shortly. He’d brought Jeremy Ito and Stevens with him. Lei introduced Jeremy to Keiki and led them back into the kitchen. Pono took a good look at her in the light, tipping her chin to look at her pale face.
“You need food, girl,” he said, and went to her fridge, poking about inside. He held up a withered lemon and a bottle of ketchup. “Nothing in here.”
Stevens examined the hair and the envelope at the kitchen table, putting on gloves Lei handed him. Jeremy looked on, his hands behind his back as though to keep them out of trouble, his lean young face intent. The kitchen light caught on their two bent heads, the rumpled dark of Stevens beside Jeremy’s black.
“There’s no evidence anyone has been hurt,” Stevens said. “The hairs look like they were snipped off. It could be a clipping off the floor of a barbershop.” He slipped everything into an evidence bag.
“I guess so,” Lei said, unconvinced. “It’s sure threatening though.” She sat down in one of the chairs. “Anyone want something to drink? I have beer.”
“Miller Lite,” Pono scoffed.
“Still on the clock.” Jeremy smiled, shaking his head. Pono flipped open his phone and speed-dialed the local Pizza Hut, ordering a large pepperoni with extra cheese.
“We were heading back to the station so we’ll take this in,” Stevens said. “Pono, you going to stay a while?”
“Got my pizza coming. You can come back by later.”
“What the hell is this?” Lei said, mustering up some indignation. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“What’s new on the Mohuli`i girls?” Pono asked, ignoring her.
“Still got some leads to check out off the cell phones,” Stevens said. “Lei, maybe you and Jeremy can run some of them down tomorrow. I have to do a conference call with the Oahu lab people analyzing what we sent over from the trash at the crime scene. I want to talk to all Haunani’s contacts again, see if any of them remembered anything more about this mystery man of hers.”
“Did you think anymore about the truck search?” Lei asked.
“Nah. If we get a hit on anyone else with that angle, we’ll revisit our witness. Right now we need to shake the trees and see what falls. I’m hoping for the search warrant on James Reynolds’s house today or tomorrow. I’ll be back later to spell you, Pono.”
“Bye,” said Jeremy as he followed Stevens out.
Lei put the chain and deadbolt back on behind them, turning to Pono, who’d finally taken off his Oakleys and set them on the table. They’d begun to make dents above his ears.
He rubbed his bristly mustache. “I’m hungry. That pizza better get here soon.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” she repeated.
Pono shrugged. “This is how we look out for our own Big Island style. You think you’re the only cop to be stalked?”
“I don’t know-I guess not.”
“Well you’re not. One of ours gets threatened, we look out for each other. Even off the clock.”
He went in and sat on the threadbare couch in her little living room, put his feet up on the trunk she used as a coffee table, hit the remote for the TV, and began scrolling through the channels.
Lei flopped next to him, giving up. It wasn’t long before they were digging into the rich, stretchy goo of hot pizza. She hadn’t realized how famished she was until she felt herself begin to relax as satiety worked its way through her system. She sat back and belched behind her hand.
“Feel better?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know I was so hungry.”
“Girl, you looked terrible. And to come home to this…” He rubbed a finger over his lips.
“Thanks for coming over. I hope Tiare doesn’t mind.”
“She wouldn’t like me sleeping over. That’s why I got Stevens doing the night shift.” He leered, looking exactly like an ominous tiki god come to life. “Play it right, you might get more than a bodyguard.”
“Shut up.” Lei punched him in the arm. “I gotta go shower.” She hauled herself off of the couch and went in to the bathroom. Keiki followed and flopped outside the door with a whuff.
Lei just stood for a long time under the falling water. It felt wonderful to wash off all the nervous sweat from the day, to feel safe with her partner downstairs… to know she had some friends. She got out and pulled on her favorite old sweats from high school hanging from a hook on the back of the door.
An hour later, Stevens rang the bell. Lei let him in. His hair was wet, and his eyes were dark with fatigue.
“Second shift,” he said. He carried a small navy duffel.
“You don’t have to do this.” Lei trailed him into the living room. Keiki gave his pants a sniff as he passed.
“Good. I’m off home,” Pono said, getting up. “Don’t let her out.”
“What do you think I’m here for? Gotta keep the vigilante locked up. Yeah, I dropped the letter and hair off and logged them in for your case,” he said, turning to Lei. “Sure wish we could get some sort of break on it, but at first glance it’s clean: no follicles on the hair, nothing caught under the flap, no fingerprints. Cheap plain envelope and computer paper you could get anywhere. It sucks, but there’s nothing.”
“Sick son of a bitch.” Pono banged his beer bottle down.
“What’s sick is that he’s getting away with this and there’s not a thing anybody can do about it,” Lei burst out. She began tidying the pizza debris, blinking rapidly. “I’m a police officer, for godsake.”
“Sometimes that’s what makes you a target. I’ve seen contracts put out on officers in L.A.”
“This isn’t L.A. and I shouldn’t have to put up with this shit, including you guys camping on my couch.”
“Eh then, I going see you tomorrow,” her partner said, giving her shoulder an awkward pat as he let himself out.
“Hey.” Stevens sat on the couch. “It’s okay to be mad. Come sit.”
Lei hunkered down in the corner of the couch and honked her nose on a paper towel.
“Stalkers prey on your fear. Try not to let it get to you.” He picked up the last piece of pizza and took a bite.
“It’s a kind of torture,” Lei said. “I try to make my home safe, and he slips things right in to it…” her voice trailed off and she hugged the couch cushion. He gazed at her, then reached out a finger and brushed a dangling curl off her forehead.
“We’ll get him. I think this is about more than you, somehow.”
“What? Going with your gut now?” Lei said. Immediately she felt bad, but clamped her lips shut on any apology.
Stevens got up and went into the kitchen, getting one of the beers and opening it. He took a long drink, and Lei couldn’t help noticing the wide tanned muscles of his throat working as he swallowed. She made herself look away.
“I guess I am going with my gut,” he said. “I deserved that.” He sat back down beside her, rolling the beer bottle between his palms. “I should have brought my sax over. I could have distracted you with some tunes.”
“I didn’t know you played.”
“Yeah. Not well but with enthusiasm, as they say.” He chuckled a little, rubbed his eyes which looked red- rimmed and tired. “Coming and keeping an eye on you is a helluva lot more fun than picking my mom up from the drunk tank and bringing her home. I used to have to put her to bed, sleep over to make sure she didn’t drown in her vomit or something.”
“Shit. That why you came to Hawaii?”
“In a nutshell. I love the job, the life, the adrenaline hit when you get the call.” He sat back, put his long legs up on the battered trunk. “But when a couple of times a week the call was to pick Mom up for drunk and disorderly, I got sick of it. She’s gonna kill herself and I’m not going to watch her do it.” He finished the beer and set it on the coffee table with a thunk. “Good thing I picked something up on the way over here. Pono didn’t leave much.”
“Yeah.” She laughed, a little watery. She wasn’t the only one who’d had a fucked up mother, but she wasn’t ready to tell him anything yet. “We were both starved. Listen, I’ll make the couch up for you if that’s okay.”
“’Course. No hurry.”
They sat quietly. The TV, muted, flashed luminescence over the comfortable silence. Finally, Lei sighed.
“It’s been a long day.” She unwound her arms from the pillow, starting to get up.
