“You’re my boy.”
My mother came out with the lemonade, and I knew I had to tell them. It wasn’t fair to keep them in the dark any longer. “I have a confession to make,” I said, running my finger through the condensation on the side of my glass. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
I saw my parents exchange a look. I could only imagine what fresh horrors they were imagining. “Dad, remember when I told you Lieutenant Sampson wanted me to do something for him, something that would make me lie?”
My father nodded. “I did it. I lied.” I took a deep breath. “I lied to you both. I never left the police. I’ve been working undercover on the North Shore, trying to solve a series of homicides.”
“The surfers who were killed?” my father asked.
“Yes. Sampson didn’t want me to tell you, because he didn’t trust Lui. He was afraid that if you knew I was still a cop, eventually you would tell Lui, and he would make news out of it.”
My mother opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself. I guess she knows her oldest son well. “I think the case is going to break open soon, and my cover will be blown. I wanted you to know before that happens.”
“I knew it!” my father trumpeted. “I knew you wouldn’t quit.”
“What your father means is that we both know how much being a detective means to you,” my mother said. “What will happen when this case is solved?”
“I don’t know. I’ll probably go back to headquarters, though I know there are people there who don’t like me.”
“Which people?” my father demanded.
“You don’t need to go down there and start smacking people around, Dad, though I appreciate the thought. Whatever happens, I’ll work it out.”
“I don’t like what’s happening here,” my mother said. “You lying to us to keep information from your brother. We are family, Kimo. You must remember that. When the police suspended you, who was on your side? Your family.”
An acid taste began creeping up my throat from my stomach. “I know, Mom, and I appreciate it.”
“Do we have to prove something to you, Kimo? How do we know when to believe you now?”
“We accept what he tells us,” my father said. “Kimo is a grown man, with his own secrets. He is not a child who has to answer to his parents.”
“We all must answer for our actions.” My mother glared at both of us.
“Look, I’ve got to go,” I said, getting out of my chair. “I’m going out to Terri’s tonight. She’s still very shaky.”
“You give her our love,” my mother said, standing so I could kiss her cheek. It was obvious, though, that this topic had only been tabled temporarily.
Wailupe
Dark had just settled on the Wailupe peninsula as I drove down Terri’s street, my headlights illuminating the well-manicured lawns, the stately royal palms, the expensive cars and boats on trailers in driveways. “Danny insisted he had to wait up for you,” Terri said, holding him in her arms as she answered the door.
Her son was barely keeping his eyes open, but he mumbled, “Uncle Kimo,” and I took him in my arms and gave him a kiss on the forehead and a big hug.
“Will you go to bed now that I’m here?”
“Okay. If you tuck me in.”
“I can do that.” I waved hello to Harry in the living room as I carried Danny to his bedroom.
I had to be introduced to all his stuffed animal friends, and begin reading him a story, but within minutes he was snoring softly. I turned the lights out and went back to the living room, where Harry had a beer waiting for me.
“Man, I need this,” I said, taking a grateful drink. “You’ll never guess what my father did today.” I told them the story.
“Poor thing,” Terri said. “It’s sweet the way he stood up for you.”
“It’s stupid. I can’t tell you how many cases I’ve seen where people do dumb things like that and the outcome is a lot worse.” I took another long swallow. “I also told them that I’ve been working undercover.”
“How did they take it?” Harry asked.
I tore at the label on the beer bottle. “I shifted all the blame to Lui-said Lieutenant Sampson didn’t trust him not to make news out of me, so I couldn’t tell anyone. My mother wasn’t real happy. Even so, it feels great not to have to lie to them any more. Though God knows if they’ll believe anything I say for a while.”
“Your parents love you,” Terri said. “They’ll believe whatever you tell them.”
We caught up on Danny’s school, Harry’s girlfriend Arleen and her son Brandon, and life in general. Finally, Harry said, “So any chance of you getting back to Honolulu in this lifetime?”
“I think I’m getting close.” I drained the last of my beer and got another, and we moved to the kitchen table, where we dug into the Chinese takeout. “I’ve been assuming that the target was Tommy Singer, because he surfed, and that Brad Jacobson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Suppose it was the opposite?”
“Somebody wanted to kill your friend?” Harry asked. “Why?”
“I think the killer knew I was getting close to him, and he killed Brad and Tommy to throw me off the scent, and confuse me, and maybe even make me into a suspect.”
“Because of your personal relationship with Brad?”
I nodded. “It could have been a warning to me. Or maybe somebody’s who so homophobic that he wanted to make sure the gay ex-cop would get blamed. There’s no ballistics match to the previous crimes, but I still think they’re related.”
“And don’t forget the idea that someone wants to clean out the North Shore,” Terri said. “Remember how we talked about land values. Somebody like your friend Ari, that ‘nice Greek fella,’ could buy up more property at a discount, or push through the approvals he needs, if business on the North Shore goes way down.”
“He’s not exactly a nice Greek fella,” Harry said. “He was actually born Harold Pincus, but changed his name after dodging a fraud conviction.”
We filled Terri in on Ari’s background, and then I told them both everything I had learned about Dario, The Next Wave, and the possibility that Dario, Kevin Ruiz and the ice trade on the North Shore were all connected.
“That’s a lot of material,” Terri said.
“You bet. I’ve been trying to get my mind around it for days now.”
Harry opened his laptop and started creating a matrix for all the information. Terri chimed in occasionally with ideas, and by the time we were done, at least I had everything organized-a sequence of events, possible perpetrators and motives, and additional details for me to track down.
Our last suspect was Rich Sarkissian. “That guy gives me the creeps,” Terri said.
Remembering how we had worked together at the outrigger halau, I said, “He’s actually not that creepy, except for the fact that he hates surfers.”
Harry made a snorting noise, which I ignored.
“Aunt Emma gave me the papers today for Uncle Bishop to sign,” Terri continued. “But I can’t let this deal go through until I know that he’s not involved in these people getting killed. Especially with what you’ve told me about Ari, the whole thing makes me very uncomfortable. Uncle Bishop is expecting me to bring the papers up to him tomorrow but I don’t know what to tell him.”
“Don’t say anything yet,” I said. “Just stall for a few more days. Can you cancel your meeting tomorrow?”
“Let me call him now. He should know that there’s something fishy in Ari’s background.”
She left the room, and Harry and I went back to his matrix. She returned in a few minutes, though. “Bad news. I told Uncle Bishop I’d done some checking into Ari’s background and wasn’t sure he could be trusted, and he went ballistic. He insisted that I come up tomorrow and give Ari a chance to defend himself.”
“I’ll go with you. I’m the one who found the evidence, after all.”
Her meeting was at two, so I decided I’d check with Sampson and if it was okay with him, I’d head up to the North Shore in the morning, meet her for lunch, and then we’d go over to Bishop Clark’s together.