This is chapter 6, and is all about what happens on Saturday.
This is part 1 "Not Acceptable"
A/N: I know you're still curious about the envelope, and I promise you I have not forgotten it. It's just not time for you to find out what's in it yet. And as for Kono's whereabouts, well, you will get only glimpses, for now.
SATURDAY MORNING, 6:12AM (time missing: 36)...
"You look like shit." Danny stated matter-of-factly as he tossed the file folder down before plopping himself down in a chair in front of Steve's desk.
"Yeah." Steve mumbles in agreement, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his hands down his face. "And I still look better than you." He added, maintaining his somber tone as he leaned forward for the folder, sure that his partner hadn't gotten any sleep, either.
"And we both look better than Chin." Danny stated, glancing over his shoulder.
Danny's words made Steve look up at him, then out to Chin at the Smart Table. "Yeah." He mumbled in agreement, turning back to the file.
"Did he even go home last nigh?" Danny asks.
"Was here when I arrived, so I doubt it." Steve answers.
"I'll save you reading to the end. Pakala is dead." Danny stated.
Steve's eyes went immediately to the bottom line of the report. Sure enough, Kioki Pakala had died of his injuries at 4:07am, just two hours ago. "Damn." He sighed heavily, throwing the folder back down on his desk and leaned back in his chair again. "Did you tell Chin?"
Danny shook his head before mumbling, "No," He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, "I stopped by the lab on my way in. Apparently Charlie isn't sleeping, either, since he was already there. How do you wanna handle this?" He asked, knowing that Pakala's death killed their only lead in finding Kono.
"I don't think any of us are gonna sleep much until we have Kono back safe." Steve said. "I'm glad we passed that murdered couple case over to HPD. I know it feels like we're just twiddling our thumbs here, waiting for a lead, but we need to focus on finding Kono."
"Agreed. Now back to my question; How do you wanna handle this?"
"There's only one way to handle this." Steve states as he picks up the folder and pushes his chair back. "Honestly."
It was on the Smart Table monitor. All of it, and that wasn't saying much. Every bit of evidence they had on the 'Kalakaua Case' was right there in front of them,... and it didn't do them a damn bit of good.
And all staring up at the monitor as if it would magically speak to them is exactly how Sargent Lukela found them.
"Hey, Duke." Steve said, while still looking up at the monitor.
"Comma-" Luke began at the same time, but didn't bother to finish announcing himself.
Danny didn't quite know who to look at first, and nearly gave himself whiplash going back and forth quickly between the two. He should have known Steve would hear someone coming long before they entered. He should have even know that Steve would know who it was. He should know 'how', only that that's just the way it is with Steve.
"Any news, Duke?" Chin asked hopefully.
Lukela sadly shook his head and noticed Chin's shoulders fall. "I was stopping by to let you know HPD closed the murder investigation, and was hoping to get some news on Kono while I was here."
But the three silent men in front of him told Lukela all he needed to know; there would be no good news for him to take back to HPD.
"So, that was quick closure to the case." Steve stated, needing something to talk about. The old saying about 'idle hands' was true, and he knew 'idle minds' weren't much better. He'd used this tactic with his men on many SEAL missions.
"Um, yeah." Lukela began, picking up on Steve's overly-obvious clue. "Turned out it was the next door neighbor."
"Love triangle?" Danny asked.
"No." Lukela began, "The neighbor guy had suspected his wife was cheating on him. So after staying out all night drinking, he was so hammered when he got home that he entered the wrong apartment."
"He thought that was his wife. In bed with another man." Danny surmised.
Steve didn't wait for confirmation. "Where'd you find him?"
"The blood trail was quite confusing at first, because after he killed them, he left the apartment and went out drinking again. Then, when he returned, he managed to get in the correct apartment. So imagine he and his wife screaming their heads off at each other when they both woke up." Lukela said.
"Why's that?" Chin asked. The distraction wasn't really working, but every little bit helped and he appreciated their effort.
"His wife started screaming because she saw blood all over his shoes. Her screaming woke him up. Of course, he had just fallen asleep and was still hammered, so he started screaming because she's still alive." Lukela told them. "Officers just followed the screams."
"Soooo," Danny drug out, "Some innocent married couple – enjoying some 'couple time' – gets chopped up because..." He couldn't even finish his sentence, he was so disgusted.
"Yeah." Steve mumbles in agreement.
After a long pause, "We appreciate HPD taking over the case, Duke." Chin eventually stated on behalf of them all.
Lukela nodded in understanding before putting a hand on Chin's shoulder, "You'll find her. I know you will. And when you need help arresting the scum bags that took her, you know where to call."
Lukela departed a moment later as the guys returned their attention to the Smart Table. "Okay, let's go over this again." Steve said.
AN HOUR LATER...
