Pool of Blood

1 Revenge

The pressure of Mason’s foot kept Okani’s head in the toilet. He was sure he was going to drown. Then Mason grabbed him by the belt and threw him out of the stall and kicked him in the side and shouted that if Okani ever looked at his girl again, he would not only beat him to a pulp but would carve up his face so that he would look just like the joker in the Batman movie. Okani stayed on the floor until Mason left the bathroom.

Okani woke up in a cold sweat. This was a nightmare that he often had about his high school years. Mason had made his life hell then and to this day he often relived those hell moments at night.

He wished that it would have been different. He wished he would have been more of a fighter, but there was no going back and changing things. He had done nothing wrong then and he could not change what had happened.

He had to deal with what was the now.

He made coffee, sat down with a piece of buttered toast, and thought about his current life.

He felt good about this current stage in his life.

He had his own house. Yes, he had to make monthly payments to the holder of his deed, but he was the “owner.” He had made various improvements to his property and home that included putting in a new cement driveway trimmed with red brick.

He had laid a new brick patio with a fire pit and purchased a canvass cover that had a large opening over the fire pit. He was proud of his yard in which he had planted various flowering plants. He was proud to have one of the best-looking yards in the neighborhood.

And inside, he had built an inset display case, that ran the length of the living room. A panoramic photo of the two-stream waterfall and pool that he now thought of as his special place was mounted on a special frame operated by three pistons that would push the picture up to show the contents in the display case.

The left stream was snow white and the right stream was a light red hue. He had edited the picture to put in the red hue. The red hue symbolized blood flowing into the pool below. He was extremely proud at his handiwork.

The beauty of it all was that he could sit in his recliner and use a remote control to open the display case for viewing.

The hidden display case project had taken him almost a year to complete but now as he sat in his black recliner with his feet raised and pressed the button, he could enjoy his knife collection with the surge of pride that welled through his body.

Each knife had a special meaning to him. Each knife was smaller than the previous one. Each knife had a picture under it and below each picture there was a memory stick hanging on a thin delicate silver chain.

Life was good.

He knew that he was living the good life.

He felt that he had made it.

He had overcome his mother constantly telling him that he would never amount to anything. And he was overjoyed that his father, who had often beaten him, had been silenced by a heart attack during one of his drunken moments. They were both in a different world and he hoped that his father was in hell.

He now felt that he was powerful and in command of his life. He had a good job and made additional money as a bartender.

What really made his life good was that he had achieved his life’s ambition to repay his tormentor for the years of humiliation and mental torture that he had experienced.

He had vowed to get even but for what seemed like a lifetime, the right time or situation never materialized. And even worse, for that whole time, he had no idea of what the get even follow through action of revenge would be.

The memory of his high school years remained and was often a part of the nightmares that he often experienced.

He knew that those memories would haunt him until he went to his grave.

He felt blessed that he had the epiphany that gave him the vision of how to repay is tormentor.

The epiphany had hit him when he had stopped to swim in a pool, on the road to Hanna. There were two water streams cascading from the rocks above. He marveled at the grace that the water had as it fell and hit the smooth surface of the rocks at the edge of the pool below.

He absorbed the sound of the water and the mist in the air and felt his whole body relax.

He climbed up to the top of the falls and looked down into the crystal-clear water below. He jumped and sank to the bottom and then he pushed off to get back to the surface. He repeated the jump several times.

He found a path that was an easier way to the top. He was walking up the path when suddenly the idea of swimming in a pool of blood hit him.

He knew that the blood he wanted to swim in was that of his high school tormentor, Mason.

He shouted out in a loud voice and raced the rest of the way up to the top and the jumped into the pool below. He stayed at the bottom of the pool until he had to push up or drown.

He let out a loud shout as he surfaced. He had been given the vision for which he had prayed.

In his enlightened state, it was hard for him to drive back to his house.

His focus from that day forward had been in figuring out how he would be able to get Mason to the falls. He wanted be able to control the situation and make Mason understand what was going to happen.

He wanted him to suffer and be afraid.

He wanted Mason to feel desperate like he had felt when Mason had put his foot on the back of his head and held it in the toilet.

He wanted to see the fear in Mason’s eyes and to see the life leave Mason’s body.

Drugging Mason was the solution that seemed the most realistic. How to be around him to drug him at the right time became the challenge.

