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It's Friday, and you know what that means… guaranteed new chapter!

So, I haven't decided exactly how many chapters this story is going to have, but I do know where it's headed, so there's that. I drew up an outline and I'm pretty happy with it, so at least you know that I have no excuse to just suddenly stop writing. Hold me to it, okay?

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I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Happy reading!

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Chapter Six: Mistrust Breeds Tension

Allie

Gideon was staring at me as I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the wall. After a few moments, he whined and pawed at my shin.

I sighed. "I know. I know I have to get ready for work. But the thing is… I don't want to go."

He tilted his head as if to ask why.

And, because the only person that I trusted to talk to about my feelings was my dog, I told him. "Two days was not long enough for me. I don't want to go in there and face Steve McGarrett. He all but outright told me that he's still going to be digging into me and even though I know that he won't be able to find anything, it still irritates me. I feel like I really proved myself these last two cases and if he can't start trusting me by now…" I heaved a frustrated sigh.

Gideon whined, tuned in as he always was to my emotions.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "I even kept his less than commendable actions out of my report to the governor. And I can't even take it back. I already sent it in. But of course, he's never going to know about that, which kind of sucks because maybe that would prove to him that he could trust me. It's tough being a spy, you know?"

He whined again, scooting just a tiny bit closer.

"It really is," I sighed. "But at least I have you, and you understand."

Suddenly, Gideon darted out of the room.

"Hey!" I called, offended. "Come on! Just because you sense the mistrust between me and Steve, doesn't mean that you have to-"

But he was back, his food dish in his mouth.

"Oh," I realized sheepishly. "I forgot to feed you this morning. That's why you were whining." I sighed and stood, pulling the dish from his mouth. "Sorry, buddy. I have a lot on my mind."

After I'd fed him, I went back upstairs and headed to my closet. I was feeling somber, so I chose black skinny jeans, black booties, and a black tee with one white stripe. At least it gave me a small pop of something else. My hair went up into a messy bun because I just couldn't bring myself to care, and I didn't bother with any makeup. I typically didn't, as my skin was smooth and without blemish, thanks to the wonderful genes passed to me.

Even though I probably should have left quickly, I took the time to sit at my table and eat a bowl of cereal. Surely, Steve wouldn't care if I came in a little later than usual. Of course, that could also hurt my image in his eyes…

I groaned. Fitting in with him was so tough.

"Bye, Gideon!" I called, and then I headed for Five-O headquarters.

As soon as I walked through the doors, I could feel the buzz in the air.

Something big was going on.

Before I could ask what it was, Steve stormed out of his office and straight towards me, eyes on fire. "Where have you been?"

Instinctively, my hands went up in a silent surrender. "Whoa, Commander. You said that we didn't have an official start time."

"But doesn't nine seem a little late to you?" he demanded.

Chin, Kono, and Danny had all gotten there later than that, but I didn't voice that. It wouldn't do any good; he just wanted to attack me and establish himself as the one in control. And I needed to let him do it, as much as it hurt my pride. "Maybe, sir. I'm sorry."

There wasn't much that he could say to that, so he just waved for Danny to follow him and the two of them went out the doors.

Kono and Chin were standing at the big screen, both of them surprised by what they had just witnessed.

"No big deal," I told them as I approached. "Do we have a case?"

"Just came in," Kono told me with a sympathetic smile. "A little girl was kidnapped and murdered last night. Police found her body dumped this morning in an alley after a store owner called and said that his dog was barking like crazy and wouldn't shut up. Her name was Lily Adams. She was only seven years old."

I closed my eyes for a moment against the horrible image. Sometimes, I really hated the line of work that I was in. "Any leads?"

"Danny and Steve went out to question a potential witness," Chin answered. "He told us to stay here and comb through the report that the parents made last night after she was abducted from the grocery store."

"Good God," I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. I was definitely not well-rested enough to be dealing with something like that. "One minute you're picking out the ripest pineapples and the next, your daughter is gone. Did security cameras catch anything?"

