I couldn’t believe how easy it was to lift the sliding window out of the frame. It reminded me I should seriously consider window locks on my home up in Hali’imaile. Although I doubted anyone could fiddle around jimmying my windows without my super-size nosy neighbor across the street calling the cops.
I hoisted myself up into the window frame and pushed the clattering blinds out of the way. I was in the reception area. I still had to get through the doors of the private offices.
The door to Stu’s office was unlocked. I went in and pulled the legal file out of the metal file cabinet in the corner. It was still missing the insurance documents for the key person life insurance.
I had to break the glass in Barry’s office to gain access to his files. But once in, I was happy to see that Debbie had replaced the legal file where I’d found it before. And the insurance document was safely tucked in the back, where it was supposed to be.
I flipped through the document but what I needed was actually spelled out on the first page. I took the insurance document with me and retraced my steps to my car.
It was show time.
CHAPTER 38
I called directory assistance and asked for two numbers: the office number for the insurance agent who’d issued the policy and Barry Salazar’s home number. I wasn’t surprised when the first number was rattled off without incident but the second number came back as ‘unlisted.’ Barry had struck me as the kind of guy who thought himself above answering calls from disgruntled clients, unpaid employees, and guys conducting a ‘short survey’ that actually would go on for fifteen minutes.
No problem. I’d jotted his home address off a magazine label from the boat yard office. Seems he thought keeping a copy of Yachting in the waiting room classed up the joint.
He lived in Ko Olina, an upscale community north of Barbers Point. Ko Olina is best known to mainlanders as the home of the ‘Mickey Mouse beach;’ a pricey kid-friendly Disney resort where grandparents can bring the grandkids in hopes of getting a ‘Best Grandpa in the World’ coffee mug for Christmas.
All the different areas of Ko Olina are gated, with bored guards who will let you in if you look even halfway presentable or if you happen to be female. I fit both categories so it took less than a minute for the guard to not only raise the entrance bar but to also provide me with a map and directions to Barry’s front door.
I parked on the street and walked up to the house. It was the same sort of mini-mansion that Stuart had lived in, but the big difference was that all the houses here looked nearly identical. It was a mystery to me why anyone would pay millions of dollars for a home that looked exactly like the one right next to it, but hey, I don’t live on O’ahu.
I rang the bell. It was getting close to dinner time so I hoped either Mrs. Salazar (if there was such a person) or the hired help would be at home getting dinner ready. Sure enough, a minute or two later, a yoga-svelte blond woman answered the door.
“Aloha,” she said. Her face wore that wary look that people in gated communities get when a total stranger comes to the door. It wasn’t an everyday event.
“Aloha,” I said back. “Is Mr. Salazar at home? I’m Pali Moon, the sister of Mr. Salazar’s partner, Stuart Wilkerson.” I wondered if maybe I should’ve said ‘former partner’ but I didn’t want to delve into the details.
“He’s at work,” she said. “He should be home within the hour. Do you want me to call him?”
“Is he at the boat yard?” I said.
“Yes, he doesn’t usually leave there until around seven.”
I thanked her and went back out to my car. Seems Moko wasn’t the only one keeping the wife out of the loop on his unemployment.
I thought for a minute and then hopped back into the car and back onto the Farrington Highway. It was only a few miles back to the boat yard. Maybe Barry had been called away when I’d shown up earlier.
Sure enough, when I got to the boat yard the gate was open. Barry’s big Beemer was parked right outside the office door. I parked and walked toward the office. I glanced over at the window I’d jimmied earlier. It looked good. No doubt Barry had seen the damage to the lock on the front gate but I figured he’d never think it was me so I planned to keep my mouth shut about it.
The door to the main office was unlocked and I went inside.
“I’m back here, sweetheart,” Barry yelled from his private office.
I went back there and poked my head through his door. “You expecting someone, Barry?”
He looked flustered but tamped it down quickly. “Yeah, I thought you were my wife.”
“Do you have a minute?” I said.
