Black Sands

  He drove to Aloha Shores and stopped in front of Aki’s house. A yellow Volkswagen was parked in the driveway. Aki’s or Jason’s? Mano got out and went to the front door. No one answered his knock. He decided to go around to the backyard. The sloping yard contained only pots of herbs and a few lawn chairs. Where could they be?

  He went back around front. Maybe they were just ignoring him. Subtlety would get him nowhere. He went boldly to the front door again and pounded with his fist. “Open up, Aki. I know you’re in there. I’m not going anywhere until I talk to you. I can come back with Sam if you’d rather.”

  He pounded so hard, the glass in the front windows rattled. Finally, he heard footsteps, and the door swung open.

  Kim Aki’s face was red, and the birthmark stood out in livid relief. “Knock it off, Oana. You’ll have the neighbors out with their guns.”

  Mano tried to see past his bulk but spied only a living room that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. “This will only take a minute. I’m looking for Jason Sarris.”

  “Don’t know him.”

  Aki tried to close the door, but Mano stuck his foot out and shoved the door with his shoulder. He caught the big man off balance, and Aki stumbled back. Mano pressed his advantage and stepped into the living room. “Sarris, I know you’re in here.” He strode down the hallway carpeted in black, though it was so littered with crumbs the color was nearly hidden.

  Aki roared and barreled after him. Mano turned aside, and Aki fell against the door at the end of the hall. The door sprang open and revealed Jason standing in the middle of the room with a gun in his hand. His face was white, but the hand he used to bring the gun up to point it at Mano’s chest was steady.

  Mano stopped and held up his hands. “I just want to talk.”

  “I should call the police and have you arrested for trespassing,” Aki said, getting to his feet.

  “Go ahead.” Mano’s attention focused on the gun. “I’m sure they’d like to take a look at the gun. It looks like the same caliber that killed Noah Sommers. Why’d you shoot him, Jason?”

  “It wasn’t me,” Jason said.

  “Shut up!” Aki glared at the younger man. Jason blanched even more.

  Mano couldn’t believe he’d actually found Noah’s murderer. “What about Leilani? Where is she?”

  “I haven’t seen Leilani,” Jason said.

  “I said shut up!” The cold stare Aki used on Jason made him take a step back. Aki turned back to Mano. “I think we’d better go for a little ride.”

  “Not in this lifetime.” Mano bent over at the waist and rushed the larger man. His shoulder hit Aki’s stomach, and the two men tumbled to the ground. He was vaguely aware of Jason tossing the gun aside and running from the room. The men thrashed on the floor until Aki finally heaved Mano off. He gained his feet and looked around. He swore, then jumped for the door.

  Mano staggered to his feet and tried to go after him but tripped over a boot left in the middle of the floor. By the time he got to the front door, the yellow car was gone and neither Aki nor Jason was anywhere in sight.

  He fished out his cell phone and called Sam. “I’ve found Noah’s murderer,” he told him. “Come to Kim Aki’s house. I’ll wait for you here.” He shut off the phone and turned to explore the house before the police arrived. But try as he might, there was nothing to indicate Leilani had ever been here.

  Twenty-five

  Leilani dreamed of walking with Annie along a black-sand beach. Annie’s hand was leading her like when they were children. When she awoke, a hollow sense of bereavement assaulted her. Would she ever see Annie again, ever be able to thank her for all the things she’d done?

  Being trapped in this dimly lit place was like being lost between life and death. She’d spent most of her time thinking about how selfish she’d been. Had she apologized even once for all the shirts she’d ruined that belonged to her patient sister? Or had she ever even told Annie she loved her? Leilani couldn’t remember a time when she’d acknowledged the quiet sacrifices she’d seen Annie make over the years. Things like giving her and Tomi the largest cuts of steak, like asking their mother to buy Leilani a new outfit even if it meant Annie dressed in styles that were outdated long ago. Instead, she’d whispered with her friends about Annie’s lack of good taste.

