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It's Friday, and you know what that means… mandatory update! My new goals are: 70 reviews, 25 favorites, or 40 followers.

Welcome back to another chapter! Since I'm all through writing (and most of the way done with my editing), I've had to start setting reminders so that I'll remember to update the story. I'll take it, though, because that means I'm done (aside from a little more editing)!

Big thanks to all of you that have reviewed, favorited, followed, private messaged, and read. I appreciate all of you so very much, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

Reminder: I do not follow the storyline of Hawaii Five-O. I just use the characters and the premise.

Happy Reading!

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Chapter Eleven: The Truth About Faith

Steve

The call came in on Sunday morning at eleven-thirty, just as I was finishing my bowl of cereal. I swallowed my bite and then answered, pressing the phone to my ear. "McGarrett."

The governor's tone was clipped and worried, which put me on high alert instantly. "McGarrett, I need you and your team to respond to a shooting immediately. It was at a small church on Oahu. Right off the highway. How soon can you get everyone together?"

"I'll make the calls and we should be there within an hour."

"Make it less," he ordered and hung up. Seconds later, I received a text with the address. For the governor to get involved, it had to have been pretty bad.

My first call was to Danny, who told me that he just needed to drop Grace off at Rachel's and then he would be on his way. Chin said that he could be there in thirty minutes. Kono didn't sound happy about having to leave her boyfriend since he was only here for a short time, but once she heard about the situation, she said that she was on her way.

That only left Allie, and I found myself staring at my phone, my thumb hovering over her name in my address book. Just click her damn name and call her. What's your problem? "I don't know," I answered myself and then finally pressed her name.

She answered on the fourth ring. "You calling on a Sunday can't be good news. We have a case?"

Something about her voice froze me to the spot, but I recovered quickly and cleared my throat. "Uh, yeah. Governor just called it in. There was a church shooting this morning. I'll send you the address. Or… or I can pick you up. I just need to put on shoes and then I'm heading out. It's kind of off the beaten path, so…" Why was I even explaining myself to her?

"Sure," she agreed, just as I was about to rescind my offer. "I was out doing some training with Gideon, so I need to run in and change clothes real quick. See you in a few minutes."

The line went dead and I just stared at my phone for a few minutes, cursing myself for being such an idiot. That night at Allie's house had changed things for the better, certainly. I felt like I knew her a little better and, therefore, trusted her more. But it had also left this strange atmosphere behind – a hangover that wouldn't go away.

"Time to focus," I told myself sternly and went to the front door, pausing only long enough to pull on my boots and tie them securely. Then, I hopped into my truck and headed for Allie's house, wondering why I couldn't have just let her drive herself. She had GPS, surely.

She must have seen me pull in, because I hadn't even parked my truck yet when she came out the front door, waving before she locked it behind her. While she was turned, I took a moment to study her, hoping that I could get to the bottom of what was going on.

Her dark hair was pulled up – per usual – in a high ponytail that was flapping gently in the light breeze. She was dressed in skinny jeans and a green tee, paired with those black boots that were both fashionable and practical. According to Kono, anyway.

Moments later, Allie was sliding into the passenger seat of my truck, giving me a friendly smile as she buckled up. "Hey. Do we know anything yet?"

I put the truck in reverse and pulled out of her driveway. "Not yet." With a nod at the rental car still there, I asked, "Is Kol still here?"

"He flies out tonight. Last flight of the day, actually. He claims it helps him fall asleep faster once on the plane."

"He can actually sleep on a flight?" I had trouble sleeping on planes or, really, anywhere in public. I couldn't trust people.

She laughed. "Kol can sleep anywhere. He claims it's a talent."

"Mind if I turn on some music?"

She shook her head. "Go for it."

Eighties music began to play as I flipped the dial and when I asked her if it was okay, she simply began to sing along. I took that as a yes. Her voice was pleasant… not one of those really strong, high voices but just… nice. When I told her as much, she laughed, leaving me to wonder what was so funny.

We arrived at the crime scene twenty minutes later and it was absolute chaos. There were at least ten police cars there, all of them with their lights flashing. Two ambulances were also parked there, and I could see the paramedics moving from group to group, checking to see if anyone else was injured or needed help. Likely, the seriously wounded had already been transported to the hospital.

HPD officers were milling about, talking to people and taking notes, trying to figure out what had happened. And when I saw Max kneeling by a black tarp, I knew that there had been some fatalities.

"These people were just trying to attend church. They weren't bothering anybody."

I looked over to see Allie surveying the scene with her keen eyes, her expression one of supreme sadness.

"Yeah," I answered her softly and when she looked at me, I knew that she saw her sadness reflected. Innocent people never deserved to get hurt like that. "Let's go."

As we stepped out of my truck, Chin and Kono pulled up in Kono's red car. I sent them to start talking to some of the people and the HPD officers to see if they could get a handle on what had happened. Then, I waved for Allie to follow me over to where Max was examining a body. As we got closer, we could see that there were actually three bodies.

I took the lead. "What do you see, Max?"

He looked up at me and nodded. "Steve. Allie. It appears that each of these victims died from GSWs. Two of them have entry wounds on the back, and one on the front."

