Page 2 of Hidden Falls

I’d done the trick Mom had shown me: I balled my fists against each other and flexed my wrists apart to get as much space around them as possible before the zip ties went on.

I now relaxed my hands, pressing my palms flat against each other, testing the space between my wrists.

There was wiggle room, but not enough to get a hand free.

I’d also pushed the toes of my running shoes against each other to create space around my ankles. Sure enough, the ties weren’t digging into my calves like they would have been, but I was a long way from being able to pull a foot out of the noose around my legs.

The best thing I could do right now was gather my strength and any information I could glean about who these guys were and where they were taking me. I lay quietly, counting my breaths to calm myself and get enough oxygen to keep functioning.

I’d just been kidnapped.

Why was this happening?

The reason sure couldn’t be money; my mom was a cop and my dad, a country lawyer.

We weren’t rich enough for ransoms, and no ransom was not good.

Fear rippled along my skin, raising the hairs on my body.

Who were these men, and what did they want with me?

2

DAY ONE

Sergeant Leilani Texeira and her partner, Pono Kaihale, were just getting started with their workday when a sharp rap came on the door to their modular unit. “Lei! I need to talk to you!”

“Harry?” Lei stood up and opened the door to her friend and fellow homicide detective, Harriet Vierra Clark.

Harry’s light brown eyes were wide with panic and her thick hair didn’t look like it had seen a brush in days. “Malia’s been taken!”

Lei’s heart jumped. “What?”

“She was on the way to school when someone took her from her car right outside of our house. Broken window, doors left open.” Harry’s eyes filled. “She was on her way to school, Lei, and someone just freakin’ stopped her in the road and took her!” Her voice rose; her hands balled into fists.

“Did you call 911?” Pono got up to join the women in the doorway.

“Of course I did! The uniforms are dusting for prints, yada yada. Acted like I was being hysterical.” Harry shoved a hand into her thick, rippling hair and pulled it—that’s why she looked so rumpled. “Just my luck I didn’t know any of them. I had to badge them and everything! I told them off and came here straightaway.”

“Hey.” Pono put a calming hand on Harry’s shoulder; his voice was a deep, mellow rumble. “You know the drill, Harry. Let’s take this one step at a time. We have to go through the process. That way nothing gets missed.”

Harry bucked his hand off, eyes wild. “Don’t patronize me. I came to you guys for help because you’re the best, but if you’re going to blow me off too, I’m done here.” She whirled and stomped away, long legs in black jeans carrying her rapidly toward Captain Omura’s office.

Lei spared a rueful glance at Pono, held up a hand to forestall him, and trotted after her friend.

Pono’s attempt at calming might have worked on someone else, but Lei knew Harry well enough not to even attempt it. Harry was a good cop, but she was emotionally volatile and had a capacity for violence that had been revealed when she and Lei were young women, and only Lei knew that history.

As a mother, Harry was fierce as a lioness with cubs, so nothing about this situation surprised Lei—except that someone would have the nerve to grab the daughter of a police detective in broad daylight. Lei’s gut churned at the mere idea of coming upon a scene involving one of her own children like the one Harry had just dealt with.

“Wait up.” Lei reached Harry as her friend was raising a fist to pound on Captain Omura’s office door. “You don’t want to go in there breathing fire. Take two minutes to rehearse your story with me so you can give the captain a thumbnail sketch. You need to be a detective right now, not a mother.” Lei gave a tight-lipped smile. “Ask me how I know Omura doesn’t like emotional.”

Harry’s tawny eyes bored into Lei’s; then she blew out a breath and spun, flinging up her hands. “All right. Outside. I could use a smoke, anyway.” She strode off again, leaving Lei to jog to keep up once more.

The main Maui police department station in Kahului was a charm-free gray cement block building designed for intimidation and efficiency. Outside the main doors and around the back of the three-story rectangle, a postage stamp of lawn with a picnic table was shaded by a large, mature rainbow shower tree, providing a small area for staffers to take breaks and eat lunch. A hedge of hibiscus bushes screened them from the sight of a major island thoroughfare—but not the sound of traffic passing by.

Harry stalked to the picnic table and stepped up to sit on top of it, turning to plant her butt on the planks of the table and her feet, clad in low-heeled black boots, on the built-in bench. Lei sat down beside her friend as Harry fumbled in the pocket of her lightweight cotton jacket, removing a packet of Virginia Slims and a gold lighter. Harry’s hands were shaking too hard to get the lighter to work, though her teeth seemed ready to bite through the filter on the fragile cigarette.

“Let me.” Lei took the lighter from her friend and flicked it, cupping the flame with a hand. Harry lit up and dragged in a breath, holding it for an instant. She tipped her head back and released a gust of smoke in a whoosh toward brilliant blue sky visible behind the pink and yellow blossoms of the tropical tree.

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