I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended. The same goes for the fantastic show and wonderful characters portrayed in Flashpoint.
Notes: again, thank you for the wonderful reviews.
Chapter 4
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He lay on the floor of the van and rocked in time to its motion more unconscious than aware of his surroundings. After knocking him senseless, the one man had zip-tied his hands behind his back and taken his gun. It took many more minutes for Danny to fight through the dizzying haze and understand that his own gun was aimed directly at his head. A heavy pipe undoubtedly stained with his blood lay off to the side and rolled from side to side as the van lurched along through traffic. He coughed when he tasted more blood on his tongue, and he couldn't bite back the moan when he tried to move. The pain in his head immediately sky-rocketed and Danny's vision swirled and then grayed ominously.
And the man wasn't quite yet a man, but almost. And after a long moment where his eyes finally agreed to focus, Danny realized that he actually recognized him. It had been more than three years and in the life of a growing teenager, that was a long period of time. Danny recognized his eyes first, then his profile and it was definitely the same person. But he was broader of shoulder now. Taller and much more well-built with the promise of being an even more impressive hulking man.
"Robbie?" The name was coughed out in complete bewilderment and Danny groaned as the van hit a pothole and his injured head banged unceremoniously into the uncarpeted metal floor. The driver was on the freeway and Danny could feel the acceleration as they entered traffic.
"What .. are you doing .. here?"
But instead of answering, Robbie grinned maliciously and held his fingers to his lips. The young man reached down and shook out a heavy piece of black cloth and the slid it over Danny's head. The hood was immediately hot and blinding. The movement was too fast and it jarred his head making Danny grimace from the sharp pain and he whispered the name again as he closed his eyes to the darkness.
"Robbie."
The bad boy had changed into a dangerous man who had obviously sent the dire text message. He had a grudge to settle and Danny had unwittingly fallen for the trap.
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"I want to know who she is, Kono. Trace every damned phone call, text message and email."
He knew that Kono would be reluctant to set those wheels in motion because he innately felt the same way. It was a terrible invasion of privacy and trust amongst their own. But they had no choice because they needed to find Danny and only this Ana would know what had happened. Steve rubbed his hands over his face. His eyes were already burning from the stress and yet only thirty minutes had elapsed since the 911 call.
He met her eyes in the rearview mirror and tried to smile. "It's okay, Kono. He'll understand. Just do it."
"It looks like the caller cloned the phone used." She was sitting in the back of the pickup truck with Danny's phone connected to her laptop. She hadn't been able to successfully trace the text message. However, it didn't take her long to access Danny's full data both from the device and remotely to their larger server and then on to his work computer. She had other call records now and a name. And while that was being done, Steve was almost aimlessly driving up and down the Honolulu streets in a type of grid-like fashion looking for a shiny new black van, a junkie with an ugly scorpion tattoo or any sign of Danny. It did little good for Steve to know that the entire HPD police force was literally doing exactly the same thing.
Kono made a sound in her throat as she compared the growing list of notes, text messages and emails. The download related to Ana Madison was long and detailed; daily conversations dated back months, then years and no one knew what to make of it.
"Her full name is Ana Madison. He's known her for a long time." Kono shared as she paged through the dates in the long archive. "A really long time."
"An affair?" Chin voiced the option and Steve immediately refused that theory. The messages were a confusing array of gentle conversations, advice and simple hello's. As an outsider, none of it made sense and the download only gave them more cause to question what Danny had been doing with the woman.
"The text message indicated she was in trouble. But obviously, she may not have sent it herself." Steve complained loudly. "He wasn't worried about meeting her .. at least, I didn't pick up anything when we spoke. In fact, he said that he'd be in the office within the hour."
Chin was pensive as he peered closely down a dark alley they slowly drove past. "But none of this tells us anything about who she is. Only that they knew each other."
"Could be just a friend or even another cop." Kono offered as yet other alternatives.
