He stared at her, eyes hard. She wasn’t afraid of him but knew others could be.
“Get me up to speed.”
She did, filling him in on recent events.
“He called me on the bus on the way down here.”
“I have some enemies. You can’t avoid it, being in here. I had to kill a guy a few years ago.”
“Great, you’re a murderer.”
“It was self defense. His name was Terry Chang, he was a serious player in Hilo and we tangled in the game back in the day. Then he got convicted and tried to shank me in Lompoc. I ended up getting him. Added some years to my sentence.”
Lei lowered her head. What do you say when your dad tells you he killed someone?
“I don’t think his family’s letting this go. That or his connections. I’ve been getting threats.”
“What kind?”
“Just rumors. People saying the Changs are looking for payback.”
Lei looked at her hands, squeezed the web between her forefinger and thumb. Terry Chang. The name was familiar.
“I think I know that name. Pono told me his wife is the player now.”
“Healani? Wouldn’t surprise me. She’s one tough lady.”
“Why now, and not when you first killed him?”
“Rumor has it, some new blood trying to move up by earning cred, something like that.”
“Well, I’ll look into this. Are you safe in here?”
“I can take care of myself. You just here for the day?”
“Yeah, just today. We’re in the middle of a pretty intense investigation, and Aunty’s still at my house. I have Pono keeping an eye on her, but still I can’t be gone long. So… how much longer you going to be in?”
“I’m done with my time in six months. Before you leave, can I get your address? Sorry to say, I don’t trust your aunty anymore to handle the mail.”
“Can’t say I blame you.” Lei gave him the address and her phone number. She slipped her hand into her pocket where she’d stashed the black lava stone that morning. It felt good to rub it. He got his notebook out, did another drawing of her. This one was her as a little girl with a grin that took up her whole face. He did it quickly and passed it across to her.
“This is how I remember you.”
She laughed, folding it and putting it in her pocket alongside the stone, a hard little square she could touch whenever she needed to.
“I always did have a big mouth,” she said.
The buzzer sounded for the inmates to return to their cells.
“Watch your back, Dad.” The word sounded foreign in her mouth.
“I always do.”
She watched him walk away and the thunk of the steel door shutting behind him squeezed her breath out of her lungs with loss and again, the claustrophobia. She couldn’t wait to get out.
Leaving the big square poured-concrete building with its lacy scrim of razor wire, Lei flipped open her phone and called Pono.
“Hey there, Lei.”
“Hey. How’s everything at the house?”
“Fine. Your auntie she cleaning. Wants to know when you getting home.”
“Soon as I can.” She told him about her father’s threats from the Chang family as she got back on the bus.
“I hope that’s nothing, Lei. Those Changs-don’t have anything to do with them.”
“I don’t think it’s good intel. I think the stalker is the guy who molested me when I was a kid,” she whispered into the phone, getting “stink-eye” from the bus driver. “I’ll tell you more when I get home.”
Chapter 36
Lei went up the chipped cement steps of her little house in Hilo. Keiki nosed her leg, sticking close. After she’d got home, she turned right back around to take Aunty to the airport. She’d had to pry her aunt out of the house with promises of a visit to California, but she couldn’t risk having her at the house with Charlie Kwon or whoever it was escalating the situation.
Didn’t know I could miss it so much in a day, she thought, slipping her key in the lock and taking a deep breath of the humid Big Island air with its faint plumeria scent. She disarmed the alarm and went into the kitchen to sort the handful of mail. Keiki barked happily, sniffing all the corners, and did a quick patrol before whisking out through her dog door.
“Stevens, it’s me. I’m home.”
“Glad you’re back. Nothing on the stalker call; the number was a disposable.”
“Crap. He’s been good at covering his tracks so far. Listen, you doing anything for dinner?”
She took a container of beef stew out of the freezer.
“You asking me out?”
“I guess I am. I have some food from my aunt’s restaurant, and I can nuke you up some.”
“No problem. I’m always up for a home-cooked meal, no matter who made it. See you soon.”
She shut the phone and set about her preparations. Keiki came back in from her patrol and sat wagging her stump of tail in anticipation, her triangle ears pricked.
“Okay baby, coming right up. Don’t forget I fed you first.” She set the dog’s food down, her stomach fluttering. She couldn’t wait to see Stevens, to see if she felt that fizzy bubble when she saw him. It seemed only moments later that the doorbell rang. Lei took a moment to check the peephole before she opened it.
“Hi, Michael.”
“Hey,” he said. “You remembered my name.”
She looked at him a long moment, taking in his height, breadth, and intensity-then they each stepped forward at the same time so they bumped awkwardly as they hugged. Lei laughed, gesturing toward the kitchen.
“Come on in and enjoy Aunty’s cooking.” She led him to the table where a candle burned and places were set.
“Nice. Smells good.”
“You’ll have to tell Aunty next time she comes,” Lei said, getting the warm purple taro rolls out of the oven to go with the beef stew. They ate heartily, catching up on departmental business and the progress on the Mohuli`i/Gomes case.
“Reynolds had his arraignment and made bail. Guy has some CPA connections to real money as we had the bail set at a million. We’re not making the Gomes case stick to him at all though-starting to think the cases are separate.”
“Awfully coincidental in a town of forty-five thousand. You sure about that?”
“We’re not sure of anything, just following the evidence. Thank God the search turned up Haunani’s gold ring or we wouldn’t have been able to pick him up. As it is, DA’s thinking Reynolds did the girls and the Campsite Rapist is still out there, maybe escalated to doing Gomes.”
“Still want me to help out?”
“Absolutely. Just not sure how at the moment; we seem to have run out of leads.”
“I’ve got something new on my stalker.” Lei got up, fetched the note out of the freezer. He cocked an eyebrow as she took the note out. “Don’t ask. It seems like a secure location and makes me feel better somehow. Anyway, this thing about the bath-only the guy who molested me could know something that personal. I’ve got a real lead now. His name is Charlie Kwon.”
She filled him in on everything she could remember about Kwon. He tapped the letter.
“You sure there’s no one else who could know about this? Seems pretty farfetched he’d come back after all this time and endanger himself by stalking you. That’s pretty ballsy behavior for a pedophile, especially the
