“You can’t go back there. And besides, with the way things are going with my marriage, I may have to start looking for a roommate myself.”
We sat in companionable silence for a long minute before Steve put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want to get in the way of you guys working things out.”
I was surprised to feel tears building in my eyes and swiped away one that threatened to break free and head down my cheek.
“You’re not in the way, Steve. In fact, there’s nothing I’d like better than having you here. I don’t want to go through this alone.”
That night I didn’t sleep much. I spent equal time wondering how I could get past the sticker on the Palace of Pain door and fretting over Finn’s shocking conversation with Ono about finding a divorce lawyer. There wasn’t much I could do about my marriage until my husband came home, but I was determined to obey my sifu’s request and get my hands on the contents of that drawer.
In an ironic twist, I recalled something Sifu Doug had said to me at a tournament where I faced a formidable foe. “Balance what you can control against what you can’t and then use your mind to tip the scales in your favor.” At first I thought he was encouraging me to cheat, but Doug would never suggest that. Then I got it. Focus on what is possible and disregard the impossible.
It was time to focus.
***
I hopped out of bed with new resolve. Even though I couldn’t immediately get my hands on the contents of the bottom drawer, there were other avenues to explore. Doug and Lani’s kids had been in the house watching everything that led up to their mother’s death. Maybe they’d be willing to talk. I wasn’t close to the kids, but I’d been around them enough as they were growing up to be considered a friend of the family.
Douglas Jr., who was called “DJ,” was fourteen. Well, maybe he was fifteen. I wasn’t exactly sure whether his birthday was in June or September. His younger sister, Maia, was thirteen. I remembered her birthday because Lani had thrown her a “come one, come all” blowout party when she’d become a teenager in March.
I was pretty sure the kids were staying at Lani’s sister’s place in Haiku, but I didn’t want to show up there without being certain. I drove to the Gadda to confirm my hunch.
“Yeah, they’re hangin’ out at Kaili’s,” Farrah said. “Bummed out, for sure. They came in yesterday and I gave ‘em a cookie like I do with small-kid keiki. The girl was as pale as the ghost in my back yard. Speakin’ of which, you still coming tomorrow?”
I mentally scrambled to recall the date and what I’d offered to do. “Tomorrow’s Friday, right?”
“Uh-huh. You said you’d be there.”
“Of course. What time?”
“Two o’clock. And not island time, real time. The kahu wants to catch the four o’clock back to the Big Island.”
Ah, yes, the house blessing. “I’ll be there.”
We hugged and I headed over to my shop to call Lani’s sister, Kaili. I practiced a few lines before I made the call, hoping to avoid coming across as ghoulish or snoopy.
She answered on the second ring.
“Aloha, Kaili. This is Pali Moon.” I’d decided I wouldn’t tack on “…a friend of Doug’s” since I wasn’t sure of Kaili’s stance on her brother-in-law’s guilt or innocence.
“Yeah, I ‘member you from Maia’s party.”
“I wanted to call and tell you how sorry I am for your loss. It’s been a horrible week.”
“Mahalo. No kidding. I got Lani’s kids here. They’re in shock.”
“We’re all in shock.” I let it hang, hoping she’d weigh in on Doug’s plight.
“You train over at Doug’s place, don’t you?”
“I do.” The conversation was growing more awkward with each passing second.
“These poor keiki are gonna be like orphans, you know? I mean, if Doug did what he said he did he’s goin’ to prison forever and a day. So these kids got nobody, eh.”
Time to pull off the Band-Aid. “Do you think he did it?”
“Don’t matter what I think. What matters is the truth.”
“I’m trying to get to the truth, Kaili. Would you mind if I came over and talked to the kids?”
An uncomfortable pause was followed by Kaili clearing her throat. “Why you think you can do better’n the cops? That’s their job, not yours.”
“I realize that, but I’m worried about Doug’s confession.”
“What about it? You think they forced him to say stuff?”
“Look, I’m only about ten minutes away. Can I come over so we can talk about this? I’d really appreciate getting your take on things.”
