He passed Tony’s shop. It had a large Closed sign in the window. Aberg Hans was probably rejoicing today at the prospect of a larger clientele. He wouldn’t be so happy when Bane was done with him. Bane couldn’t believe the man had the nerve to show up at the funeral. Luckily, Candace hadn’t seen him. Bane continued on and was nearly at the end of the harbor when he spotted a small, clap-board building with Hans Dive Shop on a wooden sign over the door. Through the open door, he could see Hans standing behind a counter. He was smiling at a young woman buying something.
Bane stepped inside the shop and got in line behind the woman. He caught a whiff of the coconut in her suntan lotion. It was doubt-ful Hans would recognize him. The other day the dive operator had been too intent on yelling at Tony. He glanced around and saw only one other employee, who was outside rinsing salt water off scuba gear. Perfect. The woman took her bag and exited the shop.
“What can I do for you?” Hans asked. His skin was red and sunburned under his blond crew cut. “You want to schedule a dive?”
“I was in the Aloha Dive Shop when you arrived the other day.”
Hans reddened even more. “I was sorry to hear about Tony.”
He decided to go for a sympathetic attitude. “It sounded like the two of you have had problems in the past, though I know Tony could be a steamroller.”
Hans huffed. “A steamroller, that’s pretty accurate. He didn’t care who he hurt as long as he found that stupid ship. I doubt there even is a ship. He was obsessed.”
“Did it really hurt your business?” Bane put just a touch of skepticism in his voice.
Hans invented a few choice words Bane had never heard. “He was about to bankrupt me. He had ads plastered everywhere about the treasure. That’s all my clients wanted to talk about, if I got them as far as going out with me instead of Tony. No one was interested in the fish or coral I could show them.”
“It sounds like you had cause to dislike him.”
“I hated his guts.” Hans narrowed his eyes. “But I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I didn’t say that. You have any idea who might have wanted to hurt him?”
“We weren’t friends, you know? Besides, I thought it was an accident.”
“Apparently the police suspect foul play. I heard him accuse you of putting oil in his air-filling station. That doesn’t sound too dangerous.”
“It’s not. It just makes the air taste bad.” Hans held up his hands. “But I didn’t say I did it.”
Bane nodded. “It sounds more like something a kid would do, not a business owner.” Aberg looked away. Bane pretended not to notice.
“Well, I don’t like the way he acts, like customers will get something extra by diving with him.” Aberg was grinding his teeth and looking toward the door. He inhaled a deep, ragged breath. “I just wanted him to play fair. He had plenty of enemies though.”
“Who?” As far as Bane knew, everyone liked Tony. He was a friendly guy and could always be counted on to help a friend.
Hans just frowned and didn’t answer. Still, Bane had to admit to himself that a prank like putting oil in the air-filling station was a far cry from murder. All the oil would do was make the air taste like diesel fuel and cause customers to leave. “Were you diving in that area?”
Hans hesitated, and his gaze fell. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “But I never saw Tony or any of his divers. It’s a big ocean.”
He was there. Bane examined Hans’s face again. “Maybe one of your divers saw something. Could I get a list of who all was out there that day?”
Hans’s jaw hardened, and he shook his head. “No way. You’re not harassing the few customers I have.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Look, I have work to do. I had nothing to do with Tony’s death, okay?”
Bane could tell he wasn’t going to get anything else out of the man. “If you think of something that might help, give me a call.”
“I told you—I didn’t see anything.”
“Here’s my business card if you think of anything else.”
“Keep it.” Hans pulled his hands away to keep from touching the card. “I don’t want to see your face again in my shop. Just leave me alone.”
Bane put his card away and backed out of the shop. That had been a bust. He wasn’t totally convinced of Hans’s innocence. Hans had been at the site when Tony died, and that was suspicious in itself. If Bane could only get hold of the man’s client list. He exited the shop and nearly bowled over Leia. As she teetered on the sidewalk, he grabbed her arms and steadied her. “What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same thing,” she said.
