To Hawaii, with Love Read online

  I scooted across the lobby, stopping at a table in the center to grab a free copy of USA Today. From the far corner of the lobby, I could see the hotel entrance and the hallway entrances that led off it. I sat in a chair, put the newspaper up, and started pretending to read it. I was wearing my tennis shoes, shorts, and a T-shirt, so I looked like any regular Hawaiian vacation visitor.

  I kept reading the Life section of the paper and watching the lobby. Hmm. Jennifer Lopez is getting married. Again. Like that’s news. Kelly Clarkson had a new album coming out. I’d have to make sure I got one the next time we took a mall trip from the Academy. Which would, of course, be the first time.

  Then it happened. Leikala came out of one hallway and the Stupid twins came out of the other. They met on the far side of the lobby. They were having an animated discussion. Leikala smacked Dumber in the head. He cowered in fear a little bit. I ducked down behind the newspaper and tried to keep an eye on them, while staying inconspicuous.

  Just then, the hotel van delivered a bunch of new hotel guests from the airport and the lobby filled up with about twenty more people. It got noisy and busy. From watching them it was obvious that Leikala and the Stupids were frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Finally they left through the front door. I peered through one of the glass doors and saw them get into a car across the parking lot.

  I hustled out the front door and hopped into one of the waiting taxis.

  I told the driver to follow that car. I’ve always wanted to say that in a taxi! The driver said “Mahalo” and pulled out of the hotel entrance.

  We drove into Hilo. I had a good idea where they were going. The statue was in the bank vault, and I was pretty sure that Simon had a plan to get it out. Next to me, it was probably the thing he wanted most on this island, and I didn’t think he’d leave without getting his hands on it.

  Sure enough, after cruising up and down several streets, Leikala’s car pulled down an alley across the street from the First National Bank of Hilo. I had the taxi driver pull over to the curb and we waited. A few seconds later, Leikala and the Stupids came out of the alley. Leikala was carrying a gym bag over her shoulder.

  It was early Sunday morning, so the bank was closed and the street was empty. Leikala and the Stupids walked up to the bank door. Hilo is kind of a quiet town, and this part of it was mostly offices, so there weren’t any people milling about. I watched as Leikala took some stuff that looked like Play-Doh out of the gym bag and shoved it onto the door all around the lock. She and the Stupid twins stepped back from the door a few feet and then all of a sudden the stuff on the door turned a really bright color like it was burning or something. Then it flamed out and the door popped open. There was no noise or explosion or anything. Leikala and the Stupids were through the door and into the bank in seconds. If they had more of that burny stuff, they’d be inside the vault and have the statue in no time.

  While all of this had been going on, the cabdriver had been reading a magazine. I told him to get on his cell phone or radio and get the cops, tell them there was a robbery in progress at the bank.

  I gave him $50 from my cash and told him if he could find Mr. Kim and bring him here as quickly as possible, he could have another $50. I hopped out of the cab, and he drove off with a quick “Mahalo.” I hoped he could find them. I hoped they could get back here fast. I hoped that Leikala and the Stupids had just decided to open a bank account with free checking and that’s why they went into the bank.

  I started down the street to the bank. The First National Bank of Hilo was a four-story building with concrete steps that led up from the street to the front door. I hustled up and peered through the door. I could see the empty lobby inside, but there was no sign of Leikala or the Stupids. They were probably breaking the statue out of the vault right now. I kept waiting to hear sirens or some kind of sign that someone was coming. But I heard nothing. Somehow they must have gotten around the alarm system. Or else it must be a big night for crime in Hilo and all of the police were busy.

  I pulled open the door and walked into the lobby, which was of course deserted. Most of the windows were tinted, so it was darker inside. I stopped for a moment to listen, but I didn’t hear anything. I was starting to get a little nervous. I couldn’t keep count of the number of too-dark, scary places I’d been to since I’d come to this school, and let me tell you, it was starting to get a little old. I would have liked to go back to California and tell the judge who sent me to Blackthorn that all these scary places I’d been climbing and crawling through in the last couple of months were not doing anything to help my rehabilitation. They were succeeding only in scaring the bejabbers out of me.

  Off to my left was the tellers’ counter, and off to the right was a row of desks that ran down the length of the building. Toward the back and behind the tellers’ counter, I could see a hallway that I guessed led to the vault.

  Okay. I could do this. Deep breath.

  I started down the aisle between the counters and the desks, walking slowly toward the back. Trouble was, I had no idea what to do next. If Leikala and the Stupids were back there stealing the statue, I hadn’t a clue what I could do to stop them. It wasn’t like I could use my novice martial arts skills to take them out. I didn’t have a weapon. I supposed I could try to make a citizen’s arrest. Somehow I didn’t think they would take me seriously.

  I crept cautiously across the lobby, trying to keep my nerves under control. Any second I expected Leikala or Dumb or Dumber to pop up from behind one of those desks and grab me.

  I crept down the little vault hallway, past rows of safety-deposit boxes. It was darker back in this part of the bank, but there was still enough light to see where I was going. Something was telling me that this wasn’t going to end well.

