Chapter 46
It was late at night when Steve went by Millie's office on the way back to his. To his surprise, her reading lamp was on and she was at her desk.
He knocked on her door before going in, and she looked up from her laptop, smiling at him when she saw him.
"Hey," she said, standing up to accept his kiss over her desk before sitting back down.
"Hey yourself. You're supposed to be on vacation. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Reading about Keegan Phelps," she admitted, taking off her reading glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Did Dad tell you?"
"That you're his brother's daughter? Yeah. He asked us for help with the testing," Steve admitted, snagging the tripod cane chair she kept behind her desk and between the wall and her filing cabinet. She had put it there for such a purpose, when she and another team member needed to discuss something on her laptop, such as reports. The tripod cane chair took up almost no space and was easy on the back and buttocks.
She nodded. "No surprise there."
"How do you feel about that?" he asked.
"Right now, I'm not sure what to think," she admitted. "His file says he was a good officer and he saved someone's life at the cost of his own, and Dad says he was a good man. It's just I've got so many questions."
"What sort of questions?"
"What was he like? What personality traits do I share with him? Why didn't Janice say anything to me or to the Phelps family? God knows she never wanted me," Millie said. "Why didn't he know? Would he have wanted me if he had known? Dad said he was talking more and more about wanting a family of his own. Would I have been accepted, if he had known? Who am I?"
"I wish I could answer those questions for you, sweetie," he said, meaning it.
"So do I. Which is why, when Dad goes back, I'm going to go with him for a few day. I need answers, and I think Janice has them. Dad also mentioned they still had a box of Keegan's personal stuff, plus there are still a few people in the PPD who knew Keegan and who would probably be willing to talk to me."
"Can't hurt to try. What about Janice?"
"Oh, she and I are going to have a chat, I guarantee you that. How that will go will depend on the mood I'm in when I finally speak to her."
"Don't kill her. We need you back here," he teased.
"If I do, I'll make damn sure the murder can't be traced back to me."
"Good girl."
She shoved a rusty metal box towards him. "Take a look in there, tell me what you think."
Curious, Steve opened the box. The hinges creaked in protest, but gave him no trouble. "Where did you find this?" he asked, finding a set of dog tags in the box, along with an old M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol, the empty clip also in the box, and a leather-bound diary.
"Would you believe in my fireplace?" she asked. "It was hidden in the wall, where the mantel was, before Dad and I tore it down. I think it had to do with Mr. Iwa, because when we started tearing down the facade, the activity in the house started kicking up in ways it's never done before."
"Such as?" he asked, going through the diary carefully. It was dated around the start of the Korean War and belonged to a Private Michael Bennett. The handwriting was legible enough he figured he wouldn't have too much trouble reading it later.
"Doors started slamming like the wind had caught them, except the windows were closed, both Po and Elless suddenly went nuts and started hissing at something none of us could see, and there was a crashing noise in my garage, but everything was fine when I checked."
"That's weird."
"Yeah, and then when we found the box, all the activity suddenly stopped. It was like he'd given up."
"Huh. Mind if I read this? I love this kind of stuff."
"Help yourself," she said. "Where could I find out who he was? Because I'm wondering if this Private Bennett and Mr. Iwa are the same person, and if so, what caused him to hide that stuff?"
"The Army should still have records from that era. Shouldn't be too hard to find him, especially with the dog tags. I think I remember someone who can help us, from a prior case."
"What about the gun? Is it serviceable or do I need to clean it?"
Steve put the journal down and picked up the gun. After examining it closely, especially the slide and the chamber, he concluded that the gun could be serviceable again with a bit of cleaning . "It's a US Army-issue Colt M1911A1, and in pretty good shape. Needs a bit of cleaning, but it looks like it could still fire. Why?"
"Maybe I'm paranoid, but you never know if we might need a throwaway gun," Millie said. When Steve stared at her, she shrugged. "I hear things. I'm sure the guys have, too."
"Fair enough. Just pray we never need it."
"Amen to that." Then she got a sly grin on her face. "Now, a new question."
"Okay."
"How much space do you have under your desk?"
"Why?"
"Because I haven't seen you in a few days and I've got too much company at my house right now. I think we're overdue for a little one-on-one, don't you?"
Steve's eyes went wide. "If I think you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I don't have anything on me."
She smiled even wider and leaned in close, teasing him a little with her lips against his. "That's okay. I saw my doctor a while back and she put me on the Pill to try and help regulate my cycle."
"Good to know. Didn't realize you were having problems," he said, stealing a kiss and feeling the heat build.
"Just a little bit. Nothing serious. But if we're going to keep meeting up like this, I want a backup plan, just in case," she said huskily, stealing another kiss before darting just out of his reach.
"Good to know. I don't know how much room there is under my desk, but if we push the chair back, there should be enough..."
She smiled.
Afterwards, as the heat cooled, Millie lay with her head on his shoulder. It was a bit cramped, but it wasn't bad, and it had been kind of fun.
"I need you to promise me something," he said, stroking her back.
"Okay, if I can," she said.
"Promise me you'll come back."
Millie adjusted herself so she could look at him. He was serious, she realized, and realized the request was coming from the fact that the last time Catherine left, she was gone for about a year. He needed to know she was coming back.
