Death by Trial and Error (A Legal Suspense Short)

by R. Barri Flowers

  "As I said, I have no problem with your fees, if it means getting to the bottom of why my sister lost her life."

  Naku knew he couldn't guarantee results, but he told her sincerely, "I'll do my best to find the answers you're looking for."

  Kathryn pulled out her checkbook and wrote a check, handing it to him. "That should cover a week and any added expenses."

  "Indeed," Naku told her after gazing at the check. "Mahalo."

  "Thank you for taking the case," she told him, then dug in her handbag and pulled out a card containing her address and cell phone number. "Please keep me informed as to what you learn."

  "I will," he promised, meeting her lovely eyes.

  She stood. "I better go."

  Naku rose and walked her to the outer door, when curiosity got the better of him. "By the way, who referred you to me anyway?" He would be sure to thank the person.

  Kathryn looked him straight in the eye. "Why it was Lieutenant Ortega of the Maui Police Department."

  Naku nodded with a smile. He and Ortega had worked together during his days on the force and were on good terms. Still, it wasn't every day that the man sent business his way. Why?

  He showed Kathryn out just as Vanna stepped out of her office. "Looks like we've got ourselves a client," she said.

  "Yeah, I'd say so," Naku responded.

  "And she's a hot lady too," Vanna said with a wink. "I hope you'll be able to concentrate on the investigation."

  He grinned, conceding that Kathryn was definitely his type. But then, so was Gayle. He wasn't too picky about women, as long as they were energetic and fun loving.

  However, Kathryn Higuchi had hired him to do a job and that had to come first.

  "I think I can manage," he said, "with your help of course."

  "That's what you pay me for," she said dryly.

  "You can earn your keep by getting me everything you can find regarding Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau's murder as well as the lady herself."

  "Will do." She looked at him. "What are you going to do now?"

  "I think I'll pay Lieutenant Ortega a visit to see if he can fill in some blanks for me," Naku told her thoughtfully.

  Chapter Two

  The Maui Police Department was located in Wailuku, the county seat of Maui County. Eddie Naku felt at home and a little weird at the same time as he made his way through the corridors, speaking briefly with ex-colleagues, en route to the office of Lieutenant Paul Ortega.

  He came to a halt as homicide detective Leila Kahana blocked his path.

  "What brings you back here, Naku?" she asked.

  He grinned, recalling their brief fling back in the day, before both wisely realized they weren't right for each other. "I came to see Lieutenant Ortega," he told her.

  "Oh?" Her lashes fluttered. "Anything I might be interested in?"

  He imagined she was interested in any ongoing homicide cases for the department. "Yeah. The Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau case."

  "What's your interest in it?"

  "Her sister hired me to look into it," he said.

  "And you're seeking Ortega's permission to run with it?" Leila asked.

  He smiled. "Not exactly. But I do need to talk to him, so..."

  "So I'm slowing you down. I get it." She smiled. "I would say don't be a stranger, but something tells me you won't be."

  Naku wondered if she was coming on to him, then decided she was only being polite. "I promise I won't step on any toes," he told her, though he wasn't sure it was a promise he could keep.

  "I'll believe it when I see it," she responded, before stepping aside.

  When he reached Ortega's office, Naku found him sitting at his desk. The fifty-something lieutenant was medium build with receding gray hair and blue eyes. He was talking on the phone, clearly preoccupied. A few raps on the door got his attention. He waved him in.

  Ortega cut his conversation short. "Guess Ms. Higuchi took my advice," he said.

  "Yeah, she showed up at my office," Naku told him.

  "Did you take the case?"

  "I did." He paused. "I have to admit, though, I was a bit surprised that you sent her my way, considering it's still an active police investigation."

  Ortega smiled. "Maybe I figured that since Ms. Higuchi is beautiful, well-to-do, and divorced, she'd be right up your alley, Naku."

  "She is," he conceded. "But, then again, we are talking about her as a business client and not someone to take to bed."

