A/N: Thanks to everyone who left reviews! I wasn't expecting that many to be honest, so thank you : ). Because of those reviews, I had the inspiration to write more! Also, I changed the victim to a girl (instead of a man) because I thought it would be easier. But here's the next chapter, Enjoy!
Chapter Two: White Pills
Damaged Chemistry
Danny Williams sighed as he exited his car, following his partner. The two excused their way to the yellow police tape, flashed their badges, and ducked under it fluently. "What are we looking for?" Danny asked as the two approached the body that was covered with a white sheet.
"Anything," Steve shrugged, walking up to a couple of officers. "Five-0," He flashed his badge as one officer stepped forward, obviously the leader of the force that was sent out. "I'm Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett. This—" He jerked a thumb to Danny, who was standing about two feet behind him. "-is Detective Danny Williams."
The officer nodded, glancing at the two men. "Nice to meet you boys; I'm Jacob Matthews. My team and I were the first ones to arrive at the scene. Here is all we know," Officer Jacob Matthews handed Steve a white folder. "Inside is everything you need to know. The cause of death, time of death, any witnesses. . ."
"Thanks," Steve mumbled, taking a quiet step back as he opened the folder, quickly scanning the 4 pages. Danny stepped forward, addressing the officer.
"Have you talked to any of the witnesses?"
"No," Jacob shook his head. "We've been down here all day just trying to keep the media out of our hair." At the word 'media', Steve and Danny both looked up and towards the crowd of people that had gathered. Many had cameras, and Steve even noticed a news truck sitting at the corner.
"We're going to need these people out of here," Steve ordered, turning to the officer. "Why are they still here?" Jacob sighed.
"I don't have the. . .authority. . . to kick those bastards out."
"Well I do," Lt. Commander McGarrett said, "And I want those people out of here. Now."
"Sure thing, Boss man," Danny whipped out his iPhone and 15 short seconds later, he ended the call. "The… uh… people are gonna be gone in a few."
"Good." Steve had his nose in the folder, looking through it. Danny squinted his eyes, focusing them on his friend, his partner.
"What's wrong with you?"
Steve rolled his eyes, slapping the folder closed. "You have asked me that like 3 times today." Danny smirked, shaking his head.
"Only once, which was…if I happened to recall, just now."
"Well, Daniel, nothing is wrong with me. Nothing will be wrong with me. And if you leave me alone, nothing will be wrong with you," Steve smiled sweetly, before adding, "Happy?"
"Very, very," Danny smiled back. Steve rolled his eyes and turned back to the uniformed officer.
"Can you show us the body?"
"Of course."
Danny and Steve followed a couple feet behind. Danny turned to his partner. "When did we become forensic…geeks…?"
"I want to look at the body, Danny."
"Fine, fine," He held up his hands in defense. "I'm just askin'."
The two knelt down as he pulled the sheet down, allowing the victims face to be shown. It was bloated and gross-looking; but you could still tell it had been a woman. "What can you tell us about the vic?" Steve had handed Danny the white folder a moment earlier, allowing the detective to open it.
"Um… Teresa Hartley. She's 24, not married. No children. Apparently she's single," Danny shot a look at the bloated body in front of him. ". . .which is a crime all in itself. This woman is gorge—"
"Stick to the case, Danno."
"—right, right," He flipped a page. "Uh. . .apparently she has no family. She's new to Hawaii. She just moved here. . ."
"When?"
"Yesterday," Danny looked up from the folder. "She was here for one day and she's already dead." Steve sighed as he stood up, stretching his legs and looking around.
"Welcome to Hawaii, Miss Hartley. Welcome to Hawaii."
Danny threw the white sheet back over the body before standing up. He waved a couple EMT's over before they set the body on a stretcher and sent it away. The HPD had already looked it over for any fingerprints, but it had come up empty. The body was a dead end. "Where to from here? We have no leads," Danny said. He closed his eyes a little, staring at Steve through the slits in his eyes. The sun was bright, and bearing down on the two. A bead of sweat appeared on Steve's forehead.
