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LEI

Lei walked back to Officer Regala. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, thanks.”

Lei took a water bottle from her crime kit and held it out to the young man. He drank deeply, then handed the bottle back. Lei called Pono on her cell phone. “The victim appears to be a Caucasian female, mid-40s, and her throat’s been cut. She’s been displayed, too, and there are Hawaiian style props with the body. Tell the crime scene crew to bring a pop-up tent or something. It’s already hot on the lava. How soon are they getting here?”

“Half an hour,” Pono said. “How are we going to get the body out?”

“We’ll figure that out when the ME gets here,” Lei said. “Maybe after he bags the body, we can get a fire crew to move it with a basket stretcher.”

“Okay. I’m going to call for more officers, we keep having to turn back tourists. I want to close the road at the parking lot by the entrance to the Reserve, and we’ll need another cruiser and officers to help. I’ll see if Dispatch can rustle up someone at DLNR, maybe get one of their rangers here too.”

“Good idea. This is a bad one, Pono. We need to control the area.”

“Okay. As soon as we get another officer here, I want to get these witnesses to the Kihei substation and start the formal interviews. I also want to get whatever pictures and video they might have.”

“All right. I’ll give you a call when I’m done here and meet you back at the Kahului station. Unless you want to come out and view the body for yourself?”

“Nah. I’m good.” Though a strong investigator, Pono didn’t love getting up close and personal with the dead, especially women and children. Lei was less squeamish and didn’t mind covering for him in that area.

She ended the call and started walking a grid around the crime scene, searching for any stray piece of evidence. It was comforting that crime techs would also be combing over the area in case she’d missed something.

Lei returned to the body and looked it over more closely once again but didn’t touch anything at the scene. Soon TG, the current MPD crime scene technician, arrived with a new intern. They put a pop-up tent over the crime scene and took official photos.

By the time the Medical Examiner, Dr. Phil Gregory, arrived with his wife Dr. Tanaka, the sun was baking the lava and the body along with it. Lei and Officer Regala had retreated to the kiawe grove and met the pair there. “Thought you’d never get here,” Lei said, fanning herself with her cap. “It’s getting hot.”

Sweat dripped off the ME’s forehead and stained his orange and yellow hibiscus covered aloha shirt. “Hey, Lei. Hi, TG. We got out as fast as we could,” the ME said. “Thanks for setting up that tent.”

“Doing my job.” TG had to be approaching fifty. He had thin gray hair and a perpetual pallor; as much time as he spent in the field, he never had color in his skin except for a tinge of red on his cheekbones and nose. An obsessively detail-oriented investigator, TG had a formal manner, quiet and stern, and he never socialized or ‘talked story’ at a scene.

Lei followed the pair and soon Dr. G was bending over to take a look at the body. He sniffed. “Heat has sped up the decomposition. Let’s work fast so we can get her into the fridge.”

Dr. Tanaka set their kit down beside the body and removed a long liver thermometer as Dr. Gregory went on. “The cause of death doesn’t appear to be a mystery, although I hope we find the weapon that did this. It had to have some kind of saw-toothed blade. The edges of the cuts on her throat are ragged, not clean.”

“Cuts?” Lei asked. “Not just one?”

“No,” Dr. Gregory said, leaning over and pointing. “Look there, and there. Multiple cuts, different depths and angles, some of them crossing over the top of others. Cutting a throat can be difficult. There are lots of muscles and tendons to slice through. We’ll know more when we get her to the morgue for a closer look and a blood workup.”

He stood and blew out a deep breath. “I can tell you one thing for sure. With all that blood, she was alive when it was happening.”

The light breeze coming off the bay shifted, blowing the stench of death into Lei’s face. She felt a wave of vertigo; she put out a gloved hand and touched the rock the woman was tied to, steadying herself.

“What a thing,” she said quietly. “This poor woman.” She shook her head, looked across the inlet towards where Pono was in conversation with MPD officers over at the entry area. “I was tempted to open that ti leaf bundle to see what’s inside.” She indicated the wrapped offering between the woman’s feet. “But I think you guys should do it in the morgue in case there’s something nasty inside in need of refrigeration. You can also control any trace better there.”

“No problem,” Dr. Tanaka said. She carefully lifted the bundle and slid it into a large evidence bag. “Interesting. It’s heavy.”

Lei suppressed a shudder; her imagination had been providing plenty of bad ideas of what might be inside. “I need to get going,” she said. “We have to conduct some interviews. Phil, we need her name as soon as possible.”

“If she’s a resident, it shouldn’t take long. Fingerprints, dental records—hopefully this afternoon at the latest,” Dr. Gregory said. “With Dr. Tanaka, TG, and the team to get her packed up and out of here, it shouldn’t take too long. I’ve already called the fire department to move the body across the lava for us in one of their heavy-duty gurneys. I’ll call you when we’ve had a thorough look at everything in and around the body.” He pointed to the wrapped ti leaf bundle in its evidence bag. “Beginning with that.”