She didn’t pull away immediately but stood looking up at him. Her dark blue eyes, so like her mother’s, had always fascinated him. The slant, the length of her lashes, the admiration he always found in her gaze could get addicting. Her arms felt cold, as though she’d had her car’s AC blowing full blast. The chill was in sharp contrast to the warmth he felt in his hands, a heat that seemed to grow from contact with her. The chemistry between them had only increased with the time away.
He dropped his hands and stepped back. “I wanted to ask Hans a few questions.”
“So did I.”
“You told me to leave it to the police,” he pointed out.
A flush ran up her neck and landed on her cheeks. “I stopped by the police station to answer their questions. Since I was here, I thought I might drop in. I tried to talk to Hans yesterday, but he walked away. I hoped he might be more forthcoming on his own turf.”
Bane took her arm again and moved away from the building with her. “He was at the dive site. He just admitted it to me.”
She pulled her arm loose and stood looking back at the dive shop. “You think he had anything to do with Tony’s death?”
“I don’t know. He said he didn’t see Tony down there, but it’s mighty suspicious that he was in the area. I think we should tell the police.”
“I need to call Detective Ono back anyway. I can tell him then.”
“How about some dinner first? I know it’s a little early, but I’m starved.”
“I guess that would be okay. I’m hungry too.”
“Your enthusiasm is overwhelming,” he said dryly.
She rubbed her arms. “What did you expect, Bane?” She rubbed her forehead, and her voice thickened. “I’m an adult. I can choose the path that’s best for me.” She turned her head away.
She began to walk away, and he caught at her arm. “Let’s not fight,” he said.
“You think you know what’s best for everyone, that if you keep everyone in a neat little box they won’t hurt you. I want more than that from a relationship. We’re not compatible, Bane.”
He shifted and looked away. “If you’re talking about our argument about you going to San Francisco, I was proved right. You hated it, just like I thought you would. But I’ve always felt there was something more to our breakup, Leia. You handed my ring back with some rehearsed line about how we weren’t right for one another. I don’t get it.” Things had been strained when she left for San Francisco. He’d flown out to see her a month later, and she’d given him back his ring. He still didn’t understand why.
“Maybe I was wrong, but I needed you to support me, and instead you sounded just as controlling as my mother. All my life she’s hovered over me like a mother nene. I wanted more than that from you.” She yanked her arm out of his grasp and walked away. “Let me know if you ever decide you’re not God,” she said over her shoulder.
He watched her braid sway against her back and the way the sun caught the blonde highlights like strands of liquid gold. Squashing the poetic imagery, he stared as she got into her Neon and slammed the door without looking back at him. The strains of Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom’s “Paluahua” floated out the window, and he wished he could leave Leia as easily as she’d left him.
Leia was more sad than angry as she drove to Dr. Kapuy’s office. Bane meant well,
she had no doubt of that. But he wasn’t her big brother; he was supposed to have been the man who loved her. She’d had enough of being told what to do growing up. She didn’t want a despot for a husband. Bane didn’t mean to be that way either. He just thought the world sat on his shoulders. His mother’s desertion when he was a child had left a deep need in him to keep his world controlled and unchanged.
She parked and walked into Dr. Kapuy’s office. The color scheme of beige walls that ran down to meet with beige carpet was meant to be restful, but it only succeeded in making her feel half alive. The odor of antiseptic assaulted her nose, and she nearly turned around and left, but she forced herself to approach the receptionist, who told her the doctor might have a few minutes to spare if she could wait a bit.
Leia snagged a scuba magazine from the rack and settled onto the brown sofa. Two women sitting in the waiting room looked at her. One leaned over to the other and whispered. Leia knew they were talking about her, but she raised her head and stared them down until their whispers stopped. She flipped through the pages but didn’t really notice what she was seeing. She put down the magazine as Dr. Kapuy entered the waiting room, a faint cinnamon scent coming into the room with him.
