Torch Ginger (17 page)

She drove on to Lihue and made her way to the costume shop, a little place near the community theater. She’d shopped there several times doing detective work, and Shevonne, the owner, looked up in surprise as she came in.

“Oh my God, is that you, Lei?” she exclaimed.

“Going for a new look.”

After the costume shop, she hit the local hemp clothing store, where she came out with yet more packages. She drove back to Kapa`a, and at the park, went into the women’s washroom and put on her disguise. Eventually satisfied, she got in her truck and drove to her destination.

* * *

The Timekeeper finished the last of his Tae Kwon Do workout and dove into the ocean. The water was cool, and he stayed submerged as long as he could, swimming beneath the surface, sleek as a seal.

“Lazy good-for-nothing. You and your brother and sister, nothing but pains in my ass.” Her voice rang in his ear as loud as the day she’d spoken those words. He broke the surface, gasping, looking around.

Nothing but beauty as far as his eyes could see—the sculptured face of Bali Hai mountain, horseshoe of yellow beach, and ocean gone cobalt with early morning.

“Get your ass back to work or I’ll take it out on her,” she said. His sister, too frail to withstand her. His sister, whom he’d failed.

“Okay, Mom, I’m going,” he said aloud, and swam hard for the shore.

Chapter 18

Jazz Haddock glanced up from his last customer and Lei pushed the organic lamb chops and other groceries toward him at the register. He took the items without comment and rang them up. “That’ll be twenty-seven ninty-nine.”

She handed him the cash, and as their eyes met, his widened in recognition. She put her finger over her lips and pointed to the beaded curtain. He gave a tiny nod and handed her back her change. The next customer engaged him in conversation, and Lei sidled casually through the curtain, trying to keep the beads from rattling. She parked herself on the couch, the string bag bulging with food at her feet.

Jazz’s “office” was dimly lit, the evening light slanting through the window and falling on the coffee table, where a bamboo tray held a variety of round semi-precious chunks of stone and a loupe.

She picked up the loupe and looked at the stones. They were roughly the same size as the ones they’d recovered from Jay’s shoe. A nasty suspicion came to her as she held one of the walnut-sized rocks, an opal, up to catch the light. Jazz pushed through the beaded curtain and shut the office door, putting his hands on his hips.

“I said all I needed to, down at the station. What’s with the disguise?”

Lei set the stone back into the tray. “What are you doing with these rocks?”

“Collecting. You never answered my question.”

“Yeah. Collecting. I think these were ‛collected’ from the other disappearance sites. You’ve been holding out on us.” She folded her legs Indian-style under the hemp skirt and placed her hands on her knees, thumb to forefinger in the classic meditation pose, her “tattooed” wrist symbols clearly visible.

“You guys never asked if I had them. I answered everything I was asked truthfully.”

“I think you know a lot more than you told us,” she said, as if he hadn’t spoken.

He clamped his lips shut, sat in the lounger. A few long minutes passed, and Lei closed her eyes, breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.

The pose really was relaxing.

“How do I look?” she finally asked.

“Like a hippie. What the hell are you doing?”

“I need to get into the cult you told me about, the TruthWay. I’ve been all over the North Shore with my partner, showing pictures and canvassing; we can’t find Jim Jones and that group of campers, or anyone who seems to know anything about the disappearances. We do know they meet and hide out at a papaya farm owned by a Jones family. I want to get onto the papaya farm, and you said you know people there.”

Jazz looked at her for a long time. She could see him assessing her outfit: the natural-fiber fringed dress, the strings of tulsi beads decorated with a bronze peace sign, the tattoos, and finally the waist-length black wig, which did more to change her looks than she’d hoped.

“Lose the beads. Too much.”

“Okay.” She took the strands off and handed them to him. “Will you help me?”

“You aren’t talking to the other cops about this, are you?”

“Nope. I don’t think I’d get the green light. I plan to tell them after I’m in.”

Jazz sat back, playing with the tulsi beads. “These are used for prayer, you know. You use them like a rosary, and say the Hare Krishna on each one.”

“Good to know. You’re going to have to tell me everything you can, and coach me on the details. Like, I don’t know what the Hare Krishna is.”

