Chapter 9: Does Murder Satisfy Your Appetite?
Josef Sarna's House
"Wake up!" a tiny voice squeaked in Steve's ear which made his eyes fly open.
He saw a white ceiling above him and he felt out of place. His back ached a little, he could feel that he hadn't brushed his teeth in a while and he felt as if he only slept for five minutes.
"You're awake! You're awake!" the same voice cheered, but now Steve was able to tell that it belonged to a young boy.
He rolled over to his side and saw a skinny, minuscule boy with dark hair and hazel eyes jumping around with a smile on his face. He was wearing a shirt with light green and blue stripes, children's jeans and held a small Optimus Prime toy in his hand.
Steve was slowly beginning to remember how he ended up in this house, which, evidently, belonged to Josef Sarna. He brought Ali here who explained everything to her brother. He remembered watching TV with her, feeling a little discomfited because of their close encounter yesterday, but anything past that he couldn't bring to memory.
He should have stayed up to keep watch; if anyone tried breaking in to kill Ali, he should have been there to greet the assassins. Though now it looked like the only person who was keeping watch was Little Max Sarna.
Way to go, McGarrett, he thought. Victor Hesse's ghost could have flown in here and you wouldn't have noticed it.
He looked at the boy, "Good morning, Max."
"Can we play?" the five year old asked as the SEAL wondered where his parents were.
Steve laughed; the boy had so much happiness, so much joy that it made Steve forget about being angry with himself.
"What did you have in mind?" Steve questioned, hoping that other adults responded with that when assigned these types of questions by children.
"I-I," the boy stuttered. "I don't know!"
Suddenly a sad expression developed on Max's face and it looked as if he would cry.
Shit, please don't cry! Steve internally pleaded. The last thing he needed was a crying five year old on his hands. How would he comfort a crying little person?
"Um, that's okay, buddy," he assured standing up.
"No because I woke you up to play and now you're going to be angry!" Max explained looking at the floor.
"Hey, hey, Max," Steve reassured coming down to the boy's level. "I'm not going to be angry. Let's eat some breakfast and maybe we can think of something we can play."
Little Max's face lit up and he took off to the kitchen as Steve stood up, ignoring the pain in his lower back.
He noticed his phone on the small table near the right side of the couch, picked it up and turned it on. He had one message from Josef which he opened. It read:
Hey, sorry to do this to you, but Leah was on schedule at the clinic this morning and my boss just called me in. Al passed out with Max on his little bunk bed… just tell Max to wake her up.
Steve smiled at the text, it made him feel like Ali's family trusted him. Before putting his phone away, he took a peak at the time and widened his eyes when he saw the number "6" and the letters "A.M". How did a boy who reminded Steve of a mouse have the energy to wake up at six in the morning?
"He's going to be a SEAL in the future," Steve whispered to himself as he walked towards the kitchen.
"Okay, mommy makes sandwiches because she says they're good for me, but I don't like sandwiches," Max explained to Steve.
Steve looked around the kitchen, trying to find something quick he could make for the kid. He saw a box of cereal on top of the fridge, grabbed it and glanced at Little Max.
"How about cereal?"
"Do you like cereal?" Little Max inquired, gazing up at Steve from his seat at the table.
"It's too sweet, personally I don't think it should be a breakfast –"
"He means yes, Maxi," Ali's soft voice interrupted him midsentence.
Steve turned around to see Ali walking in, her hair was up in one of those elegant buns with a few strands poking out. She was wearing a red skirt that reached just a little above her knees and a white blouse that she tucked into the skirt.
"What's the occasion?" Steve asked as he poured cereal for Max.
Ali sent Steve a questioning look, "I had to borrow Leah's clothes. Unfortunately her style screams 60's stewardess more than covert operative."
"What's a covert operative?" Little Max interjected as Steve's phone rang in his pocket.
Steve excused himself then walked out of the kitchen.
"McGarrett," Steve answered as he entered the living room, not bothering to look at the caller ID.
"Where are you?" Danny's voice filled his ears.
