[Lady Justice 03] - Lady Justice Gets Lei'd

by Robert Thornhill

  She reached into her bag and produced a snub-nosed

  .38. “A girl living alone can’t be too careful these days.”

  “We really appreciate this,” I said, “but aren’t you afraid of these guys?”

  “I probably should be, but I love my island home, and I hate this thing that is dividing my people. We each must do what we can to bring an end to the bitterness.”

  “By any chance, is there a Radio Shack in Lahaina?”

  “Sure is. It’s just around the corner from Hilo Hatties.”

  We parted with hugs all around and good wishes.

  When Maggie and I were alone, I took her by the shoulders and looked into those beautiful blue eyes.

  “Are you up for this? Because if you’re not—”

  “Are you kidding? I’ve always wanted to tell you to take a hike.”

  Is she special or what?

  CHAPTER 22

  As tired as we were, we slept very little. I kept playing our hastily drawn plan over and over in my mind. There were just so many things that could go wrong.

  I frankly didn’t know if I was physically able to hike three thousand feet straight up the side of a mountain.

  We were up before dawn, grabbed a quick breakfast, and hailed a cab to take us to the nearest car rental outlet.

  Our next stop was the local Radio Shack. We needed a set of walkie-talkies to stay in touch. My climb would be longer and tougher than Maggie’s, and she would certainly reach her destination before me. It was essential that we coordinate our arrival at the wind farm. As the old saying goes, “Timing is everything.”

  We followed the crude map that Noelani had given us and easily located the turn-off to the Lahaina Pali

  Trailhead.

  Maggie was ready to go. Our plan was to have Maggie distract the guard at the shack so that I could sneak in from behind. To that end, she had dressed in butt-hugging short shorts, a low-cut top that tied just under her boobs leaving her midriff exposed, and her hair was pulled back into a saucy ponytail.

  I knew that part of our plan was foolproof.

  I certainly was distracted.

  I held her close and hated to send her off on this incredible journey, but we both knew that the lives of our friends depended on us.

  As I watched her disappear through the kiawe trees to the trailhead, I marveled at what a special woman I had found. I figured that if we could just survive our honeymoon, the rest of our married life would be a breeze.

  It was a twenty-minute drive to my trailhead, and I wasted another ten minutes just trying to find the darn thing. It was not clearly marked as the other one. Maybe that’s because people aren’t supposed to be on it.

  I parked just off the gravel road, checked my gear, and headed up the mountain.

  A few hundred feet up the trail, I keyed the walkie-talkie to make sure I could reach Maggie.

  “Maggie, can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear. Oh, Walt, it’s so beautiful up here. I had no idea. I can see all the way back to Lahaina and across the channel. Lanai is just breathtaking.”

  “Speaking of breathtaking, how’s the climb?”

  “Not too bad, really. A few steep spots like Noelani said, but I’ll be okay.”

  “I’ll check back with you in a half hour or so. You call if you need me.”

  After another fifteen minutes climb, I saw what Maggie was talking about. The trail rose so steeply that I could see the whole western coast of the island in one direction, and across the valley, the blue waters of Kahului Harbor glistened in the sun. The glorious vista before me momentarily diverted my attention from the grim task that lay ahead.

  I kept at a steady pace, resting only briefly to catch my breath and marvel at the scene that continued to unfold as I climbed higher and higher. I checked on Maggie regularly as I had promised, and with each communication, I noticed that she was barely panting while I found it difficult to even talk through my wheezing and gasping for air.

  When Noelani said the trail was “straight up the mountain,” she wasn’t kidding. I’m no math wizard, but I figured that the angle of ascent varied between forty and sixty degrees—ninety, of course, being straight up.

  My breathing was labored, and my thighs and calves were screaming at me. I was beginning to wonder if there would be enough left of me to confront the bad guys if I even made it to the top.

