"I sure hope you're not calling me from jail," he said as he picked up.

"Very funny. No, I'm here at the house, but I've been feeling bad about how we left things today."

"Bad about being a drug mule, or bad about me finding out about it?"

"Stop it. You know I'm no drug mule. Can I come over and talk?" I didn't want to invite him over to my house and risk having Beni stumble into view.

"I guess. You bringing a peace offering?"

"Sure. You want wine, mac nuts, cookies, what?"

"All of the above, babe. You got some serious making up to do."

I packed a little picnic basket and drove down to Sprecklesville. After my conversation with Beni it felt good to get away from the house for a while. I cranked the driver's side window down and let the trade winds blow my hair around.

I pulled in to Hatch's driveway and slowly approached the house with my headlights off. I was kidding myself if I thought I could sneak up on Wahine, though. Her yapping started when I was still ten yards away, and it changed to a high-pitched whine when I got out of my car. Hatch must have patched the hole in the screen door because she was inside, throwing herself against it in a rather impressive display of righteous indignation.

"Hey, babe," Hatch said as he opened the screen. Wahine shot through the door and off the porch like she'd been launched from a cannon.

"Hey, girl," I leaned down to pet her, but after a quick sniff-assessment of my hand she went for the picnic basket, ignoring my offer of an ear scratching.

"Heen, what have I told you about begging?" said Hatch.

"She probably smells the doggie rawhide I put in there," I said.

"Oh yeah, try and butter up the old man by spoiling his kid." He smiled.

"Seems to be working."

"Not so fast. What've you got in there for me?"

I pulled out a quart of pineapple/mac nut ice cream, some shortbread cookies, and a bottle of white wine.

"Wine and ice cream?" he said.

"Food of the gods."

We sat outside eating ice cream and sipping our wine while Wahine licked and chewed her rawhide. If I hadn't known better, I'd have guessed everything was rosy. A charming little family of three enjoying a night on the lanai while the wind rustled the palms and plumeria blossoms scented the air.

Hatch put his bowl down and Wahine immediately dashed over to lick it clean.

"That's kind of disgusting, you know," I said.

"No, what's disgusting is you getting mixed up with a bunch of scumbag drug dealers."

"That's what I came over to talk about. I-"

"Look, I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't want to hear how all you're doing is trying to find that missing tourist. Fact is, this is quicksand, pure and simple. You watch somebody getting sucked under and you go in to help and the next thing you know, it's you."

I blew out a breath.

"Oh yeah, tell me I don't understand. Call me a hard-ass, or a worry-wart. Thing is-I'm neither. I totally understand. And not being a hard-ass nearly killed me."

I waited. There was nothing to say, no question or comment that would make any difference.

"Remember when I told you I left the force over on O'ahu to become a firefighter because I was tired of being a cop-sick of being the dude nobody wanted to see coming? I thought playing fireman would be different. We show up and everybody cheers."

He went on. "Well, come to find out, there's lots of times people want to see cops. Like when I got hit by that jerk while I was working that wreck out on the highway last winter. Nobody cheered louder than me when that cop collared the moron who ran me down."

He paused as if reliving the two months it had taken him to heal from a badly fractured leg and shoulder. And the three months of physical therapy were probably still pretty fresh in his mind as well.

"Anyway, I didn't leave O'ahu willingly-didn't stop being a cop willingly. I left under duress. Under huge freakin' duress."

Wahine lifted her head as if she'd heard a faraway whistle. Then she moved in closer to Hatch and laid her snout on his bare foot. He scratched her head and they both sighed.

"Hatch, I didn't mean-"

"No, let me finish. I haven't told you any of this before because I was hoping I wouldn't have to. Now I know I do."

I gave a small nod, but in the gathering dark I'm not sure he saw it.

"I did the unthinkable-I fell for my female partner. Not supposed to, not encouraged by the department, that's for sure. But we were both single and we understood each other like no one else did. You got someone's back day in and day out and pretty soon you don't have a choice. It's like they become a part of you. In this case, she became the better part of me. It wasn't about looks, or sex, or physical chemistry, or any of that. It was about loyalty, and commitment, and not knowing where one of you ends and the other begins."

I felt a tightness grip my sternum. Did I really want to hear his shaggy dog story about his one true love? Hardly.

"Anyway, they tapped her for undercover. She was pretty enough for vice, so I thought they'd be dolling her up and sending her out to Waikiki to nab johns on vacation who chase their mai tais with little blue pills. She couldn't tell me what she was working on, but every night she'd come back a little more tense and a lot more paranoid."

"Finally, I'd had enough," he went on. "On my night off, I tailed her. She didn't go to one of the regular hooker traps, though. She went to a house up in Manoa Valley-way back in there, off the beaten path."

He covered his eyes and then dropped his face into his hands as if watching the memory unspool before him like a movie.

"It turned out to be a drug house-a meth lab. Right after I got there I saw a guy dragging her outside-her arm twisted up behind her back. I panicked, sure her cover had been blown and he'd made her for a cop. I jumped out and as soon as the guy saw me, it was all over. He pulled the biggest damn pistol I've ever seen and blew a huge hole right through her neck. Just like that. I popped him and got her into my car but she bled out before I even hit a paved road."

