Chapter 8 – Too late- maybe
Steve had been busy writing reports and sipping coffee totally absorbed in his boring task. He stretched his fingers as he finally put down the pen and looked up at the time.
In a type of shock Steve realized he'd been concentrating a lot longer than he'd thought, it was 5 past 4. He hurriedly hit this intercom, "Jenny send Danny in will you", he requested. Danny had probably been sitting out there sweating about why he wanted to see him. Seconds later a reply came back, Umm boss he's not out here", Jenny said reluctantly. Steve felt himself go warm, "Just where the heck is he", he demanded. "Don't know boss", Jenny replied her voice hesitant as she could feel trouble descending for Danny.
Feeling angry Steve picked up the phone and requested a patch through to Kono.
"Do you know where Danny is", he demanded seconds after Kono picked up the call
"No boss", Kono reported, "he was checking out that guards office at the Hotel and after that I think he was going to hit the streets again see if he could track that fake David. I haven't heard from him though."
Steve began to feel a little anxious, it wasn't like Danny to disappear.
He tried a patch through to Danny's radio but HPD reported problems. "I'm not sure the signals getting through, the dispatcher stated. "Not getting through, what would cause that", Steve demanded. "Radio problems", reported the dispatcher, "we'll keep trying". Steve put the phone down in frustration. He'd order someone to look for Danny but he had no idea even where to start.
HPD officer Reg Harman shook his head as he looked at the crashed car. "Damn idiots", he ranted to his partner. "Yeah, came his partners voice from further away.
"They were probably so drunk they didn't even get hurt", complained Reg as he looked inside the car and noted the absence of blood. "Somebody did though", his partner exclaimed as he came upon blood on the ground.
Reg hurried to the spot. "Could they have hit a passer by", he asked his partner.
"If they did then we have a walking wounded somewhere", Lyle acknowledged.
The two officers followed the trail of blood then rushed forward as they saw a figure lying by the side of the road. Reg crouched down beside the fallen man then looked at the face and gasped loudly. "What", demanded his partner, "it's Danny Williams", he reported. Reg quickly made his way back to the patrol car and radioed for an ambulance. "I wonder what he was doing down here" Lyle asked as he waited beside the unconscious 5-0 officer.
Steve couldn't concentrate as time ticked slowly by. HPD still hadn't had any success in contacting Danny and Steve was becoming increasingly more concerned. So when the phone rang he snatched up quickly yelling "Mc Garrett', into the receiver. "HPD officer Lyle Bilton here sir, We've found an unconscious and injured Detective Williams down by the warehouse district."
Steve found himself gripping the phone even harder, "was he assaulted ", he demanded. "No sir, I'd say it looks like an accident. A couple of drunks crashed out a stolen car here. It looks like detective Williams was in the vicinity and got hit by broken glass. He's got some nasty cuts and glass embedded in various places but he'll be alright", the officer soothed. "The ambulance should be here any time ".
Steve let out a breath, "what was he doing down there", he demanded. "No idea sir, came the reluctant reply. We're searching the area for his car".
Alright", Steve acknowledged," get back to me if you find anything."
He hurriedly placed the phone down and raced out to his Mercury he wanted to get to the hospital straight away and see for himself that Danny was alright.
Bump, he jolted back to consciousness hearing a siren wailing and feeling the bumping of the ambulance. Danny opened his eyes feeling vaguely sick as the ambulance lurched around a corner. He reached up trying to move the oxygen mask from his face but found his arms were secured firmly by his sides.
"Relax detective", a voice soothed. But Danny found himself unable to relax. He knew he needed to tell his findings to someone. "Please", he croaked gripping the attendants arm firmly. "I know it probably hurts but we'll have you to the hospital in no time", the attendant assured. 'Have to tell Steve", Danny whispered not really knowing if the attendant could hear him or was even listening. "Relax, you'll have plenty of time to say things", came the reply. Danny forced his eyes open and grabbed the guy hard his fingers biting into the attendant's skin. The guy looked shocked,.
Bomb", Danny said breathlessly," you have to tell Steve about the bomb" he felt darkness begin to pull him and continued talking unaware of what he was even saying.
Then the darkness increased and Danny passed out again.
Light, was that light. He cracked his eyelids open. Yes it was light. Then darkness took over again, no hang on that wasn't darkness it was a shape, a persons figure.