  "Who says the two can't go hand in hand?" Ortega said, and grinned lasciviously. "Have a seat." He waited for Naku to sit in one of two tattered chairs in front of the desk, then got up and closed the door.

  Ortega sat back down. "You're right. The Higuchi-Bordeau case is currently being investigated by the department."

  Naku met his eyes. "So why have me run a parallel investigation?" He assumed there was a valid reason other than trying to enhance his love life.

  Ortega leaned forward. "Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau is a friend of a friend's. I want this case solved one way or the other. My detectives will do their best to bring the killer to justice but, frankly, we're spread a bit thin and I don't want to see this one dragged out. Since you're pretty good at what you do, I figured that tackling it from a different angle might get results a bit quicker."

  "I see," Naku said. It made sense to him, all things considered. And he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "What have you got on the case so far?"

  "Not much, I'm afraid," Ortega said glumly. "The slugs pulled out of the victim came from a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. I'm guessing the firearm wasn't registered, but we're trying to locate it. As far as identifying the killer, surveillance cameras at the shopping center where the murder occurred just show a grainy image of someone who appeared to be running away from the scene of the crime, apparently wearing a hoodie. We can't determine if it's a male or female. We're still reviewing security cameras from nearby businesses to see if they show anything useful."

  Naku leaned back in the chair. "What can you tell me about the three men who were questioned about the crime?"

  "They were acquaintances of Higuchi-Bordeau and her criminal defense attorney husband, Patrick Bordeau. They witnessed the shooting and have been cooperating with us. Apparently, they followed Higuchi-Bordeau from her home to the shopping center parking lot on Old Haleakala Highway. According to them, she received a phone call from someone prior to going to meet with the other victim, Tucker Matsumoto. The shooting took place shortly after the men arrived and parked nearby."

  "Did the call come from Matsumoto?" Naku asked.

  "Not according to Matsumoto. He claimed he was just there picking up a few items from the shopping center when he spotted her car."

  "Do you believe him?"

  "Not really," Ortega said. "But if he was there for something illegal, he sure as hell isn't going to admit to it. In any event, we traced the number to a burner phone."

  Figures, Naku thought. "So it's possible both she and Matsumoto could have been set up."

  "Maybe," Ortega said. "Or maybe one or both were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time."

  Naku rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Just like the men who followed her there, but somehow managed to come out of it unscathed."

  Ortega frowned. "I've thought about that, especially since none of the men have a clean rap sheet. Bordeau represented two of them—Shawn Wilkerson and Rex Lee—on illegal gun possession charges." He passed Naku a sheet of their records, which included mug shots, and then handed him a third criminal record and mug shot. "Clark Oldham has a record for dealing drugs. And Bordeau's also the attorney for Matsumoto, a smalltime illegal gun dealer, who faces similar yet unrelated charges. So far, there's no indication that any of the men at the scene of the crime, including Matsumoto, were the shooter. With nothing to hold them, we had to let them walk."

  Naku studied the rap sheets and then looked up. "How's Matsumoto doing?"

  "He'll live," Ortega said as though that w
as a bad thing.

  "You think he was the intended victim?"

  "Not necessarily. Maybe the shooter was gunning for both of them. If Matsumoto was the intended target, given his criminal activities, Mrs. Bordeau could've been killed to eliminate any witnesses—assuming the shooter was unaware that the three men were watching the whole thing unfold from another vehicle. Right now, we have to assume that Higuchi-Bordeau was also targeted, if not the primary target. By the way," Ortega added, "she had a loaded .32 caliber pistol in her purse, but it hadn't been fired."

  Naku silently mulled that over. Why would she need to carry a gun? Did she have reason to fear for her life? If so, what or who was she afraid of?

  "Have you questioned Patrick Bordeau?" he asked, assuming this had been the case.

  Ortega nodded. "We asked him to come in and he did. He answered all our questions without the presence of an attorney, other than himself."

  "I'm sure you know that my client thinks he was responsible for his wife's murder," Naku said.

