Broken Ferns (Lei Crime ) Read Online Free PDF Page A

with its wide, full mouth.
    She had nice bones, she concluded, tracing along the length of one collarbone, marked with a jagged scar where a perp had bitten her. But her eyes were her best feature—big, tilted, long-lashed, and a warm brown that changed with her mood.
    He’d liked her mouth, too. She remembered how he’d traced her lips with his fingers and gently sucked the pillow of her lower lip into his mouth. She remembered his hands on her breasts, weighing them, flicking and circling her pale tawny-pink nipples with his thumbs until they filled her with a hungry ache. She remembered a necklace of kisses he’d laid across the freckles on her chest.
    Yes, she’d been well and truly loved in all the ways a woman could be.
    She wrenched her mind away from the memory and walked into the bedroom to dress.
    An hour into reviewing the files, Lei found a possible candidate for the burglary—Tom Blackman, age twenty-one, hired for “general duties and baggage handling.” Blackman had worked at the airline for six months and used a general delivery mailing address. The file included several write-ups for insubordination, lateness, and one for “calling Mr. Smiley a Nazi and threatening bodily injury against him.” A termination notice dated two months ago topped the paperwork in the slim folder.
    Lei ran the name in her secure database. Blackman had a sealed juvie record that would take a little doing to open, but no current warrants. She sat back a moment, sipping a glass of water and considering.
    Most juveniles who perpetrated a dramatic crime like this had a buildup of antisocial behavior. They’d start with shoplifting and work their way up to jacking a car before they stole a plane. In her mind, the Hawaii unsub was a young white male, angry, with a grudge and a sense of entitlement—and maybe even a sense of humor. Blackman could fit, though she didn’t have nearly enough on him yet. Where’d he come from, gone to school? Who were his friends? These things would begin to unlock the puzzle.
    Lei was still hungry, her stomach a little upset. She finished the water and set the glass in the sink. Her other few dishes sat lonely in the drainer. She looked in the refrigerator and sighed.
    A withered lime and a pair of Coronas still sat in the door of the fridge from when she’d invited Marcella over for a beer they’d ended up being too busy to ever have. On the shelf, a carton of half-and-half, a loaf of wheat bread, and a lump of molding cheddar. In the drawer, an apple and a head of wilting iceberg lettuce.
    Lei took the cheddar out, pared off the mold, and ate it with slices of apple. She opened one of the Coronas and slid the glass door open to get more breeze, doing a quick perimeter check below, then sat back down. Her phone buzzed and she picked it up—Marcella was calling.
    She just didn’t have what it took to talk right now. She let it go to voice mail and then listened: “Hey, Lei. Just calling to see if you’re ok, if you want to go out for a drink or something, take your mind off the Stevens thing. Well, text me if you want to. Hang in there, girl.”
    She texted Marcella back: Got your message. I’m working and can’t go out, but I’m okay. See you tomorrow .
    Luv ya , Marcella texted back.
    Having a friend thinking about her was a new thing, and she felt herself warmed, energy renewed by the brief exchange. She spotted another possible—Tyson Rezents, another young male employee at the airline, still employed but often written up for workplace tardiness, caught her eye. No record when she ran him, but he was a senior at nearby McKinley High, where Blackman had also attended. Maybe someone there would know a little more about him.
    Other candidates were a Kimo Matthews, twenty-three, fired for stealing from the baggage, and a woman, Lehua Kinoshita, twenty-two, fired for insubordination. Lehua had written a letter protesting getting fired and accusing “Mad Max” of unfair manipulation of