Beside Still Waters (Psalm 23 Mysteries)

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” the big detective finally said.

  Jeremiah shook his head grimly.

  “There’s going to be the devil to pay sorting out all those remains. I don’t envy whoever has to deal with the Burial Council on that one.”

  “It’s terrible and I’m sure it’s going to be a mess for quite a while,” Jeremiah said, frustration bubbling to the surface. “But, of course, the worst part is, they have nothing to do with the kidnapping.”

  “Ah, but the cab driver has to,” Kapono said, reaching into his shirt pocket. “My guys finished narrowing down the list of drivers it couldn’t be and then we took the remaining drivers and compared them to the description Cindy gave me. Everything points to one guy, named Manny.”

  “Let me guess, he hasn’t shown up to work today?”

  “No, he’s working. Best part is, he’s got a fare he’s driving in from the north shore as we speak and he has no idea we’re looking for him. His dispatcher is really helping us out with this one.”

  “Great, so let’s go grab him when he drops off his passenger.”

  Kapono glanced away.

  “What’s wrong?” Jeremiah asked sharply.

  “We’ve talked to a couple of guys who have dealt with him before. They’re under the impression that Manny won’t talk for anything.”

  “He will if I break his legs,” Jeremiah growled.

  “Which, officially, I can’t let you do,” Kapono said.

  Jeremiah stared hard at the detective who steadfastly was refusing to meet his eyes.

  Just then a couple of uniformed officers entered the room. Kapono waved them over and pointed to Al. “Make sure and read him his rights while I go take some more statements.”

  As the officers were taking charge of Al, Kapono grabbed Jeremiah’s arm and steered him toward the door. Outside in the hall they moved toward the elevators until they were well out of earshot of the room. Finally Kapono stopped, but Jeremiah noticed he still wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

  “You know, Cindy is a nice wahine.”

  “Very nice,” Jeremiah agreed. “Borders on a saint in my book.”

  “And we’re well outside the range of time where kidnapping victims have a chance of coming back home.”

  “I know.”

  Kapono pulled a small disc out of his pocket and handed it to Jeremiah. “Just do me a favor and wear this tracker so that we can find you.”

  Without saying anything Jeremiah bent down, pulled up his left pant leg, and stuffed the tracker down inside his sock and into the top of the shoe. When he straightened back up Kapono was nodding approval.

  Next Kapono handed Jeremiah a slip of paper.

  “We’re going to be taking him down when he reaches this location. Now, for your own safety, I don’t want to see you anywhere near the place. You should go home and wait for a phone call. You understand?”

  “Perfectly,” Jeremiah said.

  “You know, I should put your okole back on a plane right now.”

  “You couldn’t,” Jeremiah said simply.

  “Yeah, I know, but I feel like I should at least try.”

  He could see the struggle Kapono was going through. Every instinct he had as a cop was to get Jeremiah out of the equation because he was a civilian and a loose cannon.

  “It would be a waste of everyone’s time if you did, especially when we have more important things to worry about,” Jeremiah said, and he reached out and very deliberately patted Kapono on the arm, exactly where he’d gotten shot, just hard enough to make the detective wince.

  “Remember, I don’t want to see you anywhere near there,” Kapono said, taking a step back out of arm’s reach.

  “Don’t worry,” Jeremiah said. “You won’t.”

  ~

  Mark’s eyes were blurring as he stared at the computer screen. He’d exhausted every last lead he could think of and no one would agree to talk to him. He was beginning to think that he would never know the truth about his former partner.

  The phone rang and he answered. “Hello?”

  “Mark, it’s William over here in Hawaii.”

  “Any word on Cindy yet?” Mark asked, his stomach twisting itself into a knot as he heard his friend’s voice.

  “Nothing yet, we’re still tracking down leads.”

  There was a pause...too long, and Mark began to wonder why William had really called. “What’s going on?” he finally asked.

  “I was just wondering, how well do you know the rabbi?”

  Mark turned away from his computer and his eyes fell on a picture of him and Paul. “I guess as well as anyone can know anyone else,” he said softly.

  “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’ve known him for just over a year. He’s a good guy. He plays things a bit close to the vest, but he’s a real white knight. Why do you ask?”

  There was another lengthy pause.

  “William? Something hasn’t happened to him, has it?”

  “To him? No. But he’s been here less than twenty-four hours and he’s already helped expose a drug trafficking ring, identified a killer and caught his co-conspirator in a scandal that’s going to rock this island for some time, and gotten one of my best detectives shot in the shoulder.”

  And for some reason Mark couldn’t help but smile. “What can I say? He’s not going to leave any stone unturned until he finds Cindy. And heaven help whoever’s standing in his way.”

  “I’m beginning to get that idea. Is he this much trouble at home?”

  “Worse,” Mark said.

  “Well, one of these days I’m going to have to repay this...favor.”

  “Oh, what did you have in mind?” Mark asked.

  “I’ve got a writer who lives out here, in one of the hotels as a matter of fact, who I’m going to encourage to take a trip to your neck of the woods. Maybe send her to The Zone theme park, take in the sights.”

  “See if she stumbles across a dead body in my jurisdiction?” Mark guessed.

