Other Boson Books by John A. Broussard
Dear Diary, I’m in Love
Death and Near DeathDead Before a Rival
Expect the Unexpected
Fifty-Minutes Flaherty
Mana
Mayhem, Mystery and Murder
Murder at Milltown Junior College
No Time for Death
The Yoshinobu Mysteries: Volume I
The Yoshinobu Mysteries: Volume II
Published by Boson Books
3905 Meadow Field Lane
Raleigh, NC 27606
ISBN 1-932482-19-9
An imprint of C&M Online Media Inc.
© Copyright 2004 John A. Broussard
All rights reserved
For information contact
C&M Online Media Inc.
3905 Meadow Field Lane
Raleigh, NC 27606
Tel: (919) 233-8164
e-mail:[email protected]
URL: http://www.bosonbooks.com
___________________________________________________
DEAD AND GONE
a mystery by
John A. Broussard
_____________________________________________________
BOSON BOOKS
Raleigh
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 1
Auntie Leilani had told him he must have brought the rain with him. In fact, everyone he had talked to since coming home had said this had been the driest year on record. While Kimo had been walking from the plane to the terminal at Napua Airport it had started to rain. There had been no letup in the two days he had been back.
Still, he was glad to be in Hawaii again, rain or no rain, and especially glad to be back on Elima. He had had enough of places like Kuwait and Los Angeles. Elima was still a rural island, and that was where he wanted to be. Tomorrow he had to start giving serious thought to finding a job. There sure seemed to be plenty of possibilities around. He could not believe the signs in the shop windows. Back when he had left to find work on the Mainland, there had been plenty of them. They had all said, “No jobs, No employment here.” Now, the much bigger signs were saying “Part Time, Full Time, Temporary Help Needed. No Experience Necessary. We’ll Train.”
The day-and-a-half since his arrival had been full ones. He had bought this used pickup with his mustering-out pay and moved what few belongings he had into Leilani and John Pak’s house. Then he had made the rounds of his old friends in Napua. Tomorrow, after job hunting, he would cross the island and look up Margery. They had written sporadically to each other during the five years he had been gone. It was just possible she still had a warm place in her heart for him. Anyway, it was worth a try to find out.
Right now he was cursing the balking windshield-wipers and the subdivision he had wandered into. This part of Napua was a maze and all new to him. He was not even sure in which direction he was going. When he had left Elima to go to work on the Mainland, there had been coffee groves all through here. Now, small, almost indistinguishable boxes had sprung up like a novel kind of crop.
Some things might have changed. Many things had not. It had been great talking to Roger and Kevin over a few beers. It had been just like old times, and a Friday night at that. Everyone was relaxed, even though Kevin had to go on night shift. It was like those Friday nights on the Mainland after a week of hard work, only better. It was nice to hear pidgin again. The guys in the army had made fun of the way he talked. He hadn’t realized how much he had changed his way of speaking in the service until he sat down with his two old buddies. Yup. It was good to be back. Now all he had to do was to find his way out of these side streets.
Opening the window, he leaned forward, reached an arm out into the downpour and tried to move the wiper which had finally given up completely. The one dim street light he had just passed made the seeing worse, if anything. Out of the corner of his right eye he saw something move. He slammed on his brakes. They locked and sent him into a skid. Simultaneously he felt the thump on the fender and bumper, and both right wheels rolled across what he had hit.
There was really no need to get out of the truck. There was no point in running back to look at the still form. Kimo knew immediately he had killed someone.
***
Even though it was a Saturday, and Leilani had not been scheduled to come in, Qual wasn’t surprised to see her at the office when he arrived. Never having been a clock watcher, she was as likely as not to show up on a Saturday or an hour or so early to catch up on the clerical work which grew steadily at the firm of Smith, Chu and Yoshinobu. What he was surprised at was seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks. Leilani Pak seldom cried at anything other than weddings and funerals. Qual suspected it was something rather more like the latter than the former which was these tears.
***
Quality Smith, a slender, balding individual with a nervous habit of adjusting his glasses with both hands, ordinarily looked out on the world with detached and somewhat amused eyes. Today, he was concerned about Leilani Pak, who had been with him from the day he had opened the office. After passing his bar exams, Qual had come over to Elima from Oahu and established the firm some nine years previously. Now he was the senior partner of the only group of attorneys on Elima devoted entirely to criminal defense.
Business had been brisk from the outset and, within a year, Sidney Chu had joined the firm. Keiko “Kay” Yoshinobu had become a junior partner some ten months after that. The most recent addition had been Laura Correa. She had been the subject of long discussions by the three partners before they finally decided to add the young attorney to their roster.
As soon as her application had been received, the forty-five year old Qual had been the one most favorably disposed toward Laura. He had been quick to argue for hiring her. “We can’t possibly compete with those Honolulu firms for someone like her. Besides, she’s not only eager to work for us, she’s even willing to settle for half what she’d make over on Oahu.”
