Title: The Murder of Danny Williams
Author: hexicode aka illman
Fandom/pairing (if appropriate): Hawaii 5-0 (2010), no pairing
Summary: Desperate to solve a quadruple murder, Danny makes the ultimate sacrifice. However, things may not be as they appear and the fallout strains more than one relationship. Not a death fic.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: non-graphic violence, mentions of violence against children. General spoilers and some detailed ones for the first couple of episodes of the show.
Disclaimers: The characters and settings aren't mine. No profit is being made, this is for entertainment only.
A/N: This story is complete and I hope to be able to update once a day. Beta-read by the lovely DianeM. All remaining mistakes are purely my fault.
oOo
"Either you take Kono as your back-up or you're staying here."
Even though the door to Steve's office was closed, Kono had no difficulty in hearing what was being said.
"That's it?" Danny spluttered in reply, hands flying. "You just lay down the law and that's it? You tell us to jump and we're supposed to ask how high?"
"That about sums it up. I am your boss, Danny, and I'm telling you that you aren't going there alone."
"Strange and there I thought we were partners! May I remind you that I actually know what I'm doing? I have investigated homicides before, you know, and unlike someone I know, I am able to question a suspect without dangling him off a roof or holding a gun to his head. If the governor didn't have your back at every turn, you wouldn't stand a chance of cracking a case!" Danny shouted heatedly.
"Then maybe you should have just stayed with HPD!"
Kono winced at the angry exchange. It wasn't their first fight over this case, yet by far the most vitriolic. She was used to her bosses bickering, but until H50 had caught this quadruple homicide, it had never turned vicious between them.
"Am I having memory trouble or wasn't it you who drafted me into your little Rambo task force without so much as asking me?" Danny's sarcastic voice was audible from the office.
"They still at it?" Chin asked, as he walked up to Kono. Chin had always had talent for keeping out of sight when trouble was brewing.
"Worse than ever," Kono replied. "Any luck?" she asked, referring to the lead Chin had been pursuing.
"Nope. HPD found a severed hand all right, but it definitely didn't come from any of our victims. The ME thinks that it belongs to a woman in her twenties to early thirties."
Kono nodded. The four dead bodies which had been found in a vacant flat two weeks ago had all been missing both hands, but the ME had estimated that even the oldest victim had been only thirteen or fourteen years old at the time of her death. As the bodies had not only been missing their hands, but also their teeth, all the usual means of identification were unavailable and the team had been unable to give a name to any of them.
The sound of a door tore Kono from her thoughts. She looked up and saw Steve striding out of his office, where Danny still stood.
"Kono," Steve turned to her in passing. "You're with Danny. I have a meeting with Governor Jameson and I want you to keep an eye on him in the meantime."
Before Kono could reply, Steve was gone.
"I can't say I envy you, cuz," Chin commented in a low voice and suddenly became very interested in a stack of files when Danny came out of Steve's office. He looked more pissed than Kono had ever seen him. Without a word, he grabbed the car keys from his desk and made for the door.
Kono suppressed a sigh and followed him, catching up with him in the corridor.
"Listen. I heard what Steve said, but I don't need a babysitter. I can handle myself." He sounded more weary than angry. Kono could understand the sentiment. The last three weeks had been trying for all of them.
"No can do," Kono answered with an apologetic shake of her head. "I'm toast if I let you go off alone."
Danny didn't reply. Shrugging to herself, Kono followed him towards the parking garage.
oOo
Neither of them spoke during the drive. Danny seemed intent on ignoring her, but hadn't made any further attempts to prevent her from accompanying him.
Without saying a word, Danny started to unbuckle his seatbelt. Kono glanced out of the window, surprised to see that they were at least two blocks from the marina. She opened her mouth to ask, when Danny spoke.
"It's better if you stay out of sight." Danny opened the door and started to get out without further comment.
"Wait a minute," Kono protested. "Are you sure you should be going in there alone?"
"Yes, I am sure." Danny started to walk away.
"But..." Kono climbed out of the car. She wasn't about to give up that easily. Steve had told her to stick with Danny and she was determined to do just that. If Danny got into trouble and she wasn't there to back him up, Steve would never forgive her and neither would she forgive herself.
Danny turned back to face Kono. "Listen. I know Steve told you to babysit me, but it isn't necessary."
Kono wanted to protest that this wasn't at all what this was about, that she would have accompanied him anyway, but the truth must have shown on her face, for Danny nodded in resignation.
