by Toby Neal
“Another concern. Shimoda’s subpoenaed Lei’s deposition for his case. He’s going to try to discredit you,” Omura told Lei, her brows furrowed. “Get you to admit you coerced that confession and mishandled the search. If he gets that confession excluded, we won’t have anything but circumstantial on Kingston, and Rinker’s taped interview—which should be allowed, but is just hearsay with nothing to back it up. Don’t go to that deposition without our union attorney. I’m concerned. Both these men could walk, and Shimoda could be trying to pull something on you, Lei.”
Lei felt her stomach curdling with anxiety and apprehension as they were dismissed.
Chapter Thirty
Shimoda’s conference room, with its long mango-wood table topped in glass, framed print, and whiteboard on one wall, was unpretentious. Shimoda, dapper in a lightweight tan suit, stated the date and time after he activated a black recording unit. Present were Shimoda himself, Lei, and Lei’s union attorney, Gordon Kelly, a pale man in the button-down pinstripes of a recent Mainland transplant.
Lei kept her hands in her lap, where she could employ one of her old stress-management techniques, squeezing the web of flesh between her thumb and forefinger. Shimoda smiled. His mouth moved, but his cold eyes never changed.
“Thanks for joining us, Detective.”
“Lieutenant. Lieutenant Texeira.” Lei felt irritation prickle along her jangled nerves. He knew her rank perfectly well, was just trying to put her down.
“Lieutenant, then.” He inclined his head, patronizing. “So tell us what led to the decision to take Edward Kingston out of custody in the correctional facility and use him to find items you would then use in his own prosecution, a clear violation of his Fifth Amendment rights?”
“Is there a question in that accusation?” Kelly said. “Rephrase.” Kelly looked like a skinny prep school kid, but he had the gravelly voice of a much older and more jaded man. Lei relaxed marginally—Kelly appeared to have some skills and wasn’t afraid to use them.
“Tell us about the decision to have Kingston show you the location of his lab and the weapon he’d buried.” Shimoda bared his teeth again, and Lei realized it was his version of her own “evil grin.” She relaxed a little further—he wasn’t going to intimidate her with tricks she already knew.
“Kingston volunteered to show us the location of his lab and hidden weapon. I went with my partner to talk with him in the county lockup, and he offered to take us up to where his lab was. Seemed confident we wouldn’t find anything incriminating there—in fact, at one point inside the lab, he said definitely, ‘You won’t find anything.’ Not only that, he signed a waiver.”
“Were you aware it was against Kingston’s Fifth Amendment rights to use him to procure items that might then be used against him in a court of law?”
“Kingston volunteering to guide the detectives was an implicit waiver of those rights,” Kelly said. “And as the lieutenant said, he signed a waiver.”
“But he was never informed of his rights and that he was waiving them,” Shimoda said. “He didn’t know what he was agreeing to.”
“I wish I had thought of reading him Miranda again and getting the whole thing on tape,” Lei said. “If I knew what a sticking point it would be, I certainly would have. As it was, I took his volunteering as an implied waiver, as Mr. Kelly here has said, and he signed further documentation, informal as it was. And, as you know, we never did find anything in the lab that tied him to any of the murders.”
“So you admit you endangered a prisoner, still wearing restraints, by taking him out to the wilderness.”
“Kingston begged me to take him out of the jail, even for a day. He didn’t care. And he was the one who tried to escape.” Kelly caught Lei’s eye and gave a quick head shake, and Lei shut her mouth.
“So. To rewind back to the events of that day: You and a young, unseasoned officer took Kingston, in restraints, up to a wild area in the company of an armed civilian.”
Lei felt sweat prickle under her armpits. She glanced at Kelly, but he gave no sign. She looked back at Shimoda and nodded.
“Please speak up for the recording,” Shimoda said. “Use ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the record.”
“Yes,” Lei said.
“Would you call this decision a reckless one? Perhaps a bad idea?”
“Objection. Leading,” Kelly said.
