Ho'ike
by Sammie
All notes in first part.
"Hey, great," Kono greeted as her cousin came in to 5-0 headquarters. "You're here."
"Billie all right?" Chin asked.
"So far." Kono nodded towards her office, where they could see the small child in Kono's chair. She picked up the disposable cup, covered with a lid, and and pulled it down to herself before drinking out of it with the straw and putting it back on the desk. She then picked up a slice of fruit and munched away contentedly, studying with interest the Volkswagen microbus on Kono's desk.
"She's easily occupied," Steve commented.
"Thank God for that," Kono replied. "She's really not needy for attention at all and is pretty cheerful, despite everything. She entertains herself quite well, too. She liked your sailing ship and drew it." She pointed to the picture taped to the bottom of one of the televisions.
Steve pulled it down to look at it, an expression of impressed surprise on his face. "Better than some of the stuff we saw at our Balki-lookalike's modern art show."
Chin took the picture, looked it over, then frowned before holding up the back to Kono. "This is the first page of your report on our last case, cuz."
"Oops." Pause. "She doesn't ask permission to use paper?" Kono offered. When both men just gave her a look, she finished, "I'll print off another sheet!"
"What I want to know is how you managed to get that panda away from her," Steve asked, noticing the the tawny lion toy sitting on the desk nearby.
"Charlie Fong. When I went by to deliver some evidence, he offered to, quote, 'give the panda a bath'. When she was reluctant, he convinced her to let it go by giving her a lion from his pile of stuffed animals," Kono explained as she typed something into the tabletop computer.
Steve and Chin looked askance at her.
"What?" Kono looked up, and then at their look, she exclaimed in exasperation, "He collects stuffed toys for the kids in Kawika's charity!"
Steve just stared at her, a "really? REALLY?" look on his face, then shook his head and turned to Chin. "What did you get?"
"I checked into Kahaloa's alibi. He was where he said he was, at Andy's Sandwiches near the University of Hawaii - Manoa campus. Has even got the debit card receipt to prove it, and it checks out."
"He mention anybody who had it in for his boss?"
Chin gave a small smile, then brought up a picture on the screen. "William Naukana. Kahaloa said he was the only one in their department who didn't like Holden."
"'Only one'?" Steve repeated. "He's not being overly blinded by his affection for his mentor?"
"He had you pinned down by the time we left." Chin, looking amused, offered this as evidence of Kahaloa's ability to read people. Behind them, Kono hid a smile. "Jeremy said that Naukana resented Holden; apparently, Holden started getting big stories to cover the minute he moved here, all because of his previous credentials in Los Angeles."
"Naukana worked his way up, grew up on the island, and so he was jealous," Kono guessed.
"Holden had the life - beautiful wife, daughter, good jobs. Blows in anywhere, people love him. Wouldn't you resent him?" Chin shrugged. "I'm going to question Nauakana later; I'm still waiting for Holden's financial records to come through."
"I'll go," Kono volunteered. "I'm already headed over to get Holden's office boxed up for evidence."
"His neighbors said he was great," Steve mused, "so they're most likely not the ones who killed him. One did say they saw a champagne-colored SUV pulled up just a few minutes after 9 last night."
"A license plate?" Chin asked.
"No."
"Your witness is sure of the time?" Chin asked, heading towards the tabletop computer and typing away, bringing up the local car registry with the transportation department.
"Said she's positive, since she said she just switched the channel and finished watching the opening credits to her show with some cute guy with curly hair." Steve shrugged. "She was fixing her antenna and saw the car through the window."
"She was watching 'The Mentalist'," Kono replied.
Steve turned to her in disbelief, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow as he tried to figure it out. "What? How do you know that?"
Kono held her hand open and slowly pressed her middle finger of her left hand to her left temple. "A little bit of this," she said mysteriously, as if thinking hard, then repeated the action with her other side, "and a little bit of that."
Chin shook his head, a silent grin on his face as he headed to his office.
At Steve's blank look, Kono chuckled. "Got to get out more, boss." She headed back into her office, and Steve followed. "Billie, honey," she started, crouching down to the little girl's level, "I have to go get something. Remember Uncle Steve? Stay here with Uncle Steve, OK?"
