Authors: Toby Neal
Chapter 16
L
ei had never known Captain CJ Omura to have a bad hair day. Her sleek bob swung in a curtain of silky black strands that didn’t quite touch the immaculate shoulders of her navy uniform jacket as she picked up the ring in its velvet box, turning it back and forth. The one-carat white diamond glared in a sunbeam from the window as Lei and Pono sat on the hard plastic supplicant chairs in front of her shiny black desk.
Lei felt tired and gritty and knew her hair looked like it had been stirred with salad tongs.
“So, you think this is motive?” Captain Omura’s dark brown eyes swept over Lei, taking in her travel-worn appearance as she held up the ring box.
“I do. While neither girl was the one to hold him under, they both have people in their lives with reason to want Makoa dead.” Lei reviewed the theories she and Kamuela had discussed. “I hear from Pono that Eli Tadeo has an alibi, though, so at this point our favorite suspect is Bryan Oulaki.”
“So you think Shayla wasn’t telling the truth about the suspect she saw and the van?”
“None of our physical suspects from the van have checked out, and Shayla’s an unreliable witness. It could have been Tom Cruise driving a Ferrari for all we know.”
“Not quite,” Pono chimed in. “We have a corroborating description of a medium-height mixed-race male with black hair from the surfers who tried to save Makoa.”
“That’s right.” Lei turned to Pono with a resurgence of energy. “I think we kind of went down a rabbit hole relying on the sketch from Shayla, but we could go back to those surfers with photos of the four possibilities and see if they can identify him.”
“That, and talk to Oulaki again,” Omura said. “See why he’s been calling Pippa. And get that girl to take a pregnancy test. Report back when something breaks from all of that.” She pushed the ring across the desk to Lei.
“Yes, sir.” Lei used the moniker Omura had chosen to avoid gender bias and scooped up the ring.
“Whatever happened with those threat letters? That North Shore Posse connection?” Omura asked.
“We don’t think they have a connection to the murder at this point,” Lei said, after a glance at her partner. “Intimidation and localism—couple of the hazards of surfing.”
They dropped the ring off at the evidence locker, and Lei called Pippa on her cell phone as they headed for the door. “Pippa? Did you get out of Shayla’s place?”
“Yes. I’m at my parents’ house.” The girl’s voice sounded sluggish, as if Lei had woken her up from a nap.
“Can we come by for a couple of questions?”
“Okay.” She gave the address.
“We’ll be by in an hour or so.” Pono was driving them to the addresses of the two young surfers who had tried to rescue Makoa, and on her lap Lei held license photos of Oulaki and Tadeo mixed in with a variety of other photos of roughly the same description.
Pono glanced over at her as she mixed the photos around and pointed. “Why do you have Eli Tadeo still in there?”
“You said Eric was the one to alibi him at that baseball game. His twin brother. If it wasn’t Eric Tadeo with all his connections and commendations providing the alibi, wouldn’t we be poking at it? I want to keep the photo in there. Just in case.”
Pono frowned and rubbed his top lip under the bristling mustache, but said no more as he navigated a run-down area of Kahului, Maui’s main town. At last they pulled into the driveway of a sprawling family home with a small ohana nearby under a mango tree heavy with sweet-smelling fruit. A pile of surfboards leaning against the sliding glass door marked this as Barrett Sharkey’s residence, and the rusting Subaru with racks near the house and the rubber slippers on the mat indicated the young man was home.
Lei tapped on the glass door and involuntarily took a step back as a wide-chested male Rottweiler galloped to the door and barked at them, the deep-voiced Intruder Alert sound Lei was so familiar with.
“Don’t see too many Rottweilers around here besides Keiki,” Pono said.
“Yeah. He’s a beauty.” Keiki was large for her breed, but this one was even bigger, at least a hundred and fifty pounds. He had a wide chest and deep brown, intelligent eyes that gleamed with health and vigor. As they continued to stand there, not backing off, the stump of his tail began wagging even as he continued to bark.
Lei was smitten.
Barrett Sharkey came out of a back bedroom, pulling on a T-shirt and yanking the dog back by the collar. His eyes widened in recognition of them. “Let me just put this boy back in the bedroom,” he said. “He’s not too good with visitors.”
Lei watched the young man wrestle the big dog into the bedroom and shut the door. The Rottweiler was still barking when Sharkey slid the glass door open to greet them.
