Banana Split

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “Why?”

  “Just ’cause,” she said with a smile and a shrug like it was no big deal.

  He scrambled out of the car, and they headed to the pier. When they arrived, Sadie stopped and took a deep breath as she stared at the water. This pier was wider than the others she’d encountered and probably had steel beams holding it to the ocean floor. It was safe and secure.

  “Auntie?”

  Sadie looked at Charlie in surprise at the unfamiliar greeting. She’d heard other women called that, but no one had ever addressed her with the informal endearment. She liked hearing it, though; she liked that Charlie would use it for her.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Sadie smiled. “I don’t like the water very much,” she admitted. “It scares me.”

  “It’s just water,” Charlie said.

  Sadie chose to borrow some of his bravery. She put out her hand. “I know you’re too big to hold hands, but I’m not.”

  He frowned at her hand, but took it reluctantly. Sadie gave his hand a squeeze and finally felt capable of stepping onto the dock. It didn’t shift beneath her feet, and she felt better.

  She began reading signs that directed her to the right section of slips. The sky was the color of orange sherbet as the sun set, warning Sadie she didn’t have much time if she wanted a decent picture. The motion of the waves against the side of the stationary dock gave her a sense of vertigo. She held on tighter to Charlie’s hand.

  There was a locked door with metal grating around it to keep the slips secure, but when a man came out talking on his cell phone, Sadie told Charlie to run forward and catch the door before it closed. He was fast and nearly silent; the man didn’t even notice. That boy could get himself all over the island—catching a door was elementary.

  Sadie looked around to make sure no one was watching them. A few people were around, but they were all involved in their own activities and paying no mind to the haole lady and her little brown companion.

  The boat slips were basically slots cut into an extra-wide pier, providing docking access on three sides of the boats, which were backed into each slip. Black numbers were painted on a three-foot cylinder at the head of each slip; most of the cylinders had hoses coiled around the base.

  “Eighteen, nineteen, twenty,” she muttered, counting them off as she moved down the dock. Most of the slips were occupied with some type of watercraft, everything from small speedboats to larger boats that seemed to be a tight fit. “Twenty-one, twenty-two.” She stopped and stared at the numbers on the cylinder, afraid to look at the boat itself. “Twenty-three.”

  She lifted her head and looked at the blue-and-white boat gently shifting on the small waves within the inlet. The name Serenity was spelled out in flowing silver letters on the back of the boat and seemed to hypnotize her. There was no “serenity” in any of this, but this was the boat Bets had described, this was the boat Noelani had been thrown into and possibly out of three weeks ago.

  “This is Nat’s boat.”

  Sadie’s stomach sank as she looked over her shoulder at Charlie. Maybe she should have left him in the car after all. She didn’t want to know it was Nat’s boat, even though she’d suspected it since learning about the game Noelani had played with her son in order to listen into Nat’s phone call. He must have said something about a time when he would be at Ho’oka Beach.

  Sadie imagined Noelani processing whatever she’d overheard as she got ready for her shift that night. Maybe she considered calling the cops but rejected it based on the last meeting she’d had with them. Plus, she’d want to know whatever she overheard was valid before going to the police.

  Sadie imagined Noelani working and watching the clock, knowing she would miss her chance if she didn’t act. The choice may have been a split-second one. She called Kiki but didn’t want to tell her what she was doing in case it was nothing. She called Bets for directions. She bought the coffee on her way out of town so she wouldn’t forget, and maybe as a way to tell herself that she was on a fool’s errand and that she’d be back at the motel in no time, feeling silly for overreacting.

  “Auntie?”

  Sadie forced a smile at Charlie. “I just need to take a quick picture.”

  Why would Nat have a boat like this anyway? Maybe it wasn’t his boat at all and Charlie was mistaken somehow. She could be jumping to conclusions.

  Charlie pointed to a triangular flag attached to the stern. It had black-and-yellow zebra stripes. “That flag used to be on my bike, but my friend Rhett said it looked like a girl flag so I didn’t want it no more. Nat didn’t think it was girly, though.”

  Sadie felt her stomach drop even further. Nat was involved. A sense of urgency sent her scrambling for Gayle’s phone in her bag. She tried to figure out how to use the camera and tried not to imagine Noelani’s crumpled body lying inside the boat.

  Sadie finally got the camera figured out and had lined up the shot when Charlie jumped onto the boat as though he’d done it a hundred times, which he likely had.

  “Charlie,” Sadie scolded, finishing the picture and dropping the phone back into her bag before moving toward him. She immediately saw the water within the slip and pulled her hand back, afraid she might lose her balance and fall in. “Come back here. We’re not getting on the boat right now. It’s time to go.”

  Charlie looked at her from where he stood on the back of the boat. “Why did we come here then?”

  “Uh,” Sadie said, not wanting to tell him. “Just come with me, okay.” Sadie stepped as close to the edge of the dock as she dared and held out her hand again. The water seemed dark and menacing, and her breathing became shallow. “Come on,” she said. “Please.”

