House of the Hanging Jade (22 page)

“Kailani, what's wrong?” Justine asked.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing. A lot on my mind, I guess.”

Marcus gave me a shrewd look. I ignored it rather than try to figure out what his problem was. I had enough to think about.

Liko came to see me after dinner. “Everything good, K?”

I shrugged. “I guess. Like I said, I just have a lot on my mind and I let it get the better of me. There's really nothing to worry about.”

“Geoffrey been bothering you again?”

“Actually, no. I mean, no more than usual. Maybe the police have had a chance to talk to him. I should call them and find out,” I said half to myself.

“Let me know if you need anything. Promise?”

I smiled at my old friend. “I promise.”

The next morning I called Detective Alana. He answered on the first ring.

“Actually, I was going to call you in a little while,” he said in answer to my question about Geoffrey.

“We had a look around the tree where you found the camera lens cover and we found some things of interest. Footprints, a candy wrapper, and a piece of paper with a phone number on it.”

“What's the number?”

He recited the number and I recognized it right away. It was my sister's cell phone number. Why would Geoffrey need that?

“I was just getting around to checking out the number when you called. Do you know if Geoffrey has tried to contact your sister?”

“No,” I replied, a lump of fear beginning to grow in the pit of my stomach.

“I'm going to send an officer to ask her a few questions. In the meantime, would you please call her and see if she's heard from him?”

“Yes,” I choked out.

I told the detective where he could find my sister and hung up with him. I quickly called my sister's cell. There was no answer. I took several deep breaths, telling myself that there was nothing to worry about, that there were lots of reasons why Kiana wasn't answering her phone. She could be with a customer, or she could be in a meeting with the ringer off, or she could have left her phone at home, or she could have forgotten to charge it.

Or Geoffrey could have gotten to her already.

In a panic, I called the store's main number. It rang several times before someone finally answered. “Is Kiana there?” I asked in a rush.

“One moment, please.”

The seconds ticked away endlessly while I waited for my sister to pick up the phone.

“This is Kiana. How can I help you?”

“Thank God you're okay,” I said breathlessly.

“Kailani?”

“Yes. Has anyone called your cell this morning?”

“I don't know. I have the ringer off. Let me check. What's wrong?”

“You remember that guy I told you about, Geoffrey, the
pupule
one? He's been spying on me from across the road. When the police went to look in his hiding place, they found your cell number written on a piece of paper.”

Kiana must have been stunned by the news, because she was silent for a moment. “Why does he have my number?” she asked, her voice rising. “Wait a minute. I did get a call from a number I didn't recognize. Do you think that was him?”

“What number was it?”

She told me the number and it didn't match the number I had for Geoffrey. But he could have used a different phone.

“So why does he have my number?” Kiana repeated.

“I don't know. The police are coming to the store to ask you some questions.”

“I don't know anything.”

“I know, but they want to talk to you anyway. Is everything all right—I mean, normal—with you?”

“I guess so,” she answered slowly.

“When the police get there, make sure you tell them about the call from that number you don't recognize. Did the person leave a voice mail?”

“Hold on and I'll check.” I could hear a tinny voice through the phone line as she listened to a voice mail on her cell phone. She came back on a moment later. “It's okay. It was someone from Haliaka's school. Let me call them back and then I'll call you. When are the police getting here?”

“I don't know, but probably pretty soon. I don't know if they're coming all the way from Hawi or if the Kona police are going to ask the questions.”

She hung up to call Haliaka's school and I stood still, staring at my phone, willing her to call me back. When she did, I was shocked by what she had to say.

“Kailani, someone followed Haliaka to school today. She told her teacher as soon as she got there this morning and they called me right away. Do you think it could have been Geoffrey?” She sounded so worried. My hatred for Geoffrey surged.

“I wouldn't put it past him,” I said grimly. “Do you have to go over to the school?”

“I told them I had to talk to the police here, then I would be over. She won't be able to take the bus anymore.”

“I wish I could be there. I would drive her to and from school every day. As it is, I'm driving Marcus and Justine to and from the bus stop now. And all this fear is because of Geoffrey. My heart just breaks for the kids, and I can't stand the thought of Haliaka being scared of a man who's only on the island because of me. I'm so sorry.”

“Don't blame yourself. You couldn't have known what would be put in motion when you left Washington,” she assured me. “But I do have to go. I think the police are here. Call you later.”

I was so nervous about Haliaka that I couldn't cook while I waited to hear from Kiana. I snatched up the phone when it rang. It was Detective Alana.

“I asked the Kona police to talk to your sister so it could be done faster,” he began. “The officer who talked to her reported back to me and I understand someone followed her daughter to school this morning.”

“Yes,” was all I could manage.

“The school only got a vague description of the car. All the child noticed was that it's blue. Do you know if Geoffrey drives a blue car?”

I tried to remember if I had ever seen Geoffrey's car.

“I don't think I've seen—wait! Marcus told me Geoffrey was in a beat-up blue car when he gave Marcus the envelope with my picture in it. But it was probably a rental. He could be driving anything now.”

“Since we know he was driving a blue car at one time, though, we will check that out. I'll stay in touch and let you know what we find out.” He rang off, and I was left alone with my thoughts and fears again. I tried making something for the family for dinner, but my heart wasn't in it. For the first time since coming to the Jorgensens, my wontons were slimy, my chicken broth had too much fat in it, and I cut myself slicing scallions. I needed to get into Kona to check on Haliaka for myself. I quickly made beef-salad wraps for lunch for anyone who wanted them, put them in the refrigerator, and left a note on the counter saying I had to run into Kona due to a family emergency and I would be back in time to prepare dinner.

