Page 46 of Sachie's Hero

Sachie rose from the chair and extended her hand. “Thank you for everything.”

“I hope you find the guy causing you problems,” he said and grimaced. “And I hope it’s not Williams. He seemed sincere about wanting to get his son back.”

“I hope it isn’t him as well,” Sachie said.

She led the way out of the house.

Teller pulled the door closed and descended the porch steps with Sachie.

She glanced back at the house and then ducked between the house and the one beside it.

“Where are you going?” Teller asked, hurrying to catch up.

“I just wanted to check something out.” She walked around the two-story building, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the house from every angle, making a complete circle around it.

Teller studied it as well. Nothing stood out until they rounded the other side, where a metal fire escape clung to the siding near the far corner next to a window.

“Think he might have slipped out a window and down the fire escape?” Teller studied the rusty metal. “Doesn’t look very sturdy.”

She shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

Once they were back in the rental car, Teller asked. “Where now?”

“Kapolei,” she said. “It’s on the other side of the airport from here.”

“Do you think he could’ve left the house undetected and had enough time to fly to the Big Island, do everything he did and still get back in time to go to work at eight in the morning?

“There are early flights from Hilo that could get him back in time,” she said. “And if he was home by noon the day before my cottage was broken into, he could’ve been on the Big Island the entire time, and the people at the halfway house wouldn’t have been any the wiser—seeing as they had no record of him going to work this morning.”

CHAPTER 12

Teller droveout of the neighborhood and merged onto H1, heading west to Kapolei. By the time they reached the outskirts, it was nearly noon.

“What’s the plan?” Teller asked. “Are we going to corner him in the parking lot and question him there?”

“Something like that,” she said. “We have to get there before he gets off to do that.”

They were within a block of the meat-packing facility when a gray sedan passed them going the opposite direction.

Sachie twisted in her seat and looked out the back of the sedan. “That was him. The car has a turtle on the back window.”

Teller slowed, put on his left blinker and waited for a break in the oncoming traffic.

Sachie remained turned in her seat. “I can still see him, but he’s about to go around a curve.”

A gap appeared in the oncoming traffic. It wasn’t much of one, but Teller couldn’t wait any longer. He hit the accelerator and spun the steering wheel at the same time. Tires squealed as the sedan did a one-eighty, fishtailing until Teller had it headed straight ahead.

“I lost sight of him,” Sachie said, leaning toward the dashboard. “He can’t be too far ahead. The traffic isn’t moving that fast.”

The slow traffic didn’t help Teller catch up. Every chance he got, he wove around a slower vehicle and sped up again, only to get trapped behind another. As they rounded the curve, Sachie squinted, searching the road ahead. “I think that’s him, six cars ahead. He’s merging onto H1, heading back to Honolulu.”

The car in front of Teller slowed almost to a complete stop to take a right turn onto a side street. With another car passing him on the left, Teller had no choice but to slam on his brakes and wait for the driver to complete the turn. As soon as he did, Teller punched the gas, sending the rental shooting forward. Moments later, he flew onto H1, merging into traffic. With multiple lanes to choose from, he whippedaround vehicles using the far-left lane and nearly passed the gray sedan as it veered to the right onto an exit ramp.

“He’s getting off!” Sachie yelled at the same time Teller had come to that conclusion. Quickly checking his rearview and side mirror, he swerved sharply, crossing three lanes of traffic and just making it to the exit to the sound of horns honking.

Ahead, William’s car slowed at a green traffic light and turned left.

By the time Teller reached the light, it was red. He would have blown through it except a police car waited at the light to his right, forcing him to come to a complete halt and wait for the cross traffic to pass, along with the police car, and for his light to turn green.

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