Page 72 of Shark Cove

Malia jumped up from the bed and ran to the window. She moved the curtain, and a few hundred yards down the road from her house, pulled over in ‘their spot,’ she saw the rounded lines of the old Mercedes.

“Don’t leave,” Malia said. “Wait there. I just want to say goodbye.” She hung up the phone and hurried down the stairs, out the front door, and down the driveway.

Evening was soft charcoal gathering under the shadows of the trees as Malia ran all the way to the car. The window was down, and Blake sat inside. His eyes were dark and startled and his mouth a little open in surprise as she leaned in to touch her lips to his. She kept her eyes open until the last second.

A moment later, she felt his hands awkwardly steadying her arms, and realized she was hanging halfway into the car. "Dang it, I'm sorry." Malia pulled back and covered her cheeks with her hands. "I totally overdid that. I just wanted a kiss goodbye."

She stepped back as Blake opened the vehicle’s door and got out, shutting it with a soft click. She'd never been so aware that he was at least a foot taller. "Then let's have a real one,” he said.

He drew her in and bent his head to hers, his arms winding around her until she didn't know where one ended and the other began.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lei,Pono, Torufu, Bunuelos, Harry Clark, and Special Agent Aina Thomas of the Coast Guard sat around the meeting table at Kahului station with Captain CJ Omura and District Attorney Hiromo. Special Agent in Charge Ben Waxman and agents Marcella Scott and Ken Yamada were tuning in from Oahu.

Omura passed a platter of cut-up fruit and vegetables in one direction, and a box of Komoda’s malasadas in another.

“We’re jealous of those snacks over here,” Marcella said. “Where’s ours, boss?”

Waxman raised a brow. “Let’s get started.”

Omura tapped her shiny red nails together. “This multiagency gathering is to recap the latest developments in the human trafficking case as it has played out on Maui. We’ve arrested Harold Chang, and his warehouses and properties have been seized. We have a fight ahead of us in prosecuting him; he is already out on bail and his lawyers are claiming that his properties were used for the trafficking without his knowledge or consent.”

“The Changs are a wily and well-connected bunch,” Hiromo said, stroking a swatch of goatee on his chin. “But I am hopeful, this time, that we will find something more to connect him directly to the trafficking. Detectives?”

“We’re focusing on his bookkeeping and computers,” Lei said. “We’ve taken all of the units we could find, along with the phone list and records we found on the William yacht, and given them to the FBI.”

“Yes, and our tech department is hard at work,” Marcella chimed in. “Agent Bateman, our tech specialist, has run down the numbers in the black notebook Lei found on board the Leonard yacht. Many of the numbers were burners, but some have been traced to Chang-connected businesses or family members. We’re tapping their phones now and spreading our net wide.”

“Here on Maui, to follow up, we’re working on a better support system for runaways,” Bunuelos said. “If kids had more safe options, they wouldn’t be as vulnerable.”

“Yes,” Lei said. “Elizabeth Black, a social worker with Child Protective Services, and I have applied for a million-dollar multiagency grant to provide housing and wraparound services for teen runaways. We’re hoping to set up a healthy version of the Runaway Railroad for kids with problems at home to be able to access.”

The group discussed that for a few minutes, then Agent Thomas wiped a bit of powdered sugar off his chin. “As for the Coast Guard, we’ve searched and seized all of the registered William vessels and they will be auctioned off. His illegal empire is being disassembled, as we speak.”

“Will his daughter, Camille William, inherit anything?” Harry asked. “She’s innocent in all of this.”

Hiromo harrumphed. “Regina William’s property is also being confiscated. After the state’s expenses for services rendered are reimbursed, Miss William will be entitled to the remainder. She may be innocent of wrongdoing, a victim even, but her parents were not.”

“No one is arguing with that,” Harry said. “Per usual, the sins of the fathers are visited on the children.”

“That’s always been true,” Omura said. “Now, is there anything else?”

The meeting wrapped up.

Afterward, Lei caught Harry by the arm in the hall. “Everything okay? I know Malia and Camille are close . . .”

Harry sighed. “Mind if we step outside for a break? I could use a smoke.”

“Not at all.”

Lei trailed her friend out the double doors of the station and over to a patch of lawn shaded by a flowering rainbow shower tree, where a picnic table and refuse bin served those who liked to go outside for their noon meal. Harry sat atop the table, her feet on the bench, and lit up as Lei unslung her backpack purse and stretched jean-clad legs out into the sunshine.

“Do you ever think about that time in Mexico?” Lei hadn’t meant to say that, but somehow it popped out.

“Yeah. Of course.” Harry blew smoke off to the side. “I try not to dwell on it but if that craziness hadn’t gone down . . . I wouldn’t have my daughter. I can’t regret it.”

“That trip was a turning point for me. I was already on my way to being a cop, but . . . it sealed the deal. And what happened with those traffickers in the desert made me realize I didn’t want to be judge and jury ever again, no matter how hard it is to make charges stick sometimes. No offense.”

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