I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: sorry - yes, bad words begin here. *cover your ears* The muse wanted to convey reactions and this seemed ok for the purposes of this particular story.
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CHAPTER SIX
Much later that night, long after leaving the clinic, Franklin Ray was standing in his study watching the news reports. It was not something he normally did. However this time, he personally had a vested interest in the local reports. At first, he was in a fury about their meddling. He was offended because they had dared to find her much too soon.
Minutes later as the reports continued, he became privately mortified when what he craved to not see flashed so threateningly across the screen. Multiple times. Covered by every network as the late night breaking news.
Inside the study, there were no lights on, only the flickering illumination from the television as it moved from televised scene to televised scene with the ease of pre-staged production. He was sweating heavily despite the chill from his air conditioner which he'd cranked up inordinately high. Every so often his hand would tremble and the ice cubes in his double finger of scotch would sound against the crystal wall of the tumbler.
The body had already been discovered. One, Gail Lusscroft, murdered and found in a drainage ditch.
He felt the eyes on the back of his head but refused to turn around. Anger and offense turned to remorse for himself. Neither man knew what to say, yet Franklin Ray of all, certainly wasn't required to say a single thing. He would not need admit that he'd essentially murdered the woman in the stables before attempting to dump her body in a ruined ditch as Riku had once done. He unfortunately didn't need to say a word.
He had done his best to mimic his loyal employee's methods except that Franklin Ray didn't know better. He could only choose or copy what he'd gleaned from Riku's much more astute processes. Despite being over-confident, he didn't know any better and he certainly did not know to cautiously remove all the signs of his trail.
Behind him, Riku stared at the television in true shock as the newscast droned on. It was obvious that Ray had not only committed yet another kidnapping which ended in a failed experiment, but this time he'd attempted to cover it up himself. It was folly from the start. Back on the mainland, Riku could drive steadily for minutes, hours and even days to traverse city and State lines. Of the five bodies found over the years on the East coast, there were more than double that missing and unaccounted for. Despising himself for years of such terrible conspiracy, Riku certainly did know how to very skillfully cover tracks and remove a large majority of potential evidence.
But here was different. This was an island and he could drive just so far. People knew each other and missed one another. Questions were asked, space was limited and so, Riku's options had been sorely limited. Risks were much too high and the results, much too conspicuous. One body had been discovered and one was still missing. Those were frightful odds which Riku did not appreciate but now the handicap was worsened and absolutely not in their favor for Franklin Ray had added to the mix in the most damaging of ways.
Unable to move, Riku stood there until the entire news report ended and the battery of boring commercials did their rounds and reports resumed with the weather. He stood there until Ray was forced to turn around to meet his eyes. By then, Riku had found his voice.
"I will need no more than four days to make my plans. I will do so with utmost courtesy to you and to your … collection." In a way, Riku was stunned by his own level-headed delivery and the calmness of tone. He would take the four days to ensure both the reptiles and Doctor Ray had what they needed for many weeks to come. He would do that much, then make his plans to return to India. He had done too much already. Far too much which of course would directly implicate him in all of the deaths committed not only in Hawaii, but also back on the mainland. Riku understood this, but he needed to leave for his own self-preservation because now, Doctor Franklin Ray petrified him.
He waited patiently but Doctor Ray didn't say a word. He merely stared back from under his blackened eyebrows until he dropped his gaze pensively to stare blindly into the glass he held between trembling fingers. Seconds later, the tumbler was drained dry and Riku was gone from the room.
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"Again with the damned snakes?" Quite literally, Danny threw his hands up in the air as he stared at Gail Lusscroft's body. Not as badly decayed as the first, she bore the eerie marks of fangs on her bruised and swollen thigh muscle. He glared at Steve before needing to look back at the victim, both sickly enthralled and horrified by what he was seeing.
"Seriously, Steve?" Ignoring Max for a moment, Danny meant it rhetorically about what had happened so much earlier in the day. The baffled sigh concurred and relayed that there was no easy answer.