  “Glad to see you’re still clever as ever.”

  “Uh huh. Tell you what, you send me back Cindy and Jeremiah in one piece, and you can send whoever you want out here on vacation.”

  There was a deep chuckle on the other end of the line. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “I know you will.”

  ~

  Cindy was sitting in the bowels of the ship. Mr. Black had had one of his goons escort her down there. She hoped that meant they were getting close to land. She was beyond ready to get off the boat for her stomach’s sake, even if that was going to bring a reckoning she wasn’t ready for. She thought that if she made it through this whole ordeal she might never go on another boat again. After all, even the pleasure trip had turned out to be a disaster. She shuddered as she again realized that it could have been her with the life preserver had she actually overcome her fear of the water and gone in.

  He meant for it to be me.

  She thought about Al. Why on earth would he want to kill her? She had done nothing to him and there was nothing she could think of that connected him to Mr. Black or Uncle.

  And then she remembered him and the two other guys on that building site on the north shore. She relived the entire encounter in her mind, desperate to take her focus off the fact that she wanted to vomit.

  She thought about the kayak pulled up on the beach. The two men had been carrying the bones away from the kayak and toward the holes in the earth. That made no sense at all. If they were using the kayak for transportation for some reason why wouldn’t they be putting the bodies in it instead?

  She’d assumed they hadn’t wanted to drive vehicles onto the site, possibly causing more destruction, hence the kayak, but something was wrong with that picture. Had they been dumping a fresh body into an old grave site?

  She closed her eyes as she continued to struggle against the nausea. She thought of the arguments she’d heard about the resort site over the radio
in the car, the way the taxi driver had seemed like he didn’t want the resort to go forward just like some of the other locals.

  If they were trying to hide a body, someplace teeming with archaeologists would be the last place they should go. No, she was sure they weren’t that stupid. The body would be sure to be found.

  They must have wanted the body to be found.

  And it came to her swiftly. What if they had been digging up bodies and reburying them there for the sole purpose of shutting down the construction? And if they thought she had seen them, figured out what they were up to...

  “They would try to kill me,” she whispered out loud. “Otherwise all their schemes would be over.”

  She felt the boat turn and she prayed that meant they were almost in port. Then she began praying just as fervently that she’d figure out how to stall Mr. Black once they got there.

  She wasn’t sure, but it felt like they were slowing down. That had to mean they were entering port. This might be her last chance to escape.

  ~

  Jeremiah kept his promise to Kapono. The detective didn’t see him as Jeremiah concealed himself behind some shrubbery and flower beds at the entrance to the restaurant Manny the taxi driver was supposed to be arriving at soon with guests.

  Jeremiah had changed out of his all black clothes into tourist casual shorts and an aloha shirt, which ironically was helping him blend in with the flower beds. He had still beat the police to the restaurant by five minutes. In his shirt pocket he had a thick, metal penlight.

  He watched as they deployed around the perimeter, struggling to blend in. If Manny was smart and paying attention he’d see them in a heartbeat. Hopefully he was distracted. Jeremiah didn’t want to miss his shot at him. Nor did he want to risk the lives of the passengers Manny was driving.

  A couple of taxis pulled up, but none of them were Wiki Taxis. From where he was he couldn’t see as much of the drive as he wanted so he kept glancing at Kapono’s face. The detective still was minus a sleeve on his shirt and his white bandage stood out in stark contrast to his deeply tanned skin.

  Finally, he saw Kapono stiffen. A moment later a car slid into view. It was a Wiki Taxi. He saw another police officer take a step forward, hand on the gun he wasn’t concealing very well. From where he was Jeremiah couldn’t see the driver, but from the body language of everyone he could see this was definitely the right cab.

  As it slid to a stop in front of the door Jeremiah stepped out from behind the bushes, making sure to keep his back to Kapono. He took three quick strides forward and pulled open the door, startling the people inside.

  “Sorry, sir, ma’am, I’ve got to get to the hospital,” he said, putting a sense of urgency in his voice.

  It worked, they threw a couple of bills toward the driver and got out quickly. Jeremiah slid in, slammed the door, and said, “An extra hundred if you get me there in ten minutes.”

  The driver stepped on the gas and the car went shooting back out toward the street. Jeremiah saw one undercover officer jump backward in surprise as they almost plowed him over.

  “What’s the trouble?” the driver asked.

  Jeremiah looked at the license hanging on the dash. Manny.

  “It’s my wife. Something’s happened to her. Hurry please.”

  “That’s awful,” Manny said.

  He took a turn fast and then another. Hopefully it would be enough to buy them a couple of minutes while the police tried to figure out where they were headed.

  “Yes, it really is,” Jeremiah said. “I can’t believe this happened to us, and on vacation, too.”

  “The world can be cruel sometimes.”

  Manny took two more turns. He really was racing to get the money. Jeremiah removed the metal penlight from his pocket and held it in his hand.

  “What happened to your wife?” Manny asked.

  Jeremiah pushed the penlight into the back of Manny’s thick neck. The driver jerked, startled, and swerved into oncoming traffic, but quickly righted himself and slowed the car down.

