Hey, thanks for finding a moment to review. Here's another chapter.
Lou and Adam stepped outside into the heat. After ensuring there was no one at the crime scene anymore, they walked a short distance to the hotel office. It was a small hut on the other side of the parking lot.
There were two people in the office. A man, looking nervous, kneading his hands together and picking the loose edge of a fingernail. It had to be the hotel manager. Murder on his property was cause for concern, perhaps he was worrying about the effect it might have on his business. There was a woman next to him and, from the way she fussed and fluttered around him, Lou guessed that it was his wife.
He rapped his knuckles on the open doorway before stepping in with Adam following. "Hello. I´m Captain Grover, Five-0. And this is officer Noshimuri." He gestured toward Adam. "Are you Mr. And Mrs. Mitchell?"
The woman nodded. "Yes. Can we help you? We already told everything to your colleagues from the FBI."
"Sure, but we´d like to ask a couple of questions anyway, if you don´t mind," Adam said.
"Okay," the manager agreed.
"I understand you discovered the body." Lou looked at Mrs. Mitchell.
"Yes, that´s correct," she said.
Lou nodded toward the room. "Do you know if there was any party last night?"
"Or a fight?" Adam added.
"I don´t know," the manager said.
"Did anyone complain?"
"No."
"There was no noise?"
"No one has said anything."
"Were the rooms on the other side occupied?"
"One. There was a young couple in there, but they checked out this morning. They said something about catching the flight, but I didn´t ask where. They didn´t mention any noise, though."
Lou turned to Mrs. Mitchell. "Tell me what happened."
"I went in to clean the room," she said.
"Why would you do that? Don´t you have housekeeping staff here?" Adam asked.
"We do, but two of our maids called in sick this morning, so I stepped in to help."
"Okay, keep going," Lou encouraged.
"So, as I said, I went to clean the room and the door was open a little. I knocked and there was no reply, so I went inside. The man was on the bed. I saw him. Asleep. I was about to leave when I saw the woman…" She stopped, her lip trembling.
"And next?" Adam said. "What did you do after that?"
"I think I screamed. The shock. I…" She paused, swallowing as she tried to compose herself. "I have seen many strange things in rooms like these, but I have never seen a dead body before."
"You ran?"
"As fast as I could. I went to the office and told my husband what I had seen. He called the police."
"Did you go into the room, Mr. Mitchell?" Lou kept questioning.
"No," the man said. "Just to the open door. We went back and waited in the office. We could see the room from there. No one came in or out."
Lou looked through the window to the row of rooms. He saw a camera flash through the open door.
"When did he check-in?"
"He didn´t. But the woman did. Yesterday," the manager said. "In the afternoon. She booked by phone and paid cash."
Lou exchanged a glance with Adam. His mind was whirling. He couldn´t help but wonder why Lynn would book a room here. Did she expect them to end up in one? But then, this wasn´t a kind of place either of them would choose.
"Anything else?" Mrs. Mitchell said. "We are very busy. We´d like to go back to work."
Lou pointed over to the cameras that he´d seen. "Do those work?"
"Yes," Mr. Mitchell said. "But as I told FBI already, something must have happened, because it stopped working last night. It was recording, and all of a sudden it wasn´t anymore."
"At what time did it stop?" Lou asked.
"Ten past nine."
Adam turned to Lou. "I doubt it is a coincidence," he said.
"Yeah, I don´t think so," Lou agreed.
The manager and his wife stood in silence, waiting.
"One more thing." Lou pointed at the computer screen on the desk. "Could you please give me a list of guests staying here last night?"
"Sure."
With a few clicks, the manager got to the desired page, printed it off, and handed it to Lou.
"Okay, Mrs. And Mr. Mitchell, thank you for your help. Please call me if you remember anything." Lou handed the manager his card.
"Okay."
They walked across the parking lot, processing the information. It was Adam who spoke first, just as they reached the car.
"You think Lynn might have been in on this?" he asked. "I mean, Danny said she was the one who wanted to meet Steve, right? She picked the bar, booked the room…"
Lou shook his head, not sure what to think. He sure hoped there was a different explanation.
The Alley Cat was a cheap-looking dive fitted with series of crude neon signs designed to lure tourists inside.
"Doesn´t look like Steve´s kind of spot," Tani said. "And I can´t imagine why any woman would want to come here either."
