Death In Hawaii Page 2

  7

  Jessica still lived at home and helped her father take care of her youngest sister Jasmine, who was five. Their house was only a short walk from the dojo. She liked walking because it gave her a chance to think. There was something about the visitor at the dojo that was bothering her, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. She just knew something wasn’t right with that guy, besides being a jerk. Could he be the guy Malia had mentioned just before the start of the race? He was creepy, he was German, and Kona was a small town. It was possible.

  Before, when Malia wasn't around, Melanie Makani had been Jessica's go-to friend for all things that involved debauchery. And right now Jessica could use some fun. Melanie called Jessica and asked if she wanted to go drinking at the Canoe Club downtown. It was a favorite nightclub in the village that Melanie, Malia, and Jessica would sometimes frequent together.

  Mike was on sea duty that week, so Pua and Jessica took turns watching Jasmine for their father while he was away. It was Pua's night off, but Jessica asked her if she would trade so she could meet Melanie at the club that night. Pua and Jessica barely got along most of the time but this time Pua felt that with everything going on, her older sister could use a night out, so she agreed to switch.

  Jessica met Melanie outside the Canoe Club that night at ten p.m., There was a line to get in, as usual. Melanie was wearing a little black dress and stiletto heels. It was clear she had severe debauchery in mind that evening. Jessica wore a tropical-print tea dress that hung just below the knee and brown leather sandals.

  "I thought you said you wanted to have fun. That Mother Teresa look isn't going to get you laid,” said Melanie. Jessica gave her the side-eye.

  "You're the bait. I'll just sit next to you and see what you attract, besides big, dumb, and stupid."

  Since Melanie and Jessica weren't old enough to buy alcohol, they would spike their Cokes with a small bottle of rum smuggled inside one of their purses. Usually, it was Jessica’s since she carried a bag big enough to hide a six-pack.

  After an hour of drinking and dancing, Jessica went to the ladies’ room and ran into an old girlfriend from high school. Carol Ann must have been high on coke and couldn’t stop talking about what a great shop she’d found to fix her car. It took Jessica twenty minutes to get away. When she returned to the table, Dieter was sitting there chatting up Melanie.

  Jessica had a few drinks in her, but she saw evil in its human form at that very moment. She couldn't explain it. She just knew there was something dangerous about that man. And not in a sexy kind of way, either.

  "Meet Dieter, Jess,” Melanie said as she sat close to him with her hand on his thigh. He smiled. But Jessica knew it was as phony as the hunter looking at the hunted.

  Jessica gave him back her best fake smile and answered, “We've already met. How's your ribs, Dieter?"

  Dieter wasn't smiling anymore. Melanie was clueless about what Jessica was talking about and proceeded to tell Jessica what her new friend had planned for them the next day.

  "We're going sailing with him tomorrow."

  Melanie scooted even closer and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  In disgust, Jessica shook the ice in her empty glass and said she was going to the bar for a refill.

  "Bring me club soda," Dieter ordered.

  Jessica glared at him and nodded that she would. Usually, she would have told him to go fuck himself for barking like that at her. But there was a reason she wanted to go to the bar, and a refill was only part of it.

  Brudda Nick was working the bar that night and knew all the girls that frequented the club. He was also the bouncer, at three hundred and thirty pounds and climbing. All Brudda Nick had to do was give someone stink-eye, and at most a word or two, and that would be the end of it.

  Jessica knew him as One Whack Medivac but never called him that to his face. Instead, she said, “Howzit, Nick?"

  "Eh, it's all good, sista. What can I do fo' you?"

  Jessica leaned in a little closer and placed her drink order, then said, "I have one question for you. You see dat haole sitting with Melanie? Have you evah seen him in here before?"

  Nick glanced over at the table.

  "Yeah, he's been trolling in here for the last week or so. Is there a problem? You need me to give him dirty lickins?" Nick asked and then smiled.

  "You know how to make a girl smile, Nick. But no, no dirty lickins—yet."

