by Thomas Henry
Suddenly, I thought I had it figured out. Karen must have been this guy’s “beard” for the dinner meeting. He probably was a gay man in a culture where that simply was not accepted, so he made a practice of using beautiful women as cover.
Considering the hour, I assumed that Karen was in for the night. I was a little apprehensive that Body might reappear, but I decided to go to Halawa to get some sleep.
* * * *
Tuesday was a very long day for me. I waited for hours and hours, and didn’t see Karen all day. In fact, the only people I saw coming or going were two college-girl types and two middle-aged men. The women arrived about half an hour before the men. The men stayed about an hour, and soon after they left, the women left, too.
I did get a call from Ted about 9:30. He said he thought I might like to know he had gotten a text from Karen. She said she was staying with a friend and would be home in a few days. Ted had no idea who the friend was, but he assumed Karen was staying with the guy to whom the remote control belonged. I gave fleeting thought to telling him what I knew, but decided against it.
I wondered if Karen’s phone hadn’t been broken after all, or if she might have gotten a new one on her shopping spree with Sally. I tried calling her number, but it went straight to voice mail.
About 6:45, the grey limo appeared again. This time, Karen greeted the handsome Middle-Eastern man at the front door. Once again, she was gorgeous. She held the man’s arm as he escorted her to the limo.
Once again, I followed. Once again, the limo pulled up in front of the Halekulani. This time, I couldn’t see them from my vantage point at the House Without a Key. They apparently were seated on the other side of the restaurant.
I had a leisurely drink and then headed back to my van. Since I couldn’t see them, I wouldn’t know exactly when they finished dinner, so I wanted to be in position to follow whenever that was.
Eventually, the grey limo pulled up, and Karen and her date got in. I followed them back to the Oasis. This time, they lingered outside the front door. Karen was all smiles as they chatted for a couple of minutes. Then, she went inside and the man returned to his car.
I waited around for a while, but nothing else happened. I gave it up for the night.
* * * *
Wednesday was pretty much a duplicate of Tuesday. There were a few more college-girl types and a few more male visitors, but that was it.
And then again at 6:45, the grey limo appeared. I figured I knew what the routine would be, so I decided not to follow. Instead, I drove over to Kahala Mall and had the jambalaya at California Pizza Kitchen. I was back in plenty of time to see the grey limo return.
This time, when the handsome Middle-Eastern man walked Karen to the front door, he presented her with a small gift-wrapped box. She smiled and thanked him…and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. And then she disappeared through the front door. I assumed that he no longer needed her services and that the box was a parting gift.
* * * *
I was antsy all day Thursday as I sat in my van and waited for something to happen. I assumed that Karen would not be going out with that same man again, and I was apprehensive about what she might do next.
As was the case on the other days, some college girls and some male visitors came and went, but I didn’t see Karen all day.
Then, about 7:30, the garage door opened and the white Cadillac backed out. With the dark window tint, I couldn’t see who was in it. I assumed it would stop in front of the house as it did before, but it turned the other direction and rolled down the street. I decided to follow.
By the time I got into the driver’s seat and turned my van around, the Cadillac was out of sight. I caught sight of it again as it was turning onto Waialae Avenue. The light turned red before I got there.
When I finally got the green light and was able to turn onto Waialae, the Cadillac was long gone. I wasn’t sure if it had stayed on Waialae, or if it had taken the freeway onramp.
If it was on the freeway, I likely would never catch up with it. If it was on Waialae, it was heading into Kaimuki. Chances were good that it was going to Sally’s Club. I decided I’d look there.
Sure enough. When I got to Sally’s Club, the Cadillac was parked in the nearly empty lot. There were a few other cars, but not as many as when the Club was hosting some kind of activity.
I looked through the windshield of the Cadillac as I cruised past it. No one was in the front seats. I couldn’t see into the back very well, but I was pretty sure the car was empty. Whoever had been in the car must have gone into the Club. I wondered if Karen was in there, or if she was still back at the Oasis.
