I promised to post this a while ago but here it is! The sister story to 'Ho'omau (persist, persevere).
Inspired by episode 3x21, this is what spawned the 'Five-0 from a paramedic's perspective' fic and I hope it lives up to expectations.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Hawaii Five-0 except seasons 1-4 on DVD and I promise to put Steve back (relatively) intact.
Set the Thursday after chapter ten of Ho'omau. You don't have to read it for this to make sense, but it would help.
Thursday, 0807 hours.
Five-0 HQ, Iolani Palace.
Steve's in the middle of filling in an acquisition form when Danny knocks on his door and he's thankful for the interruption as he shoves the mind numbing paperwork off to one side. His partner looks decidedly ruffled as he perches on the corner of the desk in front of him and he's careful to chose words that won't cause Danny's jaw to clench even tighter than it already is as he leans back in his chair and raises a questioning eyebrow.
"Rough morning?"
"That depends," his partner snarks, reaching across the desk to snag a page from the paperwork pile he was working on. "Is the governor still insisting that we spend today and tomorrow playing babysitter to some jumped-up Kim Kardashian-type princess who only cares about what color Bentley her daddy's going to buy for her birthday?"
"You haven't even met her," he protests, not unreasonably, frowning as Danny rolls his eyes at him. "For all you know, she could be – "
"Yeah, yeah. I know…" Danny makes quotation marks in the air. "She could be a professional who's actually interested in what goes on around here day-to-day… It's got nothing to do with the fact that there's an election just around the corner."
The detective jabs his finger into the top of Steve's desk to emphasize his point.
"We both know that the governor is using Five-0 to fish for votes and I, for one, would rather he do it by leaving us the hell alone so we can get on with our jobs." Then he lifts the page he snagged from Steve's paperwork and waves it at him. "'Affidavit' has two f's, by the way."
"It's not like I had any choice in the matter," Steve grouses, snatching the report from Danny's outstretched hand to roughly score out his mistake. He squeezes the correction in between two sentences and then glances up briefly. "Did you want something or did you just come in here to bitch about Denning and his agenda? Only, that girl is going to be here shortly so we can go over a few things before they start filming and I still need to finish filling in that acquisition so Denning's office can sign off on those new Tac vests we want."
"I need a favor, babe," Danny tells him, standing up to pace along the internal window line as the former SEAL pulls his paperwork back from where he shoved it to one side and then rubs a hand over his face. "Rachel just called. Her flight got changed so she won't be here to pick Grace up from school and I still need to go pick up the cake I ordered from Mary's friend for Grace's party tomorrow."
"Why don't I pick Gracie up from school?" Steve suggests, propping his elbows on the desk to rub at the band of tension that's begun to wrap itself around his forehead. "You can get her from the house when you're done. I can give Mary a call if something comes up and I'm needed here. Was there anything else?"
Recognizing his paperwork as a lost cause, he pushes his chair away from the desk and stands, rolling his neck to ease the tension across the back of his shoulders. He reaches for the coffee mug sitting on the filing to his left and skirts out from behind his chair, nudging it closer to the desk with his hip as he walks away.
"Uh, no," Danny says, coming to an abrupt half. Falling into the step with the taller man, he smiles and lays a hand on Steve's shoulder, squeezing it gently.
They cross in front of the Smart table and Danny pushes through the swinging glass door in to the break room, leaning against the counter as he watches Steve spoon coffee granules into his cup.
"Thanks for letting Grace have her birthday party at your house."
Steve shrugs, dumping his spoon in the sink. Wrapping both hands around his cup, he turns, mirroring Danny's position leaning against the counter as he replies, "It didn't make sense for you to pay for the Hilton. And I already told you that you're both welcome any time – why you even thought you had to ask if beyond me."
"It's a wonder you can even function in society given the number of things that are beyond you," Danny grumbles, turning to face his partner. "It's called being polite, Steven. You know, saying please and thank you and – "
"Knocking before you let yourself into someone's house?" Steve finishes pointedly, raising his eyebrows over the rim of his coffee mug. Catching a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, he turns towards the main doors in time to see Sargent Duke Lukela cross the threshold, followed by a petite brunette decked out in a delicate-looking pale pink suite. Bringing up the read is a cameraman, a heavyset older man in a faded Def Leppard t-shirt and worn gray cargos.
Taking a sip from his mug, Steve pulls a face at the overly bitter taste and turns to dump the rest down the sink. Setting the empty cup down on the counter next to it, he mutters, "Let's get this over with," under his breath and then pushes out through the swinging doors into the main room.
As he approaches the small group, he hears Duke say, "This is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. The commander is in charge of running the Governor's task force." Pausing, the Sargent indicates the reporter and then the cameraman. "Stephanie Rossi and Tony Marshall."
