Chapter 2

I

Margaret Brandin was a lawyer who specialized in business and contract law. She started out as a paralegal to pay her law school bills. She got a job at a firm where she was at the bottom of the list of partners, then worked her way up considerably. Along the way, she married Robert Brandin, who was then a lawyer with an established criminal law firm. He then went to work for the DA's office, then was elected all the way to District Judge for Oahu County. In the meantime, Margaret took time off to raise their two daughters, who were now in college and high school, respectively, and became a happy homemaker, renown for hosting the most elaborate dinner and holiday parties, of which Steve, Danno, the other members of Five-O, Governor Jameson, and DA John Manicote were frequent guests. She had recently returned to her law practice, starting her own firm and recruiting some of the best talent in business and contract law, but never lost her flair for being an expert homemaker.

The Brandins lived in a modern house in the Diamond Head neighborhood of Honolulu. They were on their back porch when Steve and Danno came to pay them a visit. Judge Brandin was seated at a patio table with a large yellow parasol jutting out from the center. A matching yellow vase stood at the base of the parasol, with an array of white and red hibiscus, yellow plumeria, and white pikake. Margaret placed a giant pitcher of lemonade the same color as the vase, parasol, and one half of the hibiscus on the table and poured some into three tall glasses. She handed two to Steve and Danno and the third to her husband.

"What brings you all here?" Margaret asked. She genuinely looked oblivious and Steve hoped she was not putting on an act. Judge Brandin also seemed unconcerned. Maybe they had not yet read the morning newspaper.

"A girl was murdered in her home last night," Steve spoke gravely. "Her name was Barbara Heiland. Do either of you know her?" The name didn't cause any recognition on Margaret's part, but Judge Brandin nearly choked on his lemonade. Steve glared at him. Brandin managed to swallow the lemonade, then coughed into a napkin.

"Is everything all right?" Steve asked.

"Yes, cough, yes, it is!" Brandin said. "I just didn't expect to hear such a thing out of the blue."

Steve wasn't buying it, but he didn't dare call the judge out on it. He needed to speak to Brandin alone. His wife's presence would make him make clam up further. They only had time for the direct approach.

"Margaret," Steve said, turning to her, "I need to speak to Bob alone. Can you excuse us?"

Margaret looked confused and suspicious, and Steve didn't blame her, but she did as she was told. When she had disappeared into the house, Steve shifted his attention back to Brandin. He pushed the photo across the transparent tabletop towards him, still it rested right in front, under Brandin's incredulous stare.

Barbara was not the bloody and battered mess that Steve saw in her apartment that morning. In this picture, she wore her hair up like Sheila was doing today – hairpins, lacquer and all. Barbara wore pearl earrings and a floor-length aubergine dress. Judge Brandin stood to her left, beaming like a cat that swallowed a canary, holding a drink in his hand.

"I only saw her once – at that party," he replied. He took another big gulp of lemonade.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked. Danno kept silent. Steve knew the judge and how to break him. It was best to leave him to it.

"You wouldn't just pose with anyone in a photo," Steve prodded. "You look very happy to be with her. She wasn't just some stranger who happened to be standing next to you when a photographer snapped his camera."

"I … I … knew her," Brandin admitted. "It was only a friendship, nothing more. I met her when she doing a fashion show for some charity my wife was involved in."

"When was this?" Steve asked. "When did you first meet her?"

"When that photo was taken," Brandin answered, tugging at his collar with his index finger. Steve was getting to him, and that meant he had to probe further. "It was last year."

"Just how did this friendship start?"

"She was a pretty girl … naturally, she caught my eye … we just started talking …"

"She approached you or you approached her?" Danno asked.

"She approached me," the judge replied. "I remember because … I didn't think any girl her age would be interested in me."

Judge Brandin was not classically handsome, but he was not unattractive, even to Steve's heterosexual eye. Brandin had fine-chiseled features – a high cheekbone, lantern jaw, and deep-set blue eyes – and a full head of salt-and-pepper-colored hair. He had a look of distinction that would attract a young woman's attention. Either Brandin was selling himself short or doing a bad job of downplaying his initial meeting with Barbara Heiland. His hands started the tremble as he lifted the glass of lemonade and held it to his lips. Taking one long sip, he set the glass down again, with the same trembling hands. Steve wasn't going to wait for him to make up an explanation. He nodded to Danno.

"You'd better go and speak to Mrs. Brandin," he said. The judge's nerves got the better of him.

"No! Margaret had nothing to do with this!" he cried. "Leave her alone!" His blue eyes were covered in fear, like a wounded fawn being stalked by a ravenous cougar.

"We'll decide that," Steve said. "It's better we get both your statements at the same time so you two don't have time to compare notes and decide what to tell us."

"Steve, you are making a big mistake!" Brandin exclaimed. "Do you really think I would kill anyone? How long have you known me?" It upset Steve to recall his friendship with Brandin and what he was doing to him now, but he could not show leniency.

"If you're innocent, you have nothing to fear," was all the top cop could say.

Danno got up and went into the house, where he saw Margaret Brandin arranging some more flowers into a vase. They were the same kind of flowers as the ones in the yellow vase on the patio table, but the vase was painted in a creamy green glaze and was larger.

She looked startled when Danno approached, even though she knew he was there from having glanced up at him when he first entered the room.