  After an hour and a half of this torture, the trail peaked over a little rise, and in the distance I saw the tips of the huge windmills. The trail leveled off at this point, and seeing my goal within reach, I felt a surge of new energy.

  For someone younger, this might be considered a ‘second wind,’ but I had used that up long before. This was probably my fourth or fifth wind.

  I silently wondered how many winds I had left.

  The trail I was on didn’t actually lead to the wind farm, so I had to abandon the trail and venture through the brush to reach our objective. I crouched a few hundred yards behind the maintenance shed and keyed Maggie.

  “Okay, I made it. Where are you?”

  “I’m at the intersection where the Pali Trail crosses the service road. It will probably take me ten minutes to climb to the wind farm.”

  “Great. Leave your mike open so I can hear what’s happening on your end. When I know you’ve made contact, I’ll slip in the back. You be careful!”

  I inched closer to the shed, being careful to stay low and out of sight. I stopped when I figured the final distance would take only a few minutes.

  Presently, I heard a gruff voice over the walkie-talkie.

  “Hey, lady! You’re not supposed to be up here. Didn’t you see the signs on the trail?”

  “Oh my goodness, no. I was so intrigued by those huge windmills. I just had to get a closer look. Big, powerful things like that really turn me on.”

  Wow! If that didn’t get his attention, he was either gay or dead.

  “Well, uh, I don’t think it’s a good idea to—”

  “Oh, and silly me. I ran out of water, and I’m really thirsty. If you have something cold to drink up there, I could be really grateful.”

  I could just imagine her standing there, her hand coyly perched on her hip just above those long, shapely legs.

  “Well, maybe for just a minute.”

  She had him!

  I took off at a run and reached the shed door while they were a hundred feet away.

  The thing we didn’t know for sure was whether the guard was alone. The snub-nosed .38 was at the ready, and I held my breath as I slipped in the door.

  It was a good-sized shed, maybe twenty-four by forty feet, and the walls were lined with workbenches and toolboxes. There was a lone chair in the corner, and bound to it hand and foot was one Mary Murphy.

  Willie was nowhere in sight.

  A large piece of duct tape covered Mary’s mouth.

  I really couldn’t blame the guard for that. It had been something I had considered doing myself in weaker moments.

  Mary’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw me. I put my finger to my lips and slipped behind the door. I heard footsteps approaching the shed and

  Maggie’s sultry voice.

  “I’ll bet you get really lonesome up here all by yourself.”

  “Yeah, I do,” the guard replied as he stepped in the door.

  “Well, guess what, dirt bag?” Maggie growled. “You’re not alone anymore.”

  I stepped from behind the door, and the guard froze, staring into the muzzle of the .38.

  “Just put your hands in the air and no one will get hurt,” I said. “Maggie, take care of Mary.” I motioned the guard to the other side of the shed, and Maggie set Mary free.

  Mary leaped from the chair and grabbed the guard by the throat.

  “Sorry to make you out as a liar, Mr. Walt, ‘cause somebody’s sure as hell gonna get hurt.” And with a punch that would have made George Foreman proud, she walloped the guard in the solar plexus, bending h
im double. “That’ll teach you to mess with Mary Murphy.”

  “Mary, are you all right?” I knew the answer, but I had to ask.

  “I’m a lot better now,” she said, rubbing her sore knuckles.

  “Where’s Willie?”

  “Some guy came and took him a couple of hours ago, but I don’t know where. But I’ll bet this creep knows.”

  The guard shrunk back into the corner as Mary approached.

  “Well, how about it?” I said, turning to the guard.

  “Where have they taken our friend?”

  “I tell you nothing!” he hissed.

  I motioned to the chair with the revolver. “Have a seat, and we’ll see about that. Maggie, grab that duct tape off the bench, and let’s get this guy trussed up.”

  When the guard was securely bound, I tried again.

  “Look, buddy, the Kalakoas are dead, your precious artifacts are safely hidden from the world, and we’ve got you dead to rights. Let’s just put an end to all this right now. All we want is the safe return of our friend.”

