Counterfeit Road (28 page)

‘We’re here,’ she said. ‘Let’s get some of that coffee you’ve been talking about.’

‘Candel says Matt Frank called him last night and that he was agitated and in his words sort of incoherent. He said it weirded him out and that he alluded to things he’s got to get done before he can focus on his business. He said there were problems but didn’t say what they were. He asked Candel about me, whether I’ve questioned him any more and whether his name has come up.’

‘Does Ryan know we’ve got some questions about his new brother?’

‘He’s getting the picture.’ Raveneau paused. ‘Matt Frank is supposed to meet us this morning at Hapuna Beach at nine. The beach is north of here. I know where it is. It’s not going to take us long to get there.’

‘Did Candel say anything else?’

‘Not really, and I’d say he was disturbed by the conversation with Frank and having a little trouble with what we’re asking him to do. He’s conflicted. He’s known his half brother for under a week, but part of him wants to protect him.’

They had an hour to kill and made calls sitting in the sun on a bench in a shopping center half a mile from the main highway. La Rosa got her coffee and looked happy with it. Then they drove north toward Hapuna Beach with Raveneau pointing out the rise of North Kohala Road ahead, and farther north around the curve of the island the steep-falling slope where the ranch was.

‘Can you see the ranch from here?’

‘No.’

‘There’s so much lava. It’s drier than I thought.’

‘This is the dry side.’

Raveneau checked the time as they left the highway and drove slowly through a small town along the water before turning into the Hapuna Beach lot. He spotted Frank’s gray Toyota pickup and parked nearby. They walked through the entrance past rest rooms and down toward the beach.

‘There he is.’

‘Where?’

‘That guy over there with the green and white shorts carrying the surf board.’

Frank waved and leaned the board against a low concrete retaining wall. He picked up a towel and a can of some drink and came toward them, drinking from the can as he walked. Frank belonged on the beach and he and la Rosa probably looked like a pair of missionaries on a recruiting drive in the third world. He watched Frank closely as he approached, and then the three of them sat down on a concrete bench and Raveneau said, ‘A package arrived at our Homicide office.’

‘I sent it to you.’

‘Then I have to ask you what was in it?’

‘A gun, a Glock 17 that came from my uncle’s house.’

‘Is it his gun?’

‘He’s had it forever.’

‘Why did you send it?’

‘Because he used to talk about it like it was a person that went out and did things on its own. He talks some strange shit when he’s drunk. He talked about the gun as if it traveled to places, killed bad people, and then came back home. He thought I sent the complaint letter and a video of me telling how you broke in. When he finds out the gun is gone it’ll freak him out.’

He stared at Raveneau communicating something else.

‘That’s the Glock I learned on. Uncle Casey says it belonged to my dad, but it was always sitting in the bar cabinet of the lanai in Uncle Casey’s house. Uncle Casey told me he’d give it to me when I became a marksman, but he didn’t. He likes owning it. He checks on it regularly, like a habit. If he hasn’t already noticed it’s missing he’s going to real soon and I don’t know what he’ll do.’

‘What do you think he’ll do?’

‘First he’ll ask me where it is.’

‘What are you going to tell him?’

‘That it’s mine and I took it. It was Dad’s gun and he promised it to me.’

‘Do you know about something in particular the gun was used for?’

Frank tipped the can, swallowed more of the coconut water, and Raveneau knew he wasn’t going to answer that directly.

‘Was Alan Krueger’s name ever mentioned in connection with the gun?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just asking.’

‘He was their friend.’

‘Did Krueger ever borrow the gun?’

‘I don’t know. I was pretty young and I knew it got borrowed, but I didn’t really know who took it. I guess he could have borrowed it. Other people did. I didn’t get it at the time but they would joke and say things like the gun is away on a business trip, shit like that.’

He finished the coconut water and crumpled the middle of the can.

‘Our housekeeper cleans it every week or so. It’s like a ritual. They used to call it the wipe down. He’s going to ask me where it is and get seriously angry.’

‘The gun isn’t registered to anyone.’

‘But that’s like the whole trip. They had like this whole story around the gun. It lives in that glass case and then goes out on trips on its own. It goes to do good, that’s what they called it, doing good, my dad, Uncle Casey, Shay, Krueger, and some other dudes that I only kind of barely remember. They all knew about it. Maybe it was never registered. Uncle Casey said Dad used to fly with it. As a pilot they didn’t usually check his bags. He carried other stuff for their friends.’