  Melanie wanted to go home with Dieter that night, especially after she had been hitting the rum and Cokes. But Jessica practically dragged her to the bathroom and said, “Nobody's taking you home other than me."

  As she pulled Melanie by the arm, they passed Dieter sitting alone at the table, and Jessica called out matter-of-factly,

  "She'll call you in the morning.” She then continued to steer Melanie out the front door of the club and to Jessica's car in the public parking lot.

  The next morning Jessica did her best to talk Melanie out of going sailing with Dieter. But Melanie had the hots for him and was adamant about going.

  Jessica knew she couldn't leave Melanie alone with him and had no other choice but to go along.

  8

  That morning, Jessica and Melanie met Dieter by the slip of the sailboat named Obsession, at Honokohau Harbor.

  As the thirty-foot Catalina left the harbor and headed south, the plan was to sail towards Kealakekua Bay, drop anchor and go snorkeling.

  Even though the ocean was flat, as was typical of the leeward side of the Big Island, two miles from the harbor, Melanie was seasick and barfing over the back of the boat. That would put a damper on the romance for the time being.

  Jessica couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had about Dieter. She and Dieter glared at each other most of the way down the coas,t until Jessica went below to use the head.

  The sun was bright that morning, without a cloud in the sky. As it shone through the window into the saloon, below deck, it reflected off something tucked between the seat cushions around the dining table. The glare was so bright, that as Jessica came out of the head, she had to shield her eyes with one hand.

  What the hell is that? she wondered as she reached over to see what was causing the reflection. It was the tip of a custom-made spear, just like the one that had killed Malia.

  Jessica had dated a guy who did a lot of spearfishing, and she knew this looked nothing like the spears he or any other spear fisherman used. The scary-looking spear was designed to kill people.

  Her pulse raced as the adrenaline blasted through her veins. Without a doubt, she and Melanie had to get off that boat.

  When she looked up through the doorway, she saw Dieter staring at her. She was trapped.

  Dieter slammed the door and locked her in. Melanie was at the front of the boat, lying on a towel, when she heard the commotion and got up to see what it was. Dieter pushed her over the side of the sailboat, then pulled out a .357 Magnum he had hidden topside, and fired at her in the water.

  Jessica could hear Melanie crying as she swam away from the boat. Dieter was aiming near her, not at her. He wanted the maximum amount of terror in her eyes before he killed her.

  Jessica burst through the door, kicking it open.

  She caught Dieter by surprise, as he focused on terrorizing Melanie. He turned the gun towards Jessica, but she kicked him right over the side of the boat and into the water.

  But Dieter had held onto the gun and when he surfaced, he took aim at Jessica. There was nowhere for her to hide as he pulled the trigger.

  The barrel of the gun exploded, and Dieter got a face full of shrapnel.

  Jessica started the small diesel engine and maneuvered the boat between Dieter and Melanie, so she could get Melanie back on board.

  Dieter was still alive and swimming toward the shore. He knew he wasn't in any condition to fight Jessica and she would kill him if he tried to get back on the boat.

  Jessica turned the sailboat around and motored back to Keauhou Bay. While underway, she c
alled 911 and told the operator the story and that Dieter was swimming toward the shoreline, near Kealakekua Bay. The police were waiting when the sailboat docked at Keauhou Bay.

  9

  The 911 switchboard lit up with calls from passing motorists in Captain Cook reporting a man hitchhiking towards Kona whose face was so bloody he looked like he had been in a car accident.

  Before the cops could arrive, a good Samaritan had pulled over to assist Dieter. Dieter had rewarded the man by stealing his car.

  Dieter knew he had to get off the island as soon as possible. But he also knew he would never get through airport security with his face looking like chopped liver. So he went to the house where he was staying to bandage his face and grab his go bag. He’d catch the next flight off the island to Honolulu, where he could get a connecting flight to Germany.

  At Keauhou Bay, Jessica and Melanie told the police how Dieter had tried to kill them that morning and everything they knew about him, which wasn't much. Jessica also informed them about the spear she had seen on board the sailboat and how she thought it was related to Malia's murder.

