by
Auntie Leilani had told him he must have brought the rain with him. In fact, everyone he had talked to since coming home had said this had been the driest year on record. While Kimo had been walking from the plane to the terminal at Napua Airport it had started to rain. There had been no letup in the two days he had been back. *** Even though it was a Saturday, and Leilani had not been scheduled to come in, Qual wasn’t surprised to see her at the office when he arrived. Never having been a clock watcher, she was as likely as not to show up on a Saturday or an hour or so early to catch up on the clerical work which grew steadily at the firm of Smith, Chu and Yoshinobu. What he was surprised at was seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks. Leilani Pak seldom cried at anything other than weddings and funerals. Qual suspected it was something rather more like the latter than the former which was these tears. *** Quality Smith, a slender, balding individual with a nervous habit of adjusting his glasses with both hands, ordinarily looked out on the world with detached and somewhat amused eyes. Today, he was concerned about Leilani Pak, who had been with him from the day he had opened the office. After passing his bar exams, Qual had come over to Elima from Oahu and established the firm some nine years previously. Now he was the senior partner of the only group of attorneys on Elima devoted entirely to criminal defense. Laura Correa was excited, almost as excited as the day Morgan Lopes, the high school football star, had asked her to be his date to the senior prom. The call from Qual telling her she was hired had made the adrenaline flow. She had wanted the job on Elima, more than she had thought she did when she had applied. But much of the excitement was the result of her unhappiness with the earlier interview she had had with the three attorneys. She had left their office with the feeling the impression she had made had not been a favorable one.
By the time Qual had finally gotten the story out of Leilani, the other three attorneys had arrived and were surrounding the office desk. “You’re it, Laura,” Qual said later, as he pushed a folder across his desk to her, “I’m sure since Judge Wong has caught up on all of his court cases, he’s not going to engage in any bargaining. So this will be your chance to show your talents as a trial lawyer.” *** Qual reached across the desk and flipped Kimo’s folder open, saying, “Let’s start with Wong, as much as we know about him. He’s been on the bench here for only about two months, and has been a plea bargainer’s dream. He’s had very few cases go to trial and has accepted just about any reasonable offer in order to avoid court cases.” *** The first night after Laura had reported to work, she was the major topic of conversation between Sid and Kay, immediately following discussion of the new house they were planning. *** Laura, Sid and Kay went to lunch together on the Monday after Qual dropped the Kimo Stanner case into Laura’s lap.
Chapter 1
Still, he was glad to be in Hawaii again, rain or no rain, and especially glad to be back on Elima. He had had enough of places like Kuwait and Los Angeles. Elima was still a rural island, and that was where he wanted to be. Tomorrow he had to start giving serious thought to finding a job. There sure seemed to be plenty of possibilities around. He could not believe the signs in the shop windows. Back when he had left to find work on the Mainland, there had been plenty of them. They had all said, “No jobs, No employment here.” Now, the much bigger signs were saying “Part Time, Full Time, Temporary Help Needed. No Experience Necessary. We’ll Train.”
The day-and-a-half since his arrival had been full ones. He had bought this used pickup with his mustering-out pay and moved what few belongings he had into Leilani and John Pak’s house. Then he had made the rounds of his old friends in Napua. Tomorrow, after job hunting, he would cross the island and look up Margery. They had written sporadically to each other during the five years he had been gone. It was just possible she still had a warm place in her heart for him. Anyway, it was worth a try to find out.
Right now he was cursing the balking windshield-wipers and the subdivision he had wandered into. This part of Napua was a maze and all new to him. He was not even sure in which direction he was going. When he had left Elima to go to work on the Mainland, there had been coffee groves all through here. Now, small, almost indistinguishable boxes had sprung up like a novel kind of crop.
