O'ahu Lonesome Tonight? (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series #5) (22 page)

“I know.
Classics.”

“Yeah, they
were classy all right. That girl could figure stuff out that didn’t make any
sense at all to me. She’d spy on creepy people and go into caves with bats in
them and all kinds of scary stuff. But she always got her man.
Or woman.
Sometimes the bad guy was a woman.”

While she
rambled on, she made her way into Barry Salazar’s office and unlocked his file
cabinet. She pulled a large legal-size manila folder from the back of the top
drawer.

Then she led me
into Stu’s office and did the same.

“It would
probably be better if you worked in here,” she said. “Unless it
creeps
you out.”

I assured her
I’d be fine.

She plopped the
two thick files on the desk. “I can’t let you take these with you, but you’re
welcome to look through them.”

“What if Barry
comes in?” I said.

“Ha! Like
that’s
gonna
happen. Don’t worry about him. He’s
gotta
get past me to get back here and there’s no way I’m
letting him pass unless he hands me a signed check. If by some miracle he shows
up with my paycheck you’ll have plenty of time to hide the files. Just act like
you’re here to pick up Stu’s personal stuff.”

“
Mahalo
,” I said. I extended my hand. “I didn’t get
your name.”

“I’m Debbie,”
she said.

“And I’m
Pali
.”

We shook hands
and she left me alone with the last thing my brother wanted to see—besides
Natalie.

CHAPTER 30

I didn’t find anything
that jumped out at me until I got to the final pages of Barry’s file. There it
was: an insurance document with the words, “Key Person Life Policy” written at
the top. I skimmed the twelve-page document and found that the partners,
Barrington Lloyd Salazar and Stuart Philip Wilkerson, each had a four million
dollar life insurance policy with the boat yard business as the beneficiary.
The policy was two years old which meant it had been purchased about the time
Stu came to work at the boat yard. Oddly, there was no twin document in Stu’s
file.

I went out to
the reception area and asked Debbie if I could use their copier.

“We don’t have
one,” she said.
“Anymore.”

I must’ve
looked confused because she went on. “Yeah, we had one up until about a month ago.
Then we didn’t pay the lease on it and the Xerox guy came and hauled it away.
You can’t believe how hard it is to not have one. Every day I got something
that needs copying.”

I went back
into Salazar’s office and wrote down the essential information from the policy.
The name of the insurance company, the policy number, the date it had been
issued, and so on. I would’ve taken the policy with me but I had a feeling that
stealing from Barry Salazar wouldn’t be good for my continuing health and
happiness.

I left the boat
yard and drove back into town. I called
Moko
and
wasn’t surprised when he picked up after one ring. After all, wherever he was,
he wasn’t at work.

“I guess you’re
not working today,” I said.

“No, I got
bereavement leave. I don’t need to go back for a while.”

“Or ever.”

He didn’t say
anything.

“
Moko
I know about the boat yard shutting down. I was just
out there.”

He hesitated
and then whispered, “I can’t talk right now. Can you meet me somewhere?”

“Sure. I’d like
to run something by you. I’ve found what I’d call a ‘motive with a capital M’
in Barry Salazar’s office.”

“Mr. Salazar’s office?
What were you doing in there?” His
voice sounded troubled. Then he quickly changed to his local beach boy slang. “
Wassup
,
Pali
? You
wanna
meet up about what you
gonna
say at the service? Okay, I meet with you.”

I figured
someone had come into the room and he was fabricating his alibi.

“How about at the hospital cafeteria?”
I said.

“Nah, I hate
that place. How about the L & L at Ward Center? We’ll get plate lunch, big
city-style.” He gave a brotherly chuckle and hung up.

The L & L
Drive In is a local favorite for ‘plate lunch,’ the quintessential Hawaiian
carbo-load consisting of a pile of meat alongside mayo-drenched macaroni salad
and a big mound of white rice.

I made it to
Ward Avenue in
Kaka’ako
in less than twenty minutes.
Moko
was already there.

