Razor Rocks Page 12

  “That’s fine,” Adelia agreed for all of them.

  Next came the physical exam and swabbing of private areas. Dr. Asuki was as gentle as possible.

  Right after her call to Dr. Wilson, Lei had been able to put a call in to Elizabeth Black, her favorite social worker, someone she’d worked with on several cases. She trusted Elizabeth to find a crisis shelter where the girls could go to be supported and cared for as well as possible until their mother or another relative was available to take them.

  At last the ordeal was over. The nurse had brought a change of clothing for each girl. “These are donated to the hospital and we keep them on hand for anyone who might need them.” A huge shirt declaring, “Life’s a Beach” swallowed Joanie, and she shimmied into fresh undies and yoga pants. The other girls dressed similarly in oversized cast-offs.

  “Can we stay in this room to do the interview?” Lei asked Dr. Asuki. “I’d like to minimize transitions for the girls. I’ve called a social worker from Child Services who’s on her way.”

  Dr. Asuki nodded. “Keep the room as long as you like. The nurse here will bring you some food and drink.” The doctor left.

  “I didn’t say we’d go with a social worker,” Adelia flared at Lei. “We’re staying right here and waiting for Mom.”

  Lei shrugged. “For sure, that’s the ideal scenario. Hopefully, she’s able to take charge of you. This is just in case she has to stay in the hospital.” A light touch worked best with belligerent teenagers.

  While the nurse told the girls about the hospital’s cafeteria lunch offerings and took their orders, Lei texted Dr. Wilson. The psychologist had dropped what she was doing on the Big Island and was en route; she hoped to meet them in another hour.

  What a relief. Now the girls would have some emotional first aid to accompany the physical. Dr. Wilson was a talented psychologist who never seemed to run out of patience or innovative ways to help; she’d worked with Lei herself as a young patrol officer in need of counseling. Sometimes Lei forgot how long she’d known the psychologist, and how far she’d come from the damaged young woman she’d been.

  The room cleared but for the four of them. There wasn’t much seating: a doctor’s rolling stool that Lei perched on, the padded exam table with its roll of crinkling white paper, and a couple of stacked plastic chairs.

  “Is everyone comfortable, girls? We have one more thing to get through—your official statement of what happened.”

  Adelia and Sarah got up on the exam table to cuddle with Joanie. The air conditioning was overly chilly, so Lei opened cabinet doors under the table to uncover a stack of blue cotton drape cloths. “Here’s another layer to wrap up in.”

  The girls settled close together on the padded table, wrapped up as best they could. Lei rolled near to them on her stool and turned on the record feature on her phone. “Let’s begin. When did you first know that the Sea Cloud was being attacked?”

  Captain Omura and SWAT were finishing up at the crime scene: taking statements, photographs, and otherwise dealing with the aftermath of the crisis, as Stevens and Mahoe followed the kidnappers and Mrs. Peterson to the hospital.

  The short trip through Kahului was just long enough for Stevens to feel bone-weariness set in, and the onset of one of his headaches to take up throbbing residence at the back of his skull. “You seem wiped out, LT,” Mahoe commented. “You should have let me drive.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Mahoe snorted. He dug around in the back seat, producing a bottle of water. He opened the glove box and shook two extra strength Tylenol into his hand. “Take these. And drink all of the water.”

  “Yes, mother.” One hand on the steering wheel, Stevens tossed the painkillers into his mouth and washed them down with the water, chugging the bottle. He tossed the empty into the back seat. “Happy now?”

  “I’d be happy if you were, LT. It was a righteous shoot. You ended the standoff.” Mahoe folded his muscular arms. “Don’t know why you’re bummed. You were a hero today. I was just your rookie sidekick, too freaked out to do anything.”

  Stevens slanted his partner a glance. “You don’t know the shit I’m in for those supposedly heroic actions. I’m in trouble at home, and with Omura.”

  Mahoe shrugged. “It’ll be fine. It’s me who has to live with knowing I froze when the pressure was on.”

  “Hey. Don’t be hard on yourself.” Stevens plucked his shirt, stiffening with blood, away from his chest. “I got used to combat when I joined the Marines right out of high school and we saw action overseas. You haven’t had much exposure to intense situations like that, because they don’t come up often on Maui—and thank God for that.”

