Hi everyone. I'm so, so glad to say that I've been re-bitten by the creative bug and am on the path to what I hope will be a great story. I'm re-energized and am really excited to share where all this is going with anyone reading this story. Thank you to everyone who's read, fav/followed or reviewed! As always, I love any and all feedback, Enjoy! :)
"Hey, Chin." Steve caught the attention of his friend as they walked through the doors. "What do we know about this guy so far?"
"Not much, yet." The native Hawaiian spoke with disappointment. "HPD found the van about twenty miles east of Straub, but there was no sign of Brown when they got there."
"Has CSU processed it yet?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, Fong just called." Chin confirmed. "They're working now. HPD said when the truck crashed, it messed up the GPS pretty bad. Charlie was able to recover a couple things though, and from what United Hawaii Deliveries gave us, the last address programmed in before the hospital wasn't on Brown's route. Grover's gone to check it out."
"Okay, sounds like it could be something." Steve replied. "Kono's still got a few more parents to interview. She's going to call if she gets anything."
"How's Grace?" Chin turned to Danny.
"Better, much better." He beamed once more, the feeling of relief having not subsided even a little yet.
"That's great." Chin smiled genuinely.
"So, we're obviously not dealing with a master criminal here." Steve kept the group on task. "This guy had to have known his truck had a built in GPS, right? It makes tracing his whereabouts so much easier for us. He couldn't have thought that through."
"True," Danny piped in. "Plus there's the fact that he was probably so high he thought the truck just floated along the road, on top of the marshmallow clouds and lollipop trees." Danny giggled and swayed a little in his spot like he was floating.
Steve and Chin looked at Danny like he was the one on drugs. "Uhh, yeah. And there's that." Steve finally replied awkwardly.
"So why would he try pulling this off with a vehicle that can be so easily traced?" Chin asked.
"Good question. Why don't you call UHD, see if they can give you anything else. Coworkers, family, anything we can learn about this guy."
"On it." Chin obliged as he headed for his office.
Steve looked over at his partner, amused by the sight in front of him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his buddy smile like that and certainly, for that long. "Hey, Detective Blazed." He called. "We've got bomb materials to trace, let's go."
"Nah. I'm high on happiness, that's all." He replied, smile still just as wide. "It's better than drugs."
"Okay buddy," Steve laughed, clasping his friend on the back as they walked towards the exit.
The atmosphere wasn't so great back at the school though. "Mrs. Garner, do you know a man by the name of Joel Brown?" Kono held out her phone to show the picture they'd obtained.
The petite woman stayed silent for a second to compose herself. "Well," She sniffled through her tears. "The name doesn't do a thing for me, but he looks familiar."
"Can you think of where you would've seen him?" She probed further.
The woman's face flashed deep thought for a few seconds before she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Officer. I can't place him specifically." She looked down. "Is he the man who hit our kids?"
"We believe so." Kono put her hand on the woman's shoulder in a reassuring gesture.
"Ohh. I'm so sorry." She began sobbing again, the guilt coming through her tears. "I wish I could help."
"It's okay," Kono tried to smile. She pulled a card from her pocket and offered it to the distraught mother. "Listen, if you remember him or you think of anything else, give me a call, okay?"
The woman nodded her understanding and with one final shoulder squeeze, Kono stood up and headed for the last parent to interview.
"Officer Kalakaua, can we speak in the hallway for a second?" The distressed looking woman asked as she approached Kono.
"Sure," Kono agreed as they stepped out of earshot of the children and parents clustered together in the teacher's lounge.
Across town at the Bomb Squad unit, another hallway conversation was taking place. "That's a negative, Commander. No explosive materials found in the school, either." The uniform clad man explained.
"So what the hell is this guy after?" Danny was the first one to reply. "Why ram himself into a bus full of innocent, sweet children? Huh?" His happiness high was beginning to wear off.
Steve's attention was momentarily swayed by his ringing phone. "Hang on. This is Kono, maybe she's got something." He waved a thank you to the bomb tech as he walked away leaving the men alone.
"Boss, I think we've got our motive." She stated plainly. "I just finished talking to Jeffrey and Anabelle Reid, their daughter Kora was on the bus this morning. Six months ago, they hired Joel Brown to do some odds and ends jobs on their farm near the North Shore. Things seemed fine at first. That was until they discovered he'd been stealing from them a little at a time."
"He stole money from them?" Steve assumed as he hit the speaker phone button.
"Money, some small jewellery. A few other items of value. He started small, and by the time they discovered stuff was missing it was estimated at around $10, 000 worth in total."
"Wait a second," Danny spoke up. "His record only shows drug charges. Why is theft not there too?"
"Because The Reids never went to the police about it." Kono explained.
"Uh, why the hell not?" Danny pushed.
Kono sighed. "In Annabelle's words, Joel Brown was a well-meaning, well-mannered young man who had some bad breaks in his life. They gave him the job on the farm to give him a fresh start."
"And nothing ruins a fresh start like going to jail for theft charges." Steve finished for her with irritation in his tone.