"Danny, can you hear me", it was docs voice demanding an answer.
Danny cracked his eyes all the way open and regarded doc. "good you're awake", Doc stated unnecessarily. Danny suddenly felt panicked, "Doc ,he forced out," what day is it". "Now, now Danny no need to get upset, you're fine", Doc soothed
Yes, I'm fine Danny thought but what about everyone else. "Danny there are some men here who want to talk to you ", Doc told him softly. He didn't expect his patient to almost freak out at the words. "Easy, easy", Doc demanded as Danny thrashed about, "you did just have surgery", Doc bit his lip. 'Maybe you need a little time before I let these guys in, but they're pretty insistent they talk to you about the bomb".
Danny went even whiter totally convinced he'd failed, the agents were here, doc was here and he was the only member of 5-0 still alive."
Doc concerned about his patients' reactions since waking mumbled some instructions to the nurse and then went back outside. "Gentlemen", he said to the agents," Detective Williams is still very disoriented , I'd give him a little while longer before you attempt to talk to him", Doc advised. "His reactions are a little off and I might need to check there are no missed slivers of glass".
The agents grumbled but didn't demand an immediate audience.
Doc slipped back into his patients' room and saw Danny had his eyes screwed up tight as though shielding himself from the world. Approaching his patient doc began a check of vital signs.
Danny could feel doc touching him but didn't react, he didn't really want to live through the coming moments of hearing about the deaths of his colleagues.
So his eyes remained shut and he didn't respond to doc's questions.
Doc though seemed to be not going away keeping up his relentless checking. Now he was even holding his hand. No hold on a minute doc was up by his bed shining a pen light into his eyes so how could he also be holding his hand. Danny cracked his eyes open again and looked at the figure holding onto his hand. He just about jumped with fright.
"Danno", Steve smiled warmly. "I don't know what's the matter Steve", Doc stated in deep frustration, "his vitals check out alright but there's definitely something wrong.
Maybe I should…","No', Danny stated firmly actually scaring Doc. "I'm fine doc, just didn't know where I was for a moment".
Doc looked dubious, "Danno, those agents really want to find out how you knew about that bomb in my desk", Steve asked gently. "But if you're not up to talking to them , I will insist the wait a few hours".
Danny stared at Steve, "I thought that perhaps I was too late that it'd gone off", he stated breathlessly.
"Oh", Doc gasped, suddenly understanding Danny's mood. "No Danno", Steve squeezed his hand," the ambulance attendants told me what you said. You were delirious but stuttering bomb in Steve's draw so much they felt they had to pass on the information. "You were right Danno"
Steve frowned down at him. "How did you know", he asked .
Danny relaxed closing his eyes and opening them. He knew though he couldn't say the real reason he knew about the bomb.
"If he's going to tell you we might as well get those agents in here", Doc stated.
"No", Steve remarked to doc, "I'll hear the story from Danno first then tell them what they need to know. There is no real reason why they should come in here and badger Danno after he's just had surgery."
Danny collected his thoughts, "Well nothing was making much sense. So I decided to have a smoke", Danny ignored the glare from both Doc and Steve that comment got him. "Anyway they were that guards cigarettes and in the packet was a rolled up piece of paper with an address on it." There was something vaguely familiar about that address so I thought I'd better check it out", Danny reported.
Steve frowned, "You should have said where you were going Danno", he rebuked.
"For all I knew it could have been the address of his secret lover or something", Danny protested. "So I drove there, it was an office in the warehouse district. A bit of a strange place to have an office I thought so I went inside."
"I chatted up the office girl and found that the security guard from the hotel was also working for them. I thought that might be significant so I pretended to be waiting for the office girl to have a break while I listened to the conversation coming from one of the offices. They were talking about how they'd done something and how it'd never be suspected. Yeah the cop part of me thought it was a suspicious conversation but for all I knew they were taking about cheating on their wives or something. Anyway I sat down and was pretending to read a magazine when he walked out of the office. I hid behind the magazine because I knew he'd recognize me. That's when I began to suspect something was going on."
Danny broke off and took a sip of a cool drink Doc held out to him. "Danno who stepped out of the office", Steve asked. "That businessmen Chin was investigating for embezzlement, Morgan Greer", Danny remarked firmly.
