My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digestHPD Detective Sherlock Gomes did not like guns. He normally carried his pistol, unloaded, in the trunk of his car. Other detectives wore ankle holsters, but Gomes' weapon of choice was his mind. Reason and logic over guns and bullets.
But today Gomes was grateful for the Glock 9mm, and rethinking his position. If he'd had the gun on his ankle, Gomes could have intervened before the cabbie, who'd rear-ended a BMW in the ER lot, jumped from his car and tried to drag a female driver out through the window. It wasn't until Quinn Ah Sun, the bike officer who was hospitalized after getting shot, charged the cabbie and took out his knee that the guy quit choking the woman. Which gave Gomes a chance to open the trunk and grab his gun.
And now he was running to where the cabbie and Ah Sun grappled, shouting "Stop! Police!" But the cabbie kept attacking. He was on top of Ah Sun, ready to throw another punch. So Gomes really had no choice. With a running start, he kicked the cabbie in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious. His second weapon of choice: a black, size 11 Allen Edmonds tassel loafer.
>> Arizona Memorial
Down front, a U.S. Park Service ranger, an attractive local girl, began speaking and Commander Chuck Ryan, Navy intelligence officer, took his eyes off the back of Muhammed Resurreccion's head. The ranger reminded him of Fawn Nakamura and he felt a funny little ping in his gut. He recalled working with a Jewish guy who once said that for Hebrews of the Old Testament the seat of emotions was the intestines.
>> Queen's Medical Center
Lily Ah Sun and Nina Ramones each realized at very nearly the same moment that she wasn't the only woman screaming Quinn's name and running to him.
"I'm Lily, Quinn's cousin."
"I'm Nina. I've heard about you." Word had swept the floor when another nurse walked in and caught Lily half in bed with her cousin, kissing him.
"Oh?"
"I'm a nurse here."
Lily eyed Nina's creamy little silk blouse with a swooping neckline, the tight black jeans, the platform sandals. "I see they've changed the uniform code since I was here last."
When inspired, Lily could do catty with the best.
Nina smelled competition.
"I'm," she said, pausing for effect, "off-duty. In fact, Quinn asked me to be his private-duty nurse when he's released."
"Excuse me if I'm not surprised," Lily said, less ice in her words than she wished to muster. "He's a total slut."
Lily turned to go, came face to face with the guy who'd kicked the cabbie in the head.
"Ladies, I have questions for both of you." He flashed an HPD badge. "Detective Sherlock Gomes."
"Together?" Lily said, glancing sideways.
Two guys from the ER lifted the cabbie, who was just coming to, onto a gurney.
"No. Separately." One, Gomes wanted to hear their stories uninfluenced by the other's words. Two, he wanted to separate them before they started clawing at each other.
>> State Capitol Grounds
Walking back from the press conference at City Hall, Machiavelli Wang shook his head in amazement. He was back in the game. To be precise, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was back in the race for governor now that the mayor had withdrawn. After the news conference, several reporters asked him what this meant for the senator's campaign. Loathe to admit that his candidate had been in a position of weakness -- on account of the senator's going AWOL during the end of the just-completed session and a stripper crashing his car -- Machiavelli turned the question around. "What do you think?" Each agreed the senator was the Democrats' leading candidate.
Now if only Machiavelli could find him.
>> Arizona Memorial
It came as no surprise to Muhammed Resurreccion when the ranger said they'd have 12 minutes only at the Memorial. One of his people, Rey Orlando, had visited three times in recent months. Muhammed knew the script. But hearing the ranger say it now rang like an alarm. That's all he needed. A violent act, a powerful statement for his people.
Muhammed glanced at the bouquet held by Rosalita, his cousin's widow. When the time came, her daughter Elizabeth would place the flowers in front of the marble wall that listed the names of the Arizona crewmen killed on Dec. 7, 1941. Cutest terrorist in the world. Even if she didn't know it.
Maybe it would be better if he did not make the boat trip out with the girls. If a ranger had a problem with the flowers, well, Muhammed didn't mind becoming a martyr. But if it wasn't necessary, why?
>> Queen's Medical Center
Tears gleamed on Greg's cheeks when Lily Ah Sun at last reached the main lobby.
"Oh, Lily, thank you," he said. "I've been beside myself. It's not fair, you know, they won't let non-family members up there.
That's why that law needs to be changed, really."
"Lance told me you, uh, guys had talked about getting married," she said.
"Just this morning."
"By the way, what's your full name? That time we met, Lance just introduced you as Greg."
"Gregor Edmund von Mintz, Viscount of Wormshabstlutheraufgemachen."
"Royalty? From Germany?"
"Very minor royalty."
"So that's how you became a chiropractor in Hawaii?"
"Round-aboutly, yes."
"How old are you, Greg?" He had that look of overextended youth.
It was a question Greg always tried to avoid answering directly. Besides being young at heart, he'd been lipo'd, eye-tucked and botoxed. Some silly number like 47 was so irrelevant. "Old enough to feel very protective of Lance."
"No offense, your highness, but you did a crappy job of it at the hate crimes bill rally."
Greg sobbed and clutched Lily's arm.
"Oh, Lily, I know, I know! This is all my fault! It's bad enough worrying about Lance, but to know I'm responsible, it's just too much!"
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