“Michael, he still needs professional legal help, if he’s going to talk to anyone,” I pointed out.
“He’s got that.” Michael grinned at me. “Hugh talked to Edwin and convinced him to apologize to Lisa Ping and rehire her. It was a good decision, because she’s the one who called with the news about the legal break that’s opened for Braden, if he’s strong enough to take it.”
As Michael spoke, a range of emotions passed across Braden’s face-disbelief followed by apprehension. Finally, he asked, ‘Why did you do this for me?”
“You know my answer already,” Michael said. “I know what it’s like to stand at the edge of a cliff. I stepped back, and look where I am today.”
“It’s a little different for me,” I said, looking warmly at both Braden and Courtney. “I never had any brothers and sisters, and I thought I’d have a child by now, but I don’t. “You two are the only kids in my life. That’s why I don’t want you in reform school or jail, OK?”
“We’re going back to the house now.” Michael clapped Braden on the shoulder, and ruffled Courtney’s hair. To her, he said, “You’re the one who puts up with nonsense all the time, aren’t you? We need to think of something special to do for you, before we all leave.”
34
MOMENTS LATER, MICHAEL and I were driving ten miles above the speed limit back to the resort. Because I was in a convertible instead of the closed-in ambulance, I could see out, and realized we were passing the Hawaiian Homesteads that Josiah Pierce had been talking about. The soaring Waianae mountains were beautiful, but their foothills were marked by shanties and trailers around which wandered children, chickens and dogs. A fierce wind was blowing the laundry hanging on outdoor lines almost horizontal to the ground.
I was starting to feel like a gawker, so I looked fixedly at the ocean on my right. But soon we came to a long, sandy beach filled by hundreds of tents and a few cars and trucks that had seen harder times. Was it a camper’s convention? I wondered, until I saw a weather-beaten baby swing blowing from a tree branch. Hawaiians walked between tents, visiting with each other. Some stirred a bonfire, apparently cooking. So this was an even harsher homeland, for the homeless.
I tried to bring my attention back from this sorrow to the present, but I was feeling pessimistic. I said, “Braden threw the cigarette in the grass like he did that kind of thing all the time.”
“Are you thinking he still might have been the one to start the fire?”
I nodded.
“Well, I don’t even care about what Braden did or didn’t do anymore.” Michael’s voice was fierce. “I just want to get my hands around that bastard’s throat.”
“Calvin?”
Michael made an exasperated sound in his throat. “Obviously. He almost murdered you, and if that wasn’t enough, your father too. He’s not going to get away with it.”
“My dad thinks it’s a mental disorder, that he might have something called Munchausen’s-by-proxy where you intentionally make people sick, but it’s really out of the perpetrator’s control.”
Michael shook his head. “Your dad’s a very nice guy. Buddhist, right? His gentle philosophy shows, but I don’t buy it for a second.”
“Once I find the wasabi container we can call the police. Or maybe it should be the health inspector first?” I waited for Michael’s opinion, but it didn’t come, and that made me nervous.
WE ARRIVED AT Kainani with the sun was at its late-afternoon peak. A hot, rough wind raced through the trees and plants around the house. A newspaper from another house’s lanai whipped across me as I emerged from the convertible.
“The door’s locked. That’s good,” I said, testing the handle. I’d been unable to shake my worry that Calvin had entered the townhouse and removed the only evidence that could connect him with the poisonings.
After I unlocked the door, I kicked off my sandals and headed toward the fridge. My father had said he’d placed the wasabi on the top shelf of the fridge, where it would be easy to see. I began scanning for it, but among the many groceries there, it wasn’t obvious.
“Rei-chan! Once we were driving home and checked the telephone, we heard your father was ill. Where is he?” Tom’s voice came from upstairs.
“We had an ambulance take him to the emergency room at Waianae. But it’s all right, I just came from there.” I spoke distractedly as I continued to search the fridge with no luck.
“Oh, no.” Tom clattered down the steps in fresh shorts and T-shirt. His hair was wet, as if he’d just taken a shower. When he saw Michael, he nodded shortly. Tom had been the one who’d answered the phone when I’d called the previous night to tell my father I wouldn’t be home.
“Hello,” Michael said.
“Hello,” Tom answered him shortly. “Why not Queen’s in Honolulu? They know him there.”
“The first sixty minutes after a stroke are the golden hour,” I said. “I thought he needed care as fast as possible.”
Tom nodded. “Yes, of course. That was the proper decision. Sorry for my haste. And was it…I mean, is it…a stroke?”
“He had an MRI and his brain’s fine, and they also checked for heart attack. They think he has a case of lithium poisoning. And I think I know where it came from: the wasabi that Calvin offered me with my sushi, the night before I became sick.”
Tom interrupted me. “How could any wasabi be in the fridge? I’ve not seen it, and I know a food inspector took everything away.”
“This small container must have been missed. Dad said he found it in a corner of the fridge door. He was so eager to add spice to his bowl of ramen that he just scooped some out of the container without thinking about whether it was old or new.”
Tom’s words came slowly. “If the wasabi was poisoned with drugs, that means Calvin is the likeliest person to be the poisoner.”
“Yes; Calvin’s goal was to murder Rei,” Michael said. “We’re thinking that the poison was left behind accidentally, and it was taken by Dr Shimura.”
“But Calvin was just here!” Tom’s voice rose in alarm.
“What?” I exclaimed.
“My father and I came in from golf and went upstairs to take our showers. Otoosan dressed first, and when he went downstairs, he saw Calvin had arrived. Apparently he came to say hello, because he’d heard our young cousins, Braden and Courtney, had been looking for him. Father offered him a glass of juice, and the two had a short chat, during which time I came down, and then the two of them-my father and Calvin-went out for a walk.”
“Where’s Uncle Hiroshi now?” I’d finished taking everything out of the fridge in my fruitless search. “Let’s hear from him exactly what happened.”
“As I said, he left the house with Calvin. He was planning to walk to the hotel gift shop to pick up a Japanese newspaper.”
“How long ago did this all happen?” Michael asked.
“I’m not sure,” Tom answered. “About forty minutes, maybe? Just before the big winds started to blow.”
“Was Calvin going to go to the hotel with Uncle Hiroshi?” I asked.
“I don’t think so-let me call my father. He might have the cell phone with him.” Tom punched the number into his own phone, and then had a brief conversation with his father in Japanese. To us, he said, “Calvin turned after the gate for our development to go to his house, and as I thought, my father continued on to the hotel. Father said Calvin told him that he would be home this evening listening to some music while the Kikuchis are away in Maui. He extended an invitation to us to please visit, if we have the time.”
By now, I was digging through the top of the kitchen trash: mango remnants, old paper, empty water bottles, but nothing that looked like a wasabi container. Where else could he have put it? I ran to the little waste can in the
