My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
Pulling the trigger
>> Queen's Medical Center
"According to what I heard on the news," Quinn Ah Sun said, "they think they found humans remains in that old illegal dumpsite in Waimanalo."
"And HPD knows my brother is interested," his father the police sergeant said. "He got a visit from Sherlock Gomes, wondering why he'd stopped to look at the investigation scene twice in two days, and it's not exactly on his way to work."
Quinn was a cop; he knew that crooks really did return to the scene of the crime.
"I need to hear it from you, Dad. Who actually pulled the trigger on Bobo."
"It wasn't me. I was just ... there."
"Uncle Sheets then. And the gun, it got tossed in the pit too." Not questions. Mits didn't argue.
"Thank God." Protecting your brother is one thing, killing quite another. Quinn could still respect his dad.
"I hate to say it, son, but Bobo deserved it. I know we don't make the laws, we enforce them, but dammit, there was a time when Sheets would've been considered a hero. What he did has honor. His hanai brother, the one he invited into our family, turned on him and raped his fiancee a month before the wedding. It was wrong under our laws, I know that, but so's rape. And part of me can't blame Sheets. The other thing is, it was a crime of the moment, totally not planned. Bobo was there, my gun was there, the chemical pit was there.
"And I'll tell you something else. You know what really makes Sheets a man of honor? He married Grace, knowing she was pregnant with Bobo's bastard rape child.
"He kept her awful secret to himself, didn't even tell me until that night in Waimanalo. I was shocked, though not as much as Bobo. And Sheets raised that child as his own, your cousin Lily."
"Not my cousin any more. Now she's my fiancee. I proposed. She said yes." Quinn smiled broadly.
Mits, in telling his son the truth, had lost all reasons to protest the romance between his son and Lily. "I hope you'll be happy."
"By the way, I forgot to mention. Uncle Sheets had a heart attack."
"When?"
"A little bit ago, here at the hospital. I heard he's doing OK."
"I'd better go see what's happening." Mits headed for the door, stopped before opening it. "What we talked about just now ..."
"It stays in the family."
"Does that include ...?"
"Lily? Absolutely."
As he left, Mits' soul felt lighter. Telling the truth will do that.
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