Page 67 of Wired Justice

“Anything I can do.” Julie wrung the tissue with her hands, shredding it. “Dark eyes. He looked like a local guy, like I said. Someone from here. I had an impression he was good looking, but I was too scared to really notice his features.”

Freitan leaned forward, her gaze intent. “Young? Old?”

“In his thirties, I’d say. He had rough hands, like he did outdoor work or something. I remember that.” Julie dropped her eyes, wiping her hands on her stiff looking jeans. “He had a pidgin accent. Anyway, I didn’t want to take my clothes off, and we struggled until he put that knife against my neck.” Julie tipped her head to the side, and showed the detectives a healed scratch beneath her jaw. “Once he had the knife there, I cooperated. I took off my clothes and boots.”

“And then what happened?” Freitan was relentless.

“He started to take off his pants, but he couldn’t get them down one handed, so he put the knife aside. I scrambled up and ran for it. I figured he was going to kill me; I had nothing to lose. His pants caught on his ankles and I was able to jump over the ditch and get to the road. I ran along the road as fast as I could in my underwear and bare feet. A car came. I waved my arms, and the driver pulled over. I told the guy I needed help; I was running away from someone who had attacked me. The driver let me into the car and we took off.”

“Who was this?”

“His name was Terence Chang.”

Jake felt Sophie stiffen beside him. The name meant something to her. She had reacted to it back in the hotel room, too. She had gone out into the hall to make one of her secret phone calls, and had returned with that blank mask in place. She knew something about this Terence Chang, and so far, she wasn’t telling what it was.

Freitan and Wong glanced at each other and took note of the name. It meant something to them, too. “And then what happened?” Wong asked.

“I had nothing. No clothes, no money, no phone. Terence said I could rest up at his place. Get cleaned up. He was really nice. Seemed sorry about what happened to me. Said that there was someone in the area preying on travelers, and that everyone needed to be careful.”

“So why didn’t you get in touch with your parents? Why didn’t you call the police about this man who attacked you?” Wong sounded genuinely concerned and confused.

Julie looked down. Jake could tell she was blushing, even though the privacy film bleached the color out of the scene they were watching. “I was ashamed. I felt like a fool. My parents had warned me many times that it wasn’t a good idea to go on my hiking adventure; and all their warnings had turned out to be right. I definitely planned to report it and do all the right things, but I just wanted to recover a little bit first before I had to deal with all of that. So, I didn’t call anyone, and then Terence and I . . .”

Who was this Terence Chang?Jake Googled him on his phone, but the name didn’t come up in the Hilo area. Bizarre. Guy must go to a lot of trouble to keep such a low profile.

“So, you got involved with Terence Chang? Rewarded your rescuer the old-fashioned way?” Freitan’s voice was frosty. “And meanwhile, you let your parents think the worst had happened?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds so bad. But at the time, I didn’t think anyone knew anything about what had happened to me, or even missed me. I’d only skipped one weekly call to my parents. And I was really just . . . disoriented, I guess. I wanted to stay in the little bubble of safety I found with Terence for as long as I could.”

“It didn’t strike you as odd that this Chang character didn’t encourage you to go to the cops? Didn’t tell you to do the right thing about your attacker?”

“All I can say is that I wasn’t thinking straight. I finally got on one of Terence’s computers and went online. I left and found my parents as soon as I saw the social media posts from FindUsNow that said I was a missing person.” Julie covered her eyes with a hand. “I feel so bad. I’m sorry for all the hassle.”

Jake had heard all of this before, and it seemed just as lame the second time.

“So this Terence Chang. He didn’t coerce, imprison, or in any other way delay your reporting what happened?” Wong asked.

“Of course not. Terence was just amazing. I mean he is just amazing.” Julie’s eyes glowed with infatuation as she looked up at the detectives. “I think we fell for each other so hard that we were both distracted. I lost all sense of time. I admit it. But as soon as I wanted to leave, he took me to my parents’ hotel. He has been nothing but a perfect gentleman.”

“Interesting that you describe him as a ‘perfect gentleman,’ when Terence Chang is the heir apparent to the Chang crime family. How convenient that he happened along when he did, and took you in and showed you such a good time.” Freitan’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Jake felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl as Julie’s face drained of color and her eyes grew wide.

“What?”

“To be fair, Terence himself has never been charged with anything. Claims to be going straight. But his family is at the heart of anything unsavory happening on the Big Island. We certainly know whom to bring in for questioning about the bodies in the stream now,” Wong said.

“Bodies? In the stream?” Julie paled further.

Jake and Sophie hadn’t told the Weathersbys about the remains found in the roadside ditch, particularly the corpse that looked so much like Julie’s. Providing her any information might contaminate the police procedure of her case. But an idea was beginning to nibble at Jake’s mind.

He squeezed Sophie’s hand and whispered to her. “I’ve heard of the Chang crime family. Were you calling someone about that name when we heard it at the Weathersbys’ suite?”

Sophie nodded, her gaze still on the interview. “My friend Lei Texeira has had dealings with the Changs in the past. I called her to ask about him. She didn’t know anything except that Terence is the grandson of Healani Chang, the head of the family.”

“What if there is some kind of connection between Rayme, Webb, this ditch killer, and the crime family? Could they even be connected with Chernobiac and that black SUV we saw?”

Sophie finally looked away from the interview to meet his gaze squarely.

Jake hated how pale her full, beautiful mouth was, the ashen tone of her skin, the clammy coldness of her hand. But vibrancy flowed into her as their gazes held, and excitement chased the depression shadows from her eyes.

“I think you might be onto something, Jake. We already know what Julie has to say. Let’s go talk to Chernobiac. I don’t know how, exactly, but my intuition tells me he’s the connecting link.”

“Finally. Your gut and my gut are on the same page,” Jake said as they pushed their chairs back and stood.

Sophie gave a tiny smile as she passed him. “That’s an unpleasant visual.”

He bit his lip to hold in a laugh, and the tiny pain felt good. They were going to solve this case.

---