Sliding the second and larger stack across the desk, he added, “This stack includes everything else. Now, if any identification marks are listed, they’d probably be on the first page.”
Laura riffled through the first three folders in the small pile, then stopped abruptly at the fourth one. “Could he have been forty-five, 6’1”, 158 pounds, Caucasian, X-rayed just two months ago, for emphysema?” she asked.
Rod nodded. “It fits with what I remember,” he said, looking at the chart. “It sure could be the same guy. He had a heck of a bad cough, so bad he ruined the first plate I took.” Slowly shaking his head, he added. “I just can’t tie him in my mind to the tattoo, though. How come you picked him out? There aren’t any identifying marks listed here.”
“Even though there aren’t any listed, I’m almost positive he’s the one we’re looking for. It won’t be hard to check.” Laura’s voice sounded grim.
“How so?”
“His name is Lyndon Stanner. Stanner’s not exactly a common name on this island.” Rod looked up from the file in front of him, obviously curious about the sudden hardening now obvious in Laura’s voice.
“My client’s name is Stanner,” she explained, before Rod had a chance to ask.
***
Laura held off on calling Hank DeMello, having decided to talk to one of the other attorneys first.
Qual was the only attorney in the office. His advice was to check beforehand with Kimo to make sure of the identification. “Leilani’s an even better place to start.”
The name ‘Lyndon Stanner’ produced immediate recognition.
“Sure. That’s Kimo’s uncle, his father’s brother. I don’t know much about him. He lived over on Oahu. I never met him. I just heard Kimo’s dad talking about him.”
“What did he have to say about Lyndon?”
“Kid-brother stuff. Kimo’s father and Lyndon were both born over there. Kimo’s dad left Oahu when Lyndon was still in grade school. I got the impression from him Lyndon was pretty wild. I can’t tell you much more than that. Kimo should know more. He went over to Oahu for a week or so one summer when he was fifteen or sixteen. I think he visited his uncle while he was over there.”
Laura called Hank to tell him what she’d discovered so far.
“It sure sounds as though you’ve nailed down the corpse’s identity.”
“I’m almost certain he’s the one.”
“Guess I’ll skip Jill McMahon’s real estate office and get right out to the subdivision. Maybe the name of Lyndon Stanner will stir up somewhat more cooperation from the folks out there.”
“I’m going out to see Kimo. If he can tell me anything more that’s significant about Stanner, I’ll get right back to you.”
Hank’s tone became ominous. “Better come out to the station as soon as you’ve talked to him, and bring him along. It looks as though we’d better start laying out some ground rules. I may have more than a negligent homicide on my hands.”
Laura did not care at all for the change of inflection in Hank’s voice. She cared even less for the implications of what he had said.
***
Kimo had gone to work for a small contractor and was helping to remodel a house just outside of Napua. Laura caught him right at noon. She sat on a saw horse sharing his coffee, while Kimo broke out one of Leilani’s monster ahi sandwiches.
Laura passed him the photo of the tattoo, asking him, “Have you ever seen this before?” Kimo shook his head. He continued to shake it unbelievingly when Laura told him about the possibility it was his uncle who had been found in Green Sand Gulch.
“You mean it might have been him I hit?”
“Probably. That’s what I’m trying to find out for sure. Lieutenant DeMello wants to see you. What time do you get off work?”
“Three-thirty.”
Kimo did not look happy. Laura decided he had little reason to be happy. “Come by the office when you’re through work and we’ll go over to the station together. What can you tell me about your uncle?” Laura watched him closely as he answered her question.
“I hardly remember him. I was still in high school when I saw him last. I’d gone over to Oahu to get some parts for my pickup, and I stopped by his house in Honolulu. I was kind of hoping he’d put me up for the night so I wouldn’t have to sleep out on the beach. He wasn’t exactly glad to see me. He had a new girlfriend, and he didn’t need any extra company. I didn’t stick around.”
“Can you tell me anything else about him?”
“Not much. He had some problems with the police. I can’t remember what. I think he married the girl. He had two or three kids by her eventually. I know that much anyway, but it was long after I’d left.”
Laura was struck with a sudden idea. “You don’t remember her name, by any chance, do you?”
Kimo shook his head. “I never did know her last name. Her first name was something strange, ‘Deirdre’ or some such thing.”
“Could it have been ‘Drina’?”
“Hey. That’s right. How’d you know?”
Chapter 13
Laura arrived at the station just as Corky pulled into the parking lot. After Laura filled Corky in on her interview with Kimo, the latter chuckled, “Just wait until Sid hears about this. He already suspects everyone on the island is related to everyone else. Now he’ll be absolutely certain. You mean Kimo didn’t know he had cousins living a couple of houses down from the accident?”
Laura nodded as they went off looking for Hank. Her expression was morose. “He also didn’t know he’d run over and killed his own uncle. That’s going to sound great at the trial.”
“Didn’t he recognize the tattoo when you showed it to him?”
“No, but there’s a good explanation for that. Rod says it looked fairly fresh, so Lyndon probably had it done long after the last time Kimo had seen him, which was about eight or nine years ago.”
