My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
One-way road
>> Above Waialua
While Sam, Moki, Lude and the others packaged the crystal meth, loaded it into the van and checked their weapons for the drug deal tonight, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka read the notebooks filled by Isaac Kunia.
The ultimate goal of his illegal-drugs-to-fund-political-action was for Hawaiians to take over Molokai and then to secede from the state.
The first step was to seize control of the island's police and the airport. He had compiled a list of police officers on the island and had photographs of police headquarters and of the airport control center.
Turning the page, the senator found a map that pointed to where a cache of weapons was already in place, and a detailed list of what was there. But it was not a full cache. "All we need is a six-figure deal to get there," Isaac had written.
Tonight's drug deal, Sam had said, was six figures.
A pity to waste that much money on guns.
The more the senator read, the more he understood one thing -- sooner or later these guys were going to end up dead or in prison. It was a one-way road they were on. Somehow he had to figure out a way to get off. With his life and hopefully some of that money.
>> La Mariana Yacht Club
HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes was the king of compartmentalization, and as he nursed an ice tea his mind focused solely on Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka. He should've been on a plane to a drug rehab center in Portland. Instead he'd been mistakenly plucked from an overturned HPD van by guys who thought they were getting their leader Isaac Kunia. The senator and Kunia did look like brothers. Cousins at the least.
Gomes knew a little of Kunia and his operation, but it was mostly hearsay from rivals, and he now saw two distinct possibilities for the senator.
Most likely they'd kill him. But the senator was intelligent and a charmer, and perhaps he could ingratiate himself with Isaac's boys. Either way, Gomes surmised, the next clue in the case could be a messy one.
Having looked at the problem of the senator from every angle, Gomes put him back in his compartment and opened another. He dialed dispatch, got Gwen Roselovich, asked if a burglary had been reported on 16th Avenue. His street.
"As a matter of fact, yes!" Gomes never ceased to amaze her.
"The Yims." Not a question. "Nothing taken except family photos."
"Yes! How did you know?!"
Gomes thanked her, then called his elderly neighbors, said he'd be stopping by soon. On his way home to get ready to see Dr. Laurie Tang.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com