Dark Lava: Lei Crime Book 7 (Lei Crime Series) (29 page)

“
With any luck at all, you’ll be bringing my new grandson with you.” Wayne dug into his stew.

“
Now, there’s something to worry about. Stevens didn’t say anything about that investigation, but hopefully something’s happening there. Something that doesn’t involve us as suspects.”

“
You’ll just have to fly home to find out.”

Stevens and Omura stood outside Interview Room Two. “I’ll take the lead,” Omura said. “Let’s hold back the part about the artifacts until the right moment.”

“
Sounds good.” Stevens glanced into the glass insert in the door. Awapuhi was an intimidating presence, even cuffed to the table. His lawyer, a slender young Hawaiian man dressed in business casual, leaned in close to talk with him.

Omura fluffed her hair, flicked a nonexistent speck off her sleeve, squared her shoulders, and led the way into the room.

Stevens limped over and turned on the recording equipment on the wall. Omura recited the date, time, and the names of the people present, pausing for the young lawyer to provide his name. “Keiran Moniz.”

Once they were settled, Moniz started in. “
My client tells me you failed to identify yourself as police personnel when you came to the door, hence his defensive actions.”

Stev
ens drew his eyebrows together and made eye contact with Awapuhi. “I stood on your step and rang your bell, Mr. Awapuhi. You opened the door and tried to blow me away. I didn’t have time to identify myself. Good thing I wasn’t there selling Girl Scout cookies.” He felt the stress of those moments color his voice with sarcasm as his ankle throbbed, reminding him the leap to safety hadn’t been without a price. “You fired on me. That’s ten years of hard time for felony assault with intent to do deadly harm to a law enforcement officer.”

Charles Awapuhi glowered. The lawyer shuffled a few papers. “
Not identifying yourself was a critical oversight, Lieutenant Stevens,” Moniz said.

“‘
Maui Police Department’ were the first words out of my mouth after I yelled ‘gun,’” Stevens said. “Glad I had lungs left to say anything at all.”

Omura smiled, placating. “
It’s too bad things got off to that start, Mr. Awapuhi, because Maui Police Department has only ever wanted to support the
heiau
investigation and protect the artifacts in their sites. The officers who came to your house just wanted to run a few things by you. Discharging a weapon at a police officer is a very serious action we need to address. But we have another matter we’re concerned with. What do you know about the killing of Norm Jorgenson, a visitor from Norway?”

“
I don’t know notting,” Awapuhi growled. “I never killed nobody.”

Stevens remembered noticing before how the Hui leader thickened his pidgin and hid behind it.

“Were you aware Jorgenson is linked to the artifact thefts here on Maui? We haven’t been able to compare trace yet, but he could be linked to all the
heiau
burglaries,” Omura said.

“
No, I nevah knew dat.”

“
With your connections in Maui Police Department, I’m surprised that you nevah knew dat,” Stevens said, deliberately imitating Awapuhi.

“
I said, I never knew notting about this Norwegian.” Awapuhi gave Stevens stink eye at the implied collusion.

“
Are you called ‘the Man’ within the Heiau Hui? ‘Kane’? As a respectful nickname?” Omura asked.

“
Sometimes.” Awapuhi looked down at his hands, and Stevens could see that they carried the marks of hard work. “But I’m not the only one they call that.”

“
Who else is called that?” Stevens asked. Awapuhi just glared.

Stevens glanced at Omura
—this line of questioning wasn’t going anywhere. She gave him the tiniest head nod.

“
Mr. Awapuhi, can you explain how the artifacts that were stolen from the Haiku
heiau
were found in your backyard?” Stevens asked.

Awapuhi
’s head lifted and eyes narrowed. “You had no right to go into my home!”

“
On the contrary.” Omura slid the search warrant across the table to the lawyer, whose youth showed in his consternation as he took the documents. “Sorry we weren’t able to hand you these things in person, what with the gun battle going on.”

The lawyer scanned both the arrest and the search warrant. “
These appear in order. I am counseling my client not to answer any more questions.”

“
Mr. Awapuhi.” Stevens caught the other man’s eye and put all his disillusionment into his voice, each word dripping with contempt. “You claim to care about your people’s heritage so much, and yet you’re the one stealing the artifacts. You’re ‘the Man,’ all right.”

Awapuhi smacked his fist down on the table, pride and anger overriding his law
yer’s advice. “There is a bigger picture here. We must protect these precious relics of our culture; keep them safe in a place where they can be preserved forever. Not have just anyone trampling through our sacred places, destroying them.”

“
So this was doing a good deed? Chiseling them out of the stones your ancestors carved them into and mounting them on a wall somewhere? Whose great idea was this?”

At that, Awapuhi folded his lips shut and shook his head. He sat back and folded his arms. “
I’m done talking.”

They continued the questioning for several more minutes, to no avail. Stevens was satisfied
—Awapuhi had admitted he knew about the artifacts and even given a hint as to why they’d been taken. It was as much as they could hope for with no further bargaining leverage.

“
Your client will be remanded to Maui County Correctional Center until his arraignment. Please explain the process to him,” Omura said.

They got up and left as Awapuhi began bellowing abuse at his lawyer, pounding the table some more. Outsid
e in the hallway, Stevens leaned on the wall to take the weight off his ankle. Omura frowned.

“
Did you get that looked at?”

“
No time. It’s just a sprain.”

“
Get it looked at. File your workplace injury report.” She looked down at her file and made a note.

“
Yes, sir.” He felt stung by her abrupt tone. “Did you hear anything on the radio? My earbud was dead in there.”

