My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
Starting with ...
>> Queen's Medical Center
"It started with this," Quinn Ah Sun said, picked up a sheaf of photocopies from the table beside his bed. It was all his father could do not to curse.
"Which led Lily to visit Tony Martinez. Which led to me getting up the nerve to call Mom."
Mits Ah Sun deflated like a party balloon and flew around the room backward for a few seconds. Or so it felt. He landed heavily in the chair beside his son's bed, head still spinning.
"I have to ask you some questions, Dad."
Mits recognized the tone. He was a cop too. It brought him back to reality, and his shock began to fade. Mits used to do some boxing, he could still bob and weave. "Ask away."
No matter how much Quinn tried to be professional, this was his dad, his hero. His heart raced. "It comes down to two basic things. What really happened to make you and your brother quit speaking 21 years ago and tear the family apart? And what did Bobo Ah Sun have to do with it?"
Mits took a deep breath, whistled softly. "What makes you think Bobo is involved?"
"One, for a guy who was in the papers all the time, how come I never heard of him until Lily did her research at the library? Two, how come you didn't want to talk about him when I asked yesterday? Three, Mom told me about that night at the Pearl City Tavern, when you and Uncle Mits were supposed to play poker with Bobo, but you got there early, said Bobo never showed and then you got hammered. That was also the night your .45 was missing from your trunk."
"Flo told you all that?" How many times could one woman betray you?
"We knew about the gun." Quinn held up a photocopy of an old newspaper clip.
"And I wondered why you never mentioned it. When I joined the department, you gave me all kinds of advice. How come nothing about that?"
"Kind of embarrassing, eh."
Good reply, but Quinn wasn't buying it. "We also know that Uncle Sheets isn't Lily's real dad. Blood test when she and Laird gave blood for me. So we have a motive. We have a missing weapon. We have a missing Bobo. And we have the last communication from Bobo, a postcard from Miami, that was actually written by Uncle Mits." Quinn paused to let it sink in. "I'm not saying you killed Bobo, Dad, I think Uncle Mits did it. But Lily and I need to know."
Mits reminded himself of the old no body, no crime theory. But this wasn't a court of law. This was the court of his only child's opinion.
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