‘I want to ask you about something else having to do with your dad. Were you there when he died?’

‘Uncle Casey found him and woke me up. We walked up there together before he called the police or Dad’s doctor. We didn’t move him. He’d fallen and hit his head just outside the sliding door in front and it was pretty obvious he was dead.’

He looked away at the ocean remembering it, and Raveneau could see it affected him still. Some closeness there not really recognized in all this.

‘That night Uncle Casey and I sat up there in the chairs like Dad did with his friends. We got drunk together and he told me stories about my dad that I’d never heard. In a way it made me feel better and in a way it made me super sad.’

La Rosa spoke softly now, recounting her father’s long decline and death, Raveneau taking it in and thinking Frank was down here in shorts and carrying his board so if his uncle showed up he’d look like he was doing what he did every morning. He was afraid of him or very good at acting.

‘My dad didn’t shoot. He didn’t like guns. He said he killed enough in the war and supposedly that’s why Uncle Casey kept the gun at his house.’

This was a description of a man different than the one Casey portrayed.

‘I wanted to learn to shoot. I wanted to learn when I was little and visited him and he wouldn’t let me. That’s why my uncle taught me. My dad was pretty messed up by the war.’

‘What about your uncle?’

‘He says they did what they were told to and what they had to, and that you can’t look back.’

‘Is it true he doesn’t leave the island?’

‘No, but that’s his thing. He likes the way it sounds, but really it was my dad who wouldn’t leave the island any more. My uncle makes a trip or two a year to the mainland. He went with me to a coffee thing in San Francisco a few years ago when I was getting the business started. It’s like I said, he just likes to say that. It’s sort of a way he wants to be, you know. Since Dad died he’s sort of taken on these other things that were like Dad’s way.’

Raveneau returned to the gun.

‘If he asks where you have it, what are you going to say?’

‘That it’s in my safe deposit box at the bank. He might say it’s OK or he might tell me to move and buy him out of the coffee business tomorrow.’

‘What do you think is going to happen?’

‘He’s going to freak out.’

‘Is he home right now?’

‘Yes.’

‘We’re going to go see him. What about you? Where can we find you later?’

‘Call me.’

Frank set the empty can on top of the garbage receptacle and then picked up his board.

‘I’m going back in the water.’

‘We’re going to call you later today. We’ll want to meet again, Matt.’

‘I’m pretty sure we’re going to meet.’

He said that and walked away. They watched him, waited until he was out of earshot, and la Rosa said, ‘That was weird, especially that at the end.’

He turned to her. ‘I told you how he was when he found me up at his dad’s house.’

‘I was just thinking about that.’

‘He was real close up there. He wavered. I felt lucky to get away.’

FIFTY-TWO

G
oing through the gates reminded la Rosa of the summer she worked on a ranch in Montana before she had any idea what she was going to do with her life. She swung them closed and admired what Casey had here.

But despite the blue sky, soft warmth of the breeze off the ocean and the gentleness of the land, adrenaline kicked in. She felt several hard heartbeats. At home they might have come with backup, even if it was just to ask a patrol unit to park in the street. Raveneau was in touch with an agent in the FBI satellite office in Kona here on the Big Island, but he just wanted to know there was help available if they needed it. He probably hadn’t told the Kona office much. His phone rang as she got back in the car.

He looked down at the screen and said, ‘That’s him. I’m going to answer.’

‘Inspector, Tom Casey here. I’ve got some information for you on the Hawaiian artist I told you about. She’s still on the island.’

‘That’s great, and thanks for making the call.’

‘Oh, I’m enjoying our chats.’

‘That’s good to hear, because we’d like to have one with you this morning. My partner and I are here on the island.’ Raveneau glanced over at her, hesitating a moment before saying, ‘We’re driving up to your house right now. We were hoping to catch you at home.’

‘Unannounced.’

‘Maybe unannounced, but I’m not much of a believer in coincidence.’

‘I’m not either. I’ll see you in a few minutes.’