  “Still.”

  “You did everything you were supposed to do, Brandon. You watch and see—I’ll get written up for saving that woman and taking that shot. And if the kidnapper dies, I’ll be put on leave pending the investigation. I’m sure the whole thing won’t be fun.”

  “I know what I know about how things went down. I had a clear shot at the kidnapper, too, but I didn’t take it. Maybe I’m not cut out for this job.” Mahoe stared out the window, his jaw tight and arms tighter.

  “That’s bullshit. You’re making my headache worse.” Stevens had no patience left to deal with his partner’s existential crisis. He pulled into the hospital parking lot. “The Captain said you need to go in and take statements by yourself.”

  Mahoe turned to him with wide eyes.

  “Yeah, man, you heard me right. I was involved in a shooting and I’m officially off the case, so I’m dropping you off alone to handle this, and I know you’ll do a good job. In fact, I’m so sure of it that I’m going find a clean shirt, and then I’m taking a little nap.” Stevens radioed the EMTs, asking about the kidnapper’s status. Stevens turned to Mahoe. “Good. The kidnapper’s still alive. Maybe you can get an ID and his statement. Text me when you’re ready for pickup.”

  Moments later Stevens pulled away. He glanced in his rearview mirror, and smiled at the sight of his young partner heading into the hospital with a spring in his step. Sometimes, you just needed to get out of the way and let the young people step up. Handling the interviews would bolster Mahoe’s confidence, and Stevens would be there for backup.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  None of the Peterson girls said anything in response to Lei’s question about what had happened aboard the Sea Cloud. They sat cuddled together on top of the exam table, wound in each other’s arms. The sharp scent of fear, trauma, and unwashed bodies filled the room.

  Lei sat on the doctor’s rolling stool, holding her little notebook with the stub of pencil tied to it, waiting patiently. Her gaze moved from one girl’s face to the next. “Take your time. But you need to tell me what happened, or I’ll have to turn you over to another cop for the interview. Keeping quiet about what happened isn’t one of your choices.”

  Adelia straightened up between her sisters, still in spokeswoman role. “We had just got done with dinner and were doing the dishes in the galley. The three of us were in there, horsing around, listening to music. Even though we had Ms. Gutierrez there to do the cooking and cleaning, Mom and Dad always made us do chores. They didn’t want us to get spoiled or stuck-up.”

  “Chores are stupid,” Sarah piped up for the first time. “I don’t need chores to remind me how it is to be poor. I’m the youngest, but I still remember before Dad’s invention got us money.”

  Adelia snorted. “Are you kidding? You’re the spoiledest of all of us.”

  Sarah elbowed her, and Adelia met Lei’s eye. “Yeah, we were playing around. Only Joanie was snapping us with a wet dish towel, and it hurt.” She elbowed Joanie.

  Joanie’s curtain of bedraggled blonde hair still hid her face. She didn’t respond.

  Adelia went on. “Anyway. The boat was under sail, so you couldn’t hear anything but the sound of the water on the hull, but then suddenly we heard this super loud engine noise, like really roaring, and it was outside the hull.
And then we heard Captain Kaihale yelling on the intercom, “Pirates! We’re being boarded! Take cover inside your cabins and lock the doors!” I totally thought Captain was joking, that this was some kind of prank, like—part of the fun of the cruise.” Her voice wobbled and her eyes filled. Her hand came up to cover her mouth. “It wasn’t an April Fools’ joke like we thought.”

  “Go on.” Lei nodded encouragingly as Sarah snuggled close, clinging to her sister’s arm. Joanie leaned on Adelia’s other side.

  Adelia cleared her throat. “So, we didn’t take it seriously. Instead of doing what Captain Kaihale said, the three of us ran to the nearest porthole and peeked out. We couldn’t see anything, so we ran up the stairs onto the top deck to see the pirates. I was thinking of how this was a great April Fools’ and it would be like a modern Pirates of the Caribbean.” She pleated the paper covering the exam table. She seemed to have run out of steam.