“
No. They haven’t contacted us. When you’ve had your ankle checked, I’ll get back to you, but you can go home now. Good job getting ‘the Man’ to admit he knew about the artifacts. It wasn’t much, but it was something.”

“
Thanks.” He followed more slowly, limping, as Omura pep-stepped down the hall to her office. The aftermath of adrenaline overload and the stresses of the day caught up with him suddenly, his body sagging with exhaustion. Going to the emergency room felt like a personal nightmare. He decided tomorrow was soon enough, though he filled out the workplace injury form and left it with the watch officer.

Stevens swung by Pono and Bunuel
os’s cubicle, missing Lei with a sudden hungry fierceness. This spot was where he used to find her when he came by Kahului Station. Now she was placed with Torufu in another cubicle, but he imagined he could still spot her curly head just visible at the top of the padded wall. A lonely night filled with the possibility of bad dreams awaited him at home, and he dreaded it.

Pono looked up with a quick grin. “
Nice job getting Awapuhi to admit he knew about the relics.”

“
I had to shake something loose. Hey, have you heard anything about Anchara’s case?”

“
No. Been too busy to try to pick up anything from McGregor and Chun. They’ve been really closemouthed on the whole thing.”

“
Well, Omura told me they were following some other leads, so I guess that’s good,” Stevens said. “Want to get a beer?” He knew Keiki would be at home waiting for him, and for dinner—but so were those nightmares.

“
Sure. Let me just close up a few things.”

“
What’s up with your ankle?” Gerry Bunuelos looked at the leg Stevens was favoring. “I imagine the captain wants you to get it checked out.”

“
Just a sprain, and I’m too tired to go to the emergency room and deal with all that.”

“
Let me have a look. I was a paramedic before I switched to police work.”

“
Great. It’ll save me a trip. And while you’re at it—what’s happening with chasing down those suspects? Toaman and Guinamo?”

“
Sit on this box over here and take your shoe off,” Gerry directed. “I always keep an extra-stocked medical kit in case I come across a situation on the job.” Bunuelos reached under his desk for a large white plastic box marked with a red cross.

Stevens
’s respect for the short, wiry detective went up another notch as he sat down on a box of computer paper and undid his shoe, prying it off the swollen foot with a grunt of pain. Gerry knelt in front of him, rolling his pant leg up and peeling the sock off to expose the ankle, swollen and purple with bruising. He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves.

“
Nasty,” Pono commented from his work station.

“
I’m going to palpate this, try to see if it’s broken. If it is, you need X-rays and all that. I need to see how much mobility you have. This is gonna hurt a bit.”

Stevens gasped as Gerry palpated the swollen ankle, moving in a systematic way from the calf down to his to
es. “As to your suspects, Torufu and I ran down their addresses. No one home. Interviewed neighbors and roommates.” He held the foot firmly but gently, flexed it up and down. “How’s that?”

Stevens gritted his teeth. “
Sore, but I don’t feel anything worse than when you were touching it.”

“
No one has seen the suspects since the day of Mahoe’s attack,” Pono said. “My guess is, after Guinamo planted his story at the hospital, the two of them got out of town. Now, where they went? No idea, but this is an island. They can’t get off without taking a boat or a plane, and we’ve got the Coast Guard on alert for those and their pictures at the airport. Contrary to what people say, the security checks at the airport have been amazingly good at catching fleeing suspects.”

“
It would make it a lot easier to crack Awapuhi with them in custody,” Stevens said.

“
Agree.” Bunuelos tore open a tightly wrapped Ace bandage. “I don’t think the ankle’s broken. It’s too late to make a whole lot of difference right now, but you should take a few days off and ice this and keep it elevated.”

“
Don’t see that happening, but thanks for the look-see,” Stevens said as Bunuelos wrapped the ankle securely.

“
This will help stabilize it. But seriously, if you were seeing a real doc, they’d put you on rest and crutches for a few days at least. These things can become chronic if they aren’t allowed to heal.”

“
That’s why it’s a good thing I happened to be passing by,” Omura said from the doorway. Sometimes Stevens thought she rolled around on wheels, she was so good at sneaking up on the men unnoticed. “Two days of mandatory sick leave.”

Stevens groaned. “
Not now, Captain. We’re just breaking the case.”

“
And nothing more is happening until we bring those other two suspects in and can use their testimony to leverage Awapuhi. We just need to see what Oahu does with Councilman Muapu and if that goes anywhere. I called Kaua`i and am having them bring in and interview Esther Ka`awai, get her testimony recorded. So there’s nothing critical for a couple of days. Sick leave. That’s an order.” Omura pointed a finger at him, cocking it like a gun. She turned on a shiny heel and motored off.

“
Sorry, man,” Bunuelos said, fastening the bandage.

“
I’m just dreading going home and rattling around the empty house without Lei. I guess I can keep working on the baby’s room.” Stevens ran his hands through his hair.

Gerry rolled Stevens
’s sock back on. “I’ll put the boot on with no laces.” He carefully fitted the lightweight hiking boot over the bandaged foot.

Pono had powe
red down his computer and picked up his jacket. “Just texted Tiare, and she gave me the go-ahead to take you to get some food and drink at the Ale House. Gerry, come with us and round up that Tongan. Let’s make it a bro night on the town, help Stevens drown his sorrows.”

Stevens leaned on Pono’s shoulder. His friend had driven him home after a couple of beers at the Ale House had turned into a pitcher or two and driving became out of the question. They’d had to unlock the gate, get Keiki settled, unlock the house, and disable the alarm.