Ho'ike
by Sammie
All notes in first part.
Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing!
For anybody who wishes to see the picture which inspired Billie, the link is below; copy and paste it into the address bar and remove the spaces. It also has the actors whom I picture as her parents.
rosefern. bravehost. com/ FF/ Ho'ike_pics. html
Steve woke suddenly to the sunlight streaming in his bedroom window. He flopped back down; he'd had an exhausting night. Billie had woken him up three times with crying; she apparently had been tossing and turning all night, keeping Kono up. After he'd finally gotten to bed after the bed-wetting, he'd ended up with nightmares. In them he was always running, and in various scenarios Billie, Kono, Catherine, Chin, or Danny were getting chased, shot, blown up, knifed - take your pick. Not restful.
There wasn't any point in trying to get more sleep. He sat up and swung himself out of bed and changed to go swimming. He peeked in on Catherine, who was still asleep, and then found his parents' bedroom empty. He frowned. No panicking - yet.
He made his way noiselessly down the stairs, his gun poised. There didn't appear to be any signs of break-ins, and his "trusty" alarm system (which, he thought sourly, had gotten hacked once and then didn't ring when Kamekona came to make him "breakfast") was still on. He quickly set it so it would allow him outside.
Kono was in a black, racing competition swimsuit, and Billie was dressed in a little pink swimsuit with a ruffle around it. Kono had her up in the air, Billie lying on her stomach across her forearms; the woman was zooming her toward the water like an dolphin, going up and down. Billie was smiling and giggling - the first time since the night before. "PLAY!"
"Shh. Auntie Catherine and Uncle Steve are still sleeping," Kono whispered, stopping what she was doing.
"Play, Auntie Kono," the little girl whined, lowering her voice, then saw Steve. "Hi, Uncle Steve!" she beamed.
"Well, hello, you." He smiled as the small child affectionately hugged his knees.
"Morning, boss. Hope we didn't wake you," Kono commented as Billie caught her hand again, then took one of Steve's in her other small hand, and started to pull them as hard as she could towards the water.
"Didn't sleep well." He regretted it when he said it, as Kono looked at him guiltily and apologized. "Wasn't you or Billie. Just my own imagination running wild in the worst case scenarios." He looked around. "Was it wise to bring her out here?" he asked. He didn't expect an answer, and it wasn't rhetorical.
She winced. She clearly hadn't thought of whether or not she should have brought the little girl outside of the house. "I didn't think," she muttered, stumbling a bit as Billie pulled again. "She just really wanted to play in the water, and after last night - " she shrugged as she trailed off.
"We ought to be OK right now, this close to the house." Steve nodded at her swimming outfit, even as Billie huffed and puffed, trying to drag them towards the water. "Not your normal."
She gave him a look. "What if you went to Catherine's home and saw one of her coworkers walking around her house without his shirt on?" He thought about it, then acknowledged her point with an amused smile and a brief tilt of his head. "It's not fair to her. I think Billie and I have already interefered with the weekend you two planned, without making it worse by having me in a bikini at your house."
"Play!" Billie demanded, pulling at both of their hands again, but keeping her voice down. "Wanna play," she whispered pitifully.
"Want to take over?" Kono picked up the little girl and deposited her in Steve's arms.
Billie turned to Steve and beamed. "Play!"
"Demanding little snot, aren't you."
"Duke," Danny greeted as he slid into the booth.
"Danny." Lukela's eyes flickered around the diner. "Thanks for meeting me here." He waved over a waitress for a fresh cup of coffee and a refill for himself.
"Sure." Danny leaned forward. "Something wrong?"
"They wanted to meet somewhere that wasn't headquarters. They're just coming off the late shift."
"Who's 'they'?"
After a moment came two members of the HPD, dressed in plainclothes. "Duke."
Lukela exited the booth, greeting both, then slid into the booth next to Danny as the two others seated across from them. "John Iaukea, Robbie Paahao, HPD. Danny Williams, 5-0," he introduced.
"What's this about?" Danny asked sharply.