He used social media to locate Mason and learn where he lived. He followed Mason and learned where he went drinking. It turned out that Mason had a standing Thursday night out with some friends at a local bar.

It took Okani a few months more before he was able to get a bar tenders job at that bar. His heart always beat faster when he went to work on Thursday evenings, which was the day that Mason would show up to drink with his friends.

In one conversation he heard Mason boasting that he always walked to the bar so that he could drink as much as he wanted.

A few weeks later it thrilled Okani as he watched his adversary celebrate a pay increase and drink a little more than usual.

He decided that this would be the night. He had been prepared for this night for weeks. Now all he had to do was to get Mason to leave in a state that he could control.

He slipped some ecstasy into Mason’s last drink and then checked out from work.

The excitement was hard for him to control.

He had been prepared for this moment for several weeks.

He was ready. He was prepared.

He followed a very drunk Mason to his house where he offered to help him. Mason welcomed him and let him guide him.

He was able to guide Mason into his car and drive away. Mason passed out in the passenger seat.

Okani took his time driving the road to Hanna. He knew that his biggest challenge would be to get Mason back to consciousness.

Mason was at least fifty pounds heavier than he was. He did not want to carry Mason to the top of the falls.

He turned on the radio and tuned into his favorite station.

When he got to the falls, he parked his car well into the brush and made sure that it was not visible from the road.

He then carried the basket that he had designed, built, and tested, that would hold Mason’s body as he bled to death and put it into position at the top the right-hand water stream. He set up his camera tripod and made sure that he had everything arranged the way he wanted.

He hoped that the moonlight was good enough for a good picture. He had the camera on video mode. He had set up his camera to be controlled by his phone.

Then he went down and guided the still very drunk and drugged Mason and guided him up the slope to the top.

There he undressed him and struggled to get him into the basket. He shackled Mason’s ankles to the basket’s wire mess and hand cuffed his hands behind his back.

Mason was slowly coming around.

The cold water and some of the strongest coffee that Okani could make, brought, Mason slowly back into the awake world.

Okani waited for a while just looking at Mason and enjoying the moment.

He finally asked him if he knew who was standing in front of him.

That seemed to bring Mason into an awake state, and he rudely replied that the queer from high school who looked just as ugly now as then, was standing in front of him.

Okani delivered a resounding backhand to Mason and then taped his mouth shut. He did not want Mason to be able to scream out during the next part of what was about to happen to him.

Mason immediately started to struggle. The look on his face and his wide eyes when he saw the almost foot long bowie knife thrilled Okani.

He nicked Mason across various parts of his body.

He laughed and mimicked the scene from a movie that had the acter laughing through a crazy smile saying, “I’m back,” but he said, “It’s payback time and you won’t like the payback.”

He felt lightheaded and he could feel his heart pounding. He enjoyed the moment and the rush it was producing. He knew that taking his time was worth every moment.

He reminded Mason of all the times that he had slammed him into the lockers or had pushed him from behind; the time he had forced his face into the food that was on his tray at lunch and finally he reminded him of the time he had pushed his face into the toilet.

After each reminder, he flicked his knife and made a small cut on Mason’s chest. He again was thrilled by the look of alarm in Mason’s eyes. He watched as Mason seemed to be saying he was sorry or maybe pleading for Okani to stop.

He would have loved to be able to hear Mason plead and scream, but he could not chance someone hearing the screams.

Okani mimicked Mason’s voice and said, “Oh are your sorry now?”

He made several additional cuts on Mason’s chest and stomach.

He was thrilled by the small streams of blood slowly trickling down Mason’s body. Each blood stream seemed to be finding a different path to the water below.

The vision of the water falling pink over the falls filled his head.

Mason fell to his knees as he struggled to get away.

Okani stepped into the basket so that he could lift Mason back to his feet.

Mason at first resisted but the knife placed under his chin convinced him to stand. Once he was up Okani pushed the knife in about an inch and smiled as Mason tried to lift his head upward.

That was when Okani let him know that time had run out and that he Okani would swim in the pool below with Mason’s blood flowing down from above.

Mason was wildly shaking his head and trying to shout.

Okani quietly said that he was enjoying the payback and that it was extra sweet, but it needed a salty follow-through.

He leaned in and looked Mason directly in his eyes as he made the first cut on the left neck vein. Then he did the same with the right vein.

He laughed as he saw fear in Mason’s face and watched the light begin to fade in his eyes before he crumpled into the basket and the water flowed over him.

