jutting through the waves and looking like a school of dragons from an old legend. “Pahoehoe, the natives call it,” he announced through the headphones.
Then Lee, the helicopter pilot, began to circle inland over the sleepy, staid, yet famous settlement known as Hana Town on the maps. They caught glimpses of the gray ribbon on Highway 36, the Hana Highway, which snaked crazily, hugging the coastline, twisting and turning along the virgin coastline where black beaches stared up at them like enormous, crescent-shaped cats' eyes.
“ My first black-beach spotting,” she confessed to Jim.
“ Beautiful, isn't it?”
“ Incredible.”
“ So like Hawaii to paint its beaches black. Look, would you like to go down to one of them?”
“ Really?” She saw down the coast another was coming into sight, a strip of black pebbles abutted on each side by lava cliffs. Beyond the beach lay a valley grown thick with hau and coconut trees. The ocean foam was stirred up wildly here in this desolate and isolated place of black sand.
“ It's created by a layer of volcanic rock washed and polished by the ocean for untold centuries,” he told her.
“ Can we really get to it?”
“ There's a trail-not a very good one-may be overgrown; leads down from the air strip.”
Now she saw the small strip built here for commercial use of helicopters.
'Trail may be grown over, but I brought a cane knife,” he continued.
The mention of the cane cutter reined her emotions in, reminding her of the horrors they'd so effectively and completely left behind in the powerful wake of the chopper, Honolulu now a distant memory.
The pilot pointed out a place he called the spout, another “blow hole” like the one at Koko Head on Oahu, and the sight of the shoreline geyser, sending up its powerful spray at hundreds of miles per hour, made Jessica's eyes turn to study Jim's, and there she found him out.
“ You wanted me to see this, didn't you?”
“ You're the one said he'd make for some place where he felt comfortable. There aren't too many of these spouts, and maybe it's about time we learn what happened to those missing Maui girls.”
“ Damnit, Jim, why didn't you tell me from the start?”
He took in a deep breath of air. “I still think we can find some time here for ourselves. I've got enough equipment and food to last, and I've got a radio. We can call it quits whenever we like.”
“ We're going to dive here, you mean?”
“ That's if you'll… if you're still willing, yes.”
“ Jim, you want to come clean? Just… just tell me what's going on here.” She was both hurt and angry.
“ I planned to drop our gear here, have Lee take our bags on to the hotel and pick us up tomorrow. It's only ten minutes to Kahului, the island's main commercial airport and relative civilization, if you want to go back to Oahu, Jess.”
“ So, tonight you planned that we'd be roughing it, and tomorrow we'd make a dive near the Spout? Is that it?”
“ It's rough, but not near so rough a dive as the Blow Hole. I plan to get in as closely as good sense and safety allow.”
“ Good sense, huh? On the off chance we could be more successful here than the Navy divers had been in Oahu? Just tell me, Jim, what is the nature of this probe you're suggesting?” She had to secredy admit, she was intrigued even though he hadn't been completely truthful. “Do you have any facts here, or is this a hunch you're following?”
“ I've studied every inch of every police report filed on the missing girls here on Maui. One report mentioned some strange bird who was rousted for driving under the influence, caught pulling out of this area late one night. The reason it was in the report at all was that the car matched the description of one given by a witness in a later case, but a Lopaka Kowona was sought out afterwards, questioned and let go. The information was buried under stacks, and even I'd forgotten about it until we got Lopaka's name again.”
“ So knowing about the Spout, you came here.”
He nodded, saying no more.
She asked, “Did all the missing girls live in the vicinity of the airport in Kahului or along the Hana Highway?”
“ No, not really. They're from all over the island, but quite a few disappeared from Lahaina, the busiest tourist area where the old whaling sites and village are. The streets are lined with shops, row on row.”
“ I know, I've been there,” she confessed. “Dropped a bundle.”
“ Of course you know already that information places our man here on the island some years ago, during which time the disappearances became frequent during the season for the trades.”
“ I'm more interested in recent history, Jim. What makes you think he's here and not on Molokai or elsewhere?”
He shrugged and explained his reasoning, not forgetting to tell her that whatever path Joe Kaniola had wanted him to take, he felt compelled to move in the opposite direction.
“ So he says Molokai?”
“ Yeah, that's right.”
“ So you theorize Maui, and you know about the Spout, and you come directly for Lopaka's old dumping site. Not bad. Parry. Careful or somebody's going to call you slick.”
“ I just put it together.”
“ Rather pady, don't you think?”
“ Hey, two and two is always pat. The Spout's too good a connection to blow off.”
“ What about all those Kowona sightings we were getting all over Oahu?” she asked. “Like Elvis sightings?”
“ Ever notice how nobody's seen Roy Orbison's obese ghost anywhere?” he joked.
“ Suppose our being here's a mistake, Jim. Suppose one of those sightings on Oahu was correct. What then?”
“ You face it. Kowona sightings have come in from every bloody corner of every island except Maui. That makes me suspicious as hell.”
“ Are you sure your coming here has been the right step, Jim?” she persisted. “I want to know why you're committed to this move.”
“ It's what Gagliano and I've been able to pick up on the street, and like I said, it goes contrary to what Joe Kaniola would have us believe.”
“ But why would Kaniola want Kowona to escape, to go free? Just to hurt you, Jim? That doesn't figure.”
“ I'm not so sure Kaniola isn't working up to another revenge hit, like what happened to Oniiwah, only now he has the right target.”
“ You don't really think Kaniola had anything to do with George Oniiwah's death, do you?”
“ I'm not one hundred percent convinced that he didn't, no. Ahh, maybe not. I don't know.”
“ Just playing on hunches and guts, huh?”
“ So whataya think?” he asked with a boyish, disarming smile. “Are you in or out? Lee can take you straight to the airport and you can be back in Honolulu in a few hours. What's it to be?”
She frowned, shook her head and stared down at the blinking black beach over which Lee had hovered as if to tempt her on. “You've thought this through thoroughly, haven't you?”
“ Sometimes ideas come to me after a good sleep.”
Off Hana, the night sky was telling them they had very little time to decide. Over the headphones, the pilot cut into their conversation, saying, “I can set down on the ledge at the strip, but it'll have to be now, Mr. Parry.”
“ Put her down, Lee,” said Jessica.
Parry placed a hand over hers. “You won't regret it.”
“ I've heard that line before.”
The chopper put down at a small strip just the other side of the cliff wall. Parry climbed out behind her, tugging at a large duffle containing much of what they needed, including most of their diving gear. The pilot opened
