CHAPTER 5

Sunday evening, McGarrett residence:

Danny walked up to the front porch, happily noting the kitchen light was still on, as he shoved the keys to the Silverado into his pocket while hefting the bags of cacao chips higher on his hip. Danny's stomach growled as he approached the open front door. With any luck, there would be some pancakes in his near future.

'Wait. Why was the door open?' Danny thought as he stopped suddenly.

The hair on the back of Danny's neck suddenly stood on end as a knot of terror twisted in his gut. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead as he quietly approached the door and placed the bags by the door. He unholstered his gun while swiping a hand across his brow to prevent the sweat from dripping into his eyes.

Danny sucked in a deep breath. He hoped the door was open because Steve had left it like that after Danny had left. On the other hand, someone could be inside, just waiting for Danny behind the door. Danny took another deep breath. He was going in. He had to go in. Grace was inside and could be in trouble.

Crouching low and holding his weapon high, he entered the house, quickly sweeping behind the door and the immediate area with his gun. Nothing moved and there was no sign of his partner or his daughter. Danny wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Moving further into the living room, he continued sweeping the area as quietly as he could. The sound of glass crunching underneath his shoes stopped him in his tracks. Looking up from the ground, he saw the source of the glass. The entire lanai door was missing, smashed to pieces on the lanai as though something, or someone, was thrown through it.

Keeping on eye on the door towards the kitchen, Danny inched towards where the door used to be. Glancing outside briefly, he saw only the remains of the door. As he turned to go back inside the house, something caught his eye. Something that made his legs turn to jelly.

Blood.

The light from the living room reflected off the dark patches on the lanai. Danny gulped as he surveyed the area. He ascertained that it was nowhere near enough blood to be from a serious injury. Perhaps someone had knocked their head or cut themselves on the glass. He hoped it wasn't his daughter or his partner.

Taking another deep breath, Danny shook himself and continued to clear the house. Perhaps Steve and Grace were holed up somewhere safe and were waiting for him to come and find them. Making his way slowly towards the kitchen, he spotted a dark object on the floor. Kneeling down, but keeping his gun high, he inspected the object.

A gun.

The gun was not a Sig. Not Steve's gun. Suddenly, Danny didn't care about alerting any potential attackers. He needed to know if his daughter and partner were okay. He needed to know they weren't the source of the blood from the lanai.

"Steve?" Danny called out. "Steve? Grace?"

Silence was his only answer.

Gun held in front of him, he entered the kitchen. The bowl of pancake batter that Grace had concocted was on the now clean bench. The floor, however, was in a state opposite to clean. Behind the door was a mop and bucket. Steve must have been preparing to clean the floor when he was interrupted.

Danny turned on his heel and ran down the hall. "Grace? Grace! Where are you?"

Danny searched the rest of the house, looking under desks and in cupboards. Danny knew that if Grace was in trouble, Steve would do anything to protect her; like telling her to hide and wait until her Danno found her. Danny took the stairs to the bedroom two at a time. He dropped to his knees and searched under the bed. He found his partner's gun cleaning kit, but nothing else. No Grace. No Steve.

"Grace? Steve? It's Danno!" Danny called out.

Nothing. No one was there.

Running back down the stairs, he took in the scene in front of him again. Finally getting the panic that was building in his chest under control, he dug his phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial for Chin's number.

While Danny listened to the phone ringing on the other end, he paced trying to get his breathing under control.

"Danny?"

So caught up in his despair, Danny hadn't even realised Chin had answered his phone.

"Chin…" Danny began breathlessly.

"Danny?" Chin's alarmed voice came through the phone. "Is everything okay?"

Danny clenched his jaw before answering. "No, Chin. Everything is not okay. I need you and Kono to get to Steve's place now. Get CSU, HPD, everyone down here as fast as you can."

"Wait. Danny! What happened?" Chin asked, his voice rising.