Craig Thomas gave his enthusiastic support to the appointment. Craig was Qual’s house mate. Since they lived less than two blocks away from the office, he was a frequent visitor and had become a de facto member of the firm. So while the attorneys were looking over applications, Craig had been there leaning on the casing of the door to Qual’s office checking over a grocery list. Looking up, he said, “Best of all, she’s a local. She’s bound to have at least one relative on every jury.”
Sid had guffawed at that. Sidney Chu was a tall, handsome Chinese in his early-thirties. His specialty was his court appearances where, as a trial lawyer, he was particularly effective. Pessimistic by nature, he was nicely counterbalanced by Kay Yoshinobu. Kay was a dark-skinned Japanese, truly lovely by any standards, but particularly so by Hawaiian ones. After a stormy courtship, the two had finally decided to marry. Marriage had helped to tame the cyclones, reducing them to only occasional minor squalls.
On the day the final decision was being made about a new addition to the firm, Sid and Kay had been sitting opposite Qual at his desk passing applications around.
“That’s an arg
ument against Laura, not for her,” Sid said, responding to Craig’s earlier remark. “If she has a close relative on the jury, it will automatically disqualify the juror.”
Craig shook his head and went back to his grocery list. “I will never, never understand the law.”
“She also comes with an unqualified recommendation from Leilani,” Qual said. “It’s just what you’d expect with about every local. Leilani’s related to her through some cousin or uncle. She says she changed Laura’s diapers manys the time. Leilani and Laura’s mother used to trade off baby-sitting.”
“I’d feel better about Laura,” Kay said, looking over the application, “if she’d had some experience. She’s coming to us fresh from her bar exams. It’s hard to tell how she’ll stand up in court.”
“She has to start somewhere,” Qual answered firmly, “and her grades are right there at the top.”
“Grades don’t always translate into performance,” Sid said, giving Qual a stony look. “Scott Ikeda, our esteemed former assistant prosecuting attorney, was in the top ten per cent of his class. Look what happened to him. The appointed court master is making him go back to school because he’s totally incompetent in the courtroom.”
“The exception proves the rule.” This was Craig’s contribution.
Qual turned to him. “Craig, I’m not sure I want you on my side. You’re completely twisting the meaning of the saying. It really means the exception tests the rule.”
“Well, whatever. I still think you should hire Laura Correa, and you’d better make up your mind soon before some other firm scoops her up.”
“That is a point,” Qual said. “We’ve been sitting on some of those applications for a couple of months. I’m sure we’ve lost applicants already.”
“She’s Portuguese,” Sid said as he surveyed Laura’s resume, “and that’s certainly in her favor. Half the police force on this island is Portuguese.”
Craig showed his annoyance. “How can lawyers be so inconsistent? A minute ago when I was arguing how her being a local was a good thing, all of you acted as though I was an idiot. Now you’re saying the same thing I was saying.”
Sid looked up from the papers and smiled, “Sorry, Craig. This is completely different. It’s no advantage to have relatives on jury panels, but it doesn’t hurt to have relatives down at the station.”
“Why is that?” asked Craig. “I mean, why is it so many of the policemen in Hawaii are Portuguese?”
“Damned if I know,” Sid answered. “Do you have any idea, Qual?”
Qual nodded. “It goes back to the days when half of Elima’s immigrant population was Oriental and the other half was mainly Portuguese. About the only ones who could meet the height requirements Hawaii had back then were the Portuguese and the native Hawaiians. Well, the Hawaiians didn’t have a chance, what with all the discrimination, disease and alcohol. So the Portuguese moved into those jobs. Since then, it’s like the Irish on the East Coast. It’s always easier to get on the force once you have some relatives there already.”
“There’s something else bothering me,” Kay said, while looking at Laura’s folder over Sid’s shoulder. “It’s what she wrote about her interests in the letter she sent with her application. Criminal law isn’t at the top of her list. She says environmental law is what she’s most keen on. Is she going to let that interfere with defending someone who gets picked up for throwing trash out of his car window?”
“Maybe we could stand a little more social conscience around here,” said Qual, peering over his glasses at Kay. Sid laughed. “Careful, Qual, you’re letting your conservationist-Marxist-anarchism show. You want to hire her because you think she’s politically sound.”
Qual protested. The argument raged on. Finally, and to some extent because of Craig’s urging, the final vote was taken. The result was all three attorneys agreed Laura was probably a good choice, certainly the best of those who had applied. The only concession Qual had to make to the other two was that Laura would be on probation for three months.
By the time Laura’s fate was settled, Craig, who had pocketed his list and picked up the application, began to voice doubts about their choice. Looking through the sheaf of papers in Laura’s folder, he had discovered she was a teetotaler.
