The Howling Cliffs

by Mary Deal

  “After her husband died, she moved away unexpectedly.” Det. Lio spoke as if reading from a book. He said he followed the case and evidently knew the details by heart but didn't know much more to offer in the way of new evidence. “We got as much as we thought relevant out of her before she left without telling anyone. We also questioned everyone she knew to find out if someone hated the family enough to perpetrate an abduction.”

  “Now that the remains may be her daughter. She should be located.”

  “We'll find her, Sara. Soon as we can get this Maleko guy's DNA and if it's a match, we'll put a tracer on her.

  With not a cloud in the sky, the sun and heat were almost too much to bear. Officers perspired in their dark blue uniforms. Everyone needed to get inside someplace or, at least, move around, but nothing could be done momentarily. Neither did Sara have any intention of leaving. “Maleko will have to tell us his mom's whereabouts, soon as he comes back here.”

  “Things are turning out like you suspected, Sara.” Officer Makamai thumbed through his notes. “We found a little dog's head… uh… the skull. It was cradled against the child's rib cage.”

  “Then those metal rings were from the leash.” Sara could only shake her head in sadness.

  “I knew it!” Birdie, along with others, had bits of information that could help to build a case. “If that was Leia up there and her dog went with her, she might have let go of the dog if she were falling. Would the dog jump into the brush and be safe and then find her later?” Birdie had a point. “That's how that little girl was able to hold onto that button.”

  Sara had already been told of the animal skull. She hugged herself as anger welled up. “And if the little dog wasn't hurt, it stayed with her like the faithful pet that it was, till it died too.” The scene of her and Officer Makamai examining the skeleton on the cliffside flashed through her mind. She explained to the new officers, though they may have seen photos of the area. “The back of the skeleton was turned to the open side of the crevasse. With a piece of shirt hanging on the rib cage, that was why Officer Makamai and I didn't see the dog's skull when we were there.” She shivered at the thought. Just as she suspected when they were up on the cliffs, the facts pointed to the tiny child's remains being Leia's. The dog skull could prove it. The mystery that needed to be solved was how she went over the cliff and why Maleko allegedly perpetrated the act.

  Birdie had taken Sara's blouse to inspect. “What has stealing her blouses got to do with anything?” She looked suspiciously at the detective. “Why would Maleko break into Sara's house and bring suspicion onto himself?”

  Sgt. Inoa petted Ka'imi to calm her from squirming.“We could simply have had two separate crimes here.”

  Sara held the fragile decaying shirt. “The button with the skeletal remains connects this shirt and Bao's button to Maleko.” She watched each officers' reaction but all held practiced noncommittal expressions. “But why break into my house?”

  “He's panicking.” It was a brave statement from an officer. “You've had too many threatening occurrences happen to you right here, a place where someone close by can get at you—someone knew your whereabouts on the West Side and up on the trail too.”

  Birdie was determined to have her input. Knowing Birdie quite well by now, Sara respected and encouraged her comments. “If the same person who pushed her over the cliff was the same one who ran her off the road, then he must have dogged her all day down in Waimea just waiting for the right time to get at her.”

  Who would have been where she was that entire day in order to keep track of her? “That's a long shot, but could be true.” Sara sighed, frustrated with her injuries and feeling uncomfortable standing in the heat. Too, something she rarely worried about was the way she looked, being bandaged as she was. “Except that it was a big black truck that ran me off the road, not Maleko's heap or any other car I recognize from anyone who knows me. The two incidences are totally different. It is strange, though, that it's all happening to me.”

  Maleko being the suspected perpetrator in Leia's disappearance seemed surreal, but Sara remembered a snippet she had read in the old newspapers. “If he was responsible for Leia going over the cliff, it could have been an accident.” She had their attention and told the officers of reading how Maleko used to play-swing Leia as if intending to throw her. It was a game, but maybe up on the trail, he accidently threw her over the edge. “Maleko, always big for his age, but being only twelve years old at the time, might have panicked and hid the truth.”

