Chapter Three "Psychobabble"

Once again, thank you for all the amazing reviews! I'm so glad you all like this story because it's a lot of fun to write. I just want to let you know that I'm going to try to keep a balance of what's going on at the safe house and what's going on with the team.

Chin-ho listened intently as Jason Anderson's widow told him about her husband and his business partners.

"They were trying to get away," she said through tears. "They were tired of the fast lane. They wanted to enjoy life. That's why we all moved here."

"Mrs. Anderson," Chin said, "can you think of anyone who would want to hurt them? Former employees, perhaps?"

"No, they never hurt anyone. They turned the company over to capable hands. Nothing changed when they left."

"What about layoffs, maybe even years ago?"

"I don't know. You would have to ask Jenny, Chris' wife. She was more involved in the company than I was."

"All right, thank you for your time." Chin left Mrs. Anderson and moved on to Jenny Lee.

All the while he was thinking about how Danny would do a much better job.

H-5-O

McKenzie had more night terrors that she didn't remember, only this time, Steve stayed in her room and explained it to her.

"Dr. Eisner told you that?" she asked.

"Yeah," Steve replied. "He said to tell you when you did it. He thinks you're reliving the murders."

"I really don't remember."

"Apparently that's normal."

"I have a very good memory."

"You know what repression is?"

"Freud. We repress harmful thoughts. I think he was kind of a quack."

"Maybe, but how else do we account for your loss of fifteen minutes?"

"I don't know. If it helps, I'm sufficiently freaked out about it."

"What do you remember?"

"Um... there was a loud noise, like a crack and an explosion put together. Then people started screaming and shouting and there was this smell."

Steve's ears perked up. "Smell can be a powerful memory. What was it like?"

"Bitter... hot. I felt it burning in my sinuses." McKenzie looked Steve in the eye. "That's all."

"Then there was nothing?"

"No, then your partner said something about shock and you showed up, and they took me to the hospital, and... that's sort of a blur."

"So it went straight from the smell to Danny?"

"Yeah. It was weird."

"Do you think you might remember if you smelled it again?"

"I have no idea. How would you duplicate it?"

Steve smirked. "Target practice."

H-5-O

When Danny and Kono arrived at the hotel suite, Chin looked relieved. The three of them stood near the door and Chin brought them up to speed.

"Mrs. Lee said they had a few layoffs last year, but no one made any threats or seemed overly agitated. I'm going to check them out, but I have a feeling I won't find anything."

"No other suspects?" Danny asked.

"No, these women seem to think their husbands were loved by everyone. And none of their other contacts have been helpful."

"Everyone's got their secrets and maybe these guys shared one. We're going to need to get into all of their private communications. It's no coincidence they were all killed at once. Maybe whatever they were hiding they took to their graves. Maybe not."

H-5-O

Steve woke early the next morning with a plan. Danny would have had something to say about that, had he been there.

When McKenzie got up, he was at the counter packing things into a small duffel bag. "Are you running away from home?" she asked.

"No," he replied, looking up, "we're going to the beach."

"Heavily armed?"

"Yes."

McKenzie poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down, not bothering to ask more questions. After eating, she got ready for the beach in her own way. Which was wearing a bathing suit and flip-flops. She assumed that was how normal people did it, even in Hawaii.

When she came back to the main room, she noted with satisfaction that Steve was at least wearing shorts and flip-flops. He checked his bag once more and looked up.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Sure," McKenzie relied, suppressing a grin.

They headed out the door and down a sandy path. The path led down a steep hill, out of the trees. Once there, they had to scramble over some rocks to get to a small beach, surrounded by cliffs. The valley-like environment made the waves crashing on the shore much louder than Steve had expected. He dropped his bag in the sand and turned to McKenzie.

"Stand here," he said. "The waves will probably drown out some of the noise, but you might want to cover your ears."

He took one of the guns from the bag, and before McKenzie could ask what he was doing, he aimed it at the far cliff face and fired several times. McKenzie's hands flew to her ears and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Then there was the smell. The exact same smell as in the lobby two days before. Only now, it was stronger. Snippets of images came into McKenzie's vision: the golden light, the black gun, blood spatter, Danny laying on the floor.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the sand and Steve was shaking her by her shoulders. She heard her name several times and then, "are you okay?"

Her vision focused. "Yeah." She found her voice. She was sitting with her legs under her and Steve was kneeling in front of her. The gun was on the ground at his side, within reach.

"Did you remember anything?" he finally asked.

"I'm not sure," McKenzie began. "I saw things that looked real... and things that didn't."

"Okay, just start at the beginning."

"I closed my eyes. I smelled it. Then I was in the hotel lobby again. The sun was streaming through the windows. There was someone with a gun, and then there was blood, and..."

"And what?"

"Well this is the part I think wasn't real. I saw your partner on the floor."

For a second Steve didn't know how to respond. Obviously, that didn't happen, but why would McKenzie be seeing it? A thought came to him.

"Are you worried about my team?"

"What?"

"Eisner said you might project your own fears into the memories."

"I don't know. Maybe. I suppose they are in a dangerous position."

"Okay, so leaving that, what about the rest?"

"I didn't see the shooter. I mean, I don't think I did. I don't remember it. But I saw his gun. I saw blood. I know there must be more; the scene is incomplete."

"I think that's good for now. We'll tell Eisner about it this afternoon."

"And in the meantime?"

"We'll go swimming." Only then did Steve finally let go of McKenzie's shoulders.

