by Kathi Daley
The women hadn’t been injured or tortured, yet understandably, they were terrified. Once they’d supplied HPD and the FBI with the information they desired, they’d been assured that they’d be returned home to their families. While the women had provided a definite link between the men who kidnapped them and Evans, they could not provide a link between Evans and Tatsuo. Shredder had paperwork that showed a link between Evans and Samantha Jones and between Samantha Jones and Tatsuo, so in his opinion, an arrest warrant for Tatsuo would eventually be issued. Of course, Tatsuo was a slippery one, so a warrant by no means guaranteed an arrest, although it would allow them to get a warrant to search any property on the island owned by Tatsuo.
“Are you still awake?” I heard Shredder ask.
I opened my eyes. “I’m awake. Just trying to relax.” I sat up a bit straighter. “You look refreshed.”
“I feel refreshed. How are your feet?”
I shrugged. “Been better. Been worse. I guess I should have brought a towel and fresh bandages out with me.”
“Hang on. I’ll get them.”
Shredder ran into my condo and then came back a minute later with the supplies I’d need. I reached for them. “Let me,” he said, pulling a chair up next to me and gently picking up one of my feet and putting it on the towel he had draped across his lap. I wanted to cry with gratitude when he gently began to pat it dry.
“So, what now?” I asked. “We saved the women who were still on the island, which I am very happy about, although I wish we could have saved the others as well. Still, five is better than none. But other than the fact we saved these women, are we really any closer to finding Kinsley and Hoku Palakiko, or capturing Tatsuo and bringing him to justice?”
“No, I’m afraid we aren’t.”
“And did we learn anything new about either Walter Evans’ death or Ano Hanale’s? I suppose, given the blood we found earlier, we can speculate that Evans was shot on the island, brought to the beach behind the condo, and left for me to find.”
Shredder began wrapping the foot he’d just dried. “Actually, we don’t know that. The blood we found is not a match for Evans. In fact, it came from a female. I would assume one of the women who decided not to cooperate.’
I cringed. The very thought of what those women had gone through made me sick.
“I know it seems like we aren’t getting anywhere, but we are,” Shredder assured me. “These sorts of things take time. They take patience.”
“I’ve never been big on patience.”
Shredder gently slipped one of the open-air shoes on my foot that he’d just bandaged, picked up the other one, and began to dry it as he had the first one. “I’ve been trying to nail Tatsuo down for years. I’ve been actively tracking him for months. I’ll get him. Eventually. I don’t know where and I don’t know when, but I’ll get him.”
“So what do I do in the meantime? Just sit here waiting for something to happen even though we have no idea whether or not the Palakikos are dead or alive. And if they are alive, are they with Tatsuo voluntarily, or are they being held against their wills?”
“Jason is working on a warrant to search Tatsuo’s estate. I don’t know if we will find our answers there, but we might. In the meantime, how about breakfast? My treat.”
“Breakfast sounds good. I’m starving,” I said as he began wrapping my other foot. “Maybe a big Loco Moco.”
“I haven’t had one of those in months.” Shredder slipped my wrapped foot into my clunky shoe. “Just let me grab my wallet. After we eat, we can swing by Luke’s place and pick up the dogs.”
I knew that it was Brody and not Luke who had taken care of the dogs, but just hearing Shredder say Luke’s place brought a painful tightness to my chest.
******
Surprisingly, the best Loco Mocos on the island could be found at a food truck parked down by the beach. Deciding to buy the calorie heavy feasts from the food truck and then eat at one of the picnic tables provided, we headed down the highway toward our destination. Shredder instructed me to find a table while he stood in line for our food. I found a nice table in the shade that overlooked the sea and sat down before someone else claimed it. While I sat there waiting, I looked out over the Saturday morning crowd that was beginning to congregate on the water and wondered about Ano. It had turned out that Vinnie’s death was not related to Tatsuo, and Evans seemed more likely than not to be directly correlated to his relationship with the guy, but where did Ano fit into this whole thing? He had been deposited in a location where I would find him, so initially, I assumed he’d been shot by the same killer as the others, but with the new information we had, I realized that was not the case. In fact, on most any other morning, it would have been Dad who found the body since nine times out of ten, he showed up to work before I did. He’d gone to the South Shore on that particular morning, so I’d arrived first. Perhaps Ano hadn’t been placed there to gain my attention as I’d suspected he had.
Had the killer been trying to gain Dad’s attention rather than mine? Was Ano’s death somehow related to one of the cases we were working on and was his murder a message of some sort? I supposed it would be worthwhile to take a second look at the situation.
“Oh, wow. Those are even bigger than I remembered,” I said as Shredder put my plate in front of me.
“Just eat what you can. They look delicious, but I doubt I’ll finish mine either.”
I took a large bite of the gravy covered beef patty over rice and chewed slowly. Heaven. “I’ve been thinking about Ano Hanale,” I said after I swallowed. “Given the fact that it appeared at the time that Evans, Travano, and Hanale had all been left for me to find, I assumed all three deaths were related. Now it looks as if the three deaths aren’t related. We know who killed Vinnie and it wasn’t Tatsuo, and we never really did find a link between Ano and the other victims or Ano and Tatsuo, so maybe his death has nothing to do with the others.”