He took the cinnamon toothpick out of his mouth. “Leia, what a pleasant surprise. Have you come to your senses about finishing your residency yet?” His voice was as gruff as a truck driver’s.
She stood and took his hand. “Not yet, Doc.” The doctor had always reminded her of a Hawaiian monk seal. His weathered face was plump and lined with deep creases, and a huge mustache dwarfed his round face. He was bald as well and had deep wrinkles on his scalp just like the seal.
He shook his head. “Such a waste. You’re still vegetating at Kalaupapa with your kapa hobby, eh?”
Dr. Kapuy had taken her under his wing, helped her get into college, and sent her encouraging e-mails all through med school. He had a right to question her. She nodded. “I’m getting rather good at it.”
“Ah, Leia, I still have hopes for you. I could get you back into a good internship if you’d just let me.”
“Now you sound like my mother. Tell me about an internship in homeopathy and I might be interested.” She followed him down the hall to his office, a small room stuffed with medical journals. A silver-framed picture of his wife, Alema, sat on the bookshelf behind his desk. She’d been dead for fifteen years now, but as far as Leia knew, the doctor had never considered remarrying.
He stared at her over the bulge of his nose. “I actually heard about a residency in natural medicine recently. It’s in Honolulu. If you’re interested, I’ll get the information for you.”
“I might be. I’d like to look at it anyway.”
He settled his bulk into the well-worn leather chair and steepled his fingers together. “What brings you to see me if it’s not a request for help to get back into residency?”
“You examined Tony Romero. I wondered if you could tell me what you found?”
He dropped his hands. “What’s your interest in it?”
“I was there when he came up dead. The police are acting like it was murder.”
Dr. Kapuy quirked an eyebrow. “I really shouldn’t be talking about it. You should speak to Detective Ono.”
She saw the gleam in his eye and kept quiet. What the doctor should do and what he did do were often miles apart. When he didn’t say anything more for a few moments, she prompted him gently. “His weight belt was missing. Did the detective tell you that?”
He frowned. “No, he didn’t. I was just told to examine him and run toxicology tests before sending him on to Honolulu for the autopsy.”
“So there’s no real evidence yet that he was murdered.”
“I didn’t say that.” He sighed and pulled one pudgy ankle up onto his knee. “I know Tony. He was an expert diver. I suspect he ingested something or was poisoned in some way that caused respiratory failure. If he’d just been unconscious, he would have exhaled naturally as he came up.”
“So he should have exhaled even while unconscious, but it appeared that he didn’t and his lungs burst. What could cause that?” Her mind raced through the different drugs she’d studied in school.
The doctor pursed his lips. “I suspect he may have been injected with a sedative that depressed his respiration. Tony wouldn’t have been able to exhale. A pulmonary embolism would have resulted. I found blood on his nostrils.”
She nodded. “It looked like a pulmonary embolism when he came up. I knew he was too experienced to forget to exhale, even if he was shooting to the top.”
“Good girl. You haven’t forgotten all your training yet. The autopsy showed evidence of a fish meal in his stomach. It’s possible he ingested tetrodotoxin. I’m not sure what caused it, but something kept him from exhaling.”
“Puffer fish,” she said. “I don’t think he would have done that. He had a close call with puffer fish once before in sushi. I’ve never seen him eat it since. Which do you suspect?”
Dr. Kapuy’s dark eyes were bright with interest. “We won’t know for sure until toxicology comes back, but I told Detective Ono my suspicions.”
“Which is why he’s telling us all not to leave the island until the investigation is finished. I doubt it’s a puffer fish though, and aren’t narcotics controlled? How hard would it be for someone to steal Demerol or some other narcotic?”