By now Hatch's voice was a husky whisper. "I didn't go to the memorial service. I didn't even eat for days 'cuz all I wanted to eat was my gun."

Wahine let out a long doggie sigh and nuzzled her snout into the arch of his foot.

"It was my captain's idea for me to switch to the fire service. He had a brother-in-law over here, said he'd let me take the test."

He stopped. Something skittered under the porch but Wahine stayed put.

I had nothing to say-nothing to ask. I laid a hand on Hatch's shoulder.

"Pali," he said. "I'm begging you. Don't get involved in this. Let it go-please."

It was getting late. On the ride back home I weighed my options but they all came down to one simple truth: I'm not a quitter. I sleep better when I'm not second-guessing myself. Maybe Wong and Hatch were okay with leaving Crystal at the mercy of a bunch of drug-fueled kidnappers, but it wasn't something I could live with.

I came into the house and went upstairs to Beni's room and knocked.

Silence.

"Open the door."

Silence.

"Open this door or I'll break it down."

The sofa bed creaked.

While I waited, I silently counted. When I got to eight, I decided ten was more than he deserved. I took a couple of steps back and heaved my shoulder against the door, but it didn't budge.

Steve jerked his door open at the other end of the hall. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I need to talk to Beni."

"It's after eleven. Let the guy sleep. Besides, he's not going anywhere. You can talk in the morning."

I preferred the visual of crashing through Beni's door and shaking him until his teeth rattled, but common sense won out. After all, I'd be the one paying to fix the door.

I went downstairs and fell on my bed, not even bothering to take off my clothes.

CHAPTER 20.

I'm a light sleeper. I think it comes from being an orphan-I've never felt there was anyone looking out for me but me. So when I sensed someone in my room, I jolted upright. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I smelled him before I actually saw him. This turned out to be a good thing since recognizing his odor was the only thing that kept me from jabbing a knuckle into the larynx of the guy looming over me.

"You awake?" said Beni.

"I am now. What're you doing here?"

"It's not safe up there. I gotta be down here."

"No way, Jose. In fact, if you ever sneak into my room again, I'll take you out like week-old trash."

"No, listen to me. I showed those guys where you live-remember? I gotta be where I can take off when they come sniffin' around."

By now I was as awake as I was going to get, so I turned on my bedside lamp. Beni hovered near the end of my bed. He wore a pair of threadbare shorts that hung so low it was pretty obvious he'd blown off my demand to wear underwear. He was bare-chested and his feet were also bare.

"You planning to escape half-naked?" I said.

"I don't need no shoes. They slow me down."

"How about a shirt?"

"Look, I jus' came in here to tell you I'm not staying upstairs no more. I need to be down here, where I can make a quick getaway without breaking a leg."

"You expect me to trade rooms with you?"

"Nah. I'll sleep on the couch. That way, I can hear 'em coming."

"Fine. But every morning you've got to put away your pillow and blanket-make the room look presentable. I'm not running a flophouse here."

He grunted his agreement and left.

After Beni's middle-of-the-night foray into my room I slept fitfully until daybreak. I got up at six-thirty and got ready to go down to the PoP to work out some of the anxiety I'd piled on since yesterday-Wong's indifference to Crystal's situation, Hatch's revelation about his past, and Beni's certainty the drug dealers would show up at my door.

By seven I was on my way to the kung fu guan, with the rising sun nearly blinding me as I drove down Baldwin Avenue, when my cell phone rang. I checked the caller ID. It read: KINGSTON, O.

"Aloha, Ono," I said. "This is Pali. Did you 'butt dial' the wrong number?"

"Hey, what're you talking about? I been waiting for your call. Thought for sure you'd given me the heave-ho."

"Since when is the girl supposed to do the calling?"

"So now you're gonna go all Southern Belle on me? Besides, when we were over in Honolulu you mentioned you were 'kind of involved.' I figured that was a nice way of telling me to shove off."

A few seconds of silence allowed us both time to realize what was going on.

"Okay," I said, "I'm really glad to hear from you. But I'll bet you weren't calling me at the crack of dawn to check on my relationship status. What's up?"

"Tell you what, let me buy you breakfast at Hargrove's. What I've got to say may take a while."

How could I refuse? I loved the mac nut pancakes at Hargrove's, and I only had to walk up thirteen stairs from there to get to my shop. Free breakfast and I didn't have to find a new parking spot-works for me.

"Sounds great, but can you give me a couple of hours? I'm on my way to work out in Pa'ia. I can be down in Lahaina by nine."

"No worries. See you then."

Ono looked even better than I remembered. He wore a white cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark khaki cotton shorts. His tanned face contrasted with his brilliant white smile. I could almost hear Tomika's voice nagging him to get his teeth professionally whitened. You'll look so good. Ten years younger! It looked like he'd taken her advice.

We hugged an aloha and he asked me what I wanted to eat. I didn't even look at the menu before ordering Kona coffee, guava juice, and mac nut pancakes. If I ever get on death row-which is highly unlikely since Hawaii doesn't allow capital punishment-I'd have no trouble figuring out my last meal. It'd be this very same breakfast.

"You know, today was supposed to be the wedding," said Ono.

"Don't remind me. I've got vendors I've got to pay for not using their services. Oh, while I'm thinking of it, how much do I owe you for cancelling?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. If I don't take the boat out it doesn't cost me anything."