A CALL TO Julie Benson, Director Masters’ assistant, told Koa that Charlie Harper was “on the mountain” adjusting a detector on Alice I, so Koa headed for the summit of Mauna Kea. On the way, his car phone rang, and he answered to the booming voice of Zeke Brown, the county prosecutor.
“I hear you busted Garvie Jenkins. Nailed him while in possession. Nice work.”
“Word travels fast.”
“Your chief called, said Alice was the shipper. Is that right?”
“Yes, for the legitimate cargo, but I’m not sure about the artifacts in the separate compartment.” Koa explained what they had found. “The way I see it, that hidden compartment must have been loaded in Hilo. Jenkins may have been using Alice to cover up his movement of artifacts. I’m on my way to talk to Harper now. He signed the bill of lading.”
“Hmm, that’s good,”—Koa held the phone away from his ear to avoid being deafened by Zeke’s voice—“but I’ve got news for you. Remember the GPR machine? We traced the serial number.”
“And?” Koa asked. As he listened, his eyebrows shot up at the content of Zeke’s report. The portable GPR machine had originally been purchased by the Alice Telescope Project.
After gaining entry to Alice I, Koa stopped in the control room to see if he could catch Nālani. She was surprised and delighted when he popped in the door. Since she was alone, they embraced, sharing a kiss. Releasing her, he asked her where he could find Charlie Harper.
“You’re not going after him for harassing me, are you?” she asked, concern flashing in her eyes.
“No. It’s about a shipment of stolen antiquities we just stopped.”
Her hand went to her mouth. “Charlie? I know he’s got roving hands, but antiquities theft?” She looked dubious. “He’s into hula dancers and martinis, not Hawaiian history or artifacts. Gee, Koa, he’s the last person I’d suspect of looting graves.” She added that Harper was inside the dome, working on the telescope.
Koa walked across the floor of the dome, looking up at the huge telescope, before entering a small elevator cage. The lift carried him up two floors to the platform surrounding the telescope. Charlie, wearing headphones, sat with his back to Koa, hunched over a laptop connected to a large box. Koa steeled himself. One part of him wanted to hammer Charlie Harper for his unwanted advances toward Nālani, but he forced himself to put his personal feelings aside.
“Mr. Harper?” No answer. “Mr. Harper?” Koa yelled.
“Oh.” Charlie Harper turned and removed his headphones. “You’re Nālani’s date. What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Harper, I’m actually Chief Detective Koa Kāne of the Hawai‘i County police. I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Did that bi—” He caught himself.
Koa was ready to pound him for that. “Did you say something, Mr. Harper?”
“Nothing important. Have I done something wrong? Do I need a lawyer?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Harper.” Koa forced himself back down to his regular calm. “Is there someplace we can talk?”
“We can talk here. Besides, I got this detector opened up. I can’t leave without closing her back up.”
“Okay. You shipped some used parts to a Hong Kong reprocesser?”
“Right. Anything wrong with that?”
“You make such shipments often?”
“Not often, maybe once or twice a year. What’s this all about, anyway?”
“Who packed the container?”
“Most of the stuff came from up here. Some of it was packed up here. Techs packed the rest at the admin offices. Something wrong with the packing?”
The man seemed oblivious to the import of Koa’s questions. Or maybe it was an act to throw him off. “Who put the boxes in the container?”
“I don’t know. Techs and some day laborers at the admin offices. Did the container break open? Was there an accident?”
“They packed the container while it was on the truck?”
“I suppose they must have. We don’t have a crane at the admin offices.”
“Who arranged for the shipment?”
“I did. That’s part of my job.”
“What company did you use?”
“Jesus, I don’t rightly remember. StarFreight, StarLight, Star something. What difference does it make?”
Koa didn’t like the evasion and probed harder.
“Has the Alice Telescope Project ever used that company before?”
“How would I know?”
“Didn’t you arrange the previous shipment?”
“Sure.”
“Did you use the same company?”
Harper wasn’t acting as Koa had expected. He seemed genuinely confused. “Why did you choose Starfish Shipping?”
“That’s it. Starfish. I knew it was Star something.”
“Why did you choose Starfish?”
“What difference does it make?”
Koa had had enough of the man’s questions. “Mr. Harper, I’m asking the questions. Why did you choose that particular company?”
“I didn’t.”
“Who did?”
