Disclaimer: I don't own Hawaii 5-0 or any of the characters.
Author's Note: I know it's been a while since I've updated. I've been trying to figure out where I want the next chapter to go and here it is!
There were so many students! And with the number of Spring Break parties, it was astonishing! There were some that seemingly happened during the day but most seemed to happen at night which made sense. While it appeared that some of the victims were connected via colleges, it wasn't the main link between all of them. Though some played the same sports, as one could expect with such a wide variety of students, that also wasn't the link between the victims. What was surprising was when he dug into the background of all the students, they all came up as international students. When Chin dug even further into their backgrounds, every student had come from some sort of island. Islands where it was known that the locals knew how to swim. Chin highlighted this point and condensed down all the information, just in case they might need to look into their schools or sports teams at a later date. Chin heard his electric kettle click off. He stood up from his chair and pulled a few herbs from his satchel before crossing to it. He put the herbs in the tea pot he had sitting next to it and poured the hot water in. He replaced the lid of the pot and covered it with the cost that his auntie had made for him. If this was gonna take a few hours, then he would prefer to have tea while he worked. This particular blend that he threw together was of the calming variety. He was slightly tense. When was the team not when dealing with kids of any age? Once the tea had steeped for enough time, he placed the strainer over his tea cup and poured. He blew across the surface and took a tentative sip. Still a bit too hot but it could cool and work its magic as he continued with his research. He placed it slightly off to the side and continued checking out the connections between the kids, taking a sip every few minutes and feeling the effects of the tea sink in and calm him.
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Kono was surprised at the number of parties that were happening across the island. There were 10 happening on various beaches across the island just for daytime today. And tonight? Forget it! There were 24 that were either on the beach or spilled from a nightclub onto a beach. Kono compiled the total list for today and searched for the rest of the week as well. Each day looked basically the same as the last. She took the beaches from the murders and crossed referenced them with the list of parties. Though it seemed that of the 8 victims, 6 of them seemed to be connected to parties on either Waikiki Beach (Stay Hotel Waikiki/Queen Kapiolani Hotel) or Waimanalo Bay Beach. There were so many hotels in that small stretch! Kono rubbed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She braced her hands on the edge of her desk and pushed off to the left so she slid across the floor to the fridge. She rolled to a slow stop, using her feet to slow her down. She leaned down and opened the door, pulling out a cold RedBull. She pushed off the floor to slide back in front of her computer. She popped the can and took a huge sip. She had to narrow this down. With the flight down here and island life being what it is, Kono knew it could easily become very expensive for adults so for students, it was worse. She looked up some of the cheapest hotel rooms. She knew students weren't above staying 2-4 people to a room to save money. She hunkered back down. She kept the parties on Waimanalo Bay and Waikiki Beach as the top contenders while keeping the other two beaches as other options. She wrote down the beaches as headers; writing the different parties under the beach they occurred on as well as the dates that they were happening. She took another swig of RedBull. This was gonna be a long process.
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The guys walked into Max's office to see him with his back to them, playing an up tempo jazz tune.
"Hey Max," Steve yelled slightly over the piano. He stood with his hands loosely on his hips as he waited for him to finish while Danny stood with his arms crossed and his hip resting on Max's desk. Steve and Danny knew that Max wouldn't answer until he finished the song. Danny unconsciously started swaying his head from side to side as he listened.
No one was allowed to touch Max's piano. It's not that they couldn't touch it but Max had constructed it out of some sort of dense, poisonous hardwood from one of the forests that he loved to get lost in. His dad had helped to chop it down and helped him construct the pieces needed, wearing gloves the entire time. Even though his adopted family didn't share or had any such lineage as his, Max had been a curious child and dug into his family history with what little information he had. He had discovered that way back on his father's side, he was descended of Kalaipahoa, the Hawaiian poison god which explained his attraction to all poisionous plant life. Much like Chin, Max found a calm when he was out and gathering for his collecting. He stuck each individual acquisition in small, cloth baggies so he could properly store them later.
Max had cut, sanded and varnished the wood. When he needed a break in college, he had quickly travelled back home to work on it so he knew this piano inside and out. He had gotten one of the music majors to help out a bit with the inner workings but other than that, it had all been Max's doing.
Max finished the piece and seemed to soak in the remaining notes of the song as they faded. Danny sighed happily and shook his head a little, trying to get back into his headspace.
"Commander McGarrett, Detective Williams. Please, if you would," Max indicated with his hand to the autopsy room. He followed the gentleman, closing the lid for the keys as he went.
