by Kathi Daley
“Sounds good to me. I’m starving.”
We arrived at the public park to find the truck Hanale had owned open for business. It seemed that our victim was partners with his cousin, Keo, who’d decided to keep the truck open in spite of his recent loss. According to Keo, he’d seen the woman in the photo on several occasions. Dad asked him when he had first noticed the woman, and Keo answered that he thought it was about three to four weeks ago. That loosely fit the timeline we’d established for Walter Evans’ visit to the island.
“How about this guy,” Dad showed Keo a photo of Evans. “Do you remember seeing him?”
“Yeah. I saw him talking to Ano a while back. Maybe a month ago. Maybe less. I can’t really be sure.”
“Do you know what they were talking about?” Dad asked.
“No. Ano walked away to have his discussion. I asked Ano about it, and he just said the guy wanted him to cater an event. We do events all the time, so I really didn’t give it a second thought.”
“Do you remember seeing the man in the area on any other occasion?’ I asked.
“No, just the one time,” Keo answered.
“What about this man?” Dad held up a photo of the nightclub owner.
Keo took the photo and looked at it closely. “I don’t remember seeing the guy here, but I know who he is. His name is Vinnie. I know he owns a nightclub on the South Shore. And I know he is friends with a guy I know named Spade.”
“You are friends with Spade?” Dad asked.
The man shrugged. “The word friend is a generous term. Let’s just say that we have had occasion to do business together in the past.”
“Business?” Dad asked.
“Let’s just say that Spade and I share a common interest.” Keo turned around and looked back toward the truck. “I need to get back. Ano was a good guy. I hope you figure out who did this to him.”
After Keo walked away, I glanced at my father. “That is the second time Spade has come up. First, in relation to our missing person, and now in relation to our third victim.”
“It seems like it might be worth our while to track him down. You said your friend knows Spade. Do you think she knows where we can find him?”
“I don’t think so. Emmy Jean didn’t even know his real name.” I paused to think about it. “She mentioned that Kinsley Palakiko attended her Friday night poker game, and she also mentioned that after the poker game, Spade invited him to a game the following night at his private estate. I suppose it might not hurt to question the others who attended the Friday night game. There could be someone in the group who attended the Saturday night game. I’ll call Emmy Jean, and see if she knows where the Saturday night games are held and if she can give me any names, and you might want to call McCarthy. Emmy Jean made a comment about him attending the Saturday night games. I meant to mention it to you yesterday, but then I got distracted with the murder investigation.”
“There’s a table in the shade over near the little park. Let’s head over there and make our calls.”
A brief discussion with Emmy Jean netted me the information that the Saturday night games were for men only, so she had never been invited to attend, a situation which she was not at all happy with. She reminded me that McCarthy had been to the game, and suggested I talk to him. I let her know my dad was speaking to him but wondered if she knew of anyone else who might have information that could help us track down Kinsley Palakiko. She told me that she’d text me the names and contact information for a few others who attended the Friday night game if Dad’s conversation with McCarthy didn’t provide us with the information we needed.
“McCarthy wants to meet for lunch,” Dad informed me after I’d hung up with Emmy Jean.
“I guess it’s a good thing we haven’t eaten yet. Where does he want to meet?”
“Callahan’s. Thomas and Woodson will be there as well.”
Callahan’s was a bar that, while technically open to the public, was generally the type of establishment where men in blue and their guests could meet in a relaxed atmosphere. They also served decent food. Since I’d been working with Dad, we’d gone there for lunch fairly often. Thomas, Woodson, and McCarthy were retired cops who liked to hang out at Callahan’s and talk about the good old days on the force. My dad used to hang out with them on almost a daily basis, but now that we’d opened the detective agency, he had much less time to hang out and shoot the breeze. Still, Dad knew his friends were a valuable resource, so he stayed in touch and would often ask for their opinion about a case we were working on.
“So what do you want to know?” McCarthy asked after Dad and I had met the three men in the bar.
Dad explained about our missing person, as well as our three murder victims. He informed the men that a man who went by the name of Spade had come up on more than one occasion, and he was interested in speaking to him.
“Spade won’t talk to just anyone,” McCarthy informed Dad. “And he definitely won’t speak to a cop. But you are retired the same as me, so he might be willing to participate in an interview with the right incentive.”
“What sort of incentive?” Dad asked.
McCarthy shrugged. “Don’t know. I guess it boils down to whether or not you have something he might need.”
“I take it you have his address?” Dad asked.
“I do, but it won’t do you any good to show up without an appointment. The guy lives in a fortress. Between his security staff and his security system, no one gets in without an invitation.”
“Can you help us with that?” I asked.
McCarthy creased his brow as if considering the question.
“What about approaching Spade through the new wife,” Woodson suggested. “Spade tends to go through wives as often as I go through gym socks, but I know he recently married a woman named Jasmine Baine, and if I remember correctly, Jasmine and Luke are friends.”
