Read Livin' Lahaina Loca for Free Online Page A

over.”
    Ah,
Hawaiian-style bureaucracy. Maybe I’d remember to mention that downside of
island life to Ono the next time I saw him.
    I
nodded and took a seat on a chair facing the glass display case. If I’d been in
the mood to suck up, I’d have gone over to check out the attaboy awards.
But by then I was already regretting I’d come in. I’d stick around long enough
to file the missing person report and hand over the hair and then at the first
opportunity I’d hightail it out of there. My stomach was growling.
    Detective
Wong appeared a half minute later.
    “Hello,
Ms. Moon. Good to see you again.” He held out his hand and I shook it. Oddly,
in my wedding business there’s very little hand shaking. Lots of hugs, even
some occasional fist-bumps and cheek- or air-kissing, but very little formal
handshaking. I reminded myself of the handshake protocol I’d learned in federal
agent “charm school”—firm, but not gripping; look ‘em in the eye; and let go after
counting to three.
    “Nice
to see you again, Detective Wong. I’m here with a rather strange situation.”
    “Okay.
Let’s find a room and you can tell me all about it.”
    He
led me to a door leading from the reception area to a hallway. He swiped his ID
through the card reader and opened the door. Once we were in the hallway, he
peeked into the first interior room and found it empty. I was pretty sure it
was the same room I’d been in last time, but who could tell? There was nothing
memorable about the contents of the room:  a metal table with a fake
wood-grained top and three metal and plastic chairs. No pictures, no clock, no
window except a large framed mirror along one wall which I knew was really
one-way glass to an observation area.
    “What’s
up?” He pointed to a chair on the other side of the table. I wondered if that
meant we were being taped and he wanted me in full view of the camera.
    “Mind
if I sit over there?” I nodded to the chair opposite the one he’d indicated.
    “Please.
Sit anywhere you want. This is your show.”
    “ Mahalo .
Okay, I don’t want to waste your time so I’ll get right to it.” I launched into
a brief summary of the events surrounding Crystal Wilson’s disappearance,
starting with the bachelorette party; then no one hearing from her the next
day; then me asking around Lahaina on Halloween night. The big finale was me
finding the hank of hair on my back seat. As I concluded my little speech it
occurred to me that the whole thing sounded pretty bizarre.
    “Okay,
let’s start with names and numbers. Do you have contact information for the
friends who first told you this young woman was missing?”
    I
gave him Keith and Nicole’s names and told him they were staying up at the
Kapalua Ritz. “I’ve programmed their cell phone numbers on my phone—can I check
it?”
    “The
names and hotel information are enough.” His face turned hard, as if allowing
me to even peek at my cell phone inside the police building would get him in
trouble with Internal Affairs or something.
    “Do
you have the hair with you?”
    “Yes,
I left it pretty much as I found it. I’m parked in the lot out back.”
    “I’d
like to see what you’ve got. Give me a minute and I’ll catch up with you out in
the lobby.”
    He
walked me back to the lobby and then he went through a door on the other side
of the reception desk.  A few minutes later he returned and he moved a
little peg from ‘in’ to ‘out’ on a whiteboard with a list of names. Without a
word he gestured for me to lead the way and we silently made our way to the
parking lot. It would have been nice for him to make an effort at small talk—I
mean, I was reporting a missing woman and I was obviously kind of nervous about
the whole thing—but he stayed quiet.
    As
we approached my banged-up car I steeled myself for the usual wise cracks and
put-downs but even as the rear door hinge squealed as I pulled it open, he said
nothing.
    I
waited by the open door