Page 58 of Shark Cove

“In that case, we should perform a thorough search belowdecks,” Agent Thomas said.

“I agree. The owner of the yacht, Leonard William, is dead, and we have a search warrant,” Lei said.

“I’ve got a door cannon in the back of my truck,” Pono said.

Agent Thomas gave him a nod, and Pono jogged back up the pier and soon fetched the heavy metal door breaker. Agent Thomas and his fellow officer made short work of knocking in the yacht’s shiny main cabin door.

They drew their weapons as they went into the luxurious interior of the yacht, the CGIS agents in the lead. Agent Thomas and his fellow agent checked all the rooms and pronounced them clear while Lei and Pono waited in a beautifully appointed sitting area.

Lei put her hands on her hips. “William wouldn’t keep the girls somewhere easily accessible where Regina or others might come across them. They’d be out of the way, in some sort of cargo area, if there is one.”

Agent Thomas’s fellow agent was already pulling up the handle of a large hatch into what looked like a lower deck area. He flicked on a light and peered down a ladder into those depths. “I don’t see anyone in here.”

“They would be in some kind of soundproof box or storage,” Lei said. “Maybe even something built-in to fool searches.”

They all went below into a utilitarian space separated into a storage area and simple cabins, perhaps for crew.

Lei shone her flashlight over every surface, slowing herself down, taking deep even breaths.

She put herself in the mind of Leonard William.

If he were involved with human trafficking, wouldn’t he want to keep an eye on the cargo? If so, what was the best way to do that? Probably one of those nanny cam video monitors, hooked into his personal laptop or phone.

But if he was having a dispute with the traffickers and refusing to move the human cargo, the girls were likely somewhere else, wherever Avila was storing them. Lei and her team had already thoroughly searched the warehouse at the Kahului docks, so that wasn’t the location.

They had to find Keo Avila’s bolthole.

Meanwhile, if she were Leonard William, wouldn’t she keep the smuggling information somewhere hidden, but accessible?

Lei went back up the ladder and into the master stateroom with its distinctively masculine dark blue king-sized bed and teak furnishings. An office suite was separated from the bedroom by a movable partition wall. Lei rifled through the drawers of the neat desk and used her combat knife to pop the lock on a lower drawer.

At the back of the drawer, she found a small leather book, filled with initials and phone numbers. She held the booklet up triumphantly as Pono came in. “This could provide the names of the other people involved with the trafficking!”

“I hope so, because we haven’t found anything below except for metal crates full of weapons,” Pono said. “He was weapon dealing, too.”

“Did you see anything down there that looked like it could have held human cargo?”

“Nothing.” Agent Thomas had come to the doorway.

“Well, I found something.” Lei showed him the notebook.

The agent washed his hands, which had picked up dirt in the explorations belowdecks, then wiped them on one of the pristine monogrammed towels in the head. “This is a dirty business,” Agent Thomas said, pointing to the towel, marked by his hands. “I’ll look for any watercraft that are underway associated with William’s operation. We will search them all.”

Lei picked up a ledger she’d spotted and handed it to him. “Vessel names and registration numbers. All you need to find William’s ships.” She turned to Pono. “Butweneed to find out who goes with these phone numbers, and any addresses associated with Keo Avila and the Changs. That’s where the girls might be.”

Lei and Ponoparted ways with Opunui, who headed back to the Shark Cove crime scene—but a sense of urgency in finding at least the most recent victim, Stacey Emmitt, pounded a drumbeat in Lei’s veins.

Lei and her partner headed for their trucks. She held the little black book she’d taken from Leonard William’s desk in its evidence bag; it could yield evidence useful in tracking down the entire human trafficking ring if she could find who owned the phone numbers, but it wouldn’t help any girls who might be trapped in a metal box right now with no one alive who knew its location.

Lei stopped in her tracks and addressed Pono. “We have to find these girls, now. We can’t just go back to the station and track down phone numbers while we wait for some new clue to pop up. I’m worried about what’s happening to them.”

Pono rubbed his mustache vigorously, a fierce frown drawing his brows together. “Let’s talk it over with Agent Thomas and see if he’s got any ideas.”

They returned to theMermaidat her slip. Agent Thomas was running KEEP OUT tape around the yacht as the other agent worked to secure the door they’d knocked in.

Lei and Pono approached the CGIS agents, and by then Lei had an idea. “Aina, any chance we could meet at the Coast Guard Station and use your computers to look for any connection between Leonard William, Keo Avila, and the Chang family?” Lei asked. “I’d like to search for two locations where the girls might be held: one on land, and the other aboard a boat, some craft that’s associated with Leonard William and his business. I don’t want to drive all the way back to Kahului station just to follow up on phone numbers when time is of the essence.”

Agent Thomas’s intelligent brown eyes sparkled with excitement. “Sure. If you can give me a ride, we’ll go back to the Coast Guard station at Ma?alaea Harbor and my teammate can take the Defender back by sea. If we all work together on this, and time is of the essence as you say, that should be the priority right now.”

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