"I don't know anyone here by that name. Do either of you?" Their global silence confirmed that too. However, Kono was still pounding through the download and attempting to build relationships with their larger database.
"Found her. Wow." Kono's voice rose almost in alarm and Steve immediately pulled over to the curb. She was intent on what she was paging through and the information that she was finding clearly surprised her the more she read.
She got so caught up, she forgot to speak and Chin had to prompt her again as she became absorbed in her latest findings. "Kono. What?"
"She's young. Ana Madison is only 19 years old. Originally from Patterson, New Jersey. According to her last social worker's records, she was placed in the foster system when she was 8 years old. But she was lucky enough to remain with one family in Clifton. She moved here about 6 months ago for a new full-time job with a local hotel chain."
There was almost a sigh of relief based on the average nature of what Kono was finding. Except there was a major complication; Danny had been abducted and Ana Madison seemed to be the link.
"That rules out girlfriend." Chin remarked softly. "But what else? Other than the Jersey connection, so far this is not making any sense. Is she a friend? Or maybe she's the daughter of a friend? We could call Rachel .. she may know." But Kono had another idea as she quickly held up her hand for him to stop talking.
"Hold on. I'm doing a global name search in national police files and overlaying Danny's information. It's worth a shot to start with police records." They waited impatiently as Kono tapped away silently on her computer. And a few minutes later, there was a glimmer of a smile as a her key words sparked a list of search results.
"Okay, I've got a news article from a little more than 10 years ago about a homicide in Patterson, New Jersey. A warrant was served on a suspect, Mitch Runyon and the suspect opened fire on police. Forty-two year old Jana Madison was killed in the crossfire and the ranking detective on-scene was Danny Williams."
Kono chewed on that information as she read it out loud and then looked up from the computer screen. "According to this article, there was a child involved. A little girl. Remanded to CPS. Ten to one this Ana is the child and she was related to Jana Madison. Mother and daughter? It would have made her 8 or 9 years old and somehow Danny ..?"
Steve interrupted her and nodded in agreement. "And for whatever reason Danny .. was Danny." The timeline just slightly pre-dated Grace's own arrival on earth and Steve had to smile at the coincidence.
"Can you open the actual file?" But Kono was already trying and groaning in frustration.
"No, I can't do it. Even with our security level and permissions. The original case file's permanently sealed. Access is denied."
"What?" Steve turned around totally in his seat to glare angrily at the computer screen. He frowned at the obvious warning message that had popped up as Kono's requested access was officially denied by the bland system.
"Sealed? Why?"
"I don't know .. I can't figure that out!" Just as upset, Kono was racing through her arsenal of supplies. "I'll call his old precinct .. find someone .. anyone that can help us out here. I'll call CPS too and track down the case worker."
"You do that." He didn't mean to growl at her as he picked up his own phone to call Duke Lukela directly with Ana's work related information. He wanted everything done all at once, but the sealed file obviously held critical clues. HPD could pay a visit to Ana's place of employment and either pick her up or at minimum, question her co-workers. They only hoped that the girl would actually be there. But Steve's sense of foreboding grew; for all they knew, Ana could also be involved or she needed to be in protective custody. They simply didn't know enough yet. Plus they needed to locate this junkie with the scorpion tattoo. In the meantime and as each bit was slowly unraveled, he wanted access to that locked case file.
"Kono, you do that .. and I'm calling Denning. We don't have time for a court order to be issued. That could take days and we obviously don't have the luxury of time."
A few minutes later, Kono was provided with a very special telephone number. But after speaking to the Governor, it was Steve who called Ana's former social worker directly to gain more insight into the situation. She was worried immediately by his call and he had to reassure her as best as possible that Ana was okay .. as far as they knew, but they needed important background information. What he learned after that was short of incredible and Chin eyed Steve quizzically because he and Kono were only hearing half the conversation.