“Hi. I remember you from the beach when Makoa died. What can I do for you?”
“That’s a fine dog you have,” Lei said. “I have a Rottweiler, too.”
“He’s a handful. I got him from a friend who was moving off-island, and truth is, I need to find another home for him. Too much dog for me.”
Lei’s mind raced. Keiki hadn’t been herself since the fire three months ago; she’d taken a long time to recover from her burns, but Lei wasn’t sure that was the reason her dog seemed so listless and out of sorts. Her Rottweiler almost seemed depressed, and another dog might be just the thing to perk her up.
“Let me talk to my husband. I might be interested,” Lei said.
Pono gave her a look and rolled his eyes. “You need another dog like a hole in the head,” her partner said.
“Does he have any bad habits?” Lei forged on, intrigued by the handsome dog.
“You’ve just seen it. He’s overprotective. Scares off the girls,” Sharkey said, with a charming grin. “But he’s all bluster and blow. Never bit anyone that I’ve heard of. He just needs more work and exercise than I can give him. He’s chewing a hole near the door trying to get out.” Sharkey pointed to a hole in the drywall.
“What’s his name?” Lei asked.
“Conan.”
“Conan. And what a barbarian of a dog he is. Come on, Lei.” Pono rolled his eyes again, holding up the folder and waving it in front of Sharkey. “Believe it or not, we came here for a reason. We have some suspects we’re looking at for the guy in the lineup, and wanted to see if you could help us with an identification.”
“Sure.” Sharkey moved a couple of empty beer cans off the coffee table and sat beside Pono with the folder. Lei sat on the other side of Sharkey as the young man opened the folder.
Lei had hastily assembled photos she’d printed off of driver’s license onto a grid with other random photos. As usual with these things, she felt the gaze of her suspects seeming to glare up at her from the lineup.
“I think I know this guy,” Sharkey said, pointing to the photo of Oulaki. “He feels familiar to me.”
“Think back to that day,” Lei prompted. “Close your eyes. Think of the surfer you saw. Are there any details coming back to you?”
“He had dark hair. A black rash guard and shorts. Brown skin, like a local.” Sharkey frowned in concentration, but a loud whine and the sound of scratching made his eyes pop open. “Mind if I let Conan out?” He jumped up from the couch and let the dog out of the bedroom, and now that they’d been identified as friendly, the big Rottweiler trotted over to Lei, his hind end waggling, and thrust his head into her chest, snorting as he inhaled her scent.
“Well, aren’t you a friendly boy,” she said, scratching his chest and behind his ears. “What a lover you are.” The big Rottie swiped her chin with his tongue
“No,” Pono said. “You’re not taking that dog home.”
Lei continued to pet Conan as Sharkey resumed his seat on the couch and his shuffling through the photos. “This guy looks familiar, too,” the young man said, and Lei was dismayed to see he was pointing to Tadeo.
“Familiar like you’ve seen him around town, or familiar like you saw him that day?” Pono asked.
“I’m not sure. He was far away. I only got an impression, you know?” Sharkey looked up, frowning. “But I feel like I recognize both of these guys.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Lei said, giving one more pat on the Rottweiler’s head as she stood. “I’ll give you a call about Conan. He might be good company for my old girl. She’s been in a funk lately. How’s he with kids?” She thought of Kiet’s relentless pursuit of Keiki around the little cottage.
“No problem. The people in the big house have a toddler. I’ve actually let the kid ride Conan and he was fine with it. He’s a great dog, but I’m gone most of the day and this house is too small for him and there’s no fenced yard here. I should have thought of all that when my friend dropped him off, but I didn’t want to see him go to the Humane Society.”
Lei left Sharkey her card and they got back on the road. “Need to stop by a drugstore and pick up a pregnancy test,” Lei said.
Pono widened his eyes. “Already?”
She snorted, even as she felt her belly hollow with loss. “Not me. What, you
lolo
? No, we need Pippa to take it.”
“You just gonna bring it to her and ask her to go pee on the stick? Not sure that’s legal.”
“Well, it’s worth a try,” Lei said. “You got a better idea? That pregnancy, or lack of it, speaks to motive, too, and Shayla says Pippa’s lying.”
Pono shook his head but pulled into Long’s Drugs, and Lei jumped out. “Sure you don’t want to buy it instead?” she teased Pono.
“No, thanks. Got a cousin who works there. That’s how rumors get started,” her partner said.