H-5-O

Kono spent most of he morning hacking into e-mails. Danny spent it tracking down benign former employees. Chin fell asleep on the couch.

"Slept more than me, huh?" Danny said, giving Kono an accusatory look.

She shrugged. "Okay, maybe it was just me."

"Anyway, I'm not finding anything, how about you?"

Kono looked serious. "These guys were involved in some kind of... religion I think. But it almost seems like a club too."

"I think the word you're looking for is cult."

"Yeah, well, they were serious about it. Paranoid too."

"What do you mean?"

"They keep saying things like, 'protect ourselves' and 'malevolent spirits'. It's frankly giving me the creeps."

Danny came over and looked at Kono's computer screen. "Maybe one of those malevolent spirits followed them... with an M-16."

"Stop."

"What? I don't mean I think it was a ghost. A ghost couldn't hold a gun."

"Really?" Kono scowled sarcastically.

"Yeah, really. These guys may have believed something paranormal was out to get them, but either way, something tangible did. Maybe someone behind this 'religious club'."

"Okay, okay, you're very clever. We should ask the wives if they know anything."

"See, was that so hard?"

"Yes. I can't wait till Steve gets back."

Danny put a hand over his heart. "I'm hurt."

Kono rolled her eyes. "Let's let Chin sleep. He doesn't like doing this anyway."

H-5-O

McKenzie stared out at the waves. For a second she saw Brookings. She remembered spending spring break there her last year of college.

"You coming?" Steve asked. He had already started down the beach.

"Uh, yeah," McKenzie replied following slowly.

"What?"

"What what?"

"You had a look."

"My ocean is very cold."

"It's the same one you know? But I'm pretty sure it's warmer here."

"Yeah... um, why don't you just go?" McKenzie stopped and turned to go back.

"Because I can't leave you alone."

"Oh, sorry." She started following him again.

Steve sighed. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Maybe you could just tell me how cold it is."

Steve fought laughter. "Okay, come on."

They reached the tide line and Steve put his foot in.

"It's fine," he said.

"Are you sure?" McKenzie looked genuinely concerned.

Steve allowed himself a light chuckle. "Yes, it's not cold."

McKenzie inched closer to the water, but suddenly, Steve grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into the waves. There was a short lived scream before they both went under. When they surfaced, they were in deeper water and McKenzie couldn't feel the bottom.

"You lied!" she shrieked.

"No I didn't," Steve retorted. "This isn't cold."

"In one man's opinion." She started trying to swim back to shore, but another wave came up and pulled them under again. With much struggling, McKenzie finally made it back to where she could stand up. From his position further out, Steve could see she was shivering and her lips were turning purple.

"You're really cold?" he called, incredulously.

"Yes." She pouted.

Steve shook his head and dove under the water. He came up next to McKenzie and she jumped at his sudden appearance.

"All right," he said in resignation, "we'll go sit in the sun and make sandcastles and all that crap."

McKenzie smiled and her teeth chattered. "I'm still not forgiving you yet."

They began walking back to the beach. "Hey, I was just trying to get you mind off of our previous exercise. I figured you might as well have some fun."

"So you thought you'd drag me into the ocean? Very well, but I think sandcastles sound like more fun."

"I had a feeling you'd say that."

They spent the rest of the morning on the beach and then headed back to the house for lunch. After that, there was some disagreement as to who got to use the single shower first.

"I'm the girl," was McKenzie's final argument.

"That's not fair," Steve replied.

"Well, take it up with God."

Steve shook his head and smirked. "Fine. Go ahead."

McKenzie grinned triumphantly and disappeared into the bathroom. She took long enough that she was done by the time Dr. Eisner arrived, but Steve wasn't. So, McKenzie told him about the morning's experiment from her own perspective.

For a while, the psychologist made no reply. He sat with his fingertips together and his eyes fluttered.

"And these memories," he finally said, "how certain are you of them?"

"I..." McKenzie began. "I'm not sure. Some of it feels like a dream, but I know the noise and the smell were real. I assume there must have been someone there, but that part is blank. I know that four people were shot. I heard it and saw the blood. Then it gets weird."

"Yes, the apparent death of Detective Williams is a strange anomaly."

"What?" Steve asked, coming into the room, looking alarmed.

"We were discussing McKenzie's memories this morning," Eisner said calmly.

Steve visibly relaxed until Dr. Eisner gave him a strange look and turned back to McKenzie. They finished up their session and McKenzie once again left the room. Then Eisner turned back to Steve.

"Detective, your efforts this morning, while admirable and even effective, were nonetheless unnecessarily dangerous."

Steve bit the inside of his mouth to avoid making a sharp comeback. Finally, he cleared his throat. "Look, Doc, you can come in here every afternoon and go through all your psychobabble, but what I did actually accomplished something. I'm not saying what you do doesn't work, but it takes a long time and we've got a quadruple murderer to catch."

"Yes, I understand that, and I'm glad you took the initiative, but think of her mental state."

"Yeah, I get that, but wouldn't the best thing be for her to remember?"

"Possibly."

"Possibly? You think there is a good scenario where someone represses a memory?"

"If that memory is dangerous to that person's mental health. Some people are not as resilient as, say, you."

Steve saw that this conversation would probably get him nowhere. "Right. No more target practice."

"I did not say that."

"What?"

"I think it was a good idea, but you might have asked me first and allowed me to be present. Did you ever consider going into psychology?"

"No," Steve replied definitively. "Never."