Page 14 of Deadly Sacrifice

The wind tugged a curl loose from her ponytail. Lei batted it out of her eyes and rolled up her window, engaging the air-conditioning. "They were careful with their words, weren’t they? ‘No criminals on the caseload.’ Maybe technically true, but—real estate law in Hawaii? You don’t have to be dealing with mobsters to be dealing with bad people. Money brings sharks, and Cheryl Goodwin was swimming in deep waters."

“Agreed. And speaking of sharks, thatleiomanoas the murder weapon bugs me. You don’t just find one of those lying around. It's a very specific killing tool, tied to culture and history. Someone used it to send a message."

Lei’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Likely. Once we figure out what the message is, it’ll help us find whoever sent it. Hopefully TG had a look at that brick fragment and can tell us something when we see him. Anyway, we need to see how she lived . . what she surrounded herself with when she wasn’t playing legal bulldozer."

Pono nodded. "Then let’s hope her house has more personality than her office."

The road stretched ahead, winding through the green hills of Wailuku Heights, the sun dipping lower, casting the landscape in a golden glow. Birds flitted through the huge, spreading monkeypod trees lining the road.

Cheryl Goodwin had lived a structured, controlled life; but someone had torn through that facade, killing her brutally and leaving her violated and displayed in a humiliating way. Lei had to know why.

10

LEI

Lei and Ponoparked in the driveway of Goodwin’s house. Shortly after, crime scene tech TG arrived in the department’s van with an officer in a patrol car following. The officer parked crosswise to the driveway and sat there, to keep onlookers away.

Wearing latex gloves, Lei unlocked the front door with the key from Goodwin’s office. “We’ll check the house and make sure it’s clear before you come in, TG.”

She and Pono separated and went through the place quickly, checking for any sign of human presence or obvious disturbance. There were neither; the place was quiet, pristinely tidy.

“Come on in, TG,” Lei told the tech. “Why don’t you start by dusting for prints here in the doorway? Since her car is here, this might be where she was grabbed.”

“Sounds good.” The pale man took out his powder and brushes, beginning his work with the front door.

“I’ll see if there’s an office,” Pono said. “If Goodwin brought any work home, it would probably be there.” He headed upstairs.

Lei walked slowly around the living area on the first floor, snapping pictures with her phone camera. She let her gaze wander in “see mode,” searching without focusing on any one detail, letting anything odd or out of place grab her attention.

The house was tastefully decorated, expensively furnished, but sterile. Dramatic artwork on the walls lent vibrancy to the space, but the pieces had a generic quality, as if an interior designer had picked them out to add color to the beige carpet and neutral furniture.

Lei frowned; so far the place reminded her of an expensive hotel. There were no family pictures, no sign of pets, nothing that helped form a personal statement about the occupant.

The woman who’d lived here had been successful professionally, but she had died in a terrible way, and apparently alone. Who would mourn her?

Lei opened the door to the garage. Goodwin’s SUV was parked there, but there was no space for another car because boxes lined the walls. All were covered in a transparent layer of reddish Maui dust, apparently undisturbed for years.

Lei scanned the labels on the boxes:Christmas. Graduate School. Bar Exam Materials.

She checked the recycling bins and the garbage can; apparently Ms. Goodwin appreciated a nice Cabernet, Diet 7UP, and microwaved Lean Cuisine dinners.

Lei paused before closing the garage door.

Those dusty boxes held the woman’s whole life, and they’d never been unpacked. What had she been waiting for? A move to somewhere else, a partner that never appeared?

Stepping back into the house, she called out, “Hey TG? Can you poke through the garbage carefully before you leave?”

“Of course,” he said, without looking up from dusting.

Lei turned her search to the kitchen. A shopping list, detailing a few items in tidy script, lay on the counter next to a landline phone. TG would snag the phone and check the numbers.

Lei opened drawers and cabinets, finding nothing but cooking and eating implements and some take-out menus. Finished, she stood, hands on her hips, and surveyed the space. Nothing.

She walked through the dining room, living room, and what would have been the family room in some other home, but found nothing of interest. There weren’t even footprints in the neatly vacuumed pile of the plush carpeting.

What was missing? She cast her gaze around, and it hit her:no purse.And no cell phone, unless Pono had found those items upstairs.

Had the killer taken them? Probably . . . Since Goodwin’s license had been with the body, he had to have accessed her wallet.

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