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Joint Effort
Catherine looked up from her desk as the soft knock on the door was followed by her assistant Jen stepping into her office. "The governor needs you in an 11:00 AM meeting that was just added to her schedule. She said to allow at least an hour. Do you want me to cancel your 11:30 with Senator Perkins or push it until after lunch?"
"Senator Perkins needs our infrastructure project proposals before his committee gets together this afternoon so 11:30 was already cutting it close. Call over to Marliyah's office and see if she can cover for me." Catherine extracted a manila folder from the top drawer of her desk and held it out towards Jen. "HDOT just got back to me with some updated figures for the flood damage repairs. Can you make sure she gets these before Senator Perkins arrives, please?"
"Will do."
"Did Lea say what this new meeting is about?" Catherine asked.
Jen shook her head. "Not a word. Just that it's top priority."
"Any chance it's good news?"
"That wasn't the impression I got." Jen smiled sympathetically. "I'll have lunch waiting for you when you get back."
Catherine arrived at Lea's office exactly as 11:00 and was waved straight in. When she entered, she found Lea sitting on the couch with a very concerned look on her face, documents spread out on the coffee table in front of her. Seated in the chair across from her was Commander Carl Gosnell who headed up the security division at Pearl. He'd arrived a year or so after she left so she'd never worked with him directly, but he had an excellent reputation. Carrie had nothing but good things to say about him after they worked together on a project the previous year.
"Catherine, thanks for coming." Lea said. "Sorry to throw a monkey wrench into your morning plans but this really can't wait. Do you know Commander Gosnell?"
"Only by reputation," Catherine replied. "I've heard great things."
"I could say the same." Gosnell stood and extended his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lieutenant Rollins."
"The Commander contacted me several weeks ago and asked if I could intervene with HPD on what we believed was an isolated incident involving a young ensign," Lea said. Gosnell retook his seat and Catherine sat down on the couch beside the governor. "At the time we thought that was the end of the matter but apparently it wasn't."
She nodded towards Commander Gosnell who picked up the story.
"At the end of December, a young ensign, Ilias Bajraktari, stationed at Pearl was arrested by HPD on charges of bringing a large crate containing drugs and guns back from Afghanistan when he returned from deployment." Gosnell handed Catherine a folder containing a copy of the warrant and other arrest documents. "The HPD discovered the crate totally by accident when they raided a warehouse in Honolulu. Unfortunately, the warehouse was rented under a false name so we weren't able to trace the owner."
As Catherine read the papers Commander Gosnell continued.
"Ensign Bajraktari insisted he was innocent. He has an exemplary service record. His crewmates backed him up. According to his commanding officer he was the last person who would be involved in any sort of illegal activity. So, we launched our own investigation."
"What did you find out?" Catherine asked.
"That the ensign was telling the truth." Gosnell pointed to the papers spread out on the table in front of Lea. "The drugs were definitely shipped from Afghanistan and they were definitely shipped through official channels under the ensign's name, but he was not the one who shipped them."
"How does that even happen?" Catherine asked. She was very familiar with the specifics of shipping personal belongings home after deployment. The process involved all packages passing through multiple checkpoints before being loaded onto the cargo plane to ensure no contraband made its way to US soil. "Aren't all packages supposed to be x-rayed and run past contraband sniffing dogs?"
"They are." Gosnell nodded. "Which is why at first I was skeptical that the ensign wasn't involved. It definitely felt like an inside job. Then I took another look at the details of the flight the shipment came in on and noticed something." He pointed to a specific piece of paper. "There were 156 packages scanned onto the plane before it left Kabul. There were 158 packages unloaded when the plane reached Hawaii."
"So, someone added two extra packages at some point," Lea noted.
"Yes." Gosnell nodded. "I personally interviewed the flight crew and they told me they landed once on the trip home for refueling but the bay doors were never opened during that stop. Which means the items had to have been put on the plane before it left Afghanistan."
