Chan woke up dismayed and angry. Immediately, he called Kelso at the station.
“Chin, let’s split the airlines in half, and I’ll handle all cruise ships as well. It would be any departures from the day before yesterday until right this damn minute.”
“David, not to kill your fight, but you know he’s not stupid enough to try to leave here using his real name.”
“Chin, you definitely are not doing anything to boost my morale. Please, humor me, okay? You never know. He could have slipped up.”
It was as Chan had feared and Kelso had predicted. No Wilbur Apana had booked tickets for any kind of travel from O‘ahu. Chan didn’t want to think about false names, so he chewed on another possibility.
“Maybe he took a flight to a neighbor island?”
“Why would he do that, David? He’d just be stuck there. There aren’t any flights to the mainland or anywhere else from the neighbor islands.”
“How about to lay low there until he thought the heat was off? Then jump back here at a later date and fly or ship out.”
There was silence from Kelso’s side.
“Yeah, okay, maybe I’m pulling at straws. But, Chin, I want to get him so bad I’m about to go crazy.”
“David, if he’s gone, he’s gone. If he used another name, there’s no way we’ll ever catch him without launching some kind of massive search involving Interpol and who knows how many agencies.”
Disgruntled, Chan sat out on Kelso’s lānai nursing a jumbo scotch. It was a little early to get tanked, but he was in the mood. From where he sat, he could see planes coming and going off to the west. This angered him even more.
Everything, every suspicion he’d ever had about Apana boiled to the surface now. His father, this insurance scam, and who knows what else? Chan had sometimes wondered if his godfather were in league with the Yu syndicate, feeding them information and reaping who knew what kind of benefits from the illicit relationship.
But worst of all were his suspicions about his father. What part had Apana played in reining back that investigation? Had he been in on the plot to kill his partner?
All of this made Chan’s stitches throb. The scotch didn’t help with that. It was time for a large dose of aspirin.
The doorbell rang. Chan opened the door to find Kathy standing there holding a bag of some kind of appetizing-smelling food. After he ushered her in, Chan downed four aspirin, then poured himself another large scotch. Cathy took a smaller one.
The two say out on Kelso’s lānai. After handing her the letter, Chan waited for her to read it before he launched into everything had had to say about Apana.
“God, David, this is horrible. All these years. Everything he might have done. And playing a part in your father’s murder. Do you really think that could possibly be true?”
“Yes, I absolutely 100% do think it could be true. And if I ever get my hands on him, I’ll –”
“You’ll what, David? Kill him?”
Chan took a deep sip. “Yes.”
“No, you won’t. You can’t. David, you’d spend your life in prison. For what? It would mean you’d lost.”
“Lost? Lost what?”
“Everything, David. Your whole future wasted.”
Chan nodded. “Lost. Huh. I don’t know. Maybe life in prison would be worth it.”
“No, it would not, David. Not now that we have us.”
And Chan wondered if she was right. Love. Having found it. Could love beat everything?
“You know,” said Chan, “Kelso’s right. If he’s gone, we’re never going to find him. So, well, I’ll never face that situation.”
He took a long pause. Kathy could tell by his eyes, that Chan was traveling somewhere not of this moment in time. Where that was, she couldn’t guess.
And Chan was going back in time. Back four years, when he sat alone with Byung Yu in the gangster’s Mānoa Valley mansion. That had been a night of reckoning. A night he had buried. An investigation he had carried out in as fast and loose a manner as he could manage. He’s lost there. A lot.
“David, where are you, my love?”
Chan came back to himself. He’d never talked with anyone about that meeting with Byung Yu. He looked at her and wanted to cry, but he held back. He’d been to the brink before, had peered into the abyss, and finally pulled himself back. Or had he?
“I’ve seen things,” Chan said. “I’ve done things. This job. It kills us. It’s a slow, grinding process, but it happens. This job is the end of all of us.”
Kathy offered Chan her hand. He grasped it and pulled it to him, placing it over his heart. Pressing it hard against himself, he wondered if she might be able to administer some kind of magical CPR, if she could resuscitate him, save him from this inevitable march he saw his career leading him on to a dead end.
Chan looked into her eyes and felt his body relax. The frustration and anger instantly melted away. Yes, it was Kathy. All at once he saw that she could save him.
Lanning Lee 