Hank was none too pleased to hear Kimo wouldn’t be by until after work. Laura attempted to sound him out about what he intended to do when Kimo did arrive. Hank was non-committal, again making the unnecessary suggestion she come along with Kimo. Laura knew Hank was suspicious and tried to put herself in his place. She quickly decided when someone runs a truck over a close relative, there’s good reason to be suspicious.
Hank was clearly bewildered as well as suspicious when Corky told him the latest news. “What a can of worms? So Kimo runs over his uncle almost in front of the house filled with more of his relatives. Even on Elima where everyone’s related to everyone else, that’s a damn strange coincidence—if it is coincidence—and he says he doesn’t know they were living there?” Hank shook his head in disbelief. “Didn’t Drina or her mother give any indication they knew who the dead man was when you questioned them?”
Corky and Laura glanced surreptitiously at each other. Corky shrugged and said, “I forgot to show her the photo of the tattoo. Maybe I don’t have a great head on my shoulders after all.”
“It was really my fault,” said Laura, before Hank could comment. “I was the one who showed it to the Paks. I should have remembered to show it to Drina and her mother. I guess I just figured we already knew who he was.”
Hank laughed. “You haven’t been here much more than a month, Laura, and already you and Corky are covering for each other. I can see where a mere man isn’t going to stand a chance against you two. Since I’m going to have to go out there to talk to the Jacinto brothers, I might as well stop in and talk story with Drina too. Come to think of it, maybe it’s just as well you didn’t show Drina and her mother the tattoo. I’m looking forward to seeing the expressions on their faces when they get a look at it.
***
Sid and Kay cheered when Laura returned to the office.
“You’re following the time honored tradition of the firm,” Sid said. “Investigation has always been our specialty or, at least, it’s been Kay’s specialty.”
“Do you always make things worse for your clients
in the process?” Laura asked.
Kay grinned. “We’ve done that, too.”
Sid broke in. “It’s really hard to believe Kimo ran over his own uncle without knowing it.”
Laura suddenly realized Sid had not heard the most recent news. It was then she announced the discovery of Kimo’s other relatives in the same block.
Sid’s mouth fell open. “There’s a limit to coincidence.”
Looking glum, Laura said, “Hank shares your suspicions and used the same words as you did to express them,” she said.
Qual came out of his office to join the discussion. Leilani, who had been out in the annex, arrived at that moment. Everyone began to talk at once.
Sid’s voice carried the best. “I think we’ve found the body movers.”
“Even if we have, we still don’t know why they wanted to move the body,” Kay said.
“How can this help Kimo?” Leilani asked, thinking of first things first.
“By causing confusion, I suppose,” Laura answered unhappily, “and that’s probably the only way.”
“I’m sorry your first case turned out to be such a Pandora’s box,” Qual said. “We’ll try to make the next one a straight hit and run.”
Sid noticed Kay had lapsed into silent thought. He grinned and announced. “Quiet, everyone. Yoshinobu has gone into one of her trances. Now the medium is at work, so we may have the whole case resolved in a few minutes.”
Kay shook herself and smiled. “Can anyone give me any good reason why someone would rush out into the street, in the middle of a rainstorm, to carry away a dead body? And why throw it into the gulch? If they wanted to hide it, a gulch wasn’t exactly the most secret spot around. Even with all the water running down the gully, no one could expect the body to be carried out to sea. It’s more than a mile from there to the ocean. No one could have thought the body would make it over those rocks and around all those curves.”
“Why no identification?” Laura asked. “Hank’s convinced that we would never have found out who it was if he hadn’t had that tattoo. Someone must have been trying to hide the body’s identity. They darn near succeeded.”
Kay shook her head. “We can’t be sure how much hiding they were actually trying to do. Did they take his wallet? The fact it wasn’t with the body doesn’t prove much. From what Corky describes of the corpse, just about anything loose would have disappeared. What baffles me is why anyone should have bothered to move the body if they were just going to throw it into the gulch. It’s almost as though they just didn’t want it found out on the street.”
Sid gave a snort. “Maybe it was just conscientious citizens worried about violations of the litter laws.”
“We’d better take a close look at the autopsy report,” Qual suggested, ignoring Sid’s remark. “Maybe he wasn’t hurt anywhere near as badly as Kimo thought and just got up and stumbled into the gulch. Victorine has already said it would be hard to tell what damage was caused by the truck and what was caused by being slammed against the rocks.”
“I’m convinced Kimo has the key to all this,” Kay said.
Leilani bridled. “Kimo’s told the truth right from the beginning.”
“I’m not saying he hasn’t, Leilani. It’s just that he may know something which would answer all our questions. We need to all sit down with him and go over what happened.”
“How about this?” Sid began. “Someone knew Kimo was coming down that street and pushed his uncle in front of the pickup.”
“His uncle was riding in the back, and Kimo didn’t know it,” Qual said, joining in the wildness. “When he jumped out in front of what he thought was Drina’s house, he fell under the wheels.”
Sid guffawed. “From the back he fell out under the front wheels? No. He must have been riding on the roof of the pickup and slid off from there.”