  “That might explain the attempts on your life. Now that he's an adult, you pose a threat to him being found out.”

  Birdie blew out a forceful gust of air. “Then his mind's tilted way off-center.”

  Sara smiled secretly. That was the kind of statement she had come to expect from Birdie. The officers snickered. Laughing at Birdie's peculiar way of making a point broke the tension somewhat.

  Sara wanted proof that the threats to her life and Leia's disappearance were connected. Too many variables presented. She was someone from the Mainland whom many locals did not wish to inhabit their island.

  A black truck that she'd never seen anywhere before drove her off the road. The young men on the trail used the term ha'ole that showed up on the side of her house. Then there was the pig skin warning before she was pushed over the cliff in an area that hundreds of people frequented.

  “Let's first try to find out why he stole from your house.” Det. Lio would be methodical. “Maybe we can make some sense of the rest of this.”

  Bao rejoined them after he and Ling took the button box back across the street and placed it in the garage. Ling stood watching from her driveway.

  One of the officers told Bao to also move back across the street. “If this guy returns while we're on his property, it may not be safe for you.”

  After a couple of additional officers arrived in a dark sedan, Det. Lio signaled. All took positions, preparing to enter Maleko's property. A couple of neighbors came out into the street, but then retreated to watch from the safety of their front yards. An officer was sent around the area ordering all to remain indoors. Officer Makamai called Sara aside and another detective joined them as she updated them about what she suspected.

  Officer Makamai turned to Birdie. “We've got a warrant for the entire property. Let's let your dog show us where she found these.”

  Once again, Birdie unfastened Ka'imi's harness. “Find, girl.” Ka'imi sniffed the shirts, then Sara's hands as she held the shirts. Then, sniffing in various directions, she went straight over to Maleko's yard with the police following.

  Sgt. Inoa seemed relieved at getting the action started as they scurried along behind Ka'imi. “We'll snag Maleko when he comes back.”

  With the police and undercover cars glutting the cul-de-sac, Sara asked, “Seeing you guys and all your cars out here, what makes you think he hasn't already passed by and fled down the highway?”

  Chapter 41

  Sara and Birdie were held back at the gate. Ka'imi sniffed her way straight to a thoroughly rusted piece of junk standing in the side yard against the rock wall that separated Maleko's property from Sara's lot. The Thunbergia vines still flowered in a profusion of large blue blooms and flat green leaves that thickly covered a mid-sized antiquated refrigerator mostly hidden among heaps of debris. Maleko had made no effort to control the aggressive vines, not that he did any gardening. The colorful floral blanket hid a multitude of sins. Rust shown on old metal items that stuck out from under the overgrowth. Arms and legs of various sizes, haphazardly thrown chairs and tables and other furniture poked out from underneath. A couple of old doors and a pile of boards lay at the far end. The officers wore gloves and one officer lifted the vines from a clump of piled furnishings and shook his head.

  She and Birdie crept in for a closer look. The furniture seemed the expensive kind that wealthy people could afford. Had this furniture been pampered through the years, it would have been worth a fortune now. Yet he
re it lay, termite and bug eaten and rotting in heaps. Thick black mold blanketed many items. Sara turned to glance at Maleko's house. With its add-on portion at the back, he certainly should have had space enough for this furniture. His parents couldn't have had so much that he ran out of rooms and discarded what he couldn't use. Too, why simply discard it? These were valuable pieces and should have been saved, sold or donated somewhere. Truly, Maleko's mental attic must be similarly littered.

  Sara could only shake her had. “You'd think living in our upscale neighborhood, he'd clean out his lot.”

  Birdie shrugged. “He's too busy being lazy.”

  An officer pulled aside more vines. The refrigerator door hinges had long ago rusted through. The door had broken loose and stood on the ground leaning against the opening.

  Ka'imi sniffed around the doorway, stuck her nose in the crack behind the door, and then sat down.

  An officer pulled at the door. Having moved it only a few inches and peering inside, he gasped and shook his head. He raised his voice for others to hear. “You're not going to believe this.” Then he shoved the door aside and let it fall on top of a pile of trash. Other officers crowded around.

