I'm Kona Love You Forever (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series Book 6) (24 page)

“
These
lei
are for Lili and David,” Loke said. “But I don’t see them. Do you know where they are?” She scanned the crowd. It had grown to twice the size in the past ten minutes.

Ray checked his watch. “Wasn’t this blessing supposed to begin at two?”

Loke took his hand and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You can take the
malihini
out of the mainland, but you can’t take the mainland out of the
malihini
,” she said.

“
Lili was over by the canoe last time I saw her,” I said. I pointed to a beautifully constructed wooden canoe modeled after the
Hokule’a
, the ancient Polynesian canoe which was built to recreate the voyage from Bora Bora to Hawaii. The canoe on the playground had a wide deck and a carefully crafted wooden sail. Little kids were scrambling over it like ants on a dropped jam sandwich.

“Aren’t these wooden play structures beautiful?” Loke said. “Let’s look around a
bit before the blessing starts.”

“It’s already almost three,” said Ray
, as he and Loke headed off. His voice had the exasperated quality of a punctual person stuck in a “whenever” world.

About ten minutes later
, Lili and David waved at me to join them in the front row of seats reserved for special guests. I shook my head, but soon David was at my side.

“Lili wants you up there
with us,” he said. “They told me they’re gonna do something nice for my mom.”

“But I’m not a part of this,” I said. “I’m just an on-looker.”

He glanced back at Lili. “She’s already totally freaked out. I may need back-up.”

“Okay,” I said. He started to lead me back to
ward the seats, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Can I talk to you a minute before we go over there?”

“Sure.”

I told him the high points of what I’d learned from the coroner’s report. I stuck to the facts: the precipitously low blood sugar and signs of asphyxiation, the minor injuries, and the “undetermined” cause of death. His eyes narrowed.

“I apologize for bringing this up
when we’re here to honor your mom,” I said. “But I’ll be leaving soon and I thought you should know. It may not have been suicide.”

“
How’d you find all this out? My sister called about the autopsy but they wouldn’t tell her anything.”

I stumbled for an explanation. No way I wanted to
delve into the details of how I’d come across the information, and under no circumstances would I even hint about Shayna’s possible involvement.

“Well, I can’t exactly say—”

The
kahu
called everyone to order with the forlorn sound of blowing a conch shell. I told David we’d have to talk about it later and we scurried to take our seats. Talk about “saved by the shell.”

***

They renamed the children’s play area in honor of Malia Byers. The head of the parks department read the inscription on the plaque. “Malia Byers—mother, friend and playful spirit. This play park reflects her love for the
keiki
of Kona.
Ho’okipa
na mea a pau
hele mai a pa’ani
. Welcome to all who come to play.”

Malia’s five children
all stood behind the parks department guy as he read, but when he finished, he handed the plaque to David. Shayna flinched, but caught herself in time to smile for the cameras.

Loke and Ray offered to take Lili back to the coffee farm and I let them. As David had predicted, Lili had cried through the entire blessing as if it’d been a funeral. By the time things broke up she was a mess—puffy eyes, zombie pale, and with the stooped shoulders of
a person burdened with grief.

I sidled up to David. “Why is Lili taking this so hard?” I said.

“See that
wahine
over there?” he said. He pointed to a woman in a flowing purple dress heading out of the park. Her back was to us but the cotton-candy fluff of orange hair was a dead giveaway.

“Is
n’t that Charlene Cooper?”

“Yeah.
She told Lili something that got her real upset.”

“What’d she say?” I said.

“Who knows? Lili says she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

I
ran to catch up with Charlene. It was none of my business why she’d gotten fired, and there was nothing I could do about her being rude and uncooperative with me. But it
was
my business to protect my client.

I grabbed a handful of the silky
folds of purple as she stopped to unlock her car door. She whipped her head around, her eyes mere slits.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she said.

“I’m here to teach you some manners,” I said. “And today’s lesson is: don’t pick on kids. If you got a beef with me, let’s keep it between us.”

CHAPTER 27

Charlene
hauled off and punched me. A sucker punch to the left side of my jaw. It didn’t hurt as much as it startled me. I stepped behind her and hooked a forearm around her neck.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I said. “I’m obligated to tell you I hold a black belt in
kung fu
.” Her hair smelled like lavender. I’d never feel the same way about lavender again.

“
Let me go,” she said in a strangled voice. I loosened my grip and she laughed. “You idiot. Think of how this will play to a jury. I hit you because I thought you were trying to carjack me. Then you choked me and threatened me with your
kung fu
.” She trilled the musical refrain from Carl Lewis’ song, “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting.”

She went on. “
What do you think I’ll get? I’m thinking a couple grand for assault and battery and maybe ten more for pain and suffering. Sounds reasonable, don’t you think?”

I dropped my arm.
She twisted around and then smacked me, open-handed, on my right cheek. Hard.

“
That’s to teach
you
a lesson,” she said. “And today’s lesson is: mess with me and you’ll live to regret it.”

She dropped into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. She started the car and jerked it into gear. I had to jump back to avoid
getting whacked by the side mirror as she screeched away.