  She heard something at the front of the cave and glanced up. They were coming back. She gasped when Tab dragged her to her feet. He untied her, then marched her out of the lava tube. She blinked in the bright light, though it was later in the day than she’d thought. His tight fingers hurt her forearm as he marched her down the hillside to a pool of water.

  “Wash,” he said.

  Why had she ever been attracted to him? She waded into the water and began to splash it onto her body. The refreshing moisture brought her senses alive in time to realize this was the sacred pool of Ku. She moaned and tried to run from the water, but he grabbed her and threw her back in.

  Mano had called to tell Annie that her hunches had been correct. Not only was Jason involved with the casino, but he and Aki were implicated in Noah’s murder. The police were looking for both men and had taken the gun to check ballistics. He was going to have to skip dinner, but he’d be over later in the evening.

  Fawn offered to assuage her disappointment by coming over to keep her company. Annie hoped Mano’s delay would mean that Leilani would soon be found. Surely Jason and Aki wouldn’t do anything to her sister now that the police were on to them.

  Fawn stretched. “I’m bored. Let’s do something.”

  “Scrabble?” Annie suggested. “I already thumped the guys in three games.”

  Fawn groaned. “Not Scrabble. I’m in the mood to organize or something.”

  Annie brightened. She was always in the mood for cleaning. “I’ve got all those boxes of Tomi’s possessions that Mano brought me. We could unpack them and put them away for him.”

  “Perfect. Lead the way.” Fawn got off the bed and followed Annie down the hall.

  Annie hadn’t been in Tomi’s room since she cleaned last week. His futon was unmade, and two drawers hung half-open out of the black-lacquer chest. A T-shirt dangled from the Kyoto lantern. “It didn’t take him long to mess it up.” The boxes were piled in the closet. She hauled them out into the middle of the floor. “I’m not sure what all is in these.”

  Fawn opened a box and began to root through it. “Looks like books and toiletries in this one.”

  Annie opened another box. “This one has pictures and scrapbooks. Tomi is a terrible pack rat.” Wilson snatched a small album from her hand and dragged it under the bed. “Wilson, come back here with that.” She flopped on her stomach and scooted under the bed to retrieve the album before the mongoose could chew it up. He growled but gave it up and scampered out the other side of the bed.

  Annie scooted back out from under the bed and sat up. The book was open. “Oh, this is one of his scrapbooks of the year he had the diving business.” The year before he joined the navy, Tomi had bought a boat and taken divers out to the volcano to dive. She propped her back against the bed and began to flip through the pictures. Her heart hurt at the sight of her smiling brother, carefree and happy and unsuspecting of the trouble that would soon plague him.

  The girl and man standing with Tomi in the next picture looked vaguely familiar. She glanced at the newspaper article on the facing page. It documented a dark day in her family’s history. Tomi had dropped the divers at the volcano, then left as was the standard practice. A dive boat couldn’t anchor in the waters at the volcano because the ash would foul the engines, and the high water temperatures would cause them to overheat. When Tomi came back for them, he couldn’t find the buoy that marked their position. He’d scoured the region for over two hours before it got dark. Then he called in the Coast Guard. The two had drowned.

  She glanced back at the picture and stared into the girl’s dark eyes, then gasped. “Fawn, look.”

  “What’s wrong?” Fawn sa
t on the floor beside her.

  Annie shoved the album onto Fawn’s lap.

  Fawn studied it. “I’ve seen them before.”

  “Me too. It’s Gina’s husband and daughter.”

  “You’re kidding.” Fawn glanced at the newspaper article too. “The family brought a wrongful death suit against Tomi, didn’t they?”

  “Yeah, but it was thrown out because the buoy was defective. Tomi wasn’t at fault.”

  “How odd that Gina has never mentioned it.”

  They both absorbed the implications in silence. Annie didn’t want to think of what this discovery might mean. “Could Gina have taken Leilani?” she asked slowly. “For revenge?”

  “I can’t imagine her doing something like that,” Fawn said. “But I don’t understand why she’s never told you who she is.”

  “This doesn’t feel right.” Annie got up. “Let’s go talk to Gina.”