She smiled. "I promise you I'll come back, and when I do, hopefully I'll have the answers I need. This island is my home, and you guys are my family." Then , managing to keep a straight face, she continued. "Besides, who the hell else is going to keep you in line? Everyone else is too terrified to!"
"Excuse me!" he yelped indignantly. Seeing the growing grin on her face, he said, "Oh, you are going to suffer for that!" before pulling her down and proceeding to tickle her, which proceeded to lead to another session.
The next day, the contractors finished the fireplace wall, with Millie watching with a critical eye. Natalie was due to arrive for supper and she would meet with Zack. If Zack decided he liked her enough, then he would move in with her and Adam. She had assured Millie that if Zack truly did want to join the Navy, then they would support him, possibly even help him get into Annapolis, if that was the route he chose to take. As for the fact that Adam was a Protestant Chaplain and Zack didn't adhere to any particular religion, that wasn't an issue.
"Adam has always preached tolerance and love of one another," Natalie said in their phone conversation. "The fact that Zack is his nephew and needs to be loved and supported, that's more than enough for him. The same applies to me. I help take care of God's creatures, and they don't appear to have a particular religion of their own. All that matters is the kindness, the tolerance, and the loving."
"Then you love him right, the way he deserves to be, or you'll find dealing with my form of religion," Millie said. "And it includes a gun, a badge, and the courts of Hawaii."
"I hear you loud and clear," Natalie said.
Later:
The supper went well. Zack told me and Dad he liked Natalie and she seemed like a decent person. Better than his mom and dad, Millie text Steve that night.
Good, Steve text back. What's going to happen now?
Zack will move in with her after school tomorrow. She's got a nice bedroom set up for him and it seems she's very much the cat lover. She has two of her own and says they are lap cats who demand to be petted by anyone who walks in the door.
That's good. How's Lunky doing?
He's doing better. Hates the cone, of course, but it's only for a few more days. How much do you think Gracie will charge me if I ask her to keep an eye on the kitties for me?
An arm and a leg, but she'll love every minute of it.
Of course. How's Private Michael's diary?
Interesting. Seems he had a good reason for changing his name. He went AWOL. Tell you more in the morning.
Okay. Love you.
Love you too.
The next day, after Zack headed for school, Millie and Mike joined Steve for coffee and breakfast at a favorite breakfast place.
"Private Michael Bennett was Michael Iwa," Steve began. "About a month into his first tour of Korea, he witnessed a massacre, where over a dozen villagers were ordered killed at gunpoint by his commanding officer. They were supposed to be rooting out North Korean guerillas, but the problem was, no one was quite sure who was who."
"Oh my god," Millie groaned.
"What did Michael do?" Mike asked.
"He hated what he was being ordered to do, so he pointed his gun over the heads of the villagers and fired, trying not to hit anyone, especially the women or children. He took a shrapnel wound three days later to the stomach and got sent to Tokyo to recover. First chance he got, he got the hell out of there," Steve said. "The journal describes what he saw, including the name of his commanding officer, and the nightmares he lived with in the days following." He pulled out a map and indicated several Philippine islands . "His journal says he jumped a fishing boat and basically made his way down through these islands over the course of a year, becoming a respected fisherman, until he came to Hawaii. He hoped islands a few more times, landed in O'hau, and fell in love with a local girl. By that time he was going by Michael Thomas, and when he married Hawika, his wife, he took her family name instead of her taking his name. At one point during their courtship, he told her about what had happened, and her father adopted him, forgiving him for what happened even when he couldn't forgive himself."
"That's a good reason for hiding those things," Mike said. "He could have been charged with desertion and his life would have been hell afterwards."
"And because he was a Private, yelling at someone about something like that massacre would not have done any good," Steve said. "At that stage of the war, everyone was paranoid and a lot of people were looking to make a name for themselves. Killing North Korean guerillas was a good way to do it."
"Were there any survivors?" Mike asked.
"Michael thought so, as he was sure he saw several people running for the forest afterwards," Steve said.
"What if someone recognized him after all these years? A child, maybe? Someone who was a little less forgiving than the Iwa family was?" Millie suggested. "That could explain why he was shot with no apparent motive."
"I'm wondering that too," Steve admitted. "That's why I'm going to go back through the original police reports and see what I can find."
"Have fun with that. I'm going to be heading back to Portland tomorrow morning," Mike said. "Millie says she'll be going with me for a few days."
"She told me. I'll let you know what I find," Steve promised, making plans to stop by a jewelry store. Millie wasn't leaving without something that marked her as his, as far as he was concerned.
"I appreciate that," Mike said.
"I've also reached out to a contact in the Army and he promised me he would see if he could find Private Michael Bennett's records," Steve said. "I don't know what we'll find, but it's worth a try."
"Always is. What's on your agenda for today?" Millie asked.
"I've got to catch up to the rest of the team. The governor has us on security detail for an outgoing flight," Steve said. "Then afterwards, Danny and I need to have a chat with someone in regards to that shooting from two days ago."
"The one at Hoaloha Park?" Millie asked.
"That one. I think this one is going to be a hard case to crack, because the victim had more enemies than he had fingers and toes combined," Steve admitted. "Several of the people we've spoken to have admitted to wanting the guy dead."
"Oh lovely," Millie said.
"I do not envy you with this case," Mike said. "I've had cases like that and they are nothing but headaches. Everyone has a motive but who actually killed the guy?"
"I can already feel a headache coming on," Steve admitted.
