Chapter 1
He woke up like clockwork; every morning at 5am. He rubbed his eyes a few times and kicked off the sheets from his bed. He threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, ran down the stairs and grabbed his shoes before exiting the house from the back door to go for his morning workout. He did his usual; a 40-minute run followed by 30 minutes of swimming in the ocean. He loved this time of the day; just him taking in the beauty of the island before heading into work, which was at Hawaii 5-0 Headquarters. He prided himself on being the leader of such an amazing task force and he considered his team members as family or 'ohana'; Danny, Chin, Kono, and Lou. Recently they added Jerry Ortega to the team as a consultant. Jerry was quirky and odd but he really helped them out on a couple of cases.
He grabbed the towel hanging on the back of the deck chair and quickly dried himself off before entering the house. He checked his phone for messages and seeing that there were none, he headed upstairs to take a shower. As he was getting in, he realized he had run out of soap. He opened the top drawer of his vanity and it's the first thing he saw. Her toothbrush. He stared at it for a few long seconds not being able to tear his eyes from it. He didn't know why he hadn't thrown it away. Maybe, deep down, he was hoping that she would come back to him but he knew she wasn't. She had made it pretty clear to him that he wasn't enough to get her to stay in Hawaii with him. She said she needed more. She had broken his heart with those three words; shattered it into pieces. He was planning to propose to her the day she left; she had left him speechless with her decision. He just didn't get it. He was so confused. The first time she didn't come back to him, it was because she decided to stay in Afghanistan to find Najib, the son of Amir. Amir risked his life and that of his family's by rescuing her and nursing her back to health when she was stationed there a couple of years ago, so he understood her desire to return the favour and ensure that Najib was returned safely to his family. When she returned home for Kono's wedding, he thought they were finding their way back to each other; all the signs were pointing in the right direction and he was feeling optimistic about their relationship and then out of nowhere she dropped the bomb that she was leaving again, this time to Nepal to do some aid work. She said she needed to feel needed. Didn't she realize that he needed her? But she chose to leave him again and this time he had told her he wouldn't wait for her. He couldn't. He couldn't risk her coming back and then leaving yet again. He just couldn't go through with that pain and hurt all over again. He really thought they had a good thing going but what the hell did he know? He wiped both of his eyes forcefully with the back of his hand, grabbed the bar of soap and slammed the drawer hard before getting in the shower.
He sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. He grabbed the file he needed and started typing. He didn't finish writing his report last night because they had wrapped up the case so late and he was exhausted. He was in the middle of a sentence when he heard a tap on his door. He looked up to see his partner, Danny, waving and smiling at him.
Danny opened the door, walked in, and said, "Morning Steve!"
"Morning Danny", Steve replied. "You're awfully chipper this morning, which is so not like you. What's up?"
"What's up is that I get to spend the weekend with Charlie. Rachel has graciously allowed me to spend the entire weekend, and I mean the entire weekend; Saturday and Sunday with my son, which really shouldn't be considered that gracious considering he is my son and she kept him from me for the first 3 years of his life. You know, I just don't get it Steve. How could she lie about me being his father? I mean she used the whole 'you're a cop' and 'it's dangerous' excuse but why is that an issue all of a sudden? I've always been a cop. It's not like I worked in an office and then one day decided to become a cop. I'm a good guy, I work hard, I mean if I was an ex-con or something, you know, I'd understand but…."
Steve cut him off. "Danny, Danny, " His buddy had a tendency to ramble and he just didn't have the time for it today. "That's great. I am happy for you buddy."
"Thanks partner," Danny replied with a huge grin as he fished in his pocket for his phone. "I am going to call Gabrielle and see if she can arrange a private tour of the museum for us."
"You do that," Steve answered, smiling and shaking his head as he returned to writing his report.
Danny left Steve's office as he scrolled through his phone for Gabrielle's number and joined Kono, Chin, and Grover at the 'smart'' table, this is where all the cool technology tools were that helped them to solve their cases.
As he heard the three of them chatting about reality TV of all things, he called Gabrielle and she was more than happy to comply with his request of giving Charlie a personal tour of her museum.
"Thank you so much, I really owe you one," Danny said, "Charlie will love it!"
As he was ending his phone call, Steve came out of his office to join them at the table.
"Hey guys, what's up? How's everyone doing after last night?" Steve asked.
"Tired but I'm good," Chin replied.
"Ya, me too, just glad we caught the son of a bitch," Grover said roughly.
"It was a close one but thanks to Max finding that clue on the body, we got our guy," Kono said nodding her head.