"I'm with Ali at her brother's, why?" he asked defensively.
"What do you mean why? Who's Ali? Didn't the wicked witch of the west call you yet?"
"Danny what are you talking about?"
"The governor, you schmuck! Who are you talking about!"
"Alexandra!"
"So now you've got a nick name for her? What are you two dating?"
Steve ignored the last part, not because he wanted to ignore it, but because he didn't know the answer. Were they dating? Last night made everything feel a little more real, but he knew that wasn't the reality. Ali was too much of a lady to start a relationship just because they almost slept together; she would want substance, emotion and love out of a relationship.
"What did the governor need, Danny?"
"An HPD officer found a body down at Ala Moana Park and the governor wants us to have it," Danny explained with a rising temper. "But I've got Grace this weekend, so now Rachel gets my weekend!"
Steve sighed, he had the same problem this morning. He and Ali couldn't leave Max by himself and neither of them could stay with him.
"What are you sighing for?" Danny queried.
"Nothing, I'll see you in twenty."
With that Steve quickly ran back into the kitchen, caught Ali's eye and said, "New vic at the park."
Ali glanced at her nephew then back up at Steve, "Max, do you like surfing?"
"I love surfing!"
"Ali, what're you pl-"
"Maybe Mamu's free this morning?" Ali suggested with a smile.
Ala Moana Park
A breeze swept the stray hairs out of Ali's (as Steve now liked to call her) face as she walked towards the crime scene with Steve. With each step there was a heavier feeling in her stomach, anxiety. It wasn't the fact that she was going to see a victim of murder within the next few seconds, although she knew it wasn't going to be a joyous part of her day. What made her anxious was the amount of people crowding around the yellow tape, trying to see the person who was killed. As a spy, she never had to deal with people hording around her as she worked and she wasn't used to having to focus with conversations happening around her. There was one factor, though, that she always had to deal with and that was faking a cover. Honolulu Police Department had no idea of her true nature, they were still under the impression that she was a nurse and she intended for it to stay that way.
"You okay?" she heard Steve ask.
"Yeah," she assured.
"Remember, you're a nurse-"
"I know Steven," she interrupted. "You aren't the only one who's had to be an actor, Commander."
"Commander? I thought last night we got past the titles," he teased.
"Last night never actually materialized," Ali replied in the same teasing tone.
"Well maybe we can make it materialize in the future," Steve suggested making Ali severly blush.
"Are you suggesting-"
"I'm suggesting dinner, Ali," he teased. "I honestly don't know what you thought I meant."
She saw Steve give her one of his half smiles that made her heart race and thought of the kiss they shared. It all felt surreal to her, like something out of a fairytale… except in a world where she wasn't a princess waiting for a prince to save her. Before she could dwell any longer on her "fairytale", Ali approached the yellow tape and was welcomed by the image of the other team members working around the victim.
The sight of the body was extremely gruesome. It was a woman with light blonde hair that was tangled in knots. The woman's face was smeared in blood, but that wasn't what made Ali sick to the stomach. The victim wore a silky, torn gown, however it was tugged to her abdomen and Ali couldn't even think of words to describe the scene bellow the woman's hips. She was reminded of Jack the Ripper, a sadist who ran uncaught in England during the Nineteenth Century. Ali could tell everyone else felt the same way as she did because they all looked as if their stomachs had weakened.
"Does murder satisfy your appetite?" she weakly said as Danny approached them.
"What's happened?" Steve questioned Danny in a tone that suggested he would enjoy finding the sick bastard who murdered the woman.
"Right now, it looks like rape, but the M.E has to confirm it," Danny explicated.
"What else?" Ali asked as Chin came to help with catching Steve and Ali up.
"Kono found Trojans around her," Chin added.
Ali felt ill when Chin mentioned that fact; Trojans suggested there was more than one assailant and Ali didn't want to think of what that woman went through.
"What's her name?" Steve asked.
"Kono's searching her now for any ID, but these psychos… they stabbed her inguinal area, Steve, they didn't leave ID on her," Danny postulated.