"So, the shooter came in and didn't even try to get anyone's attention first. He just started shooting," Allie concluded.

"That would be my guess," Max agreed. "These are the only three fatalities, but they transported fifteen to the hospital for injuries. A few are in critical condition and not expected to make it through the night."

"Were the shots through and through?" I asked him.

He nodded. "There are some crime scene techs inside gathering up the bullets and shell casings to put into evidence."

Danny approached from the side and I called out to him before he reached us. "Go inside and have a look around. Tell the techs that you want all of the evidence sent over to Charlie Fong as quickly as they can get it there."

He nodded and trotted up the steps into the church building.

Allie was staring down at the bodies, expression somber. I knew that there were all kinds of things running around in her head, but she didn't voice them. What I was most curious about was why I so desperately wanted her to.

"Let me know if you find anything else during the autopsy," I told Max.

He nodded as he straightened and pulled off his latex gloves. "I will, but I don't expect there to be anything unusual about them. It's pretty straightforward."

"What do we know about the victims?" Allie asked him.

He pointed to each one as he spoke their names. "Douglas Carter, Amanda Weise, and Bradley Weise. They were all regular churchgoers and always sat on the back pew to the right. HPD ran their backgrounds, but there was nothing to indicate that any of them were the target all along."

"I'm going to have Kono check anyway," I said and took out my phone to text her. "Thanks, Max."

"Commander," he said and then walked away to get some help loading the bodies up.

"What do you want me to do?" Allie asked me, and her expression had changed to one that I suspected was determination, mixed with some anger.

"Go help Danny case the inside." It would keep her as far away as possible from the dead bodies and the witnesses, most of whom were still sobbing as they recounted their tales.

She nodded and within moments, disappeared inside. I watched for a moment before I moved off to start talking to people on my own. As luck would have it, I ran into the preacher first, an older man with white hair, glasses, and blood staining his suit.

"Commander Steve McGarrett with Five-O," I said as I shook his hand. "What can you tell me about what happened today?"

He let out a breath, tension heavy in every line of his face. "I was getting up to give my message and all of a sudden, there were shots. I turned and saw a masked man walking in from the back, carrying a large gun. He was just shooting at random. People were screaming…" His hands began to shake and he rubbed a hand over his face to wipe away sweat that was from fear, not the sun. "I yelled at everyone to get down and it was over what felt like hours later."

"Did you hear anything else?" I asked him, trying to tread lightly because this guy had just experienced a heavy trauma. And eyewitness accounts were typically unreliable, anyway, so I wouldn't be making my whole case on what he told me.

"No, I didn't hear anything else. There was so much going on and it all happened so fast…"

"It's okay," I assured him. "You've been a big help. Are there any security cameras inside, per chance?"

He shook his head. "We've never needed security cameras or even a basic security system. This church has been standing for seventy years. I grew up attending here with my parents… Nothing bad has ever happened here before."

It only takes one time, I thought, but just thanked him for his help and moved on to the next person. For the most part, each person's story had the same basics – one shooter, most likely a male, wearing a mask. No one had heard him open his mouth to say anything, but that wasn't all that surprising. Anybody that would have been close enough to hear over the gunshots would have been sitting in the back, and most of those were dead or in critical condition.

Chin and Kono didn't look like they were having much luck, either, and the churchgoers slowly began to leave one by one. After giving us a report of what they'd gotten – which didn't vary from what we'd found ourselves – HPD officers began to leave the scene as well, followed by the crime scene techs, who told us that they had all of the evidence and pictures that they needed, so we were free to walk around the scene.

Danny and Allie were still inside, and I asked them for an update once we had joined them. Allie crossed her arms and let Danny take the lead.

"The bullets found were from an assault rifle – the techs decided it was an AR-15. There were bullets, shell casings, and blood splatter, but none of the shooter's DNA was found."

"It wouldn't be," Kono said. "According to the witnesses, the guy was wearing all black, gloves and a mask included. No one could distinguish anything about him."

"Crime scene techs did find tire tracks that seem to have pulled in and out very quickly. They made a cast and I told them to get it to Charlie as soon as they got back. Until we get that, I don't think we have anything else to go on."

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck as the tension began to build there. "Okay. Let's head back to HQ and hopefully Charlie will have something for us by the time that we get there."

One by one, the team exited the building.

Except for Allie, who had slipped quietly into a pew and was sitting there, staring straight ahead. There was no expression on her face.

Quietly, I slipped in beside her. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah." But there was nothing convincing about the way that she said it, and she didn't look at me. If she hadn't responded to my question, I would have thought that she didn't even know that I was there at all.

"Something about this case is bothering you." I kept all accusation out of my voice, but also didn't make it a question. "Are you a church person?" She hadn't been in church when I had called her this morning, but there were several explanations for that.

"No." She still didn't look at me and her voice was flat… almost dead. "I used to be, though. My mom thought that it was important. I guess you could say that I grew up on it. We never missed unless we were ill, no matter where we were."

"Why did you stop going?" There was always a reason when someone gave up their religion.