"Gotta love Max!" Grover smiled, "always comes through for us."
"Ya, he really knows what he's doing," Steve agreed. Then he turned to Danny. "So, did she say yes?"
"Yes, yes she did. We are booked for 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon and then dinner," Danny replied spreading his arms wide.
"What's going on?" Kono asked.
"Oh, just Danny, trying for the 'Daddy of the Year' award," Steve said with a smile spreading across his face as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Hey, for the record, I just found out he's my son…," Danny started..
"Relax man, I'm just kidding," Steve replied, "I think it's great; you're going to have fun. Just be yourself, or on second thought….", his voice trailed off.
Grover was just about to say something when Steve's cell phone rang.
"Hold that thought Lou," Steve said as he answered the call. "McGarrett."
Steve listened for a few seconds and then stated, "We'll be there in five."
He ended the call and said, "We gotta go. We've caught a case. One of those contestants on that celebrity cooking show was found dead this morning."
"You mean 'Pulp Kitchen'? Kono asked.
"What a terrible name," Danny said shaking his head, trying not to laugh.
"Ya, that one. Let's go," Steve said as he headed towards the door.
"We were just talking about that show, how about that," Grover said as he followed Steve.
"Oh my God, I hope it's not Chris, he's so hot," Kono said as she tucked her hair behind her ears.
Chin was the last one to follow them out the door laughing and shaking his head, thinking how entertaining this team could be sometimes.
As they arrived at the victim's home, they saw several officers questioning witnesses while some of them were cornering off the crime scene with the standard yellow tape.
"What do we got Duke?" Steve asked as he approached the veteran police officer.
"Victim's name is Samantha Newman; she's a contestant on that cooking show. Her daughter found her in the kitchen this morning when she returned home. Multiple stab wounds and a blow to the head."
"Returned home? Where was she last night?" Steve asked.
"She was at a friend's house. They were working late on a school project and she decided to just sleepover. The son was at dad's," Duke replied.
"At dad's?" Danny asked raising an eyebrow.
"Parents are separated and he spend the night with the dad."
"Let's see what else we can find," Steve said as they ducked under the yellow tape and headed towards the house.
"No sign of forced entry," Steve observed as he examined the front door. They entered the home and headed towards the direction of the kitchen.
The kitchen was double the size of McGarrett's. I guess that made sense considering she was a budding chef. There was a huge marble island in the centre of the room with four bar stools. To the left of the island was a small breakfast table with a basket of lemons and limes in the centre. The cupboards spanned the entire back wall with a huge apron sink separating them in half.
Above the sink was a huge arched Roman shade window looking into backyard. The stainless steel fridge, the 6-burner gas stove, and the double ovens were to the right of island. The fridge was plastered with pictures of two kids.
Samantha's body was sprawled in front of the sink and Max was learning over her examining her body.
"What do you have Max?" Danny asked.
"From my preliminary examination, looks like the stab wounds were the cause of death but she also had a blow to the head so I won't be able to confirm anything until I complete my examination back at the office."
"How many stab wounds, Max?" Steve asked.
Max shook his head, "It's pretty bad Commander; I counted 20."
"20?", Steve repeated shocked. "That's personal."
"And overkill; do you know what the killer used to hit her over the head?" Danny asked Max looking around the kitchen.
"I'm not sure but my best guess is some sort of skillet but I don't see it in the room and we haven't found it in any of the cupboards. I'll know more once I complete the autopsy.
Steve shook his head in disbelief. "So she gets hit in the head and then the killer picks up a knife to finish the job? Time of death?"
"Based on my estimation, I'd say 10pm last night," answered Max.
"What about the knife?" Steve asked.
"CSU hasn't found anything yet and neither have we," Duke offered.
"Great," Steve muttered under his breath, "killer probably ditched them both somewhere. Duke, have your men and women look in every alley, every dumpster, every garbage can within a five block radius including that plaza 2 blocks from here. Leave nothing unturned. We gotta find the knife and the skillet. It's garbage day too so something has to turn up."
"Sure thing, Commander," Duke replied as he left the room to deliver the order to his officers.
"Okay," Steve started as he put his hands on his hips, "Kono, I want you to join HPD in the search for the murder weapons; Chin and Lou, go interview her family and friends and see what you can find out that might help us catch this bastard and Danny and I are going to interview the other contestants and crew to see if there was anything going on behind the scenes of the show that can assist us.
"Copy that," they all said at the same time and scattered to do their respective duties.
"So what did you find out?" Steve asked as the team reconvened at 5-0 headquarters just over an hour later.
