Shattered Palms (Lei Crime Series) (3 page)

“Well
, I’m already at your place with something started for dinner. Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep it hot and see you when you get home. Keiki and I will just be pining away here. ”

“You’re the best. I can’t believe I’m marrying you in just two weeks,” Lei said. “Thanks for understanding.”

“Next time it’ll be me catching a body and you keeping dinner hot.”

“I can keep something hot, but it won’t be food.”
Lei laughed as she hung up.

Her next call was to her guardian and surrogate mother,
Aunty Rosario, in San Rafael, California.

“Hey, Aunty.” Lei navigated the four lanes of traffic between the police station and the nearby utilitarian hotel with ease. “How’s everything at the restaurant?”

“Pretty good. Getting so excited about the big day!” Rosario exclaimed.

“That’s what I called about. We have arrangements for a house for you and Dad to stay in, and I wanted to double-check on everything.”

“It’s all a go. So what’s your dress like?”

Lei grimaced. She should have seen this question coming. “It’s beautiful. But a surprise, Aunty. I can’t tell anyone about the design.” She mentally crossed her fingers
—she still hadn’t even ordered the dress.

“As it should be, Sweets.” Aunty Rosario and her father had picked up the misnomer of a nickname given to her by her partner on Kaua
`i, Jack Jenkins. “I had a call from Tiare Kaihale, your wedding coordinator. She arranged for my restaurant to do all the food at your reception. Your dad and Aunty Momi are already working on some of it.”

“That Tiare. So awesome.” Lei felt
gratitude washing away the intimidation Pono’s efficient wife still elicited. “I can’t believe she thought of having you do it. I’m so
lolo
, it never crossed my mind. So how are you getting all the food over here?”

“We’re coming in two days before the wedding to
have time for food prep. Freezing most of the food and air-shipping it to arrive after we get in. Your dad and I’ll pick it up and rent the equipment for prep and heating—you’re going to have a real Hawaiian luau with Japanese food, too, down at that beach park. Your grandpa Matsumoto, even he’ll find something to eat.”

“Great!” Lei said. “Need anything else from me?”

“No, I don’t think so.” There was a long pause.

“Is everything all right?” Lei asked.

Aunty Rosario’s breath hitched, and Lei frowned. Something was wrong. Even navigating the traffic and pulling into the nondescript parking lot of the Maui Beach Hotel, Lei could picture her aunt so clearly: her short, plump body probably wrapped in one of her restaurant’s plumeria-print aprons, dark brown eyes with well-marked brows, her hair in a thick salt-and-pepper braid with little curls escaping around an olive-skinned face that was still unlined.

“I’m having some tests done.”

“Oh, Aunty! What kind of tests?” Lei felt a familiar band of anxiety tighten around her chest. Aunty Rosario was her mother in all but name, and the thought of anything happening to her was terrifying.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing, but I have this stomach pain that won’t go away. It’s been months now, and my antacids don’t do a thing
…I almost didn’t say anything…”

“No, Aunty. Don’t ever hide anything from me.”

“Well, like I said, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“I will pray it is. And I’m sure Dad is praying too.”

Aunty laughed. “You bet he is, and being kind of a pest about it too. He put olive oil on my forehead the other day and had his prayer group over to pray. He’s really taking his religion seriously, as you know.”

“Well, it can’t hurt,” Lei said. She’d parked the truck, and Pono was striding toward her from his vehicle. “I gotta go. Can’t believe how soon I’ll be seeing you. Call me the minute you know anything about your tests.”

“Love you, honey,” Aunty said.

“Love you too.” Lei hung up. Aunty wasn’t usually so demonstrative. Must be she was worried about her health. And then there was the wedding. It seemed to make everyone emotional.

Lei and Pono went to the front desk of the modest hotel and showed their badges.

“We’re investigating a murder. We have reason to believe the victim may have been staying here or had business here,” Pono told the round-faced receptionist. The woman had a gigantic hibiscus blossom arrangement in her hair that Lei couldn’t stop looking at.