* * *

Later that afternoon, Lei and Pono were in their cubicles at the central Police Department in Kahului discussing the case after briefing Captain Omura on the basics. Pono had just finished filling Lei in on the interviews with the witnesses; they didn’t have anything useful other than having discovered the body. “And I’m pretty sure they didn’t have anything to do with the crime,” Pono said. “They’re just tourists. Had no trace of anything to do with the crime on or around them or their rental vehicle.”

“You got their contact info and told them to stay available, though, right?” Lei asked, punching holes in the notes she’d printed up for the murder file.

Pono rolled his eyes. “Sweets, I been doing this job as long as you have.”

“Sorry, bro,” Lei said. “Autocorrect.”

He snorted a chuckle. The phone on the desk between them rang and Lei snatched it up. “Texeira here.”

“It’s Phil Gregory. I’ve got news.”

“Putting you on speaker.” Lei hit the button for the speakerphone and hung up the handset. “Pono’s here with me. Go ahead. What did you find?”

“Got an ID for you,” Dr. Gregory said. “The victim from La Perouse is Cheryl Goodwin, Caucasian female, forty years old.” He gave them the home address of the victim.

“That was fast,” Lei said.

“Remember how we decided to open the ti leaf offering back at the morgue so we could check it carefully? The victim’s driver’s license was inside, along with a piece of brick. Like from a construction site.”

Pono rubbed his mustache with the tips of his fingers, frowning. “Sending some kind of message?”

“Yeah, a weird one,” Lei said. “Whoever did this is bold. The body was hidden, but not buried, and he gave us the ID. He wanted someone to find her after he had a chance to get away, and he wanted us to know who she was.” She tapped her pen on the top of her desk.

“And you’re correct in referring to the killer as ?he.’ The victim showed signs of rough sexual activity—there was bruising around her genitals, wrists, and mouth, so she was gagged and restrained, likely during the rape. No semen, so he wore a condom. I’ve taken blood samples because she might have been drugged. Sadly, neither Dr. Tanaka nor I found any physical trace on the body that wasn’t her own, or environmental from the crime scene,” Dr. Gregory said. “She never got her nails into her attacker, more’s the pity.”

“Whoever did this was careful,” Lei said.

“Yep. And one more thing,” the Medical Examiner said. “We found the murder weapon concealed underneath her body. It’s unusual. Ms. Goodwin was killed with a replica of an ancient Hawaiian weapon, a handheld club with shark’s teeth on the edges for slashing. We’ll do all the tests, but I’m confident that it’s the weapon.”

Lei and Pono exchanged a glance; her partner’s eyes were round with shock. “A Hawaiian war weapon?” Pono said. “Is it authentic?”

“I’ll let you guys work on determining that,” Dr. Gregory said.

“Sounds like shark’s teeth would create the wounds you described earlier,” Lei said. “Anything else?”

“We’ve photographed the head lei she wore and also the pā‘ū covering around her pelvis; it appears to be crudely hand-printed with traditional patterns. That’s all for now. I still have to do the autopsy, and I’ll check in with you about any unusual results after that.”

“Thanks, Dr. G,” Lei said, and ended the call. She looked across the desk at Pono. “We need to get that brick analyzed. Of all the things left behind, that and the murder weapon seem the most important.”

“Let’s sic TG on that brick,” Pono said. He was already on his computer, big thick fingers quick on the keys. “Looking up Goodwin now. Preliminary search shows she was a real estate attorney.”

“Maybe Katie can tease out more about the victim while we go to her home address,” Lei said. “I’ll ask her to do a deep dive on Goodwin’s background. See what we can find out about her.”

Pono gazed at the computer monitor, where photos the MEs had sent over on email were displayed. “Somebody went to a lot of trouble with the location, the weapon, and the way she was dressed and posed. It was all precontact Hawaiiana—from before the Americans and Europeans arrived here.”

“You’re right about the weapon and the staging. It’s bound to tell us something about the doer. Too bad Dr. Gregory couldn’t find any trace.” Lei scrolled through her phone, looking for Katie’s number. “Can you call TG about the brick?”

Pono nodded, brushing his mustache with his fingertips the way he did when something bothered him. He was staring at a photo of the woman’s body and the ti leaf offering positioned in front of it.

“Hey,” Lei said. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking . . . the native Hawaiian community is not going to like how this murder points to them.” Pono’s voice was low and heavy. His brows were drawn together.

“Then let’s work as fast as we can to solve this,” Lei said. “Hopefully we don’t find out that the killer is some activist gone wrong.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Pono said. He stood abruptly. “I’ve got the victim’s address. Let’s go.”

“I want to talk to Katie first,” Lei said. “This will be her first murder case, and I’m hoping her computer skills will give us an edge.”