He had confessed the entirety of the nightmare to Steve and now with their newest victim lying on Max's table, his temper was in full swing. Other than the clinic's missing persons report, the prior day had been relatively calm as they attempted to locate Gail Lusscroft. It was a long exhausting trial of questioning, retracing supposed steps with miles of dead-ends. Then the team had changed gears to convene for the failed stakeout which pertained to an entirely different case.
That too had frustratingly yielded nothing.
But in the background, other authorities had continued to work. While Five-0 focused on another important case which took them into the night and onwards to dawn, HPD had been following up on a slim lead of their own. Using a hardworking K-9 team, they had discovered the woman's body after a tedious search just after dusk became night. The crime scene had been secured, the medical examiner notified and eventually, the body had been removed. Max had then focused on gaining as much evidence as possible to understand how, what, why and even who might have abducted and then murdered Gail Lusscroft.
"Snakes? Really." Danny's self-defensive, angry reaction to what Max was saying was a direct antithesis to his first five months earlier, and he was wholly unable to moderate his tone.
"Take it easy, Danny." Steve murmured, but he too was surprised to find Gail Lusscroft in the same sad straits as compared to their now five-month old Jane Doe. However, Max's continued summary of findings was soon to send his partner higher into the stratosphere
For one, Danny's recent dream in the Camaro had been much worse. More vivid and unfortunately spot on to send his partner's creative imagination into over-drive. To say that Steve was also now on edge was an understatement of fact. Though he might be outwardly dealing with it differently, Steve was just as disturbed.
"Alright, Max. Are you absolutely sure about this?" Steve asked, entirely for Danny's sake since the medical examiner had yet to be incorrect. Especially with something of this magnitude. Regardless, both men were disappointed when Bergman nodded before continuing.
"Yes. Unfortunately that is proving to be the case." In truth, Max was surprised himself. He'd never experienced anything like this particular case and he triple-checked his findings with the lab. The woman had been missed by staff members and friends at the small island clinic and the police had been looking for her. Found in a similar set of circumstances as their first victim, she too had been envenomated but by something far worse than an Eastern coral snake.
"Pelamis platurus. The identified venom is from a yellow-bellied sea snake." Disgusted by Max's words, Danny's lips adopted a stern, tense white line as he folded his arms tightly around his chest. His unhappy scowl was permanently engraved across his face as he listened to Max's summary, but could only look from Lusscroft's sheeted body and then to Steve.
"It's a much more pernicious and dangerous species." Things had changed because their killer was evolving in front of their very eyes and they had nothing.
"Wonderful." Danny mumbled under his breath. The last thing he needed to hear was that not only was it a different species, the damnable thing was actually more dangerous. Impatiently rapping the edge of the table with his knuckles, he was simultaneously lost in his thoughts while listening to the initial reports.
"There are no outwards signs of injury or attempts at medical intervention. But there is something else different." A low disgusted growl-like sound emanated from the detective's direction as the nervous tattoo on the edge of the metal gurney picked up cadence. Glancing curiously once to Steve for permission to continue, Max spoke even more deliberately, concerned about Danny's obvious mood.
"I did find something else ... it's quite interesting. I have identified a few odd strands of horse hair entwined under Ms. Lusscroft's fingernails. There were a few stray bits on her blouse. Gray, nearly white horse hair. Do we know if she perhaps rode or even owned a horse?" Dropping his eyes to his notes, Max recited his findings and totally missed the fact that the rapping had ceased. Eyes-widening with every passing second, Danny had literally frozen in place.
"What did you just say?" The raspy whisper stopped Max in his tracks. Next to Danny, even Steve was fixed in a rapt, bewildered attention.
"Gentlemen? Ah?" Looking from one to the other, Max was taken aback, flustered even as he paged through his notes rapidly trying to understand what may have been so shocking. "What? I'm sorry .. what did I say?'
"No. Fucking. Way." Three completely unexpected and very inappropriate words breathed out in a sharp anger by the distraught detective caused the young medical examiner to drop his hands limply to his sides.
"I'm sorry?" Max croaked in alarm.
"No. Way." As his mood fluctuated again, Danny choked and took five steps backwards to hit the front of Max's elevated medical cabinets. He coughed heavily and shook his head in denial, banging his lower back hard into unyielding metal. He winced as a sharp edge ground deeply into his skin. He'd have a decent sized bruise based upon his uncontrolled reaction, yet his eyes never left the man's startled face. "You did not just say any of that."
