A Walk Through the Fire

by Marcia Muller

  “Mona…? Oh, right, Celia’s friend. Why’d you see her?”

  “Peter suggested she might be able to shed some light on where Elson went after he left the island.” I explained about the need for a search before the estate could be probated. “Mrs. Davenport told me I should turn in a report that would satisfy the attorneys and the court, and let the rest be.”

  “Really.” Tanner fell silent, concentrating on the controls as we encountered slight turbulence. Or maybe he was really concentrating on something else; behind his sunglasses his eyes had narrowed, and now he compressed his lips thoughtfully.

  I said, “Russ, I’ve been thinking about Mona Davenport. She admits she and Elson were close. He told her things that she kept from Celia. Would you know what they might’ve been?”

  “No.”

  Too quick on the denial. Tanner wasn’t a very good liar.

  “You sure? He might have told you the same things.”

  “Why would he have told me anything? I was just a kid—”

  “You were no kid when he gave you the money to start your business—a very substantial sum that caused his wife to throw him out of the house. The other day you made it sound as if the marriage had just run its course, but Mona Davenport was very specific about what ended it.”

  “Okay, so there was a blowup over the money—but Mona’s wrong. That was a good four years before Celia made Elson leave Pali House.”

  “Why would Mona lie?”

  “She’s probably just not remembering clearly.”

  “What did cause the split?”

  “I don’t know.” Again, too quick on the denial.

  “Could Mona be confused because that also had something to do with you?”

  “Where’re you getting these ideas?”

  “It’s a logical assumption.”

  “I don’t—” He broke off, touched my arm, motioned ahead of us. “Look—Hanalei Valley.”

  Convenient, I thought, but I let the subject drop for now.

  The terrain here in the interior was a brilliant green, crosshatched by red-dirt roads, the river snaking among them. Standing water glinted throughout acres of what must have been taro patches, and here and there stood clusters of iron-roofed sheds and houses.

  “A lot of this land belongs to the Fish and Wildlife Service,” Tanner said as he put the chopper into a glide. “Farmers grow crops in a way that benefits endangered waterfowl. Kaohis’ve got themselves a nice little business: Along with taro, they grow organic produce, sell it to the fancier restaurants down at Poipu. Whole family’s in on it; they all live together in those buildings you see over there. Four generations and some hanai—adopted folks. It’s the Hawaiian way.”

  Soon we were skimming along over the top of a windbreak near the buildings. We cleared the iron roofs so low that chickens scattered across the packed dirt. A big black-haired man who was spraying water onto seedlings set out on a table looked up and waved.

  Tanner said, “My cousin Rob. You’ll like him. Anything you want to know about plants, Rob can tell you.” As he brought the chopper into a hover he added, “Reach back there and wake up the kid, will you?”

  I took hold of Casey’s foot and shook it gently till she opened her eyes. For a moment she looked puzzled—Where am I? Then she gave me a quick grin and sat up straight.

  People were converging on the helicopter now: Rob Kaohi, several children, and a tall woman with long tawny hair. “The kids I can’t keep straight,” Tanner said. “The blond lady’s Rob’s wife, Sunny. She’s from Kansas City, came here on vacation, met him, and never went back. Missouri’s loss.”

  He shut the chopper down, and as we climbed out, more people emerged from the cluster of weathered buildings. Tanner made introductions while Casey ran off with a pack of kids, and after the seventh or eighth person, I gave up trying to keep names and relationships straight. Sunny and Rob ushered us toward a long house with a fiberglass awning over a patio, shooed a mongrel and two cats of equally dubious origin off the plastic furniture, resisted the clamoring of a child for a Popsicle, provided sodas for the rest of us, and all the time chatted about friends and relatives and crops and Russ’s charter service.

  I relaxed and sipped my soda, putting aside for a while the grim reason I was here and enjoying the cheerful chaos that went on around us. The Kaohis seemed to take it for granted that Tanner and I were an item, and he said nothing to disabuse them of the notion. I supposed they’d made the assumption because of the easy way Russ and I related; Hy was the only other man I’d ever felt so comfortable with on such a short acquaintance.