I decided I’d wait and watch for a while. I found a space on the street that gave me a view of the Club entrance and the parking lot.
Around eight, young women started to arrive, usually three or four to a car. As they headed into the Club, I noticed that they all appeared to be college age, and they were dressed as if they were going out for a night of dancing. Among them were the three I had seen the last time I was here. So I figured they were members of the “sorority” Sally had mentioned.
Right about nine, men started arriving. They all came in separate cars. Their ages ranged from 30s to 60s, but most appeared to be 40-ish. None of them brought a companion. In total, there were about a dozen men, perhaps half the number of young women.
For the next couple of hours, nothing happened outside the Club. No one else arrived, and no one left. I was hungry, and I desperately needed to take a whiz, so I decided to make a quick pass through Zippy’s. With any luck, I’d be back before whatever was going on inside the Club was over.
When I got back, everything looked pretty much the same. The lot was still crowded with cars. But there was one exception. The Cadillac was gone. Of course, I had no idea where it had gone, and I had no idea where to look except for the Oasis.
But since the Club was still open, I reasoned that the Cadillac might return before the night was over. So, I seemed to have two options. I could remain at the club and wait for it to return, or I could go looking for it at the Oasis. It likely would be hidden in the garage if it was at the Oasis, so I wouldn’t know for sure. I decided I’d wait at the Club.
Along about midnight, men started coming out of the Club and getting into their cars. One was accompanied by a “sorority” girl, but the others left alone.
Shortly after the men had gone, the young women left en masse. Some looked like they’d had a bit to drink. Some looked as if they had worked up a sweat dancing. But none of them was disheveled in the way I would have expected if they had taken a roll in the hay. Within five minutes, all the women were gone, as were all but two of the cars.
Last to leave were a couple of men I recognized as having provided security when I was at the Club a month earlier. They locked up and got into the two cars that remained in the lot.
So the Cadillac wasn’t coming back. Most likely, it was parked in the garage at the Oasis. But I had no way of knowing. And I had no way of knowing if Karen had ever been in the car, anyway.
I figured it was a long shot, but I decided to go back to the Oasis and wait. If the Cadillac had gone elsewhere, I still might see it return.
I parked my van near the Oasis, directly across the street from the garage. I thought that might give me the best opportunity to see who was in the Cadillac if it made an appearance.
* * * *
Very early Friday morning I was awakened by the sound of a garage door. After a moment of disorientation, I realized that I must have fallen asleep while I was waiting for the Cadillac to come home.
As the garage door rose, I could see that the Cadillac was inside. I glanced at my phone while the car backed out and the door started to close again. It was nearly 6 am.
I had no idea who was in the car or where it might be going at such an early hour. I considered following it, but decided that it was unlikely that Karen would be going anywhere at that hour. So I stayed put as the Cadillac disa
ppeared around the corner.
A few minutes later, the Cadillac reappeared. This time, it pulled up in front of the house and waited with the engine running. The front door opened, and Karen came out. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and she was carrying a large cloth bag. As she hurried out to the car, I got a glimpse of something colorful around the back of her neck.
It looked like she was wearing a bikini top under her t-shirt, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. Who goes to the beach at six in the morning?
Karen got into the back of the Cadillac, and it sped off toward Waikiki. I hopped into the driver’s seat and followed.
Where would Karen be going in a hurry at six in the morning? All I could think of was the airport. But Karen was hardly dressed to be catching a flight. Unless…maybe she was catching an early flight to one of the other islands. It wouldn’t be at all unusual to take an interisland flight dressed the way she was, and carrying only the bag I saw, especially if she was planning to be on the other island just for the day.
I couldn’t imagine why Karen would be heading for another island unless she was meeting someone there. That brought a knot to my stomach. Was she on her way to a tryst with a man I didn’t know anything about?
