At least Nettie seems happy with the service I’m providing. She left me a tip this morning. I tried attaching a picture but no can. Stupid data. So I’ll just tell you, it’s a dead rat.

  (Nettie is the cat. If she was going to keep hanging around I thought I might as well call her something, so I decided to name her after Nettie Stevens.)

  So yeah, after all this time I actually have a pet, kind of. I know, you’re thinking where’s Emma and what have you done with her, right? When the cat starts talking to me that’s when you can call the guys with the butterfly nets.

  And speaking of the guys with the butterfly nets, this might sound crazy, but with the phone calls and my stuff getting misplaced, I’m going to try an experiment: Sprinkle baby powder on the floor tonight and see if there are footprints tomorrow morning. I got the idea from Scooby-Doo.

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

  Hippocrates

  Chapter Ten

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  so it’s morning and the results of the baby powder are…drum roll please…FOOTPRINTS!

  Whose footprints you ask?

  Stop drum roll, start sad trombone: MY Footprints. That’s right. I guess I went downstairs in the middle of the night to check on something and forgot about it.

  Molly, get your milk-soaked carcass up here before I totally lose it.

  P.S. HOW had you not heard of Nettie Stevens? The discoverer of sex chromosomes? What are they teaching English majors these days?

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  My mother always taught us that if people don't agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you've listened to them carefully and you still think that you're right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

  Jane Goodall (b. 1934)

  Chapter Eleven

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  So my new friend Betty Brewster came by again today. Remember, the little old haole lady with the giant straw hat? She practically invited herself in and acted all buddy-buddy with Nettie, who she called Balthazar (!?) (like any self-respecting cat would put up with being named Balthazar!)

  Anyway all I had to give her was protein bars and instant coffee (yes, instant coffee. I know you’re on your fainting couch right now). I gotta tell you, the kitchen’s nothing to write home about (except I just realized that’s exactly what I’m doing right now: Irony!) a 1950s stove, old cabinets, and a wooden floor that gives you splinters when you walk barefoot.

  Even boiling water is kind of a pain because it turns out one of the burners goes on maximum heat when you turn it on no matter where you set the dial, one of them doesn’t heat up at all, and the other two kind of turn on and off randomly.

  I’m getting pretty sick of this place already, to be honest, but I’m nowhere near collecting all the samples I need. I want to just get it over with and then walk away. I should probably do a shopping run pretty soon, but it’s like a forty minute drive down to the Hashizaki Store, and another 20 to the closest town. I feel like if I’m gonna drive two hours I should just drive back to Mahina.

  Hey, you know what would be perfect? HALLOWEEN PARTY! This house is spooky enough for anyone. And you know there won’t be any trick or treaters coming by so we can just hang out and drink all night, just as nature intended.

  Update:

  Right after I went to bed the phone rang. I ran downstairs answered it and I think I heard breathing, then it went dead. Say what you want about conserving energy, I’m sleeping with ALL the lights on tonight. WHEN ARE YOU COMING UP TO VISIT

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off... no matter what they say.

  Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)

  Chapter Twelve

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  Molly, you will not believe this. So you know I was complaining about the long drive I’d have to make to get more beer and food and stuff, but I figured I might as well just get it over with. So I drove down the access road toward the highway and right past the church there was a barricade with the guys in orange vests, the whole thing, and know why? Turns out there was an accident with a propane truck down on the highway RIGHT at the corner of the access road. MY access road.

  You remember last time a propane tanker caught on fire here? In case you don’t it burned for DAYS. Now I’m totally stuck. I can’t get down, you can’t come up. There’s no other way out.

  At least the power’s on, and I have enough gas for the generator, for now.

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  I hadn't been aware that there were doors closed to me until I started knocking on them.

  Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999)

  Chapter Thirteen

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  Eh Molly,

  So here I am stuck in this old haunted house, miles from civilization, and who should stop by but my old friend Betty Brewster! Like, I’m stranded here by a flaming propane truck and somehow Betty manages to find her way here, how does that happen? And yes, it’s her in person and no I’m not hallucinating. So first thing I asked was, where’d you come from and how’d you get up here? Did they put the fire out already? The answer was no, because of course it wasn’t, the fire’s inside the tank and they have to let it burn itself out. So she knew what was going on. Then she said, get this, she was camping up here. Come on, she just HAPPENS to be camping close to the house? Call me paranoid, but I think she’s keeping an eye on the house now that I’m here.

