Hawaii Five-0: Accidental Discovery
~ Part Two ~
The distinctive silver Chevy Camero drove into the parking lot, standing out among the other black and white police cars; the red and blue police lights clashing nicely with the silver paint.
Steve McGarrett pushed open his door and climbed out, taking a moment to glance over the area. The area was crawling with cops, bomb squad, and medical personal. The crime scene tape had been fully secured around the fallen building.
He turned to look at his partner, Danny Williams, as the latter climbed from the driver's seat and placed one hand on the top of the car door. "What a mess." Danny muttered, glancing around at the wreckage around them.
Steve silently agreed with Danny. The fallen building was a mess. They had been two blocks over on the way in to work when they had heard all the sirens and soon after that McGarrett's phone had rang. Apparently a body had been found during the collapse and the Governor wanted Five-0 to take over the case.
Steve closed his door and started towards the command centre that had been put up. The white tent had several police officers gathered around the four tables that had been set up under the cover that the tent provided. He frowned as he glanced over the building again. It was an office building by the look of things, but the building itself looked older then the company that was supposed to be housed in it. He made a mental note to ask what it had been originally.
The bomb squad leader was just getting off the phone as they approached and he came around the table to greet them. "You must be McGarrett." He said holding out a calloused hand to Steve. "Bill McDonald."
"Nice to meet you." Steve replied taking the offered hand. He motioned to Danny. "My partner, Danny Williams."
"How you doing?" Danny asked shaking the officer's hand.
"What happened here?" Steve asked.
McDonald motioned to the building behind them. "Some idiot decided to skirt the building inspection and opened the office for business before inspecting the secret underground bunker. It used to belong to the army, you know."
"No, I didn't." Danny replied.
"You said secret bunker." Steve asked. "It wasn't on the plans?"
McDonald snorted in amusement at the question. "It wouldn't be secret if they placed it on the plans. There were unexploded ordinances in the bunker and the construction set several of them went off." He continued. "It caused a chain reaction and then entire building went. Boom. Gone."
"Did you clear the area?" Steve asked.
McDonald nodded. "Yeah. You're clear to go in. Just watch your step." He warned them.
"What about the body?" Danny asked. "Where was it found?"
"About the same area as the bunker." McDonald replied.
"And who found it?" Steve asked.
"Her." McDonald jerked a thumb towards the dark haired woman sitting on the back of the ambulance. "Crazy doctor went back into the building after a child. One of my guys got her out. I don't care that she's Army; that woman has a death wish and I'm half tempted to lock her up for it."
Steve and Danny glanced towards the woman who was refusing treatment from a frustrated paramedic, while one of the rescue boys stood nearby.
"Good luck." The detective added seeing the look.
Steve and Danny walked over to the ambulance and heard the end of what seemed to be a very long, very angry, discussion. The woman who was doing the talking had her back to them and was angrily telling the rescue member off while the paramedic tried to clean her cuts.
"...you have no right to scold me. If you want to scold someone maybe you should start with your guys who weren't around when they were needed. That child could've died in there. Ouch!" She turned sharply to the paramedic. "Watch it."
"If you wanted to join rescue then you should've filled out an application instead of trying to impress us with you skills, doctor." The rescue coordinator replied in a tone that told Steve they'd had this conversation many times before.
"I'm happy where I am, Dan." The woman replied in a much milder tone. "You know that."
Both of them turned as Steve and Danny got within normal speaking distance and Steve was surprised to see that the dark-haired woman was Katrina Cassidy, the doctor who had saved his life a few months ago.
Katrina obviously recognized them as she smiled and let out a small laugh. "Commander Steve McGarrett; what a surprise."
"Nice to see you too, Doctor." Steve replied. He motioned to the paramedic. "This is a switch."
"Well doctors can't always patch themselves up." Katrina replied. She nodded to Danny. "Detective."
"Doctor." Danny greeted her.
Dan stepped forward. "You must be Five-0." He said and held out a hand to Steve. "Dan Gelderman, Police Rescue Coordinator."