What had Tiare said about her veil for the wedding?

Oh yeah—no veil.
Pikake, those tiny fragrant white flowers, woven into a crown-like
haku
lei. She let her breath out in relief. No giant flower explosions would be coming out of the side of her head.

The receptionist was tap-tapping her keyboard. “When would this person have been here?”

Lei and Pono looked at each other. “Not sure. But he would not have returned to his room, if he had one, for the last four days, at least.”

“We charge guests’ credit card
s when they stay beyond their reservations and their belongings are abandoned in their rooms. We do have someone who was due to check out two days ago and appears not to have returned. I have to check with my manager to see if it’s okay to release that information to you, or if I need a warrant.” She bustled off.

Lei looked at Pono. “
Seems like he was here.”

“Hopefully
. That receipt was just for the bar.”

The errand appeared to be taking a while, so Lei looked around the lobby. The Maui Beach was conveniently located for business and had a decent pool
, which looked out across Kahului Harbor to the docking area, where one of the Princess Cruises ships sat like a wedding cake at anchor.

“Wedding cake,” Lei muttered. “Tiare said it was handled
, but I didn’t pay attention to what it was.”

“What?” Pono pushed his ever-present Oakleys up, gave a squint. “You saying you don’t know what ki
nd of cake Tiare ordered for the wedding?”

Lei felt the blush that had been the bane of her existence heat up her cheeks. “Your wife has things totally under control. I’m sure it
’s going to be awesome.”

“She told me you were the opposite of
bridezilla—the bride who can’t be bothered,” Pono said, the dimple he tried to hide with his mustache very much in evidence. “You’re the perfect client. She’s having a blast doing everything with no interference.”

“I’m just not into it. Thank God Stevens understands. I get really nervous with all the choices and start having escape fantasies. Tiare picked up on that and took over, and I’
m so glad.”

“Long as you don’t leave Stevens at the altar. Don’t think any of us can handle another breakup between you guys.”

“Thanks a lot.” Lei punched him in the shoulder, fairly hard, and ended up shaking out her fingers. “Ow. You must have been lifting.”

The receptionist returned with the manager, a dapper Japanese man in the regulation floral print of the hotel. “May I see your identifications?” He had brought a pad and noted them down. “
What is this regarding again, please?”

Pono recapped.

“All right. I think it’s appropriate to cooperate with the Maui Police Department. We were wondering about the whereabouts of this guest ourselves. We keep abandoned items in our storage facility. Follow me.”

The manager led Lei and Pono around behind the counter and down a utilitarian hall to a room marked
storage
. “We keep things for about six months and then donate them to a charity.” He unlocked the door and pushed inward, flicking on a light.

Cardboard boxes lined floor-to-ceiling shelves. They were marked with last name, a room number, and a date in Sharpie. Boxes of paper towels and other supplies took up the rest of the space.

“Wow. Lotta stuff in here.” Lei frowned. “How often does this happen?”

“Well, most of it is just an item or two left behind. We keep them as a courtesy.
Seldom does a guest do what this one did and disappear entirely.”

“So why didn’t you notify
the police?” Lei asked, as the manager zeroed in on a box marked
chang
, pulling it off the shelf. The sight of the name made her brows snap together, even as she reminded herself Chang was as common a Chinese name as Smith was American. Pono pointed to the name and frowned, glancing at her. She shook her head. This random poacher couldn’t be related to her enemies, the Chang crime family on the Big Island. Could he? She dismissed the connection.

“There are a lot of reasons people might abandon their room
, and if there’s no indication of foul play and they’ve paid their bill, we don’t assume that anything bad has happened. As I said, this doesn’t happen often. This client had prepaid his stay in cash, according to my receptionist. He showed an ID for this name.” The manager indicated the writing on the box.

Lei pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of her back pocket, snapped them on, and squatted beside the box.

