O-O-O-O-O
Chapter 7
Headquarters Company of the 55th Supply and Service Battalion was located at the rear of Schofield Barracks Resupply Center, near the back gate of the Army installation. It was a one stop shopping center for office supplies, replacement parts, and vehicles. Danny and Chin left the black SUV with it's government plates parked in a no parking zone. It was a work day for the troops and the parking lot was packed. The two detectives entered a building that reeked of recycled air, petrochemicals, and pine-sol. They flashed their badges at the soldier currently keeping the world safe for democracy with a selection of office supplies and porn magazine cleverly hidden in a parts manual.
"I'm looking for Master Sergeant Briggs of the 55th S&S Battalion," Danny said, shaking his head at the oldest porn hiding trick in the book.
"What'd he do?" asked the soldier who looked all of nineteen. "He in trouble?"
"No," Danny said. The kid was sounding way too hopeful. "We need to ask him about one of his soldiers, and no, I can't tell you which one."
The kids face fell in disappointment. He was bored out of his skull with desk duty. Join the Army, they said. See the world, they said. What they hadn't told him was that Schofield Barracks was in the middle of nowhere on an island in the middle of the damned ocean, and if he was really really lucky, he might even get a chance to actually see some water instead of a tangle of rain forests populated by vicious blood sucking mosquitoes large enough to require tail numbers from the FAA before he ETS'd from the Army. "His office is at the end of the corridor and on your right. His name's on the door, you can't miss it."
Briggs turned out to be one of those old school NCO's who knew everyone and everything that went on in his battalion. He'd fought in ever skirmish the US had been involved in since Korea. He'd retired once, only to re-enlist for the National Guard when he got bored with fishing and doing his wife's never ending list of household chores. Danny introduced himself and Chin Ho and got to the point.
"We're trying to locate one of your soldiers, PFC Sylvester Martin Hadley. We need to ask him a few questions about where he was yesterday morning."
"What'd he do this time?" Briggs asked, sighing a put upon sigh. "He in trouble?"
"We won't know until after we speak to him, sir." Danny said.
"Don't call me 'sir', I work for a living," Briggs said. The police looking for one of his soldiers, even one as annoying as Hadley, meant extra paperwork and paperwork of any kind always made him cranky."As for your boy Hadley, if he's in trouble it won't be the first time, and probably not the last. He's been a pain in my ass since he reported for duty. He shows up for just enough meetings to keep from getting booted back to the street."
"Do you have an address and phone number for Mr. Hadley?" Chin asked.
"He lives with his mom and it's her address, so it should be good. As for the phone number, your guess is as good as mine. If you will excuse me a minute, I'll get his file."
Briggs was back a few minutes later carrying a yellow file folder with Hadley's name printed on the tab. "Here you go, gentlemen. If you arrest him, make sure it's something that will stick. It would save me the time and trouble of out processing this dimwit."
"Is he a troublemaker?" Danny asked.
"Is he still breathing? He's a wannabe Sgt Rock. Thinks he knows every damned thing there is and will not shut up. He's your quintessential expert on everything, if you get my drift. You want the real scoop, talk to Sergeant Edwards and Lt. Davis. They have the misfortune of having him assigned to their platoon. Davis is the OIC and Edwards is his section sergeant."
"What's his job?" Chin asked. "Rumor has it he's a sniper."
"You're saying that with a straight face so obviously you know of the little punk. Sniper, my ass. He couldn't hit the side of a barn. From the inside. With the doors closed. His firing style is spray and pray. The last time he was on the range, I wanted to buttstroke him upside the head to see if I could knock a little sense into his dumb ass. As for his job title, he's suppose to be a supply clerk, only stuff kept going missing from the supply room, usually right after he bothered to show up for drill. He was smart enough not to get caught in the act but we knew it was him. Supply gave him to Edwards and Davis and they put him in the arms room cleaning weapons. Not even an idiot like Hadley can mess up with a can of RBC and a ramrod."
Chin and Danny exchanged glances. "When was the last time you did a 100% inventory on the weapons you have in the arms room?" Danny asked, frowning.
"The last one was in October at the end of the fiscal year. The next one is going to be in June, after the annual training exercise. Why do you need to know?"
