Treachery times two, p.1
Treachery Times Two, page 1
ALSO BY ROBERT McCAW
Koa Kāne Hawaiian Mysteries
Death of a Messenger
Off the Grid
Fire and Vengeance
Copyright 2022 by Robert McCaw
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
While this novel draws on the spirit and history of Hawai‘i, it is a work of fiction. The characters, institutions, and events portrayed are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-60809-464-6
Published in the United States of America by Oceanview Publishing
Sarasota, Florida
www.oceanviewpub.com
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To my wife, Calli, without whose encouragement, support, advice, and superb editing skills, I could not have written this book.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Among the many people who helped make this book possible are my dear friends in Hawai‘i who generously shared their knowledge of the culture, history, and language of the Hawaiian people. To them I owe an enormous debt of gratitude.
Special thanks must also go to Makela Bruno-Kidani, who has tirelessly reviewed my use of the Hawaiian language, correcting my many mistakes. Where the Hawaiian words and phrases are accurate, she deserves the credit. Any errors are entirely of my doing.
This book would not have been launched without the amazing support of my agent, Mel Parker of Mel Parker Books, LLC. His faith in my work and his tireless efforts made the publication of this story possible. Many kudos as well to Fauzia Burke and Michelle Fitzgerald at FSB Associates who’ve introduced my books to so many readers. I would also be remiss if I failed to acknowledge Pat and Bob Gussin, owners of Oceanview Publishing, who have devoted their phenomenal energies to supporting and publishing my work and that of many other aspiring mystery and thriller writers.
CHAPTER ONE
PELE, MASQUERADING AS a glassy-haired old woman, wandered the lava trails around the massive smoking volcanic caldera called Kīlauea. Over millennia, her temper tantrums had created the Hawaiian Islands, including Kīlauea and the four other volcanoes that make up the Big Island of Hawai‘i. Fiercely jealous of Poli‘ahu, her sister deity, the snow goddess of Mauna Kea, and locked in eternal combat with Kamapua‘a, the demigod of rain, Pele’s exploits fueled the oral history of the islands.
Often called the stone-eating woman, she’d resided inside Halema‘uma‘u, the pit crater within Kīlauea’s caldera on the Big Island’s southeastern edge. Inside Halema‘uma‘u, Pele’s red-hot lava often bubbled and smoked. Ancient Hawaiians left flowered leis and other tributes to the fiery goddess while Western haoles gifted bottles of gin. She’d quaked and rumbled over the past millennia, but, whether driven by climate change or sheer perversity, Pele’s sizzling rage had recently spiked to a 200-year high. In ancient times, she’d smothered an army of Hawaiian warriors, changing the course of Hawaiian history, and now she sought to teach present-day mortals renewed respect for her awesome powers.
Over the past month, thousands of earthquakes had rattled Hawai‘i’s Kīlauea caldera and the adjacent tiny village of Volcano, shattering windows, cracking foundations, disrupting utility connections, and spreading concern among its residents. Some with other places to go, had left, but most had lived for years with Kīlauea’s dangers and become inured to Pele’s antics.
The shaking opened fissures in the nearby Hawai‘i Belt Road, forcing motorists to slow to a crawl and, at times, closing the artery altogether. Massive cracks surrounding Halema‘uma‘u and stretching across the remaining caldera floor warned of Pele’s continuing anger and foretold calamities to come both near and far.
At the Jagger Volcano Observatory on the edge of the caldera, its number two volcanologist stood looking out at the caldera. She was observing the primordial landscape when a monster earthquake rocked the building, making it vibrate beneath her feet. Glass shattered. Cracks darted across the concrete floor. Thunderous sounds blasted her ears. She grabbed the edge of a massive worktable for support. The seismometer on her computer screen began bouncing off the chart before her computer suddenly stopped dead. She scanned the scene through the windows, now empty holes devoid of glass, overlooking the caldera and gasped.
Whole sections of the caldera floor had collapsed, plunging into the abyss created by the withdrawal of magma from the chamber beneath the volcano. Clouds of debris rose like thunderheads. In an instant, the Halema‘uma‘u crater doubled in size and depth. The pit that had been a small part of Kīlauea’s five-square-mile caldera now threatened to swallow it whole. Before the violent shaking could tear the building apart around her, she ran for her life.