“Jasmine used to board her horse at Luke’s,” I confirmed. “We’ve chatted on several occasions. I’m sure Brody has her number. I’ll call her, and see if she is willing to set up an appointment between her husband and us.”
Luckily, a call to Brody netted me Jasmine’s number. I called and explained the situation. She was hesitant to get in the middle her husband’s business dealings and wasn’t comfortable making an appointment with him on our behalf. She was willing to share the information that her husband was currently at home but would be going out in about an hour to meet up with a friend. Deciding that was the only real lead I had at this point, I decided to stakeout the house, wait for Spade to leave, and then follow him.
Chapter 5
One of the things I really hadn’t anticipated about becoming a private investigator was the amount of time I would spend sitting around waiting for someone to show up or waiting for something to happen. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that good old fashion stakeouts were part of the job description, but what I didn’t know was what a large percentage of my time would be spent looking for a clue, rather than following up on that clue once discovered.
I glanced at the clock. I’d only been sitting in front of Spade’s estate for sixty minutes, but it seemed longer. Much, much, longer. Maybe I should have filled my dad in on my plan. He would have insisted on coming along, which really wasn’t necessary, but at least I would have had someone to talk to and wouldn’t be quite so bored. Of course, Dad mentioned that he had his own clue to follow up on, so chances were he wouldn’t have been able to join me anyway.
At the time I spoke to Jasmine, she’d said that her husband was going to be leaving in an hour. At this point, it had been almost ninety minutes since our conversation. Maybe he’d changed his mind. Maybe she’d been lying just to get me off the phone. I’d suspect that Spade may have left via a road at the back of the place, but the estate was bordered on three sides by the sea, so the entrance I was watching would be the only road in to or out of the property.
Deciding to take a closer look, I got out of my car and approached the ent
rance gate. A native Hawaiian wearing Khakis, with a gun strapped to his belt, manned it. I knew it would be useless to simply walk up to the estate and ask to speak to Spade, so I followed the wall around until it met the sea. I then turned and headed back in the other direction until I once again ran into the sea. At least I’d confirmed my suspicion that the only way in or out of the estate was through the gate unless, of course, you came by boat.
I headed back to my car and slipped into the driver’s seat. I was debating whether to wait a while longer or give up and head home when my passenger door opened. I gasped and then smiled when a man wearing board shorts and a tank top slipped onto the passenger side seat. “Shredder.” I leaned forward and hugged the man. “What are you doing here?”
Shredder hugged me back. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“I’m waiting for a man named Spade to leave the estate so I can follow him. I think he might be connected to a missing person we’ve been hired to find. Where have you been all this time?”
Shredder shrugged. “Around. What do you mean that you’ve been hired to find a missing person?”
“Dad and I opened a PI agency. A woman named Hokulani Palakiko hired us to find her husband, Kinsley, after he failed to come home after two days. He hasn’t been seen since Saturday morning. Are you back? I mean really back? To stay?”
Shredder narrowed his gaze. “Why do you think Spade is connected to this missing person you are looking for?”
As usual, Shredder only answered the questions he wanted to answer and ignored the rest.
“Kinsley Palakiko likes to gamble. According to Emmy Jean, who also likes to gamble, he frequently attends the same Friday night game she does. This past Friday, he was in attendance and won big. Emmy Jean told me that Spade was there, and invited him to his private Saturday night game. He’s been missing ever since, so I thought Spade might have information that would help us track the guy down.”
“Are you sure he even showed up to the game on Saturday?”
I stared at Shredder before answering. I still couldn’t believe he was sitting in the passenger seat of my Jeep as if the past nine months had never happened. He’d lost his golden tan. In fact, he was downright pale. I had to assume he’d been somewhere cold during his time away. Or at least somewhere that didn’t allow him to spend his days in the sun as he had when he was here.
“Lani?”
“I’m not sure, actually. Emmy Jean told me that Kinsley had been invited to the game. I really have no way of knowing if he went. I sort of hoped Spade could fill in a few blanks if I can ever manage to get in front of the guy.”
“And your plan to do that is to sit here until he comes out and then what? Accost the man?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I spoke to his new wife who happens to be a friend of Luke’s, and she told me that he planned to leave the estate for a meeting about an hour from the time we spoke. My plan had been to follow him and try to figure it out from there. It’s been more than an hour though so he must have changed his mind or Jasmine might have been mistaken.”
“So I guess you and Luke must be married by now.”
I was surprised by the abrupt change in the subject but decided to answer. “No. We aren’t married. Luke is in Texas. He has been in Texas since October. To be honest, I sort of doubt he will ever come back.”
Shredder’s face softened. “So you are no longer a couple?”
“I don’t know. I guess technically, we are still a couple. It’s complicated. Can we get back to the reason you are here?”
Shredder didn’t answer right away.
“You were watching him too.” I realized. I knew that Shredder was some sort of a spy who worked for the government or at least a government adjacent organization. “Is this Spade some sort of international criminal?”