“I can lead all I want. This is a deposition under oath, not a courtroom,” Shimoda shot back. “Answer the question, Lieutenant Texeira.”
“In hindsight, I should have tried harder to find another way to locate the items in question,” Lei said carefully.
“So you admit it was a mistake.”
“No.”
“How was it not a mistake?”
“We found the items.” Lei set her jaw and stared Shimoda down as best she could.
“You have a history of reckless police work, do you not?” Shimoda flipped open a file Lei hadn’t noticed until now. “I’ve subpoenaed your personnel files, and there are numerous irregular instances documented here. Shall I go on?”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Lei said, looking desperately at Kelly. He gave a slight shrug, indicating Shimoda was able to proceed.
“Let’s see. First note is way back when you were a patrol officer. Corrective action for letting your personal attack dog off leash to find an intruder endangering civilians—and we go on from there.”
“No one was hurt,” Lei said, through numb lips.
“That’s a matter of opinion. Insubordination, failing to inform your superior officer, improper evidence collection. Oh—and here’s an interesting one from your stint in the FBI: reckless endangerment in jumping out of a helicopter to capture an escaping perpetrator.”
“I was trying to save the suspect’s life,” Lei said, but Kelly made a cutting-off hand gesture. He addressed Shimoda.
“Make your point.”
“My point is that Lieutenant Texeira here has a long history of going off half-cocked. I even see a very fresh note in here, signed by Captain Omura last week, that she’s going to be docked three days’ pay and has a mandatory workshop to attend on rights and responsibilities of law enforcement toward those in their custody. It appears her superior officer also had some concerns about her actions in this situation.”
Lei looked down at her hands in her lap, squeezed the web of her hand as hard as she could. It didn’t seem to be helping.
“Let’s move along,” Kelly said. “If you have any actual questions for my client.”
“Why didn’t you remove the weapon from Ranger Takama?”
“He seemed trustworthy. He stated that he used the weapon for ungulates in the forest and that he always carried it. As a ranger, I assumed he had a degree of authority to do so. Later, when a boar came at us out of nowhere, he effectively dispatched it.”
“And one could say he’d just proved both mettle and marksmanship. Why didn’t you remove the bow from him at that point?”
“It was a very stressful situation. We had just escaped injury from the boar and were distracted. Then we discovered Kingston had escaped. There was no time.”
“What did you do at that point?”
Lei glanced at Kelly. He had no guidance for her, so she said, “I exclaimed and went after Kingston. I called out to him to stop. I drew my weapon. Kingston had already made it to the bottom of the gulch and was getting away by hopping rocks down the stream. I’d chased him before and knew how fast he was.”
“Was he still restrained?”
“He was still in cuffs, yes, but they were in front and didn’t slow him down a bit that I could see.”
“Tell us how he got out of the other restraint you had on him, and what it was.”
“We’d clipped a length of light chain from his cuffs to a bracelet on Officer Cantorna’s wrist.”
“Were you aware Kingston sustained bruising and injuries to both wrists and soft tissue damage to his neck from the restraints?”
<
br /> “No, I was not aware.” Lei felt her voice rising. “I was too busy trying to save his life. If the defendant had not tried to run, none of this would have happened.”
“Were you aware Kingston has stated, under oath, that he fled because he was in fear for his life?”
“Bu—baloney,” Lei said, amending her language. “The fact that he found a way to take, conceal, and use the wire cutters shows premeditation.”
“He says he always felt in danger from Ranger Takama because of the ranger’s friendship with Jacobsen. He was afraid from the moment he saw the ranger and decided to get away.”
“Disagree,” Lei said. She took her hands out of her lap and spread them on the table, gave Shimoda her own evil grin. “Cantorna can verify that Kingston was thrilled to be back in the forest and never batted an eye over Takama’s inclusion in our hike. Never addressed him directly, true, but certainly didn’t exhibit any fear. Also, your statement supports an admission of guilt in Jacobsen’s shooting. Because not only did I record that confession, but I heard it with my own ears. I’m prepared to testify under oath: Kingston admitted to killing Jacobsen.”