“So you know
what’s happened out at the boat yard?” he said as soon as I got within earshot.

“Yeah.
I just came from there. I met Debbie.”

“She still out there?
What’s she doing that for? It’s not
safe.”

“Why?” I said.

“It’s
jus
’ not.”

“Why do I get
the feeling you know more than you’re telling me? Do you have anything you want
to get off your chest about ‘the big boss’? Like, do you think maybe the big
boss had it in for the little boss?”

“What? No. I
didn’t say
nuthin
’ like that. I’m just saying that
area isn’t good for a woman to be out there by herself. Lots of bums out there,
you know? Like homeless guys.
People who got
nuthin
’ to lose by stealing a purse or
jackin
’
your car.”

“Why didn’t you
tell me that Barry Salazar had closed the business?” I said.

“Look, let’s
get
somethin
’ to eat,” he said. “I’m
starvin
’.”

I considered
pointing out that his family would also be starving if he failed to bring home
a paycheck, but I figured there was no reason to embarrass the guy. Besides, he
was family.

“Let me buy,” I
said. “I insist.”

He ordered a
double everything and I ordered a small portion of vegetable curry. Even so, he
was scraping his Styrofoam container clean before I’d barely touched mine.
Maybe that was because I was doing all the talking.

“Okay, here’s
what I know. Stop me if you’ve got something to add or if you have a question.”
I told him about going out to Natalie’s and her not being there. I said I found
out Natalie’s sister spoke excellent English and she had a hunch Natalie may be
having an affair. Finally, I rattled off what I’d learned from Wendi. I told
him about the Good Samaritan seeing a guy in a baseball cap running away from
where Stu had gone in the canal. Finally I told him Wendi had seen the police
incident report and it listed Stu’s plunge in the canal as an accident due to
‘excessive consumption of alcohol.’

“Does that mean
the cops aren’t going to investigate?” he said.

“Looks that way.
Since Stu was drinking at a bar right on
the canal, they think he simply made a wrong turn and took a header into the
water.”

“But Stu can’t
swim,” he said. “No matter how much he had to drink, Stu never got anywhere
close to water. He hated boats.”

“But he was a
member of the yacht club,” I said.

“Yeah, we all
are. My dad got the whole family in when he joined. He paid for lifetime
memberships for all us kids.” It seemed to dawn on
Moko
who he was talking to and he got flustered. “I
mean,
all us kids here on
O’ahu
. I don’t know about his
kids on the other islands. It wouldn’t make sense to pay for them. You know,
they’d probably never go there.”

“It’s okay,” I
said. “I can’t exactly see myself swapping yarns and tossing back beers at the
Waikiki Yacht Club. It’s not my thing.”

“It’s not me
and my wife’s thing, either. I can’t remember the last time I was out there.”

“But you could
get in if you wanted,” I said.

“Sure.” He
smiled. “Like I said, I’m a lifetime member.”

“You want to go
there with me and wait for Jason? He’s coming in at six.”

When we got to
the yacht club
Moko
had to flash his membership card
to the ‘commander’ who managed the place. When the guy saw
Moko’s
last name, he offered condolences and told
Moko
his
tab was on the house.

We both ordered
Cokes.

“Want I should
put a little rum in there?” the bartender offered.

“No thanks,
man.”

“How ‘bout a wedge of lime?”

We went for the
lime. The guy was trying hard to earn a tip.

We took a table
in the corner and I continued the conversation from the L & L. I told him
about Stu coming in on Wednesday morning and asking Debbie to get him some
files from Barry’s office. Then I told
Moko
about
finding the key person life insurance policy and how Barry would profit from
Stu’s death.

He whistled.
“Four million?
Wow.”

“Yeah.
That’s what I meant on the phone when I said Barry
Salazar had a motive. With Stu dead, he’d have plenty of money to keep the boat
yard going.”

Moko
took a sip of Coke but didn’t say anything.

I went on.
“What did Stu say when he came to work on Wednesday morning? He must’ve owned
up to falling in the canal the night before. Debbie said he had a big bandage
on his head.”