Some things might have changed. Many things had not. It had been great talking to Roger and Kevin over a few beers. It had been just like old times, and a Friday night at that. Everyone was relaxed, even though Kevin had to go on night shift. It was like those Friday nights on the Mainland after a week of hard work, only better. It was nice to hear pidgin again. The guys in the army had made fun of the way he talked. He hadn’t realized how much he had changed his way of speaking in the service until he sat down with his two old buddies. Yup. It was good to be back. Now all he had to do was to find his way out of these side streets.
Opening the window, he leaned forward, reached an arm out into the downpour and tried to move the wiper which had finally given up completely. The one dim street light he had just passed made the seeing worse, if anything. Out of the corner of his right eye he saw something move. He slammed on his brakes. They locked and sent him into a skid. Simultaneously he felt the thump on the fender and bumper, and both right wheels rolled across what he had hit.
There was really no need to get out of the truck. There was no point in running back to look at the still form. Kimo knew immediately he had killed someone.
Business had been brisk from the outset and, within a year, Sidney Chu had joined the firm. Keiko “Kay” Yoshinobu had become a junior partner some ten months after that. The most recent addition had been Laura Correa. She had been the subject of long discussions by the three partners before they finally decided to add the young attorney to their roster.
As soon as her application had been received, the forty-five year old Qual had been the one most favorably disposed toward Laura. He had been quick to argue for hiring her. “We can’t possibly compete with those Honolulu firms for someone like her. Besides, she’s not only eager to work for us, she’s even willing to settle for half what she’d make over on Oahu.”
Craig Thomas gave his enthusiastic support to the appointment. Craig was Qual’s house mate. Since they lived less than two blocks away from the office, he was a frequent visitor and had become a de facto member of the firm. So while the attorneys were looking over applications, Craig had been there leaning on the casing of the door to Qual’s office checking over a grocery list. Looking up, he said, “Best of all, she’s a local. She’s bound to have at least one relative on every jury.”
Sid had guffawed at that. Sidney Chu was a tall, handsome Chinese in his early-thirties. His specialty was his court appearances where, as a trial lawyer, he was particularly effective. Pessimistic by nature, he was nicely counterbalanced by Kay Yoshinobu. Kay was a dark-skinned Japanese, truly lovely by any standards, but particularly so by Hawaiian ones. After a stormy courtship, the two had finally decided to marry. Marriage had helped to tame the cyclones, reducing them to only occasional minor squalls.
On the day the final decision was being made about a new addition to the firm, Sid and Kay had been sitting opposite Qual at his desk passing applications around.
“That’s an argument against Laura, not for her,” Sid said, responding to Craig’s earlier remark. “If she has a close relative on the jury, it will automatically disqualify the juror.”
Craig shook his head and went back to his grocery list. “I will never, never understand the law.”
“She also comes with an unqualified recommendation from Leilani,” Qual said. “It’s just what you’d expect with about every local. Leilani’s related to her through some cousin or uncle. She says she changed Laura’s diapers manys the time. Leilani and Laura’s mother used to trade off baby-sitting.”
“I’d feel better about Laura,” Kay said, looking over the application, “if she’d had some experience. She’s coming to us fresh from her bar exams. It’s hard to tell how she’ll stand up in court.”
“She has to start somewhere,” Qual answered firmly, “and her grades are right there at the top.”
“Grades don’t always translate into performance,” Sid said, giving Qual a stony look. “Scott Ikeda, our esteemed former assistant prosecuting attorney, was in the top ten per cent of his class. Look what happened to him. The appointed court master is making him go back to school because he’s totally incompetent in the courtroom.”
“The exception proves the rule.” This was Craig’s contribution.
Qual turned to him. “Craig, I’m not sure I want you on my side. You’re completely twisting the meaning of the saying. It really means the exception tests the rule.”
“Well, whatever. I still think you should hire Laura Correa, and you’d better make up your mind soon before some other firm scoops her up.”
“That is a point,” Qual said. “We’ve been sitting on some of those applications for a couple of months. I’m sure we’ve lost applicants already.”
“She’s Portuguese,” Sid said as he surveyed Laura’s resume, “and that’s certainly in her favor. Half the police force on this island is Portuguese.”