"It's about Holden," Lukela replied, and Danny sat up a little. After both settled in, and they had relative privacy, the man seated next to Danny nodded to the new arrivals.
"About six weeks ago we approached Travis privately," began Iaukea. "Asked for his help."
"What could he do that HPD couldn't?" Danny asked.
"He has ties to the wealthier classes on the island," Paahao replied. "We were hoping he could find something we could investigate."
"What was this about?"
"A year ago, Miranda Akina had mentioned building a development - low-cost housing, especially for the teachers and the cops on the island. You know what living expenses are around here, especially in light of our salaries."
"I can sympathize," Danny chuckled.
"Then everything kept stalling and stalling."
"So you asked Travis to look into it," Danny concluded. The two nodded.
Catherine wasn't completely surprised to find that she was the last one up, but she had to admit to a tiny bit of relief - which she quashed as unprofessional - when she saw Kono alone in the kitchen. The woman moved around the space with an ease of somebody familiar with it, and she wore a light wrap over what was competition swimming gear. Evidently 5-0 spent a lot of time at Steve's place. "Morning."
The other woman turned, and Catherine found herself looking at what was a smile - genuine, by all her instincts. And a little sheepish, but the Navy woman hadn't figured that one out yet. "Hi. I hope you don't mind eggs."
"As long as there's no Spam."
The other woman laughed, and Catherine smiled. It was easy to be around her. "I won't attempt to give you the native Hawaiian 'nectar of the gods' speech. No, no Spam."
Catherine chuckled, then moved to the fridge to get herself a glass of juice. Outside, she could hear the hose going, and the little girl squealing with laughter. She looked out the window to see Steve hosing himself off and then squirting the small child at different intervals. When the other woman cleared her throat nervously, the lieutenant turned.
"I'm really sorry," the other woman said quietly, her eyes darting everywhere but not looking at Catherine. "About all of this." She looked at Catherine sheepishly. "I was going to take Billie home with me, but I live in an apartment complex, and so the guys said it wouldn't be safe for the other residents. So boss - " she quickly cut off her rambling, replacing it with a more neutral, "it was decided it was better to be here, since boss has a single house with an alarm system."
Catherine nodded. So he HAD forgotten. She smiled a "I'm onto him" smile. "He ordered you to come, didn't he."
The other woman turned red, caught out. "Yes?" At Catherine's amused smile, she quickly added, "I'm sure he would have remembered his plans, but the governor called and wanted us on the case, so when he gets into - "
" - work mode he forgets everything else," Catherine finished with a knowing chuckle.
The other woman smiled sheepishly. "Again," she replied, her tone genuinely apologetic. "I'm sorry."
"AUNTIE KONO!" came the cheerful voice. Both women turned as the youngster came running in, launching herself into a big hug around the younger woman's legs. Steve greeted Catherine with a quick peck.
"Hey, keiki." Kono's voice was warm and affectionate. "Did you have fun?"
"I a'most catched a fish," she announced.
"We might've been eating fish for br - " Steve started, and Catherine watched as Kono shook her head vigorously at him.
The Navy woman looked down at the little girl, who had a horrified expression on her face. "Don' wanna eat the fishie," she gasped, as Kono closed her eyes, defeated. "Don' wanna eat the fishie," she begged, throwing herself at Kono's legs.
"There's no fish for breakfast. I promise," Kono sighed. Catherine watched as she put one hand on the child's head, then turned her around. "Say hello to Auntie Catherine."
"H'llo." The little girl and smiled shyly at the brunette, then hid her face in her caretaker's leg.
Catherine smiled, her expression soft. She crouched down to the girl's level. "Are you feeling better this morning?" she asked gently.
"Yeah," the little girl said bashfully.
"Aren't you glad now you DIDN'T catch the fish?" Catherine whispered to her, with a wink. Billie smiled, comforted, and nodded. Kono grinned, suppressing a laugh, and Catherine would have bet a hundred bucks that Steve had some kind of growly expression on his face.
"OK. Breakfast." Kono pointed towards the table, and the little girl bounced off to her chair.