  Comfort with an edge, though, I reminded myself. The kind that’s always present when a man and woman are starting to feel an attraction. It was present now, and I warned myself against letting my guard down any more than I already had.

  During a lull in the conversation, Russ asked his cousins, “Say, how’s your firstborn?”

  Sunny’s tanned face grew solemn. “Well, now, Tommy’s a subject we’d just as soon stay clear of.”

  “More trouble, eh?”

  “Bad trouble, if you believe Grandma.”

  “Your tutu? What’s she sayin’ this time?”

  To me Sunny said, “Rob’s grandmother thinks she’s got psychic powers, at least where our kids’re concerned. She’s always making dire predictions, but fortunately most of them don’t come true. This time she claims something awful’s happened to Tommy and that we’ll never see him again.”

  The hair at the nape of my neck tickled.

  Rob muttered, “Might be the best thing ever happened to us.”

  Sunny gave him a reproachful look, but didn’t seem shocked. Apparently it was a remark he’d made before.

  I glanced at Tanner. He nodded in a way that told me it was okay to be frank with the Kaohis.

  I said, “The reason Russ asked about Tommy is that I’m trying to locate him. I’m a private investigator, working for the Wellbrights. Some of Tommy’s friends may have been behind a number of accidents that happened to a film crew Peter Wellbright was backing.”

  Rob said, “Pete’s worried about that film crew? What about his mother? Now, that was an accident.”

  I nodded agreement, didn’t offer an explanation.

  Rob turned troubled eyes on Tanner. “Thought this was a social call, cousin.”

  “Partly it is. Sharon’s a friend, and good people.” He rested his hand on my shoulder.

  His cousin looked closely at me, then at Sunny. “Well, no sense protectin’ the little shit. If he done something wrong, he got to answer for it.”

  I leaned forward, mostly to escape Russ’s disturbing touch. “I don’t know as he’s done anything. I take it he’s not home?”

  “Hasn’t been home in weeks. Only comes here when he wants something.”

  Sunny shook her head. “That’s not true. He was here last Wednesday when we were at the show. George said so.”

  “Lucky I wasn’t home when he showed up.”

  Sunny sighed but didn’t respond. “George is Tommy’s younger brother. He’s here, if you want to talk to him.”

  “I do.”

  “Then come with me.” She stood and motioned for me to follow.

  As we set off across the yard I heard Rob say to Tanner, “Nothing but trouble. Little shit’s been nothing but trouble.”

  George lived in his own trailer behind the sheds and greenhouse: an ancient silver humpbacked vehicle that looked impossibly cramped. Probably that was why we found him seated at a picnic table under a nearby tree, tapping away at a laptop with an intensity that reminded me of Mick. When he noticed us, he held up one finger, finished what he was doing, and turned around, pushing back a shag of dark hair from his forehead. His eyes were lively, his round face open and cheerful, but when his mother told him who I was and why I wanted to talk with him, he became somber and somewhat remote.

  I asked, “Okay if I sit down?”

  He nodded stiffly and motioned at the op
posite end of the bench.

  Sunny said, “I’ll leave you to talk,” and walked back toward the house.

  George’s eyes followed her. “She doesn’t want to hear any of this,” he said. “Pop gave up on Tommy a long time ago, but she’s still hoping.”

  “And you?”

  He shrugged. Which meant he hadn’t given up on his brother, either.

  Perhaps, I thought, I was doing the Kaohi family a disservice by not confiding my suspicions about what had happened to Tommy. But they were only suspicions. A glimpse of a long silver earring shimmering in the moonlight really wasn’t enough to base them on. Besides, Tommy Kaohi’s people were already suffering enough; better to spare them the real pain till his death could be confirmed.

  I said to George, “I understand why you’re hesitant to talk with me, but I don’t intend to report anything you might tell me to the police.”

  “I don’t know you. How can I be sure?”

  “Russ Tanner’ll vouch for me. D’you want to talk with him?”

