My Kind of Town
Don Chapman
High school reunion
>> Around Oahu
HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes was both hunter and gatherer. In his hunt for law-breakers the great Gomes gathered facts. And so after visiting the Pearl Palms condo in Pearl City and confirming one more piece of the Victor Primitivo/Shauny Nakamura puzzle, he speed-dialed Kona Weathers, boy wonder of the Chaminade criminology department. Kona was also Gomes' protege, a great kid, eager to learn, and possessed great instincts for Gomes' logical approach to law enforcement. The only bad thing that Gomes could say about Kona was that he graduated from Lutheran High. As a loyal Catholic, Gomes was still peeved about that whole Reformation thing.
"Kona, I need you to check vehicle registration for Victor Primitivo ..."
"The computer guru? Omigod, he's my hero!"
"You may need to revise your opinion, boy. I also need you to check any firearms that may be registered to him."
"What's this about?"
"More than I can tell you now. One other thing, see what you can find about hunting on Oahu, including hunt clubs."
Gomes then called 411, asked for the number and address of the Full Faith Fellowship Gospel Tabernacle. The office was on Liliha. As he drove back to town on the H-1 to visit Shauny's twin Fawn, Gomes called the paniolo Lono Oka'aina. Jake Peepers, P.I., said Lono saw Primitivo apparently put something in Shauny's drink, and that within minutes she was so inebriated he had to lift her into his Escalade.
It's a funny world, Gomes thought as the phone rang in his ear, when paniolo carry cell phones. "Aloha, I no can get da phone, so leave one message," the recorded voice said. "Mahalo."
At Haleiwa Joe's in Haleiwa, Lono felt the phone on his western belt vibrate, ignored it. The bachelor rancher was having too much fun. Back at Waimea Bay, as the ambulance was leaving with Chookie Boy Kulolo after his horrific wipeout, Lono literally bumped into his old classmate from Kahuku High, Raydean Gonsalves. "Eh, Raydean, you looking good!"
"Lono! Omigod!" She gave him a hug that was his first in way too long. It felt better than a hug from a mere classmate should feel, especially a married one.
"How's Bully?" Bully Tufitufi, their classmate and Lono's football teammate, married Raydean when he got back from the Army.
"Guess you never heard. He left me just before Christmas for one of his co-workers at the electric company."
And that's how Lono and Raydean came to be having dinner and drinks at Haleiwa Joe's. Which is how she came to ask Lono if he'd like to come to her place for a nightcap. Which is why Lono completely forgot about wanting to see what kind of exotic animals the hunt club was releasing on his property.
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