My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digest>> Aina Haina
The bare shelves in the home entertainment cabinet were, HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes had to admit, about the saddest things he'd ever seen. Tom and Lois Toyama had come home from their usual walk at Ala Moana Beach Park and found that someone had broken in and stolen their family photographs.
Tom explained that they hadn't called HPD because it just didn't seem like a real crime. Lois had plenty jewelry in the bedroom that wasn't touched. Neither was Tom's golf clubs nor their i-Book laptop. The only thing missing were the photos.
>> Kaimuki
Kate, Kate. Rhymes with hate.
That was just one of the sing-song teases she'd endured back at Kainalu Elementary.
Kate, she'll never get a date.
Even then there was something different about her. Detached, as if she were peeking out at the world from behind a dark corner, neither reaching out for a friend nor knowing how to react when an occasional soft-hearted girl would reach out to her.
But it wasn't for lack of yearning. Oh, how she wanted to belong. She just didn't know how. Born addicted to cocaine because her mother was, Kate's brain function was altered from the start. There was never a father because her mother didn't know who the father was. Then one night when Kate was eight her mother OD'd in Chinatown. Kate's aunt Pattie took her in. Kate got a room, food and cable TV and not much more, certainly not affection or attention.
She didn't graduate from Kalaheo High and over the years worked as a dishwasher and night janitor, seldom keeping a job long. She survived by figuring out the food stamp thing and TheBus routes.
And now, at 29, Kate had a beautiful family. They smiled back at her from framed photographs that graced the new bookshelf she'd bought.
Her family started at her last office-cleaning job. On a shelf behind the desk were a dozen family photos. The desk occupant wouldn't miss one. Kate snatched a framed photo -- mom, dad and two kids posing in front of a Christmas tree -- and brought it home. But like a child asking for a baby brother or sister, they wanted company. So to make them happy she'd adopted a family in Aina Haina. And then another family in Pearl City. There was a third house she'd been watching, not far from here on 16th Avenue.
Armed with nothing more than a TheBus pass, a big camouflage backpack and a Swiss Army knife with 42 attachments, Kate went adopting.
>> The world of a detective often turns on the no-can-explain happenstance. So it was for Gomes. Having just asked the Toyamas about the Family Photo Burglar, Gomes decided to make a quick pit stop home.
As he turned up 16th Avenue, he noticed a woman with a camouflage backpack walking up his street. Gomes was a one-man Neighborhood Watch, but with nature screaming his name, he quickly forgot about the woman.
But Kate was acutely aware of the man who jumped out of his car and raced into the house. Some part of her knew that there would be trouble she got caught. But she couldn't stop.
Kate was happy to see their Honda Civic was not in the carport. She walked around to the side of the house.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com