“What happened?” He frowned. “You okay?”
“Sorry, I got distracted,” she said. She squeezed her fist. The pain answered, and her body was hers again.
“It was more than that. Did you hear what I said? You were totally out of it there for a minute.”
“Sure,” she said, racking her brain for what they’d been discussing. “Which part?”
“The part about the girls meeting some older guy to go out,” Stevens prompted.
“Right,” Lei said. She knew she was missing information. I can’t remember what he said that made me black out. What if it was important to the case? Her brain skittered around, but it remained a blank from when he had said Haunani had a pot habit. She would just have to look for clues, managing and hiding the “lost” moment as she had for years
“Anyway, it looks like there’s some substance to that idea,” Stevens went on. “Haunani stopped buying from her regular dealer and started flashing some bling, a new cell phone, stuff like that. She told her friends she had a ‘secret admirer’ and he was taking care of everything she needed.”
“Why would he need to drug her then? Was it for a threesome with Kelly?”
“I don’t know. But there’s that witness in her neighborhood who talked about her being dropped off from a Toyota truck, and a student who saw her get picked up after school one day in a black Toyota truck. That’s the lead I want you to run down: possible sugar daddies with black Toyotas.”
“Great,” Lei groaned. “You know how many black Toyota trucks we have in Hilo?”
“Yeah, I know. Why do you think I’m here on a Saturday, eating crow and roping you in on this thing?”
“Okay,” Lei said, not about to argue with this chance to help. “What else should I be looking for?”
“We’ve consulted Dr. Wilson, the police psychologist, for a profile on the type of guy Haunani would be with. She’s thinking someone twenties- to mid-thirties, probably single, with a newer black Toyota, Tundra or Tacoma model. He lives in this area since he was able to carry on a relationship with the girl for a while.”
“Sounds like most of the younger guys in Hilo. Okay, I’ll get on it Monday.”
“I got overtime authorized for you,” he said sheepishly. “I was hoping you’d want to get started tomorrow.”
She stared at him, laughed.
“Wow. What a turnaround. Okay, fine. Want to meet up?”
They set a time, and he keyed it into his Blackberry. She walked him to the door.
“See you tomorrow, Stevens.”
“Call me Michael. Really.”
“Doubtful,” she said, smiling.
In the bath that evening, Lei leaned her head back against the cool porcelain, taking one of those deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth her therapist had recommended, hoping this time it would be different. This time she’d be able to reclaim one more thing he’d taken from her.
It was getting to be more and more important that she manage the weird memory loss and blackout moments she’d struggled with since she was nine. She thought back over the conversation with Stevens, and decided the moment that had triggered her was when he said “she’d been a happy, normal kid.”
She saw Kelly’s bloated, empty face again in her mind’s eye and felt her heart squeeze.
At one time Lei had been a happy, normal kid too-but she’d already been messed up by her dad’s arrest and her mother’s lifestyle by the time Charlie Kwon got his hands on her.
These thoughts weren’t helping her relax. She closed her eyes, but as soon as she did, she smelled the Stetson cologne Charlie always wore. She took another relaxation breath, blowing out the remembered scent. The next second Charlie was there, leaning over her, the soap in his hand.
“Let me wash you,” he said. The pupils of his eyes were wide and black, swallowing her with their need.
Lei reared up, the water sloshing. Keiki, who’d been napping on the bath mat, lunged to her feet. Dripping suds, Lei reached out a trembling arm to pet the dog’s wide chest.
“My guardian. It’s okay, girl, I’m safe now.”
Keiki subsided with a whuff, her ears still swiveling for possible danger. Lei’s heart was still thudding, and she dried a shaking hand on a towel and thumbed open her phone, speed dialing Aunty Rosario at her restaurant in California.
“Baby girl!”
“Hey Aunty. How’s the rat race treating you?’
“Not bad. Been getting some new customers from the ads my busboy put in the mailboxes.”
“Still serving the lilikoi pie?”
“Of course. My regulars would mob me if I didn’t. ’Sides, how else can I say I serve Hawaiian food?”
“What about those poi rolls you were doing?”
“Turns off the truck drivers. They won’t eat anything purple. So what’s new in Hilo?”
They chatted and when they hung up Lei was waterlogged and ready to get out, the flashback gone but not forgotten.
She wondered if she’d ever be able to take a bath without his appearance. Charlie’d had a way of getting to her, twisting everything he did to her into something she’d wanted. Most of her childhood memories remained mercifully elusive but she knew the bath had been bad.
The only thing she remembered for sure were his eyes.
That night she hung her holster from the bedstead and fell asleep with the matte black, boxy shape of the Glock only inches away.
Chapter 9
Lei took extra time in the mirror the next morning, whisking on a little mascara. She mashed in one last handful of CurlTamer, trying to get her hair to lie flat. It refused, as it usually did. When she realized what she was doing, she gave up and went to the station. She didn’t care what she looked like, she told herself, and felt the lie stick like a chicken bone in her throat.
“Hey.” Stevens met her at the coffeepot in the break room, dark hair damp and spiky and cheeks red with razor burn. He smelled like soap. “Ready to get started?”
“Of course.” The station was quieter than normal-Sunday mornings being more about church and hangovers in Hilo, and staffing allocated accordingly. Lei plunked down her coffee and booted up a workstation in the computer lab. Stevens sat next to her on another machine.
“So what’re you looking for?” she asked.
“I’m rolling through Haunani’s cell phone calls. I want to see if I can find any connection with Kelly’s stepdad or anyone else interesting. I think we’re going to have to track down and interview everyone she has in her contacts.”
“Oh.” Lei keyed in her password and logged on to the server. She began searching under “black Toyota truck.” The page loaded with entries. She opened each one and began screening the DMV information against the early-to-mid thirties male profile.
Stevens printed something, and then hopped up from the workstation.
“Gotta check something out.” He snagged his black leather jacket off the back of the chair. She envied that as a detective he didn’t have to wear a uniform. “Call me on my cell if you see anything likely.”
“Like what?” She swiveled the chair around. “‘Sugadady’ on a license plate? How the hell are we going to investigate all these dudes anyway?”
“I have a witness from the high school who says she saw the guy in the black Toyota. If we can show her the license pictures, she might be able to pick him out.”
“Nice. Thanks for sharing.”
“Just find the guys who fit the profile, print their pictures and make me a folder.” He shrugged into the jacket.
“For giving up my Sunday I expect to be at the interview,” she said, giving him her best stare. Arrogant asshole, she thought-not for the first time.