The little girl looked up from her food to Steve, blinked, and then looked at Kono, then back to Steve, and then turned to Kono with her arms outstretched. "I wanna go wif you," she said pleadingly. "Don' wanna thtay here."
Steve looked insulted.
"Uncle Chin will be here, too. Remember him?" Kono pointed towards her cousin's office. "Uncle Chin'll stay, too. Is that OK?"
The tot blinked. "Oh," she said, then looked over at Chin's office. "OK!" She nodded in agreement, settling back into her chair with her cup of juice.
Steve looked even more insulted.
"Can I plays with the car?" Billie pointed at the Volkswagen bus on Kono's desk.
"Yes, you may play with the bus."
Billie perked up and gave Kono a hug, then went back to eating and studying the car, faint 'vroom' sounds coming in between chews. Steve watched her as she looked over the bus and traced the V and the W on it. Kono smiled and dropped a kiss on her head. She then pulled her gun out of a top shelf and re-checked her safety, and then started out of the office.
"So, how'd you do it?" Steve asked with amusement when she emerged from her office.
"Do what?"
"Figure out what that woman was watching."
Kono chuckled. "She said she was working her antenna, which means she doesn't have cable, which limits the amount of things she could be watching. She said that she saw the opening credits of some show. Some networks have already moved to news, which rules them out, because you said 'show'. Rarely do shows have sitcoms at the 9 pm hour, so she switched to a drama, and given the day of Holden's death, which was Thursday, that severely limits the number of possible things she might have seen.
"She said she switched channels, which means if she's like most Americans, she switched from NBC's comedy block to another network. NBC hasn't really recovered since that Leno debacle. 'The Mentalist' is the most popular show of Thursday nights in that timeslot, and it's got a cute guy with curly hair. Australian, too."
"Well, look at you," Steve chuckled admiringly, as Kono smiled and turned, starting to head out. "'Cute guy'?" he called after her.
"He's a cute Australian actor with blond curls," Kono replied, pausing at the door.
"Why are you so partial blonds?" Steve asked, looking insulted.
"Perhaps I'm partial to Australians," Kono teased with a wink as she disappeared out the door.
"They told me I would find you here."
The man jumped, then turned to see a young woman standing several feet away. "You can arrest me for trespassing later." He turned back to look around the empty, abandoned building. "They're turning the Honolulu Advertiser building into a soundstage," he said in disgust. "A soundstage!"
"Times change," Kono replied. "Our economy needs to keep up with it."
Naukana snorted, then turned back to look around the building. "This place is almost a hundred years old," he said quietly. "Early radio stations. Of course, the Honolulu Advertiser."
"Honolulu isn't the only place where newspapers have been affected by the Internet," Kono pointed out mildly.
"Some blasted Hollywood show is going to be shooting here," Naukana murmured. "Where they typed reports on Pearl Harbor, JFK, Watergate."
"Could be worse. They could be turning the building into a brothel or a casino."
"Have a little respect," Naukana snapped. "There's years of history here."
"Including yours?" Kono asked quietly.
The man looked at her briefly, distrustfully. "Yes. My grandfather was a reporter, as was my father, all for the Honolulu Advertiser. I played in this office."
"But Travis Holden didn't." Kono tilted her head to one side, studying the man as she stepped towards him. "Haole from the mainland comes blowing in, takes everything over."
"Of course it did. Everybody thinks it's done right on the mainland rather than here." Naukana sounded bitter.
"Had to make you mad," Kono replied in a quiet, sympathetic voice. Naukana just glanced at her. "Mad enough to kill?"
"This about Holden's death?" he exclaimed. "Look, I didn't like the guy, but I wouldn't have killed him."
"You were the first one people named as disliking Holden."
"Who?" he demanded. When Kono simply raised an eyebrow at him, he glared. "I didn't like the fact that he kept getting promoted over the rest of us here, but I'm not stupid," Naukana spat. He heaved a sigh, then said in quiet, pained voice, "Besides, he's got a wife and a little girl. I'd never leave somebody without a husband or a father."
