went along with the crowd.
Dinner was delicious and convivial. I couldn’t help noticing every time Mike sipped his wine, though he only had one glass and refused a refill. “No, it’s great,” he told Levi. “But I’m driving.”
“Got to be careful when you’ve got a cop in the car with you,” Levi said.
“I’m always careful around Kimo,” Mike said with the hint of a smile.
Terri insisted on paying for dinner, which was a relief for me after getting myself into debt for the Wrangler. Back in Mike’s truck, I said, “That was fun. I’m glad you came.”
“I can drink, you know.”
Man, I wished I could anticipate some of his mind jumps. “I thought you were going to AA meetings.”
“I am. But I don’t think I’m an alcoholic.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t look at me that way. I have a problem with alcohol. When I have emotional issues, I get drunk. I know that. I’m seeing a psychologist.”
“Really?”
“EAP program. I went into it voluntarily. Nobody in the department knows.”
The full moon hung over the ocean as we drove down the Kalaniana’ole Highway. The night had gotten cooler, and I had the window rolled down just a couple of inches. The flat, straight road was a contrast to my mood; I felt like we should have been driving up the Pali Highway, with its twists and turns instead.
“I can’t start to date you again until I work things out,” Mike said. “Man, I want to. I want to kiss you so much. But my shrink says I need to take things slow. That if we start up again, and then you dump me, I’ll end up in trouble again.” He turned to look at me, and I thought I saw tears glinting off his cheeks in the moonlight. “I can’t risk that yet.”
“You’re not the only one with problems,” I said quietly. “I don’t want to pick up with you again just because I think it’ll make me feel better.” I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “But I do want to see you again. Do you think you can do that?”
He looked over at me and smiled. “I can do that.”
We sat there in silence for a while. As we turned back into Waikiki, full of neon and tourist traffic, he said, “I did learn one thing about our case. The fires at the lingerie store in Chinatown, the massage parlor in Waikele, and the acupuncture clinic all showed evidence of accelerants. It isn’t much, but it does show that they were all arsons, and there was nothing to indicate that a different guy was involved.”
“We’ve got the girl staying in Chinatown. I think she knows more than she’s telling us, but she’s got to get good and scared before she’s going to break down.”
“Keep me in the loop.”
When he pulled up in front of my apartment, I leaned over to kiss his cheek again, but he turned his face so that our lips met. My pulse quickened as I reached my arm around his back and pulled him close. We kissed, my lips remembering the familiar texture of his, my cheek against his, my nose inhaling that scent of lemon and sandalwood. My dick hardened and I wanted nothing more than to drag Mike upstairs, strip him down, and fuck him until we were both senseless, until all that existed was the physical and spiritual connection between us.
But we both knew we couldn’t do that. “Like a couple of horny teenagers in a truck,” Mike said. “Gotta love something that makes you feel like seventeen again.”
“I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t making out with sexy men in cars when I was seventeen.”
“Neither was I. Think of all we missed.”
“Think of all we have to look forward to,” I said.
“Yeah. Blue balls all the way home.”
I laughed. “You’re a goof. Drive carefully, and don’t think of me again until you’re home in bed, naked.”
“If you don’t get out of my truck right now…”
“I’m getting.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek one last time, then scrambled out of the truck. I climbed the outside staircase to my apartment and watched the taillights of his truck until he reached Ala Wai Boulevard and turned.
THE GANSU POSTER
Sunday I went over to see Treasure Chen and make sure she was okay. She was antsy, cooped up in Norma’s apartment. “It’s creepy here,” she said. “I can’t sleep in the bed. It’s like her spirit is still there. And the police tape outside? Don’t get me started.”
I assured her we were making progress on the case, even though I didn’t feel that way. “You’re safe here. Think of it like Norma’s spirit is protecting you.”
She laughed harshly. “For real? If Norma’s spirit is here she’s trying to figure out how to get me killed, too.” She rubbed her arms. “I got all chicken skin,” she said. “You’ve got to get me out of here.”
“Give me another couple of days. Meanwhile, nobody is going to look for you here.”
“That’s true. This shithole reminds me too much of where I grew up.”
I sat down at the kitchen table and motioned her to join me. “How’d you recruit the people to work for you?” I asked. “That boy, Jingtao-it didn’t seem like he spoke English at all. He answer some kind of ad?”
“Mr. Hu had somebody who recruited them in China, some back-ass place where there was no work. Promised them the Golden Land, come to America.”
“Who did the visas? You?”
“You really don’t know?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t ask if I did.”
“There were no visas. I mean, I guess they had tourist visas to get into the U.S., but whoever it was in China did all that.”
“You mean those girls, and the boy, they were illegal?”
She laughed and smoothed back her hair. “Come on, detective. It’s prostitution. That’s the illegal part.”
“What did you do when their visas were up? Send them back?”
“You’re not listening. Mr. Hu picked them up at the airport and brought them to the clinic. They’d work, they’d get a little money, they’d give most of it to Mr. Hu to pay for their airfare, their apartment, everything. Sometimes Mr. Hu would sell a girl on to somebody else, especially if she got sick or lost her looks. The boys didn’t last long. Usually they didn’t like what they were doing, and they complained a lot.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That boy, Jingtao, he was the worst. He wouldn’t do anything. Then he ran away. What a pain in the ass.” She laughed. “I guess I made a joke, huh? Pain in the ass?”
“Yeah, funny,” I said, remembering the pain Lucas had given me.
Before I left, I made sure she was locked in safely. “Ray or I will call you tomorrow,” I said, standing in the doorway of the apartment. “If anything happens, you have both our cell phone numbers.”
“Just get me out of here fast,” she said. “I have a limited shelf life, you know. If I’m not going to work for Mr. Hu anymore I’ve got to find a new gig.”
“I’ll introduce you to the guys in Vice. Maybe they can give you a lead.”
“Big comedian.” She made a shooing motion and I stepped out in the hall, then she locked and bolted the door behind me.
I thought about calling Mike to see if he wanted to hang out, but knew that was a bad idea. Instead I went surfing, then to bed early. Ray was already at his desk when I got to the station the next morning. “Hey, I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you,” he said.
“I never like the sound of that. Give me the good news first.”
“Over the weekend, Julie and I bought another car, a Toyota Highlander.”
“Great. What’s the bad news?”
“It’s a gas guzzler.”
“Bad for you. Not for me.”
“At least now I won’t have to depend on you to pick me up and drive me around.” I told Ray what I’d learned from Treasure, and we decided we’d check out the office she mentioned when we were driving her to Norma’s,
