Ho'ike
by Sammie
All notes in first part.
BRUCE: I, too, had always thought Danny would turn Hoffman in right away and waited for some kind of wrap-up on it - or even just any other mention of it. Danny would have to tie the break-in and the carjacking to Hoffman, who, I'd assume, would be very careful. Yet the show never seemed to go there - perhaps they just forgot. ;-)
STEVE'S CLOTHES: Of course Danny would mock him. :-D
TRAVIS HOLDEN: I wanted him to have a whole personality, a relatable person (especially for Danny) for whom, if I wished, I could write a separate story - before his death, of course. I envisage Holden as a driven, upright family man, a Prince Albert (played better by Jonathan Firth than Rupert Friend) or Helo Agathon (Fighting Agathons! How is it that Masi Oka already has a "Heroes" reunion with Greg Grunberg and we haven't seen any of Grace's costars? I personally vote for Edward James Olmos or Tahmoh Penikett.)
"Morning, Chin," Danny greeted as he came down the hall towards the Five-0 headquarters, accompanied by several others. "Look who I found in the parking lot."
"Mrs. Holden, Billie. Good morning." Chin nodded to the two HPD officers. "Conway. Palea."
"Hi, Uncle Chin." Billie ran to him and hugged his knees.
"Hey, keiki," Chin greeted, hauling her up into his arms. "How are you today?"
"Good," she announced. "We's gonna see Uncle Steve."
"Well, Uncle Steve's right inside."
As the Holdens headed for the bullpen, followed by their protective detail, Chin pulled Danny back. "You know your ex-wife is here?"
"Who? Rachel?"
"You have another ex-wife?" Chin raised an amused eyebrow.
Danny acknowledged that with a wave. "Cute."
"She's very upset."
Danny's eyes flickering to his office. "Thanks for the warning."
"Call if you need backup, brah." Chin gave him an amused smile.
"I just might," Danny commented as he headed down to his office. He opened the door to his office but said nothing. He deliberately shut the door, then methodically closed the blinds. "Rachel."
She was pacing, and she didn't stop until he'd crossed the room and stood behind his desk. "How could you involve him?"
"Rachel - "
"It wasn't enough that we get carjacked? Now you have to ask him to testify?" her voice rose.
"This is a criminal murder case, Rachel," Danny snapped. "Stan can testify to motive."
"That will get him hurt!"
"He needs to take that risk to end this all," Danny replied sharply.
"He's got a wife and a child, in case you forgot," she retorted.
"Oh, I forgot! Thanks for reminding me," Danny snapped sarcastically. "What would I do without you to remind me that my daughter's involved in this?"
Rachel glared at him, then suddenly seemed to deflate. She swallowed, her eyes closing briefly as she silently acknowledged that point. She took a deep breath. "How did Stan get involved in all of this?"
"What, he didn't tell you?" Danny frowned in disbelief.
Rachel gave him a sharp look at the implied criticism, then admitted, "No."
"Stan wasn't in the wrong in that business with the carjacking," Danny repeated what he'd said several weeks before. "More than that I can't say."
"So both of you are keeping secrets from me."
"This is Stan's to tell, Rachel," Danny countered. "Not mine."
She uncrossed her arms, then sighed and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Danny's desk. "Can't Edward just do a taped - testimony, or a - I don't know!" Rachel threw up a hand in frustration as she struggled to describe what she wanted.
"Yes, they'll want tapes, but they'll want witnesses also," Danny argued. "Stan has a solid case against Hoffman. Add to that carjacking - it shows the extent to which Hoffman'll go. We think it's the same thugs who carjacked you who are involved in our case now. If so, when we catch them, we'll have them confess to both cases."
Danny took a deep breath, his eyes closing a minute to calm himself. "Rachel, listen to me. In a case, the evidence is critical, but the prosecution and the defense will want to question the person who got evidence, who experienced this firsthand. I can't do that. Stan can. To have a full-blown case, the DA will want him to testify."
"Danny, I don't know. I - "
"Look!" Danny threw down a picture of the Holdens. "Rachel, look. That's Travis Holden. That's his wife Olivia. You see this little girl?" he asked shortly. "This is Billie Holden. She is three years old. Do you know where we found her, huh? Huh?
"My partners found her in a safe room in the house. A safe room - with walls strengthened with Plexiglass and Kevlar," he replied, emphasizing his point by pounding his one hand perpendicular to the palm of the other. "She was holding her stuffed panda." Danny slapped down a larger photo of the child. "12 hours in that room alone. The first thing they had to do when she got out was change her. She had to go to the bathroom, couldn't reach the adult size portable toliet in the safe room. Her clothes were soaked in urine. Her stuffed toy had to be cleaned." He watched as Rachel breathed in and swallowed, unable to tear her eyes away from the pictures.