He looked at his watch. “I should be getting home. My wife’s making dinner.”
“I thought you just said you were expecting her here.”
He glared but said nothing.
I waited him out.
“What do you want?” he finally said.
I used to be a lousy liar but the past year has provided me with a lot of practice. I launched into my story. “I thought you may like to know that you won’t be getting the pay-out from the key person insurance policy like you planned. I wouldn’t want you to perjure yourself for nothing.”
“What’re you talking about?” he said.
“The four mil insurance policy that you and Stuart had on each other? You know, the so-called ‘key person life insurance’ that the company gets when one of you dies? Well, that’s not gonna happen.”
“I can’t believe I’m even talking to you about this, but humor me. How do you know about the insurance?”
“Because my brother confided in me. He told me he felt bad because he canceled the policy. He’s been pocketing the premiums for the past year. He needed the extra cash to qualify for his loan on the Kahala house. He wanted me to tell you he hoped you’d forgive him but he never dreamed you’d ever actually collect on the insurance. I called your insurance agent, you know, Larry Plumlee down in Pearl City? Anyway, he confirmed it. No policy in force.”
“That’s impossible. Larry wouldn’t allow Stu to cancel that policy without my approval. You’re lying.”
“Why would I?” I said. “What’s in it for me? I just want you to know what’s at stake when you lie to the police and tell them you were with Natalie the night Stuart went into the canal. She’s probably pushing you to go to the police right away. She’s counting on you going this weekend before you have a chance to talk to Larry.
“Think about it,” I went on. “If you’ve already given the police a statement and then you try to retract it, they’ll start crawling all over this place. You’ll have established yourself as a liar and four million bucks is plenty of motive to dump a partner who can’t swim into a large body of water. They’ll no doubt think you and Natalie were in cahoots.”
“No! It was all her. She came to me with this crazy plan to get out of her marriage and still remain in good standing with the Wilkersons. That name still opens a lot of doors around here, you know. She knew about the key person insurance. She said if I—”
“If you what, darling?” Natalie was now standing in the doorway to Barry’s office. She looked completely serene, in spite of—or maybe because of—the Sig Sauer P938 semi-automatic she was pointing at Barry.
“What are you doing?” he said.
She laughed. “You ever hear the old saying, ‘it’s not hard for three people to keep a secret as long as two of them are dead?’ Well, here we are—three people with a secret. I’m taking bets on which two are going to end up dead.”
She pulled the trigger without aiming. The report from the gun was deafening. Barry ducked and narrowly missed getting winged in the shoulder.
“Oh my,” she said. “Stuart always wanted me to go with him to the shooting range. I guess since I never did it’s probably going to take more bullets.” She shrugged. “That’s okay, I’ve got lots.”
She lifted the gun and aimed at Barry’s head. He held up a hand as if to block the bullet and she
shot right through it. He cried out in pain and clutched his injured hand to his chest. In the blink of an eye his hand and his entire shirt front turned red.
“That was pretty fun,” she said. “Now while you bleed a little, I’m going to see about taking down another Wilkerson.” She turned and aimed the gun at me. “You know, I’d totally planned on Stuart drowning. I couldn’t have dreamed the city would kill him with poop. And now they’re so, so sorry. Millions of dollars sorry.”
She laughed and popped a bullet into the wall. By now my ears were ringing so badly I could barely make out what she was saying. But I’d heard enough. The room was small and it wouldn’t take long for her to get more accurate with the gun. I took a couple of deep breaths and centered myself.
I’d get only one chance to disarm her. I hated guns. They were so one-sided; so cowardly. If I was successful, I looked forward to seeing how well she did up against someone who was willing to get their hands dirty to take her down. If I was unsuccessful, well the only consolation there was I wouldn’t be around to second-guess myself.
CHAPTER 39
I vaulted from the chair screaming my time-worn battle cry and twisted my body just enough to plant my shoulder into her solar plexus. She went down hard, her eyes widening before becoming two hot coals of fury. But through it all, she managed to keep a grip on the gun.
