Mana Read Online Free PDF Page B

her office.
    * * *
    Tonight, the building was quiet. Julie, the afternoon receptionist, was just going off duty when Lehua came in. “Be sure to let the janitor know when you’re pau , Lehua. Someone went out without telling him last night and tripped the burglar alarm. Cy went into a snit because of it. He said he has enough to do around here without having to apologize to the police for his employees’ screw-ups.”
    Lehua smiled. “OK. I promise to have Joe let me out. I don’t want Cy to go into a snit because of me.”
    Settling down in her office, Lehua swiveled around to look out at Kona Village and its harbor. For the hundredth time, she told herself she would have to call the maintenance crew about having the outside of the window washed. It was a shame not to have the full benefits of the view. Sighing, she swiveled back to her desk, unloaded her briefcase, found the floppy and slipped it into the computer’s drive. In a few moments, she was scrolling the article up on the monitor.
    Again there were stumbling blocks. Data she had been sure were in her files, just were not there. Information she had been certain was specific, turned out on re-examination to be far more vague than she had remembered. Her final paragraph lacked punch. Tiring of corrections on the screen that needed even more corrections, she ran off a hard copy and sat down with a red-tipped felt pen. By eleven she was, if not pleased at the results of her labor, at least satisfied. She knew it would flush out more information from nooks and crannies she had not yet explored. It would make whoever it was that was running the clandestine and criminal show uncomfortable and perhaps even nervous.
    Slipping the final copy into an envelope, she picked up her briefcase and walked along the deserted hall to the elevator. Still working the article over in her mind, she dropped the envelope into the slot in Cy’s door, and started for the front door of the building, remembering at the last moment her promise to Julie.
    Punching ninety-nine on the receptionist’s phone brought a sleepy “Hallo” in answer to her call. “Yeah, yeah. Dis is Joe. Be up in jus’ a minute.”
    It was actually five, but the grey-haired janitor did not seem to be especially disturbed at having his routine broken.
    â€œHave a good night, Joe.”
    A smile spread over the dark face behind the stubble of beard, as he held the door open for her. “You too.”
    The parking lot was badly lit, but Lehua had left her old two-door near the entrance under the brightest of the lights. She had purchased the ‘72 Ford for a trifling sum when she had taken her job with the paper, and had immediately christened it “Louie.” It suited her fine. “I never have to lock it,” she told her mother, “because no one would ever expect an old clunker like that to have anything worth stealing in it. Anyway, neither of the locks work.” The theory seemed to have proven out, since nothing had ever turned up missing from her car. With help from one of her cousins, who had considerable mechanical skills, the ancient vehicle had proven to be surprisingly dependable. Lehua slipped behind the wheel. The starter churned, but nothing else happened. She gave a sigh of disgust. That was not like Louie. Sometimes his battery got weak, but he would always let her know about it well ahead of time, and she had always humored him by replacing it for him. Now…nothing but a brisk whir from the starter motor, which meant it wasn’t Louie’s battery that was bothering him.
    Getting out, she did not bother to reach behind the seat for the wooden prop she used to hold up the hood, because she knew in advance she would probably not be able to cure Louie’s illness. She shook her head as she surveyed the mute and grease-covered block of metal. No loose wires, no obvious explanation for Louie’s reluctance. She dropped