"Well, the truth is I can handle myself, no matter what McGarrett thinks. I know this guy. He's paranoid, but harmless. Me going there alone is the best chance we have of getting him to tell us something useful. And I don't know about you, but I want to break this case."
Not waiting for an answer, Danny turned back around and left her standing next to the car.
Kono heaved a sigh, part resignation, part frustration and climbed back into the car. She didn't like it, but Danny had a point. Still, she didn't like this side of Danny – far too quiet, with tension fairly radiating off him, just waiting to explode. She idly wondered when the last time he'd slept. She wondered when she'd last slept, when any of them had last slept.
oOo
Danny already regretted his words to Kono by the time he rounded the corner at the end of the block. She had been working as hard as the rest of them; he really shouldn't have questioned her resolve to catch those SOBs. It was just that kind of case where they couldn't seem to catch a break, no matter how hard they worked. Danny stifled a yawn. He really needed to get some sleep, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw the dead bodies of those girls before his mind's eye. Four girls, approximately the same age as his own daughter. Girls who, according to the grizzly record borne by their bodies had lived through horrors no child should ever be exposed to, before being having their throats slit and their mutilated dead bodies dumped like last week's trash in a vacant apartment in a run-down tenement. Public outrage had been huge and now, after two weeks without so much as an ID on the dead girls, the whole case was turning into a PR disaster. The governor was breathing fire down Steve's neck as a result and had called him into an emergency meeting this afternoon.
Danny rounded another bend and the marina came into view. Spotting his informant's houseboat, he quickened his stride. The guy better be home, Danny thought. He would hate to have come all this way on a wild goose chase.
Between determination, overwork and lack of sleep, Danny never noticed how the gaze of two men among the usual crowd of tourists lingered on him just a little too long, tracking his path across the marina towards the small, ill-maintained boat moored near the far end.
oOo
Danny threw a cursory glance around the deck, which was littered with beer bottles and a plethora of other items, before heading down a small set of steps to the main cabin, gun ready just in case. He didn't trust Elroy in the least. The guy was a miserable junkie, even if he had given him the odd good tip before. However, all those cases had been drug related and this was...well, to tell truth, they had no idea what this was. Four dead girls, no ID, no nothing. It could be drugs. Hell it could be anything for all the oh-so-elite H50 task force knew. So when Elroy had left him a message on his phone, telling him that he had something to trade - because Elroy never gave anything up for free - Danny had had no choice but to follow up on the lead.
He knocked on the wooden cabin door.
"Elroy! Open up!" he shouted. No sound came from inside. Danny called out more, then tried to door handle. To his surprise, the door was unlocked. Danny pushed his way inside the dim cabin.
"El-" he started to call out once more, but before he could finish, he tripped over an object on the floor, causing him to tumble head-along into the near-darkness.
Danny painfully managed to break his fall with his knees and elbows, while at the same time, somewhere above him, a shriek pierced the air followed by a violent crash. Danny sprang back to his feet, gun in hand. The open door admitted enough light for him to be able to make out the outline of a figure brandishing a baseball bat staggering towards him.
"Elroy, that you?" Danny asked, slightly winded.
"Detective Williams?" the familiar voice of the junkie slurred and suddenly, the light in the cabin, provided by a lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling, came on. Danny blinked, then, without preamble holstered his gun, walked over to Elroy and took the bat from him, throwing the potential weapon behind the couch in the corner.
"How nice of you to pay me a visit," Elroy rambled. It was obvious that he was completely strung out on God-knew-what.
"What do you have for me?" Danny wasn't in the mood for games.
"Didn't know you were into the good stuff...anyhow, I don't share," Elroy declared sullenly.
Danny had had enough. He walked over to Elroy, grabbed the man's skinny shoulders and pushed hum hard against the wall.
"Four girls are dead. You left a message on my phone saying you knew something. You better start talking right now, or I'm going start dialing. I know some folks in narcotics who would be real interested in your business." Although it would be an easy thing to get Elroy arrested for possession with intent, the threats were mainly intended to play on Elroy's paranoid tendencies, which were most pronounced when he was strung out.
Elroy, spineless weasel that he was, caved immediately.
"All right, all right. There's this guy, we're business partners, you understand." Danny waved a hand to hurry Elroy up. He wasn't interested in some pretty dope deals right now, he wanted to get to the part where four little girls had ended up dead.
"A few weeks ago, he couldn't pay and in my line of work, I really can't give credit, but he being a good customer and all, offered me a business opportunity. Said he had dirt on some guy who was running some big trafficking thing on the island. He said if we could shake this guy down, it would pay his debt and then some!"
