|
My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Boats’ or boat’s?
>> Honolulu
Cruz MacKenzie was looking forward to getting on to a story that didn't have to do with sharks or the disappearance of Daren Guy on the night he won the state's first $2 million Lotto. Silicone poisoning -- especially by breast implants -- was just that story. And so he was his way to St. Francis to hear a Hilo doc, an allergist, speak on his theories about silicone poisoning.
But the sharks and Daren Guy wouldn't go away, not after he saw the photo in today's paper about the disappearance of the yacht Pet Shop, and the realization of how little effort it took to change Pet Shop to Wet Spot.
The yacht Pet Shop, Cruz had been aboard once -- two years ago, the day he met Sonya Chan, who was part of a "Girls of Hawaii" pictorial in Pet Shop magazine.
The yacht Wet Spot, Cruz had seen only once -- when he visited Sonya on Daren's boat while working on the story.
Pet Shop. Wet Spot. Waiting for the light at King and Liliha, he glanced down at a photocopy of the picture from the paper, the Pet Shop publisher, a bevy of bikini-clad beauties, including Sonya. And wished he'd paid more attention to the boats' lines -- of was it the boat's lines? -- but to be honest it was Sonya's lines that held his attention on both occasions.
And he tried to remember what the old man aboard Wet Spot looked like and compared it the photo of Daren Guy that he'd lifted from the yacht club bulletin board. The old man's face seemed pale -- because he'd worn a full beard for years and just shaved it off? But it was hard to tell with dark glasses and the captain's cap pulled down low. But if that was Daren posing as an old man, why didn't Sonya recognize him?
She had said his boat was somehow familiar. That was something.
As Cruz parked the Z and headed for the auditorium, in waters off the Big Island the yacht now known as Wet Spot was just a few hours from the remote Pele's Bath and a rendezvous with Daren and Sushi Leclaire. When Sonya had earlier asked the 12 girls recruited by Sushi from the brothel bars of Manila, they agreed that none wanted to work in the sex industry, but if Sushi's Internet porn site was the only way to come to America, they would.
But when Sonya said she had another plan, that there was a way to stay in America that didn't involve selling their bodies, all 12 signed on.
Which is why, at that moment, with the girl called Magadalena at the wheel, Sonya was giving four of the girls instructions in firing a spear gun. She'd keep the Glock 9mm she'd taken from Sushi for herself.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com