“You should know that TruthWay can be dangerous. I know. I was a part of it.”

“I knew there was a lot you weren’t telling us. I thought you said you wanted to help, you wanted the investigation.”

“I don’t think TruthWay has anything to do with it.”

“That’s not for you to decide. Sometimes when you’re too close, you can’t see what’s in front of you.” Lei gestured to the stones. “I need to take those in too.”

Another long moment, then he nodded. He got up and took a plastic ziplock bag off the desk, emptied the tray of stones into it.

“Okay. I do want the investigation—wherever it leads. I’ll get you in.”

Lei got into her truck outside the health food store. The adrenaline buzz that had carried her this far had worn off, and now, as she glanced in the mirror, her wide brown eyes looked apprehensive under the wig’s black bangs. She was all but unrecognizable, even to herself, and walking into the station in her current getup was going to cause quite a shitstorm.

At least she had the bag of stones, Haddock’s cooperation, and a good chance of getting inside that papaya-farm stronghold.

As she drove, Lei remembered the name of the man whose hand she’d recovered. John Samson. She hadn’t had time to investigate him at all, but she knew someone with the same last name. Maybe they’d be able to find another lead.

She called the restoration center and got Shellie Samson, the social worker.

“Shellie, do you by chance know anyone named John Samson?”

“I do,” Shellie said cautiously. “He’s my husband. Why?”

The adrenaline was back. Lei focused on the road and controlled her voice.

“Do you know where he is?”

“Why are you asking?”

“You first.”

“I was married to John Samson. He left me. Just up and left, no word, nothing. So eventually I divorced him.”

“Tell me about how he left.”

“We came to Kauai on vacation. One morning he just …Well. He told me he wanted some alone time, was going to take a hike on the Na Pali Coast. We’d been having some problems, and he said he wanted to think things over. He never came back.”

“You filed a missing persons?”

“I did . . . I know you’re Wayne’s daughter. Why are you asking me these questions?”

“I’m a detective with Kauai Police Department. We’ve found some evidence regarding your husband.” The sadly gruesome hand burst into Lei’s mind’s eye.

Shellie gasped—and Lei hurried on. “Can you come into the station and answer a few questions for us? I promise I’ll fill you in on what this is about.”

“Of course.” They set an appointment for later that day. Lei closed her phone.

This investigation just kept unfolding in front of her, coincidence wrapped in happenstance pointing to the next lead. Now there was no choice. She had to make the call.

She pushed the worn button on her phone and held it down.

“Stevens.”

“Hi, it’s Lei.”

“I know. Where’d you go? We had a strategy meeting and Jenkins said you had an errand.” Bless her loyal partner.

“I’m on my way.” She filled him in on the Samson situation as she turned into the station parking lot, where her courage failed at the sight of the automatic doors. “Can you meet me outside at my truck? Got some confidential information.”

“Okay.”

She put on sparkly lip gloss and fluffed up her long black wig. She knew it was silly, but she couldn’t help it. Stevens opened the passenger door of the truck. His eyes raked her from head to foot.

“What the hell are you up to?” He held the door open and then reached over to tweak her wig off. It was held in place with a bit of adhesive, and she yelped as it pulled her skin. She smacked her hand to her forehead, eyes watering at the sting.

“Wow.” His eyes wandered over her head, the long black wig streaming from his hand. Lei trembled as she touched her shorn scalp, and that made her angry. She yanked the wig out of his hand and slammed it back on her head.

“You’re an ass.” She blinked rapidly and got her voice under control. “I’m going undercover.”

“Oh really? Last I checked, I was primary on the case.” He got into the truck beside her, slammed the door.

“Nothing was breaking. I had an idea and I went with it. I’ve got a way into the cult through Jazz Haddock.”

“I knew that guy was holding out on us, but I didn’t expect it from you. Take that wig back off. I want to look at you.”

“No. I like it on.”

“You didn’t even look at your head, did you?”

“Who cares about my head! What’s important is that Haddock is going to put me to work in the Health Guardian to gather intel. When I’ve established my cover, he’s going to bring me out to the TruthWay cult’s Sunday ‘love feast.’”