"What happened to your shoe? C'mere, kid." Steve crouched down, sitting back on his haunches, and placed the little girl on his lap, her back to his front. She stuck her feet out in front, a small sandal dangling from a foot. "How'd you manage to get this velcro off? I just put it on."
"I don' know," the little girl intoned, as puzzled about the mess as Steve was, her focus on her sandals as Steve readjusted the shoe on her foot.
"You're going to hurt yourself running around with your shoes that loose," he commented as he finished. "All right. Up you go." He set her back on her feet before he swung her up and set her in the booster seat.
Kono set a few dishes onto the table as Billie drank some of her milk. Steve waved for Catherine to take a seat, and the woman watched with interested puzzlement as the tot carefully arranged her stuffed toys around her.
"Why does she always separate her panda and her lion?"
It had been another hour of talking, after which the two cops got up to head home. Lukela paid the bill out of his own pocket - "think of it as a thank-you to the Holdens" - and he and Danny headed to the parking lot.
"Thank you for coming, off the books," Lukela turned to him in the parking lot. "The guys don't want their doubts about Akina to get out if there's no justification for it."
"Akina's a bigshot on the island?" Danny asked.
"Very."
"No problem." Danny nodded, heading to his car, then turned. "You know, there's one thing I'm wondering."
"Of course."
"Why did you ask ME here?" Danny asked bluntly, his gaze coming up to pin down the older cop. When the other didn't answer, the blond shook his head in disgusted realization. "You don't trust Chin."
"It's not me," Lukela protested sharply. "Iaukea and Paahao requested you."
Danny held up a hand, as if about to comment, then gave a bitter laugh before stepping away and looking to the side, gathering his thoughts. He then got straight in Lukela's face. "You know Chin didn't do it," Danny hissed, jabbing his index finger into the other man's chest. "When you play along, you know that it'll just fuel what people think about him."
"I know he did not take the money," Lukela snapped. "But they refused to talk to anybody unless it was you." He sighed. "They saw your loyalty to Meka, and they know you are a good detective - without scandal. They trust you. So I agreed."
Lukela paused, rubbing his forehead in agitation. "I would give this information to Chin Ho in a heartbeat. But they wouldn't. When I weighed catching Travis's killer against possibly hurting Chin's feelings, I decided in favor of the former." The man looked at Danny. "I want to catch this person as much as you do."
"I fully intend to catch this killer," Danny replied, straightening and turning to his car, opening the car door. "And you go back and tell them I've got Kelly's back - a thousand percent." He got in and slammed his door shut.
The long silence in the front of the truck was set off by only the quiet, off-key singing and chatter from the backseat. Still, Steve knew it was too good to last. His teammate was brimming with curiosity.
"Catherine seems really nice."
"Uh-huh." He tried to be as gruff as possible to cut off the questions.
Beat. "So how come we haven't met her yet?"
Steve just tossed Kono an exasperated look, but she was grinning too much to care. "I mean, she's gorgeous, intelligent. She's a Navy woman, so she most likely kicks butt," Kono rattled off. "Why would you be ashamed of her? Unless she's got something embarrassing like a high-pitched giggle or a snorting laugh."
Steve gave her a look. "Do I look like somebody who'd date a woman with a high-pitched giggle?"
"I don't know," she replied cheekily. "Are you?"
"No, I'm not. And when I introduce Catherine to anybody is my business."
"Are you afraid Danny's going to steal her?" Kono joked. "She's got the same dark hair and dark eyes as his ex-wife."
"Wait, wait - " Steve's expression furrowed. "When have you seen Rachel?"
"Gracie showed me a photo."
"Gracie - when have you spent enough time with Danny for Gracie to show you a photo?" Steve asked suspiciously.
Kono just gave him a mysteriously cheeky shrug, complete with a teasing Mona Lisa smile.
"And - you - you actually think that somebody would prefer Danny over me," Steve replied incredulously. "Seriously?" he asked, his tone more uncertain now than before.
"Well - " Kono trailed off tantalizingly.