I gunned my car out of the driveway, squealed onto the road, and sped quickly
mauka
to the highway. Once on the highway I forced myself to slow down so I wouldn't get pulled over. Kiana wasn't answering her cell, so I didn't know where she was. I figured she was probably still at Haliaka's school.

I drove south along the Queen K highway until I came to the small town where Haliaka's school sat along the main road. There were two police cars in the parking lot and I recognized Kiana's car right away. I jumped out and rang the buzzer to be admitted.

The woman who sat behind the desk in the main office listened to my hurried story, then picked up the phone and pressed a button. She spoke quietly into the phone and when she hung up, she showed me where the principal's office was and asked me to join the group already in there.

When I went into the office, Haliaka was in there with the principal, three police officers, and Kiana. I introduced myself to the strangers in the room. The police officers appeared to know who I was. Probably Detective Alana had told them about my relationship with Geoffrey.

The principal continued talking directly to Haliaka, assuring her she did the right thing by telling her teacher about the man in the car and by telling the officers all she could remember. He sent her back to class with a reminder that she had done nothing wrong and that none of this was her fault.

I wanted to reach out and take her in my arms and keep her there until Geoffrey had been caught, but I stayed by the window where I was standing and watched her go. When she had left the room, I apologized to everyone for all the trouble Geoffrey was causing.

“We don't know for sure that it was Geoffrey Corcoran in the car that followed Haliaka to the bus stop, but it is definitely a possibility,” one of the officers noted in a stern voice. He spoke quietly to one of his colleagues and that officer exited the room. The officer in charge explained that he had sent his coworker to interview the other children at Haliaka's bus stop to find out if any of them saw anything.

The principal turned to Kiana. “I'm afraid she needs to stay off the bus for a while, since we don't know who this person is and Haliaka was probably the target. Can you arrange for someone to drop her off and pick her up from school each day until this has been resolved?”

“Yes, of course.” Kiana's eyes were worried, her mouth drawn. “Do you think she's in any danger?”

“I would think you can keep her safe just by having an adult with her all the time.”

Kiana sighed. “I hope you're right.” She turned to me. “I wish we had an alarm system at the house.”

I knew it would make her feel better to have an alarm system, but my parents had discussed it in the past and had decided that an alarm signified distrust of the people in the small town where they lived. They didn't want to live that way, they said.

But maybe this incident would change their minds. And if it did, I would pay to have the alarm system installed right away.

Kiana went back to work when her meeting at the school was over. I needed to get back to work too, but first I stopped at my parents' bakery and told them everything that had happened that morning. They were shocked and upset. And fearful.

I proposed my idea of paying for an alarm system to be installed and they thought it was a good idea. True, they said, they didn't want the neighbors to feel distrusted, but obviously Haliaka's safety was a much more important concern. And they refused to let me pay for it. Before I left the bakery, my father was on the phone with a security firm that could install an alarm later in the week. I went back to the Jorgensens' house feeling slightly more at ease than I had been earlier in the day. I was furious with Geoffrey, though.

My cell phone rang while I was driving north. It was Detective Alana. He had a lead from a rental company on the car Geoffrey was driving. Apparently, Geoffrey was still driving the blue car and the police had issued an island-wide bulletin on Geoffrey and the car. He was becoming more convinced that it had been Geoffrey who had followed Haliaka to the bus stop.

If it was indeed Geoffrey who was driving the blue car, the detective noted, he was becoming bolder and an even greater cause for concern. I agreed. Though his department had not located him yet, the detective assured me it was only a matter of time before Geoffrey was caught and arrested. I was becoming more and more anxious about his whereabouts, and I asked Detective Alana if anyone had looked on the back roads around the area of Hawi. He said he had officers searching the area.

When I got home, I picked up the kids from the bus stop. Back in the kitchen, I was able to make another pot of wonton soup, this time without mistakes or injuries, because I was feeling more at ease having talked to Kiana and the police in Kona and having seen Haliaka with my own eyes. I felt even better knowing there would be an alarm system in place at my parents' home by the end of the week.

The kids and Lars loved the wonton soup later that evening and each ate two bowls of it. I served lemony broccoli rabe alongside it, as well as bread that I had brought from my parents' bakery. Barbie was home but didn't join the rest of the family for dinner.

She texted me later in the evening.

I took a tray of soup and bread up to her and set it on the table next to her bed. She was just coming out of the bathroom, wearing a robe and rubbing her wet hair with a towel.

“Thanks, Kailani. I'm not feeling like myself tonight.”

Her robe was tied tightly and my eyes were drawn to her waist. Did the robe hide a growing pregnancy? It didn't look like it, but many women didn't show for three or four months.

I promised to return for the tray in a while and left her to her dinner. I passed Lars on my way back to the kitchen. “Why is Barbie eating upstairs?” he wanted to know.

“She's not feeling well, I guess.”

“Dinner was great tonight,” he said with a smile. Then he hastened to add, “Not that it isn't great every night, but tonight it tasted even better.” He sounded like a nervous teenager.

I laughed. “Thank you. I need to clean up.”

He winked at me and I felt a thrill of happiness even in that tiny gesture. I briefly wondered again if Barbie was indeed pregnant.
How would Lars react to that?

As I cleaned up from dinner I got another text from Barbie.

Yes
, I texted back
. Be right up
.

I took her a large glass of ginger ale and another glass of ice and set it on her bedside table, where her food sat untouched.