Ho'ike
by Sammie
All notes in first part.
Thank you to all who have read up to this point, and a special thanks to those who took the time to review! - yes, Danny will appear - rather late than never. - Kono's my favorite character, so I try to give her good airtime. :-) - I love Max, too - especially with all his eccentricities.
To readers: I'm a very visual person, and this story really began with an image in my head of this little girl sitting in Kono's lap. I've got a picture I'd be willing to post if anybody actually wants to see the inspiration for "Billie" (and her parents).
"Hey! My favorite haole," Kamekona greeted with a big grin as McGarrett approached.
"And what do you call Danny?" Steve asked with suspicious, albeit amused, expression.
Kamekona looked like a deer caught in the headlights, then decided the best tack was to ignore the question. He quickly turned to Kono with the an even bigger grin and welcome. "Kaikuahine!" he greeted with a big hug and a kiss on her cheek, even as she laughed and returned the hug. "And who is this beautiful little lady?"
Billie hid her face in Kono's neck.
"This is Billie," Kono introduced. "Billie, say hello to Kamekona."
"'lo," came a soft voice.
"For my first-time customers who are as pretty and polite as you, free kid's ice," the man boomed.
"What are you talking about?" Steve exclaimed. "When I was a first-time customer you made me buy an ice and a tee-shirt!"
"You're not pretty like this little lady here," Kamekona replied, then turned back to the little girl. "And what do you want your special ice to taste like?"
"Pink." She lifted her head, looking interested now. She wiped her teary face with her small hands.
"OK!" The big man squirted red syrup over the small ice.
"Kamekona's pink shave ice will take those tears away," the man continued. He finished up with a flourish and handed her the brightly colored ice. "Ah, now, see? Looks pretty, huh?"
The shave ice owner managed to get a shy smile out of the small child as she held the ice in her hands, admiring the cheerful color. "'s pretty," she agreed, looking at it with shining eyes.
Steve watched with amusement as Kono smiled. "What do you say, keiki?" she prodded gently.
"Fank you," she said bashfully, then leaned over and gave Kamekona a hug.
"See, Kamekona knows best, eh?" Kamekona winked as he handed Kono her ice. As Kono led the small child away, the large man turned to Steve. "You cops babysit now?"
"In a sense. Her father was murdered."
Kamekona grew serious. "Oh." He scooped some ice out and patted it down in the cup. "That explains the crying."
"That crying," Steve corrected, "is because she was told somebody was going to kill her mother, too." She stopped and waited as Kamekona looked over at the small child, who was seated on Kono's lap at a table and completely immersed in eating her ice. As the big man looked back and handed him an ice, Steve pulled out a photo of Travis Holden. "You know him?"
Kamekona looked at the photo carefully, and Steve noticed a flicker of recognition. The man did not stop working, just continued deliberately scooping ice into the cup. "He the one who die?"
"Yeah." When the other man didn't say anything, Steve leaned forward. "He was a doing a series on the drug wars on the islands. C'mon. Give me a name. Who did he make mad?"
"Local drug dealers wanted to kill that haole? They'd done it long time ago." Kamekona shook his head as he squirted syrup on the ice. "He made enemies, but he got connections on this island. He dies, people get upset."
"He had protection?" Steve frowned.
The big man nodded. "HPD. They love him. We all know: no local seller touches Holden - they risk making the entire police department angry."
"Well, somebody thought they could get around that." Steve looked at him intently. "Name."
"Perhaps the Mexican drug lords," Kamekona replied. "He upset them with his recent articles."
"He was writing on the influence of the Mexican drug wars on the islands," Steve murmured, remembering. "And they don't care about HPD."
"You're the smart one," Kamekona said, pointing at his brain and then to Steve. "I tell you a little secret - right now?" The big man shook his head as he handed Steve his ice. "These new articles make the local dealers like him a little more. They're happy he's left them alone."
"And if he targets the Mexican drug czars and forces them out of Hawaii, business goes up for them," Steve mused.
Kamekona nodded in agreement.
"Hi," Charlie greeted as Steve came into his lab. "Was wondering when you'd be able to come in."
"Let's just say that searching for missing children tends to disrupt one's schedule," Steve replied.
"Speaking of." Charlie held out a plastic bag to Steve.
"This is - ?" McGarrett looked inside and saw the large panda, freshly laundered. "Ah. Thanks."
"Bring it to 5-0 for me?"
"No problem." Steve nodded. "You checked out the things Max sent up?"
"Yeah." Charlie brought up a few images onto his computer. "This is the bullet Max pulled out of Holden. Standard issue, 9 millimeter. Just get me a gun so I can match bullets."
"We're working on that. Unfortunately, everybody around here uses a 9 mil."
"I processed his clothes and everything else you guys sent to me. I didn't find any fingerprints at all on any of the things in the house."