  Sara nudged Birdie to look after Ka'imi. It was really a ploy for them both to get into the yard. Birdie rushed in and grabbed hold of Ka'imi's harness, pulling her away. She patted and loved Ka'imi. “I don't have a treat right now, but you did good, girl.” She continued to pat Ka'imi's back and head to show her appreciation as Ka'imi lapped and licked at Birdie's face and her tail flew side to side.

  Looking to both Birdie and Sara, Det. Lio put up a hand. “No one touch. I'll get my camera.” The detective went to his undercover sedan parked down the block and drove back, parking to the side of Maleko's gate.

  Sara squeezed her way between the officers to see what had been found. Black mold covered both the inside and outside of the refrigerator. It seemed packed full of old matted clothing as if having lain there for eons. A small deteriorating cardboard box lay open and on its side. One white piece of rumpled clothing seemed newer and had been thrown over the open box. “There's my other blouse.”

  From several different angles, the detective photographed the box the way it lay inside the refrigerator with the blouse hanging over it. When finished, he lifted it for all to see.

  “Wait up.” Officer Makamai reached for the blouse which he held up beside to the boy's shirt that he carried. “Do you see the resemblance?”

  “Between what?”

  Officer Makamai leaned over the refrigerator door lying atop the pile of trash and spread out the old shirt next to Sara's white blouse. Her blouse had large white buttons. It also had a couple of blue lines running down the front on each side of the button row and on the collar. “Do you see it now?”

  No one understood. Even Sara couldn't figure out what Officer Makamai wanted them to see. “What's the connection?”

  Officer Makamai looked proud of himself, or at least happy that he could contribute something of value. “This old shirt used to be white. Now we see the buttons on your blouse, Sara, are about the same size and also white… at least these old ones used to be white.”

  “I get it! This old shirt was a boy's sailor shirt.” Sara pushed in closer. “We all know about that. My blouse with the same sized white buttons and the lines running down the front looks similar to a kid's sailor shirt.”

  “Yes.” Officer Makamai smiled at the confirmation of his findings.

  No one said anything as Sgt. Inoa leaned in closer. “So you're saying that maybe Maleko saw Sara wearing this blouse, or either of the blouses, and something made him think of his old shirt, so he went to retrieve the blouses from her closet?”

  Birdie leaned in to see and mumbled quietly. “I told you he was huhu.”

  “Then his memories are becoming jumbled. Who knows the limits of a pupule?”

  Sara turned to Birdie and whispered. “Bao once called us pupule.”

  Smiling in jest, Birdie was quick to reply behind a hand. “In Hawaiian, it means a person whose brain is split in half. You know, crazy.”

  “Well, he nailed us wrong, me anyway!” Sara ducked Birdie's fist. She turned to the officers. “You think the shirts remind him of the day his sister went missing?”

  “Maybe. Hard to say till we know more, but he's sure looking a bit confused at this point.”

  “You mean guilty?” Birdie asked too quickly.

  Det. Lio put up a hand. “Let's wait till we can interview this guy.” He photographed the clothing and zoomed in to catch the similar details.

  The detective continued by getting a couple snapshots of the box exposed on its side in the refrigerator. “Okay, since this box was open in plain sight, we should find out what it all means.” Without a lid and without the blouse covering the contents, the items inside sparkled in the sunlight.

  Sgt. Inoa painstakingly lifted out the little rotting box and stared inside, again shaking his head. Then he began to lay out the contents on the refrigerator door beside the shirts.

  One by one, laying side by side, what looked to be expensive jewelry twinkled their brilliance, as all good jewelry was meant to do regardless of age.

  “Wow! No rusting metal there.” Sara leaned in to pick up what looked to be a rhinestone earring fashioned in the shape of a fan. Each of the stones was about a quarter carat in size. She examined it closely. “This is 18K. These are real diamonds.”

  Birdie leaned over Sara's shoulder. “Anything but real gold would have tarnished out here in the elements like this, even if it was buried.”

