A Sunday sample from the new Hawaiian Storm mystery,
Echoes
2019
The first time that the Kahuna was able to sneak up on Vanessa was the first time she met him, when she was 16 and he was 19. He wasn’t able to do it again for sixteen years, until a bright morning in Honolulu, when impossibly picturesque clouds floated across the unbelievable blue sky. Vanessa was walking along Beretania Street, taking an iced coffee to start her day in the FBI Honolulu field office.
One second, she was walking by herself, trying to time her steps so that she would arrive at the corner of Punchbowl Street just as the light turned green. The next second, a tall, muscular Hawaiian man with graying hair tied in a pony tail was in step at her right shoulder. She noticed him and stopped, her mouth open.
“Come here often, Nani?” he said, using the Pidgin term for “beautiful.”
Vanessa’s coffee sloshed over the rim of the cup. It took her several seconds to find her voice. “Dylan Koraka?”
He turned on that smile that she remembered had made her knees weak when she was a teenager. “Long time, Babe.”
“What are you doing here? And where have you been for so long?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Nani. But why don’t we get a cuppa coffee and catch up?”
“I already have a coffee, Dylan.”
He tilted his head and turned on the high-beam smile again. “C’mon. You gotta couple minutes, doncha?” He nodded down the street. “You’re right. I don’t actually wanna sit in one of those fancy coffee places that don’t even serve Hawaiian coffee. Let’s sit in the park, in the shade. I hafta tell you somethin’.”
Vanessa looked at her watch. She’d arrive at the office a few minutes late, but it would not be a problem. She found herself walking fast to keep up with Dylan’s strides to the park across the boulevard from the Honolulu City Hall.
Dylan led her to a bench under a koa tree and stretched his long legs out in front of him as she sat beside him, careful not to spill more of her drink. “What do you want to tell me, Dylan? No, wait. Before that: where have you been for the past 15 years, and why did you take off that night without a word of why? What happened?”
He turned and smiled again. “Let’s not dwell on the past, Nani. Let’s look to the future.”
“Knock off the cheesy lines, Dylan. You abandoned me at a very critical moment for a young woman—probably the most vulnerable moment in my life to that point. You know what I’m talking about. What happened?”
Dylan sighed, looking around the park, from the massive and impressive city hall, to the arching koa trees, the carefully watered and maintained grass at his feet, the nannies pushing strollers through the park. He took another deep breath and held it for a moment before looking at Vanessa again. “You’re right. I knew it was a very special time for you. And I wouldn’t have left if I didn’t have to. Truth is, the cops were after me. They framed me. For all I know, they’re still after me.”
“That sounds like bullshit, Dylan.”
“It’s not bullshit. But it’s the past. Look, I came to you for help, not for me, but for my sister, Christine. ’Cept she calls herself ‘Keahi’ now.”
Vanessa scrutinized Dylan’s face. She looked at his eyes, then his shoulders and his hands. She watched the way his chest rose and fell. “Fine. You’re not lying. For once. Tell me about Christine. Or Keahi. But then, you’re going to tell me about that night.”
Dylan nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “Keahi’s wanted by the police. They say she shot two cops.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I’m a cop. FBI. Did you think the Oahu Field Office wouldn’t get notified about the shooting of two officers on the same island? And of course, I recognized the name.”
“You knew? And you’re not doing anything about it?”
“I was pretty shocked, Dylan. I couldn’t imagine little Christine getting into any kind of trouble, let alone shooting anyone. But I read the reports. Although she hasn’t been convicted yet, she has a pretty long record for possession of drugs and association with criminals. She’s supposed to be a big supplier of marijuana, ecstasy and other drugs on Oahu. And she apparently has been trying to move in on the heroin trade.”
He glanced down and smiled, but the smile vanished. “Can you help her?”
He turned toward her and took her hand between his. He looked into her green eyes, and Vanessa suddenly felt like she was 17 again, like that night, the last time she had seen him before today, looking into Dylan’s eyes as dark and rich as chocolate. Her throat felt dry. She used sipping her iced coffee as an excuse to tear her eyes away.
The thinking part of her brain reminded her then that fifteen years had passed since that night, that special, so very important night.
“All right, Dylan. I’ll help you, but it can’t be in any official capacity. I’ll be acting in my own capacity, which means I won’t be able to use any Bureau files, networks or other resources. It will be personal.”
Dylan looked into her eyes again, but she was ready for him this time. He wasn’t going to wear her down today. After a beat, he nodded. “Okay. That will do.”
“And Dylan? You’re going to tell me about that night fifteen years ago. The truth. That’s the deal.”
Dylan sighed, not breaking eye contact. “That night. The truth. Deal.”
Echoes: Hawaiian Storm mystery 4
“I am hopelessly in love with a memory. An echo from another time, another place.” — Michel Foucault
In 1999, the Kahuna was The Man on Oahu’s leeward side. The coolest guy at the wildest parties, with the coolest posse, the best weed and the most beautiful girlfriend.
Then he disappeared.
Fifteen years later, that girlfriend is no longer a high school senior. She is FBI Special Agent Vanessa Storm, and she sees through every lie the Kahuna spins when he shows up again to beg her help.
How can she say no when the Kahuna wants her help not for himself, but to protect his little sister. Young Christine Koraka is ready to set fire to the whole Oahu illegal drug trade—for revenge.
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