Chapter 5
The scent of hundreds of island blooms hung in the warm mid morning air and stirred as many memories for the two men watching the busy operation underway below them. It was not high tech.
Under the shelter of a long canvas roof, open boxes slid sluggishly along a rickety conveyor belt between two rows of mainly female workers. Their feet were hidden by the mass of flowers overflowing from the buckets beneath them. As the shallow boxes passed them, the women bent and scooped rhythmically, selecting and carefully placing the stems. From above, the impression was of a slow moving kaleidoscope of color.
Steve and Chin had both grown up knowing the names of the islands' flowers. They were as much a part of Hawaiian life as the twinkling blue waters and emerald green slopes, their hues painted the bright and vivid beauty of the place.
Most island kids got roped into making leis at some point, despite young boys' protestations. As he watched the blur of yellow hibiscus, Chin clearly remembered helping an over excited five year old Kono make the decorations for their family's regular lively parties.
Beside him, Steve could still hear the echoes of the nursery school chants learned to recite the island names. Pua Aloalo, Hawaii's state flower. Lokelami, the pink cottage roses. Kukui blossom. Yellow Ilima. The last brought a painful ache too as he remembered himself as a boy, weeping in his bedroom, desperately shredding the yellow blooms after his mother had died. Everyone knew they were supposed to be a cure for illness – something in his childish grief had thought it might just bring her back.
"It would be a pretty good cover for gun smuggling." Chin's voice broke into Steve's reverie. "Smuggling anything actually," he added.
He nodded his head towards a large transit van parked at the side of the fenced area below where two men were busy loading the filled and sealed flower boxes. On the side of the van, the red ohia flower Danny had described twined artistically through the name emblazoned in blue lettering. Big Island Flowers.
"To get those flowers to markets overseas, they have to move them fast. The right kind of bribes to the right kind of people along the way and it could be a pretty slick operation."
"Yeah, and not too big to attract too much attention," Steve agreed as he studied the site.
The only building there was clearly fairly newly built...new investment perhaps?... Long and low, it seemed to serve as a garage at one end, where they could see four more vans parked up, and as an office at the other. Since they had been watching from their vantage point on the road that led down to the compound they'd seen nobody entering or leaving the main door. Now though it was opening.
"Speaking of attracting attention...I believe we may have been spotted."
Chin grinned slightly at Steve's typically astute but, this time, wholly unnecessary observation. The man standing at the doorway, gazing up towards them, was obvious to them both, as were his gestures to his companion, who quickly climbed into a gleaming silver Jaguar and headed in their direction.
Steve straightened up as the vehicle approached them and stopped alongside. The darkened driver's window slid down and they stiffened slightly in anticipation but there seemed to be no threat as the granite features of a man in his thirties were revealed.
Hawaiian, his dark hair tied back in a short pony tail, the guy's muscled biceps strained beneath a tight t-shirt and flexed the tattooed rainbow on his right arm. Even seated behind the wheel they could tell he was a big man. A hard man.
"My boss would like to speak to you." Despite the deep rumble of his voice and the somewhat flat intonation, it was a polite enough request, even if it came out more like an order.
Although maintaining a distance, they had not actually been trying hard to conceal themselves. Steve and Chin had agreed they didn't have the time or extensive manpower needed to set up a long term covert observation. If a weapons deal was going to go down and if the players really were who Danny said they were, maybe they would make a mistake under a little pressure.
They glanced at each other and without a word, climbed into the Camaro and followed their guide back down the hill and through the open metal gates, to draw up in front of the building, and in front of Keo Kahumoku. According to Danny, this could be the Hawaiian front man for the international operations of some of the most dangerous criminals in the world.
On Danny's recommendation they'd pulled his identity before setting out first thing to take a look at his businesses for themselves. Now the driver's license photo they'd studied had come to life before them.
Thick set and balding, what had once been muscle was just beginning to run to fat but the loose cut of his bright red silk shirt hid it well. What hair was left on his shiny, broad head was swept back and a neatly trimmed beard helped to outline a profile that was losing the sharp lines of fitness to the inevitability of late middle age. His manner and appearance exuded wealth. Six hundred dollar Bvlgari sunglasses hid his eyes as he faced them but his look was grim.
"I am glad to see my complaint has been acted upon."
No introductions then....Steve thought.
"Complaint?"
"You will see I am a man with connections." Kahumoku crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm waiting..."
Steve stood his ground and shook his head slightly. "Me too," he said affably. "For an explanation... I really don't know what you're talking about."
The Hawaiian stepped closer to Steve. He was a few inches shorter but had the bearing of a man who liked to intimidate, to bully.