"Wow. And I though we looked bad." Danny said quietly when he saw Adam being escorted through the glass doors. The man who usually oozed class looked so different. It's amazing how little-to-no sleep could change a person's appearance.
Adam spoke before he had even stopped his momentum. "Anything?" Was his desperate and simple plea.
Again, the silence of three men spoke volumes.
The stolen van had yielded little; only the prints of it's thief, Pakala, and it's rightful owners. They already knew the blood belonged to Kono and the crash victim, Pakala. And the stun gun found under the driver's seat, was a common model available for purchase too many places to track.
Simply put; there was just nothing to say... and the impact of that made Adam's shoulders fall even further, if that was possible.
"How did your meeting with the Yakuza lieutenants go?" Steve asked hopefully.
"Yes,... please tell us you gave away a hundred grand last night." Danny added.
"Yeah, too bad we weren't invited." Chin chimed in, a surly tone to his words. "But then, your guests probably wouldn't have appreciated being drug out of your house in cuffs."
Adam was not known for being a patient man, so he bit his lower lip and took a deep breath before speaking, "Those so called 'guests' were not welcome in my home, Lieutenant." He said as politely as he could muster.
"So, where'd you meet at?" Steve asked, needing to stick to the facts.
Danny held up a hand that just couldn't stay still, "Conference room." He guessed.
"They were not welcome in the conference rooms at any of my hotels, nor at my office, either." Adam said. "So we met at Ala Moana Park."
"The park?" Steve and Danny both said in surprise.
"It was hardly a formal meeting, gentlemen, and I preferred neutral ground. In fact, the whole thing was rather brief. I simply stated my offer and dismissed them." He explained.
"Dismissed them." Chin repeated. "Sounds like something their boss would do." He added.
"Habit." Adam admitted. "I'm used to concluding, to 'dismissing', meetings all the time." He explained. "Besides, it's not exactly like I wanted to hang out and chat with them." He huffed out.
"Adam, you said yesterday that you hadn't received any personal threats." Steve said to move the discussion along, both for information and to defuse the situation. "If the threats weren't personal, what were they?"
"Business." Adam answered with a shrug. "We do a lot of negotiating, make a lot of counter-offers, work with a lot of unions. It's hard to make everyone happy, and any number of things can stall a project, even cost people their jobs. We try not to let that happen, but it's not entirely avoidable." He explained.
"So any threats have been to your business, and not to your personally." Steve said to sum up, to which Adam just nodded.
"Okay. Okay, now what?" Danny asked, feeling the need to do more than just talk.
"Now, you and I are going to follow up on Pakala." Steve said. "He may be dead, but he still has a history we need to look at for clues."
"And I'm headed to Auntie and Uncle's house." Chin stated in a sad tone. Kono's parents still hadn't been told about their daughter's abduction.
"Yeah." Steve said with a slight nod as Chin turned to leave, then he turned to Adam. "Before you go,..." He paused, taking his keys out of his pocket as he walked over to the gun cage to open it. "... take this with you."
"It's, uh, it's been too long for us to expect a ransom demand." Danny explained unnecessarily as Adam sadly nodded in silence.
NOON (41 hours missing)...
"You sure I can't get you somethin' to eat?" Kamekona pleaded. He could see the stress radiating off the blond haole, and had already assumed from the multiple coffee stains on the Detective's tie that he wasn't going to eat anything,... just like the SEAL that now stood fifty feet away, arms crossed over his chest and staring out at the ocean.
Danny just shook his head at the offer. The mass amount of coffee he had already consumed to keep awake and force his body to keep moving was already eating away at his stomach. "The only thing I'm interested in is information."
"Wish I had some for ya, Brah." The Hawaiian man said deflated.
"Yeah." Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Well, let us know if you hear anything. Anything at all."
"You know I will." Kamekona assured him.
"I don't know what to do." Steve stated without moving, as he sensed Danny approaching him from behind.
Danny silently rubbed both hands down his face as he stopped beside his partner and joined him in staring out at the ocean. For once, he just didn't have anything to say.
"This is my team."
The bars Pakala had been to, all three of them, had been dead ends.
"I'm supposed to watch out for my team."
Pakala's ex-wife hadn't seen him in eight months.
"I promised to protect her. After the Lowry case, I promised her."
Pakala had gotten fired from his job managing a grocery store just two weeks ago.
"What am I gonna say to Chin?"
Pakala's matchbox apartment was anther dead end; no computer, no phone, plenty of unpaid bills.
"What am I gonna tell Mr. and Mrs. Kalakaua?"
Okay, now Danny had something to say.
"You're gonna tell them that we found their daughter, and that we got her back safe. Because that's what's gonna happen." Danny stated matter-of-factly, refusing to believe that anything short of that was going to happen. Because anything short of that was simply not acceptable.