"That was a nice piece Max. Did you write it yourself?" Steve inquired.
"Yes, actually. Thank you for asking Commander. As you can see, there are no outward damages to the victim's body. However, the internal damages are much more severe." Max replied. As Max continued with his explanation (which Danny was tuning out) he noticed all the little jars. Max always had little jars around his lab, most up high in his hard to reach cupboards which Danny always found as weird because Max was such a short man. The jars either held some sort of berry, a flower, a sort of leaf, a seed, a piece of bark or a liquid. Danny had admired Max's commitment to his collection.
What Danny didn't know is that the mass majority of these Max had gotten himself. Others he had asked Chin to collect for him. But regardless of Chin's heritage, even he wasn't 100% immune to the poisonous plants, flowers and other types of plant life in the forests and parks. He didn't get a rash or fall ill like others did but, depending on the potency of the poison, would depend on his reaction. The more mild ones gave him a stomach ache for a few hours; the more potent ones gave him a fever for the night. He found that after encountering the more severe ones, it was better to call it a day and go home to rest and stay hydrated. He couldn't completely counteract the more severe reactions but he could lessen some of the effects slightly.
Danny shook himself out of his daydream when he heard Steve throw out a "Thanks Max!"
"So, what did we learn?" Danny asked as they walked out the door and headed back to the elevator.
"How did you not hear a thing that Max was saying to us?"
"I was busy admiring his collections of plants and the sorts in the jars around his room. Can you summarize it for me?"
"You can either go back and ask him or read his report but I'm not repeating everything just cause you chose not to listen."
"Fine, be that way. But the next time my Ma sends over cookies, I'm not sharing with you." Danny's mom did make the best cookies that Steve had ever tasted. Steve smirked at him.
"Yeah, right. I'm still gonna get one when they come. I'll just talk to Gracie."
"You wouln't dare use my daughter against me!" Steve smirked at Danny, "Steven, you wouldn't dare-" they could be heard arguing even as the elevator doors closed.
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Fong was busy leaning into a book of some sort. Today, it was a book of sudoku puzzles. Danny could never figure those things out. He noticed that Chin had done a few when he had been killing time waiting for results from the lab or HPD. Danny didn't really have the patience for them. Fong was so involved in it that he didn't notice Steve and Danny walking in.
"Hey Fong, buddy, what do you got for us?" Danny asked. Fong studied his book hard before writing in another number and looking up at Steve and Danny.
"Nothing much yet. The machines are still working to figure out what the substance is. Looking at it through the microscope however, it does look very similar to water. Going through some of the tests, it does have a lot of the same properties as water. But when you add it to actual water, not only does it disperse into the water but it also mutates the particles. It alters them so that it can replicate itself, like a virus. I took a sample of the blood to study it and it appears that whatever this is acts like a virus, using the host, or in this case our victims, to replicate itself, attach to the red blood cells and travel all throughout the body. This isn't like anything I've ever seen. It's truly fascinating. But like I said earlier, the machine is working on what this is. As soon as I know, you'll know," Fong stated.
"Anything that can possibly narrow down how it's administered?" Steve inquired.
"Yes actually. Max sent down a sample of the contents of her stomach. We found the normals things such as traces of beer, rum and what looks to be the remains of loco moco which is to be expected from a kid on Spring Break. What was strange though was the piece of what looks to be Nori in her stomach."
Danny chimed in, "Nori? That same stuff that's used in sushi?"
"Yeah. It's not it exactly but it's something that is very similar," Fong smiled. Steve looked at Danny like he'd grown a second head.
Danny caught his gaze, "What? I know things. I've had sushi before."
Steve shook his head, "It just seemed like you were more interested in junk food and pizza rather than sushi."
Danny crossed his arms indignantly, "I eat other things besides malasadas and pizza Steven."
"Could have fooled me. I haven't seen a healthy thing pass your lips since I've known you."
"For your information, Grace heard the kids at her school talking about it and wanted to try it out so we went out and we both quite enjoyed it," Danny turned back to Fong, "thanks for the update." He turned back to Steve, "Could you be any more of a nitwit?" Danny started walking to the door.
Steve threw out a quick, "Thanks Fong." Before heading after Danny. "Really Danny? A nitwit? I didn't think anyone but my gran used words like that."
"I've got a few other words for you as well-" was the last thing that Fong heard before the door closed behind them. Fong shook his head as he went back to his puzzle.
