Hey, thank you all for the reviews. I wasn't sure you'd like a story like this, but it's been on my mind for quite some time. So I'm glad to see at least a few people are enjoying it so far.
Steve's cell was tiny.
It was about seven feet deep and five feet wide. There was a toilet bowl that was fixed to the wall in the far right-hand corner, shielded from a view by an old, metal bed. Water was provided from a tap left of the toilet. It dripped, and a slimy puddle formed beneath it. There was no furniture in the room. There was just the concrete floor, concrete ceiling, and concrete block walls. There was no window either and the only source of light came from the corridor behind the metal bars.
The mattress on the bed was thin and stained, and, as he lowered himself onto it, he knew that he was going to have a difficult time sleeping.
Steve sat there, taking in more details. The walls had been whitewashed at some point in the distant past, and, since then, they had grown dirty and smeared. Some of the stains were from bedbugs and cockroaches that had been crushed against the surface. Other marks were different. Someone had scratched an image of a woman. There was a patch of the wall above Steve's head where a reddish stain had been left. Immediately, Steve recognized it was a bloody palm print.
He was uneasy. The path the guard had chosen on the way here was a weird choice if you didn't want someone to be noticed. Steve couldn't help but wonder if the guard had done that on purpose. If someone recognized him, or learned he was a cop, he knew it would mark him out for special attention from the prisoners. They would find a way to get to him if they wanted to, there was no doubt of that. And he wasn't sure he'd be able to fight them off. He wasn't twenty anymore, and, after the abuse his body had taken in the past few years it was tired and broken.
Steve lay flat, his mind spinning from all the thoughts rushing through his head. Until he figured out what was going on, he had no other choice than to survive here.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember back to his training in the Navy. They had put him in smaller spaces than this, kept him there for hours as they tried to approximate what might happen if he was ever captured by the enemy. That had been unpleasant, but it was very different. He had known, even if he didn't know how long it would take, that the door to his cell would eventually be opened and he would be allowed to leave. He would be able to get into his car and drive into the town and have a drink with his friends.
This was different.
And the worst of it all was that he had no idea why his life had taken such a turn in a matter of a few hours. Just when it started to feel normal again.
Danny barged through the glass double-door of the FDC building with concern for his friend eating him up. He needed to talk to Steve so he could figure out what was going on and get him back, but the grumpy face of the man sitting behind the sturdy plexiglass told him it might not be without problems.
He sucked in a breath and walked up to the man. "Hey, I need to see Commander Steve McGarrett," he said. "He was brought in recently."
The man looked up from the computer screen, his frown deepening. "I´m afraid that won´t be possible. The prisoner´s being processed. No visitors allowed."
"I´m not a visitor, all right?" Danny objected, waving his badge in the air. "I´m Detective Williams. Five-0. I need to see him. Now."
"I don´t care who you are. I can´t let you in."
"Five minutes, all right? That´s all I need."
"I´m sorry. Try again during visiting hours. It´s every Friday between six and eight in the morning and Saturday between four and six in the afternoon for the unit 6A."
"It´s Saturday today, right? Why can´t you just let me in a bit earlier?"
The man shook his head. "The visitors aren´t allowed on the first day, Detective. You´re gonna have to wait."
"I can´t wait till Friday, I need to talk to him right now!" Danny snapped, his frustration seeping to the surface.
"Nothing I can do about that." The man turned his attention back to the screen.
Danny pinched the base of his nose, trying to get a grip of his jumbled emotions. "Look," he tried again. "It´s really important. Please, make an exception or something."
There was no answer.
"Hey, listen to me!" Danny rapped his knuckled on the plexiglass. "I—"
"That´s enough!" The man stood suddenly, the look in his eyes getting harder. "I suggest you leave, or I´m calling the security to help you out."
Danny stared at the guy for a while, his mind in turmoil. There was no way he could wait for days before even getting to see Steve. Hell, there was no way his friend would stay locked up for that long!
Reluctantly, he turned and walked outside, reminding himself he wasn´t giving up on this. There was only one way how to get Steve out and it was to solve this case and prove his innocence. Which wouldn´t be an easy task considering the fact he couldn´t talk to Steve and the Governor didn´t want Five-0 anywhere near this thing.
He took a phone from his pocket and raised an eyebrow at five missed calls. Two were from Lou, two from Tani, and the last one from Adam. Consumed by anger and worry, he hadn´t even noticed his phone ringing.
Danny tapped Lou´s name and pressed the call button.
"Hey, Danny. You all right?" Lou´s voice carried over the device as soon as he answered. "We were starting to worry."
All right wasn´t the right word to describe his current state of mind, but he pushed that into the back of his skull. This wasn´t about him.
