by Philip Dole
“Mr. Pierce, this is Niko.”
“Thank you for calling. Your sister visited me today. She insisted you’ve been digging up dirt on the Pengs. Is that true?”
“Yes, definitely. I was planning to return home in time for me to go to trial for that stupid bar fight. Hell, I was just a by-stander, minding my own business, when ‘wham’ somebody slugs me hard in the back of my head. I turned around to see who hit me, and I see this biker guy wearing leathers. And he was about to hit me again. I know some boxing, and so I stuck him with a quick jab with my left hand while I loaded up a right uppercut. Bam! It was beautiful. He staggered back and tried to grab someone to keep from falling. No luck. He hit the floor and thought twice about getting up. He was on the floor propped up on his elbows when the bartender broke it up. Not much of a fight, and I did not even start it. So I resisted when the cops tried to cuff me. Pure crap. I am not worried about going to trial.”
“Why were you carrying documents about people you knew were arms-dealers when you were using a fake passport? Not very smart, Niko.”
“I know. That was stupid. But we were psyched because the stuff I had gotten in Hong Kong had interesting leads to here in Hawaii. I thought we were close to getting what we needed.”
“Like what kind of stuff?”
“Several agreements were notarized right here in Hawaii. I was going to track down the notary. Notaries must make a record of all the people signing a document before it can be notarized. Lei has found the notary, and now I hope Lei can find out who is the person behind the signature. It is probably a Hawaiian attorney.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because the person knew legal technicalities.”
“What’s the name? Maybe I know him or her.”
“The notary has not divulged that yet. She is playing cagey, afraid to lose her notary’s license I guess. I hope we’re able to get some good dirt from one of the Pengs’ attorneys. That notary is our best lead.”
Tyler waited to see if he would volunteer more. “Those Pengs are evil, Mr. Pierce. They were Granduncle’s allies, but now they are ruining our business.”
“Do I have carte blanche to dig into your family’s background and business to get anything I need to prove who you are and what you were doing?”
“Yes, yes. I give you full authorization.”
“O.K., I’ll represent you. Don’t talk to anyone but me.”
Tyler rang Lei’s room. It was nearly six p.m. He had been worried she might not wait to hire another lawyer. That big a retainer for a week’s time would attract any attorney.
“Lei, I’m glad I caught you and even more glad to accept your invitation to go to Amsterdam with you.”
“Well, that’s wonderful. But I’m surprised. You sounded so negative. What changed your mind?”
Tyler didn’t mention the money. “This is the bottom line. My duty is to give Niko the best possible defense I can. And to do that I need to prepare it personally. You know the old saying, ‘If you want a job done right, do it yourself.’ I believe that’s true. I gave you my word, and now I’ve given it, I’m honor-bound to keep it.”
“Excellent. I am so glad you will help us. You are showing me you are indeed a man of your word, and that means everything. The Pengs have betrayed us. That means everything, too.
“Leave all the arrangements to me. I know there is a flight to Los Angeles that leaves about eleven p.m. that can connect us with a flight tomorrow to Amsterdam. I am sure there will be seats, but I’ll check. Get packed and meet me for dinner somewhere. I simply refuse to eat airport or airplane food unless absolutely necessary.
“Oh, my family will be so pleased. Trust us to keep you safe, and I shall trust you to keep your word. I have no idea how I can repay you.”
Tyler couldn’t stop erotic suggestions from popping into his head. But he told Lei, “The best place for us to eat is just down the road from my office. It’s called Mama’s Fish House. I’ll make reservations for eight-thirty.”
He stepped into the stall for a quick hot shower. He customarily shaved his head every other day while he showered, but this was his off day. He’d started shaving his head in high school when he’d been on the Country Day swim team and had continued after high school to spite Arnold who had ordered him to stop.
Tyler arrived first at the shorefront restaurant. Waves broke on the beach just yards from the one story building surrounded by royal palms. Diners sat on an open lanai wrapped around a peaked ceiling festooned with fishing nets and turquoise glass floats that had actually been used by fishermen.
