It was about two hours after Magnum interrupted her work and Higgins' mind started wondering. She no longer was focused on what she was doing and instead she was concerned why Magnum hadn't come back to the estate or at least updated her on his venture to the warehouse.
"It's because you crossed a line," Higgins said to herself. "He's fine."
A few more minutes passed and Higgins gave up on working until she knew Thomas was fine and she confirmed that she was overreacting. She thought about calling Thomas right away, but she felt he would be so upset with her that even if he was fine, he'd just ignore her call. Therefore, she decided to track his phone. After a minute of furious typing, Juliet unfortunately couldn't get a current location, just the last location available before the phone either died, the battery got disconnected, or any other reason pinging it wasn't going to happen. The last available location was the marina.
"There's multiple reasons this could be," Juliet told herself. "Knowing Magnum, he probably dropped it in the water or something."
Her next move was to call Thomas's friends. In case T.C. was in the air giving a helicopter tour, she decided to give Rick a call. After just one ring, he picked up.
"Higgins, what's up?" Rick asked casually. The background noise indicated he was at La Mariana.
"Hey Rick, has Magnum talked to you recently? Asked you for any favors?" Higgins questioned carefully.
Noticing her tone was slightly off, Rick furrowed his brow. "No, I haven't talked with Thomas at all today." A moment passed and when Rick continued, Juliet assumed the change in noise and volume meant he had put her on speaker phone. "T.C. hasn't spoken with him either. What's wrong?"
"It could be nothing," Juliet started. "But it's Magnum, so I'm not sure."
"What's going on Higgy Baby?" T.C. asked. Apparently, T.C. wasn't giving a tour and was at Rick's bar instead. Juliet figured this made things easier and quicker.
"He was going to check out a warehouse by the marina; it had something to do with drug smuggling." Juliet sighed. "It's been a couple hours and I haven't heard from him."
There was a pause at the other end of the line before Rick spoke up. "It wouldn't be the first time Thomas investigated something on his own, so why are you so concerned about this?" Rick asked cautiously. It was obvious he was starting to get worried too.
Juliet's guilt started rising in her chest, and as the words escaped her, it felt like it was going to strangle her. "He asked for me to tag along in case things went sideways, but I declined in a rather rude fashion," she ended her sentence with a snarl of self-condemnation.
"What do you mean?" T.C. asked.
Higgins attempted to take a deep breath before replying. "After I declined, he mentioned that he was possible going to contact you two. I told him he should handle it without dragging you two into the case. There was more to it than that, but I'll apologize when I see him." Another breath. "My point is he apparently suspected backup might be needed, but he went alone, and now I don't know where he is." She couldn't hide the concern that crept into her voice.
"Have you tried pinging his phone?" Rick immediately asked, but before Juliet could reply, he answered his own question. "Scratch that, I bet you already did that."
Juliet smiled. "You are correct, but I couldn't get a current location. The last available location I could find is the marina. But since you two haven't heard from him, I guess I'll go just to check things out there and see if I can find him."
"Text us the address," T.C. said in a definitive tone. In the background, Juliet could hear Rick already talking to someone about watching the bar for him. T.C. stated one more thing before hanging up. "We'll meet you there."
Higgins drove into the parking lot and parked next to Robin's red Ferrari, and as she stepped out of her car, Rick and T.C. pulled up in Rick's Porsche.
"Well, at least we know he was here," Rick said as he nodded his head towards the Ferrari.
"Yes, but where-" Juliet cut herself off when she looked towards an industrial building and found, much to her horror, several police cars and crime scene tape. "Oh my God."
The trio quickly made it to the scene and immediately found Detective Katsumoto. When they approached, the man turned and looked at them questioningly.
"Gordon, what's going on here?" Higgins asked before the detective had a chance to speak.
"We got a call about a shooting at the marina about an hour ago," he replied. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Thomas is missing," Rick said.
Before Katsumoto could ask any more questions, Higgins jumped right in. "He was coming here to look into a potential drug smuggling ring in a building, and I can only assume it's that one," Juliet said as she nodded towards the warehouse that had officers flowing in and out. "The Ferrari's here, but I haven't heard from him in a couple hours. None of us have. Have you seen him around here?"
"No, I haven't seen him, and I'm sure if he was around, he wouldn't miss an opportunity to bug me." Katsumoto glanced at the three of them, trying not to show any excess of emotion, but he was dreading the evolving situation. "If he was here, I hope for Magnum's sake he was lucky." He turned towards the building. "Follow me."
The four of them walked into the warehouse, and after looking around the building and glancing at the numerous storage crates, Higgins, Rick, and T.C. noticed the blood.
There was a decent-sized pool of dried blood near the door with streaks leading towards the opened garage door that led to the loading dock. Another, larger pool of blood was several feet away from the first and also had streaks going in the direction of the dock.
Higgins covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God," she said for the second time. Her heart was pounding and her guilt and shame was almost enough to suffocate her.
"Have you found anyone? Do you know who was here?" T.C. asked the detective. "Anybody identified?" He didn't want to voice the main question that popped into his mind: did you find any bodies?
Katsumoto shook his head, temporarily relieving the other three. "No, but with the amount of blood, I really hope you're wrong and Magnum wasn't here."
Almost on cue, one of the officers came into the warehouse. "We found a body."
Katsumoto followed the officer to the body, but Higgins, Rick, and T.C. remained frozen where they were.
"It can't be him," T.C. said finally. "There's no way. This is Thomas Magnum we're talking about."
Higgins couldn't move or speak, but after a moment Rick spoke. "There's only one way to find out."
Rick and T.C. led the way with Higgins reluctantly following. She didn't want to know who the dead person was, but she had to know. She was going to find out eventually so it didn't make a difference how slow she walked, but she couldn't imagine what she would do if the dead person was the man that she hurt just a few hours prior.
They approached a dumpster with police officers and forensic personnel surrounding it. After taking a quick look, Katsumoto turned around and had an unreadable expression on his face.
"It's not him," he said immediately after noticing the looks he was getting from the three standing in front of him. "But that still leaves at least one injured person out there somewhere."
After being relieved for one moment, and stressed out again the next, T.C. spoke. "We need to find our boy. What's next?"
"This is still a shooting investigation, but given what we know and what we're missing, you're right: we need to find Magnum," Katsumoto said.
"The Ferrari's still here," Juliet said, after apparently finding her voice. "I don't think Magnum would go on foot and leave the car here without telling me. Since he hasn't been seen nearby, he either took off in another car or he's on the water." Or in the water, Juliet thought to herself before quickly shoving the thought aside. "Considering where we are and the potential drug smuggling Thomas was investigating, I'm guessing he's on the water."
Katsumoto nodded. "It's the best lead we have so far. We'll get an APB out on Magnum. Meanwhile, I'll get an HPD boat to start a search within half an hour."
"We'll use my helo to search from the air," T.C. said.
With everyone in agreement, they went their separate ways in order to complete the same mission: find Thomas Magnum.