A few minutes later, they were back on the road, this time for Ipo Gomez’s house. This turned out to be an apartment in a run-down building on the outskirts of Paia. It was late evening by then, the sunlight slanting long across the weedy, dandelion-choked lawn near the building. Ipo’s apartment on the second floor had a peeling rubber welcome mat in front of the door, piled with pairs of cheap rubber slippers.
Lei knocked, and it wasn’t long before the young man was shooing his roommates out so he could study the photos. “Who did Sharkey identify?” he asked.
“We can’t discuss that. I’m sure you understand,” Lei said.
“Yeah. I get it.” Ipo, who himself could have passed for that all-too-generic sketch, rubbed a round dark soul patch of beard on his chin. “Well, I recognize this guy. Bryan Oulaki. He’s a pro. But I couldn’t say for sure if I recognize him because he was the guy in the water or from the pro circuit.” He paused again, this time over Tadeo’s picture. “He looks familiar, too.”
“Tell us more about that day.” Lei tried to get Ipo to narrow it down by taking him through the story again.
This time the young man said, “I think it could be that I recognize Oulaki because he’s a pro and I watch all the pro surfers. But I’m pretty sure I don’t know this guy, and I think I know him.” He tapped Tadeo’s photo. “And, come to think of it, this guy, too.” He tapped the photo of another man of roughly the same height and weight, with dark skin and eyes, a man Lei knew was locked up at Halawa for armed robbery.
“Well, thanks. We may be back,” Lei said.
Pono frowned as he pulled them onto the highway. “I don’t like it that they both put Tadeo back in the lineup.”
“Yeah. It’s not good, but it opens interesting possibilities,” Lei said. “Let’s hope Pippa is in a mood to cooperate.”
The man who opened the door of a large, well-maintained house on the Pukalani Golf Course halfway up Haleakala had a hint of blond hair on his shiny, reddened pate and the vivid blue eyes his daughter shared. “What can I do for you?”
“Sergeant Texeira and Detective Kaihale. We’re here to speak to Pippa?” Lei held up her ID. “She’s expecting us.”
“Okay.” The man opened the door reluctantly. “I’m Kellogg Thomas. I hope you’re getting closer to nailing whoever that bastard is who killed Makoa Simmons. Fine young man.”
“We’re running down every lead, which is why we need your daughter’s help,” Lei said. She could feel Pono, a looming presence at her elbow. “Did you know of anyone who had negative intentions toward him?”
“No. He was a great guy.”
Pippa appeared at the door. “Oh, Daddy. I hope you weren’t bending their ears with your theories.”
“She asked me fair and square. And I didn’t have a chance to tell them anything.”
“What were you going to tell us?”
“That I think that kid’s sponsor had him killed. For the insurance money. Torque was doing badly the last few years. I have stock in them, and I’ve been watching it carefully. It’s not doing well.”
“Anyone specific at Torque you have in mind?” Lei cocked her head and dimpled a little to show she liked him and was ready to listen to his theory and take it seriously. “We were aware of the life insurance policy on him, but were given to understand it wasn’t unusual for a professional athlete to have something like that as part of his contract. Especially in a dangerous sport like surfing.”
“Well,” Kellogg huffed. “No. But it bears looking into.”
“Thanks for the tip. Now can we speak to Pippa privately?”
He left with a harder-than-necessary slam of the door.
Lei reached into her purse and took out the pregnancy test in a small, brown paper-wrapped bag. “Will you please go to the restroom and take this test?”
Pippa recoiled, looking around wildly. “My parents don’t know!”
“And we don’t need to tell them. But we do need to know if you really are pregnant. It’s important,” Lei said gently. “There are those saying you are faking this. For sympathy. Or some other reason.”
Pippa straightened her spine. “Shayla. That bitch. Well, I took one of these last week and it was positive. So no skin off my nose to do it again. It would be a relief if it wasn’t accurate, but I’ve been having other symptoms, too.”
Pono rubbed his nose, uncomfortable. “I’ll be out in the truck.”
Lei followed Pippa to the bathroom, and the girl frowned at her. “Aren’t you going to wait outside?”
“I’m sorry, but this test may be evidence. We have a care, custody, and control protocol. I have to verify that it’s really your urine that goes on that stick,” Lei said as gently as she could. “And while we’re talking, I’m so sorry about how things went with Shayla. It was necessary that we saw her reaction to the news.”