Dark Lava: Lei Crime Book 7 (Lei Crime Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

o’clock news at least? We’re trying to move fast and hard on this to protect the heiaus . If you run this right away, I’m concerned our leads will get leaked and the community will overreact.”
    A long pause. Stevens could almost hear Watanabe ’s clever brain working. “Tit for tat,” the reporter said. “What can you give me to boost the story?”
    “ Well,” Stevens hedged.
    “ Seriously, Michael? You want me to sit on this without giving me something?”
    “ Okay, I will.” He paused, drew a breath, and blew it out. “Another reason we’re concerned is that the job appears to be done by pros. That infers it’s connected to the Oahu cases.”
    Watanabe snorted, a sound like a kitten sneezing. “ That’s obvious. Give me something more. Like a person of interest you’re looking for.”
    “ Too soon for that, though I do have a nugget for you. Who gave you the tip about the heiau ?”
    “ I can’t reveal my sources.”
    “ We’re at an impasse, then.” Stevens went back to hard.
    “ Okay. I don’t have a name, but the call came in an older man’s voice. Rough pidgin.”
    Okapa.
    “Thanks. For that, and for holding off, here’s another reason we’re worried about press coverage inflaming the public—there’s a vigilante group forming to protect the heiaus . We’re worried that citizens taking the law into their own hands could backfire.” Stevens spoke carefully, aware he was being recorded and might well be quoted on TV.
    “ That’s a good lead,” Watanabe said, her voice going perky again. “What’s the police response to a vigilante group?”
    “ Island-wide, as a department, we hope to work with the citizens’ group to protect Maui’s most sacred places.”
    “ Nice sound bite for tonight’s ten o’clock report,” Watanabe said, her tone acid.
    “ Thanks for your cooperation with the Maui Police Department.” Stevens’s tone matched hers. He hung up.
    An hour later, Stevens pulled his older Bronco up to the locked gate of his and Lei ’s little cottage in Haiku. Keiki, their Rottweiler, trotted back and forth in front of the gate, whining an eager greeting. He put the SUV in neutral and got out, opening the gate and giving Keiki an ear rub. “Eat anybody today, girl?” The dog licked his hand in answer, and he pointed to the porch. She turned and trotted up onto the worn wooden steps, turning to plunk her cropped behind on the top step and watching as he pulled the truck in and locked the gate behind it.
    A hassle, to have the fence and gate, but they ’d been attacked in their home more than once. Making that a little harder was never a bad idea.
    Stevens ’s energy was sapped by the long day: processing the evidence from the heiau (prints not in the system), departmental meeting in Kahului organizing the heiau protection task force, and a long conference call with Detective Marcus Kamuela and the other HPD staff on Oahu already working on the desecrations on their sister island.
    As he came up the steps, the light inside the kitchen outlined the slender figure of his wi fe. She was stirring something on the stove, her tousled curls gilded by the overhead light. The sight brought a draft of energy back into him.
    He was usually the one home first, cooking. “ I’m marking this on the calendar,” Stevens said, walking across the room to take her in his arms from behind, rubbing his cheek on the crown of her head. “Lei Texeira cooking. I might have a heart attack.”
    She elbowed him in the sternum even as she snuggled against him. “ I can work a can opener. Got some chili going. And cornbread. Aunty gave me the recipe over the phone.”
    “ This I gotta taste.”
    She pointed down. “ You’re still wearing your shoes. And your gun.” But she turned in his arms to kiss him, and that kiss promised more later.
    Stevens went back to the front door, un laced the lightweight hiking boots he wore for work. Sometimes, even after years in Hawaii, he forgot the