My Kind of Town
Don Chapman
>> Pearl City Selling him short
HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes preferred to stay calm and in control, and in the moment. Logic and adrenaline were seldom compatible. But at this moment, listening to what Jake Peepers, P.I., was telling him on the phone, Gomes' heart and brain were racing ahead of himself.
"Your client is the wife of the computer magnate Victor Primitivo?"
"One and the same."
Gomes forced himself to slow down. Lily Ah Sun said her co-best friend Shauny Nakamura was meeting a guy she'd met over the Internet for lunch, and they were driving to Turtle Bay. The guy's name was Victor, and Shauny thought he was rich or famous because he didn't want to tell her his last name. "OK, Jake, but there's nothing necessarily illegal about carrying an electronic scrambler. I'll have to check on that. The law is running behind reality when it comes to technology."
"Understood. But here's where it really starts to cross over to your side of the street. Victor Primitivo slipped the girl a mickey."
"Date rape drug."
"That's what it looks like. A cowboy I talked with -- a real McCoy paniolo -- was having lunch at the Palm Terrace and says he thinks he saw Primitivo put something in the girl's wine when she got up to use the lady's room. Then, and I'll vouch for this, he says she got real inebriated real fast. We both saw him lifting her into his Escalade."
"Where'd they go?"
"Turned toward Kahuku, I followed for a while ... You hear about the cow on the highway?"
"Nasty scene, sounds like."
"Primitivo did a nice bit of driving to avoid the cow, but the vehicle right behind hit it and caused a big pileup. Primitivo got away with the girl."
"You OK?"
"As good as a P.I. can be after taking a $1,000 retainer and producing absolutely nothing that my client can use in divorce court."
"Hopefully I can help you out here."
"He's a creep, Sherlock."
"Anything else I ought to know?"
"Two things. One, the cowboy, talk to him." Peepers gave him Lono Oka'aina's cell number. "Two, he mentioned that Primitivo called her Shauny. Said she's one of the prettiest Japanese girls you'll ever want to see. You know, Cherry Blossom queen kind. Oh, one more thing. Mr. Primitivo told Mrs. Primitivo he'd be gone for two weeks on a hunting trip with some hunt club."
Gomes thanked Peepers for the info, went inside the Pearl Palms and confirmed with the manager that his security camera went on the fritz at 10:59 and stayed that way until 11:13. Victor was to pick up Shauny at 11. Actually, to call Victor Primitivo a creep was selling him short.
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