"So anyway, I went up there where he was and he-"

"Wait a minute, where was he?"

"Up at 'Iao Valley. Way past the parking lot, up on the hill. He musta been some kind of Boy Scout or somethin' cuz he was running all kinda crazy up through there, jumpin' over rocks and bushes and stuff. It was pa'akiki keeping up with that dude."

Another tuft of chenille bit the dust.

"So anyways, we get way up in there, and he's got this girl in a blue tent. She had hardly any hair on her head, but she was still a looker. They had her all tied up. She wasn't freaking out or nothin', though. I gotta say, either she was real doped up and or she didn't realize what was going down. She wasn't screaming or cryin'-nothin' like that. She just sat there, watching us. Never once made a sound." He stared down at the bare spots he'd made on my bedspread.

I waited. After a half-minute of silence, I nudged him on. "So, what'd you do?"

"Whaddaya mean? What'd I do? I followed orders, man. When that Jackson dude took off and didn't give them their money Slam got real pissed off. But I didn't have nothin' to do with snatchin' that girl or any of that."

"Okay, so why do you think the police are after you? Seems to me if you'd tell them what you know about this kidnapping, you'd be a hero."

"Jeez, are you stupid? It's not like that. They're gunnin' for me."

"Are you saying the police might be somehow involved in it?"

"Well, duh. Give the lady a prize." He snorted and leaped up from the bed. "I need a lawyer, man. No offense or nothin', but you're lame. I need to get off this rock, maybe go over to Kauai and see some friends I got there. Lay low for a while. But first I gotta find me a lawyer who can cut a deal with the cops."

When I pulled in behind the Palace of Pain, Sifu Doug's Jeep was the only car in the alley. So far, so good. I just needed three minutes of one-on-one time.

I went inside and he was in the far corner, sitting cross-legged on the mat, apparently deep in meditation. Under normal circumstances, I'd have tip-toed to the changing room and quietly put on my uniform. Unfortunately for me, normal circumstances had gone AWOL ten days ago.

"Sifu? Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to you."

He opened one eye and gave me the look I'm sure cinched him getting picked for Special Forces a decade earlier. "I was meditating. You know the rules."

"Yes, and I know the punishment, but this can't wait, Sifu. It's about your cousin."

He shot me a wry smile.

"He's in huge trouble," I went on, "and not just with those drug dealers. Now he thinks the police are after him too."

"Pali, the dude's done hard time. He's a drug user and a well-known dealer. I can't think of a time when the cops weren't after him."

"No, this time it's different. He's scared and he wants to turn himself in, but he's convinced the police are involved in Crystal's disappearance. He wants someone to go talk to them on his behalf. I thought about your brother James, the lawyer. He did a good job for us last time. Do you think you could put in a good word and see if he'll help Beni?"

"You know how many times James has pulled Beni's sorry butt outta the fire? Ten, maybe twelve times now. James is getting a rep down at the courthouse for doing more pro bono work for his dumb-ass cousin than he does for actual paying clients."

I gave him my I'm begging you face.

"Okay, okay. I'll call James and see what he says. But he's not gonna be happy about it."

"Tell him it's an emergency. Beni's got solid information on a kidnapping that he's willing to trade for leniency and safe passage to Kauai. He's gone up to where they're holding my missing girl, Crystal Wilson. She's up in 'Iao Valley. If we move fast enough we can probably find her."

Doug shook his head. "She's been gone for what-ten days-now? I think you better prepare yourself for a worst case scenario, Pali."

"You, of all people, are telling me to give up?"

"Look, you grew up here, but your auntie sheltered you from the kind of scum Beni hangs out with. I've seen what those bottom feeders will do for a snort or a hit. And I'm sorry to say, but I got a bad vibe about your missing girl's chances."

"But you'll call James?"

"It's a done deal, Pali."

I bowed deeply from the waist. "Mahalo, Sifu. And with all due respect, I think you're wrong about Crystal. Beni said she was acting very calm-not trying to escape or give the kidnappers any grief. I'm hoping that now they know the ransom isn't going to get paid they'll just abandon her. But she won't last long up there in that valley all by herself. We need to get moving."

CHAPTER 22.

I stopped by Farrah's on my way home from Palace of Pain. She was in the store, dusting bottles of expensive balsamic vinegar that'd been there for months and would probably never find a home. In traditional Hawaiian-style cooking we use a lot more Spam than prosciutto, and we go heavy on the mayo, but pass up the extra virgin olive oil.

"Hey," Farrah said, "must be my lucky day-seeing you two days in a row."

"I was down at the PoP. Thought I'd drop by before going home."

"And...?" She cocked her head.

"And, I'm kind of at loose ends."

"Still worried about your girl?"

"More than ever."

I told her about my breakfast meeting with Ono and Beni's recent recollection of having gone to the kidnapping site.

"Do you believe him?" she said.

"Yes and no."

"Meaning..."

"Meaning it seems like he knows a heckuva lot more than he's telling me. But I can't push him too hard. He's drying out from a drug binge and he's paranoid."

"What about?"

"He doesn't think he's safe up at my place," I said. "And truthfully, I won't be sorry to see him leave. But I haven't a clue where to stash him until his lawyer can work out a deal with the police."

"Why don't you bring him down here?" By now she'd moved from dusting stock to standing behind the sales counter. She opened the cash drawer and took out a fistful of coins and started stacking them into coin wrappers.

"Farrah, the whole town comes through here. According to him, he's got a target on his back and probably a price on his head. Half an hour after someone sees him here, one of your customers will blab to his sister, who'll turn around and tell her neighbor. Then the neighbor will call his cousin who's either a cop or a drug dealer. Whichever way it goes down, it's not a happy outcome for Beni."

