Unknown Victim Page 9

  He scratched his neck for a moment. “Gotta let my CSI guys do their thing. What I don’t get is why you’re here as a gardener?”

  “Landscape horticulturist. Like I said, I no longer work for the force. I’m doing this now. I can get you the Tanizawa contact number, if you want to talk to them to verify my story?”

  “I can find it, and yes, I’ll be verifying everything you tell me. Tell me what happened this morning.”

  “With the body?” Gina retold the story of finding the dead body on her porch, of how she had to shove the screen door to push him aside just to get out of the house.

  “Why didn’t you use the back door?” he asked.

  “I guess I didn’t think of it. Mostly, I was trying to wake the guy up.”

  “You didn’t know he was dead when you first saw him?”

  She shook her head. “I thought he was sleeping off a bender.”

  “The position he’s in now isn’t the same as when you first found him?”

  “His position is the same, but just in a slightly different spot. I pushed him about a foot away so I could get through the door. I also rolled him up a little. That’s when I discovered he was getting stiff, and knew he’d been dead for a while.”

  He glanced at the door and jotted a few notes. “Once again, why did you push him with the door instead of go out the back door and come around? What you did was tampering with evidence. You know that, right?”

  “Well, yeah, of course. But at first I didn’t know he was dead. I just thought he was sleeping like the other mornings.”

  “Other mornings?” he asked.

  Gina nodded. “This is the fourth morning he’s been here.”

  “Each morning was the same thing? You had to push him away from the door to get out?”

  “Not yesterday. He was in the middle of the porch when I found him yesterday. The other two mornings someone else found him.”

  “Your roommate?”

  “No, I live here alone. The first day it was Felix who had found the man. By the time I got to the door, the man was already walking away.”

  “Who’s Felix?” Detective Kona asked.

  “The foreman for my work crew.”

  “You hired him?”

  She shook her head. “The Tanizawas did before I got here. He assembled the rest of the crew.”

  “And the second day?” Detective Kona asked.

  “The roofer found him and kicked him out.”

  Kona made a point of looking up at the roof before jotting a few more notes. “What’s the roofer’s name?”

  “Come to think of it, I don’t know. Just some old Japanese guy the Tanizawas sent.”

  “He spoke Japanese to you?”

  “No, English. Sort of. He never had much to say.”

  “How do you know he was Japanese?”

  “Look, for some reason I figured him to be Japanese. I can tell you all about Italians, but I don’t know much about Asians. I wouldn’t know Japanese from Chinese, or anything else, if someone spoke it to me.”

  “You’re Italian?”

  “Right. But American.”

  “Isn’t Santoro a Spanish name?” he asked.

  “Yes, but my father’s family was from Italy. Somewhere along the way, one of them left Spain to go to Italy. A few generations later, they came to America and brought the name with them. Maybe they had space in a suitcase.”

  “For the name?” he asked.

  “It’s funny when my dad says it.” She watched as he made copious notes of what she was telling him about her family name. “Look, my family tree is complicated, okay?”

  “Wait till you meet a few local Hawaii people,” he said. “Yesterday when you found him, did he say anything to you before he left?”

  “No. He just said he was sorry and wandered off in the direction of the bridge.”

  “Was he in a hurry?” he asked.

  “No. He seemed reluctant to go.”

  “What was he sorry about?”

  “He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. He just seemed sad, or at least remorseful about something.”

  “Sad enough to kill himself?”

  “You think he did?” she asked.

  “I have to look at all the angles.”

  “I’m not a good enough psychologist to know if he might’ve killed himself,” she said. “That Officer Iosefa said he might’ve died from an allergic reaction to a spider bite.”

  “Officer Iosefa is a patrol officer in good standing with HPD, not a medical examiner. I’ll remind him of that later.” Detective Kona jotted a few notes. “The man just got up, said he was sorry, and walked away when you woke him?”

  “Pretty much. He moved pretty slow, like he wanted to sleep off a bender, but he didn’t give me any trouble.”

  “Didn’t ask for money or a meal?”

  Gina shook her head. “Nothing. I never saw him again, until this morning. You know the rest.”

  “He never told you his name?”

  Gina shook her head. “Never asked mine, either. Just apologized for sleeping on the porch and walked away.”

  “That’s not very satisfying, Miss Santoro.”

  “Not to me, either. When can I get my gardens back?”

  “I still have a few more questions. First, what’s your job here again?”

  Gina was finding out what it was like to be interviewed, only from the opposite side of the law. Giving a witness statement really was repetitious, and she could see why so many witnesses clammed up after a while.

  “I have a certificate in landscape horticulture and I’ve been looking for a good job since graduating from the program last summer. Just on a whim, I sent the Tanizawas my resume when I saw their ad online. I don’t know why, maybe because I was willing to work cheaper than everyone else, or if they were simply desperate, but they hired me. A week later, I climbed on a plane. Here I am.”

  Detective Kona made a show of scanning the grounds of the estate. “The old place has gone wild. What’re they expecting you to do with it?”