Danny thought it over for about ten seconds. Briggs appeared to be a straight shooter. Danny wasn't getting any guilty vibes from him, nor was Chin. "Five-O, in conjunction with NCIS and Army CID, are investigating a string of weapons thefts. Yesterday morning a military weapon was used in a botched robbery that left four people dead, two of them HPD officers. Your man Hadley's thumbprint was found on the cam pin of the rifle. We'd really like to know how it got there."
"Crap," Briggs said, dropping heavily into his office chair. "You think Hadley was involved?"
"All we know at this time is we have Hadley's thumbprint on a weapon," Chin said. "That's why its urgent that we speak to him."
"One more question," Danny said. "Do you have any of the new M16A4's in your arms room?"
"You're kidding, right?" Briggs said, giving a short laugh. "The 55th is a rear echelon support group. We're so far in the rear we might as well be the damned caboose. We're not slated to get any new toys until around the turn of the century, and then we'll probably get them second hand from a field unit."
"You're still going to need an inventory of everything you have in your arms room, just in case," Danny said.
"Does Hadley have another job?" Chin asked. "I know National Guard is only part time and you said he don't show up for meetings that often. He's got to work somewhere."
Briggs looked disgusted with life in general and Hadley in specific. "He works on the docks as a delivery driver. The little punk's third cousin twice removed or some such bullshit like that got him a job with the teamsters. Remember a few years back when the entire port got sued for not hiring enough Pacific Islanders? Hadley has just enough Polynesian blood to qualify, but only just. He claims to be a descendant of Hawaiian royalty. More like a royal pain in their collective ass. He works mid shift at the Navy pier, the three to midnight shift. Go to the gate and ask for Doc."
"Doc?" Chin asked, frowning.
Briggs had a look of utter distaste on his craggy face. "Yeah, Doc. As in 'What's up, Doc?' I threatened him with a court martial if he didn't shut that shit up. Every damned time you saw the idiot it was 'wazz up, Doc'. And he'd say it in his rendition of the Bugs Bunny/Brooklyn accent. Thought he was Mel Blanc reincarnated and too cool for school. I was waiting for an excuse to take him out in the field and leave his sorry ass for the mosquitoes, but then, what did the mosquitoes ever do to me?"
Chin was looking through the file folder. He suspected the only reason Hadley was still associated with the military was because as a part time soldier he wasn't around enough to get into major trouble. "This picture recent?" Chin asked. It was the mug shot from Hadley's ID. Brown hair, brown eyes, five-seven, 153 pounds, and about as Polynesian as I am. The description in the file matched the one Kini had given. His cop senses were tingling. He instinctively knew that Hadley was as guilty as sin.
"It's from a couple of months back when the new ID cards came out. You can keep the picture, and the file, too, if you need it."
"Thank you, Sgt Briggs," Danny said. "You've been most helpful."
"If he shows up here," Chin said, handing Briggs a business card with Five-O's phone numbers, "Give us a call."
"Will do, now if you will excuse me, it seems like young Private Hadley is going to ruin my day without even being here. Edwards and Davis are going to be mad as hell when I call 'em off their civilian jobs and tell them about the inventory that's going to have to be done before anyone can go home this afternoon. I will call you when we're done, or sooner if anything is missing."
The detectives once again shook hands with Briggs and left the office. As they passed the front counter the clerk was still engrossed with his porn magazine. "Keep it up," Danny said, "and you'll go blind." The clerk immediately jumped to his feet to open the doors for them, his face flaming red from embarrassment.
On the drive back to Iolani Chin was going over their notes. "So far we got a name, and a nickname. Doc. Like that's original. I've got a cousin named Doc. He's a lawyer."
"And we've also got a Polynesian wannabe who works at the Navy Pier as a truck driver. Probably one of those box trucks used to deliver cargo taken off the ships."
"Got an address on Onipaa Street. Nice neighborhood. Lots of families. We gone need backup if he's at his mom's. Surround the place, hit hard and hit fast and maybe he won't start shooting."
"You think he's our shooter?" Danny asked. He had learned long ago to listen to Chin's hunches.
"My gut feeling is that Hadley's our man. Everything we have so far points in his direction. The thumbprint on the rifle, where he works, and the name 'Doc', even his firing style. Spray and pray. Gonna have to remember that one for the next time we go to the firing range. Sergeant Briggs confirmed the details Kini gave us and the fact that Hadley tends to exaggerate. I'll about bet that he was being evasive about knowing Hadley to try to cut a deal with the DA when he goes to trial. The only thing is neither Hadley or Kini are smart enough to put this kind of caper together. The botched robbery, yeah, 'cause that sounds like something they'd do, but not stealing weapons. This whole thing is too complex for a couple of kids and a wannabe war hero."