The moment that the blood squirting out from the slashed neck veins hit Okani’s tongue, a brilliant, bright flash imprinted his brain with the salty taste of heaven.

Okani stood on edge of the flat stone above the pool and jumped into the pool below.

He looked up and was disappointed that there was not enough blood to turn the water red. The right stream flow with a slightly pink color for a few moments as he swam in the pool looking up to where the basket holding Mason was located.

He swam around the pool several time and then he returned to the top.

He carried Mason’s body upstream to a crevasse that he had found. There he rolled Mason down into the crack in the stone crevasse and made sure he was tightly wedged in.

Then he spread a generous layer of lye over him and then poured several bags of kitty litter to absorb the odor of decay.

Finally, he covered the body with several layers of stone.

He looked at his handy work, and he threw a dead pine tree and some leaves on the stones. He decided that it looked like it had been that way for a long time.

He returned everything to his car and climbed one last time to the top of the falls and after making sure everything was pristine, he jumped into the clear water in the pool below.

He came out of the crystal-clear water feeling refreshed and he felt that life had just gotten significantly better.

He returned to his car feeling more alive than he had ever felt.

During the day he continued to work at the Hardware store and in the evenings, he worked part-time at the bar.

It was at least two months later when he heard the drinking group that Mason had been a part of talking about the fact that no one had seen or heard from him. They wondered where he had gone.

Okani smiled because he knew, and he served himself a shot of the best Courvoisier that he had. Just the thought of that night warmed his heart the Courvoisier warmed his throat and stomach.

He knew that life was good.

He kept close track of the local news and continued to monitor the conversations of the drinking group.

The local news never had a report on any missing person and the drinking group never talked about Mason again.

A year seemed to flash by.

He was sitting in his recliner with a glass of wine. He pressed play and his favorite video came up on his huge, curved theater television screen. The music that he had dubbed in began and the scene of the water fall with the full moon providing the ghostly lighting, the rushing water hitting the pool below provided the ephemeral setting for the clip that he had edited to enhance it and in the video the water ran pink the entire time. But it was the futile struggling of his lifelong antagonist that provided the substance and enhanced the visual sweetness that always caused starbursts in his mind.

The anguish and the look of fear was the sweet icing on the cake.

It was a dream come true.

The only word that made any sense to Okani to describe that moment was ecstasy, or rapture or maybe bliss. He decided that all three words were true.

He continued to watch his favorite video. He had watched this video showing the point in his life, where it had taken the upward path, many times.

It was the most important moment of his life.

He was the star and director of the scenes that, as they flashed on the screen caused him to catch his breath and to hear his beating heart.

Then came a day when he once again wished for the rush that he had felt when he cut Mason’s throat and tasted his blood.

He craved another experience like the first one.

He knew the old saying, “the water flows under the bridge but once,” or was the saying he wanted, “there is only one first time.”

He decided that it didn’t matter and that he was going to see if he could get close to that same feeling again.

He wondered how he was going to find his next swim partner. He looked through his High School yearbook and picked out several potential candidates. He identified a mix of men and women. He was not sure how to pick any specific one. The ones he picked all deserved to be in his basket.

Several months went by, when by chance a woman came into the hardware store where he was working as a checkout clerk.

She was looking for a specific brand of stain remover and cleaner. After she got what she wanted and a few other items, she came to check out with a variety of goods and asked to pay by check.

Okani had recognized her immediately, but it was clear to him that she did not know him though she had been a groupie in the group that Mason had been the leader of, and she was one of the loudest voices repeating what Mason was saying to harass him.

She had been two years behind him.

He followed the store’s procedure for someone wanting to pay by check and asked for her ID. She gave him her driver’s license. He scanned her license and knew that he had all the information he needed to track her down.

Later after she left, he printed out the information. Lilanni Aleman, age 29, address 415 Lacunna drive.

She became the focus of who would be his second swim partner.

He spent more than a month monitoring her small older home and found out that she lived alone. She seemed to spend much of her time at work and then in the evening watching TV. It seemed that she did not have many friends and only went out periodically.

He knew whose blood he would swim in next. He began to imagine how the swim would make him feel.

He wondered whether he should have sex with her but decided it was too messy, and he was not into that to begin with.

He wondered if the taste of her blood would be different from that which he remembered from Mason.

When the full moon arrived, he made his move. He was able to overpower her at her house and take her to the falls with her hands wire-tied behind her and her mouth taped shut.