"Then I remembered why I thought that address was familiar. Chin and I'd seen it on the list of companies that Greer had been associated with. We'd checked out its financial records to see if he was also taking money from its coffers. But we didn't find anything", Danny reported
Convinced something was going on I got out of there quickly. I stood watching the sea trying to put things in place. When I saw that fishing boat everything became clear."
I raced to the car only to find it vandalized and my radio smashed. So I had to find a phone, only that's when that car crashed and I got hit by the glass", Danny ran down staring at the expression on Steve's face.
"Back up a bit Danno, you figured this out while looking at a fishing boat", Steve's voice held an element of puzzlement.
Danny actually smiled, "Yes it made me see what the fake David was".
Steve frowned deeper looking over a Doc in a questioning way. "He's perfectly competent Steve ,no head trauma", Doc stated blandly. Danny looked shocked by the comment. "The fake David was a fish in a fishing expedition Steve. A special type of fish", Danny grinned again, "a red herring". His sole purpose was to keep us away from further investigation into the corruption charges against Greer."
I think Greer was covering up a lot more than just stealing money from his business and he was getting scared. So he had to do something. I'm not sure when the idea occurred to him but perhaps the guard talked to the real David and found he was a friend of the Governor. He probably mentioned this to Greer. That's when he got the idea. If David went missing and then was discovered murdered his link to the Governor would cause us to investigate. Even more so when that fake David was seen buying parts for a bomb. Only the Governor was never the real target we were.
Greer decided to take us out permanently and the blame would of course go on the fake David. We might not even know who he really was, probably just some scapegoat who acted on certain instructions with no real knowledge of what he was doing. When the real David's death was advertised the fake was probably scared and fled. Anyway security around the Governor was tightened nothing could get in without being checked. But what about things getting out. I think you must have received something from his office, something you didn't check because with the tightened security even the thought that a bomb could slip through was unthinkable.
Of course that's what he wanted. I think they somehow swapped the real package for a fake one", Danny looked at Steve who nodded. "Yes I did receive a schedule for the Governor about the visit of those dignitaries but he'd put a note on it not to look at it until after David's case was worked out. Danny nodded, "of course that sounded like something which in the circumstances the Governor might just say. Could be the note was even genuine", he mused. "But those were definitely not papers you received."
Steve shook his head, "Danno if it wasn't for you, Greer might have succeeded. We certainly never suspected anything. " Steve smiled. "We still need proof unfortunately before we can accuse Greer of anything."
Danny nodded, "I think the key may be at that waterfront address", he told Steve.
The Five- O boss nodded," if Greer is hiding something we are going to find it Danno", he said forcefully.
Danny slid himself up in the bed causing Doc to frown severely at him, "you young man will not be going anywhere", he chastised.
Danny looked disappointed but could not help the feeling of relief that came over him. He'd managed to save his friends without them figuring out he'd known all along about the bomb.
Steve bid him farewell with a stern warning to get rest then disappeared off to try and land himself the big fish of Morgan Greer.
Danny didn't hear anything more about the case until Steve visited him again hours later. The smirk on his face told Danny more than words ever could.
"We landed our shark Danno. Not only was Greer embezzling money he'd also killed two business partners so he could acquire their share of the business." Steve shook his head. "Fortunately his other partners don't want to be party to murder 1 charges in addition to embezzlement so they ratted on him.'
Steve smiled wider, "no honour amongst thieves there Danno'.
He settled down on Danny's bed. "Well it all turned out for the best".
He looked over at Danny, "that nutcase ringing up claiming he was going to blow up 5-0 was a bit coincidental ", Steve remarked. "But Morgan definitely didn't do that".
"So perhaps the nut was just someone venting". Danny nodded rigidly.
"Well Danno Doc says you'll be out or here tomorrow and then we can work on you giving up smoking again. You've been totally on the edge lately and could do without the nicotine. "Steve laid a hand on Danny, "I'll give you all the support you need Danno", he affirmed. Danny smiled, "oh don't worry Steve, I think giving up will be no problem at all", he smiled at Steve in a heady happy manner.
Steve shook his head at Danny, "I better talk to doc about the medication he's got you on", he stated,.
Danny didn't argue knowing that Steve would never suspect that his giddy attitude was just relief at knowing he could change the future.