“I don’t even know where to begin with this. You sure there’s a connection?”

“No, but I suspect that Tiger–Jim Jones character. He would be in a great position to disappear people, and Jenkins and I narrowed his location down to this Jones papaya farm cult group. I really want to get eyes on the place, the people, look for something.”

“You’ve been busy. Busy, and not telling anybody else what you were thinking.” His voice was flat.

“Yeah.” She picked up the bag of stones, set them on his lap. “But I am getting somewhere. Haddock had these from the other disappearance sites. Also, I found John Samson’s wife. She’s coming into the station this afternoon. Claims not to know where he went, said he just went hiking and she thought he left her.”

“Son of a bitch. So our missing man has a wife right here in town! I put Fury on running down the victims’ identities, and Samson’s last listed address was California.”

“Yeah. Apparently they came on vacation. Shellie just stayed.”

A long pause as he absorbed this, looking at her changed appearance. He finally spoke. “So it’s a done deal.”

“It’s too good an opportunity for you to make me pass it up. But I definitely need backup. Haddock says the cult is scary, and after doing all that canvassing in the parks, I’m concerned about being made.”

“You should be. This whole thing is sketchy.” He glanced over at her again. “Please take the wig off—or are you too scared?”

“You can’t get me with that old ‘I dare you’ thing.”

Still, she found herself putting the wig carefully on the armrest and tilting the rearview mirror to look. Full lips and tilted almond eyes looked enormous without the riot of curls to balance her face. She shut her eyes, feeling exposed, and felt his hand on her shoulder.

“I can’t believe how beautiful you are.” His breath was warm in her ear. “You shouldn’t be—it’s dangerous.”

She found herself turning, her eyes still closed, her arms reaching for him blindly as he pulled her in. His touch filled her senses, an instant kindling she’d kept tamped down. She wound around him as far as she could reach, with the steering wheel and armrest in the way, and he stroked her body, squeezing her hard as he kissed her, as if to impress her shape on his hands. A combustible clash of need, desire, and anger left her knees shaking and her lips burning when he finally lifted his head.

His eyes were bluer than she ever remembered.

“Don’t play with me. I can’t take it.”

“I’m not playing. I just can’t marry you. That’s all I know.” She moved farther away, trying to get her breath back.

“I hate it when you go off half-cocked, like this hippie disguise thing.” She saw the longing and fear in his eyes. “Someday it’s going to cost you.”

“It’s already cost me. I told you a long time ago I am who I am. I didn’t want to tell you anything because you’d just shut me down.”

“Impulsive is what you are. Reckless. But—you’ve got good instincts, I’ll give you that.”

Lei had parked the truck alongside the building where they were out of view. Stevens seemed to be getting his composure back, turning to look out the front windshield.

“I’ve got a couple of loose ends I need to run by you,” Lei said.

“Uh-oh.”

“Nothing too big. Esther Ka`awai wants to ‘feel’ the stones; she thinks she can tell something about them by doing that. And I don’t think I can go in the station looking like this. I want to go right over and get started at the Health Guardian.”

“I’m going to have to bring Haddock in for more interviews,” he said. “I’ll have Jenkins bring you the stones from Bennett’s disappearance site and you can take them out to the Ka`awai woman.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d have to talk to him, but since I’m going undercover . . . can you dial it back? It needs to look like he’s not cooperating with us. He says it’s dangerous, that people who try to leave disappear.”

“The guy was hardly cooperating. But okay, we’ll take it slow, meet him somewhere neutral. I want to talk to Haddock, make sure this plan with you is on the up-and-up, and I need to brief the captain on all this. Why don’t we meet at the district safe house in Kilauea?” The county-owned residence was used for various purposes by the police department and could provide much-needed privacy.

“I’ll call Jenkins and Haddock and let them know to meet us out there.”

“You just don’t want to have to walk into the station and deal with Fury getting a load of your outfit.”

Lei snorted a laugh. “You’re right about that.”

He went serious again. “You should have talked to me about this first. Or your partner, at least.”

Lei suppressed a stab of guilt. “The investigation is the most important thing, and I just knew . . . no one would like the idea. It was time to think outside the box.”