Sujata Massey - Shimura Trouble

“You’ve got to clean the cuts!” Calvin’s voice was rising, probably loud enough for Michael and Kurt to hear. And based on that, I made my decision.

“OK, then. I’ll clean them up myself in the powder room, and then I’ll come out again and we can chat.”

“Excellent. And while you’re in there, I’ll look for a pair of flip-flops, or as they call them here, slippers.” He laughed.

I left the kitchen door open as I followed Calvin in and up the stairs.

“I’m going to let you use Jiro’s bathroom; it was just cleaned. You’ll see that as well as a deep bath with a hand spray, there’s a Toto toilet with the built-in-bidet. We get a lot of raves about that from the ladies.”

“I bet,” I said faintly. “Isn’t there a powder room downstairs?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t have any first-aid supplies or painkillers. And like I said, the bath is perfect for cleaning your feet. Don’t worry about using it; the cleaning lady will be in tomorrow morning.”

I locked the bathroom door and looked around for hidden cameras; when I found none, I relaxed. The bathroom truly was beautiful, with a large window facing the ocean, through which I could make out the lighted outline of Four Guys on the Edge . There were Japanese antiques and modern glass everywhere, including a massive Dale Chihuly vase with a single spray of helicona.

I turned on the hot water in the tub, and opened the sink’s mirrored medicine cabinet to look for band-aids. There was a pharmacy’s worth of drugs inside: everyday painkillers and the Vicodin Calvin had mentioned. My eyes lingered on the other vials-Zoloft and Paxil and Rohypnol, which I knew was a sedative sometimes used by rapists.

I wished I knew some trade names for lithium, but I didn’t, so I decided to tuck one of each pill in a toilet paper wrapped bundle, which I inserted into my wetsuit top. I’d have all the pills evaluated later on by my father and Tom.

“Are you OK in there, Rei?” Calvin’s voice, a few feet away, made me jump.

“Sure. I just decided to follow your recommendation and soak my feet a few minutes.”

“Of course. I brought you a robe, too, in case you want to slip into something more comfortable.”

Struggling to look pleased, I unlocked the door and took the classic blue and white yukata and slippers that he handed me.

“You found the band-aids all right? There’s also a triple-antibiotic ointment.”

“I did. Thank you so much.

“I’ll be downstairs, cutie.” He winked at me.

The things I had to put up with in the name of investigation! I shut and relocked the door and settled back down at the edge of the tub. This was also a Japanese import; a special kind of tub with a stainless steel lining, and a control on the outside that could heat the water to a spa-like temperature. But the regular tap water was hot enough for my purposes, and I planned to be out soon.

The tub had already filled about five inches, and as I settled my feet in with gratitude and moved to turn off the faucets, I heard a knock at the door. Maybe Calvin had brought me a face cloth. I opened the door to find Michael standing there.

“I got in through the open kitchen door, after we’d made sure you’d both gone upstairs. We thought everything was happening outside the house, cutie.” Michael’s whisper was clearly sarcastic.

“I was. But I did need to clean my feet and…” I pointed downstairs in horror. “He’s down there, Michael! How are you going to get away?”

“We know where he is. Kurt’s hiding downstairs while I’ll stay up here in the bedroom area.”

“We could change the questioning to here, then!”

“Not a good idea from a legal perspective. Get back out to the beach and we’ll join you when we’re done.”

“OK, don’t get yourself worked up. I’m on my way out.”

“I’ll only leave after you both are outside.” Michael slipped down a bedroom hallway just before Calvin’s voice floated up from downstairs.

“Rei? Are you finished?”

“No, the water’s just so soothing. I’ll be out in a few more minutes.”

As I locked the door again, I put my feet back in the tub and began opening a band-aid, and I noticed something red floating up from the drain. I leaned closer, trying to figure out what it was. It looked like a piece of fabric-no, it was a band. A terry-covered hair band, the kind girls used to secure ponytails or braids.

Braids. A picture flashed into my mind of Charisse, the last time I’d seen her, with swinging braids tied in red. The band I was looking at was soaked, so it was a little darker than the one I’d seen her wear, but I was willing to bet that once it dried, it would be the same tomato hue.

THE RED HAIR band bobbed in the water before me, and like a sad echo, I remembered what Hugh had said about Jiro’s unprosecuted crime in Japan.

As I stared at the band, my own memories surfaced too. I remembered the black Mercedes S-class speeding out of Kainani the morning I took my first run, with two men in front and a woman in back. Charisse was late to the coffee shop that morning. And I also recalled Kainoa complaining that Jiro and Calvin sometimes came to the coffee shop, angling to pick up Charisse.

I’ve been to Kainani. I have a friend there. Charisse had smiled when she’d told me this, that very morning. A day later, she’d been absent from work, and the fire had flared out of control. The next day, arson investigators found her burned body.

Without thinking, I reached out to touch the hair band and discovered that some of its fibers were tangled in the underside of the trap. Maybe the trap had also caught some of Charisse’s hair.

I knew that I shouldn’t move the band, but nor could I allow it to be washed away. Still, I had to empty the tub. I carefully turned the stopper on the drain so the water didn’t rush out too quickly. My intent was to let the band settle back down in its hiding place, protected until the police could come.

After two minutes all the water was gone, and my feet were clean and bandaged. Still, there was sand on the bottom of the tub, and I worried about the cleaning lady working hard the next morning to get rid of it. I wet a towel and carefully wiped the surface until it was spotless, then dried it. As I worked, I heard a thud and a dragging sound. I was on instant alert, thinking about Kurt. Had he moved against Calvin?

I dropped the wet towels in a hamper made from an old Japanese basket and stepped out of the bathroom on to the soft, white carpet. I glanced down the hallway where Michael had gone and saw an unmistakable trail of sand. I couldn’t allow it to stay, no matter what might be unfolding downstairs.

I turned back to the bathroom to pick up another towel, dampened it, and began to clean up the sand.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped because Calvin was standing right behind me; apparently he’d walked up the carpeted stairs without making a sound.

“My…the sand.” He’d caught me off guard, and my words came out before my thoughts were aligned. “I’m sorry that I dropped some sand.”

“All the way there?” He pointed toward the bedrooms, where I’d last seen Michael go. “Where were you going, and why haven’t you showered and dressed in the yukata I brought you?”

He sounded like a bossy little boy; I would have rolled my eyes and snickered if we’d been by the pool. But I couldn’t do that here, so I turned my lips into a smile that I hoped looked helpless and endearing.

Calvin shook a finger at me. “Rei, I told you before, it’s time to take off that wetsuit. I brought you that robe to wear.”