The team sprang into action after Malachi Whitworth was identified. Kono immediately went to work on issuing a BOLO on their newest suspect, while Chin took Mr. Victor's official statement. Steve, however, could not wait in the office, and he nearly sprinted to his truck.

He made it to the Whitworth home in record time.

He peered through the windows as he pounded impatiently at the door with one hand while his other rested on his sidearm at his waist. Danny's alarmed voice in Steve's head suddenly reminded him that he shouldn't have come without backup. The unexpected reprimand brought a sad smile to Steve's face. Even in his absence, Danny was making his presence known.

The sound of footsteps approaching the front door alerted Steve that someone was home, and he was beginning to wonder if he should have at least brought Chin or Kono with him. Malachi had already proven himself to be cunning and viscous, and there was no telling what he would do now that he'd been discovered.

Steve had to make a quick decision: arrest Malachi and risk him not revealing where Danny and Stan were being kept (although, Steve was very confident in his abilities in getting men to talk); or he could play it slow and see if Malachi slipped up and revealed something unintentionally.

It ended up being a moot point once the door swung open to reveal a very surprised Ashleigh Whitworth.

"Commander McGarrett, what are you doing here?" she asked, clearly annoyed. "I think I've already answered all of your questions. Unless… have you found…?"

"No," he replied as he looked over her shoulder into the home. "We still haven't found Mr. Edwards. Is your husband home?"

"No. He's not." A long pause. "Why?"

"Mind if I take a look?" Steve didn't wait for an answer as he pushed by her, pulling out his gun and doing a room-by-room search, completely ignoring Ashleigh's protests.

The modest home was easy to search… one bedroom, one office, a kitchen and sitting area, and an attached garage. There were no obvious signs of anyone being held here against their will, though Steve would still have HPD do a thorough search of the house once a search warrant officially went through, and unfortunately there was no sign of Malachi.

"See?" she proclaimed as he finished his sweep and re-holstered his weapon. "What is this all about? I thought you already questioned my husband. He had nothing to do with Stan's disappearance."

Steve responded by pulling out his phone and showing her the image of her husband. "This is a sketch image of the man who ran down two people last night, one of which was my partner. The same partner that your husband is trying to frame for the abduction, and possible murder, of Stanley Edwards."

Ashleigh shook her head rapidly as Steve spoke, her eyes filling with unshed tears, as she clearly did not want to accept what he was telling her. He pushed on.

"I have one eyewitness who places him at the scene last night. I have another who says your husband paid him to steal something from Danny Williams' office. I believe that he used that item to plant fake fingerprints at the crime scene. What I don't know is if you are involved in this or not. So tell me. Where is your husband?"

Ashleigh took a few stumbling steps over to a couch and sat, the tears flowing freely now.

"I don't… He… I…" She stumbled over her words, and Steve had no patience for it. He knelt in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, shaking her slightly. That seemed to snap her out of it for a moment and she looked at him. "I don't know. He… didn't come home yesterday. I haven't seen him for a few days."

Steve sighed and was about to call this visit a big waste of time before Ashleigh whispered, her voice barely audible above her sniffling and sobbing.

"But… he does have a garage. He spends a lot of time there when he's stressed… has a cot he sleeps on and everything."

"I need you to tell me where it is," Steve demanded as he gripped her shoulders tightly. Ashleigh closed herself off again, fumbling over words and not saying anything that Steve could understand. He felt his phone vibrating, and he released her shoulders to answer, but did not back away.

"McGarrett," he answered.

"Boss, I found the SUV," Kono reported. "A rental registered to Malachi Whitworth. Luckily it comes with a vehicle recovery device, and I have the GPS location. I'm sending you the coordinates now."

Steve was already standing and on his way out the door, leaving Ashleigh Whitworth weeping in his wake. His phone beeped, indicating the arrival of the coordinates.

"Got it. You and Chin meet me there."

Steve killed his truck's engine a block away from Malachi's garage. It was small, out of the way, and clearly derelict. What once was possibly blue paint was peeling off every surface. Holes and cracks were scattered throughout the building's cement exterior. It blended in perfectly with the other buildings in the area, and to the casual eye, it would be easy to walk by and think it had been completely abandoned.