"Danny - Daniel Williams. You think women would prefer him over me," he repeated, his voice rising a notch in outrageous disbelief.
"I don't know what women prefer."
"You are one!"
"Yes, and there are 3 billion of us in the world. I can't speak for all of them."
"I don't need to know what 3 billion women think, just what this one sitting shotgun thinks."
"I like Uncle Danny!" piped up a voice from the back seat.
"Well, that's one vote for Danny," Kono laughed.
"Yeah, but she's three," Steve retorted. "And blonde!" Beat. "I want to know what you think."
"Isn't the question what Catherine thinks?" Kono pointed out, her eyes dancing with merriment.
"You let me worry about Catherine," Steve cut off, then glanced at Kono in suspicious puzzlement. "You SERIOUSLY think that Danny could outmatch me when it comes to women?"
"You don't think he's attractive to women? He was married."
"I think he's most likely...inexplicably...attractive to women. Just not...over me." Steve looked at her suspiciously. She just gave him an enigmatic shrug, a huge smile of amusement on her face, her dimples deepening. "I don't believe this."
"I think it's funny you're having a cargument with Danny when he's not even here."
"I am not having a - 'cargument'? Seriously?" Steve shot an irritated glance over at Kono, who just started laughing again. "Do you guys secretly name everything I do?" Suddenly, his voice grew even more suspicious. "It sounds like you've been hanging out with Danny."
"I have not been hanging out with Danny. That was Chin's word. You forget that you put him in surveillance too often for him not to overhear you two at some point."
"We do not have 'carguments'." Steve glared at the road. D-ng. He was a decorated lieutenant commander and a SEAL, and he was pouting like a three-year-old.
From the back seat, the actual three-year-old giggled.
"Is Uncle Steve funny?" Kono smiled from the front seat.
"Yeah," giggled the little girl, who then kicked Steve's seat cheerfully.
Great. Steve started to look in the rearview mirror at the little child sitting behind him when Kono warned, "Don't show her your aneurysm face."
"I do not have an aneurysm face."
"Well, at least you don't have 'constipation face', which is allegedly what I have."
"Danny tells you you have 'constipation face' and you defend him?"
"I'm not defending him. I'm just saying that your carguments are quite funny. That's the fodder that gets CBS sitcoms off the ground - two bruddahs who argue about everything."
"I'm afraid to know which of those two irritating Harpers you think I am."
"Why?" Kono grinned cheekily. "Don't you want to be 'WINNING!'? Not enough tiger blood?"
He looked over at her, his expression a mix of disgust and disbelief. "No! No tiger blood."
"You could settle for another type of animal," Kono suggested innocently.
"I like bunnies!" announced the passenger in the backseat.
"There you go. You can be WINNING! with bunny blood," Kono deadpanned, her eyes dancing with barely contained mirth.
He looked at her with amused exasperation as he parked the car. "You're enjoying this."
She smiled, her dimples deepening, and made no effort to contradict that statement. "I - " She stopped as her phone began to ring. "Hey, Danny."
"What, he's calling you now?" Steve groused as he hopped out of his truck and opened the backseat door. "All right. C'mon, kid," he muttered.
A pair of big blue eyes turned to him, and the small child beamed and reached her arms out to him, and Steve growled to himself. He did not do cute, he reminded himself as he unbuckled the little girl from her booster seat.
"Do you have your toys?"
She held up her lion and then her panda.
"She's coming in - 1:30 pm, American Airlines, Honolulu International," Kono recited, scribbling it down on a small notepad from her pocket. "OK. Got it."
"OK." He picked her up and set her on the ground, then turned to shut the door and then suddenly looked down when he felt small arms around his legs. When he looked down the little girl smiled up at him as she hugged him.
"Want to ride?" he asked before he knew what he was saying, and he lifted her up to ride on his shoulders. A small voice reminded him fruitlessly that he did not do cute.
"Yeah!" The three-year-old happily bounced her plush toys on his head.
"We'll be right there. Right." Kono hung up, then turned to him, about to speak, but stopping short when she saw him with the little girl perched on his shoulders.