“Do you have a theory?”
I took another bite and chewed slowly. I washed it down with a sip of the water Shredder had bought. “I’m not sure. Ano’s body was left just inside the front door of Pope Investigations. At the time, I believed the man was left for me to find, as I’d believed the others had been, but when I really stopped to think about it, I realized that it is my dad and not me, who almost always arrives at work first. The only reason he hadn’t on that particular day was because he had a meeting on the South Shore that morning and went there directly from home.”
“Okay, so say the body was left for your dad, or maybe it was left as a message for the firm overall. Has Pope Investigations taken on any cases relating to Hanale or to food trucks in general?”
“No. Not really.” I paused to think about it. “There was this one case that involved a man who owned a restaurant on the North Shore who was trying to get the food trucks in the area near his restaurant moved.”
“Sounds like a familiar conflict.”
“It is, and while both the restaurant owner and the food trucks which were affected were very passionate about their stance, I don’t think the conflict was the sort of thing to lead to murder.”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t take a lot to drive someone to murder,” Shredder pointed out. “So, what happened? Did the trucks have to move?”
“No. It was decided that they were legally parked and were working from legally obtained permits. The food trucks had been in the area well before the man who wanted them moved had purchased the restaurant. Basically, the restaurant owner was told to play nice, or he would be the one to be shut down.”
Shredder’s lips twitched just a bit. “I bet he wasn’t happy about that.”
“He wasn’t, but the reality is that if he had a problem with food trucks, he should have checked out the regulations in the area before buying the restaurant. As you know, food trucks are an important part of our culture here on the island, and they aren’t going away any time soon.”
Shredder downed a third of his wate
r and then continued the conversation. “Okay, assuming that it wasn’t the restaurant owner who killed Ano and literally left him on your doorstep, any other guesses?”
“Not really.”
“Any other cases that involved food trucks or food truck owners, even if the food truck link is more of an adjacent link and not a direct link?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe a food truck was involved in an auto accident, or one of the food truck owners was involved in a bar fight. If something like that happened, but the victim didn’t know the identity of the person involved, they might target food trucks in general as a means of tracking the guy down.”
“There was a case that Dad turned down where a man wanted to hire us to prove that one of the food trucks, he didn’t know which one, was being used to distribute fake ID’s to high school students.”
“Why did your dad turn down the case?”
“The guy didn’t seem to have his facts straight. In fact, Dad said the guy really didn’t have any facts, only speculation. I guess the guy caught his daughter with a fake ID, and when questioned, she told him that she had bought the ID from a food truck, but she didn’t remember which one. When my dad told the man he would look into it but that he needed a few days to finish up another case before he could give much time to the situation, the man went ballistic. In the end, Dad kicked him out.”
“So theoretically the father of this girl with the fake ID could have tracked Ano down on his own, killed him, and then left him for your dad as a sort of I told you so.”
“Theoretically, I suppose it could have happened that way, but that would be insane. I mean do you really think some guy would kill the man who sold a fake ID to his daughter?”
Shredder shrugged. “What do you know about the guy who tried to hire you?”
“Nothing. Dad spoke to him, I didn’t.”
“But there would be a file of some sort back in the office.”
“Sure, I guess.”
“Maybe we should go and take a look after we eat.”
I raised a brow. “Really. The idea that some guy would kill Ano just because he sold a fake ID to his daughter is pretty out there. Digging into his backstory seems like a waste of time.”
“You said that the man went ballistic when your dad couldn’t work on his case right away. Does that seem like a normal response?”
“No,” I admitted. “In fact, Dad and I both agreed that the man was wacko. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to dig up the file.”
Chapter 17
There was still crime scene tape across the front door of Pope Investigations, so Shredder and I headed around to the back. I used my key to let us in and then headed directly toward Dad’s office. I supposed I’d need to call Jason and ask him how long it would be before we could reopen for business. Based on the fact the tape was still present today, it wouldn’t Monday and probably not even Tuesday.
“So how is it working with your dad?” Shredder asked as I dug through the file cabinet looking for the file relating to Rex Harkins.
“It’s been really great. So great. Having a macho cop for a dad and having five macho brothers all planning to join the force when they got old enough, left me feeling left out. I suppose part of the reason I was so determined to become a cop was to fit in and become one of the team. Of course, neither my father nor any of my brothers supported me in my campaign to reach that goal, and it really hurt. Everyone, including my father, seemed to think I was my mother’s daughter, and just a frilly and helpless little thing that needed to be coddled and protected. I love my mother, but to be honest, for most of my life, there was nothing I wanted more than recognition from my father. Then Jason was shot, which was awful for everyone, and my other four brothers totally shut my dad out of the investigation, which was bad for Dad, but good for me, because when I suggested the two of us should work together, he said yes. We saved the day and solved the case, and I believe that for the first time in my life, he saw me as a real person. Suddenly I was the strong, capable woman who saved his life, and not just Mom’s daughter. It was truly the proudest moment of my life in spite of the fact I missed my chance at the academy due to a broken arm.” I pulled out a file. “Found it.”