  And now that I think of it, I even think she might be the one who’s ringing my phone.

  So anyway I asked her if there was anything she needed (I’m sure it wasn’t my instant coffee that lured her back). She said, well, you know it’s Sunday. I actually didn’t know off hand (I lost track of the days honestly) but I just nodded like I was keeping up. She said because the church is on the access road and blocked off from the main highway, the pastor and the audience can’t get up there so she wanted me to go down there with her.

  It didn’t really make sense to me but it’s not like my social calendar was exactly bursting with thrilling activities. I told her sure, I’ll go down there with you. In fact I’m leaving in a few minutes. So if this is the last email you get from me, you know where to tell the authorities to look.

  OK she’s done freshening up talk 2U later if I’m not murdered.

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  There is no law except the law that there is no law.

  John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008)

  Chapter Fourteen

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  OK first thing is you’ll be glad to know I’m still alive.

  OR AM I…?

  I guess I probably wouldn’t be able to type this if I was a ghost so yeah.

  Second thing, how am I supposed to know it’s called a “congregation” and not an “audience?” Plus I’m not sure you’re right about that. What about when people have an audience with the Pope? I’ve seen it on TV. He stands out on the balcony and there’s like an AUDIENCE of about a million people out there to see him.

  But hey, I’m not the lifelong Catholic around here so sure, we’ll call it a “congregation.”

  Now I know you’re wondering, is Betty Brewster any relation to the Brewster House on Russian Road, the one you wanted to buy? Well I asked her and she said probably but they haven’t been able to find the connection.

  But that got her talking about her family. So I learned all about Miss Brewster’s family history today, cause I can be a good listener when I have to. Anyway what else were we gonna talk about? It’s not like I was gonna start lecturing her about my phylogenetic analysis.

  So anyway I don’t have all the names and dates, but here’s the deal. They’re all descended from one of the old missionary families, but not one of the famous ones you’ve heard of.

  Betty had two cousins, a brother and sister. They’re the ones that lived in the house where I’m staying now.

  Their dad and his dad and probably his grandfather were all pastors at that little church. The brother was going to be next in line (no women pastors, it was one of those super old school New England kine churches where the guys wear buckle hats and burn witches). But I guess the brother was kind of a black sheep and it didn’t work out. Of course I wanted to know more details about that, but she wouldn’t tell me. Instead she goes:

  Oh, my dear, Titus was bad enough in his ordinary way. But Priscilla…

  Right, now I remember their names. Titus and Priscilla. So of course I ask, what about Priscilla, what did she do? (Remember the park ranger told me about a suicide in the house? I really wanted to ask Betty about it but if it was one of her cousins who killed themselves I’d really kick myself.)

  Anyway, instead of dishing the dirt about Priscilla, Betty gets all evasive. She said, well, her life was hard, she buried her father and then her brother, and she sold the church to the Methodists.

  Oh, and she told me this: Titus, the black-sheep brother, had a collection of “terrible” books that the father didn’t know about, and wouldn’t have approved of. So like I said the father died, then Titus was lost at sea, and Priscilla boxes up the books in a big crate.

  Then what do you think she does with them?

  Sell them? Donate them?

  Nope, she gets a couple guys from town to drive the box down to the coast and dump it into the ocean.

  I told her I thought it was a waste, but then Betty says,

  “When a man believes there is no afterlife, he can be as wicked as he likes. She had to rid the house of all that wickedness, you see.”

  I didn’t argue with her but come on, really? I mean look at me, I’m agnostic so I guess you could say I’m not convinced there’s an afterlife. And I don’t even cheat on my husband even though no one who knew him would blame me.

  On the other hand, maybe that is true for some people. Like you, Molly, no offense but if it wasn’t for your Catholic guilt I know some people who’d turn up missing pretty quick.

  Hey that reminds me, how’s it going with Kayla?

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics and chemistry.

  H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

  Chapter Fifteen

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  No of course I didn’t know, how would I? I was just joking, seriously. Was it an accident? How did it happen?

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  What we know is really very, very little compared to what we still have to know.

  Fabiola Gianotti (b. 1960)

  Chapter Sixteen

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  Of course I’d come down if I could but unless I can get a helicopter and a winch to lift me off the mountain, I’m stuck here for now.

