Chapter 4: Mistake chain
Steve breathes a couple of times, trying to calm down, "At first, I didn't know that ... I thought I was invincible because I believed that, what had worked in Afghanistan would work here ... Danny taught me it's not like that ... He has been with me, saving me from myself ... And now I'm not going to let him down! ... I swear I'll find out the truth to get him out of this, even if it's the last thing I do in my life ... "
He gets up from the chair and walks, determined, to the exit, while Lou asks, "Hey, where are you going?"
"I'm going with the kids to check that basement from top to bottom ... There must be something there, Lou and I'm going to find it ... Listen, can you do me a favor?"
The captain agrees with conviction, "Whatever you need, buddy..."
"Go with Danny ... Nobody can understand better than you, what he's feeling right now. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think he should be alone at this moment "
Lou shrugs and says "I'll do it ... but honestly, I don't think he talks to me, Steve. He needs you. You are his best friend."
"Danny is mad at me Lou. He believes I don't trust him and thinks that is why he is suspended. I know him, and if I go to his place now, I'm afraid all I'm going to get is that, in the heat of the argument, one of us will say or do something we'll regret later and all this mess will only get worse. I'll talk to him when he's calmer, okay?... The best thing I can do for him now, is to try to solve this disaster. "
The captain sighs and says, "Ooookay! I guess you're right, our boy can be a little impulsive and thoughtless when he's furious ... "
"Indeed, he is .. Thanks buddy!"
Steve leaves his office, with renewed energy. As he walks in front of the smart table, where Jerry is frantically typing, he tells him. "If you get something Jerry, call me, okay?"
"I will, boss. Good luck!"
Twenty minutes later, Steve goes under the yellow tape which surrounds the high school building. Duke and other HPD officer come with him, carrying a camera and some portable equipment for evidence processing. Steve has called Sergeant Lukela from the car, so that, in case someone from Five-0 finds any evidence to support Danny's version, he has the necessary witnesses to refute the possible Internal Affairs arguments. He knows Cage won't hesitate to accuse them of manipulating the evidence to twist it in Danny's favor.
His instincts and all his Navy training are activated, to detect anything that others may have overlooked. They go downstairs, directly to the basement, where Tani and Junior, along with a CSU officer, are checking the supply closet. A school maintenance worker stands by the door, arms crossed over his chest.
As soon as he arrives, his gaze moves through the place and an uncomfortable sensation takes over his stomach, but he can't define it yet. It's as if his internal alarm is activated suddenly. "Hey guys, is there anything?" He asks. Tani gets up and says "Not yet ... but we're looking slowly and systematically." She then points to the CSU officer and says, "Steve, this is Officer Larson, from CSU. He came here to make sure to save properly any evidence we could find. " Steve shakes Larson's hand, tilting his head slightly. Tani speaks again, "This is Mr. Lively, he's the maintenance chief." Before Steve can say anything to the man, Junior calls from the other side of the room.
"Hey guys! I think this could mean something ... " Steve, Tani and Duke approach him, followed by Larson. The young SEAL is leaning on the floor, examining some strange black marks on the linoleum. Steve puts on the latex gloves and leans over, running his hand over the marks and feeling the texture; then says, "It's like someone has dragged something heavy ..."
He looks up to meet Larson's eyes, who says apologetically, "We can't know when those marks were made ... The school maintenance staff uses this room as a warehouse and heavy objects are constantly stored here." Ignoring the argument, Steve beckons to Duke, who begins to take pictures of the marks.
Then, he gets up and looks at the metal shelves supported along three of the four walls of the warehouse. They are full of cardboard boxes, toilet paper packages, cleaning fluids and other things. Steve looks at Lively and asks, "What's in those boxes?"
Without abandoning his position next to the door, the man replies, "Office supplies, you know, paper sheets, printer ink, pencils and pens, tape ... all this stuff."
Steve looks at Junior and asks, "Have you looked under the shelves?"
"Yes sir ... There is nothing there, more than accumulated dust and a couple of dead spiders".
"Danny said he followed the suspect until he saw him enter this room," Steve is deeply focused, walks to the place where the professor's body was found. "This is weird ..." he says, frowning.
"What's weird?" Larson asks, losing patience.
"The professor was right in front of the door, but Danny says the gunshots came out of here ... the door was half-closed."
"Maybe the suspect used the professor as a shield ... that would explain why she got Danny's bullets," Junior suggests timidly.
"Maybe ..." Steve answers, but his tone indicates that the theory doesn't convince him. "Keep looking guys ... there must be something else here," he says, as he goes out back into the corridor.
Suddenly he notices something and the strange sensation returns to his stomach ... "This is wrong ..." he says, frowning again.
Duke looks at him intrigued, the old police officer knows McGarrett since he was a child, he worked with his father and has worked with Steve since the SEAL returned to Hawaii eight years ago. During that time he has learned not to underestimate the man's instincts, so he asks, "What are you thinking, Steve?"
"This was not like this, there's something missing here..." his gaze retraces the corridor for the umpteenth time. "When I went down to look for Danny, he was covering himself behind a stack of plastic boxes which were right here ..." he says, pointing to the empty place next to the wall. "Somebody took those boxes out from here, Duke."
Sergeant Lukela looks at Larson, who shrugs, saying, "When we finished processing the supply closet, this employee came ... and we went up to help the other guys in the laboratory area ..."
"What employee?" Steve asks, anxious.
