My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digest>> Makiki Heights
In her heart, Dr. Laurie Tang knew who had fathered the baby inside the woman who had crashed Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka's car, and who had somehow ended up under Laurie's care at the Queen's ER this morning. But in her heart, she was still in love with Donovan."Donovan," she said, gripping the telephone receiver tightly, "I think we need to take a break."
A long pause on the other end of the line. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, not see each other for a while."
"I see. Well, as it turns out, I'm supposed to be leaving for Portland in a day or two."
"What's in Portland?"
"Um... a, uh, conference."
Actually it was a drug rehab center that HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes was forcing him to check into. The same Gomes who had visited Serena at Queen's. The same Gomes who was meeting Laurie tomorrow morning.
And suddenly Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka knew what he must do. The only person who had evidence that Donovan had been smoking ice was Sherlock 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. Sherlock Gomes had to go.
>> Royal Hawaiian Hotel
"Anybody else hungry?" Lily Ah Sun said as the three females exited McInerny's after an emergency shopping session. None of them had dinner tonight - not after the attack on Rosalita."I am!" Elizabeth said.
So they walked to the Mai Tai Bar, where Lily saw a familiar face sitting alone, nursing a scotch.
"Hey, Chuck!" she called.
"Oh my gosh, Lily!" he said. "What a small world!"
"Smaller island," she replied. "What happened to you?"
Chuck Ryan was a tough guy, ex-military, it was obvious when Lily and her best friends, the identical but very different twins Shauny and Fawn Nakamura, met him while working out at the Honolulu Iron Works. But now from the way he was glowing, it looked like he'd just fallen in love. And the last time she'd seen him, Chuck had been with Fawn.
"What do you mean, what happened?"
"I don't know, you just look different - so happy!"
He blushed. "Is it that obvious?"
"I take it you and Fawn hit it off?"
"Apparently so. It's unbelievable." He was 51, a widower. Fawn was 27, still a virgin. Talk about the odd couple.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you," Lily said. "This is my maid Rosalita Resurreccion and her daughter Elizabeth."
Resurreccion? The same last name of the guy Ryan's people were following. A small island indeed.
>> Queen's Medical Center
Sheets Ah Sun didn't know when, didn't know how, but his daughter Lily had been reunited with her cousin Quinn, son of Sheets' brother Mits. The brothers had not spoken in 21 years, since shortly after that fateful night in Waimanalo. And now Lily was threatening to find out why. That would be bad for everyone, especially for Sheets.After 28 years of marriage his wife, Grace, knew what Sheets was thinking. She was thinking the same thing. Grace didn't know all the details. She hadn't been there that night. But she did know that after what happened to her most men would have abandoned her. Instead, Sheets married her and avenged her honor.
Grace also knew that afterward Sheets and his brother Mits the cop quit speaking. It was tough on the brothers, who before that had been practically inseparable. So were their families. Lily and Quinn had been raised almost as brother and sister until they were 6.
What Grace didn't know is that something was bothering her husband even more than that. She didn't know that Sheets practically got sick to his stomach when he heard the news on the radio this morning that a new Board of Water Supply well in Waimanalo had been found to be contaminated from a previously unknown illegal chemical dump site. And she didn't know that five minutes later Sheets' phone at the Honolulu Soap Co. rang once, then twice, then once, the code the brothers had devised years ago. Grace believed that Sheets and Mits Ah Sun really had not communicated in 21 years.
>> Royal Hawaiian Hotel
Lovely as the view was at the Mai Tai Bar, the moon shining on the ocean, this was not where Lily Ah Sun, Rosalita and Elizabeth were supposed to be. They were supposed to be home. But Lily didn't know when she could ever sleep in her room again, not after the creep who broke into the house tried to rape Rosalita there, and not after Lily's cousin Quinn shot the creep. Blood was everywhere.Tomorrow she would call an interior redecorator. But even after the work was done, in her heart Lily knew the only way she could sleep there would be with Quinn. Maybe he was her cousin, but she was in love.
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