Page 29

29

LEI

On the flight back, Lei gazed at the ocean below this time, watching for the unmistakable spouts and dark silhouettes of whales. As her gaze scanned the deep blue water flecked with white foam, she ticked over next steps: meet with Captain Omura and update her. Input notes into the case file. Upload her photos to the file. Prepare to give death notification to David Steinbrenner’s widow, Helen, once his identity was confirmed by fingerprint match.

Katie elbowed her. “Did I do okay, boss?”

“You did. I liked how you had memorized Steinbrenner’s height and then measured the body to give us an early ID,” Lei said. “Pono and I need to go out to the west side where he lives and notify his widow, but we need a forensic confirmation first. TG will be taking fingerprints and comparing them to anything Steinbrenner may have on file.”

“Why can’t we just tell her based on his height and build?” Katie said. “I found some newspaper and other photos of Steinbrenner online that confirm he had gray hair and a lean build.”

“Because there are few things more horrible in life than being told your loved one is murdered. Going through that grief and then having it be someone else might be even worse. We always wait until we have forensics confirm. If Steinbrenner doesn’t have fingerprints on file anywhere, we’ll have to get his dental records and compare them to his remaining teeth.”

Katie shuddered theatrically, her eyes comically round behind her purple specs. “Ew. I’m guessing that’s Dr. Gregory’s area.”

“And you’d be right, though we’d have to be the ones to track down the dental records and get them admitted, with a warrant if necessary.”

* * *

An hour later, after the meeting with Omura, Lei and Pono were in their cubicles updating the case file. Lei’s cell phone chirped. Answering it with her Bluetooth, she listened, said “Thanks,” and ended the call. “That was TG, calling from Hana,” she told her partner. “He matched fingerprints, confirming the identity of the victim for certain. David Steinbrenner won’t be coming home.”

Pono rubbed his mustache briskly. “Not a surprise. I’d go with you, but it’s the soccer championship playoffs for our daughter. You think you can handle the death notification alone?”

“Sure. I’ll take Katie instead,” Lei said. “Got to break her in on the fun.” They shared a rueful smile as Lei turned to leave. “Tell Maile to go kick some balls.”

“I’ll quote you on that,” Pono chuckled.

Lei stopped by Stevens’s office on the third floor to let him know she’d be late getting home tonight. He shared a fancy suite with Kathy, Jared’s wife; the two were in charge of recruiting and training new hires.

“All the way to the west side?” Stevens teased. “Be careful on that road, Sweets.”

The road taken by most drivers going to the west side of the island was a two-lane highway that hugged the curves around the southern cliffs of the Lahaina Pali, bordering the ocean for several miles. It offered beautiful but distracting views of beaches, waves, and sunsets, as well as whales in season. While only twenty-five miles from Wailuku to Lahaina, the route could be a slow trip and residents considered it a long journey.

Stevens’s brother Jared still laughed about that, having moved from Los Angeles, where people commuted hours to work, and thought nothing of a fifty-mile drive to shop at a specialty store.

Lei leaned across the desk to plant a kiss on her husband’s lips. “Well, I could go the north way on that tiny road from Waihee.”

Stevens stiffened. “Go the long way, please. It’s safer.” A drive around the north end of the island would be fewer miles to get to Kapalua, but the route clung to the side of a steep cliff with no guardrails in many places and barely one lane in others. Car rental companies routinely told their customers to avoid it.

“I’ll be okay,” Lei said; her silver Tacoma pickup truck had all-wheel drive. “I hate the traffic around the Pali. If there’s an accident the road will be closed for hours. Don’t worry about me, I’ll have Katie for company. Maybe I’ll even be home in time for dinner.”

“I won’t hold my breath,” Stevens said. “Stay safe.”

* * *

More than an hour later, Lei and Katie drove toward the Steinbrenners' estate in the exclusive area of Kapalua on West Maui. Lei had enjoyed the drive with her intern around “the backside” of the island, though the narrow road was just as hazardous as she remembered.

A tall lava rock wall fronted the whole luxe Steinbrenner property, and though Lei hadn’t called ahead, the gate at the driveway was open.

“I thought the wife was on alert because Steinbrenner had disappeared,” Katie said, scanning the grounds as Lei drove into a turnaround in front of the large house.

“I don’t know. Maybe they always leave the gate open,” Lei said. “Let’s warn her to keep it closed.”

They pulled into a parking area planted in squares of mossy grass beside the main turnaround. Mature trees cast a soft, filtered light on the yard, and a rainbow of extravagantly tinted tropical flowers led the eye toward the house’s gracious entrance.

Lei exhaled a deep breath as she exited the truck, but Katie seemed to vibrate with nervous energy beside her. “Let me take the lead,” Lei said. “Just shadow me on this one.”

“You got it, boss. I have no idea how to deal,” Katie said, smoothing down the cap-sleeved purple shirt she’d worn under the Hello Kitty hoodie. “I’m a fly on the wall. A very reluctant fly.”