  “There will be no end until our kingdom is restored and the land is returned to the Hawaiian people. Many will die, but it is the price of freedom. I tell you nothing.”

  I looked at Mary and Maggie for suggestions. Interrogation was obviously not my strong suit.

  Mary didn’t hesitate. “Mr. Walt, why don’t you and Maggie step outside for a breath of fresh air? It’s getting kind of stuffy in here. Let me have a chat with our friend here.”

  I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but Maggie grabbed me by the arm and pushed me toward the door.

  All was quiet for maybe five minutes, then—

  “Yeow!”

  More silence, then again—

  “Yeow! No more please!”

  The door opened, and Mary stepped out with a knowing smile on her face.

  “I think the dude is ready to talk to you now.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I asked anyway.

  “What in the world did you do to that guy?”

  “All you gotta do is put a pair of pliers to a guy’s testicles and he’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  Involuntarily, Mr. Winkie and the boys recoiled in horror.

  “Yeah, I can see how that would work.”

  When I approached the guard, he was much more cooperative.

  “So where have they taken our friend?”

  “To the cane fields, just past Puunene.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “In thirty minutes your dark friend will be brown sugar.”

  “What’s this idiot talking about?” Mary moved toward the guard with pliers at the ready. “Let me have another shot at him.”

  “The cane burn. They’re burning the cane fields for harvesting. They’re going to burn Willie alive! And we only have a half hour to stop them.”

  “There’s a truck outside,” Maggie volunteered. “I’ll bet this guy’s got the keys in his pocket.”

  “He does, but that’s not going to do you any good,” said a voice behind us. “Now put down that gun.”

  We turned and found ourselves staring into the barrel of a twelve-gauge shotgun.

  “Now put down that gun and untie my friend. Looks like we’ve got more kindling for our fire.”

  I should have realized that there would be more than one guard at the Keheawa wind farm.

  I knelt down to lay the .38 on the floor and looked past our captor just in time to see a figure running full speed toward the shed. Recognizing our friend, I yelled to Mary and Maggie, “Hit the floor! Now!”

  Liho came barreling through the door and hit the gunman squarely in the back. The shotgun discharged harmlessly into the air then flew from his hands as he hit the floor. Liho flipped the guy onto his back and drove his massive fist into his face.

  “What kind of man threatens a woman and child?

  You will not threaten my family again!”

  The second punch put the guy’s lights out.

  “Liho, they’ve got Willie in a cane field near a place called Puunene. They’re going to burn him. Do you know where that is?”

  “It’s about fifteen or twenty minutes from here.”

  “Then we’d better hurry or Willie’s toast!”

  We hog-tied the second guard and pulled the truck keys from the first guard’s pocket.

  “I’ll drive,” Liho said. “I know the fastest way there, and you’re not going to want to do what I have to do.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Crash the gate at the bottom of the hill.”

  Thankfully the pickup was an extended cab, and Mary and Maggie piled into the back. I took shotgun.

  We barreled down the hill at an alarming speed, and as we approached the locked gate, a guard stood in the road frantically waving his arms.

  “Hold on!” Liho said.

  At the last minute the guard jumped to the side, and we smashed through the gate just like you see in the movies. I glanced back just in time to see the angry guard give us the finger.

  I’m guessing it was a Hawaiian finger, but the translation came through loud and clear.

  As we rolled past the Maui Ocean Center, I looked at my watch.

  In fifteen minutes, the cane field would be a burning inferno.

  Liho hung a right at the Walmart, and we sped toward the old sugar mill—only three minutes left.

  “We have normal trade winds today, blowing from east to west,” Liho said, “so they’ll start the fire on the east side.”

  We were coming from the west.

  As we approached the field, a wisp of smoke rose on the far side.

  “Oh crap! We’re too late.”

