A/N: I promise some Steve and Danny this time.

Chapter 7 — Wrong Place, Wrong Time

When Chin and Kono reached the hospital, the lobby was in an uproar that didn't seem to have anything to do with an influx of earthquake victims. A crowd of staff members and avid bystanders were clustered around an arguing trio of familiar faces.

In the last two weeks, Five-0 had been called in on a case of theft from hospital pharmacies. Two hospitals and three nursing homes had been hit. The pills had been replaced with lookalikes, so the thefts hadn't been discovered until patients complained that the meds weren't working. The case was transferred to Five-0 when two patients in a nursing home — one a former state supreme court judge — died after their heart medicine was replaced with pills made of sugar and sawdust. In addition to re-interviewing the staffs at the institutions that had been hit, Five-0 had checked out other medical facilities on the island, including Honolulu General.

Everyone's attention was on the argument, so no one saw the Five-0 officers approaching.

"This is a hospital! We need to try to save him!" exclaimed a short, thin Asian man in a business suit. He was Tom Watanabe, head of Procurement, the man who kept the hospital supplied with everything from mops to pharmaceuticals.

A tall, dark-haired man in doctor's whites snorted. "I examined him. His head is crushed. There's nothing we can do for him." He was Dr. Trevor Kaylor, chief of Medical Services, manager of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and all. He was not a polite man, but he was an excellent organizer and a respected physician.

"We can't just leave him there!" cried a woman in skirt and blazer. She was Kaitlyn Binnix, the Assistant Facilities Manager, who helped oversee building maintenance.

"We have to," the doctor said bluntly.

"We need to report it," said voice from the audience. Paramedic Margie Chandler stepped forward. "It's a suspicious death."

"It's an accidental death!" protested a man dressed as a janitor. "It was the earthquake."

"Even so, it needs to be reported," Margie said firmly.

Chin and Kono exchanged a glance. "What's going on here?" Chin demanded in his best cop voice.

The group turned en masse to see the police officers escorting their subdued prisoner.

"It's Five-0," Margie said in relief. "Chin, Ab and I just found Roland Pham dead around back in the loading dock. Ab's watching the body."

"Pham? We were just talking to him last week about the pharmacy thefts," Kono said. Pham was the Facilities Manager, Binnix's superior.

"It looks like an accident," Margie said. "A brick wall gave way on the third floor patio and fell on the loading dock. It looks like Mr. Pham was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But it still needs to be treated like a suspicious death," Kono finished, nodding.

"But he knew better than to go outside during an earthquake," Binnix protested. "He knew it's the most dangerous place to be."

"But it was part of his job to check for damage after an earthquake," Kaylor pointed out with rough sympathy. "If he was already out there when the latest aftershock hit …"

"Wrong place, wrong time," Margie said again.

"All right. We'll check it out after we log our prisoner into the jail wing," Chin said.

"I'll call Max Bergman," Kono said, pulling out her phone.

She spoke to the medical examiner's office, then to Duke Lukela, while Chin was booking Lindquist. Duke was glad to let Five-0 take lead on the investigation. The quake had doubled HPD's caseload and the hospital death might be related to the drug theft investigation.

"It doesn't seem likely," Kono told him.

"But it's possible," the sergeant responded.

As Chin and Kono headed toward the accident scene, she asked her cousin, "Do you think this has anything to do with our case?"

"Not on the surface," Chin said. "But stranger things have happened."

Kono snorted in a most unladylike fashion. "This is Five-0. 'Stranger' is all in a day's work."


Having finally finished their checklist — the hard way, Danny said, rubbing at a trio of spark burns on his hand — the partners headed back toward HQ.

The dangerous labs on their damage assessment list were located away from the city, so there wasn't much traffic here.

Danny grabbed the safety bar. "Whoa? Is that a flat tire?"

Steve slowed cautiously, then pulled to the side of the road. The odd lurching feeling continued.

"Must be another aftershock, a big one," Steve said. He turned on the radio and, sure enough, reports were pouring in from various parts of Oahu.

Danny peered around the Silverado anxiously, but nothing seemed ready to fall on the truck. "What do you think," he asked, feigning casualness. "A 4.5?"

"You're beginning to sound like an old pro," Steve said in approval. "I think it's finished. We'd better get back to town."

Steve hurried along the empty streets while Danny gazed at the hills.

"Whoa! Wait, Steve!"

The commander hit the brakes. "What?"

"Back up," Danny commanded. "I thought I saw something up that side street."

The Silverado zipped backwards until the two men could look up the street. The road ran uphill and around a curve. A maroon SUV was stopped along the curve and Steve instantly saw what had caught Danny's quick eye. The SUV was badly tilted with the front passenger wheel hanging off the edge of the cliff. Broken sections of metal guardrail had caught the side and front of the vehicle, but even as the men watched, a little more dirt fell away and the SUV shifted toward the drop off.

Steve spun the wheel and charged up the side road. As they came around the corner, they saw the driver hadn't run off the road, the road had collapsed beneath her wheels. The earthquake had caused a landslide that carried away a chunk of the guardrail and undermined the road, but left the pavement intact. When the woman drove across what seemed to be normal pavement, it buckled beneath her tire, sending the SUV swerving toward the drop off.

She had stopped in time, but the SUV was steeply tilted, so she couldn't get out. All she could do was hang there, looking down at the broken piece of guardrail which had landed, jagged end up, pointing at the SUV. Airbags weren't going to do any good if the SUV dropped. The metal railing would spike through the windshield like a spear.

Steve and Danny approached the SUV cautiously, testing the ground, worried their weight would cause further slippage.

"Take it easy, ma'am," Steve called.

The woman driver was hanging from the seat restraints, trying to reach her cellphone, which had fallen to the floor, and trying not to rock the SUV. She hadn't heard them coming over the blood pounding in her skull. At Steve's words, her head jerked up and the whole SUV shivered at the movement.

"Easy," Danny said soothingly. "Easy, we're Five-0. We'll get you out."

"I'm going to ease the door open," Steve said. "Then we'll get you out of there."

"No!"

"It's OK. All you have to do is grab my hand and unfasten your seatbelt," Steve said.

"No," she said again. She didn't sound panicky; she sounded stubborn and pointed at the backseat. "My baby!"


TBC