The doctor's smile faded when he caught on to Danny's actual emotional state. "Detective, is that not yours? Is something wrong?"

"You could say that. And this sure as hell isn't mine… or his." He twitched his head in Steve's direction. "Damn it." He squeezed his eyes closed and vigorously rubbed his forehead. "All right," he conceded. "He wins."

The doctor noticed the wrinkles around Danny's eyes disappear. His facial muscles relaxed and his shoulders slumped. He couldn't tell if it was resignation or a deeply buried, festering anger. A light rapping on the door broke the mood before it opened.

"Sir, your phone is buzzing. Says it's… Tani Rey?" the guard at the door informed. "Thought it could be important."

Danny looked back questioningly at the doctor. "Is it okay to take it in here?"

"Yes, it won't disrupt the equipment," he gave permission before resuming checking the computer.

"Tani?"

"How's Steve?"

"He's fine. He's okay, but Waincroft was here… in his room."

"What? How do you know? He was caught on camera going through ICU doors, but there are no cameras trained on the rooms. You said Steve is okay?"

"He is, but once again Gabriel's left us a little present. I'll show you later. What about Lou? Have you checked on him?"

"Yep. He's fine and no mention of seeing Gabriel. I think he was spared a visit. I gave him a rundown of what was going on and he's a bit fidgety to get out of this… how'd he say it?… 'sick people's palace' and helping us. Well, good thing is, we know Gabriel's gone. We got him on camera leaving, but thought you may want to see something we found on the footage."

"Can you just send it to me?"

"Sure thing, then I'll be up in a minute."

Danny received the link and watched the video of Gabriel winking and smiling up at the lobby camera three times before taking the doctor's advice and stepping outside of the room. Dr. Patterson had watched the detective's inflamed mood calm and turn colder with each viewing.

"Are you sure?" Danny asked the guard. "Are you sure this guy has not been in this room? Even wearing scrubs?" He handed the officer his newly acquired photo.

The officer took care to look at the photograph carefully. "No, sir. Not since we've been here, but we took over after the lockdown was issued. Maybe it was before that. There was just one guard then, and we relieved him after being on duty for hours."

"Possible. He had a lot of time before the lockdown. All right, maintain your positions and check everyone that comes in. The doctor will get you a list of only those that are approved and besides that, I don't expect you to see him, but at least you've got a face to look out for now. Copy?"

"Yes, sir. Copy."

"Copy that," the other quieter officer acknowledged after Danny looked to him for an answer as well.

"Danny?" He turned to see Tani approaching and slid the photo into his shirt pocket. "Did you see?" Danny nodded his answer. "Can you believe that? What a smug prick."

Danny agreed but had something else on his mind. "Call Jerry and have him get with HPD to find out who the guard was that was stationed at Steve's room before the shift change. We need to question him about what he saw. Also have him coordinate with the hospital's security office. We need to check the parking lot cameras and see if he's in the same vehicle or a different one or if he had a ride and then he needs to check the traffic cameras in the area at that time. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Sure thing. Got it." Tani pulled her phone from her back pocket to make the call. "Oh no. Oh, shit."

"What?"

"Damn it!"

"What, Tani? What is it?" Danny was getting irritated.

"I forgot. I totally forgot."

"You forgot, what?"

"When I was with… Gabriel, when I thought he was just some nice guy, I let him have my phone and he put his number in so I could call him sometime. See, right there between Jerry and Juns." She handed over her phone.

Danny read the contact, 'John'. He looked around at his surroundings and headed to a turn of the corridor where there was a small, unoccupied sitting area in front of a line of windows. While holding Tani's phone in one hand, he pulled out his own and called Jerry himself.

"Jerry, I need you to do something for me. Can you run a phone number through the system and then can you run a trace on a phone call that I'm about to make from Tani's phone to that number?"

"No problem. What's the number?"

Danny read off the number.

"Got it," Jerry said.

"I'm sure it's a burner, but we still need to check. I'm more concerned with getting a location on it when I call."

"You're correct. It is a burner and if you give me juuust, anooother, minuuute, there, ready. You can now make the call when you're ready."

Tani had followed Danny and was standing behind him as Danny gazed out the window. He had dialed the number and put the phone to his ear.

"Took you long enough."