She was right. It was weird they´ve chosen such a place to go to when there were so many beautiful lounges and bars around the city.
They got out, passed through the doors, and went inside. While Danny looked around, Tani headed to the bar and attracted the attention of the barman.
He came over to her with a smile. He was in his mid-thirties, with a head of long hair and a sleeve of tattoos on his arm. "Hello, beautiful. What can I get for you?" he asked.
Danny joined his colleague just as she returned the smile and laid her badge on the bar. "How about a friendly chat?" she said.
The barman´s smile faded and his gaze shifted between Danny and Tani. He shifted nervously. "What do you want?"
"Last night," she said, cutting straight to the point, "were you working?"
"I own this place. I work here every night."
"There was a man here. Mid-forties, athletic build, about six feet, brown hair, hazel eyes. Do you remember?"
"I don´t know," the barman said with a shrug. "It was busy last night."
Danny took out his phone and after a few quick swipes of his thumb, he found the recent picture of Steve. He turned the screen toward the barman. "This is him. Have a look. He was here. Try to remember."
The man made the pretense of examining the photo. "I don´t know. Like I say, there were a lot of people here last night. I can´t remember everyone."
"He met a woman here. Blonde and pretty, I´m sure you have noticed her." Danny pressed further. "It would have been around seven, maybe half-past seven. Have a look again."
The man did as he was told, screwing up his face in an approximation of concentration. He shook his head. "No," he said. "I don´t remember him."
Danny watched him. People reacted in different ways when they were spoken to by the police, and nervousness wasn´t unusual. Working in a bar meant that he probably had secrets that he would much rather stay secret. Perhaps he had arrangements with local pimps, or he was paying protection money to underworld enforcers. Or he was straight-out lying to them. Whatever it was, he was anxious.
"Anything else?"
"Yes, actually, there is." Danny pointed up at the glossy lens of the CCTV camera on the wall above the till. "I´d like to have a look at the footage from last night."
The request flustered the man. "Why?"
"Is there a problem with that?" Tani chimed in.
"There´s no problem," he said, trying to recover. "It´s fine. I just need to make sure it was running."
"Okay, then lead the way," she said.
"Now?"
"Of course. Unless there´s a reason we couldn´t have a look now."
The barman shuffled. "Yes," he said. "I mean, no, there´s no reason you couldn´t, but the video is in the storeroom and I just need to make sure it´s okay to go in. We´ve just had a delivery."
He was stalling.
Danny was sure now that the guy was hiding something. "I´m sure we´ll be fine," he said. The bar was hinged at the end so that a section could be raised to gain access. He reached for it and started to push it up, determined to check out the footage with or without the barman´s agreement.
"Detective Williams?"
Danny stopped, returned the hatch to its lowered position and turned.
Agent Hoffman was right behind him. He was smiling warmly.
"And you must be officer Rey," Hoffman said, throwing a quick glance at Tani.
Danny let out an annoyed sigh.
"What are you doing here?"
Danny shrugged. "Just getting a drink, that´s all," he said.
"Huh. So you´re not following up on the murder this morning," Hoffman said.
The way barman´s face lost its color with the mention of a crime didn´t escape Danny´s attention.
"No," Danny said.
"I thought I´ve told you to stand down and do my job, Detective."
Danny clenched his jaw. "That´s funny, because if you were doing your job, McGarrett would be home by now."
"Is that so?" Hoffman smiled. "You got anything to support that statement?"
Danny didn´t reply. He didn´t have a thing. Nothing that mattered, anyway.
"He´s right where he´s supposed to be," Hoffman continued when Danny didn´t say anything. "I´ve got enough evidence to convict him. He´ll get what he deserves."
"What evidence?" Danny snapped, anger bubbling inside him.
Hoffman shook his head. "I´ll keep that for the trial if you don´t mind," he said. "But don´t worry, it won´t take long before there is one."
Danny stared at him with disbelief. He couldn´t let it come as far as a trial and give them a chance of convicting his best friend of a crime he hadn´t committed. No. He needed to get Steve out now.
Hoffman looked at the barman, then back to Tani and Danny. "Now, leave this to me and go do something else or I´m calling the Governor. I´m pretty sure she wouldn´t be happy if she knew you disobeyed her direct orders. She might even disband your little taskforce if you keep pushing the limits," he said with a smug grin. "You don´t want that to happen, do you?"