"Steve McGarrett." Steve took the man's hand briefly and then motioned to Danny. "My partner, Danny Williams."
Danny took Dan's hand. "How you doing."
"I assume you're hear about the body we found." Dan continued.
"That's right." Steve replied. "Lt McDonald said that you found the body?" He turned to Katrina.
"Yes." Katrina replied. She slide off the back of the ambulance, landing beside Dan.
"Pardon me for asking," Danny chimed in. "But you're not rescue personal; what were you doing inside the building?"
Dan answered for her. "Any additional medical personal during an operation like this are under the control of Rescue. Usually, we don't allow the doctors and paramedics to handle things like that but occasionally we let it go."
"Occasionally?" Danny asked.
This time it was Katrina that answered. "There's a lot of military personal that work in the hospital and we help rescue out from time to time because we have the training and extra medical skills."
"I'm assuming the we would be you in this case." Steve commented.
"Yes." Katrina answered with a small smile. "Army reserve. Captain; trauma doctor."
"Ah." Danny commented. "That explains a few things." He said turning to Steve.
Steve ignored the insinuation. "Can you show us where you found the body, Captain?" He asked, using her rank instead of her salutation.
"Sure." Katrina replied. "We clear to go in?" She asked Dan.
Dan nodded. "All clear." He assured her. "Right this way." He motioned and all three of them followed Dan as he lead them under the crime scene tape and into the fallen building. Steve instinctively ducked as the ceiling over head creaked, raining bits of paster down on his head.
"You sure this is safe?" Danny asked, lowering his hands.
"As safe as it can be." Dan replied. "Just careful where you step." He warned.
"That's comforting." Danny mumbled under his breath, stumbling slightly as his foot slipped on a bit of wood.
"Here." Katrina motioned and Steve shone his light on where she was pointing. A skull lay at her feet, a bullet hole in the right temple. Steve moved in closer and bent down beside the skull.
He shone his light further down and located the pelvic bone. "Male or female?" He asked Katrina.
Katrina moved closer to the pelvic bone and peered at it. "Male." She replied after a moment. She shone her light on the skull. "Looks like Asian descent. Chinese, Japanese, maybe."
"Or Hawaiian." Danny suggested.
"Could be." Katrina agreed. She stood. "Of course, you're going to need your ME to examine it more closely, but the cause of death seems to be a gunshot wound to the right temple." She grinned. "Like it takes an expert to figure that out."
Steve couldn't help a smile. She was right; it was obvious. He stood and dug out his phone, snapping a quick picture of the body. "We're going to have to get a team out here and collect the body." He looked up as the ceiling creaked again.
"Hopefully the building still stay up that long." Danny commented.
Dan motioned to the door. "Let's get out of here." He suggested. "We can wait outside."
"Sounds good to me." Danny agreed.
The two men started towards the door. Katrina stood to follow, but stopped as she saw Steve brush away some the dirt from the body using a black latex glove.
"What did you find?" She asked.
"A watch." Steve replied. He held it up to the light. "Look's like there's something engraved on the back." He folded it up in the glove and then stood, placing the watch in his pocket. "Let's go."
Once back outside, Steve blinked in the bright sunlight as it assaulted his eyes. Dan was nowhere to be seen and Danny was just hanging up his phone. He came over to Steve.
"The lab boys will be here soon." Danny told him. "Chin and Kono are coming down as well."
Steve nodded. "Good." He replied simply. He turned to Katrina. "How long do you think the bones have been down there?"
Katrina frowned. "Fifty years or so, I'd guess." She replied. "Your ME could give you a more correct timeline."
"You thinking murder?" Danny asked Steve, shifting as his foot slide into a ditch in the ground. "Could be a suicide."
"By why hide the body?" Steve asked. "If it was a suicide then the body would be buried in the cemetery; not in an old army building."
"True." Danny agreed. His foot slide further into the ditch and then all three of them heard an audible click. Katrina and Steve froze; instincts born of experience.
