to Mike and Gunter.
A few minutes later a nurse came in to hook me up to oxygen, and I asked him for a pad and a pen. After he helped me peel off my wet, smoky clothes and put me into a backless hospital gown, he scrounged through a cabinet and found a pad from one of the drug companies, and a pen advertising a medication I’d never heard of and hoped I never had to use.
I started scrawling notes as the curtain next to me was pulled open. Mike was sitting back down on the bed next to mine. “Not what I was thinking of when I dreamed of sharing a room with you,” he said.
The curtain on the other side of his bed swung open, and Gunter said, “Hey, we could always make it a threesome.” Then he started to cough again, returning to his own bed, and the nurse hurried over to make sure he kept the oxygen mask over his face.
After a long while, Dr. Phil came by and said that all three of us were good to go, provided we took it easy and avoided running through any more fires for a few days. I used Mike’s phone to call my parents and let them know I was okay. I called Lidia, too, and she said she would swing over to the hospital and take Gunter home. Dr. Phil lent Mike and me each a set of scrubs. We were barefoot, and the scrubs were tight and only came down to the tops of our ankles, but they were better than nothing.
Gunter said he preferred to remain in the hospital gown. “You never know when one of these will come in handy,” he said. On our way out of the hospital we stopped in the lounge to watch KVOL broadcast a teaser for the late news.
They had some spectacular footage of the fire, including a shot of me and Gunter hobbling around the side of the house, soaking wet. Ralph Kim’s voice-over promised a full report at eleven o’clock. I knew my brother Lui would get hold of me before then, and that he’d complain that I hadn’t given him a heads up on the fire. I’d make it up to him by giving Ralph Kim an interview.
Lidia arrived as the fire segment was ending. We made a quick stop at a Long’s, where she went inside and bought three sets of rubber slippas, all in bright pink. “It’s the only color they had in your size,” she said.
Mike protested, but laughed and slid them on his feet.
A few minutes later, Lidia dropped Mike and me off at the station, then headed to Waikiki with Gunter, who was already talking about playing some doctor/patient games in the future. The man has a one-track mind.
Mike and I looked pretty funny, hobbling into the station, wearing the skimpy scrubs and the pink slippers. Ray was at his desk when we walked in. “Jesus, shouldn’t you guys still be in the ER?” he asked.
“Can’t leave you with all the paperwork,” I said. “Stan in the system?”
“He’s downstairs in a holding cell until they can get him in front of a judge. And there’s a cop at the hospital with Richard Hu.”
The three of us began to reconstruct everything we had done, in mind-numbing detail. Ray had the transmitter, which had been protected by the zippered bag, and he played it for Mike and me. It had recorded everything Richard and Stan had said to incriminate themselves. With testimony from Gunter, Treasure, and Long and the other immigrants, we had enough to put them both away for a long time.
Around eight, Dr. Phil called. “Thought you’d want an update on Richard Hu. He lost a lot of blood, but we removed the bullets and he’s in recovery.”
I thanked him.
“You might be interested to know that when we emptied his pockets, he had four different driver’s licenses, each one with a different name and a different address. Hospital billing is going to love tracking him down.”
“We’ll see if we can help,” I said, and passed the news to Mike and Ray.
“I hope he has a painful recovery,” Ray said.
A little later, Steve Hart and Lee Kawika showed up. They had gotten a search warrant for Stan’s house in Hawai’i Kai, where they found enough incendiary materials to burn all the way down to the Pacific.
“I’ve never seen so much stuff,” Steve said. “It’s a wonder the whole place didn’t just spontaneously combust.”
“What about the dog?” Ray asked.
“Had to call the Hawaiian Humane Society,” Lee said. “Beautiful dog, that husky. They’ll take care of him until the bastard makes arrangements for him.”
“You know we have a mountain of paperwork ahead of us,” Ray said. “Tracking down everything about Richard and Stan, about their businesses, and then finding all those illegal immigrants.”
“Frank O’Connor can handle the Mahalo Manpower stuff,” I said. By ten o’clock, we were all ready to call it quits. Steve and Lee were finished with their inventory of Stan’s house, and Ray wanted to head home to Julie. There was still a lot more paperwork to do, but that would take time. I called Brian Izumigawa and let him know he was off the hook, and suggested he find himself another closeted guy, maybe another banker, rather than meeting strangers online. I’m not sure he appreciated the thought.
I e-mailed Fouad Khan and let him know that Stan wouldn’t be contacting him anymore. After the cool response I got from Brian, I didn’t make any suggestions to Fouad. Though I did think for a minute or two about hooking the two of them up.
Mike and I agreed to stop at Raimundo’s for a late dinner. We were surprised as we walked in to see Doc Takayama and Lidia Portuondo, sharing an intimate table.
“So, you guys have discovered our little romantic hideaway,” I said.
Lidia blushed. She had her hair down around her shoulders, instead of up in her regular French braid, and she looked pretty in the candlelight.
“Officer Portuondo and I were just discussing a case,” Doc said.
Mike and I both laughed. “Come on, Doc, you’re busted,” I said. “Though I can’t say I see what a lovely young woman like Lidia sees in a ghoul like you.”
“Paul is not a ghoul,” Lidia said. She reached over and took Doc’s hand, and I realized I’d never known the medical examiner’s first name until then.
“Enjoy your dinner,” I said, smiling, and Mike and I sat down at our own table, still wearing our scrubs and pink slippas.
We didn’t talk much; the day had taken a lot out of both of us, and we’d already talked through everything about the case at the station. Instead, we just sat back and enjoyed the antipasto salad and the restorative powers of pasta, chicken, and tomato sauce in various combinations.
When we got back to the Halekulani, we pulled a couple of Big Wave Pale Ales out of the minibar and sat out on the lanai together, drinking and staring at the view of Diamond Head. I felt ready to tackle the unspoken issues between us.
“That was a pretty ballsy thing you did today,” I said, sipping my beer.
“Which thing was that?”
“Running up to me, hugging and kissing me. All those firemen watching you. Pretty dramatic way to out yourself.”
“It was going to happen sooner or later. You know what they say, go big or go home.”
“So we’re going to give this a try again?”
“That is my intention.”
He looked at me and took my hand. “I went out to Tripler at lunch, and my dad and I had a talk,” he said. “I think it was the first time in a long time that we actually communicated, you know? Not him lecturing and me arguing. We talked. I was pretty surprised to hear that stuff my mom said last night.”
He looked out toward Diamond Head. “He said that I was a lot more like him than either of us wanted to admit. He did go nuts when he thought my mom wouldn’t marry him. And he recognized I was doing the same thing, and he just wanted to make things easier for me.”
“He cares about you.”
“I know. Like your folks care about you.” He smiled. “I was jealous, you know? Seeing you with your parents. How much they love you and accept you. I didn’t think I had that.” He squeezed my hand. “But now I know that I do. And knowing that, I can get on with things. I’m sure I’m still going to have some issues. But you can help me out.”
“It is handy having somebody around who’s been through it before.”
“So we’re back on? Together?”
“Just try and get rid of me.” We leaned across and kissed, and then I yawned.
