Brothers – Chapter 3
When the two arrived at the small house on the windward side of the island, only Mei and Amy were home. Danny's older brothers, David and Alan, had taken the day off from work to go hiking with Kenny. They were disappointed when Danny turned the trip down. But offered no argument when Danny told them he wanted to devote all his energy to the case. They had left early that day and weren't expected back for hours. Joey was at work and Tommy at school. Amy had not wanted her mother to be alone all day so she had returned from the University to have lunch with her.
Both Mei and Amy had immediately noticed the fresh bruises on Danny's face, and Amy had quietly registered Danny's barely camouflaged wince when she greeted him with a hug. But although the women somehow knew that Danny's bruises where related to Kenny's predicament, neither said anything, There was no point to it anymore. Danny would only deny it, and besides, it seemed almost destined that Danny would put up with any kind of trouble in an effort to rid Kenny of his. It was that way with all the brothers.
Mei offered both men some lunch, but Danny and Kono declined. Then Danny gently asked for permission to search Tommy's room. He knew that the police had done that just last week, but he also knew he had a far better sense of what to look for than they did.
"Of course you can look Danny. You may not live here anymore, but this is still your home too."
Danny shook his head and explained that he needed expressed permission from her to search it. Mei consented. "Is Tommy in some sort of trouble, Danny?" Her worried expression told him that the last thing in her life she needed right now was more trouble. Still, he didn't want to lie to her.
"He might be, Mei. Kono and I want to find out for sure."
Mei looked sadly around her, as if the world she once knew was now gone. "They are coming for him Saturday."
"Who's comin' for who?" asked Kono.
"Family Services is coming for Tommy," Mei responded quietly. "He's going to be joining a new family this Saturday." It was obvious that this hurt her deeply.
Danny shook his head and sighed. That may be the least of his problems! He reached out to take Mei's hand and squeezed it reassuringly, he then attempted a grin for Mei and Amy's sake before heading to Tommy's bedroom with Kono. The two men began a careful search of the room. It was Kono who eventually noticed the small, folded white paper that lay on Tommy's pillowcase. He brought the note over to Danny, who carefully unfolded it and read the contents to himself. Danny's startled look caught Kono's attention, and he waited until Danny passed the note to him to read.
"You think Tommy killed Officer Jones, don't you?" Danny spun around to see Amy standing in the doorway surveying the two men.
"I now know that he did," was Danny's reply. "He left us a note. But we've got more trouble than just that Amy. It's a suicide note too. Did you drop Tommy off at school today like usual?"
Amy was momentarily stunned by what her brother had just told her, but she quickly composed herself. "No, I didn't. He said he was going to catch a ride with a friend today."
Danny's mind was racing with possibilities. It was over four hours since Tommy would have left the house. He could be anywhere by now, including dead. "Do you have any idea where he might have gone Amy. Please think!"
Amy's face lit up, "Yesterday he asked me if the bus ran all the way over to Kaena Point. I told him that I didn't think it did. He could have hitched a ride though."
Kono spoke up. "You know what Kaena Point is!"
Danny nodded. It was the supposed departure point for Hawaiian souls leaving the physical world. It was the perfect place for a kid misinterpreting his heritage to commit suicide. "Come on Kono, let's go!"
Amy stopped them in the doorway. "Let me come with you Danny. Tommy and I are on good terms."
Danny knew what she meant, but was still stung a bit by the implication - that he could possibly make things worse by showing up. Still, he couldn't have Amy out on a cliff edge trying to talk Tommy down. If anything happened to her, he could never face Mei and Joey again. Or himself. "I need you here to stay with Mei. Don't tell her anything about the note - there's nothing she can do right now. I'll call you as soon as I have some answers." He leaned over and kissed Amy on the cheek, then he and Kono ran out of the house and to the car.
Danny drove west as far as the road would take him. Eventually however, the asphalt disappeared, and then even the dirt road gave out. Danny and Kono got out of the car and called in their location to central dispatch. After removing their jackets, the two men set out over the dense brush land by foot to search for Tommy. Both Kono and Dan had been here many times before, and they silently followed each other up a small hiking path that led to an overlook point. The sun was beating down on them strongly and both men wished they had brought water. Still, neither was willing to turn back and they pushed on. Once they arrived at the lookout point, Kono passed the binoculars to Danny and they carefully scanned the area. The sun was dipping towards the west, and the glare was making the search that much harder. After about 20 minutes, Kono suggested they move to another point. This time they had to climb the craggy rocks that jutted out from the cliffside, which was lined on one side by a forest and the other side by the ocean. After ten minutes or so of climbing, the two men sat down on a ledge to rest. Suddenly Danny got back up on his feet. "There he is!" he shouted excitedly.
Kono looked down to the spot where Danny was pointing, and sure enough, there in the distance on a rock by the ocean's edge sat Tommy. Danny immediately began to lower himself down the side of the cliff. Kono grabbed his arm. "You pupule, man? You gonna get killed."