Lei pulled up in a taxi. He had already arranged for the maître d’ to store their bags while they dined, and a busboy carried them away.
“Your table is ready, sir.”
Tyler held Lei’s arm as they were led to their seats facing the beach and the ocean.
“May I bring you a cocktail?”
He looked at Lei.
“No, thank you. May I have a Perrier with a slice of lime.”
“And for the gentleman?”
“The same as the lady.” He smiled at her. “I’m a teetotaler. I got drunk when I was a kid and was sick as a dog. I hated it and have never touched alcohol since. What’s your story?”
“I drink a little but never before flying.”
“I usually take my Perrier with lemon, but what the heck, why not make a change.”
They opened their menus.
“Please Tyler, you decide. This is your home, and I am in your hands. In Amsterdam you will be in my hands, and I promise to keep you safe and sound.”
“Let’s share a sashimi plate to start. And for our entrée let’s try the grilled ahi wrapped in a ti leaf with Hana banana and papaya and also the ono sautéed with Kula tomato, white wine and capers.”
“They both sound delicious. We can share. I have heard ahi is tuna, but what is ono?”
“It’s a delicious sweet white fish with a firm texture. I hope you like it.”
They sipped their Perrier and relaxed. Lei seemed content to watch the last of sunlight fade into darkness. But Tyler was eager to hear more about the Hawaii connection. “So the Pengs were ruining your family’s business. What does Hawaii have to do with European dry cleaners?”
“Niko was checking on all the Pengs’ companies. And there are sure a lot of them. We found over thirty shell corporations. None of them are registered in Hawaii or even in the U.S., but several had documents notarized here in Hawaii. We thought if we could pay the notary enough, we might learn who was behind the façade.” She took another sip of water. “Niko got arrested before he had a chance to find out anything, and now the most important thing is freeing him. But we’re sure something in the Pengs’ tangled web of shell companies is rotten. And if we can find out what it is, we’ll have leverage to ‘persuade’ them to stay out of the dry cleaning business. But first we must get Niko out of jail. That’s why I came here. The notary can wait.
“The Pengs have hurt our family financially. But even more hurtful is their breach of trust. Sunny has taken Peng Fu’s betrayal hard. Sunny and Hu pledged their ancestors’ honor to always support each other’s family. And now Fu does this. It’s completely dishonoring Hu, his own father. It’s unforgivable. Unforgivable treason.” She poured the little remaining in her glass onto her napkin, took a deep breath and spit in the glass.
Chapter Six
Kahalui Airport
Kahalui, Maui, Hawaii
Friday, December 3, 2005
9:45 p.m.
Lei had sent her luggage through the mandatory state agricultural examination and stood in line for her boarding pass. As the authorities examined Tyler’s bag, he noticed she stood in the first class check-in line. Frugal by nature, he believed it was ludicrous to pay three times more to get to the same place at the same time as e
verybody else.
Tyler carried a long box already cleared by the agriculture people. He extended it to her. “When I think of Holland, I think of flowers. I imagine flowers are as appreciated there as they are here. So I thought it would be nice to take some Hawaiian flowers to your family. I don’t know how many you need, but I got a dozen assorted lei. I hope that’s enough.”
She stretched up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “That was so thoughtful, Tyler. Mahalo. Do not worry, darling. I promise I shall keep you safe and sound.” She hugged his arm for a long moment and when she let it go, she stayed at his side. He looked down at her, pleased about their new intimacy.
They had plenty of time before their flight and no need to dash to the gate. That was fine with him because he hated running for planes. Once in the midst of one of his many girlfriend breakups, his mother had counseled him with an adage undoubtedly handed down from her mother, “Never run after a woman or a streetcar because there’s always another coming.” Regrettably he had long ago concluded that advice was easier to follow in mass transportation than romance.