Even Laura contributed. “Drina threatened to kill Lyndon if he ever came back again. She scared him so badly he ran out into the rain and into the path of Kimo’s truck.”
Kay looked at her. “Not bad. Not bad at all. You people may figure you’re kidding, but I think we’re getting closer and closer to the answer.”
***
Fortunately for Laura, the weekend was coming up. She was counting on it to sort out her thoughts. She was also planning on catching up with all the routine work of the office she had set aside while working on Kimo’s case. Maybe, just maybe, since Judge Wong had put off the new trial for two weeks, she could move the case to a back burner for at least a day or two. The phrase reminded her she was hungry. Never much for cooking, Laura slipped a prepared dinner under the broiler. The phone rang.
She did not catch the name, but the male voice was familiar. It took her several moments to place Bill Kuroyama. “I thought I’d offer to reciprocate for that lunch. Can I treat you to dinner? Tomorrow night if you’ve already got plans for tonight.”
Laura suddenly realized how much she had been engrossed in her new job. Except for the brief conversation with Corky on the topic and some fleeting libidinal urges, she had not really thought much about men since her arrival back in Elima. The neglect of such an important subject had occurred in spite of the long famine she had gone through during law school. Bill was attractive and seemingly uncomplicated. Why not? she asked herself.
Aloud, she said, “Can’t get away tonight. Maybe tomorrow night.”
“Great. I’ll be by at seven-thirty, but I don’t even know where you live.” She gave him directions, and they chatted for a while. Bill wanted to know how the Stanner case was coming along and was quick to commiserate when she told him about the new complications. While she was giving him the details she suddenly smelled her dinner burning. Hastily she broke off and rescued it while only slightly browner than it should have been.
She had barely put the hot tray down on the table when the phone rang again. This time the voice was familiar, and she caught the name. “Hi, Laura, this is Emil. I was wondering if you’d be interested in going to dinner tonight. Or tomorrow, if you’re tied up this evening.”
“I’m really sorry, but I do have something else on for both nights.”
“How about Sunday?”
Why not?
“All right. Sunday sounds good.”
“Fine. I’ll pick you up at seven. By the way, where do you live?”
As Laura began eating her dinner she thought it was time to drop by the clinic to see what the latest was in birth control methods.
Chapter 14
Laura was amused at the menu. She had never been to the Malalani, but had heard the prices were outlandish. The special menu for the lady of the party, where the prices were not included, was a breath out of the past.
“What happens if the woman is taking the man to dinner?” she asked Bill.
Bill’s eyes wrinkled in amusement at her over the top his menu. “The problem solves itself. No woman can afford these prices.”
Laura reached across the table. “Now you’ve piqued my curiosity.”
Bill shrugged and handed her the large glossy card folded into the imitation leather holder. Watching her, he said, “Your eyes look great when they open up wide like that.”
“Maybe I should carry this menu around when I want male companionship. My God, what prices! You must be out of your mind to come here.”
“I’m celebrating. I just got a divorce settlement for Leone Murray.”
“Is that Chet Murray’s wife?”
“Ex-wife. For a while there, it looked as though he was going to hang tough, but I figured he was bluffing. As it turns out, he was desperate to keep the plantation out of her hands. He didn’t want to risk going to trial because he knew she could tie it up, if not actually get partial ownership. So he settled for a big chunk of cash. It was a real big chunk. I never realized until this case how producing sugarcane could be so profitable.”
“Ever since I was a kid,” Laura said, “I can remember the plantation owners complaining about how much money they were lo
sing each year. They were always borrowing money from the state, or asking for price supports, or screaming about keeping import quotas and telling everyone the wolf was at the door. I could never figure out how they stayed in business. Somehow they did. Year after year they seemed to hang on while always showing a loss.”
Bill snorted. “I’d settle for losing money that way any time. At least I got a cut out of it with this divorce, but just before the wolf did finally show up. More and more of the sugar mills are closing. Even so, the owners aren’t hurting. They still own plenty of land. They’re raising macnuts instead, or selling the land off at high prices to developers. One of my problems was trying to figure out just how much Chet had, but that was easy compared to the problems I had trying to keep Leone from blowing the whole thing.
“Was she ever mad at old Chet! Wowie! She wanted a pound of flesh as part of the settlement. She also went into considerable detail about what part of his anatomy she wanted to remove the pound from. I managed to convince her if she ever went into court and testified, the judge would probably feel sorry for Chet and whittle her portion down to a sliver. After a hell of a lot of arguing, she settled for one, great big piece of cash. I did all right, even though for a while there I was afraid I had a tiger by the tail. It was well worth the hassle, though. You should switch over to divorce cases. Then you could eat here anytime.”
“No, thanks. Having to listen to all the bitching and squabbling would be too much for me. I’ll settle for the lunchroom at the courthouse.”
Bill wrinkled his nose in distaste. “You’ll change your mind after tasting what they have to offer here. If I ate here regularly, I’d double my weight in a couple of months. There’s no such danger at the courthouse cafeteria.”
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