I looked at my hair ruefully. I’d wet combed it well enough that it wasn’t standing up on end at odd angles anymore at least.
“Come on, let’s go before he gets us thrown out of the hotel,” I said. Jolar laughed, obviously thinking I was making another joke. I only half was. “Neal, we’ll have to see if the hotel restaurant has pancakes. They might not.”
His lip trembled. “But I want pannycakes.”
“They have them,” a cleaner going past pushing a cart said helpfully.
“Mahalo,” I told her, remembering the phrase from watching all the episodes of Hawaii Five-O.
“Yay!” Neal crowed, grabbing Jolar’s hands. “Come on, Daddy, Stitch is super duper hungry.”
My own stomach growled in agreement. “Pancakes with bacon and a side of eggs and sausage does sound good,” I mused, moving to keep up. Damn, that kid could move.
The breakfast turned out to be hands down one of the best meals I’d ever eaten. I discovered a love for Portuguese sausage, which the waiter explained wasn’t a sausage you could find in Portugal. Rather like Italian American food, Portuguese sausage was descended from a type of sausage from Portugal but a version made locally based on it after eating sausage brought by Portuguese sailors.
“Hawai’i is a melting pot,” the waitress said. “Try it. It is ono. You should get some to take back home with you.”
After tasting it, I wanted to do just that. “You think we can get this back home?”
“Yes,” Jolar reassured me and then I remembered that duh, there was a large contingent of Hawaiians either living on board or visiting thanks to the cultural exchange program, which Jolar’s hula and language classes were part of. Of course they’d make their local foods available, just as they did for everyone else. It was actually easier to get stuff to make homemade sushi aboard ship than it was if I was in my old hometown.
“Still going to buy some so I can remember what brand to ask for,” I muttered to myself.
“We’ll stop at a supermarket before we leave,” Jolar promised me and damn, there he was being sweet again. I knew a lot of folks wouldn’t think a grocery store trip was romantic, but he understood my love of food even if he was perfectly happy to eat practically anything as long as it tasted good.
“I love you,” I told him and he turned, leaning his head to kiss the tip of my nose.
“I love you too.”
“Yuck. Don’t look, Stitch.”
Jolar and I laughed.
CHAPTER46
JOLAR
The call came justas we were in the middle of posing for pictures in front of the Lilo and Stitch mural.
“Okay, how about one without the hats?” Mitch suggested.
“But Stitch likes the hats,” Neal informed us, his lips in a stubborn line.
“I’m sorry, I need to take this, you two keep taking pictures.” I stepped away, tapping my Kunnarskyn to accept the voice comm.
“Hey, you lucky dog!” came Klora’s voice. “Boss man said I could be the one to let you know that the cabin checks out. It is not only under Jason Ito’s name, but guess who co-signed his loan for it?”
“Takahashi?” I guessed, figuring that would make the most sense seeing he introduced the scammer to his wife as their lawyer. If he knew who Jason was, which he would have to if signing legal papers with Jason’s legal identity on them, it truly deepened the plot.
“Bingo! Only it wasn’t our missing Mr. Takahashi - it was his wife Linda! And it was a full eighteen months and some days before the accident and subsequent disappearance of her hubby.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I really wished Klora would use fewer human slang terms. It made my head spin as I tried to track what he was actually saying.
“Wait - so let me get this straight. Linda Takahashi knew Jason Ito well enough to co-sign a loan for him to buy his cabin?” That did put an entirely new spin on things.
“Yep! And get this, they went through a property lawyer to buy it. Can you guess who it was? Fifty points if you guessed it was our very own murdered dude in the garden!”
“Points? Why are you giving away points? What are they for?”
