Sand Dollars Read Free Page A

“Tell Chawlie I was busy.”
    â€œYes.” Tishman smiled a small smile, glancing at the dive
boat. “I can see you’re busy.” He left, clearly not pleased, but obviously happy to be heading somewhere else.
    â€œMr. Caine?” The boy approached, hesitant.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œI just wanted to thank you. What we did, it was my idea, and it was stupid.”
    Such honesty in the young should be rewarded. “You’ve done something most kids want to do, which is good, and you survived, and that’s better.”
    â€œYou’re a detective?”
    I nodded. “Sometimes.”
    â€œLike that guy on the old TV shows?”
    â€œNo. He was a lot better looking than me and a lot smarter. He lived in a mansion in Kahala. I just scuffle.” I didn’t even have a place to live any longer. I was bunking at one of the Waikiki hotels near the Ala Wai Canal until I could find another boat.
    The kid looked embarrassed. He wanted to stay and he wanted to go. We had no mutual context with which to carry the conversation further. I let him off the hook.
    â€œThank you for coming to see me. I know what that cost you. You better go help your buddies get their gear off the boat now, don’t you think?”
    â€œSure. Thank you, Mr. Caine.” The kid offered his hand.
    I took it, thinking that maybe the younger generation wasn’t so bad, after all.

2
    â€œYou’re a cruel man, Chawlie.”
    The old man nodded agreement, his face unreadable in the fluorescent glare of the bare overhead lamp. He leaned back in his chair, meager weight against the orange plastic. Over his shoulder, a gecko scurried across the glass partition of his restaurant’s foyer.
    It was more than a month after the dive on the Mahi and I was leaving the Islands for a case on the Mainland. Chawlie had somehow discovered my intent and called, demanding an audience. I had been curious about Chawlie’s ploy with the lawyer, but kept away from the old crook. Asking questions would have resulted in a blank stare. If he wanted to tell me, he’d tell me.
    â€œYou knew I wouldn’t take that case,” I said. “Mr. J. Lawrence Tishman went on an empty errand.” I knew but didn’t say that Chawlie would have sent the lawyer on a wild-goose chase for a reason known only to himself. Chawlie had used me, but he had his designs and they were none of my business.
    â€œGeneral partner stealing funds from investors. Stupid man. No finesse. Had a meeting of limited partners to decide what to do. They brought in haole lawyer, wanted to stir the shit. I biggest investor. Told them to hire private detective. Must hire only the best. You.” A wizened finger pointed at my chest. “Knew you’d say no. Knew you’d be hard to find, too. Keep haole lawyer busy.”
    â€œWhile you handled the general partner.”
    Chawlie laughed, a cackling wheeze. “Handled him very much. Thanked him very much. Took my cut.” He reached
inside his sweater, brought out a thick wad of folding money and handed it to me. “Here’s yours. For your trouble.”
    I took the money, putting it away without looking at it. I seldom have qualms taking money from Chawlie. He has so much. And he parts with it so seldom. And nearly everything he gets is tax free.
    â€œSo it was all for show.”
    Chawlie grinned. I’ve known him for as many years as I’ve lived in Hawaii and he’s never changed. Maybe aged, but only a little. He’s always been an ancient Chinese institution who owns restaurants and fishing fleets and construction companies and acres of land, as well as massage parlors and gambling dens, and he has legions of nephews to handle the details of his empire. Chawlie and I have history. He threatened to kill me a while back, but changed his mind and made three-quarters of a million dollars from the circumstances surrounding a personal