Black Sands (23 page)

CeCe sat on the stone fence. One foot swung carelessly back and forth as she talked to another young woman about her age. “And I told him no way was I going to give back the ring. If he was going to dump me, I was getting something out of the relationship. Of course that just made him livid.” She licked a piece of peanut butter from her thumb.

“CeCe, we need to talk to you,” Annie said, breaking into the conversation before CeCe could draw another breath.

CeCe’s eyes widened. “Annie. Hi.” She sounded breathless, and her giggle came out nervously. “What are you doing here?”

“We just talked to Sam. He said you saw Leilani.”

The other girl got up. “I’ll be in the car.” She hurried away as though she wanted nothing to do with the conversation.

“That’s right.” Her head bobbed up and down.

“Who was the guy she was with?”

“Um, I don’t know. I didn’t recognize him.” CeCe looked away, back toward the rain forest surrounding the outlook.

Annie grew cold, though the breeze was warm and fragrant. “What was she wearing?’

“Uh, let’s see. That new red and black aloha top with black denim shorts. Those ones I’ve tried to get her to let me borrow.”

Annie crossed her arms. “That’s not possible. That top is still in her room.”

“Oh, is it? Maybe she bought one like it.” Her voice faltered, and she stood and brushed crumbs from her shirt. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

“You didn’t see her at all, did you, CeCe? Why would you lie to Sam?”

“Don’t tell him.” CeCe’s voice rose. “Tab will . . .”

“Tab Watson? He told you to lie?”

CeCe nodded. “He wanted to get Sam off his back. He thought if you were convinced Leilani was all right, the cops would lay off.”

Tab Watson. The last person to see Leilani alive. Nausea roiled in her stomach. Did that mean Leilani was dead?

“Don’t say anything, please,” CeCe begged.

“Why would you lie for Tab?”

“Well, we’ve gone out a couple of times,” CeCe said.

“I thought you said he didn’t appeal to you,” Mano put in.

CeCe shrugged. “I lied, okay? He says he preferred me to Leilani all along, but Leilani was more forward, and he thought I didn’t like him.”

“Oh brother,” Mano said, his voice heavy with disgust. “Let’s go, Annie.” He pointed at CeCe. “You tell Aki that if he’s hurt Leilani, I’m going to take him down.”

“Who’s Aki?” CeCe asked as they walked away.

Mano whirled. “Ask your boyfriend why he uses an assumed name. His real name is Kim Aki.”

Annie could feel Mano’s anger coming off in waves. Was it because CeCe had said Leilani was a flirt, or was it because of the lies? She wished she knew what his feelings for Leilani were now. “What’s this about Tab Watson being Kim Aki?” She got in the car.

Mano slammed his door. “Me and Aki have had a run-in before. He’s trouble, and I have a feeling he’s involved in this up to his neck. I’m going to have another talk with him later.” He glanced at his watch. “What about that place where Leilani and Tomi had their clubhouse? Let’s go check it out.”

There was nothing better to do. She nodded. “It’s out toward our house.”

He started the car, and she directed him. They were both silent as the town fell behind them. “There,” she said. “Turn here.” She pointed to a dirt track that was practically obscured by overgrowth. “Take this about two miles in toward the volcano.”

“Seems too spooky a place for kids to hang out. This is on your property, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “At the northern edge.”

He slowed the car, but it still jolted when it hit the potholes in the lane. “No one’s been out through here in a while. The last rain washed away any tire tracks.”

“She could have walked,” Annie pointed out.

“Leilani’s not exactly one for physical exercise. This is a long way back.”

“I think I know my own sister better than you do,” she snapped. She looked away. He was going to think she was a shrew. She told herself she didn’t care what he thought of her, but she knew it was a lie. She cared. Way too much. “Sorry,” she said softly. She pointed. “There’s the lava tube they called their clubhouse.”

He stopped the car and twisted in the seat to look at her. “Look, Annie, let’s get this clear between us. You’ve been prickly ever since I told you that I thought you were pretty. I’m not a womanizer. I don’t say things I don’t mean. When a man gives you a compliment, you’re supposed to say
mahalo
, not turn it into some kind of big production where you question his integrity.” He got out and slammed the car door.

