The noon sun was baking the estate when the Ferrari rolled slowly through the gate. Magnum angled the car to catch the most shade possible from the trees in the parking area, knowing that they'd most likely be going out again that afternoon. Leather seats were lovely to sit on, but not when they'd been soaking up sunshine for hours.
He was still thinking over the meeting with Lewis Harrison, replaying the conversation over and over as he considered what the man had told them. Which was more than just the words Lewis had spoken. Magnum kept running over the man's actions, how he'd welcomed them to his office, the tone of his voice when they'd left.
He knew Higgins was probably doing something similar, and wondered what she'd concluded. For the moment, he let her ponder and followed her into the main house, both of them turning in the direction of her office without conscious thought.
Higgins pulled the flash drive from her pocket, settled in behind her desk and flipped up the lid of her laptop. Moments later, she logged in and connected the drive. She ran her own security programme on it before opening the drive.
"Oh my word!"
"What's wrong?" Magnum was at her side in a moment, looking over the screen to see what had caused such a stunned reaction from his partner.
"Nothing's wrong, per se …" Higgins dragged the words out, sighing deeply. "But Lewis wasn't kidding when he said he was giving us every document relating to the company."
She waved a hand to indicate the screen, which was filling up rapidly with lists of files. The count shot up from a few to over a thousand in seconds, and Magnum shook his head. No wonder Higgins looked less than impressed. That amount of information was going to take hours to wade through.
"At least now we know why Lewis can't find proof that his partner's doing something shady." Magnum nodded when Higgins tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow to him. "Yes, I believe Lewis. I don't think he's involved in whatever Nick Stevens is doing."
"I agree." Higgins nodded decisively. "Lewis would make a dreadful poker player."
"You noticed that too." Magnum shared a laugh with Higgins, then looked back at the screen. "This is going to take a while."
"For me, you mean." Higgins threw him a pointed look.
"Yeah, okay, for you." Magnum grinned and shrugged one shoulder. "I'd offer to do it, but we both know you'd be pushing me out of the way in five minutes and taking over."
"I suppose that's true." Higgins admitted, eyes dancing with laughter. "You really could learn to type, Magnum. It's a valuable skill."
"So's learning to delegate work." Magnum hopped backwards quickly as Higgins raised a hand to swat him. He raised his hands in surrender and smiled as he backed away from the desk. "I'll just go find us something to eat while the files load. Coffee? Water?"
"Water, please." Magnum nodded and headed to the kitchen. He made short work of putting together some sandwiches, then pulled two bottles of water from the fridge. He tucked the bottles under one arm, grabbed the two plates and headed back to the office.
Higgins nodded her thanks and set the bottle of water down in favour of the food. Silence filled the room as the food was consumed. Moments later, Magnum cracked open his bottle of water and drank some of it, watching Higgins as she kept an eye on the files loading on the laptop. He headed over to the desk, cracked her bottle open as well and then collected the two plates and took them back to the kitchen.
By the time he came back, Higgins had started tapping away at the keyboard, fingers flying as she dug through the files.
Magnum hitched one hip onto the desk and looked at the data scrolling up the screen. He was no expert, but it was clear that Higgins had started with the financial information. If there was anything strange going on, Nick Stevens had to be hiding the money somewhere. It was only logical.
A few minutes later, Juliet's fingers froze on the keys for a moment.
"What is it?" Magnum stared hard at the data on the screen, not sure what Higgins was noticing. To him, it looked much like all the other spreadsheets.
"This." Higgins pointed at an entry in the file. "It's not wrong, really … but, there's something odd about it."
"Odd, how?"
"That's the thing. It looks legitimate, and the name of the company involved sounds like one of the other companies that H&S Landscapers have been doing business with for years, but –"
"It's not." Magnum finished the sentence. Higgins nodded in agreement. "Which is why Lewis can't find the evidence he's looking for. Nick's managed to hide it right in front of him."
"Yes, indeed. Very clever." Higgins murmured, fingers tapping on the keyboard again. "But not clever enough."
Magnum read the full name of the company, committing it to memory before pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"I'll just give Katsumoto a ring, ask him if that company name has come up in any other investigations recently."
"Trying to stay on the detective's good side, are we?" Humour filled the question.
"Would I do that?" Magnum joked back, scrolling to Katsumoto's name in his contact list.
"In a heartbeat." Higgins laughed out loud.