"Used gloves."
"Unfortunately. And they used a latex glove - there's no fibers, either, that I've found so far. The fingerprints I found on the stuff in the home match those of the Holden family."
"How'd you get his wife's prints?"
Charlie chuckled. "Security clearance. She's got it. Was vetted by the FBI when she was on White House detail."
"WHITE HOUSE?" Steve frowned. "What's she doing in Hawaii?"
"Verifying the president's certificate of live birth for Donald Trump," Charlie deadpanned, his eyes twinkling. At the look he got, he grinned, "Too soon?"
Steve chuckled and shook his head.
"I don't know," Charlie shrugged. "Story goes that the Holdens were big shots in Los Angeles, but they angered a lot of the underworld by exposing all kinds of crime rings. Rumor is that they moved here for some peace and quiet. And safety."
Steve snorted. "Ironic."
"No kidding." Charlie typed a little more and brought up another screen. "Now these - these are interesting."
"That's the green silk fiber."
"High quality Italian silk, like Bergman said. Certainly not Holden's, and not likely to be his." The door opened, and the men turned. "Danny!" Charlie greeted with a grin.
"Long time no see," Danny grinned, clapping the man on the shoulder as Charlie laughed. "How ya been?"
"Well, thanks. How's Grace?"
"Great," Danny grinned.
"She's - eight, right?" Charlie asked, pausing to recalculate the child's age.
"Nine, now. Just had a birthday couple of weeks ago."
"Wow."
"You two know each other?" Steve asked, an amused look on his face.
"Well, before I decided to risk my life every day and get shot at," Danny began as he threw an arm around Fong's shoulders, "I worked as a detective for HPD." He gestured to himself, then to Charlie.
Charlie chuckled, then clarified, "Meka was a friend of mine. We worked a lot of cases together - some of those once he was assigned to Danny."
"So!" Danny looked at them expectantly. "What've we got?"
"What, no 'hello' for me?" Steve asked, crossing his arms.
Danny pretended to think this over. "No." He turned back to Charlie, as if to listen to the lab scientist go on, then commented, "And thank you for the literally one million messages going, 'Kid missing', 'found kid', 'kid missing', 'found kid'. Make up your mind. I had to call Kono to see what was going on."
"'Literally'? 'Literally one million'?" Steve retorted.
Charlie just looked amused. When both men turned back to him, he thought for a moment, trying to recall his train of thought. He then jerked his thumb back to the image of the thread on the computer monitor. "Green Italian silk fiber."
"Could it have been Holden's?"
"Unlikely. Italian silk's pricey. It wouldn't be his normal wear. That, and - " Charlie shrugged. "He's not the type - for that or for the shoes." He called up a colored image. "That's one of the footprints in the yard." He then picked up a plaster cast, which he handed to Steve. "This is a plaster cast of the imprint."
"Looks like some kind of...dress shoe," Danny said, running his fingers over the flat sole of the plaster cast. "Smooth sole."
Steve frowned, then pointed at Charlie with the cast. "One of the witnesses said one of the men who showed up seemed rather wealthy and pampered."
"Well, he did show up at a murder in a dress shoe," Charlie commented.
"If he's willing to do that kind of dirty work in Italian silk shirts and dress shoes - " Steve began.
" - our killer wears higher-end clothes as part his regular clothing," Danny finished. "That'll narrow down our pool."
Charlie indicated the print on the computer behind him. "13 men's. From the evidence you brought in, Holden was a 11, 12." He pointed to the shoe. "If you get me a shoe, I can match it."
"Anything else notable?"
"Oh, yeah." Fong grinned and motioned towards the plaster cast, which Steve handed back. "If you look," he said, flipping the cast up so they could see the sole, "here the sole slopes down - and then flattens out along the outer edge of the shoe. You can see where the outer edge has been worn down."
"The guy's feet slope outwards and downwards," Danny concluded.
"Supination," Charlie nodded. "I can also tell you the wearer was heavyset, based on the sink pattern into the soil. That's it on that."
"What about the DNA swabs?" Steve asked.
"You have DNA?" Danny asked incredulously. "How do we not have this guy, then?"
"Holden managed to land a few hits with his right fist," Steve replied. "As to the second, we've been a little busy!"
"Yeah, finding and losing one child. You're a Navy SEAL! How do you lose track of a three-year-old? She's THREE!"
"Oh, for - "
"No hits on the DNA yet," Charlie cut in. "Of course, it might be somebody not in the system."
"Not good," Steve replied, and Charlie nodded. "Anything else on what we got from Holden's office?"
"Not yet."
Danny frowned, his brow furrowing. He uncrossed his arms just enough to gesture with one hand, pointing at the floor at different intervals for emphasis. "Holden. This is Travis Holden?"
"Yeah, why?" Steve asked.
