“He could be anywhere.”Francois resumed his pacing.
“I can check with theairline,” Sage said.
“You still have his phonenumber, Mingo?” Mom asked.
I felt Francois’ head whip around in mydirection.
“No, Mom. And I don’tremember it.”
“Well, I’ll just call hismother,” Mom said. “I’m still in touch with her. I bet she has noidea what he’s been up to. I’ll just tell her we saw him and wantto say hi.” She gave me a loopy smile. “She always had a soft spotfor you, Mingo.”
We waited until she’d gone to her roomto make the call.
“I can’t believe it.” Ishook my head. “I knew Kaolin was bad, but he’s evil.”
Mom returned. “I just spoke to LinaGrace and she said Kaolin is staying at the La Samanna resort inSt. Martin.”
“La Samanna?” Sage whistled.“Somebody’s got beaucoup bucks. I’ll have him picked up rightaway.”
An hour later I was sitting oppositeKaolin at La Cave bar at the swanky La Samanna resort. He’d beenspotted by Sage’s partners who kept an eye on Kaolin as he proppedup the bar with some heavy doses of the resort’s private labelrum.
It had taken some persuasion forFrancois to allow me to go and talk to the guy. Both Mom and I feltit was the best way for us to find out if he was the realconnection to Fancetti or if he was an innocent man.
“Hey, Mingo,” Kaolin said.“Fancy seeing you here.”
He looked heavy-lidded and slurred hiswords. He must have been drinking for a while. The Kaolin I knewcould hold his liquor pretty well.
“Wanna drink?” he askedme.
“Sure.” I was wired.Literally and figuratively. My tropical cocktail arrived and was sostrong I almost fell over with my first sip. It burned my tongueand tingled my lips. I wasn’t much of a rum guy, unless you countedMai Tais. This one, I realized was straight up island rum splashedover ice.
“It’s good to see you,Mingo.” His hand fell on mine. There was a time when I craved histouch. Now he made my skin crawl. I was pretty certain he wasbehind the attack on me and Ferric and I wanted to knowwhy.
I let him ramble on for a few minutesabout how screwed up life was and how hard it was to be a goodman.
Listening to people was partof my job. I felt I had kind of come full circle with Kaolin. He’dcome to ask me for help in my old office on McCully, back inWaikiki. Now, I was comingto him for help.
Why? Why had he tried to hurt me when Iwas nothing but good to him?
He whined about his frame-up and how itfucked him up in the head.
“Why’d you do it?” Iblurted, and I could picture my lover and Sage in the manager’soffice not too far from us, slapping their heads in frustration.They wanted me to take my time. Mom and Ferric had protection atthe Dawn Beach house, but I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to getback to my life. I wanted to be home with them. Home. Backin Hawaii.
He pretended not to know what I wastalking about, but didn’t feign innocence for long.
“Money,” he said. “Isn’t italways about money, Mingo?”
“I thought you hadplenty.”
For a moment, the detailsflooded my mind. His aunt had left him a box filled withthousand-dollar bills. He’d never told anybody exactly how muchmoney was in the box, but the old lady had never held a bankaccount and kept every dollar she ever earned, living like a pauperabove her King Street leistore in Honolulu.
“Blew through it all. I lostyou and I lost my mind. I…” he shook his head.
I didn’t see how our breakup wasrelated. “You cheated on me…again,” I reminded me.
He looked abashed. “I know, honey. Ican’t keep my dick in my pants. Even when I really wantto.”
Kaolin signaled the bartender foranother drink. The guy hesitated, but caught my slight nod. Hecomplied.
It galled me to think how long it tookKaolin’s aunt to save that money, converting everything to thousanddollar bills…and how fast her favorite nephew had blown through itall.
“The guy paid me plenty ofmoney, Mingo. He told me Francois was a bad guy and he wanted toknow what he was doing. I believed him at first.”
“You believed I fell for abad guy?”
“Hey, you fell for me,remember?”
Don’t remind me…
“I ended up following youand the kid.”
“You hate me this much thatyou wanted my lover killed?”
“Oh, Mingo.” His hand movedup my arm.
I shook it off.
“I love you, Mingo. Don’tyou see? I wanted to believe you picked a bad guy. With him out of the way, andmoney in my pocket, we could make a go of it again.”
“You’ve got to be kiddingme. I can’t…I would never get back with you. Not for anything.Didn’t you think this through? You set up a murder for hire,Kaolin.”
“No, no.” He swayed a littleon his stool. “He never said that. I only heard about thecarjacking from Benny.”
“You talk toBenny?”
“Sure I do. Benny stillloves me.” He swigged his fresh rum. “Benny’s a schmuck. But don’ttell him I said that.” He put a finger to his lips. “Shhh…” hesprayed me with spittle and blast of foul breath. “You gottabelieve me, Mingo. I just thought Francois would go to prison. Notdie.”
“A Mafiaso pays you ashitload of money and you don’t think the end result might bemurder?” I asked.
“I wanted to be your hero,”he whined.
“Oh, my God.”
“I really didn’t think aboutit until I saw his face.”
“What? Who’sface?”
“Fancetti.”
“I don’t get it,” I said,trying to follow his drunken thoughts.
“Louie Fancetti was at thewedding with Benny. Ain’t that a pip? He got himself some plasticfucking surgery and he looks like me! And he’s fucking Benny! Bennyhas no idea who this guy is!”
Holy shit!What had Benny called his new boyfriend? Martin. Iwanted to race back to Francois. I hoped they could hear all ofthis.
Kaolin burped. “I think I was next onhis list of guys to bump off. That’s why I came here. I figured henever thought I’d go to Hartford in a million years. Not with youand Francois at the wedding.” He grinned. “Benny thinks he’s sosmart. He thinks I’m the worst guy he’s ever met. I’m a choirboynext to his