"Her father was going to blow this guy's scheme out of the water. So the schmuck showed up at this man's house, knowing he'd be there with his little daughter. Travis Holden died from a direct shot to the head." Danny dropped a photo of the crime scene on the table, with the outline of the body. "He was facing the door; his daughter was in the safe room in the back of the house. We think he was there to stall them from finding her.
"She's three, Rachel." Danny clenched his hands into fists, shaking them up and down in an urgent plea. "Do you remember when Matty was gone - five, six months - and then he came to see us? Grace, three years old - screaming like she was being abducted when he picked her up."
He fell silent for a moment, then continued softly, "Billie's not like Grace is now; she's not of the age where she'll have clear memories. This child" he tapped the photo of Billie "will have fleeting images of her father. She'll only have her father's voice in videos and her father's face in pictures. Her own parent, Rachel - the one who died because he was trying to protect her" he gestured, making the one point "and the rest of this people living in this looney bin they call a state."
Rachel kept his head down, her eyes flickering over to the photo of Grace sitting on Danny's desk. "What about Grace? If Stan testifies - "
"You don't think I know that?" Danny retorted sharply.
"I didn't mean to imply that you didn't care for - "
"Rachel, listen to me." Danny licked his lips, then paused. "Grace is safest if Hoffman's off the streets. Do you want what happened to Travis Holden to happen to you, or to Stan? This guy has already willingly targeted a three-year-old. He let Grace get carjacked. Do you think he's not going to go after our daughter again?"
She swallowed, then closed her eyes. She was silent for a long time. "Stan's a businessman. He's not supposed to be involved in this."
"Rachel, I know how you feel, but we need his testimony."
She just gritted her teeth, then picked up her purse and turned to go. She opened the door to his office, just long enough to see Olivia Holden emerging from Steve's office with Billie in hand. Danny followed Rachel's gaze; the small child was wearing a pale purple sundress, her large panda tucked under her free arm. She looked up and about the office, quietly talking to herself as she looked around, as her mother spoke with Steve.
Danny paused behind Rachel, his gaze steady on her face. Chin was speaking to the Holdens now, and then as they turned, Olivia Holden looked up. Danny saw recognition and surprise flash across Olivia Holden's face. "Mrs. Edwards."
"You two know each other?" Chin frowned.
"We - we've met at a few different charity events," Rachel offered as an explanation, then came forward, gently clasping the other woman's hands in her own, giving her a genuinely sympathetic smile. "I'm very sorry about your husband."
The blonde was pale, her eyes with dark shadows her expression stoic. "Thank you." She smiled awkwardly, then curiously. "How come you're here?"
"Oh." Rachel and Danny both opened their mouths at the same time, then shut them, then Rachel started, "Detective Williams is - my - " as Danny said awkwardly, "We're - " they both trailed off.
"Oh." Holden blushed. "Right."
"This must be Billie," Rachel smiled, then gently crouched to the child's level. Her smile slowly disappeared into one of pained sympathy as she looked at the small face. "Hello."
Billie hid behind her mother, peeking out at the other lady curiously.
"Say hello to Mrs. Edwards," Livy Holden prodded.
"H'llo." The little girl hid behind her mother.
"She's a little shy," Holden apologized.
"That's all right." Rachel smiled gently. "I believe you know my daughter, Grace."
The little girl beamed, cheering up instantly. "I like Grace." She paused. "Can she play wif me?"
"Grace is at school right now." The little girl's face fell. "But I'm sure I'll run into you and your mummy again."
Rachel smiled in acknowledgment as Chin led the Holdens away to his office. She watched them go, and then said quietly to Danny, without turning back to look at him, "I won't stand in Stan's way." She paused. "And you can add me to the witness list, if you need me."
Danny looked at her steadily, his expression soft and gentle. "Thank you."
"You're here!" Morris cheered as the door to his cell opened. "I've been rusting in this cell all night. When can we get breakfast?"
"You got breakfast already - and medical care. That's already pretty good." Danny showed little sympathy, even as he typed away on his iPhone.
"That wasn't breakfast!" Morris protested. "How 'bout some breakfast tacos or loco moco, huh? I want to talk to Mc-Glare-tt. He'll get me something to eat."
"Hot lead, perhaps," Danny said, finishing up what he was doing and then putting his phone away. As he looked up, he groaned. "Aw, h-ll, what did you do with your shirt? Really, seriously, you need to cover up. Where's your shirt?"
"I was starving so badly I ate it. I need to keep my fiber levels up. Where do you think it is?" he asked sarcastically. "I had to use it to cushion my sore bum."
Kono gave a snort from her spot in the doorway.
