They quickly filled Mary in on what had happened and what they knew…..which wasn't much, unfortunately.
"Someone kidnapped her? So, what are you going to do?!" Mary asked.
Steve chose that moment to walk back in with Joannie who had juice in a "sippy cup" and a snack.
Mary shot him a surprised look and he just shrugged it off with a small smile, "I keep snacks here for her when you're in town."
"Seriously?" Mary asked delightedly.
"Yes, seriously." Steve pretended to be 'offended' at her lack of confidence in his ability to provide for his niece.
"And the sippy cup?"
"Also here for Joannie." Steve answered as if it was no big deal…..but Mary felt her heart melt. Her big-bad-bro was going to be such an awesome daddy someday.
Steve looked back at Joannie, who was still in his arms, "You like my snacks, don't you?"
"Yes, Unca Teve….Your snacks are da best!"
"Okay…..so I'm going to take you into my office so you can watch something on Netflix while we talk about some things out here."
Joannie's expression grew serious. "Is Tophie okay?"
Steve was taken by surprise at her sudden change of attitude. She may be young, but she was apparently old enough to realize something not so good was going on. "Sophie is fine, honey." Steve assured her.
"Because you'll take care of her, right?"
The faith Joannie had in him was enough to strengthen his resolve. "Yes…I will take care of her. Just like I always take care of you and Mommy."
"I don't want Tophie to be hurt, Unca Teve."
Steve pulled her closer and kissed her cheek, "Sophie is fine, baby…I promise to have her back soon so you can make more cookies together. Okay?"
Even as he said it, Mary knew with absolute certainty that Steve would do it. She didn't know how, but she knew her brother well enough to know he would get Sophia back.
And she was sincerely looking forward to it because Sophia Manetti had awakened something in her brother that she hadn't seen for years.
Mary took Joannie from Steve and got her settled in his office where she could watch a Disney show on the laptop while the adults planned strategies for rescuing Sophia.
When she came back out to join them, Kono was pulling up a picture of the second man they had been able to identify on Sophia's camera.
"His name is Jordan Prescott. He's 'lower level' as far as Gabriel's network is concerned, but since he was the one who was meeting with Mancini…..and is the one who Sophia identified as the one who stole the camera….. he's obviously far enough up the chain of command to be of interest."
Steve saw the glint in her eye.
"Please tell me we know where he is," he said.
Kono smiled, "We do." She pulled up a satellite map of the island and zoned in on a certain neighborhood. "I've traced his phone and all of his calls for the last two months. It seems he never leaves home without it. As of right now, it looks like he's home."
Steve didn't waste a second. "Call HPD and see if they have a unit in the area. If so, have them pick him up. If no one is in the area, dispatch them there asap."
Then he paused as he looked at every member of his team. "And when he's here….I am going to talk to him. Understand?"
Everyone knew what that meant: The man was in for a crap load of pain if he didn't give up the location where Sophia was being held or at least information that led them in the right direction.
"Why don't you go pick him up yourself?" Mary asked.
Steve sighed, "Because Mancini said he would call back in 30 minutes, so we need to be ready when it happens."
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Almost ninety minutes had passed since Donovan Mancini had promised to call back. HPD had brought Jordan Prescott in and he was currently waiting in 'the dungeon' for Steve and Danny. Steve had hoped to get a call back with instructions from Mancini on when and where they could get Sophia back before questioning Prescott, but it didn't seem as if that would be the case.
He came out of his office and motioned for Danny to join him before looking at the rest of their team, "Let me know the second a call comes in from him. Danny and I are going downstairs to question this SOB and find Sophia."
"You got it," Lou concurred before Steve and Danny walked out to make their way to question Prescott; Actually, it would be Steve questioning him while Danny hoped to keep him under control.
Danny stopped Steve right before they entered the interrogation room.
"You okay to do this?" he asked.
"I'm fine Danny."
"Are you sure? Because that muscle in your jaw has been twitching the entire walk down here. You're gonna break a tooth off if you grind your teeth any harder."
Steve stopped, took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let it out slowly in a genuine effort to put a clamp on his anger before looking back at his partner.
"We don't have a lot of time to waist, Danny, so the sooner we get information out of him, the better. I don't want Sophia with Mancini a second longer than necessary. I mean, what would you do if this was Melissa?"
Danny gave him a sympathetic look, "I understand. Really…..I do. I want Donovan Mancini's head on a platter as much as you do…..BUT….. we're going to have to handle this with kid gloves if we want to get anything out of him. We can't afford to have him shut down and give us nothing."
Steve smirked sarcastically as he reached for the door knob, "Oh he's going to give us something…Trust me."
As Steve walked in to confront Jordan Prescott, Danny couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "And here we go."
Prescott looked up at the two men entering the room, "It's about time someone came in here. What the hell is going on? Why am I here?"
"We're going to get to that Mr. Prescott," Steve said as he held up a folder and started leafing through it. "So you have quite a record here; Several cases of Breaking and Entering… Assault with a Deadly Weapon…two DWI's…..and the list goes on."
He shrugged, "Yeah. So?"
"So, I want to know about something you stole at Waikiki Beach the other day."
"This is about that camera??" he asked in disbelief.
"Not technically. But it is about the woman you stole the camera from."
Jordan had the decency to look somewhat nervous at that point. He fidgeted in his chair, although there was nowhere he could go since the handcuffs had him tightly bound to the spot.