Just now Danny realized his palms hurt from his nails digging into them as he was clenching his fists. It´s been a long time since he´d fought such a strong urge to hit someone. He was brimming with rage, but knew he was more helpful to Steve if Five-0 wasn´t on the Governor´s bad side. But on the other side, he knew that if he left now, he´d never get to see the video footage from the last night. He didn´t trust Hoffman to use it to help Steve. The guy´s mind about Steve´s guilt had obviously been made.
"Look, can´t we just work all together?" Tani suggested, sensing the tension between the men. "It´s your case, we get it. Let us just tag along."
Hoffman smirked. "I´m not obliged to share anything with anyone outside FBI."
"What, are you afraid we´d see something we shouldn´t? Something proving that we´re right and Steve´s innocent?"
"Are you trying to suggest anything, Detective?"
"Yes, I am. I think you´ve got a reason to keep the information from us."
"Like?"
"I don´t know, maybe you´ve played your part in all this." Danny held Hoffman´s gaze.
"I don´t know why you´d think such a thing," Hoffman said. He glanced at his watch, then gestured toward the barman. "Anyway, I´ve got to talk to Mr. Mills here. Make sure I got things right. So why don´t you go home while I´m asking you nicely? Don´t make me call the Governor. I´d rather do this the easier way."
Danny didn´t move.
He felt Tani´s light touch on his upper back, gently nudging him forward. "Let´s go," she whispered.
Danny didn´t want to. But he knew that as an unemployed civilian he would never be able to help his friend. He threw one more look to the barman, who watched them all without a word, and reluctantly turned to leave, decided he´d talk to the guy again and find out whatever it was that made him anxious.
He sat in the car, and, unable to hold his anger bottled up anymore, thumped the wheel with a palm of his hand. "Son of a bitch," he swore, barely noticing Tani getting in on the passenger´s seat.
"Do you really think he´s involved?" Tani asked after a moment.
"I don´t know yet. But we´ll find out."
Tani nodded in agreement.
Hoping that others were more successful, he started the engine and drove off to the busy streets of Honolulu.
The traffic was terrible and it took over an hour to get back to the HQ. Just as Danny pulled up to the car park, his phone buzzed. It was Noelani. With a quick tap on the screen, he accepted the call.
"Hey, Noelani, you´re on speaker, go ahead," Danny said, desperately hoping for any good news.
"Hi. Duke told me what had happened," she said. "But I´m afraid I won´t be much help. I didn´t get to do an autopsy on Lynn, because a group of FBI agents charged in here with a warrant. I didn´t have a choice other than to give them the body."
Danny´s heart sank.
"But I can tell you COD was strangulation. Extensive bruising around the neck. In addition to that, there was clear evidence of asphyxiation: pinpoint hemorrhages in the skin and the conjunctiva of the eyes. I´d say TOD was between nine and eleven last night."
It was no news, but Danny thanked her anyway.
"So, is it true?" she asked. "Did McGarrett…"
"No," Danny stopped her before giving her a chance to finish the thought. "He didn´t do it, all right?"
"I don´t think he would."
After promising to keep Noelani posted, Danny ended the call and turned the engine off.
"We´re never gonna find the truth if that damn FBI will keep doing this," Tani mentioned the obvious.
"Yeah, we will." Danny wasn´t sure how just yet, but he knew there was no other choice. He wasn´t about to let Steve down. "We have to."
By the time they joined their teammates upstairs, Lou and Adam were already there too.
"Got anything?" Adam asked.
"I think the barman is hiding something. I was about to check the video footage in a bar, but Hoffman showed up, threatening to call the Governor if we didn´t leave," Danny summed up. "You?"
Lou shrugged. "Well, the cameras miraculously stopped working last night, and as far as we know, no one complained about any noise coming from the room."
"The agent said there must´ve been a fight. But if he was right, wouldn´t someone hear it?" Tani chimed in.
Lou gestured toward the smart computer. "Junior is going through the guest list. We might need to talk to a few people, though. The hotel was pretty packed last night."
Danny nodded. It was better than nothing, and more people meant more possible witnesses. "Anything else?" he asked.
"Actually, yeah," Adam said. "The manager said it was Lynn who booked the room. She checked in yesterday in the afternoon."
Danny´s eyes widened in surprise. "She… what? Why would she do that?"
