Damned in Paradise

had been raped.”

I sat forward. “Is there some doubt that she was raped at all?”

“Let us say that there is no doubt she was beaten. Her jaw will probably never be the same; it will always have a little lump, there. And there is certainly nothin’ to indicate she was not raped. She is a married woman, Mistah Hellah, and her vagina, uh, opens quite a bit.”

“In other words, you could drive a truck in there and not leave any tire tracks.”

His eyes widened behind the wire frames. “I might not have put it quite so…colorfully…but ah believe you have grasped my point.”

“Why did you advise Lt. Massie to take his wife and leave the Island?”

That surprised him. “I wasn’t aware you were aware of that, Mistah Hellah. I did so advise the lieutenant. I even offered to go to Admiral Stirlin’ and advise a transfer on grounds that he and Mrs. Massie’s health was sufferin’. I felt the publicity would be harmful to both the Navy and the Massies, and ah could see no useful purpose bein’ served by that trial.”

“No useful purpose in putting some vicious rapists away? If Mrs. Massie was raped —and your examination neither confirmed nor ruled that out—she and her husband might quite naturally want to see justice done.”

His expression was dismayed, but then as the eyes behind the wire frames studied me, his face blossomed into a knowing smile. “You’re goin’ fishin’, aren’t you, Mistah Hellah?”

I grinned back at him. “They do that around these parts, I understand. Look, Doctor—Darrow asked you to talk to me, and you obviously want to share some things with me. What is it that’s creasing your patrician brow?”

Now he sat forward; and his voice was so hushed I had to work to filter out the beach noise and discern the troubled words in his tranquil tone.

“I mentioned ah attended Mrs. Massie as her physician, prior to this incident. Only because Mrs. Massie’s attorney has requested ah share this knowledge with you am ah doin’ so, and then only reluctantly.”

“As Mr. Darrow’s paid and licensed investigator,” I said, “I’m bound by the same client confidentiality code as he is. And as you are.”

Dr. Porter sighed, swallowed, spoke. “Mrs. Massie had a preexisting condition when ah first began attendin’ her—preeclampsia, which manifests itself through hemorrhages in the liver and kidneys. Left unattended, eclampsia is often fatal. The symptoms are rapid weight gain, high blood pressure…and secondary hemorrhages in the retinas.”

“The eyes, you mean?”

“That is correct, suh. This generally leads either to blindness or at least badly impaired vision.”

My grunt was sort of a laugh—an amazed laugh. “Are you saying Thalia Massie is blind as a bat?”

“No. No. But her…visual acuity is drastically reduced. Specifically, her eyesight has been impaired by preeclamptic toxemia. She is particularly impaired in low-light situations.”

“Like at night. In the dark.”

“Precisely.”

“Christ. She identified these guys, and she’s fucking blind?”

“You are overstating, suh. Somewhat. There is a question whether she could recognize these people in the dark, since she practically couldn’t see in the daytime.”

“Jesus. You testified in the first trial, didn’t you?”

“Yes, suh.”

“But not to this.”

“No, suh. I would have had ah been asked—but ah was not questioned on this subject.”

And as a loyal naval officer, under Admiral Stirling’s thumb, the chance of Porter volunteering this information was unlikely, to say the least. But now that Joseph Kahahawai had been killed, Porter’s conscience was clearly bothering him.

“There is somethin’ else, Mistah Hellah.”

Wasn’t this bombshell enough?

“After ah performed a curettage, my analysis of the uterine scrapings did not indicate pregnancy.”

I blinked. “You mean, Thalia didn’t get pregnant by her rapists?”

“Or by anyone—despite what she said on the witness stand.”

And to her attorneys and their investigator.

“You might find it illuminatin’, as well, to know that the figures Admiral Stirlin’ and others have consistently provided to the press, regardin’ the high incidence of rape in Hawaii, are grossly inflated.”

I nodded. “I’d kind of come to that conclusion on my own, Doc. They’re mostly statutory rapes, right?”

“Yes, what the law refers to as ‘carnal abuse of a minor.’ With the exception of Mrs. Massie, the only rape of a white woman here in the past year is an unfortunate incident involvin’ an escaped prisoner.”

I thumbed through my notebook; hadn’t Mrs. Fortescue mentioned something abut this? Yes.

“Daniel Lyman,” I said.

“That is correct, suh,” Porter said. “And ah believe this miscreant is still at large, further inflamin’ public