"What did I say?" Unsure of what he'd done wrong, Max raised his eyebrows in true consternation. "I'm sorry. Detective Williams, is something wrong?"
Across from the confused M.E. and closer to his partner, Steve's gasp finally exploded from his lungs. "Danny. It's got to be some kind of weird coincidence."
Yet, he didn't believe it as he spun in place with an incredibly odd look aimed at his partner. Truly astonished, Steve couldn't find the right words to put two and two together as Danny's face turned beet red from the sharp coughing spasm.
"Max." Steve started and then stopped completely. Danny was desperately trying to regain his composure and failing. One hand waved in the air as he virtually dove from the examination room, near to gagging on strangled air as his throat constricted.
"Wait here. I'll be right back." Striding after his partner, Steve was out the door a second later leaving Max utterly confused and standing alone by Lusscroft's body.
"Well, that was .. interesting." Max griped softly, though he did look after both men in concern.
"Hey. Danny." Steve found him in the hallway, pacing with painfully jagged residual coughs still hurting his throat which had already caused a flood of reflexive tears to course down his cheeks.
"You okay .. I mean." Frustrated, Steve had no idea what to say as he watched Danny dab at his cheeks with his shirt sleeve.
"Horses?" Wincing for the pain in his throat, Danny ground the word out harshly. "It's impossible. You know that, don't you?"
"Yeah." Grimacing at the tear-stained glassy glare thrown his way, Steve could only offer a paper cup full of water from the closest sink. At a loss, he certainly didn't understand any more than his partner did by that point. Running a hand through his hair, his muttered commiseration easily proved it, too. "Yeah, I know."
"I've never had this happen." Danny complained through a badly scratchy-sounding throat. Not one for premonitions, the meanings behind dreams or feelings of evil foreboding, he conversely could be easily superstitious. The oddities of the case coupled with vivid nightmares already had him completely on edge. Max's inadvertent findings had just done so much more.
"This makes no sense." Wearily clearing his throat, Danny pawed at his face. His voice dropped to a tired whisper. Confused and still upset, he was sweating heavily from the physical reaction and he rubbed his eyes because he was sure that he could smell them again. But the worst thing was that he could see them in his mind as if he'd truly been there.
The stables .. the horses. The big gray.
"Danny, are you alright? We've been on this case for months with nothing to go on." Steve was watching him with a concerned expression. He waited for the small paper cup of water to be drained and then for his partner to slow his frenetic march. What he would say next wouldn't entirely make sense and frankly, Steve even disagreed with himself.
"Now we have Lusscroft. Add in what Chin and Kono uncovered from three years ago on the east coast, and well maybe ... your imagination is .. just running wild." As anticipated, the silent reply was communicated as a disapproving glare and Steve chuffed a deeply self-reproving sound.
"Yeah, I know. Stupid. Sorry, Danno."
The two stood quietly outside the examination theatre trying to come to terms with a number of things. "Come on." Tossing his hands in the air, Steve heaved a sigh before thumbing Danny's shirt sleeve back towards where Max was still patiently waiting for them. "Come on, let's go back. Max hasn't told us everything yet."
"I don't think I can stand to hear more of this." Danny snarked softly. Using his sleeve to wipe the rest of the moisture from his face, he allowed Steve to propel him back, distinctly loathe to hear more, but needing to further the case at hand.
"Gentlemen." Picking up where he'd left off, Max didn't question the short respite. What he hadn't yet said out loud was a lurking belief that there were more bodies. Of which, they simply hadn't had the fortune .. or misfortune .. of finding. Ensuring they were once more ready to listen, Max began again.
"Time of death is approximately within eighteen to twenty-four hours. Based on cellular damage and the load of venom in her system, she absolutely died from a snake bite. I don't doubt that it was rather .. terrifying." The medical examiner continued, positive now that they had a serial killer on their hands.
She was screaming that high-pitched cry.
