wonder…”
“You went swimming with Jiro?” Hugh sounded aghast. “How close to these people are you?”
“Don’t worry so much! The house is about a half-mile away, and Jiro lives with a round-the-clock psychiatrist. They have a private pool, but the two of them occasionally visit our community’s pool for some reason.”
“I can imagine the reason.” Hugh shook his head. “Damn it, Rei, you’ve landed in about the most unsafe location in all of Hawaii, walking distance from a suspected rapist. Please tell me that you’ll move into my suite at the Royal Hawaiian!”
I laughed shakily. “You’ve got to be joking. At the moment I’m living with three valiant family defenders.”
“None of whom is home.” Hugh frowned at me. “Please come with me to Waikiki, just for the evening. We can eat something, and then I’ll have the driver bring you back here, once you’re certain that somebody’s home.”
“Come on, Hugh. I’m not your girlfriend anymore! There’s no need to be so protective.” But all the while I was thinking that it would be nice to have a ride into town. After Hugh and I had finished our meal, I could track down Michael at the Hale Koa and try to make amends.
“I know that. We’re friends now, Rei, which is the way it always should have been. And your keeping me company over supper would give me a chance to…well, apologize for the way I ran off to South America, and my other misdeeds.”
I looked at him, thinking that what Michael had predicted would happen, was starting to happen. The ending would be different, though; I’d make sure of that.
27
THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN was almost as pink as my dress, and pleasingly old. We ate outdoors on the lanai- grilled tuna for Hugh and a small green salad for me. I wasn’t hungry; it was too distracting, being outdoors in Waikiki, sitting with Hugh while Michael was somewhere nearby. When twilight fell and Hugh started yawning, I pressed upon him our house phone number, as well as Tom’s mobile, in the event that a golf date could be arranged between the two of them the next day.
I asked Hugh’s driver to stop at the edge of the green parkland of Fort DeRussey, the military-owned land that surrounded the Hale Koa. But as I began walking to the hotel, I noticed a significant number of people heading toward the Alai Wai Canal. Michael still wasn’t answering his phone, so I decided to follow the crowd.
“Is there a festival?” I asked a local woman at the edge of the crosswalk, before I made the commitment to crossing Kuhio Avenue.
“It’s the end of o-bon season. People start at a Buddhist temple, where they light candles and send them down their canal in memory of their ancestors. The tradition stopped for some years, but it’s come back.”
The green banks of the Alai Wai were lined several people thick, but so many of them were short that it was easy for me to get a good view. The lights blinked and bobbed and slowly traveled along with the current; as I squinted westward down the canal, I could see no end to the lights. If I’d known about this earlier, I would have found my way to the temple to light candles for Harue and Ken Shimura. Instead, I selected two of the most brilliant lights and pretended these belonged to them.
Someone brushed against my back, and I took an extra step to regain my balance. The local crowd was starting to evaporate, and tourists from the bars, having gotten a glimpse of the lights, were pressing in. Drunken-sounding laughter made me realize that it was time to return to the brighter lights along Kalakaua Avenue.
Ten minutes later I walked the curving steps up to the Hale Koa, thinking about the rest of my night. My father, Uncle Hiroshi and Tom were at home; I’d confirmed this with a quick phone call after I’d parted with Hugh. But I’d refused to let Tom pick me up right away as he’d suggested. It was still early in the evening, and I was dead set on finding Michael.
I walked through the Hale Koa’s wide, open-air lobby toward the elevators. I remembered Michael and Kurt’s room number, and knew that the two rooms to the left of it had been reserved by Parker Drummond and Eric Levine. I tried Michael’s door first, with no luck, then tried the other two. The last door was opened by Karen Drummond, wearing a short silk bathrobe.
“Oh, I’m sorry to catch you dressing.” At least, that’s all that I hoped was happening. “I was wondering if you knew where Michael was?”
“It’s no problem.” Karen opened the door wider, and ushered me in. “How wonderful to see you! We were all so worried when we heard you were in the hospital. I’m sorry but we’re getting dressed to go out. We’ve got a dinner reservation in, what, an hour?”
“Forty-five minutes!” came an answering call from behind the bathroom door.
I dutifully followed Karen inside, but felt too uncomfortable to sit down on the corner of the rumpled bed she offered, while she in turn went to a sink in a galley that was a twin to the one in Michael’s room and started brushing her teeth.
“He should be back from sailing any time now. He’s been out for hours,” Parker said from behind the bathroom door.
“Did he take your boat?” I asked.
“No, no, no-it takes at least two to handle her. He went out on a little catamaran,” Parker added as he emerged from the bathroom, buttoning the top few buttons of a mauve and turquoise print aloha shirt. When I looked uncomprehending, he said, “It’s a small sailboat. He checked it out at the yacht club a few hours ago.”
“Well, he hasn’t been answering his phone.”
“He may not have taken his phone on the water because of the risk of capsizing. Those little boats go over easy.”
“Really?” I said, feeling a prickle of unease. “Do you think he wore a life jacket?”
“So you do care about him.” Karen gave me a speculative look, then passed her husband in the narrow area outside the bathroom where there was a sink and mirror. She opened a make-up bag, and began extracting a top- quality arsenal that put my collection to shame.
“He’s an excellent swimmer and seaman, Rei,” Parker said, coming over to sit down next to me. “Don’t worry. If the two of you had plans tonight, I’m sure he’ll make it back.”
“We didn’t have plans. I mean, we had them and then he cancelled.”
“No date with you on a Friday night, when he’s flying out on Sunday?” Parker’s forehead wrinkled. “What is with that boy?”
“Maybe he’s just trying to be on the careful side and give Rei time to rest,” Karen said. “After all, she was just released from the hospital.”
“I’m sure that it’s something I said.” I was regretting what I’d blurted out to Michael about Hugh arriving on the island. I’d thought it was important to be honest, but what I’d said had clearly dashed what faint progress the two of us had made.
I wrote a short note telling Michael that I wanted to talk to him, and slipped it under his door before I took the elevator downstairs again. Against my better judgment, I checked my phone for any voice messages, and came up with zip. Sickened by the prospect of paying over $100 for a cab ride back to our house, I asked the bell captain if there was a cheaper way to get to the Leeward Side.
I was pondering a sheaf of bus schedules when I caught a glimpse of a bedraggled lean man in wet shorts, T- shirt and Topsiders walking purposefully toward the elevator. I paused, wondering if I should wait to let him read the note. No, I decided, there was too high a risk he’d avoid me. I hadn’t come all this way to be meek.
I took off after him, and as my heels clattered against the granite floor, he turned abruptly. His voice was guarded. “How did you get here? This is a surprise.”
“If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain…” I shrugged.
“You look good, Rei. I know I’m a mess.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“With sailing, that’s par for the course, isn’t it?”
“Not exactly.” Michael smiled. “You’re mixing your sports metaphors, but yes, people do get messed up when they’re out in a catamaran by themselves and are distracted enough to capsize.”
“I knew it!” I exclaimed. “I had a bad feeling about you going sailing at night.”