  “Tell her,” Sarah whispered. “Tell her what happened to Dad.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Adelia looked down. The paper ripped between her fingers. “We went up to see the pirates, not thinking it was real or serious . . . and there were these guys in two Zodiacs that had come along on each side of the boat. They threw grappling hooks onto the stern.” She sucked a trembling breath. “Dad screamed ‘Get below!’ the minute he saw us. He and Mom had been up on the front deck watching the sunset.” Adelia met Lei’s eyes. “There’s a front deck and a back deck. The pirates had come up really fast on the back deck. Mom and Dad tried to lift their grappling hooks off the railing, but they were big metal hooks and they were too heavy with the weight of the boats. I still thought it was all part of the cruise because the pirates wore costumes. But then, one of them climbed up onto the deck.” Adelia spoke as if expelling the words by force. “Dad hit him with one of the oars from the rescue craft. The guy fell to one knee, but then he pulled out a gun and shot Dad—just shot him. Bam! Right in the chest.”

  “What did the costumes look like? Hats? Bandannas?” Lei prompted gently.

  “No. They were wearing Hawaiian costumes.”

  Lei’s scalp prickled. “What do you mean?”

  “I was thinking they’d be like the Pirates of the Caribbean, you know—peg legs, eye patches—but they weren’t. They were like—old time Hawaiian warriors. They wore these gourd helmets on their heads, and tapa cloth robes tied at the shoulder. That’s another reason I thought it was fake, until the guy pulled a gun—because they were in costume.”

  “Are you sure? Sometimes the mind plays tricks when . . .”

  “She’s telling the truth!” Sarah yelled fiercely. “The guys were dressed up like ancient Hawaiian warriors! The only modern things they had were real guns and real knives!” She burst into tears. The other two girls folded her in, moving her into the middle, sandwiching her between them.

  Lei’s free hand crept into her pocket. She rubbed the bone hook as she took a couple of steadying breaths. This was bad. This was not going to be well-received by anyone—pirates dressed as Hawaiian warriors? The Hawaiian community would be outraged and defensive. What possible reason could these killers have had for such a ploy? “I believe you. Just keep going. Tell me what happened next.”

  “I grabbed Sarah and ran for the steps. Joanie ran to help Mom and Dad.” Adelia stopped again, covering her face with a hand. “They did have other modern things. They wore bike shorts under their robes, and rubber sandals with Velcro—you know the kind that you wear for wet-dry hiking? I remember thinking how funny that was.”

  “And then?”

  “Sarah and I ran below and went into Mom and Dad’s stateroom, which was the closest. We locked the door and hid under the bed.” Adelia said. “At first, all we heard from above was a bunch of yelling and thumping around. Sarah and I were wedged together under there, and it was really tight. Then I heard Mom screaming, so I covered Sarah’s ears. And then we heard someone pounding on the door. “Open up, girls, it’s Captain Kaihale!” So I crawled out and let the Captain in . . . But he wasn’t alone. That guy, that guy that had shot Dad, he had Captain Kaihale by the hair with a knife to his throat.” Abruptly, Adelia covered her mouth with a hand. “I’m going to be sick.”

  Lei scrambled for the waste can. Adelia heaved into it as Sarah cried and Joanie silently rubbed her back. “Okay now?” Lei asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Lei took the can outside. The lunch tray had been left on a chair outside the door, and Lei carried it in, setting it on the counter as Adelia went to the sink and rinsed her mouth thoroughly. Lei filled a paper cup with water and handed it to her. “Glad I didn’t eat lunch yet,” Adelia said.

  “Maybe you should finish telling the story before eating,” Lei agreed.

  “Yeah. I just want to get it over with.” Adelia hopped back onto the exam table and into her sisters’ arms. “Anyway, Captain Kaihale tried to pull away—he lunged forward, yelling, ‘Run!’ and he fell across the bed when one of them zapped him with a Taser on the back of the neck. He jerked around on the bed and then went limp. We tried to get around the guy who zapped him, but two more men were behind him in the doorway, and they grabbed us. Then the guy who shot Dad walked in, and he grabbed Captain Kaihale by the hair and slashed his neck right in front of us.” Adelia shivered.

  “It was super, super gross and sad,” Sarah said. “Poor Captain. He was so nice and fun.” Tears dripped off her chin.