Craig showed his annoyance. “How can lawyers be so inconsistent? A minute ago when I was arguing how her being a local was a good thing, all of you acted as though I was an idiot. Now you’re saying the same thing I was saying.”
Sid looked up from the papers and smiled, “Sorry, Craig. This is completely different. It’s no advantage to have relatives on jury panels, but it doesn’t hurt to have relatives down at the station.”
“Why is that?” asked Craig. “I mean, why is it so many of the policemen in Hawaii are Portuguese?”
“Damned if I know,” Sid answered. “Do you have any idea, Qual?”
Qual nodded. “It goes back to the days when half of Elima’s immigrant population was Oriental and the other half was mainly Portuguese. About the only ones who could meet the height requirements Hawaii had back then were the Portuguese and the native Hawaiians. Well, the Hawaiians didn’t have a chance, what with all the discrimination, disease and alcohol. So the Portuguese moved into those jobs. Since then, it’s like the Irish on the East Coast. It’s always easier to get on the force once you have some relatives there already.”
“There’s something else bothering me,” Kay said, while looking at Laura’s folder over Sid’s shoulder. “It’s what she wrote about her interests in the letter she sent with her application. Criminal law isn’t at the top of her list. She says environmental law is what she’s most keen on. Is she going to let that interfere with defending someone who gets picked up for throwing trash out of his car window?”
“Maybe we could stand a little more social conscience around here,” said Qual, peering over his glasses at Kay. Sid laughed. “Careful, Qual, you’re letting your conservationist-Marxist-anarchism show. You want to hire her because you think she’s politically sound.”
Qual protested. The argument raged on. Finally, and to some extent because of Craig’s urging, the final vote was taken. The result was all three attorneys agreed Laura was probably a good choice, certainly the best of those who had applied. The only concession Qual had to make to the other two was that Laura would be on probation for three months.
By the time Laura’s fate was settled, Craig, who had pocketed his list and picked up the application, began to voice doubts about their choice. Looking through the sheaf of papers in Laura’s folder, he had discovered she was a teetotaler.
“How can anyone possibly appreciate good food unless they have a fine wine with the meal? Why, we won’t be able to invite her out to dinner at our house.”
***
Her hopes for the job had gone up as her expectations she would get it had gone down. Then the two weeks since her interview had dragged. When Qual’s invitation to come to work on the following Monday finally came through, it sounded like Mozart at his best. Now she had to start making plans for moving across the island to Napua.
The bar exams had turned out to be much easier than she had anticipated. She had left Honolulu as soon as she had taken them, not the least sorry to see the last of the city where she had spent most of the last six years of her life. Flying over Elima, was like flying to another planet—a lovely, lush, familiar planet. Except for the developments crowding the shoreline, this was still a rural island. The forest preserves along the ridge were a rich dark green. The sugarcane fields were light in contrast. New macadamia-nut orchards were springing up, especially along the windward side where the plane was coming into Wanakai airport.
This was home, and Laura wanted to be home and to stay home. So convinced was she that she belonged here, she had even toyed with the idea of opening up an office on her own, if she could not find a firm there to hire her. A look at her bank account convinced her quickly there was no way she could do such a thing. The only solution was employment with an existing law firm. Smith, Chu and Yoshinobu seemed to be the ideal choice.
Putting down the phone after the call, she reflected the interview with the three attorneys must have gone well after all. She had passed the ordeal, in spite of the doubts she had had after leaving the office and thinking it over. Qual, she had liked immediately. He was so pleasant and open, and he had a fine sense of humor, but maybe she liked him mainly because he reminded her of her older brother, who had long ago gone to work as an engineer on the Mainland. Or, perhaps it was because she sensed he shared many of her values.
With Sid, it was different. He had reminded her of some of the professors she had had in law school. Sid had not been much interested in what was good about her. He had just wanted to find out what was bad and had made no bones about it. I’d hate to be a hostile witness in court with him cross-examining, she had thought. At first she had had the feeling Sid just did not like her. As she went over the interview in her mind, she concluded the microscopic examination he had submitted her to was part of his nature. At the same time, she had found him extremely attractive.
