A/N: This chapter is for my sister who wanted me to put Riley in danger.
Chapter 13 — A Brush with Murky Death
Tuesday
The Navy SEAL reacted instantly. He jumped into the pit. He couldn't help but land on the lattice, pinning Riley even more firmly to the floor. Taller than Riley, Steve's head was still above water. He ducked beneath the water. Though he could see next to nothing in the muddy water, he could feel Riley wrenching at the lattice that had him trapped. Steve edged off the lattice and added his muscle to Riley's. The lattice shifted, then caught again and refused to budge further, but it gave the paramedic enough leeway to get his face out of the water.
Steve supported him as Riley gasped for air.
"Come on!" Danny urged from the edge of the hole.
"His foot's still caught. And the water's still rising!" Steve yelled. "We need rope."
Danny ran for the Camaro, but there was no rope. He remembered that they'd used it on a camping trip with Grace. It was still in Steve's truck. The ambulance didn't have any rope, either; but Danny saw something else that gave him another idea. He took one moment to empty his pockets into the Camaro's trunk. He considered taking off his shoes, but, remembering the debris in the pit, he opted to keep his feet protected, then he grabbed a sturdy scalpel out of the ambulance and jumped into the pit next to Steve.
"What?"
"No rope," Danny answered, then duck dived, standing on his head to grope for Riley's foot. There were advantages to being small, Danny thought. A bigger man wouldn't have been able to upend himself in the tight quarters.
Steve sensed Danny's purposeful movement, but couldn't tell what was happening.
"What's he doing?" he asked Riley.
Riley's head was tilted full back, but the waves of the rising water kept sloshing into his mouth. Even with Steve's help, the paramedic would soon be unable to breathe. But he could feel Danny's hands working their way down to his booted foot.
"I think… he's trying … to untie my shoe," Riley gasped.
Danny worked for a long moment, longer than Steve thought he could hold his breath. The detective popped up for a breath. "Wet shoelaces!" He dived again.
The water had risen so much that Riley had to hold his breath. Steve gripped his head firmly and covered Riley's mouth with his own, exhaling so Riley could inhale. Buddy breathing, they tried to hold still, so Danny could work.
Now that Danny was oriented, he used the razor sharp scalpel to slice through the laces, then he pulled the boot top apart.
Riley felt it. He jerked upward, mouthing "Pull!" at Steve. All three men pulled and the foot popped free from the trapped boot. Riley rose, gasping for breath. He started swimming weakly, exhausted by the strain.
"I've got you," Steve reassured him.
Danny rose to the surface beside them. He treaded water weakly also, because there wasn't room in the overcrowded pit for strong swimming motions. Steve was standing on his toes, supporting the fainting Riley.
"Save your strength, Danny. Hold onto me," Steve instructed.
"Can we climb out?" Danny asked doubtfully, keeping one hand on Steve's shoulder while he studied the sides of the pit.
"I wouldn't try it," Steve answered.
Under the water's flow, the edges of the hole were melting like ice cream in the sun. It would be more dangerous to try to climb out than to tread water and wait for rescue.
Steve held his shorter companions' heads above the water, as the sinkhole filled. When he could no longer touch the bottom with his toes, the Navy SEAL began to swim, kicking strongly with his legs while clutching the other two.
"I can swim, you know," Danny shouted over the roar of the falling water.
"No room!" Steve shouted back, and it was true. There was no space in the narrow hole for two sets of flapping arms. "Hang on and keep Riley's head tilted back."
So Danny took over support of the unconscious paramedic while well-trained SEAL used his powerful legs to keep all three above water. The men clung together praying for rescue and wondering what the heck happened to Margie Chandler.
Danny and Steve heard Professor Hamil's voice exhorting the women; they replied and began moving farther away! Then a steady banging noise began somewhere nearby.
More mud sloughed into the hole, making the water thicker and weighing down the men's clothing. Even Steve was starting to feel the strain, when a final bang was accompanied by a shout of triumph and a strange glooping roar. The water level began to drop. Steve's feet touched the ground, then sank deeply into the mud. He tried to keep his friends out of it, but couldn't. Still, Riley and Danny didn't sink as deeply because they weren't weighted down by two other people. When the situation stabilized, Steve was mired up to his knees in mud, with water up to his waist. He cradled the unconscious Riley against his chest. The paramedic stirred, beginning to come around. Danny sank only to ankle depth in the mud, leaving him in the unusual position of looking eye to eye with his taller partner. Though Danny and Steve could move, they were careful not to. Stirring up the mud would only make them sink deeper. It was like being in quicksand.