"And your complaints against Holden?" Kono asked, crossing her arms. "It's well-known that you had many. Doesn't look good for you."
"I didn't - !" Naukana threw up his hands, then glared. "Look. I know those promotions came down from the top, not from Holden himself. And he was a good researcher - he never stopped plugging away, and his work was thorough. And he never stole anybody else's ideas. He didn't have to; he came up with good proposals himself. I hate to say it, but he was a really good reporter."
"How good?"
"Very good," Naukana replied. "He made friends quickly, even among us natives. People trusted him because he put his neck on the line for them; they were willing to help him because they could rely on him when they were in trouble. Sometimes a little too much. Reporters still have to maintain a distance, you know."
Kono watched him steadily, then handed him a card. "Don't leave town. We may have more questions."
Steve trotted into the morgue at a fast clip, his footsteps echoing enough and the sound of the opening door alerting one of the men inside to his appearance. Chin greeted him over the music coming from the piano. "Everything all right? Took you longer than expected."
"Everything with a kid takes longer than expected," Steve commented, though without exasperation. "She wanted a drink. And then to go to the bathroom. And then her panda wanted a drink. And to go to the bathroom."
"Kaumaha au nou," Chin just chuckled in more of a schadenfreude tone than a sympathetic one, which just earned him a look from his boss. "Hey, children are like that. It's what makes them irritating and cute."
"You speak like somebody who knows," Steve said suspiciously.
"Kono and I have lots of small cousins," he offered in way of explanation.
The music stopped as the medical examiner got to his feet, then looked at McGarrett. "You are tardy."
"Little kid emergency."
The man's face flashed brief panic. "Here?" He blinked, his face the picture of impassive resignation. "I don't deal well with small children."
"Never have guessed," Steve deadpanned. "No, kid's not here. Sergeant Lukela offered to watch her while we're down here. What've you got?"
"Mr. Travis Holden." Dr. Bergman gently folded back the sheet and pointed to the wound, right in the middle of the forehead. "Gunshot wound to the forehead was the killshot."
"Close range?"
"Not more than three feet of distance, based on the - blast pattern," the medical examiner replied, waving to the man's face.
"Holden was facing the guy who shot him?" Steve asked.
The doors whooshed open to admit Kono. "Did I miss anything?"
"Right on time," Chin complimented. "You get anything on Naukana?"
"He resents Holden, all right, but his alibi checks out solid. Talked to some of his family - seems he lost a parent when he was young, and he's always had a soft spot for parent-less children. Makes me wonder whether he'd be able to knock one off himself. I've got his bank records and stuff coming in." She greeted the medical examiner. "Hi, Max."
"Good afternoon." He picked up where he left off. "Now, as I was saying, I believe Mr. Holden was facing his attacker. However, there also is the imprint of a muzzle on the back of his shirt and on his skin." Max turned the body over to show where there was a faint imprint.
"How do you even see that?" Kono muttered, squinting.
"It matches with the gun residue shape on the back of his shirt, near the left shoulder." Max held up the shirt and turned it over, where there was a light outline of some dust and gunpowder.
"But no shot," Steve clarified.
"He was not shot in the back," Max confirmed.
"So Travis had his back to the shooter at one point," Chin mused, turning his back to his teammates as he pretended to be Holden in a small demonstration. "Shooter presses the gun against his shoulder."
"He turns," Steve replied as Chin followed through. Steve, then pretending to be the shooter, placed his hand in a gun-motion close to Chin's forehead. "Killer shoots him in the forehead."
"Muzzle isn't against his forehead because there's no imprint or residue," Chin pointed out.
"Still, he's shot at close enough range," Steve disagreed, stepping out of character. "Look at that blast pattern from the shot." He held up a crime scene photo.
Chin nodded, then slipped back in character. He pretended to snap his head back, then let his body fall naturally to the ground. "This is how Kahaloa found him."
"You don't need me here," Kono joked playfully. "Why did you call me down to the morgue, again?"
