Chapter 73

Steve reflected on the fact that Danny had even more reason to be happy, as his brother had finally been able to make furtive trips off his island hideaway due to the situation in Columbia changing dramatically a couple of years ago now. The CIA had become increasingly wary of the hold that Marco Reyes had on them and had been covertly working with the Wall Street financial institutions to gradually reduce their investments in the region. When the total value of the investments had reached an acceptably low level, they terminated Operation Sandpiper and overnight the Reyes Cartel lost the powerful protection of the agency.

One of the rival cartels had predictably made a move, coveting Reyes' profitable cocaine trade for themselves. It had been a bloodbath, Marco Reyes and his entire family wiped out while enjoying dinner in their home. His vengeful lieutenants had immediately retaliated in kind and a shootout had ensued at the home of the rival boss. The man, even though he was bleeding badly from multiple gunshot wounds, had managed to kill the remaining Reyes Cartel members who had been trying to take away his daughter.

7 year old Sara Diaz-Waincroft had been saved for now but certainly wasn't 'safe'. Malia had been at the Waincroft residence during one of her extended visits to see her niece and had managed to take cover with Vanessa but the other woman had been struck by a stray bullet. Malia's medical training had enabled her to successfully remove the bullet from Vanessa's leg and stop the bleeding. Once she was sure that Vanessa would be okay, she had frantically searched for Sara and found her holding onto her father on the steps of their home. Malia had tentatively pulled her away and swept the little girl into her arms and at that moment had realized that Gabriel was still alive. She looked up to see Vanessa staggering down from the house, calling for her daughter, and released the little girl from her arms. Sara had rushed to her mother while her aunt tried in vain to staunch the flow of blood from the stricken man.

Her brother had pulled her close and begged her to get Sara and Vanessa out of the country to safety - they were now targets and it was only a matter of time before the other cartel soldiers came looking for them. He had also given her another message and this one was for her former fiancé. The dying man confessed that it was him who had fatally shot Chin Ho Kelly's father when he was just a teenager. He had been coerced into robbing a convenience store by his gang 'friends' and the off-duty officer had been shopping at the time and recognized him. In a panic he had fired his gun, hitting the other man, and Kam Tong Kelly later died in surgery. In Gabriel's final moments he had cried at the shame of the memory, begging his sister to tell Chin that he was so very sorry. Malia was horrified at the revelation, finally understanding that there was much more to her brother than she had ever realized. Gabriel bled out shortly after his deathbed confession and Malia quickly turned her thoughts to fulfilling her first promise to her brother to get his partner and daughter out of Columbia. But they were trapped in a volatile country where officials could easily be bought and you couldn't trust anyone. In desperation she had called Chin, who had called Steve, who had in turn phoned his contacts in the CIA.

A team was sent in to extract the two woman and the little girl and in return for Vanessa giving up intel on Gabriel's business, she was offered relocation and a new identity. Malia was torn, the agency had made it clear that she could still be a target once it became known that she was Gabriel's sister and even leaving Columbia and travelling back to Hawaii wouldn't guarantee her safety. She also didn't want to permanently lose touch with her niece, her only other family being her brother and now he was dead. After much soul-searching, she decided to join Vanessa and Sara in their new location. Malia made one final phone call before she got into the minivan that would take her away from her old life forever. Chin had swiftly snatched up his phone and was relieved to hear that the CIA Team were on-site and taking care of things. He had then listened to Malia as she recounted what her brother had told her about that fateful night his father was killed. The revelation had stunned him and he disconnected the call in a daze. That would be the last time that Chin ever spoke to his former fiancée.

The whole sorry affair did mean that Danny's brother, now known as Dave Turner, was safe from retaliation from the Reyes Cartel and so he occasionally made short trips between the many Hawaiian islands by private plane or boat. He was technically still wanted by the FBI, although they believed him to be dead and so had closed the case once the money from the offshore bank account that Danny had 'found' was returned to all of Matthew Williams' former clients. Kamekona had 'secured' the man a very passable fake ID and background history, complete with Social Security number, but he wasn't going to ever risk getting caught using a fake passport by taking commercial flights. This meant he could never travel home to the mainland, but his family were able to see him a couple of times a year and so it wasn't too bad.

As the trauma of the events in Columbia had faded, the man regained some of his former exuberance and quickly became a much-loved resident on the island – establishing a regular 'Davey Night' where the entire population of the island came together for karaoke, dancing and general merriment. His skill with the financial aspects of running the place had allayed the sibling's money worries and they had been able to build on their father's work and become highly renowned within the marine conservation community – the pair even being invited to speak at prestigious international conferences.

Dave had been mesmerized by Aloani's dimpled smile from the very first time they had met and the two of them had gradually became closer, until an exasperated Kawai had taken Dave to one side and challenged the other man about his intentions towards his sister. When Danny's brother had admitted that he was in love with Aloani, Kawai had just rolled his eyes and told him to man up and bloody well ask her to marry him. With a bit of liquid courage, Dave had done just that as they were walking home together after another raucous Davey-night. The couple were 'married' in a beautiful Hawaiian ceremony on their island. Their union could never be officially ratified on paper, but the Hawaiian blessing was good enough for the happy couple and everyone started calling them Mr. and Mrs. Turner anyway. Their first child was born exactly 9 months after the ceremony and two more followed after that.

Danny came over to see his niece and two nephews as often as he could, joking that they must have been born in the ocean, such was their love of the sea and everything in it. He mentally thanked his partner with every visit, knowing full well that none of this would have been possible without Steve's intervention. Although his brother would have been safe and living under a new identity in the WITSEC program, he never would have seen or heard from him again. The fallout from Operation Sandpiper was kept completely under the radar and so Mattie would never had discovered that it was safe to visit his family again.