On the way he reminded her about all the times she had participated in harassing him. He could tell that she was trying to say she was sorry.

“I’m so sorry,” Okani said in his version of a feminine voice.

He took his time driving to the falls. Once there he put the basket and the camera in place before leading her up the path to the top of the waterfall. He found that she was easy to put in the basket. He chained her ankles to the bottom of the basket.

He then stripped her naked.

That had her screaming behind her taped mouth, and her eyes were as large a saucers.

The tears streaming down her cheeks gave him the high that he had been hoping for.

The fear in her eyes took him up high.

Tears running down both cheeks took him higher.

He knew that this was as good of a boost as when he was doing Mason.

He had replaced the bowie knife with a long thin bladed carving knife used to slice prosciutto. It had thin blade that had a feminine beauty.

He flicked the knife and made three small cuts across her chest and then watched the blood run across her breasts and down along her stomach.

He bent down and licked the stream going between her breasts and then licked a tear off her cheek.

Her blood tasted different, it seemed sweeter, and the salty tear seemed to balance the taste experience.

It reminded him of the wine tasting that he had done at the local wine stand that catered to tourists.

He laughed at the connection that his mind had made.

He quietly told her that he was going to slowly cut nicks along her entire body until the blood provided her with a red coat that looked like a lace see through lingerie.

He looked her in the eyes, and the shaking of her head made his pulse increase. He knew that the feeling he was experiencing was better than sex.

He then looked into her eyes and slowly slashed her throat and opened his mouth.

Yes! Salty but much better tasting than Mason’s blood. He let the sputtering blood cover his face as he watched the life begin to leave her eyes. He lowered her into position in the basket and then jumped into the pool below.

He knew that he was crazy, but he also felt more alive than he had ever been.

He was crazy in love with his new life and the power that he felt when he went for a swim in a pool of blood.

He knew that this was what he wanted.

He thought about how he needed to manage holding on to this new life. He decided that he wanted to get a better day job and that he would rotate his evening job as a bar tender around the various bars so that he would be able to identify his next swimming partner.

2 Missing Persons

The Maui Detective unit was a small three-person operation that was a part of the larger statewide Hawaii Police Department.

It had a reputation for successfully solving its assignments.

All the personnel in the department were born in Hawaii and mixed well with the local population.

Leilani Dickens, the current supervisor of the unit was from the big Island of Hawaii and on her way to Oahu at her next promotion.

She was keen to solve a big case that would make that happen or would put her in the position to make that move.

She kept her eye on the prize and worked hard to make sure she was on the promotion platform.

Her two field detectives, Malia Aukai and David Kalama were rather young but good detectives that had been delivering good results, but she knew that she needed some sort of great result.

She needed it but they were on a small island and getting a big case was not currently in sight.

To say she was not thrilled, when the local Chief of Police, basically her boss on Maui, asked her to take on a case dealing with missing persons that had stumped the people normally handling that issue, was a huge understatement.

She had tried but had failed to deflect the request and was told straight forward that the Chief was asking politely but the only answer was for her to say yes.

She said she understood and quietly said she would take the case.

David hung up his phone, looked over at Malia, and asked if she was up to finding missing persons.

She responded by asking when detectives had started to follow up on missing persons.

David replied since their boss had assigned them to that task. He let Malia know that they were being called to come to her office and get some more information.

He speculated that there was something unique about the situation otherwise they would not get involved but he then gave a small laugh and reminded Malia about her last argument with Leilani and that perhaps this was payback time.

Malia gave a small laugh and replied that it had not been an argument just a detailed discussion about getting better assignments. Assignments that would stand out when it came time for raises and promotion.

She had only reminded the boss that there were several islands that had law enforcement on them, and it took successful cases to move on to higher positions.

David said that he agreed and that was true for all of them.

She went on and said that she had heard rumors about a string of missing persons, no bodies, and no set pattern to indicate anything other than random occurrences. She wondered what had changed.

David nodded and said he had heard the same rumors as well and now the two of them would be finding out all the details and join the crowd of those complaining about the lack of any leads.

They went into their boss’s office and took the chairs she waved to.

She handed each of them a request form that officially requested help from the detective unit and she pointed to a box labeled evidence. She then explained that the Chief of Police had requested their help in solving a long and growing list of missing persons.