The Cadillac was in a hurry, which would make sense if Karen was late for her plane. But if she was going to the airport, why would the Cadillac go through Waikiki and then down Ala Moana? The trip to the airport would have been much faster if the Cadillac had caught the freeway by Kahala Mall.
As I followed the Cadillac down Ala Moana, I was caught by surprise when it suddenly braked and turned into Kewalo Basin. It pulled up behind a large sport fishing boat. As I drove past, I could hear the gurgle of the diesel engines, and I could see several men onboard. I turned into the parking lot at the other end and pulled into a nearby stall.
Karen and another young woman hopped out of the Cadillac and hurried over to the boat. A couple of the men applauded when they saw the women. A very tan young man helped them aboard and cast off the stern line. The boat was underway almost immediately.
So now Karen’s attire and the hour made sense. Karen was dressed for fishing, probably with a bikini under her shorts and t-shirt. And sport fishing boats usually leave the harbor about six in the morning.
But I knew Karen pretty well, and she had any never expressed any interest in deep-sea fishing. So why were she and that other young woman going fishing with a group of men, all of whom likely were strangers to Karen?
I wasn’t sure, but I thought I had seen six men altogether. The captain and the young deck hand were darkly-tanned locals, as would be expected. But the other four were middle-aged haole guys who didn’t look like they were accustomed to spending a lot of time in the sun. I guessed they were visiting from the Mainland.
A couple of the other boat slips were empty, but most of the fishing boats looked like they weren’t going out. I noticed a young man on the boat in the slip next to the one where Karen’s boat had been. He appeared to be repairing a fishing reel.
I wandered over and said hello and asked if his boat was going fishing. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was having subconscious thoughts of trying to go out and keep an eye on Karen.
He said his boat wasn’t going out today. Fishing hadn’t been very good recently, and business was slow, so they were doing maintenance on the engines and servicing some of the equipment.
I nodded to the empty slip where Karen’s boat had been. “What about these guys? Think they’ll have any luck today?”
The young man grinned. “Don’t know if they’ll catch any fish, but I’m pretty sure they’ll get lucky. See those two honeys they took with them?”
“Didn’t really notice.”
“Fuckin’ hot. The older one had tits out to here.” He cupped his hands out in front of his chest. “So I don’t think those guys will really care if the fishing is bad. They brought along some entertainment to pass the time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He leaned toward me and lowered his voice. “I heard some pretty wild stories about what happens on that boat. That’s why it’s busy even when the fishing is bad.” He paused and looked around for a moment. “From what I hear, that boat is owned by a mahu who sometimes goes along to entertain the fisherman, too.”
My stomach was twisting itself into all kinds of knots. “So, do they do any actual fishing?”
“Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s a real fishing charter. Only it has some extras that you don’t get on the other boats. You thinking of going fishing?”
“Yeah, maybe. Think I’ll come back later and see how they did. Any idea when they’ll be back?”
The young man shrugged his shoulders. “Depends on how the fishing goes. Maybe one or two. Of course, if they hook up with a marlin or a big ahi, it could be a lot later.”
I chatted with him for a few more minutes and then got back into my van. I ate a little breakfast and then lay down in the back to try to take a nap. Even though I was quite sleepy, I remained semi-conscious. The same thoughts ran through my mind over and over. Four fishermen, but only two women. That means two men for each woman. But no…they have lots of time. Each man could go more than once. Each man probably would have both women. So…four men for each woman. But wait. What about the crew? Six men for each woman…
I did the math again and again as I lay in a state of semi-consciousness. Eventually, I fell asleep for a few hours, but by noon, I was wide awake and watching for Karen’s boat to return. The young man with whom I had talked was gone.
Along about 1:40, the Cadillac returned. It pulled up behind the empty boat slip and waited with its engine running.