"I wouldn't have him stay down here in the store. I'd put him in my apartment-upstairs. Nobody but you knows I'm up there. He'd be totally off the radar."

I hesitated. The last thing I wanted was to drag my best friend into what was quickly becoming a complicated-and risky-mess.

"Besides," she went on, "you said yourself you don't think he's being straight with you. I've got ways to make him talk."

Unlike me, Farrah doesn't rely on physical strength to subdue her opponents. With her it's strictly mental. She's skilled at using paranormal, psychological, and her self-described 'womanly wiles' to get people to do what she wants. And once she's made up her mind about something-game over.

"Okay, I'll bring him down. You really think you can get him to tell all?"

She pulled a ten-dollar bill from the till. "I got a handsome dead president here who says I can."

"I'm not betting with you. I can't afford to lose-again."

"Okay, no money-just bragging rights. Give me an hour or so, then bring him down-after one-thirty. It doesn't look like I'm gonna have much of a lunch rush today, but just in case, let's hold off until I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get our pal Beni settled in."

When I told Beni the news he scowled. "I know her. She's that hippie chick who runs the Pa'ia store. That place charges like double what you'd pay for a pack of smokes at WalMart."

"Doesn't matter. She won't let you smoke there anyway."

"I'm not going."

"Your choice. But if you stay here I'm calling Detective Wong at the Police Department and tell him how you and your buddy Slam kidnapped Crystal Wilson and took her up to 'Iao Valley. He's got the ransom note so he'll be eager to see who wrote it."

"I told you-I didn't kidnap her. I just planted the hair and stuff."

"Doesn't matter. What you did is called being an 'accessory to a crime.' And guess what? It carries the same punishment as the crime. And the crime we're talking about here-kidnapping with intent to extort a ransom-is a Class A felony. Conviction means twenty years hard time."

He sneered as if I'd just told him a really old, really lame, joke.

I went on. "And, thanks to you, now I'm in the same boat. Since I'm harboring a fugitive involved in a major felony, I could be accused of obstruction of justice. They can go for hard time on that one too, but if I give you up to the cops, I'll probably walk."

"I told you to get me a lawyer, not talk like one."

"Okay, I already did that. I asked Sifu Doug to call your cousin, James, and see if he's willing to help."

Beni shook his head. "That dude's weak, man. I been to court with him like a million times and every single time I end up in jail. He's so lame he couldn't keep his own self out of jail if the judge was his mama."

"Beni, you're a convicted drug dealer. I don't think Gloria Allred's gonna be flying in anytime soon to defend your bony ass."

"Who?"

"Listen, Farrah's offered to hide you in her apartment until you and James can work something out with the police. Take it or leave it."

"It true she won't let me smoke at her place? Not even regular cigarettes?"

"We leave in about an hour. I suggest you use the time to take a shower."

Farrah greeted Beni with a warm hug, which was pretty darn big of her since Beni hadn't used his time to take a shower but instead had paced the backyard sucking down cigarettes as fast as he could light them. My car, my hair, my entire body reeked of burned tobacco-but it was nothing compared to the cloud of funk coming off Beni.

"Ho'okipa to my home, Peni'amina," Farrah said as she stepped back to survey the skinny, disheveled man standing before her.

"Huh?" said Beni.

"Ho'okipa means welcome."

"I know that," he snarled. "What's that other thing you said?"

"Peni'amina? That's your name-Benjamin-in Hawaiian. I looked it up."

"The name's Beni. Just Beni. Nobody-not even my dead tutu-ever called me Benjamin."

Farrah locked eyes on mine. Her face revealed she was none too pleased with her new guest. She looked as if she'd been promised winsome George Clooney and "winning" Charlie Sheen had shown up instead.

I glanced around the tiny apartment. "Well, I'll let you two work out the sleeping arrangements. I need to get back down to Palace of Pain and pick up James. He doesn't want anyone to see him coming or going. Doesn't want to tip off anyone looking for Beni."

"Ha! What he don't want," Beni said, "is to get the window in his fancy Mercedes busted out, like last time. The guy's hupo-stupid. He got no street smarts. When I get a chance I'm gonna find me a better lawyer-an akamai one with enough brains to bribe the judge. I'm sicka doin' time 'cuz that dude's a Twinkie."

"Twinkie?" said Farrah.

"Yeah, you know, like brown on the outside but white and squishy on the inside."

I hurried down the stairs. The faster a deal could be worked out with the police, the faster Beni'd be gone and my best friend could get someone to fumigate her apartment.

The blinds were drawn in Sifu Doug's office. I heard James and Doug talking in low tones but they stopped as soon as I rapped on the office door.

"Who goes there?" said Sifu Doug in his Army Ranger voice.

"It's me-Pali."

"Enter."

I'd seen James before, under both social and professional circumstances, but he looked different this time. His face looked pale and pinched; his eyes merely slits. He was perched on the edge of a folding chair, wearing a black and tan aloha shirt and khaki pants. A beige sport coat was draped over the back of his chair. He stood when I entered.

"James," I said, extending my hand.

"Hey Pali." He gave me a half-hearted handshake.

"C'mon, brudda," Doug said, sounding as if he was picking up their conversation from where they'd left off. "He's family. And it's not like it's you who's going to jail."

"Dealing with him is worse than jail. Beni serves his time and it's over. For me, it's a never-ending string of insults and snide remarks. He's trashed my reputation. Even the judges take shots at me 'cuz I sound like a fool trying to defend him."