"For the apology I am due," he snapped. "You think you people can come in here, threatening me, throwing accusations around, throwing punches, and get away with it?"
Steve shrugged slightly in bemusement that was genuine enough but also purposely exaggerated, simply to piss this guy off...Yeah, shake 'em up and see what falls...
Kahumoku grabbed his shades from his face and used them to jab at Steve's chest. Steve noted dark, dangerous eyes before he slowly lowered his gaze to the place where the glasses pressed against his shirt front.
"Defamation. Damage to property. Assault...I could bring charges...You think you have something on me, bring a warrant, not threats."
Steve looked up slowly and deliberately from the poking gestures and then stepped forward himself. Now he was the one doing the crowding and he was built for it. He stared straight into his aggressor's face, a muscle twitching in the line of his jaw.
Beside him, Chin read the signs as clearly as a crowd member anticipating an imminent dog fight. The chatter that had been going on amongst the workers at the conveyor belt had ceased behind them and now the air was filled only with the grumble of the motor.
"Mr Kahumoku, I really have no idea what you are referring to." Steve gestured towards Chin. "My friend here has a hot date coming up – we just came by to look into buying some flowers." He inclined his head without looking away. "That is what you do here isn't it?...Deal in flowers?"
The guy with the rainbow tattoo had moved to his boss's side, an attack dog waiting to be unleashed. Steve registered a slight smudge of what could be a bruise high up on his cheekbone. For a moment the four men stood stock still, until Kahumoku eventually took half a step back and withdrew his hand.
His eyes glittered with a nasty anger, but Steve registered something more too that he couldn't read...Is he smiling?
"Just you keep your Detective Williams away from me," he spat.
Steve held his expression as Kahumoku turned away dismissively but inside he flinched at the name...Danny?
"Oh and that goes for you too Commander McGarrett," Kahumoku said over his shoulder as he walked back towards the office. It seemed no introductions had been necessary. "Or I will be suing your ass and calling in the cops...the real cops."
Steve watched as the Hawaiian stepped through the doorway. In the quiet, his feet crunched on some fragments of broken glass that lay glittering in the dirt from a damaged panel at the side. A spider's web of cracks fanned out from an impact point...Recent...They haven't even cleared it up yet...Steve's mind was racing even as he and Chin climbed back in their car.
When Steve spun the wheel and gunned the engine back up the hill, it was Chin who finally voiced the thoughts they shared.
"I thought Danny was supposed to be staying out of this."
He looked over, his brow creased in concern.
"He said he was," Steve agreed grimly. "But I'm getting the feeling we're a few hours behind whatever the hell he's up to."
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Waiting for the phone call was like waiting for the proverbial second shoe to drop. Danny knew it would come – no point delivering a severed finger without leaving a message too. It was inevitable but, despite a building dread of suspicion, it still shocked him into fumbling the device as its chirpy two-tone pierced the vacuum of silence that he felt surrounding him.
Not a call. Not a text. A photo.
Matt.
Danny felt as though the air was being sucked from his lungs and he closed his eyes to force himself to breath again. Opening them once more, his vision zeroed in on the image as everything else blurred around him with the dizzying effect of a rapid pull focus in a movie.
Unshaven, white-faced and wide eyed, Matt was hunched over, his arms resting on his lap. One hand supported the other – the one with a bloody dressing wrapped around it, over the space where a finger should have been. He looked as though he was in shock, frightened and haunted.
"Matty...Oh God!" Danny whispered.
Shutting off the image, he spun around, taking gulps of air to quell the nausea that had returned with the same force as when he first saw his brother's severed finger. Gradually, as he stooped to still his quaking gut, he became aware of the quiet watchful presence of Kamekona.
He couldn't speak to him, couldn't share this. Two shoes had hit but now there were still more to follow. This situation had turned surreal. All he could do was await instructions. Or terms. Or demands.
No!
As Danny gazed upon Kamekona's concerned face and as the big man began to lumber slowly towards him with a clear intention of asking what was up, Danny knew he would not be waiting.
Before he could reach him but not before he read the look of devastation on his face, Kamekona watched Danny whirl away, clutching the white box and the phone he had passed him. The blond headed for his car without saying a word. The tyres of the little rusty red hatchback left skid marks as he accelerated away, leaving the big Hawaiian gaping in confusion beside his shave ice stall.
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Danny's own visit to Big Island Flowers was not much longer than Steve's was to be the next morning but it was more violent.
