A perfect place to die

>> Kaimuki

The word went out immediately after Officer Quinn Ah Sun relayed the message to HPD dispatch, and all officers not otherwise occupied in the central Honolulu area began looking for a red Ram 1500 double-cab. It was stolen, the driver armed and dangerous, the two other occupants kidnapped and in extreme danger.

When they learned that one of the occupants was the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa, even officers who were Christian or Jewish or not religious at all searched with more urgency than normal. There was something about this young man -- the peace he radiated on TV, his resiliency after two very public attacks on his life -- that was worth protecting.

Quinn was on the H-1 riding his civilian bike home to Hawaii Kai for dinner, but called Lily, said he'd be putting in some OT. He took the Koko Head exit, looking for a red truck.

It would require luck -- good luck for HPD, bad luck for Fon Du -- to spot the truck. There were thousands of miles of roads on Oahu, a limited number of cops to patrol them. Finding a stolen vehicle, even a big red one, was like finding the old needle in a haystack. Often it was something as idiotic as the driver speeding that caused a cop to notice the vehicle.

Quinn turned right on Koko Head, stopped for the light at Pahoa.

If he'd arrived there just a minute earlier, he'd have seen the truck driven by Fon Du stopped for the light coming up Pahoa. But he hadn't.

Fon Du, trying to remain calm as a thousand thoughts shouted out in his head, had crossed the intersection, turned right on Ocean View, then left on Kilauea.

Quinn went through the intersection, went down to 12th and made a left.

Both were just driving now, aimlessly, though Fon Du had a destination in mind. Two of them. He had to choose between the two safe houses that were unknown even to his Te-Wu colleagues. He always had two, preferred six-month leases, never kept one place for long.

Because of the remoteness of the house, he would have preferred to run to the North Shore. He could kill Bodhicita and the lama and dispose of their bodies. But that was an hour away. HPD must already be looking for this truck. So really there was no decision at all. It had to be the place up Hale Koa Drive on Waialae Nui ridge. Maybe he could chuck their bodies over the ledge into the valley.

Quinn meandered on his bike through Kaimuki, and when he stopped for the sign at 12th and Kilauea he was just two blocks from the red truck. He'd come no closer.

Slowing for the light where 22nd crosses Kilauea, Fon Du realized that the perfect place for someone to die was just around the corner.