“How can anyone possibly appreciate good food unless they have a fine wine with the meal? Why, we won’t be able to invite her out to dinner at our house.”
***
Laura Correa was excited, almost as excited as the day Morgan Lopes, the high school football star, had asked her to be his date to the senior prom. The call from Qual telling her she was hired had made the adrenaline flow. She had wanted the job on Elima, more than she had thought she did when she had applied. But much of the excitement was the result of her unhappiness with the earlier interview she had had with the three attorneys. She had left their office with the feeling the impression she had made had not been a favorable one.
Her hopes for the job had gone up as her expectations she would get it had gone down. Then the two weeks since her interview had dragged. When Qual’s invitation to come to work on the following Monday finally came through, it sounded like Mozart at his best. Now she had to start making plans for moving across the island to Napua.
The bar exams had turned out to be much easier than she had anticipated. She had left Honolulu as soon as she had taken them, not the least sorry to see the last of the city where she had spent most of the last six years of her life. Flying over Elima, was like flying to another planet—a lovely, lush, familiar planet. Except for the developments crowding the shoreline, this was still a rural island. The forest preserves along the ridge were a rich dark green. The sugarcane fields were light in contrast. New macadamia-nut orchards were springing up, especially along the windward side where the plane was coming into Wanakai airport.
This was home, and Laura wanted to be home and to stay home. So convinced was she that she belonged here, she had even toyed with the idea of opening up an office on her own, if she could not find a firm there to hire her. A look at her bank account convinced her quickly there was no way she could do such a thing. The only solution was employment with an existing law firm. Smith, Chu and Yoshinobu seemed to be the ideal choice.
Putting down the phone after the call, she reflected the interview with the three attorneys must have gone well after all. She had passed the ordeal, in spite of the doubts she had had after leaving the office and thinking it over. Qual, she had liked immediately. He was so pleasant and open, and he had a fine sense of humor, but maybe she liked him mainly because he reminded her of her older brother, who had long ago gone to work as an engineer on the Mainland. Or, perhaps it was because she sensed he shared many of her values.
With Sid, it was different. He had reminded her of some of the professors she had had in law school. Sid had not been much interested in what was good about her. He had just wanted to find out what was bad and had made no bones about it. I’d hate to be a hostile witness in court with him cross-examining, she had thought. At first she had had the feeling Sid just did not like her. As she went over the interview in her mind, she concluded the microscopic examination he had submitted her to was part of his nature. At the same time, she had found him extremely attractive.
If anything, Kay was the one who had disturbed her the most. Kay seemed so poised, so in control. And she was beautiful. There was no question about that. Laura had stopped at the nearest service station after the interview: She had done so partly to get gas for the return trip to Wanakai on the other side of the island and partly to relieve a nervous bladder whose nervousness she had been only half aware of until moment. She also wanted to look at herself in the restroom mirror. If they do hire me, I’m sure going to look like an ugly duckling next to Kay.
Since leaving high school, Laura had given little thought to her appearance. College classes, studies, concern for her future career—these took up almost all of her waking hours. There had been little spare cash for clothe
s, cosmetics or visits to the beauty salon. Even the pressing, overwhelming, precipitous interest she had had in males during those last two years at Wanakai High School had been quenched by books, and class notes, and lectures at the University of Hawaii.
As an undergraduate, she had engaged in a few hasty and joyless couplings with men students who were not much interested in anything more than that. Law school had been months of celibacy. Her total involvement with the law had given no males any encouragement. Now, with the academic pressures removed, she looked at herself with a different eye.
Small, but not terribly so when measured against standards set by a mostly Oriental population, Laura appraised her figure in the inadequate mirror of the service station restroom. I guess I should be glad I can eat anything without putting on weight, but maybe I should change my hairstyle. I still look like my photo in the high school yearbook. If I get the job, or any job, I’ll celebrate and buy myself some new clothes.
She watched her dark eyes, with their long curled eyelashes, crinkling back at her in wry amusement. No matter what, Kay’s going to still make me look like a small, drab mouse by comparison–—if I get the job.
Chapter 2
By the time Qual had finally gotten the story out of Leilani, the other three attorneys had arrived and were surrounding the office desk.
When Leilani had first gone to work for Qual, neither of them had envisioned the position would be a permanent one. As it turned out, the heavy-set Hawaiian woman with a penchant for colorful muumuus had proven to be ideal for the new-born firm, and the firm prospered. At first she had done all the clerical work. By now she had relegated most of the duties other than receptionist to the growing office work force. While this still meant at least a forty-hour week, it gave her time to worry about the attorneys.
Leilani had long ago convinced herself they were congenitally incapable of either running a business or of managing their own private lives. Leilani considered her supervision of both of these activities as inseparable and therefore her primary responsibility. But today she had worries far removed from these office duties.
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