From the set of his shoulders, she could tell he was mad. Could he really be over Leilani? Was that even possible? She was afraid to hope. Her emotions were too raw to handle one more problem.

She let her gaze travel over his husky build. Pure Hawaiian, full of the aloha spirit of giving, and passionate about the people and things he loved. For a moment, she let herself dream about what it would be like to be one of the things Mano Oana loved. It was too wondrous to fathom.

Annie got out of the car and went to stand beside him at the opening to the cave. She touched his arm and felt the firm muscles under the skin. “Sorry, you’re right. I know you better than to think you’d lie to me.”

He turned to look down at her. Before she could think about it, she reached up and touched his cheek, then stood on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his. She heard his swift intake of breath, then he caught her in his arms. She closed her eyes when his kiss gained in intensity. She’d never been so thoroughly kissed. In fact, the only time she’d been kissed by someone other than a family member had been in third grade when Johnny Choo kissed her for putting a Band-Aid on his leg.

She wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotion that left her shaking when he finally released her. “Wow,” she whispered.

His dark eyes regarded her with amusement and something she thought might be tenderness. “I think I’d like to try that again when we have more time.”

Heat flared in her chest and spread to her face. “Fawn and I have a big Scrabble tournament on for tonight. Want to come?”

“Can I get you in the moonlight afterwards?”

“Maybe.” She smiled, her heart as light as the honeycreeper that soared from the tree above her head.

M
ano walked along the rough
a’a
lava rock toward the lava tube. Black gravel crunched beneath his boots. Little vegetation had returned to the area, and the sparse landscape was like another world. Light shone from the other end of the hollow tube and illuminated the length of the enclosure. Filmy roots dangled like spiderwebs from the ceiling.

“I can see how this would be intriguing to kids.” He stooped to enter the tube.

“Watch the stalactites,” Annie warned. She pointed to the rock formations that hung like black icicles from the ceiling. The floor was flat and level with high water marks on the walls.

Annie pointed out a depression in the side of the lava tube. “Look, someone has been here.”

Blankets, a cooler, and some Styrofoam cups lay on the smooth floor. Tucked away like this, they almost escaped Mano’s notice. There was nothing to indicate who the items belonged to. He glanced at her. She wore a closed expression, and he wondered about her childhood and how she’d lived in the shadows of her more flamboyant siblings.

He smoothed the blanket out. “This is our clubhouse now. Sit down.” He sank onto the blanket and folded his legs in front of him, Indian-style. “I’ve got a macadamia-nut protein bar we can share for our little picnic.” His alarm beeped on his watch, and he shut it off.

A smile tugged at her lips, and the distant expression vanished from her eyes. “You’re nuts.” She joined him on the blanket. “You didn’t even check for scorpions or lava spiders.”

“They wouldn’t dare interrupt our good time.” He unwrapped the protein bar, broke it in two, and gave her the bigger half. “A repast fit for a princess.”

She tucked a strand of silky black hair behind her ear and accepted the candy. “Sugar-free. I didn’t know you were a health nut.” She smiled at him. “And Leilani was always the princess. I was the wicked witch.”

“You’re too pretty to be a witch. They have crooked teeth and warts.” The dim light inside the lava tube cast a misty, ethereal halo around her. It seemed like he’d just met her, and yet he knew her so well. All the qualities he’d seen subconsciously were no longer hidden from him. She took a bite of her candy bar and didn’t answer, and he knew he’d embarrassed her again. He wondered when she’d last had a compliment. “Your father must be very proud you chose to follow in his footsteps,” he told her.

She met his gaze. “Tomi was the one who was supposed to do it. Father groomed him from the time we were small. But Tomi has no patience for the meticulous work of geological studies. It bored him.”

“And you love it.”

She nodded. “The earth holds so many secrets. It’s my job to tease them out, to coax the stones and strata into revealing our past and how the earth came to be.”

“I don’t think I’d have the patience either. I just turn to the Bible and know that God created it all.”

She leaned her head back against the smooth, black wall. “It’s exciting to see how the Bible lines up with science.”

“It’s science’s job to line up with the Bible.”

She blinked. “Uh yeah, sure.”

He wondered what her spiritual life was like. He knew her family attended church, but science had always been more important than anything else to the Tagama family. He started to say something else, but Annie held her finger to her lips.

