Page 50 of Shark Cove

“I don’t like your tone,” Leonard William snarled. “Screw you.”

The other doors of the Suburban opened. Three more guys, uniformed, masked and armed, got out.

In response, the Escalade’s doors flew open too. The Williams’ two men jumped out, brandishing weapons.

Regina William waved her hands, her voice shrill. “I told you, we have the money. Give us our daughter!”

“Tell me you agree.” The man holding Camille addressed Leonard William alone. The kidnapper shook Camille, and even from where Malia was parked, she heard Camille’s whimper of pain and fear.

Leonard reached back into the car—but he brought up a pistol instead of the duffel bag.

“I told you I won’t do it. Give her to me. I can’t miss at this distance.”

Every man in the Suburban trained their weapons on Leonard as the man holding Camille laughed, a sound like knives clashing. “I can’t miss, either. Give us the money, then. We’ll start there and deal with you later.”

Leonard turned back and brought out one of the duffels. He set it on the ground.

“I’m losing patience,” Camille’s captor said. “Where’s the rest of it?”

With a gesture almost too swift to follow, he fired a shot into the back tire of the Escalade. The report was unbelievably loud, and the tire blew.

Regina William screamed.

Suddenly there was an explosion of gunfire. Camille wrenched away from her captor.

Everyone dove for the ground.

This was Malia’s chance to save her friend!Malia hit the accelerator, and the innocuous silver Prius burst out from beside the bathroom.

Chapter Twenty-One

Lei was on the phone,talking with Special Agent Aina Thomas of the Coast Guard about searching ships going out of Maui when Harry stuck her head into the cubicle she was using. “Lei! Dispatch forwarded a distress call from my daughter. She’s somewhere outside Lahaina called Shark Cove. I need a partner, now!”

“Absolutely.” Lei dropped the phone into its cradle, grabbed her weapon harness off the back of her chair, and stood up. “What’s the situation?”

Harry was already striding for the doors of the station, and Lei trotted to catch up. “I don’t know much, just that Malia called 911 with some garbled message about Leonard and Regina William and armed men in an Escalade. Dispatch already sent some uniforms that are stationed out there to check it out.”

Lei shrugged into her weapon harness as she jogged to keep up with her long-legged friend. They soon reached Harry’s vehicle, a Honda CRV with the license plate MAMACOP. Lei smiled despite the urgency of their mission, sliding into the passenger seat and slamming her belt buckle home.

Harry turned on a cop light and put it on the dash, reversed, and pulled out so hard Lei grabbed the side handle of the door for support. They screeched out of the parking lot and wove into traffic. Harry put on her siren, an exterior addition added to civilian vehicles, and they rapidly cleared the downtown Kahului traffic as they blazed through town.

“Now that we’re on our way, tell me more about why there’s a call from your daughter in the middle of the day, all the way out at Shark Cove. That’s past Lahaina, almost an hour away. What’s she doing out there?”

“I know as much as you do, at this point,” Harry growled. “As soon as she’s out of danger, I’m planning to ground her forever. I have no idea how she even got there. She doesn’t have a car, or access to one that I’m aware of.”

“I’m going to check with dispatch for current status.” Lei activated her radio, checking in to let the dispatcher know they were en route.

“Units have been dispatched to the area identified by the caller,” Iris said in her unflappably calm professional voice. “They are also en route to the disturbance and should be there in ten minutes.”

“Tell us more about the distress call,” Lei said.

“Two dropped calls, ten minutes apart, came in from an unidentified cell phone. Specific request was for Detective Harry Clark. Caller identified herself as Clark’s daughter Malia. Caller said she was following Leonard and Regina William and suspected that they were being coerced. Two armed men were accompanying them. She said that the William couple was under duress.”

“Roger that.” Lei ended the transmission, glancing over at her friend.

Harry’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles showed white; her jaw was tight and her eyes narrow. She gunned the Honda, swerving dangerously into oncoming traffic to pass cars slow to pull over. Lei bit her tongue on a request to slow down; imagining Kiet or Rosie, alone and in danger, made her own hands sweaty as she gripped the handle of the door to steady herself. They soon reached the sinuous curves of the Pali Highway.

“What kind of trouble is Malia in?” Lei asked.

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