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Steve had stayed in touch with both Ben Keoki and Troy Ookala since reconnecting with them at James Keoki's award ceremony, meeting the two men for drinks on a regular basis. Duke joined them when he could and Steve loved to hear their stories from when his Dad was a young officer and then newly-minted detective on the force. He had been delighted to hear that James Keoki had been recruited by the Organized Crime unit, set up when Hiro Noshimuri's secret stash of records had necessitated the formation of a dedicated task force to deal with the work that had been generated. Steve had since worked with James on a number of occasions when Five-0 had coordinated with the unit, liking the chance to share resources and vital intel on cases where their persons of interest overlapped.

He had seen James' career develop over the years, the bright young man making detective about 2 years ago. When Kono returned to Oahu and was setting up her own Task Force, James was the first name he suggested to his former teammate and Kono never regretted recruiting the detective to be her SIC. The man had spent the last few years establishing contacts all over Asia and Kono was delighted to find that one of these was her affable cousin, Marlon Kelly, who had stayed in Osaka and become a key contact for the unit, providing valuable intel on the Japanese bōryokudan.

The head of Five-0 had not forgotten the story the old-school policemen had told him about Curt Stoner, the bank robber who had lost both his hands when his Dad had fired his gun and detonated the blasting caps which the robber was holding at the time. He had tracked the criminal down to a federal prison in DC; Stoner had put in a request to be moved near his family during the last few years of his long sentence. His case for transfer had been approved as he had come under the 'Nearer Release Transfer' option specifically for the purpose of placing an inmate closer to their family. Steve had spoken with the prison and they provided him with Stoner's release date but insisted that he was a model prisoner and in their opinion, fully rehabilitated.

Not convinced, Steve had 'hired' his SEAL buddies in DC to covertly surveil the man when he was released in January 2013. They had tracked him for a few days and didn't have to wait long to get very worried about his intentions, watching as he obtained false papers from a known forger. They then found the electronic trail showing that he had used his bogus passport in the name of Sam Brown to buy a one-way ticket to Oahu for the following month. Tom had wanted to come and visit his friend anyway and fancied a bit of sunshine away from the bleak east coast winter and so had booked a ticket for the same flight as Stoner. He discretely tailed him to a grubby little apartment in a rough part of town, which the man had obviously already pre-arranged before his arrival on the island.

They decided to let the bitter criminal make his move and catch him the act. Tom stayed on him and gained access to apartment 324 when the man had gone shopping for food. He found old Pacific Register newspaper clippings relating to the robbery and subsequent trial with photos of all of the arresting officers from over 20 years ago. Stoner had circled them all and put a number against each man, Ben Keoki being number 1, then Troy was second followed by Duke. The deranged man had carefully cut out a photo of Steve from another newspaper clipping and stuck it over John McGarrett's face. Stoner had written 'you will pay for the sins of your father' next to it along with the number 4.

Tom felt a chill go down his spine when he saw the doctored newspaper clipping and he ventured over to the table, which had an engraving machine and boxes of shell casings. Stoner had been practicing carving letters onto the shiny metal. There was a small box containing 4 casings. They had all been painstakingly etched with a name, every one of them the same - KEOKI. Tom let out a loud sigh, it looked like he was getting close to taking out his first target. He photographed all of the evidence and carefully left everything exactly as he found it. The ex-agent hadn't missed the small piece of card that had been propped in the door hinge and had fluttered to the ground when he had opened the door. Tom carefully replaced the card back in the door hinge and exited the apartment.

With this evidence, Duke had more than enough to assemble a small team of his officers to take over the surveillance so that it was around the clock. Tom was left free to enjoy a few days of vacation time on the beautiful island, stopping at Steve's house at the other man's insistence. Less than a week later, Ben Keoki was providing a motorcycle escort for a funeral procession and HPD had tracked Curt Stoner as he ran across some wasteland to get to a prime vantage spot on the top of a small hill. He would have a perfect view of the slow-moving funeral motorcade as it made its stately progress down the road towards him. The watching officers had seen enough and didn't allow him to finish assembling his rifle before deciding to make their move. The surprised criminal had dropped his rifle but swiftly swung round towards the HPD officers brandishing a handgun. A well-placed shot to the shoulder forced him to drop his weapon as he screamed in pain, shouting threats and promising his revenge. Duke had been one of the arresting officers, looking down at the wounded man with fury. If he was a bit rough when he handcuffed him then no one was saying anything - the evil criminal had been about to kill one of their own.

They never got the satisfaction of seeing the man go straight back to prison, the bullet wound had caused complications and he later died of a blood clot that travelled to his brain and caused a fatal stroke. When the full facts of the case had got out, the Chief of Police had organised a party in Steve's honor to thank the man for his diligence. His initial suspicion and then subsequent actions had prevented a complete maniac from killing three of his longest-serving and most cherished officers. Danny had spent a long time looking at the newspaper clippings, feeling the same chill as Tom had when he saw his partner's face stuck over John McGarrett's picture. The disturbing words that the vengeful amputee had scrawled across the page had made the detective's blood run cold . . . Steve could have so easily been cut down by a long-distance sniper for something that happened when he was just a little kid. Out of the many shell casings that had been recovered one had been engraved with the word, 'MCGARRETT'. The lettering was misaligned and messy, clearly Stoner had just been practicing his engraving at this point, but Danny had been left chilled to the core.