Unknown Victim by Kay Hadashi (classic books for 11 year olds .TXT) 📕

proposed. From the stories I’ve heard about it, he even asked her parents’ permission first, the old-fashioned way.”

“Nothing wrong with some of the old-fashioned ways,” Millie said. She fixed a small bowl of soy sauce for Gina to dunk her sushi ball. “Where was the wedding?”

“The big, white wedding was in Cleveland. But they had a secret wedding in Italy before she came to America. They never said anything to anybody in Cleveland about that. The only reason I know is that I found the registration paper for it once and asked my mother what it was. I had to make a lot of promises to keep my mouth shut about it, too.”

“You’ve just told me.”

“Yeah, well, I doubt the coconut wireless reaches all the way to Cleveland.”

“Not usually. Go ahead and try the tuna.”

“Now?”

“It has a mild flavor. You can tell it’s fresh by how red the color is. It’s okay.”

Gina took a bite and chewed carefully.

“Is it okay?”

“Actually, it’s pretty good. Not at all what I was expecting.”

That seemed to please Millie. “Do the police know anything about the man that was found at the house?”

“Not much. They’re thinking he was just a homeless guy that was using the front porch to sleep on, and that maybe he’d been living inside while the house was empty.”

“It was hard to keep them out, and we finally had to hire a night watchman. Once the house remodel started, we decided to have someone live there full-time.”

“That’s when you hired me?” Gina asked. She took another plate of the tuna.

“Right.”

“Okay, tell me the truth. Are you really trying to return the estate to its former state, or am I just being a glorified house sitter?”

“We’ve been wondering when you might ask that. Yes, we really do want to get the estate back in shape again. Maybe calling it an estate isn’t right, that calling it a farm would be better. But years ago, the media labeled it as the Tanizawa Estate, and it stuck. That’s what everybody calls it now.”

“It really is a beautiful piece of land. I guess I don’t understand why you hired me to lead the project? It’s not like I have much experience, especially anything to do with the tropics.”

“We’re hoping there’s more to you than meets the eye on your resume. Everything indicates that you’re a hard worker, and that you’re responsible.” Millie stacked their plates now that they were done with their meal. “You also underbid the other applicants for the amount you’d work for. Vastly underbid.”

“I didn’t know what to ask for.”

“You were probably thinking in Cleveland terms, rather than Honolulu terms.”

“I’m glad we’re having this talk, Millie. I’ve been meaning to tell you I’m going to work hard on the project. I’d really like to see it turn into something your family can be proud of again. I don’t know if it’ll be exactly the same, but every time I walk around the fields, I get a better idea of what it might’ve looked like a long time ago.”

“Which is exactly what you put on your original proposal. Frankly, we got better, more professional proposals from local landscapers, but most of them wanted to turn the place either into a theme park, or tear everything down and make something entirely different. You were the only one who made it sound like you cared enough to respect the family’s ideas and history. You were hired as much for that as you were for what we’re paying you.”

“Since I’m working so cheap, I get the pickup to use?”

“And such a large crew.”

“That’s why I have so many?” Gina asked.

The waitress tallied the amount to be paid and Millie handed over some bills. “They’ve all worked for us, some of them for quite a few years. Except one. We know they’re good workers, so we had Felix arrange for them to work at the estate instead of at one of our farms. One way or another, we’d be paying them to work for us.”

They went out to the parking lot. “Oh, you have other farms?”

“Sometimes it seems like too many. I’ll tell you about them some other time. Right now, you need to take me home. Know how to get to Saint Louis Heights?”

Gina started the pickup’s engine. “I don’t even know how to get back to the estate.”

“It’s not far from the estate, as the crow flies.” Millie pointed the way to her house, up a long, winding road. Not much of the house showed to the street, as most of it was below the ridge that it sat on.

“How do I get home from here?” Gina asked when she let Millie out.

“Follow this same street downhill until you get to Dole Street and turn right. Follow that until you get to East-West Road and turn right again. You’ll see the bridge from there.” Millie bit her lip for a moment. “Gina, our family has put a lot of trust and faith in you with the old Tanizawa farm. Gambatte, ne.”

“Gam…what?”

“Do your best.”

Chapter Eleven

On Tuesday morning, while her new coffeemaker brewed, Gina peeked out the front window wondering what to expect of the day. She was almost disappointed not to see someone sleeping on the porch.

Just as she was finishing her second mug of coffee, the first of her work crew showed up, that of Felix. She went out to meet him. Today, his smile wasn’t as broad as usual, and he stayed near his truck.

“Everything okay?” he asked as she walked up to him.

“Fine, why?”

He nodded toward the house thirty feet away. “Anybody…”

“Glad to announce that there are no dead bodies on the front doorstep today.”

He looked relieved and his usual smile returned.

One by one, the crew arrived, Clara once again coming with Flor and Florinda. Carrying two shopping bags in her hands, she went toward the house but stopped at the steps to the porch. After looking at the porch for a moment, Clara went around the house to the backdoor