My Kind of Town
Dances with clues
>> Zippy's -- Vineyard
HPD Sgt. Mits Ah Sun sat in his black Mustang, trying to figure what the papers he'd just received from Gwen Roselovich meant. Gwen said that his niece Lily had angrily thrown the papers -- photocopies of old newspaper articles, all relating to the Ah Sun clan -- across his son Quinn's room at Queen's when she saw Gwen there.
Lily had obviously been at the State Library. Mits was guessing that she and Quinn were both involved in this research, Lily doing the legwork because Quinn couldn't walk at the moment. Since they accidentally met for the first time in 21 years, both had been asking why their fathers quit speaking and tore the previously close family apart. No good could come of that.
And it appeared that she'd found a number of telltale clues in the pages of Honolulu's two daily newspapers. Especially the Police Beat item about his police revolver being stolen from his car while he was having a few pau hana cocktails at the Pearl City Tavern. Or maybe, he hoped, that was a telltale clue only if you already knew what happened that night in Waimanalo 21 years ago.
But Mits' greater concern was that Lily had learned about Clarence Ah Sun. That was too bad. No doubt she'd be asking questions about him. But as important as the answer was for her, Lily must never know the truth. Mits slipped the photocopies back into a manila envelope and had to smile. His idea to use Gwen to keep Lily away from Quinn was very successful. With luck, Mits and his brother would keep their secret a secret.
>> State Capitol
That was easy, Machiavelli Yang thought, even by his standards. Donna Gomes, the girl of Yang's dreams for Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka's gubernatorial campaign, jumped at the opportunity when Yang said he'd like to introduce her to the senator and have her attend the East-West Center gala with him.
What he didn't mention was that they would be seated at the head table, there would be media photo ops and lots of important people to notice the classy new lady with the vivacious smile and stunning figure on the senator's arm. Yang would quietly let the word out that the senator was involved in a new relationship -- local girl, small business owner, salt of the earth. She was the love of his life, and probably Hawaii's next First Lady. And if that didn't nail down the Portuguese vote to go along with the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Haole and Hawaiian votes, Machiavelli Yang didn't know what would.
Now Machiavelli just had to find whatever tree the senator had climbed and pull him back down again.
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