She took the top off. “Was there a suitcase?”

“Yes. We didn’t open it because it has a combination.” The manager indicated a good-sized hard-sided gray plastic case with his toe.

“You know, Pono, I think we should take all of this down to the station,” Lei said as she flipped open the wallet that sat on top of the contents of the box. She held the ID up so Pono could see that the photo matched the distorted face of their victim from the cloud forest.

Clarice looked at the suitcase Pono had wrestled up onto the table. “It’s locked,” the taciturn clerk said.

“I know. Got a hammer?” Pono grinned.

Clarice eyeballed him over her rhinestone-studded half-glasses with no sign of amusement. “Find some other way.”

Lei had already begun unloading the box of incidentals from the abandoned hotel room and listing them on the inventory sheet. A wallet containing a credit card and ID that looked real, in the name of Xu Chang. One small black men’s comb with two hairs stuck in it, which she bagged. A black men’s bathroom kit containing an electric razor, travel-sized can of shaving cream, toothbrush
, and toothpaste. All the products were American and looked brand-new.

“This guy traveled light. Nothing personal here. I’d bet money that this is a fake ID.”

Pono had unfolded a paper clip and was fiddling with the lock, moving it around inside. “Not sure this is going to work. This is a better-made lock than most.”

“You could shoot it open,” Lei said, deadpan.

“Yeah.” Pono’s dimple flashed.

The ribbing was lost on Clarice. “No discharging of firearms in the evidence room,” the clerk said.

Lei continued unloading the box. A black satin bathrobe with a dragon machine-embroidered on the back, nothing in the pockets. A pair of black shoes, men’s size nine—and the box was empty. She looked at Pono.

“You gotta get that suitcase open. The good stuff must be in there.”

Pono was still fiddling with the paper clip, and suddenly the lock on one side popped open. He went to work on the other side and had that open by the time Lei and Clarice had entered all the contents of the box into the evidence log.

Lei moved over beside her partner as he popped the case open. Right in the center of the suitcase, surrounded by clothing used as padding, was a black metal box with a small cylinder attached. A long pause followed as all three of them considered its
foreboding appearance.

“That looks like it might be a bomb,” Pono finally said. Clarice hurried to her house phone to call for the
hazardous devices technician even as Lei held up a hand.

“I think this is for transporting the birds. See this canister? It’s got a pressure gauge like you use for scuba. I bet he was going to sedate the birds and carry them back in this suitcase.”

“I still want the technician to open that,” Clarice said, punching buttons on her phone. “It’s my evidence locker that will get destroyed if it’s a bomb.”

Lei and Pono removed the clothing
, careful not to touch the matte black metal case that would probably fool most scanners. The gas in the canister, if it were just compressed air as Lei suspected, wouldn’t set off any alarms.

Abe Torufu, wearing a coverall and gloves, arrived with his
explosives detection kit. “Where’s the fire?” Torufu asked. Lei couldn’t resist a quick fist bump with the Tongan giant, whom she’d worked with on several cases.

“We don’t actually think it’s a bomb.” Lei indicated the case with its screwed-on canister. “But Clarice wanted you to check it out.”

Torufu opened his kit. “Let me see if it’s even something I have to get into gear for. If I do, you all need to clear the room.”

“I don’t want my evidence room blown up.” Clarice fiddled with her glasses.

“And I don’t want to get blown up either.” Torufu carefully inspected the case. “I don’t see any external wiring or trigger mechanism. I’ll swab for the usual.” He swabbed the flip-top latches of the case, all around the edges, and all over the canister. “Nothing.” He held up the swatch of cloth. It didn’t look any different. “This detects several chemicals present in explosives. I think we’re safe to open it, but I’d prefer if you move outside.” He was already wearing a fire-retardant coverall and gloves, but now he pulled a respirator out of his kit. “This is in case of any nonexplosive but otherwise dangerous substances, like biologicals or chemicals.”