Page 21 of Shark Cove

She turned on her laptop and while it booted up, she checked the burner phone. Sure enough, more text messages had collected, most of them wanting to know when Wallflower Diaries would be back online and who had won the Blake Lee Prom Date Contest.

She logged into the Wallflower Diaries site and put up another “missing person” bulletin with the caption:“This site now exists to help find Camille William. It’s been over 48 hours, and authorities are no closer to finding her. We’ve had some great intel from you so far—text your tips to Wal-flwr!”

Sitting there, staring at the Publish button, Malia struggled with temptation to update the Cupid post with the clear winner that the student body had chosen as Blake’s date to prom: Shelly Okawa, a petite, pretty girl whose elfin beauty would complement Blake’s bold good looks.

But he’d hate the post, and hate Malia even more, and the site would be over for sure.

Malia exited the program and shut the laptop.

It feltgood to stretch her legs as Lei walked rapidly down the long, paved jetty alongside the shipping transport storage area at the Kahului Harbor. Harry had joined her there after an early dinner with her daughters.

Frustration from the interview with Regina William felt like residual tightness in her muscles, and Lei swung her arms as she strode, by habit able to miss her sidearm on one hip and her radio and badge on the other.

Harry, beside her, moved just as quickly. “I’ve never had occasion to work with the Coast Guard before.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure that the girls who are disappearing are being shipped out, but it seems like the most logical way for the kidnappers to get them off the island,” Lei said. “About two years ago, we had a case involving human traffickers and pirates. The pirates were opportunistic about that aspect of the case, in the sense that they sold off victims that they captured during their raids on luxury vessels. They stored the women in a modified container here at the docks. Since I don’t have any other leads at the moment, I thought we could come down and take a look around. Special Agent Aina Thomas, who’s meeting us, has been helpful in several cases, and the Coast Guard can open doors for us around boats and shipping that we would not be able to open by ourselves.”

“Makes sense,” Harry said.

Lei slanted her friend a glance as the wind off the harbor caught their hair and tossed it around. She was glad she was wearing hers in a ponytail with a ball cap. “Do you ever see Cruz? The man you trained with?”

Harry smiled. “Not in many years. As far as I know, he is still living in Mexico. He has his own training school. He lives like a king for a fraction of the cost down there.”

“We should catch up on that old history sometime. I would love to hear your story. I thought of you both often after we met in Cabo San Lucas,” Lei said.

“I thought of you too,” Harry said. “But really, there’s not much to tell. After I was done training with Cruz, I worked with his agency in private security paramilitary operations for a while. Then I met my husband . . . or, I should say, my ex-husband. He lived in Hawaii, and I felt it was time to return to my roots, so we settled on Oahu to raise Malia. I applied to the police academy there, probably just a year or two after you began on the Big Island.” Harry gripped the bill of her hat against a gust of wind. “Hey—is it okay if I tell Malia about Camille being at Camp Willowslim? She’s really taking Camille’s disappearance hard and was asking around for clues about Camille at school today.”

“Of course, you should tell her.” Lei glanced at her friend. “If you really think that’s where the girl is.”

“I think we have to accept Regina’s story, for the moment,” Harry said. “Much as it gags me to do so. That woman is a piece of work.”

They’d reached a small guard booth; they showed their identifications to the attendant. “We will be walking through the containers with an investigator from the Coast Guard,” Lei said. “We’ll let you know if we need anything opened.”

The attendant was still verifying the procedural aspects with the storage area manager when Special Agent Aina Thomas rolled up in a Coast Guard truck. The women had to park their private vehicles outside the dock area, but Agent Thomas had the gate opened for his official vehicle. He grinned down at them with that flashing smile that Lei had always had a soft spot for. “I see you have someone new for me to meet today,” Agent Thomas said, getting out of his ride.

Lei grinned as Harry checked out the handsome Guardsman from stem to stern in his sharply pressed uniform while she made the introductions. “As I told you on the phone, we want to walk through the container storage area and look for any shipping cartons here that might have any of the same kind of adaptations that were made to a container to hold the women in the pirate case.”

“We’re on the same page,” Agent Thomas agreed. “Let’s do it.”

After the attendant unlocked the gate, the trio walked between the high steel stacks of shipping containers. They scanned for ventilation square irregularities, an air conditioning unit, ducting, or any other modifications that could indicate that the container was being used for human transport.

Agent Thomas and Harry walked ahead of her, chatting, and getting to know each other as Lei brought up the rear, traversing the aisles of huge metal boxes. The evening wind that cooled the harbor area was stifled by the tall metal walls. As Lei scanned them, she mulled over the pirate case and the rapidly escalating hostage situation that had culminated into a standoff between the human traffickers and rescue operatives, including her husband Stevens. That confrontation had been dangerous, most of all for the women and girls held hostage in a stifling steel box on a hot day.

Lei wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or frustrated when the three of them finished searching the entire area but found no sign of any modified containers.

Agent Thomas turned to face Lei, standing in the shadow of one of the stacks. “Might this situation be the same operation that was never completely shut down after the pirate attacks?” He had played a key role in the resolution of that case.

“We don’t know. The FBI is working with us on disappearances of runaway teen girls throughout the islands. Our best speculation is that they are being held somewhere, then periodically moved out to other destinations. Perhaps that case spooked this ring of operators, because things went really quiet for a while,” Lei said. “But I thought it was worth a walk-through and getting you on board to keep an eye out for anything odd going out of the docks. It seems like it would be easier to ship live cargo than fly them out.”

Agent Thomas cocked a brow. “Are you sure about that? There’s a very busy private airstrip operating right alongside the commercial one in Kahului. They could as easily be moved off this island in a plane. Maybe the operators changed it up after that case brought so much scrutiny.”

“You have a point.” Lei moved out of the shade of the container with Harry in her wake. “We’ll check out the airport and see if we can get a handle on that. In the meantime, give us both your cell number in case we need to make contact.”

Lei already had his number but stifled a smirk as Agent Thomas eagerly texted Harry his contact info.

Lei wasn’t above playing matchmaker; happily married herself, it was nice to see good friends fall in love too.

Chapter Nine

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