"Well, she´s not gonna tell us anymore, will she?" Lou said. "But it´s weird, man. I mean, after all these years she contacts him out of nowhere and asks him to meet her in a distasteful bar, books a room in a dubious hotel, and then ends up dead and Steve arrested? I don´t like it."
Danny didn´t like it either. There had to be an explanation. He massaged his temples, overwhelmed by the whole situation, before speaking again.
He turned to Quinn and Junior. "You guys got something?"
"Not yet," Quinn said. "Duke said he´s trying to find out as much as he can. He´ll call us back."
Danny looked at his watch. It was half-past three already and they had so much work to do. "All right," he began, "Tani, Quinn, Adam, track down the guests and talk to them all. See what you can find out. Junior, try to find out anything you can about the bar owner. I want to know what he is hiding. Lou, let´s just go through this all over again. From the beginning. Maybe we´re missing something."
Without objections, everybody dived into work.
Long hours in, Danny lost track of how many times he and Lou tried to piece everything together. It all came back to Lynn. He couldn´t help but think she was somehow involved, but couldn´t wrap his head around it. Even after checking her out, there was nothing suspicious that suggested a reason she´d turn against Steve. Maybe they were wrong about that.
None of his colleagues got anything they could use, either. The guest obviously didn´t see and hear anything, and Junior wasn´t able to uncover any reason the barman would hide something from them.
It was hours later when Lou´s phone rang. The older man had a short conversation with whoever was calling. When he ended the call, Danny lifted his head up.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"Mr. Mitchell," Lou said. "He said there´s something we might want to see."
"Did he say what?"
Lou shook his head. "No. He wants us to come to the hotel. Said it was important."
"Okay, let´s go," Danny said, sensing the good news.
A sparkle of hope lit up inside of him. Maybe Steve would sleep in his own bed tonight, after all.
He saw the plume of smoke from miles away.
The smoke stretched up into the sky, a darkening pall against the dusk. He thought nothing of it until he drew closer and realized, with a sense of growing unease, that it was coming from the direction of the hotel.
He pulled off the street and into the parking lot and saw that the manager's office was engulfed by flames.
Lou, too, stared ahead with his jaw dropped.
A tender from the fire department was already on the scene. Firemen were arranged around the building, two of them attending to a hose that was directing water over the flames. A crowd of men and women had gathered at the other end of the lot, kept away from the fire by the crew from the tender.
Danny parked her car at the fringe of the crowd and stepped out. The heat from the blaze was intense, even at that distance. "What happened?" he called to one of the onlookers.
"I don't know," the man said, shouting to make himself heard above the angry crackle of the fire. "I'm staying over there." The man pointed back at one of the rooms. "I saw smoke and then the flames. I called the fire department."
"Where are the owners?"
"I haven't seen anyone."
The smoke piled upwards, a column that reached for hundreds of feet. There was a call from one of the men aiming the hose and then a hand signal directed back to the tender. The water pressure weakened and then stopped.
Danny and Lou walked closer to the wrecked building. The fire looked like it was out, but the heat still radiated across the lot in thick, woozy waves. The windows had been shattered and the tiles on the roof had collapsed into the building.
Lou caught the attention of one of the firemen. "You got it under control?"
The man's face was covered in soot. He nodded. "It's out."
"We´re with Five-0," Lou said.
The man nodded, wiping the sweat and grime out of his eyes. "I'm the senior fire officer."
"What happened?"
"One of the guests called it in. By the time we got here, it was out of control."
"Any idea what caused it?" Danny asked.
The man shook his head.
"Not yet. We'll have a look when the heat dies down."
Danny took out his phone, ready to call the rest of the team, and noticed that he had five missed calls. They were all from Grace. Danny felt a sudden weakness in his knees. He tapped, trying to return the call, but nothing happened. He held it up again. The screen was black. He had run out of battery.
"Damn it!"
"Everything okay?" Lou asked with concern in his voice.
"I don´t know," Danny said, the uneasy feeling growing in his gut. He couldn´t get rid of a feeling something was very wrong. "I… I gotta go."
He turned and ran back to his car, leaving Lou behind without an explanation.
*to be continued*
It's a bit of a challenge for me to write about the investigation, so I hope I'm not boring you to death. Wanted to try something a bit different this time.
This chapter was all about the team trying to find out what had happened, but I promise we'll check on Steve in the next one.
Anyway, please let me know what you think.