Fire Beach: Lei Crime Book 8 (Lei Crime Series) (23 page)

“Thanks, man,” Stevens said. “What’s up with the waders?”

“Tiare suggested these.” Pono shrugged. “She had some idea I’d be able to rescue my clothes.”

“Good luck with that.” Stevens pulled off his gloves and did introductions and shook hands with the men, moved by the enthusiasm on their faces to wade into the giant pile of debris. He coordinated with the Cat driver and they positioned the dumpster, and soon the property was humming with the efforts of a mobilized community of police officers and firemen.

Stevens felt good, even though the sweat dug runnels through the black on his face. He set the pace with his shovel.

Lei sat on the tiny porch of the cottage, bouncing Kiet on her knees as she watched the beehive of activity in her yard. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she made no sound.

They had friends who cared about them, pitching in to help in their time of need. She could hardly believe the number of men and the pileup of vehicles cluttering the yard. It was good to see Stevens right in the midst of it, swinging tools and directing the cleanup.

But even with all this activity, she just didn’t feel anything but flat. Even in her grief for Aunty Rosario, she’d known what she was feeling. This numbness was different.

She put her nose into Kiet’s neck and breathed. He kicked his legs at the touch of her mouth on his neck, and she smiled.

“Lei.” Pono had come up on her steps, wearing a ridiculous pair of rubber waders and his ever-present Oakleys. “I heard. So sorry, Sweets.”

“Yeah.” Lei rubbed her cheek on Kiet’s head. “Thank God I have this little guy to keep me busy.”

“Heard about that IA bullshit, too. Can’t wait to give my statement about the shroud killer and what you’ve been putting up with this last year.”

Lei shrugged. “It will be what it will be.”

Pono frowned. “That doesn’t sound like you. You gotta come out fighting.”

“I’m sick of fighting.”

Pono shook his head. “You’re grieving. I get it. We lost one in the middle, between our two kids. Never thought we’d get over it, but life goes on. You’ll be okay.” He turned away, clapping on a hard hat someone had handed him, and stomped back into the black debris.

Lei stared after Pono, her oldest friend and most trusted partner. His rough wisdom, even couched in his own experience, did nothing for her. Maybe the IA investigation would find her guilty of murdering Anela Chang, of orchestrating some elaborate setup, or at the least, of participating in a feud worthy of the Hatfields and McCoys. She just couldn’t bring herself to care right now, and there was nothing to be done about it anyway.

It will be what it will be.

Kiet wriggled and fussed, and she carried him into the cottage and fixed a bottle. She was just sitting down with him on the little couch when the front door opened.

Her best friend, Marcella, stood there, big chocolate-brown eyes shiny with tears, hands on curvy hips and lush brunette hair windblown. “Lei!” she exclaimed. “Why didn’t you call me?”

Lei’s ever-present tears spilled. “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”

Marcella rushed over and sat beside Lei, hugging her. Kiet watched, bottle in his mouth, secure in Lei’s arms.

Sophie Ang, more reserved, arrived in the doorway.

“Stevens called us,” Sophie said. She was arresting in a black tank and yoga pants, cropped head high and skin like burnished bronze over toned muscles. “I was so worried about you after that weird call from the Big Island. Marcella flew back from California, and we came over together.”

Lei hadn’t thought she could cry harder, but at the thought of her husband calling her friends, bringing them here to support her, she buried her face in Marcella’s shoulder and sobbed.

Sophie swooped in and plucked Kiet from Lei’s arms, rocking him as she held the bottle and cooed at him. Lei would have been surprised at Sophie’s ease with him if she hadn’t been crying so hard.

Stevens appeared in the doorway, as filthy as Lei had ever seen him, face black with soot and smeared with sweat. He grinned, and his teeth were startlingly white. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “So glad you both could make it.”

“Yeah, I’m nothing but a constant waterworks,” Lei said, reaching for a tissue. “Sick of it already, but I don’t know how to turn it off.”

“It’s okay. You guys have been through a lot,” Marcella said, her arms still around her friend. “Take the time to rest and recover.”

“Someone has to take care of Kiet, so it’s working out okay,” Lei said. “There’s just so much to do.”

“I’m going to help,” Sophie said. “Soon as I decide what outfit to ruin. Might as well be what I’ve got on.”