  The cops impounded the sailboat and got a warrant to search it. Two hours later, not only did they find the custom-made spear with an explosive on the tip of it, but they also found the spear gun. Schilling's prints were all over the spear and spear gun. His fingerprints were also in the database from his arrest five years earlier related to the assault case that the district attorney had declined to prosecute.

  Jessica remembered Dieter mentioning that the owner of the vacation rental where he was staying also owned the sailboat Obsession. Even wounded and with a face full of shrapnel, Jessica had seen how well he moved through the water—like an athlete. And he was headed towards the shoreline. She bet the rental was where he was going.

  She called her Uncle Jack in Honolulu with the boat’s hull registration numbers, which she had written down while at Keauhou Bay.

  Since Uncle Jack was an investigator for naval intelligence, he had access to the state and federal marine registration database that would give the address of the Obsession's owner.

  Uncle Jack asked why she wanted it, and Jessica lied, knowing he wouldn’t help her if he knew the real reason. She told him she had been paddling and seen a big ice chest, full of fish fall over the side of the boat and that she wanted to return it.

  "How did you remember the hull registration?" asked Uncle Jack.

  "I had my camera with a big zoom lens in the kayak and snapped a photo as the boat sailed away from me. I was too far away for them to hear me yell."

  "Okay, I'll look it up and email you the name and address of the owner."

  Fifteen minutes later, Jessica was on her way to the address on Alii Drive.

  10

  Jessica pulled up in front of the old Hawaiian Plantation-style house on Alii Drive. She didn't know what she would find when she got there—Dieter, the cops, or an empty house. Much to her surprise, a middle-aged man was coming out of the house as she turned the Jeep’s engine off. He didn’t look like a cop since he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He wasn't Dieter. Who the hell was this guy? Jessica stepped out of the vehicle and walked towards the man, who was now standing in the yard, only a few feet away.

  "Aloha, is Dieter home?" asked Jessica.

  "No, who are you?" the man asked with a thick German accent.

  Oh shit—there's more than one, Jessica thought.

  "If you would like, you're welcome to come inside and wait. I'm Hans. I spoke with Dieter on the phone five minutes ago. He'll be here soon."

  Jessica turned and started to walk back to the Jeep when she felt the fifty thousand volts from the Taser hit her like a Mack truck. In an instant, she was on the ground, curled up in the fetal position.

  Hans picked Jessica up and carried her into the house, laid her on a bed in a guest room, zip-tied her wrists and then locked the bedroom door.

  Five minutes later, still dazed and confused, Jessica tried to get up off the bed. She knew if she didn't regain full control of her faculties before Dieter got there, she was as good as dead.

  Jessica had a terrible headache as a result of being tased. The only thing she could hear was what sounded like a low-flying airplane over the house that just wouldn’t go away. The drone of the engine revving was making her head pound behind her eyes, like she’d been out drinking all night. It was almost too much to bear.

  Ten minutes later, Jessica had regained enough strength that she felt like she could defend herself against one opponent. But she knew she was still too weak to take on both men at the same time. One of the first things her sensei had taught her years earlier was how to break free from zip ties. Jessica pulled the zip tie that bound her wrists as tight as she could with her teeth, then raised her arms up overhead and slammed them down into her stomach, instantly breaking free.

  Before going to Dieter's house, she’d left instructions with Melanie to call her in an hour. If she didn't answer the phone, Melanie was to call the cops and tell them where to find her.

  Melanie didn’t wait to call the cops. She called Brudda Nick and gave him the address. Just like Jessica had tried to talk her out of going on a date with Dieter, Melanie had tried her best to talk Jessica out of going to Dieter’s house, to kick the crap out of him, before turning him over to the police.

  Jessica heard a vehicle pull into the oversized yard that doubled as a parking lot. There weren’t any windows in the bedroom, but the old house was single-wall construction, with no insulation, and Jessica heard two men outside arguing in German.