"We make a lead," Steve replied. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed Five-0 headquarters.
"How?"
"Three words," He looked over at Danny, "Kono and Chin."
"It's Steve," Kono raced around the desk and grabbed her iPhone, putting it on speaker. Chin put down his tablet he had currently been using and walked over to the desk, joining Kono.
"Kono?" Steve's voice came over the phone loud and clear.
"I'm here Steve, so is Chin. What did you guy's find?"
"We found a dead Teresa Hartley. Does she sound familiar?"
Kono and Chin looked at each other, but only for a second. The two shook their heads. "Is she supposed to sound familiar?"
"Well, usually these people have lots of money; but this woman has nothing. No children, she's not married; and get this, she just moved to Hawaii yesterday."
"Hadn't even been here a day…" Chin mumbled, looking up at Kono. He turned and spoke more into the phone, so Steve could hear him. "Is she in a relationship at all? Any jobs?"
"That's just it," Steve sighed, "Apparently she was unemployed."
"Of course she was," Kono groaned. From the looks of it, they didn't have anything to build off of. "How about family members?"
"They're all back in the States."
"Of course they are," Chin mumbled. In the background, there was commotion. "Yo, Boss man, you still there?" After a moment of silence, Steve was back on the line.
"Yeah, sorry; Danny found something. One of the EMT's spotted a scorpion looking tattoo, on the back of Teresa's wrist."
"You think she's part of a gang or something?" Kono implied.
"No, no. . .I'm thinking it's a stamp, not a tattoo. This probably came from this karaoke bar and club down the street from here. Danny and I are going to go check it out, see if anybody saw her there recently. While we do that, I want you guys to try and dig up anything about this girl."
"But Boss, we're running on nothing. No leads, no nothing," Chin stated. The two cousins looked at each other, confused. Usually Steve would give them more evidence, more anything to work off of. They didn't even know where this girl used to live.
"That was an order." The next thing to two heard, was the dial-tone blaring in their ears. Kono jabbed at the screen, ending the call.
The two shared another look; a look filled with worry, sadness, and maybe even loss. A loss of what you may ask? A loss of a person. Lt. Commander Steven McGarrett didn't always follow protocol, he might not talk as much as Danny, and he might not even finish all of his required paperwork, but he had been the best boss Chin and Kono had ever had.
The four of them had been working together for a good while, long enough to know what makes each one tick. And they were going to figure out what was wrong with Steve.
Danny loosened his black tie that hung neatly around his neck. He was breathing heavily as he looked up at the sun and shielding his eyes. He then turned and looked at Steve, who didn't look fazed at all, considering the heat that was bearing down on them. "Well, I don't know about you," Danny said out of breath, "But I would've taken the car."
They had left the car at the docks, considering the club they were looking for was only a couple blocks away. Normally, a couple of blocks away was an easy walk, but the temperature had jumped from 75 degrees and breezy, to 89 degrees and humid in a matter of an hour.
Hawaii weather, Danny thought, shaking his head.
Steve remained silent as he walked down the sidewalk. The sidewalk was pretty empty, but it didn't shock anyone. It was hot outside.
"Okay," Danny had to do an awkward jog, walk, run-thing to help him catch up with Steve. He turned on his heels and stopped, putting up a hand. Steve stopped immediately, looking down on Danny.
"What?" It was the first word he had uttered since hanging up with Kono and Chin about 20 minutes ago. Danny stared at him, not sure of his reply.
"'What'?" He mocked Steve, "Let me tell you what… All I know is, we're walking in this 90 degree weather—"
"Eighty-nine degrees, actually…"
Danny clamped his mouth shut and sighed. "Look, have you even thought this out? So we're going to this club for what?"
"A lead," Steve said in that 'obviously' tone of voice. Danny nodded his head quickly, rolling his eyes. "Where are you going with this?"