She reluctantly agreed to see me and I sprinted out to my car.
Kaili’s property was only a few blocks from Farrah and Ono’s place. I wondered if Kaili had ever seen the cane worker ghost or if the dude only haunted believers like Farrah. The neighborhood had a rural feel, with knee-high grass separating the street from the most of the small plantation-style homes. Every now and then, I saw a cow or a goat in a front yard trying its best to keep the vegetation in check. But from the looks of things, flora was getting the better of fauna in almost all instances.
I checked the house number on the mailbox and pulled into the gravel driveway. As I approached the house, I gasped and an eerie sense of déjà vu caused my hands to grow slippery on the steering wheel. A much fatter version of Leilani Kanekoa, Doug’s wife, was standing in the driveway. She gestured for me to park near the free-standing garage.
I parked and got out.
“Aloha,” I said tentatively.
“Aloha, I’m Kaili.” She stuck out her hand.
We shook. “Are you Lani’s twin? You look so much like her.”
“Yeah. I thought you knew. This makes it real hard for me, you know? It’s like we shared everything. When we were keiki, our mom dressed us the same to fool people. But it didn’t work. I always been bigger than her, eh?”
“Again, I’m so sorry for your loss. Your sister was a wonderful person.”
She nodded. “I know. She was always way nicer than me. I got the ali’i body and she got the skinny. I pro’bly got a little hard feelings about that.”
She didn’t make a move to go into the house. “I met you here because there’s somethin’ you need to know.”
“Okay.”
“I haven’t told the kids about Doug saying he did it.”
“But it’s been all over the news.”
“Yeah well, we don’t have cable or nuthin’.. And I made them turn off their phones. I told ‘em we don’t get cell coverage out here, which is sorta true since service is pretty bad. But mostly I don’t want them getting worked up over stuff they might see.”
“I understand.”
“So when you see them, don’t say nuthin’ about what’s goin’ on.”
“I won’t. Would you like me to tell you what I want to talk to them about?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, I would.”
“I just want their take on how things were at the house last weekend. I’d like to know if they saw or heard anything unusual or troubling.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all I plan to ask. My pretense for being here is to offer condolences and ask if there’s anything I can do to help. You know, pick up their homework at school or whatever.”
“What if they ask about their dad? They know you’re his friend.”
“How’ve you handled it so far?”
“I told ‘em he’s taking it real hard and needed some time alone. And I said he was getting stuff ready for the funeral.”
“When is the funeral?”
She shook her head. “Beats me. The cops haven’t released her body. And I guess we’re all kinda waitin’ to see what happens with Doug.”
At that point, DJ came out of the front door. He stood on the porch, arms crossed, glaring down at us.
I waved. “Aloha, DJ. It’s me, Pali.”
“I know
who you are.”
“I came by to say how sorry I am, and to ask if you needed anything.”
His face clouded. “I need somebody to take me serious.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, I need somebody to listen and stop treating me like a dumb-ass kid.”
He clattered down the porch steps and stomped over to us in four long strides.
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“It’s my fault my mom’s dead.” His face twisted into a mask of despair and he fell against me with such force it took everything I had to stay upright.
CHAPTER 17
Kaili patted DJ’s back as we half-dragged, half-pushed him up the porch stairs. His loud shuddering sobs echoed through the stillness of the pastoral neighborhood like ricocheting gunshots. I’m not a big fan of emotional displays of any sort and this was the most raucous I’d witnessed in a very long time.
“Can I get him anything?” I said to Kaili, hoping she’d send me on an errand that would last long enough for DJ to get a grip. “Maybe a glass of water or something?”
“Don’t go,” he wailed. “I need to tell you.”
We plopped him down on a wooden glider, the kind that can hold two people if one of them isn’t a three-hundred pound bruddah. Luckily, DJ was one of those wiry kids who looked like his adolescent growth spurt had focused more on height than girth.
Kaili released her grasp of his shoulder. “You sit here with him. I’ll get the water.”