"Whoa, whoa! Danny! Don't move!" Steve snapped, holding out a hand.
Danny froze in place; the fear in his partner's voice made him obey instantly.
"I think you're standing on a land mine." Steve finished. He turned to look at Katrina and saw the same look reflected on his own face. She was also thinking the same thing.
"A what?" Danny asked. He couldn't believe his ears.
"Just keep the pressure even, don't shift your weight." Steve replied urgently. "I'm going to check the area around your shoe." He carefully got down on his hands and knees and started to carefully clear away the dirt from around Danny's shoe. Fear made him move a little faster then he usually would.
"Slow down." Katrina warned Steve; getting down on the sand beside him, mimicking his posture. "You don't want to shift his foot." She told him.
"Yes; please don't." Danny interjected.
Steve didn't answer Danny. But he did take Katrina's advice and slowed down.
"How much training did you have?" Katrina asked softly so Danny couldn't hear them.
"Enough." Steve replied quietly. "And I picked up a few things here and there."
"Figures." Katrina muttered softly.
"You know now is not the time for Army vs Navy crap." Steve replied sharply, causing Danny to look down at the both of them.
"Sorry." Katrina replied apologetically. "But you do know that Army is trained for this kind of stuff. Whoa! Stop!" She ordered as the metal housing of the mine came into view. "You don't want to touch that."
"Are you sure you two know what you're doing?" Danny asked from above them. "Maybe we should just wait for someone." His tone was worried.
"It's fine." Steve assured looking up at his partner. "Just stay still. We'll have you out of this soon."
Danny didn't have a reply for that and Steve looked down at the mine again; the housing of the old mine was slightly rusted, but Steve could see serial numbers engraved into the top of the mine.
"It's old." Katrina told them quietly. She carefully brushed some more of the sand away from around the mine. "World War II I'd say."
"Could we cut the commentary?" Danny asked. "Just get it disarmed."
"We're trying." Steve told his partner patiently. "Just don't move." He turned to Katrina. "Is that good or bad?" As a Navy SEAL, he'd dealt with explosives on a regular basis but they had mostly been IEDs, not World War II land mines.
"A little bit of both actually." Katrina replied sitting back on her heels. "I know someone who has experience with these kind of mines; that's the good news." She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "And we're going to need the bomb squad just in case. Don't move." She ordered Danny.
"Don't worry." Danny replied. "I like my body parts to stay attached to my body."
Steve tuned to Katrina. "And what's the bad news?" He asked quietly.
Katrina looked up as she placed the phone to her ear. "Since it's an old mine, it's already unstable and could go off without any warning. And there could be more of them."
5-0
"This day just keeps on getting better." Danny grumbled.
The entire area had been cordoned off and all the none essential personal had been evacuated. White and black tape separated Danny from Steve and Katrina who where angrily arguing with the bomb squad commander. While Danny couldn't hear the words he knew that they were all arguing about him.
While it was nice to feel wanted, he wished it had been under better circumstances. He glanced down at the shiny grey metal of the land mine and felt the shakes start. He looked back up again. "Don't look down, Daniel." He told himself, closing his eyes for a quick second as his leg once again stilled. "Just don't look down."
It had been twenty minutes since he had stepped on the mine.
Danny looked back at Steve and saw the bomb squad Lt throw up his hands and walk off, obviously upset with what had just been said. Steve walked as close as he could to the tape without actually crossing it. "Danny!" He called.
"Yeah!" Danny hollered back.
"Lt. MacDonald has given us permission to let the Army in on this. We're going to get you out of there. Just hang on! And don't move!" Steve added.
"What do you think I'm going to be doing?" Danny yelled back. "Dancing the salsa? I don't dance, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember!" Steve yelled back. "Just keeping talking to me, Danno."
"He would have go all mushy on me." Danny muttered angrily under his breath. Steve only called him Danno when he wanted him to do something or when he was worried about him. This would certainly qualify as the latter.
"This is really turning into the perfect day." Danny muttered sarcastically, glancing up into the bright blue sky.