Closing his eyes briefly against the echo, Danny wobbled in place for a moment. With resolve, he covered it up quickly by resting the tips of his fingers at the very edge of the gurney. But they were already white with stress.
"It matches what Chin found with those other cold cases. The murders on the East coast from three years ago are a very close match." Suggesting the relationship to Danny again, Steve cocked his head to try to prove that point.
"It's possible at least." Steve quietly stressed. Worriedly, he narrowed his eyes briefly at the slightly pale complexion. The discussion was more than bothering his partner and he could understand why based upon the oddity of the early morning nightmare.
"Yeah, alright. It's all very close." Danny rudely made a face as he finally gave a small concession to Chin's initial findings and the idea that just maybe he'd internalized certain elements across the cases.
"Close to what?" Max carefully inquired, concerned that he might inadvertently ask the wrong question.
What he didn't know was that Chin and Kono had scoured national and international reports plus cases to locate any glimmer of news related to similar deaths. What they found were a few disconnected but similar cold cases occurring from three to four years earlier. Related but lacking proof to make a firm connection, clues were far and few between. Yet each occurrence had left a treacherous line of death up and down the East coast.
"Two of the bodies were found in Delaware. One in Maryland and two near Lexington, Virginia. All had evidence of snake venom in their tissues. Only one of the reports mention that an antidote had been attempted." The short explanation that Steve provided Max had the younger Asian man nodding in understanding. It was certainly more than close enough to be the same person and too good to be a copycat. Yet there were zero leads.
Max didn't even care to know if the venom in the older victims was coral snake or other. He was more interested in the number of dead and if any additional evidence had been found indicating the victims might have been saved. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, but connecting dots was his specialty and these dots were connecting a path to his front door.
"Only the five?" Max asked.
"There were five bodies that we know of." Danny said as he recalled the cousins' summarized report. "The first three were considered to be poorly executed until the suspect gained expertise. The existence of snake venom was confirmed in each victim. But only one, the last, had identifiable evidence of intravenous medicines being attempted."
"He or she learned and began to evolve." Max thoughtfully added. "This person got better at certain things but if resuscitation or a cure were an objective .. if this person were trying to play god .. he or she certainly has failed at that."
"The only other deviation was the appearance of ligature marks noting restraint." The final observation came from Steve. In their combined opinion, whomever had begun the killing spree on the mainland was back in business and seemingly now settled in Hawaii.
"Did the authorities have any suspects in mind? Any clues at all?" Utterly intrigued by the new information, Max was mentally plotting out a series of unique concepts.
"Not a definitive one even after significant questioning of everyone from pet stores dealing in exotics to private collectors and even to professional zoo handlers. Chin and Kono are still going through the files but nothing; though they do have a short list of collectors to follow-up with. We need to know who is on the island." Danny was distinctly frustrated by these facts. Wanting more, what they'd found so far was helpful but merely leading to more open-ended questions.
"Five and not a single idea of what was going on. Two more bodies now mimicking those." Musing to himself, Max began to talk quietly as if weighing his best ideas. "Creating a profile was a complicated process and even that isn't something that any expert agrees upon."
"Yeah, well. We're going to connect the dots and put an end to this." Steve promised.
"Yes, no doubt." Max nodded appreciatively before almost too casually dropping a new option on the table. "Have you considered the possibility of a dual personality?"
When Steve gaped and Danny muttered something unintelligible under his breath, Max actually smirked. Pleased that he'd possibly offered a viable alternative.
There was a long pregnant pause amongst the three until Steve leaned forward to rest fisted hands just along the side of the gurney. The idea was novel and potentially quite right. "What? Why would you say that?"
"It seems correct in a maniacal way. Someone who can blend so well and yet, commit such outrageous crimes over such a very long period of time. It would take a very special personality and just perhaps, he or she has help." Max nonchalantly shrugged as he folded his arms across chest. To him, if a profile could not be established then the most obvious thing was a complex personality. Someone operating quite outside the box and very unexpectedly.
"A chameleon of sorts." Spurred on by the two Five-0 officers' rising level of interest, Max became more committed to his concept. "Yes, I can see that .. a highly functioning and complex schizophrenic."
~ to be continued ~