“ Kaniola's shrewd. He's weaseled out a hell of a lot of details about the crimes. See this?” He pointed to the word 'a'apl.
“ What's it mean?”
“ He says the blade used on the Kahala girl was warped or curved. Here he speaks of tragic misfortune, 'awa, and of persons dying before their time, 'a'aiole. And that it happens with the ae.”
“ The a-eee?”
'The northeast trade wind.”
“ Geeze… so what else does the story say?” she asked.
“ Depicts Thom Hilani and Kaniola's son as a couple of heroes-the only two cops in the whole of Oahu who'd ever gotten near the Cane Cutter. Describes the rest of the HPD as something far less admirable; depicts the bureau as a confederacy of bungling idiots.”
“ It says all that?”
“ See this word, here, hawawal Its literal translation is unskilled, awkward, blundering and incompetent.”
“ Sounds like the papers back home.”
“ So how'd he get the drawing of the dead girl's limb? If not from you, that leaves someone in Lau's lab, perhaps, or one of my agents, all of whom I'd thought I could trust.”
She told him of Kaniola's connection to Lau. “Look, when the limb rose from the Blow Hole, people witnessed it. Cops were called on scene and got there before your guys, right? Everyone in Oahu knew about the limb.”
“ Guess so… Damn tired of having to fight my back, though.”
“ I hope you don't think that includes me.”
He shook his head. “No, no. You, I think, are genuine. Look at this,” he said, changing the subject, pointing once more to the Ala Ohana's Hawaiian words. “Our pal Kaniola talks about you, too, here.”
“ What?”
“ Calls you an anchor stone for the investigation.”
“ Anchor stone?”
“ Heleuma,” he replied, using the Hawaiian term, and then he read on. “'Dr. Jessica Coran has been called onto the case by top-ranking FBI officials'-that'd be me-'to oversee the forensic investigation in the absence of Dr. Harold Shore. Coran has solved a number of puzzling and bizarre serial-murder cases on the mainland, the most famous of which culminated in the capture of the mad vampire slayer, Matt Matisak, in Chicago, and also the case of the Claw in New York City last year.'“
“ I see,” she said, staring to where he pointed.
“ The placement of your name at this juncture is direct innuendo that the information following this came from you.”
She looked quizzically at the Hawaiian words before her. “What information?”
“ That the suspect is believed to be a white male between the ages of twenty-seven and forty.”
“ I told him that was just probability, that it is statistically likely that-”
“ The Hawaiians are looking for the least provocation to shut down Pearl as a base of U.S. operations; word of this spreads, we're going to catch hell from both sides, and we know Marshal's going to spread it-not to mention the racial tensions which are running quite high right now.”
“ Kaniola's playing on these emotions?”
“ Like a virtuoso, yes. That's how native political power works.”
She shook her head. “I can't entirely agree.”
“ Sure, sure, he genuinely wants his son avenged first and foremost; for all their inherent good nature, the fact that Hawaiians are lovely people does not lessen their sense of justice and faith in vengeance.”
“ Like most of humanity?”
He gave her a knowing look and a smirk. “Okay, but Joe Kaniola's also fanning embers that've been smoldering for a long time, over a hundred years to be exact. He's got a whole population of disenfranchised people to blow off to, to vent his spleen with, over this issue, which leads him and his people straight back to the fundamental issue of who governs here and who carries the big stick of enforcement.”
“ Oh, God… I hope I didn't really mess things up for you, Jim.”
“ Well, the worst of it has nothing to do with what you told Kaniola.”
“ What's that?”
“ Like I said, this mention of George Oniiwah. Putting his name into this story made him a target for anyone remotely interested in avenging Linda Kahala, Thom Hilani, Alan Kaniola or any of the other women. Shit, if someone reading this decides that Oniiwah is the Cane Cutter, some bad pilikia's going to follow.”
“ Is Oniiwah white?”
“ Half Japanese.”
“ Surely that's inconsistent with Kaniola's innuendo that the killer is suspected to be a white male.”
“ Kaniola characterizes the kid as half 'white' by virture of his and his family's so emulating the white man-dressing white, dancing white, eating white, all that.”
“ Surely that's not enough to condemn him. Nobody could possibly decide that the FBI profile states the killer's whiteness is just mock white behavior, could they?”
“ We got some pretty big, pretty nasty and pretty dumb Samoans and Hawaiians on this island who put pilau like that together all the time, and proud of it.”
“ Is the man under arrest, in protective custody?”
“ Neither, and he's missing.”
“ What're you saying? That he's gone into hiding? That he's fleeing, what?”
“ No one's sure at this point.”
“ You're not saying… he's not been abducted? Has he?”
“ Possibly.”
“ Jesus…”
“ Minute I saw the paper, I called to have him picked up, but it was already too late. Oniiwah's roommate tells a story about three heavyset Samoans bursting into their dorm room-middle of the night-at the college. The roommate was knocked senseless, or so he maintains, but we're not sure his story is a hundred percent accurate.”
“ You suspect he was in on the abduction?”
“ Bruises he sustained are minimal; could've been inflicted by someone, but certainly not enough to knock him unconscious as he states. Anyway, his story has these big Samoan dudes taking George out by the hair, kicking and screaming. Tony's continued to grill the guy and-”
“ Neither Scanlon nor Marshal know a thing about this development, obviously, and you're not telling?”
He ignored her and continued. “An APB's being put out on the kid, but it doesn't look good for Oniiwah. All in all, nothing's turned out quite right.”
“ Hell, I didn't even know about Oniiwah when I spoke to Kaniola.”
“ I know that. Look, it could get ugly,” he stated.
“ If the boy's hurt…”
“ Oniiwah's being half Japanese and dressing the way he does… that's all some Samoans need to know. The typical dyed-in-the-wool Samoan believes in 'act now, think later,' and that's why there're so many of them in the state pen. Samoans are worse than the native Hawaiians in their hatred for the Japanese and the whites. They're the ones who initiated and now annually hold the Hawaiian version of Hell Night here, the 'Kill a Haole Day' festivities which annually lands many behind bars. So, don't go whipping yourself over this.”
She sensed that he was doing exactly that to himself all morning.
“ Anything happens, it's Kaniola's fault and mine,” said Parry. “I should've listened to Tony last night. He tried to warn me about the mood of the people. Damn…”
“ What next?”
“ We've got a notion we're playing out. Tony's working on getting paper for a search warrant as we speak. I'd be over at the site myself by now if I hadn't got hung up with Scanlon and Marshal.” He looked at his watch. “Should be about time now. When's the last time you were in on a bust?”
“ A bust? Me?”
“ Sure, why not. You want to see some real local color?” She took it as a challenge.
“ Want to join me or not?” He buzzed his secretary and called for his car to be brought around. “Well?”
“ All right, all right, maybe I will.”
Lopaka's hands are busy over the wheel of the bus he drives, a small, versatile twenty-four-seater for Enoa Tourist Industries. The bus makes stops at predesignated hotel locations to load more passengers till filled to capacity today. A typical Tuesday on the island. But while his hands and eyes are occupied here, Lopaka's mind is elsewhere.