My Kind of Town
>> Makiki Heights How she got pregnant
After three days of not hearing from her boyfriend, Dr. Laurie Tang was full of questions. Such as "Who's the little bitch who was driving your car, Donovan?"
Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was ready with an answer for that one. "No idea."
"Oh really."
Donovan didn't like how she said that. It wasn't a question.
"No idea at all?"
"Well, I've had this female admirer who was turning into more like a stalker ..."
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"It was no big deal, and I didn't want to worry you over nothing."
"That's so thoughtful of you, Donovan. Thank you."
Missing her sarcasm, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was going to skate through this.
"So you've no idea how she got pregnant?"
The stunned silence that followed was all the answer Laurie needed.
"I know she's pregnant, Donovan, because of all the patients who came through the ER today, I got her ..."
Laurie thought she heard a muffled gasp on the other end of the line.
"... and the last thing she said before the anesthesia kicked in was 'save the baby.' I guess you wouldn't know anything about her baby."
Donovan didn't like the sound of that either. "So, uh, how is ..." He started to say Serena, but caught himself. "... the, ah, patient."
"The, ah, patient is going to be fine. I understand she spoke with a police detective this evening." More shocked silence from Donovan. "By the way, I'm meeting with this detective tomorrow. You won't believe his name -- Sherlock Gomes."
The same Sherlock Gomes who had busted Donovan with several grams of ice and Serena's pipe in the Makiki hideaway he kept for her. Gomes had made a deal with Donovan: the only way to avoid arrest was to go through a rehab program and stay clean.
And no doubt Serena had spilled her guts to Gomes, told him who the father of the baby was.
In that moment he knew what he must do. The only person who had evidence that Donovan had been smoking ice was Gomes. The only person who could tell Laurie who fathered Serena's child was Gomes. The only person who could keep him out of Washington Place and make Donovan lose the best First Lady candidate he'd ever met was Gomes. And up through the mix of desperation and crystal meth that still fuzzed his brain, a plan came to Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka. Sherlock Gomes had to go.
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