  He shrugged again, fingers playing on the edge of the table. “I guess if he brought you here you’re okay. What d’you want to know?”

  “Actually, I’m interested in Tommy’s friends.”

  “Friends!” He snorted. “He doesn’t have any.”

  “What about Buzzy Malakaua and Amy Laurentz?”

  “Those people’re shit. At least Amy is. She used to run drugs over on Oahu, now she’s doing it for Tommy. Buzzy, he’s just plain stupid. Tommy and Amy lead him around by the nose, can get him to do anything.”

  “Is he dangerous?”

  “Buzzy? Hell, no. He runs from a fight.”

  “What about Amy?”

  “She likes to push people around—especially guys—but I don’t think she gets physical.”

  “Who else is working for Tommy?”

  “Those two are the only ones I know.”

  “Okay, your mother said Tommy was here last Wednesday night.”

  “Yeah. Most everybody else went to the show, but I’d pulled an all-nighter the day before, cramming for an exam—I’m studying computers at the community college—and I went to bed early. Tommy woke me up, tappin’ on the window. He was high. Nothin’ new. Tommy’s always high.”

  “He was alone?”

  “Stoned and alone. Except for the movie camera. Big one, professional-quality. Had to be expensive. He gave it to me for safekeeping.”

  “He say where he got it?”

  “Oh, sure. He said some guy he knows got in a jam, sold it to him for airfare to the mainland. But Tommy’s never had that kinda money laying around. Most of what he makes he spends. You ask me, he cockaroach that camera.”

  “Cockroach?”

  “Steal.”

  “You still have the camera?”

  “Yeah.”

  “May I take it to show to the person I think it was stolen from? I’ll give you a receipt.”

  “Don’t need a receipt for something that’s not mine—or Tommy’s.” George got up and went to the trailer, returned with a camera similar to the one Kim Shields had been using.

  “Tommy say anything else to you?” I asked.

  “Sure. When he’s high he can’t stop talkin’. He say he’s stayin’ down at the sugar mill on the old Wellbright plantation with Buzzy and Amy and a couple a guys from Maui. Somebody told them it was okay to use the place, but I don’t believe that. He told me he had some radical plan, was gonna get rich. What plan? I ask him. He can’t say. Why not? Because it involves people in high places. What people? I’d know if he named them. And so on. Yada, yada, yada. None of it means shit, comin’ from Tommy.”

  George’s eyes were bleak and angry. A love-hate relationship with his brother, if I ever saw one. I suspected the whole family—even Rob—felt the same. It would make losing Tommy even more painful.

  6:10 P.M.

  The chopper settled gently onto the lawn in front of Malihini House, its rotors setting the branches of the trees to blowing as if in a gale. I took off my headset and seat belt, got out, and extended my hand to Casey.

  Tanner had offered to fly me there, and back to Waipuna later to fetch the Datsun. He wanted, he said, to deliver his formal condolences on Celia’s death and to introduce Casey to her relatives. I agreed to the plan because I sensed he had an ulterior motive. Besides, his presence would probably forestall the family summoning me to Pali House to report on my investigation. I had no intention of doing so—the only Wellbright entitled to one was Peter—but would just as soon avoid an unpleasant confrontation.

  Casey hopped to the ground and looked around, her eyes widening. “Cool,” she said. Then, “Awesome.” It was clear she’d had no inkling of how wealthy these distant relatives were.

  Tanner joined us, carrying the camera. “Big bucks here, honey, and this ain’t the half of it.”

  She gave him a disbelieving look as we started toward the house, Tanner putting his hand on my shoulder and jokingly grumbling about me making an old man lug a heavy camera uphill.

  Hy had come out on the lanai, was leaning on the railing, watching us. His stance was loose, his expression welcoming, but as we came closer I caught a hint of underlying tension. And in his eyes…

  I’d seen that look before, often enough to know it spelled trouble. A carefully controlled anger, reminding me that despite his domesticity and good humor, this was a man who could be very dangerous.

