My Kind of Town
>> Portlock The sounds of sirens
The sweetest sound Quinn Ah Sun ever heard was the two tones of approaching sirens that would be arriving momentarily. As a cop, he heard sirens every day, occasionally had to use the one on his solo bike, and took them for granted. Funny how a .22 bullet to the thigh will change your outlook. He'd lost a lot of blood and was feeling lightheaded. The sooner HPD backups and the ambulance arrived, the better.
But first Quinn wanted the paramedics to take care of Rosalita, his cousin Lily's maid. The would-be rapist had struck her twice with his pistol, to the cheek and temple, opening bloody gashes. And then there was the emotional trauma.
The mutt was going to need some work, too. Rosalita had slashed at him with a 12-inch butcher knife blade, slicing open a gash in his forearm and forcing him to drop his pistol. And when he made a move to retrieve the .22, Quinn shot off the end of his most prized possession, which he was now squeezing to stop the blood.
As reassuring as the sound of sirens was to Quinn, it was just as threatening to Mickey. He'd been locked up before, and he refused to go back. His car was parked two doors down. If he could just get there before the cops showed up, he'd be OK.
"Elizabeth!"
The panicked sound of Lily's voice so near startled Quinn and Rosalita.
And then the sound of the little girl's voice: "Mama!"
They turned, saw Elizabeth sprinting down the hallway.
"Elizabeth!" Rosalita cried and swept her into her arms.
That's when Mickey made his move.
>> Queen's Medical Center
Both parking spaces reserved for police at the ER were occupied -- a blue-and-white to the right, to the left one of the new BMW super-bikes -- so parking lot attendant Steven Chockdee waved Detective Sherlock Gomes to park in one of the 17 ambulance spaces.
Walking past the BMW bike, Gomes thought that he was born too late. As a young officer he'd done three years on solo bike and remembered it fondly. The Harleys of his day were big and bad, but man would he love to call one of these Boomers his office for eight hours. Some day he'd have to take a test drive.
The moment the bike was out of sight, Gomes returned to why he was here -- to interview Serena Kawainui, who had made Page One today by crashing Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka's car off the Keeaumoku Overpass -- drunk, loaded on ice and naked. He had a few questions.
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