I dug a knee into her groin. Okay, it wasn’t a move I’d get away with in a tournament, but this was no tournament. The room seemed oddly quiet except for the deep-throated moaning coming from Barry. He was slumped over, as if passed out, but the moaning told me he was still conscious.
I shoved my hand over her mouth and nose. Again, not ladylike and certainly not a sanctioned move, but she was a lot stronger than she looked and I was pretty sure every drop of adrenaline available to her was coursing through her veins.
She bit my hand. It hurt. A lot. But instead of taking my hand away I pushed down harder. I felt her jaw relax and her eyes started to waver. She was running out of air.
In one fluid motion I took my hand off her face and grabbed the gun. She sputtered and coughed and rolled onto her side.
***
The police arrived less than ten minutes after I called 9-1-1; the paramedics came a couple of minutes later.
They bundled Barry up onto a gurney and started an IV. They tried to talk me into a ride to the hospital but I convinced them I was fine.
“You should go get a tetanus shot,” said a male EMT with eyes so blue I’m sure they were contacts. I wondered if Hatch looked that handsome to the women he rescued.
I promised I would. Then I called Moko.
“Hey, I got a favor to ask,” I said. “Mind if I sleep on your sofa for a couple of nights? It got late and I need to take some bride’s dresses back to Maui, but I can’t get them from the shop until Monday morning.”
“Of course you can stay wit’ us. But you won’t be sleeping on no sofa. Kiwi will give you his bed. He and his bruddah will love an excuse to camp out in the livin’ room.”
My next call was to Wendi Takeda. “It’s a wrap,” I said. “We got Natalie. If you can meet me at Starbucks I’ll tell you everything. You’ve probably got the Sunday edition of the paper already put to bed. That’s a shame because I’ll bet Natalie’s arrest makes tonight’s TV news. But you’re probably used to that, right? You gotta live with getting scooped when you’re totally old school.”
“How long ‘til you can get to Starbucks?” she said. “’Cuz I got two words for you: online buzzfeed. Nuthin’ old school about it.”
CHAPTER 40
Farrah’s Halloween wedding was the best one I’ve ever put on. Okay, maybe I’m a little biased. I’ve loved the bride like a sister since second grade. When she walked down the aisle of beach created by well-wishers separating to allow her to pass, I thought she looked like every guy’s dream of the perfect wife. She was sweet, mellow, and completely uncomplicated. She exuded a regal beauty—not only on the outside, but even more so like a glow from the inside.
And her incredible cleavage was nothing to sneeze at, either. It had taken three dress alterations to get the sweetheart neckline just so. The first time it looked like her boobs were exploding out of the top of the dress. The second time she looked like someone had tucked a linen napkin under her chin. Finally, with the third alteration it was perfect. There was no denying the ‘Earth Mother’ factor, but at least she didn’t appear to be auditioning for the Pamela Anderson role in a new reality show called ‘Boob Watch.’
Ono appeared at his captain-ly best. Of course there was a tiny bit of green monkey when I saw him in his crisp white shirt with navy blazer and khaki pants beaming at Farrah as she floated toward him and the flower-covered altar. He wore a cute little captain’s cap that made his eyes look bluer than the offshore waves and he’d even taken Tomika up on her offer to have his hair cut by a ‘stylist’ and his usual scruff of beard shaved by a barber at high-priced resort.
The day went by so quickly I hardly remember most of it. But I definitely remember when Hatch took me aside after the ceremony and said, “It’s gonna be hard for us to top this one, isn’t it?”
***
Halloween night I declined to join the others who were going down to Lahaina for the once-a-year-debauchery that passes for a party. I was worn out and just wanted to get my feet up and my blood pressure down so I opted for home.
Steve surprised me by offering to take me home. As we made the twenty minute trek back to Hali’imaile, I asked him something I’d been dying to ask for over a month.
“What made you decide to pass on the Go Hawaii job in Honolulu?”
