I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Chapter Two
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Almost two months earlier, teenage football player - one Jason Matthews - had apparently lost his temper during a game with one certain rival player. It was known that these two had problems in the past and yet, those problems had always remained wholly on the field. So it wasn't far-fetched when their brief argument broke out in the last quarter. As all the others had been, the disagreement was dissolved quickly enough and the game followed its normal course. Believing the scuffle to be long put to rest during the game, everyone had actually forgotten about it. However, this time it was different and Jason Matthews, a star player for the home team, had waited in the locker rooms and then dawdled in the parking lot.
He had waited in the shadows to bide his time despite a rising blood pressure and the blind rage which was forcing him to do something. Those feelings only escalated when he finally saw his nemesis walk across the parking lot with all intents of leaving by bus.
It had taken five of his brawny peers to pin Jason to the pavement, but only after he'd grievously injured his one-time opponent with a knife. He had been knocked unconscious and hospitalized for a minor concussion during which charges were pressed against him. When he woke the next day, he'd been stunned to find himself not only cuffed to a hospital bed, but charged with a hate crime and very possibly, attempted murder.
Handled competently by the Honolulu Police Department and a wise District Attorney, Jason Matthews was eventually not charged with the much more grievous attempted murder. Nevertheless, he was charged with juvenile assault and sentenced to six months in Youth Corrections which was nearly as bad. He would not graduate with his high school class nor likely ever play football again. As far as Jason was concerned, his life was over.
Now barely thirty days later and remanded to Corrections, Jason was still pleading ignorance that he didn't remember attacking the second teenager nor would he have ever intended to hurt him so very badly. In fact, he didn't recall the entire night of the game from start to finish. He could only recite verbatim what he had for breakfast very early that morning down to the three raw eggs and vanilla protein shake. From the beginning, Steve had tried to help, but with Jason ignorant and swearing innocence, he had nothing to investigate. No one saw anything in the locker room. No other severe altercations of note were ever on record. Jason was a straight A student and well-liked. With no obvious enemies, no one could help shed any light on Jason's plight. There was literally no one and nothing left to look into.
Evidence was severely limited at the time, too. So, it was essentially and very sadly considered to be a done deal by law. Other than Steve's continued personal involvement, the incident involving Jason Matthews hadn't been on the Five-0 radar either. It wasn't anywhere near their formal docket of case work until this second similar event occurred and Kono Kalakaua trained her sensitive ear towards possibilities.
Working through the weekend, Kono had made valid inferences to bridge particular gaps and make potential associations.
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By the morning of Steve's return to the office, Kono had crossed some T's and dotted the remaining I's to quietly give credence to some of Jason Matthews claims. Something very similar had happened at a different school just that very weekend while Steve was away on Reserve duties. Two hours later and as far as Steve was concerned, the watershed moment was finally bound together by these two seemingly unrelated school incidents. The connection was still loose at best, yet it felt right. Hearing Kono's readout, the subtle hints seemed more obvious and in the very least, the truth of what they were up against more frightening.
"Let me elaborate on all of this." Kono sighed as she amended her words. She provided her latest findings to her team as they spanned out around the smart table. With Steve next to her, Danny and Chin appeared as if they were lounging across the space but in reality, were absorbing her words with rapt attention. Out of courtesy for H.P.D.'s involvement with Jason Matthews, Sergeant Duke Lukela was standing next to Danny with his arms folded comfortably over his chest. His face was bland, but he was barely blinking as he too listened to every word.
"All the kids involved are from the same school which is different from that of our football player. These girls do not attend Kukui High." She tucked her hair back and reiterated her findings more clearly.
"Janice Fleming's parents were away and like all kids, she invited a few friends over to party. it was nothing out of the ordinary. As you know though, there was a pretty nasty fight between three of the girls and I just received the blood test results on all of them. Two tested positive for 'glow', while the third … Janice actually … was negative. She was injured in the scuffle when she tried to break the first two up."