Larson answers, fearfully, "A man, dressed in gray overalls. He had his ID hanging around his neck ... He told me he had to get those boxes out of here, because they contained hazardous substances... chemicals for the laboratory, I think ... He said he had orders to check everything was in order and none of the containers had been damaged . "
Steve closes his eyes, losing patience, God! he thinks, how could CSU people assign the scene to a newbie? Trying to calm down, he asks, "And you didn't think those boxes could contain some useful evidence?"
The young officer justifies himself, "Our orders were to process the room where the professor's body had been found! The main crime scene was on the first floor, in the laboratory area, so we went there after we finished here."
Steve takes a deep breath, walks back to the supply closet, where Lively keeps watching, absorbed by the movements of Tani and Junior. Upon entering, Steve asks him, "Where did your man take the boxes?"
The man frowns and asks, "Boxes? What boxes? "
Exasperated, Steve looks at Larson and asks, "You said a maintenance worker moved the boxes, didn't you?" Larson nods, while Steve looks back at Lively, "You are the maintenance chief! When CSU released the scene, an employee asked permission to move the plastic boxes that were stacked in the corridor. "
Lively shakes his head, unable to hide his amazement, "Maintenance employees only work at night, commander. This morning, during the incident, none of them was in the building. Only the cleaning staff was there and they were evacuated from the building along with the students."
Steve can't believe what he hears. Trying to control himself, says "Tani ... Take Officer Larson. I want a description of that guy, find an draftsman or someone to make a sketch of his face, and send it to Jerry, to check all the databases". She nods silently and takes Larson by the arm, walking with him towards the stairs.
Steve leans down to see the place where the boxes were before. Immediately notices a small wet spot. With his gloves still on, he runs his hand over the stain and brings it to his nose, "It smells like ammonia," he says, looking at Duke. Steve gets up and looks carefully the entire floor, at a short distance, almost a foot away, two drops of the same liquid, and a few drops some distance further. begins to follow the trail down the corridor, followed by Junior, Duke, who doesn't stop taking pictures and the other officer. Shortly after they arrive at the metal grate through which he and his team had entered the building, only a few hours ago, when all this circus started.
"Our friend went out of the building this way ..." he says, shaking his head. Then looks at Junior and says, "Junior, follow the tunnel to see if you can find more traces ..." Duke looks at the young officer and says "Go with him ... " The two guys go towards the tunnel, lighting it with a couple of flashlights.
Lou arrives at Danny's house, parking his truck behind the Camaro. Turns off the engine and mentally review, for the umpteenth time, the speech he has prepared for Danny. After taking a deep breath, he gets out of the car and walks towards the house.
The door is open, so the captain, cautious, takes his gun from the holster in his belt and approaches slowly. Upon entering, notices that the light is on. Tentatively says out loud, "Danny?"
An intense sob catches his attention, followed by a husky voice that says, "What are you doing here, Lou?"
The captain turns his head, looking for the origin of the voice and sees Danny, sitting on the floor next to the couch, with a bottle of beer in his hand. He holsters his gun again and closes the door, then walks to the couch and sits a short distance away from the dejected detective.
"I came to see how are you, buddy," he replies after a couple of seconds.
"I'm fine ... You saw me, now you should go!" The desperation in Danny's voice is heartbreaking.
"Listen, Danny ..."
Danny interrupts him, "Look Lou, if you're going to give me now the typical 'it wasn't your fault' speech, save it! ... I don't need that!"
"I wasn't going to say that, Danny. What I was going to tell you is I fully understand what you're going through right now. "
Danny lets out a bitter laugh, "Yeah, sure ... because in your long and decorated career as a SWAT officer, you killed a lot of innocent civilians, right?"
"Listen Danny ... being a police officer means making mistakes. And I've made many of those ... One of those mistakes was the reason why I came to Hawaii, running away from Chicago."
"I know about that Lou ..." Danny's tone changes suddenly, "But that kid... Molina, it wasn't your fault! You didn't pull the trigger Lou, it was that sick guy who decided to kill his own son! ... You did everything you could ... But I ... "
"What happened was a series of unfortunate events ... It was dark down there Danny ..."
"Exactly, Lou! It was dark. I didn't have a visual of the suspect and I still shot and killed that teacher! Those are the facts! "
"Yeah, but someone was shooting at the place where you were!" Lou argues, bewildered suddenly by the ironic smile on Danny's face.
"Wow!" Danny exclaims, "at least one of my teammates believe me that someone was shooting at me! Because my best friend didn't do that."
"That's unfair Danny. You're being so hard with him."
"Unfair?" Danny's face is red with anger, "I can understand the governor wanted to suspend me Lou ... but why Steve did nothing about that? He stayed there and allowed me to be taken out of the case ... Now I can't even look for the damn bastard who got me into this mess! Cage must be rejoicing with this! "
Lou gets up and kneels with difficulty in front of Danny, forcing him to look him in the eye. In a very soft voice he asks, "Do you want to know what Steve told Cage when the guy told him there would be an Internal Affairs investigation?"
Danny doesn't answer, but he looks Lou directly in the eye, the captain continues, "He told him that all your actions were his responsibility, Danny. What happened at that school ... the death of that teacher, it was HIS fault." Danny closes his eyes and a couple of tears slide down his cheeks. "Danny, Steve trusts you with his life! ... Now he's in that basement again, looking for evidence to exonerate you ..." Lou smiles slightly, trying to make a joke that lightens the mood, "The good news is Junior and Tani are with him. Because you know the man and you know he's capable of bombing the damn building, if that allows him to find the guy who shot at you. "