  “I’m so sorry you had to see and experience that. Captain Kaihale was a good friend of mine, so it’s extra hard for me to hear this, too. We will always miss him,” Lei said. They all sat quietly for a moment.

  Adelia rallied. “After that, they tied our hands behind our backs with those plastic zip ties and forced us to go up on deck. We searched around but we didn’t see Dad. Sarah started screaming, “Dad, Dad! Where are you Dad?” The mean guy, the main guy who shot Dad and killed Captain—he slapped her face. Told her to shut up, that Dad was feeding the sharks, and if she wasn’t quiet, she was going to join him. Mom and Joanie were sitting on the deck, tied up with Ms. Gutierrez.” Adelia trembled but forced herself to go on. “I was so worried that they’d throw us overboard with our hands tied, or we’d fall in accidentally, because the ocean was really rough. The Zodiacs were swinging around and banging into the deck of the Sea Cloud. And it was super scary when they basically threw us into the Zodiacs and left us there while they stole stuff and made a hole in the ship’s hull.”

  Lei could picture the terrifying scene. “Where did they take you when you left the Sea Cloud? Where’s their hideout?”

  Adelia shook her head. “I don’t know. One of the guys came back onto the Zodiac and tied strips of sheets over our eyes. Sarah was crying so loud that he gagged her. He told us he’d gag all of us if he needed to, so no making noise. Mom was lying between me and Joanie; she whispered to us that we didn’t want to be gagged or hurt any more, so try to cooperate and wait to be rescued. She said it was a good sign that they blindfolded us because it meant they weren’t going to kill us. They didn’t want us to see their faces or where they were taking us, and that meant they planned to keep us alive.” She coughed, and Lei handed her another paper cup of water.

  Adelia drank it and went on. “I was so glad that she said that, because I was starting to lose it. I couldn’t stop seeing the blood shooting out of Captain Kaihale’s throat. I didn’t know blood could do that. Like, it was shooting out every time his heart beat.”

  “So gross and sad,” Sarah said. “I wanted to put my hands over the cut in his neck, but I knew it wouldn’t help.”

  “If it’s any comfort, that form of death is very quick. Captain Kaihale didn’t suffer for long,” Lei said.

  “Neither did Dad,” Adelia said flatly. “I think he died the minute that guy shot him.”

  A long pause as they all sat with that. Finally Lei said, “Would you girls like to take a break?”

  “No,” Sarah and Adelia said at the same time. Joanie had hardly moved from he
r slumped position.

  “Go on, then.”

  “The Zodiacs were slamming through the wind and waves for a long time. It was kind of hard to tell how long with our blindfolds on, but I started counting to keep myself calm and keep track. And then we came into somewhere quieter, a sheltered bay or something. Then we entered an enclosed space. I thought it must be a cave, because I could hear water slapping on the walls and the Zodiacs slowed way down. Maybe it was a big boathouse. I don’t know.”

  “About how long was it from when you left the wreck to when you got to the cave or whatever it was?” Lei’s mind was churning—depending on where the attack had actually occurred, the pirate hideout had to be either on Lana`i or Moloka`i. She wasn’t aware of any ocean caves on either island.

  “I think it was more than an hour. They had to put gas in the Zodiacs. I know it’s hard to believe, but I got kind of sleepy and dozed off.”

  “Me, too,” Sarah said.

  “It’s not hard to believe. After our bodies are flooded with adrenaline, they crash. You can feel super tired even if you’re still in danger, as long as the danger isn’t imminent.” Lei had experienced that herself. “What happened next?”

  “They tied up the Zodiacs. There was some kind of rocky bank, they got us out onto it, but it was slippery and hard to get up on with our blindfolds on and our hands tied. Mom fell and got hurt; she cried out that she had wrenched her ankle. But they didn’t care. They hauled us up the rocks, and then inside some kind of metal room. Mom said it was probably a shipping container. They just threw us in and left us there at first.”

  Sarah picked up the thread of the story. “We helped each other take off our blindfolds, but it was pitch-dark inside. We just huddled together and tried to rest. Finally, the main guy came back, and he acted nice this time. They had a battery lamp for light, and he had taken off the gourd war helmet and wore a bandanna tied over his face. He untied us and had one of the other guys check out Mom’s ankle. She had sprained it and it was all puffy, but she was brave.”