"But the others did test positive?" Steve demanded as his temper grew. He had vowed to the Matthews' family every due diligence to understand what had happened to their son because they believed he was telling the truth. If there was a hint of an association, Steve was sniffing for it.
Irked by the obvious movement, Steve glanced unhappily towards Danny who shifted on his feet as if to rein in where he was going. The constant play of devil's advocate had grown tiresome and while Danny was keeping his mouth shut, he still managed to clearly communicate his feelings. If anything that too irritated him. Danny was merely quiet because he felt Steve was worn out after the long weekend on maneuvers.
"They tested positive and are astonishingly admitting to meeting the day before to purchase the drug." Kono was incredibly pleased about what could finally provide them all with a solid lead. "I called the hospital and their parents; we are cleared to gather their formal statements today."
"That's good." Chin remarked. "We can possibly identify this back to a valid source." The girls would talk and tell them names, contacts or some sort of new information not originally in their possession. The feeling of anticipation increased amongst the team. To be fair, they were all on edge as drug victims and deaths racked up across the island and rumors grew that gangs were in the market to escalate their own brand of warfare. But with children now involved, they were all up in arms as the entire situation worsened day by day. It changed the focus of the larger case to begin with halting the drug's progression across the local school system.
As he studiously ignored his partner's unspoken request to be cautious, Steve leaned forward almost too eagerly as he guessed what Kono was going to elaborate on. "What else? Where's the commonality?"
"Let's start with the intensity of their anger. They went from zero to sixty pretty fast and both girls were difficult to subdue." Kono revisited the H.P.D. police report before continuing.
"According to the doctor I spoke to, neither girl remembers actually taking the drug or attending the party. They don't remember anything after whatever it was they did that Saturday morning. One recalls being at the beach during the early hours to catch a few waves. She can tell you exactly what she was wearing, the number of sets she grabbed, plus her wipe-outs. The second girl was with her weekly math tutor and she can recite her lesson for that morning by rote."
"Okay, they were fogged. Their symptoms are the same." Steve glowered angrily while he spoke since he felt the daggers drilling into him from across the table as Danny stared harder. "It's the identical experience as Jason described."
"He wasn't tested for drugs though, Steve. We'll never know for sure." Chin took the heat for Danny as Steve thumped the table with his knuckles. The similarity was very loose indeed and almost as if they were pulling on straws. He mimicked his cousin's aggravated sigh while catching Steve's eye to then throw him an understanding bone. "Jason wasn't tested because, no one knew any better and we didn't have this new street jargon. Plus, Jason Matthews hit his head and got knocked around a bit during the mêlée. There was no reason to drug test him."
"If we are to believe him, Matthews has denied being exposed to drugs or voluntarily using drugs of any kind. He only says that he doesn't remember anything." Though nearly monotone, Danny couldn't help himself as once again, he voiced the opposite side of the unpopular coin.
"He's scholarship material and not stupid enough to risk his future. He has too much talent. Plus that game was being scouted, Danny. He wouldn't have taken such a risk because he didn't need to!" Steve snapped directly into Danny's calm face, which only riled him further. With a concerted effort, Steve took a deep breath to settle himself. It was true that he was tired, close to the issue, and was being ridiculous in his defensive reactions.
But Danny was almost confused by where Steve thought he was going with his ever-changing theories. He for one had his own, and he barely registered the darkness once more spreading across Steve's face. "So? His emotions took over due to stress, he had a bad moment and needs anger management classes. Or what … he attacked this kid and nearly left him in a coma … he snapped for no apparent reason?"
Steve knew what his partner would say next because it had come up in the past. He raised his eyebrows in a taunting dare which had the desired effect when Danny slammed his mouth shut. His personal opinion about possible personality altering steroid use was purposefully tabled for another day.