If anything, Kay was the one who had disturbed her the most. Kay seemed so poised, so in control. And she was beautiful. There was no question about that. Laura had stopped at the nearest service station after the interview: She had done so partly to get gas for the return trip to Wanakai on the other side of the island and partly to relieve a nervous bladder whose nervousness she had been only half aware of until moment. She also wanted to look at herself in the restroom mirror. If they do hire me, I’m sure going to look like an ugly duckling next to Kay.
Since leaving high school, Laura had given little thought to her appearance. College classes, studies, concern for her future career—these took up almost all of her waking hours. There had been little spare cash for clothes, cosmetics or visits to the beauty salon. Even the pressing, overwhelming, precipitous interest she had had in males during those last two years at Wanakai High School had been quenched by books, and class notes, and lectures at the University of Hawaii.
As an undergraduate, she had engaged in a few hasty and joyless couplings with men students who were not much interested in anything more than that. Law school had been months of celibacy. Her total involvement with the law had given no males any encouragement. Now, with the academic pressures removed, she looked at herself with a different eye.
Small, but not terribly so when measured against standards set by a mostly Oriental population, Laura appraised her figure in the inadequate mirror of the service station restroom. I guess I should be glad I can eat anything without putting on weight, but maybe I should change my hairstyle. I still look like my photo in the high school yearbook. If I get the job, or any job, I’ll celebrate and buy myself some new clothes.
She watched her dark eyes, with their long curled eyelashes, crinkling back at her in wry amusement. No matter what, Kay’s going to still make me look like a small, drab mouse by comparison–—if I get the job.
Chapter 2
When Leilani had first gone to work for Qual, neither of them had envisioned the position would be a permanent one. As it turned out, the heavy-set Hawaiian woman with a penchant for colorful muumuus had proven to be ideal for the new-born firm, and the firm prospered. At first she had done all the clerical work. By now she had relegated most of the duties other than receptionist to the growing office work force. While this still meant at least a forty-hour week, it gave her time to worry about the attorneys.
Leilani had long ago convinced herself they were congenitally incapable of either running a business or of managing their own private lives. Leilani considered her supervision of both of these activities as inseparable and therefore her primary responsibility. But today she had worries far removed from these office duties.
“He was so glad to be home again, after almost seven years away,” Leilani began, the tears at the edge of her eyes, the plumeria blossom in her hair drooping in sympathy. The others soon became aware she was talking about her nephew, Kimo Stanner. She had raised him with her own children after her sister, his mother, had been killed in an automobile accident.
“What happened?” Sid asked.
Leilani repeated what she had told Qual. “He was coming home last night after visiting one of his friends. It was raining really hard, and he got lost in the Highlands Subdivision. His windshield wipers stopped working, so he couldn’t see very well. Then someone ran out, right in front of his pickup. Kimo called the police as soon as he could find anyone at home. They came out right away. Then they arrested him for driving under the influence.”
“What about the person he hit?” Kay asked.
“Kimo says he killed him. He just knows he killed him.”
“What do the police say?” Sid asked.
“They say they don’t know.”
“What!?” Sid said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know, but there wasn’t any body there by the time Kimo and the police went back to where the accident happened.”
***
Laura felt her stomach lurch, drop, recover, turn over and drop again. The folder with “Kimo Stanner” written on the tab did nothing to reassure her. “But you people know so much more about what to do,” she protested, “and Leilani is going to be really upset if you turn this case over to a newcomer. I’ll be glad to help. I’ll do all the research, but I can’t go taking over a case that’s going to trial—just like that. I’ve been here less than a month, and besides . . .”
Qual grinned as he interrupted. “Sorry, but we’re pushing you into the water. You’ve got to learn to swim sooner or later, and this is as good a time as any. Besides, in a way, the rest of us are newcomers too. None of us have had a trial with Judge Wong presiding. That’s not all. The most we know about the acting prosecutor is the talk Sid and Kay had with him over lunch last week.
