Dead Before A Rival Read online

  Sid shook his head while he rummaged through a cupboard. “Kay! Why don’t we just open up a detective agency, instead of playing at lawyering? Salad dressing?”

  Kay was looking back as she held open the refrigerator door. “I’ll mix up a thousand island, so all we need out of there is the relish and catsup. I’ll get the mayonnaise. That’s not a bad idea, not a bad idea, at all. To keep in practice, I’ll start investigating the Bart Cain case, but we’ll call it the Marshal Dalquist case. How’s that grab you?”

  Sid’s eyes lit up. “If I’m going to be part of the new agency, I’d better brush up on my interviewing skills. Maybe I should start with Fe Cabanting.”

  ***

  The morning after Bart’s death had gone quickly for everyone at the office. Even one day off for Sid and Kay meant a backlog of items, mostly minor. These had piled up in their in-baskets. Having disposed of the routine work, the two of them were now huddled in Sid’s office going over Marshal’s trial transcripts and appeal, both of which had just been flown over to them from Honolulu. Laura was immersed in a tricky point of jury selection under Hawaii law, and Qual had just finished his summation in an embezzlement case which was due to end sometime after noon.

  “I sure can’t see anything more we can do,” Sid said. “Feinberg did a good job in court, even though he must have known the case was hopeless. As far as his appeal is concerned, the reasoning is sound. He doesn’t have much of a basis to appeal on, and he knows it. I think he just did the best he could, and his best looks damn good.”

  Laura wandered in through the open office door. “I need a rest from jury selection statutes. Maybe something different will clear my head. What’s up?”

  Sid passed her the transcript. “We’re trying to improve on Feinberg’s appeal of Marshal Dalquist’s DUI conviction. Want to dash through these one-hundred-and-fifty pages and come up with something which would be sound grounds for appeal?”

  Laura looked at the top page and handed the sheaf of papers back to Sid. “You don’t have to go any farther. Look at the names of the jurors.”

  Sid and Kay both looked at the list. Sid said, “OK. I give up. What about the list?”

  Laura laughed. “Maybe Kay sees it. Anything strange about the list?”

  Kay shrugged. “Only thing I can see is that they’re all Japanese.”

  “Right,” Laura said, emphatically, “Marshal’s a haole. I was just reading about a successful appeal on that basis. It did involve the prosecutor using a perempt on the only potential juror who was of the same ethnic background as the defendant; but it’s a precedent, even if that didn’t happen in the case of this jury selection.”

  “You may have something there,” Sid said, checking the list again.

  “Some of the jurors are women,” Kay said, reaching for the phone. “Maybe there’s a haole or two there married to a Japanese, but I agree with Sid, you’re onto something. I’ll call the court clerk in Honolulu to see what I can find out.”

  Sid and Laura continued to pore over the transcript as Kay went through the elaborate process of finding the clerk who had been at Marshal’s trial.

  Kay shook her head as she hung up the phone. “To think how Sid and I had some doubts about hiring you, Laura.”

  The two at Sid’s desk looked up inquiringly.

  “Two of the women on the jury weren’t Japanese even though they had Japanese surnames, but one of them was Chinese, and the other was a Filipina.”

  “Well, hooray,” Sid said. “That sure strengthens our appeal.”

  “You haven’t heard anything yet,” Kay continued. “The prosecutor used all of his perempts to bump three haoles. Marshal has a new trial cinched.”

  Laura beamed, and Sid gave her a buddy handshake.

  ***

  The cheers from Sid’s office set Leilani off. “Hey, you fellahs, I can hardly hear myself think out here. Besides, there’s a call from Lieutenant DeMello. He wants to talk to whoever’s in charge.”

  The sounds of the celebration had brought Qual out of his office. “Who is ever in charge in an anarchy? I’ll volunteer to take it.”

  While Qual was talking over the phone at the reception desk, Kay was rapidly outlining the addendum to Feinberg’s earlier appeal.

  “What I can’t see,” Laura said, “is why Feinberg didn’t catch this when the jury was being selected.”

