Death Inside Diamond Head

by Randolph Mase

  “I sometimes think I want more.”

  “So do I,” he said, smiling. “But I want us both to know that it’s the right time.”

  “I do, too. But how will we know?”

  “I’m not really sure. I just think we’ll know when it is the right time.” Kathy smiled and nodded. Hogan let go of her hand and put his arm around her waist. “And I think the right time will be pretty soon.” Kathy also put her arm around his waist and laid her head against his shoulder as they continued their stroll along the mild surf.

  Chapter Five

  Pokapahu Place

  Shortly after eleven the next morning, Hogan and Kathy drove once again to the Tantalus Lookout after quick stops at HPD and a home improvement store, dressed in the only hiking clothes they had and armed with water bottles, the print pictures of the crater, 50 feet of rope, latex gloves, plastic bags, high power binoculars, and Hogan’s cell phone photo gallery. When they reached the lookout, Hogan stood by the railing and looked at the crater through the binoculars.

  “Wow, what a difference – these are really great! Take a look.”

  He handed the binoculars to Kathy. “You’re right, there’s a huge difference. And there’s no missing that low point on the rim.”

  “Right, I saw it too.” He took a pen out of his pocket and held one of the pictures up in front of him. “Let’s see if we can mark the exact location on the picture, so we can find it when we get there.” With both of them alternating looks through the binoculars and looks at the picture, they were able to mark what they thought was the exact spot on the picture. “I think we’ve got it, Kath. Ready to go?”

  “It’s so beautiful and peaceful up here, Matt. Let’s stay for a few more minutes, okay?”

  Hogan smiled and moved to her side.

  * * *

  An hour later they drove through the tunnel into Diamond Head crater. “Let’s check with Kepano,” Hogan said as they approached the toll booth. The man came out to their car when they stopped.

  “Hello, folks. Back again?”

  “Yes,” said Hogan as he and Kathy got out of the car. “We’d like to take a look at one point in the side of the crater, and maybe even climb up a little.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We think somebody may have left here the other day by climbing out.”

  “I still say that would be pretty tough,” Kepano said.

  “We thought so, too, until we took some photos from the mountains.” Hogan showed Kepano one of the print copies. “See this lower point on the rim, where the X is? We think there could be a path at that point.”

  “Hmm, I guess so.” He looked up at the rim, then back at the picture, trying to locate that point. Suddenly his head stopped, and he pointed. “That looks like it right there.”

  Hogan and Kathy followed his pointing finger. “I think that is it, Matt.”

  “I agree,” Hogan replied, looking at the picture and one of the photos on his cell phone. “Let’s check it out.” Looking at Kepano, he said, “We shouldn’t be too long. I don’t want to go all the way up, just far enough to check if would be possible to get out that way.”

  Kepano nodded and gave Hogan his cell phone number. “Call me if you need anything. And be careful. We don’t need an ambulance here again.”

  “Thanks,” Hogan said with not a little sarcasm.

  Kepano pointed to an area behind the toll booth. “You can park your car there.”

  After moving the car, Hogan took the rope and two bottles of water from the car, and he and Kathy walked toward the designated spot.

  “It looks farther than I thought,” Kathy commented.

  “Hopefully, it won’t be too bad,” Hogan said. “Maybe two tenths of a mile? Luckily, it’s not too hot.” They reached the base of the south wall of the crater in about five minutes. “Actually it looks less daunting from here.”

  “I did think it would be worse,” Kathy agreed. “We can do this,” she continued, moving up the slope.

  Hogan hurried to her side. “Let’s take it slow, and stay together, okay?”

  Kathy smiled. “Sure, wimp.”

  He playfully smacked her butt and continued slowly up the slope. Although there wasn’t a marked path, some areas were worn down, indicating that it had been traveled, probably many times. After only twenty minutes or so they were at the rim. Both of them rested for several seconds to catch their breaths.

  “A little tiring. But it could have been worse.”

