Chapter 3
"Oh that hurts! Doc can't you be more careful?"
"Well how can I be careful when you insisting on moving around? Sometimes McGarrett I wonder how your team puts up with you! You ought to be resting that stubborn Irish head of yours, and your body – you need time to mend!" Bergman huffed as he wrapped a corset-type bandage around the lead detective's ribs whilst the younger man complained bitterly.
"You don't seem to understand that we have to find Danno. I can't lie here knowing he is out there!"
Bergman's temper softened as he pressed gently on the last plaster keeping the bandage in place. He gazed into his patient's Prussian blue eyes and shook his head, "Well he's lucky to have a boss like you to watch out for him."
"No less than Danno does for me and I'd do the same for any one of my team." Steve replied but the look on his face told the doctor that it wasn't just a colleague McGarrett was stressing over, it was his best friend.
Bergman gave him something for the pain and eased Steve back onto the bed, hoping he would take a few hours to rest before discharging himself, but at that moment in time it seemed as though the injured man would do just that. He contemplated sedating him again since the concussion was mild but recalled the tongue lashing he'd received when McGarrett came to. He thought he was going to be arrested for assaulting a police officer the way he had the law laid out to him.
Bergman opted for the easy way out, "Well I'd best be getting back to the morgue, seeing as my critical customers are all deceased!"
Before he left, he turned back to look at his patient, face sombre, "Steve, I know that it's hard for you to stand by and do nothing, but for now your men are working hard to find Danny and you will only be doing yourself harm if you over tax your body. You've had a shock and you're injured. Trust them to do the right thing and let me do my job. Something will come to light believe me."
McGarrett closed his eyes, recalling the debris around the wreckage of the car and Danny's panicked shout. "You didn't see the blood – it wasn't my blood Doc, it was Danno's. He is hurting and someone has got him. I can't rest. I owe him my life!"
"Then make sure his efforts weren't wasted."
Steve frowned at the comment but didn't reply, he was light headed from the pain and the medication and try as he might he couldn't fight the fatigue that finally over took him. He was asleep before Bergman had time to leave.
The doctor checked that his patient's breathing was even and steady then left the detective in charge of the nursing staff.
"He's out of it boss." Brett announced unnecessarily as the three men stood in the cramped upstairs room staring at Danny Williams who was huddled on the mattress apparently unconscious.
"Amazing powers of perception." Rent replied rudely and stepping over his dearly departed mother's first and only attempt at basket weave, he trod the floor boards on tip toes until he reached his captive.
Barlow's height allowed him to fit neatly under the rafters while the other two men, being a good foot taller, had to crouch to get that close to their prisoner. He examined the attic room critically, "The dust in here is disgusting. Noah, remind me to get some of the girls to clean up."
"Will do boss," Noah replied, finding it strange that a full grown man could be so fussy.
"Is he bleeding again?" Rent asked of no one in particular since it was painfully obvious the red colouring on the bandage on Danny's thigh was the detective's life force leaking out. "I thought you were fixing him up?" he said, staring accusingly at Brett.
"Well don't look at me! Noah was the one playing doctors and nurses. And a pretty poor job of it he made too!"
Noah huffed at the ease with which his friend' blamed him for everything, it seemed no matter what he did Brett would take credit and foist blame. "Yuh but he's got something stuck in his leg. I can't take it out boss. I've seen those programmes on the television where they do that and the guy bleeds to death. Could be lethal. You may not think it would make a difference but sometimes leaving it alone is the best thing. You said you needed him alive."
Rent Barlow narrowed his eyes and not for the first time regretted taking on these thugs even if they did have their uses. It was bad enough but sometimes Noah showed flashes of intelligence that made Barlow concerned he was in the wrong business. "Have you quite finished?" He asked.
"Well no actually I haven't…I think.."
"SHUT UP!" Barlow interrupted and kicked the side of the mattress making Danny groan inadvertently and curl in on himself. He paused and looked back at the detective. "Hang on. He's awake!"
"Maybe he just woke up?" Noah offered.
Danny was indeed awake, and had been for some time. He had heard the muffled sounds of people and feigned insensibility hoping to learn something of use. He was in so much pain it was hard to focus on anything but the way his body was letting him down.
When the mattress was kicked the movement telegraphed straight to his ribs and he could pretend no longer. He tried but the ruse was over.
Rent bent down and stood back up fast as he smelled sweat, burned flesh and mildewed material. He never liked to get his own hands dirty if he could help it but enjoyed his position of power as a masochistic voyeur. "Slap him." He ordered.
Brett did as he was told and backhanded Danny across his burned cheek and instant agony exploded throughout Dan's concussed head. He bit his tongue in an effort to keep quiet.
Frustrated, Rent took out a handkerchief and mopped his brow, "Try squeezing his leg."
"Hey careful!" Noah complained and got an icy look from his boss.
Looking at his partner with eyebrows raised, Brett paused only briefly before gripping Danny's injured leg. That did it. Excruciating needles of fire shot through Dan's extremities and he screamed out with pain.