  Finally I made it all the way to the back of the hall, where sure enough the vault door stood open. I could see that a hole had been burned through the steel door where the lock had been. Whatever that stuff was must be powerful. It must have taken a lot of it to burn through a door this big.

  I walked right up to the vault door and stopped again to listen. I still couldn’t hear anything. It was totally quiet. So I reached up high on the door and pulled it open. If that stuff Leikala was using could burn through steel, I for sure didn’t want to get it on my hands. The door was heavy, but I pulled it open as hard as I could and yelled, “AHA!”

  The vault was empty.

  No one was there. And neither was the statue. There were a bunch of small drawers and cabinets along the walls, none of which looked big enough to hold the statue. And the rest of the vault was completely empty. They had the statue. But the bigger question was where they had gone. I had come into the bank right after them. They couldn’t have gotten into the vault, taken the statue, and fled the bank that fast. They couldn’t have just disappeared. My guess was they were still in the building somewhere.

  I left the vault and ran back down the hallway. This was a four-story building with no back entrance that I could see. I was going to have to search the whole place. And by the way, I thought, where are the police? It seemed like the cabbie had called them hours ago.

  I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. As I cleared the hallway, I found the police. The only trouble was, they were all shouting “FREEZE!” And every single one of them was pointing his gun at me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Unjustly Accused Again

  I put my hands straight up in the air. “Don’t shoot!” I shouted. Please don’t shoot. Nice policemen. No need to get excited.

  “Down on the ground, NOW!” There was one cop doing all the yelling. He was in front of the other policemen, who had crowded into the lobby.

  “You don’t understand,” I said. “Something priceless has been stolen. I think the thieves—” I didn’t get a chance to finish. He yelled at me again.

  “Lady, shut up. Put your hands on your head and get down on the ground,” he said.

  So much for Hawaiian hospitali
ty.

  I realized that if I didn’t do what he said, I’d never be able to catch Leikala and the others. So I put my hands on my head and dropped to my knees. The cop who’d been yelling at me holstered his weapon, took hold of my wrist, and put handcuffs on me. When I felt them snap shut on my wrists, I wanted to scream. The cop pulled me to my feet and started pushing me toward the door.

  “You don’t understand. I’m not the one you want. The robbers are still in the building somewhere. You have to search it before they get away.”

  “Save it,” he said.

  There was nothing I could do. There were about ten cops in the lobby. I’d never get away from them. I was going to be taken into the station. That meant Leikala would get away. I hate losing. And I hate police stations.

  We went out of the bank lobby into the foyer and down the steps to the street. All the way down the steps I was giving the cop an earful about the big mistake he was making.

  “They’re still in there! Go back! Capture them! You’ll get a big promotion and your name in the paper!” I yelled. He ignored me, probably thinking I was high or something.

  Nothing else worked, so I relied on one of my favorite tricks from when I was a kid. I did a dead drop straight to the ground, landing on my butt.

  “Somebody listen to me!” I screamed. “I’m fifteen freakin’ years old. Do I look like a bank robber?”

  “If you don’t stand up right now—” the cop was saying.

  “Let her go, Sergeant,” I heard a voice say.

  I scrambled back to my feet and looked around. A very large Hawaiian man in a suit stood next to the cop who’d captured me.

  “Detective…we caught her red-handed, coming out of the vault!” the cop protested.

  “I’m telling you I’m innocent! I demand to be released! I want an attorney and my phone call! Right now!” I had worked my way up to a full head of steam.

  “Miss Buchanan, I’m Detective Wanake. Come with me, please,” he said.

  He took a key from his belt and unlocked the cuffs. I turned and gave the cop who’d arrested me one of the best stink-eyes of my life. “I told you I was innocent! You need to search that building right now. There are actual real criminals in there!” I said.

  The cop just looked at me with a blank face.

  The detective took me down to where Mr. Kim and the gang were waiting beside a squad car, then went back to the cops.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “Former student?”

  “Correct,” said Mr. Kim. “Excellent observation. Tell us what happened.”

  “We need to search that building! They’ve got to still be in there.”

  As we started back toward the bank, I told them what had happened. “The vault is empty. They must have the statue. You’ve got to convince them, Mr. Kim.”

  Just as I said that, most of the cops that were standing around suddenly sprinted to the squad cars, taking off in a squeal of tires. Detective Wanake came running back to us.

  “Mr. Kim,” he said, “I’m afraid there is an emergency across town. We have a report of a gas-main break in a residential neighborhood, and my men are needed to evacuate the residents. I’m leaving a man here to guard the bank door, but we will need to speak to your student later.”

  “Danny,” Mr. Kim said. “I think you need to search the bank building.”

  “No time. My men are needed elsewhere. We will return as soon as we can.”

  He didn’t even wait for a response, just turned and ran to a car and sped off. In a few seconds every cop was gone except for one young policeman who stood by the front door.

  “Don’t you think it’s a pretty big coincidence that just a few minutes after the statue is taken from the bank vault, there’s a big emergency across town?” I said.

  “It does seem somewhat unlikely,” Mr. Kim said.

  “So what are we going to do?” I said.

