up the interview with the witness. Doing it tomorrow-still want to come?”
“Of course. When and where?”
“I thought we’d try to be less intimidating, so it’s at Hilo High School library at 10 a.m. Wear civvies.”
“Okay. Hey, a little something I think you should know,” she said, and told him about the car chase.
“Could be related, but it’s a stretch. You probably freaked some poor guy out.”
“In my old granny car? C’mon, he was laughing as he dusted me. I really need some decent wheels.”
“Why don’t you get some?”
“Right,” she said, playing with Keiki’s ear. “Ha, ha.”
“No, really, I’ve got a friend who works at the dealership downtown… he’ll find a good deal for you. Let’s go tomorrow after the interview.”
Lei felt that bubble again, something reckless and wild, something like joy.
“What the hell. Let him know we’re coming,” she said, and said goodbye. She turned to Keiki. “We’re going car shopping, baby.”
She had always been careful with money, going to community college in California, being thrifty, and making do. When she arrived in Hilo two years ago, it was with savings she had built up. She’d bought the 1989 Civic for $1500.00 cash and, other than her dog, had no major expenses.
I really can afford to get a new car, she thought, and grinned.
Suddenly Keiki barked in the living room, the full-throated baying that signaled a stranger.
“Keiki! Come!”
The big Rottweiler continued to bark, her ruff distended, the boom of the dog’s voice almost shaking the walls. Lei grabbed her Glock out of the holster on the headboard, bolted up from her bed, and ran into the room, her gun out.
“Hello?” she called, but there was no answer except Keiki’s snarling as the dog faced the front door. She signaled Keiki back and put her eye to the peephole.
There was no one on the little porch. She opened the door and saw the gleam of paper, and bent down to retrieve the note that had been slipped partially under the mat, carefully holding it by a corner.
“Patrol,” she told Keiki, giving her a hand signal. The dog went silent and trotted around the house, sniffing at the windows, and finally whisked through the dog door to do her circuit outside. Lei knew she would bark if there was anything there. She retrieved a pair of gloves and snapped them on. She sat down at the table and slit the envelope with a steak knife. It was the same computer paper, folded twice around a single sentence:
I’M THINKING ABOUT YOU. IT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES.
What the hell did that mean? She battled the urge to crumple the paper and throw it as far away as she could. Instead she slipped it and the envelope into a Ziploc bag. Adrenaline buzzed through her. She hadn’t become a cop so she could sit around waiting to be a victim again and she was sick of being too little, too late. Damn if I’m going to sit here and let him scare me. He must still be nearby.
She slipped on her running shoes, clipped her cell phone onto her waistband, shrugged into the shoulder holster and whistled for Keiki. The dog streaked back in, still silent. She slipped the choke chain over Keiki’s head. All playfulness was gone as Keiki waited, her triangle ears pricked.
“Work,” Lei said, giving her the hand signal. She turned off the lights, letting her eyes adjust. She armed the house, pulled the Glock, stepped outside with the dog at her side. How long since Keiki gave the first alarm? Her mind raced, calculating. No more than five minutes, max. The bastard couldn’t have gotten far.
The street was quiet and deserted except for the blue glow of TVs behind living room windows and pools of yellow street lights here and there. She and Keiki speedwalked down the cracked sidewalk, looking for any sign of movement, straining their ears for anything unusual.
They got to Tom Watanabe’s house at the end of the block. The Acura was parked in the driveway, the streetlight gilding its chrome. His windows were dark, shades down, no flicker of TV showing.
There was no sign of anyone up or down the street, and Lei felt a sudden hot rage. Bastard thought he could scare her in her home? She’d give him some fucking memories. The stalker was going to learn the hard way she wasn’t like other women. She’d never be a helpless victim again.
She knew it could put Keiki at risk, anyone out in the neighborhood at risk, but in a split-second she unclipped Keiki’s leash. If he was still here, Keiki would find him.
“Go,” she said. The dog shot away, silent as a black arrow, hurtling up the street. Lei ran after her, trying to keep up. She was halfway to the next block when a cacophony of barking started up ahead and she broke into an all out run.
Her heart sank as she saw one of her neighbors, a plump lady in a muumuu, backed up against her mailbox clutching her fuzzy Shih Tzu. Keiki faced them, growling, her hair on end and ears flat. Her teeth looked enormous as she broke into the fast-paced barking meant to herd and intimidate. It appeared to be working.
“Help! Oh my God!” The woman shrieked as the little white dog tried to claw its way onto her head. Lei grabbed Keiki’s chain collar and yanked her back onto her haunches.
“Friend!” she yelled, holstering her gun and making the hand signal where the snarling dog could see it. Keiki was so agitated her hair was standing on end, spit flying from gnashing jaws. Lei gave her another yank and a smack on the haunches to get her attention. The dog finally sat, and Lei made her lie down and expose her belly in submission. Only then did she look up at her neighbor.
Up and down the street, lights were coming on and the woman’s husband came roaring down the steps, a baseball bat in his hand.
The woman ran toward him screaming, “She has a gun!”
“I’m so sorry,” Lei said. “I’m a police officer and I was chasing a suspect. My dog was looking for him.”
“What the hell?” screamed the husband. “Are you crazy?”
“I called the police,” yelled another neighbor from her porch. Lei recoiled. This was a nightmare.
“I’m a police officer,” she repeated to the couple. “I was looking for an intruder… I really am sorry. She wouldn’t have hurt you. She was ‘holding’ you for me.”
The lady had dropped the Shih Tzu at some point and the dog had vanished. She sobbed hysterically as her enraged husband helped her into the house.
“Tell it to the cops, you crazy bitch! I’m going to tell them to shoot that dog!”
Lei heard the wailing of sirens in the distance. She sat down on the sidewalk and waited, Keiki flopped beside her, her tongue hanging out.
“I’m sorry, girl,” she whispered, rubbing her dog’s neck. “This is all my fault.”
Chapter 12
Lei rocked a little in her bed, her arms around herself, her eyes shut under the sleep mask. She’d called in sick for the morning, dreading facing anyone in the department. Unfortunately, she still had to go meet Stevens and interview the kid at the high school, or miss out on the chance to help with that. She was sure he would’ve heard about the humiliating interview she’d had with Detectives Ross and Nagata. Bathed in flashing blue-and-red lights and surrounded by hostile neighbors, it had been hard to explain the patrol of her neighborhood that had ended so badly.
“At least the stalker will think twice about coming by on foot while I’m home,” she said out loud, flinging off the sleep mask. Keiki raised her head to look at her from the foot of the bed. Lei rocked herself some more, but for once it brought no comfort as she thought of the stark terror in her neighbor’s face, the outrage of the woman’s husband, the trembling little white dog they’d found two blocks away.
I wonder if he was watching? If so he must be laughing his ass off, she thought, and squeezed her eyes shut again.
Her cell phone bleeped from the side table and she looked at the caller ID before she answered it.
“Pono. Hey.”
“Called in sick, huh?”
“I don’t feel so good,” she said.
“You’re the owner of one sick puppy, that’s for sure.” He chuckled, but there was an angry edge to it.
