Danny got into his car and had driven a few blocks when he decided he was going to call Chin to see if he wanted to grab a Long Board at the Hilton. He didn't need to though; he realized when his phone rang a minute later. "Hey Chin, what's up? I was just going to call you." he said to his friend and team member.
"How's the concert brah?" he asked, with a small chuckle.
"Oh, actually it's going pretty great." Danny replied.
"Grace having a good time?" Chin asked, and then continued. "It sounds really quiet at your end, Danny. Did you find refuge from the screaming girls outside or something?" He teased.
Danny sighed. "No, even better actually. I was heading to the Hilton for a drink and thought you might like to join. And Grace is having the time of her life, thanks to SuperSEAL and his sidekick, World's Largest 12 year old girl." he grinned to himself in the car.
"Uhh, okay then." Chin really didn't know what to say, so he segued to his reason for calling. "Are you saying that Grace is with Steve at the concert? 'Cause he isn't answering his phone and we have a case."
"Oh," the New Jersey native said, as he changed his driving route to drive back to the Stadium. "It's a long story, but let's just say that he probably has no idea his phone is even ringing, whether it's because of the music, or the other screaming girls in the pit is anyone's guess, but my money's on the girls." He took another left, which meant he was only a few blocks from the Stadium once again. "I'm heading back to get him now, you want us to meet you and Kono at HQ then?"
"Actually," Chin stated, as Kono walked into the office behind him. "Kono's here now, and we'll meet you at the Stadium. The case is right there. Somebody working at the concert tonight called in a body outside one of their equipment trailers."
Danny tossed his hands in the air as he was stopped at a red light the block before the Stadium. "That's just great," he said. "This will go really far in helping me convince Rachel that danger doesn't follow me and that Grace is perfectly safe here with me on the island." he let out a giant sigh as the light turned green. "Alright, I'm pulling into the parking lot now; I'll find Steve and meet you guys in the front."
Chin agreed and the men hung up. Kono was standing at the opposite side of the smart table to her cousin. "That isn't going to help him convince a judge that he should get custody of Grace either," she said, sadly. She too let out a sigh and asked Chin what they had so far.
"A call came into HPD about half an hour ago, the caller reported finding a body when he was going over some of the band's gear in their equipment trailer."
"Okay," she replied slowly. "Why did HPD call us in?"
"Actually, HPD called Governor Denning, who called McGarrett, and when he couldn't get McGarrett, he called here and I was still here finishing up some stuff, so he got me." he answered. "Turns out, Steve is already at the stadium with Grace, and whoever Danny meant by 'the world's largest twelve year old girl."
Poor Kono wasn't any less confused, which was obvious by the look on her face. "Yeah," Chin continued. "He lost me there, too. But we were called in because, everyone that came with the band and crew is MIA, and they are the only ones who had access to the loading and unloading bays of the stadium."
"So, do we know who placed the call?" she asked.
"No, we know it came from the stadium, but the voice was distorted, and of course they didn't give a name." he explained.
"So are we thinking it's someone travelling with the band?" she asked.
"Yeah, which means,-" Chin started.
"In a couple hours when the concert is over and the band is gone to their next city, so is our killer." Kono finished for him.
Chin nodded. "So we've gotta find him before that happens. Let's go, Max and Fong are already on their way." Kono nodded as they headed towards the big glass doors out of their offices.
Meanwhile, Danny could not believe what he was about to do. Getting to the front of the stage by trying to meander his way through some boy-crazed girls was not how he saw spending his night. But, he had no choice. Finally, after getting elbowed in the side for what felt like the tenth time, he spotted Steve with Grace and Kamekona right beside them, singing along as much as the other girls.
"Steve!" He called out from behind, but quickly realized he had no hope of being heard. He grabbed his friend's elbow to get his attention.
"Stacy, for the last time! You-" Steve turned around, stopping his sentence when he realized it was Danny, and not the same young girl who'd been trying to cling to him since the show started. "Danny," he yelled as loud as he could. "See, I told you Grace is fine with us," he smiled.