“We’ll come back to that,” Shimoda barked. He clearly didn’t like her going on the offensive. “Explain how he escaped.”
“Kingston found a pair of wire cutters in the lab while we were searching it. I remember him standing up near a box of supplies set on the wooden shelf he used as a workbench. We attached his chain to a bracket on one of the trees while we were searching. He must have concealed the cutters on his body. Later, during the distraction with the boar, he cut the chain and ran off.”
“Is there some reason you didn’t search Kingston after you’d gone through the lab?”
“I didn’t have reason to.” Lei bit the inside of her cheek, suppressing her own second-guessing. “I moved the box very shortly after he was chained into place. I didn’t suspect his actions. Until then, the day had been very cordial.”
“So take us back to his escape, just after both you and Takama shot the wild boar.”
Lei paused a moment to recall the action-packed moments. “I verbalized a command to stop. I had my weapon out as a matter of habit, when I saw him fall. The arrow he’d been shot with was visible, protruding from his back. Cantorna disarmed Takama, and I restrained the ranger with handcuffs. I called for help on the sat phone. I climbed down the cliff into the gulch, moved Kingston out of the water to help deal with his shock. He asked for help, and I said it was on its way.”
“Then you coerced him to confess. You told him he looked bad off, and this was his last chance to talk.”
“No. I made a second call for help from the transport, and I said, ‘This man is bad off’ to Dispatch, which was true. I could see he had a pierced lung. I was concerned for his life.”
“And then you encouraged him to confess.”
“I asked him what really happened, yes.”
“And you were right there recording what he said. Then you prompted him further, after he’d admitted accidentally shooting Jacobsen, to tell you about the poachers.”
Lei stayed silent. Shimoda prompted, “Lieutenant?”
“Yes. I asked him if he shot the poachers too.”
“And what did he respond?”
“He did not respond. He’d lapsed into unconsciousness.”
“I will submit that your recorded confession is inadmissible. It was coerced from a man who thought he was dying, manipulated out of him by an officer who planted fear for my client’s life in his mind and played on his emotions. Texeira, you even tried to get him to admit to murders he had nothing to do with. The whole expedition was unconscionable.”
“Was there a question for my client in your diatribe, Counselor?” Kelly said. “If not, we’ll be on our way.” He took Lei’s elbow, and she stood with alacrity. Shimoda’s mouth was still ajar as Kelly hustled Lei out and down the hall.
“That was all foreplay. He just shot his load, and I don’t think we need to hang around for the pillow talk,” Kelly told her.
Lei snorted at his unexpected crudity. She couldn’t resist stretching her arms overhead and filling her lungs as full as they would go with fresh air the minute they stepped into the sunshine outside.
“Whew. Thank God that’s over. Thanks for your help.”
“I kind of think you’re lucky he hasn’t brought any charges against you,” Kelly said as they walked toward the parking lot. “Shimoda wants to obscure his client’s guilt by getting the focus on you and perceived mishandling of the case.”
“Believe me, I know,” Lei said. “And I hear Kingston’s family might still be working on a civil suit against the county, naming me. I’m just worried because now we’re worse off than ever with this case. Rinker’s in the wind with his corroborating testimony, the confession might be excluded, and Pono says we don’t have any physical evidence connecting Kingston to any of the murders. We’re back at square one.”
Kelly gave her shoulder a reassuring whack. “Sometimes it’s darkest before the dawn.”
“Cliché, Counselor,” Lei said, grinning. She liked him. “How long have you been on Maui?”
“Just a couple of weeks. Relocated from Minnesota.”
They’d arrived at her truck, parked next to his red Mustang. “Former rental car,” Kelly said. “Got it for a song.”