The only clue that indicated any sign of life was the hood of a bright orange GTO peeking out into the sunlight from the opened garage door. He could not see any activity from within, but the presence of a black SUV parked on the side of the structure indicated that Malachi's presence was a near certainty.

Steve thought that this was a perfect place to keep someone hidden. Ever since Danny had been taken, he had refused to think Danny was dead. And since his partner had believed Stan to be alive during this entire ordeal, Steve believed it as well. Logic dictated that they were being held together, and this looked to be as good of place as any.

Kono's car pulled up behind him, and he got out of the truck to greet her. She and Chin were already pulling on their Kevlar vests, and the resounding click of Chin's shotgun was enough of a signal that they were both ready to storm the garage and find their missing friend. They approached the building cautiously, with Chin and Kono taking point on the western edge while Steve advanced from the east. There did not appear to be any other entrances except from the front, and considering the small size of the garage, apprehending Malachi, if he was indeed inside, shouldn't have been too much of a problem.

At least that was what Steve thought before the GTO's engine sprang to life and it accelerated out of the garage at an alarming speed. Steve barely had time to leap out of the car's path before it careened out of the garage and down the street, its tires screeching and rubber burning against the asphalt. Through all this, however, time seemed to slow for just a moment, giving Steve a chance to stare down the vehicle's driver as he drove away.

Quickly identifying him as their newest suspect, Steve sprinted to his car, yelling over his shoulder at Chin and Kono to stay behind and search the area for Danny and Stan. Within seconds he was behind the wheel of his truck, peeling away from the curb in hot pursuit of Malachi's Pontiac. He had to take some educated guesses on which way he could have gone, but it wasn't long before Steve got lucky and saw the tail-end of the orange car turning down a side street fifty yards ahead of him. Traffic was light in mid-day, which made it easy for Steve to keep tabs on Malachi's car. Still, that didn't prevent the Pontiac from bobbing and weaving around what scattered vehicles were on the roads at this time of day in an attempt at making a grand escape from Steve's pursuit.

Steve slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and the front bumper of his truck sped closer and closer to Malachi's car until it finally rammed into it, causing the smaller car to lurch forward. Malachi over-corrected, and he quickly began to lose control of the car. Another well-timed rear-ending from Steve's truck had the GTO in the start of a spin-out, and Steve slammed on his brakes as Malachi over-corrected again, and the car veered into an empty gas station, barely missing the pumping stations in its center as it finally came to a stop.

Steve opened his door, and slipped out of his truck, gun already pulled and aimed at the driver's side door of the other car.

"Malachi Whitworth!" Steve yelled, cautiously stepping away from his truck and walking toward the stalled vehicle. "This is Commander McGarrett with Five-0! Step out of the vehicle with your hands up!"

There was an eerie silence as no movement came from the car, and Steve thought for a moment that Malachi had been knocked out in the crash. But that moment was shattered when gun shots rang out through the windshield of the GTO, and Steve leapt and rolled so he was hidden once again by his open truck door.

A few errant shots went wide, pinging off the ground surrounding the truck, before one hit the door dead center. Steve instinctively ducked and fired a few shots back, all of them hitting the windshield, causing it to shatter and explode inward. When there was no immediate retaliatory fire, Steve yelled out again.

"Malachi Whitworth! Surrender your weapon now and exit the vehicle!"

"NO!"

Another few gun shots pinged off Steve's truck, but Steve didn't return fire right away. Instead, he cautiously maneuvered himself along the bed of his truck, and made his way back around the other side, careful to keep his body hidden from Malachi's sight. From this angle, he didn't have a good shot at the car, but he was able to see the fueling tanks perfectly. Waiting for a cease in Malachi's shots, Steve took careful aim and fired three times, expertly hitting the bolts and framings that supported the tank.

"Wait! WAIT! What are you doing? The tank will explode!" Malachi's panicked voice reached Steve, and he smiled as he fired off another round. "Are you trying to kill us?!"

"No," Steve replied loudly, but with deadly calm. "Just you." Another shot intentionally missing the tank by mere inches. "Tell me where Danny Williams and Stan Edwards are!"

When there was so immediate reply, Steve fired his gun off again, this one knocking a small advertisement off the top of the fueling station.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you!"