It wasn’t long before I saw the boat coming into the harbor, flying three flags to indicate what it had caught. As the boat backed into its slip, I could see that one was a mahi-mahi flag. And the other two “flags” weren’t flags at all. They were bikini bottoms.
The captain was at the controls up on the flying bridge. The young deck hand jumped onto the dock and tied up the lines. Karen and the other young woman were hugging the four haole men, all of whom looked like they had had a little too much sun.
The other woman pointed up at the bikini bottoms. One of the men lowered them and gave them to her. She tucked one into her bag and handed the other to Karen.
The deck hand steadied each woman as she hopped from the boat to the dock. Karen seemed rather wobbly on her feet. From the jiggle of her breasts, I knew she wasn’t wearing anything under her t-shirt. She gave the young deck hand a breast-mashing hug and a kiss on the cheek. I had no doubt that she was drunk.
As the women ambled toward the waiting Cadillac, I could see that their hair was wet. Perhaps that explained why their t-shirts were damp enough for me to see their areolas.
I followed the Cadillac back to Kahala. It stopped at a house I didn’t know, and the other woman got out. Karen remained in the car as it pulled into the garage at the Oasis. The garage door closed before she got out of the car.
I waited for a few minutes, but I was exhausted, and I was doubtful I’d see Karen again any time soon. I decided to head back to Halawa for a shower and some sleep.
* * * *
I thought it unlikely that Karen would go fishing again on Saturday, but I was at the Oasis by 5:00 am just in case. When nothing had happened by 6:30, I figured I was right and decided to take a little nap.
I awoke about nine. Everything was quiet. I waited all day without seeing Karen. As had been the case on other days, a few sorority girls came and went, as did their male callers, but the numbers of men matched the numbers of women, so I doubted that any of the men had come to see Karen.
As the day waned, I started thinking about what the night might bring. Saturday night. Would Sally have something going on at her club? Would Karen be involved? I had a growing knot in my stomach as darkness fell.
It was nearly 7:30 when the garage door opened and the Cadillac backed out. It headed off in the direction of Kaimuki. I assume
d it was going to Sally’s Club, so I decided to follow.
But just as I slid into the driver’s seat, a silver Mercedes SL pulled up in front of the house. A dapper Asian man of about 50 got out and strolled to the front door. As he approached, the door swung open. And then it closed behind him.
Who was this guy? Was he here to see Karen? Was she going to entertain him the way the sorority girls presumably had entertained the other male callers? Was she even here, or was she in the Cadillac?
I didn’t know what to do. Should I hurry to Sally’s Club to see if Karen was in the Cadillac? Should I stay here?
I had no way of knowing what was going on inside the Oasis. But if I hurried to Sally’s Club, I might get a glimpse of Karen if she was there. If she was there…
My decision was made for me a moment later when the front door opened again. The dapper man appeared with Karen at his side. Once again, she was dressed to the nines in one of the dresses she had worn earlier in the week.
As the man opened the car door for Karen, I wondered if he was another gay man who needed a “beard.” Or was that just wishful thinking on my part?
I gave the SL a bit of a head start, and then I followed it to Kahala Avenue. But instead of turning right and heading toward Waikiki as I had expected, it turned left and headed for the Kahala Hotel.
My stomach did a couple of flip-flops at the thought of the dapper man taking Karen to a hotel. But then I started to think. The SL had not come from that direction, so it was unlikely that the man was staying at the hotel. And that hotel is not the kind of place that rents rooms by the hour.
Besides, Karen was all dressed up. And her date looked like a local guy who was driving his personal car. So maybe he was just taking Karen to dinner at Hoku’s. That seemed to fit with the way the two of them were dressed.
I followed the SL until I saw it stop in front of the hotel. A valet opened Karen’s door while another handed a ticket to the dapper man. I turned my van around and backtracked to the Kahala Beach parking lot. At that hour, it was nearly empty, so I found a stall that gave me a good view of the road and prepared to wait for the SL to reappear.