There was more which Danny still needed to ask though, even if he did so carefully and with as non-threatening a tone as possible. Steve sighed loudly before hugging his arms across his chest. "If he was fogged out on this new drug then he's lying there, too. Because he either had access to it and injected himself .. what do you think? Maybe he added it to the milk in his favorite morning breakfast cereal? It gives the Breakfast of Champions a brand new definition."
"Danny." Objecting, Chin groaned at the ill-worded comparison though Duke couldn't help smiling. Steve was far from amused by any of it and it was noticeable.
With a conversational shrug, Danny offered a final option. "Oh, I know .. steroid or 'glow', he was infected without his knowledge. That would be a new twist."
Astonishingly, the implied rude suggestion was met with defiant agreement. "As a matter of fact, yes it's possible. Anyone could have dusted something he ingested that day!" Steve's voice was raised angrily as Danny's eyes widened in disbelief. He opened his mouth, hesitated and then frowned because he hadn't even been remotely serious.
"That's what you believe? We didn't even know the drug existed in a powdered form at the time." Danny wasn't the only one a bit surprised by Steve's latest view. Duke had lost his smile and was equally uncertain of the possibility. The opinion clearly implicated any of the football player's own team-mates by design or someone with access to the locker room. It implied that someone did indeed dislike Jason Matthews and brought the case up to an entirely new and very unsavory level.
"You think someone was gunning for him?" Such an allegation would make their investigation all the more complex and there was zero proof of anyone ever having an issue with the kid except for the one that he attacked. Now, Danny was the only one daring Steve to expound on it. "How do you shoot up or spike the drink of a two-hundred pound football player without him noticing? And why would anyone do that to a kid that seems so well-liked?"
"Danny! Shut it already! Jason Matthews does not do drugs. Not then and not now!" Steve's knuckles were white as he leaned across the desk and the multi-colored bruise from his weekend stood out on his cheek. Insisting upon continuing though, Danny was nonplussed by his partner's strong reaction.
"Let's just say he wouldn't be the first kid to lie to his parents or experiment with steroids."
"You don't even know these people the way I do." Steve growled in a fury over the width of the table, so much so that Kono put both her hands on his shoulders.
"All I'm saying is that no matter what you want to hear or think about this kid and his pristine family, everything has to be considered."
"I am considering everything, Danny. You're the one that has him tried and committed for life."
"I don't! I just don't want you to taking this down a path where you and the Matthews family get burned!" Exasperated, Danny threw his hands up in the air. "You have to admit that there is less evidence that someone would want to hurt Jason Matthews directly than alleging his use of any drug, whatsoever."
Stunned by the dual outbursts, Chin and Duke each moved to flank Danny to quiet any further retorts. But it was Kono who silenced the room.
"Both of you need to stop this!" Kono shouted over the rising din. "We're all tired and it's all become very personal. We have more and I think we've got some good similarities to look into. We still don't have nearly enough yet. Let's see where this takes us and leave an open mind. Open!"
Glaring at Danny, she aimed an adamant finger in his direction while he raised both hands to signal his surrender. "Open!"
Under his breath he muttered something about being open because he was the rational one voicing even more rational concerns. His huffy comment was loud enough for Chin to take up Kono's cause to demand silence.
"Not now, brah." Chin warned softly with a glance towards Steve who was still glaring across the space. "Let it go."
"No more theories on the Matthews piece for the time being. Facts only. We talk to these girls first and get the name and location of their supplier. We all want to understand what happened after the football game and we all want this to work out well for Jason. It will come .. we just have to trust that it will. But, first things first." Kono was the calming voice of reason as each finally took up separate mental corners to cool their heels and tempers.
Her last words drove their silence home as they moved to their immediate next step which was to gently interrogate the three female teenagers at the hospital. "A lot of people are suffering and we need to get this resolved .. we need the source. Any source. We need to find who is responsible before we can help these kids or have even more trouble on our hands."
~ to be continued ~