“Narcotics are kept in a locked cabinet and inventoried. Detective Ono has asked for the hospital to check stock. We’ll see if there’s anything missing.” He glanced at his watch. “I hate to run away, but I have an appointment. Let me know if you hear anything. I’m interested in the case too.”
“Mahalo, Dr. Kapuy.” She rose and went to the door. The drugs that he suspected weren’t easy to obtain. For a moment, her mother’s face rose in her mind, but she pushed it away. Her mother would be the last person to murder Tony Romero.
Seven
Leia, Eva, and Malia worked quietly in Leia’s backyard. Malia’s mother, Luana, had joined them, her head bent over a fine white piece of kapa. Still in her late forties, Leia’s aunt was nearly as round as she was tall. Dressed in a muumuu and slippers, she looked like any other Hawaiian resident, but she had a warmth that drew everyone to her.
Leia examined the marks in the cloth she was working on and sighed with satisfaction. Using her grandmother’s kua kuku, she had reproduced the same watermark that appeared in the kapa her grandmother made years ago. The texture and color had turned out to her satisfaction as well.
“You’re looking content,” Luana said. “Malia told me Bane has come back.”
“I’m just in a good mood, Auntie. Why does it have to be Bane? A more aggravating man never walked the earth.”
Luana smiled. “You only feel that way because you’re still in love with him.”
If only her own mother cared enough to talk to her like this. Leia bent her head over the cloth again. She was ready to begin painting the designs. “Bane is in the past. He’s here to do a job, that’s all.”
“You know I’m right. You need to both say you’re sorry and kiss and make up.”
The idea of kissing Bane brought back feelings Leia didn’t want to explore. She looked away from her aunt’s astute stare. “I had to do what I did. He should have understood.”
Malia shook her head. “None of us thought you should give it all up, Leia. Why take it out on Bane when you don’t hold it against the rest of us? You have to admit it sounded nuts to give up your career to make bark cloth and administer herbs.”
Eva began to hum and fidget. “Don’t fight,” she muttered with a worried frown. “You’ll scare Hina.”
“Sorry, Eva. We’re not arguing. We’re just—discussing.” Leia smiled, then turned around and ruffled her sister’s hair. “Want a snack?” Food always distracted Eva.
“Do you have Cheetos?”
“Sure do. Just for you. They’re in the kitchen cabinet.”
Eva started toward the house,
then stopped. “Pua was in my dream last night,” she said, referring to their grandmother’s pet goose. “She built a nest in the big tree behind Koma’s house.”
“Pua doesn’t fly into trees,” Leia pointed out.
“I know, but she was there anyway.” Eva went on to the cottage.
Eva and her dreams. Leia gave her sister an indulgent smile then turned back to Malia. “If I can win the kapa trophy at the festival, maybe Mama will take my talent seriously. Pete thinks I have a chance.”
Her aunt answered her instead. “Never sell your kapa, Leia. It’s too precious to be sold. So what does your future hold? You can’t keep hiding on the peninsula. What do you really want out of life?”
Leia looked down at her hands. “Dr. Kapuy gave me some information about a natural-medicine residency in Honolulu. I’m thinking about it.”
Malia gave a tiny gasp. “Really? That’s wonderful, Leia.”
“Mama will have a fit, but at least she’d see I’m going to follow my own path.”
“Are you sure you’re not going that direction just to aggravate your mother?” her aunt asked in a quiet voice.
Leia’s first reaction was to deny her aunt’s comment, but she finally shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not sure anymore why I became interested in natural medicine. Mama’s hostility to it might have had something to do with it in the beginning, but not now.”
Malia nodded. “Your mother isn’t capable of the love you want from her. You need to face it. Just take the job and follow your heart.”
“It will take a lot of time away from my kapa. And I’d have to leave Moloka’i. My patients are depending on me here. I hate to leave them.”
“You cling too much to the past, Leia. I think that’s why you love kapa,” Malia said.
Leia bristled. “You make flower leis. How is that different from what I do?”