Author's Note: I just wanted to say a thank you to all of you have left such great reviews! Each review need a 'like' button!
Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or anything associated with it.
Chapter 4
The Five-0 task force swept the parking lot where Catherine was taken. Steve was barking orders and yelling at anyone who got in his way. The parking lot had video cameras and Kono was working on getting the footage, but Danny and Chin were spending all their time trying to keep Steve away from his unsuspecting victims. Finally, they sent him back to Five-0 headquarters. Steve knew he had been too unfocused, too frantic, and too worried to be anything more than a hindrance, but he had been desperate to find her. Danny finally knocked some sense into him, quite literally, and then sent him back until he was calm enough to be of help. He had to do something, so to keep himself occupied he was looking through Catherine's phone records, trying to find anything that would lead him to her, when the rest of the team returned.
As they all walked in Kono called out, "Steve, there's something you should see. We've got the footage from the security camera in the parking lot." She put her phone on the smart table and pushed the video footage onto the big screen while Danny put Grace in his office. She had refused to go back to her mother, wanting to know more about Catherine.
Steve's jaw was clenched before Kono even hit play and as the video began to play, Steve felt his heart stop. There was Catherine, his Catherine, walking back to her car after he had left her this morning. He was so focused on her he didn't even flinch when the two men came from off screen and attacked her. He almost smiled when he saw her fight back and thought to himself, That's my girl, but when he watched her go limp he felt his fists clench.
When they put her in the trunk of the car and drove away he turned and walked into his office, trying to contain his rage and his fear. His Catherine. He didn't even realize he was doing it, but in the next moment he had put his hand through the wall.
"Don't you think you should save that for her kidnappers?" Danny's voice came from behind him.
Steve turned towards his best friend, and Danny could see the grief on his face, could see that his friend was at a momentary loss for words. Finally Steve lifted his hands in a helpless gesture and then quietly said, "Danno," and suddenly he felt defeated, terrified, and close to hysteria, all his training gone with the kidnapping of the woman he loved. He looked his best friend straight in the eye, "It's my Cath, Danno, they took my Cath." A couple of steps and he had dropped onto the couch in his office, elbows on his knees, head between his hands. "I can't loose her."
Danny sat down next to him, "And you're not going to. We're going to find her, but you have to snap out of this. Catherine needs you. She needs the Super SEAL."
"Uncle Steve?" Grace said timidly, her head poked around the doorway, tears on her cheeks.
Steve looked up and felt his focus shift back into place. He had scared Grace. He held our his arms, "Come here." She rushed into his arms, "I'm sorry I scared you, Grace."
"Is Catherine okay?" she whispered.
"Some bad men took her, but I'm going to get her back." Steve told her, wiping the tears off her cheeks, "We're going to find her."
"Which is why we need to get you home." Danny stood up trying to take his daughter's hand.
"No, I'm not leaving until you find her."
"Monkey…"
"No!" She had stood up from her Uncle Steve and even stomped her foot for emphasis.
Danny looked at Steve who shrugged and said, "Don't look at me, I know how she feels."
"Of course, what was I thinking." He looked back down at his daughter, "Let's get you set up on the couch in my office then."
"Okay." She gave Steve one more hug, "I know you'll find her, Uncle Steve."
"Thanks Gracie." Steve looked up at Danny, "I just need a minute."
Danny nodded and led Grace out of the room. Steve put his head back between his hands. He took a deep breath, he needed to calm down, but he just kept thinking that if he hadn't left her today, if he hadn't been called in on a case, she wouldn't have been taken. His head shot up, or maybe she was taken because he had been called in.
He jumped up and hurried back into the main room, "Rewind that footage and play it again."
Kono immediately did what he asked. Steve watched closely this time, looking at the men, not just at Catherine, and that's when he saw him, "Pause. There." He pointed at the screen, "That's Larry Malone. This whole thing was a setup. Scott's Monroe's murder was just to get me away from Catherine. Catherine was the target."
