Lana'i of the Tiger (The Islands of Aloha Mystery Series) (20 page)

“Not sure. The next ferry’s at
four-thirty, though.”  She looked at the clock on the wall. “Less than half an
hour. I don’t think she had time to make the earlier one.”

“
Mahalo
,” I said. I
sprinted for the door.

***

I ran to the White Orchid to see
if Darryl could give me a ride to the ferry dock. As I turned the corner, I
halted. A cop cruiser was parked out front. I ran back the way I’d come and
went in through the back gate. How long could it take Darryl to tell the cops
he hadn’t seen me? A minute, maybe two?

I slipped into the greenhouse to
avoid being spotted in the yard. Mr. Ho was busy re-potting some orchids. He
looked up as I approached.

“
Aloha
, Mr. Ho,” I said.
I tried to act as if I was just hanging out—not a care in the world—but as I
walked toward him, Ho stepped back from the potting table and folded his arms
across his chest.

“You have worry,” he said. It
wasn’t a question.

“Yes, I do. I need to get to the
ferry dock in time to make the next boat, but it leaves in twenty minutes and
Darryl’s busy.”

“Policeman here.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“You got some problem with the police?”

“More or less,” I said.

“You hurt somebody? Take
something? What?”

He’d already demonstrated his
powers of observation, so I figured it best to offer the vague truth. “No,
nothing like that. The police want to talk to me. But I can’t talk right now. I
need to stop a friend who’s about to make a big mistake.”

“Your friend is going on the
ferry?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll get my truck.”

We careened down Manele Road so
fast Ho’s rattletrap truck sounded like every nut, bolt and weld was about to
blow. When we skidded into the harbor area, the ferry was already at the dock.

“
Mahalo
, Mr. Ho,” I said.
I leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek but he intercepted and patted my
shoulder.

“You go. You miss your friend if
you don’t go now.”

I slammed the truck door and
dashed down the wooden dock. A hefty ferry worker with a ponytail halfway down
his back was hauling the gangway onto the dock.

“Please,” I said. “I need to get
on.”

He released his grip on the
gangway and it dropped with a loud
clank
. “No worries. You got a
ticket?”

“How much for
kama’aina
?”

He looked me over. “You got some
ID?”

“C’mon, man. I can tell you who
coached Warrior football when Colt Brennan was quarterback. I know the three
foods you need for plate lunch. I graduated from Maui High School when the
sugar mill was still operating in Lahaina. Give me a break,
brudda
. I
forgot my wallet at home.”

“You got money?”

“At least enough for a
kama’aina
ticket.”

“Okay, get aboard.” He shoved
the gangway back in place and I hopped on.

I found Auntie Cora on the
bottom deck huddled near a window. She was sitting so low in the seat I almost
missed her.

“Auntie!” I said in a loud
voice. Four older ladies turned around in their seats to see who’d called them.

I gave a little wave to the
others, then I went to sit next to Auntie Cora.

“Penny,” she said. “What are you
doing here? I thought you were in hiding.” She looked around the ferry cabin as
if trying to spot an al Qaeda death squad.

“I’m here to get you off this
boat.”

CHAPTER
25

I had to nearly carry a bewildered
Auntie Cora out of the ferry cabin. We made our way to the back just as the guy
was once again dragging the gangway onto the dock for departure.

“We need to get off this boat,”
I yelled above the roar of the revving engines.

“Sorry. It’s already underway,”
shouted the pony-tail guy from the dock. He shot me so much
stink eye
it
was a wonder my nostrils didn’t seize up. But he stopped hauling the gangway.

“No it’s not,” I said. The
engines were throbbing, but the ferry hadn’t moved an inch. “My auntie
is
sick. She needs medical attention.”

He looked at Auntie Cora. “She
looks okay to me.”

“Well, she’s not.” I grabbed
Auntie’s arm. “What’s that? You’re having real bad chest pains?”

Auntie nodded, not looking very
convincing. I hoped pony-tail man would take her confused look to be the result
of the massive coronary going on in her chest.

“They got more doctors on Maui
than here,” the guy offered.

