*H50*

Chapter 2

Five-0

Steve couldn't shake the picture of Danny's haunted face in his head. Something wasn't right with his partner, and he'd suspected that the time off of work hadn't been helping him, so much as hindering. He sat at his desk, eyeing the stack of paperwork he'd meant to do, but still hadn't gotten around to. He pushed back into his chair, looked up through the glass office wall at Chin tapping away at the Smart Table.

"Chin, come in here." He called through the open door, and his friend hadn't hesitated.

"Steve?" He'd pulled a chair up opposite his boss.

"Have you spoken to Danny this morning?" Steve asked, looking at the time. It was 09:34am, and if Danny was going to show, he was pretty sure he'd have done it by now.

"No, I haven't spoken to him since the day before yesterday. Why do you ask?" Chin shook his head, didn't miss the concern in McGarrett's eyes.

"He seemed off last night. Something isn't right." He voiced his concerns. "He said he'd be in today, and he hasn't showed."

"Have you spoke to Catherine about it?"

"Yeah, she's going over to check on him before coming in herself. She thinks he just needs time." Steve waited, watched for Chin's reaction and felt a little relieved when the tension in his shoulders didn't ease.

"He took quite the beating." Chin nodded. "But he's had worse."

"I just can't shake this feeling..." Steve sighed, ran his hand through his shorter hair.

"I can do a trace on his cell? Maybe see if he's made any calls to worry about? Make sure he's tucked away safely at home?" Chin offered, feeling the stress his boss was under. "I'll need ten minutes at the most."

"Thanks Chin." Steve nodded, a little relieved someone was taking him seriously, knowing that Danny would understand if he found out. Chin smiled, got up and headed straight for the smart table again, this time with an important task at hand.

McGarrett's phone started to vibrate, and he hurried to answer it when he saw 'CATHERINE' flash on the screen.

"Cath?"

"Steve." She sounded tense, and Steve stood up, ready to rush out if he needed to. "I think you need to come down here."

"What's happened?" He asked, as he pulled open his desk drawer and holstered his SIG-Sauer P226 Navy at his hip.

"I'm not sure. I just really think you need to see this." Steve's heart skipped a beat, knowing that if Cathrine wouldn't talk over the phone, it could be bad.

"I'll be there in ten minutes." He promised, hanging up and pocketting the cell as Chin rushed into Steve's office.

"Either Danny has his phone off, or...I can't get a trace, a location...Steve, I cant find him." Chin handed over his Microsoft tablet to show the flashing warning triangle, but Steve barely cast a glance before handing it back.

"Gear up, we're going to Danny's apartment. Catherine has something to show us." Chin nodded, headed for his office to get his own sidearm, and met Steve down at his truck.

Catherine was waiting outside when they'd arrived, resting up against the Camaro. Her arms were crossed, back straight, and she didn't ease when the two men got out of the vehicle.

"Cath, what's up?" Steve greeted, felt a little at ease seeing the Camaro parked on the drive, because Danny wouldn't go anywhere without it.

"Come with me." She ordered, leading the way to Danny's home. At first, everything looked normal to Steve, until he walked into the living rooom. The first thing he saw was the broken glass bottle on the floor. He took the pair of glaves handed to him by Chin, then crouched down and picked the largest piece up. The black and white Jack Daniels label was easily recognised, and Steve felt the concern deepen.

"He's been drinking." He addressed the two cops in the room. His eyes moved up, and came to rest on the pieces of cell phone. "Think I know why you couldn't trace his call, Chin." He nodded to the mess across the room, and Chin moved over to pick up the pieces in his gloved hand.

"The screen is cracked. Looks like he's thrown it across the room." He put the battery back in, and luckily the screen comes to life. "It's just the outer layer of glass that's broken, the digitiser and lcd seem to be fine..." He scrolled to the call list, and then to messages as Steve and Catherine watched. "Last call was a missed one from you, Steve. And last message was from you, too." Chin looked up, and Steve nodded.

"Lat night, I'd tried to call him after he left mine but he didn't answer. So I sent him a text message, but he didn't reply."

"There's blood here, too." Catherine crouched down and pointed to four drops, headed for the front door. "I think he's cut himself on the corner of the table; there's dried blood on there. I'd say it was only a superficial laceration." She stood back up and carried on with her previous observations. "The bed is undisturbed, all of his clothes in the wardrobe are untouched. It looks like he just took off as he is." Catherine filled in, and Steve's stomach lurched as he rushed into the bedroom and yanked open Danny's sock drawer. Chin and Catherine followed, alerted by his quick movements, and both hitched a breath when faced with Danny's empty gun case.

"Believe me now, Catherine?" Steve shot at her, and she'd have been lying if she said she wasn't a little bit hurt.

"But why would he take off without his car?" Chin voiced. Steve looked at him.

"Danny's a cop, he knows how we work. I'd bet on it that he knew we'd put a APB out on the Camaro as soon as we realised he'd gone." He'd said.

"He doesn't want to be found." Chin agreed, following the same line of thought.

"He couldn't have gotten far on foot." Steve said, looking around the room for more clues, but there weren't any.

"Maybe he didn't have to." Catherine offered. "Isn't there a car rental place just a couple blocks away?"

"Good thinking, Cath. Chin, take the truck and hed back to HQ. Search all traffic cams, ATM cams, anything that might have gotten a shot of Danny. And we need to check his bank accounts. I know that he's not stupid, but from the amount of whiskey it looks like he's had, he might have slipped up. Cath, you can come with me, check on the car rental place. Hopefully between us we'll find something." Steve took command of his team, tried to push back any worrying thoughts he was having about his partner. "I don't care if he wants to be found; we're going to find him anyway."

Chin nodded, hadn't hesitated before leaving the apartment and speeding off in the truck.

"We'll find him." Catherine promised, as she placed a hand on Steve's arm. "I promise."

Steve nodded in acknowledgement, took the Mercury car keys from his lovers hand and headed for the car, Catherine in tow.