My Kind of Town
>> Ala Moana Beach Park Smackwater Jack
Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was having second thoughts as he stepped into the water at the Diamond Head end of the park. If he did what Detective Sherlock Gomes said, go to the rehab center in Portland, he could avoid arrest on drug charges. But if Gomes told Donovan's girlfriend, Dr. Laurie Tang, that Donovan had fathered the child that was in Serena Kawainui when she crashed Donovan's car yesterday, that would end his relationship with the best First Lady candidate he'd ever met.
While he was having second thoughts, Donovan should have had third, fourth, even fifth thoughts. But the thing with crystal meth is that it doesn't give you many thoughts -- mostly impulses and responses, but nothing that could be called a logical thought.
So Donovan pulled on the mask with the shotgun snorkel and plunged ahead with his fatal plan. Like Carole King sang, you can't talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand.
>> Dr. Laurie Tang had told HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes to look for her white Mercedes SLK 2000 convertible parked near the workout area at the Diamond Head end of the park, adding that she would be wearing a blue, one-piece swimsuit and that she used a mask and snorkel to swim.
There she was, Gomes saw as he parked his gold Barracuda in the Magic Island parking lot, Dr. Laurie Tang doing a little stretching beside the lifeguard stand and looking impatient. Not to mention looking mighty fine. Gomes was getting out of his car when his cell phone rang. The caller identified herself as Sheila Fernandez, said that Sgt. Mits Ah Sun from the Pearl City station recommended she call Gomes about the crime that had happened at her home. Gomes, being Portuguese himself and proud of it, didn't even like to think such things but, man, this Sheila Fernandez could talk, barely pausing for air, not letting him get in a comment or question. Gomes could see Dr. Laurie Tang looking around for him, looking at her watch.
"OK, Mrs. Fernandez, you caught me at a real bad time. I'll call you back in an hour so."
Gomes grabbed his towel and goggles and ran across the sand, waving at Dr. Laurie Tang as he went.
"You're late." She looked at her watch again. "Your questions will have to wait until I'm done. Forty-five minutes."
Gomes watched her swim away, her stroke both graceful and strong.
He was so intent on watching her, he didn't notice that 30 yards away in the water to his left a guy wearing a mask and snorkel was staring bullets at him.
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