“The guys I
talked to said he told them he’d had an accident,” said
Moko
.
“We all figured he’d cracked up his car or something. He was a real crazy
driver so nobody thought too much about it. I went in to ask him what happened
but his office door was closed so I figured I’d talk to him later.”

“Debbie said
when Stu started having the bad pain and she called 9-1-1 she didn’t think
Barry had come in to work yet. Do you remember seeing Barry there when the
paramedics showed up?”  

Moko
seemed to think about that for a moment. Then he said,
“Huh. Now that I think about it, Barry wasn’t there. I followed the ambulance
to the hospital so I don’t know when he heard about Stu. But he was at the
hospital with Natalie that morning, remember?”

I remembered.

***

Jason came in
to work at ten to six. When he spotted us in the corner he looked away, then
seemed to think better of it and came over.

“Hey,
Moko
.
How’s it going, man?”

Moko
stood and the two men did an odd kind of surfer
handshake. It involved fist bumps, wrist grabbing, and hand grips that would’ve
never cut it at Homeland Security; but then, Hawaii’s almost five thousand
miles from Washington DC, so who cares?

When their hand
jive was finished, Jason leaned in and put a hand on my shoulder. “
Pali
, how’re you doing? Good to see you again.” The guy
looked like he could use a good night’s sleep, but he was still ridiculously
handsome.

“I’m fine. It’s
been a tough week, but at least Stu’s out of pain now.”

Jason lowered
his eyes and nodded.

Moko
got up and excused himself to go to the men’s room. I
asked Jason if he could sit with me for a minute. He glanced over at the bar
and said, “Sure, what’s up?”

“You spent a
lot of time at Stu and Natalie’s, right?” I said.

“He was my best
friend. And I’m sort of between girlfriends right now.” He smiled as though to
assure me he was hard at work resolving the situation.

“How many times
did you go out there? You know, in a typical week.”

“I don’t know.
Three, maybe four times a week.”

“And you and
Stuart sometimes would go out, just the two of you, right?”

“Yeah, but Stu
liked to be home. Have you ever seen his place? It’s like a mansion or
whatever.
Really nice crib.”

“Yeah, actually
I was at his house for dinner the night he fell in the canal,” I said.

“Oh.”

“Since you were
over there a lot, did you ever notice Natalie leaving for long periods of time?
Or did she say stuff that didn’t make sense or act like she was hiding
something?”

“I don’t know
what you’re getting at.”

“There’s been
some talk about Natalie having an affair.
With a guy with the
initials ‘BT’.”

Jason eyes
widened as if he’d been gut-shot. “My best friend and his wife had the happiest
marriage I’ve ever seen. Whoever said that is a liar.” A muscle in his chiseled
jaw pumped like a piston. “I need to get back to work.”

He got up and
abruptly turned and slammed into
Moko
who was making
his way back to the table.

Moko
held up his hands as if to say, ‘whoa.’

Jason stomped
off toward the bar.

“What the hell
was that?”
Moko
said as he sat down.

“That was a guy
with a short fuse. And I think I just lit a match.”

CHAPTER 31

I went back to
the apartment and called Hatch. I caught him up on the events of the past day
and a half.

“You know,
Babe,” he said.  “I’m not crazy about you getting in the middle of all
this.”

“I’m not too
crazy about it myself. But I feel I owe it to my new family. The cops aren’t
even looking into it because they think it was just a case of ‘wrong place,
wrong time.’ But I’ve got a pretty strong hunch it was no accident.”

“Well, be
careful,” he said. “You don’t want to end up in witness protection again.”

“You’re right
about that. I’m running out of islands.” I laughed but it wasn’t a ‘ha-ha’
laugh it was a ‘lord have mercy’ laugh.

“Would you ever
consider moving to the mainland?” he said.

“Whoa. I may be
running out of islands, but let’s not get drastic.”

“No, seriously.
Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to
see more of this country?”