AN: Again, this chapter took a little longer than expected, but finally here it is. An apology for the delay.

Thanks to all who have read and for their wonderful reviews. I love you guys. Please tell me what you think and enjoy your reading.

We're almost reaching the end!


Chapter 9: The end of the skein

Jerry nods and then says, as he shows on the screen, the picture of a sadly familiar face, "Exactly ... The beloved professor Elizabeth Kani."

Steve leans, stunned, on the table. It's one thing for the high school maintenance chief to be involved, but it never occurred to him that Professor Kani had anything to do with it. For God's sake, the woman had called 911 and told the police about the kidnapping! His mind reverberates with the words Danny shouted at him eight years ago, when both were investigating the Meka case: "Our job is to go after the suspect, not the victim!"

In that occasion it was easy for Steve to consider all possibilities, including that Meka was the culprit, and that had taken Danny out of his comfort zone.

During the years of his association, he had tried not to forget those words, so this time he did exactly that: He looked for suspects in all possible places and people, except the victim.

His mind starts to spin, analyzing a thousand new theories. Looks at Jerry trying to form the words, while his thoughts are organized in his head. "We have to bring Lively right now! ..." he says finally, as he picks up his phone and dials Lou's number.


An hour later, the Silverado stops with a grinding of tires in front of the high school building. Duke waits with some HPD officers. Quickly, Five-0 and a dozen cops enter the building, before the astonished gaze of the security guard.

Quickly, they walk along the corridors, stopping shortly after, in front of the laboratories area, a short distance from the staircase that leads to the basement. At that moment, Frederick Lively leaves an office located at the end of the corridor. As soon as he sees the unexpected presence of the group of HPD officers, he freezes for a moment. Steve yells, "Frederick Lively ... Five-0! we need to talk ..."

Lively reacts quickly and begins to run down the stairs to the basement. Steve comes out like a blast behind him, followed by the rest of the team members. Before starting to run, Lou sighs, looks at Duke resigned and asks, "Why do they always have to run?" Without waiting for the sergeant answer, they both start running after the team.

When Steve reaches the bottom of the stairs, he can see Lively's dark silhouette running towards the metal door that leads to the tunnel of the water supply network. With a typical commander voice, Steve shouts, "Junior ... take a couple of officers and go to the alley to try to intercept him ..." Looks at Lou and Duke, who have finally reached the basement, and says, "Lou, we'll follow him through the tunnel, Come on, come on, people! Move!" Junior and two cops run up the stairs, while Steve runs, heading the tunnel, followed by Lou, Duke and the two other cops.

As they run, Steve illuminates the dark tunnel with his flashlight and listens to the rhythmic sound of footsteps splashing on the damp gravel floor, synchronizing them with the agitated beats of his heart. Suddenly they come to a bifurcation and stop, trying to guess the path the suspect has taken. The path on the left is the one that leads to the alley ... The same one that Anderson is supposed to have taken in his escape, that day.

Steve illuminates the floor, but he can't see footprints, or any other indication that Lively has gone this way; then, he illuminates the other path: the wet handprint on the irregular surface of the wall ... Lively must have lost his balance and held to avoid falling. Sharpen his ears again, until he hears a heavy but almost silent breathing. Without saying anything, he makes a sign to Lou, showing the way and the two begin to run in that direction.

Suddenly, Steve hears the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking. Without thinking, he reacts quickly, pushing Lou to the ground and turning off his flashlight. The bullet passes by close ... dangerously close to his head and it's embedded in the rock wall behind him. In a barely audible voice, he orders Lou and the officers to keep their heads down and begins to crawl ... almost sneaky on the dirty, damp ground.

A second gunshot reverberates in the tunnel. This time ,the bullet has passed by, far away from him, which suggests that the first shot was a lucky one and the suspect can't really see them. He hurries a little, while slides with his chest against the ground. Lively's breathing is heard closer and closer.

Suddenly, he sees the guy ... The tunnel makes a whimsical turn to the right and there, in the corner, Steve distinguishes the man's black squatting silhouette. Closes his eyes for a second, trying to concentrate, then opens them and takes a couple of deep breaths, aims his gun and shoots. Immediately, he can hear a painful moan and the unmistakable sound of a body that splashes as it falls on the water accumulated on the ground.

At that moment, he turns on the flashlight and illuminates the place ... In his fall, Lively has dropped the gun and tries desperately to reach it with his left hand, while pressing the bleeding wound on his knee with the other hand. Steve quickly walks over and picks up the gun with his hand wrapped in a black vinyl glove; it's a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

After putting the gun in the side pocket of his cargo pants, he approaches Lively, who screams loudly; He leans over and places the plastic band around the wounded man's wrists and says, in a voice that sounds unusually calm, "Frederick Lively. You're under arrest for robbery and for the homicide of Elizabeth Kani ... "

"Homicide?" The man screams again, pitifully. "That bitch planned everything! ... She asked me to help her ... and I did, but I didn't kill her! "

At that moment, Lou approaches. The laughter erupts, deep and intense, from the bottom of his chest as he takes the suspect by the elbows and tells him his rights, before the stupefied look of the three cops, as he begins to walk towards the exit, holding his wobbly suspect.