She explained that for just over a year the list had suddenly taken an unexplained uptick and was now clicking along at a once per month clip.

Missing person’s thought it might be more than some random change and might be the work of a serial killer. She went on to say this was the big case that Malia had been so adamant about getting assigned to.

She pointed out that the three of them had just been put on the point of a needle and they would either solve the case, or they would have that needle go through all of them and kill their careers.

Malia smiled and said that she had been requesting assignments that led to raises and promotions, not assignments that would have them jumping off Black Rock to drown themselves. She waved the request form and said that there was nothing there that seemed like a lead.

David looked over the request then briefly looked into the evidence box. He looked at Malia and said that there didn’t seem to be much evidence in the box either.

Leilani agreed and said that she hoped the two of them could find the breakthrough that would solve the case otherwise they would all be working at some checkout counter trying to make a living.

She went on to explain that she had been ordered to take on the case and if they had to jump from the Black Rock to drown themselves she would join in. She gave a small laugh saying that if they didn’t solve this case they would all be looking for a good hotel to play security guards for or a good restaurant to become the waiters and waitresses for.

Malia laughed and quoted the old saying, “be careful what you wish for, the wish may come true.” I wished for a breakthrough case but perhaps someone above heard me say a case to break Malia.

Malia picked up the box and carried it out to her desk that was situated so that she faced David.

David took the missing person report Malia handed him as she took another and said that they should begin by reading each of the reports and listing the names and addresses on the whiteboard.

By late afternoon they were looking at the list on the board and other than the fact that all but one address was on Maui there was not a pattern in the addresses. It seemed rather a very random one that covered the island.

David suggested adding an occupation column that they then filled in. It seemed to be mostly on the service industry side with a few office and clerking positions, but it did not add any clarity. Since Maui catered to tourists and was loaded with restaurants and hotels, it was expected that many of the missing would be in the service industry.

They added an age column and got nothing more than the fact that the missing were between the ages of nineteen and thirty-one.

David speculated that these would be low key targets that would not have the adamant support of the folks putting in the missing person’s reports.

They added additional columns for education and heritage and filled them in. Afterwards they stood looking at the board and Malia summed it up by saying, “There is nothing there that gives us a hint at what is going on.” She went on to say that she didn’t even get the feeling of it being a serial killer at work.

David suggested that they reinterview everyone who had reported the person missing and go out in the field and look at businesses around where the missing person worked to see if that would give them any additional insights.

Malia suggested they also try to learn the habits of the missing person.

David looked at the list and said they would be busy for at least the next month.

Malia agreed and suggested that they call up each person who had entered a missing person’s report and set up an interview schedule.

David said he agreed but he then said that they should first talk with each of the officers who had worked the missing person case first to see what they might have learned something that was not in the report. He felt that would give them a chance to think about what more or what they could do differently to get some new insight.

Malia nodded and commented that he had just added another week to their month-long work.

They were no farther ahead after the first week, but at least it had been an easy one since they met each of the officers in the office or at one of the satellite offices.

Every officer they reviewed the missing person’s report with said the same thing, “good luck, and do you have your resume out looking for another job.”

Or they gave their condolences and let them know that being assigned to street patrol was not such a bad assignment.

David commented that the odds of them solving the case was ten to one against them.

After a week, the only change on the whiteboard was the fact that they added the picture of everyone that had put in a missing person’s report to it. They had no other insight or any new information.

The pictures did not give them any more understanding. The gender split seemed close to even, the looks of the people varied and did not seem to set a pattern. The fact that the age range went from early twenties to the early thirties did not seem to be critical. That was the normal age range for most service industry workers on the island. Both had worked in restaurants and knew that there was always the single older waiter or waitress that had worked for the restaurant forever who was the manager of all of them.

It was late Friday afternoon when David threw up his hands and said that he was done for the week and that he was going to ride his bike around the Island on the weekend to see if maybe the gorgeous sights would provide a new idea on how to pursue the case.

Malia commented she was going shopping, and her family was having a picnic in the park where she would eat grilled chicken and drink some beer.

She then planned to take a long walk along the beach in hopes that some idea would come to mind. She said that jumping from the Black Rock was becoming a more inviting option than working on the white board.

The following Monday morning, over a cup of coffee, they confessed to each other that nothing had given them any new insight.

Malia pointed at the board and suggested they map out the addresses and go look at the area where each of the missing persons lived.

