Murder at Makapu'u by Chip Hughes

Author:Chip Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Surfing, Hawaii, Child Abuse, Private Eye
Publisher: Chip Hughes
Published: 2017-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

eight

Walking away, I consider what I’ve learned so far. Chambermaid Lena tells me nothing that Fernandez didn’t except she mentions that Dr. Grimes was alone on that fateful weekend, implying his being alone was unusual. Then bartender Elton confirms the company the doctor kept on his lost weekends was none other than Krystal, the dog walker fired by his wife Beatrice Ho. So already I know something that Fernandez either didn’t know or didn’t tell me.

It’s curious that Dr. Grimes brought the blonde body builder with him most weekends to Moloka‘i but not the weekend his wife died. Krystal had an alibi—a rock concert on O‘ahu. Could she have slipped away undetected and been an accomplice to murder? In any case, so far Grimes has no iron clad alibi that he was on Moloka‘i that night.

Two down and one to go.

From the thatched cottages of the Moloka‘i Beach Hotel I drive two short miles back to Kaunakakai. I go barely a quarter mile beyond to the water’s edge and pull onto a long wharf—the longest in the state—jutting for what seems like a half mile into brilliant turquoise Kaunakakai Harbor. The wharf culminates in what is known as Pier Island—an oblong dock for inter-island barges, ferries, fishing boats and pleasure craft.

I park in one of the open stalls by the pier’s entrance and step into a balmy breeze. Across from the harbor is a gorgeous view to the southeast of the green, cloud-capped islands of Lāna‘i and Maui. And in the foreground, moored at the pier, a dozen boats gleam in the sun. I search for the one formerly owned by Dr. Grimes, recalling the model the doctor showed me of his sleek racer. When I suggested he could cross the Moloka‘i Channel in no time, he agreed, but only on those rare days when conditions were right. Otherwise, he would have been in for a rough ride.

The channel that separates the islands of Moloka‘i and O'ahu—whose traditional name is Ka‘iwi or “Channel of Bones”—has a reputation for bashing boats. Open ocean swells pushing through the narrow canyon between the two islands and churned up by foul weather have wrought destruction on unwary mariners since the beginning of recorded history. It was in this treacherous channel that one of Hawai‘i’s most famous and legendary watermen, Eddie Aikau, was lost.

But on the night Dr. Grimes’s wife died seas were calm and the moon nearly full. He could have roared across the channel, docked near his Portlock home, and then orchestrated his wife’s plunge from the cliffs of Makapu‘u.

Scanning the dock I spot it—long and sleek and shaped like an expensive cigar. The hull is emblazoned with orange flames—fitting for a water-borne rocket—and floodlights grace the bow for running at night. I walk to the stern to verify: Sea Ya Later.

The guy I need to talk to ought to be here any minute. Ikaika is his name. From a boathouse on the makai end of the pier a man ambles toward me. He looks older than I expected and walks a bit hunched over.

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