“So everything’s as brand new for us as it is for you. What’s really important is you know Kimo. You were practically raised with him. He’ll feel a lot more comfortable with you, and he’ll tell you things he’d never say to the rest of us. Getting the client’s trust can be almost as significant as the trial itself.”
“Can’t I just work with him and have Kay or Sid take the case into court?” She was unmistakably pleading.
Qual could not resist laughing at the tone of her voice, even though he remembered what it was like to be a new lawyer with case number one looming up ahead. “There’s no room here for an attorney who’s afraid to take a case to trial. I’ve seen some like that. I’m not going to let you become one of them.”
“Believe me. I’m one of them. I’m absolutely terrified.”
“You’ll get over that. We’ll give you all sorts of support along the way. One of us will sit with you during the trial, and you can always get out from under if things look too desperate. There’s no need for me to say that, though. I know you can do it.”
Laura appreciated the stroke, but was still feeling weak. “I wish I knew I can do it. Did you tell Leilani you’re turning Kimo’s future over to an attorney who’s never been in court as anything else but an observer?”
“Nope. She told me. She was in a short while ago and asked me to please put you in charge. You have no greater fan than Leilani. That’s really saying something, because she thinks the rest of us are damn near perfect attorneys. So, now that that’s settled, let’s go into the details.”
“Settled? It may be, but my stomach isn’t.”
“You mean he’s as scared as I am?” Laura asked, trying to see some humor in the inevitable. “It should be a great trial.”
“Not quite,” Qual said with a smile. “He just had one hell of a backlog left over by old Judge Schreiber whose place he took over. The first thing he did was to cut the docket down to sizable proportions. So, about all we know about him is he’s as efficient as all hell, maybe even more so than Judge Raines. That’s saying quite a lot.
“Between the two of them, they’re making Elima’s Circuit Court the envy of the rest of the state courts. They’ve got cleaned up dockets, and both of them are raring to go on new cases. I think you can see why, from our viewpoint, how that isn’t necessarily all good. When criminal cases are backed up for months, prosecutors and judges are much more apt to accept a plea bargain, just to keep from cluttering up the calendar any more than it is already. Wong doesn’t have to do that anymore.”
Laura groaned. “Leave it to me to come in just when he’s through accepting pleas. What else do you know about him? How does he react to DUI’s?”
“That’s a good question, and it’s the way you should be thinking. He’s tough, but probably no more so than most judges are on drunken driving these days. He’ll have to give a six-month jail sentence for a DUI guilty plea, since that’s automatic as you know. Both Leilani and Kimo definitely want to avoid that. So Kimo will be pleading not guilty and you’ll have to ask for a trial.”
Laura groaned again.
“The first chance you get,” Qual continued, ignoring her reaction, “talk to Bill Kuroyama. Invite him to lunch. He’s the Kuroyama part of Fessenden and Kuroyama. He’s a nice guy. He had a DUI before Wong a few weeks ago. I’m sure he’ll be happy to fill you in on what happened. Also, he should know a lot more about the acting prosecutor than we do. Bill is definitely worth talking to, and see Kay and Sid about the prosecutor if you haven’t already. They had lunch with him last week and can tell you more about him than I can.
“The main thing you’re going to have to do is to work Kimo over, and I mean really work him over. Make him tell you everything that happened, how much he had to drink, what the police said—everything! Then make him go over all of it twice more. Tape the interview. At least one of us will listen to it afterwards, and I promise we’ll be critical as all hell. When you go into court, you have to know more about your client than he knows about himself.”
“That won’t be hard. About all I know about myself right now is I wish I’d quit law school and joined the air force.”
Both of them were feeling pleasantly tired from an extra set of tennis they had played that afternoon. The Civic Park was close to the office, and Sid and Kay took advantage of its nearness two or three times a week. Almost equal in their skill, they pushed each other into strenuous games. Today’s match had been even more strenuous than usual.
