Page 37 of Shark Cove

“I can’t. Then she’ll know I’m the Wallflower! And she’ll turn me in for sure, and I’ll get expelled!”

“Camille’s life might be at stake!” Blake’s voice rose. “You can worry about getting in trouble later.”

“I know—and I feel terrible—but there has to be some other way!”

“Wait—are you sure that message was her? Why would she send it to the Wallflower phone, not your cell phone?”

“Maybe Camille sent it to both, but my phone is in the safe. She told me her favorite shoes—glitter Converse.”

“Everyone has seen her wear those shoes. A lot of people, including me, knew those Converse were her favorite,” Blake said. A long pause as they both digested this.

“Is there anybody who doesn’t like Camille? Who would pull a prank like this against her? I can’t think of anyone.” Malia rubbed her aching forehead.

“Everyone liked her, as far as I know. But she was rich, and pretty. Maybe she had a hater, or even someone who saw something real and can’t think of another way to get attention. Did the text ever identify you as the Wallflower? Because only Camille would have known that.”

Malia read the text again. “No. It just said, ‘I’m Camille.’ But what if she was panicking? And only had a few minutes?”

“What’s the time stamp on the text?”

“This morning, eight a.m.” Malia had been sitting in Mercado’s office right about then. More importantly, class was in session. “Most kids who might have done this prank would have had a hard time texting this kind of message in the middle of class, don’t you think?”

“I want us to be careful this wasn’t a hoax. Is there some way you can check your normal phone for communication from Camille? Ask your mom to let you see if she texted you there? Because not too many people have your cell phone number, I imagine—but anyone who wants it has the Wal-Flwr number.”

The cursor began flashing on the burner. “I’m running out of minutes. I have to go. See you later.” Malia hung up, feeling queasy from the stress. She returned the burner to its hiding place. She had to get Harry to open the safe and let her check her phone for a confirming message from Camille.

Chapter Fifteen

Afternoon had dropped long,cool blue shadows over the Kahului harbor area. Lei, Stevens, Gerry Bunuelos, and Abe Torufu moved toward Keith Evenson’s warehouse at the docks in full raid gear, their weapons at the ready.

Lei’s heart hammered inside the tight carapace of her bulletproof vest. A helmet cut her visibility; she hated that. She’d argued that the SWAT outfits were a bit much for this mission, but Stevens had insisted that they be properly geared up, not knowing what they would face at the huge metal building outside the storage area where the containers used for shipping were kept.

Keo Avila had surrendered his phone to Roberts so that he couldn’t warn anyone about their approach; but, even with all the good reasons that they had to search the warehouse, it had still taken too many hours to get the warrant that Lei now carried tucked inside her Kevlar vest.

“Convenient location,” Lei said in an aside to Stevens. Her comment crackled through all their comm units.

“I’ll say it is,” Bunuelos replied.

Stevens made a throat-cutting gesture for silence.

They moved to the nearest opening of the warehouse. The main doors were two large barn style sliders held shut with a heavy chain and padlock; they looked corroded and firmly shut, as if seldom used. The team continued along one wall to a smaller side door halfway around the building. A sensor light overhead flicked on at their movement.

Stevens pounded on the door with a closed fist. “Open up! This is the Maui Police Department!”

The banging caused sleeping birds in the eaves of the building to take flight with a rush of wings. Lei ducked instinctively, the smell of rust and seaweed from the nearby harbor strong in her nostrils. She kept her breathing calm by staying focused on the door, standing to one side as they all did in case of a gunshot blast, an occurrence that had stolen more than one officer’s life.

No one answered Stevens’s vigorous hail, so he pounded and called out again. Still no response.

Stevens gave a jerk of his head, and Abe Torufu came forward with the door cannon. The heavy metal ramming device was equipped with a pair of handles on top, and Torufu and Bunuelos each held a handle. They swung the cannon back and rammed it forward right next to the door handle. The steel-lined portal flew inward with an unholy screech of noise.

The interior was dark but for a crack of light coming from beneath a door to the back. Lei reached inside the doorjamb and touched a switch on the wall. The warehouse lit up, blooming into brightness from several long, dangling bulbs that ran down the spine of the huge steel structure.

A series of corrugated metal rooms with open ceilings divided the area; their walls were lined with stacks of heavy metal shipping crates. The boxes were approximately four feet high by eight feet long, with slots built into them for forklift moving. At one end of the barnlike space, the ray of brighter light coming from beneath one of the doors was still on. Lei pointed to it, and the three men fell in behind her as she trotted quickly towards the door.

She pounded on the portal. “Open up! Maui Police Department!”

Bunuelos and Torufu were readying the door cannon again when they heard a shout from inside. “I’m coming!”

They fell back, weapons drawn, as the door opened.

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