"I'll be all right Kono, I've gone down these rocks before."
Kono shook his head but let go of Danny's arm. "You know that Steve's gonna blame me if you wind up shark bait."
Danny laughed at the thought of Steve lecturing Kono this time instead of him. Then he continued his descent until he was only feet away from Tommy. The lapping of the water against the rocks was so loud that Tommy never noticed Danny's approach until he finally sat down next to him.
The young man's eyes grew wide for a moment, but then he simply turned his face back to the water. "You see my note?" he asked.
"Yeah, I did."
"Well you might as well arrest me, because I found out I'm too chicken to jump." Tommy seemed disappointed in himself.
Danny was grateful for the survival instinct that still remained intact in his foster brother. But he decided discussing the planned suicide was probably not the best approach. "Your note said that you killed Jones. But it didn't say why."
"I killed him. Who cares why? Isn't that enough to get Kenny off the hook?"
Danny shook his head. "No, it's not. Without you giving a detailed explanation the court will just think that you are covering for Kenny." Danny looked out to the ocean as he sighed. He was tired of the cold shoulder treatment he got from Tommy and decided it was time for it to come to an end. Looking back at Tommy, Danny's voice was full with compassion and concern, "Tell me what happened, Tommy. The whole thing."
The tone in Danny's voice was disarming and Tommy could feel his wall of indifference begin to break down. The roar of the ocean was loud, but Tommy slowly and painfully recounted his experiences with Officer Jones. He told Danny how the man had caught him stealing a bicycle from a parking lot almost a year ago, and had made him an offer to forgo the arrest if he would do him a small favor. The favor was lifting a few dollars for him from the cash register of a local store when no one was looking. Later Tommy became involved in a gang, and Officer Jones was once again available to help him get out of trouble on a concealed knife charge. This time the pay-off included several theft jobs. Eventually Tommy joined the Punana family and left the gang. But Jones threatened to have him removed from the home and sent over to Juvenile Hall if he did not continue to do jobs for him. Tommy did so for a short while, but he quickly decided that the police officer was bluffing and he refused to cooperate any longer. For a while Jones left him alone, but eventually he started calling him again, and Tommy had agreed to meet him that night at the school.
"Why did you change your mind and agree to see him?" Danny asked.
Tommy hesitated. "He said he was watching her and would hurt her if I didn't come."
"Who?" asked Danny confused.
"Amy," said Tommy flatly. "He said he knew who my foster sister was, and that she was this kind of good lookin' woman. He said that if I didn't help him out, he was gonna make her pay up for me instead."
A shudder ran down Danny's spine at the thought of Jones hurting Amy. He wondered what he would have done if he had been in Tommy's place.
"Did you intend to kill him when you brought the gun?" Danny asked.
"No, no!" Tommy shook his head frantically. "I didn't think birdshot could kill nobody! That's why I put that in there. I was just gonna try and scare him off. I thought that if he saw I had a gun he'd leave me and Amy alone. But he pulled out his gun too. I got scared and …pulled the trigger. After that I ran to a payphone and called the police, so they could send an ambulance. But I didn't say who I was." Tommy was silent for a moment and then turned to Danny with a pleading look in his eyes. " Danny, you got to believe me, I didn't think it would kill him!!" Tommy buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Danny knew he was probably telling the truth. He remembered how shocked he himself had been when he learned that even a BB could kill at a very close range. He put his arms around Tommy and held him.
After a while Tommy's tear streaked face emerged from Danny shirt. "I never wanted Kenny to be hurt because of me. It was all a mistake. I was hoping that maybe somehow you'd be able to get him off." Danny was surprised at the faith Tommy had in him. He would not have thought it before.
"You need to come with me, and tell everything you told me here to the prosecutor. It's the only way to get Kenny out of trouble."
Tommy nodded his understanding. Danny stood up and offered a hand of assistance to the young man. "Come on Kaeli'i, I'll give you a boost up this rock."
Looking up at Danny Tommy smiled for the first time since this whole mess started. "Mei won't like it if she hears you callin' me that!"
Now it was Danny's turn to smile. "Then we just won't let her hear it, will we?"
Danny and Tommy made their way slowly back to Kono and the car. There they found two police cruisers waiting for them as well as an ambulance, which Kono had ordered 'just in case'. Reluctantly Danny watched as Tommy was frisked, handcuffed, and placed in a cruiser. Danny kneeled down at the open door and tried to offer the youth some reassurance.
Tommy said almost nothing until Danny turned to go. "Hey, Danny man!" he called. Danny looked back inside the car. "Will you come to see me at the jail? You know, like you did with Kenny?"
Danny nodded. "You can count on it, Kaeli'i. We're brothers."