Bursting through the door, he was across the office and grabbing Kahumoku before anyone had the time to stop him. With a handful of his shirt in one hand, he pulled him half over the desk, never once taking his eyes from his face even as two weighty body guards moved in.
Kahumoku gestured quickly with both hands for his men to stay back and then clasped at Danny's fist at his throat.
Danny had a powerful strength. Despite a cop's traditional love for the sweet and the fatty, he'd always kept himself fit. He saw it as part of his duty, not only to the job but to his daughter. Naturally broad and well muscled, he maintained his own regime which included a determined, self-imposed, bench press challenge. When anger-fueled, he was formidable.
"You and your Columbian friend sent me a message? You have something you want to say to me?" he hissed, his face inches from Kahumoku's.
He shook his grip slightly, forcing his knuckle sharply into Kahumoku's neck next to his bobbing adam's apple.
"Where the hell is my brother?"
"I don't know what you're talking about..." Kahumoko croaked, still hanging onto Danny's iron hard fist.
Danny shook him again. "Don't give me that you pri..."
Kahumoku's men couldn't take it any longer and moved to haul Danny off their boss, taking one arm each. But Danny didn't let go and Kahumoku was pulled right over the desk as Danny was forced backwards.
In the scrabbling chaos, Danny suddenly relinquished his hold, dropping Kahumoku in a heap and swinging at the man on his left. His fist connected hard and the guy staggered back. Danny immediately ducked down. Pushing back through the two men at his sides, he created a small amount of space but the second guard was quick to recover and launched a roundhouse swing that caught Danny in the gut and doubled him over.
Down on one knee and winded by the blow, Danny had no time to recover as he saw two sets of feet approaching his tunnelled vision. Launching himself from his crouched position, he surged upwards into the stomach of the man closest and was rewarded with a satisfying grunt of pain and a forced expulsion of air that gusted onto his back.
The forward momentum of his attack had however put him back within reach of the first goon and before he could reestablish his balance, the flash of a rainbow tattoo and a blow under his jaw snapped his head back, lifted him off his feet and threw him hard against the wall. He felt the impact of it on his shoulder blade, heard a crack and, for a fleeting moment, Danny feared it might have been a bone breaking.
Splayed at the foot of the wall, as the two men loomed towards him, Danny scrabbled for his gun and brought it up in a firm two handed grip.
Everyone halted and the only sound was of huffing breaths.
Kahumoku stepped between his men as Danny slowly rose, using the wall behind him to steady himself and still keeping his weapon leveled upon them.
"I know what you do. I know all about your operations. You and your Colombian partner. You and Fuentez. The rackets, the prostitution, the loansharking and the drugs...Him putting the money up, you the figurehead...I got plenty on you." Danny's words were spilling out in his anger – something in his head was telling him to shut up, to get out while he could, but he couldn't stop himself.
"And now weapons? Fancy expanding do ya?" His voice was deep with anger.
"You think holding my brother...hurting him...will stop me coming after you?" He took a step towards Kahumoku, his weapon still held rigid. "Think again."
His eyes narrowed and his jaw twitched with tension.
"Now... tell me where he is."
Kahumoku shook his head slowly, his eyes assessing.
"I told you... I don't know what you are talking about, Detective Williams," he emphasized Danny's name to make his point. "Oh yes, I know who you are. But your brother?...The other stuff you mentioned?" He tutted mockingly. "I'm just a businessman." He straightened his collar from where Danny had gripped it into a concertina of creases before continuing. "I got where I am by making deals." His voice turned hard. "Always from from a position of advantage, only when the time is right and only when I'm good and ready...Now, get off my property."
Both Kahumoku's men had now reached behind their own backs and drawn their own weapons. It was a stalemate and Danny knew he wasn't going to get anywhere ...Christ! Have I blown it?...Have I wasted everything?... His mind was whirling even as he fought to maintain his posture. If Kahumoku and the Colombian, Fuentez, had sent him his brother's picture, had tortured him, they already knew Danny was on to them...must do... That had to be why they were trying to intimidate him... But what's the purpose? What do they want? He couldn't make it out. What's changed?
Kahumoku clearly wasn't ready to tell him.
Danny recognized the stand-off was a no win situation and finally, without lowering his gun, backed slowly out of the door.
He was aware of Kahumoku and his two men watching him from the doorway as he drove away and only too aware that, really, he had gained nothing with his impetuous move … Man!... McGarrett, you're wearing off on me...
The thought of his partner brought a renewed ache of regret...What would you do, brah? What would you do?..but with an effort he set the feelings aside.
As he headed for the only person he could confide in, he was still just as much in the dark as before. Still waiting for the next move.