  Hogan nodded. “And the outside seems even easier,” he said, looking down the slope toward the Pacific. “I want to make sure we get the right spot when we go to the outside.”

  They both thought for a few moments. “How about this?” Kathy said. “Can we toss one end of the rope down the hill, and then find that end on the other side?”

  “That’s a good idea. Let’s tie this end around a rock. That’ll give it some force when we throw it.” Kathy leaned over and picked up a rock about six inches in diameter and held it while Hogan tied one end of the rope around it securely. “Kath, can you hold the other end while I toss the rock?” She uncoiled the rope as much as possible and held the other end firmly.

  “Got it. Let it go.”

  Hogan tossed the rock underhanded and with not too much force. They couldn’t see the base clearly, and he didn’t want to hit anything, or anyone. They heard a soft bump as the rock landed. “Okay. If we leave this end on the ground, we should be able to pull the rope down on the other side.”

  They carefully made their way back down the slope and returned to their car.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Starved,” Kathy replied. They drove out the tunnel, and with the help of GPS on Kathy’s phone, they found the South Shore Grill on Monsarrat Avenue, where they enjoyed great fish tacos. Appetites sated, the GPS helped them locate Pokapahu Place, and they drove to the end. “Let’s start here,” Hogan suggested. “I’m not sure this is the exact spot, but we’ll know when we find the rope.”

  “Should we talk to the people in this house first?” Kathy said, motioning to the house on their right.

  “Yeah, I guess we should. I wouldn’t want them to call the cops on us.”

  They walked to the front door and rang the bell. A man opened the door fifteen seconds later. He was tall and in his fifties with graying hair. “Hi. May I help you?”

  “Yes. My name is Matthew Hogan, and this is my partner Kathy Russell.” Both of them showed the man their police identification. “We’re working with HPD on an investigation.”

  The man shook hands with both of them. “My name’s Thomas Williams. Please come in.” He led them upstairs to some easy chairs in the living room. The large window in the front of the house offered a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.

  “Wow,” Kathy said, “that’s a magnificent view! How long have you lived here?”

  “We moved in after I retired two years ago. We did live in Seattle but decided that we liked the weather here better.”

  “That’s not hard to understand,” Hogan remarked.

  An attractive woman entered the room. Williams stood and introduced her, “And this is my wife Evelyn. Honey, these two are working with HPD on a case.”

  The woman and her husband sat on the sofa across from Hogan and Kathy. “Is it that death in the crater the other day?”

  Hogan nodded. “So you heard about it.”

  “It’s been all over the news. But why are you looking out here?”

  Hogan kept things pretty general. “We have reason to believe that one or two people may have hiked over the crater rim to get out,” was all that he said.

  “Now, it makes sense,” Williams said.

  “What makes sense?”

  “About 1:00 last Thursday, I saw a car parked along the guard rail at the end of the street. I don’t think that’s ever happened before, but I didn’t think much of it until I came back from lunch and saw that it was still there.”

  “What tim
e was that?”

  Williams thought for a few moments. “I guess about 2:30 or 3:00.”

  Hogan looked at Mrs. Williams. “Did you see the car?”

  “No,” she replied, “I was shopping with a friend for most of the day.”

  “What time did you come home?”

  “I brought dinner home. It was about 7:30 or so.”

  “And the car wasn’t there?” The woman shook her head.

  Kathy looked at Hogan. “So whoever left the car here moved it sometime between 2:30 and 7:30, give or take.”

  Hogan nodded. “Can you describe the car?” he asked Williams.

  “I can do better than that. I was going to call the police if it was still there at dinner time, so I took a picture of it.” He brought up the photo on his cell phone and handed it to Hogan.

  “Good.” Hogan looked at the photo, enlarging it so they could see the license plate, which both he and Kathy wrote down. “Can you please send me this photo?” Williams nodded, Hogan gave him his number, and a few seconds later he had the photo. “Thanks. I don’t think we have any other questions,” he said, looking at Kathy.

