My Kind of Town
>>2002 Wilder Sleeping it off
Security guard Jonah Pelekiko was confused now. He'd thought the guy who just left in a dark blue Nissan was Dr. Laurie Tang's new boyfriend. At least, he'd presented the parking pass that for the past six months had been used by Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka. Or maybe he worked for the senator and was just delivering something? But if that was the case, who was the other guy, the one driving the classic '71 Barracuda?
Well, stay tuned, Jonah thought. That was one thing about working security at this luxury condo. Sooner or later, details of the residents' private lives were revealed. As in how soon or how late Mr. Barracuda stayed.
>>Makiki Heights
Like a nervous father hovering over a sickly child, Machiavelli Wang watched Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka sleeping. Well, sleeping it off. The senator had binged out on beer and pakalolo and ice for three days. Now that the mayor had dropped out of the race for governor, the senator was back in. Machiavelli just had to get him cleaned up. Right now the best thing was sleep. If you could call it sleep. Donovan's body, having ingested so many poisons that yanked his brain and heart in so many directions at once, and having gone so long without rest, was crashing. He lay so still, Machiavelli might have thought him dead if not for the slight rise and fall of his chest.
As he watched and waited, Machiavelli also worked on the plan to exonerate the senator for disappearing and missing the last days of the legislative session, as well as the unseemly photo that Star-Bulletin photographer Johnny B. Goo shot of the wild-eyed senator throwing a foaming bottle of beer at the photog.
An incident had occurred. The only two people who knew about it were Machiavelli and the senator. It was unfortunately necessary to not involve the police. The resolution of the matter showed how strong, courageous and level-headed the senator was. A statesman.
As he worked out details of the apprehension and detention against the senator's will -- "kidnapping" seemed too fraught with legal implications -- and how a settlement was at last reached, Machiavelli realized that Detective Sherlock Gomes was only half of his problem. Once Salvatore innuendo removed Gomes from the picture, there was still that little bimbo Serena Kawainui, the ex-stripper who crashed Donovan's car off the Keeaumoku Overpass. She was the only other person in the world who knew what really happened during those days the senator was AWOL. And knowledge, as Adam and Eve learned in the Garden of Eden, can be a dangerous thing.
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