Author, A. J. Llewellyn

CHAPTER ONE

“Kaiko Fitch here,” I whisper into the mic. It feels good using the name I’ve adopted since arriving here in Hawai‘i. “I’m streaming live video from the rooftop of the old five-and-dime on Kalākaua. You’re witnessing a sting operation being run by the Honolulu Police Department on a midlevel drug dealer, Damien Villa. The man HPD wants to arrest could be the key to much bigger fish in the Hawai‘i drug trade.”

The sun is incredibly intense on this rooftop, but I’m not about to miss this story. I peer through the video camera lens, see one undercover cop dressed in an aloha shirt, then another looking more sinister. “SWAT has been staging two blocks away on a side street. The detectives are in position. When the hammer comes down on Damien Villa, the traffic will go into total gridlock. And that should be happening right—now.”

Nothing happens.

“For some reason the guy who was making the delivery backed off, folks. Kaiko Fitch, doing surveillance on a live drug sting.” I resist the temptation to close with my real name and the personal tagline I enjoyed so much on the mainland—Marty Fitch, one creative son-of-a-bitch.

What’s holding things up? I know things happen on island time, but I didn’t think drug dealers worked that way. The sting should go down any minute. Soon, it has to be soon. In the interrogation room, Villa won’t stand a chance against Pono. It might take awhile, but he’d eventually realize midlevel flunkies were too far down the food chain to do anything other than cooperate.  He’d have no choice but to do his time or turn on the higher ups. He was one thing only to all parties—expendable.

The smart money says my cousin Pono will flip him in less than an hour. Pono’s that good at his job. This takedown could be a big break. It might even get him out of the shadow of Lei Texeira. She may have been his partner, but she’d gone on to bigger and better—the FBI, in fact—while Pono had been slotted as someone to pass over.

Movement on the street below breaks my train of thought. “Here we go, folks. It’s happening.” My voice is nothing more than a whisper. I don’t want to give away my surveillance. “This doesn’t look good. One of Villa’s men just showed up and is talking to his boss. Whatever he’s saying, it looks pretty hush hush.”

Villa nods. The man who spoke with him circles his finger in the air. The men break ranks. “Villa and his men are heading for their trucks…They’re so nonchalant. Oh my God, they’re leaving. This is a terrible blow to HPD. They’ve lost the arrest. There was no deal. It could take months of surveillance to recover from this terrible blow.”

“Honolulu Police! Freeze!”

I whirl around. Four HPD SWAT vests, one from the FBI…and guns, lots of guns.

Lei Texeira is marching toward me with her gun drawn. What the hell’s going on?

They’re all decked out in body armor. They look pissed. Why are they aiming at me?