Fire Beach: Lei Crime Book 8 (Lei Crime Series) (22 page)

She’d lost Baby, but she still had Kiet.

Kiet went rigid with fright at the sound of her crying, arching his back and letting out an uncertain wail. Lei looked for Stevens to take him, but he and her father were out in the hall, conferring.

This is motherhood,
Lei thought.
You get a grip on yourself and do what’s right for the kid’s sake.
Her own mother had never known how to do that, and Lei wasn’t going to make the same mistakes.

Lei gulped down her tears and smiled through them, snuggling and rocking Kiet close. “It’s okay, little buddy. Mom’s just a little emotional. It’s all good.” And she blew on his neck gently, and he hunched, even his toes curling up, and made a little sound like a giggle.

Her dad came across the room, sat in the chair next to the bed. “Lei-girl. I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.” Lei took Kiet’s hand, waving it, smiling at the baby to keep tears at bay.

“Wasn’t meant to be,” Wayne said. “But there will be others.”

Lei speared him with a glance. “Please don’t ever say that again. Nobody say that again.”

Wayne sat back in the chair and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, honey. I never know what to say about this kind of thing. Thank God you are both safe. Kiet missed you guys. Fussed all the time. I was at my wit’s end when I got the call you were here.”

“You did the right thing, bringing him to me,” Lei said.

Wayne smiled at her, gratitude in his face. “I didn’t know what else to do. He needs his mama.”

Stevens came in, carrying a big Starbucks cup and a bag. “Got a chocolate croissant for you.”

“Let me start with the coffee,” she said. “When am I getting out of here?”

Right on cue, a doctor had appeared in the doorway. He was a grandfatherly, kind-looking Asian man who looked vaguely familiar to Lei. “I’m Dr. Kim. Would you mind taking the baby out for a minute?” he asked Wayne. “I’d like to speak to the parents alone.”

“Sure.” Wayne got up with alacrity and took Kiet from Lei, carrying him out of the room.

The minute the baby was gone, Lei was aware of her emptiness again. She crossed her arms over her stomach and waited as Stevens sat down on the chair beside her. He handed her the cardboard cup, and she took it for something to do.

“So. You had a spontaneous miscarriage. You were in so much pain and distress, we gave you some pretty powerful medications to assist the process and to keep you comfortable. Then, as you signed consent for, I did a procedure called a D & C to make sure the uterus was clear. You have a healthy reproductive system. No lasting damage that I could determine.”

Lei blinked. The tears had started again, and they just kept trickling out. She didn’t remember any of it. She’d probably had one of her black-hole memory blips because of the trauma. She took a sip of coffee, her hand trembling. Stevens took the cup from her, taking both of her hands.

Still the tears trickled out of her eyes. “Was it my fault? Did I hurt the baby?”

“No. No, ma’am.” The doctor sat down on the edge of the bed beside her and flipped open his folder. “You had some injuries—a slight concussion from a blow to the head, a contusion on your eye. But nothing that would have caused trauma to the uterus or reproductive organs.”

“But what about stress causing it to happen? I was really stressed out the last few days. We…we had a house fire. And a raid. And a hijacking.”

“No. None of that should have affected the fetus. Tons of stress hormones aren’t great for a developing baby, but there have been babies born in the most horrendous of circumstances—in the middle of wars—happy and healthy. Sometimes these things just happen. There’s usually something wrong with the fetus.” He shut the folder. His eyes were kind. “Don’t blame yourself. Take some time. Enjoy the child you have. And when you’re ready, try again. You’re young, and there are no problems with your reproductive system that I could see. You should be able to get pregnant again with no trouble.”

Lei shut her eyes. She couldn’t imagine being ready to take such a risk, but at the same time, the loss felt overwhelming. Never to have a baby, ever…Her brain shut down, unable to deal with the dilemma.

Stevens rubbed her hands. “How soon can we go home?”

“Tomorrow. I want you to stay one more day, just to rule out any complications or blood clots, that sort of thing.”

“Thanks, Doctor. I’m sure you did the best you could to help us,” Lei said, making herself look at him.

“Thought we’d saved your baby, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time,” the doctor said, standing up. “Feel better.” He left.

Stevens pulled her into his arms. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I’ll never believe that,” Lei said, pressing her face into his shirt, her voice choked. “I should never have gone to the Big Island.”