“You gotta have boots and gloves, at a minimum,” Stevens replied. “Lots of rusty nails and such in there.”

“I’ve got plenty of extra gear.” Jared had come up on the porch behind Stevens. “Good to see you lovely ladies again. I remember meeting you at the wedding.”

“Yes, I remember meeting you.” Sophie slanted him a glance and inclined her head, preoccupied with the baby.

“Lei’s told us a lot about you. All of it complimentary, by the way,” Marcella said. “Thank God you were there to help.”

“He’s the reason we got out of the house alive,” Stevens said.

“It’s what I do.” Jared smiled, a bright flash in his soot-streaked face. “Great to see you two again. Either of you single? Or both, perhaps? That would be my lucky day.”

“All right, bro, rein it in,” Stevens said, mock punching his brother’s shoulder. “The girls just got here. Maybe we can all go out tonight if Lei is feeling up to it.”

Lei forced a smile. “Let’s wait and see.”

“Well, I’m ready to get dirty if you’ve got some gear for me,” Sophie said, and handed Kiet to Marcella. “Show me where to suit up.”

“It would be a shame to cover any of you up, but I guess we have to at least protect the extremities,” Jared said. “Follow me.”

Stevens waved goodbye and followed Jared and Sophie down the steps and back into the rapidly shrinking debris.

Marcella looked down at Kiet. “Too bad I’m taken. Your uncle is a firefighter fantasy come true.”

“Yeah, and he’s a good guy, too,” Lei said. “Bit of a player. I think Sophie could take him, though.”

“Sophie can take anyone she wants; she’s just picky as hell,” Marcella said. “Speaking of, I’m not just taken. I’m officially taken.” She extracted her left hand from under the baby and extended it for Lei to see a sparkling engagement ring.

“Oh, Marcella! Gorgeous!” Lei admired the channel-set diamond. “So glad you decided to go for it. Doesn’t get any more perfect than you and Marcus.”

“Yeah, it does. You and Stevens.” Marcella looked at Lei. “You guys are so beautiful together. Building a family despite everything.”

Lei brought her hand up to cover her mouth, her eyes filling as she looked at her friend. “You have no idea how hard it’s been lately. It’s like we made it through the wedding, and then a shitstorm broke. It’s been non-stop ever since. I don’t know if we’re going to make it.”

“You’ll get through it. You’ve been through so much already. I don’t know if I’d have the courage to take a chance on Marcus if I didn’t see it working with you guys. Some risks are worth taking.”

Some risks are worth taking.

“Maybe you’re right. Since you’re diving in, why don’t I show you how to change a diaper?” As Marcella laughed, Lei suddenly knew Marcella was right—and so was Pono. Some risks
were
worth taking, and she
was
going to be okay.

Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or in a month, but she was going to be okay.

Chapter 25

“S
ome cops want to talk to you,” the correctional officer said, interrupting the Fireman’s hand of cards with Pork Chop, a tatted-up meth dealer who wouldn’t take no for an answer on playing. The Fireman folded his hand and stood up, relieved. He already owed Pork Chop more than he ever expected to be able to pay back.

“See you when you get back,” Pork Chop said, with that look he had, as if you’d taste good and he might take a bite.

The Fireman hunched his shoulders, wishing he’d died when he tried to kill himself in the hospital. Instead, he’d woken up to a white light—not the white light of heaven, but the brilliant lamps of a surgery unit.

He’d lived, recovered, and gone to jail to await his trial, unable to make the high bail that had been set due to indications of flight risk. The month he’d been in Maui County Correctional Center felt like an eternity.

He followed the officer down the hall and out through a couple of sally ports to the open visiting area. MCCC wasn’t high security, so he wasn’t handcuffed as he followed the guard to sit at a small, round table. Other inmates were visiting families in the group setting, but so far, these two cops were his only visitors since he’d been in.

It reminded him again how alone he was.

He sat down and raised his eyes to the woman cop—and stood back up again, terrified.

It was the woman from the house he’d burned. She was even prettier in person than on the video, with curly hair, a slender build, and big, sad brown eyes.

“Please sit down and talk with us,” she said.