  “She was kidnapped,” Jeremiah said softly.

  ~

  The boat was in dock and Cindy’s stomach had calmed only slightly when Mr. Black made his appearance. He was smiling, and, if anything, it only made him look more evil, like some kind of slippery snake that was about to devour her as though she were a helpless mouse.

  She set her jaw. She refused to be anyone’s mouse. There had to be a way out, she just had to figure out what it was. He came to a stop in front of her and stared at her long and hard. The section of the ship that she was in was dark and windowless, and from the looks of it, was probably supposed to be used for cargo.

  She took a deep breath. Instead of waiting for him to start asking her questions she decided to go on the offensive. “Does Al work for you?” she asked.

  “Who’s Al?” he asked.

  She gave a brief description of him. “He works on one of the snorkeling tour boats.”

  Mr. Black shook his head, but even in the dim light coming from the doorway she could see the curiosity in his eyes. “Why do you ask?”

  “He tried to kill me when I was on one of those boats the same day that you’re goon kidnapped me.”

  Mr. Black looked genuinely surprised and actually a trifle concerned. “Why, did he know what you had of mine?”

  Cindy stared at him for a moment, praying that the next words out of her mouth would be the right ones.

  “I’m not sure what he thought or what he knew or who he was working for. What I do know is that he wanted me dead, but he was being cautious, wanted to make it look like an accident.”

  “And what did you do to him in return?”

  “Nothing. I didn’t realize exactly what was going on until later. I do know, though, that I had seen him the night before up on the north shore.”

  Mr. Black swore under his breath and added a name to it which Cindy didn’t recognize. She hoped it was one of his enemies or competitors. Anything to get him thinking about someone else other than her while she continued to work at the knots that bound her hands behind her back.

  “I mean, the only reason you even knew to look for me was because of the taxi driver, right?”

  “Right, right,” he said, his voice distant. He was drumming his fingers against his chin.

  “So, what changed between seven p.m. Saturday and eight a.m. Sunday that put me on this guy’s radar.”

  Mr. Black began to pace. He cast an occasional sideways glance at her. Then he turned abruptly and left the room, leaving the door open behind him.

  Cindy sagged briefly in relief, but kept working her fingers on the rope. She had no way of knowing how long the reprieve would last but she had to assume it would only be a matter of minutes. She had no idea what he was going to do or who he was going to call, but hopefully whatever the result was it would buy her the time she needed.

  ~

  “What you want with me?” Manny asked, terror filling his voice.

  Jeremiah jabbed the penlight harder into the back of his neck. “I want you to take me to wherever it is she’s being held or I’m going to blow your brains all across that dashboard.”

  “No way! You’d be killed, too.”

  “My wife’s been kidnapped. Ask me if I care terribly much about my own safety at the moment. Besides, your car has rear airbags. I’ll survive a crash. You, on the other hand, won’t.”

  “Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I never kidnapped anybody.”

  “But you know who did.”

  “No, you got me mistaken for somebody else.”

  “No, Manny. You’re the one who picked up Cindy at her hotel Saturday morning, drove her to Pearl Harbor, insisted she try eating at Uncle’s, and gave her a card with a bank account number on it to give him.”

  Manny gasped. “I no do anything to her.”

  “No, but someone killed Uncle. She was never able to give him the card. And you told somebody about it, somebody who
wanted that card. Somebody who was willing to do anything it took to get it.”

  “Please, I didn’t mean for them to kidnap her. Maybe just snatch her purse or something.”

  “Okay, if you didn’t mean it, prove it.”

  “How?”

  “Take me to wherever she’s being held.”

  “I don’t know, you gotta believe me.”

  “No, what I gotta do is get the information I want out of you or kill you. Your choice, of course.”

  Jeremiah jabbed the penlight harder into Manny’s neck, knowing there was no way the man would be able to tell that it wasn’t a gun.

  “Please, I can help you. I’m Manny, I’m the go to guy. I can get you anything you want on this island.”

  “What I want is Cindy back. Right now. Can you help me with that or not?”

  There was a long pause and then Manny nodded his head. “Yes, I think I can.”

  “Good.”

  “There’s a warehouse the boss has. It’s where he conducts business. Good business and bad business. That’s where she would be.”

  “And how do I know you’re not lying?”

  “How do I know you’re not going to kill me anyway when we get there?”

  “I’ll make you a promise, Manny. I find her, alive, and you get to live. If I don’t find her alive, I’ll kill you.”

  “But what if they killed her already?”

  “Then you’ll just have to pray to whatever deity will listen to you that they haven’t. Understood?”

  Manny nodded jerkily. “That’s fair.”

  “How far is this warehouse?”

  “About another twenty minutes.”

  “You were making such good time earlier. What do you say we cut that time in half. I don’t want the police to find us before we get there.”

  Manny made a groaning sound deep in his throat as he probably realized that even if he did live life was about to change for him dramatically. Accessory to kidnapping could do that to a person.

  Manny floored the gas again and the car sped forward. Jeremiah gritted his teeth and waited, muscles coiled. Adrenalin was rushing through him. The trick was to control it and not be controlled by it. He tracked every turn they made so he could replicate them if he had to.