Free Black Jasmine (2012) by Toby Neal Page A

look at it; instead he pushed a button on the phone and they heard it dialing. He held up a finger toward them as the phone was answered.
    “Kevin, this is John. Can you come right over? Some detectives are in my office, harassing me about an escort service. Oh. Okay.” He pressed End and looked up with a smile straight out of a denture commercial. “My attorney has instructed me not to answer any further questions until he gets here.”
    Pono stood up, put the white card in his pocket. “Thank you for cooperating, Mr. Wylie. MPD appreciates it.”
    Lei had spotted a picture behind Wylie on the credenza. A pair of blond, orthodontia- wrapped teen girls flanked him in a formal portrait. Lei tapped Jane Doe’s photo, forcing his eyes down to look at it. “This young girl, same age as your daughters, was murdered ,and all you can do is dial your phone and hide behind your lawyer. Nice.”
    She waited a long moment, but he didn’t look up from the beautiful dead face. She stood and turned away, following Pono. Wylie’s voice came as she was almost at the door.
    “I recognize her. She had an accent.”
    Lei moved alongside the desk to align with him. “What kind?”
    “Well. I don’t know. Seemed European.” He harrumphed, as if remembering he wasn’t supposed to speak, and then said, “I think all the girls are foreign. I’ve never seen the same ones twice.”
    “Anything else stand out about her?”
    “No. Other than she was a little younger than the others. I didn’t see who she ended up with that evening.”
    “Do you know anything more about the escort service than just that number?”
    “No. But I know who I got the card from.” He opened the drawer again, took out another card. “I can’t be linked to giving you this information in any way, but I want that girl to get some justice.” His pale eyes seemed to be trying to convince her what a good guy he was, and hell, maybe he was a good guy, at least by his own standards. He did try to build “green” after all.
    Lei picked up the card. This one was printed on opalescent card stock with a name and address picked out in raised silver lettering.
    “Thank you.” She reached over to shake his hand. “Takes a real man to take a risk for justice.”
    Out at the purple truck, Pono shook his head. “That last line was laying it on a bit thick, but he seemed to buy it.”
    “We might need him again, and I don’t want to burn any bridges.”
    Pono snorted. “That’s a first.” They pulled out as a cream-colored Mercedes pulled in with a squeal of brakes. “Just dodged the lawyer.”
    They drove back toward Lahaina’s main shopping and art route on a busy four-lane, tree-lined boulevard. Lei chewed her bottom lip, fiddling with the opalescent card that listed a Pacific Treasures Gallery with a Front Street address.
    “Let’s follow up and hit the address, since we’re out here—before he has a chance to give this gallery a heads-up.”
    Front Street had maintained its former whaling-village charm, and the narrow shop-lined street, facing the glittering ocean and a vista of the tiny island of Lana`i, was jammed with tourists and sightseers. Pono squeezed the oversized truck in between a pair of Hyundai rentals with the ease of practice. Lei jumped down onto the sidewalk and turned to her partner.
    “Just scope the place, do the happy tourist thing. I don’t want to spook whoever it is until we have a little more to go on.” She buttoned her light jacket over her gun and slid her badge into her pocket.
    “Right on, Sweets. We can be a honeymoon couple.” Pono gave her an exaggerated wink and made a pretend ass grab, which she froze with a look. They fell into character, meandering down the sidewalk with the rest of the tourists, leaning to look into displays of Tahitian pearls, racks of colorful pareu, and even a portable stand of parrots that people could pose with.
    Eventually they came to the address. Everything about Pacific Treasures