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Danny and Steve returned to the 5-0 offices. They split up: Steve heading to Chin's office and Danny headed to Kono's.
Steve knocked and ducked his head into Chin's office, "Hey, we're back with results from Fong and Max." Chin nodded. He tapped a few more buttons on his keyboard before he and got up from his desk, following Steve to the tech table.
At the same time, Danny knocked and ducked his head into Kono's office, "Miss Kalakaua?"
"Yes Mister Williams?" Kono looked up from her computer, smiling.
"We've got info from Fong and Max. How'd your search go?"
Kono frowned and sighed heavily, "There was a lot of information but I've compiled enough for a few days."
"Great. Send what you got to the tech table and come on out." Kono clicked a few buttons on her keyboard and nodded before getting up from her desk and joining Danny at the door. He held it open for her and guided her out by the small of her back. Kono noticed that Danny had been being that more often lately. She'd also caught him smiling at her more often, looking away when he was caught. Or she would catch him looking at her with a slightly dreamy look on his face.
After Steve and Danny had shared the information they got from downstairs, Chin pulled up the information that he had. Once he had finished, Kono pulled up the information that she had. The guys were blown away with the sheer massive amounts of information that she had acquired.
Steve didn't want to sound ungrateful but it was a lot of information still. "Did you narrow down the information?"
Kono looked a bit regrettably at her boss, "This is the information narrowed down boss. I did the best I could but it seems that there are a shitload of parties happning across the places or near the beaches where our victims were found.
"There is no WAY we can set up HPD for surveillance for all these parties. We're gonna have to come up with a better plan that this," Steve conceded a slight defeat. Everyone went into their heads for a moment and tried to come up with a few ideas.
Danny spoke up a few minutes later, though reluctantly said, "I've got an idea. It's a bit out there but it's the only thing I've come up with. I use to DJ some summers back in Jersey. What if we threw together our own party? I'll DJ, Kono can mingle with the college students since she's the youngest of us and Chin can be security at the gate."
"And what do you suppose I do?" Steve asked.
"I dunno. Come riding in on a helicopter with a bazooka to take out the perp," Danny replied.
"That's overkill Danny. Even for me. I'll be support for Kono and mingle amongst the college kids."
"And how are you suppose to pass for a college kid?"
"I figure I can pass for a TA working on their Master's or something." Danny snorted at the suggestion while Steve ignored him and continued on, "Anyone got anything else?" Kono and Chin shook their heads, "Let's do it then. Right now, it's the best plan we got. Danny, you got the equipment for DJing?"
"Nah, but let me check the logs and see if HPD has any in one fo the lockers. If not, I'm sure that we can requisition some and return it after provided you haven't gotten me shot at."
Steve rolled his eyes and turned to Chin, "Chin, see if you can pull Kamekona and Flippa to see if they can add to the effect of security and help acquire drinks as well."
"Right," Chin nodded. Steve turned to Kono.
"Kono, see if you can't find us a piece of beach that hasn't been occupied yet and let's see if we can't close that off and surround it with a large, chain mesh gate with covering so no one can see in. That way, we can control who comes and goes to the party."
"You got it boss," Kono replied. He turned back so that he was speaking to the group.
"We're also gonna rent a truck so that we can take all ther supplies into the party and don't have anyone we don't know entering or leaving the party grounds."
"We can see if our cousin can help," Kono supplied.
"How many cousins do you guys have?!" Danny asked incredulously pulling his arms into an are you serious? kind of gesture. Kono and Chin just shared a look and smirked at each other, "you don't even wanna know brah."
Steve brought the attention back to him, "I'll get a truck and then jump in and help Kono with finding a beach somewhere. Possibly slightly removed from all the others so we can get a bit of privacy to our party. Okay, so everyone's got their marching orders. Let's get to work!" With that, every one returned to their offices to work on their portion of the plan.
Thanks for staying with me after a long awaited update. This story is slowly piecing together in my head thank goodness!
Author's Notes:
Kalaipahoa is the Hawaiian poison god who is also associated with gamblers which I think is funny considering Max's tendencies during the run of the show.
I'm also aware that most DJ's have their own set up and boards that they work with. I know that much but not if it's possible that a police locker would have something like that sitting down there. I figure with the vast number of cases that police departments handle, and because I need it for my story, they will have one down there somewhere.
If anyone out there is a DJ and can give me a rundown of the system/set-up that they like to use, please PM me. The story will continue without it if no one gets back to me but I would like to include some details so Danny can look like he know's what he's doing.