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

“All I have to do is have him take me to a bar, take the beer bottle or plastic cup he drinks from, and then turn that over to Kona for fingerprints. He said he wasn’t getting any matches from the pocketknife or wallet. Maybe it’s time to collect a few more for comparison. He never did tell me what he found on my beer bottle from last night.”

She got off the freeway and angled for East-West Road to take her home.

“Something stinks about Bunzo’s and it’s not just the dumpster.”

When she got back to the estate, the roofer/plumber/electrician/handyman was on the front porch having a cigarette.

“You came back,” she said. “Did we forget something with the wiring?”

“No matter. Nothing else better to do. Got living room painted with primer.” He stood to leave. “I’ll be back on Monday to help finish the walls.”

“Okay, well, thanks.” Once he was gone, Gina made a quick inventory of the few things she had, just in case something might’ve found its way into his truck while she was away. Everything was there and in the same places as she’d left them. “Who does that? Who just drops by to paint a room, only because he had nothing else better to do with his day? How’d he get in, anyway?”

While she showered, she couldn’t help but think people were keeping an eye on her. Being naked right then, she got a start, and quickly finished.

“Okay, the bartender that owns Bunzo’s is Japanese, or Asian, or something. I don’t know. So is the roofer. Is the owner of Bunzo’s sending the roofer by to keep an eye on me? Are they somehow related? But I met the roofer before I found the body of the dead man, and I didn’t meet the owner of Bunzo’s until after I found the dead man. Everything is upside-down with that guy’s death.”

She dressed in the only blouse she had that was clean and had a floral print. That matched the loose skirt she selected, the only one she’d brought that wasn’t wool. After plucking a few brow hairs, she combed and fluffed her wavy hair. By the time she was done dressing, she looked ready for a date.

“Catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as they say.”

Chapter Eighteen

When Gina got to Bunzo’s, the parking lot was full.

“Only five o’clock and the place is already jammed.”

She’d need to park in the street somewhere before going in to meet Hughes. Her only plan was to get picked up by him and go out for a drink, or even a meal, and conduct an interview trying to determine what he knew about the darker operations at Bunzo’s Bar. There was more to the bar than crappy booze and bad pickup lines. Drugs, prostitutes, maybe even murder were on the daily happy hour specials. All Gina wanted was to know the real name of the dead man found on her porch that week before putting him to rest in a pauper’s grave. If she could learn why he died on her porch, it would be icing on the weird welcome cake that she’d been presented with upon arrival in Hawaii.

When she saw a couple come out hand in hand, she waited while they went to their car to take their parking spot. Maybe it was because they walked past the dumpsters that she thought she recognized the daytime bartender. She backed out again and into a small space at the curb. Cutting her lights, she sat stock still when Hughes drove out, taking his date with him.

“Jerk. He didn’t wait for me?” she muttered, watching his car go down the street in her rearview mirror. “I feel so insulted.”

It caught her eye when someone else came out the back door of the place, carrying a bag of trash with him. It seemed odd to Gina that he’d have to take out the trash left over from the previous shift. He didn’t seem happy about it, as he jammed the bag into the dumpster and slammed the lid shut. Instead of going back in, big-nosed Chuck lit a cigarette.

“He’s barely starting his shift and he’s already taking a break?”

Gina checked the rearview mirror again, trying to decide if she wanted to follow Hughes on his date, or to surveil Bunzo’s for a while. If she went in for a drink, she’d have to mingle. She wouldn’t be able to warm a barstool for the second evening in a row. She had nothing to ask Chuck, and hadn’t exactly endeared herself to the Asian guy that owned the place, whatever his name was. Sticking the transmission in gear, she made a quick U-turn in the middle of the street and set off in the direction Hughes had gone.

Doing a rolling stakeout was pointless with the vehicle she had at her disposal. The oxidized yellow Datsun with old-fashioned round headlights made her stick out like a sore thumb, and the engine would be uselessly underpowered in a chase. For that reason, she kept almost a full block behind Hughes’s car while following him in the hope he wouldn’t notice her. Traffic was busy on the surface streets, and whenever he made a turn, she lost him for a moment. The sky was getting dark, the sun getting low in the sky, and drivers were turning on headlights. Trying to remain hidden behind other cars, she closed the distance between her and Hughes so she wouldn’t lose him.

He was acting as though he knew he was being followed by making turns every block or two, going left and then right, in no direction in particular. He never left the part of town she’d come to know as Kapalama, though.

At one point, he parked in front of Pinoy Boy’s Emporium and went in, leaving his date to wait in the car. Gina rolled past to get a look at the woman he’d picked up. She was looking out