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My Kind of Town

Don Chapman


Silent treatment

>> Honolulu

Jolene Perreira was at church, her husband Ralph said. Cruz MacKenzie heard Terry Bradshaw shouting over the sound of a football game in the background. "Ought to be back in half an hour."

While Aaron worked on the sketches of how Daren Guy might look without a beard and with a shaved head -- Cruz used his secret library key and looked up old clips on everybody with the last name Guy. There were a couple pictures of Ray Guy, the Oakland Raiders' great punter who played in several Pro Bowls at Aloha Stadium. And there was a clip that somehow got mis-filed -- "Yamamoto, Guy" -- about Guy Yamamoto winning the 1994 USGA Public Links championship.

Finally he found something pertinent. Frank Guy's obituary, printed 20 years ago, listed survivors as a son, Daren, then 15, and a wife, Wanda. In those days, obits still mentioned the cause of death. Frank Guy, a civilian who worked at the Pearl Harbor shipyard for 20 years, died at the age of 49 from lung cancer. A series of occasional short news stories that spanned four years told the story of a court battle to prove that Frank Guy's lung cancer was caused by asbestos, a material used in several ways at the shipyard.

Mrs. Guy was asking for a million dollars, at the time a record personal injury claim in Hawaii courts. The jury ruled for the shipyard. And because Frank Guy was sick, he had forgotten to make a couple of life insurance payments. The company, Memphis Memorial Indemnity, refused to pay benefits.

A second trial eventually forced Me-Me-I to pay a reduced benefit, after medical expenses, only $10,000.

Could this have been Daren's motive? He and his parents had been screwed by an insurance company, so if he screwed an insurance company back, well, that would make 'em even, right?

The irony was that since then Gary Gallagher and other attorneys had made a lot of money prosecuting and winning asbestos cases in Hawaii.

Another obituary told how Mrs. Wanda Guy used the insurance money to book a round-the-world cruise and died of a heart attack in Greece during a terrorist attack on her boat, having spent most of the money. Survivors were Daren, 19, and a twin sister, Winifred Root, of Pendleton, Ore.

"You know, after the news about him getting killed, we all started talking about Daren," Jolene Perreira said when Cruz finally reached her on the phone. "The guy he was closest to for a long time was Dillon Tanonaka, you should really talk to him."

"You didn't hear the news?"

"I never saw the paper today. And this was Silent Sunday at church. Nobody can talk. Even the sermon and hymns are silent."

"Mm." Cruz told her the news, added "I really need some help here."



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

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