“No, not really, but the guy tends to associate with dangerous men. Much too dangerous for you to be toying with. I want you to go home and forget you ever heard the name Spade.”
“Like hell. It is beginning to sound like this guy is somehow part of whatever is going on with my missing person and possibly even the three bodies that have been left for me like some sort of sicko gift.”
“Three bodies?”
I smiled. “You mean I know something the all-knowing Shredder doesn’t know? You’re slipping.”
“I just arrived on the island a few hours ago. I was indisposed prior to that, so unable to stay on top of your comings and goings like I normally would. I can see that the timing of my incarceration was most unfortunate. So about the bodies?”
“Incarceration? Were you in prison?”
“Not a US prison. The bodies?”
I was about to fill him in when the exact words he used to explain his lack of knowledge of current affairs hit me. “Have you been watching me or tracking me or something?”
“I watch and track a lot of people. It’s my job. Now back to the bodies. You said there were three? Who exactly has died, and what do you know about those deaths?”
I took a few minutes to fill Shredder in. I really didn’t know a whole lot about any of the victims I’d stumbled across, but I shared what I knew. I even offered a few theories I was kicking around, which only made him frown even more deeply. It was during my expose of the roles of the men as a smuggler, a money launderer, and an illegal goods distributor that the gate to the estate opened. “That might be him.” I put my hand on my key, which I’d left in the ignition.
Shredder put his hand over mine. “Wait.”
“But we’ll lose him.”
“We won’t lose him. Scrunch down a bit, so no one sees you.”
I did as Shredder instructed.
A black four-door sedan with darkly tinted windows came through the gate. The man who was driving looked to be a paid driver, and there was no way to see who was in the backseat. As soon as the car committed to a direction, Shredder got out of my car and slipped around to the driver’s side. “Scoot over.”
“No way. This is my car. I’m driving.”
“Not if you don’t want to lose him. Now scoot over.”
I did.
Shredder started my Jeep and then pulled onto the highway. He headed in the direction the sedan had taken. I was sure we’d lost him, but then I noticed the sedan make a turn just as we came over a small hill.
“There,” I said. “He turned there.”
“I saw him,” Shredder sped up a bit, but not nearly enough in my opinion. If I had been the one driving, I would have stayed a lot closer, but Shredder seemed to maintain the furthest distance between the vehicles possible in which he was still able to see the car in front of him. If he made a quick turn or went into a parking garage, we’d lose him for sure.
“He’s heading toward Kaena Point,” I said.
“I bet he is headed to the Dillingham Airfield,” Shredder slowed a bit as the car we were following slowed, probably due to the rough road.
“Do you think he is meeting someone or flying out?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll just watch and see what happens.”
Shredder pulled the Jeep to a stop as we approached the airfield. The sedan seemed to be meeting a private jet that was already waiting. Two men got off the jet, and two men got out of the car to meet them.
“Are either of those men Spade?” I asked.
“The taller of the two men.”
“I wish we could hear what they are saying.” I squinted, but there was no way to read their lips from this distance, even if I could read lips, which I couldn’t. “Do you recognize the men from the plane?”
“One of them. The man with him is most likely one of his goons. Do you recognize the man who is piloting the plane?”
I tried to focus in on the pilot who was barely visible through the windshield of the plane, but he was too far away. “I don’t know. The plane is too far away for me to make out any details.”
Shredder grabbed my hand. “Come on. Let’s se
e if we can get closer.”
Shredder led me toward a row of trees. They grew together closely in this area, so they provided good cover. We scooted along as quickly as we could, but at some point, we were going to have to venture out onto the tarmac if we wanted a good view of what was going on.
“I think if we make a run for it, we might be able to make it to those hangers without anyone seeing us. Stay low and make it fast.”
“Okay,” I said to Shredder. My heart was pounding at this point. I really didn’t see any way that we’d make it to our destination without being spotted. Of course, the men were talking, which meant they were distracted, but what about the pilot who was still sitting in the cockpit? Surely, he’d notice us, even if the others didn’t.
Once we arrived at the hangers, I paused to let my heart rate slow. Shredder scooted across the space until we were about as close to the plane as we were going to get. He motioned for me to take a close look at the pilot. I nodded.
“I think that is my missing person,” I whispered. I held up my phone and snapped a photo using the zoom feature.
Shredder looked around the area as if trying to get an overview of the situation.
“It looks like they’re leaving,” I said as the men who had emerged from the plane walked up the gangplank and disappeared inside. The door closed, and the engine that had been idling revved up. The plane started to taxi to get lined up for a takeoff, and then the men from the sedan returned to their car and drove away. “So, what now?”
“I’ll take you home.”
“What about your car?” I asked, assuming he’d left a car back at Spade’s place.
“I don’t have a car.”
“So how did you get to Spade’s estate?”
“I was dropped off.”
I wanted to ask by whom and how he planned to follow Spade without a car, but I knew he wouldn’t answer. Instead, I asked about his dog, Riptide. He informed me that Riptide was with a friend. “So will you be returning to your condo?”