"You brighten it up," Steve deadpanned, and she rolled her eyes, though her smile cut the force of it. Steve crossed his arms, thinking. "So Holden puts his daughter in a saferoom, then turns his back on his killer. I don't get it."
"He knows him," Kono suggested, thinking aloud. "There were no signs of forced entry. Or, perhaps, he needs to bluff - pretend he's not as scared as he is." Kono supplied. "Both, perhaps."
"And THAT's why you were called down here," Chin smiled at his cousin, who grinned back.
"The bullet appears to be a 9 mm," Max continued in a clinical tone. "Very common."
"How common?" Steve asked.
"The HPD issues Smith and Wesson 5906s - which are 9 mils - to its entire force," Chin replied.
"Great," Steve muttered.
"Time of death," Max recited, "about 9:10 pm. Death most likely instantaneous or closely thereafter. I believe the shooter is right-handed."
"Right-handed," Kono cut in. "Why?"
"The shot is slightly right of center." Max demonstrated with the corpse. "That is consistent with a right-handed shooter."
"Anything besides the gunshot?" Chin asked.
"Mr. Holden appeared to have fought with his attacker," Max went on. He lifted one of the man's arms. "There is bruising here and here - " he reached around the body to the other arm " - and here and here. He may have been grabbed."
"Overpowered by his attacker?" Steve asked.
"It is very unlikely that Mr. Holden was overpowered. Bruising on his knuckles" Max held up the man's hand and tilted it towards them "indicate he threw a punch, possibly two, and was able to draw blood almost immediately - yet he broke none of his bones. Nor are any of his wounds defensive."
"Is there any DNA from his attacker on his knuckles? Did you take swabs?" Kono asked as her older cousin grinned with a little amusement and not a little pride.
Max held up several swabs, all labelled. "They will be ready to test when you wish them to be."
"Did you find anything on the body, Max?" Steve asked as Chin's phone rang, and the cop left to take the call.
The man brightened. "Indeed, I did." He scooted around the morgue table towards the other room, where his evidence bottles and tubes were laid out in a perfect row. "This is the slug."
"Send that up to Fong."
Bergman then picked up a small bottle with no small amount of delight and excitement. "This is green silk, of the finest Italian quality. The raw silk is sent to the companies in northern Italy, which dye and print it, and then use - "
"OK, I got it," Steve cut him off. "Holden was wearing this?"
"Oh, most certainly not. He was wearing a cotton polo shirt." Bergman gave a grin, one of knowing he had provided a lead.
"You think the man he fought with had on a green silk shirt," Steve confirmed.
"Italian silk," Kono murmured. "We found a metal Gucci logo under the body."
"So the man who tangled with Holden was wealthy," Steve commented slowly. "One of the witnesses said she suspected one of the men at Holden's house last night was better off."
"Boss, we got a problem." Chin materialized next to him, his face stolid.
Steve nodded, then gave the medical examiner a thumbs-up. "You're awesome, Max," Steve called back as the three ran out.
Bergman beamed. "I'm awesome," he repeated with a cheerful, happy smile. "Why, thank you."
The team ran up to the squad room to find the sergeant pacing. "She's gone," Lukela blurted. "Commander McGarrett, I'm so sorry." The man looked so guilty Steve reconsidered yelling. "She was just in the breakroom having a snack and then was gone."
"Look, it was too much for us to ask you to watch her and to do all the stuff you had to do," Chin replied. "It's our fault as well. Let's just focus on where she is."
"Can we put out an amber alert?" Kono asked, rubbing her arm nervously. "She was in a pale green sundress, carrying that stuffed lion toy."
"Let's check the cameras on squadroom," Steve replied. "See if she appears to be going off-camera. We need HPD to blanket the area. If possible, I'd like her name kept out of this so we don't alert the people who killed her father."
"What if she's here in the building?" Chin suggested. "She's three. She can't have walked that far. Our first search this morning found her right in her own house."
"Stay here and look, and wait if she comes back," Steve instructed. Chin nodded.