They looked at the pins in the map and concluded that location was not a factor. They dutifully drove to each location to get a better feeling for the missing person.

On returning to the office, David said that it was time to set up interviews with the people putting in the missing person reports.

They began the cycle of visiting the location where the missing person had lived, where they worked and then talking with the person who had put in the missing person’s report.

They tried to get new information by asking about the missing person’s personal life, their eating habits, their partying habits, eating out habits, their hobbies.

If they got something that was not in the report for that person they followed through to see if they could add new information to the board.

Each day they returned to their whiteboard and checked off three people, but no new breakthrough information surfaced.

David commented that the interviewing and the new information was bringing the missing people to life for him but commented that they were not getting any breakthroughs.

Malia agreed and said that she prayed every night for a breakthrough but so far the highest detective, who knew all, had not shared anything with her. She said that she was speaking slowly and clearly so that she would not be misunderstood.

The month ended and they were no closer to solving any of the cases than when they had started.

They joked that they needed to get their resumes out.

They set up a meeting with Leilani to let her know that they were coming up empty-handed.

Leilani listened to what Malia and David had done to date. When they were through she said that she was going to see if she could get the help of a detective that seemed to always solve her case.

She said that she had recently attended a nationwide convention of detectives that had been held in Cincinnati and that she had come home with a video that highlighted the Cincinnati Detective unit and had a piece on the detective she had in mind.

She asked them to sit down while she shared with them the clip that she had purchased at the convention and that highlighted a group of Cincinnati detectives who claimed to always solve their case.

The office was silent as they all watched the video clip.

The clip ended with the scene of Alex Evercrest pointing her finger out to those watching and saying, “Each of you get up each morning and go out to protect your community. Be proud, Be strong, Be excellent at what you do. Remember to treat others as you wish to be treated but get the job done.”

It seemed to hit David in the head, and he just said, “Ouch.”

He looked at Leilani and commented that he bet this Evercrest would do no better than he and Malia in solving their current case.

Malia jumped up at the end of the clip and in a loud and an almost shouting voice said that she had seen Alex out on Ulua beach.

She pointed back at the screen and in a loud voice declared that “Alex Evercrest is on Maui. They had to find her and challenge her to solve the missing person’s cases.”

Leilani gave a laughed and said that if that was indeed true, then she would personally escort the two of them to meet Alex and see if she could convince Alex to take on the case.

Leilani picked up the phone and a called over to the customs office and asked for the hotel or condo that an Alex Evercrest was staying.

She was told that she would have her answer soon, but it had to be looked up.

She was not surprised that it took almost the whole day before she got the address of the beach side house where a Ms. Evercrest was staying.

She suggested the three of them drive over to the house early the following day to see if they could meet with Alex.

The next morning, they drove out to where the house was situated right on the black lava rock on the edge of the sea.

When they got to the single lane road on the black lava rock at the edge of the ocean they knew that there were only a few very exclusive homes ahead of them.

They arrived at the address, and they all agreed that it was a secluded and very beautiful home.

Malia wondered how much such a house cost to rent and how a detective could afford to rent it.

David pointed out that there was no car in the drive on the other side of the locked gate. He speculated that Alex had already taken off on some site seeing venture. He suggested they ask if the customs office would have Alex’s phone number.

Malia commented on the fact that Alex had a wonderful view of Molokini Crater and Kaho’olawe island.

She again wondered how a detective could afford to rent such a home. She looked over to Leilani and suggested that her detectives should be getting a similar salary as Alex.

Leilani countered with the fact that Malia and her partner would have to solve as many and as complex cases as Alex had.

David suggested they try calling Alex. He asked when Alex had arrived at the Island.

Leilani called her contact at the customs office and learned that Alex had arrived almost two weeks ago. She also got the phone number where she could be reached.

David suggested that Leilani call and set up a lunch meeting with Alex at a place where they could sit outdoors and away from the crowd.

He wondered if they should suggest a food truck near where Alex’s house was located. He knew of two of them. One of them was always across from the park and they could get a table in the park.

Leilani said that she preferred something more upscale and would ask Alex where she preferred to meet.

She checked to make sure that her phone would identify her as an officer of the local law before she dialed. She knew that she personally ignored calls that she could not identify. She held her breath and put up her fingers showing the good luck sign.

After the fourth ring she was going to hang up when a pleasant voice answered and asked how she might be of service.

Thank you for reading this far – Hope you enjoyed