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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
To the rescue
>> Above Kahuku
Through the swirling smoke below, Lono Oka'aina and Raydean Gonsalves heard people coughing and hurried down the rocky, forested slope to see how -- and who -- they were. "Aloha!" Lono called. "We're here to help you!" No answer from the special place Lono was taking Raydean for a picnic when the shooting erupted, just silence and swirling smoke.
Aloha? Ha-ha, very funny, Shauny Nakamura was thinking as she and Imelda the Manila street kid ran coughing from the smoke and ducked beneath a rocky overhang. Below she saw that the man in the black cowboy hat had also been shot, chest and stomach. Six bodies now lay dead or dying down there, including Steven, the devil who'd led them from their prison, spinning a story about cannibals and ritual sacrifice, and appearing to be fatally shot, only to show up trying to kill them. Shauny wasn't sure what to believe any more.
Through the smoke, she saw Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, waved for him to join them. He staggered, doubled over coughing.
Listening on his cell phone, HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes asked Lono to have Raydean talk to them. "Maybe a female voice will make a difference."
"It's over!" she called. "It really is! You're going to be OK now."
"Who are you?!" Shauny called back.
They introduced themselves, Lono adding that he owned the ranch and rented it out to the hunt club.
"We want to come down and see how you're doing," Raydean added.
"Hold it!" Shauny replied. "We have guns!"
"And you're pretty good shots too!" Lono said with a chuckle.
"Ask them their names," Gomes said to Lono.
"I'm on the phone with an HPD detective, Sherlock Gomes!" he called. "He wants me to ask your names."
The senator turned white, Shauny noticed. He was a wanted man, and she recognized Gomes' name from the news. "Shauny Nakamura, Imelda Iglesia!"
"Did she say Shauny Nakamura?!" Gomes said, biting back excitement.
"Yup."
"Tell her that her sister Fawn and their friend Lily will be very glad to hear she's OK, and I'm going to call them right now. I'll be in touch."
"Shauny, I have a message from Detective Gomes!" When he repeated it, Shauny knew it had to be true. That's when the tears started. The tears she'd been holding back since she first came out of the drug-induced sleep in that dark pen, since the gunfire began, since she had to kill to save her own life, since she saw her friend Royce dead, they came all at once and all Shauny could do was clutch Imelda, who clutched right back. That's where they were, sobbing and hugging, when Lono and Raydean clambered down the rocky slope to rescue them.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com