“Yeah, but she’s got medicine at
home. She needs to get it. And if she gets any worse we’ll take the airplane to
Kahului. No tellin’ what might happen on the bumpy ferry ride.”

He signaled to the captain in
the upper bridge. The captain got on the loudspeaker. “What’s goin’ on down
there? We need to get movin’.”

The pony-tail guy pointed to
Auntie Cora. He slashed his finger across his throat, like a director
signaling, ‘Cut
’
.  The engines throttled back and the pony-tail guy
hurriedly slid the gangway back into place. When it was secure, he unhooked the
little chain and gave us a ‘c’mon’ gesture.

“
Mahalo
. I’ll make sure
my auntie gets home safe and gets her medicine,” I said as I followed Auntie
Cora off the ferry.  

“Yeah, you do that,” the guy
shouted as he once again began hauling the heavy metal plate back onto the dock.
He signaled the bridge and the engines roared to full-throttle. The ferry pulled
away, leaving a wide trail of churning white foam in its wake.

“Why you come down here?” said
Auntie Cora once the ferry had moved far enough away we could hear ourselves
think.

“I know about your house,” I
said. “I know they want to take it away from you. But you don’t need to worry
about it anymore.”

She looked deep into my eyes as
if she was waiting for me to whip out a winning lottery ticket, or maybe a
racing form showing my horse had come in at a hundred to one. Unfortunately,
the State of Hawaii frowns on ill-gotten gains so lotteries and horse-racing
aren’t legal in the islands.

“No, really,” I said. “I’ve got
fantastic news.” 

“You one of those Secret
Millionaires?” she said. She was referring to a reality TV show where big bucks
people pretend to be volunteers at local charities and then, after a week, come
clean to the poor folks that they’re actually comfortably well-heeled. They
hand out modest checks to the weeping recipients in a ‘feel-good’ moment at the
end of the show.

“No, I’m not one of those guys.
But I know how you could come into some serious cash.”

Now she really looked confused.

“Let’s take a seat over there in
the shade,” I said. “The shuttle bus won’t be by for a while.”

I told her about going to the
library and looking up Willie’s car on the Internet. I explained that an
identical car, a little more cleaned up, had recently sold for more than a
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Auntie Cora’s lips formed into an “O”
but she didn’t say anything.

When I finished, I shut up to
allow time for it to sink in. 

“But I promised Willie,” she
said finally breaking the silence.

“Yes, you did. And I’m sure
Willie loved that car.” I paused for dramatic effect. “But wherever he is,
don’t you think he loves
you
more?”

She started weeping, her hands
swiping tears from her wrinkled cheeks. She stared at her feet. I kept quiet.
The decision was so personal, so morally complicated, I vowed I’d respect
whatever choice she made.

The shuttle bus swung into view.
I stood and waved so the driver would stop for us. We got on and rode back to
Lana’i City in silence.

***

I walked Auntie Cora back to her
house and then ran down to the White Orchid to hear what the cops had said. My
next stop would be the police station, but I wanted to be prepared when I made
my grand appearance. Coming out of hiding meant my time on Hawaii was down to
hours, maybe minutes. There was no way Wong would allow me to slip through his
fingers again. 

I took the three steps up to the
porch and looked through the screen. A lovely tableau of mother, baby and
doting papa was on display in the great room. All three were sprawled on the
tattered sofa, with Baby Ekana tucked in the crook of Darryl’s arm and Ewa
dozing alongside.

Ekana began whimpering when he
saw me. I swear that kid must’ve mistaken me for an archenemy from a former
life. When I stepped through the screen door he really went to town. Darryl
tried to shush him, but after a minute of full-tilt screaming, Ewa groggily
roused herself and took the baby back to the bedroom.

“Sorry to wake you,” I said when
things had settled down.

“No worries. You were right,
that cop came looking for you.”

“Yeah? How did it go?”

“Pretty much as planned,” he
said. “I told him you’d worked here before, but we’d been in Honolulu for the
past week and I hadn’t seen you since.”

“Did he believe you?” I said.

“Who knows? He was a tough dude.
Real hard to read.”

I nodded.

“Oh, but he did say something
interesting,” said Darryl.

“What’s that?”