They sat in the last first class row on the starboard side of the plane. He appreciated the greater privacy of first class. But he could never sleep on a plane no matter where he sat and always arrived exhausted. In this case not sleeping might be wise because he was a lumberjack snorer and might embarrass Lei.
The five and a half hour flight to LAX seemed longer because by the time they landed dawn had broken, meaning they had flown all night. He had not even tried to sleep, burying himself instead in a book about medieval England he had only chosen because he thought it might impress Lei.
As they deplaned in Los Angeles, he had only one goal. He wanted strong, hot, black coffee. Apparently the airlines had grown so scared of being sued by scalded passengers they didn’t serve hot beverages. Perhaps they should serve hot beverages in spill-proof containers. People who have to fly all night deserve a decent cup of hot coffee.
By the time they were in the concourse and headed to their connecting flight, Tyler had worked himself into a fit. He was praying they would pass a Starbucks or even a McDonald’s. Of course, having not gotten any sleep for the second time in three nights certainly hadn’t improved his disposition. To his great relief, Lei spotted a Starbucks, and after a jolt of caffeine he was feeling more sociable.
A Sunday L.A. Times was next on his list. Because Hawaii’s newspapers scrimped on politics and the arts, Tyler’s habit was to pick up a mainland Sunday paper. While he enjoyed a coffee refill and perused the paper, Lei visited the restroom. But he hadn’t gotten far through the Times before she returned, startling him with her transformation.
She had changed out of her pale yellow pants suit into a bright red jumper over a white shirt and had switched her leather sandals for tennis shoes and socks. But she had also redone her hair from her usual loose French twist. She had sprouted two pigtails. She could have easily passed for a teenager trying out for the cheerleader squad.
Apparently she noticed his open mouth because she struck a model’s pose and then twirled in a circle. She dropped into a chair opposite him and stared at him over the top of the paper until he finally put it down. Then she grasped one of his hands with both of hers to get his undivided attention.
“Tyler, I have to make a confession.” Immediately he feared the worst. His empty stomach burned with a squirt of gastric acid, and his heart raced. He prepared himself for an impending blow, blinking his eyes, dry and scratchy from airplane air.
“When I made our reservations, they told me we have a nine-hour layover here.” He nodded. He knew that. “And so I went ahead and made plans.”
He flinched and thought, “I knew it. Oh, that’s just great. This gorgeous woman cons me into traipsing off to Europe and at the first chance she gets, she dumps me to hook up with some bleached blond California guy. He’s probably an actor. Shakespeare was an actor, or else I bet he would have urged actors be killed rather than lawyers.”
Lei went on, and Tyler wasn’t sure he wanted to listen. “When I was growing up in Holland, we only had two television stations, and one only ran boring Dutch programs. Not only was there not much entertaining television, but there weren’t many places where kids could go to have fun. We didn’t have any amusement parks with roller coasters and all kinds of fun rides.” She made a sad face like a kid who had just dropped her ice cream.
She paused for a moment. Then her sad look changed to excitement. “Don’t worry. I looked up everything on a computer at the hotel just to make sure. There is plenty of time.” Then she clapped her hands together gleefully and bounced on the edge of her chair. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun. I can’t wait another minute. Disneyland. Wow. I’ve been dreaming of this my whole life.”
He choked on a mouthful of coffee, dribbling java from the corner of his mouth. “Did you say Disneyland?”
Her face lit up with the very mention of the name, and she clapped some more. “Yes, Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom. Oh, it will be so much fun. Can we go, can we? Right now.” He was slow to respond because he was trying to straighten out things in his muddled mind. “Please. We have plenty of time.”
Tyler thought to himself, “Hey sure, it’s a crazy idea. But for Pete’s sake, it’s only Disneyland. Why don’t I want to go to Disneyland? That’s ridiculous. Get a grip on it, buster. This woman, cute as a button, dressed in the perfect clothes for Disneyland, wants to share her lifelong dream with me. And what do I do? I pour cold water on it. Am I stupid or what?
