toxins had dissipated by exposure to the air. Or perhaps the next person used a handkerchief to preserve prints and wiped off the remaining residue.

To Aka it was a near-disaster. For the first time their surgical strike had collateral damage. They didn't grieve for Ralph, the assistant prosecutor who had been accidentally killed. He was a bastard like most of them. But he could have easily been an innocent bystander, maybe even a friend. Also, the media attention and ongoing investigation of the bizarre coincidence of the two healthy men suddenly dying of apparent heart attacks in close proximity to each other, made them very nervous. They had a long meeting about ways to ensure there would be no more collateral damage.

* * *

By late November the bodycrosses the police too many times they will put him six feet under in a macadamia nut orchard, or feed him to the sharks off Mokolea Point, cut and bleeding but still alive. For a few hellish minutes.

Police Commissioners. The Maui Police Commission is nothing more than the Maui Police Department's white-washing department. With so much filth to cover up, it's a tough job, but the Commissioners are up to it, and they are (secretly) well paid. Along with the police officers' union, they work hard to ensure that cops are never prosecuted for abuses or crimes on the job; that lawsuits against cops never succeed; and that the media never criticize, or report criticism of, the department or individual cops. Most Commissioners take substantial bribes of one