  For a second, the stunning sight of the buried links they found in Vietnam flashed through her mind. Next, Sara picked up a necklace, a single strand of red stones, and checked the markings on the clasp. “14K. I'll bet these are real rubies.”

  Then Sgt. Inoa used his thumb to wipe dust off the center stone of a fancy wedding ring set. He blew a breath over them and wiped again. He had everyone's attention. The diamond of the engagement ring was at least two carats. With sunlight hitting them, the stones cast off prisms of light and color. “Anyone think these are CZ?” He checked inside the bands. “18K white gold.” He lay the rings beside the other jewelry and brought out additional pieces, allowing Det. Lio to photograph, including a separate close up shot of each piece.

  Bao had come to stand at the front gate to watch. But why? Other neighbors watched from across the cul-de-sac, but Bao dared come closer and nervously strained to see what was happening.

  Chapter 42

  An officer still carried the blue blouse Ka'imi found. It was laid on the refrigerator door to be photographed as well. “Who's got Bao's button?”

  Det. Lio pulled the button in the evidence bag out of his shirt pocket and laid it beside the buttons on the front of the old shirt. He laid Bao's button along side. Clearly, the button in the bag matched the ones remaining on the old rumpled sailor shirt, as did Bao's button.

  The rest of the expensive looking jewelry wasn't checked for value, though more than a dozen pieces were included in the lot. The detective gently gathered them again and placed them back into the box, into which he also dropped the button in the bag and Bao's button, and stuffed in Sara's two blouses and the boys' shirt.

  “That must have been Maleko's mother's jewelry.” Sara pointed to the box. “I noticed there was a man's wedding band in the lot too.”

  The detective reached to the bottom of the box and fumbled around till he retrieved the man's gold ring and checked inside the band. “14K.” He sadly shook his head.

  Something wasn't coming together in Sara's mind. “Why would Maleko's mother give him her jewelry before leaving for the mainland?”

  “You'd think she would have kept them as mementos of her marriage?” Birdie had to agree. “The way Maleko told it when I first moved here was that his father loved his mother. His dad had a heart attack after moving to Honolulu.”

  “Then why would Maleko be treating these valuables as junk?”r />
  Birdie motioned to the piles of now useless cast-offs. “Maybe he sees possessions as having little value.”

  “I haven't seen all the reports.” Office Makamai would offer the next suggestion. “Could this jewelry be some missing evidence from any of our house break-ins?”

  “We really need to interrogate this guy.” Det. Lio nodded and looked around the yard. “My gut's telling me we need to learn his motives in all this.”

  Sara had stepped up to the old refrigerator and poked around with a metal rod she grabbed from the scrap heap. “Yeah, but what's with this?” A heap of clothing lay compressed, as though it had remained there for eons. She lifted a couple of stiff pieces with the rod. “All women's clothing.” She looked at the detectives suspiciously. “Why only women's?”

  The detective shot more pictures. “Good question.” Then he picked up a stick and pulled the clothing out and let it fall onto the ground. The nearest edges were sun bleached. Some pieces were frayed or decaying at the folds.

  Just when it seemed no one could think of a reason for the clothing being there, Sara had a far-fetched idea and meant to learn more before disclosing her fearful assumption. “Wait a second.” She turned to see Bao craning his neck at the front gate and motioned for him to come into the yard and he hurried in. “Bao, what do you make of this?” She poked at the clothing, separating several pieces.

  Bao looked curiously and then took the rod from her and poked around, separating more pieces while the officers waited. Sara could feel Bao's excitement, but watching him, it was not a feeling of elation. “Yah, I know dis one! And dis one and dat one.” He pointed with the rod.

  Sara's hunch was playing out. “What do you know?”

  “Dis clothes I see boy's mother wear. Dress up good.” Mixed emotions showed on his face, and questions. Beads of perspiration popped out on his forehead. “She work night time, like Hawaiian Menehune.” He smiled nervously as if embarrassed but didn't explain himself.