I looked around to see if anyone had witnessed
her assaulting me, but the few people left in the parking lot seemed intent on finding their cars and getting back to their Saturday afternoon.

I
went to my car and considered where I should go from there. My adrenaline was pumping. Best to make good use of it.

I flicked on my blinker and made the
right turn toward Kealakekua. If Shayna was so anxious to hear the results of her mom’s autopsy, I was definitely in the mood to fill her in.

***

I pulled in front of the messy yard and got out. The family dog headed toward the fence, warning me with a nasty growl.

I pushed the gate open and growled right back, “Don’t even think about it.
If you so much as drool on me, I’ll lay you out like a rug.” I guess that dog whisperer stuff works because the dog stopped growling and lowered its head, allowing me to pass.

I w
ent to the door and knocked. Shayna’s teen-aged daughter peeked out the window but didn’t open up. I knocked again. I heard yelling inside, and pretty soon, Shayna opened the door.

“David’s not here,” she said
. “The girls took him to the coffee farm.” She turned and left me standing in the doorway.

“I didn’t come to see David. I came to see you.”

She stopped.

I waited for her to invite me in, but when that didn’t
happen, I walked past her into the house.

“It was a nice blessing, don’t you think?”
I said.

“
I s’pose. Up until the part where they handed my brother the plaque. You see what I mean about him being the king? I swear; it’s like the rest of us are invisible. I’m the oldest. They shoulda given me the damn plaque.”

“Do you mind if I sit down?” I said.

“Suit yourself.”

I looked around
. Sitting would’ve required major trash hauling, so I stayed where I was.

“The results from your mom’s autopsy are in,” I said.

“How do you know?”

“Because
they told me what was in the report.”

She looked stunned. I couldn’t tell if she was s
hocked because I’d gotten the information before her, or because she knew the coroner would have, no doubt, found the lethal glucose level, and it wasn’t looking good for her. 

“She died from the car exhaust, right?” she said.

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you know, your mom had a lot of medical problems. And she counted on your help. I’m sure it wasn’t easy being at her beck and call every single day.” I hoped sounding sympathetic might smooth the way for a confession.

“
You’re right; it wasn’t easy. And it sure wasn’t fun. She never appreciated a single thing I did. If David called her, she’d talk about it for hours. I mean, a lousy phone call! But day-in and day-out, I’d fix her meals and go over there and tend to her meds. And did she ever once even thank me?”

She barked a laugh.
“No-o-o. In fact, the few times I forgot to pick up her insulin at the store, or I cooked something she didn’t like, she’d bitch about it for days. You know how they say, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’? Well, that was me and my mom all the way.”

I took a cleansing breath and centered myself. I had to be careful with what I said next.

“Shayna, sometimes a simple mistake can lead to a really bad outcome.”

She squinted at me
and shifted her weight. “I know that. After all, I’m a nurse. What are you getting at?”

“When your mom died
, her blood glucose level was about twenty milligrams per deciliter,” I said.

“That’s ridiculous. That’s, like
, off the charts.”

“
Yeah. And she had some cuts and bruises.”

“What?”

“Do you want to talk about what happened when you gave your mom her shot that morning?” I said.

Her mouth gaped open and her eyes widened as if she’d smelled smoke and suddenly remembered she’d left the iron on
in the bedroom.

“Oh
, no,” she said. “I messed up.”

Shayna
’s wail started deep in her throat and rose to a high-pitched keening within seconds. Her daughter came flying out of a back room. “What’d you do to my mom?” she said. “Get out of here. Right now.”

I hustled past the dog and back to my car. I could still hear Shayna’s
wailing as I got inside and cranked the engine. She wasn’t a very likeable person, but it was hard not to feel sorry for her. Whether intentional or unintentional, she’d admitted to “messing up” and now her mother was dead.

***

When I got back to the coffee farm, Lili was lying down. She looked a tad better than she had at the blessing, but her face was still pale and puffy.

“Where’s David?” I said.

“His sisters came and got him a few minutes ago,” she said. “They’re all going to Shayna’s. I guess something bad must’ve happened. As if David and me need any more bad stuff.”

I thought about
telling her about the autopsy, then decided to leave that to David.

“Do you want to t
ell me what Charlene Cooper said to you?” I said. “I don’t mean to pry, but I feel kind of responsible since I introduced you to her.”

Lili blinked
as if trying to dislodge a stray eyelash. I worried she was about to launch into tears again, so I quickly back-tracked. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay. She
told me my birth mom suffered when I was born. In fact, she died. Charlene said she was able to contact her last night and my ‘spirit mom’ told her to tell me she still loved me. Even though I killed her.”

“What a
horrible thing to say.”

“Yeah.
It made me so sad, you know? I mean, my mom gave up her life for me.” Her voice quavered, and she looked like she was teetering on the edge of another crying jag. “I always thought she’d just dumped me. Like she didn’t want me. And now I find out she…” Lili pressed her lips together so tightly they disappeared.

“
Listen, Lili. I’m not a mom yet, but in my job I get to talk to a lot of mothers—of both brides and grooms. And, in almost every case, their kids are their first priority. It may seem hard to believe, but I think if your birth mom had been given a choice to save you or save herself, she would’ve chosen you. Because she loved you.”