“He said if I saw you I should let
you know they found Tyler Benson’s prints on the knife.  He said—and this is
just how he said it—
seems things aren’t always what they seem
.”

That sounded like Wong, ever the
profound philosopher.

“Can I use your phone?” I said.

“Sure. I’m need to go check on
Ewa. Can you stay for dinner?”

“
Mahalo
, but no. I’ve got
one more thing to do before I get in touch with Wong. After that, I’m as good
as gone.”

“Well, take care, Penny. Come
back and see us when you can.”

We hugged briefly and he left me
alone in the great room. I dialed the main number for the Lodge at Koele and
asked to be connected to housekeeping.

Kate picked up on the second
ring.

“Penny,” she said once I’d
identified myself. “I’m glad to hear from you. I was just about to leave. Guess
what? I found Marta. She’s agreed to meet with me in the morning.” 

“She’s back?”

“No, she’s over on Maui. I’m
going to catch the first ferry over.”

“Can I come with you?” I said.

“Sure, but it’ll be like last
time. She speaks even less English than Stella.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like
to go with you. I have two questions I’d love to have answered before I turn
myself in.”

“I’m sure she’d be okay with you
coming. But she flatly refuses to talk to Four Seasons security,” she said. “Do
you have any ideas on that?”

“Not at the moment. I’ll see what
I can come up with by tomorrow morning.” I gave her Auntie Cora’s address and
she offered to swing by and pick me up on her way to the ferry.

I hung up. Looked like I
wouldn’t be spending Friday night with Wong after all.

I speed-walked back to Auntie
Cora’s, keeping my head down and zig-zagging down side streets to avoid
crossing the park. I could practically feel Wong’s anger zinging through the
trees.  

Auntie Cora was sitting on her
porch. She smiled as I approached but it didn’t look genuine.

“How’re you doing, auntie?”

She nodded.

“Looks like you’ve got a lot on
your mind,” I said.

“Yes. Willie used to say, ‘
I
got a lot to think about, but nothing to worry about’
. I miss him so much.”

I had a hunch that I wanted to
check out. “Was there someone here in Lana’i City who coveted Willie’s car?” I
said.

“What do you mean by ‘coveted’?”

 “You know, some guy who wished
that car had been his instead of Willie’s? Maybe a guy he worked with, or a
neighbor or maybe someone in his
ohana
? Was someone jealous of the car?”

She smiled, and this time the
smile was genuine. “Oh there were a bunch of jealous guys. One in particular.
It was a big thing around here when Willie bought that car. The first day he
drove it to work, his boss got mad. Told him he didn’t think it was right for a
little Filipino foreman to have a better car than him.”

“Was he was joking?” I said.

“Not joking. When the boss got a
higher-up job, he told the big boss that Willie was no good. Said to not give Willie
the better job. Willie knew it was because of the car.”

“Do you think maybe when Willie
asked you to not sell the car, he really meant don’t sell it to someone here on
Lana’i? Maybe he was afraid the boss man would buy it. Or maybe he thought if someone
else bought it they’d have the same trouble he’d had. ”

“I never thought of it that
way.”

“Auntie, would you mind if I
stayed here with you tonight? I need to check out something before I leave.”

“
Ipo
, you can stay with
me as long as you wish. I like having you here. You’re a smart girl.”

I went to bed that night feeling
pretty certain there was a good chance Auntie Cora wouldn’t get kicked out of
her house.

***

The first ferry to Maui was
scheduled to leave at eight o’clock. While I sat in the shadows of Auntie
Cora’s porch waiting for Kate, I pondered what I did and didn’t know about
Deedee Diamonte’s murder. She’d been killed sometime between six and nine in
the evening, and that matched up with Stella’s account of finding Deedee’s body
at eight o’clock. Tyler had been with me from about six-thirty until well after
eight, but now the police allege his prints were on the murder weapon. How was
that possible? And was there a link between Deedee’s death and the dead gossip
reporter found under her balcony? Could it be that the local gossip was right
and Tyler had found them together in Deedee’s room and killed them
before
coming down to the White Orchid? If so, Tyler was a better actor than I’d
realized. He’d given an Oscar-winning performance of an innocent man.