They walked up a series of stone-flagged steps before knocking on the door of a house built in faux Polynesian style, with a peaked roof and long, dark wood beams.

The woman who answered the door appeared to be in her mid-thirties. Medium height with blonde hair, Steinbrenner’s wife Helen wore a bikini top and a sarong tied at one hip. She looked like she racked up hours in the gym to maintain a stunning figure. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Detective Sergeant Lei Texeira, with the Maui Police Department. This is Investigator Katie McHenry.” They held up their IDs. “I spoke to you on the phone the other day.”

“Yes. I’m Helen Steinbrenner. David is my husband. ” A worried wrinkle appeared between the woman’s perfectly groomed brows. “Have you found him? The police have been looking for him since he disappeared yesterday.”

“May we come in?” Lei asked. “We have some information for you.”

“Certainly, please. Follow me.”

Lei and Katie trailed Mrs. Steinbrenner into a vast sunken living room. A wall of windows looked out over the landscaped grounds facing Mauna Kahālāwai, the West Maui Mountains.

Lei took a seat on the leather couch across from Mrs. Steinbrenner, with Katie silent and stiff beside her. She leaned forward and made eye contact. “Mrs. Steinbrenner?—”

“Call me Helen, please.”

“Helen, I’m afraid that I have some very bad news. Your husband’s body was found this morning.”

“No!” Helen gasped. She covered her face and folded over in a howl of pain. “Oh, no!”

Lei got up and went to sit beside her, resting a hand gently on the woman’s shoulder. The new widow had been primed to hear the worst since her husband’s disappearance the day before. She glanced over at Katie, who sat rigid and white-faced, her eyes glazed. The kid was clearly dealing with her own trauma. Likely the memory of hearing the news of her firefighter dad’s death was being recreated for her in this situation.

“I’m so sorry,” Lei told them both.

Katie got up. “I’ll get her a glass of water and some tissues.”

“Good idea.” Lei smiled encouragingly at her protégée. It was something to do; but really, there was nothing that could be accomplished until Mrs. Steinbrenner had worked through the initial shock.

The woman wailed and sobbed; Katie set the box of tissues in front of her. Helen pulled wads of them out, covering her eyes. Finally, blinking at Lei through swollen lids, she hiccupped a question. “Why . . . what . . . what happened to him? Was it like—the others?”

“I’ll tell you what I can, Mrs. Steinbrenner,” Lei said, “I’m so sorry. His death was a homicide.”

“Helen, here’s some water.” Katie handed the woman a tall glass tinkling with ice.

“Thanks.” Helen gulped thirstily and then set her glass down. “What happened? Where was he found?” Helen twisted her hands together around the wad of tissues.

“His body was discovered in Hana this morning,” Lei said, withholding the lurid details. “It appears he was killed there sometime in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Do you know who did it? Have any leads?”

“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Lei said carefully. “We’re turning over every stone.”

“Did David . . . did he suffer?” Helen’s face crumpled.

“No. He died quickly,” Lei said. It was the truth; Steinbrenner had to have known what was coming, but the end itself had been swift. “Can you think of any reason he would have been out in Hana?”

Helen shook her head slowly at Lei’s question. “No. He didn’t say anything about going out to that side of the island yesterday.” She dabbed her eyes with another tissue and tossed it onto a growing pile on the coffee table.

“And as far as you know, he didn’t have any unusual appointments?”

“I don’t keep track of his calendar. He usually tells me when he’s leaving and coming back, though. Most of the time I don’t know where he’s going or who he’s meeting with. As I told you on the phone, he checks in with me around lunchtime.”

Helen was still speaking of David Steinbrenner in the present tense. It would take her a while to adjust to the news of her husband’s death.

“I get the picture,” Lei said. “Was he gone a lot?”

“Yes. He had meetings almost daily, often well into the night. He’s been working on a big project, and I guess there are a lot of issues with this one.”

“Hmm. So what’s your routine with him like?”

“We spend time together every morning. For a workout, a swim, breakfast, something. His workday usually starts around ten. Many times I’m asleep when he comes home in the evenings, though. He promised me a ‘date night’ once a week when we came to Maui, but that only lasted a few months.” Tears filled Helen’s eyes. She paused and gulped her water. “Last night I was anxious because I hadn’t heard from him, so I had dinner with a friend to distract myself.” She gulped her water, finishing it. “Got to replace the fluids,” she said with a damp smile, an attempt at humor.

“Smart.” Katie got up. “Lei, we should be hydrating too.” She went and refilled Helen’s glass and poured two more, putting all three on a small bamboo tray and returning with them. “Sorrow and loss are thirsty work.”

“Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” Helen said.

“Yes.” Katie’s gaze was compassionate as she met Helen’s eyes. “My father was a firefighter, and he was killed on the job. Our family—well. We haven’t been the same.” Katie took her seat and picked up her own glass of water.

“Then you know—what this is like.”

“I do.”

