My Kind of Town
>> Portlock Webbed fingers
or somethingEvidence specialists from HPD's Scientific Investigation Section were just finishing up in Lily Ah Sun's bedroom -- first taking photos, then taking blood samples and fingerprints, bagging the .22 pistol and the 12-inch butcher knife, digging out a couple of 9mm slugs from the wall above the bed -- when a bright light flashed through the open window.
Johnny B. Goo flashed and fired again, using the window with the remnants of a screen flopping from the left side to frame the photo. Johnny B poked his head and his camera through the window. "Hey folks."
"Eh," said ev-spec Bones Ewing. Johnny B was an old hand at crime scenes.
Leaning through the window, he got a good angle of the gore and Bones digging out the last slug from the wall -- the photo that likely would appear in the next day's Star-Bulletin.
"I hope the owner knows a good interior designer," Johnny B said.
"And a kahuna," HPD Officer Mona Waiale'ale said, shivering as if from a draft although it was a warm evening, "to cleanse the bad spirits."
"Mm." Johnny B only believed in what he could photograph, and he'd never yet seen a photo of a spirit.
>> Queen's Medical Center
It wasn't the first time that two members of the same family were admitted to the ER in the same day in separate incidents. But it was still pretty weird. Severe trauma to the back of the head had Lance Ah Sun in a coma. A bullet to the right thigh and a massive loss of blood had his cousin Quinn Ah Sun just coming out of surgery. ER social worker Lin Matsuo glanced up from the two files. "The good news for Quinn is that, according to the doctors," she told Lily Ah Sun, Quinn's cousin, Lance's sister, "because he was in such good physical condition, he'll be fine after some rehab."
"Thank God," Lily sighed. She felt Elizabeth squeeze her hand. Her maid Rosalita Resurreccion's 6-year-old daughter had liked Quinn when she met him earlier tonight, and all but invited him to come back anytime. That seemed like a lifetime ago, before the screaming and the shooting shattered her home.
"Mama!" Elizabeth squealed, dropped Lily's hand and ran to Rosalita Resurreccion, who was walking out of the ER on her own, bandages on her cheek and temple. Elizabeth hugged Rosalita tightly.
The mother and child connection, Lily mused. She'd never felt the urge to experience it -- not until today's reunion with Quinn after 21 years apart. Problem was, they're first cousins. And who wants to have kids with webbed fingers or something?
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com