Kay was sitting in the recliner with John Samuel, their neutered tom, purring up a storm in her lap. Sid was stretched out on the couch. Sheena, their tortoise shell tabby, was trying to find refuge there from Bluebeard, her one remaining offspring. Bluebeard was bouncing across the back of the couch, then jumping down and dancing sideways down the length of Sid’s supine form. Desperately chasing his own tail when it occasionally came within his field of vision, the young cat tumbled off onto the floor. Undaunted by the fall, he came roaring back up to reenact the performance. Sheena crawled up closer under Sid’s chin.
“I talked to Gil Iwamoto,” Sid said, as he tried to give Sheena some protection from her frenetic son. “He says he’ll be happy to submit a bid. He’s even going to go out to the building site. Maybe the three of us can take a run out there tomorrow. He needs a copy of our house plans, so we can take them along with us and give them to him then.”
“Gil Iwamoto? Isn’t he just a hardware supplier? How can he bid on building a house? Doesn’t it involve grading, and termite spraying, and pouring concrete, and all that sort of thing?”
“He does it all the time. He says he’ll take charge of the whole thing from the ground up, including trips out to the site during construction to check on the contractor. In fact, bidding on home construction is his major specialty now he’s in business for himself. He’ll give us an estimated cost on building materials and contact at least three different contractors and ask for their bids. He’ll even provide some of the supervision an architect’s ordinarily supposed to give.”
“Isn’t all this going to be awfully expensive?”
Sid shook his head. “Gil gave me a preliminary estimate. It’s a lot less than Ron Crockett says he can get for the commercial property we own here in town. Ron sure knows his real estate. I’m glad he convinced us to hold onto that chunk of land until we were ready to build. The value of town property has really gone sky high in the last few months.”
“It would be nice to work with Gil. I’d just as soon help him out since he now has his own hardware business. How’s he doing?”
“He’s swamped. Working twelve hours a day. He says he had his doubts about starting out on his own. He’d saved up over the years while he was manager of Aloha Hardware. When they collapsed after he quit, they left a vacuum behind for just the kind of service he likes to provide. A lot of builders, who never even bought from Aloha, are coming to him. Gil’s pretty modest about his success. He says he’s doing so well because he’s a local boy.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot more to it but, then, it does pay to be a local boy sometimes.” And speaking of local boys, how do you think our local girl is going to do?”
“Laura? She’s sure looking a lot better these days than she did at her interview. She must have bought herself some new clothes. Getting rid of that fifties hairdo is what made the biggest difference.”
Kay laughed. “You men are all alike. You judge men on ability and women on appearance.”
Bluebeard had finally discovered a particularly tasty button on Sid’s shirt. The discovery induced a comfortable bout of nursing, accompanied by a contented spreading and contracting of claws. Sheena eyed her half-grown kitten with distaste, turned her back on him, and curled up even farther under Sid’s chin. Sid eased her down so he could talk without choking.
“You know as well as I do a woman’s appearance is important. If she goes before a jury looking like a hippie castoff, she could lose the case right there.”
“C’mon Chu. That’s a gross exaggeration. Just because Laura’s not the most stylish person in the world doesn’t mean juries are going to fault her for that. If anything, the locals probably will recognize her as one of their own. The important thing is how well she knows her law. You went over your burglary case with her today. Was she any help?”
Sid’s tone was grudging. “She seemed to know the stuff pretty well, but she’s fresh from hitting the books.”
Kay grinned. “In other words, she knew more than you did.”
“Well, I haven’t had a burglary case in months.”
“Sure, and she’s never had one at all.”
“Qual said you might be able to give me some idea about what the new prosecutor is like. Believe me. I need all the help I can get.”
“He’s O.K., as far as I’m concerned,” Sid said, without reacting to Laura’s additional plea, “but I’m prejudiced. After Scott Ikeda, anyone doing the prosecuting would look good. You missed an incredible creature in the prosecutor’s office.”