  "Yeah, she mentioned that more than once," Ortega acknowledged. "Unfortunately, Bordeau has an alibi for the time of the shooting."

  "Which was...?"

  "He was working at his office. It checked out. His secretary vouched for him."

  Naku couldn't argue with the alibi, unless he was to assume that the secretary was in on the murder as well. He saw no reason to go down that road at the moment. However, murderers weren't always at the scene of the crime. It was just the opposite in many instances, with the ringleader clever enough to stay far away, but close enough to smell blood.

  "What about the substantial insurance policy he supposedly had on his wife?" Naku asked. "And the fact that he's allegedly heavily in debt. That gives him two possible reasons to want her out of the picture."

  "We're looking into both of them," Ortega said. "But, as you know, these things take time to sort out. Right now, there's no evidence that Bordeau was involved in his wife's murder for profit. The man is a well-respected attorney, and it seems like there's no shortage of low-life's with high earnings seeking his services."

  "All the more reason why he may have orchestrated his wife's murder," Naku said. "He could easily hide behind his career and let others do the dirty work for him."

  "So prove it and make my job a helluva lot easier," Ortega said bluntly.

  Naku accepted the challenge, for better or worse. He stood up. "If you get anything from the security cameras or anything else relevant to the case, let me know."

  "Will do," Ortega promised. "And if you run into any problems that don't involve breaking the law, I'm here to help."

  Naku made a note of that, wondering if he could truly count on him, even it if meant stepping on the toes of police detectives working the case. "Mahalo," he told him, before leaving.

  * * *

  Naku got in his car and called his office. "Hey, Vanna. So what do you have for me on Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau?"

  "Hang on, let me pull up the info... Mrs. Higuchi-Bordeau was thirty-seven when she died. She and Patrick Bordeau had been married for ten years. Before that, she taught grade school, but retired to become a stay-at-home-wife to an up and coming attorney. I couldn't find anything to indicate their marriage was in trouble."

  "That's not the type of thing that would necessarily be plastered all over the internet," Naku said wryly.

  "Probably not," Vanna concurred.

  "But her sister believes the marriage had problems," Naku said. "And since she's paying us, we'll have to assume all was not right behind closed doors till proven otherwise."

  "I can't argue with that," Vanna said. "After all, I've been down that road twice, with no one the wiser that my marriages were a total disaster until I was practically signing the divorce papers."

  "Well, Higuchi-Bordeau never got that chance," Naku said. "Someone took her out before she could walk away from Bordeau—if, in fact, that was her plan."

  "And I'm confident you'll get to the bottom of it," she said.

  Naku chuckled. "I'll certainly try. Did you come up with a connection between Higuchi-Bordeau and anyone else, other than her husband and the men who were at the scene of the crime?"

  "Not yet, but I'll keep looking."

  "So will I," Naku said, and then caught up on some prior business issues with her before hanging up.

  He headed home as he pondered his latest investigation. At this point, he could only wonder why Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau was killed and who might have done it or been responsible for it. He fully expected to get to the gist of it one way or the other. After all, this was how he made his living and he never liked to come up short, if only to earn his pay.

  He turned into the driveway of his Craftsman bungalow on Ipukula Way in Lahaina. It had come on the market just when he was looking to get out of his last house right after he left the police force. This one had appealed to him for its charm and the location—not too far from the hustle bustle of Front Street, yet still peaceful, laidback, and close to his office. He also liked that the backyard contained a number of fruit producing trees, including mango and papaya.

  After entering the front door, Naku headed across the hardwood floor of his Great Room and went straight to the kitchen. There, he opened the refrigerator and took out a beer. After guzzling down a generous amount, he changed into a tee shirt and shorts before heading to his exercise room for a workout.

  Later, he called Gayle and got her voicemail after several rings. He figured that meant she was still pissed and didn't want to talk to him. It was something he would have to live with, while hoping they could at least stay friends at the end of the day.