  “Not without backup. Call Mano. He’ll be glad to go with us. In fact, I’d better stay here. If you’re not back in an hour, I’ll call Sam.”

  “Maybe we should call Sam first.”

  “And tell him what? It’s possible that their deaths are just too painful for Gina to talk about. We might be barking up the wrong tree.”

  “Maybe.” But Annie didn’t think so. Something was very wrong with this picture. Gina had been too close to them to have kept it secret this past year. She grabbed the phone and dialed Mano.

  “Mano, can you get away? Something has come up.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s better to show you.”

  He was silent a moment. “The investigation here is almost wrapped up. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  Annie clicked off the phone. “He’s on his way,” she told Fawn.

  “I have another idea.” Annie went to the computer in the corner and called up Google. She put in BANOS ALEX SARRIS. She followed several links and found one that made her eyes go wide. Before his death, Alex Sarris had been CEO of the company. “Look,” she told Fawn.

  Fawn bent over behind her to read it. “Oh, Annie, I think this proves it. She hasn’t said anything about her connection to the casino either. Let’s see if your dad knows anything,” Fawn suggested.

  Annie frowned. “I hate to upset him.”

  Fawn put her hands on her hips. “You listen to me, Annie Tagama! It’s time you let your father be an adult and take the responsibility for his own life like a man. This is not your burden. Your job is not to keep anything unpleasant from touching him. You either go out there and talk to him, or I will.”

  Annie knew she’d do it too. She held out her hands. “I know you’re right, but my mother wanted me to keep things running smoothly. I want to honor her.” Annie wasn’t sure why she so feared her father’s displeasure. She supposed it was in her mental makeup to hate upsetting the peace. “Let’s go talk to him,” she said. She led the way down the hall and found her father watching TV in the living room. “Where’s Tomi?” she asked him.

  “He went to the store after soda.”

  Annie sat on the arm of the chair and clasped her hands in front of her. “I need to ask you a question.”

  Her father muted the television. “All right. You look very serious.”

  “It’s about Gina.” Annie wet her lips.

  He held up his hand. “It’s too soon to know where things will lead with her. I like her very much, but we’re just beginning our relationship. And no matter what happens, there will always be a place for you.”

  “Um, that’s good to know, but it’s not what I need to find out.”

  He frowned. “What’s this all about then?”

  “I was going through Tomi’s things and found a picture. You remember that diving accident where he couldn’t find the divers by the volcano?”

  “Of course. Our honor was questioned.”

  “Did you know that it was Gina’s husband and daughter who died that day? And her dead husband was CEO of Banos.”

  From her father’s thunderstruck expression, she knew Gina had never mentioned it. The dread in the pit of her stomach grew, and she knew she had to talk to Gina.

  Mano’s car hugged the curves of the narrow road that led to Aloha Shores. The full moon illuminated the barren lava fields on either side of the vehicle. He glanced at Annie. She sat clutching the side of the door. He wanted to bring up the emotions that hovered between them but knew now wasn’t the right time. Not while she was intent on hearing Gina’s explanation.

  “I still can’t believe it,” she mumbled. Wilson snored as he slept on her lap.

  “I think she likely just didn’t know how to tell you all about it.”

  “But don’t you think it’s weird that she’d date my dad and mother me when she was upset enough with Tomi to bring a wrongful death suit against him? And what about those phone calls saying that Tomi is going to pay for what he did? I thought it was about the money, but now I’m not so sure. She didn’t tell us about the casino connection either.”

  “I want you to be careful not to ruin your relationship with Gina over this when it may have nothing to do with Leilani’s disappearance. It could be that her good will toward you is just her way of trying to make up for the suit against Tomi.”

  Annie nodded. “I know you’re probably right, but something feels wrong about it. She’s had a year to tell us. Surely she could have found the right time.”

  “Maybe.” He still wasn’t convinced. Turning the wheel, he approached the subdivision. It was after nine. Too late for a social call, but Annie wouldn’t rest until they’d talked to Gina. He stopped beside her house. The outside light was on, and one small lamp inside shone dimly through the living-room window.