Unbeknownst to anyone near Kīlauea, Pele’s tentacles snaked out from the crater into a small, neglected cemetery less than a half-mile away on the outskirts of Volcano village. The ground rolled and heaved, ancient rock walls crumbled, a giant tree crashed to the ground, and headstones toppled. Cracks appeared across the graveyard and expanded first by the foot and then by the yard. Subterranean forces propelled caskets upward. Boards splintered, and caskets broke open. Cadavers lay exposed. In destroying this sacred ground, Pele unearthed a man-made mystery.
* * *
On the other side of the Big Island, Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kāne stood in a different cemetery, the one behind the old white clapboard church on the edge of Kapa‘a. He didn’t have to hunt for the gravestone he sought. He’d come often over the years and could have found his way blindfolded. After resolving each murder investigation, he always returned to Anthony Hazzard’s tombstone. Penance for the man he’d killed thirty years earlier and solace for the guilt he’d suffered in the intervening years required it.
Hazzard’s death had been on his mind of late, haunting his nightmares. It was like that for him when an investigation ended. Time buried many mistakes and healed many wounds, but not murder. It was a stain on his soul, one he’d carry to his deathbed.
Putting his hand on Hazzard’s gravestone, Koa bowed his head and thought of the investigation just ended. He’d found justice for fourteen murdered schoolchildren and four of their teachers, just as he’d earlier solved the murders of an astronomer and a pair of loners living off the grid. Inadequate recompense for killing Hazzard, those successes did nothing to assuage his guilt. But they still empowered his empathy for murder victims and motivated him to pursue the most challenging cases. He stood for a long moment contemplating his life.
Turning away from the graveyard, the killer turned cop wondered what new crime would next command his attention and define his quest for atonement.
CHAPTER TWO
NĪELE JUMPED ON the bed and began licking Julia’s face. She pushed the golden retriever away and sat up, sleepy-eyed. “Okay, okay, my girl, I know you need to go out.” She threw off the sheet, walked to the window, and peered out, expecting another day of yellowish-gray vog, the volcanic smog caused by the continuing Kīlauea eruption. Instead, brisk trade winds had cleared away the foul air. Sunshine and blue sky ruled the day.
She dressed and slipped on her running shoes. Suddenly remembering yesterday’s big earthquake, Julia did her usual check on the utility connections. With dozens of small quakes a day and frequent larger ones, the utility check had become a regular thing for Julia and most other Volcano Village residents. This morning all seemed to be in order. Turning to Nīele, she said, “You get a treat. We’re going for a walk.”
Nīele followed her to the kitchen, where Julia took the leash from its hook by the door. The dog jumped and whirled excitedly. Julia’s words hadn’t registered, but the leash was unambiguous. They walked through the neighborhood just south of Volcano village to the mile-long path through the forest where Julia let Nīele off her leash. The golden retriever scrambled through the trees, chasing a mongoose while Julia reveled in the rare clean air.
They passed through a stand of mature ‘ōhi‘a lehua trees where bright red ‘apapane birds flitted through the forest canopy, feasting on the nectar from the tree’s spiky red flowers. Julia paused beneath a huge koa tree, likely much older than her thirty-five years. Engrossed in the sounds and smells of the forest, Julia lost track of Nīele. When she finally called the dog, she didn’t come. Julia called a second time, but still no Nīele.
Barking erupted ahead where the trail passed a small, abandoned graveyard, and she hurried toward the sound. A loud moaning growl, followed by a second and then a third sent chills down her spine. The barking intensified, and the growls turned into snarls. Julia began running. Out of breath, she emerged from the forest into a clearing beside the small rural graveyard. The scene terrified her.
The ground had ruptured, splitting the cemetery and causing stone walls to collapse. Headstones lay in a jumble. Violent subterranean forces had disinterred coffins. Wild boars, attracted by the smell of rotting flesh, had ripped open burial boxes and feasted on the remains. Bones and body parts lay strewn across the grass. Nīele, with her frantic barking, had interrupted this macabre picnic.
