Distant Echoes Page 7

  “Identity?”

  Lawton shook his head. “Nothing to tell who he is.”

  “Where’s the body?” Jesse wanted to check this out himself. Lawton nodded toward a group of men near the beach, and Jesse went toward the huddled sailors.

  The men stepped aside when Jesse arrived. He knelt beside a man about thirty-five. He was dressed in a black wet suit. The man had removed his tank and buoyancy compensator—or BC—and had unzipped his wet suit.

  “Any idea what killed him?” Jesse asked the doctor standing at the edge of the group.

  The physician stepped forward and crouched beside Jesse. He pulled back the edges of the man’s wet suit to reveal the diver’s abdomen. A dart was still in the man’s flesh. “You found a dart gun. Maybe ballistics can figure out if that’s the weapon that killed him.”

  The more Jesse stared at the man’s face, the more he looked familiar. He bore Hawaiian features. It might be wise to have a lifelong native of the island look at him. Kaia’s face flashed into his mind.

  “Get me a camera,” he told Ensign Masters. When his aide brought him a Polaroid, he snapped several photos, taking care to get only the face so it wouldn’t be too graphic for Kaia.

  He handed the camera back to Masters. “Mahalo. I’ll see what I can find out. Call me if anything else happens.” He pocketed the pictures and headed for his Jeep. Once on the road, he pulled out his cell phone and called Duncan.

  “Hey, buddy, you’ve lived here a long time. Have you ever had any day care for your kids?” Too late he realized he should have asked someone else. With Duncan’s kids on the mainland, it had to be a sore subject for him.

  Duncan inhaled softly, but when he spoke his voice was still full of good humor. “Not really. My wife didn’t work.” He paused a minute. “You know, my brother’s wife is looking for work. Maybe she would have time to watch Heidi. Want me to ask her?”

  “What’s she like?”

  “Faye? She’s great. She and Curtis have only been married a year, but they’re nuts about each other. I think she has some kids from a previous marriage and she’s pretty congenial. I think she’d be good with kids.”

  “Go for it then, if you don’t mind.” Duncan promised to get back to him by morning, and Jesse clicked off the phone and tucked it onto his belt. If only his problems at the base could be so easily solved.

  Kaia closed her eyes and let the beat of the drums reach inside to the woman most people never saw. In the thrall of the drums, she wasn’t the unloved and abandoned daughter of Paie Oana, but a daughter treasured by God and worthy in His sight. The fluid movements of her hands and body told the story of her life and how God had found her. The hula healed the inner place where she was still a child crying for her mother.

  At least until the music ended.

  The thump of the drums echoed across the waters then ebbed with the tide. She opened her eyes and let out her breath. If only the refreshment she felt in the dance could last beyond the harsh light of tomorrow’s sunrise.

  Heidi’s eyes were round. “Could you really teach me to do that?”

  Kaia smiled. “Sure. Come here.” She placed the little girl in front of her and put her hands into position then began to help her mimic the simplest movements. “This means ‘praise to God.’” She showed Heidi how to lift her hands into the air with the palms extending upward. “Every movement in hula has a specific meaning, and every expression of the dancer’s hands has great significance. The movements of your body can even express plants and animals.”

  Heidi pursed her lips and tried to follow Kaia. After about fifteen minutes, she dropped her hands. “I don’t think I’ll ever learn it. Why bother?”

  “The hula is not just a dance,” Kaia said, “but our culture. Important things like Hawaiian history and legends, the Hawaiian language, prayers, poetry, daily life—it’s all in the hula dance. Study the hula, and you learn a whole lot about Hawai’i besides just the dance.”

  Kaia touched Heidi’s head. “It takes time. We’ll work on it more another day.” Kaia watched her join the children who had attended the lu’au with their parents. She found a large piece of driftwood near the bonfire and dropped onto it. The blaze had died to embers now, and people had begun to depart. The aroma of roast pig from the now-open pit off to her right no longer smelled appetizing with her stomach full.