And he had some calls to make.
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"Danny, I thought you wanted out of this – what the Hell's going on? Keo Kahumoko says you paid him a visit. You left some impression. Call me."
At Five-0 Headquarters, Chin and Kono scanned through the details of all the other businesses Danny had suggested as possible covers for illegal activities. Even with Danny's pointers, it was time consuming and tedious.
Steve drove to the rented house he had sat outside with Danny just a couple of months ago, when his partner had berated himself, hated himself, for spying on his brother. Steve had seen the pain it caused his friend then to even think that Matt could be into something illegal. It was here they had first identified Pedro Fuentez, known accountant for the third most powerful cartel in Colombia. Who could have predicted that moment would lead to this?
Steve groaned inwardly to himself … I should have.
"Where are you ..." Steve muttered under his breath as he gazed at the high wall and locked gates. There were no vehicles on the driveway and no movement. The house appeared to be vacant now. He tapped the steering wheel absently with the cell phone he held in his right hand, glancing at it once more. His softly spoken query had been directed at more than one man.
"Danny, we need to talk. Call me."
"Anything?" Steve demanded as he stormed back into Five-0.
"The next scheduled shipment of flowers is due out to Hong Kong on Tuesday," Kono reported. "They get stored at the dockside beforehand."
"Apart from the flowers, the garage looks the next best bet...Wikiwiki Cars on Maui...Kahumoku imports and exports high end vehicles on a regular basis. Could be a front. " Chin brought up a Google shot of the street, showing the impressive frontage of the garage. Steve nodded in recognition. Most people gave the sports cars on the forecourt there a second longing glance as they passed by and he remembered seeing the business himself.
"I've checked the dates Danny gave us with the harbor," Kono said. "They're correct as far as I can see. No extra shipments or even applications for more." She leaned a hip wearily against the central desk. "Same goes for the other businesses I've had time for but it's going to be difficult to check the smaller ones, like the bars and the strip club, without going in waving badges."
Kono looked at the two men and was aware again of her inexperience. "I get that we are not exactly hiding, that we could pressurize them into a mistake but we can't go in guns blazing unless we know where, right?" she ventured.
Chin gestured to a map showing the locations of the five concession stalls in scattered busy market places.
"I had a word with a guy I know from HPD's gang unit. They've been watching some movement amongst the Samoans and the Triads but they haven't been able to pin anything on any other local group. I floated the suggestion of Colombian interests and he said there've been whispers but they haven't been able to tie anything down with any evidence. He says these places are used mainly for small deliveries and it's only drugs so far, no guns. They did know Martinez though, he's a regular blip on their radar."
"Co-operative guy," Steve mused, his brows raised at Chin. The team knew all about the antagonism their friend usually faced amongst his former colleagues.
"He owed me," Chin nodded, but went no further.
Steve pondered for a moment then moved off decisively.
"Let's go pay our friend Soda another visit, our chat yesterday got cut short ...Yeah, your partner walking out will do that!..I think maybe our informant knows a lot more than he's told us so far."
"Is Danny's phone still off?" Kono called after him quickly, nodding at the cell in Steve's hand. They knew he'd been leaving messages. "You want me to go over to his place?" She was worried for their friend too. It seemed to them all now that Danny was in trouble.
Steve hesitated for only a moment. "Yeah, do that and if he's there, tell him...Just tell him to get off his Jersey butt and return my calls, would you."
"Hey, Danny – I'm standing outside your place, Brah. Doesn't look like you're here... and let's face it there's nowhere much to hide in there! So, where are you, huh? ...Danny, Steve says call him back."
"He's what?"
Chin almost felt sorry for the young officer in front of them. Almost.
Steve's shout of disbelief drew startled glances from others around them in the downstairs holding area of HPD HQ.
"You're telling me you let him go?" Steve continued. "Why the hell did you do that?"
"He had a lawyer..." the young recruit began. This was not a good day for Officer Charlie Mililani.
"He called a lawyer?"
"Err...no...actually..." The rookie stammered as he looked over the computer screen and then down to the opened log in front of him. "No, no, he didn't actually make a call...but some lawyer turned up said he was representing him ...He hadn't actually been charged with anything and he'd been here for like...The guy said we couldn't hold him any longer ..." His querulous voice petered out in the face of Steve's thunderous look and he glanced around for support from his superiors. From anyone. But everyone nearby was averting their eyes from the sight of the head of the Islands' elite crime squad looming over their unfortunate colleague, just pleased that rage wasn't directed at them.
