Grady O’Halleran had been a detective with the Honolulu Police Department for over twenty-five years and was known as a hard ass who got the job done. His younger colleagues considered him a dinosaur. He had a smart phone he hated, a wife he hated more, and he drank like a fish–both on and off the job.
O’Halleran was a lot of things, but crooked wasn’t one of them. And since the Honolulu Chief of Police was crooked as a dog’s hind leg, he was more than happy to approve the governor’s request of sending O’Halleran to the Big Island.
He was handpicked by the new governor to be in charge of the special task force because he had closed more murder cases in Hawaii than any other detective.
O’Halleran was sixty-three years old, set in his ways, and he wasn’t crazy about working with women detectives. But that was the hand he was dealt and he would make the best of it since he only had two years to go before he could retire and do what he really liked to do, which was sit on his boat and drink beer.
A serial killer in Honolulu had managed to evade capture, and O’Halleran wasn’t sure if the killer had pulled up stakes and moved to one of the other islands to escape the manhunt on Oahu. But he damned sure wanted to find out before he retired. And since bodies were starting to pile up on the Big Island, he thought it was as good a place to start as any.
And besides, his wife said there was no way in hell she was moving to Kona. It was the perfect excuse for him to get away from her for a while. He wanted to divorce her, but he didn’t want to give her half his pension, so it was cheaper to keep her. And an assignment on an outer island was just what the doctor ordered. That and a gin and tonic.
When he arrived in Kona and walked into the new task force office for the first time, he thought he’d really stepped in it this time. The office was intentionally set up away from the police station so the day-to-day operation at the station wouldn’t be a distraction to the task force. That didn’t bother him. It was the size that he didn’t like. Much too small compared to where he had just come from.
The office was on Walua Road, not far from the center of town. It was on the second floor, had a view of the ocean and it was about six hundred square feet all together, including the bathroom. But they didn’t need a lot of space since the “task force” was comprised of only three detectives. At least that was what O’Halleran was told by the powers that be.
The new office was more like a closet that he, Jessica and Gabbie would have to work out of. There were three desks in the center of the small room and a couple of large whiteboards on the wall. It could work; besides, it was about a hundred and seventy-five miles from his wife, which seemed to be just about right to him. In the big picture it was the lesser of two evils.
The day after Pam Gorky was murdered, O’Halleran was pacing back and forth in the task force office, while on the phone, listening to the governor complain about the mayor who was complaining about the chief of police in Hilo not doing enough to help find the killer.
“Yes sir, we will find this guy.” O’Halleran hung up the phone just as Jessica and Gabbie walked into the office for the first time. After they introduced themselves and shook hands, he eyeballed Jessica and Gabbie to size them up, as they did to him.
Jessica had worked robbery homicide in Hollywood before retiring and moving to the Big Island, and Gabbie had retired from the FBI. He had read their files, and both said they were good cops. But everyone looks good on paper, he thought. Well, except that detective over in Hilo that was too stupid to replace the coke he had stolen out of the evidence room with baking soda. No wonder they had a serial killer roaming the island with impunity, he thought.
O’Halleran spoke first. “Let me get this straight; you guys were both retired, and you willingly came back on the job?”
Jessica and Gabbie nodded and Jessica said, “Gabbie and I worked together previously in LA and we work well together, we trust each other to have our backs. Everyone knows the Kona PD is understaffed and could use the help. We wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing we have a predator stalking us. So, here we are. The sooner we find this guy, the sooner we can get back to lying on the beach.”
“I can respect that,” O’Halleran said as he looked Jessica and Gabbie in the eyes; he felt good about what he saw looking back.
He continued, “There’s been talk all over the state that there might be a serial killer hunting women here, Maui and Oahu. And I would probably add Kauai to that since they’ve had a couple of mysterious murders too.”
Gabbie looked at Jessica and said, “I have a question; is it too late to move back to the mainland?”
Jessica ignored her and looked at O’Halleran. “She hit her head on the way over here. She’s fine, don’t worry.”
O’Halleran wanted to laugh but kept a stiff upper lip and barely cracked a smile.
“The governor, mayor, and chief of police will be here later this afternoon for a pow-wow. We’ll meet them over at the civic center conference room at 2 p.m.”
Meeting the upper echelon to play twenty questions was the last thing Jessica and Gabbie wanted to do right then. The clock was ticking and they needed to get to work to find the killer before he struck again.
The sigh of relief was clear on both of their faces when O’Halleran said, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep the brass off your ass. Because like you guys, I had requirements too when I took this job. One of them was they would leave us the hell alone so we could do our jobs and I’ll remind them if I have to.”
O’Halleran’s phone rang, and it was the secretary at the governor’s office. “Okay, thanks for the call.” He clicked the off button on his phone and set it down on the desk he’d been leaning against during the whole conversation.
“Good news. No meeting today. They've postponed it until later in the week.”
10
Reporter
Saturday, February 18th.
Jessica’s cell phone rang; she glanced at the number and didn’t recognize it. It was a mainland number; probably a telemarketer, so she let it go to voicemail. A minute later she noticed the message icon on her phone light up. She tapped the speaker playback button to listen to it.
“Hi, I got your name from a friend at the police station and he said you’re the detective I need to talk to concerning the murder of Pam Gorky.”
Jessica straightened up in her chair, grabbed her pen and rested it over a legal pad sitting on her desk.
“I’m Danica Bradshaw, a new reporter here at the Kona Herald. In today’s mail I received a large envelope containing a couple of documents related to the murder of Pam Gorky. You’ll want to see them and the demand it makes. We can meet at Lava Java or I can bring it to you.”
Jessica tapped the call back button on her phone and Danica picked up on the first ring. “Aloha, this is Danica.”
“Howzit, this is detective Jessica Kealoha.”
“Oh hi. I have a large envelope you’re going to want to take possession of. It was addressed to me; the sender must have gotten my name off of a story byline. I opened it and it says if the paper doesn’t print the enclosed manifesto another real estate agent will be killed and he will keep killing them until the paper prints it.”