I'm Kona Love You Forever (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series Book 6) (7 page)

I looked around and, sure enough, we had an audience. Hali’imaile’s great because the people up here watch out for each other. It’s not so great when my house is center stage.

“Of course, please come in.” I stepped back to let him pass. “I’m hosting a dinner party in a few minutes but it can wait.”

“Sorry to barge in on you like this. But I need to bring her home. She’s only seventeen, you know.”

“She isn’t here, Mr. Kapahu.”

“That’s not my name. I’m Craig Anderson.” He stuck out his hand and we shook.

“But Lili’s name is Kapahu, correct?”

“Right.
It’s my wife’s name. When we adopted Lili my wife insisted the baby have her last name. She said a Hawaiian family name was the most important thing we could give her. I didn’t agree, but it wasn’t a hill I was willing to die on.”   

“I understand.”

“So, where’s my daughter?”

“I
thought she was at home with you,” I said.

He looked around the living room and we both fell silent. I figured he was checking out my story, hoping to hear a thump or a throat clearing or anything that would give him reason to call me a liar.

“When do you expect to see her again?” he said.

“Early next week, I’m sure. She comes in my shop every few days. Why don’t you call her
on her cell?”

“We’ve left at least a dozen messages,” he said. He dropped his head as if humiliated by his daughter’s lack of respect
. “When you see her, will you ask her to call us? Or, better yet, will you call us? My wife’s out of her mind with worry.”

“I will,” I said.

He handed me a Hawaiian Airlines business card. Under his name it read, “Captain.”

“You’re a pilot?” I said.

“Yeah. My wife’s blaming me for all this. She says if I’d been home more Lili wouldn’t be doing what she’s doing.”

“I don’t know. Lili’s pretty strong-willed. She met a guy and fell in love. It happens whether or not there’s a dad home to enforce a curfew.”

“Lili and I are close,” he said. “It’s not like her to be rebellious like this.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t see it as rebellion. She sees it as feeling ready to go out on her own.”

“But she’s not ready.”

“She’ll be eighteen in a few months, Mr. Anderson. You still see her as a child, but at eighteen the State of Hawaii considers her an adult.”

“Maybe you could talk her into at least waiting until then?” he said.

I toyed with telling him about the birth certificate mix-up and how his wish might be granted
, with or without my help, but I had dinner guests coming.

“I’ll ask her to call you,” I said

He gave me a short nod and left.

***

Farrah and Ono arrived before Craig Anderson had a chance to get back to his car. Hatch showed up a couple of minutes later. I gave everyone the TV Guide version of events—I’d booked an underage couple with a bride with a muddled birth certificate. Now it seems the bride has run away from home. Everyone clucked their concern and then we got down to eating and drinking.

“
How was your trip?” Hatch said. He’d devoured his half of the pizza with the sausage and was eying the last vegetarian piece.

“Go ahead and take it,” Farrah said. “I’m going to have more of Steve’s yummy salad. You want some, sailor?” She held the salad bowl out to Ono. He looked from the bowl to the last slice of pizza.

“Sure,” Ono said. “Nothin’ better than a big ol’ pile of salad.”

“We had a totally rad time
on our honeymoon,” Farrah said. “It was all, like, so pretty. Glittery, you know? Especially the sand. It was the whitest sand. It looked like snow.”

I was pretty sure Farrah had never seen snow in her life. I couldn’t recall her ever
even going up to Mount Haleakala to witness the occasional dusting we’d get up there. She didn’t drive and didn’t fly, so her spending almost six weeks on an ocean catamaran was still mind boggling to me.

“I haven’t been everywhere,” Ono said. “But I can’t imagine any
place on earth being more beautiful than the South Pacific.”

“It’s beautiful here,” I said.

“Yeah, but this is home. Here we’ve got work and bills and traffic and tourists.”

“You don’t think they’ve got all that in Tahiti?”

He shrugged. “Probably. But down there I’m the tourist. I see only what tourists see—perfect white sand beaches, gorgeous green mountains, and a French-speaking maid coming in to make the bed every day.”

“
You stayed in a hotel?” said Hatch.

“Sometimes,” said Farrah. “When we were in Pago Pago we stayed in one of those grass huts on a dock over the water. It was
totally awesome.”

“
But wouldn’t that be like being on the catamaran?” I said. “I mean, you’re in a small room with water all around. You’ve even got water underneath you—like on the boat.”

“No, it was totally different
,” Farrah said. “Ono took a ton of pictures.”

Ono went
out to his car and brought in an iPad. He and Farrah fiddled with setting it up so the photos would play on the TV in the living room while Hatch and I cleaned up the kitchen.

“
You seem a little off,” he said. “You worried about your runaway bride?”

“Yeah, but I’m trying not to think about it. Isn’t it great Farrah and Ono
seem so happy?” I said.

“Yeah, I guess.
I suppose marriage works for some people.”

“But…?”

“No ‘buts.’ I’m just saying it works for some people and not for others. Don’t you agree?”

I wasn’t about to high-five him on that one. Since I ma
ke my living marrying people I tend to be a strong believer in marriage. I know half the marriages I do probably end in divorce, but I choose to not think about it. I don’t think the poor success rate is due to a flawed institution as much as it’s due to lousy choices of the people involved.

We watched photo after photo of sapphire water, tall green mountains and blinding white beaches. After a while I wondered if they were recycling some of the same pictures since they all
started to look the same.