“Looks fun.” Lei’s chest tightened for a moment, remembering another friend who’d loved a red Mustang. “Well, you’ve come to the right place to get away from the cold. Here’s a local cliché about solving this case: ‘If can, can. If no can, no can.’”
Kelly looked blank, and Lei laughed. “It’s pidgin English, our dialect here in the islands. It means ‘If you can, you can. If you can’t, you can’t.’”
Now Kelly laughed, a big, barrel-chested rumble. “How do you say that?”
“If can, can. If no can, no can.” Lei shook her head. “I guess that’s really where we are.”
“I hope that’s not where you are for long. But try coloring inside the lines from here on out, why don’t you?”
“I’ll do my best,” Lei said. “But then, believe it or not, I always try to.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“I want to take you up on the mountain,” Lei told Stevens. She’d arrived home before him, for once, and after updating the captain and Pono on her deposition, felt a great need to get back outside into nature. She packed a picnic she’d put together into a Foodland cooler bag. “We haven’t gone up the crater once together to watch the sunset. It’s past time.”
“Excellent. I like the domestic goddess moment,” Stevens said, kissing the back of her neck. “Can I take a shower first? Had a nasty traffic accident investigation and got sweaty.”
“Long as I can join you,” she said. “I got sweated too—under the hot lights with Shimoda.”
It wasn’t long before they were on the road to the top of the mountain, leaving a mournful-looking Keiki behind—dogs weren’t allowed in the national park. Stevens rolled his window down, taking in the views. “Can’t believe I haven’t been up here.”
“Yeah. That’s criminal.” Lei glanced away from the road to grin at him. “Maybe I ought to spank you.”
“Ohh, I’m trembling with—anticipation.”
“You should be.” She reached over to squeeze his leg, then had to swerve to avoid a tourist drifting across the centerline, trying to get a picture of the view. “Guess I better pay attention to the road.”
“So what brought this idea on?”
“I don’t know. I’m just so frustrated with the whole case, so worried about the birds. I want to show them to you.” Lei’s holster dug into her arm. She didn’t know why she’d put it back on after the shower—maybe because it felt good to have it back after the mandatory leave. “I’ve heard the sunset off the top of the crater is amazing. Why should the tourists have all the fun?”
“Yeah, it’s so weird how when you live somewhere, no matter how amazing a plac
e it is, you do the same things. Go to work, run errands, come home. It’s a rut.”
“So how about one of our new ruts is that we have to take a picnic or eat out somewhere on our beautiful island once a week.”
“I like it.” He reached over to play with the curls tossing in the wind of her open window. “We did it, Lei. We got married.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty proud of us. Wasn’t without hurting someone, though.” Their eyes met for a moment, and reflected in them was the haunting memory of Stevens’s first wife. Lei would never forget the moment she spotted Anchara in the audience of their wedding—and the sweet smile the other woman had given her.
“She’s okay,” Stevens said. “She sent me an e-mail not long ago. Got into the culinary arts program at UH Maui. Really happy with it.”
“Good.” Lei preferred to forget his disastrous first marriage had ever happened, but she knew she was at least partly responsible for it—both that it had occurred and that it hadn’t worked out. “Speaking of old business—Consuelo graduates from her group home next month. She’s in college full-time and fielding offers for her memoir.” Consuelo, Lei’s young protégée, had a story well worth telling.
“Now, that’s good news.”
They reached the booth entrance to the park and, since it was after hours, no personnel were there. “Just a quick stop at Hosmer’s Grove before we go to the summit,” Lei said. “I want you to get to know the birds.”
“I like to see you this passionate about something.”
“I can’t help it. I seem to have fallen in love with them. I’ve got the bird bug.”
“Lotta bird lovers in the world. You’re in good company.”
They parked the truck, and Lei took Stevens’s hand. “We have to hurry. I just want to show you the canyon; then we have to get to the top before the sunset.”
They broke into a jog on the short, well-worn trail that wound through the grove of nonnative trees to the edge of the deep canyon where Lei had taken Marcella and Sophie.
