him?”
“He looked hot,” I said. “But maybe that was just the shopping center burning.”
“You’ve got to get back in the dating pool.” I’d kept my sexual activities my own business, and Tatiana had the idea that I’d been celibate since Mike, too emotionally overwrought to consider dating again. A few months before, her gay brother, Sergei, had come to Hawai’i from Alaska, where they grew up. He’d been working for Haoa, and she had been trying to fix us up since he arrived.
“Playing matchmaker?” I asked.
“My brother is adorable. You two would make a cute couple. Why don’t you want to go out with him?”
“I don’t need complications.”
“It would be great if you two got together. I admit, Sergei’s had some trouble in the past, but he’s cleaning up his act.” She nudged me again with her foot. “He’s coming to dinner on Friday. Why don’t you come, too?”
My sisters-in-law are even more determined than my brothers when it comes to getting things done. Both of my brothers married women with personalities similar to our mother-the iron fist in a velvet glove deal. I figured resistance was futile. “What time?”
“Seven. The monsters are eating early, and I’m paying Ashley to keep the younger ones entertained and out of our hair.”
“Seven it is.”
By the time I got back to the station with the drawing of Jingtao, Ray had set up appointments with all the tenants. Our first was with the clerk at the cell phone store, who was picking up a shift at the downtown location, in the other direction from the cafe where I’d just hung out with Tatiana.
The downtown streets were crowded with tourists in convertibles, delivery trucks, and a wedding couple in a white horse-drawn carriage. Both bride and groom were decked out in colorful leis and plumeria headbands. The newlyweds reminded me of my romantic fantasies when Mike and I were dating. I asked Ray what he thought about Mike.
“Seems like a good guy,” he said. “He knows his shit.”
He’d gotten into the island way big time, wearing aloha shirts and mirrored sunglasses. The Philly was still there inside, just covered with a layer of Honolulu.
He turned to look at me. “You still have a thing for him?”
“Nah, I’m over him,” I said, though I knew it was a lie. I had Dr. Phil in the background, but that wasn’t going anywhere fast. Maybe Tatiana’s brother would be just the distraction I needed to keep my mind off Mike Riccardi.
“Didn’t look that way to me,” Ray said. “The way you were looking at him.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m a detective, hotshot. I notice things about people. And I noticed there was enough heat rising off the two of you to start another fire.”
I wasn’t sure which attitude made me more uncomfortable. A guy like Akoni, my former partner in Waikiki, who avoided the topic of my sexuality whenever possible, as if it was something smelly on the bottom of his shoe. Or Ray, who was so comfortable with it that he wanted details. He treated me like any other guy, telling stories of his own and expecting me to reciprocate.
I wasn’t that comfortable with myself yet. I’d only been out of the closet for two years, and I was still shy about sharing. Further discussion was forestalled because we reached the cell phone store. Ginny Tanaka was a chunky girl with a pretty face and long dark hair that hung straight over her left eye. As soon as she was finished setting up a calling plan for a young guy with a Mohawk and multiple tattoos, she came over to talk to us.
“You see anyone suspicious hanging around the center?” I asked.
“The only suspicious thing was that acupuncture clinic,” she said. “Men coming and going all the time. Some businessmen, some skanky. Lots of old Chinese men. And the place was busy all the time-even late at night. I mean, who goes to get acupuncture at eleven o’clock?”
“You open that late?” Ray asked.
Ginny shook her head. “I go to HCC, and I live with my parents and three brothers. There’s never a quiet time in that house. So I stay at work late and do my homework. Use the computer and stuff.”
“You think you could identify any of these men you saw?”
“Nah. Never looked at them that carefully. I mean, it wasn’t like any of them were young and cute.” From the way her eyes darted over to the Mohawk guy, who was browsing for accessories, I got an idea of her taste in men. “Plus, they kind of gave me the creeps. I didn’t want any of them to think I was spying on them.”
Ray had already spoken by phone with the day clerk, who hadn’t had anything to contribute, so we thanked Ginny and drove back to the station, stopping to pick up lunch on the way. Ray had developed a taste for saimin, a Japanese lunch, and I teased him that he’d never get that back in Philly.
“Who says we’re going back?” he asked.
“I figured once Julie’s done with her degree, you guys would go home.”
He slurped up some noodle soup and then said, “She’s got three, maybe four years left on her PhD. By then, who knows where we’ll go? We might stay here.”
I nodded. When I transferred downtown from Waikiki I had spent six months working on my own. I figured it was because nobody wanted to work with the gay guy. Then Ray had walked in, refreshingly without prejudice, and once again I had a partner. We worked together well, and I was glad he was planning to stick around.
After lunch, we drove out to Kahala, where the pharmacist had been transferred, along with his assistant, who was also his wife. The pharmacy was a small chain, and he told us they were lucky that the owners were willing to accommodate them, transferring another clerk so he and his wife could continue to work together.
He was a skinny Filipino named Louis Cruz; his wife Lorna looked enough like him to be his sister. “I tried to get the old woman in charge to buy from us,” Lorna said. Louis stood behind the counter, Lorna in front. “But she said everything had to come from the owners.”
I could tell from the face Lorna made that she didn’t trust that at all. “I used to work near a clinic like that,” she said. “They were always running out of stuff-rubber gloves, ballpoint pens. They were good customers.”
“Can you describe this woman?” I asked.
“Old Chinese lady. I think her name was Norma. Looked about a hundred. Shorter than me.” Since Lorna herself was barely five feet tall, that made the old lady pretty small.
“There was another lady who worked there,” Louis said.
“Her,” Lorna snorted.
“A very attractive young woman. Chinese, too.” I could see he was hesitating, as if knowing too much about the attractive young woman would make his wife jealous. “I only spoke to her once or twice,” Louis continued. “In the parking lot.”
Lorna was glaring at Louis and I caught Ray’s eye. He nodded, and said, “Mrs. Cruz, could I talk to you for a minute? I’d like to see if you remember anything else about the elderly woman.”
They walked toward the front of the store, and Louis lowered his voice. “I think the woman’s name was Jewel, or Treasure, something like that,” he said. “I only spoke to her once or twice, but she was very friendly. Friendly enough that my wife was upset.”
“Can you describe this Jewel?”
“Tall. A little taller than me, in high heels. Black hair, always in one of those French braids. She wore those Chinese dresses, very tight. Silk, in bright colors.”
“Cheongsams?”
“That’s it. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything more. That was a very busy location, and I never had time to talk to her.”
Louis Cruz was hiding something. If it turned out to be relevant to the case, we’d have to come back to him. If not, I would let him slide. We all have our closets, after all.
A DEADLY CLAUSE
On our way back to the station, I told Ray what Louis had told me, and he said, “Wife confirms what the cell
