My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digest>> Portlock
Quinn Ah Sun had everything under control. The mutt who had been about to rape Rosalita Resurreccion, his cousin Lily's maid, had been disarmed. Quinn had his Glock 9mm on him. Rosalita had taken two blows to the face, but she would be OK physically. Emotionally was another thing, but for the moment, with the sound of police and ambulance sirens getting closer, things were about as good as they could be for a guy who had taken a .22 slug to the thigh.And then they heard Lily calling "Elizabeth" from across the house, and down the hallway they heard Elizabeth crying "Mama! Mama!" Rosalita swept her 6-year-old daughter into her arms, the little girl sobbing.
As Quinn glanced at them, Mickey rolled across the bed.
"Stop!" Quinn shouted and fired. The shot was high, hit the wall and sent plaster flying.
Rolling off the bed, Mickey crashed through the window screen.
The sound of sirens was closer now. Too close. Mickey's car was parked two doors down. If he could just get there...
>> Parked in a black SUV across from Lily's home, Tai, Seth and Wili heard gunshots and sirens approaching.
They'd been following Mickey all day, on a traditional aufogo after he ripped off Seth's daughter.
"Well, lookee here!" Tai said in the drivers seat.
Mickey stumbled across the yard and down the street.
"We'd better do this before the cops get here," Wili said.
Mickey jumped in the faded gray sedan, turned the key and heard nothing. He swore.
Suddenly a huge Polynesian guy was opening his door, a second was lifting the hood and a third was at the window.
"Lesson time, Mickey," Wili said, roughly pulling Mickey from the car. Sirens were getting closer. "A very quick lesson."
Willie dragged Mickey around to the front of the car. Seth pointed under the hood.
"Don't you know you can't go anywhere with the battery cables disconnected," Seth said and punched Mickey in the stomach. "Oh, I'm Kimmee's father," Seth explained.
Mickey doubled over. Wili grabbed Mickey by the hair, smashed a huge fist into his nose, flattening it. "That's for Kimmee too."
Mickey fell to the ground, crying out in pain while gasping for air. Tai kicked him in the ribs. "You got the message, Mickey? Kimmee sends her regards."
The sirens were very close now. Tai, Seth and Wili ran across the street, jumped into the black SUV. They were nearly two blocks away when the first police cars arrived.
Their traditional aufogo was over. Seth and his cousins had exacted punishment on behalf of their family. Whatever the police and the courts did with Mickey, that was another matter. In the matter of ripping off Kimmee for $500, justice and family honor had been served.
>> Quinn had not wanted this mutt to get away, and .22 slug in the thigh or no, he stepped through the window in pursuit.
"Roger, Central, that was another gunshot," he gasped, talking to HPD dispatch through his cell phone's ear piece-microphone. "Suspect just jumped through a window, is running makai. I'm in pursuit."
Quinn took six steps and blacked out.
"Quinn!" Lily shrieked from the window. Frantically ran to him. "Oh, God, Quinn," Lily sobbed, seeing his jeans soaked in blood. She bent down kissed his cheek.
Quinn's eyes fluttered open. He tried to sit up, but the loss of blood was becoming severe and shock was setting in. A moment later, an ambulance arrived. "Over here!" Lily called.
>> Another police car stopped two doors away, where a male was lying on the street.
"What the heck happened to you?" Officer Reed Shimabu-kuru said to the man who was gasping for air and moaning.
One of the great mysteries in Honolulu police history would remain unsolved.
Officer Quinn Ah Sun said, and witness Rosalita Resurreccion corroborated, that the wound to Mickey's forearm had been caused when the Filipina maid tried to stab her assailant and that Officer Ah Sun had fired the shot to the groin. Rosalita also said that she had left the teeth marks that broke the skin on his left pinky finger and knuckle and drew blood. The mystery was how, in less than 40 yards between the house and his car, he had suffered a smashed nose and broken ribs.
Mickey, alas, would never explain the mystery of the aufogo. As paramedics rushed to him, he suffered a heart attack.
The pathology report later showed massive levels of crystal methamphetamine, which city Medical Examiner Dr. Kanthi von Guenther determined contributed to his death.
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