“You’re sure on top of things. That just went through. He’s excited about it. He’s got some great contacts in the park business. Why do you ask?”
“I need a favor from one of their employees.” He told Duncan about Kaia and her dolphin.
“No problem. It’s the least I can do after you helped me get that navy contract. Though some days I wonder what I’m doing there.” Duncan laughed, a tired sound.
“More work than you imagined, huh?” It felt good to talk to Duncan again. They had exchanged heated words when Christy died, and their relationship had never fully recovered. Jesse doubted that it ever would. Duncan tended to imagine himself a knight in shining armor, and in this instance, he’d failed to rescue the fair maiden.
“More work for less money. I shouldn’t have cut my margins so low.” Duncan took a bite of the ice cream in the bottom of his shave ice. “I’m not complaining though. It will pay off with more work in the long run.” He wiped his fingers on a napkin and tossed it and the ice cup into the trash. “I’ll call you tonight. I’m sure Curtis will see to it that you get the help you need. This is for our own security.”
“Exactly,” Jesse said, digging into the macadamia-nut ice cream in the bottom of his cup with as much satisfaction as he could muster. He knew he’d hear fireworks from Kaia when she found out. For some reason, he almost looked forward to it.
“You heard from Jillian lately?”
Duncan’s question was almost too casual. Jesse glanced at him and suppressed a grin. Duncan and Jesse’s sister had dated in high school but had broken up when Duncan went away to Honolulu for college. Jillian, several years younger, wasn’t ready to settle down.
“Not in about two weeks. She was trying to get out of her latest assignment but wasn’t having much luck. They want to send her to Italy, to a volcano about to blow. She needs the money, but she doesn’t want to leave Heidi behind.”
“Tell her I said hello.” Duncan glanced at his watch and rose. “I should get back to work. It will be nine before I get home tonight as it is.”
“Mahalo,” Jesse called, thanking his friend. He wished he could do something to help Duncan. He seemed so lonely since his wife divorced him three years ago and took their two young children to the mainland. But even if Jesse could think of some way to help, Duncan’s pride would never let him accept it.
Jesse’s cell phone rang and he punched it on. “Matthews here.”
“We’ve got problems.” Ensign Will Master’s voice came over the line.
“On my way,” Jesse told his aide and ran for his Jeep Wrangler.
The Porpoise II skimmed the tops of the waves. Laban’s mother, Edena, held the vase containing her son’s ashes between her knees as she perched in a seat beside Kaia. Her face was set and stoic. Kaia hadn’t seen her cry at the funeral either.
“It was about here,” Kaia said, cutting the engine. Her grandfather had been hurt that his niece hadn’t wanted him along to scatter the ashes, but Edena had wanted only Kaia, and she likely would have gone alone if she hadn’t needed Kaia to show her where Laban had died.
Edena nodded and stood. She began a funeral mele, her keening sharp as the words of the chant flowed out. Tears burned Kaia’s eyes. Edena opened the vase and slowly scattered the ashes into the white crests of waves. As the mele mingled with the sounds of the terns overhead, Kaia prayed that she would never forget how short life could be.
Still dry-eyed, Edena put down the vase and turned to Kaia. “Was this more than an accident?” she whispered.
“The navy says the computer malfunctioned.”
Edena nodded. “Do you believe it?”
“I have no reason not to,” Kaia told her. Where was her aunt heading with this?
“If you learn anything that suggests it was more than an accident, would you promise to let me know—and to see what you can find out?”
“I’m not a cop or anything,” Kaia pointed out. “There’s not much I could do about it.”
“Just keep your eyes and ears open. Something doesn’t smell right to me about it. I think the navy is trying to cover up something.”
Kaia shrugged. Her aunt had always been a little bit of a conspiracy theorist. She could humor her. “Okay,” she said.
She took her aunt back to the dock then headed to work. She’d had the weekend to recuperate, though her muscles still ached from the ordeal in the water. Today she felt alert and ready to get back to her research. Dressed in a blue tank suit, she kicked off her Locals flip-flops, known in Kaua’i as “slippers” because they were easy to slip on and off. She dropped her bare feet over the edge of the dock into the warm water. The caress of the seawater made her eager to get to work.