Black Jasmine (2012) by Toby Neal Read Free Book Online Page A

a whisper. Lei pushed the tape recorder closer to pick it up.
    “Where was this?”
    “Miramar Hotel.” A classy place, the Miramar had been open since the 1970s. It was an elaborate Moorish-style Lahaina landmark.
    “What’s a guy like you doing in a place like the Miramar?” Lei’s voice dripped contempt.
    “Construction wrap party. We finished a job, and the owner had us all there to celebrate. He ordered up what he called ‘room service.’ She was in a lineup, like I said.”
    “So you recognize her. Sure you didn’t do more than that? Does she have any special features, distinguishing marks?” Lei wanted to know if he knew about the butterfly tattoo. Silva shook his head, sweat pearling across the top of his lip.
    “No. I never saw nothing. She had on a little white robe. They all did.”
    “White? That’s odd for a hooker.”
    “It was shiny white stuff, you know, like satin. They’re a classy outfit. I mean, according to the owner. He said he was ordering the best. Since we’d made his dream house come true, he was going to make some of ours come true, too.”
    “So what did you have?”
    “A blonde. She was older.”
    “Right. Older. Okay.” Lei tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice but failed. “Anything interesting about these whores beside the white robes? Anything you remember?”
    “The girl I was with. She had an accent.”
    “What kind?”
    “How should I know what kind?” He finally showed a little spirit, clashing the cuffs against the table. “I wasn’t there to talk to her.”
    Lei paced as Bunuelos took over.
    “Anything else stand out to you about that evening?”
    “No. Is my wife going to find out about this?” He glanced nervously at the closed door.
    Lei let an evil grin move across her face. She had a wide mouth with a lot of teeth, and Stevens had said her evil grin gave him bad dreams. “I don’t know. Anything your wife should know?”
    “I told you everything. I can’t stay in here. I have a health condition. . .” Silva degenerated into a whine.
    “So we need your boss’s name. The guy who threw the party.”
    “He can’t know I ratted about the whores!”
    Lei smacked the table again. “Shut up and focus. You get no promises. You don’t deserve any until you give us something we can use.”
    Bunuelos put his hand on her arm. “Settle down, Detective. The man only did what anyone would do when presented with that kind of opportunity.”
    He winked where Silva couldn’t see it. Lei whirled up and paced again. Bunuelos turned back to Silva.
    “We’ll do what we can. No reason your wife needs to know anything but that you got picked up with a lot of other guys at the cockfight, and the contractor won’t know who told on him about the hookers. We aren’t trying to bust anybody for that—we just want to find out who this girl was.”
    “John Wylie. He’s a pretty big developer, does a lot on the west side of Maui.” Silva hung his head. Sweat rings marked his armpits in the dusty shirt. Lei wrote down the first note she’d taken for the interview on a pristine yellow pad she’d set beside the tiny recorder.
    “So what do you know about who organized the cockfight?” A stab in the dark but worth a try now that she had him talking.
    “Nothing. I don’t know nothing! I got a text with the date and time like everyone else!”
    “Someone sends the texts, keeps track of who’s fighting their birds, who’s attending. Someone organizes these things.”
    “I don’t know anything real. I swear. But I hear it’s a guy on Oahu who gets a cut. All the owners who put birds in the ring pay a fee to him; he’s the ‘house’ you can bet against, and somehow the ‘house’ does better than most.”
    “That’s gambling for you. So what do they call this guy?”
    Silva looked up. “My wife could leave me over this. You think it’s a good idea for me to get two in the head, too?”
    “C’mon, quit being such a drama queen. This is Maui. No