  “They want to return it to the way it looked back in the good old days, whenever those were. All I have to go on are a few black and white photographs and a map drawn by Millie Tanizawa, my contact with the family. Otherwise, I have no idea what they’re expecting and they’re not telling me much. All I know is that I have a year to accomplish it. Then they’ll open it to the public as a display botanical garden and historical estate.”

  “You don’t know the history of this place?” he asked.

  “Only that it was the Tanizawa estate.”

  “Talk your way into the university library to learn some more about it. Or maybe take a tour of the Japanese Cultural Center.”

  “I have no idea where anything is. I doubt I could even find the ocean.”

  He pointed in the direction of the stream. “The university is right across the street. You can’t miss it.”

  “And the cultural center?”

  “It’s not far from here. You could walk to it. Just turn left on East-West Road, then right on Dole Street, then left on University, then right on Beretania.”

  “Is that to the cultural center or to the ocean?”

  “Cultural center.”

  “How do I get to the ocean? I saw it in the distance one day, but I haven’t been there yet,” she said.

  “It’s an island.” Detective Kona kept writing. “Walk downhill till your feet get wet.”

  “Maybe I should get a map.”

  “Might be a good idea.” One of the CSI techs came to Detective Kona and handed over a preliminary report. With that, he sent Iosefa and his partner back on patrol. Then he made a call to the coroner to request a body collection. Done with those tasks, he looked at Gina again.

  She clasped her hands in front of her in a begging gesture. “Please can I have my gardens now? Time is money and I’m kinda wasting both on the first day of work.”

  “Okay, you can have everything beyond the bridge. Once the
coroner has picked up the body, you can have the grounds, but not the porch or the house. My CSI techs will be working for a while.”

  “What about inside the house? My guys will need to use the bathroom at some point, and one of them is supposed to make lunch.”

  “Is there a back door?” Kona asked.

  Gina nodded. “It goes right into the kitchen.”

  “Once I check out the inside of the house, the cook can have the kitchen, but only through the back door.”

  “She’s kinda freaked out about the body. I doubt she’ll go anywhere near the front porch,” Gina said.

  “What’s she look like?”

  “Young and pregnant, as in very pregnant.”

  “Let me check out the interior first.”

  She gave him a thumb’s-up. By then, Felix and Flor had returned from the hardware store, and Florinda and Clara arrived from their trip to the grocery store. Clara carried two bags toward the house before being blocked by Detective Kona. He had a quick chat with her, and she walked to stand in the shade of a tree to wait.

  “Why are you picking on her to interrogate first?” Gina asked Detective Kona. “I seriously doubt she knows anything about the body.”

  “I’m picking on her first, as you put it, because she stands out in this little crowd.”

  Gina looked over at Clara, whose gaze was fixed on the dead man on the porch. “She’s pregnant. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Hopefully, nothing. But she’s also the only one in the group that’s fixed on the body instead of wanting something to do.”

  “Because her sister said she’s superstitious.”

  “Sister?” Kona asked.

  “The one named Florinda is Clara’s sister. At least, that’s what they told me. You’ll have to check with them about that.”

  “Thanks. I will. Anything else you want to tell me about superstitious pregnant Clara?”

  “She was friendly to me last night, but today, since seeing the body, she hasn’t said two words all morning.”

  “What happened last night?” he asked.

  “Right about sundown, the entire crew arrived with barbecues and food. It was their way of meeting me for the first time. I tried learning their names, we ate a goat, and I told them the basic plans for the estate gardens. Then they told me about their work routine, and how they all knew each other from other jobs. That was about it.” She watched as his pen raced across his legal pad taking notes. “I have a question, if you don’t mind?”

  “Yes?”

  “You guys eat a lot of goats here in Hawaii?” she asked.

  “I don’t, but I know the Filipinos like to celebrate special events by killing and cooking a goat. Why?”

  Gina made an expression as though something were distasteful. “They need a better recipe for cooking a goat.”

  “And that, Miss Santoro, is why I don’t eat goats.” Detective Kona flipped to a fresh sheet of paper on his pad. “Did they have lumpia?”

  “Deep fried spring rolls? I think that’s what they were called. Some of them had banana inside. Those were more like dessert than an appetizer.”

  Detective Kona smiled. “And those are why I like going to Filipino parties. Give me a call the next time they bring them.”

  He left Gina to go talk with Clara. Putting her crews to work, Gina gave them as much of a pep talk as she did assignments. She went first with Flor to the row of fruit trees that lined the double-track at the base of the hill. He was looking at the large roll of surveyor’s tape she’d given him.

  “What’s this for?” he asked.

  “I want to label the branches before we prune, so we can stand back and see what they might look like when we’re done.” She showed him one of the black and white pictures she’d got from Millie of the row of trees from decades before. It was a long orchard only one row wide that lined the double track road that went along that side of the property. In a way, it was a smart design for an orchard. All the trees were in full sun, and all pickers would have to do is go from one tree to the next, from one end of the line to the other. They also did a good job of hiding the lower portion of the ridge at that side. Even the double track road looked purposefully placed at the base of the hill that went up to the ridgeline, and Gina wondered if it was meant as a simple firebreak. The more she got to know about the old estate, the more sense the original layout of it made. “This is the shape the family wants them to be.”