“Shh.”

“What is it?” he whispered.

“I heard something. It came from the back.”

They both got up and crept to the back opening of the lava tube. It was barely large enough to crawl through. A thud came through, faint and to the left of the lava tube. “Let’s check it out,” Mano whispered. He wiggled through the opening, then helped Annie step out of the tube. “I think it was this way.”

Annie’s breathing quickened, and he knew she was scared. And no wonder. The light was going now, fading fast with the coming of twilight. The sound of the waves crashing on the rocks beyond the hill sounded like a dragon gnashing its teeth. Hardly anyone ever came out here. It was Tagama land, though they never would have stopped a casual tourist from strolling the grounds.

This didn’t sound like a tourist. The noise was a furtive, dragging sound, as though someone didn’t want to be heard or seen. Mano wasn’t sure why he was certain of that fact, but he was. He clasped Annie’s hand and wished he’d brought his gun. Or a knife. He stopped and picked up a sharp rock. It was better than nothing.

“Maybe we should call Sam,” she whispered.

Mano shook his head. “No time.” He released her hand. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“I’m coming too.” She stayed close to him.

He didn’t argue. The sound had stopped now, but the air had a watching and waiting quality. There was no telling what they would find behind the line of scrubby shrubs. It was now or never, though. The last of the light would be gone in a few more minutes.

He grabbed another rock and tossed it into the darkness of the trees. There was a sudden
whoosh
of wind, and he heard the sound of someone running away. “Hey. You there! Wait.” He plunged into the cool shade of the palms, then stumbled as his feet contacted something in the path. It was too soft to be a rock.

Annie uttered a cry and put her hand over her mouth. He stared down into Noah Sommers’s face. Mano knelt and touched him. Too late. From the coldness of the body, he knew the man had been dead awhile. Dog tags lay beside the body. He didn’t touch them but could see the name engraved on them. Tomiko Tagama. “Call Sam,” he said.

S
ympathetic friends and family filled Jillian’s small house. Annie sat with Heidi in the lanai. Green and white cushions on wicker furniture crowded the narrow room. Plumeria bloomed outside the screened-in area, and their fragrance drifted in, though she couldn’t see them in the dark. She and the little girl sat on the wicker loveseat. Heidi hadn’t cried yet. Annie thought it probably hadn’t soaked in yet that she’d lost her father. Mano was with Jillian in the living room, and the low tenor of his voice drifted through the door. The sound comforted Annie.

No one wanted Heidi around while Sam was asking Jillian questions. It probably didn’t look good that Noah and Jillian were estranged. Jillian would never have killed Noah, but Annie knew the police would be investigating the whole situation. Where did Tomi fit in? She refused to believe her brother could have had anything to do with the murder.

She picked up Heidi’s hand. “Want to play a game?” she asked.

Heidi shook her head. “Can we pray for my dad?”

It was a little late now, but Annie didn’t point that out. She was pretty rusty at the praying thing.

“I asked Jesus into my heart last year,” Heidi confided. “He’ll take care of my dad.”

“I was your age when I asked Jesus too,” Annie said. She remembered the frilly red dress she’d worn that day and how her heart pounded so hard she thought she could see it bounce against her dress. She’d pressed her hand over it to keep it in place, and her teacher thought she was getting sick.

Where had that excitement gone? Little by little, other things had crept in. It hadn’t helped that her parents cautioned her not to let religion take too strong a hold on her life.

Heidi tugged at her hand. “You want me to pray?”

“I think that would be good,” Annie said. A strange sensation swept over her, a yearning that she found hard to recognize. Mano had mentioned God earlier in the day as well. It must be nice to have that kind of close relationship with God, that kind of peace and certainty. She went through most of her days without giving God a thought.

What did she have, really? An obscure job studying volcanoes, a family that hardly noticed her unless the laundry needed to be done, and no social life to speak of. She stirred restlessly on the wicker sofa. Maybe Fawn was right—about everything.

Heidi gripped Annie’s hand and prayed a halting yet somehow confident prayer for God to watch over her dad and to take care of her mom and her. The trust and total belief in Heidi’s voice gripped Annie by the throat. She tried to be strong for her family, but she wished she could let go. Maybe there was more, something deeper, that she was missing.