Raveneau put it to her this way, ‘Casey wants to know everything about what we’re thinking. He’s not afraid of us. I think he sees us as civil servants with guns working for a government he doesn’t particularly respect. That he’s wealthy seems to make him think he knows more than people like you and me. He likes to talk political philosophy while he fishes for information, and in small ways he’ll constantly try to control the conversation. You may feel like you’re talking to two different people at the same moment. He’s bright but troubled and unstable.’

‘If he’s unstable what are we doing here without backup?’

‘We’ll be OK.’

But Raveneau asked her to stand to the side and be ready to react. He climbed the steps ahead of her and the door opened just as he reached the porch. Casey thrust out his hand as if greeting an old friend. He smiled down at her and said, ‘Elizabeth, nice to meet you finally.’

And la Rosa didn’t know why she felt so nervous. It wasn’t Raveneau’s prepping and it wasn’t like her. Her first take was that for a man in his early sixties Thomas Casey looked unusually vigorous and strong. On the porch his gaze was direct and friendly. But then he put on a puzzled expression as he turned back to Raveneau.

‘I’ll be frank. I’m surprised they let you travel. I thought you’d be disciplined. I sent a letter about the burglary, a very detailed letter and a video of my nephew’s account.’

‘My lieutenant said something came in from Hawaii. I figured you had sent me a box of macadamia nuts.’

‘Did you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So you’re back and you’re smug. Well, that explains a lot of things. Come in, both of you. You’ve flown a long way with whatever theory you’ve got. Let’s hear it.’

They followed him down a long hallway with a light-colored bamboo floor, Casey walking with a slight limp, his shoe clicking with each step. The limp she hadn’t noticed when he greeted them. He must have hid it. He took them to the lanai Raveneau had told her about and moved three wicker chairs over to a low white-painted iron table.

‘Sit.’ He pointed a finger at Raveneau. ‘I know you like beer, but what about you, Elizabeth. What are you drinking?’

‘I just had coffee but thank you.’

‘What kind of beer, Commander?’

‘Whatever you’ve got.’

‘You don’t care as long as it has alcohol, right? I once knew that feeling.’

He popped the caps off two Coronas and put the bottles down on the table.

‘Now just cut to it,’ he said, ‘I don’t need the roundabout bullshit or have time for it today. You’re here because you think you’re on to something.’

‘Before anything else why don’t you give us the name and phone number of the Hawaiian artist,’ la Rosa said. She said this quietly. She didn’t feel Raveneau’s earlier attitude was smug and she read Casey’s attitude as bullying. She knew now was the best time to get the phone number from him and she wasn’t surprised he resisted.

‘I wrote it down on a piece of paper and I don’t know what I did with it. It’s somewhere in here.’

La Rosa stood. ‘I’ll help you look for it.’

For a long moment Casey didn’t answer. He stared at her then got to his feet and went over to the bar, stood behind it looking down, and la Rosa caught Raveneau’s alertness. She registered what it was about and unzipped the small purse she carried her gun in.

‘Here it is,’ Casey said, and then brought it to her. As she thanked him she pulled her phone from her purse and Casey said, ‘Don’t call her yet.’

La Rosa smiled at him as the phone rang, saying, ‘We don’t have much time. We need to set up a meeting with her.’

A woman answered and la Rosa introduced herself and asked if she was speaking to Aolani Ito. She was and la Rosa’s first impression was that Ito was unafraid and curious. She asked Ito how long it would take to get there and then agreed on a time.

‘So you’re going to do lunch,’ Casey said, as she hung up. ‘Well, it’s a long drive. You’ll have to hurry. You’ll have to cut short whatever you planned here. I think you’re getting ahead of yourselves. I think you’re making guesses you can’t support. You don’t really see what’s evolving, do you?’

Raveneau was soft spoken, holding the beer bottle but not drinking from it, gesturing slowly with his free hand.

‘What’s evolving, Tom? What are we missing?’

‘Let’s get to why you’re here first. What have you got?’

‘We’re here about the Glock you’re missing.’

‘The Glock the boy protected himself with when you were breaking into Jim’s house is a new model and the boy owns it. It’s registered to him but you know that by now. I don’t have any Glocks registered to me, but you’ve learned that too by now. Are you asking about the Glock 17 I’ve kept in that glass case over there and that’s gone missing very recently?’