"Well, you were right boss. We found the knife in one of the dumpsters behind 'Italianos'. The lab is testing it for prints and blood as we speak."
"The skillet?" Steve asked.
"Nothing but they're still looking," Kono answered.
"That might be harder to find. It could be hidden in plain sight and we wouldn't know it," Danny said.
"Chin? Lou?", Steve asked, turning his attention to the two men.
"Well, we interviewed the husband and he was truly shook up. Said he had no idea who would do this to his wife; said she had no enemies or recent altercations that could point to any one person," Lou offered.
Chin continued, "Wife had an affair and he moved out. The kids took it pretty hard, especially their 16 year old daughter. The son is nine and even though she cheated, he was willing to give her another chance. They were trying to work things out and things were going well apparently. They had dinner as a family on Saturday night. The daughter, Claire, said when she came back home this morning, she found her mom lying on the floor like that, naturally freaked, and ran out the door in hysterics and called HPD. We corroborated her story that she was at her friend's house the entire evening and even spent the night. Friend's mom confirmed it."
"Do we know who she cheated with? We need to check him out. Maybe he didn't like the fact that she was working things out with her husband," Steve said.
"That's a dead end Steve," Chin replied, "he has an airtight alibi. He was in L.A. on a business trip. Hotel surveillance puts him in the lobby bar at time of death."
"Okay," Steve said, exhaling slowly and shaking his head. "We talked to almost everyone connected to the show except one contestant, Amanda, who was a no-show. We're trying to get a hold of her because apparently she had a bit of a heated disagreement with Samantha but other than that everyone else said how nice and sweet she was, no other fights or disagreements behind the scene. They're all pretty upset over there; they cancelled filming today."
Danny added, "Everyone's alibi checks out too, so unless this Amanda lead turns up anything, we've hit a dead end too."
"Look, we've got results from the knife still pending; let's not give up hope just yet," Kono assured them.
"In the meantime, you guys go interview the neighbours and see if they saw anything suspicious in the last few days," Steve said as he walked towards his office, "Danny and I will look into the husband a little deeper; he might not have been forgiving as he says he was."
His phone rang and he picked it up on the first ring.
"Ya, Kono, please tell me you have something," Steve said with a sense of urgency in his voice.
"I wish I did Steve," Kono began, "Fong couldn't lift any prints off the knife and the only blood on it is from our victim."
"Damn it!" Steve exclaimed, pounding his fist on the steering wheel. "We've got nothing. Amanda's alibi checks out too. She was at the hospital with her kid; he got really sick last night and she spent the night there. What about the neighbours?"
"Nothing. They didn't see or hear anything that can help us. I'm going to have Fong look at the knife again. I'll call you back as soon as we have something."
"Thanks Kono."
Steve disconnected the call and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"We've got nothing Danny. Nothing. You think they'd be some of the killer's blood on the knife; they almost always get hurt stabbing someone multiple times.
"We'll get something Steve, don't worry, we always do," Danny said trying to reassure him but he wasn't so sure anymore either.
"I wanna go back and talk to the family again," Steve said. "This kill was personal. We're missing something. I'm not sure what, but my gut says we are."
"Let's do it."
"5-0, open the door," Steve said identifying himself and pounding on the door with his fist.
The husband answered the door. He was about 5'10 with black hair, deep set blue eyes, a straight nose and full lips. He was wearing dark blue jeans with a light grey T-shirt. He looked like he'd been crying.
"Did you find the killer?" he asked.
"No sir, we didn't. I wish we had better news. May we come in?", Steve asked gently. "We just have a couple of more questions we'd like to ask.
"Sure," he answered, as he opened the door all the way to allow them inside.
He led them to the back of the house and into the family room.
"Please have a seat," he offered, gesturing towards the dark green sofa.
"No, we're good thanks," Danny replied.
"Can I get you guys anything to drink? Coffee? Water?", he asked.
"No, no but thanks. We won't be long," Steve answered. "We're very sorry for your loss Mr. Newman."
"Thank you," he responded wiping a tear from the corner of his eye
"Are you sure there wasn't anyone in Samantha's life that had a beef against her? The way she was died suggests it was personal for the killer. Is there anyone you can think of."
"No, no, I honestly can't. I told those other two detectives the same thing. It's just the four of us and everyone loved her. She was so generous and had such a kind heart. I can't think of anyone who'd want to do this to her."
"Even though she had an affair?"
Danny had such a way with people sometimes Steve thought.