"What about her?" he asked.
"Do you know who she is?" Danny retorted.
"No."
"So, she was just a random target? All those people on the beach with cameras, bags, and everything else at easy access and you chose to grab a camera that was around a woman's neck…..at random?" Steve asked sarcastically.
Jordan fidgeted again so Steve continued, "I know you know who she is. We also know you were with Donovan Mancini…who works with Gabriel Waincroft…. before you stole the camera because we saw the pictures putting the two of you together."
He swallowed nervously, "So what do you want?"
"I want to know where she is." Steve said as he took a step forward.
"What do you mean? I have no idea where she is."
Steve took another step forward and leaned down so his face was within inches of Jordan Prescott's. "Oh, I think you do," he growled. "And you're going to tell me. One way or another, you're going to tell me. Do you understand?"
"I don't know anything," he insisted. "And even if I did know something, I couldn't tell you. They would kill me!"
Danny looked at Jordan and interjected, "Who's 'they'?"
It took a moment for Jordan to speak up, "Gabriel Waincroft."
"Let me give you some friendly advice," Danny said. "If you don't tell us what you know, Gabriel Waincroft and Donovan Mancini will be the least of your worries. We can protect you if you tell us what you know so we can find her."
When Jordan said nothing, Danny continued, "Another piece of advice, I would talk, if I were you. If you aren't cooperative, the next few minutes are going to be very unpleasant for you."
Jordan laughed, "What are you gonna do? Beat it out of me? You're cops! You can't touch me or I'll sue you for police brutality!"
Steve smiled at him although the smile didn't reach his eyes which were cold as ice as the moment and full of resolve. He took the badge currently clipped to his belt and handed it to Danny before turning his gaze back to Jordan Prescott. "Can you give us a few minutes, Danny?" It was very reminiscent of the time Steve had taken Danny's badge and let him 'interrogate' a suspect who had kidnapped two girls and held them captive.
Danny took the badge from Steve and shook his head, "Sure thing. I'll just be outside if you need me."
As he turned to leave the room, Jordan said, "Wait! Where are you going? You can't leave me here with him!"
He may not be the sharpest man on the planet, but he knew enough to realize that Detective Williams was the "good cop" in this situation.
Danny turned around and offered him a sympathetic look, "I tried to warn you," he said. "Commander McGarrett's gonna take it from here."
Ignoring Jordan Prescott's pleas, he walked out of the room, closed the door, and said a silent prayer that Steve didn't go too far. Yes, they had "full immunity and means", but even that had its limits.
After Danny shut the door, Steve walked calmly over to the chair and unfastened Jordan's handcuffs. "So at the moment, let's assume that I'm not a 'cop' anymore. Got it?" Then he walked to stand in front of him again, "I'm going to ask you one more time…..nicely…and then we're going to negotiate. Understand?"
Jordan said nothing and Steve got down in his face once again, "Where is Sophia Manetti?"
"I told you, I don't know where she's at. I'm just a delivery guy, dude…..That's all."
He may be trying to play the innocent card, but Steve could tell he was lying As such, he was finished playing games. He grabbed Jordan Prescott by the shirt collar, lifted him up, and pushed him up against the wall…hard. "You have to know something dammit! Give me something."
Jordan made the mistake of laughing which was when Steve began to give him some "motivation" to talk. Needless to say, Steve was quick to convince him to open up with what he knew after that.
It didn't take long before Jordan stopped him.
"Alright… ALRIGHT! I'll tell you what I know…..even though it isn't much."
Steve stopped to look at him, "Now we're getting somewhere. I knew you would come around."
Danny opened the door and poked his head in, "Steve…..We got something."
Steve wasted no time securing Jordan Prescott back to the chair, "Hold that thought….I'll be back."
He met Danny out in the hall. "Mancini's on the phone."
It had been almost two hours since he'd promised to call back "within 30 minutes". Steve couldn't wait to talk to him…..let alone get his hands on the man.
The walked back into HQ and Grover motioned him over to the table where they had Mancini on speaker. "This is McGarrett."
"Commander McGarrett, please forgive the delay. We were occupied."
Occupied, Steve thought. What the hell did that mean?
"Talk, Mancini. What is it that you want?"
"I am willing to release the beautiful Sophia back to you."
Steve's blood boiled just hearing the way he said 'beautiful Sophia'.
"But, I want the memory card."
Steve didn't waste any time. "Fine. Where do we meet?"
Mancini mentioned where the 'transfer' could take place. Then he said, "AND…. I want your sister to be the one to meet and hand over the card."
"No way!" Steve said immediately.
Mary was listening in, however, and stepped forward to put a hand on her brother's forearm.
"I can do this, Steve. We have to get her back." Mary whispered.
Steve looked at her with a mixture of emotions on his face before Mancini spoke again, "Are you listening, Commander?" he barked.
"Yes!" Steve barked back as he looked at the rest of his team.
They all had determined expressions; Determination to get Sophia back and keep Mary safe in the process.
"Alright," Steve finally consented. "Give us a time and we'll be there."
They finalized arrangements and the Five-0 team scrambled in to motion to get everything ready for the "exchange" which would take place within an hour.
"What about Jordan Prescott?" Danny asked.
"Hold him until this is over," Steve answered. "He'll be our insurance in case Mancini doesn't keep his word."
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Next chapter coming ASAP! I'm also working on an update for "Catherine Needs You".