Free Diamond Head by Charles Knief

naturally wants to believe the best of his daughter. You want to know what really happened? Does the admiral?”
    I nodded.
    â€œIt’s pretty brutal stuff.”
    â€œThe world’s a pretty brutal place,” I told her. “It could break your heart.”
    â€œSpare me the sarcasm,” she said. “It doesn’t add anything to this conversation and if you shut up you might learn something.”
    I shut up. There’s a time to argue and there’s a time to keep your mouth closed.
    â€œThe file isn’t everything we have, you know that. The daughter was connected to some players that scare me shitless.”
    â€œDrugs?”
    â€œI only wish it were that simple.”
    This woman was not the kind of person to admit fear of anything or anyone. Of the two cops in the restaurant, she was the most dangerous.

    â€œFor the last year of her life she lived with a man in Haleiwa,” she said. “Too bad you no longer have the file. His name’s in there. If you had it and were good you’d see what I saw. Be cautious. He’s connected to some really bad people. I want you to form your own conclusions and then filter them through me. It’ll be a check system. I’ll be your only contact. I know you know others on HPD, but this one’s mine. Only mine. Understand?”
    I nodded.
    â€œSay it, Mr. Caine.”
    â€œI understand.”
    â€œOh, by the way. You said you were out at the Shark Cave yesterday. You didn’t run into a couple of local boys out there, did you?”
    â€œLocal boys?”
    â€œThe report we got was that they were minding their own business when a man matching your description went berserk and beat the hell out of them. You wouldn’t know anything about any of that, would you?”
    â€œNo, ma’am.”
    â€œI didn’t think so.”
    â€œThey didn’t have records of arrests and convictions, did they? These local boys?”
    â€œYou mean, did they have a history of car theft? Stuff like that?”
    â€œYeah. Stuff like that.”
    â€œThey have arrest records that go back to the fourth grade. And yes, they specialized in stolen cars. Are you psychic, Mr. Caine?”
    â€œJust a lucky guess, Detective Alapai,” I said.

 
    Â 
    10
    I left the coffee shop and drove directly back to the marina. From what I’d learned the file warranted another reading.
    The sun fell behind the Waianae Mountains as I headed home, a bright glare shining directly into the eyes. Smoky haze hovered over the far cane fields as the harvest continued. In a few years the final curtain will be dropped on the plantation era in Hawaii. Lanai shut down its pineapple fields a few years ago, that quiet island converting to expensive hotels, golf courses and luxury homes. Every year Oahu loses more and more agricultural acreage to suburbia, while Dole and C&H flee to the cheap land and cheaper labor of the Philippines, far away from labor unions, EPA and OSHA.
    I’m not lamenting a lost way of life. From what I understand the plantation existence was not a good one. But transitions are always hard on those going through them. Displacement is never agreeable. Hawaii will be forever changed. But then it has changed every year since Captain Cook saw mountain peaks rising over the horizon and thought he’d better take a look. I’d like to think we’ve made improvements, but that lie is exposed each time I anchor Duchess in a pristine cove where development has yet to reach, where coconut palms line pristine white
beaches and the only sound is the gentle roaring of the distant surf far out on the reef.
    I found a parking place close to the dock and unlocked my boat. Her electronic detection system told me Duchess had been undisturbed during my absence. I went below and retrieved the file from its hiding place and set up a bank of cushions on the aft deck against the cabin facing the sun. An opened bottle of