"Look," he started, his voice rising, "Yes, she had an affair and yes, I was devastated but that doesn't mean she wasn't a good person. To be honest with you, it was mostly my fault."
"How so?", Steve asked.
"I was always working. Sam tried to talk to me about it several times; gently trying to let me know how neglected and alone she was feeling but I didn't listen or I didn't want to listen and when I found out about the affair, she said she wanted to feel needed and loved and she wasn't getting that from me."
Steve's expression flickered to one of realization but he quickly recovered in time to ask the next question.
"So what happened next?"
"We fought. We screamed. We threw things. And then we went into counseling. It was during that time, we thought it best to live apart in order to work on our marriage and see if we could save it. And I wanted to; I love her and I always will," he said choking up, not realizing he was talking about her in the present tense, "she was everything to me."
It was at this time, that Claire walked into the room.
"Oh sorry, I didn't realize we had company," she said as she started to back out of the room.
"No, no, it's okay honey. These are detectives from 5-0; they just wanted to ask some more questions about your mom.
Steve noticed her expression change at the mention of her mom but her face instantly went back to one of sadness.
"Did you find who did it?" she asked.
"No, we didn't," Danny replied, "but we'll find him, we will," he answered as he looked at Steve. Uh-oh, he didn't like the look on Steve's face.
"What's wrong Steve?"
He lifted up his hand as a sign for Danny to stop talking.
"Claire, can you please lift your sleeves all the way?"
"Why?" she asked, getting a little nervous.
"What's going on?", Mr. Newman asked.
"Just do it," Steve commanded, his voice rising.
Feeling like she had no choice, she slowly lifted the sleeves of her T-shirt.
"How did you get those scratches?"
"Oh these," she said, looking at the red marks on her upper right arm, "my friend's cat," she finished shrugging her shoulders.
As Steve was about to ask her a follow up question, his phone rang.
"Don't move," he said as he hit the 'answer' button on his phone.
"Talk to me," he said, keeping his eyes on Clarie.
"Hey, so Fong found something. He found what could be some of the killer's blood on the knife?"
"But I thought that was a dead end."
"We thought so too but the took the knife apart and found some blood inside the hilt of the knife. We're testing it as we speak."
"Fantastic. Call me when you have something."
"Of course."
He disconnected the call and said, "Sorry about that. Look, we don't want to intrude anymore. We'll be in touch when we have some answers. In the meantime, if you think of anything, please give us a call," Steve said as he and Danny walked towards the door.
"Thanks," he replied, before shutting the door.
"What was that all about," Danny asked as they were buckling themselves up in the Camaro.
"I don't believe the daughter," Steve said, putting the car into drive.
"What? You think the daughter did it?", Danny asked incredulous
"I don't know Danny but something's not right."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
"I thought this was a partnership," Danny mumbled under his breath as Steve sped through the streets of Oahu.
A couple of hours later, Steve and Danny were back at the Mr. Newman's home.
"Back already?," he asked as he let them into the house.
"Ya, we're back. We have some new information we'd like to share with you," Steve said, as he and Danny were led into the kitchen.
Claire was sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich.
"So, what's this new information?", Mr. Newman asked.
"It looks like your daughter here has some explaining to do" Steve answered.
"What do you mean?"
Steve and Danny could sense Claire stiffening as she slowly put her sandwich down.
"Look, I don't know how to break this to you Mr. Newman, but…" Steve paused to take a deep breath, "all the evidence points to your daughter."
"Are you freaking kidding me!", he exclaimed, looking at his daughter. "You're trying to pin this on my daughter!"
"Hey, we're not trying to 'pin this' on your daughter. You really think we want to believe a daughter could kill her own mother? All the evidence points towards Claire," Steve finished.
"I don't believe this," Mr. Newman said shaking his head in disbelief, "What's this evidence you suddenly have. I mean you had nothing just a couple of hours ago."
"Well, let's see," Steve began, "first off is that Claire's friend doesn't have a cat. How she could think we wouldn't check that out is beyond us," Steve finished shaking his head.
Danny continued, "Then there's the issue of the knife. Our lab techs found blood inside the hilt of the knife and it's a familial match to Samantha's blood, which is why we came bearing this," he concluded, waving a court order in the air, "this gives us the right to take a sample of Claire's blood and compare it to Samantha's. Not only that, but we can also compare it to the skin cells we found under her nails.
Mr. Newman slowly turned towards his daughter shocked, "Claire, how do you explain this?"
By this time, Claire was sitting straight up in her chair with her eyes wide open, "It wasn't me. I didn't do it," she said desperately.