“It’s still open so don’t get any ideas about raising my rent,” he said. “But remember that night when the guys at the Ball and Chain were giving me the going away party? I looked around and realized there was nothing in Honolulu that I wanted more than what I already had. They asked me to make a speech and I got up there and said I was re-naming the party the ‘Steve Isn’t Going Anywhere’ celebration. I ended up picking up the entire tab because nobody would’ve considered it much of a celebration if I’d stuck around and then stuck them with the check. But, hey, I’ve never regretted not leaving.”
“But the job’s still open?”
“Yeah. And they’re buying some of my stuff for the magazine anyway. But since it’s published over there it tends heavy toward the O’ahu side of life. So, I guess if something happens to mess things up for me here I’ll think about it. But not now.”
***
Two days later on their ‘Announcements’ page, the Maui News ran a gorgeous photo Steve had taken of Ono and Farrah. Underneath the photo was a description of their wedding written by a local society reporter. I smiled when I read it. If the piece hadn’t named names, I would’ve wondered if we attended the same wedding. But hey, what do I know?
‘Farrah Jill Milton and Oliver “Ono” John Kingston were married on October 31 at Baldwin Beach Park in Pa’ia. The bride wore an elegantly tasteful lace and taffeta gown with sweetheart neckline. Her flowing hair was crowned with a plumeria and orchid headpiece and she chose plumeria lei for herself and her attendants. The groom wore a simple raw silk shirt, khaki slacks and tailored navy blazer topped by a clever nautical cap proclaiming his position as captain of a local catamaran yacht. Both bride and groom were barefoot, to demonstrate their connection to the ‘aina (or ‘land’) and also, as Mr. Kingston noted, “because both my bride and I love the feel of sand between our toes.” They are honeymooning for two months on a sailing trip to Tahiti aboard the catamaran, Maui Happy Returns. When they return to Maui they will split their time between homes in Pa’ia and Lahaina.’
So there it was. Farrah would be gone for two months. I’d miss her, no doubt. But maybe finally after a year of ‘unfortunate events’ I’d finally have a couple of months where the most pressing thing on my calendar was finding dyed-to-match shoes, sash ribbons and cummerbunds in the perfect shade of ‘sea breeze teal.
’
EPILOGUE
Natalie Wilkerson, my former sister-in-law, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder and assault. Not only was she charged for her role in the death of her husband, Stuart, she was also charged for coming way too close to killing the two people who knew how and why she’d done it. Even after her arrest she bragged to reporters that she’d never be found guilty because the evidence was all circumstantial and mostly based on the testimony of people who’d conspired against her.
“I’m way less guilty than Casey Anthony,” she said. “And look at Casey. She’s not only free as a bird, she’s a celebrity. I’m getting a publicist. I’m going to need one to help me handle all the offers that will come in for me to do a reality show.”
What Natalie failed to factor into her less-than-tasteful remarks was that she’d been accused of murdering the son of one of Honolulu’s foremost families. The Wilkersons were regarded with the same respect and devotion the Kennedys enjoy in Massachusetts. After all, it was Phil Wilkerson who was responsible for bringing cable TV and high-speed internet to the islands and that made him something of a local hero.
In the months leading up to the trial it also came out that Natalie wasn’t pregnant. She never had been. When the cops went through Natalie’s computer they saw she’d purchased the “pee stick” confirming her pregnancy from a woman who’d advertised it on eBay. It seems thirty bucks can buy a ton of coercion.
The jury took just three hours to find Natalie guilty on all counts. The verdict meant there would be no case brought by Natalie Wilkerson against the City of Honolulu for the fouling of the Ala Wai Canal and the subsequent wrongful death of her husband.
In one fell swoop the jury managed to not only shut up an annoying wannabe-reality star who’d viciously put to death a member of the much-loved Wilkerson clan, but they also saved the taxpayers of Honolulu millions of dollars in extortion money. Who says a jury is made up of twelve men and women too stupid to get out of jury duty?
05-O'ahu Lonesome Tonight? Page 20