It was good to see Katie stepping into an empathetic role, but it was time to get back to information gathering. “I think I’ve got the picture of how things went for you two as far as scheduling and communication, but let me make sure,” Lei said. “The last time you saw your husband was yesterday morning before he went to work. You went out to dinner with a friend last night. You haven’t heard from him since he left. Did I get that right?”

“Yes,” Helen said.

“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt him?” Lei asked. “Had you received any threats, hate mail, anything like that?”

“Nothing specific.” Helen shook her head. “People don’t like developers. If it’s not the Sierra Club, it’s the NIMBY naysayers—the ‘Not-In-My-Back-Yard’ groups. Here on Maui, it seems like ‘developer’ is a four-letter word, despite all we do for the economy. Being an outsider feels like a crime.” She looked out the windows, sadness pulling down her full lips. “I don’t understand some of these attitudes. I thought Hawaii was the land of aloha , but it’s hard to make friends here. ‘How long have you lived here’? is the first thing they ask. ‘Oh, I never make friends with anyone who hasn’t lived here at least two years’, or three, or five. I’ve heard that over and over.”

“There is mistrust about outsiders,” Lei admitted, “especially when they’re trying to change things for people who’ve been here a long time.” Lei needed to move the interview into a more sensitive area. “Helen, I need to look around your house, and I’m asking your permission. We don’t have a suspect or a motive yet, and we don’t know what clues we might find, but we need to see if David left any information that might help the investigation. Maybe you could walk through the house with me, show me your husband’s home office.”

“Do we have to do this now? I’m not sure I’m up to it.” Helen’s hands shook as she pulled a few more tissues out of the box on the table. “This is all so . . . unreal.”

“I understand. That’s fine, Katie can sit with you while I conduct the search.”

Helen looked uncertain. Lei pressed on. “At this point, you may be a target too. Do you understand? We need to get on this now.”

“Okay, I guess . . . but what do you need to see of David’s things?” Helen asked.

“His office, papers, and computer to begin with. It might seem invasive, but I’ll be tidy. I’d rather not have to go through the time and trouble of getting a warrant.”

“I’m not sure about his papers. A lot of what he has here is business-related, and it belongs to the company.”

“We’re not going to publicize or release anything we find. His death may not be related to his resort project at all, but we need to rule that out.” Lei had no intention of telling Helen anything more than strictly necessary.

“Fine, then,” Helen said. She smiled at Katie. “Thanks for keeping me company. Tell me about your family. How you coped when your father passed.”

Leaving her protégée to handle the grieving widow, Lei set off with her crime kit. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and bundled her curly hair into a topknot skewered with a pencil once she found Steinbrenner’s home office.

Two hours later, Lei had secured a couple of boxes’ worth of potential evidence and had stowed his computer in the back of her truck. Lei had lifted prints off some of the most obvious surfaces and fingerprinted Helen for exclusion, but she doubted the killer had been inside the house. So far, he had been careful not to leave trace evidence behind.

“We’re finished here for now,” she said when she rejoined her intern and Helen. “Here’s my card. Please call me if you think of anything strange or out of place in any way, anything that raises a question in your mind. And keep your gate and house locked for security.”

“I can do that.” Helen was looking a little better after being in Katie’s company, less shocked and tearstained. “I’m going to call my sister and David’s mother to let them know. Then—I guess I’ll go to bed . . .” The sentence died for lack of a known future.

Tomorrow would be hard on Helen Steinbrenner, as would the days that followed.

“This isn’t a good time for you to be alone,” Lei said. “Do you have anyone to call?”

“No. But it’s fine.” Helen shredded her tissues. “I’m okay.”

Lei didn’t know how to respond to that level of isolation. “We’re going to have to release a statement about your husband’s death. The media will get hold of the story and come looking for you. I’ll get a patrol car assigned out front to keep the gawkers away.”

“Yes, please,” Helen said.

“We’ll be on our way, then,” Lei said. “Please close and lock the gate after we leave.”

Helen stood up and Katie embraced her. The two seemed to have bonded. “Call or text anytime,” Katie said. “I’ll be there for you.”

“Thanks.”

“We’ll be in touch. Bye.” Katie waved, then led the way out through the enormous house.

Lei glanced over her shoulder as she went through the front door and prepared to close it behind her. Helen had her back to them and was staring at the darkened mountains. She was alone in an enormous living room far from family and friends—and now, bereft of her husband.

Helen Steinbrenner appeared to have it all: looks, youth, health, money—but without loving connections, what was any of it worth?

Katie was already in the truck and had taken the back seat of the extended cab. “Sorry, boss. That took it out of me,” her intern said in a small voice as Lei got in the driver’s seat. “Is it okay if I nap on the drive back?”

“Sure.” Lei glanced at the young woman, curled up beside Rosie’s car seat. “You did great with her, Katie.”

“I hope so. I tried.” Katie yawned. “Going to get some sleep now.”

Lei fired up the truck and sped out of the neighborhood, anxious to log in the evidence and get home; this case kept reminding her that loved ones—family and friends—were what was most important in life.