"That's not necessarily proof Bajraktari wasn't involved," Catherine said. "That's just proof someone arranged to have the packages placed on the plane without putting them through official channels."
"Very true," Gosnell agreed. "However, when I dug a little deeper I uncovered two things. First, on this bill of lading whoever signed Bajraktari's name spelled it wrong."
Catherine looked at document in question. "That definitely seems fishy."
"Also, Bajraktari got bumped off his military transport flight when it set down in Chicago to refuel by a group of higher-ranking officers headed to California. It was 48 hours before he could get a seat on another one so he arrived back in Hawaii on December 28th. However, the package in question was picked up by someone with an ID bearing Bajraktari's name on the 27th."
"You said there were 2 unauthorized packages," Lea said. "What happened to the other one?"
"Two on this particular flight," Gosnell said. "It took a few days to get through all the paperwork, but we finally determined it was picked up by someone who showed an ID identifying himself as Lieutenant Hank Harper."
"I know Lieutenant Harper," Catherine said. "We served together on the Enterprise."
"Harper was sent to South Korea on TAD at the last minute. He never even flew back to Hawaii," Gosnell replied. "So, we have no idea who picked up those two packages, but it was not Bajraktari or Harper."
"I'm not sure I understand how my office can help," Lea said. "This would seem to be an internal Navy problem."
"Not exactly." Gosnell inhaled deeply and prepared to deliver the alarming news. "I ordered an immediate check on the records of all cargo flights over the last 90 days. We found at least 6 dozen unaccounted for crates."
"Six dozen crates of guns and drugs on the streets of Oahu?" Lea asked incredulously.
"That's a safe assumption," Gosnell admitted. "Though it's possible at least some have been shipped off to the mainland by now."
"That's not exactly comforting," Lea replied.
"So, how do we find out who's slipping these crates onto military flights and how they're doing it?" Catherine asked. There would be plenty of time later for determining who dropped ball in terms of security on those flights, but the most important thing now was to stop the flow of contraband.
"That's one of the ways we need your help," Gosnell said. "We are doing everything we can to stop any future illegal shipments, but we need some assistance from local law enforcement to help us find the crates that are already here. They have far more experience with these kinds of investigations. In fact … " he hesitated for just a second, unsure of what Lea's reaction to his next request would be, "I was hoping you might assign Five-0 to the case."
"Done," Lea said. "I'll let Commander McGarrett know. You can set up a meeting with him and his team as soon as possible."
"Thank you." Gosnell pumped his fist.
"You said that was one way we could help," Catherine said. "What are the others?"
"Just one other one really," Gosnell replied. "We've been working our contacts in Afghanistan trying to find anyone who might know anything about where these crates are originating and with who. We came across a woman who appears to have some information, but she doesn't trust us enough to come forward with it. She only trusts you, Lieutenant. She said she knows from your time in Afghanistan. She refuses to talk to anyone but you."
Lea looked at her chief of staff. "How would you feel about helping out on the case?"
"I'll do anything I can," Catherine said without hesitation. "Aside from going into the field. Steve and I have an agreement, for Angie's sake, that we'll never both be in the field at the same time."
"This wouldn't require you going into the field," Gosnell assured her. "We just need you to make contact with the informant and either have her give you the information or vouch for someone who is already on the ground there that she can talk to."
"That I can definitely do," Catherine said.
"How about if you liaise with Five-0 on this one," Lea suggested. "I want to get this issue taken care of quickly. We can keep your schedule as light as possible here. Go over your calendar with Jen. Keep whatever you have to and farm out the rest to Marliyah. I'll even take some meetings if need be."
Catherine nodded, already mentally going over what she had coming up in the next several weeks.
"I really appreciate your cooperation," Commander Gosnell said sincerely.
"No problem," Lea responded. "I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible. And there's no better way to make that happen than the combined efforts of Catherine and the Five-0 team. So, let's get it done."
TBC next Friday
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