Steve ran out towards the parking lot, Kono on his heels, dodging the myriad of police cars peeling out of the lot. He got into his truck, Kono climbing in the passenger's side. He roared out of the lot, flanked by a stream of HPD cars.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye; she wasn't watching him, just looking out the window, chewing on a fingernail as she did so. He ventured nothing; nothing he could offer would ease her sense of guilt - or his own, for having let the tot out of his sight.
The police radio lines were busy, each of the many officers calling in their locations and where they planned to search, as well as preliminary reports..
His phone rang. Steve turned it on and set it to speaker. "Chin."
"Good news: she JUST disappeared. A couple of the HPD officers said they saw her in their breakroom less than half an hour ago. One of them even sat her on a chair and gave her some Cheerios in a bowl."
"But?"
"The bad part is that she must have encountered fifty, sixty some people today in the past hour. Lukela said a lot of people came over to say hello - several of whom weren't HPD people. Apparently most of them knew Holden."
"Naukana told Kono he made friends quickly and helped a lot of people," Steve muttered. "OK. Half an hour - she can't have gotten that far."
"Unless she was taken," Chin pointed out.
The police radio crackled, and Steve spoke quickly. "Chin, check the cameras, and get up a list of everybody who came in to HPD and who went into that breakroom."
"Got it." The phone clicked off.
The police radio came alive. "We've had a few reports from drivers of a small child running along South Beretania, headed for the downtown - well, towards 5-0 headquarters."
Steve swung the truck around, the wheels rolling over a median as he headed in the other direction. He took a side alley and came on Beretania and then slowed down.
"Got a visual," came another voice over the radio. "She just passed the malassada store."
Steve slammed on the brakes, throwing his car into park; Kono had already jumped out of the moving car and was dashing towards the storefronts.
As they pushed through the pedestrians on the sidewalk, he scanned the area. Nothing. Kono was on the other side, a few shops behind him; she turned into an alley, then reappeared. "She's gotta be around here somewhere," she exclaimed, holding up her hands in a "what the heck" gesture.
"There!" From nearly a block in the other direction, a shout from one of the HPD officers caught Steve's attention, and he followed the woman's finger towards a tiny green blur, heading out of side street towards traffic.
"Billie!" Kono's voice was panicked but far away. Steve started sprinting the last block diagonally, tumbling over a line of parked cars. A car honked frantically, and there were screeching wheels as Billie dashed into the road, still running at full tilt. Steve put on an extra burst of speed, grabbing the child and rolling across the hood of the braking car before dropping to the other side. He managed to stay on his feet temporarily, stumbling the last few feet to the grassy median, where he fell. He tucked the little girl against him and rolled onto his back, trying to prevent her from being hurt. Behind him, squealing tires and screeching brakes could be heard, and then shouts and the sounds of car doors slamming.
"Daddy?"
Everything seemed to fade into the distance - the horns, the shouting, the sirens; all he could hear was this small baby voice, so hopeful, accompanied by a tear-stained but bright-eyed and beaming face. When the child saw him, her expression fell.
Steve said nothing; he simply gave her a sad smile.
The little girl stared at him in shocked disappointment for a full second, as if unable to process the thought that it wasn't her father. She then began to cry again, but instead of pushing him away as Steve expected, she flung herself against him and cried and cried, inconsolable.
"Billie!" Kono materialized beside them, and the child instantly let go of Steve and scrambled for her, burying herself in the cop's arms. The little girl was shaking and crying, wrapping her small arms tightly around Kono's neck. The cop kept one arm across the small body, patting it comfortingly, her other hand reaching out to her boss, who was sitting up. "Boss, you all right?"
"Yeah." Steve winced a little as he sat up. "OK. I'll be fine. Billie, you all right?"
Kono gently peeled the tot away enough so the two of them could see her face. "Billie, honey?" She got no answer, just more crying.
Chin appeared at the moment, flanked by what seemed to Steve to be the entire HPD. He reached a hand down to each of them. "You guys all right?"
"Yeah." Kono took her cousin's hand and pulled herself and the child up. "I think boss - " she didn't finish, but waved to him.
"We'll get you both looked at." Chin pulled him up, patting him on the back as they started to head back to the building.
