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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
No Wet Spot?
>> Honolulu
As Daren Guy and Sushi Leclaire arrived at Pele's Bath on the Big Island, as Sonya Chan skippered the yacht now known as Pet Shop from Kona toward Pele's Bath, columnist Cruz MacKenzie arrived in the office, grabbed a copy of the morning edition, settled into his favorite chair. His call last night had shaken up things at the city desk. But Garry pulled off a nice package with his Delbert Pester column, the story on the press conference and his short on Jimmy Del Rosario, with a photo of Del Rosario's shark-chomped surf board beside a photo of the gaping tiger shark jaw bone (with teeth) that Jonah Hancock used at the press conference.
Cruz was listening to messages and reading the paper at the same time when Nick Ornellas' voice said: "Bingo, maybe. There's no such boat as Wet Spot registered with the state. They got Wet n' Wild, Wet Wahine, Western Ho!, but no Wet Spot. It could be a new registration. Call me."
Now he was listening to messages, reading the paper and thinking about Wet Spot.
Next message: "This is Dillon Tanonaka. I notice you been writing about Daren Guy. I went to school with him, back at Punahou, before his dad died and he got kicked out. If you want some background, call me."
Next message: "This is Jon Jones at Poipu Plantation and I thought you'd like to know that Barbra Streisand was in for dinner last night. She got up and sang 'Hanalei Moon' with our trio and then 'People' solo. Really awesome. I got more details if you want."
And then Cruz turned to page three and saw a photo of a sailboat. The headline for the accompanying 8-inch story read: "Pet House publisher offers $$$ reward."
The photo, a horizontal shot that had obviously been cropped to fit a vertical hole, showed the publisher Cue Garbanzo standing at the stern of Pet Shop, flanked by two women in bikinis.
The story reported the 69-foot Pet Shop -- known for its pink sails -- disappeared while on a training run to break in a new crew member. The publisher was offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the return of the boat. "It was sink-proof, back-up systems for everything, and there has not been a storm or rough seas in the past week." He added that he didn't know if the crew had stolen the boat or were victims of foul play.
Something about the boat looked familiar, Cruz thought, although he didn't know what or why. But there was something about the yacht's lines. And the name was somehow familiar. Pet Shop?...
And then he saw it! Could it be?
He knew of a quick way to check.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com