  Kathy asked, “Did you see anything else? People, any kind of supplies near the car, anything unusual?”

  Williams thought for a few seconds. Now that I think of it, I did see a man walking along Paikau Street toward Diamond Head Road when I went out to get lunch.”

  “Did you recognize him?”

  “No, but I really didn’t get a good look at his face. He was going in the same direction as I was. I tried to see him in the rear view mirror, but that really didn’t help.”

  “What did you see?”

  “He was blond. And muscular.”

  “Like a weightlifter?”

  “More like a football player.” Williams thought for a few more seconds. “I’m sorry. I wish I could give you more.”

  “You’ve been of more help than you realize, Mr. Williams,” Hogan said as he and Kathy stood. “But if you do remember anything else, please call me.”

  They returned to their car in the street. “Maybe if you send that photo to Keoki, he can run the license plate and identify the owner.”

  “Good idea,” Hogan replied, and texted the photo to the detective.

  HOGAN: We’ve found that this car was parked on the south side of Diamond Head on Pokapahu Place for 4-6 hours last Thursday. Can you run the plates to try and identify an owner?

  TANAKA: Sure, will let you know when we have it, probably tomorrow.

  “Now let’s see if we can find our rope.” They climbed over the guard rail and stepped onto the rocky soil.

  “Matt, I’ll go over there to the area behind those trees and look.”

  “Okay. I’ll look over here closer to the house.” They moved in their directions, knowing they didn’t have to worry about encountering any snakes, and started from the bottom of the slope and moved slowly toward the rim, eyes sweeping from left to right and back.

  After about twenty minutes Kathy shouted, “I’ve got it, Matt!”

  Hogan worked his way carefully across the side of the hill to Kathy, then followed the rope with his eyes to the top of the rim. “Good. You know, it actually doesn’t seem too steep on this side, either.”

  “It doesn’t, she agreed. I think we could make it fairly easily.”

  “So far, everything fits our theory,” Hogan said, pulling the rope and coiling it.

  “So that means that someone could have climbed out of the crater without too much difficulty. I’m just not sure if they could have moved a body over the rim.”

  Hogan nodded. “But if the killer also killed Justin’s wife, why would he – or they – move her body from the crater? Not to mention how he – or they – got the body down from the top lookout. There are a lot of stairs and steep slopes.”

  “True. To me, the first question is the key to me. Why would they only remove one of the bodies? That just doesn’t make sense.”

  “So that would mean that the widow was still alive, and she left the crater over the rim at this point. Either willingly or not so willingly.” Kathy nodded, and they returned to their car.

  * * *

  It was almost 6:00 when they got back to their room at the Outrigger. “I’m not very hungry,” Hogan said.

  “Me neither. We finished lunch…what, about 3:30?” Hogan nodded. After a few moments, Kathy suggested, “Why don’t we just get something light from room service? And I could use a shower after the hiking this afternoon.” She walked toward the bathroom asking, “Wanna join me?”

  Chapter Six

  Duke’s

  About ten the next morning, Hogan’s cell phone rang. “Hogan.”

  “Good morning, Matt, this is Keoki.”

  “Hi. What have you got?”

  “You Haoles are all the same,” Tanaka chided him. “Right down to business.”

  “Sorry. How are you?”

  “I’m just messing with you,” Tanaka laughed. “But we’ll turn you into a Kama’aina yet! Anyway, I’ve got a couple of results. First, we did get those two prints from the drug bags. But neither one matches any prints we’ve got in the database.”

  “Which rules out anyone with a record,” Hogan said as he wrote the information down.

  “As well as government employees,” added Tanaka.

  “Right. But that still leaves a lot of people,” Hogan said. “Did you find any of the victim’s prints?”

  “Absolutely none. Not even a partial.”

  “That pretty much confirms that the drugs were placed on the body. What’s the other result?”