"Hi," Steve says, offering his hand to the cameraman and then the reporter, who tosses her hair over her shoulder coquettishly before thrusting out her hand as she lets her eyes drift over all six feet three inches of Navy SEAL. She's five foot nothing in her heels and beams up at him as she twirls a strand of long dark hair around her index finger.
"Hi," she giggles, her dark eyes shining with excitement. "I'm Steffi."
"Right." Steve glances at the cameraman, who responds with a long-suffering eye roll. Forcing a smile, he beckons for the two visitor to follow him and turns on his heel, calling "Thanks, Duke," over his shoulder. Marching towards the smart table, he scowl at Danny, who's leaning against the break room door with a smug smile on his face.
"Not a word, Danno," Steve growls warningly, pointing a finger at his partner's chest.
Thursday, 1013 hours.
Five-0 HQ, Iolani Palace.
"Welcome to the home of Five-0," Steffi declares, pushing through the glass doors into the outer office. "For the next two day, I'm going to be following the Governor's elite crime-fighting task force as they work to make our beautiful – Oh, shoot, that's not right, is it?" Pouting, she stands on his tiptoes to look at Tony over the camera. "One more time, okay?"
"Is she for real?" Kono asks, watching the ditzy brunette continue her spiel from where she's standing at the Smart table. The rookie shakes her head and then swipes her finger across the computer screen, sending an image onto the one of the monitors overhead. "What was the boss thinking agreeing to this?"
"He didn't think. That's why he's hiding out in his office," Danny tells her as he studies the photograph. Dropping his gaze back to the smart table, he sighs and runs through the list of suspects from Kono's search. "Do we like anyone else for this? The ex-boyfriend just isn't doing it for me."
"Who isn't doing what for you, Danno?" Steve asks, making Kono snort with laughter. Pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter, she giggles, "Hey, Boss. Good timing – Danny was just saying – "
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Kalakaua," Danny mutters, rolling his eyes at her. Turning towards Steve, he motions towards the computer monitors. "We were just going over our list of suspects in the Wilson case. There's something about this guy that doesn't seem right. I just dunno what it is yet…"
Steve folds his arm over his chest as he looks up at the photo on the screen and then leans over the smart table to select a video file. He sends it to the monitor in front of them and, focusing his gaze on the bottom left hand corner of the screen, taps the 'play' icon.
"This was taken from one of the traffic cams on Hikimoe Street, right?" he asks, glancing at Kono as they wait for Julie Wilson and their suspect to appear in the frame.
"Yes." She nods, her eyes glued to the back of Julie's sparkly silver dress as the young woman stumbles drunkenly in her stilettos halfway across the screen. "I tracked them as far as Halolani Street but this guy knew what he was doing – he kept his head down until they were about to turn into the alley. I wasn't able to get a decent shot of his face."
"How bad are we talking, here?" Danny queries, leaning forwards to rest his arms on the edge of the smart table.
"It's pretty bad, brah," Kono admits as she pauses the traffic cam footage and minimizes the window the start a new search. "The only camera on Halolani is at the far end of the street so I had to use the editing suite on Fong's computer to zoom in. The image quality wasn't great to begin with and zooming in only made it worse. " Her fingers fly as she types and clicking on a file, she sends it to the third monitor with a flick of her wrist. "I cleaned it up as best I could but, as you can see, the image quality is too poor to run through any of our usual databases."
"Okay, facial recognition is out," Steve concedes, glancing across the room to where Steffi is watching them all with an expectant smile on her face. Feeling minute vibrations starting up his thigh, he fumbles in his pocket for his phone and glances down at the caller I.D. It reads 'Mary' and he gestures to the reporter as he starts to wards his office. "I have to take this. Kono, could you…?"
Kono smiles weakly at Steffi, who beams at her from across the table. "Sure thing, Boss."
Thursday, 1059 hours.
Five-0 HQ, Iolani Palace.
"So, we can use the smart table to build a 3D working model of our crime scene," Kono explains, trying not to look directly into the camera. Choosing a file, she brings it up on the middle monitor overhead. "We start by using a base model using photographs from the scene and then we bulk it out using videos, satellite imagery… that kind of thing. If there are people hanging around, we'll try to get any pictures they took with their phones so our model covers many different points of view and is as detailed as possible. Does that make sense?"
Steffi cocks her head to one side, like an inquisitive Labradoodle. "You use the computer to stick together all of the photos so you have one big picture instead of lots of little separate ones. How long does something like that take?" A tiny wrinkle mars her perfectly smooth forehead as she frowns down at the model on the screen. "Do you have to confiscate peoples' phones until the model is finished?"
"No, we ask them to email the files to us or come into the office so we can transfer them," Kono replies, glancing up when the door to Steve's office swings open. "Hey, Boss, let me borrow your phone for a second," she calls to him, holding out her hand. Setting the handset down on the smart table, she taps the screen next to it and chooses 'import' from the drop down menu that appears.
