I
went downstairs and fell on my bed, not even bothering to take off my clothes.
CHAPTER 20
I’m
a light sleeper. I think it comes from being an orphan—I’ve never felt there
was anyone looking out for me but me. So when I sensed someone in my room, I
jolted upright. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I smelled him before I actually
saw him. This turned out to be a good thing since recognizing his odor was the
only thing that kept me from jabbing a knuckle into the larynx of the guy
looming over me.
“You
awake?” said Beni.
“I
am now. What’re you doing here?”
“It’s
not safe up there. I gotta be down here.”
“No
way, José. In fact, if you ever sneak into my room again, I’ll take you out
like week-old trash.”
“No,
listen to me. I showed those guys where you live—remember? I gotta be where I
can take off when they come sniffin’ around.”
By
now I was as awake as I was going to get, so I turned on my bedside lamp. Beni
hovered near the end of my bed. He wore a pair of threadbare shorts that hung
so low it was pretty obvious he’d blown off my demand to wear underwear. He was
bare-chested and his feet were also bare.
“You
planning to escape half-naked?” I said.
“I
don’t need no shoes. They slow me down.”
“How
about a shirt?”
“Look,
I jus’ came in here to tell you I’m not staying upstairs no more. I need to be
down here, where I can make a quick getaway without breaking a leg.”
“You
expect me to trade rooms with you?”
“Nah.
I’ll sleep on the couch. That way, I can hear ‘em coming.”
“Fine.
But every morning you’ve got to put away your pillow and blanket—make the room
look presentable. I’m not running a flophouse here.”
He
grunted his agreement and left.
***
After
Beni’s middle-of-the-night foray into my room I slept fitfully until daybreak.
I got up at six-thirty and got ready to go down to the PoP to work out some of
the anxiety I’d piled on since yesterday—Wong’s indifference to Crystal’s
situation, Hatch’s revelation about his past, and Beni’s certainty the drug
dealers would show up at my door.
By
seven I was on my way to the kung fu
guan
, with the rising sun nearly
blinding me as I drove down Baldwin Avenue, when my cell phone rang. I checked
the caller ID. It read: KINGSTON, O.
“
Aloha
,
Ono,” I said. “This is Pali. Did you ‘butt dial’ the wrong number?”
“Hey,
what’re you talking about? I been waiting for your call. Thought for sure you’d
given me the heave-ho.”
“Since
when is the girl supposed to do the calling?”
“So
now you’re gonna go all Southern Belle on me? Besides, when we were over in
Honolulu you mentioned you were ‘kind of involved.’ I figured that was a nice
way of telling me to shove off.”
A
few seconds of silence allowed us both time to realize what was going on.
“Okay,”
I said, “I’m really glad to hear from you. But I’ll bet you weren’t calling me
at the crack of dawn to check on my relationship status. What’s up?”
“Tell
you what, let me buy you breakfast at Hargrove’s. What I’ve got to say may take
a while.”
How
could I refuse? I loved the mac nut pancakes at Hargrove’s, and I only had to
walk up thirteen stairs from there to get to my shop. Free breakfast and I
didn’t have to find a new parking spot—works for me.
“Sounds
great, but can you give me a couple of hours? I’m on my way to work out in
Pa’ia. I can be down in Lahaina by nine.”
“No
worries. See you then.”
***
Ono
looked even better than I remembered. He wore a white cotton shirt with the
sleeves rolled up and dark khaki cotton shorts. His tanned face contrasted with
his brilliant white smile. I could almost hear Tomika’s voice nagging him to
get his teeth professionally whitened.
You’ll look so good. Ten years
younger!
It looked like he’d taken her advice.
We
hugged an
aloha
and he asked me what I wanted to eat. I didn’t even look
at the menu before ordering Kona coffee, guava juice, and mac nut pancakes. If
I ever get on death row—which is highly unlikely since Hawaii doesn’t allow
capital punishment—I’d have no trouble figuring out my last meal. It’d be this
very same breakfast.
