My Kind of Town
Making of a hero
>> 2002 Wilder
Dr. Laurie Tang could see the apprehension in HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes' eyes the moment he stepped into the shallow end of the pool at her condo. A totally different man from the strong, confident guy she knew on dry ground. Afraid of the water and too proud to admit it? Well, give him credit, he'd asked her for a swimming lesson.
"Here," she said and held both arms parallel on the water's surface, palms up. "I just want you to experience how good the water feels, like a light massage."
She motioned for him to lie face down across her arms. One supported his chest, the other his thighs. She felt his tension immediately. "You're stiff as a brick," she said. "Um, I mean, just relax, OK? You're going to have to trust me." As she began to move sideways, he didn't know if it was the water flowing past his body that felt good, but something sure did. He relaxed a little.
"This isn't so bad, is it?" she said.
Gomes realized he'd been holding his breath, tried to breathe normally. But between fighting his fear and the sensation of Laurie's breasts pressed into his ribs, Gomes' heart was racing.
"Not too bad," he managed.
>> Waikiki
Hearing the word "terrorist" and seeing a Filipino man running toward him, HPD Officer Dale Kaneakua, was out of his patrol car in an instant, drawing his Glock 9mm. "Stop, police!" he shouted.
But Achmed al-Hazir, the one-man jihad, kept running toward him and the trolley. He was carrying a bag. Kaneakua guessed bomb. Wrong, just a doggie bag of spaghetti from Matteo's. Achmed would take a little of the best spaghetti he'd ever tasted with him into the next life.
Kaneakua took aim. A woman on the trolley screamed. A man swore. As he ran the terrorist reached under his shirt for the safety on his belt bomb.
>> From out of the shadows a heavyset haole leaped at the terrorist, tackled him from over the left shoulder, pressed a stun gun to his neck.
Achmed al-Hazir went slack a heartbeat before he could trigger the fuse mechanism of the bomb.
Larry "Just Under A Ton" Underton, a jolly faced actor best known for playing Santa every Christmas at a mall, had plans later in the night to use his stun gun on a prostitute. Instead, he'd just stopped a terrorist. Now, falling to the ground with the unconscious terrorist in his grasp, Larry saw the future. He was about to become a hero. And a babe magnet.
He was half right. An instant later the stun gun's fierce electrical impulse reached the bomb's fuse mechanism and the Waikiki night exploded.
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