Rain kept pouring in — though it seemed to be slowing — but some invisible outlet now carried it away before it rose too high.
Three faces peered anxiously over the edge of the pit, Professor Hamil, Lisa Quan and Margie Chandler. "Thank God!" Margie said. "And thank you, professor, for finding the drainage outlet."
"Sorry it took so long to get it open," Hamil apologized to Danny and Steve. He held up his splinted arms to remind the men he could only supervise while the women did the digging.
"Perfect timing as far as I'm concerned," Steve answered, as the rain cell passed and feeble sunlight appeared.
A fire department rescue crew arrived in answer to Chandler's call for HELP! They lowered a ladder into the hole. It settled deeply into the sludge, but found firm purchase eventually.
By this time, Riley had recovered from his faint and was able to make his shaky way up the ladder with Danny helping from behind. But Steve stayed where he was.
Though the sun was out and the water level constant, the mud continued to rise as the saturated walls dissolved into the hole. When Steve boosted Riley and Danny onto the ladder, he drove himself deeper into the muck. It now reached to his thighs and he couldn't pull free.
He looked up at the firemen plaintively. "You guys got a shovel?"
HFD Firefighter Harnett clipped himself to the ladder and carefully excavated around Steve's feet.
"Why am I always digging you guys out of the dirt?" Harnett asked.*
Soon Steve was able to pull his feet out of the mud and climb the ladder, edging around Harnett who had to dig a bit around the legs of the ladder so they could pull it out of the mire.
Steve looked like he was wearing dark brown hip waders to go with his overall brownish outfit. Danny, who had been entirely underwater longer, looked like a Mud Man from Mars, with just a clean mask across his eyes.
"Can we get a rinse off?" he begged the firemen.
They not only hosed off the Five-0 officers, but supplied blankets to protect the Camaro while Danny and Steve drove to the hospital to get checked out.
Chin entered Five-0 headquarters. He'd had brunch with his wife and, not incidentally, a chat with Five-0's favorite chef/informant.
"I talked to Kamekona," he reported to his cousin. "Turns out he knew about the disappearing goons, but he didn't realize it related to our food truck friends. He gave me a few names we didn't have. We can let the pickpockets look at mugshots to see if they recognize anyone, so we can put out a BOLO."
"Did Kamekona know any more?" Kono asked.
"Just that word is they've gone Windward."
"Not much to go on," Kono said doubtfully.
"We'll find them," Chin answered confidently. "It's a small island," he reminded her.
"Not that small," she retorted.
Chin's cell rang and a familiar name flashed at him.
Danny, who had a working cell phone, unlike Steve, called headquarters while Steve piloted the Camaro.
"Hey, Danny, what's up, brah?"
"Chin, can you collect some clean clothes from Steve's locker and mine and bring them to Hawaii Medical Center?"
"What? Why?" Danny heard Kono's voice and realized he was on speaker. "How did you get hurt searching a house?"
He explained what happened, making it a funny story about a muddy mess, instead of a brush with murky death. Not that he expected to fool his friends. They were detectives, after all.
"So we're wet and filthy."
"And that's all?" Kono asked. "Why are you going to the hospital?"
"Because Chandler made me promise on my honor as a Navy officer," Steve said sourly.
"Good for her," Kono said. A woman in a man's world, Kono believed that sometimes her macho friends were their own worst enemies.
"We'll meet you with clothes," Chin promised.
They all kept spare clothes in their lockers because there was always a chance they'd have to dive into the harbor after a suspect or just get caught in one of Hawaii's passing rainstorms (as opposed to this headline-making weeklong series of storms).
The cousins went together to the hospital because they wanted to see for themselves that their friends were all right.
"No, really, I'm a little tired, but that's all," Danny insisted, when Kono studied him carefully. He and Steve were in the waiting room, still wrapped in the firemen's blankets. Though relatively clean, thanks to the firemen's hose, they were uncomfortable as their damp clothes dried.
"It was tiring swimming in that pit. It was as much mud as water," Steve agreed. More practiced in swimming, the Navy SEAL looked fresher than his partner, though even he felt the burn.
A nurse came to take the partners to separate examining rooms, where lungs were found to be clear and hearts to be strong, and the men were allowed to get dressed. When his doctor was called away, Steve made his escape and went next door to check on Danny.
Danny was sitting in a chair, putting on his shoes. When he stood up, he slipped in a dribble of water on the floor.
"Whoa!" Steve caught him by the arm.
Danny hissed and pulled away, catching himself on the examining table.