  “Stuff like that is easy to miss,” Sid answered. “He was probably all wrapped up in eyeing each potential juror, hoping he’d find someone who might have been a boozer. It’s like playing chess. You concentrate so much on developing a pawn you don’t even notice your queen’s being threatened.”

  At that moment, Qual hung up the phone. The other three looked at him expectantly.

  “The pm’s pau. Victorine says Bart definitely died from drowning.”

  Sid turned to Kay. “Don’t take it too badly. It will just save us a lot of unnecessary questioning of the crowd on the boat. Now I don’t feel so bad about taking up Marshal’s case. We have sound grounds for appeal, and you won’t be nosing into a case which isn’t ours and doesn’t even exist.”

  “It might save you some trouble, Sid,” Qual continued, the amusement showing in his voice, “but it sure won’t save the police any. Hank and Corky are off to Forbes Ranch right now to talk to the people who were on the boat.”

  “Why?” Sid asked. “If Bart’s death was accidental, why should the police want to do any more questioning?”

  “That’s the point. Hank says he knows now it wasn’t accidental.”

  Kay broke in, “C’mon Qual. You don’t make a good Cheshire Cat. How does Hank know it wasn’t accidental?”

  Sid chimed in before Qual could answer. “Bart was the only one down there. No one pulled the regulator out of his mouth. He had to have done it himself. It has to have been an accident.”

  “Hank agrees Bart took out the mouthpiece all on his own, but he’s sure it wasn’t an accident, because Bart’s tank didn’t have air in it, at least not much. Over half of what was left was nitrous oxide. Bart’s blood was charged with it.”

  “What’s nitrous oxide?” Laura asked.

  “Laughing gas.” Qual said. “Ever hear of rapture of the deep? Someone managed to induce it in Bart at seventy-feet below the surface instead of the three hundred where it would have been likely to happen naturally. That’s why he took the regulator out of his mouth. He was probably amusing himself by watching the bubbles come out of it. If it’s any consolation, he died happy.”

  Chapter 8

  “I don’t know the first thing about scuba diving,” Sid said to no one in particular, as they gathered around Leilani’s desk in the reception room.

  “Why not talk to Kerwin’s father?” Leilani suggested. “He manages the dive shop at the Marina.”

  Qual gave a mock groan. “Which means you’re related to him, too, huh Leilani?”

  “Of course. After all I’m related to his son.”

  “Now we know where to start,” Laura said, “who are we starting for?”

  “That part I’m not too worried about,” Sid answered. “My guess is as soon as Hank and Corky get through at the Forbes Ranch we’ll be getting a call from someone out there.”

  “Or maybe it will be from Kerwin, or Dolph, or perhaps even Captain Silva.” Kay suggested.

  “Maybe we’ll be real lucky, and the call will be from Elima’s Miss Filipino,” Sid said, a broad grin spreading across his face.

  “Don’t you wish,” Kay said, then turning to Leilani, added, “If Jeff Bentley calls to talk to anyone here, put him through to me.”

  “I don’t know anyone who was on the boat except for Jeff,” Laura said, “but I’d think the one who’s going to be the most likely suspect is the rival. Come to think of it, I did meet David Rouse once at a charity fund raiser, but I don’t remember much about him. Isn’t he your dentist, Qual? Yours too, Kay?”

  Kay nodded, remembering the intense expression of dislike sh
e had seen on David’s face when she caught him looking at Bart. Now, she was trying to remember if there had been a hint of any other emotion on his face as well. Could there have been some anticipation, some satisfaction, some conviction Bart Cain would not be a rival much longer?

  ***

  There were two familiar voices on the answering machine.

  Sid and Kay had worked much later than usual and had decided to eat out. When they finally arrived home, the place was in an uproar. While Kay hunted for food for the cats who were definitely shocked by this unwarranted change in their schedule, Sid rewound the tape on the answering machine and pushed the playback button.

  “Hi folks. Gil Iwamoto here. Can you break away some time in the morning to see the layout of the new house? The first of the concrete’s going to be poured tomorrow afternoon. So if there are any last minute details you want changed, now’s the time to speak up. Give me a call. I may be able go out there with you.”