"Steve," Danny also yelled. "We have a case," he said as loudly as possible. "Get Grace and the big guy, we gotta go!"
"What?" Steve yelled again, unable to make out what Danny had said. Thankfully, the band had just finished up a song, which left them with a few seconds to communicate at an audible level.
Danny was especially glad, because he didn't want to yell that a body had been found outside, just in case anyone around them could in fact hear him. "We have a body, outside, here. Chin and Kono are on the way, so we gotta go," He motioned to his daughter and Kamekona as well.
Steve looked over and saw both of them shedding a tear as the next slow song started. He sighed and looked back at Danny, who had also noticed the waterworks. "Go get the stadium manager and whoever's in charge of this show," he ordered his partner. "I'll get them out, and meet you in the lobby."
Danny nodded and reached over to give Grace a quick hug. He couldn't believe he was in another situation like this, where his daughter was among the large group of people who could potentially get hurt if things didn't go smoothly.
He sifted his way back through the crowd and out to find Chin and Kono. "Okay, so what do we know?" he asked the cousins.
"Max is at the crime scene," Kono explained. "His preliminary observations revealed the deceased was a victim of an electrocution via ultra-magnetic current." Garnering a couple curious looks from her fellow team members, she shrugged her shoulders with a tiny grin. "Word for word what Max said. It is Max, you guys." They all nodded in agreement, before Danny spoke once again.
"So we need to get the tour manager out here as soon as possible so we can stop this whole crew from leaving tonight." he said as he got his ear piece in.
"Only one problem," Chin stated. "We called on the way over after we talked to Max, and the band's manager has a strict no visitors or phone calls policy while his group is on stage. Says he has to focus on their every move, so they can study their mistakes and become better performers," he finished, rolling his eyes.
"Wow, okay." Danny said, taking in the information. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all," he continued as an idea came to him. He looked at Kono. "Have you ever wanted to be one of those groupie girls who sneaks backstage at a concert?" he asked her.
Kono chuckled. "Not really, but when in Rome," she gestured to the general concert atmosphere. "Or should I say, tween girl Heaven?" she smirked as Steve, Kamekona and Grace walked up to them.
"Ahh, world's largest twelve year old girl," Chin smiled as Kamekona blew his nose into a tissue. Him and Danny shared a quick laugh as Steve got his ear piece set up and asked Chin what the situation was.
Danny leaned over to Kamekona. "Big guy, if you can keep it together long enough, can you take Grace back to my place until all this blows over? We, uh, have a situation here and I don't want her, or you, for that matter to get anywhere near it, okay?"
The native Hawaiian took a second to compose himself. "Sure thing brah. Maybe we can listen to her CDs, talk about our favourite songs." he smiled.
"Sounds like fun," Danny nodded. He bent down and apologized to his daughter for interrupting her concert, but promised to make it up to her, as he always did. They shared a hug, and after hugging Steve once more, her and Kamekona were heading out to his jeep.
"Okay," Steve said as he put his hands together. He was briefed and ready to take control of his team now. "Kono, see if you can get around the crew, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Keep us in the loop with whatever you find. And if you find them, do not go in alone, okay? Let me know, and we'll back you up. " She nodded, putting in her ear piece. "I'm going to go buy a t shirt or something, you know, to look the part."
"Good thinking," Steve nodded. "Just be careful, okay?" he wanted to stress it to her.
"Don't worry boss," Kono smiled as she started towards the merchandise stands. "I'll be fine." She waved as she took off for the hallway that led to the backstage area. Steve was always conscious of the fact that Kono was still technically a rookie. It wasn't too difficult to overlook that though, considering how good she was at her job. Still, he always felt the responsibility to protect her a little more strongly because of her inexperience.
"Chin, we need to get all these people moved out of the stadium." Steve continued as Chin nodded. "Find the stadium manager and come up with something to get all these people out with as little panic as possible. A crowd this size, the last thing we need is mass confusion and fear mixed together."
"Wait," Danny spoke up. "Um, did all that screaming inside affect your risk reducing skills?" he asked. "Because, for all we know, our killer could have blended back into the crowd. So, I'm thinking if we evacuate the crowd, we are basically giving our guy his ticket out of here."