*****
The Attorney General's office was crowded with people, and Walter Stewart didn't much like it. The focal point of the meeting, fifteen-year-old Thomas Waipahe, sat on a chair directly in front of the large desk with his foster parents on his left. A lawyer from the Public Defender's Office sat on his right. Directly behind Tommy stood Dan Williams, whose hands were firmly planted on the boy's shoulders. A little further back stood a Family Services counselor who was required by law to be present. And against the far wall, at the very back of the room, stood Steve McGarrett, his arms crossed in a watchful stance. Stewart would have very much liked to have passed this entire case off to an underling at the DA's office, but as it involved a dead police officer and a family member of McGarrett's staff, the politics of it necessitated his participation. The Attorney General cleared his throat and began. "Let's get on with it, shall we? According to this agreement, young Mr. Waipahe will consent to plead guilty to a charge of accidental homicide. As he is a juvenile, he will be sentenced by a Family Court judge. However, in return for his guilty plea, it will be the recommendation of this office to the court that Tommy be placed at the Ho'omaka 'ana Youth Camp on the Big Island of Hawaii, and not in a detention center. Tommy will remain at the youth camp until his eighteenth birthday, at which time, according to how the law now stands, he will be released."
Stewart attempted a friendly smile at Tommy. He was not thrilled with the idea of a cop-killer not spending any time in a real prison, even one so young as Tommy. But he knew that the circumstances in this case were unusual. He also knew that three years in a secure youth camp was probably more time than an adult would spend in prison on an accidental homicide conviction. At least this way the boy stood a chance at returning to society a better person. That was seldom the case for those joining society from jail, even juvenile jail. Besides, part of the deal was the unwritten agreement that Tommy keep his mouth shut about Officer Jones. Dan Williams had agreed also to let the evidence quietly disappear. There was no point in going after a dead cop, especially since none of the other youths involved with Jones seemed willing to cooperate anyway. Nothing would be gained by dragging the police department's name through the mud and staining the reputation of HPD in the eyes of the local community. From Stewart's point of view, this whole matter was best laid to rest as quickly as possible.
When Stewart had concluded his statement, Danny had given his youngest brother's shoulders a little squeeze. He wanted him to know that he was still behind him, figurative and literally. Although he would miss Tommy, he felt that the Ho'omaka 'ana Youth Camp was probably the ideal place for him. There, through instruction and proper role modeling, the boy could learn about his heritage and find the pride in himself he was so desperately looking for. Maybe I could get Steve to send me over to the Big Island on business sometime and visit with him. When Danny looked down, he noticed that Tommy had turned his head and was smiling up at him.
The only one in the room who was less than pleased with the outcome of the case was Steve McGarrett. As far as he was concerned, the burying of Officer Jones' actions was little more than a cover-up. He strongly believed that this type of thing needed to be brought out into the open, otherwise it would just be continued by other dirty cops - ultimately diminishing the reputation of good police officers everywhere. But the arguments he had made along those lines fell on deaf ears. Stewart wanted the whole thing buried, and the Punana family feared that a public rehash of the case could cause Tommy's admittance to the youth camp to be rescinded - as it was a private facility only partly funded by the state. Danny had not said anything either way, but Steve knew that his officer did not want to risk anything that might bring more grief to his already exhausted family. In the end Steve had relented, reluctantly dropping his protests.
*****
From his window at the Palace, Steve McGarrett watched Dan Williams sit under a tree and eat his lunch. Danny never ate indoors if he could avoid it, and Steve thought for a moment about joining him. Danno's actions these past few weeks had caused Steve to see his new officer in a different way. He was far more talented a detective than he had ever realized. With little assistance, or support, he had broken a case that had originally seemed open and shut. And he had done so despite the high level of emotions swirling not only around him, but within him as well. And…if that wasn't enough, Danno had also proven that he was more than just a yes-man. He had gone up against Steve's instructions when he believed it was the right thing to do. Steve wasn't sure if that showed good intuition or stupidity, but it certainly did show guts!
Steve watched as Kono and Chin approached Danny. Dan stood up and the three men began to chat. Steve watched carefully as he saw Danny apparently begin to explain something. The older officers were listening intently to their junior partner and nodding their heads in agreement. Steve was impressed with Danno's ability to not only hold his own with more experienced officers, but to also take the lead. Suddenly a thought occurred to Steve. He had placed Kono in the position of acting second-in-command when Donnelly left last year, but Kono had told Steve that he preferred it not to be made permanent. Kono was not a follower by nature, but he was not a leader either, and he felt uncomfortable in the position. Chin was also not interested - with a large family like his, he had neither the time nor energy to devote himself to Five-0, as would be required in such a position. But what about Danno? He was young, yes, but he was certainly proving himself a capable detective and an independent thinker. After a few more moments of deliberation, Steve decided to offer the position to Danny on a trial basis. If it worked out, it could eventually be made permanent.
Thinking of Danny like this also brought another thought to mind. Steve walked over to his desk and sat down. There he picked up the receiver from the phone on his desk, and dialed his sister in California. After all, family was a very important thing!
Pau