  Flor looked, but obviously wasn’t happy about what he saw. He held the picture up to compare it with the natural view. “A lot bigger these days. They won’t look like much for a year or two if we prune them too hard. Won’t be so easy to make them look like that again. Is it so important?”

  “That’s what we’re being paid to do. What’s wrong with them?”

  “That’s not how these kinds of trees should be pruned to get good fruit. The avocado behind the house shouldn’t be pruned at all. It’s a great shade tree, and it makes plenty of fruit that can be sold at neighborhood farmers’ markets. I can get the mangoes and papayas in shape, but it’ll be a couple of years before they start producing again.”

  She picked up an old mango at their feet. “They’re still making fruit.”

  “Not much. They could make a lot more, if they were pruned right. The question to ask is if you want fruit or something that matches the picture?”

  Gina got out her phone. “I should ask Millie.”

  Flor waved at her not to. “You’re the boss, right? That makes it your decision.”

  “Yeah, I’m the boss.” She put the phone away. “Okay, do we try to make the trees look exactly the same in the pictures? Or do we make them produce fruit again?”

  “People can eat the fruit, and if there’s enough, it can be sold at farmers’ markets,” he said. “But the only people who get to see a pretty tree are the ones who come here to visit. Anyway, mangoes and papayas aren’t pretty to look at. They’re meant for producing fruit and making shade. That’s what this estate was for, for growing produce.”

  “Right. But just to humor me, tag the trees with the tape anyway. We can re-evaluate later.”

  “Sure.” He took the spool of tape from her. “We should get a chipper for the branches I remove.”

  “How much are they?”

  “Couple grand for a good one. Five hundred for a wimpy one.”

  “How much to rent one for a day?”

  “A hundred.”

  “Just make a giant brush pile and we’ll chip everything in one day with a rental,” Gina said.

  “Brush pile where?” Flor asked.

  “Anywhere it makes sense.” She noticed her work crew standing around looking anxious while they watched the police investigation activities at the house. “Hey, are these guys okay? Nobody’s freaking out, right?”

  Flor didn’t even bother to look at his workmates. “They’re okay. It’s not like we’re wimps.”

  “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that nobody expects to have something like this happen, especially on the first day of a new job.”

  “How long you been doing this kind of work, Boss?” Flor asked her.

  That was hard to answer. If she told him the truth, he and the crew might lose faith in her. She also didn’t like the idea of lying to him. “This is my first big job.”

  “This is a big job?” he asked.

  “Isn’t it? It seems like it to me.”

  “When did the Tanizawas hire you?”

  “Only about a week ago,” she said. “I didn’t have much time to prepare.”

  “Oh, I get it. That’s why you don’t know what to do around here.”

  “Is that what you guys think of me already? That I don’t know what I’m doing?” she asked.

  “Just getting a slow start. We’re wasting time standing around waiting for something to happen.”

  “Look, it’s not my fault someone died on my front porch this morning. Sorry, but I didn’t anticipate that happe
ning.” Gina looked back at the house a couple hundred feet away, wondering what was going on with the body. From what she could see, the dead man was still on her porch. Seeing the coroner’s wagon there and someone in a white Tyvek jump suit walking around, she remembered something to tell Detective Kona. She took off at a trot across the broad estate before the detective could leave. “Detective, I thought of something you might need to know!”

  “What is it, Miss Santoro? I have another scene to go to.”

  “Sorry to delay you. I just remembered the man was wearing a windbreaker on the first three days, but obviously he isn’t today. I thought you should know that.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I’m not sure how important it is, but a cat showed up today with a dead rat and was sitting on the porch not too far from the man.”

  “I hate rats. What happened to it?” Detective Kona asked.

  “I took it by the tail and dropped it in the brush over by the stream. Then I went back to the man and figured out he was dead.”

  “Dead rat, dead man. Sorry, but I’m not making any connections.” He gave her one of his business cards. “If you think of anything useful, give me a call.”

  After he left, she went to the porch. “If you think of anything useful, give me a call,” she mumbled sarcastically.

  She watched as the body was collected in a zippered bag and put on a transport stretcher by two Tyvek-clad morgue techs. Crossing herself, she watched as the body went past her and loaded into the back of the wagon. With that, the house and estate grounds were returned to her.

  Chapter Nine

  By the time the body had been removed by the coroner’s team, it was time for the mid-morning break. From what Gina had noticed, Felix had been honest about the work crew working hard, once they had the chance and were left alone to their tasks. A small crew dug damp dirt from the area of the old pond, while another crew marked plants and shrubs that were to be preserved in the old Japanese garden. Instead of making an inspection tour, she left them to their chores and went into the house. Clara should be in the kitchen preparing their morning snack and Gina wanted to see what it was.