  Her brother Mano sat on the piece of driftwood with her. He glanced at her but didn’t say anything. He seemed lost in thought, his usually smiling face pensive. Mano was the shark that his Hawaiian name meant. He carried not an ounce of extra fat, his strength stood him in good stead as a Navy SEAL, and he was the fastest swimmer Kaia had ever seen. Given the tension between her brothers, she wondered if it had been a good idea for both of them to take leave at the same time.

  The festivities were almost over, and she felt every minute of the late hour. The children began to sing a song about dolphins, and Kaia smiled. She loved this song, and she chimed in. Several people glanced at her, and the song died on her lips.

  Heidi scooted over beside her. “Your voice sounds funny. Like all the notes are the same.”

  Their grandfather was on the other side of the bonfire. He grinned. “Kaia has a beautiful face but the voice of a frog.” He directed his gaze at Kaia. “Your rendering of the hula made me wish my old limbs could move like that. I could try it, but I’d likely be too crippled to walk tomorrow.” He grinned and laid his gnarled hand on her head.

  Kaia dug her toes into the cool sand. “As much as I love music, you’d think God would have given me a singing voice as well.” She watched Heidi get up to roast a marshmallow.

  “I am proud of you just like you are, lei aloha.”

  Her grandfather’s words and the way he called her “dear child” in Hawaiian filled Kaia’s chest with a tight feeling. Her grandfather wasn’t often so serious. Laughter was as essential to her grandfather as approval was to her. She wished she didn’t have such a need to make other people happy. In her head she knew God’s approval should be enough, but she craved praise the way crabs craved the hot sun. It had driven her to excel in school and to seek a career that was hard to attain. In the back of her mind, she knew reaching great heights as a marine biologist wouldn’t bring her mother back.

  “Mahalo, Tutu kane,” she said.

  Oke glanced toward Mano. Avoiding his grandfather’s gaze, Mano kicked off his slippers then slid from the driftwood onto the beach. He stared into the embers the wind kicked into the sky.

  “If that face gets any longer, I can use it for bait,” Oke said in a jovial tone of voice.

  “Don’t try to cheer me up, Tutu kane.”

  “I wouldn’t think of it,” Oke said, his smile widening. “If misery makes you happy, who am I to complain?”

  “Did you and Bane have a fight?” Kaia wished she could heal the breach between her brothers. Sometimes she felt like a juggler with a burning torch in each hand.

  “You could call it that.” Mano didn’t look at either of them.

  “Your fault, huh?” Kaia sympathized. Sometimes Bane took his position as older brother too seriously. They all had to make their own mistakes.

  He shrugged. “I get tired of him telling me what to do. He’s not the all-knowing, wise kahuna. That title goes to Tutu kane.”

  Their grandfather smiled. “I think I’ve abdicated that position to Bane. He’s wiser than I was at his age. You should listen to him.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Mano ground out. “You don’t have to deal with his constant disapproval.” He glowered at his brother, who stood talking to a few lingering patrons. “I get here after working all day, and he starts in.”

  “What was the argument about?” Maybe she could get him to cool down.

  “He keeps harping on Pele Hawai´i. I get tired of hearing his opinion. If he’d go with me one time, he’d see it isn’t the radical group he thinks it is.” Mano glanced up at her. “He wants me to get out.”

  �
��Bane proves his wisdom by this advice.” Oke frowned and reached down to take a handful of sand, which he sifted through his fingers.

  “Tutu kane, how can you say that? You of all people? The oyster beds are gone because of politicians. You can no longer find more than a handful of pearls. Our islands were annexed by the United States without a treaty, the U.S. lied to the United Nations and said we had become a state, and our heritage has been systematically stamped out. Even Clinton formally apologized for the overthrow of the Hawaiian government.”

  Oke smiled. “I couldn’t hold my breath now long enough to grab a handful of sand twenty feet down. Change is sometimes hard, Mano, but you can never go back. You romanticize the old Hawai’i, but you forget the hardships and bloodshed our ancestors endured, the human sacrifice they committed. We are Americans now. I fought in World War II as an American. I would not go back, even if I could.”

  Mano gave the rock in his hand a hard toss. “Things would be better if we were self-governing.”