There it was… the voice he had remembered. A true shiver ran down his back. He had returned from the dead. "Gabriel, or… should I call you John?" Danny's voice was calm and cold. He knew he had to try to make the call last as long as possible, therefore he needed to control his own temper. He took in a deep breath and focused.

"Detective Williams? Is that you? Damn. I was hoping it was going to be that pretty little thing you've got working for you now. Gabriel's fine, but did you like that, though? John? John Smith?"

Danny heard cackling laughter on the other end of the phone. "You think this is funny? Tell me what kind of game you're playing. You know, better yet, why don't we just meet some place where he can talk, man to man?"

"Hmm, interesting proposal. I'll think on that. By the way, how are Barney and Andy doing? You know, never mind. I already know."

More laughter taunted Danny. "Why did you do it? Where have you been all this time?"

"Eh, eh, I know you're tracing the call, so my time's limited. We'll have to save it for later, but I do want to know one thing. Did Chin get my message?"

"What message?"

"Now who's playing games? I know you went to that ramshackle of a house. Tell him, Detective. I want him to be the one to answer my next call. Got it?"

"He's not… Gabriel?! Waincroft!" The connection had gone dead. He held the phone away from him staring at the screen for a moment, then he held his own phone up to his ear. "Jerry, did you get that? Tell me you got a location."

"Three more seconds would have done it, but no, he must have been timing, also."

"Can you ping it?"

"Already tried. It's been inactivated. Must have turned it off immediately after the call."

"Damn!" Danny's frustration was palpable. Tani overheard his side of the conversations and knew this had been a dead end. She laid a supportive but penitent hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Danny. I should have thought of it sooner. I don't know why…"

Danny had started shaking his head as soon as she began to apologize. "Uh, uhn. Wouldn't have done any good. He was waiting for that call and was prepared. Now he's got your number and can call at any time."

"Earlier, you said he had left a gift in Steve's room. What were you talking about?"

Danny took both phones into one hand, reluctant to give Tani's back to her yet. He slipped the photograph out of his pocket and reached it to her. "Take a look at this. I think this is what he's after."

Tani stared down at a cheerful image of the man she had come to know as 'John', squatting down with his arms around a toddler. The toddler was a precious little dark-haired girl, wearing a pink polka dot Minnie Mouse jumper, and was captured in the middle of a laugh, maybe from a recent tickle to her side. The man was gazing adoringly at the tot while also smiling broadly with a hint of guilt, probably from being the tickle culprit.

"That little girl," Danny explained, "...is Sara Diaz, otherwise known as Sara… Waincroft, Gabriel's daughter, otherwise known as…. Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly's niece."

~~~~~H50~~~~~

Danny stood between the weathered chairs and the white spume that crept closer and closer to his feet on the beach… their beach. Technically, it was Steve's portion of beach, but he would not be able to count the hours that he'd spent there with his best friend, rehashing cases, burying past regrets, delving into hopes for the future, and of course his favorite, and he was sure Steve's as well, bantering, arguing, quibbling, and teasing each other. It felt like their beach.

This time here alone, although he'd rather be there with his brother, allowed him to think more clearly than a hospital room with the intermittent but ceaseless visits of caregivers, or the silence of his office, or even the solitude of inside his quiet car. This was where he needed to be, listening to the monotonous swash of the breaking waves. His ten-year younger self would have never believed it. Maybe his justification was that this was as close to the comforting drone of a noisy city as he could get.

With his arms crossed over his body, an untasted Longboard beer that he had hastily grabbed from the fridge on his way out the back door was losing its chill as it dangled from two fingers clamped on either side of the neck. The sun was setting quickly on this day that, to Danny, seemed eternal.

The decision had already been made back at the hospital when the photo had been handed to him. He had finally given in, even before his conversation with Gabriel. After all of his internal struggling and resistance, the actual decision had ironically come to him easily. Now, however, the forging of the composition was going to be the tricky part.

He dropped his arms and carried his beer to the chair that Steve would usually claim. After sitting, he propped the bottle in the sand by his feet and twisted so he could finagle his phone from his pocket. The device blacked out and had to be unlocked multiple times as he worked through his wavering. Finally, one attempt was successful. The phone was ringing on the other end.

"Hey, Chin. It's Danny. Hope I'm not catching you at a bad time…"

~to be continued~

\,,,/BronsonL