  Charlie looked confused, then turned his back to her and headed toward the bow. “Do you think my mom came on this boat? Did Nat give her a ride somewheres?”

  Sadie swallowed, then she took a deep breath before stepping onto the boat, immediately grabbing the railing on either side of the step-in with both hands. The boat shifted beneath her weight, and she felt sure it was going to flip over completely. She didn’t breathe again until she was all the way in the boat, trying to calm her heart rate by taking deep breaths. She couldn’t see Charlie anywhere. There was a covered driving area toward the closed bow with seats on either side of a narrow set of steps that led down to an open door.

  “Charlie,” she said, using a softer tone since her sharp one hadn’t worked. She headed for the stairs, holding on to something with every step she took even though the boat barely moved beneath her. “We shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe.”

  Charlie didn’t answer her, and she headed down the steps and ducked to enter the narrow cabin door. The cabin consisted of cushioned seats set up in a horseshoe around the wall of the boat. The seats were piled with fishing equipment, life jackets, and some articles of clothing. Charlie stood in the middle of the cabin, holding a cell phone in his hands. It was purple and black. He looked up at Sadie with a hopeful expression on his face.

  “She was here,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “Maybe Nat knows where she went!”

  Sadie didn’t know what to say; she’d say anything if it meant getting Charlie off this boat. Yes, his mother had been on this boat, but not like he thought.

  “That’s your mom’s phone?” Sadie asked once she found her voice.

  Charlie nodded, a huge grin on his face. “It was right here.” He pointed toward a box of what looked like odds and ends on one of the seats. “I bet Nat gave her a ride or something.”

  Chapter 45

  Let’s go ask him about it,” Sadie said, waving toward the door, her heart in her throat. “If we hurry maybe—”

  The boat rocked slightly, and a moment later Sadie heard a voice. “—yeah. Midnight pick up. Quadrant six,” the voice said. Nat’s voice. Was someone with him?

  Charlie looked even more hopeful and took a step toward the cabin door. Sadie grabbed him, put a hand over his mouth, and pulled him to the side of the
door where she peered out between the hinges. Nat’s back was toward the cabin. He was alone but still talking. He must have had a Bluetooth earpiece or something because both of his hands were free as he stowed a bag under one of the seats near the back. Charlie started wiggling.

  “Charlie,” she whispered right in his ear, causing him to go still in order to hear what she had to say. “You have got to trust me right now and stay still. Please. I’ve helped you every way I can, and I promise you that I’m helping you now. Please stop fighting me.”

  He stayed still, but she knew he wasn’t convinced.

  “Yeah, just grabbing a few things now,” Nat said, turning toward the front of the boat.

  She hoped his comment meant he wasn’t staying on the boat. If that were the case, she and Charlie could just wait until he left and then get off the boat. Confronting Nat, especially with Noelani’s phone in Charlie’s hand, wasn’t safe.

  “No crazy wahines this trip,” Nat said. “You can bet if one shows up I’ll take her farther out to sea so she doesn’t come in with the tide this time. . . . Who’d have thought they’d ever find her, yeah? I’ve got to get this run over with quick, the 5-O are looking for Charlie. . . . Right. . . . I know it’s important or I wouldn’t be doing it. . . . Yeah, it’s my last run. . . . Just time to move on is all. . . . Six bags? You’ll be at Malai’i to pick up? . . . Good. . . . Yeah. Nobody’s camping out there right now . . . the road is really bad. . . . Just get there early enough to take it slow.”

  She felt Charlie stiffen. How much did he understand? She removed her hand, looking at his scared face in the fading light that was coming through the windows at the top of the cabin. She feared he understood more than she would have liked. She put her finger to her lips and he nodded slightly, then she turned back to the door, and, while Nat’s back was to them, she slowly closed the door until it rested against the doorframe. She didn’t dare risk it clicking into place.

  “I’m on it, brah,” Nat said, his voice muted through the door.

  With the door mostly shut, Sadie hurried the two steps across the cabin toward Charlie, taking him by his shoulders. Words were at a premium. “We’re going to wait for Nat to leave,” she whispered. “And then we’ll get off the boat so we can talk about this, okay?” She prayed that Nat was getting off the boat. His phone call didn’t give her much hope, but she couldn’t conceive of what she’d do if he went out to sea.

  They moved to an empty section of the seats, and Sadie held him close to her, the fear stretching between them as they waited for the vibrations of Nat’s footsteps to disappear, proof that he’d left the boat.

  As quiet and careful as she could, Sadie took Gayle’s phone out of her bag and sent the picture of the boat to her phone. The phone made a beep when the message was sent, and Sadie spent another precious minute figuring out how to turn off the sound. In case the police had taken her phone from Gayle, she also texted Pete, explaining it was Sadie, not Gayle, and that she was in a boat docked in Slip 23 at Nawiliwili Harbor and asking him to tell the Lihue police . . . quick.