  Oke rolled his eyes. “That makes as much sense as putting a myna in control of your boat.” He smiled and patted his grandson on the arm then stood and walked to the last group of tourists.

  “Tutu kane doesn’t understand.” Mano stood and kicked sand over the last of the fire. “I wish someone in the family would listen to me.” He turned and his gaze caught hers.

  The last thing Kaia wanted to do was attend a political meeting that promoted Hawai’i’s secession. Looking into Mano’s face, though, she knew she had to do something. “I’ll go with you.”

  “You will?” His eyes widened.

  She frowned. He sounded almost disconcerted. She’d thought he would be thrilled. “As long as you don’t expect me to keep quiet if they start spouting nonsense about leaving the United States.”

  “Just listen, okay? Don’t make any judgments. And don’t offer your opinion. And really, you don’t need to go. I was just aggravated with Bane.”

  She sighed at his anxious tone. He was probably afraid she’d embarrass him. “I said I would go, so I’m going. Will there be talk of secession?”

  “Yes, but try not to get riled about what they say. Just listen and don’t make a scene.”

  “Of course I won’t make a scene. But I’m an American, Mano. So are you. I love my Hawaiian heritage, but I love America too.”

  The sound of a motor mingled with that of the rolling surf, and Kaia turned to look. Jesse waved to her from the helm of a small white craft that glowed in the moonlight. She stood, brushing the sand from her legs. Her hair was probably a wreck from the wind, and she felt sweaty and unkempt. She wished she had time to brush her teeth. She needed all her courage to face the confident Jesse Matthews.

  Heidi spotted him and raced to greet him. “Uncle Jesse!”

  He lifted her in his arms and swung her around. “Having fun?”

  “I’m having the best time,” she proclaimed. “Did you find the bad guy who shot at us?”

  “Maybe.”

  His gaze sought Kaia’s. He stared at her as if he were trying to see inside her head. Whatever he had come to tell her, she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like it.

  “Heidi, why don’t you go fix your uncle a plate of roast pig?” she suggested.

  “Okay.” Heidi slid from Jesse’s arms. “I’ll be right back.”

  Kaia waited until she was out of earshot. “Let’s hear it. Did you find the man?”

  “I’m not sure. A diver washed ashore. I wondered if you could look at a picture and identify him. He was dressed in black like the one who attacked you, though that doesn’t tell us much since so many wear black. We recovered a dart gun from the bottom of the ocean as well.” He fished in his pocket.

  “He’s dead? He was very much alive when I saw him last. Drowned?”

  Jesse shook his head and held out a group of Polaroid pictures. “Shot with a dart in the stomach. The autopsy will show what poison was used.”

  She took them but couldn’t bring herself to look yet. “You’re saying there was more than one diver out there?”

  “We don’t know yet. We don’t even know if this man is connected with the one you saw. Take a look.”

  Mano joined her. “I heard you about got my sister killed today. I don’t want her doing this anymore.”

  “I’ll make sure she’s protected.” Jesse’s voice was steady, and he turned to face Mano.

  The two men looked like two sea lions about to butt heads. Kaia put her hand on her brother’s arm. “It was no big deal, Mano.”

  Jesse’s fists uncurled at her soft tone. “Don’t worry. Really, I’ll make sure she’s protected.”

  Conscious of his intent gaze, Kaia turned away and stared at the photos in her hand. She had to look at them. “Got a flashlight? It’s hard to make out in the dark.”

  “I’ve got one.” Jesse jogged to the boat and came back with a light. He trained it on the photograph.

  Kaia studied the man. The Hawaiian face was square and swarthy with thick lips and nose. The man had a goatee, and she tried to remember if the man who’d attacked her had sported facial hair. Everything had happened so fast, it was hard to remember. “The build seems right. But I didn’t get a good look at his features. He looks familiar though.”

  She’d seen this guy somewhere. The knowledge played hide-and-seek at the edge of her consciousness. Mano crowded her to look at the photo as well. He drew in a sharp, quickly smothered gasp.

  “You know this guy?” she asked him.