Three male wild hogs with long snouts, thick wiry hair, and small beady eyes glared at Nīele. Several more of the large tusked animals, oblivious to the commotion, contin ued to root through the graveyard. Julia feared for both herself and her dog. Originally brought to the islands by ancient Polynesians, pigs had inevitably escaped captivity and multiplied prodigiously. Herds of marauding boars devastated forests and even stripped previously lush patches bare. Weighing up to 400 pounds, they could charge at 30 miles an hour and often killed dogs or inflicted savage wounds on people. Neither she nor Nīele would stand a chance against this pack. Nīele might outrun them, but Julia, they could chase down.
One of the boars, more massive and closer than the others, sensed Julia’s presence. Its head rose, its horn turned toward Julia, its large pointed ears pricked, and its beady black eyes focused on her. She stood fixated by the frightful animal’s bright stare. The feral beast snarled. Julia had a premonition of death and knew she had to act.
Slowly backing away, she glanced to her left and then to her right while keeping the animals in her sight. She needed a tree—one she could climb high enough to escape the marauders. She spotted one with suitable branches off to her left and made a run for it. Sensing her fear, the big boar charged. Another followed. Reaching the tree, Julia grabbed a branch and then another until she had hauled herself ten feet above the ground. Growling and snarling, the boars circled beneath her. Panicked and gasping for breath, Julia used her cell phone to dial 911.
* * *
The 911 operator assigned Officer Johnnie Maru to respond to Julia’s call. On an island with an irrepressible taste for kālua pork cooked in an imu or oven, Maru augmented his police salary by hunting pigs. Under normal circumstances, he’d have happily shot every boar in sight, but the hellish scene that greeted him when he neared the cemetery turned his stomach. Graveyards spooked him, and this one looked like something out of a horror movie. As much as he liked kālua pork, he wasn’t sure he could eat hog meat after seeing the animals feasting on cadavers. If it weren’t for the woman’s panicked voice calling him from a tree pleading for help, he’d have tossed his breakfast.
When he moved toward the cemetery, one of the wild hogs challenged him. He drew his service Glock, but the giant boar just bellowed. Maru knew better than to wait for the animal to charge and shot the beast between the eyes. It died instantly, and the rest of the pack, stunned by the gunfire, scampered into the forest before the sound faded away.
Maru wanted nothing more than to return to his cruiser, but he couldn’t leave the woman stranded in the woods. He took several deep breaths, held a wad of tissues over his nose, and skirted the cemetery. Julia’s calls guided him to her, and he helped her down. After driving her back to her house, where Nīele cowered, he returned to the cemetery.
Maru, possessed of a dim wit, owned the longest minor disciplinary record in police department history. And now he had a new problem. He could already hear his colleagues back at HQ laughing about the dummy policeman who’d wandered into Night of the Living Dead and thought it was real.
After a half dozen deep breaths, he forced himself to examine the scene so he could describe it to the police dispatcher. Some titanic force had ripped up the graveyard, knocking over and breaking headstones. Coffins had been heaved out of the ground and ripped open. He started to dial the dispatcher.
Even Maru’s fuzzy brain registered an oddity in the horrific scene. Something white fluttering in the breeze on the far side of the cemetery caught his eye. A piece of cloth maybe, but a clean white cloth in a disrupted graveyard. How did that get there? He approached and looked closer. More fabrics. Brightly colored. Moving still nearer, he saw the body, not a lifeless decomposing body from a broken casket, but the raw flesh of the recently deceased.
* * *
Chief Detective Koa Kāne arrived at the isolated Volcano cemetery ninety minutes after Julia’s 911 call. The crime scene team was already there. Walking from his police SUV, he noted with approval that technicians had taped off the area surrounding the graveyard, created an entry path, and posted an officer to control access. He exchanged nods with Maru, and the gatekeeper entered his name on a log.
Georgina, the department’s best crime scene tech, greeted him with a grim face. Short and slight of build, with a grandmotherly countenance, Georgina was known for her extraordinary tenacity and skill, along with a mischievous sense of humor.