  “Damn!” said Sid, pressing the pause button. “We just won’t be able to make it. I have to be in court all morning.”

  “That’s OK,” Kay said, finally untangling herself from the hungry cats who had lunged at the food she had put out. “Laura and I were planning to go out to Forbes Ranch in the morning anyhow. We’ll stop by the acreage on the way, and I’ll give our final approval to Gil or the foreman or whoever.”

  “Tomorrow morning? Why didn’t I hear about these plans sooner. I have the uneasy feeling I’m now Marshal’s attorney even though I never really agreed to represent him. You and Laura have been plotting behind my back.”

  “Right you are. We’ll get Marshal’s signature on the dotted line. I already checked with him, and he’s ready to let us take over.”

  “Well,” Sid said, trying to give his voice a ring of authority, “if that’s the way it’s going to be, just don’t get so wrapped up in who might have put laughing gas in the bottle that you forget we now have a client. If you want to do some sleuthing on the side, keep in mind we aren’t officially representing anyone on the Cain case.”

  “Yes sir!” Kay said, and saluted with the hand holding the empty can of cat food.

  Sid again pushed the play button on the answering machine and Hank’s voice cut in. “Hank here. I heard a rumble you two are representing Marshal in his DUI in Honolulu. Since you’re going to have to cover some of the same ground, how about throwing in a few questions for the good old Napua PD? Give me a call and let me know what you think. Better yet, come on over if it’s before nine. I’ve already uncovered a few white slugs. I imagine you could find a lot more in the Forbes-Dalquist crowd, if you’re willing to help me turn over the stones.”

  “Sir?” Kay stood at attention while facing Sid. “Will it be all right with you if Laura and I represent the police?

  ***

  Kay had liked Hank’s home from the moment she had first stepped into it. As she had said to Sid after the visit, “It looks so much more lived in than the apartments most of our friends have.”

  The house, itself, was the old fashioned Hawaiian variety with the stepped roof and the all-around porch. It had belonged to Toni’s parents and her grandparents before that. Following Toni’s marriage and the death of her father, Hank and Toni had moved into the house. Toni’s mother’s had insisted on taking up residence in a much smaller ohana house next door, saying Toni and Hank needed the whole house to themselves and their future family.

  “Mom says it was the best move she ever made,” Toni had told Kay on an earlier visit. “Even after she married again she said a house that size is just right for someone who never liked housework.”

  Toni was obviously not intimidated by housework. The large old house was always sparkling clean, despite the presence of two healthy and active young children. The inside was finished in the painted decking typical of Hawaiian homes until as late as the fifties. Shelves of books, mainly dealing with World War Two, lined one wall of the large and comfortable living-dining room. The chairs were old, sturdy, carefully re-upholstered ones. A piano, which was actually played by Toni and her daughter, was at one end of the room. A heavy oak table, having made the trip through the Straits of Magellan in the hold of a sailing ship back in the eighteen hundreds, occupied the other end of the room.

  Sid accepted a beer. Kay took her hostess up on her offer of a cup of decaf. Inevitably, the plump and pretty Toni brought in malasadas to go with the drinks. She was followed by her two bright grade schoolers, who claimed to be coming in just to say hello to Uncle Sid and Auntie Kay. A malasada apiece proved to be a sufficient bribe, and they took themselves off to their room and homework. Toni excused herself, saying she knew the visitors wanted to talk “police talk,” and besides, she wanted to be sure the homework got done.

  After they had settled down, Sid moved on to the police talk. “We know you’re saving surprises for us, Hank. What are they?”

  “First I want to make sure you’re not representing anyone in the Cain case. Chief Yamada’s still smarting over the Johns murder where I was helping you while your client wouldn’t tell us one damn thing about himself.”

  “Nope. No one’s approached us except Marshal with his DUI. Laura and Kay will be going out to the Forbes Ranch in the morning to get him to sign a contract.”

  “Terrific. That will give them an excuse to pry.”

  “Well put,” Sid said. “Kay loves prying and Laura’s beginning to show all the signs of liking that kind of activity as much as Kay does. So what do you have so far?”

