Birds in Paradise

Part 8

It was well after midnight and I was still searching for Sally Porter—a woman none of the prostitutes seemed to know—when I noticed that my shadow had returned. Not wanting anyone to witness my meeting with this mysterious Sally Porter—I was still confident I could find her—I gave my shadow the slip at the Ala Wai Canal by climbing into a thick growth of mangrove trees on the bank of the canal. Their web-like roots and limbs swallowed me into their darkness, making me as invisible as the native plants the alien mangrove trees were displacing.

My shadow poked around the area for a while and then continued down the main road without me. Feeling extremely clever, I climbed out of the tree and brushed mud from my arms and legs. Not only had I outsmarted my mystery man, crouching up in that tree had given me time to think. And that's where it had hit me. Of course I hadn't been able to find Sally Porter. I'd been running around like a headless chicken all day and hadn't been looking in any of the right places.

Brandi had told me that Mr. Fu had been interviewing women who were new to the streets. Very few women chose prostitution as a fulltime career. Instead, it was a tempting hell that one slipped into...slowly. First, like Tina, a woman might tell herself that she'd do it for just one night to pay the bills. To make ends meet. But the bills would pile up again. And then one night becomes two nights. Two becomes a week. Soon, she's depending on the money she can make from peddling her flesh.

Sally Porter, like Tina, was new to the streets. Which meant she was probably still holding out hope of landing a decent job that could pay for food, clothes...rent. If I had any chance of finding her, I needed to visit some of the same shelters I'd used when I was homeless.

I shivered at the thought of returning to the very places I had firmly vowed to leave in my near-starving past. But for the missing girls, I would have to do this.

At first, my efforts gave me nothing, and I was beginning to wonder if I was wasting my time. Perhaps Brandi had given me bad information. Perhaps there was no Sally Porter. No one had heard of her at the local YMCA or the women's shelter. An older woman, who was the night manager at a rundown old hotel that made Mamma Jo's place look like the Ritz, thought she knew the name. But she was pretty sure Sally was no longer a registered guest. She suggested I try the park.

Just across the canal from Waikiki there's an oceanfront park that spans several blocks. At night, the grassy areas under the protective canopy of the coconut, banyan and monkey pod trees served as home to those who couldn't afford even the seediest dive. I know, I'd slept there myself often enough.

It was nearing midnight by the time I reached the spidery, fern-like leaves of the monkey pod trees in the park. A spring concert was wrapping up, and the homeless were moving to the far reaches of the park, mostly under the banyan trees, where the vine-like roots hung down from the long branches like curtains, while the tourists and locals headed to their comfortable beds.

Bed. My sleep-deprived body was crying out for my bed, which brought tears to my eyes. Like Sally Porter and girls like her, I had no place to call my own. Not anymore. Not unless I wanted to face Pete and explain to him why I'd been lying to him...and why I'd let him sleep with me under false pretenses.

Perhaps sleeping under the stars wouldn't be such a bad thing. The weather was warm and the moon bright in the sky. The gentle sound of waves lapping at the shore soothed my tired bones. As I made my way through the park, striking up conversations with whoever would talk to me, I searched for a safe, comfortable place of my own.

Not that I'd use it. But a wise girl always knew her options.

My mother had drilled that sentiment into my head from a very young age. A wise girl always knows all her options. No matter how farfetched. Perhaps that's why I'm pretty damn good at this detective thing.

I was thinking about how I should call Mom to thank her for guiding me to Hawaii and my calling in life when I found Sally.

"You're really Sally Porter?" I asked for the third time. I giggled from delight and from that punch-drunk high only exhaustion could bring.

I'd found her! Finally, I'd found her! And she was going to help me solve the case. After gaining her confidence—by pushing some of that cash Pete had given me into her hands—I led her away from the group of college students she'd hooked up with for the night and over to a bench next to a pond where a couple of homeless men were doing a little night fishing for the sleek keiki-kine who lived in the waters. The men nodded in our direction and returned to their quiet conversation. All in all, everyone pretty much minded their own business.

"I-I really shouldn't be talking about any of this," Sally said, but pocketed the money I'd handed her.

"I won't go blabbing what you tell me to anyone. You can trust me on that."

"I don't even know you." She was a small woman. Her hair was as black as the night with eyes that matched. She was wearing a touristy T-shirt with a smiling surfer on the front and a map of the islands on the back. Her denim shorts were a couple of inches too short, but clean. And she looked well fed. I was betting Mr. Fu had paid her handsomely for her time, the old softy.

"You're right, you don't know me. But I know you," I said, leaning in close and lowering my voice. "You have a stash of money hidden away, and yet you didn't spend any of it on a room for the night. You won't, not until you find a steady job."

"How do you know?"

"I used to be you. Well, not exactly you..." I'd never sold my body, but I wasn't going to tell her that. She didn't need to feel as if I was judging her. I'd simply made different decisions. Differentbad decisions. I'm betting she would never pick the pockets of newlywed couples. I did...until I got caught. "Like you, I was just as careful with every penny I could get my hands on."

"But life got better?"

"Things aren't perfect, but you could say I've hit a patch of good luck."

"I'm glad," she whispered, shaking her head to fight off the tears that glistened in the moonlight. "I'm really glad to hear it." She was thinking of herself, of course. And of her own future. That was something I could use to my advantage.

"Let me help you get to a stable place in your own life," I urged, figuring I was about to get myself a roommate. "Tell me about this meeting you had with Mr. Fu."

"Meeting...?" She tilted her head back and stared at the sky. "He didn't want me to talk about it, but I don't know why. It wasn't as if he'd told me anything shocking or had asked me to do anything illegal. It was odd. He didn't exactly come out and say it but I got the impression that he wanted me to—"

I didn't get to hear the rest. Someone slammed into me—hard—and suddenly I was on the ground. Sally screamed as she fled...with my money...leaving me alone to fend for myself.

"Hey!" I protested. I didn't have the time to fight off yet another horny drunk. I needed to find out what Sally knew. It could help me save Tina's life. "I was having a conversation here!"

"Conversation over," my mysterious shadow in white growled, his face inches from mine. I'd been so careful to lose him, and still, he'd found me. "Keep out of Mr. Fu's business," he said, and plunged a knife into my gut.

Getting shot in the shoulder last year had felt like someone had taken a hot poker, stuck me with it, and then had used that same searing hot poker to keep me pinned to the ground. It had been the worst pain I could ever imagine.

Until now.

I'd doubled over, hugging my middle, trying to hold my spilling blood inside me. I needed that blood. Without it...

I was dying. I was sure of it. And Pete still thought I was selling my body.

I should have told him the truth.

I should have...

I should...

"Pete..."