"Okay, okay, maybe that's part of it. A very small part." Magnum smiled, then carried on. "But it's quicker than trying to hack the HPD system to find out."
"True." Higgins didn't even bother to deny that she was capable of hacking the police system, and Magnum wondered suddenly whether it was even a true challenge of her abilities. Probably not, even if the HPD system was one of the most secure setups on the island.
He moved away to call Katsumoto, stepping out onto the deck near the koi pond. His gaze ran over the pond and for a moment, the familiar surge of anger rose as he thought about what had happened to Higgins there. But then he let the feeling slip away again, concentrating instead on the sounds he could hear behind him – sounds that let him know that Higgins was alive and well.
The call connected but Katsumoto didn't speak. Magnum waited a moment, expecting the detective to say something sarcastic, or refuse to help him or speak to him. And then the line went dead.
Magnum pulled the phone from his ear and checked the reception, but he still had five bars. He shrugged, assuming it was a network issue somewhere on the island and tried again.
This time the call was cut off immediately.
Magnum stared at the blank screen of the phone for a moment, considering reasons the call could have been dropped. Then a sudden, unexplained chill ran down his spine and he found himself spinning on his heel and heading straight back into the office.
"Higgins." He could hear the note of suppressed panic in his own voice, and wondered at it. What on earth had him so worried?
"Magnum? What's going on?" Concern filled the questions.
"I don't know." Magnum lifted his phone and explained. "Katsumoto isn't picking up. The first call was just dead air, and the second one wasn't even picked up."
"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation." Juliet's tone was calm and unaffected.
"Yeah, okay. But do me a favour and call him from your phone as well." Magnum couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Higgins pulled up the detective's number on her phone and hit the dial button. Moments later, that call ended without an answer. She tried one more time, and got the same response.
"There must be a network mast down wherever he is." Higgins was unconcerned, and Magnum wished he could feel that sure. But he had no reason to suggest there was anything more to the problem than that, so he simply nodded. Higgins was probably right. But the sense of something being off-kilter lingered in the recesses of his mind.
"So I guess you'll be visiting the HPD database after all." He smiled at Higgins, burying his worry under a smile.
"It would seem so." Suiting actions to words, Higgins opened a new window on her screen, tapping at lightning speed for a few seconds, then waiting as the HPD database appeared on the screen.
"That fast? Impressive." Magnum raised an eyebrow at how quickly she'd got into the system.
"Not really." Higgins ducked her head, but the faint blush on her cheeks caught Magnum's attention.
"Oh?" He let the question linger, until Higgins couldn't hold out any longer.
"Yes, well … I may have left myself a well-hidden backdoor into the system the last time I hacked it."
"The last time?" Magnum asked.
"Yes. When TC was –"
"In the hospital." Magnum finished the sentence grimly. He didn't want to think about the details of those days again, so he let himself focus on the HPD database.
"You do know what you did is illegal?"
"I'm aware." Higgins shot him an arch look, her tone dry. Then she smiled brightly. "But the odds were in my favour that we'd need access again – sooner rather than later – and I saw no point in doing the same work twice."
Magnum stared at her for a moment, speechless in a way that seldom happened to him. Then he burst out laughing at her audacity. Higgins stared at him for a moment, then laughed as well.
She turned back to the screen, typed in Lewis Harrison's name and waited to see whether the man was listed in the database at all. No hits at all.
Next up was Nick Stevens. No hits on him either.
Then she ran the name of the company, and found no mention of that either.
"So, that's that." Magnum sighed. "Guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. You want to ping his phone? Then we can spend the rest of the day tailing Stevens."
"One moment." Higgins navigated back to the main screen of the HPD database, then headed into a different section.
"What are you doing now?" Magnum leaned closer to get a good look.
"This section lists new cases. Things that are ongoing, new investigations, that sort of thing." She skimmed the list and shook her head. "Nothing on Stevens or H&S Landscapers here."
Then she froze, staring at the screen in shocked silence. Magnum ran his eyes down the list of cases, feeling the same sense of frozen disbelief fill him when he saw a familiar name in one of the entries on the screen.
Katsumoto, Gordon.
Higgins looked up at him, her eyes reflected the same stunned expression he was sure was plastered on his face.
"That's … that just has to be wrong." It was the only thing he could get out. Higgins simply nodded and turned her attention back to the screen.
