It was clear to everyone that Mark Richards was in a bad way. His already pale face was now a sickly green shade and beads of sweat stood out on his brow. He shivered uncontrollably and every now and then he doubled over, clutching his stomach as cramps hit him. It wasn't pretty. Conflicted emotions warred within Danny. He was sorry that the boy was clearly feeling so ill, but his sympathy was muted by the fact he had done this to himself and had also sold the drugs to others, knowing what could happen.

"What do you want to tell me?" he asked, his tone cold.

"If you… promise to help me… I'll tell you where I … get the gear," Mark whispered. He lifted the glass of water he had with a shaking hand and took a couple of sips.

"All right, I can do that," Danny agreed. "Now talk."

While he waited for the boy to take the first step and actually start speaking, Danny decided that he didn't mind being hauled out of bed for this. When the phone had rung and woken him, he had actually thought about not answering it, or ignoring the summons he knew would come. He was more than glad he hadn't taken either of those actions now.

"I get the drugs from Akoni Sato." Richards took another gulp of water. A fresh round of shivering caused him to spill half of it down his chin. He didn't seem to notice. "I meet him every morning… at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace… just after mass ends. I give him my takings… and I get my stuff for the day and… the stuff to sell."

"What time is mass?" Danny asked, disgusted that this kind of thing was going in the grounds of the cathedral.

"It's at 6.30am," Richards replied. "I meet him at 7.30, after he comes out."

"Sato is a Catholic?" Danny blurted, stunned. How could someone who purported to be a Christian be selling drugs and doing so after attending mass?

"I guess so," Richards replied indifferently. "Please – help me?"

"A couple more questions first," Danny countered. "How much do you pull in each day?"

"A few thousand," Richards admitted. "Two or three most days. Sometimes as much as five gees."

"Where does Sato live?" was the next question.

"I dunno," the youth replied. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow with his shirt sleeve. "I only ever meet him at the cathedral. Please…"

"One more," Danny promised. "Did you know the stuff you're selling is cut with arsenic?"

"What?" Richards looked completely blank – and rather horrified, Danny thought. "What does that mean?"

Shaking his head and indicating to the HPD officer outside to let the ambulance attendants in, Danny wondered if Akoni Sato had given his pushers purer heroin than he was selling to the general public. No doubt the hospital would find out, but either way, Mark Richards was in for a miserable time for the foreseeable future. He watched as the attendants gave Richards something which calmed him down and wiped the palms of his hands down his pants legs. Dealing with junkies always made him feel uneasy and dirty.

"Akoni Sato," Steve mused as Danny joined him. "Does the name ring any bells for you?"

"Not Akoni Sato," Danny admitted. "But I do vaguely remember another Sato from my HPD days. He was mixed Japanese-Hawaiian descent, too. I can't quite bring it to mind…" He closed his eyes to try and produce the memory.

With unusual patience, Steve waited while Danny sorted through his memories. They were both tired, Steve more so than Danny at the moment. Danny had had a couple of hours of sleep; Steve had yet to get to bed that night and it was already past midnight. He knew that pushing Danny would not help the thought process. Memory was an elusive thing.

"Got it!" Danny declared and allowed a small grin to cross his face. "It was one of my first arrests. Ikaia Sato committed a string of robberies in Waikiki and several of his victims were badly hurt. It was just chance that I caught him," Danny went on modestly. "I'd been called out to another store for something completely different and when I went out into the alley at the back, I literally ran right into him."

As Danny spoke, Steve was recalling the arrest. Five-O had not yet been brought on to the case, but he remembered the arrest. Ikaia Sato was a big guy and had put up a fight. The rookie cop – Danny – had had several minor injuries that had required stitching and – if Steve was recalling correctly – a broken bone. "Didn't you break something in that arrest?" he asked.

Flushing, Danny nodded, looking down. "Yeah, he broke my wrist," he admitted. It had been quite an experience for the rookie cop. Danny had been on the job only a couple of months and would never have been involved with something as serious as those store robberies. He had received a ton of praise, a commendation for bravery and his feet had been set on the fast-path for promotion.

"How long did Sato get?" Steve asked.

"Five to 10 for the robberies and another four years for beating me to a pulp," Danny recalled. "He was about five years into his stretch when he got involved in a fight with another prisoner and he was stabbed to death."

"Do you think there's a relationship between Ikaia and Akoni?" Steve asked.

"I don't know, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't," Danny admitted. He yawned.

"Let HPD look for the link," Steve suggested. "You go and get some more sleep and I'll meet you for mass at 6.30am."

"I'm not a Catholic," the younger man objected mildly.

"And I'm not practicing," Steve replied. "6.30, aikane."

"6.30," Danny agreed. It was going to be a short night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was 6.20am when Danny and Steve arrived at the cathedral. Despite the early hour, there was a steady stream of parishioners entering the cathedral. Danny allowed Steve to go first. He had never been in a Catholic church before and was not at all sure of the etiquette. He used the holy water and genuflected to the altar and listened with interest as the mass started, although all the while, he was looking around to see if he could spot Akoni Sato. HPD had come through with a record for him and it was no surprise to learn that he was the younger brother of Ikaia Sato. As befitted a Catholic family, there were about eight children and most of them had had some encounter with the law.

As the faithful rose to take Communion, Danny spotted their target. He nudged Steve, who followed his second's discreet pointing and saw the tall man going forward. Steve's lip curled in contempt. Sato presented the appearance of a devout man – but how could he truly be that devout when he was selling drugs on the street; drugs that were cut with a deadly poison?

Now that they had their eye on their mark, the two detectives had little patience for the remaining prayers and hymns. Danny was rather surprised at the speed at which the priest raced through the mass. The responses were lost on him, although he did recognise the Our Father and Hail Mary. Like Steve, he did not go forward to receive the sacrament. It was all very different to his church experience and he thought that perhaps he might return another time to take it all in when he was working. The cathedral was beautiful and he would have liked to have had a closer look at it.

As the mass came to an end, he and Steve slipped out and took up positions as inconspicuously as possible, watching for Sato to leave. People exited the church slowly, gathering in small groups to talk before drifting off in various directions, presumably to go to work or head somewhere for breakfast first. At the thought of food, Danny's stomach rumbled. He had not eaten anything that morning, just drunk some coffee to start his day. Food was definitely on the agenda after this.

A subtle signal from Steve caught his attention and Danny spotted Sato casually walking around the side of the cathedral. The few trees that stood by the cathedral would give him enough cover from the casual glance of passers-by, but didn't allow the detectives much cover. Danny drifted a few feet over, keeping his eyes on the suspect. They had to catch him actually dealing.

A scruffy kid detached himself from the sidewalk where he had been sitting and walked quickly up the side of the cathedral. The parishioners were dispersing quite fast now and Danny knew that before too long, he and Steve would be very obvious. If only he had thought to bring a newspaper or something to hide behind.

It seemed that Sato was confident that doing business in the open meant he was hiding in plain sight. Perhaps he was, Danny reflected, as the tall man took something from the smaller man and then gave him something in return. That was it! The deal had gone down! The detectives stepped forward.

At once, Sato's head came up and Danny was running even before their suspect had made a break for it. The smaller guy, caught unawares, hesitated and Steve had no problem in grabbing him. He quickly locked one handcuff around the guy's wrists and looked around frantically for somewhere to park him while he went after Danny and Sato. There was a metal garbage can embedded in the concrete sidewalk a few feet away and Steve made short work of leaving the youth there as he raced after Danny. He hoped that nothing would happen to his friend before he caught up with them.