  His gaze moved from my face to where Tanner’s hand rested on my shoulder and back again. Then he nodded slightly, as if confirming something. Russ’s fingers tightened, but I pulled away, the spot where he’d been touching me feeling unaccountably hot.

  Hy smiled ironically. “I see you found the missing camera. And a young woman.” He nodded to Casey.

  I introduced them, went up on the lanai, and stood beside him while Tanner and Casey flopped down on the steps.

  “I’m pretty sure this is the camera Glenna had on rental,” I said. “Where is she?”

  “Peter’s. He called her around an hour ago, all agitated over something concerning his father’s will.”

  “They’re reading wills already? Celia hasn’t even been buried, and Elson’s not legally dead.”

  He shrugged. “All I know is what Glenna told me. She was out of here like a shot. Guess she wanted to check out the situation, safeguard her financial future.”

  Tanner was sitting up straighter now, thoughtful and alert.

  I said, “Her financial future? I don’t understand.”

  “There seem to be a number of things you don’t understand lately, McCone. I’ll spell this one out for you: My take on Glenna is that she came over here, saw all this, and decided she wanted a piece of it. The best way of accomplishing that was to sink her hooks into Peter. For a while it looked good. She had something to barter—the ability to get the film made—in exchange for his affections. But now everything’s fallen apart, and she’s getting desperate.”

  “I can’t believe she’s that mercenary.”

  “Something about her behavior’s been off since we’ve been here.”

  “But she’s never been interested in money. She lives from hand to mouth.”

  “That was before. A place like this changes things, now, doesn’t it?” He was looking at Tanner.

  “What does that mean?” I demanded.

  “I said I’d spell out one thing for you. Now you’re on your own.” He turned and went into the house.

  I watched him go, my cheeks flushing as his meaning came clear. Then I looked at Russ; he’d grasped it, too.

  Why had Hy felt compelled to bring it out into the open?

  Russ sent Casey to explore the beach, and then he and I took the path to the cottage, under papaya trees hung heavy with unripe fruit. Silence lay between us. The unspoken was now out in the open, and neither of us seemed able to deal with it. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I was hoping that if we didn’t speak of it the problem would simply go away. Unfortun
ately it had been my experience that problems usually hung around till confronted.

  When no one answered our knock, we went inside the cottage. Tanner called out to Peter, but received no reply. “Guess they’ve gone someplace.”

  “Where, d’you suppose?”

  “Well, his Volvo’s here, so he’s probably at Pali House or Stephanie and Ben’s.” He noticed how I was looking around the room and added, “Some place, eh?”

  La’i Cottage was a smaller version of Malihini House: one bedroom and another room combining living space and kitchen. As Tanner had told me, it was crammed with bookcases and cultural artifacts. An elaborate feather cloak decorated one wall; musical instruments hung between two bookcases; shell leis, a quilt, several paintings, and a collection of wood, gourd, and coconut calabashes were only a few of the objects tucked here and there, wherever space would permit. The furnishings were old but well tended, of a heavy dark construction, and had probably come around Cape Horn with the Wellbright missionaries. A freestanding cabinet held a gun collection extending from the Revolutionary War to modern times. To me, the total effect was extremely claustrophobic.

  Or maybe it was because Tanner and I were alone there.

  “Is this exactly as Elson left it?” I asked him.

  “No. Hurricane Iniki hit right after he went away, and the roof was blown off this cottage. Did a lot of damage, but La’i Cottage—like Pali House—was strongly built and survived. Matt had it repaired and had what was salvageable of his father’s stuff put back as he’d left it. Pete hasn’t changed it much.”

  “The hurricane—it was a real watershed for the island.”

  Russ nodded.

  “You say Pali House survived. What about Malihini House?”

  “It was flattened. Stephanie and Ben lived there at the time, but they’d taken shelter with Celia. Otherwise they would’ve been killed. Afterward Ben wanted to build their own house, and Celia had Malihini rebuilt as guest quarters.” He paused, shaking his head. “Iniki was like nothing any of us had ever experienced, and we’re used to punishing storms. I could tell you stories, and maybe someday I will, but right now I prefer not to relive it.”