Moments later, a case file opened and she ran her eye over it, highlighting the salient points.
"Today is Thursday, so this was file was opened on Tuesday afternoon."
"For what?"
"Tampering with evidence." Higgins tapped one finger lightly on the screen. "Gordon is suspended, pending a full IA investigation."
"He would never. It has to be a set-up of some kind." The words were out before Magnum even thought about it. "He won't even accept free coffee."
That Gordon Katsumoto was honest was one of the founding principles of the universe. There was simply no way that he would do anything like what the file said he had.
"They seem quite certain." Higgins kept reading. "His badge number and signature are on the evidence log in question."
"Forged." Magnum's tone was definite.
"The IA investigator seems to think not."
"I will never believe that. Never." Magnum was vehement. "Not without Gordon telling me that himself, and showing me a damn video to prove it."
"Video." Higgins tapped another key, then shook her head. "Well, this investigation is clearly a set-up."
"I told you so."
"Yes, you did. I never said I didn't believe you." Higgins agreed calmly.
"So?" Magnum's tone begged more information.
"The camera at the evidence lock-up mysteriously malfunctioned on the day in question. And a new evidence clerk was filling in for Officer Iosua that day. And now that officer is currently on life support at King's Medical after a motorbike accident on Wednesday morning." She shook her head. "The criminal class is just so lacking in subtlety these days."
Magnum had to laugh at that, in spite of the worry that filled him. He rested one hip on the desk as he stared into space for a moment.
"So why didn't he tell us? Call us? Ask for help?" Magnum just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that a friend was in trouble and hadn't reached out to him. To any of the 'ohana. "Does he still not trust me?"
"I don't know." Higgins sounded thoughtful. "Things seemed more normal after the two of you went for your little jaunt in the Ferrari a few weeks back."
"That's what I thought too." Sadness crept into the words. Magnum looked down to find he was rubbing his fingertips over the material of his jeans. He stared for a second, then forced his fingers to remain still. "Was I wrong?"
"Perhaps, but I think not." Higgins turned to face Magnum then, her certainty shining in her eyes. "If Katsumoto still had a problem with you, I believe he would simply tell you. He's not done so, which leads me to believe that there is another reason for his silence."
"A threat of some sort?" Magnum turned the idea over slowly. "But not to himself. That wouldn't stop him doing what's right."
"True."
"Which means that I'll just have to find him, and make him tell me." Magnum nodded decisively then looked at Higgins again.
"Ping his phone for me. Please."
"Magnum, we already have a case. A client who is depending on us." Juliet's reluctance to change the subject was clear, but Magnum knew she was right. They couldn't ignore Lewis Harrison or his case.
"I know. It's just …"
"He's family." Juliet's smile was gentle. "Even if he doesn't realise it yet."
"Yeah. He is." Magnum agreed, smiling back. "And we need to help him, even if he is too stubborn to ask for help."
"Oh, that's rich, coming from you." Juliet's rejoinder was barbed.
"What? I ask for help all the time." Magnum filled his tone with sincerity.
"Cadging favours from your friends is not the same thing as asking for help when you truly need it." That answer made it clear that Higgins had a far deeper understanding of what went on in Magnum's head than he'd ever given her credit for. And he'd given her a lot of credit, because she was quite possibly the smartest person he'd ever met.
He tipped his head to one side, meeting her gaze straight on, even if it took a huge amount of effort to keep his eyes fixed on her and not look away in embarrassment. She stared back at him, unblinking, then apparently decided to take pity on him. She nodded once and looked back at the laptop screen.
He sighed in relief, then turned his attention back to the problem at hand.
"We've got to do something. Ping his phone, okay?"
"And our other client?" He could hear that Higgins wanted to focus on Gordon as well, but her innate sense of fair play wouldn't let her.
"Ping Nick Stevens' phone too."
"Magnum, you can't follow two people at the same time." Exasperation filled the statement. "And I have to keep digging through these files if we're going to sort out Mr Harrison's problem, so I can't follow him around today either."
"I'll cadge a favour. Or two." Magnum kept his tone neutral, letting a smile creep onto his face when Higgins looked sharply at him. "I'm sure Rick and TC will help out."
Magnum checked his watch, then dialled Rick's number, almost certain that TC would be with Rick at the moment. He knew the guys got together most days around midday, either to share lunch or just to check in with each other. If he was in the area, he would join them as often as he could.