  Okay, obviously after what happened you can’t go anywhere, especially now you don’t have anyone to watch the baby.

  I’ll admit you were right about one thing. Looks like Kayla lied about being a nonsmoker. I thought the smoke smell was your imagination but I guess not. If Kayla was sneaking a smoke that explains what she was doing in your shed.

  (Unless someone planted a cigarette on her? Why would they do that though.)

  I can’t believe Kayla’s dead. Are you sure it was really her? Did you see the body?

  The police don’t seriously think you had anything to do with it, do they? Maybe you need to call in Honey Akiona again. Is she still practicing in Mahina?

  OK, believe it or not, I have something that’ll take your mind off your problems, no disrespect to poor Kayla.

  Pay attention, I’m not making this up.

  I was trying to figure out once the road opens back up if there’s a way to add a phone extension without spending a fortune to get someone up here (it’s a fortune, believe me. I already called.) I was poking around and in the drawer of the night table way in the back was this old piece of paper stuck to the underside of the table top, if that makes sense.

  I don’t have the bandwidth to send a picture but here’s what it says:

  To the one who finds this:

  I have taken a woman’s life.

  Pray for me. I fear I am beyond salvation.

  The signature looks like it could be Priscilla Hodges. The sister half of the brother-sister pair that lived in this house. (And maybe the same person that hanged herself in the living room? I still wish the friendly park ranger hadn’t told me about that.)

  Was she talking about her own planned suicide? She wouldn’t have been talking about her brother, because she said I’ve taken a woman’s life, and anyway the brother was lost at sea.

  So assuming the signature really is Priscilla Hodges. Who did Priscilla murder?

  (Whoa, hold up, I mean WHOM did Priscilla murder, not who, geez, Molly, what are you, like the human spell-checker? Don’t you have more important things to worry about, like feeding your baby and staying out of prison?)

  I don’t think Mahina PD will be interested, but if you think it’s worth passing along to them go ahead. Or maybe just keep this email in case I’m murdered by ghosts.

  Now the note could be a prank or a fake, and I’m not saying I think it’s necessarily real. But on the other hand, why would anyone write this note then stuff it into the back of a drawer? Get that big brain to work, Molly, and figure it out. Also this will keep your mind off the whole Kayla thing.

  Poor Kayla. I still can’t believe she’s dead. So weird.

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.

  L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)

  Chapter Seventeen

  Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura

  to Molly

  The park ranger came by to check on me. Her name’s Ellie. I thought about showing her that letter but I decided not to. She said the truck’s still burning, and they didn’t think it was worth the risk to try move it. So no one’s going anywhere anytime soon. I asked Ellie if she checked on Betty Brewster cause Betty had told me she was camping nearby, and she said yeah, Betty’s fine. So she didn’t think it was weird that a 90 year old lady was camping by herself in the middle of the forest. It sounded like she knew Betty though, so maybe it’s actually normal for her.

  I did ask Ellie if she knew anything about the brother and sister that used to live here, and if it was either one of them who killed themselves here, but she said she didn’t know much, cause the house reverted to the park way before her time, and she thinks the suicide story’s just a rumor anyway.

  THANKS FOR TELLING ME THAT NOW, HELPFUL PARK RANGER, YOU OWE ME LIKE FIVE NIGHTS OF SLEEP.

  And then she tells me she’s glad someone’s finally making use of the house because in all the years she’s been working up here no one’s stayed here until me. So once again, very reassuring.

  Hey, I know you’re busy fighting off murder charges and everything, but you get a good internet connection. Can you check a few years back for suicides and murders on the island? I kind of want to know if any of this is true, the suicide and the supposed murder in the note I found.

  I sure hope you made the right decision talking to Detective Medeiros. You know on detective shows you’re always supposed to lawyer up and then they can’t do anything to you. Did you get any idea from them how Kayla died? I think you have every right to ask, the whole thing happened right in your backyard.

  Emma Nakamura, PhD

  Professor of Biology

  Mahina State University

  mahina.edu

  -----------------

  Do not undertake a scientific career in quest of fame or money. There are easier and better ways to reach them. Undertake it only if nothing else will satisfy you; for nothing else is probably what you will receive.

  Cecilia Payne (1900-1979)

  Chapter Eighteen

 

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