“
Why didn’t you get any shots of people?” Hatch said. I put a hand on his arm as if to say “be nice.”

“
Hey, excuse me,” Hatch went on. “But I think pictures are a lot more interesting with people in them.”

“You want people?” Ono said. He fiddled w
ith the iPad. The TV went dark for a moment and then a shot of a very naked, very tanned and smiling Farrah filled the screen. She was lounging
au natural
on the deck of the catamaran and she looked about as content and pleased with herself as I’d ever seen her.

It took some doing for me to avert my eyes from her remarkable
bare bosom but I focused on her face. In the past couple of years she’d endured heartbreak, loss, and physical assault, but in her honeymoon photo she looked radiant. If I ever doubted the validity of good
karma
coming back around to those who deserved it, I realized I was gazing at living proof.

“Like I said,” said Hatch. “The very
best
pictures have people in them.” I nudged him and he draped an arm around my shoulder.

“Hey,
here’s an idea,” he said, pulling me close. “Maybe I should get a boat.”

***

Farrah and Ono left soon after the slide show. Hatch lingered at the door. “I’d like to stay, but I’m on duty in the morning.”

“I
understand.”

“I can’t seem to get that picture of Farrah out of my head,” he said.

“I’m sure it’s difficult.”

“
It’s not the naked thing; it’s that she looked so darn happy.”

“Right
,” I said. “And the guys at the fire house read
Playboy
for the articles.”

He wrapped me in his arms. He smelled like
oregano and pizza sauce with a hint of citrus aftershave. I longed to entice him to stay the night but it was hard for him to get to work on time when he stayed with me up in Hali’imaile. And since I had a full day of work ahead of me myself I wasn’t about to offer to go down to his place and sleep on his rock-hard mattress.

“Love you,” he said.

“Love you, too.”

We stood like that for a minute and then I said, “Do you think I smell like toast?”

CHAPTER 10

Friday morning I arrived at the Palace of Pain just before daybreak. I was surprised to see Sifu Doug’s car in the lot. Usually I was the first one there. As a black belt, I’d been given a key which was a huge endorsement of trust. I’d already decided if I ever get car-jacked I’ll swallow the key rather than let it fall into the wrong hands.

“
Aloha
,” Doug said as I came inside. As usual, he was practicing in the dark. I’m not sure if his failure to turn on the lights was more about focusing his concentration or keeping down the electric bill, but it was fine with me. I love the shadowy peace of early morning.

We took to our respective corners and, for nearly an hour, we managed to ignore one another. I heard Doug pad across the mat and quietly close the door to his office a few minutes before I finished.
When I slipped my lance back onto its hook on the wall, he called out to me.

“Got a minute?”

“Sure,
Sifu
. What’s up?” I walked over to the office.

“How about some coffee?”
He pointed toward a coffee maker that was making an almost indecent groaning noise. 

“
Thanks, but I’ve already had two cups,” I said.

“I want to show you something.” He picked
up a shiny smart phone from his desk. “I got this yesterday. Latest model. What do you think?”

The phone looked pretty much like every other
smart phone I’d ever seen.

“It’s got a great camera.
Twenty megapixels.” He held the phone up and clicked it.

“Did you just take a picture of me?”

“I’m not sure, let me check.” He smiled and turned the phone around so I could see it. In the photo my eyes were half-mast and my hair a sweaty tangle.

“
Sifu
, I haven’t had a chance to shower yet. That looks downright scary.”

“
Yeah, well speaking of ‘scary,’ Lani and I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Kaili. Her mom’s gonna have a cow when she sees her.”

“I hope
you’ll spare her the indignity of taking a picture of
that
.”

He laughed.
“According to Lani’s sister, Kaili’s been nothing but ugly since they moved here. I doubt she was much better in Los Angeles, though. That’s one reason she came to Hawaii; to get Kaili away from the bad influences.”

“
Don’t you think there are bad influences everywhere?” I said.

“
Sure,” he said. “I had an old
sifu
who used to say, ‘
The pain outside is a mere shadow of the pain inside
.’ Anyway, it’s great to see Kaili finally coming around. She’s even talking about taking up martial arts.”

“Really?
That’s great. Will you be training her?”

“Nah
,” he said. “Bad idea. I called a buddy of mine on O’ahu. She’s welcome to practice here when she comes over, but she needs to start her training over there first.”

“Makes sense.
Say, mind if I change the subject? I need some advice.”

“Shoot.”

“I’ve got an odd situation with a couple of underage kids who want to get married. Seems the girl was born on Hawaii Island but raised
hanai
over here. The birth certificate she’s got isn’t hers; it belongs to a baby who died. And, to make matters worse, it looks like neither set of parents is onboard with the marriage.”

“Yeah?
So where’s the question? I thought you couldn’t get married before age eighteen without parental approval. Seems like a non-starter.”

“Maybe.
But these kids are a perfect match. They love each other and the girl told me they’ve been holding off on sex until they get married. I feel like I should help them since they’re trying to do the right thing.”

Sifu Doug shot me
his “gimme a break” look. “You’ve been doing your job too long, Pali. You’re confusing romance with real life. Do either of these kids have a job? A place to live? An education? It’s not like you to get teary-eyed over puppy love.”

“I know. You’re probably right. It’s just there’s something about these two that makes me want to help them.
Silly as it sounds, I think this is a solid relationship. One that will last.”