“We just want some information.” The tall man had crystal-blue eyes that contrasted with dark brown hair and a ruggedly handsome face. The grainy black and white surveillance video hadn’t done either of them justice. “We know you’ve already been interviewed several times. We just have a few more questions for you.”

The Fireman sat down cautiously. “They’ve charged me with attempted murder of a police officer, among other things. I swear, I didn’t know you were cops.”

“Let’s back up a minute and introduce ourselves. I’m Lieutenant Michael Stevens. This is Sergeant Leilani Texeira. We’re not talking to you as part of the investigation, and we don’t mean you any harm.”

“You should mean me harm,” the Fireman said. “I burned your house.”

“Did a good job of it, too,” Stevens said. “Our dog and I barely got out alive.”

“I didn’t mean for it to be such a close shave. I left the kitchen door open so you could get out. I’m an arsonist—I admit it—but I’m no murderer.”

“Got a John Doe body in the morgue that disagrees with that,” Stevens said. His steady, piercing gaze felt like a laser to the Fireman.

“That was an accident.”

“Things happen that you don’t mean when playing with something as dangerous as fire,” Texeira said. “So you’re not a murderer, but you set a really deadly fire in our house, and from what we can tell of your MO, it was the first time you ever burned a house.”

“Yeah. I was being blackmailed.” The Fireman struggled for a moment with his conscience, then said, “I was paid, too. Paid and blackmailed.”

“So someone found out you were doing the cane fires and paid you to burn the house?”

“Yes. And made it clear that if I didn’t, they were going to turn me in. They offered me a five-thousand-dollar bonus for any fatalities. I told this to the other cops who interviewed me. I decided to try to get the money but not kill anyone. Keep the blackmailer off my back. But…after the fire, he contacted me again. Wanted me to find a way to burn you in the cottage.” The Fireman looked down at his hands. “I’d found out you were cops on the news. Knew I was in deep and it was only going to get deeper. So I tried to run.”

“And then I came to the door, and you had a heart attack,” Stevens said.

“Yeah.”

A pause.

“Can you tell us anything about the blackmailer?”

“He had a lot of surveillance video on you and your family.”

The cops looked at each other. The Fireman could tell they hadn’t known this. “What else?” Stevens asked.

“He had plenty of money. Contacted me on a phone with texts, delivered stuff he wanted me to use, like the tranq gun, via UPS. He was watching me. I thought it was through the window at first, but now I think he had my apartment wired, too. So he knows technology.”

“That’s how they’re going to prove the case against you in court,” Stevens said. “Your online footprint on the forums. On your computer.”

The Fireman shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’m in here, where I deserve to be.”

“I want to thank you for not trapping my husband and family in the house,” Texeira said. “You could have. So easily.”

The Fireman gazed into her sad eyes and felt his own fill.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “And I’m sorry about that man that died in the cane field. Sorry for all of it.”

Stevens and the woman stood up. “Thanks. That helps,” Stevens said. Texeira nodded, and they both shook his hand before they left.

Stevens slung an arm around Lei as they exited Maui County Correctional and walked to his Bronco. “Interesting. We were seriously surveilled by someone familiar with technology. That still points back to Terence Chang.”

“I don’t think it’s him. Really. I think it was Anela and Ray.” Lei paused at the vehicle as he beeped it open.

“Well, I’m glad we went and talked to him. The team that replaced me on the case hasn’t kept me up to speed at all.” Stevens got in on his side and Lei on hers. He slammed the door and fired up the truck. “It’s going to be interesting to go to Ray’s trial.”

“You know the shroud killer thing isn’t coming up at all during that,” Lei said. “Other than the one shroud in the back of his truck, there’s nothing tying him to us at all. He said Anela was the one.”

Stevens was glad they were finally having a chance to talk the situation over. In the month following Lei’s miscarriage, the days had been filled with cleaning the property, haggling with the insurance company, and periodic interviews with IA and the investigators on the various cases. Stevens had returned to his station, as had Lei after two weeks of medical leave.

“Why do you think Anela was taking us into the Ni`ihau hills?” Stevens asked her. They’d been asked this by Furukawa and others but hadn’t compared answers.

“I think she was just as involved with the shroud thing as Ray. His testimony at first was just trying to deflect, to get attention off her. He was hoping she’d escape.