Danny swallowed over the lump in his throat. "Steve and Grace are gone. I think they were kidnapped."

Sunday night, McGarrett residence:

Danny paced.

He paced back and forth over the front lawn, rubbing his hands continuously through his hair with each turn. He couldn't stand still. He had to move, had to do something to release some of his anxiety.

Lights from the HPD cruisers parked in from of the McGarrett household lit up the house. The flashes of red and blue caused Danny's anxiety to increase. Danny wasn't sure where to look. Ever since HPD had arrived, the scene felt chaotic. There were uniformed officers everywhere, concerned neighbours all clamouring for a look. The crime scene unit was stringing yellow crime scene tape around the front and back of the house. Danny spotted Duke commanding a group of officers over by a squad car.

Danny was beyond upset. No, he was angry. Angry at himself. If only he had stayed at the house, he could have stopped whatever had taken place. His anger was intertwined with his worry, twisting his stomach into a heavy, nauseating knot. His little monkey and his best friend had vanished. They were just gone and they had nothing!

The only thing that comforted him was the thought that they were together. At least he hoped that was the case. He trusted his partner, not only with his own life, but the life of his precious daughter. He knew Steve's strengths and skills better than anyone. But he also knew some of the man's weaknesses. Danny was worried about the man who had wormed his way into his heart. But if anyone could find their way out of a difficult situation, it was McGarrett. But Danny also knew that life had a way of making plans without your input and no one could change that, no matter how hard they tried.

Danny leant against the Camaro, trying to steady his breathing. In a fit of rage, he slammed his fist against the bonnet. Chin and Kono emerged from Steve's house to see Danny cradling his fist. Kono grabbed Danny's elbow and forced him to sit next to the car.

"You good, brah?" Chin asked as he knelt down next to his cousin.

Danny peered first into Kono's brown eyes, seeing the determination and calm there. Glancing at Chin, he saw he had a similar zen-like demeanour. Then again, no one could tell with Chin as that is what he looked like all the time. Their outward calm settled Danny's nerves slightly.

Danny nodded. "Yeah," he said as he cleared his throat. "I'm good. Thanks."

Kono nodded and glanced over her shoulder. "Here comes Duke."

Danny rose unsteadily to his feet. Chin held out a steadying hand that Danny greatly appreciated. He smiled at Chin, letting him know he was okay to stand by himself.

"Duke, please tell us you have something?" Kono demanded.

Duke frowned at Danny, his brow knotting in concern. Danny ignored the apprehension from the sergeant and motioned for him to begin. Duke looked down at his notes before answering.

"We're still getting samples of the blood from the lanai. The lab knows they are coming and that they are a priority. Hopefully we can find a match to a suspect. We found several bullet casings from the living room area. They appear to be from the gun that was found there. We found no holes or blood spatter to indicate the bullets hit anything. On closer inspection, we found the gun was loaded with blanks."

"Wait, blanks?" Danny questioned, wondering if he had heard correctly.

"Yup. We thought that was a bit odd as well," Duke replied with a small nod.

"Okay, so we know they weren't shot at least," Chin said. "Did you find anything else?"

"We found McGarrett's wallet and phone on the couch, untouched. Nothing seems to be missing from the house, so it's probably not a robbery."

Danny sighed exasperatedly. They knew that already. "So what do we know?"

Duke sighed. "At the moment, nothing is certain. I'll let you know the minute we find something."

The team watched as Duke walked away to continue processing the scene and getting all the preliminary information he could. Even Danny knew they wouldn't find much.

"Okay, Danny. Talk us through it," Kono said, attempting to establish a timeline.

Danny ran a hand down his face as he thought about how to begin. "I had Grace for the weekend. We were planning to go out on a boat, just the two of us. However, that fell through. Literally. So I suggested to Grace that we hang out with Steve at the beach. Steve agreed, so we came over this morning and spent the day on the beach. Grace and I had a nap on the couch. When Grace woke up, she was hungry and wanted pancakes. Unfortunately, our esteemed leader does not have anything resembling chocolate chips in this house, so I went out to get some. However, my keys were covered in pancake batter, so Steve let me use his truck. Not as much fun as the Camaro, though."