Some military habits were hard to break, like getting up before dawn every day for no good reason. That had taken a few months of dedicated effort to consign to the past, and now he was only up that early if he wanted to watch the sunrise. Or if lingering nightmares made sleeping too difficult.
But some other habits, like checking in daily with your team, your family, stayed strong forever. So it was pretty much a certain thing that one call would find both his friends.
As soon as the call went through, Magnum dragged his mind back to business.
"Hey, Rick."
"Thomas!" The usual happy answer was followed by a moment's silence, which Magnum realised he'd allowed to last a moment too long when Rick spoked again. "What's it this time, bud?"
He could hear TC's voice in the background, but was unable to make out the words. The tone, on the other hand, was amused.
"I'm putting you on speaker, Rick. With me and Higgins."
"Hey, Jules." Rick's voice rang out clearly and Higgins smiled.
"Hello, Rick. TC" She'd raised her voice enough to carry to the phone, but Magnum walked back across the room to stand next to her.
As he watched, she opened her tracking software and entered the mobile number for Nick Stevens.
"Guys, I need a favour."
"Again, TM?" TC sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
"This is important." Magnum protested.
"It's always important." Rick just laughed. "We've got our own businesses to look after, you know."
"I know, but this time's –"
"Different." Two laughing voices chorused from the phone.
Even in the circumstances, Magnum had to laugh at that rejoinder.
"It really is." He shook his head when Higgins smothered a chuckle as well. "Look, Higgins needs to dig into some files for the case we're working on, so she's stuck at the estate for a while. The guy we need to follow is at," he looked down at the laptop screen and read off the address that Higgins pointed at, "which is a garden centre."
"A garden centre?" Rick sounded confused.
"Yeah. Our client, Lewis Harrison, owns a landscaping business. He thinks his partner, Nick Stevens, is up to something. He asked us to look into it."
"And while we do your job, where will you be?" Rick asked, his amusement bleeding into the question.
"Looking for Katsumoto." Magnum's tone was deadly serious now, and the laughter on the other end of the call came to a sudden end.
"What's going on?" Rick sounded sharply focused now.
"We don't know. We … Higgins … was running a background check on a couple of people and we found out –" Magnum paused for a moment, pulling his thoughts together again.
"What?" TC sounded worried now.
"Katsumoto has been suspended. For evidence tampering."
"No chance." That was Rick.
"Not in this lifetime." TC was adamant.
"We don't know where he is. And he's not answering calls from me, or Higgins. So Higgins is going to ping his phone for me so that I can go find him."
"Sure." Two voices answered as a duet again. The rush of relief that flowed through Magnum at hearing their answer was so strong he actually needed the support of Juliet's desk for a moment.
"You find him, Thomas." Rick's voice was nothing but concern now. "We'll follow the other guy for you. Just send us the details." He paused for a long moment, then went on firmly. "If you need us, if Katsumoto needs us – for anything – you call."
"He's one of us." TC added. "So, anything he needs. Any time."
"Thanks, guys." The unconditional support made it hard for Magnum to speak. He ended the call and found Higgins watching him closely.
"Okay." He shifted her attention back to the screen as quickly as he could. "So, where is he?"
The address on the screen meant nothing to him, but when Higgins pulled up a map of the island, he recognised the area.
It was agricultural land, at least an hour's drive from Honolulu. Using some of the back roads from the estate, he could probably make it there in about forty-five minutes, as long as speed limits were seen as suggestions rather than facts.
He took another look at the map, which Higgins had quickly enlarged and enhanced. The trees looked vaguely familiar, but he struggled to think why. But the pin for Katsumoto's phone was steady outside what looked like a large plantation of some sort.
"Any idea what those trees are?"
"It's a coffee plantation." Higgins skimmed over the data on the screen. "Organic, small yield, good reputation in the market."
"And yet, Katsumoto's out there. So something else is obviously going on out there as well. Something illegal." There was no doubt in Magnum's voice.
"I've sent the location to your phone." Higgins tapped once more, then turned a steady gaze on Magnum.
"I'll stay here and keep digging through these files." She waved a hand at the flash drive. "But as soon as I'm done, I'll be joining you."
"Thanks, Juliet." Gratitude filled the words.
Higgins met his eyes, and nodded, concern written on her face.
"Go find him, Thomas. Find him, and help him."
MPI-MPI-MPI