picked up the handset radio and reported the abandoned car and their conversation with the bartender to the detective on duty at Puna PD. Stevens asked if there had been any emergency calls yesterday afternoon that Mary might have gone on. The dispatcher checked and said no, replied that a case was already open for Mary in Missing Persons.
“Looks like they’re moving on it,” he said, hanging up the handset and glancing at Lei. “I’m sorry.”
She rolled down the window and stared out, lifting her face to the arc of night sky. A million stars circled far above, visible without the light pollution of Hilo. The cool evening air blew across her face, anchoring her in her body. She didn’t let herself think about the Mohuli`i girls’ drowned faces but they hovered at the edge of her mind, unforgettable.
He watched her wake up with the dawn, the drugs he’d given her slowly wearing off. They were in the special place he’d prepared, so remote she could scream all she wanted and no one would hear. A trackless jungle of tall ohia trees and gigantic ferns surrounded them. Her hands were cuffed behind her, and a heavy cable attached to the handcuffs fastened her to a nearby tree.
Terror and rage came into her eyes as Mary realized where she was, and she thrashed against her bonds. He sat on the plastic cooler and watched as she struggled, finally subsiding, sucking air through her nostrils above the gag.
“I don’t have time for you now,” he said. “I have to go to work.” His voice was muffled by the ski mask he wore, his alter ego. He hadn’t decided if he was going to kill her yet, and it kept his options open.
She glared at him and he could see her calculating whether or not she could take him.
Oh, this was good. He wanted it to last.
The first fingers of light pinkened the sky above the hidden grove where he had set up the shelter. He stood, looking down at her.
“You’re going to enjoy what I have planned for you. Water’s in the cooler.” He leaned over, pinched her nipple. She writhed and heaved, trying to kick him, and he chuckled as he walked away, crunching through the dried ferns.
He smiled to himself, pulling the hot ski mask off his head with a pleasurable sense of anticipation. She was secure, but she would figure out how to get her hands in front because he’d left her cuffs loose enough. Eventually she’d get thirsty enough to drink the water. He was counting on it.
Chapter 19
Lei poured her first coffee of the morning and splashed in some half-and-half from the carton. She looked out the window over the sink at the spreading branches of the plumeria tree, spare graceful branches ending in clusters of creamy yellow-throated flowers, bouquets of tropical fragrance. A cardinal hopped in the branches, an unlikely spot of red.
Her head felt muzzy but she’d only had the one beer the night before in Puna. She looked over at Stevens. He’d put the cushions from the rump-sprung couch on the floor. They’d migrated during the night, leaving him sprawled on the floor, the crocheted afghan tangled around his legs.
She tried not to notice the contours of his back under the tank-style undershirt, the long ropy muscles of his arms relaxed in sleep. His rumpled dark hair made her hands itch to touch it. Keiki padded over to him and licked his ear, and he woke with a groan.
“Coffee,” he intoned, sitting up and lurching like a zombie as he headed toward the pot, hoisting up sweatpants. His hair was spiky and eyes a dark, sleepy blue. She laughed, handed him a full mug. He took it, rubbing his lower back.
“Sleeping on the floor is making me feel like an old man.”
“Quit whining. Pretty boys like you are such babies.”
“Pretty boy? Did I detect a compliment in there somewhere?” He blew on the hot surface of the coffee. “Can’t say I remember ever being called that before.” He took a sip. She felt his proximity like a magnetic field, raising the tiny hairs on her arms with awareness.
“You’re so vain, you just want me to say it again.” Her face flamed. She dug in the utility drawer for Keiki’s leash.
I’m so bad at this, she thought, but all thought stopped as his arms came around her from behind. He turned her and then, in slow motion, he leaned down, his lips brushing hers as gentle as a moth landing.
She went rigid, her lips closed, the reaction instinctive. He looked down at her, stepped back, let go. Turned away. Picked up his coffee and took a sip. She let her breath out with a shaky whoosh, turned away to rinse her mug at the sink. His voice, when he spoke, was deliberately casual.
“As far as today, I’m hoping the search warrant on the Reynolds house comes through. I could use some help on that if it does.”
“Sure.” Lei made certain her voice was as even as his. He’d almost kissed her-and freak that she was, she’d made him back off. She wished he’d try again, but now wasn’t the time. “What do you think about Mary?”
“I think she’s endangered missing, if she didn’t turn up last night. Check in with the detective on her case. Dispatcher said his name is Lono Smith.”
“Sounds like a plan. I can’t stand to think something’s happened to her.”
“So far there’s no sign of foul play. We just have to go through the steps. Try not to think the worst.”
He put his mug in the sink, pulled on one of her corkscrew curls, stretching it out and watching it spring back, smiling at her somber face. Moving slowly, he put his fingers under her chin and rubbed the ball of his thumb across her lower lip. A tingle zipped down her spine, weakening her knees as he picked up his duffel and headed for the door. “I’ll give you a call later.”
“Okay.” She followed him. “I want to get a hair sample of Mary’s and compare it to what the stalker sent.”
“Good idea.” He turned. “Hey, get me a futon or something for tonight, would you?”
Lei opened her mouth to argue, and he put his fingers over it gently, leaning in close. There were tiny flecks of green in his blue eyes.
“Humor me,” he said softly. “Please.”
Struck dumb, she closed the door behind him.
Guilt smote her-how could she be thinking about kissing with her friend missing, and two girls dead?
Lei and Keiki did their run, and as she was buttoning into her uniform her cell rang.
“Come over to the Reynolds’ house. The warrant came through. I’m bringing Pono in too.” Stevens was all business.
“On my way,” Lei said. She drove to the Reynolds’ house with its elegant carriage lamps and manicured lawn. Stevens’s SUV was in the driveway. Jeremy met her at the door.
“The parents left when we got here and served the warrant. It’s a good thing. It’s easier to work with them out of the way.”
“How’d Reynolds take it?” Lei asked.
“Badly,” Jeremy said, leading them into the living room where Stevens was lifting the cushions up on the couch, looking beneath them with a flashlight.
“Reynolds left pretty angry, said he was going to get his lawyer. I’d like to be out of here before they get back,” Stevens said, pointing to a box of latex gloves.
Pono walked in as Lei snapped on a pair of gloves and helped herself to some evidence bags.
“What’re we looking for?”
“Not sure,” he said. “Anything to link him to the two girls, the campsite. I figure we’ll know it when we see it.”
Even with the four of them searching it was slow work. They went through every drawer, every closet, every box. Lei felt a stifling squeeze in her chest as she went into Kelly’s room.
The pretty blonde teenager’s presence had been erased. The bedroom had been stripped of her belongings and made over into a guest room. Lei lifted the tropical print coverlet, shook out the pillow shams, opened the