Two hours later, Steve walks from one side to the other, facing a handcuffed Lively sitting to the chair. His screams echo in the isolated room of solid concrete walls and a trickle of blood escapes from his knee wound, to get lost in the drain hole at his feet. "I need a doctor, man!" he cries.

"And you're going to have one..." Lou answers him, without giving up for a second his cynical smile, "Once you've told us everything we want to know ..."

"What I want you to know, Fred, is that right now, you're up to your neck in serious trouble," Steve tells him, as his eyes cast that terrifying look that makes a lot of suspects make a mess in his pants.

"Actually, I don't care what you did or did not ... All I want is for you to pay for what happened ... Because of you, a good cop's career and a great man's life are about to go by the drain, just like your precious blood!"

Steve takes a couple of breaths to calm down and then asks, "What was your relationship with Anderson?"

Lively frowns and asks, "Who?"

Exasperated, Steve takes his phone and shows Anderson's picture.

"That's Jeremy Bolton ..." Lively says. Tears of pain slide down his cheeks. " Liz brought him here ... She told me the man had a good business to propose to us."

"What business?" Lou asks.

"Bolton needed certain chemicals, but he could not get them by himself, so he wanted the school to buy them for him, along with the supplies for the chemistry lab ... Listen man, all I did was keep those boxes in the basement and deliver them to Bolton once a month. Professor Kani did the paperwork and prevented the rest of the teachers or the director from realizing what we were doing ... I needed that money, man ... I never thought someone would get hurt! "

Steve thinks for a minute, while sees, in his mind the image of Lively standing in the basement while the team was looking for evidence ... Without knowing why, he decides to risk, showing his best poker face and asks, "You did more than keep those boxes, didn't you, Fred? ... When you went down to the basement, immediately after the shooting, you found the gun and you hid it, right? "

Lively opens his eyes wide and stutters for a second, then resignedly replies, "When you and the blond detective went into the supply closet and found the body of Professor Kani ... I saw it... The gun was behind the shelf next to the door ... right outside the closet, I got scared and I picked it up. "

Mindful of his instinct, Steve reaches into his pocket and pulls out the revolver, asking, "Is this the gun you found?" Lively looks increasingly frightened, silently nods and closes his eyes.

The door beeps and Junior pokes his head, making a sign, Steve and Lou get out of the room, leaving the terrified Lively, moaning and crying loudly.

In the corridor, Lou asks, "What do you got Junior?" The kid gives Steve a sheet of paper with Lively's personal information. After a quick read, Steve tells Lou. "Please, take the revolver to the lab, ask them to look for fingerprints and see if they can find any connection with an open case, tell them they must pay special attention to the pending cases of manufacture and distribution of methamphetamines. I need to go back, I need this idiot to tell me where he delivered the chemicals, I suspect Anderson took there, the boxes that were in the basement that day ... "

Steve goes back into the room, Lively's cries have been reduced to a lot of silent sobs. He walks menacingly towards the guy, who looks up, frightened. "What I want you to tell me now, Fred is where you delivered the containers with the chemicals..."

The man is scared and, losing all hope, he murmurs, "I want a lawyer!"

Steve denies with the head and says, "Look ... I'm getting tired of this crap. Personally I don't care if your stinking ass rots in a tiny 70-square-foot cell ... So this is your last chance to rescue what you can from your miserable life ... " He briefly reads the sheet that is crumpled between his fingers,"You have a son, don't you? What do you think he would say, if we add manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine, to the charges against you? " Steve looks satisfied as his words are achieving the desired effect in Frederick Lively's already disturbed mood. He leans until his face is a couple of inches from the suspect's red eyes, "Now, I won't ask again, where did you deliver the chemicals?"

Fifteen minutes later, Steve runs down the hall and enters the elevator. Upon leaving, he meets Duke by the headquarters glass door and says, "We got it, Duke! Lively is in the interrogation room, you can book him whenever you want ... " Steve turns around, but suddenly remembers something and turns to look at his friend, before he disappears in the elevator, Duke puts a hand to prevent the doors close, while Steve says, " Ah, Duke! I almost forgot, I think the guy could need a doctor. "

Sergeant Lukela smiles and the elevator doors close, while Steve continues his mad career to join his team, happy because finally, he can see the end of the complicated skein that this damn case has become.