Steve looked at his partner, thinking. "Okay, first of all, Danny, I'm pretty sure that the only way our guy could blend into the crowd without being noticed easily, is if he was a twelve year old girl. And I'm no detective, but I don't think a tween girl is behind this." he stood with a hand on his hip, the other one waving as he spoke. "And second, do you have a plan to interrogate every one of the two thousand plus people here tonight? 'Cause, I think by the time we do that, our guy could have swum to the mainland from here."
"That's funny," his smaller blond friend replied. "And yes, unlike you, I do have a plan, thank you. You see, unlike you, I believe in back up. This is why we have dozens of very capable HPD officers, Steve. They are highly trained to interrogate people, so you could even call them a backup plan, if you so choose." he smiled.
"Yeah." Steve replied. "And if he's not in the crowd, and opens fire on the place while we are hunting him, how long do you think it'll take that 'back up' to tell all those parents their children were shot, hmm?"
"Whoa, there Rambo, who said anything about guns? You heard what Max said, the guy was electrocuted. Why do you jump to the conclusion that our guy has a gun?" he was talking in a very animated way, thinking about his strong views on gun control. "Newsflash, my friend, not everyone is like you, not everyone loves guns like most people love their mothers!" He instantly realized he'd put his foot in his mouth in a very big way.
Steve shot him a look, but was way too focused on the tasks at hand to say anything about it in the moment. There was always time for those kinds of conversations when they were in the car together, Steve thought.
Getting back on task, he turned to Chin. "Get Duke in here, and work with his men to divide all these people up into small groups and out of the stadium. While you're there, see what you can get from the security cameras, maybe we'll catch someone coming or going that shouldn't have been back there. Keep me in the loop with whatever you learn about the band manager," he tapped his ear bud and Chin nodded. Steve looked at his partner. "Danny and I are going to see the band, but we have to time this just right, or else we'll either piss off the band when they see their audience walking out in a hurry, or-"
"Or we'll scare the audience half to death when we storm the stage to talk to the band." Danny finished for him. He knew the fact that he could finish McGarrett's sentences meant he had definitely spent way too much time so far away from his beloved Jersey. He needed a vacation, he reminded himself as they agreed they'd storm the stage as the stage hands, under direction from Chin, closed the curtains. He dialed Sgt. Lukela's number as Steve and Danny headed for a different branch of the hallway Kono had gone down a few minutes earlier.
Chin found the stadium manager, and they co-ordinated with Duke and HPD as well as Steve and Danny to have the curtains closed seconds before they entered the stage area.
"Hey, Barry! What gives, man?" The lead singer of the band yelled out towards stage left as the curtains closed. It was where the stage hand had been standing only a few minutes earlier, but he person staring back at him now definitely was not Barry the stage hand.
"What gives, man," Steve McGarrett replied, as him and his partner approached the teen idols, "is that someone was killed outside your trailers a little while ago, and we think someone from your crew had something to do with it."
"What's this about then mate?" Another one of the young boys piped up. "You can't think one of us lot did it," he motioned to his band mates. "We've been on this stage for almost two hours, between rehearsing and the start of the show."
"Where is your manager?" Danny asked, approaching another one of the guys.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" a tall, well dressed English man barked as he approached Steve. "And who the hell are you, and who the hell gave you permission to take over my show like that?" he continued to bark directly at Steve.
Steve didn't miss a beat though. "Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, head of the Governor of Hawaii's special task force." he replied in a strong tone as he flashed the man his badge. "And had you taken the call from my team about half an hour ago, you would know exactly what's going on here." He let that sink in for a minute before continuing, although he had no intention of backing down. "Or maybe, you already know exactly what's going on here, Mr. Philips."
"McGarrett, was it?" The man asked, also not backing down. "I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about." he spat back defensively, his accent becoming even more thick. "And I have a hard time believing that some special task force team would go through all this trouble just to get a guy for a little bit of unpaid taxes," he added.
Steve was about to lay into the man when he heard Kono in his earbud. "Boss, we've got a problem." Was all she said.