“If we’re going to play the blame game, I should have caught you when that asshole pilot cracked you on the head and you fell down the stairs,” Stevens said. “I just couldn’t get there in time.”

“He said that didn’t cause it either.”

“Well, it couldn’t have helped. At least the shroud killer thing’s wrapped up. When you feel up to it, Furukawa’s waiting to get your statement.”

“Oh God.” Lei rubbed her tearstained face on his shoulder. “Can I talk to him tomorrow?”

“I think we can fend him off until then.”

“Thanks for having Dad come with Kiet. He’s just what I need right now.”

“I can tell.” Stevens rocked her in his arms. “We’re going to be okay. We have to be okay.”

Lei heard the tears in his voice. They clung together until Wayne came back, and Kiet brought sunshine.

Chapter 23

L
ei sat gingerly on the hard plastic seat in the interview room at Kaua`i Police Department. She and Stevens had checked out of the hospital, and Jenkins had given them a ride over to the station so they could leave Wayne with the baby and the rental car at his motel.

Lei looked around at the familiar setting of steel table, chairs, and mirrored observation window. She’d got through the gauntlet of greetings by former teammates at the KPD by sheer force of will, and now the energy it had taken to get here seemed to have leaked out, leaving her drained with the interview with Furukawa still ahead. Their union rep was seated next to her, but Stevens wasn’t allowed in the interview. She knew he was in the observation room, and just knowing he was watching strengthened her a little.

Captain Fernandez, dapper in an immaculate uniform, came in, followed by Detective Furukawa.

“Lei! So glad to see you again!” Fernandez extended a hand and shook hers warmly. She’d enjoyed working under him in spite of all the politics of the Kaua`i station, and the smile she gave him was genuine.

“Nice to see you, too, Captain.”

“Hope you don’t mind. I’m going to be sitting in on this interview.”

“Not at all,” Lei said, secretly relieved. She’d watched “Fury” Furukawa and his partner tag team interviewees before and hadn’t been looking forward to it.

“Welcome back to Kaua`i,” Furukawa said. “Wish it were in better circumstances.”

“Me too,” Lei said, wondering if he was sincere. It was impossible to tell with his blank stare. Those ready tears started to well, and Lei remembered a trick Dr. Wilson had taught her—doing some simple mental math. She ran through a multiplication table and the tears backed off. “Can we get started? I’m still not feeling well.”

“Certainly.” Furukawa turned on the recording equipment and took a seat beside the captain. He stated the date, time, and persons present for the interview, then started in. “We’ve collected physical evidence and interviewed all the witnesses at the scene. You’re our last witness statement.”

“I expected that,” Lei said.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened, beginning with getting on the plane.”

Lei did. It took a while, as Furukawa stopped her for questions or clarification. So far the interview was progressing well, and Lei was relieved. The aggression Stevens had hinted at seemed to have been curbed by the captain’s presence.

They came to the part where Lei was taken away by the medevac helicopter. “We heard you lost a baby,” Furukawa said. For the first time Lei saw some expression in his eyes, and it was compassion. “So sorry to hear that.”

Mental math, mental math.
Lei managed to keep the tears in. She nodded. “It’s sad, yes.”

“Perhaps you’d like to tell us why you were on the Big Island in the first place,” Furukawa said.

“I was investigating a gambling operation out of Kahului. Turns out it was a small part of the Chang family crime operation,” Lei said. She described the case, emphasizing that she’d been authorized by Omura to go and work with Hilo PD.

“And how did you come to tie that case in with the Chang operation that turned out to have a meth lab in it?”

“I interviewed Terence Chang. He gave me the information. Even showed me where the meth lab was. He’s a major witness in that case.”

“So you were aware the FBI had specifically directed that you not be involved with any investigation involving the Changs?” Furukawa’s face gleamed as he pressed in on her.

“I was aware, yes. But I thought the situation demanded that I follow where the evidence was leading.” Lei pinched her leg through the soft fleece pants Stevens had bought her that morning. The pain kept her grounded and alert.

“So the situation of a minor gambling case dictated that you approach Terence Chang for help with your case? Funny, because he says in his statement, ‘Lei Texeira approached me at my home to ask who was attacking her family.’”

