Chapter 8
What?” Rex leaned over the console to stare down at Kimo’s cell phone screen.
“They want my camera,” Kimo whispered, her face pale. “That means they know I have proof of what was inside that container.” She glanced up at Rex. “The only way they could know that is if Alana told them.”
“She’s alive,” Rex said. “They wouldn’t use her as a bargaining chip if she wasn’t.”
Kimo’s eyes swam with tears. “She’s alive.”
Rex wanted to pull her into his arms, but the console sat between them. As he thought about the message, his brow dipped. “That text probably came from a burner phone, given it’s an unknown caller ID. Text them back and demand proof of life.”
Kimo held her phone in front of her, her fingers poised over the screen. “What do I say?”
“Tell them to give you proof that Alana is alive.”
Kimo’s hand shook as she keyed the message. She had to back up several times to correct the spelling when she hit the wrong keys. When she’d entered Rex’s exact words, she met his gaze.
After he gave her a brief nod, she sent the message. For a long moment, she stared at the screen, waiting for that proof.
As a minute passed, then another, her concentration never wavered.
When her cell phone chirped, she jerked and almost dropped the device.
“It’s a video,” she said and clicked on the image.
The feed blinked into view with a video of a blond-haired woman with brown eyes.
“It’s Alana,” Kimo said, her voice cracking.
“Kimo, whatever they want, don’t do it,” she said.
A hand lashed out, backhanding Alana across her face. Her head jerked back.
“Alana!” Kimo cried.
Alana sagged forward. The camera remained on the blonde as a disembodied voice said, “The camera for your friend. Or she ends up like the others.”
Kimo keyed into the phone.
Kimo: If my friend dies, the camera and the images on it will go directly to the police
Unknown: If the images get out, your friend dies. No negotiation
“Can you play the video again in slow motion?” Rex asked.
“I can try.” Kimo pressed the play arrow.
Rex focused on the background behind Kimo’s friend.
“What are you looking for?” Kimo asked.
“Anything that could be a clue as to where they’re keeping her.”
Kimo leaned close, studying the video as well.
“Looks like they’re keeping her in a small room with a low ceiling and dim lights,” Rex said. “The wall appears clean and white, not made of drywall or tile.”
“Looks like what they use on the insides of a boat cabin,” Kimo said. “But I don’t see anything else. No signs or letters on the walls to indicate a make or model of the craft. She could be on a number of different kinds of boats, including a catamaran or yacht.”
Whoever had been manning the camera had zoomed in on Alana, making it hard to see much more of the room. Most of the view was filled with Alana’s bruised and pale face. She appeared to be sitting in a chair, her hands secured behind her back.
Kimo winced as the hand lashed out, smacking Alana in the face.
“Pause,” Rex said.
Kimo paused the video with the arm still extended.
Kimo pointed. “Is that a tattoo?”
Rex nodded.
Kimo zoomed in on the tattoo. “Looks like a stylized tribal mask.” Her eyes widened. “I’ve seen something similar.”
Rex nodded. “Members of my team ran into guys with those tattoos on Oahu. They belonged to a motorcycle gang that goes by the name of Order of the Demons.”
“Holy shit,” Kimo whispered. “They’re known to be ruthless.”
“Yeah.” He leaned back. “I need to stop by my apartment to collect some of my dive equipment, and I’d like to make a call from there. We can share the video with my tech guru. He can run a check on it and see if he can come up with any more information Alana’s location.”
Kimo nodded. “You could drop me at my place. I need to clean up.”
Rex shook his head. “Not a chance I’m dropping you anywhere. You’re stuck with me for the duration of this situation. Besides, we don’t have much time.”
“I think you have it backward,” Kimo said with a grimace. “You’re stuck with me.” She held up a hand. “I know, it’s your job.”
Rex nodded. He didn’t want to admit it was quickly becoming more than just a job.
The pretty Hawaiian was a strong, independent woman who’d survived a pretty traumatic event and didn’t want to leave her friend behind.
She was more than adamant about finding her, even if she had to do it all by herself. She reminded him of someone he’d loved.
He shifted into gear and pulled out of the parking lot. “You remind me of my mother.”
Kimo laughed. “I consider myself fairly young still, and I haven’t found my first gray hair.” She shook her head with a twisted smile. “I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.”
