Page 48 of Deadly Sacrifice

“And as far as you know, he didn’t have any unusual appointments?”

“I don’t keep track of his calendar. He usually tells me when he’s leaving and coming back, though. Most of the time I don’t know where he’s going or who he’s meeting with. As I told you on the phone, he checks in with me around lunchtime.”

Helen was still speaking of David Steinbrenner in the present tense. It would take her a while to adjust to the news of her husband’s death.

“I get the picture,” Lei said. “Was he gone a lot?”

“Yes. He had meetings almost daily, often well into the night. He’s been working on a big project, and I guess there are a lot of issues with this one.”

“Hmm. So what’s your routine with him like?”

“We spend time together every morning. For a workout, a swim, breakfast, something. His workday usually starts around ten. Many times I’m asleep when he comes home in the evenings, though. He promised me a ‘date night’ once a week when we came to Maui, but that only lasted a few months.” Tears filled Helen’s eyes. She paused and gulped her water. “Last night I was anxious because I hadn’t heard from him, so I had dinner with a friend to distract myself.” She gulped her water, finishing it. “Got to replace the fluids,” she said with a damp smile, an attempt at humor.

“Smart.” Katie got up. “Lei, we should be hydrating too.” She went and refilled Helen’s glass and poured two more, putting all three on a small bamboo tray and returning with them. “Sorrow and loss are thirsty work.”

“Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” Helen said.

“Yes.” Katie’s gaze was compassionate as she met Helen’s eyes. “My father was a firefighter, and he was killed on the job. Our family—well. We haven’t been the same.” Katie took her seat and picked up her own glass of water.

“Then you know—what this is like.”

“I do.”

It was good to see Katie stepping into an empathetic role, but it was time to get back to information gathering. “I think I’ve got the picture of how things went for you two as far as scheduling and communication, but let me make sure,” Lei said. “The last time you saw your husband was yesterday morning before he went to work. You went out to dinner with a friend last night. You haven’t heard from him since he left. Did I get that right?”

“Yes,” Helen said.

“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt him?” Lei asked. “Had you received any threats, hate mail, anything like that?”

“Nothing specific.” Helen shook her head. “People don’t like developers. If it’s not the Sierra Club, it’s the NIMBY naysayers—the ‘Not-In-My-Back-Yard’ groups. Here on Maui, it seems like ‘developer’ is a four-letter word, despite all we do for the economy. Being an outsider feels like a crime.” She looked out the windows, sadness pulling down her full lips. “I don’t understand some of these attitudes. I thought Hawaii was the land ofaloha, but it’s hard to make friends here. ‘How long have you lived here’? is the first thing they ask. ‘Oh, I never make friends with anyone who hasn’t lived here at least two years’, or three, or five. I’ve heard that over and over.”

“There is mistrust about outsiders,” Lei admitted, “especially when they’re trying to change things for people who’ve been here a long time.” Lei needed to move the interview into a more sensitive area. “Helen, I need to look around your house, and I’m asking your permission. We don’t have a suspect or a motive yet, and we don’t know what clues we might find, but we need to see if David left any information that might help the investigation. Maybe you could walk through the house with me, show me your husband’s home office.”

“Do we have to do this now? I’m not sure I’m up to it.” Helen’s hands shook as she pulled a few more tissues out of the box on the table. “This is all so . . . unreal.”

“I understand. That’s fine, Katie can sit with you while I conduct the search.”

Helen looked uncertain. Lei pressed on. “At this point, you may be a target too. Do you understand? We need to get on this now.”

“Okay, I guess . . . but what do you need to see of David’s things?” Helen asked.

“His office, papers, and computer to begin with. It might seem invasive, but I’ll be tidy. I’d rather not have to go through the time and trouble of getting a warrant.”

“I’m not sure about his papers. A lot of what he has here is business-related, and it belongs to the company.”

“We’re not going to publicize or release anything we find. His death may not be related to his resort project at all, but we need to rule that out.” Lei had no intention of telling Helen anything more than strictly necessary.

“Fine, then,” Helen said. She smiled at Katie. “Thanks for keeping me company. Tell me about your family. How you coped when your father passed.”

Leaving her protégée to handle the grieving widow, Lei set off with her crime kit. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and bundled her curly hair into a topknot skewered with a pencil once she found Steinbrenner’s home office.

Two hours later, Lei had secured a couple of boxes’ worth of potential evidence and had stowed his computer in the back of her truck. Lei had lifted prints off some of the most obvious surfaces and fingerprinted Helen for exclusion, but she doubted the killer had been inside the house. So far, he had been careful not to leave trace evidence behind.

“We’re finished here for now,” she said when she rejoined her intern and Helen. “Here’s my card. Please call me if you think of anything strange or out of place in any way, anything that raises a question in your mind. And keep your gate and house locked for security.”

“I can do that.” Helen was looking a little better after being in Katie’s company, less shocked and tearstained. “I’m going to call my sister and David’s mother to let them know. Then—I guess I’ll go to bed . . .” The sentence died for lack of a known future.

Tomorrow would be hard on Helen Steinbrenner, as would the days that followed.

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