My Kind of Town
Feeling green
>> Pearl HarborLily Ah Sun hated cheap fluorescent lighting. It turned everything, including her, a slightly pallid green. These overheads were so bad, Lily felt swampish. The bare walls were painted something murky. You'd think with the billions America spends on its military, the Navy could find some decent light fixtures and a paint that had an actual, identifiable color.
But maybe that was part of the plan here at Interrogation Central -- put you in such an ugly room that you'd admit to almost anything just to get out of there.
And these vaguely padded gray metal chairs and semi-matching desk certainly were not designed so you'd want to spend a lot of time just hanging out. Well, the brig wasn't a place where interior designers sought to boost the sailors' morale.
A door opened, and the impersonal look on Commander Chuck Ryan's face reminded Lily to keep a lid on her little Ms. Smart Mouth. Keep the social commentary to herself, tell him the simple truth and she'd be out of here in minutes. He nodded politely, a totally different man from the one she'd met yesterday at the gym with the twins Shauny and Fawn Nakamura. He'd hit it off with Fawn, but apparently wasn't cutting her any slack as the introducer.
A young officer trailed Chuck into the room and the impersonal look in his eyes chilled Lily. So did the thick folder he carried.
"Lily," Chuck said, "this is Lt. Garvey Tanonaka."
"Ms. Ah Sun," he said in clipped tones, showed her his ID indicating he too was with Navy intelligence.
"Hi." Garvey? Father a Dodger fan, eh? Poor guy. Lily bit her tongue.
He took a seat across the table from Lily, placed a yellow legal pad on the desk, beside it a small tape recorder. Chuck sat three chairs down.
"Ms. Ah Sun, how long have you known Muhammed Resurreccion?"
"I just met him today."
"I see."
Lily didn't like the way he said that. Or the way he opened the folder.
>> 2002 Wilder
The dichotomies in Sherlock Gomes' professional and personal lives were about to intersect. As an HPD detective, Gomes wanted as much information as he could find. The more facts he gathered, the closer Gomes came to the truth. He was a firm believer in information overload.
He had a rather different approach with the women he dated. Some things from our past lives -- and Gomes believed that within what we call a lifetime all of us in fact live multiple lives -- are best left behind.
There were things he did not want to know about Dr. Laurie Tang, particularly her intimacies with men. But here he was to ask her about Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka.
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