"Oh, Danny," she said. "What I can do for you?" There was as much uneasiness in her voice as there was in her husband's. Margaret tried to plaster a smile on her face, but Danno saw through it. He returned the smile, though faintly, and sauntered over to her.

"How is everything?" she asked.

Danno knew from his freshmen psychology courses that it was best to let the other person start the conversation the way they wanted, making small talk if needed and then working into the crux of the situation. It was all to put the other party at ease, so the harder questions would not take them by surprise.

"It's going well," he said. He clenched a hand into a fist and wrapped the other hand around it.

"I saw what happened on the news, about that soldier and how he took you hostage … I was panicking …" She was sincere.

"Steve was scared to death," Danno replied.

"I hope that man got the help he needed," Margaret replied.

"He's back at Tripler, getting all the help he needs," Danno said. He picked up a red hibiscus and twirled it around. The swirling crimson plant looked almost hypnotizing. The red also reminded him of the blood he shed when Lance Corporal Auston shot him. Danno was filled with anger at first, but when he saw that Auston was ill and it was a result of his injuries in combat, he couldn't blame him. Auston was now in therapy to help him regain his sanity and put the war behind him. Thankfully for himself and others, the army was not sending him back into the warzone. Mrs. Brandin viewed Danno like a nephew, always caring about him and when she asked how he was doing, she meant it, even if it was to make conversation. Back to the case, Danno thought as he put the hibiscus into the vase.

"How well did you know Barbara Heiland?" he asked.

"She was just a girl who modeled clothes for some charity fashion shows I helped organize," Margaret answered. "I didn't know her at all."

"How many fashion shows did she work on that you organized?" Danno asked.

"About three or four," Margaret replied. She stopped her flower arranging to look Danno in the eye. "What exactly happened?"

Danno wasted no time. "Barbara Heiland was found dead in her apartment this morning. She was murdered." Margaret dropped the remaining flowers she was holding. They landed on the tabletop with a thwack.

"Murdered?" she repeated. "How?"

He didn't want to reveal too much information since she and her husband were suspects, but the evidence was too damaging to ignore. Danno replied, "She was stabbed several times. A ring with your initials was found on the floor in her bedroom." Danno took the plastic bag out of his pocket and held it to the light so she could see it. He turned the ring so the inside with the initials MAB were visible. Maragaret Brandin reached for it, gently turning the ring inside the plastic so she could examine it without damaging any forensic evidence that might be on it.

"Yes, yes … it is … it's my ring!" she shouted. Her face turned white. "How did it get there? It was in my jewelry box!"

"When was the last time you wore it?" Danno asked.

"I can't remember exactly … It was last month, I think. I wore it to a dinner party. It was tarnished a little, so I took it home and cleaned it. I put it away after that. I didn't think anything of it …"

He held off on asking about the pink button. Che was still examining it. "Who else has access to your jewelry box?" he asked.

"The maid. She cleans in here every other day. That's all. We have a cook as well, but she doesn't come up here. She works out of the kitchen and sometimes goes into the pantry and basement, but that's all." She tugged at the collar of her floral blouse. The heat was on. Danno was getting somewhere, but would Margaret Brandin brake?

"I'm going to have to speak to them as well," he replied. "Are they in?" Margaret gathered the flowers and scraped at their stems with her fingernails.

"Yes. The maid is doing the laundry downstairs and the cook is in the kitchen." Margaret pointed to the doorway.

They could wait. There was more Danno wanted to know. "Where were you last night?"

"At home, going over some notes from a court case I was in yesterday." Margaret picked up a pair of gardening shears, made slanted snips at the bottom of two white pikake, and placed them in the vase. She did it with little effort, her expertise with the shears making Danno wonder if she showed that same expertise with a knife.

"Was anyone with you?" he asked.

"No, but I was on the phone with my law clerk for a while. I called him at around eighth-thirty. We were on the phone for one hour."

"What's his name?" Danno asked, taking out a small notepad.

"Richard Schulman," came Margaret's reply. "He's a junior partner in my firm …"

III

"… and Sheila Vansaun's fiancée," Steve McGarrett added as he put the key in the ignition and they drove away from the Brandin home.

"It all connects, but if we check with the phone company and she did indeed make a call at that time, she's in the clear," Danno replied. "The maid and cook live in, and they vouch for both Judge and Mrs. Brandin being home all night."

"We don't know Barbara's time of death for certain," Steve began. "Doc said her liver temperature was eighty degrees, putting her time of death at eight o'clock at the earliest. Since Schulman connects both Margaret and Sheila, he's got to be involved somehow. He would easily vouch for her, but that doesn't take her off the suspect list."

"Unless she got someone else – maybe the maid or cook – to make the call and stay on the line with Schulman, but they would have to be very loyal or doing it under duress, and it still takes us back to Margaret and also Schulman being involved."

"Let's pay a visit to Schulman this afternoon." Steve made a right, past another line of stately homes that could only belong to the city's elite, where some children were riding their bikes and laughing loudly. They recognized Steve and Danno and gave them a salute as they slowed the Park Lane down.

"Hey, kids," Steve said as he rolled down the window. "What's going on?"

"Looking for the bad guys like you two!" a mop-haired boy on a green Schwinn called out. He made a big Hawaiian smile and gave them the shaka sign.

"Keep at it! Hawaii needs you," Steve said. The children burst into laughter. Danno chortled.