Hawaii Five-0
Midnight Harvest
Chapter 2 – Missing Pieces
After getting out of his car, Danny immediately noticed the looks on the other cops' faces, which only confirmed his feeling that this case was going to be a bad one. Walking up to the crime scene, Danny was met with Steve with the same look on his face.
"It's bad isn't it?" Danny asked.
"Yeah" Steve replied as Danny followed him over to the crime scene.
"Sorry you had to cancel your welcome home plans with April and Jessica"
"Its fine, Jessica was exhausted anyway" Danny stated.
"We'll catch up later"
After walking under the crime scene tape, they walked over to where the body was being examined by Max while Lou watched on; Chin and Kono were talking to HPD and the passers-by who discovered the body.
"Hey Lou, Max" Danny called.
"Hey" Lou acknowledged.
"Detective Williams, I hear your sister and niece came home today" said Max.
"Yeah, they did, but I prefer that we didn't talk about them here" said Danny.
"That's perfectly understandable" Max acknowledged.
"So what do we know about our vic?" Danny asked.
"Obviously our vic is female, between thirty and forty years old" Max stated.
"Okay, what about an ID?" Danny asked.
"She was found with no clothes, purse or ID" Lou replied.
"We ran her prints through AFIS, also nothing" he added.
"Do we have time of death?" Danny asked and was met with that look again.
"What?" Danny asked. "What's with the faces?"
"Tell him Max" said Steve.
"Tell me what?" Danny asked.
"What Commander McGarrett is referring to is the fact that all of our victim's vital organs are missing, therefore, making it extremely difficult to get a liver temperature;" Max stated as pulled away the sheet covering the woman's body, showing the various surgical wounds on the woman's torso.
"Geez" Danny exclaimed.
"Yes indeed" Max concurred.
"However given the condition of her skin and her wounds, I would hazard a guess that she died between midnight and two a.m."
"Alright, but her body was only found two hours ago" Danny stated.
"This means she was dumped here very recently"
"Yeah, that would corroborate with our passers-by story who found the vic" said Kono as she and Chin walked up from behind.
"Plus, the fresh tyre tracks close by"
"They went through here yesterday afternoon on their way to a friend's party in Haleiwa, said there was nothing out of the ordinary" Chin added.
"We also asked if they recognised the woman; said they've never seen her before" he stated as he looked over at Lou who was observing Max.
"Alright, well she's obviously somebody" Steve stated.
"Let's run her face through facial rec. and run it through missing person's databases; do the same with her DNA"
"You think we could be looking at someone selling human organs on the black market?" Chin asked.
"Yeah, maybe" Steve replied. "Or maybe something bigger"
"Like what? An organ trafficking ring?" Danny asked.
"Let's also check the missing person's database for people recently reported missing"
"Think we could have more victims?" Kono asked.
"I hope not" Steve replied, looking down at the victim.
"Another question we should be asking is why did they dump the victim here?" Lou asked.
"Why on the side of the highway and not buried in the forest?
"They probably didn't care if she was found or they wanted her to be found" Chin answered.
"It's also quite possible our killer made sure that we wouldn't find any traceable evidence leading back to them" Max stated.
"Yeah well, I don't care how good our killer is at cleaning up after themselves" Danny stated.
"You kill somebody, you always leave something behind"
"Well I ensure you Detective Williams, I will be extremely thorough when recovering any trace evidence" Max assured him.
"For that, I have no doubt" Danny replied.
"Let us know when you've got something Max" said Steve.
"Indeed Commander" Max nodded.
As Steve and Danny drove away from the crime scene and headed back to headquarters, they sat in silence for a few moments before Steve decided to make conversation to relieve the somewhat awkward silence in the care.
"So… How are April and Jessica anyway?" he asked Danny.
"They're good" Danny replied. "Tired from the their flight, but good"
"That's good" said Steve.
"Listen um, I know you said were going to catch up with them later, but you remember that Mary, Melissa and Kono were going to hang out tonight right?" he asked.
"Kono's still going to go in the middle of a case?" Danny asked.
"I think we can cope working this case without Kono for one night Danny" Steve replied.
"Okay, are you suggesting that April go along with them?" Danny asked.
"I mean I know you said she was tired from the long flight and all…we could hang out instead" Steve suggested.
"I'll call her and ask" Danny replied.
"You don't mind?" Steve asked.
"No, I mean she lives here, it's not like I'm never gonna see her and Jess" Danny replied.
"Besides, I think it would good for April to catch up with the girls since she's been away so long"
"Did she tell you why she was away so long?" Steve asked.
"No she didn't, but I still don't think I need to ask her that question" Danny replied.
"I still think it's pretty obvious why April stayed in New Jersey so long"
"Yeah it is" Steve agreed.
"Besides, I think it's best to let April tell us herself" said Danny.
"If April decides to go out tonight, she's gonna ask me to babysit Jessica; I obviously can't do that…I'll get April to call her neighbour, Molly to see if she can babysit her…"
"…and Lucy; don't worry about Joan, Mary's already got that covered" Steve added.
"What?" Danny asked.
"What do you mean what? I need somebody to watch Lucy as well" Steve replied.
"Ever since I told Lucy that Jessica was coming home, she's been ecstatic"
"Right, she's definitely yours" Danny stated. "Alright, but April's only paying for my Jessica"
"Obviously I'm not going to ask April to pay for my daughter to be babysat" Steve stated.
"You're a real gentleman, you know that" Danny said sarcastically.
"Uh huh" Steve smiled.
"Now all you have to do is convince April to go out tonight"
"I think I'll be able to convince her" said Danny, as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to call his sister.
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific – Punchbowl Crater, Honolulu
After Danny had dropped them at home, April didn't stay there long. Initially, April was going to ask Danny to take them to the cemetery before going home, but obviously, plans had to be changed when he was called into work.
Once April had placed Jessica, who was now wide awake, in her stroller, they headed over to where Michael was buried. It would be the first time in a year since April and Jessica had come to the cemetery, and April felt somewhat guilty that she had not come to visit her husband's grave in so long. It was part of the reason for her and her daughter's return to Hawaii.
After arriving at Michael's burial site, April picked Jessica up from the stroller, walked over and sat down with Jessica in her lap. April leant over and brushed away the leaves on the grave marker with her right hand before placing her hand on the marker; Jessica followed suit when she saw what her mother was doing, copying her as she brushed the leaves away and placed her right hand on the marker, next to her mother's.
"I'm sorry we haven't been to see you in a while" April said quietly, wrapping her left arm around Jessica and holding her close.
"I've missed you"
"Missed you" said Jessica.