Catherine groaned as she tried to get comfortable on the tiny little bed. Her left cheek was throbbing too much to put it against the pillow, but the blow she had taken to the right side felt like it might have cracked a rib. She tried to shift her position but the jab she had taken to her knee was smarting. That man hadn't known him own strength, she mused.
Using her right leg to support herself she turned onto her back, cradling the wrist they had bent with her other hand. So far this was the best position for her aches, but she'd never been good at sleeping on her back. She was annoyed with herself for being so bruised, but if she had to do it again she would still fight back.
She was scared, as much for herself as for Steve. This was a trap for him and she was the bait.
"Catherine's purse." Kono said. "In the video they left it behind but we didn't find it."
"Chin, run her financials see if there's been any activity on her credit cards. Kono, let's fast-forward the video, see if anyone fount it. Where are we on tracking down the car?" Steve was already looking at the board waiting for Kono to start the video.
Chin responded to Steve's question as he pulled up Catherine's credit card statements on the smart table, "HPD is still canvassing for it."
Steve didn't respond to Chin answering him, he was too intent on watching the video, hoping to see who had taken Catherine's purse, but not expecting it to help find her. "There," Kono pointed at a homeless man who picked up Catherine's purse, looking around to make sure no one saw him before walking off with it.
"Kono, find that guy."
"You got it boss."
Danny walked into the main room, "Just got off the phone with Catherine's CO and the rest of her unit, none of them could think of anyone who'd want to take her, and other than seeming a little run down, they hadn't noticed her acting any different."
Steve shook his head in confusion, "That's because she hasn't been acting any differently. Other than the nightmares she's the same old, Cath."
"Well her CO said call if we need help, we have their entire resources at our disposal."
Steve nodded, feeling better that they would have such resources if they needed them. "That's good. We'll probably need them. Alright, I'm going to keep looking at Catherine's phone records. Danny why don't you help Kono find the man who took Cath's purse."
"On it, buddy."
Steve walked back into his office and sat down at his desk. It was reaching one in the morning, but he knew none of them would sleep until they found her. Catherine's phone records were spread out over his desk, he saw phone calls and texts between the two of them, and calls between her and Kono. He smiled, those two had really started to get close. For the other calls he'd pulled out Catherine's contact book and cross-referenced the numbers of her friends and family with those in the records. There were a couple calls to and from her parents, and a few more to her sister. As he went through the list he started crossing off the phone calls that were unrelated. After getting rid of his calls, Kono's, and Catherine's family, there were only a few left. That's when he noticed the five missed calls to Catherine's landline. They were all during times that she had been staying with him, and all from the same number.
He grabbed his phone and called the phone company. When they answered he said, "This is Commander Steve McGarrett, Five-0. I need to find out who the number 8085559769 belongs too."
"Of course, sir. Can you repeat the number?"
"8085559769."
"Just a moment."
Steve kept the phone to his ear and looked out his office windows into the main room where Kono and Danny were hunched over the smart table and tapped his pen against the desk impatiently.
"Okay, sir. I've got the name. It belongs to a woman named Esmeralda Santiago."
Steve froze, his blood turning cold. His eyes saw his team, his friends, through the window of his office, but his brain didn't register them. His ears heard the woman on the phone asking if he needed anything else, but the words were barely an echo. Esmeralda Santiago, the name was a mantra in his head as he tried to process what he had just heard. She was dead. He knew that. Had seen Esmeralda's lifeless body with the bullet holes from his gun through her forehead. He hung up the phone.
This was more than his team could handle by themselves. They would never be able to get to Catherine in time, not before he killed her. That would be the point; he would lead Steve straight to her, only to kill her as soon as Steve had Catherine in his sights. That was how Esmeralda had died, not by design, but by chance. Self-defense against a world-renowned assassin as her husband tried to come to her assistance. Carlos Santiago had been planning his revenge for a long time, waiting for the one woman whose death would destroy Steve. No, he needed more than just his team for this one. He needed someone that had skills beyond his own; someone who Carlos did not know existed because the world thought her dead. He needed the ex-spy. He needed his mother.