  “First thing I have is the testimony of an expert. The police diver has twenty years of experience with scuba gear. He’s fascinated by that use of laughing gas. He says Bart was wearing a standard compressed air bottle used in diving. There are a lot of different kinds, but this is one of the most common ones around here.

  “The police diver says whoever filled it with the right mix of nitrous oxide and air had to know something about scuba diving or at least about filling bottles under pressure. Also had to know how to fasten it to the gear. Most important is they had to know how nitrous oxide would work. If Bart felt he was suffocating right off, he’d have come back to the surface. What happened was in a few minutes he was just feeling high, and pretty soon he just didn’t give a damn, pulled out his mouthpiece, and drowned.”

  “So now you’re looking for someone who was on the boat who knows something about scuba diving. Right?

  Hank nodded.

  “Kerwin certainly does,” said Sid. “Captain Silva says he used to dive. So we now have two of them right in the front row.”

  “Add Jeffrey Bentley, Hank,” Kay said. “He used to do a lot of it when he was in college on Oahu.

  “Hmm. I’m getting nowhere fast,” Hank said. “About the only one I’ve eliminated is Samantha Dalquist. She told me, in the middle of a long story about pearl divers in the Red Sea where she’d visited, that she doesn’t even swim. Marshal verifies her story. Joanna wasn’t at the house. She’d helicoptered over to the Big Island to visit her son who’s in prep school there. I know the two of them–Marshal and Joanna–did a lot of diving when Mark, Joanna’s husband, was alive. Apparently, he was big on it. So all four, including Marshal’s ex-wife, used to go out for a week at a time on diving expeditions.”

  “What about the others?” Sid asked

  Hank looked at a pad he had been writing on when they had arrived. “You’ve accounted for three of them. I haven’t spoken to Adolpho Pascua, the steward, yet. It was his day off. He’s scheduled for tomorrow, but if you’re going out to the ranch, maybe you can talk to him and sound him out about scuba diving. Now, David Rouse was one of my surprises.”

  “How’s that?” Sid asked.

  “Well, I haven’t gotten to his office to talk to him yet, but I found out he’s one of those old fashioned dentists who makes a lot of use of laughing gas. I’ve got Toni to thank for the information, by the way.”

  “His using the gas doesn’t mean much,” Kay said, quickly. “If
anything, he’d have probably avoided something so closely connected with his work if he was the guilty one.”

  “Maybe so. I went in to talk to Kalei Kaawaloa, Kerwin’s father. He manages the dive shop down at the marina. Two months ago, David Rouse started taking diving lessons from Kalei.”

  ***

  “Do you have any other surprises, Hank?” Kay asked. “Is Fe Canbanting Miss Scuba Diver of the year as well as being Miss Filipino?”

  Hank laughed. “I don’t know. Guess I’ll have to have a long interview with her tomorrow. Hope’s she’s decked out the way she was yesterday on the boat.”

  “You’d better hurry. Sid’s chomping at the bit to do some interrogating of his own. Where does she work, by the way. I never found out.”

  “Plantation office. She’s a file clerk.”

  “Laura and I are going out to our building site in the morning. Maybe we can arrange a luncheon meet with her. I have the feeling she could tell us a lot about what went on behind the scenes on the Jomark. Of course, we don’t want to cramp your style.”

  “Be my guest. Toni has at least two cousins working in the plantation office. Five minutes into the interview she’d know how far away I was standing from Fe, what part of her I was looking at, and what the expression was on my face. Instead, I’ll stop by the Jomark to see Silva and Kerwin, and then I’ll round out my morning with a visit to David Rouse’s office. What kind of a reason are you going to give Fe for wanting to talk to her?”

  “I’ll tell her we’re representing Marshal and we may need a lot of people to be character witnesses for him. God knows, that’s true enough. Once we’ve got her talking, we’ll work our way in Bart’s direction. If worse comes to worse, we’ll tell her we’re working with you, Hank.”

  Hank laughed at the answer. “I never thought I’d be the worse that comes to worse. How come you aren’t taking Sid along to question the future Miss Universe?”

  “Sid has a court appearance. Besides, he had a whole day of her. That should be more than enough.”