"Then how do you explain that a neighbour saw you entering your house around 9:30pm last night?", Danny asked.
"That's not possible," Claire answered defiantly, "I was at my friend's house the entire night. She's my alibi."
"Not so fast," Danny replied, "your friend gave you up after I told her she could be charged with accessory to murder. She said you left her house just after 9 o'clock and returned around 10:30pm."
Claire's face fell as she saw her story unraveling fast. "That doesn't mean anything; I didn't do it.", she reiterated as panic lined her face.
"Oh my God, Claire! Why?", her father said, covering his face with his hands, "I don't believe it. There is no way you would do this, right Claire. Tell me this is all a big mistake."
"I think I might have the answer to that" Steve said. "Crime scene investigators found some pretty damaging items on your laptop."
"My laptop, you can't do that!"
Danny chuckled, "Yes, we can and we did."
"Seems like you were spying on your mom. We found surveillance photos in your photo album," Steve explained.
"Surveillance photos?", Mr. Newman repeated, "what the hell is going on Claire? You were spying on your mom? Why?"
"From what we could gather, Mr. Newman, your daughter didn't trust her mother not to cheat on you again. We found pictures of your wife having lunch on several occasions with an unidentified man," Steve stated matter of factly.
This new piece of information left Mr. Newman reeling as he fell back against the kitchen counter.
"Oh my God," he whispered, "she was cheating on me again?" He couldn't believe it; he didn't want to believe it.
Claire jumped out of her chair, "Yes! She was cheating on you again daddy," she screamed. "That woman had no intention of making it work. I knew she couldn't be trusted after she cheated with you on the first time so I went to confront her and she denied, denied, and denied even after I showed her the pictures I had on her. I mean, in some of them, she was kissing him on the cheek. I got so angry at her for lying even with the pictures in front of her. She said she wanted a chance to explain but I wasn't going to hear any of her pathetic excuses. And then she grabbed my arm and..", at this point her anger turned to tears, "she grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving so she could explain her side but I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on and that was the skillet on the countertop and I, I...I hit her with it and then I don't know what happened. I just lost it, I was so angry with her for destroying our family. I don't know how I got hold of the knife and next thing I knew she was dead. Oh my God, I killed my mother," she finished as it finally hit her what she had done.
Danny shook his head and Steve hung his as Claire fell to the floor sobbing. Mr. Newman was still slumped against the kitchen counter, tears freely flowing down his face.
"What happens now?" he asked.
"We have to take her in," Steve responded gently. "We're not sure how the DA will want to handle this but we will make sure justice is served."
As Danny walked over to Claire, Steve said, "Just so you know, your mom wasn't having an affair. You should have listened to her. The man she was having lunch with was her colleague's boyfriend. He's in the travel business and she was planning a big surprise trip for all of you after she wrapped up the show."
Mr. Newman's face snapped up as did Claire's. "Oh no, Oh no, no, no…", she whimpered, as Danny led her out the door, no cuffs.
They left Mr. Newman standing in the kitchen with a vacant expression across his face.
"I don't know about you, but I need a drink after today," Danny stated as they left 5-0 headquarters and walked towards their cars.
This case was tragic in every sense of the word.
"You know what Danno? I need one too. I'll buy."
"You'll buy?", Danny repeated laughing. "Let me see your wallet."
"My wallet? Why?"
"Really, Steve, really?"
Steve laughed as he got into his truck. "I'll meet you at Tiki's."
Steve unlocked the front door of his house and threw his keys on the coffee table. He walked into the kitchen for a tall glass of cold water and quickly drank it. He rinsed and dried his glass before putting it back in the cupboard and headed upstairs to his bedroom.
Another long day. Steve was dead tired. He took a quick shower, got into bed and fell asleep as soon as he hit the pillow. He dreamed of her.
She slowly opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. She was in a small room with cement walls. It was dark, dingy, and reeked of urine and sweat. There was a single lightbulb dangling precariously from the centre of the ceiling. She tried to push her hair back from her face but quickly realized they were tied behind her back. She looked down at her feet and realized they were also tied up. She took a deep breath; it hurt all over. She felt like her whole body was on fire. Her ankles hurt from the chains and she tasted blood around her mouth. She tried to remember what happened but it was all so hazy.
Her mind drifted to happier thoughts. A day didn't go by when she didn't think of him. His beautiful eyes, his sexy smile, those arms that hugged her tight, those lips that kissed her so passionately and gently. God, she loved him so much. She didn't want to leave him but she had to; she had to in order to protect him and ensure his freedom.
She uttered his name, "Steve".