  A moment later, Sadie’s worst fear was realized. The engine growled to life, and the boat began moving forward slowly. Time to come up with a new plan. Charlie started to shake and tremble against her. Sadie dropped the phone back in her bag, smoothed his hair, and shushed him. They nearly lost their balance when the boat turned. Charlie held on to her, and she moved with him, willing him to calm down. It seemed like a very long time before he finally did. By then the boat had picked up speed, and Sadie felt sure they were heading toward open water.

  Charlie pulled back and looked toward the door. “I want to go home,” he whispered. “I want CeeCee.”

  “For now we need to stay here, okay, and be quiet.”

  “We can jump off,” he said quietly. “I’m a good swimmer.”

  Nausea enveloped Sadie, and she shook her head quickly. “We’ll just wait,” she whispered, hoping that the messy cabin meant that Nat didn’t come down here very often.

  “Will Nat . . . hurt us?”

  Nat had said he and Charlie were brothers. Charlie must be so confused. “If we don’t bother him, he’ll never know we’re here,” Sadie said.

  But what if he came down? Sadie moved Charlie off the bench they were sitting on and pulled up one of the cushions. It lifted in her hand like a lid, and she peered in to see that the compartment was full of more boat gear—life jackets, a tarp, and some lightweight fishing net made from string. She started pulling the items out one by one and putting them on the floor. It was getting dark, and she’d soon be out of light. She reached a child-sized life jacket and waved Charlie to come over from where he stood a few feet away, watching her.

  “Let’s put this on you,” she whispered.

  Charlie shook his head, looking at the darkening windows. “I can swim.”

  “You should always wear a life jacket on a boat,” Sadie whispered, already sliding it over his arms. “Just in case.”

  “But I don’t—”

  She gave him a “don’t argue with me” look, and to her relief, he stopped. She helped him buckle the jacket, then instructed him to climb into the compartment she’d emptied.

  “Will Nat hurt me?” he whispered again as she helped him step inside.

  “People do strange things when they’re surprised.” She thought of Noelani confronting Nat in the parking lot of Ho’oka Beach, a surprise that had led to Noelani’s death. When Charlie was situated inside the storage area, Sadie stuffed a few of the life jackets around him, asking if he were comfortable. He shook his head, and she realized that was a silly question to ask.

  “Don’t close me in,” he whispered loudly, sounding frightened at the prospect.

  He’d be safer if she could cover him, but she couldn’t imagine shutting herself into a box like that so she grabbed a towel from the cushions. She was about to drape it over him when she noticed a dark stain on one end of it. She pulled it closer to her face and felt a new wave of nausea as she threw it to the side. She couldn’t say it was blood, but what if it were? She picked up a different towel and inspected it before draping it over Charlie, making him look like a pile of clothing. She kept the towel off his face but instructed him to pull it over himself if he needed to hide. He nodded.

  “Where are you going to hide?” Charlie asked.

  Sadie looked around the small space and forced a smile. “I’m too big,” she whispered. “But I know karate so I’m okay.”

  “You do?” he breathed with a touch of awe.

  Sadie nodded and pantomimed some standard moves. He had managed a smile by the time she finished. She winked at him in the increasing darkness. “I’m going to look around,” she said, nodding toward the small windows that let in the last of the light of what had likely been a spectacular sunset—every sunset was spectacular here.

  Charlie nodded, and she carefully made her way around the horseshoe of padded seats, moving things out of the way in order to open the bins and inspecting all the items she came across. In the box where Charlie had said he’d found Noelani’s phone, Sadie found a stack of papers. She had to hold them close to the window to see what they were, but she was able to identify a map of the ocean, with little squares drawn and labeled with letters and numbers Sadie assumed were longitude and latitude lines. A few of the squares were highlighted.

  Sadie wished she knew how to make sense of it all, but she guessed the map might mean more to someone with more knowledge than she had. What she could determine was that Nat used his boat for something Sadie feared was illegal. In case the papers might make sense to someone else, she folded them up and slipped them into her bra, making sure Charlie didn’t see her.

  The motor on the boat stopped, creating near silence save for the waves lapping at the sides of the boat. She’d been able to ignore the fact that she was separated from the depths of the ocean by thin sheets of metal and fiberglass, but hearing the water so close made her stomach tighten. She initiated her breat
hing exercises as she tried to push away the thoughts of Noelani’s hair flowing with the current. She stopped when she felt the vibration of footsteps on the deck.

  “Why did we stop?” Charlie whispered from his hiding place.

  “Shh,” Sadie said, watching the door as the steps continued. With the boat at a standstill, Nat didn’t need to stay in the driver’s seat. Sadie moved carefully toward the area behind the small door. In case he opened it, she’d be hidden and perhaps he wouldn’t realize she was there. Maybe he wouldn’t come down, though. Maybe she had nothing to worry about.

  The first footfall on the steps leading to the cabin seemed to stop her heart, then it raced ahead to make up for the lost beat.

  Nat fairly skipped down the other two steps, throwing open the door. He turned on a small light and began shuffling through a box. Sadie knew she wasn’t fully hidden by the door, and the bright pink and blue of her muumuu would easily attract his attention if he looked her way. Charlie worried her more, though, and she hoped he’d stay quiet and still.