Raveneau returned to the gun.
‘If he asks where you have it, what are you going to say?’
‘That it’s in my safe deposit box at the bank. He might say it’s OK or he might tell me to move and buy him out of the coffee business tomorrow.’
‘What do you think is going to happen?’
‘He’s going to freak out.’
‘Is he home right now?’
‘Yes.’
‘We’re going to go see him. What about you? Where can we find you later?’
‘Call me.’
Frank set the empty can on top of the garbage receptacle and then picked up his board.
‘I’m going back in the water.’
‘We’re going to call you later today. We’ll want to meet again, Matt.’
‘I’m pretty sure we’re going to meet.’
He said that and walked away. They watched him, waited until he was out of earshot, and la Rosa said, ‘That was weird, especially that at the end.’
He turned to her. ‘I told you how he was when he found me up at his dad’s house.’
‘I was just thinking about that.’
‘He was real close up there. He wavered. I felt lucky to get away.’
FIFTY-TWO
Going through the gates reminded la Rosa of the summer she worked on a ranch in Montana before she had any idea what she was going to do with her life. She swung them closed and admired what Casey had here.
But despite the blue sky, soft warmth of the breeze off the ocean and the gentleness of the land, adrenaline kicked in. She felt several hard heartbeats. At home they might have come with backup, even if it was just to ask a patrol unit to park in the street. Raveneau was in touch with an agent in the FBI satellite office in Kona here on the Big Island, but he just wanted to know there was help available if they needed it. He probably hadn’t told the Kona office much. His phone rang as she got back in the car.
He looked down at the screen and said, ‘That’s him. I’m going to answer.’
‘Inspector, Tom Casey here. I’ve got some information for you on the Hawaiian artist I told you about. She’s still on the island.’
‘That’s great, and thanks for making the call.’
‘Oh, I’m enjoying our chats.’
‘That’s good to hear, because we’d like to have one with you this morning. My partner and I are here on the island.’ Raveneau glanced over at her, hesitating a moment before saying, ‘We’re driving up to your house right now. We were hoping to catch you at home.’
‘Unannounced.’
‘Maybe unannounced, but I’m not much of a believer in coincidence.’
‘I’m not either. I’ll see you in a few minutes.’
Raveneau put it to her this way, ‘Casey wants to know everything about what we’re thinking. He’s not afraid of us. I think he sees us as civil servants with guns working for a government he doesn’t particularly respect. That he’s wealthy seems to make him think he knows more than people like you and me. He likes to talk political philosophy while he fishes for information, and in small ways he’ll constantly try to control the conversation. You may feel like you’re talking to two different people at the same moment. He’s bright but troubled and unstable.’
‘If he’s unstable what are we doing here without backup?’
‘We’ll be OK.’
But Raveneau asked her to stand to the side and be ready to react. He climbed the steps ahead of her and the door opened just as he reached the porch. Casey thrust out his hand as if greeting an old friend. He smiled down at her and said, ‘Elizabeth, nice to meet you finally.’
And la Rosa didn’t know why she felt so nervous. It wasn’t Raveneau’s prepping and it wasn’t like her. Her first take was that for a man in his early sixties Thomas Casey looked unusually vigorous and strong. On the porch his gaze was direct and friendly. But then he put on a puzzled expression as he turned back to Raveneau.
‘I’ll be frank. I’m surprised they let you travel. I thought you’d be disciplined. I sent a letter about the burglary, a very detailed letter and a video of my nephew’s account.’
‘My lieutenant said something came in from Hawaii. I figured you had sent me a box of macadamia nuts.’
‘Did you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘So you’re back and you’re smug. Well, that explains a lot of things. Come in, both of you. You’ve flown a long way with whatever theory you’ve got. Let’s hear it.’
They followed him down a long hallway with a light-colored bamboo floor, Casey walking with a slight limp, his shoe clicking with each step. The limp she hadn’t noticed when he greeted them. He must have hid it. He took them to the lanai Raveneau had told her about and moved three wicker chairs over to a low white-painted iron table.
‘Sit.’ He pointed a finger at Raveneau. ‘I know you like beer, but what about you, Elizabeth. What are you drinking?’
‘I just had coffee but thank you.’
‘What kind of beer, Commander?’
‘Whatever you’ve got.’
‘You don’t care as long as it has alcohol, right? I once knew that feeling.’
He popped the caps off two Coronas and put the bottles down on the table.
‘Now just cut to it,’ he said, ‘I don’t need the roundabout bullshit or have time for it today. You’re here because you think you’re on to something.’
‘Before anything else why don’t you give us the name and phone number of the Hawaiian artist,’ la Rosa said. She said this quietly. She didn’t feel Raveneau’s earlier attitude was smug and she read Casey’s attitude as bullying. She knew now was the best time to get the phone number from him and she wasn’t surprised he resisted.
‘I wrote it down on a piece of paper and I don’t know what I did with it. It’s somewhere in here.’
La Rosa stood. ‘I’ll help you look for it.’
For a long moment Casey didn’t answer. He stared at her then got to his feet and went over to the bar, stood behind it looking down, and la Rosa caught Raveneau’s alertness. She registered what it was about and unzipped the small purse she carried her gun in.
‘Here it is,’ Casey said, and then brought it to her. As she thanked him she pulled her phone from her purse and Casey said, ‘Don’t call her yet.’
La Rosa smiled at him as the phone rang, saying, ‘We don’t have much time. We need to set up a meeting with her.’
A woman answered and la Rosa introduced herself and asked if she was speaking to Aolani Ito. She was and la Rosa’s first impression was that Ito was unafraid and curious. She asked Ito how long it would take to get there and then agreed on a time.
‘So you’re going to do lunch,’ Casey said, as she hung up. ‘Well, it’s a long drive. You’ll have to hurry. You’ll have to cut short whatever you planned here. I think you’re getting ahead of yourselves. I think you’re making guesses you can’t support. You don’t really see what’s evolving, do you?’
Raveneau was soft spoken, holding the beer bottle but not drinking from it, gesturing slowly with his free hand.
‘What’s evolving, Tom? What are we missing?’
‘Let’s get to why you’re here first. What have you got?’
‘We’re here about the Glock you’re missing.’
‘The Glock the boy protected himself with when you were breaking into Jim’s house is a new model and the boy owns it. It’s registered to him but you know that by now. I don’t have any Glocks registered to me, but you’ve learned that too by now. Are you asking about the Glock 17 I’ve kept in that glass case over there and that’s gone missing very recently?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is that what he did, he sent it to you?’
‘We have the gun. We’ve tested it. It’s why we’re here.’
Casey didn’t seem surprised. He must have gotten there on his own already, or maybe it was part of a plan she didn’t understand yet.
‘Jim Frank bought that gun in Austria when they first came out. He asked me to hold it for him and it has sat in that cabinet there on and off for decades. Sometimes he’d take it back to the house with him or loan it to somebody. The boy will tell you the same thing. The boy learned to shoot with it. It’s why he loves Glocks. I’m sure he can remember Jim carrying it back up the trail or loaning it out. Sometime later it would reappear in that case. That was the way it worked. Jim wanted access to it, but he didn’t want it in his house.’