"Pretty cool, right?" she grins as she scrolls through the imported files. Picking one at random, she sends the photo onto one of the big screens and then smirks as she leans back to tap Steve's bicep none-too-gently with her fist. "Can you do French braids, too?" she asks her boss teasingly, smiling at the photo of Steve carefully pulling Grace's hair into a braid before she sends it to the trash.
"That's classified," Steve deadpans, slipping his phone back into his pocket. His face turns serious and he tilts his head towards the drawn blinds along the hall. "Danny in his office? I want to run something by him before I take another look at the footage from the traffic cam."
"Yeah, he is," Kono tells him as she clears the screen and moves the rest of Steve's photos to the trash. "He went to see how Chin's getting on interviewing Julie's parents. They flew in from the mainland last night to formally identify the body. Why, did you think of something?"
H50*H50*H50
Steve strides out of Danny's officer with the detective close on his heels. "Did Justin Conrad and Julie Wilson live together?" he asks Kono as he joins her and Steffi at the smart table. "Is it in the preliminary report?"
Kono drops her head to quickly scan the file she'd pulled a few minutes early. "Should be. Yeah, here it is… Julie moved into Justin's house last summer after the got engaged." Swiping her finger across the desktop, she watched as the missing persons report that had been filed by Ashley Hunt filled one of the screens. A second later HPD's preliminary report joined it.
"So, they live together but Julie's girlfriend – this Ashley girl she was out with – is the one who reported her missing," Danny muses, resting his elbows on the tabletop as he frowns up at the monitor. "Does anyone else think that's a little off? I mean, your fiancée goes out drinking and doesn't come home, the first thing you're donna do when you wake up is try to find out where the hell she is and if she's okay. Right?"
"Right," Steve agrees, rubbing a hand over his mouth. He asks Kono," Did anyone make any attempt to contact her? By calling, text message, social media… anything?
"HPD found Julie's phone in her purse when they processed the alley where her body was found. There was a bunch of missed calls from Ashley but nothing from Justin," Kono confirms, shaking her head. Scrolling down to Ashley's statement, she scanned the first few lines and adds, "It says here that Ashley talked t Julie a little before three AM but there's nothing in the call log until the first missed call at a quarter after eight."
"So, someone deleted the call log," Steve says. "What kind of phone did Julie have?"
"An iPhone," Kono tells him with a grin, opening the photograph the crime scene photographer had taken of Julie's purse and zooming in on the meager contents that had been scattered across the tarmac.
Danny's forehead creases in confusion as he stares up at the screens. "Nope. Sorry, I don't get it," he mutters, pushing himself upright to gesture at the photography. "Is someone going to explain how our vic having an iPhone with no call history is going to help us figure out who killed her?"
Kono smirks and then turns to Steve, holding her hand out expectantly. "You're the only one with an iPhone," she reminds him with an overly sweet smile. When he reaches into his pocket, she says, "Thanks, Boss," and turns back to the computer with her prize clutched in her fist. Holding the handset at arms length, she lifts it towards the ceiling and then beckons Danny closer.
"Look at the screen," she instructs, angling the phone until the smudges on the glass screen glisten under the lights. Pointing to a mark near the top left corner, she explains, "They're latent prints - you can just about make out the ridge detail right there. Whoever deleted Julie's call history would have had to touch the screen."
"So, we might be able to lift the guy's prints," Danny concludes, flapping a hand at the photograph of Julie's prints. "Assuming he was dumb enough to touch it in the first place."
Steve nods in agreement. "Our guy was smart enough to keep his head down. Chances are, he knew not to touch anything or wore gloves. We'll be lucky if we find anything to run through AFIS." Leaning on the smart table, he closes his eyes and runs the palms of his hands up over the face before deciding, "Send the phone to Fong and see if he can get anything from it."
Pocketing his own phone, the former SEAL stands and rolls his neck, sighing when the vertebrae pop softly.
"We should talk to the fiancé, see if there's anything in the fact that he didn't try to contact her," he suggests before turning to Danny. "Did Chin say how long he would be?"
Danny nods. "He was heading back when I talked to him.
"Okay," Steve decides. "You and I will go talk to Justin. Kono, when Chin gets back I need you to sign Julie's phone out of the evidence locker at HPD and take it down to the lab for Fong to process." Turning, he pushes through the glass door into his office and leans over his desk to grab his badge, clipping the gold shield to the waistband of his cargos as he shoulders his way back into the main office space.
"Ready?" he asks, glancing over at his partner. When Danny nods, he start walking towards the exit and then pauses when he doesn't hear the tap tap tap of Steffi's heels on the tiled floor behind him. "Get a move on," he calls, already halfway out of the door. "You guys are with us."