“Deputy Director Nelson handled it while I was over in O‘ahu at a symposium.”
That answer would need to be checked. In the meantime, Koa wanted to move on to another subject. “What do you know about ground penetration radar?”
“GPR? Not too much. We have a machine. I know that.”
“Why would Alice have a GPR machine?”
“Because of the old graves.”
Koa’s ears pricked up at the mention. “Graves?”
“Ancient Hawaiians viewed this mountain as sacred. It’s historical mumbo jumbo, but Director Masters doesn’t want to roil the damned native sovereignty crowd, so whenever we construct something, we can’t touch old grave sites. But nobody knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak. We check the construction areas with the GPR machine.”
Didn’t any of these astronomers ever get sensitivity training? Koa wondered. “When was the GPR machine last used?”
“I don’t rightly remember. Maybe eighteen, maybe twenty months ago, somewhere around then.”
The lead that Zeke Brown had given him didn’t look so damning now. “Where’s the machine?”
“I’d like to see it.” Koa’s request was a clear command.
“What? You want to see the GPR machine?”
“Yes and now.” Koa’s voice brooked no opposition.
“I’ve got to button this detector up. It’ll take me a few minutes.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
Harper unplugged several electrical cables from the detector, replaced covers, and latched the device closed. Then Koa followed Charlie down to the main floor into the storage wing of Alice II.
“Should be in here,” Charlie said as he unlocked a storage room. Yet when they looked, they didn’t find a GPR machine. They searched three other storage rooms, but the machine was nowhere to be found.
“Jesus Christ,” Harper exclaimed, “the machine’s gone, and I’m responsible for the physical plant. Masters is gonna hang me by my balls when he finds out.” A light seemed to dawn in his eyes. “Hey, you knew it was missing. You knew, that’s why you asked. You found it, didn’t you? You found it and traced the serial number.”
Koa ignored Harper’s questions. “Who has access to these storage rooms?”
“Gee, the director and the assistant directors have keys to everything. So does the duty tech. Anybody could borrow the duty tech’s keys. They’re kept in a drawer in the control room.”
“When were these storage rooms last inventoried?”
“Uh, I don’t rightly remember.”
Koa frowned. The man was responsible for the physical plant and didn’t remember the last inventory. That didn’t make sense. “You were responsible for the inventory, weren’t you?”
Harper hesitated. “Yes.”
“Then you must remember when the last inventory was taken.”
“Yes, but …”
“But what?” Koa’s voice took on a hard edge.
“Well, sometimes the inventory isn’t done that carefully.”
“Are you telling me you faked the last inventory?”
Charlie didn’t answer, but his sheepish look and downcast eyes were all the confirmation Koa needed. Damn, he thought, Harper’s either incompetent or he’s covering something up.
“So you have no idea when the GPR machine went missing? Or who took it?”
Charlie shook his head.
The reading he was getting on Harper was inconclusive, but he did seem like a natural-born loser. Koa decided to use the opportunity to check whether the man had an alibi. “Where were you on Wednesday night, January 21?”
“That’s my poker night. Five of us get together every Wednesday night.”
“Where?”
“Pete Chalmers’s house in Hilo. He’s a buddy I met on the golf course.”
“You there all night?”
“Naw, I got bad cards and went home about midnight.”
That fit the time frame. “And you were home the rest of the night?”
“Uh-huh.”
That didn’t sound convincing. “What do you know about the relationship between Nakano and your wife?” Koa asked the question with a steely edge in his voice.
Harper opened his mouth and seemed to shrink away. “I didn’t …”
“You didn’t what, Mr. Harper?”
“I didn’t like her hanging out with that fuckin’ history group.”
“So, what did you do about it, Mr. Harper?”
“Nothing.” The anger in his eyes telegraphed the lie.
Koa remembered Linda Harper’s huge sunglasses at the astronomy party. He’d wondered then if the sunglasses covered an injury. Maybe Linda Harper was a battered wife. Koa framed the question unfairly and took a certain pleasure in it. “Did you take it out on Keneke Nakano or your wife, Mr. Harper?”
Harper’s face turned red and his chin quivered. After a moment’s hesitation, he fessed up. “Okay. I hit her. I didn’t like the bitch hanging around with that history club crowd. It was just wrong, them meeting at a hotel and all. Hell, I don’t even like her going out on her own. Made me nervous. But I didn’t kill Keneke. I swear, I didn’t.”