"Sorry. Sorry!" Steve said anxiously. "Did you hurt your arm in the pit?"
"No," Danny said, rubbing his upper left arm. "The storm's caused sewage overflows and has picked up who knows what filth out of the streets. The water we were swimming in is considered contaminated. They gave me shots for tetanus, diphtheria, typhoid and I forget what else."
Steve smiled, relieved Danny's pain wasn't anything serious, but the smile aggravated Danny. "You were in the water, too," the detective pointed out. "It'll be your turn next."
Steve shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you, partner, but I've spent most of my Navy career in places, well, let's just call it the Third World. I've been inoculated for diseases you've never heard of."
"But according to the records the Navy forwarded us, it is time for your tetanus/diphtheria booster," said the nurse, as she opened the door after a cursory warning knock. She had tracked down her wandering patient without much trouble.
Steve made a face, because, no matter how tough you are, no one likes shots.
Danny laughed to see the tables turned. "OK, now I know what Tetanus Shot Face looks like. C'mon partner, show the nice nurse your tats."
Steve rolled his eyes and rolled up his sleeve. While the nurse gave the injection, Danny craned his neck to peek at Steve's medical records. It was just a list of vaccinations and inoculations, but several lines had been heavily blacked out before the list had been faxed.
"Really? Your shot history has been redacted?" Danny said incredulously.
Steve looked smug. "I told you. If you found out where I've been, I'd have to kill you, and that would be a waste of a good rescue."
The arrival of the doctor put an end to their banter.
"You two can go," he said. "Everything looks fine. Just take it easy for the rest of the day."
"Glad to, if the boss allows," Danny answered, rolling his eyes at Steve. "How's Riley?"
"We want to keep him overnight. Make sure his lungs are clear. Barring complications, he'll go home tomorrow and be back to work by the end of the week."
"That's good," Steve said. "Can we see him?"
"For a minute. He's just across the hall."
Danny knocked and he and Steve entered. Riley was lying on the examining table, comfortably wrapped in a warm blanket.
Danny looked down at the supine paramedic who had treated the detective so often. "This is new," Danny joked. "I kind of like the change in perspective."
Riley chuckled. "Don't get used to it," he warned. "I'm sure you and Steve will be up to your usual tricks, soon."
They chatted for a few minutes until the nurse came with a wheelchair to transport Riley to a room.
When the partners returned to the waiting room, Chin and Kono ganged up on them and forced them to go home.
"You've done enough today," Chin said firmly. "We're waiting for the hand over on Thursday. You can take a day off."
Steve seemed hesitant, but Kono knew his weakness. "Boss, Danny needs the recovery time, but he won't go unless you go," she said quietly in Steve's ear.
Steve looked at his partner lounging against the wall, trying to pretend he didn't really want to sit down for a while. Steve's gaze softened when he remembered Danny jumping without hesitation into the water-filled pit because his friends needed his help.
"Come on, Danny. Let's take the day."
Danny blinked. "Who are you and what have you done with SuperSEAL?" he kidded, but he wasn't really complaining. A couple hours' nap and he'd be good to pick up his daughter after school. Dinner with Grace would paint rainbows across any gray day.
That night, the Redmund family gathered for dinner at a nice restaurant. Each couple had gone its separate way for a little alone time on the islands, but they had reunited in advance of a three-island cruise. Kent Redmund held his sons and daughters-in-law enthralled with his tale of the King Kamehameha statue, the pickpockets and the cute detective with the royal name.
With four couples assembled, the table was large and Kent had to raise his voice more than he intended. The story, which included a quick tour of the State Capitol looking for someone to confirm Kono's ID, drew the attention of nearby diners. It was much more interesting than most of their complaints about luaus canceled and sights missed because of the rain.
But one woman found the story horrifying. It sounded much too much like what had happened to her near the king's statue. She and her husband exchanged an appalled glance, then called for their bill and hurried off to their hotel room for privacy while they called to cancel her credit cards.
While they were outside catching a cab, one of Kent's sons asked about the same thing. "Did you cancel your cards, Dad?"
"No, Officer Kalakaua asked us not to. They want to track any transactions the identity thieves make," Esther Redmund answered for her husband.
"It might tip off the bad guys," Kent said. "And we wouldn't want that," he added, as another victim went to do just that.
To Be Continued
A/N: *You have read my story "Charades," haven't you? When Harnett dug Danny out of a pile of sand?
And in case you've forgotten, Redmund is the pickpockets' victim from back in chapter 2 — 11 chapters ago, but only four days in Five-0 time.