"I started working for the CIA." She stared down at her hands, folded in her lap, and her voice had grown quiet. "I saw things… terrible things. I still believed for a while, but… you can only see so much of that crap before you start to think that if there was a God, he left mankind to its own devices a long time ago. The world is too terrible a place for there to be a God that is only good."

"What did your mom think about you quitting church?" I asked her. It wasn't even me investigating her; I just wanted to know more about her.

She shrugged and looked up at me finally, a small smile on her face. "I don't know. I didn't get a chance to ask her." Before I could ask her to clarify, she stood. "We should get going so that we can meet the others at HQ."

I decided not to push it. "Let's go, then."

And we left the horrible crime scene behind.

Allie

When Steve pulled off of the main road, I frowned over at him. "This isn't the way to HQ."

"No," he agreed, the hint of a smile on his face. "This is the way to my favorite shaved ice stand. Kamekona actually owns it, but he never spends time here anymore since he got his shrimp truck."

"Why are we stopping for shaved ice?"

"You don't like shaved ice?" he asked me, his tone teasing.

"I do," I answered him. "But I thought we needed to get to HQ."

"Just a quick stop. We each grab a small and then we go. They'll never miss us."

"You still didn't answer my question."

"About why we're stopping?" When I nodded, he answered, "Because my mom always used to take me to get shaved ice when I was upset. She said that no one could be upset while eating shaved ice."

"You think I'm upset?" He wasn't wrong.

He shrugged. "Just a feeling."

We parked and then walked up to the shaved ice stand, where the worker greeted Steve by name and asked him if he wanted his usual strawberry with cream.

"Please," Steve told him and then indicated me. "And whatever she wants."

"I can pay for my own," I protested.

"That's not how this works," he argued and gently pushed me forward. "I recommend getting cream in whatever flavor you choose, though. Takes it right over the top."

I finally decided on birthday cake with cream, and we stepped to the side to wait and let the people behind us order.

"Thank you," I told him.

"Don't thank me yet," he teased. "You haven't tasted your shaved ice yet. It could be terrible."

"Nah, I trust you."

And as good as I was at reading people, there was still something in his expression that I couldn't decipher. "Good."

Our treats were handed to us only moments later and then we were heading back for the truck while Steve warned me that if I got even a speck of shaved ice on the interior, I would be responsible for deep cleaning the entire thing.

I could tell that he wasn't joking, so I was extremely careful as I took tentative bites of my delicious shaved ice, making a note to visit the stand more often. And to build in an extra run on the days that I visited.

Back at HQ, we found the team standing near the big screen, looking at something that appeared to have just come in.

Before we could ask what it was, Danny held his arms out and looked at us disbelievingly. "Are you serious? You told us to meet you here at HQ and you two went and got shaved ice?!"

"You could have stopped, too," Steve told him and tossed his empty cup into the nearby trashcan. "I didn't say to come here directly. You need to pay more attention."

Kono jumped in before Danny could start to yell. "Charlie examined all of the evidence, including the tire tracks found. They're from a late model Toyota Camry. And, bonus for us, they're relatively new."

"Meaning that our guy just bought these tires not too long ago," Chin finished.

"Alright, I want everyone talking to tire shops in the area. We need to get a list of everyone that brought their cars in recently to get new tires," Steve said.

"That could literally be hundreds of people," Danny argued. "It's a dead end. We don't have that kind of time."

"We don't have any other leads," Steve shot back. "Are we supposed to just sit on our hands and wait for another shooting?"

"We don't have to wait," Kono said, staring at her phone with a look of shock on her face. "There was another one just now at a church that has early afternoon services."

Steve spat out a curse and told her to text us all the address.

"Why would someone be doing this?" I asked him as we took off in his truck, the others right behind us. "You target banks for the money, marijuana shops for the pot, pharmacies for the drugs… what's the point of targeting a church?"

"I don't know," he sighed and made a hard right turn that almost lifted me out of my seat. They had invented seat belts because of people like Steve McGarrett. "It could be some whack job that's mad at God."

"So, he's shooting humans? People don't have any control over what God does."

"God's creation," Steve said. "I really don't know. One thing's for sure, though… this wasn't a one-time job. He's going to keep hitting churches until we stop him."

"How are we going to do that?" I wondered. "Stake out churches? How many churches are there in Hawaii?"

His jaw tightened. "A lot," he admitted. "I don't know. But I would guess that he'll want to hit another church tonight, and not every single church has evening services."

"Maybe we could put in calls to church leaders and ask them to cancel services," I suggested.

He nodded. "That's a good start, but I don't think they'll be able to reach every single person. People will still show up."

"Then we post notices that they need to go home immediately."

"I just hope that doesn't provoke him," Steve sighed. "This guy is determined to shoot as many churchgoers as possible. If people stop going to church, who knows where he'll go to find his victims. And we can't just shut down the churches until we find this guy."

I remained silent and stared out the window as we sped along, dodging cars that pulled over too slowly. I was glad that they had no idea about the tragedy that had just unfolded… yet. Maybe some of them would be getting a call that their family member or friend had died in the shooting.

The thoughts were too morbid, so I shook them out of my head and steeled myself for the task ahead of me.