"The perp had his hood pulled up around his face," Kono said and showed me the clip. Indeed, it was difficult to tell who the man was. "The parents worked with a sketch artist and we have beat cops showing the drawing to people, but no one has recognized him so far."

"Let's hope that changes soon. We need to get this guy."

Chin asked, "Do you have any contacts that could help us with this?"

"Most of my contacts are white collar criminals," I told him regretfully. "They steal art, forge documents… that kind of thing. Nothing violent."

He sighed in frustration. "I was kind of hoping that you had someone."

"Not this time. I wish I did."

A call came in on Kono's cell and she stepped away to answer it, leaving Chin and I to stare at the still on the screen. It was hard to believe that the little girl in his arms was dead.

"Who can kill a child?" I whispered.

Chin heard me. "Believe me, I don't know. And I don't want to."

Kono came back just then, seeming worked up. "An officer found someone that recognized the guy. Said that his name is Frank Davis."

"That's a fake name if I've ever heard one," I scoffed.

Sure enough, it was a fake ID. But…

"A good one," Kono said, clearly impressed. "Everything is flawless. Whoever made this has to be good."

"Let me make a call," I told her and stepped away, heading into my office.

Uncle Edward answered on the third ring. "A call two days in a row. How sweet of you."

"Sorry, Uncle Edward," I said as I leaned back against my desk. "This isn't just a call to say hi."

He sighed. "Sometimes, I expect too much. What do you need?"

"I remember Cal saying that he was planning to move to Hawaii and work there after they started making busts in NYC. Do you know if he ever did?"

"As a matter of fact, he did. I'm guessing you need his alias?"

"Please."

"You're not going to arrest him, are you?"

"No, Uncle Edward, I promise. I think he may have sold an ID to someone that's a suspect in a case I'm working right now. A kidnapping and a murder."

On the other end, my uncle drew in a sharp breath. "How old?"

"She was seven."

"Jesus," he said softly on the other end and then said, "I know where he is. He's running a tech repair store as a front. It's called Garrison's Gadgets."

"I'm guessing he goes by the name 'Garrison' now."

"You'd be correct. Hey, find this son of a bitch, okay?"

I nodded. "With Cal – sorry, Garrison's – help, I think we can. I'll call you after it all ends. Let you know how it turns out."

"You do that."

I hung up and rushed out of my office. "I may have something. I think I may know who forged the ID. And I know where to find him."

"I'll come with you," Chin said and called over his shoulder to Kono. "Let Danny and Steve know."

"I will!" she called back as Chin and I rushed out.

Once in my Camaro, Chin asked me, "Where are we headed?"

"I'm not sure yet," I admitted as I backed up. "Do you know a place called Garrison's Gadgets?"

"Yes, actually." He sounded surprised. "I had to take my cell phone in there once to repair the screen. The guy was super quick about it. Is that your contact?"

"Well, the contact that I called said that he thinks it's the same guy I'm thinking of."

"Ah. An alias."

I nodded. "Do you know where we're going?"

"Yeah. Take this next left."

We were outside of the shop within minutes and luckily, no customers were inside.

"Be with you in just a minute!" someone called from the back, and then Cal came out dressed in his usual jeans and a superhero shirt. Hero of the day was Batman. When he saw me, his dark eyes widened in surprise and then a smile broke out on his face. "I didn't expect to see you in Hawaii."

"Back at you," I told him, and couldn't help but smile as I stepped forward to hug him quickly. "I'd love to catch up, but we actually really need your help."

"Sure, anything," he told me. "Free of charge for you, of course."

I rolled my eyes at him and took the folded drawing out of my back pocket. "Actually, I need you to tell me if you made an ID for this man."

He took the picture, but his eyes went to Chin, full of suspicion.

"We're Five-O," I told him. "And we're not going to tell anyone what you told us in here. We're just looking for the killer of a seven-year-old girl."

At that, Cal's eyes widened and he rushed behind the counter. "Yeah, of course. Of course. Do you happen to have the name he's operating under?"