"Exactly. But," Kono continued. Annabelle also said she caught Brown eavesdropping on a fight she and JeffreyJeJe had a couple days ago. They were talking about pressing charges, but Annabelle still didn't want to."
"So what, he wanted to send a warning message by going after their daughter?" Steve deduced.
"That's not all." She delivered the final nail in the coffin. "Jeff was supposed to be volunteering on the field trip today."
"Well, so much for a fresh start." Danny commented.
"Yeah." Steve agreed. "Are Mr. and Mrs. Reid there at the school now?"
"No, he's at home with their son, he's two. He's got the flu. That's why he didn't go to the waterpark with Kora's class."
"Okay, good work Kono. Thanks." They said their goodbyes as the men walked out of the police station.
"So where is this guy?" Danny asked. "He ditched his wheels and only has ten grand at most to buy his safety. He could not have gone that far." He waved a finger as he spoke.
"So let's find him then." Steve spoke with conviction as they entered the sunshine. "C'mon, I have an idea." They got in the car and Steve revved the engine with a crooked smile.
"Oh, I hate when you do that." Danny murmured.
"Are you serious?" Steve laughed at the thought. "This baby is built to roar like a lion, Danny."
"No, I meant when you say you have an idea." Danny corrected him with little trace of humour in his voice.
"You won't be saying that when my idea gets us closer to catching this guy." Steve defended.
"Or closer to death." Danny countered. "The odds seem to be about fifty-fifty with you."
Steve let out an annoyed breath. "Can we go back to happy cloud nine Danny, please? That was nice. Enjoyable, even."
"Nice? Danny retorted. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It was refreshing, actually." Steve battled back. "A change of pace from your usual looming black cloud disposition, y'know?" He was well aware of the ever growing smirk on his own face.
"Whoa, whoa." Danny began his defense with busy arm gestures. "First of all, I am extremely happy due to the fact that my daughter who, as of this morning, I wasn't sure I'd ever get to talk to again, is awake and doing better than expected. So no amount of your crap can hamper that for me today, okay? And second, I am sorry if four years of near death experiences with you have caused me to see the reality of every situation we're in!"
"The reality?!" Steve couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Daniel, your version of reality isn't healthy. You know that, right?" He did nothing to hide the laughter and condescension in his tone.
"Thank you for that insightful observation, as always." Danny put as much sarcasm into his response as he possibly could.
"You're welcome." Steve replied just as sarcastically as his phone began ringing.
"Chin, you hear back from CSU?" He hit the button and spoke to the Camaro's dashboard.
"Yeah, they found a sobriety chip in Brown's delivery truck. I've got the name and location of the program and am heading there now." His friend and co-worker responded.
"Sounds good. I think Brown would've needed help pulling all this off. And if he had any friends helping him, they'd be from there." His boss added. "Any updates from Grover about Brown's last whereabouts?"
"Not yet." Chin replied. "Where are you guys now?"
"On the way to catch this sick bastard." He stated it like it was a given. A run of the mill, every day statement.
"Oh, I see your sense of reality is fully intact as usual." Danny snarked from the passenger seat. "We have nothing but a working theory, so I'd love to know how you have the perfect plan already." He continued.
"Oh, you feel that?" Steve asked rhetorically as he held out his hand, palm up as if to catch rain drops. "That's rain from your black cloud again, Danny."
"Uhm," Chin cleared his throat, confused as much as he was silently asking how he managed to find himself stuck in the middle of a McGarrett and Williams spat. "I'll let you know what I get from the rehab clinic." He hung up as quickly as he could, not wanting to leave the door open to be subjected to more pecking.
"So are you going to actually tell me your dopey plan, or am I going to be going in blind? Again." Danny hissed angrily.
Steve chose to ignore the clear bait. "If you were Brown and you realized your plan was slowly unravelling, what would you do next?"
"Easy. I'd go out swinging as far and as hard as I could." Danny replied.
"Right." Steve nodded. "So if you heard through the grape vine that your targets are no longer under protection and back home,"
"You'd get there as fast as you could to salvage as much of your plan as possible." Danny finished for him as he dialled 's number.
"Exactly." Steve nodded as he revved the Camaro's engine once his partner was off the phone again and sped towards the Reid's home.
"Now, what I don't understand is, was this guy ever serious about making bombs?" Danny asked the general air. "Because if he was, why didn't he have the hospital or the school rigged yet? And if he's really just an amateur, why would he waste the little resources he does have on materials he doesn't actually plan on using? It doesn't add up to me."
"I know." Steve agreed. "That part doesn't sit right with me either."
"Well," Danny cleared his throat and took in a deep breath. "I guess if this dumb-" he felt the intense glare from his partner- "Sorry. If this, uh, inarticulate plan of yours works, we can ask him ourselves."
Steve's glare morphed into amusement. "Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think you just opened an umbrella under your cloud."
"Yeah." Danny sighed, slightly satisfied. "I told you. It's because of Grace, okay? Don't get used to it."
Steve's face flashed a satisfied smile as they continued to drive through the heart of Oahu towards the Reid house and hopefully, catching their attempted murder.