Shredder opened the file and studied the basic information sheet. Then, he took out his phone and made a call. “Hello, love. It’s Shredder. I need a favor.”
I watched while he listened.
“No, not that kind of favor. I need you to find everything you can on a man named Rex Harkins.” Then, he recited Rex’s address, phone number, and driver’s license number. He thanked whoever was on the other end and hung up. He looked at me. “We should have something in a few minutes. In the meantime, let’s see what your dad said about the man.”
“As I’ve already shared, Mr. Harkins had come to Pope Investigations to hire us to track down the food truck vendor his daughter had told him she had purchased a fake ID from. When my dad asked why he didn’t go to the police, he said he had, but he could see that they weren’t going to put a lot of effort into finding the guy. When my dad said he would need a few days to finish up another case before he could give much time to the situation, the man went ballistic, and Dad kicked him out. Dad noted that the man was wound up and agitated, and seemed to be looking for a fight from the minute he arrived at our office. He understood that someone selling fake ID’s to teens was not a matter to take lightly, but he also didn’t understand why the man was as upset as he had been. Dad made a note to dig into the man’s past if he ever returned, but he hadn’t, so Dad moved on.”
“This says that the man was married with three children,” Shredder said. “Do we know which of the three purchased the ID?”
I looked through the notes on the sheet I was looking at. “Hillary. She was just sixteen but was able to obtain a license stating that she was twenty-two.” I held up a photo. “With the right hair and makeup, I’m sure she was able to pass as twenty-two with no problem.”
Shredder’s phone rang. He answered. “So what did you find?”
He listened. His face grew grim. “Okay, love. Thanks. I owe you one.” He hung up and looked at me. “Hillary had a sister, Hannah. A drunk driver ran Hannah down when she was seven. She died at the scene of the accident. The driver was a sixteen-year-old girl with a fake ID who had been out drinking on the day of the accident.”
My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh, god. No wonder the guy was so outraged when he found his daughter’s fake ID. The whole thing makes a lot more sense now.”
“It does,” Shredder agreed. “This man could very well have been seriously crazed after finding out that Hillary was traveling down the same path as Hannah’s killer. I know it seems like a stretch, but I suppose he experienced a sense of urgency that wasn’t really warranted. When he went to the police, and they didn’t demonstrate the amount of urgency he expected, he went to your father. When your dad likewise wasn’t as up in arms as the man expected him to be, I suspect he went after the ID dealer on his own.”
“Ano.”
“That would be my guess.”
“I guess we need to have another chat with Ano’s cousin, Keo.”
Shredder and I replaced the file and straightened up the office to erase the fact that we’d been there. We locked up and then headed to the beach where we found Keo selling fish tacos. We pulled him aside and asked about the fake ID’s. Initially, he didn’t admit that Ano was selling them, but after we provided the reason why we needed to know, he came clean and said that yes, Ano had been selling fake ID’s to underage customers, and yes, a man with a chip on his shoulder had come by on the day before he died looking to confront him about it. I figured it was time to turn the whole thing over to Jason, so I called him and filled him in and then went home and slept straight through until the following morning.
Chapter 18
Sunday, June 30
When I awoke the following morning, Sandy was staring at me. I guess Shredder must have gone and
picked up the dogs from Brody at some point. I felt bad that I’d forgotten about my best buddy, but, as I predicted I would, after talking to Jason, I totally crashed. In fact, I think I fell asleep on the way home. Shredder must have carried me to bed. The twenty-four hours prior to my long nap had been hectic, to say the least. Not only had we rescued five women from an uncertain future but it also looked like we had managed to solve Ano Hanale’s murder, although I supposed it would be up to Jason to get a confession or find the proof we needed.
Not being quite ready to roll out of bed, I called Sandy up onto the bed and curled up next to his comforting body. I knew Kekoa was still in LA so I supposed if I allowed myself to lounge a bit, no one would be any the wiser. Besides, it was Sunday. Wasn’t lounging what Sundays were for? I was trying to decide between going back to sleep and having coffee on the lanai when my phone buzzed. It was Jason.
“What’s up, big bro?”
“Thanks to the work you and Shredder did in the past couple of days, I was able to get a warrant to search Tatsuo’s estate. I won’t go so far as to say we found a smoking gun, but we did find a document pertaining to a storage unit near Halawa Heights. After a bit of finagling, we managed to get a warrant to open the storage unit where we found files on the women he’d kidnapped and smuggled out of China. I wish I could say that the documents we found would help us track these women down, but it will be an uphill battle to do so. We did find information relating to many of the men the women were allegedly sold to, so we are following up on that, but my feeling, at this point, is that the men were dealers and the women are long gone.”
I blew out a breath. “Well, that’s depressing. Did you find a lead that will help us find Kinsley and Hoku Palakiko?”