"Did he show you any proof?"
"Huh?" Elroy gave Danny a puzzled look.
"Did your esteemed business partner actually show you any proof of this alleged trafficking business or were you dumb enough to take him at his word?" Danny demanded in exasperation.
"You think I'm stupid? Of course, he showed me proof." Elroy dove under the couch to retrieve a strongbox. He held it out to Danny. "There's all the proof you'll need."
Danny eyed the look of the battered box and held out a hand.
"First, I'll need some assurances..."
He'd known it. Elroy always had his hand out. It would have been a minor miracle if this time had been different.
"Elroy. If whatever you got in there is for real and we actually nail those guys based on what you are giving me, you've got your assurances."
"I need protection, too."
"You got that." Danny didn't care if it was a lie. All he could see in front of his mind's eye were those dead girls. They were the ones who had needed someone to protect them, and who had been there for them? "Now, give me the key to this box and tell me the rest of the story." Truth be told, Danny didn't care much about the story at this point. In Elroy's present condition, he doubted very much that he would get anything of use from him.
Elroy rummaged through his pockets and eventually produced a small key, which he handed to Danny. Danny swiftly unlocked the box, ignoring Elroy who was nervously pacing the cluttered cabin, lost in some paranoid ramblings. Lifting the lid, Danny visually examined the contents. There was a small flash drive, two manilla envelopes and an old fashioned VHS tape with the name J.P. Deakon scrawled on the label. He pocketed the flash drive, just in case and then picked up the larger of the two envelopes.
Suddenly, just as he was flipping through the stack of what were evidently surveillance photos, Elroy grabbed him by the arm with surprising strength for a man so thin and started to drag him towards the door.
"Hey! What the hell!" Taken completely by surprise, Danny offered more vocal than physical resistance at first, that was until Elroy made a lightning-quick move and suddenly held Danny's gun aimed unsteadily at the detective.
Crap. He'd known Elroy was volatile and untrustworthy, but he hadn't thought the man to be actually dangerous. He really should have taken the hint when Elroy had nearly bashed his head in with that baseball bat earlier.
"Elroy, just put the gun down. Whatever this is, we can talk about it." Danny tried his calmest, most reasonable tone, even though deep down he felt anything but. Right now would be a very good time for the cavalry to arrive, even if he'd told the said cavalry or rather Kono, in this case, in no uncertain terms that they were neither wanted nor needed.
"Did anyone see you come here?" Elroy asked and, without waiting for an answer, he continued. "They are watching me. I can't be seen talking to the cops, especially not to you, not when you're on that special task force now." Elroy's grip on the gun was unsteady and in a physical confrontation, Danny would probably emerge the winner. For a second, he considered rushing the man, trying to overpower him. If it had been a knife that Elroy had been holding, it would have been a different story, but with a gun, the risk was too great that Danny would be seriously injured. No, he'd have to try and talk his way out of this one.
"No one was watching me, Elroy. I'm sure of it. I'm trained to notice those things, you know that," Danny fumbled, for once in his life at a loss for words. "And you are going to let me go now."
"Can't let you go. They're going to know you're a cop."
"How are they going to know?" What was it that he learned? Engage them in a dialogue, keep them talking, something like that? Danny couldn't remember.
"You have a badge," Elroy pointed out with all the logic of a three year old.
"Okay, I'm going to leave it here, so no one is going to notice anything. I'm just an ordinary guy visiting an old friend on his boat."
"Leave the tie, too."
What was it with the people on this island and his ties? Danny didn't know, but obeyed, taking off his tie and removing his badge.
Elroy nodded, seeming satisfied, at least for the moment. "Put the envelope on the table, then you can go."
Danny did as asked, secure in the knowledge that he at least had the flash drive.
Without lowering the gun, Elroy backed away from the door far enough to allow Danny to leave the cabin.
"Hurry up!" Elroy ordered, waving the gun wildly. Danny didn't need to be told twice. In rapid strides, he crossed the doorway and ascended the steps to the deck.
"If anyone asks, you were never here!" Danny heard Elroy yell from inside just as he stepped out onto the deck. Danny shook his head, a giddy laugh threatening to escape now that he was back topside and breathing fresh air. The laugh, however, remained stuck in his throat when his gaze fell on a bundle of what at first glance had seemed like nothing more than a pile of dirty old rags lying among the general mess of the deck. But the amidst the rags was clearly visible a digital clock, the red digits of which were counting down, currently two seconds from zero. Without time to make a conscious decision, Danny hurtled himself off the side of the boat facing the open ocean.
TBC