Chapter 37
Late the next day Lei went down the hall to Dispatch, checking the time she was back on the schedule.
“Hey, Irene.”
“Hey!” Irene stood and flipped her headset up, immaculate in an ivory pantsuit with coconut shell buttons. She hugged Lei. “Glad to see you smiling.”
“Who’s this?” Lei gestured to the pretty, dark-haired girl with a chic shag who sat at the switchboard.
“My niece, Tanya.” Tanya gave a little wave and smile but she was talking to a caller. “She’s been helping out. Charlotte finally quit and I told the Lieutenant that Tanya would make a good backup.”
“Good to have you, Tanya,” Lei said, and the girl nodded and turned back to take another call.
Lei went into the central work area. Pono was at his computer with a new recruit trainee, Jenkins, seated at her desk. He’d started under Pono after she got reassigned to the Mohuli`i case. He jumped up.
“Officer Texeira!” Jenkins exclaimed. Good-looking, beefy and earnest, his high complexion deepened as he got out of her chair.
“Hi there. How’s Pono treating you?”
“Good, thanks. Sorry I was sitting in your chair…”
“No worries. I’m off until tomorrow.”
“Hey, want to tell me more about your-um, situation?” Pono wiggled his brows, clearly meaning the stalker thing but not wanting to speak in front of Jenkins.
“Call me later,” she said. She greeted a few more people and pushed out through the stiff glass doors. She pulled out into the busy road and headed for her class at University of Hawaii. Driving there reminded her of Mary, and she endured the now-familiar squeeze of her heart. She wondered when it was going to stop hurting, and didn’t want it to-that would mean her friend was really gone.
This was her night to come home late. She’d be tired, her guard down, and everything was ready.
Anticipation hummed in his blood. He took a shower, scrubbing himself thoroughly, using a nail brush to get under his fingernails. He’d never shaved himself, but thought it might not be a bad idea one of these days. He dressed in his special outfit: black nylon turtleneck, loose black running pants. He put the ski mask on the seat beside him, along with his hunting kit, and drove to the house. Only thing left to take care of was the dog.
Chapter 38
Lei got into her truck at the UH campus and drove home. Class had been interesting, and it was good to chat with her classmates, to feel like things were getting back to normal. Ray Solomon hadn’t reappeared. It made her wonder if there was some connection between him and Mary. She needed to remember to call Lono Smith and tell him.
She pulled into her driveway. The headlights glared against the garage door as it rumbled up. She rolled her tired shoulders, pulling into the garage and hitting the remote to close the door. She hopped out of the truck, got her book bag out of the back, and went out of the garage into the darkness outside, noticing silence for the first time. She stopped, called:
“Keiki! Hey girl!”
There was no answering scrabble of toenails, no happy greeting bark. Panic surged through her as she dropped the book bag and unlatched the chain-link gate, running forward along the side of the house.
“Keiki, where are you, girl?” she cried. The next thing she saw was a shower of exploding white stars as her body flew forward, convulsing with electricity.
She came to slowly, waves of pain gathering into a pulsing point of agony at the back of her neck. She opened her eyes. Nothing but darkness. She swallowed, felt the rough dryness of cloth in her mouth. She tried to move and pain seared through her arms, as she realized they were cuffed behind her back. She moved her legs-they were tied too. She heard rumbling, felt vibrations beneath her: she was moving, and the metal ridges beneath her told her she was in the back of a pickup truck.
Terror surged through her. She couldn’t stop herself from flailing, thrashing until the searing pain in her arms and shoulders stopped the panicked frenzy of movement. She stilled herself, sucking wheezing breaths through her nostrils. The cloth bag on her head further restricted air supply.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing. One-two-three in, one-two-three out, she counted to calm herself. As she got more oxygen into her lungs, she turned her attention to her hearing, noticing the grinding of the truck downshifting. It wasn’t her truck then, with its smooth, new transmission.
She berated herself-in her panic not recognizing the darkness on the side of the house for the danger it was, not realizing that of course he would take out her dog first. At that thought tears threatened. She blinked rapidly, keeping her breath steady as she turned her thoughts to escape.
She slid her hands up and down, testing the range of motion she had. The bed of the truck was the usual ridged metal. She caught her feet into one of the ridges and pushed herself forward until her head touched the side of the bed. She swung herself around again and pushed off to the other side. Her arms screamed with strain as she kept feeling for something, anything that might be useful. Nothing.
Despair washed over her. How likely was it that he’d left a weapon or the key rattling around in here? The best bet was probably to move to the back of the truck bed, try to get the tailgate down, shove out the back into the road.
Even as she began scooting herself toward the tailgate her mind screamed, No, no, no! There has to be some other way! She pictured falling into the road at high speed, the crunching of her bones as she hit the pavement, helpless to break her fall in any way, the possible collision with another car. Still, it was better than waiting for what he had planned. She’d die before she let him…
She reached the tailgate, rolled herself onto her knees and chin, reaching upward with her cuffed hands, fumbling along the metal at the top for the lever that opened the tailgate. The truck swayed around a corner and she fell sideways, feeling the crunch of her wrist against the truck bed.
She must have passed out or fainted, because she gasped as wetness hit her face. He was throwing water on her. Something was tied over her eyes now, and the gag was gone. She dragged in gulps of welcome air, stabbing needles of circulation coming back into her legs. She was lying sideways. Nausea hit her and she leaned forward, retching. Her wrist radiated a pulsing pain-probably broken.
“Goddamnit,” she heard. “Get up.”
A tenor voice. He sounded familiar. It was a good sign she had a blindfold on: maybe he wasn’t going to kill her.
She felt him grab her feet, swing them sideways off the tailgate.
“Get up. I’m not carrying you.”
She sat there, adjusting to being upright, her head swimming. She leaned forward, reaching with her feet for the ground, and would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her by the arms. Her feet sank into boggy ground concealed by long grass.
“Move,” he said. She stumbled across the uneven ground, impeded by the grass and mud. He grabbed her head and ducked her under a branch, yanked her arms to get her between scratching bushes. She thought of wrenching away, of running, but he seemed to anticipate her every move, and with the blindfold on, getting away seemed impossible.
She heard the gurgle of water and suddenly the elements added up. She knew where they were: the Mohuli`i girls’ crime scene. She stopped, digging in her heels. He gave her a shove from behind and she fell to her knees. He grabbed her hair, yanking her up, forcing her to stumble forward.
“Get going, bitch. Guessed where we are by now, didn’t you? I have a lot more planned for you than those girls.”
He gave her hair another yank, this time a heave. She cried out as she flew forward, bouncing on carpet.
“Got my camp set back up,” he said. “They’ll never look for you here.”
That’s true, she thought, getting to her knees, coiling her strength inward.