The Honolulu Murder Files

Chapter 10

Suspect #5. 

The Maintenance Director. 

Ron Nakimoto was the current longest standing employee at Hilton Hawaiian Village. He had surpassed the 20 year mark and as such, held the title to this day. He spoke ok English and mostly Japanese. For meetings, he'd pull out notes and do his best to stick to them. He was nothing if not passionate about all things mechanical. 

Right at this moment though he was busy eating his breakfast, with vigor and in solitude. Or so he thinks. I have joined him out of curiosity. Detective Keele decided to leave me a bread crumb trail to follow today in the form of notes left on his desk last night. 

They are interviewing all the section bosses in the hotel. 

I should have connected those dots by now, I know. But being dead and seeing the living world from this vantage point has been distracting to say the least. When I'm not following people around I'm simply alone. I've spent the past four nights watching the surf from various points on the island, high up and down right by the water. It's been....surreal. 

Ron uses chopsticks to serve himself a bite of nigiri, delicious sushi rolls. I peer at his computer screen, which is bright and has a page pulled up. 'Southern California thrift stores' is plastered on the vibrance staring back at me. Why is he looking at this?

He lazily clicks on one link. It advertises that the shop has a big stock of second hand textiles and that they purchase or buy from people all the time. How odd. Maybe he is one of those people who buys things for cheap online and then resale's then for a higher profit. Who knows. 

His wife is the housekeeping director and she is another tough woman...not unlike Lila. She wasn't the nicest to me but I chalked it up to her age and menopause among other things. Honestly, most of the older women employees were that way to us younger ones. 

"Ah ha! Bingo!" He exclaims. 

Almost dropping his sushi roll, he gulps it in haphazardly and clicks on the pricing list. They paid a lot for bulk bundles. Maybe my theory was correct, he had a side hustle going on. Between him and his wife though, you'd think they made more than enough money. But what did I know? Especially now. Money means nothing here in the 'great beyond'. 

"Do you have a minute?" 

🩸

"Come in detectives....yes...of course." 

Ron stands, throwing his plastic sushi container away. He is the same calm guy that I usually saw at meetings and had the same demeanor as he had a few minutes ago. Curious that he lacked nerves. 

"By now you've heard we are interviewing coworkers of Ms. Miller." 

"Oh yes yes, of course." He says, gesturing for the detectives to sit. "Have you found good leads?" 

Detective Jones eyes detective Keele. You can pretty much tell they're communicating boat loads without a word. 

"Did you get along with Leilani?" 

I haven't expected them to ask that. Of course he did. 

"Yes, she was nice girl. Very nice. Everyone like her!" 

"What about your wife? Did she get along with her?" 

His wife....she is the housekeeping director. Why would he ask about her? Unless they know something. Ron's face flinches for the briefest of seconds. It was subtly noticeable. He shifts in his chair and fidgets with his hands in his lap. 

"She did." 

He is lying. His wife and I had sparred many a time over her not liking how I answered guests criticisms online. Which was ok except for she really thought I was trying to down play the housekeeping department, and not give them more credit. Guests were always right though. That was a fact in our industry. It didn't matter the complaint, we were there to make it right. Her issues were mainly with my job protocols and not me per say.