Sam stopped. “Oana. I didn’t know you were here.”
Mano gave a curt nod. “I heard you’d moved back here after your stint in the navy. I had no idea you’d joined the force though.” Stupid to get his hackles raised like this. He and Sam had been friends once—before Leilani Tagama had come between them.
“Yeah, once action gets in your blood, it’s hard to settle for a normal job.” Sam turned toward the house. “I’d better get inside. You coming?”
Sam obviously thought he knew all about why Mano was here. Surely Annie hadn’t called to have him escorted off the property. Sam knocked on the door, and Annie opened it almost immediately. Her full lips tightened when her gaze flickered over Mano’s face. She was petite, only about five-two. He remembered a time when her face got as red as a hibiscus when he appeared. She’d adored her “big brother” Mano once upon a time. So much for hoping a small part of her former admiration still existed.
He carried the boxes into the living room. A part of him wanted to leave the boxes and not speak to the Tagama family any more, but he knew he had to stay. Besides, he wondered what was going on with the detective’s arrival. The tension and fear in the room left him uneasy.
Sam took out a notepad from his shirt pocket and uncapped his pen. “You say Leilani is missing?”
Mano was kneeling by the boxes, but he jerked up his head and looked at Annie. “Leilani is missing?”
Sam raised his brows. “You didn’t know? I figured that’s why you were here.”
Mano shook his head. “I brought Tomi’s belongings.”
Sam’s face clouded as he looked back at the Tagama family, and he tapped the pen against the paper.
Annie ran her hand over her hair with a distracted air. “You have to find Leilani, Sam. She didn’t come home last night. I thought maybe she spent the night with friends, but they haven’t seen her, and she didn’t show up for work this morning. I found her necklace out at the volcano. She never goes there. She’s terrified of it.”
Mano leaned against the wall. He’d just listen. Maybe he could help at some point. A part of him wished he could play the hero and maybe salvage his relationship with the Tagama family. It was probably a pipe dream. He watched Annie. She had always been a steady, albeit invisible, sergeant who kept the family running smoothly. The bright polish on her toenails was the only color she ever wore, and her toe ring the only ornamentation. Even that bright spot was missing today and work boots covered her feet. He’d noticed her limp. Maybe she’d twisted her ankle.
“You’ve called all her friends?” Sam asked.
Annie nodded. “Her closest. No one has seen her since Thursday afternoon around five.”
Sam glanced at his watch. “It’s just now twenty-four hours. Not that it matters as far as we’re concerned. There’s no time period to wait. I’ll put in a report, and we’ll see what we can track down. Could I take a look at her room to see if there’s a note or any clues there?”
“How stupid of me! I didn’t think of that. I just checked to see if any of her clothes were missing. Everything seems to be accounted for.” She and her father went down the hall. The officer followed.
After a slight hesitation, Mano went after them. Annie lowered her thick, long lashes, then glanced away without raising an objection. Mano’s gaze swept the room. Leilani appeared to be just as careless and haphazard as always. Shorts and tops hung over the rice-paper screen in one corner, a pile of books had fallen over on the left side of the bed, and Leilani’s makeup lay in a jumble on the gleaming black-lacquer dresser. His gaze locked on the bright blue tip of a notebook that peeked from the tumbled covers at the foot of the bed.
No one else seemed to have seen it. Sam was rifling through the closet, and Annie was on her knees peering under the bed. Mano stepped into the room and plucked the notebook from its hiding place. He flipped it open and frowned when he recognized it as some kind of religious manual. Chicken skin rose on his arms. “What about this?”
Annie’s head came out from under the bed. Her gaze zeroed in on the notebook. “That’s the handbook for the new group she’s so interested in.” She scrambled to her feet as Sam joined Mano. She held out her hand. “Let me see.”
Mano handed the notebook to Annie. “What group?” Her frosty expression thawed. The gratitude in her eyes made him try a tentative smile. The warmth in her eyes cooled immediately, and he looked away and clenched his teeth. She had every right to blame him.