  “This one may be good news. That car you sent me a photo of is a rental car. It’s licensed to Budget Car Rental.”

  “That is better. We should be able to get information on the person who rented it.” Hogan explained their theory regarding people leaving the crater on foot.

  “That does make some sense,” Tanaka agreed. “Is there anything else you need right now?”

  “I don’t think so, Keoki. I’ll let you know what we find out.” Hogan hung up and looked at Kathy. “I think you heard me talk about the prints and bags.” She nodded. “And the car was rented from Budget. We can go to their location at the airport after breakfast.” He smiled at Kathy. “And remind me to look up the words howlee and kameyna.” Kathy gave him a puzzled look. “Tanaka used both in that conversation to describe me.”

  Kathy immediately took her phone out and went online. “Let’s see. Haole is basically not a local, maybe considered a foreigner or outsider. And Kamaʻāina is a resident of Hawaii.”

  “Hmm. So Keoki thinks he can make a Kamaʻāina out of me. I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment.”

  “I would.”

  They resumed getting ready for the day.

  * * *

  Shortly before noon Hogan pulled into the Budget Car Rental lot on Rodgers Boulevard near the airport. He and Kathy walked into the small building and joined the line of five other people leading to the counter. After about ten minutes, they were at the front of the line. A counter representative who had just finished with a customer smiled at them. “I can help you here.” They walked up to the counter and the woman continued, “Aloha. Do you have a reservation?”

  “Actually, we’re not here for a car,” Hogan replied. “We’d like to speak with the manager on duty.”

  “And what’s the subject?”

  “It’s a police matter,” Kathy said, and she and Hogan showed their badges to the woman.

  “Just a minute.” She went through a door behind the counter and emerged a few moments later with another woman.

  “Hello,” the new woman said. “My name is Mai Lee. I’m the shift manager.” She shook hands with both Hogan and Kathy. “I understand this is police business?”

  “It is,” Hogan said. “Can we talk someplace less crowded?”

  “Sure, come this way.” She led them around the counter to the door from which she had come. Once in
side, they showed their badges to her and she invited them to sit in the two chairs opposite the desk at which she sat. “What’s the nature of this business?”

  “A murder investigation, and it seems that one of your cars may be involved. We need to know who rented it last week.”

  “I can do that. Do you have the license plate number?”

  Hogan found the photo of the car on his phone and showed it to Mai Lee. “This is it.”

  She entered the license into her computer, and seconds later told them, “It was rented the Saturday before last and is still under rental.” She scrolled a little farther down on the screen. “The renter is William Denison.”

  Kathy wrote the name down. “What other information do you have about him?” Mai Lee gave her his address in Mamaroneck, New York, and his New York Driver’s License number, both of which Kathy recorded. “Do you collect any other information from renters?” Mai Lee shook her head. “Do you take a picture or make a copy of the driver’s license?”

  Mai Lee again shook her head. “We don’t,” she explained. “We try to complete the rental transaction as quickly as possible. Nobody likes to wait a long time when vacation is waiting.”

  “I can relate to that,” Hogan said, smiling. “What about payment? And what’s the period of the rental?”

  “Oh, sorry I missed those. He did leave a credit card.” She read the number of his VISA card. “The car is scheduled to be returned next Saturday by 3 in the afternoon. Is there any other information you need?”

  “Not at the moment.” Hogan handed his card to her. “But if he should return the car earlier than the date you told us, can you please call me?”

  She took his card, typed a few sentences in her computer, then placed the card on her desk. “I put an alert in the system. If any agent processes his car return, they will let you know immediately. Quietly, of course.”

  “Great. Thank you very much for your help.” Hogan and Kathy returned to their car. “Well, at least it’s something.”

  “Yeah, we got more than I expected,” Hogan said, checking the time on his phone. “It’s almost seven in New York now. Hopefully, I can get Tom to track the driver’s license number we got.”