“What surprises me,” Kay added, “is how the county finally got someone as good as it did. In the past, it was almost as though the mayor and council were out to get the worst possible attorneys to be prosecutors. I have to agree with Sid. Scott Ikeda was the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.”
“I hate to admit it,” Sid continued, “but Ikeda’s at least partly responsible for the improvement in the prosecutor’s office. He, and his influential family, strong-armed the council into raising the prosecutor’s salary to a decent level. It did my heart good to see Ikeda get the boot before he collected his first wages under the new pay scale. Also the special election to replace the mayor and the two councilmen who are headed for jail was a big help. I’m not too sure the new mayor knows what she’s doing, but at least the developers and the Ikeda types haven’t bought her out. Those two women who got elected to the council seem to be intelligent and honest, something that’s a novelty for that body.”
“I think Sid’s upset we had an election where all the women who were running won,” Kay said. “That’s why he’s so chary with his praise.”
“What happened to Ikeda?” Laura asked. “I really couldn’t make heads nor tails out of what the Chronicle said about his leaving the job.”
Sid and Kay both laughed. “That’s because Ikeda’s uncle owns the Chronicle,” Sid said. “He didn’t want to tell the full story. He was trying to give the impression Scott was the one making the decision to go back to school. What really happened was Ikeda demonstrated his total incompetence as a trial lawyer. Both Wong and Raines petitioned the State Supreme Court for an appointed master to look into his past performances. Ikeda was so bad the master recommended he go back to law school for further training, and the Court’s disciplinary committee upheld the judgment. After all that, I doubt Ikeda will even stay in the islands, never mind try to get his old job back.”
Laura was uneasy at the thought of Ikeda’s fate. She voiced her feelings.
Sid broke into a grin on hearing Laura’s continued misgivings. “Don’t worry about that. No way could you do as bad a job as Ikeda did. He was not only inept, he seemed to work at it full time. It was almost as though he came into the courtroom with the intention of offending the judge. I’m sure Qual has told you, several times, ‘Don’t offend judges.’”
Laura mustered up a grin in return. “Being inoffensive is something I can manage. I wish the rest of the proceedings were as simple. What’s the new prosecutor like? I’ve heard you talking about him, but I didn’t pay much attention since I didn’t expect to face him for a long time to come. What do you know about him?”
“Really not much,” Kay said. “He’s a local who graduated from Wanakai High and went on to Sid’s alma mater, Columbia Law. He got good grades, practiced on Maui for a couple of years, and specialized in corporation law. We’ll have to check with some of our friends over there to find out how he did.”
“Wanakai High? I must know him. That’s where I went. What’s his name?”
“Emiliano Bautista.”
“Emil Bautista! I do know him. He was a senior when I was a freshman—a tall, scrawny, pimply-faced kid. He wore glasses and carried books around all the time, and was valedictorian of his graduating class. All I can remember of him was how his voice was scratchy, and he looked and acted like a creep. He’s a third or fourth cousin of mine, or some such thing.”
Sid gave a whoop of laughter. “Are you ever in for a surprise. He’s still tall, and that’s about it. He must wear contacts these days. If he’s a creep, you’d better tell Kay, here. I think she has the hots for him.”
Kay smiled. “Marriage didn’t cure Sid’s jealous streak. He thinks I want to crawl into bed with every handsome man I see. Emil is handsome, though, no question about that. He’s also about as far from being a creep as you can imagine.
Laura shook her head. “I can’t believe ten years would make much difference. You can’t imagine how awful he was.”
“Well, you’ll have a chance to find out how much he’s changed,” Sid said. “Make an appointment with him to talk over the Kimo case. Emil seems really approachable. Unlike his predecessor, he even speaks plain English. The only thing I can see wrong with him is he doesn’t seem to be aggressive enough to be a prosecuting attorney. Since we’re sitting across the aisle from him, that’s really all to the good. I know he’ll be willing to see you.”
“Be sure to check out those great eyelashes,” Kay added.