  “You will remain here, with the others, while I search the building,” Mr. Kim said.

  Before I could even argue, he sprinted up the stairs and past the cop into the building. He was very fast for a man of his age, and probably decided to run quickly so that I wouldn’t have time to wear him down with an argument.

  “This is no good,” I said aloud. “The building is too big for one person to search. They could escape before the cops get back! Guys—” I started.

  “Save it. You want us to help search, we’ll do it,” said Alex.

  “You will?” I said, stunned. I was expecting to have to go through another big explanation about why we needed to disobey Mr. Kim again, because though his intentions were in the right place he didn’t see the big picture and yada, yada, yada. Alex had caught me a little off guard.

  “We don’t know what floor he’s on,” Alex said. “Rachel and I will take the top floor and work down. Brent, you and Pilar start on the first floor and work up. We’ll meet in the middle.”

  They nodded, and we took off up the steps.

  The cop guarding the door looked at us.

  I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and held it up to him.

  “Mr. Kim thinks they’re getting away—he wants you to cover the back door! We’ll guard the front! Hurry!” I shouted.

  The cop hesitated for a second, but I waved the phone at him, encouraging him to go. It worked. He sprinted down the steps and around the back of the building. Ha. Wouldn’t he be amused when he found out there was no back door.

  We split up. Alex and I went into the stairwell and cautiously made our way to the fourth floor. We didn’t see any sign of Leikala or the Stupid twins. Maybe they got out through a window or some other way. But how had they done it? And why hadn’t they set off any alarms? These crooks could really be infuriating.

  We stepped out from the stairwell onto the fourth floor. It was full of desks and cubicles. A long row of cubicles ran down the center of the floor, making an aisle on either side. Alex took the left and I took the right, and we slowly made our way down the floor. There is something very creepy about being in a deserted office building. I half expected Freddy Krueger or the Predator to hop out at me. If I’d known that I was going to end up chasing an evil supervillain around the world, I would have watched a lot fewer scary movies growing up.

  We made it to the back of the floor and still hadn’t found them.

  “What are we going to do if we do find them?” I said as we headed back into the stairwell.

  He thought for a few minutes. “There are three of them, right?” he asked.

  “Yes. Leikala and the two Stupid twins. Both of them are big and very strong. The darker-haired one is left-handed, and the one that has slightly lighter-colored hair has a gimpy right knee thanks to one of my best-ever front kicks. Not to mention he’s all beat up because Pilar whupped him good. Oh, and I might have messed up their noses pretty bad. They’re dangerous and mean, and I think they’re really ticked off at me.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Alex said. “You tend to have that effect on people.”

  I spun around ready to give him a sharp retort, but his eyes were sparkling. He was teasing me. And I hate to admit it, but I kind of liked it.

  But I didn’t get a chance to think about it much, because right then he started talking about Pilar.

  “Man, Pilar is something,” he said. “I can totally picture her smacking that guy around.”

  “What do you mean I ‘have that effect on people’?” I said.

  “I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. You have a way of getting under other people’s skin. Blankenship is so frustrated with you, it’s unbelievable.”

  Was that a compliment?

  He laughed when he saw the look on my face, and then, very quickly, he reached out, grabbed both of my hands in his, and gave them a quick squeeze. A very nice, friendly little squeeze that was thrilling and confusing all at the same time. Then he let go of my hands and pushed past me into the stairwell. I was still standing there like a big doofus, and he turned around and smiled a
t me.

  “Coming?” he said.

  “Uh…yeah…I mean, yes.” I tried to pull myself together and follow him. I remembered how he’d treated me on the helicopter on the way to Pele’s Point. I had to say I couldn’t figure him out sometimes. I mean, I thought he hated my guts most of the time, but now it sounded like he was warming up to me a little. But he also obviously cared a lot for Pilar.

  Oh dear God. Did I have a crush on this guy? Maybe I’d just go straight to the roof and throw myself off.

  “Alex, can I ask you something?” I said. I realized that this wasn’t the best time in the world to be dealing with this kind of stuff, but what the heck.

  He stopped and looked at me. “Sure,” he said. “What?”

  “Do I really annoy people that much?” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. He saw the hurt look on my face and quickly continued. “But that’s also part of your gift. You don’t quit, Rachel. You like to act all uninterested and like you’re ready to walk away any minute. But you’re not a quitter. You’re going to see this through to the end. You might annoy us—me sometimes, but it’s only because you’re persistent. The most persistent person I’ve ever met.”

  “Persistent is good, right?” I asked.

  Alex laughed. “Yeah, it’s good.”

  Hmm. It was funny. Alex thought he had me all figured out. Maybe he did. I mean, I never thought that he was even aware of me except as someone he wished would just disappear. And I thought he was just a muscle-head who cared only about studying, working out, and breaking boards in the do jang. But maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe there was more to him than just the buff-ness and the attitude.

  I must have had a blank look on my face while I tried to process this.

  “Hello. Rachel? Are you still here?” he said. “We’re trying to catch some bad guys here, remember?”

  He was right. I needed to focus. As much as I wanted to continue this conversation (or did I?), now was not the time.