  In the meantime, he had a case to keep him occupied and a dead woman whose sister wanted to keep her alive, in a manner of speaking.

  * * *

  The following morning, Naku decided to pay Patrick Bordeau a visit at his office in Kahului, where the island's main airport and the Kahului Harbor were located. Bordeau's office was in a complex on East Wakea Avenue.

  Naku took the stairs to the second floor and spotted the print on a door, which read: The Law Office of Patrick L. Bordeau. He opened it and went inside.

  A young woman with short blonde hair sat at a desk in the lobby. "Can I help you?" she asked.

  "I'm here to see Mr. Bordeau," Naku told her, noting from the name plate on her desk that she was Tanya Johansson.

  "Do you have an appointment?"

  "No, but it is important that I speak to him," he stressed.

  Just then, a salt and pepper haired, tall, trim, well-dressed man came out of an office. He seemed preoccupied, but stopped in his tracks as his deep blue eyes locked with Naku's eyes.

  "He would like to talk to you, Mr. Bordeau, but doesn't have an appointment," the secretary said apologetically.

  While her boss considered this, Naku seized the moment and stuck out his hand. "My name's Eddie Naku."

  Bordeau gave him a wary look, but shook his hand. "How can I help you, Mr. Naku?"

  "I'm a private investigator looking into your wife's murder..." Naku watched as surprise—or perhaps it was ill at ease—registered on his face.

  Bordeau sucked in a breath and turned to his secretary. "Hold my calls." He regarded Naku. "Why don't we go into my office and talk?"

  Naku followed him into the large office with a big window that overlooked palm trees and a pond. Bordeau closed the door and rounded on him.

  "My wife's death is a police matter!"

  "It's also an unsolved case, and sometimes private detectives can achieve better results," Naku pointed out.

  Bordeau's thick brows drew together. "Who hired you?"

  "Your sister-in-law, Kathryn Higuchi."

  "I should have guessed as much." He bristled. "So Kathryn decided to hire an investigator to look into Suzette's death? Well, I'm afraid you're just wasting your time and her money."

  "Maybe," Naku allowed. "Or maybe not. The point is, your wife is dead, and her killer is still at large. I woul
d think you'd want to move heaven and earth to bring such person to justice."

  "Of course I would." Bordeau's face softened. "I've already told the police everything I know."

  Naku couldn't help but think that he was holding back. For what reason? "Why would your wife meet with a known illegal gun dealer? And why were those other men—two of whom are clients of yours with criminal records—there?"

  Bordeau sighed. "Suzette went to meet with Tucker Matsumoto to try to collect money he owed us for the sale of some weapons I owned. It was a perfectly legitimate transaction, I assure you. As for Matsumoto being a known illegal gun dealer, as you put it, that hasn't been proven. The other men are indeed my clients and had come to my house for legal advice. They offered to follow Suzette to the meeting place in order to protect her from any harm that might come from street hoodlums who are known to prowl that area."

  "Right. And how did that work out for her?" Naku asked sarcastically.

  "Not very well," he acknowledged. "But that doesn't mean the attack had anything to do with Suzette's purpose for being there—or the men who were present, no matter their background or present circumstances."

  Naku gave him a direct look. "From what I understand, your clients never bothered to call 911. Instead, they drove around with your wife and a seriously wounded Matsumoto for a while before going to the hospital. That probably cost your wife her life," he added, if only to make a point.

  Bordeau frowned. "They told me Suzette was dead before they put her in the vehicle, and the autopsy seems to back it up. My clients admitted they panicked out of fear that they would be charged with the crime. Fortunately for them, the authorities didn't pursue that angle and are looking for the real killer now."

  "Who do you think murdered your wife?" Naku asked pointblank, while wondering if this could possibly have anything to do with his alleged love life outside the marriage.

  "I have no idea," Bordeau said as he ran a hand across his mouth. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was someone who had it in for Tucker Matsumoto, and Suzette was caught in the crossfire."

  "So you're saying that Matsumoto has enemies?" Naku asked.