“You
know, today was supposed to be the wedding,” said Ono.
“Don’t
remind me. I’ve got vendors I’ve got to pay for
not
using their
services. Oh, while I’m thinking of it, how much do I owe you for cancelling?”
“Nothing.
Don’t worry about it. If I don’t take the boat out it doesn’t cost me
anything.”
“How
about Tomika? Does she let you just blow off cancellation fees?”
“Ha!
You’ve seen her place. You think she sits up nights tallying up the take on the
Maui Happy Returns
?”
I
shrugged. “Well, thanks for that. I’m kind of underwater with this stupid
wedding, but I’ll manage.”
“Anyway,
I appreciate you coming down here to meet me,” he went on. “I’d probably have
dreamed up some excuse to see you again, but when I got wind of this, I had to
call.”
I
was eager to hear what
this
was.
“I
guess I should start at the beginning,” he went on. “I’ve already told you my
story of how I got to Hawaii and what I’m doing living aboard Tomika’s boat.”
I
nodded.
“But
what I didn’t clue you in on is what it’s actually like living out on the
docks. Crazy stuff happens all the time, and I deal with a lot of screwy, scary
people—especially after dark.”
A
different waitress than the one who took our order came by to refill our
coffee. Ono shot her his dazzling smile. She gave him a wink and I felt a
little put off. Was she trolling for a good tip, or something else?
“Hey,
Ono, long time no see,” she said in a purring voice that made me think of old
Marilyn Monroe movies.
“Hey,
Kai, have you met my friend, Pali? She owns a wedding planning shop here in
town.”
Kai
and I smiled and nodded at each other while Ono made the introductions. Then
Kai said, “A wedding planner? How fun is that! Too bad I’m already married. I
always wanted a big wedding, but Donny wanted to go to Vegas.” She shot out a
pouty lower lip.
“You
could always have a ‘renewing of vows’ ceremony.” I said. “Very popular for ten
year anniversaries, and some of them are as fancy as weddings.”
She
laughed. “Sounds good. That is, if I can manage to stick with Donny for ten
whole years. You have no idea what I put up with.”
She
left and Ono continued. “Anyway, I’ve nosed around a little and there’s dock
talk about a suspected kidnapping. Seems the same lowlifes I’ve locked horns
with over drugs are whispering about ransom money for a girl who got nabbed by
some serious players.”
Even
though the waitress had slid a plate of heavenly-scented pancakes in front of
me, I didn’t look down. Ono had my full attention.
“Drugs
are everywhere at the harbor. People hauling ‘em, people selling ‘em, people
getting gutted over a deal gone bad. Just two days after I first brought the
catamaran over here a derelict approached me about running ‘ice’ for him from
the Big Island to Maui. Seems they’ve got a big meth lab over there up in the
jungle but distribution’s a problem. What with the dogs at the airport, it’s
tough to bring it in by air.”
I
could’ve told him all about the dogs at the airport, but I didn’t want to get
him off-track.
“Anyway,
they’re constantly looking for boats to ferry the stuff over. They like day
charters, like mine, because if the narcs find drugs aboard you can always
blame it on the passengers—say you had no idea it was stashed there, and say
you’re shocked and horrified to be used like that. With tourism kind of off and
on lately, the drug dealers can usually find charter guys who’ll haul the stuff
when business is slow.”
His
preamble was going on and on and my pancakes were getting cold. I slathered on
butter and doused them in coconut syrup.
“Yum,”
I said, slicing into the first cake.
“You
want me to hold off until you’ve had a chance to eat?”
“No,
go on. I can listen and swoon at the same time.”
“So,
anyway,” he went on, “after keeping this slime at arm’s length for a couple of
weeks, he decides to change his tactics. I’d been promised a new slip; a great
spot, front and center. The harbormaster said the current tenant had
given notice and was moving his boat back to the mainland. I put down a deposit
and he said the slip would be mine the next weekend. But when the day
came to move my boat there was already a big-ass yacht parked in my space.
