. “A tourist, a middle-aged lady, saw two men overpower and abduct your wife.” Yagi sighed. “It happened at the back of the shops. They came out of the dark parking area in the rear of the shops, grabbed her, and left the same way, into the dark parking lot.”

“Anything else? Any other witnesses?”

Yagi shook his head. “No. Just one lady saw it.”

Jennifer would have fought them. She was fast, smart, and she knew some karate. Why didn’t they mention that? “What about descriptions of the two perps?”

“Perps?” Yagi glanced his way and shook his head. “You watch too much TV.”

“I seldom watch TV, Yagi. Now tell me about the perps!” Lee’s frustrated voice surprised even him with its intensity.

“Settle down, man. I was getting there. Two strongly built men wearing dark clothing. That’s all we have to go on.” Yagi turned back towards the windshield. He was done.

But there had to be more. Lee wasn’t ready to quit his interrogation. “What kind of dark clothes? Shorts? T-shirts?”

“The lady was so upset by—” Yagi cut off his sentence and paused.