“Look at what I’ve done already. I nearly spoiled the moment. Shame on you. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a sociopath. Really I do.” He snapped himself out of his mental tirade and asked, “Are you sure we have time?”
She didn’t even answer. She just grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his chair, spilling the last of his coffee on his newspaper.
Their flight was scheduled to depart at three p.m., but they already had their boarding passes because Lei had sweet-talked a KLM agent. Their checked bags were already going straight through to Amsterdam, and they had left their carry-ons in the first class lounge. All they had to do was get themselves and her souvenirs back to LAX by two p.m.
They made it with ten minutes to spare, and Lei proudly wore her red Mickey Mouse ears as they marched through the LAX international terminal straight into the first-class lounge. She had no time to change before they boarded their flight to Amsterdam, and she didn’t care. She glowed with happiness wearing her Mickey Mouse ears. They carried several large Disneyland shopping bags, and so it was no mystery where they had been. Disneyland had been fun, but seeing this sexy woman beam like a five-year-old on Christmas morning was priceless.
Tyler did some calculations and figured he had had ten hours of sleep in the last forty. The effects of caffeine and Disneyland had faded, leaving him with pain coursing through his brain like bolts of lightning. He suffered as their plane gained altitude. Like most men he had never had a high pain threshold.
“Let me help.” Lei stood behind him, squeezing and releasing his shoulders time after time. As she worked, she provided a humorous recap of their Disneyland adventures. Without malice she poked fun at everyone they had seen and everything they had done.
“I know your fingers must be tired, but please keep going. It feels so good.”
When his shoulder muscles finally relaxed, Lei switched her focus to his neck. Her technique there was to grind her knuckles hard into his neck like putting out a cigarette. She worked on his neck almost as long as she had worked on his shoulders, and he fell into a stupor.
“Is that better?”
“Yes. Much better. My neck was so tight. But my head still hurts. Perhaps they have aspirin.”
“No, dear. I know what to do.” She took the tips of her fingers and gently traced circles on his temples. The pain lessened, and mercifully he fell asleep.
&n
bsp; “Tyler, Tyler.” Lei shook him gently. He opened his eyes.
“Wha, what.” His mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton, and his sandpaper tongue seemed twice its normal size. He moved his tongue, smacked his lips several times and hitched himself up. “Wow, I was asleep.”
“Fasten your seatbelt, my dear.”
“Are we almost there?”
“Yes. In about ten minutes. You slept the whole flight. More than ten hours.”
“Wow. I swear I never sleep on planes.”
`“You just need the right companion. But of course, you might need to provide the other passengers with noise-canceling earphones,” she laughed, taking the sting out of her comment. “The flight crew threatened to wake you up because of your snoring, but I told them you were a heart surgeon who had just finished one operation and you have another as soon as we land. So it was a matter of life or death you not be disturbed. They did put a pillow over your face to muffle the sound. But that did not seem to disrupt your nap.”
“I know I’m a terrible snorer. But wow that was really a whopper. You’re sure a good liar. And I’m glad there wasn’t a medical emergency. Dr. Pierce wouldn’t have been much help.”
She patted his hand, completely nonchalant about spreading such an outrageous falsehood. “Yes, as you say- a whopper. Vivid imaginations are a Chang family trait. When we were young, Niko and I used to take turns making up our bedtime stories because we thought the ones Cherry read to us were boring.” She smiled angelically and squeezed his hand. “Poor Tyler, you must have been exhausted.” He took up one of her hands and kissed it, amazed a gesture that had seemed awkward two days before had now come naturally.
Nature’s call forced him to hustle to the airplane lavatory, and he returned, fully awake.
“I am looking forward to meeting your family. Please tell me more about them. I’m curious how an immigrant family succeeds in an alien culture.”
“We are Chinese,” she declared as if that was enough to say. He waited for her to continue. “Being Chinese means the family comes first and then the village. And that is why we cannot let Sunny down. We must not let Niko down. We must do everything we can to help both of them. Agreed, Counselor Pierce?”