"Good – now he really IS awake!" Barlow laughed as Danny cried out and writhed in agony, pulling on the handcuffs and taking more skin off his wrists as his good leg thumped the mattress. "Hey stop that." Rent ordered.
But Williams neither heard, nor cared what his captor said, he was too busy surfing the wave of pain to its conclusion.
"Stop…stop it!" Rent stamped his foot raising unwelcome dust off the floor boards and he began coughing, the dust in his lungs unendurable.
"Dammit, bring him downstairs I can't stay in this disease-infested room."
He tip-toed back out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving his two henchmen to deal with Danny.
Noah was shaking his head in amazement as Brett bent down to Williams and fumbled with the cuffs. "Okay, better do as the boss says."
When he felt the handcuffs come off Danny seriously contemplated making a move. He was running with water from the sheer effort of keeping control over the pain but it truly did cross his mind that this might be his only chance to do something.
"Please tell me what you want?" He asked, buying as much time as he could for his body to come back under some semblance of control. He kept his arms over his head in readiness even after the cuffs came off.
"We won't tell you anything." Noah answered as his partner made sure the blindfold was still tightly bound over Danny's eyes.
"Just tell me one thing."
"Uh what?"
"Is it day or night?"
"Day." Brett replied, "Now get up!"
Without thinking Danny used all his strength and brought his numb arms crashing down on what he thought was the back of Brett's neck but he was so weak that all he did was hit a skull and make the man's bull head bounce off his breast bone. He had a brief moment of time to contemplate the stupidity of his actions and register the expletive that issued forth from his captor's mouth, before instant agony and jet black crept across his vision. He almost passed out, barely holding on to consciousness.
"Hell and damnation! What just happened?"
"Uh he hit you. You hurt?"
Brett stood up and rubbed his head, "No, made me jump is all. Well help me get his sorry ass downstairs will ya?"
"Lemme just change that bandage."
"Noah, we don't have time, you heard the boss!"
"Yeah well I also heard him say he didn't want the cop dead, didn't you?"
Brett was exasperated and his head throbbed, he just didn't like to admit it. Realising Noah was probably right he gave in.
"Yes, so go on, but be quick or we'll both be for it!"
Noah smiled.
Chin paced up and down McGarrett's office closely watched by Kono who was standing by the door.
"What do you think Kono?"
"Dunno, with the boss in the hospital and Danny missing I figure we need to start looking at grudges. Anyone threatened either of them recently?"
Chin laughed. "You want to go through the longest list on the islands bruddah? Everyone has a grudge against them! You start counting heads and we're gonna be here until Thanksgiving!"
"Okay, so how about we start with the car and the snitch. Steve said he was going to see the Turtle right?"
"Turtle?"
"Honu - turtle Chin like the soup."
"Ah!" Kelly stopped pacing and went to sit down but couldn't quite make himself use McGarrett's chair. It didn't feel like Steve had left either man to run Five-O – more like they were carrying on by proxy until he got out of a dentist's appointment. He just stared at it.
"When I spoke to him Steve said that Honu told him to go alone, so we figure that the informant wanted him and not Danny; which doesn't make any sense since Danny's the one they kidnapped, not Steve!"
Kelly continued, "Yeah, I can't figure that out either. If Danny wasn't meant to go with the boss to that meet then whoever planted that bomb meant it for him and Danno just got in the way."
"His bad luck."
"Not for Steve. From what the boss said if Danny hadn't been there he would have been killed for sure!"
"Let's pull the records of anyone threatening Steve anyway and get the low down on Honu and the cases he helped McGarrett on. Maybe that way we can connect some of the dots. I think there's more to this than just a low-life looking to get even. Kidnapping Danny just doesn't fit into the picture."
"I agree with you." A voice said from the door and Kono turned around to see a very pale looking McGarrett standing in the doorway with Jenny Sherman hovering over him.
"Steve! What are you doing out of the hospital!?" Chin asked shocked.
"You feeling okay boss, you look terrible?"
Steve did his half-smile and rested a hand on the door. "I'm okay."
"He discharged himself from the hospital! I had just got a call from Doctor Bergman warning us when he walked in the door!" Jenny's chirpy voice said anxiously as she helped Steve into the room and to his desk.
He waved her off with a smile before easing himself down into his chair. It was difficult but not impossible and his ribs creaked.
"I'll get you something to wash these down." Jenny said and opened Steve's palm to deposit two bottles of medication that a courier had brought over from the hospital. In his haste to leave McGarrett had neglected to take them with him.
"I don't need those things. They make my head spin, Jenny take them away."
"Well Doc said…."
"Never mind what Doc said, he's a fussy old busy body! I need to think straight so we can figure this thing out with Danno."
"Well regardless I will bring you some water. In case you need them later on!" Jenny huffed and turned on her heel.
"We just knew you couldn't keep away boss. You in pain?"
"I'll survive. Close that door would you Kono?"
"Sure." As Kalakua went to close it Jenny's hand shot out with a tumbler of water and a sigh. Kono took it and thanked her before shutting her out.
"Right gentlemen, now that I'm back let's get down to the business of finding Danno shall we?"