Lei poured her first coffee of the morning and splashed in some half-and-half from the carton. She looked out the window over the sink at the spreading branches of the plumeria tree, spare graceful branches ending in clusters of creamy yellow-throated flowers, bouquets of tropical fragrance. A cardinal hopped in the branches, an unlikely spot of red.
Her head felt muzzy but she’d only had the one beer the night before in Puna. She looked over at Stevens. He’d put the cushions from the rump-sprung couch on the floor. They’d migrated during the night, leaving him sprawled on the floor, the crocheted afghan tangled around his legs.
She tried not to notice the contours of his back under the tank-style undershirt, the long ropy muscles of his arms relaxed in sleep. His rumpled dark hair made her hands itch to touch it. Keiki padded over to him and licked his ear, and he woke with a groan.
“Coffee,” he intoned, sitting up and lurching like a zombie as he headed toward the pot, hoisting up sweatpants. His hair was spiky and eyes a dark, sleepy blue. She laughed, handed him a full mug. He took it, rubbing his lower back.
“Sleeping on the floor is making me feel like an old man.”
“Quit whining. Pretty boys like you are such babies.”
“Pretty boy? Did I detect a compliment in there somewhere?” He blew on the hot surface of the coffee. “Can’t say I remember ever being called that before.” He took a sip. She felt his proximity like a magnetic field, raising the tiny hairs on her arms with awareness.
“You’re so vain, you just want me to say it again.” Her face flamed. She dug in the utility drawer for Keiki’s leash.
I’m so bad at this, she thought, but all thought stopped as his arms came around her from behind. He turned her and then, in slow motion, he leaned down, his lips brushing hers as gentle as a moth landing.
She went rigid, her lips closed, the reaction instinctive. He looked down at her, stepped back, let go. Turned away. Picked up his coffee and took a sip. She let her breath out with a shaky whoosh, turned away to rinse her mug at the sink. His voice, when he spoke, was deliberately casual.
“As far as today, I’m hoping the search warrant on the Reynolds house comes through. I could use some help on that if it does.”
“Sure.” Lei made certain her voice was as even as his. He’d almost kissed her-and freak that she was, she’d made him back off. She wished he’d try again, but now wasn’t the time. “What do you think about Mary?”
“I think she’s endangered missing, if she didn’t turn up last night. Check in with the detective on her case. Dispatcher said his name is Lono Smith.”
“Sounds like a plan. I can’t stand to think something’s happened to her.”
“So far there’s no sign of foul play. We just have to go through the steps. Try not to think the worst.”
He put his mug in the sink, pulled on one of her corkscrew curls, stretching it out and watching it spring back, smiling at her somber face. Moving slowly, he put his fingers under her chin and rubbed the ball of his thumb across her lower lip. A tingle zipped down her spine, weakening her knees as he picked up his duffel and headed for the door. “I’ll give you a call later.”
“Okay.” She followed him. “I want to get a hair sample of Mary’s and compare it to what the stalker sent.”
“Good idea.” He turned. “Hey, get me a futon or something for tonight, would you?”
Lei opened her mouth to argue, and he put his fingers over it gently, leaning in close. There were tiny flecks of green in his blue eyes.
“Humor me,” he said softly. “Please.”
Struck dumb, she closed the door behind him.
Guilt smote her-how could she be thinking about kissing with her friend missing, and two girls dead?
Lei and Keiki did their run, and as she was buttoning into her uniform her cell rang.
“Come over to the Reynolds’ house. The warrant came through. I’m bringing Pono in too.” Stevens was all business.
“On my way,” Lei said. She drove to the Reynolds’ house with its elegant carriage lamps and manicured lawn. Stevens’s SUV was in the driveway. Jeremy met her at the door.
“The parents left when we got here and served the warrant. It’s a good thing. It’s easier to work with them out of the way.”
“How’d Reynolds take it?” Lei asked.
“Badly,” Jeremy said, leading them into the living room where Stevens was lifting the cushions up on the couch, looking beneath them with a flashlight.
“Reynolds left pretty angry, said he was going to get his lawyer. I’d like to be out of here before they get back,” Stevens said, pointing to a box of latex gloves.
Pono walked in as Lei snapped on a pair of gloves and helped herself to some evidence bags.
