* * *Susan took off on a photography trip to the black sand beach at Punalu'u the next morning and Neal drove up the coast to Kailua. He got a new muffler installed on the Chevy and by eleven o'clock he was driving—much more quietly—to a hardware store in the industrial area, where he bought picks, shovels, a wheelbarrow, some rope and a block and tackle. He also bought a chainsaw, which actually soured his stomach. He didn't like the things and never had. They embodied, in one noisy, smoke-spewing, tree-eating unit, a lot of things going wrong on the planet. Owning one was another thing that didn't bear close scrutiny. He tossed the last of the equipment into the back of the pickup and drove to Harry's gun shop.
The shop's door buzzer sounded as he went in. "Be right with y