"Don't say it," he said, pointing a finger at her as they headed towards the office.
Charlie leaned against the desk at his lab, his back to the table, his head bowed as he listened intently. Danny stood nearby, his arms crossed, as Steve recounted what had happened last night.
"Billie specifically said somebody promised to kill her, and that the voice who threatened her was the same as the voice of the man who came to her house," Steve continued. At this, both Danny and Charlie turned to look at him, concerned looks on their faces. "At HPD, she said he put his hand over her mouth and, my guess is, talked into her ear. So we're looking at somebody who was certainly at HPD - no other way to do all this."
"Did she describe his face, either from that night or yesterday afternoon?" Charlie asked.
"Billie can't remember. We talked to her last night, then tried drawing a picture with her this morning - nothing about the guy's face." Steve nodded to the camera. "Hopefully he's on this video, though."
Charlie called up the video on the computer. "Thankfully, since you were only here about an hour, we can narrow down the time."
"So we're sitting and waiting for something to happen onscreen?" Steve asked.
"We just sit and wait for something to happen onscreen," Charlie confirmed.
"Just like when Rachel rented 'The Notebook'," Danny snarked.
Charlie grinned, then handed them a packet of papers. "A list of everybody who checked in yesterday at the time you were here."
"Checked in?"
"All those who had been arrested who went through here, the officers who came in, and everybody who signed in to deliver stuff."
"Good. Who's allowed in?"
"Everybody. Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner, ER doctors and nurses, reporters. Pizza delivery guy."
"Any camera in the break room?" Danny cut in.
"Nope."
"Who's allowed in the break room?" Steve asked.
Charlie shrugged with a mix of exasperation and sheepishness. "Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner, ER doctors and nurses, reporters, pizza delivery guy," he repeated in the same tone as he had given the list earlier.
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tell me this isn't a government operation."
"All right. How many of these people did Holden would know?"
"My guess?" Charlie shrugged. "Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner - "
" - everybody," Steve concluded with a pained expression.
"Sorry, brah." Charlie shrugged. "Travis Holden was really well known around here."
Steve paused. "Do we have any 'Bruce's on this list?"
"'Bruce'?" Charlie frowned, exchanging a look with Danny.
Steve nodded. "'Bruce'."
"Sure." Charlie held up the paper copy. "Got a couple here." He held up a copy of the list, and Steve and Danny scanned over his shoulder. His expression turned stony.
Steve instantly noticed. "What? What?"
"Well, there's a Bruce Lonoehu on here - CFO of Hawaiian National Bank," Charlie replied. "B-L-O-N."
Kono set the folder back into the open filing cabinet drawer, then looked around Holden's office at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "He's got piles of papers and piles of electronic documents. Are we even going to be able to search all of them? We don't even know what we're looking for."
"We have to try." Chin replied. His phone began to ring, and Billie, who was sitting at her father's desk drawing, held it up. "Thank you, Billie," he said to her with a grin, and she smiled. "Kelly," he answered the phone.
"Look for Hawaiian National Bank," Steve replied. "Bruce Lonoehu. L-O-N-O-E-H-U."
"Hawaiian National Bank." Kono got up, then quickly flipped through some folders in one of the filing cabinets before pulling something. "I saw something on it." She quickly tossed down the folder as she pulled out the papers. "He got a fax which had a letterhead with that."
"We'll bring it over," Chin said, then hung up before he came to join his cousin.
"Here's another." Kono scanned the page, then pulled another fax. "The fax numbers are the same."
Chin pulled out his phone and started doing a search. "The fax number's similar to the ones given for the bank's corporate offices - the first three digits of the number after the area code. This could be a private fax number for somebody at the bank."
"Chin." Kono's voice was tense.
Chin put his phone away, turning to look at his cousin, who turned to him, her jaw set.
Kono held up the cover sheet. "This says there's eight pages to this fax, including the cover sheet. There are only six here, including the cover sheet. It's the same thing with this fax - pages missing."
"How many faxes from this number are like that?"
"All three," Kono replied darkly, holding them up.
TBC