  “It looks like she might not be home. Her car isn’t here either.” Annie deposited Wilson on the seat, then followed Mano to the door. She knocked. There was no answer, and she tried three more times before giving up.

  “Any idea where she might be?”

  Annie shook her head. “I don’t know much about her social life. We need to find her tonight.”

  Mano had been thinking. “Remember what you said about hating the night of the full moon?”

  She nodded. “I thought maybe the Ku cult was going to sacrifice Leilani tonight. I’m almost relieved to think Gina might have her instead.” Her face was turned up to him to listen.

  “This is the night offerings are made to the akua, the Hawaiian gods. The calls you’ve been getting have hinted that Leilani is the one who will pay for whatever Tomi did, right?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes widened. “You think Gina could be involved with the cult too?”

  “Maybe. Gina is gone. Maybe it’s a leap to think they could be connected, but it somehow makes sense.”

  “We have to find her!” Annie grabbed his arm. “Mano, I’m scared. What if you’re right and we have to find her now—tonight?”

  He took her hand, and they ran toward the car. Where they’d look next, he wasn’t sure, but they couldn’t stand around waiting for another clue to drop into their laps. Annie ran to her side of the car and jumped in. He got in and started the engine. “How about we go see Kauhi? He seems to be our only real connection with the cult.”

  “Hurry!”

  He dropped the gear shift into drive and punched the accelerator. Careening around curves, he made the trip to Orson Kauhi’s in ten minutes. The glowing numbers on the dash said it was nearly nine thirty. They had only two and a half hours to figure this out if he was right, and he prayed he wasn’t. Unless they got a real break, it would be impossible to figure out which heiau was to be used.

  Annie was opening her door before he brought the car to a complete halt. Her limp was pronounced as she raced over the loose rock to Kauhi’s cabin. Mano grabbed his gun from the glove box and tucked it into his belt, then caught up with her before she got to the house. “Hang on,” he whispered. “He’s likely to shoot us both.”

  “I don’t care. We have to make him te
ll us where they have her.”

  “If they have her. I could be wrong.”

  “But you might be right.” She went to the door and pounded on it. “Orson, it’s Annie. I have to talk to you.” She kept pounding, but no one came to the door. Tears glistened in her eyes when she finally turned around and stared up at him. “What if he’s at this ceremony too?”

  Mano didn’t want to tell her it was hopeless, that he didn’t know where else to look. Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned to stare out over the lava field. “Let’s assume they’re at a sacrifice. They’d surely use the volcano itself. Where are the hot spots right now? Are there any big skylights or open craters?”

  She nodded. “A few. The biggest one is out by the ocean.”

  “That might be important to them. Can you take me there?”

  It looked like she was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. “I’ll try,” she whispered. “We can drive part of the way there, but we’ll need my SUV.”

  They hurried back to the car and drove down the road to the Tagama house, where they exchanged his car for her SUV.

  “I’ll drive,” Annie said. “I know where I’m going.” She drove along Devastation Trail to a rutted lane of crushed lava rock. “Hold on, it’s going to get bumpy.”

  Mano grabbed the hand rest on the door. Wilson squeaked and wiggled against Mano’s hold. The Pathfinder lurched along the one-lane road. One wheel hit a pothole, and he thought they were going to be hung up, but the SUV plodded on.

  Finally Annie stopped the vehicle. “This is as far as we can go on wheels. We’ll have to walk from here. It usually takes me two hours to walk it in the daylight.”

  Mano looked at the clock again. Nearly ten. He winced. “Let’s go.” He had grabbed his flashlight from his car, and Annie took another from the glove box. She joined him at the front of the SUV. The moon was so bright they didn’t need their flashlights to see the path in front of them.

  “I’m surprised we don’t see other sightseers,” he said. He realized he had Wilson in his arms and handed the mongoose to Annie. She tucked the animal into her shirt. Mano patted his pocket to make sure he had his gun.