As the screen door banged shut, DJ sat up straighter and the sobbing ebbed as he gulped air like a mahi-mahi flopping around on the deck of a boat.
“I don’t want my auntie to hear this,” he gasped. “She’ll never forgive me.”
“Go ahead. Tell me.” My terse tone shocked even me. Maybe it was divine providence I wasn’t destined to have kids. I’m not exactly mother-of-the-year material, especially when it comes to dealing with touchy-feely stuff.
“My mom and dad were fighting on Sunday,” he said. “All because of me.”
He expelled a loud breath and continued, “On Saturday my friend, Snags, was at our house and I told him my dad had been an Army Ranger.”
“Snags?” It came out unbidden. I’d meant to keep quiet and let DJ tell his story, but the idea of someone naming a child “Snags” got the better of me. I guess I have a weird fixation on the whole baby naming thing.
“Yeah, that’s not his real name. I think his actual name is Sam or Stan, or something like that, but all us kids call him Snags.”
“Okay, sorry for the interruption. Go on.”
“Anyway, Snags called me a liar. He said if I didn’t prove it he’d tell everyone I was a lying sack of, uh, well, you know.”
“The dude sounds like a real jerk.”
“He’s more than a jerk, he’s a…well, I’m not supposed to say words like that in front of an auntie like you.” He smiled and I saw Doug all over his face.
I smiled back. “It’s okay. I get what you mean. What happened then?”
“My dad was out back and I asked him if he’d show us his gun. The one he got when he was an Army Ranger.”
I gave enough of a nod for him to continue.
“He said it was locked up but since I was fifteen now he thought it was time for me to learn about firearm safety. He went inside and got the gun and brought it out to show us.”
He took a shuddering breath and went on. “When my mom saw us out there with the gun she went ballistic. I mean, she totally freaked. She started screaming at my dad and me and then she told Snags to go home and never come back. Stuff like that.”
He pressed his lips tightly together as he apparently relived the shock and embarrassment. I took it as an opportunity to jump in. “Was this something your mom did a lot?”
“What? You mean, freak out?”
“Yeah.”
“She never used to. She was always pretty nice, you know? My dad was the one you didn’t want to get mad. He has this look he gives you…”
I’d seen the look. I nodded in solidarity.
“Anyway, lately my mom had been losing it more and more. Like she was tired of being our mom or something. About a week ago she got real mad at my sister and she cut up Maia’s favorite bathing suit into little pieces. Then she started laughing real scary-like. She sounded like a witch or something. It was totally nuts. Dad came home and told us not to tell anybody about it. It was like he was embarrassed for her.”
Again he paused as if reflecting on the situation. I let the pause drag on until it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything more.
“Okay, I get that your mom was really mad at your dad about the gun. But how does that make what happened your fault?”
His face screwed up like a toddler about to launch into a crying jag. “Don’t you see? I’m the one who got my dad to take the gun out of the safe. If I hadn’t been bragging to Snags about my old man being a Ranger then my dad’s gun would’ve been locked up and that intruder guy wouldn’t have been able to shoot my mom.”
He took a heaving breath. Then, in a tiny voice he said, “You don’t think my dad shot my mom, do you? Nobody’s telling us anything but I can’t help wonder. He was real pissed at her. In fact, he asked our neighbor if me and Maia could stay at their place that night. He told her he needed some alone time with my mom.”
I looked over and saw Kaili standing on the other side of the screen door, water glass in hand. I couldn’t be certain of how long she’d been there or how much she’d overheard, but I was pretty sure even if she’d only heard the last few sentences she was probably thinking the same thing I was thinking.
Kaili came outside and handed DJ the water. Then she told him he could go inside and play Xbox games.
“Doesn’t sound good, does it?” she said once he was out of earshot.
I contemplated telling her about Doug’s jailhouse request and getting her take on what might be in that drawer, but decided to wait. My planned break-in was something I didn’t want spread far and wide. It was bad enough I’d blabbed to Doug’s lawyer.
“When did you pick up the kids?”
