"Broussard, John A - Kay Hoshinobu - Highway 7" - читать интересную книгу автора (Broussard John A)

= HIGHWAY 7
A Kay Yoshinobu Mystery
by John A. Broussard


Kay Yoshinobu slipped into the nearly empty courtroom and sat beside Sidney Chu, her partner in their Hawaii law firm.

"What's up?" she asked.

Sid looked glum. "The clerk just came out to tell me it would be another few minutes before the judge will be out. My guess is he's taking a nap. And all I want is two minutes of his time. The prosecutor has already stipulated to a continuance, but Schreiber still insists I show up to set the calendar."

His attention shifted to Kay. "What are you doing here? You don't have any appearances today."

"New case." Kay pulled a copy of a police report from a manila folder. "Not terribly exciting, but different." She began to read, "Vandalism, destruction of state property, marijuana possession."

"Sounds like someone went on a rampage. What did they do? Get stoned and try to burn down the courthouse?"

"Nothing that dramatic, but bad enough. Sand in the fuel tanks of some equipment they're using over at the new highway-over a dozen trucks, bulldozers and what not. Some belong to the State. The rest are the contractor's. The Highway Department is saying the damage is going to run to over forty thousand dollars, but that's probably a wild exaggeration. And it wasn't a 'they,' just a lone woman." Kay flipped over the top sheet of the report. "Name's Lily Stone. She hasn't even had a bail hearing yet."

At that moment, the court clerk came out to announce that the judge had canceled the remainder of the day's hearings. No reason given.

Sid snorted as they left. "Long nap."

"How about coming with me to the station to interview Lily?"

Sid shrugged. "Why not? The morning's shot anyway."

Even Sid, who tended to be skeptical of clients' stories, had to admit after the interview that Lily didn't seem much like a vengeful destroyer of vehicles and earth-moving equipment.

She was a anorexic-looking creature, only four-ten or so, and certainly not weighing much over eighty pounds. Considering her small frame, the ritual of bringing her into the interrogation room, manacled hand and foot - with a chain connecting the cuffs through a metal belt - seemed especially absurd.

Kay introduced herself as her court-appointed attorney and then also introduced Sid. Lily looked terrified, and Kay decided the best thing to do was to get her talking. "I have a copy of the police report and your statement, but I'd like to hear it again in your own words. First, though, did you ask for an attorney when you were arrested?"

Lily shook her head. There was a long pause before she said, in a high-pitched, girlish voice, "I didn't think I needed one. It was like a mistake. I didn't do any of the things they said I did. And they had to vacuum my fanny pack to find any pakalolo. There couldn't have been anything but a couple of specks there, cuz I stopped smoking pot months ago."

"OK," Kay said, soothingly. "Let's start at the beginning. According to the report, you were at the construction site. Why?"

"Well, it's a long story."

"That's all right. We have all morning."

"It all goes back to the Queen Emma Mall. You know about that, don't you?"

Kay and Sid both nodded. It wouldn't have been easy to find a resident on the island of Elima who didn't know about it. The project, located on the new Highway 7, had been on the books for almost five years and had finally received all of its approvals. Now the developer was racing to have the Mall completed by the time the State finished construction of the highway.

"We weren't opposed to the Mall, but when the State wanted to put the road right through Puulani Heiau-that's when we turned out in protest."

"We?" Kay asked.

"Yeah. A bunch of Hawaiians and me and my boyfriend and some others. The Hawaiians formed the Puulani Protection Association and took the State to court. The Mall developer, Milton Fordyce, got into it too. You should have heard him. He kept saying the heiau was nothing but a bunch of rocks. Boy! Was he ever mad at us! Called us crazy activists and a lot worse than that. Said we were deliberately trying to prevent the Mall from being built, when we weren't opposed to it at all. In fact, most of the Hawaiians wanted it because of the jobs. They just didn't want the road to, like, destroy the heiau or anything like that.