Chin and Kono smirked at Danny's explanation. They all knew Steve was a health nut. It was fun to try and tempt him with malasadas at least once a week. They knew Danny complained about Steve always driving his car.

"Anyway, I came back and found the front door open. I cleared the house, found the lanai door smashed to bits and no sign of Grace or Steve."

"Okay, so you leave and Steve and Grace go to the kitchen to make pancakes. He hears the front door open and expects it to be you coming back from the store," Chin said.

"He doesn't have time to get a weapon or warn Grace. There's a struggle. The lanai door gets broken, hopefully by the boss pushing someone through it. Somehow, they take down Steve. There had to be several men. One man couldn't take down Steve," Kono continued.

"Unless they had something to make him more cooperative," Chin countered.

"Like Grace?" Danny whispered.

"Or a threat to us?" Kono said, trying to stop Danny from thinking the worst.

"Regardless of what it was, my daughter and my best friend are in the hands of God knows who and being used as leverage for God knows what," Danny said, clenching his fists.

"We don't know that, Danny," Chin said gently.

"Don't we?" Danny cried. "Come on, Chin. You're a detective, for goodness sake."

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, Danny," Kono tried.

Danny threw up his hands in exasperation. "Come on guys. We all know what happened. Someone with a grudge against Steve came looking for a fight. Steve was probably taking care of them before they found Grace and used her against him. Now, Grace is probably being used as leverage against Steve until he does or gives them whatever they want." He paused, his eyes growing sad. "And Steve will do it, whatever it is. He'll protect Grace with everything he has."

The implications of Danny's statement settled on the team as they stood in silence, pondering their next move. The quiet was interrupted by Duke approaching.

"Hey Duke. What have you got?" Kono said.

"Not much, but maybe something to look into. One of my guys was talking to the neighbours over there." Duke pointed across the road. "The son thought he heard was sounding like something breaking followed by loud popping noises at around 8:15pm. He didn't think anything of it initially. He just thought it was someone's TV being up too loud."

Chin smiled. "Now we have a time frame. Thanks Duke."

Duke nodded. "I know it's not much."

"It's a start," Kono assured the sergeant as he walked away.

"What time did you leave, Danny?" Chin asked.

"It was just after eight, I think," Danny said, rubbing his forehead with his thumb.

"And what time did you get back?" Chin prompted.

"About 8:30pm. Why?"

"Think about it. In half an hour, they had to grab Grace and Steve and leave without being seen. How did they do it?"

Danny's eyes suddenly widened. "The removal van!" he announced excitedly.

"What removal van?" Kono asked.

"When I left to go to the supermarket, I saw a removal truck parked next door. I don't remember it being there when I arrived this morning. When I returned from the shop, it was gone. At the time I thought perhaps it was a specialist removalist, doing packing after hours. Also, Steve would have mentioned if one of his neighbours was moving house."

"Did you get a plate?" Chin asked hopefully.

Danny shook his head. "No, but it had a large red logo on the side. I'll know it when I see it."

"We should get back to headquarters. We can check traffic footage and maybe find the van. We can also set up for a ransom call and look into Steve's known enemies," Kono suggested.

The team agreed and they moved towards Kono's car. Danny felt his pocket vibrating. Taking out his phone, he groaned loudly when he saw who was calling.

"Danny?" Kono asked.

"It's Rachel," Danny said without looking up from the phone. She needed to know that her daughter had been kidnapped. How do you explain that to someone?

If someone hurt his daughter or his best friend…if someone even touched one hair on their hands, Danny would not rest until he had hunted down very single man involved and emptied his entire magazine into their worthless heads.

Shaking, Danny pressed the phone to his ear. "Yes Rachel…"