“What’re we looking for?”
“Not sure,” he said. “Anything to link him to the two girls, the campsite. I figure we’ll know it when we see it.”
Even with the four of them searching it was slow work. They went through every drawer, every closet, every box. Lei felt a stifling squeeze in her chest as she went into Kelly’s room.
The pretty blonde teenager’s presence had been erased. The bedroom had been stripped of her belongings and made over into a guest room. Lei lifted the tropical print coverlet, shook out the pillow shams, opened the closet. Pink plastic hangers rattled in the space. She pulled out the wardrobe drawers. Empty.
I know where her clothes went-in the trash. What a weird way to grieve-poor kid. She saw the girl’s face again in her mind’s eye, part of her nose gone, blue eyes shadows behind puffy lids. Lei pinched herself to stay in the present moment, sitting back on the bed.
Stevens came to the door. “Anything?”
“No. Totally cleaned out. Looks like they’re making this into a guest room.” She gestured to the faux rattan headboard and orchid-print drapes.
Just then Jeremy called, “Come see this!”
They went into the den, where Jeremy had been searching the computer. He swiveled the flat-screen monitor so they could see pictures of Kelly.
She was wearing the ruffled yellow skirt Lei remembered from the evidence room, sitting with her legs open. Jeremy clicked to the next photo. She was naked. Her flaxen hair was spread over small breasts, her hand over her mound. Her eyes shone with misery. More pictures, each progressively more seductive, and her eyes more glazed. The background was the oatmeal-colored couch in the living room.
The last picture was of Kelly and Haunani naked, lying facing each other in the green grass beside a stream. The composition was beautiful, the colors rich-and the subject matter haunting and terrible.
“Holy shit!” Pono exclaimed. “This motherfucker just had these pictures sitting on his desktop? He was just asking to get busted!”
“I broke his encryption,” Jeremy said. “It wasn’t too complicated. This file is called ‘baby photos’ and I knew he never had any babies, so I checked it.”
“I think we got him,” Stevens said. Lei turned away and went back to Kelly’s room. She felt dizzy. She turned on the special vacuum with its evidence collection bag, sucking any fibers out of the carpet. Bile seemed to be pressing up in her throat and she gulped it back, gripping the vacuum hard. Get a grip, she told herself, and felt hysterical laughter threaten.
Her cell rang. It was Irene at Dispatch.
“This is your reminder call. You have counseling today at two p.m., and it’s one-forty-five. I thought you might forget. I know you guys are out searching the Reynolds place.”
“Shit,” Lei said, ripping the vacuum cord out of the wall. “This is not a good time!”
“When is it ever?” Irene said cheerfully. “Say thank you for the reminder, or I’ll give you a graveyard shift.”
“Thanks, Irene. Are you sure I can’t reschedule?”
“Mandatory means mandatory. You ask me, you got off light so no mess with the Lieutenant on this.”
“Shit,” she said again. “Okay. Thanks.” She clicked the phone closed. “Stevens, I need to go back to the station.”
They were still clustered around the computer as she came back in, the vacuum bag in hand. Pono turned to her.
“What for? We’re in the middle of something.”
“That damn mandatory counseling.”
“Bad timing,” Stevens said. “I need you here.”
“If you guys weren’t just getting your jollies looking at the dead girls, we might be getting more done,” she snapped. All three of them stared at her.
“Unplug the computer and we’ll take the whole thing down to the station,” Stevens said to Jeremy. He looked at Lei. “I think you better go get that counseling.”
Fury and shame clogged her throat. She dropped the evidence bag and left, the screen door banging behind her.
It took her the whole drive to the station to calm down. She knew her response to the search was irrational, knew it had to do with her past. As usual, knowing didn’t help. She took some deep breaths and put her hand in her pocket, feeling the triangular corner of Stevens’s note. Asshole, she thought, glad they hadn’t kissed but wishing they had. Wishing she could get the images of the girls out of her mind. Wishing she was normal.
She parked the Crown Vic and went into the industrial beige women’s room, splashing water on her face and making sure her hair was under control. She touched up with lipgloss and brushed some lint off her uniform.
“I look fine,” she said out loud. “Not remotely psycho.”