"I´m fine," he said. "But Steve…"
"What´s going on here? Duke said that Lynn is dead and Steve is being charged with murder. And FBI basically kicked us out of the crime scene as soon as we got out of the car."
Danny took a calming breath before explaining what had happened–or the little he knew about it.
"They don´t let me see him, Lou," he added once done, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Hey, it´s gonna be all right. Steve can handle himself until we figure this out, okay?"
"Yeah."
"You coming over to HQ now?"
"I´m on my way," Danny said. "You guys see what you can find out, but work under the radar, okay? If the Governor finds out we´re on this, she´s not gonna make it any easier for us."
"Sure."
Danny ended the call, nerves still jumbling inside him. He threw a glance at the building behind him, imagining Steve being somewhere in there on his own. Hoping his friend would know they had his back no matter what, he turned around again and headed to the headquarters.
It didn´t take him long before arriving. As he walked in through the door, he could practically feel all the worried glances of his friends turning his way.
"Yo," he greeted them, trying to keep his jumbled emotions at bay. "You got something?"
"Not much," Junior started. "The feds didn´t give us a chance to see anything at the crime scene."
"I managed to get into the room before they arrived," Danny said.
"And?" Lou asked.
"And? And what? It looked exactly as they say it looked like. The place was a mess. Smelled of alcohol, there were empty bottles, broken glass, Lynn lay dead on the bathroom floor. One doesn´t have to be an expert to see COD was strangulation."
"Okay, slow down," Adam said, probably sensing Danny was close to exploding. "What was Steve doing at such a place? You said he was meeting Lynn at the bar."
"Yes, he was. And I have no idea why would he even be in a hotel room." Especially such a sketchy one.
"Do we know the name of the bar?" Adam asked.
Danny shook his head. "Steve didn´t say. Lynn texted him the address."
"What about the hotel? Did you manage to talk to someone?"
"No. I was about to talk to the manager when the FBI showed up and the Governor called me to stay away from the case. But uh, I know his wife was the one who found the body, so we need to talk to them."
"There was a camera in the direction of the room," Junior said. "Maybe we could get the footage from them."
"Yeah, but we need to keep a low profile," Lou pointed out. "The Governor can´t find out we´re on it."
Junior and Adam nodded in understanding.
Danny glanced around, just now realizing there´s someone missing in the room. "Where are the girls, by the way?"
Junior shrugged. "Tani said they got some work to do. They´ll join us soon."
"Okay, good," Danny said. "Look, I don´t know what´s going on here, but I know for sure that Steve didn´t kill Lynn, okay?"
"None of us thought otherwise for a second, man," Lou said. "But someone definitely wants it to look that way."
"Yeah, we need to find out who and clear Steve´s name." Danny leaned against the smart table, his brain working overtime.
Danny heard the steps before the glass door opened up and Tani and Quinn waltzed in, heading straight to them.
"Where have you been?" Junior asked.
Quinn took something out of her pocket instead of an answer and put it on the smart table with a victorious grin.
"Is that...?" Adam started.
"McGarrett´s cell phone?" Tani didn´t try to hide a smile either. "Yeah."
"It´s not much," Quinn said. "But we have to start somewhere, right?"
"Hold on. Did you just steal the evidence from the crime scene?" Danny couldn´t say he expected that, but it didn´t surprise him either. The lines of the rules became blurry every time one of their own was in trouble.
"Borrowed it," Quinn corrected him.
"You could lose your badge for this, you know that?" Danny reminded them of the stakes.
"Yeah, well, it´s worth the risk," Tani stood her ground.
"Found something useful in there?" Junior asked.
"How about the name and address of the bar?" Quinn´s fingers danced across the keyboard, and in a few seconds, the information and a map showed up on the screen. "If Steve and Lynn were there, someone might have seen them."
For a second, Danny stared at them both, simply thankful for believing in Steve right from the beginning. For trusting him enough to risk their careers to help prove he was innocent.
"Okay," he said after a few moments. "Lou, Adam, you guys go talk to the hotel manager. Try to avoid FBI."
Both of his colleagues nodded shortly, and turned to leave.
"Quinn, Junior, see if you can find out anything useful. Maybe trace Steve´s movement, check the traffic cameras on all possible routes between the bar and the hotel, anything. And call Duke, maybe HPD got hands on something that might help before the feds took over."
"On it," Junior said.
"Tani, you´re with me." Danny pointed his finger up to the screen. "We´re going to the bar."
As he made his way to the doorway, he remembered he should call Grace on the way and let her know he´d come home late. Something told him this wouldn´t be wrapped up as soon as he had thought.
*to be continued*
I hope you didn't find this chapter a boring one. I'm still not very comfortable writing a dialogue including more than 2 people. Need to work on that.
Anyway, I'd be grateful for your opinions.