  He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I don’t think so.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I can always tell when you’re lying, Mano. Who is he?”

  “For a minute I thought it was a guy I knew.” He shrugged and laughed, an unconvincing sound.

  “Who does it look like?”

  He sighed. “You’re like a pit bull sometimes, you know that? I’m sure it’s not him, but it almost looks like Jonah Kapolei.”

  The name didn’t ring a bell with Kaia. “How do you know him?” Mano grimaced and she thought for a minute he wouldn’t answer.

  He finally shrugged. “He’s the treasurer for Pele Hawai´i. But I don’t think this is him.”

  “The sovereignty group?” Jesse asked.

  Kaia nodded. She didn’t like where this was heading. What was Mano involved in? Maybe it was a good thing she was going to that meeting on Saturday. She could see if maybe the group was behind everything going on at that base.

  Six

  Faye Latchet tied her tennis shoes then stood and looked in the full-length mirror. “I’m too pale,” she told her husband. She pinched her cheeks and tried a confident smile on for size. It only succeeded in deepening the lines around her mouth and eyes. She hated growing old.

  She dropped the smile and stared into her own dark and haunted eyes. Those eyes had seen too much pain and disgrace. Caused it too. Maybe this was the wrong thing to do.

  “You’re obsessing. Just be yourself and he’ll love you.”

  “I should have stuck with the original plan to be your secretary,” Faye said. “At least I can type.”

  “You can still do that if you want to wait, but Kaia won’t be at the lab for a couple more weeks. It seems heaven-sent that Duncan called with this need.” He patted her shoulder.

  “I’m frightened,” Faye admitted. She turned and buried her face in her husband’s chest.

  “You’ll be fine.” He hugged her then dropped a kiss on her hair. “You can’t go back now. We’ve talked it over, and you know this is what we have to do. It’s too good an opportunity to pass over.”

  “I know, I know,” she said, pulling away. Why couldn’t he see how hard this was for her? And to watch a child at her age wouldn’t be easy either. A tiny resentment flared, but she quickly squelched it. Curtis was doing this for her. She couldn’t get cold feet now.

  She pasted a happy look on her face. “I’m ready. It was just last-minute jitters.”

  “That’s my girl,” he sa
id, giving her an approving hug. He glanced at his watch. “We’re going to be late if we don’t get moving.”

  She grabbed her purse from the bed and followed him to the car. “Should I give the little girl the gift right off or wait until he hires me? If he hires me.”

  He dropped the gearshift into drive and pulled onto the street. “He’ll hire you. He’s desperate. But I’d still wait until things are settled.”

  Faye fell silent as her husband drove from Waimea to Seaworthy Labs. “You sure he said to meet here instead of at the base?”

  “I’m sure.” Curtis’s voice was patient, and he gave her an indulgent look as he pulled into the parking lot. “There’s his Jeep. He’s already here.”

  Her heart surged to her throat, and she felt faint. She hadn’t had a panic attack in years. She couldn’t have one now, she thought, licking dry lips.

  Curtis pulled beside the Jeep and shut off the engine. “Showtime,” he murmured.

  He made it sound so easy. She would be the one on display, not him. Quit obsessing, she told herself. After all the scams she’d pulled over the years, this would be easy. Almost as easy as turning tail and running away.

  But she was through running. It was time to stay in one place and fight for what she wanted. She’d always been good at getting what she wanted. This would be no different.

  Jesse looked in his rear-view mirror and saw Curtis’s car pull in. He was curious for his first glimpse of Faye Latchet. He just hoped and prayed she would work out. Duncan seemed to like her. He wished things were different and he could take leave to spend this time with Heidi, but things at the base demanded his attention now. He felt caught between a lava flow and a tsunami.

  Heidi pouted in the backseat of the Jeep. “I don’t know why I can’t stay with Kaia.” Her lips trembled. “Or Donna,” she added grudgingly.

  It might have been easier if Heidi had taken to Donna as well as she had to Kaia. Jesse thought if he’d asked Donna, she might have taken leave to care for his niece. The problem was that she might expect something from him in return. Something he wasn’t prepared to give.