contributing to the boy's abduction, violations of his civil rights, and ultimately his death.”
“ These people, Dr. Coran, do not recognize U.S. law, unless to do so helps in their cause.”
“ These people, Dr. Lau, will recognize it when they see it from behind bars.”
“ You will never find them to lock them up. They are umalu and 'uhane, shadows… spirits.”
“ You just tell your brother-in-law that I want to meet with him, that I want to talk.”
“ He will contact you,” Lau assured her.
“ Good… good. Then can I expect results on the blood in the next twenty-four hours?”
“ You can.”
“ And you expect it will match the stains taken from Paniolo's place?”
“ I am certain it will.”
“ Prove it then, and what happens to you, Dr. Lau?” 'The same as Kaniola. I am in the middle. We are all of us Hawaiians in the middle.”
She nodded, stripped off her lab coat, grabbed her cane and walked from the lab, somehow confident that Lau could be trusted for the truth.
12
Something has licked my heel
Like a sturgeon
And I have a problem
With my right foot and my life.
FBI Headquarters, Honolulu
At 8 P.M., a late evening meeting was called by Parry, who'd rounded up the principal agents working the case. With Jessica looking on. Parry warned that they were a far cry from a conviction against Hal Ewelo as either Oniiwah's murderer or the serial killer who'd been terrorizing the city.
“ Having any of you rousted Ewelo before? Have any of you given consideration to the possibility that Ewelo could be the Trade Winds Killer before his arrest on the Oniiawh charges?”
Amazingly enough, several had pursued leads along this line after tips and informants had suggested the notion, including Tony, but he, like the others, had come up empty-handed. “Except for his petty crimes, drugs and prostitution,” said Tony, “Hal Ewelo's clean. No murder charges. Always has an alibi that checks, and he doesn't own a history of violence reserved for women only, since he spreads it around.”
Jessica had to agree that Ewelo did not fit as neatly as they'd all like to make him fit. “The nature of his type of violence is considered to be within normal parameters by any law-enforcement standard, and certainly well below the 'norm' of mutilation set by the Cane Cutter.”
“ Whoa up there, Doctor,” said Parry. 'This man had George Oniiwah's sex organs sliced off while the boy was bound to a chair.”
Jessica had found traces of blood and feces in the hastily wiped chair when gathering evidence at Paniolo's.
Parry's statement silenced the room, but still no one who'd responded to Jim's call tonight believed Ewelo was the Cane Cutter. Parry went on like a desperate prosecuting attorney, trying to convince the others of Ewelo's guilt as a serial killer with a lust for mutilation murder. 'The man's record places him in Maui during a period when seven women there disappeared, their bodies never recovered.”
This got a few rethinking Paniolo Ewelo.
“ The man also worked for a time in a cane field.”
“ Beggin' your pardon, Chief,” said Haley, a big Australian-born American agent, “but what kanaka hasn't worked a cane field at some time in his bleedin' life?”
This brought laughter to the group, all except Jim. “Something's got to break,” shouted Parry to his people in the debriefing room. The wall was lined with the photos of young victims. “We've got to share our snitches, pool our knowledge. Is there anyone here who has any leads whatever they have not shared with command?”
“ What about this business in the press, Chief?” asked Terri Reno, the well-formed blond agent who'd been walking the Waikiki strip in a brave effort to bait the Trade Winds Killer. “Any truth to it?”
All eyes went to Terri, who was in full dress as a hooker. Parry replied cryptically at first, saying, “Some, yes.” He then quickly separated fact from fiction in the Ala Ohana article.
As Parry spoke, Terri combed out her long, black wig. Then she paused and said, “You know, Chief, I've been getting nibbles, but no bites; we got quite a few lockups for solicitation, but nothing of the caliber we're looking for, not that I'm complaining. On the other hand…”
“ What?” pressed Parry.
“ There's this one guy… kinda strange.”
“ Strange how?”
“ We got tapes on him, if you want to listen. Just that he never does anything. Flirts, says he would rather not have to pay for sex. Wants it given to him freely. Imagine that, telling a working girl that. So I brushed him off the first time, but he keeps sniffing around like a dog in heat.”
“ But he never does anything except talk,” interjected her partner, Haley.
Parry was interested. “Did he ever give out with a name, Terri?”
She blinked and shook her head, saying, “Robert, I think, yeah, Robert… that's all, Boss.”
“ Nothing more?”
“ Sorry.”
“ He never invited you elsewhere to 'talk'?”
“ Sure, every time. Wants me to walk to his car with him, go to his place, he says. Says he thinks I'm pretty; say's he'd like to take care of me, shit like that, but when I mention money and tell him he can have me for an hour, he backs off and repeats himself. Then he tells me I shouldn't sell myself on the street like common garbage, tells me that I could be happy being taken care of by a man like him.”
Her partner, Haley, laughed at this. “Pip-squeak.”
“ Compared to you, Haley, everybody's a pip-squeak,” replied Gagliano.
Reno went on. “And last night I answered with how I could use a place for the night, because my pimp's been looking for me to beat the shit outta me, and he says he knows the guy.”
“ Knows the guy?”
“ Yeah, and get this… says his name is Paniolo. You believe that?”
Parry's eyes lit up. “You didn't say Paniolo first?”
“ No, I swear.”
“ And you were wired? You got this on tape?”
“ Damn straight, mate,” said Haley.
“ Any film on the guy?”
“ No, we're not budgeted for film,” Haley said with a moan.
“ All right… go on, Terri.”
“ Course, at the time, I didn't know Paniolo from shinola, but I said sure, that's the guy, so Robert says that he'd be happy to put me up for the night.”
“ What happened then?”
“ Weirdest thing.”
“ Yeah?”
“ He wanted to know what I was.”
“ What you were?” Jessica asked before Parry could.
She nodded, the comb in her hand at a standstill now. “My nationality. Wanted to know if I was even part