"Didn't expect to see you back so soon," the doctor commented.
"Didn't expect to be back so soon," Kono replied over the head of the little girl, who sat in her lap as the cop gently stroked her back. The child's face was still wet with tears, trails on her cheeks and random drops on her eyelashes. In each fist was a slice of apple, which she was eating in between sniffles.
The cop gave her a big, affectionate kiss on her cheek, and the child turned to look up at her, a big, bright smile through her tears, and got a smile back from the older woman. "Let the doctor see you again, OK?" The little girl only looked back to the doctor.
"Let's see how you are," the doctor said gently, and Billie nodded.
"Chin." Steve looked up as the other man came in, and two moved to the side.
"How're you doing?" Chin asked.
"I'm fine."
"What did the DOCTOR say?" Chin repeated the question with a knowing smile.
"Just bumps and bruises, be more careful, et cetera. What did you get from witnesses?"
"A few people said they tried to stop her, but she just kept running, and they didn't want to be seen grabbing a toddler off the street."
"Not in this day and age," Steve agreed.
"That's when they started calling in to HPD."
"What else?"
"All of them said she was crying as she ran." They looked back towards the the small child awkwardedly brushed her hair out of her face with her hands, and Kono gently wrapped her arms around her and gave her a soft kiss on the head. The doctor was still doing her checkup.
"Were they able to say why she ran?"
Chin shook his head.
The doctor finished up, then slung her stethoscope around her neck. She took a few steps away to join the two cops, lowering her voice so the child wouldn't hear. "She's shaken up, but not physically injured," she informed them as the three glanced back at the small child, who sat resting against Kono. "She seems rather spooked, though."
"Did she tell you by what?"
The doctor shook her head. She looked at the team, then said quietly, "I'll give you a few minutes alone."
They nodded their thanks and she departed. Chin made sure the door was closed, then nodded to Steve.
"Hey kiddo. You OK?" Steve pulled up a chair to the examining table where Kono sat, Billie in her lap.
She nodded. A moment later, she sat up and held out to him her left fist, which had a slice of uneaten apple.
He smiled. "Thank you, but you keep it." He paused a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, and then asked gently, "Billie, why did you run away from Sgt. Lukela?"
The little girl looked up at him, and then her mouth turned down and she looked down at her lap.
"Billie, it's OK to tell us," Chin said gently. "Don't be scared."
Kono tried a different tack. "Didn't you want to look at the flowers outside?" she asked. "You told Sgt. Lukela you wanted to stand on the chair by the door and look at the flowers."
"I looked at f'owers."
"Why did you leave?"
"I's hungry. The man bringed pizza."
To Steve, it sounded more like "Eyesungwee'demanbingpeetsuh," but everybody else seemed to understand her just fine. "Did you follow the man bringing the pizza?" Kono asked.
"Uh-huh. Lots of people people eating there. I getted Cheerios." The little girl brightened a little.
"What happened after that?" Steve asked, a hint of tension creeping into his tone.
At that, the little girl's mouth turned down again, and she turned a pair of frightened eyes to Kono.
"Billie, you have to let us know what happened, OK?" she said gently, stroking her hair and gently brushing loose strands out of her face. "We want to help you and keep you safe, but you got to tell us what happened."
"He putted his hand over my mouf," she said, her voice trembling.
"Sweetheart, what did he say?" Kono asked gently.
The little girl's breathing began to hitch, as if she were going to cry.
"Billie, it's OK," Kono murmured, gently stroking her back. "Tell us what he said."
"He killed Mommie if I saided anything," she said in a small voice, tears starting to well up. She burrowed herself in Kono's arms.
"Who? Who's going to kill your mother?" Steve cut in, urgency making him impatient. When she shook her head, he said calmly, "It's OK. Tell us."
"Kepolo," she replied, muffled.
It meant nothing to him, but Kono and Chin shared a look of exasperation and anger. Steve leaned forward. "What? What? What's that look? Who's 'kepolo'?"
She looked at him, nearly speechless with anger, then took a deep breath. "'The devil'," she replied.
TBC