"You didn't think to call Five-0 to see if we wanted him released? You didn't think we might need to speak to him some more?" Chin had noticed before how Steve was at his most dangerous when his voice was at its lowest. He was positively growling now.
"What's this lawyer's name?"
Officer Mililani consulted the screen again. "David Watts. Seemed like a real hot shot...er...out of Los Angeles." He had a look that said only now was he thinking that this might be slightly odd. "He...er...left a card..." His hand was shaking as he passed it to Steve and as the SEAL stormed away he called out hesitantly.
"I did tell your man, Williams..."
Steve and Chin turned back and Mililani wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
"What?"
"Williams...the Haole...he...er, called an hour ago...I told him Martinez had been sprung."
Steve, stepped up close to the young officer's desk and Mililani wished he could just disappear beneath it to take shelter as he would for an impending hurricane.
"I hope you like directing traffic, officer, because it seems that's about all you're good for. I could have your badge for this," he threatened. "And it's Detective Williams to you."
In the silence that fell after Steve and Chin left, the rookie was left wondering if he really had made the right career choice.
The name checked out. David Watts was indeed a partner in a high powered firm of Los Angeles lawyers, and he had a secretary well trained in the art of stalling.
"No, Mr Watts isn't in...No, I'm sorry he won't be in the office for a few days...Yes, I will pass a message to him but I cannot say when he'll get back to you." Her responses were sing-song and annoying, she was apparently unimpressed with threats from Five-0. It remained unclear who the guy was working for or how a two-bit criminal like Soda Martinez would have the connections to call upon his services.
The address cited on Soda's release forms proved to be a hostel where they had not heard of him at all, he was in the wind.
The Five-0 team felt as though they were making precisely no progress and time was slipping by.
In the late afternoon, while the others grabbed a quick coffee, Steve stared out of the window of his office at a gathering bank of cloud on the horizon. The gray mass roiled and built like a plumping duvet. The islands were in for a soaking. Steve remembered a local forecast he'd seen, something about an unusual confluence of pressures...yeah, that'd fit...
The sharp trill of his cell phone broke the heavy stillness.
A quick glance ...not Danny.
"Hello, Steve? It's Rachel."
Hearing his friend's ex-wife put Steve on immediate alert but he kept it friendly. "Hey Rachel, how are you?"
"Fine...er, I just wanted to talk to you...I'm sorry to call like this...It's about Danny," she sounded anxious.
"It's just he didn't pick Grace up last night and canceled his day with her today." She hesitated a moment. "I know his job means he has to change plans sometimes – believe me, I do know that," her voice took on the irritated tone that Steve recognized from countless other calls before. However, when she continued it was once again with apparent concern. "But... something seemed different last night and well...he seemed different."
Steve sighed. This was going to be hard. "Rachel, it is work but I can't..."
"It's just that he's missed a few days with her recently and she's beginning to notice, and you know how Danny feels about being with her. He always makes such a fuss if I have to change anything, which sometimes I do you know, and when he couldn't make her school picnic last month and then the surf club luau...Well, that's their thing together and Grace pretends like it doesn't matter, because, well, you know her Daddy can do no wrong, but she says he's been kind of grumpy lately and really..." Steve waited while Rachel took a much needed breath. "I'm just worried about him."
Join the club...
"Rachel...He's been working on a case that's taken up a lot of his free time. We're still working on it" ...not a lie!..."I think it's just really taken it out of him..."
"Is it to do with Matt?" she interrupted. "Because I know that really hit him hard. You don't know them together. They were so close, his family... and to have him do that...to do that to Danny...I know he's had to go home to his family a few times but he's not talking to me about it now."
"Yeah, it has to do with what Matt got into," Steve could admit that much to her at least. "But Rachel, I really can't discuss it. It's ongoing." …Except we don't know where it's going ...or how...Steve didn't allow his doubts to register in his tone when he continued. "Look, I'll have him call you as soon as I can, okay. And tell Gracie that if anyone can cure her Daddy's grumpiness it's her. Don't worry Rachel, Danny will be okay."
Steve signed off with more certainty than he felt.
"Danny! Just had your ex-wife bending my ear about you. I'm guessing you've got a few of her calls on your voice mail too, huh? And Grace? She says you're grumpy. Like that's news to anyone who knows you...So, call them...And call me!"
The first fat drops of rain smacked against the window, hitting hard and exploding like tiny liquid eruptions. Slowly at first, then more, until the glass became blurred with torrents. Nobody ever told the tourists about Hawaiian downpours, Steve mused as he stood wondering about Danny's secrets. How easy it is to overlook something that can spoil something so good.
Tbc