Danny closed his eyes and sighed once again. He felt the heat on his back and the sweat that soaked the back of his shirt, and he opened his eyes again. Steve had made a good point; a very good point. He wasn't going anywhere with this slow developing rant.
". . .that's what I thought," Steve added when Danny made no comeback. Steve then put a hand on his friends shoulder, and gently shoved him out of the way, only to keep walking.
Feeling defeated, Danny followed Steve, but at a distance.
Kono and Chin stared at each other, and then back at the glass door that stood closed in front of them.
Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett was the print on the door.
"We really shouldn't," Chin said, worried. "It's Steve's office; and what's in Steve's office, is none of our business."
"I know, cuz, but Steve is not only our boss, but our friend; and if he's acting weird, shouldn't we know why?"
"If he wanted us to know what's up, then he would've told us."
Chin had a valid argument on his hands, but Kono wasn't backing down. She wanted to know what was bothering their boss, whether her cousin participated in helping her or not. "Chin, are you going to help me figure this out or not?" Chin sighed and turned around, looking at the four plasma TV's that hung in the room, hoping and praying his answer would pop up on the screen, but sadly, it didn't. All he saw was a picture of Teresa Hartley two day before her death; and her driver's license. Chin Ho turned back to his cousin.
"Fine, I'll help."
Two minutes and one picked lock later, Kono and Chin stood in uncharted territory; Steve McGarrett's office. The room was a good size; a sofa was on the side, a coffee table sitting in front of it. On the other side of the room was an oak desk, with two plush chairs sitting in front of it, for any guests. The room itself was messy, but the desk was a whole 'nother problem.
Many different folders and files were sprawled on the desk; some folders open, others not. Loose papers hung to the desk, mixed up in only an order that Steve himself would understand. The light on his computer was flashing green, signaling its current mode: sleep.
A Starbucks coffee cup sat off to the side; it didn't even look touched. The blinds behind the desk were shut tight, not allowing a peep of sunlight to stream through.
Kono shook her head, allowing a tiny smile to creep upon her lips. "He has the best view out of all of us, and he keeps his blinds closed." Chin chuckled as the two stepped further into the room, inching their way.
The only reason someone was to be in this office was if Steve invited them in; but no one just walked in un-invited. "I feel guilty just breathing in the air in here," Chin said as Kono made her way to Steve's desk, rummaging through the paper.
"Well get over it, Cuz."
Chin sighed, "What are we even looking for? Steve's just in a bad mood…"
"That's what I thought," Kono replied, "But then I started thinking… He's been having mood swings; grumpy one minute, semi-smiling the other."
"Semi-smiling?"
Kono waved off her cousin's smile. "You know what I mean, Cuz," She looked up from the desk, her hand resting on a cracked drawer. It had been opened recently, but Steve had failed to close it all the way. "There is really, truly only one reason for mood swings."
"What?" Chin laughed, easing up a little. "He's slowly transforming into a girl and having a period?"
Kono ignored his comment and met his eyes. "Drugs."
The evidence of Steve's behavior recently would suggest such a thing, but those two words don't go together, and Chin knew that. He laughed this time, truly laughed. "Come on, Cuz…"
"It would explain everything."
"It would," Chin nodded, "But we aren't talking about just anybody here. We're talking about Steve, an ex-SEAL who knows the affects of drugs."
"I know, but—"
Kono suddenly stopped talking. Chin looked up from his position around the desk, eyeing his cousin. "What's wrong?"
She reached into the drawer and pulled out a tiny clearish orange bottle with a white top. It almost looked like a prescribed pill bottle, but the labels around the bottle were gone. But it's not what was on the outside that stopped Kono, it was what was on the in.
White pills.
A/N: Whaddya think!? Is Steve taking drugs? Or is it just a misunderstanding? And if it isn't, do you think they should approach Steve?
Leave any Ideas you guys might have! They help! I hope I didn't disappoint!
