Blood Orchids Read Online Free PDF Page A

the woman. “I going take care of you.”
    “Fuck you, Ohia,” Nani snarled, trying to get up, but Ohia just hoisted her closer.
    “I take you inside, fix you something for eat. Bet you never wen’ eat today,” the neighbor went on, hauling Nani into the fetid interior. They disappeared, and the door slammed.
    “That went well.” Stevens gestured Lei over. “You okay?”
    “Worried about HIV, but yeah.” Lei put her hands in her uniform pockets, missing the cowry.
    “Shit.” He seemed at a loss, finally went on. “So much for the female officer breaking the news strategy. Let’s canvass these neighbors since we’re here, maybe she’ll be calm enough to answer some questions later.”
    “Okay.” She followed him as they went to the next house and worked their way down the street.
    The neighbors were voluble on the subject of Nani, Haunani and the younger brother Alika, a high school freshman. Nani, a known drug addict, had been turned in to Social Services multiple times over the years and the neighbors had given up doing much besides feeding the kids when they came by. One witness alluded to Haunani being picked up and dropped off by someone in a “dark Toyota truck.”
    Stevens shut his notebook after the fifth house. “We’ve got some leads here. Let’s head back to Nani’s and see if she’s ready to talk.”

Chapter 6
    Stevens’ cell rang as they walked back through untrimmed grass along a cracking asphalt road that had never seen a sidewalk. Various barking dogs marked their progress.
    “Yeah, come down,” Lei heard him say. “We’re heading back for another run at the mother. She didn’t take the news well, got a little belligerent.”
    That was one word for it, Lei thought, looking at the band-aid on the back of her hand. She could still felt the shocking wet of spittle on her face. She put her hand back in her pocket. No cowry. She bent and picked up a kukui nut out of the grass, slipped it into her pocket with an immediate feeling of relief.
    He slid the Blackberry back into a holder on his belt. “Jeremy’s on his way with your partner; he’s swinging by to pick you up after we talk to Nani.”
    Lei didn’t answer. He gave her a sidelong glance, a quick blaze of blue that seemed to see more than she wanted him to.
    “Stay back from her.”
    “I have more experience with her type than you think.” She couldn’t help the bitterness that crept into her voice. Her mother’s face flashed into her mind’s eye, dreamy as she pushed down the plunger of a syringe.
    “She got you good with that cigarette. You may not be able to make this any better for her, but I appreciate that you tried.”
    They reached the stoop and Stevens banged on the plywood door. He had to bang twice before Ohia’s face appeared, eyes like raisins pushed into rich brown dough.
    “She lying down. She high.”
    “Let us in.” Stevens pulled the door further open, and brushed by Ohia into a dim interior that smelled of mildew and rotting food. A living area furnished with futons on the floor and a TV with rabbit ears opened into a bedroom. Lei followed Stevens in and stood over a mattress on the floor.
    Nani lay in the center of the bed on a quilt that had once been beautiful, handsewn in a traditional Hawaiian pattern. Her legs were together, her arms crossed on her chest. She laid perfectly straight, eyes closed. The glass pipe and red Bic were set on an upturned coffee can beside the mattress, along with an empty twist of foil.
    “Nani. Can you answer some questions? We need to know anything we can about who Haunani was seeing, who might have done this to her.”
    No reply.
    “Nani.” He reached down, nudged her shoulder. Her body went loose then, wobbling with the force of his shaking, and her head dropped to the side, mouth falling open.
    He put two fingers on her neck. “Still got a pulse, but she’s too far gone right now. We’ll have to come back.”
    Lei turned to Ohia, who stood behind them, a