"Holden," Danny looked at Charlie for confirmation. "He's the guy tied to the HPD fund, the, uh - " he waved as he tried to remember.
" - disability and the widowed spouses and the orphans fund," Charlie supplied. "He's been one of its major supporters the last two years."
"Right," Danny continued, "I remember Amy mentioned getting help from them when Meka was killed."
"We had a few people tell us Holden's very popular around here," Steve put in. "That he's been very involved since he moved here."
"Oh, yeah." Charlie nodded. "He's stuck his neck on the line for this department."
"Whoever targeted him must be desperate enough to take on a police force," Steve murmured.
"Or stupid enough," Danny replied.
"Welcome back," Chin greeted as Steve and Danny came into headquarters, joining him at the tabletop computer.
"You get in touch with Livy Holden?"
"Finally, yes. She's going to book a ticket and call as soon as she gets an arrival time for here in Hawaii. She's flying from New York," Chin explained to Danny on the side. "It won't be until tomorrow, though. Kono's going to take Billie tonight." He nodded at them. "You get anything good?"
"Travis Holden's attacker appears to be wealthy and never committed a crime," Steve replied.
"Well, it's a start," Chin started. He nodded towards Kono's office, where Billie and Grace were seated on the floor. Grace was gently guiding Billie's hand to pet the chubby little rabbit in its small plastic rabbit carrier. The small blonde child was beaming, and she could be seeing talking to the rabbit, and then asking Grace a question. "Your daughter's been great."
"Well, of course. She's my daughter," Danny replied matter-of-factly. At the sound of his voice, Grace came out and ran to her father, who gave her a hug. "You doing OK?"
Grace nodded.
Steve ignored him and turned to Grace. "Heya, Grace. Thanks for helping us out." He grinned at her.
She smiled shyly.
"First assignment as a cop," Steve teased and held out his fist, and Grace beamed and fist-bumped him.
"Do not fist-bump my daughter."
"Wha - ? Seriously? You just said not to fist-bump your daughter? What's wrong with fist-bumping?"
"This is my daughter. She's a nice, normal, nine-year - "
"Nine and two months, Daddy."
" - nine-year-and-two-months-old, and fist-bumping is not a socially accepted form of greeting among - "
"We fist-bump!"
"It's my concession to your insanity!"
"Your concession?" Steve started to protest, then grinned and turned to Grace. "Wanna bet that vein in his neck is throbbing? Wanna check?"
Grace giggled, then looked at her father - who, true enough, looked like he was about to have an apoplexy. When she confirmed the vein in his neck was indeed throbbing in indignation, Steve held out his fist, and Grace, smiling, fist-bumped her father's partner.
"What? What did I JUST say?"
Steve just smirked at him. "Wanna see what we brought ya?" he said to Grace.
"OK."
Steve gave a small chuckle and set a box on the table, then pulled out a huge box of Liliha coco puffs.
"Oh, cool!" Grace look intrigued.
"First dibs." Steve winked as he opened the box for her.
"Can Billie have one?" Grace asked as he picked one out.
"Sure. In a bit."
"How do you like Billie?" Danny asked as he took one for himself.
"She's cute," Grace nodded, chewing around her puff. "She likes your tie."
"She's the only one," Steve snarked as he headed to Kono's office, where the three-year-old was still talking quietly to the rabbit, which was cheerfully ignoring her.
Through the window, Danny could see the other man hand a cheerful-looking panda to the little three-year-old, at which point he turned back to his daughter. "She likes my tie, huh?"
"She likes the blue stripes on it."
"When'd she see it?"
"Right before you left."
"That was fast," Danny muttered. He straightened and gave his daughter's ponytail a tug. "She's a bit younger than you," he commented as they watched Billie run full tilt out of Kono's office towards Chin's, plowing straight into Kono's arms. "It was kind of you to play with her."
Grace smiled. They were quiet for a little bit, and then Grace said quietly, "She's very sad."
"Yeah?"
"She misses her dad," Grace said quietly.
Danny put her arm around his daughter. "You did good, cheering her up."
"That you did," Chin commented. He tweaked Grace's ponytail. "You did a great job babysitting."
"Thanks, Uncle Chin." Grace smiled, chocolate on her mouth.
"Coco puffs are good, aren't they," Chin whispered with a wink.
"They're great."
Kono appeared then, coming out of Chin's office with a sniffling Billie in her arms. "Ooh, coco puffs. Hey, Gracie," she greeted, giving the other girl a one-armed hug. One of the two stuffed toys Billie was holding dropped to the floor, and Grace bent over to pick it up. "Thank you."
Grace just smiled shyly.
"Want a coco puff, keiki?" Kono asked.