“Early Monday morning. Doug called and said they were at the neighbor’s but she didn’t want to keep them any longer. Thank God they weren’t home when their mother was killed.”
“Do you know Doug’s neighbor?”
“You mean Ami Tanaka? I know her a little. She’s good friends with my sister even though her kids are grown and gone.”
“I’d like to talk to her.”
She shot me a wry smile. “Don’t know how much good it’d do. I’m sure the cops have already grilled her six ways to Sunday.”
“I’m sure they have. But I have a couple things I’d like to clear up.”
I drove to Pukalani to see if Ami Tanaka was at home and if she’d talk to me. The small brown house looked forlorn with closed drapes and no car in the driveway. Bright yellow crime tape still fluttered outside Doug and Lani’s next door. I hoped Ami was home but I was prepared to leave a note if she wasn’t. I’d considered calling, but decided against it. It’s harder to blow someone off when they’re standing right in front of you.
I knocked and a tall, thin woman with gray hair pulled into a tight ponytail answered the door. She looked to be fifty, maybe sixty, but I’m not good at judging the age of women who adhere to the hippie lifestyle this woman appeared to embrace. At the door I saw an assortment of plastic Croc shoes in what Steve would’ve referred to as “clown colors,” bright lime green, fuchsia and neon orange. She wore a calf-length skirt made from Indian print material that reminded me of the coverlet on Farrah’s bed. On top she wore a thin used-to-be-red T-shirt that clearly advertised her disdain for undergarments. I flashed on that old joke about the woman who said when she was young she got a rose tattoo on her breast and now it’s long-stemmed.
“Aloha. Can I help you?” she said in a voice that echoed my dear Auntie Mana’s soft volume and cadence.
“Aloha, auntie.�
� I wasn’t being presumptuous. In Hawaii we tend to address kindly-looking older women as “auntie,” regardless of familial relationship. In the past couple of years I’ve even been called it a couple of times. I must admit it’s kind of startling the first time you’re called it, since it signals a certain age difference, but at thirty-six I couldn’t deny I was decidedly on the cusp of “auntie-ness.”
“I’m a friend of Doug and Lani Kanekoa.” I nodded toward the house next door.
The woman’s eyes flashed a note of distress.
“I just talked with DJ and he told me he and Maia stayed here on Sunday night, but their aunt picked them up the next morning. Can you tell me why they were only here the one night?”
I’ve never been good with couching things in politically correct language. In fact, I’ve been called blunt, abrasive, and occasionally even rude. I’ve worked on it since it’s a handicap in my line of work, but I still struggle with using euphemisms like “passed away” or “crossed over” to describe death. I mean, dead is dead, right?
She didn’t appear to take offense. “Ah, you’ll have to ask my sister-in-law about that. She lives here. I’m Shirley, over from Honolulu. We got the whole ‘ohana here for Ami’s birthday on Monday. Ami had to go to the store, but she’ll be back in a while.”
“Have you heard what happened next door?”
She bowed her head. “Very sad. Ami doesn’t seem to want to talk about it much. I know she was close to the family.”
“So, she hasn’t discussed it with you?”
“Not much. It happened on her birthday, you know? But I know she’s upset with the police.”
I screwed up my face in an attempt to encourage her to elaborate. “Yeah, she says they’ve got it all wrong. She’s an early riser and she claims she saw the woman that very morning.”
“Did she also see the husband?”
“Not sure about that. You’ll have to ask her.”
CHAPTER 18
Over a dinner of Steve’s go-to dish, veggie stir-fry, I told him what I’d learned that day from DJ and Doug’s neighbor’s sister-in-law. I recounted how DJ had cajoled his dad into showing his friend his handgun, and how DJ felt responsible for his mother’s death as a result of it. Then I recalled how the kids had been shuttled off to the neighbor’s house so Doug and Lani could hash out whatever was going on between them and then how, the next morning, the neighbor recalled seeing Lani before she died.
Isle Be Seeing You (Islands of Aloha Mystery Book 9) Page 12