"Toss out your weapon first," Steve demanded. He peered over the hood of his truck and saw a small caliber gun thrown through the window. "Show me your hands!"

Malachi's shaking hands appeared, and Steve jogged to the car, yanking open the door and pulling the other man roughly out. He slammed Malachi's back against the closest gas pump, keeping his gun trained one him as he leaned into his face.

"Where are they?" Malachi shook his head.

Though the other man trembled, he could see the cold, calculated hatred radiating in his eyes. His gaze shifted from the commander's face to just over his right shoulder, where Steve could hear another car approaching. Two car doors slammed shut, announcing the arrival of Chin and Kono.

"Anything?" Steve asked, not daring to take his attention away from Malachi.

"Plenty of evidence from the SUV," Chin announced from behind him. "But no sign of Stan or Danny."

Steve slammed Malachi hard against the tank again as he shouted into his face.

"You hear that, Whitworth?" Steve growled. "You're going away for a long time. But it will be a lot better for you if you tell me where they are."

He stared the commander down a moment before finally sagging slightly in Steve's grasp.

"Edwards ruined my life," Malachi moaned, looking pleadingly from Steve, to Chin and Kono, and then back to Steve again. His face hardened. "Oahu First was my baby. MINE! Not Ashleigh's! And when she and… that man… started sleeping together, Ashleigh started getting soft. Told me we should back off Platinum Coast and focus on other groups. Other groups?! Who was she kidding? She may have been the face of our company, but I was the one with everything to lose! I had to make him pay. Expose him for who he really is. An adulterer! And he gets to go on with his happy life after sleeping with my wife?! No! I had to make him pay. And Detective Williams… well, he's just the same, isn't he? Taking advantage of another man's wife while he is missing. It's disgusting!"

It made Steve sick to his stomach to think that Danny was hurt someplace all because of this man's twisted idea of revenge. He'd had enough of Malachi's rambling nonsense, and he fired off another shot, this one just above the man's head. He cowered a moment, before a dark scowl crossed his features again.

"I'm only going to ask you one more time," Steve stated with a deadly calm he didn't truly feel. "Where are they?"

Later, when Danny would ask Steve about how he tracked down Mr. Whitworth, he would conveniently leave out the car chase. And the shootout. Not to mention the creative interrogation technique that was used at the abandoned gas station.

Steve would simply state that Ashleigh, Malachi's wife, broke down in tears when she found out that her husband was responsible for the abduction of her former lover, and she hesitantly gave up the location of Malachi's garage… a place he frequented often to restore his beloved Pontiac GTO.

From there, it was a simple, by-the-book questioning of Mr. Whitworth, who, under no duress what-so-ever, gave up the location of where Stan and Danny were being kept.

Steve was very grateful that Danny had the chance to ask Steve about it, because there were a few tense moments, immediately after he had opened that door to find him lying unconscious on a filthy cot, that he was certain that his partner was dead.

The small room was dimly lit and smelled like death. There was no movement. No sound. No reaction at all when he, along with Chin and Kono, stormed through the door 18 hours after Danny had been hit by the SUV, and five full days after Stan had gone missing.

Steve had barely registered Stan's presence, only just acknowledging that he was alive before immediately attending to Danny.

He looked like hell.

He was beaten and bruised. There was dried blood matted in his hair, on his hands, smeared on his clothing. His breathing was rapid and shallow and he was drenched in sweat. Steve tried to get him to wake up, but Danny would not respond. Minutes that felt like hours dragged by before an ambulance finally arrived and EMTs brusquely pushed Steve aside as they worked on stabilizing Danny. Steve stayed close and didn't miss the look of concern that passed between the two paramedics before they moved Danny to a stretcher, strapped him down, and began carrying him toward the waiting ambulance.

"I'm going with you," Steve announced, vaguely aware of Stan also being attended to behind them.

"I'm sorry sir, but there's not much room."

Steve summoned his best glare, and the paramedic wilted.

"Fine."

Steve gave some parting orders to Chin and Kono before the rear doors of the ambulance slammed shut. He supposed he should stay behind to help secure the scene, but the determined nods from his two teammates was evidence enough for him that the job would get done.

Right now, getting Danny safely to the hospital was all that mattered. The rest could be sorted out later.