“Shut up. We’re not like that.”
“You wish you were,” Pono said, taking the lid off his drink. He liked to slurp them and crunch the ice. He was just getting started on a Big Gulp from the 7-11 and he had to hold it with both hands as she cranked a U-turn, hitting the lights as she headed back to the station.
“Damn, girl,” he grumbled. “Didn’t know it was an emergency.”
“I’m in no mood to be hassled.”
“Whatever. You never answered my question.”
“Stevens is meeting with the lab techs. Wants me to come down.”
“Okay. So you didn’t tell me about the package. I had to hear it from Sorenson in the lab. He was all hot and bothered over your panties.”
“That’s just great,” Lei said. “Real professional. I love the thought of Sorenson pawing over my underwear with his little blue light and telling everyone about it.”
“Hey, chill out. He told me because I’m your partner. My point is, you should have told me.”
“God, you’re so high maintenance.” She elbowed him. His drink sloshed into his lap.
“Shit!” he exclaimed.
She laughed. “We’re even now. So FYI, those weren’t my actual underwear. Sorenson can keep them for all I care. But, they are the same kind as mine, which means the stalker got a look at them somehow and was able to get another pair to creep me out with. I just realized this morning he might have seen me through my window. I have to go outside and look for vantage points.”
A flush made its way up Pono’s brown neck. She glanced at him.
“This is why I don’t want to talk about this with anybody. It’s embarrassing.”
“Sorry,” Pono mumbled, dabbing at the spill with a paper napkin. “It sucks that this is happening. I like catch this guy so bad.”
“Glad I’m not the only one.”
Lei hurried into the conference room. District Attorney Hiro Harada, Lieutenant Ohale, Jeremy, Stevens, and two new detectives assigned from Hilo District sat around the big conference table with three lab techs from Oahu and an open box of Krispy Kremes.
One set of bad news followed the next. The trash in the abandoned cars only had prints that matched those of the vehicle owners, and the debris from the campsite had been through too much weather to yield much. Even the propane canister was frustrating, marked with smudges that were too degraded to make out. The moldering sleeping bag yielded some hairs that matched Haunani’s, which seemed to confirm the theory that she had been meeting her boyfriend there. There were other hairs, but they remained unknown.
The canister Lei found in the trash at Kelly’s house had Reynolds’s prints on it. His story was that he had been using his propane stove for some beach barbequing, and when checked, the stove had sand in the folding legs. Nothing conclusive had been found at the Reynolds’ house but the picture of the girls on the computer.
An elite team of technicians flown in from Oahu, a mountain of possible evidence, and nothing useful found. Lei felt a pang as she glanced over at Stevens, sitting with his hands folded on the table as the techs went over the reports, his head lowered. Jeremy held the same posture, his mouth tight.
At least they’d finally got more manpower.
When the reports were finished along with the thank-yous and better-luck-next-times, the techs departed for Hilo Airport leaving the group seated around the table. Lieutenant Ohale finally grabbed a Krispy Kreme and ate it in two bites, the savage way he tore the donut a little unsettling.
Harada, small and dapper in Brooks Brothers, spoke up. “I need blood, fibers, something from the crime scene. The picture on this computer’s incriminating but defense will argue he doesn’t have the camera to take it, there’s no hard evidence, blah blah. I can’t believe those Oahu techs couldn’t make a connection for us with anything from his house or the campsite.”
“So what do we know for sure?” Stevens got up and went to the white board, began listing key words. “The girls were raped by someone very careful. He drugged them and restrained them. He knew about forensic evidence because he cleaned up after himself to the point that we can’t find anything. He chose his site carefully. He drives a dark Toyota truck, though we don’t know that for sure. He may have cultivated a relationship with one of the girls, which shows planning and forethought.” Stevens looked around at the rest of them for more facts, but no one said anything. “So what are we thinking about Reynolds? And where do we get more evidence?”
“You said he cultivated one of the girls,” Lieutenant Ohale said. “Haunani’s ‘sugar daddy’ drove a dark Toyota truck according to two witnesses. I think it could be Reynolds, and I say he cultivated both. You’ve all seen the pictures of Kelly.” Nods went around the room.
“I like Reynolds for it,” Jeremy seconded. “I think we should search his business next. Maybe he’s got another porn stash somewhere, or a storage locker where he keeps his photography equipment.”
Lei’s stomach wouldn’t let her take a donut though it growled with hunger; the talk had brought back memories of the girls. She rubbed her hands on her slacks under the table, feeling once again the slick wet strands of Haunani’s hair.
Stevens nodded. “Let’s put in for another warrant, expand the search of Reynolds’ house to car and storage facility. Lei, I want you to do a database search for kidnap rapes with the same M.O. Maybe he’s just begun killing his victims. Jeremy, you and I are going to re-interview Haunani’s mother, if we can find her. She hasn’t been at that house the last couple times we went by. Henderson and Na`ole, you guys can come and re-canvass the neighborhood with us. Gotta shake something loose.”
The meeting broke up. Lei approached Stevens, feeling the frisson of awareness between them like static.
“I’m really worried about Mary. I think she might have been grabbed by this guy, or even be running away from Roland. He seemed pretty possessive.”
“I know. I haven’t forgotten about her either. But she’s nothing like the girls-she’s older, an experienced cop, not easy pickings. I think if you find a pattern of kidnap rapes that matches the M.O. of the girls, we’ll know more about what kind of victims he chooses.”
“Okay.” She turned away, and felt his touch on her shoulder like a brand.
“Have a donut. You look like you need one.”
She managed a smile, avoiding his eyes, and took the donut he handed her. She made herself choke it down as she headed for the computer lab, and dusted the sugar on her fingertips against her slacks. Somehow the tiny grittiness of it replaced that other feeling.
It didn’t take her long on the computer to find his trail of destruction.
Chapter 24
Several hours later Lei hit print, put all the papers into a folder and called Stevens. The team had just finished a re-canvass of Haunani’s neighborhood and upon hearing what she had to tell him, he sent the other detectives on to Kelly’s neighborhood. Lei met him and Jeremy in the small conference room.
He’d brought her a fresh cup of inky coffee with chunks of melting powdered creamer in it and a red-striped swizzle stick. He set it down in front of her and leaned on an elbow. She wished he didn’t look so tasty; the pull toward him felt like a betrayal. She shouldn’t care about anything but the case. She pushed the folder over to him.
“You look like you need it.” He pushed the coffee toward her with an index finger in exchange. Jeremy’s eyes narrowed on her and Lei frowned back at him as Stevens opened the folder so both of them could scan the contents.
She blinked a few times, rubbed her eyes. Those old monitors weren’t exactly easy for reading. She stirred the swizzle stick until the white chunks disappeared. The coffee was surprisingly good, a warm smoky mouthful of delicious.
“I can’t believe no one has put these rapes together before. They’re all listed as unsolved, different detectives on them, and no notes about them being connected.” She sucked the end of the swizzle stick.
“Looks like we’re onto something here,” Stevens said, leafing through the printouts. “What did you use for