  I remembered what Harry Chinn had said: “It would only take fifteen minutes to engulf the whole field.”

  “He has to be in there somewhere,” I said. “Let’s drive into the middle of the field. We have to find him.”

  “We’re not going to do it in this thing,” Liho said.

  “The cane’s too thick. We need a dozer.”

  “What about that one?” I yelled, pointing to a big

  Cat that had just finished clearing the fire break around the field. “Can you drive it?”

  “I worked in the fields when I was a kid, and I saw my uncle operate one. I hope I can remember.”

  “It’s like riding a bike,” I said. “Once you learn, you never forget.”

  Liho pulled up beside the dozer and hopped into the cab.

  I turned to Maggie. “Call Harry Chinn. Get him out here.”

  I hopped into the cab with Liho, who by this time had the big diesel engine belching smoke.

  My heart sank as I looked out over the field.

  Forty acres is huge, and to my dismay, I saw that the cane stalks were eight to ten feet tall. From our vantage point in the cab, we could only see a few feet ahead.

  I pointed to the blade. “How high will that thing go?”

  “Maybe ten feet.”

  I climbed onto the blade and shouted back, “Take her up as high as she’ll go and head for the middle of the field.”

  The blade lifted into the air, Liho gunned the engine, and we were off.

  I could see the flames eating away at the field on the far side. We had maybe five minutes before we would be engulfed in the fiery conflagration. We plowed ahead, but all that I could see was cane.

  Then fifty feet ahead, I saw an iron fence post that had been driven into the ground, and bound to it was my friend Willie.

  I pointed in the direction of the post, and Liho swung the big machine around.

  The flames were close enough that I could feel the searing heat as I jumped from the blade to free my friend. I had my pocketknife ready to cut loose his bindings, but a feeling of dread swept over me when I saw that he was bound with wire.

  I had no wire cutters or pliers, and I stood helplessly watching the advancing flames.

  At that moment, a small gecko, fleeing the flaming inferno, crawled onto
the dozer’s blade. He looked at me, and he looked at Willie; then he leaped into the fence post and disappeared.

  Okay, I thought, if I can’t get Willie off the post, then we’ll just have to take the whole thing.

  I motioned for Liho to bring the blade flush with the post then push gently. The post leaned forward in the soft ground. Liho backed off, and I pulled Willie and the post upright. The post wiggled back and forth, and I hoped it was loose enough because the fire was advancing fast.

  I climbed onto the top of the blade into a sitting position and wrapped my arms and legs around the post and Willie’s torso. I motioned for Liho to lift the blade, and I hung on for dear life.

  At first the post remained stubbornly in the ground, but Liho inched the blade forward just enough to break it loose, and the blade lifted skyward with me holding Willie and the post tightly in my arms.

  The back of the dozer left the clearing just as the flames broke through. The dozer slowly plowed ahead, but the flames were moving faster.

  Just as the burning cane was about to overtake the big Cat, a burst of water nearly blew me off the blade.

  A huge pumper truck used for irrigation had been pressed into service and retarded the advancing flames just long enough for us to reach the edge of the field.

  I can only imagine the shock of the onlookers who had gathered to watch the spectacle, when the huge dozer burst through the smoking cane carrying a white guy on the blade who was clutching a black man on a stick.

  It’s something you don’t see every day.

  After Willie was cut free, we found Maggie and Mary, and we fell into each other’s arms.

  We hugged and we cried and we hugged again.

  When it’s all said and done, I’ll bet this will be a honeymoon that none of us will ever forget.

  EPILOGUE

  Detective Harry Chinn arrived minutes after our harrowing escape from Pele’s fiery cauldron.

  He listened in utter disbelief as we recounted the improbable rescue of our two friends.

  With our testimony, the men responsible for our abduction were captured and remained in custody, but the battle of ideologies was far from over.

  Throughout history, men have fought one another and given their lives to protect their basic rights and freedoms.