"Frank Davis."

Cal typed furiously on his laptop for a moment and then turned it around so that we could see the display. The papers and ID on the screen were the same ones we had found earlier. "Is this your guy?"

"That's him," Chin confirmed.

Cal turned the laptop back around, clicked a few buttons, and said, "His real name is Oscar Neff. Date of birth: March 21, 1978. I have his original papers and ID scanned in, if you want to see them."

"Please," Chin said, and Cal allowed him to take pictures as they were up on the screen. "I'll send this to Kono. I'll be waiting by the car."

Once he was gone, Cal leaned in. "You're a cop now?"

"How things change, right?"

He didn't laugh. Instead, he seemed sad. "I guess they do. Do you need to ask me anything else?"

"I think we should be able to find everything else that we need in our system, but you've been a big help. We wouldn't have any leads if it wasn't for you."

"Yeah, no problem. You know I don't approve of those kinds of crimes."

"Just forgery," I teased him.

He smiled. "And a few other things. Some might call them victimless crimes."

"Some might."

As I began to walk away, he called out to me. "Hey! If you ever need anything, get in touch with me."

"If I ever need a fake ID?" I raised an eyebrow. "I don't do that kind of thing anymore."

He shrugged. "Fake ID. Someone to talk to. Familiar face. Whatever."

The smile that I gave him was genuine. "I really appreciate that. Right now, I'm going out to catch a killer. But you might hear from me soon."

"Good luck!" he called after me, but I was already dashing to the Camaro.

"Kono ran the name and got an address. Steve and Danny are on their way. Let's go."

I put the car in drive and gunned it.

Steve

"Oscar Neff," I called at the door after I'd pounded it a couple of times. "Five-O! Open up!"

Almost instantly, a shot came out of the side window, causing us all to duck down.

"Go!" I called and kicked in the door, gun aimed out in front of me.

Oscar got off a shot at me, but I dodged it and tackled him to the floor, wrestling the gun away in the scuffle. He resisted, but he wasn't exactly in the best shape. Danny and I had him cuffed and shoved onto the couch within a minute.

"Why did you murder that little girl?" I demanded.

The shock in his expression was real, which surprised me. "What are you talking about, man? I didn't kill no girl!"

"We have you on security camera footage stealing her from a grocery store," Danny said in his best 'you are the biggest idiot' tone.

"And now we're taking you down for her murder, too."

"Whoa, hold on," Oscar said. "Look, I'll go down for kidnapping, but murder? That's life, man. And possibly the death penalty. I swear, I didn't kill her."

"Then who did?" Danny asked him.

"Check this out." Chin and Allie had been canvasing the house, and they had come back with a small bag filled with cash.

"Wow," Danny said sarcastically. "That's quite a lot of money for a farm worker."

Oscar sighed, knowing that he'd been caught. "Look, if I tell you everything, will you let the prosecution know that I cooperated?"

"Deal," I told him. "Start talking."

And talk, he did. "I was approached in the parking lot of the grocery store by a man. He said that he'd heard of me and knew that I was good at quick grabs. He wanted to grab a child; said the kid was his and the mother was withholding visitation because she didn't like that he smoked. I felt for him."

"And he offered you eighty thousand dollars," Allie said. She must have counted the money.

"I knew that the grocery store cameras were crappy; I've stolen from there before. The man just wanted to see his child. I didn't know…" His eyes grew sad. "I swear, I didn't know that he was going to kill her."

"Not just kill her." Chin came back into the room. I hadn't even noticed that he'd left, but he'd obviously been on the phone, as he still had it in his hand. And his expression was one of disgust. "Max just called. There was evidence of sexual abuse."

"Oh, God," Oscar groaned and hung his head.

"Yeah, come on, big guy." Danny grabbed him roughly and hauled him off the couch. "You're going to sit with a sketch artist to help us find this guy, and then you are going away for a long time." He was way too rough as he led the guy out the door, but I couldn't blame him. He had a daughter of his own and always got a little too involved when a case involved a young girl.