“Bad?” he asked.
“Not if you like outdoor mortuaries,” she responded, before giving him gloves and a face mask and leading him along a path between two stretches of yellow tape. She knelt next to a partially ravaged body lying facedown. A blue skirt with red trim, a bloodied white blouse, shoulder-length blond hair, and one high-heeled shoe on her left foot told Koa the victim was female. “Haole,” Koa said, referring to a non-Hawaiian.
“Yeah,” Georgina responded. “Definitely not Hawaiian.”
“She hasn’t been in this graveyard long,” Georgina continued. “She wasn’t formally buried, not without embalming and not in those clothes. I’m guessing whoever put her here wrapped her in that.” She pointed to the tattered remnants of several black plastic garbage bags. “And dumped her, maybe in a shallow grave, maybe not. Hard to tell with the damned hogs rampaging through here.”
“Cause of death?” Koa asked.
“Can’t tell from the back. There’s a shoulder wound. Looks like a bullet exit wound, but it wouldn’t have been fatal, not without massive blood loss. We’re waiting for Ronnie before we turn her over to check for other injuries.” She referred to Ronnie Woo, the young Chinese police photographer, who pulled up in his police SUV while they talked. They stepped outside the tape and let Woo, who wore no mask and seemed oblivious to the carnage around him, record the gruesome scene with his Nikon.
Koa turned to Georgina. “We don’t have an ME. Shizuo Hori is off-island.” Koa referred to the aging obstetrician who doubled as the county’s coroner.
“That’s not a loss,” Georgina responded. They’d both struggled for years under the weight of Shizuo’s incompetence. Georgina pursed her lips. “I could ask Diaz. He might help us out.”
Koa gave her a puzzled look. “Diaz?”
“Yeah. Professor Enrico Diaz. He teaches my forensic pathology class at UH Hilo. He’s written textbooks and has a great reputation.”
Koa considered her suggestion. He knew determining TOD would be challenging and required an expert. “Sure. Give him a call, but warn him the county doesn’t pay much.”
While Ronnie Woo took pictures and Georgina called her professor, Koa canvassed the cemetery. It lay about a hundred yards from the nearest street, surrounded by forest on three sides. Isolated, it oozed unattended seediness. Weeds and bushes grew inside the remains of a decrepit rock wall that encircled a couple dozen graves. Time and weather had damaged the headstones, making the dates hard to decipher, but one bore a 1930s date. Maybe a private family burial ground, but not one with flowers or other signs of a caring presence. Maybe abandoned. Not a bad place to conceal a body. If that had been the plan, he thought, Pele had foiled it.
An earthquake, most likely triggered by the collapse of the nearby Kīlauea caldera, had ripped three jagged, yard-wide cracks through the rows of markers, and the shaking had dislodged five caskets. Two had been torn open, either by the force of the quake or more likely by animals. Wild boars had attacked two of the partially decomposed corpses that had once been inside the disrupted burial boxes.
The newly deceased woman lay near one of the ravaged graves, and Koa agreed with Georgina that she’d most likely been buried atop one of the overturned caskets. Her body appeared mostly intact, except for the shoulder wound and a torn right leg, probably chewed by one of the hogs.
“Professor Enrico Diaz is on the way, and he’ll forgo any payment. Shall we wait for him?”
Koa, impatient to determine the cause of death, rejected that suggestion. When Woo finished shooting pictures, Koa and Georgina, wearing evidence gloves, knelt and rolled the body onto its back. They didn’t need an ME to determine the cause of death.
CHAPTER THREE
KOA GUESSED THE dead woman to be in her mid-thirties. A blond haole, she’d been pretty in life but no longer. The powder burns around one of the tiny, blood-soaked holes in her blouse left no doubt she’d been shot at point-blank range. One bullet had hit her shoulder, passed through her flesh, and left a nasty exit wound. The other bullet had entered the left side of her chest. That slug, still inside her body, had undoubtedly struck her heart. It was the kill shot, and Koa had little doubt that she’d died instantly. He judged the murder weapon to be small caliber, probably a .22.