Rex smiled. “Flattered. My mother put up with a lot being married to my father. She always supported his work and career without complaint, while he didn’t really seem to see her.
Her passion was helping others. She volunteered in women’s shelters and visited children in the cancer treatment hospitals.
She helped raise money for both organizations and would’ve given the shirt off her back to a stranger or a homeless person. ”
“From all you’ve said about her, she sounds pretty amazing,” Kimo said.
Rex’s heart pinched hard in his chest. “She was.”
“How did she die?” Kimo asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
“One of the women she’d befriended at the women’s shelter had retrained to become a nurse and was working shiftwork at one of the bigger hospitals on Oahu when she came down with a particularly bad case of the flu.
She stayed home from work too long when she should’ve gone to the hospital.
” Rex shook his head. “When my mother heard she was sick, she went to the woman’s apartment, took her soup, fed and cared for her until she realized she wasn’t getting better.
Finally, she called an ambulance. They took her to the hospital, got her on antibiotics and a ventilator.
It was touch-and-go for a while, but she got better. ”
“And your mother?”
“She got the same flu but didn’t tell anyone. Didn’t go to the hospital. My father was away on a business trip. Our housekeeper was on vacation. By the time the housekeeper returned, my mother was already in organ failure.”
Kimo’s brow furrowed. “Did you get back to see her before...?”
Rex nodded. “Barely. I spent the last few hours with her. She could barely talk but seemed to want to get some things off her chest.”
“Is that when she told you not to let anyone take your choices away?”
“Yes,” Rex said. “She’d studied to be a social worker.
When she married my father, she gave up her own career to support his.
After I was old enough that I didn’t need her at home, she threw herself into helping others.
She didn’t regret raising me, though I could be a challenge at times, especially when I butted heads with my father.
I always thought it was because I was too much like him—hardheaded and always thinking I was right. ”
“I don’t see that,” Kimo said. “I think you’re more like your mother than you realize.
You care about your team. You’re working as hard as I am to find Alana, a woman you don’t know.
You’re taking good care of me, another woman you don’t know, and you care about the people who died in that shipping container. ”
He gave her a sideways glance. “You’re too kind—like my mother.
However, now that I’ve been away from my father for over a decade, I’ve realized I’m not like him.
He’s completely driven by the almighty dollar.
His focus was never on his family but on how to grow his business and increase his profits each year.
He didn’t even get back from his business trip until the day after my mother passed. ”
Kimo reached over and touched Rex’s arm. “That’s sad.”
Rex gave a bark of laughter that was anything but joyful. “Get this. My mother told me to tell my father that she forgave him for not making it back in time. That she would be all right.”
“What did he say when you told him that?”
Rex snorted. “He said, ‘Well, okay then. Have you had dinner?’”
“Wow.” Kimo blinked. “Was he not upset or anything?”
“I don’t know.” Rex drew in a deep breath and let it out.
“I turned and walked away. He handed her funeral over to a service. I went back to our house, packed a few of my belongings, my passport and birth certificate and then marched down to the nearest recruiting station, which happened to be the Army’s, and signed up.
My father called to ask where I’d gone. I told him.
He said that if I didn’t go back to school and finish my degree, he’d disown me. ”
“That’s harsh,” Kimo said, “especially after losing your mother. So, he disowned you?”
“I don’t know. Don’t care.” Rex stared at the road ahead.
“I didn’t want anything to do with him after that.
Since he paid for the phone, I tossed it in the trash.
I didn’t need one in basic training anyway.
” After spilling his guts to a woman who was practically a stranger, Rex was stunned at how easy it was to talk with Kimo.
He’d never told another soul about his family situation.
He’d never gotten close enough to a female to want to.
Kimo sat back in her seat. “Wow. That makes my childhood sound like a picnic. My mother and father were always loving and happy to be with each other and me. They took me to all the island’s cultural events to teach me about my Hawaiian heritage.
We stuck together as a family when the fires drove us out of our home in Lahaina and worked to rebuild our lives in the aftermath. ”
“I heard about the fires. That had to be hard,” he said.
She nodded. “The community came together to lift each other up. And we came through. Battered, but not beaten.”
“That shows your resilience as a people.”
“Some things you can come back from,” she said softly.
“What happened with your folks?”