Seems the scuzz ball drug runner had gone to the harbormaster—most likely with
either a bribe or a threat—and jerked the slip out from under me. Next thing I
know, I’m relegated to Lower Slobovia—way out on the outer docks where I am
now.”
“Why
would a drug runner want a close-in spot? Seems if he’s hauling drugs he’d want
to keep a low profile.”
“Yeah,
you’d think, but it wasn’t about the slip. It was to put me on notice as to
who’s really running the harbor. Like a dog peeing on a tree trunk to mark its
territory. These guys want everyone out there to know they can act with
impunity.
Don’t ask, don’t tell
may be long gone in the military, but
it’s alive and well in Lahaina Harbor. And I’m not talking about sexual
preferences here.”
“Got
it. So, tell me about what you overheard about the kidnapping.”
“After
you called to tell me the bridal couple had taken off and your girl was still
missing I did some nosing around. The bottom feeders tend to shoot their mouths
off to impress one another. Kidnapping’s a Class A felony—big stakes. So, when
word came out somebody had grabbed a girl and was holding her for major bucks I
put two and two together. I don’t have the details, but dollars to doughnuts
I’m betting the two things are related. This island’s too small for it to be a
coincidence. Sounds like a drug deal gone sour.”
I
cut into my second monster-sized pancake. I’d need to spend an extra sweaty hour
in the gym to make up for it, but I didn’t care. Not only were the pancakes
better than I remembered, but the subject matter made me nervous. I have two
ways to deal with stress: either I eat everything in sight, or I don’t eat
anything for days.
“So,”
he went on, “does any of this line up with what you’ve found out about your
missing girl?”
“Unfortunately,
yes. The cops are playing
see no evil, hear no evil
, but everything I’ve
learned so far points to my sweet-faced bridesmaid being mixed up with local
druggies.”
“Not
much you can do. Probably best to cut her loose.”
“I
probably should—for a lot of reasons. But I can’t. The idea of a young woman
coming here to Maui and getting hauled off to who-knows-where by a bunch of
scum-sucking drug dealers makes me sick. Okay, maybe she said
yes
when
she should’ve said
no
. Or maybe the partying got a little out of hand. I
don’t know. But the police aren’t the least bit interested. Meanwhile, I’m
finding odd body parts on my doorknob and a half-million-dollar ransom note on
my car. I’ve got a convicted felon staying at my house, and I spent half a day
getting grilled by the cops for showing up at the airport with cocaine-scented
cash.”
He
put his hand up as if to say,
halt
. “Whoa, whoa. You’re getting way
ahead of me here.”
I
filled him in on everything: the fingernails hanging on my shop door when I got
back from O’ahu; the ransom note showing up right before Keith and Nicole
vanished; the sniffer beagle out at the airport alerting to cocaine on the
money Keith left me for the wedding; and finally Beni staying at my house after
planting Crystal’s hair and nails in my car and at my shop.
“You’re
probably not safe at your house,” Ono said. “Do you want to move down to the
boat for a while? I could fix you up a bunk.”
“
Mahalo
,
but I’m fine. I’m locking my doors, and besides, I’m pretty sure the druggies
are done with me. Keith—or whatever his real name is—has most probably gone
back to the mainland and Beni’s just a small-time hood they used to get to
Keith. The way I see it, I’m no longer any use to them.”
“Maybe.
But you need to get that Beni dude out of your house. He may know more than
he’s telling. And if he does, they may want to shut him up before he goes
running to the cops looking for an immunity deal. You could end up collateral
damage.”
“But
I told you: the cops aren’t interested. They’ve blown me off again and
again.”
“That
doesn’t mean squat. Take it from me—cops lie.”
By
now the waitress had removed our plates and had asked us at least twice if we
needed anything more. I looked around. Every table was full. Clearly, we were
in jeopardy of overstaying our welcome.