"Guys!" Kono shouted from where she knelt by the victim.
Ali made her way towards Kono and saw the Polynesian officer holding the blonde woman's arm up, revealing a deep scar above the wrist that resembled an asterisk, but with more ornate shapes on the ends of the lines.
"It looks like a symbol," Ali thought aloud.
"There's an anthropologist at HPU who's teaching semiotics," Chin explained as he beckoned an HPD officer with a camera.
"Ah," Danny groaned. "I know we barely know each other, but, babe, you should know by now I don't understand weird words."
"Semiotics is the study of signs and their meanings," Steve informed while Kono snapped pictures of the crime scene.
"Alright, so you think some teacher will know why she was raped and killed?" Danny asked incredulously.
"No, but he'll know what that scar means which will lead us to what she was apart of," Ali notified.
"You think she was apart of something?" Kono asked.
"Well the scar on her arm, rook, tells us that. It's like a gang and tattoos," Danny explained to Kono as Steve stared at him with a somewhat astonished look in his eyes. "What?"
"I'm just happy to know that something clicks up there for you," Steve explained tapping his head.
Danny immediately took offense to that and defensively replied, "Believe it or not, I did make it through the academy."
"I believe y-"
"I also managed to become a detective, Steven!"
"I believe you, Danno!" Steve defensively shouted.
"Boys," Chin intervened. "We have a case."
"Yes, Steven, we have a case," Danny venomously hissed. "Let's go have a little study session with the professor."
Danny ducked beneath the yellow tape as technicians wrapped the body in white bags and were heaving it into a small truck that resembled an ambulance in order to transport it to the morgue.
"Ali, go make sure he doesn't go off on the wrong person, Chin take the evidence Kono found to a lab and wait for results and, Kono, you and I are going to meet the medical examiner," Steve instructed.
Ali followed Danny to his Camaro, glad that she didn't have to stand next to the grisly murder scene, but not as happy as she was before. She no longer felt as cheerful as she did when she woke up. The image of the woman struck something deep within her. It would stay with her, haunt her dreams if she didn't find out who did that to her. Ali couldn't let the perpetrator get away with it, not like she did with Max. She had to find who put her through hell and make sure that her executioner wouldn't see the outside of the gray prison wall and bars for the rest of his life.
Marriott Hotel, Honolulu
"She wasn't who I wanted," Francois's employer scorned in a harsh tone.
Francois sat at the bar of the Marriott Hotel, staring at the man who stole his role of influence in Estonia. The man was a complete lunatic, in Francois's opinion. When Francois went away to prison, the man next to him took over leading their religious sect, but he believed every aspect of the religion. Francois didn't know how he himself made the man beside him a psycho in every way possible. The spiritual doctrines of the religion were borrowed from other cults, Francois never truly believed what he preached. He believed in the money he made while he preached in that Godforsaken village near the thick forestry of Estonia. The offer the man had given him in the MI6 holding cells was enough for Francois to pretend he believed in the cult's practices.
"She had to have sufficed, the girl you're looking for to bring glory to your uh…"
"Kingdom," the man supplied.
"Kingdom," Francois repeated, somewhat mockingly. "Is heavily guarded."
"Apportez-moi son dans la semaine, la divinite a faim," the man replied standing up to leave.
Francois nodded, swiveled the drink he held in his hand and laughed.
"That guy seemed intense," the bar tender said, trying to make conversation with Francois.
"Psychotic, no?" Francois laughed knowing that the bar tender found Francois's accent unusual.
"I didn't understand what he said," the bar tender pointed out while Francois gulped what was left of his rum and stood from his seat.
"It was French, I taught him to speak it," Francois explained.
"Sounds cool," the bartender complimented with a cheerful smile on his face. "What's it translate to?"
"Bring me the girl, the deity is hungry," Francois spilled leaving the bartender with a perplexed look on his face.
Hi everyone, I know this chapter is ghastly, it's very vital to the plot though. I promise you guys this is the only chapter where I have to get into detail about how they found the victim.
With love to you guys,
Sandra Anna!