  Dieter, she thought, recognizing his voice.

  The adrenaline was flowing. She was as ready as she was ever going to be, when they came through the door.

  Then Jessica heard another vehicle pull in and thought, I sure hope that’s the cops.

  It wasn't the cops. It was Brudda Nick.

  Hans and Dieter stopped arguing and focused on getting rid of the big Hawaiian.

  "Eh, I'm looking fo' my friend Jessica,” said Brudda Nick.

  Jessica heard Brudda Nick and screamed, "I'm in here."

  Dieter ran into the house to kill her, once and for all, just as Jessica kicked the door open. They came face-to-face in the living room.

  They both went into their fighting stances. Jessica was still weak from being tased, and Dieter was having a hard time seeing because of the blood in his eyes. In the corner of the kitchen was another spear gun. Dieter was closer, and Jessica knew he would get to it before she could. She turned, ran back into the bedroom and slammed the door. Before she could barricade the door, there was a horrific noise. It sounded like a screaming engine crashing through the roof of the kitchen.

  Before the airplane crashed, a pilot in a Pitts aerobatic plane was practicing stall recovery over Kailua Bay, trying to break a record for how many spins he could execute before recovering. Instead, he blacked out, and the Pitts crashed through the roof of Hans’s house, killing both himself and Dieter.

  Hans pulled out his Taser, but before he could use it, Brudda Nick deployed his pikoi which wrapped around Hans’s legs and had him on the ground like a calf in a roping competition. Hans lost his grip on the Taser, and it fell on the ground near Brudda Nick who picked it up and fired the fifty-thousand-volt darts into Hans’s groin.

  "Ho, bra, you look like wan fish outta water.” Brudda Nick smirked.

  11

  Uncle Jack flew over from Honolulu within the hour. Mike picked him up at the airport, and they drove to the Kona hospital to visit Jessica. She had sustained a head injury, from a piece of the airplane crash debris that had come through the bedroom wall, and she required fifty-seven stitches.

  Her father and uncle were both angry and happy at the same time. Uncle Jack started first, after hugging her.

  "I hope that bump on the head knocked some sense into you."

  Jessica took the scolding she had known she would get for lying to her uncle.

  "I'm sorry, Uncle,” she said wit
h tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Mike then hugged Jessica and kissed her on the cheek. He decided Uncle Jack chewing her ass was enough for one day. When other friends and family came to visit Jessica, Mike took his brother back to the airport.

  As they drove along the highway, Jack said, “She's going to turn out good. I don't think you ever have to worry about her joining the yakuza." Mike nodded in agreement.

  Epilogue

  Right after the plane crashed into Hans’s house, detectives searched the rubble, and found jewelry that had belonged to a dozen women reported missing over the last decade. Hans and Dieter had both been hunting women on the Big Island and they had collected souvenirs from the women they murdered. Usuall jewelry, sometimes a lock of hair. The police suspected Hans and Dieter were serial killers who had masqueraded as triathletes and killed a lot more victims than were known. Hans admitted they’d targeted women who were visiting the island. They thought there wouldn't be local pressure on the cops to solve the crimes. He later committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial.

  One of the first police officers to respond to the crash scene was Officer Sid Akiona. Impressed by Jessica's amateur detective skills, he suggested she take the exam to join the Hawaii Police Department. That is, if she beat the manslaughter charge she faced in Keoni Wagner's accidental death.

  Stinky Pete came forward to testify after a visit from two of Jessica's uncles, both from her mother's side of the family. The men were also members of the yakuza. They didn't worry about operating within the confines of the law. Stinky Pete knew a short jail term was better than being fed to the sharks as chum.

  Stinky Pete had been the guy with Keoni Wagner at the park that day when Keoni had taken a swing at Jessica. He’d admitted to the district attorney that Keoni Wagner had attacked Jessica when the two had tried to rob her. Judge Kinoshita had dismissed the manslaughter charge with prejudice, and Jessica was free to enter the police academy after her twenty-first birthday