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man. Come on, Ori, let s go.
Not yet, Ori pleaded silently.  Keola Luahiwa, he said, throwing out the name
desperately, hoping it would stick, that he would see something in Moses s eyes.  Do
you know that name? Do you know what happened to him? Was it an accident?
64 Heidi Belleau & Violetta Vane
Kalani s chest swelled, and he looked to Ori in recognition.  Listen to him! Keola!
shouted Kalani, and his words refused to echo in the closeness of the room.
Moses shivered again. The corner of his liver-spotted lips twisted cruelly.  Oh,
him. Well I did say Jonathan kept that woman in line, didn t I? But he should have
finished the job.
 Make him fucking talk. Make him say it! Kalani s voice was hot and insistent,
raspy and broken.  I want to hear him say it!
There was a knock at the door.  Is Mr. Lihilihi getting upset? came the muffled,
lilting voice of the attendant.  Maybe you should come back another day, Mr. Reyes?
Mr. Reyes?
Ori s whole body clenched. He lunged forward and grabbed the old man by the
shirt, hard. Kalani s anger and power seemed to flow through him, like his skin was
electrified, like he was full of boiling water.  Look here. Keola s spirit is in me, he
hissed, too low for the attendant to hear.  Now tell me the truth or I ll drag you down
to hell. He felt a stab of guilt as Moses shivered so hard that his teeth clattered, but the
lies in this family would never be torn away peacefully, and Kalani was worth anything.
 How! How could you& ? How could he& ? Moses s eyes rolled, whites flashing.
 Saul. Saul Kanazawa called you up, didn t he? Jonathan only told me afterward. I
didn t have no part in it. Don t put the death chant on me. You got your man already.
Go away. Why can t I have my own room? He was crying now, the seams of his face
gleaming with tears.
Saul Kanazawa. Who was Saul Kanazawa? If he had the power to call up old ghosts&
Moses bent and rocked, hiding his face.  Jesus, I m sorry, I was not a good man.
Jesus, listen to me.
Ori felt a flash of cruel inspiration.  I won t take you to hell, Moses Lihilihi,
because I m generous, but you do this thing for me. You never say the name Malia
again. Never. You don t even think it. If even the first syllable touches your shriveled old
Hawaiian Gothic 65
lips  The door clicked open. Ori stepped back from the bed quickly and wheeled to
face the attendant.  I think he s having some kind of fit, he said, dusting his thighs.
 I never say it! I never say it! shouted Moses as the attendant went to his side.  I
swear!
 You d better go, she said.
* * * *
When Ori finally collapsed into the driver s side of the rental car, Kalani was
already slumped in the passenger seat.
He stared out the windshield, his face almost too dry. His voice was monotone.
 He beat us, he said.  My mom and I. When I was little.
Ori reached out to him, not sure what to say, but Kalani cut him off.
 I m sorry I didn t tell you before now.
And then he vanished, like smoke.
* * * *
Jonathan had killed Keola, there was no question about that, but why? Was Keola
Kalani s father, and did Jonathan know that? It made sense as a motive for murder, but
none of it explained why Moses jumped immediately to Saul Kanazawa as the one to
avenge him. How did this third man fit in?
Back at the hotel, Ori had his uncle ran another database search, but the last record
for Saul Kanazawa was an arrest for trespassing in Kona seven years ago, with charges
later dropped. No father of record. A mother who had married, changed her last name
to Smith, and apparently moved to the mainland.
With no clear path ahead, he fell back to thinking about Kalani. What Kalani must
be feeling, the echoes of his childhood pain, his doubt, his uncertainty, all magnified by
his chaotic shifting existence in between worlds. Ori couldn t really know. He came
from a strict but reasonably happy family where what you saw was what you got. Ori
only ever had to keep one secret.
66 Heidi Belleau & Violetta Vane
He wrote down Keola Luahiwa and Saul Kanazawa on the back of his rental car
contract envelope and put a line between them with a question mark. His uncle s search
had revealed they were both around the same age as Jonathan and Malia. Friends?
Rivals?
No matter their connection, no matter why Saul would want to avenge Keola, the
biggest question still remained. How? Moses assumed that Saul could call up ghosts,
which could easily mean but Kanazawa was a Japanese name. Hard to trace to the
lineage of a kahuna ana ana. So many links were missing.
An online search for the Luahiwas had revealed a seemingly endless list of local
hits. He could go knocking on their door. He d have to, at this point, although he wasn t
looking forward to it. If he told the truth, they might want to get the police involved
and reopen the 1988 case as a homicide. If he lied&
He groaned and stabbed random pen slashes around the names. Even though
they d only had a few days together, he already missed having Kalani around, nearby,
in bed with him.
He looked around the room to the plain, frameless mirror, to the tacky plastic
Chinese foo dog lamp, to the window that faced far-off Mauna Kea, to his army-issue
duffel bag full of neatly rolled clothes.  Where are you? he asked into the air.  I m
worried about you. Kalani?
No answer.
He flopped back onto the bed and threw his forearm over his eyes. Tried not to
think too hard on what Kalani had revealed. Should he have known? Were there hints,
clues, in the way Kalani acted, the way he smiled, the things he said about his parents?
Had Kalani been waiting all these years for Ori to care enough to figure it out?
He had to stop thinking about it. He d wasted enough of his life wallowing in
guilt and regret, analyzing every moment of their relationship with each other. It hadn t [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]