"Let's hope we can get a good image from this guy," Chin said.

"Let's hope," I repeated and headed out the door. "Anything else in the house?"

"No," Allie answered from behind me. "Nothing."

I didn't even bother to respond. Things were obviously tense between us, now that we had each admitted our mistrust for the other. I was sure that everyone saw it – Danny had asked me about it – but it was just going to be the way that things were, for a while. Possibly for a long time.

Back at HQ, Oscar sat with the sketch artist and got a pretty good image. When Kono ran it through our system, we managed to come up with a match. It came back to a Miles Rochester, a registered sex offender that had just been released from prison on child pornography charges.

"It didn't make sense before," I said. "That he would pay someone eighty thousand to kidnap a little girl and then kill her, but now it does. It says here that he used to kidnap little kids himself, make videos, and sell them for a lot of money. Most of that money was never recovered. My guess would be that he's back to his old ways."

"Do we have an address?" Chin asked Kono.

She typed furiously and then nodded. "Yes. I'll text it out."

Everyone rushed for the door.

Twenty minutes later, we were outside the small white house. HPD officers had the place surrounded, and a car in the driveway told us that he was definitely home. We were going to be getting our guy.

"Let's move," I said, and my task force crept forward, guns drawn and ready.

It was Danny that banged on the door. "Five-O, Miles Rochester! Open up!"

There was a crash from inside and I quickly kicked in the door, which splintered on impact. We rushed inside and a shot came from around the corner, sending me reeling backward. Another shot came, and I knelt before peeking around the corner to take a shot of my own.

It hit Miles Davis in the thigh and he went down with a loud cry, getting off one more shot as he hit the floor. I rushed forward and kicked the gun out of his hand, and Danny covered me with his own gun. The rest of the team cleared the other rooms, just in case. They were all clear.

At least that meant that no more children had been taken.

"Miles Rochester," I said as I flipped him over and put cuffs on him, tighter than could have been comfortable. He deserved much worse than that. "You're under arrest for kidnapping, raping, and murdering Lily Adams. And also for anything else that my team finds in here, which I'm guessing is going to be a whole lot of pornography." I nodded to Chin and Kono, and they took off to begin a search.

"You need a warrant," he spit out, his breath reeking of cigarette smoke. It had ruined his teeth; they were all yellow and black.

"Not today," Danny said and began to help me haul him to his feet. "See, because that's a right reserved for those that don't rape and murder innocent girls. You know what I'm saying?"

Miles Rochester sneered at him. "You got proof?"

"I think that the tapes we're bound to find in here are going to be more than enough proof for any court of law," Allie finally spoke up from off to the side. She'd holstered her gun and was staring at the criminal, her expression harder than I'd ever seen it.

Miles' eyes widened when he saw her and he whistled as his expression turned to one of a hunger that made me sick. "Well, well, well. How did a woman like you end up as a cop? You're better suited to be a model. I bet you were… so beautiful as a little girl."

Faster than I had thought possible, Allie stepped forward and spun, kicking out. Her heel connected with his face and there was a crunch so awful that I actually winced. Miles, on the other hand, did much more than that. He cried out and began to shout about police brutality and how we couldn't do this to him because we were cops and blah, blah, blah.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Danny said as he took over and began to lead Miles towards the door. "You really should be more careful, you know. I mean, running into the wall like that…"

Once he was out the door, I turned to Allie, at a loss for words.

She stood there with her arms crossed, an unreadable expression on her face that was a mix of sadness and something that I couldn't quite nail down. When she looked at me, she tried to force a smile that fell flat. "I'm sorry for my behavior, Commander."

I could have reprimanded her. With all of the tension between us, she probably expected me to.

Instead, I said, "What behavior?"

Our eyes locked and a deep understanding passed between us.

For that brief period of time, the tension was gone and something else took over. Something deep and strong.

But as she nodded and moved for the door, it disappeared, leaving behind only a strange sense of loss.