"Time to shake the trees and see what falls out," Danny said. "I'll drop you off at the Palace and head to the DA's to get warrant for Hadley's arrest and a search warrant for his house."
"I'll get copies of Hadley's photo and get a couple of plain clothes men on the docks to keep an eye on our boy until we get the warrants to pick him up." Chin said as his cell phone started ringing. He answered it, frowning. "Kelly here."
"This is central dispatch with a patch through from Sgt Compton. Hold, please." A few seconds later Compton was on the line. He told Chin Ho he'd gone to Queens for an unknown trouble call, only to find that the unknown trouble had a name and was an eyewitness to a triple homicide involving a stolen M16. Chin thanked him and closed his phone with a snap.
"Change of plans, Danny," he said. "Head for Queens with lights and sirens. Someone just put three slugs into Kini. He's dead."
O-O-O-O-O
They got to the hospital as McGarrett was pulling into the parking lot by the emergency entrance. Compton and Doc Bergman were waiting for them by the door of Kini's room.
"Okay, Doc," Steve asked. "What happened?"
"From the looks of it, someone shot Mr. Kaimana three times at close range. The entrance wounds look like a fairly large caliber weapon, possibly a .45 or a .9mm, probably with a silencer, since no one heard any shots. The duty nurse ran in when the alarm on every piece of medical equipment he was hooked up to started beeping at the same time. Which, by the way, gives us the exact time of death, 10:47 am."
"You mean someone strolled in here, put three slugs into our best witness, and then strolled out before the nurses could get in here to check the patient?" Kini was still half sitting up in the bed, his chest covered in blood that was soaking into the sheets. One of the nurses had obligingly tuned off the TV, consigning Jerry Springer and his sideshow to broadcast limbo. "No one saw anything?"
"We're questioning everyone who was on duty when it happened, sir," Compton said. "I've asked for the footage from the security cameras. Maybe the cameras caught something the humans missed."
"Get Che and a lab crew in here. I want ballistics on those bullets as soon as possible. Where are his parents?"
"They went home because HPD was there to search the place," Compton said. "No one's had a chance to let them know."
One of the first things Chief Dann had done when he took over HPD was to insist that bad news be delivered by a uniformed officer instead of over the phone, and when he could, sent an officer of the same ethnicity. "Duke should be at the Kaimana residence. I'll give him a call and make sure the parents are left alone until you can get out there. Robbie, looks like you're it for this one."
"Won't be the first time," he said. He instructed two of the officers responding to the call to guard the crime scene until Che was finished and sent the rest of the officers back on patrol.
"That kid's turning into a good cop," Chin Ho observed.
"He doesn't want his fiance to outdo him." McGarrett said. "From what I hear from the academy, he's going to have to step up his game to keep ahead of her." Ivory Thompson had ETS'd from the Army in January and had been hired by HPD almost immediately afterward. She was currently ranked number 5 in her class at the Police Academy. Compton had graduated 10th. "Danno, what did you get from your trip out to Schofield."
"An address and a file on Private Sylvester Martin Hadley, also known as 'Doc', who, when he's not cleaning weapons for the 55th S&S Battalion, works as a truck driver at the Navy Pier. I was on my way to the DA's office to get search and arrest warrants."
"Based on the words of a dead sixteen year old? This one's going to be tricky."
"When I questioned Kini this morning both his mother and his lawyer were present. They heard the entire interview and the lawyer had a voice recorder going. You think that's enough to get us a warrant?" Chin asked.
"There's also the thumbprint on the weapon," Danny said.
"You said he worked in the arms room, cleaning weapons," Steve said. "A half decent lawyer will shred that in court as being left during his normal duties."
"Yeah, except I asked about the new sixteens. The 55th doesn't have them and isn't expecting to get any until around the year 2000."
McGarrett nodded his approval. "Good, Danno, now we're getting somewhere. Chin, give Che a hand and get a copy of the security camera footage as soon as it's downloaded and get it to headquarters. Danno, get the warrants. Let's show Doc what's really up. I'll be at the Kaimana residence. Maybe mama knows something we don't."