Another sniffle. "'K." Kono set her in an office chair and raised it so she could reach the table and gave her a coco puff on a napkin, even as Grace pushed her chair near to her . The little girl abruptly wiped some tears away with her hand and then sat up, carefully placed her stuffed toys by her side, one on each side of her. She then studied the dessert, poking at it with a finger.
"What's wrong?" Danny asked, pointing back at the three-year-old. "She seemed fine five minutes ago."
"Somebody," Kono emphasized, her tone mixed with just a tiny tinge of irritation and boatloads of amusement, "told her her new lion might eat her panda." Four sets of eyes turned to look at Steve, who was watching the news on one of the screens.
He was still looking at the television when he finally noticed the silence, then turned and found they were all looking at him. "Why are you all looking at me?"
"Oh, I don't know. Your constantly winning way with children?" Danny snarked.
He crossed his arms as his teammates - and Grace, for crying out loud - continued to look at him. "It was a JOKE. I was TEASING."
"She's THREE, Mary Poppins," Danny retorted sarcastically. "As if she weren't traumatized enough."
"It was meant to make her laugh after - " he waved vaguely "this afternoon!"
"Make her laugh," Danny repeated. "Do you hear yourself? She's THREE! You told her her lion would eat her panda when she wasn't looking!" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And y'all thought my Jack in the Box joke was too soon."
Chin tried to hide an amused smile, ducking his head. At Steve's glare, he held up his hands in a "hands-off" gesture, replying only, "I saw the kid with the hippo innertube."
Steve gave him an exasperated, betrayed look. "Did you find anything on the HPD video yet, or about that SUV?"
"Not yet." Chin looked over at them. "What did you guys find?"
"Well, between Charlie and Max, we figure we're dealing with somebody pretty high-up and intelligent. There were no fingerprints left at the murder scene or in the tossed bedroom, and the killer used a regular 9 mil. The DNA swabs from Holden's hands showed he drew some blood, but no DNA matches in the system."
"Somebody who's never committed a crime," Chin confirmed.
"But the family's well known to the HPD because of their charity work," Steve said, gesturing to make his point. "Whoever this person is, he had to know he would be taking on the HPD if he took them on."
"Whatever Holden had on him was that good," Danny replied. "Either that, or he's high up enough he can get off even if HPD collared him."
"Billie likes animals," Grace commented from her place in the backseat of her father's car. She looked down at her rabbit, then back out of the window, watching the passing sights.
"What kind?" Danny asked from the driver's seat.
"Furry ones."
They rode in silence, and then "You're quiet," Danny commented as he drove along, peering at his daughter in his backseat. "You OK, monkey?"
"Did Billie's dad do something bad?"
"Not that we know of," Danny said, frowning, glancing at his daughter in the rearview mirror. "Why?"
"So, the person chasing Billie is a bad guy?"
"Why do you say that?"
"She told me kepolo was going to kill her and her mother." Grace looked back at the rabbit sitting in her lap.
Danny yanked the wheel, pulling over to the shoulder. He turned around to look at his daughter. "What did Billie tell you?"
"I asked her why she was there - at the office," Grace explained. "She said her daddy's coming to get her." She's didn't seem to believe it. "She then said kepolo's going to kill her mommie if she tells." She paused. "What's kepolo?"
"It's the devil."
"Oh," Grace replied. "The devil's chasing her?"
"She's most likely having nightmares or bad dreams. That's all."
"But why not?"
Danny frowned. "Why not what?"
"Why don't you believe her?" Grace asked, frowning.
Danny looked at her very hard for a long moment.
"I'm not exactly up for a late-night chat," Steve snarked as he answered his phone. He set it on speaker, then held it in his hand as he made a turn of the steering wheel.
"Shut up and listen," Danny retorted, pacing outside on the driveway of Rachel's home. "I just dropped Grace off at Rachel's. She said something that made me think. We've been treating Billie's comment about this - kepolo - as her getting spooked. What if it's real?"
"What are you talking about?" Steve braked at a stop sign.
"Devils aren't real. Don't kid me, Danny."
"People smarter than you and more trained in theology would disagree with you, but I'm not here for that discussion. Look, when a child says he or she's being abused, we normally believe them. However they describe it, it's not normally a lie. Not normally."
"You're saying a devil really spooked her." Steve paused, frowning. "At HPD?"
"Look, all it could be is simply somebody identifying themselves as 'kepolo', telling her his name's 'kepolo' and if she talks he'll kill her."
"Talks about what?"
"I don't know. You said she was the only one in the house at the time of the murder," Danny replied. "Perhaps they're trying to scare her into silence."
"She's three, Danny," Steve replied, driving to the left lane to pass another car. "What could she possibly be able to say about her father's murder? This isn't a very reliable witness."
"Even if she doesn't actually know anything, this punk will kill her if he THINKS she knows something," Danny replied.
Steve stared out at the road for a few seconds, then swung his car around at the first intersection.
TBC