Lei frowned and stayed silent as the union rep leaned forward and addressed Furukawa. “This line of questioning doesn’t have anything to do with KPD and your case on Ni`ihau.”

“I disagree,” Furukawa said. “I think what happened on Ni`ihau had roots in a homicide twenty-five years ago, involving Lei’s father and the head of the Chang crime family. The body count on this feud is getting deep, from what I’ve discovered. I’ve contacted Internal Affairs and turned this whole thing over to them.”

“Very dramatic,” Lei said, even as her gut twisted. She hunched over, breathing shallowly through the pain. They’d told her she might have residual cramping for a while, and the stress wasn’t doing anything good for her system.

“Detective Furukawa!” Captain Fernandez exclaimed. He stood, walked to the wall, and turned off the recording equipment. “You’re supposed to run all such referrals through me!”

“Begging your pardon, Captain, but if referrals had to go through commanding officers, IA would never have anything to investigate.” Furukawa crossed his arms, unrepentant. Lei knew he’d been waiting years for this opportunity to bring her down.

Captain Fernandez turned to Lei. “I’m sorry. I didn’t sanction this.”

“It’s okay,” Lei said, standing. “It will be whatever it will be, and frankly, right now I just don’t care. I’m not feeling well. You have my statement. I’m going home now.” She walked carefully to the door, where Stevens met her. He wrapped a long arm around her and pulled her in against his side.

“Let’s go home.”

Lei remembered at the same moment Stevens did, by his ironic glance, that they no longer had a home.

Chapter 24

H
ellish
was the word for their first night back on the property, Stevens thought. He and Lei were squished into Wayne’s double bed in the one-bedroom cottage, with Kiet in a portable crib beside them. Wayne slept on the couch in the front room.

Kiet slept fine, but Stevens had continued to have nightmares since the fire, and he woke Lei with his flailing. Lei was also having a rough time. She’d cried intermittently all day after they left the police station on Kaua`i, tears rolling quietly down her face, and she moved like a sleepwalker when she moved at all.

Even after Aunty’s death, she hadn’t been like this. It alarmed him to the point that he could hardly grieve the loss of Baby himself in his worry over his wife’s emotional state. The only thing that seemed to perk her up a little was Kiet, so after their bad night, he handed her the baby and decided to get started cleaning up the mess of their burned house, a stark and ugly reminder of all they’d lost.

With the rubble gone, maybe moving forward would be easier. He’d called Pono and Jared yesterday when they got home from Kaua`i, and they both said they had the day off and would try to round up some friends to help.

They had a budget from the insurance company, but it wasn’t much in the scope of having to clean up and replace the house. Still, it was enough to get started, and Stevens needed to work, to throw himself into a project. He got on the phone and ordered a big demolition container and a small Caterpillar bulldozer and driver to come that day.

Stevens pulled on a pair of Wayne’s old work pants, surprised to find that, if a little tight in the legs, they fit him. He must have lost weight. He followed those with sturdy rubber boots and gloves and a particle mask.

With his father-in-law at his side and a shovel and ax in his hand, Stevens waded into the pile of dangerous burned material that was all that remained of their house.

They worked for a couple of hours. The sweat of effort felt good, stinging Stevens’s eyes and loosening his muscles. He hauled burned wood into a pile, chopping down larger pieces, Wayne right alongside him with a wheelbarrow. He straightened up, ax in hand, as several trucks pulled up their driveway.

Pono’s purple truck was in the lead, the bed filled with buff young men in work clothes. Jared’s truck followed, and Stevens recognized firefighter friends he’d been introduced to following in their vehicles. Bringing up the rear of the vehicles lumbered a tractor-trailer with the Cat and a giant dumpster.

Stevens felt his chest swell with suppressed emotion as the vehicles unloaded. Men carrying tools and wearing protection gear climbed out, laughing and talking. Jared had made sure they were dressed properly for dealing with fire debris.

His brother approached, blue eyes alight with energy and determination. “Brought a bunch of off-duty friends.”

Stevens embraced Jared, clapping him on the back hard with a blackened glove. “Got the first charcoal of the day on you, bro. I can’t thank you enough.”

Pono approached, wearing a pair of rubber waders. He thumbed back at the cluster of men climbing out of his truck. “Rounded up these lame-asses to help. Point ’em at it and they’ll go all day.”