Pausing, Steve put his cell phone on speaker and introduced his team so they could all listen to Gladys Wilson.
"Ana adores him. She calls him Uncle Danny. And as I explained, yes, I'm well aware of the visits, phone calls and emails. Danny keeps her on the straight and narrow. Though he pushed college on her, we're all very proud of her for getting such a wonderful full-time job through our vocational training program. It's an incredible opportunity and it was incredibly hard for her to keep it a secret from him until she arrived in Honolulu a few months ago. But she wanted to surprise him."
The woman hesitated and sobered. "And the homicide? I only know a little bit about that night from Ana. She doesn't remember anything except that Danny was there. She was only 8 years old and I can't imagine what that child saw in that bedroom. She went for months of therapy but never could share more than Danny finding her under the bed."
"So, you think you know someone." Steve muttered under his breath in total bewilderment. He thought he knew virtually everything about Danny Williams and most of his past important cases. But this one was new. And while it wasn't overly surprising, it still was at the same time. It was a very big deal to all of them and for some reason, involvement in that former case was threatening Danny's life today.
"I do know from another Detective that Danny covered her up. He protected her from those terrible sights and wouldn't let her see or experience anything of what I understand was a gruesome crime scene. He stayed with her for hours and wouldn't let her out of his sight until Child Protective Services showed up. A lot of people wouldn't have cared enough to do that."
Steve easily heard the admiration in Gladys Wilson's voice and he closed his eyes as he softly whispered his agreement. "Yeah, but Danny would."
"Later on, Ana had some drug problems of her own and Danny got her through those too. They talked for hours and then, once she broke up with Robbie, she got back on track. And slowly things clicked into place for her like perfect clockwork .. such as this wonderful job. She's grown up to be a good person and she has a decent head on her shoulders."
"Wait. Who is this Robbie?" Chin asked. Even over the phone, they could sense the resentment in Glady's tone. She didn't like him and was happy that he eventually had been forced from Ana's life.
"Robbie Clancey. Long line of meth-heads in that family. Bad news. He and Ana met in the program and Danny didn't approve of him one bit. Neither did I. He tried for months to get back into her life. But Ana had moved on and was entering the vocational program. Their last argument was intense and I haven't seen or heard about him in more than a full year. But back then .. Robbie .. he was no fan of Danny's for breaking them up."
The bad feeling was growing and for some reason, Steve found himself asking an odd question. "What's he like?"
And then the disgusted snort on the other side of the speaker phone almost confirmed what was coming. "He was a handsome boy and he makes a great first impression. Until you get to know him."
"I guess we can't help them all. And sometimes the system does them no favors at all." There may have been a hint of remorse, but then Gladys was very firm about her description of Robbie Clancey. "He has no conscience. No sense of right or wrong. Frankly, he's always scared me."
Thanks, Gladys." Steve looked worriedly at each of his team-mates as the call ended. They were all upset but also now more understanding at least some of the background. And each of them was now wondering if Robbie Clancey could have traveled to Hawaii to exact some type of revenge based on a childhood incident.
"It fits. This part with Ana as a child .. it's all Danny." He grimaced unhappily and rubbed his face. "But we don't know if this Robbie Clancey would go so far as to come here. Kidnap Danny?"
"So what happened? We hardly know her, but I don't understand how Ana could possibly be involved like this." Chin asked. "It doesn't sound as if she would ever try and hurt him."
"No, it's not her. Not directly anyway. I mean it is." Her voice was faint but Kono was closing in on something just based on her slightly distracted tone.
"Wow. You two aren't going to like this." She was reading an email sent to her from Danny's old police precinct; specifically from the file clerk that maintained the archives. He was only able to share one minor detail about the sealed files. And her shocked expression almost said it all as she looked first to Chin and then to Steve.
"What?" In unison, the two men drew in a worried breath.
"Danny's the one that locked the case files. He had them legally sealed by an official court order. We do need Denning."
~ to be continued~