"Oh, hey, babe."
"Show a little respect," Danny groused. He waved Kono over.
"I want you to listen to this, tell me if this is the guy who hired you." Kono played a sound of Bruce Lonoehu's voice.
"Nope."
"You sure?"
"Certainly not. My guy - well, he had a deep voice, too, but it was, you know, those old people 'ooh, my achin' back' type voices," Morris replied, imitating a wheezy, older-sounding voice.
Danny rolled his eyes.
"OK, this one." Kono played an audio clip of Hoffman's voice.
"'Oh, what?'" Morris pretended to imiate one of them, puting a hand up to his ear, as if listening for something. "'My dear Morris, did you say deep, booming voice?'" He waved at the recorder. "I told you I heard a...James Earl Jones type voice, not Mickey Mouse!"
"Just shut up and listen to this one," Danny groused. He played a voice recording of Wheeler's voice.
Morris' eyes widened ever so slightly, and when the two cops looked at him, he blinked. "I don't know," he said in a slightly high-pitched voice. "Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. I can remember better if I've eaten. Preferably something from the Counter," he tried.
"It's him," Danny replied. "Wheeler hired him. C'mon." He hauled him to his feet.
"Wait, how do you know it's him? Even I'm not sure! I think if I had some food I could think more clearly. The Counter's got fresh, 100% natural angus beef, hormone and antibiotic free. Though, Shorty, you look like you could use a little hormone. Ow!" he yelped. "Watch it! I'm still sore back there!" he shouted as Danny tugged on his cuffs behind his back. "Can't you cuff me in the front?"
"No."
"If you cuff me in the back you'll have to feed me, but if I'm cuffed in the front I can manage myself."
"No."
"Can I at least have the hottie take me out?"
"No." Danny jerked him to his feet.
"Woooee, standing feels so much better than sitting. You guys really don't know how to treat guests around here. You let me sit and lie for that long on this hard furniture with just my shirt for padding? After Hottie here shot me in the butt? Seriously, where's that aloha spirit? I mean - eep!" he squeaked as he found himself staring down the barrel of the woman's weapon.
"Open your mouth one more time," she said sweetly, "and I'm going to reintroduce you to my little friend." She turned him around again, pushing him along.
"Most certainly hanging out too long with McGarrett," Danny sighed.
"OK, OK. Can we do a deal? Huh? I got some more information if you'll cut me a break." Morris looked at them pleadingly. When they just glared, he sighed. "Oh, OK. But I'll get some consideration, right?"
Kono put her Kel Tec into Morris' face.
"OK, OK." Morris sighed. "That old wheezer on the phone, told me to dump a pair of shoes and the grip of a gun."
"How'd you get 'em?"
"Same way I got the swipe key card for the newspaper place and the contact lens cleaner bottle. They were dropped off - ooohhh, crap." He looked at them nervously.
"You better explain that last statement," Danny replied in a low, dangerous tone. "Especially the part about the lens cleaner."
"For a burger?" Kono got a feral smile on her face and put her finger on the trigger. "OK, OK!" he sighed. "I got the key card to swipe in to Holden's office. In the box was a bottle of something with a note. I was just told to roll the bottle onto the floor in Holden's office."
"Plant it," Kono clarified. "Plant it as fake evidence."
"Whatever you call it."
"We didn't get fingerprints."
"I wore gloves."
"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Danny asked, crossing his arms and doing his best Steve McGarrett aneurysm face.
"All you asked about was the phone call! This was a written note!"
"Where's the note?"
"Tossed it. With the swipe card."
Danny closed his eyes in exasperation, taking a deep breath to keep his temper at bay. (Anger management class seemed to be working wonders.) "You said they came the same way the shoes did. What did you do with the shoes? Dump 'em like you were told?"
"'Course not. I opened that box, and they were the poshest shoes I'd ever seen. I cleaned 'em up and kept 'em. When else do I get free shoes dropped off in a box?"
Chin came out of the house, carrying a United States Postal Service priority mail box. "Just like he said. Box. No return address, no prints that I can see."
"Shoes and gun in there?" Steve asked.
"I'm a good person. I don't lie," Morris protested.
"No, you just withhold information from police, trespass on private property, try to steal information, and then attempt to plant evidence to convict an innocent man," Steve retorted, glaring at the cuffed criminal.
"Why do you have to be so negative?"
Chin held up what was a gun grip, without the barrel. "Sawn off. No serial number, no barrel to check the fired bullets against." He shook his head. "These criminals are getting smarter. They used to try to file the number off, and we could use an acid solution to lift it."
"Now they're just taking the whole thing off." Steve pointed to the grip. "Any bullets left?"
"Rest of the cartridge, but that's it. We don't have a barrel to shoot them out of, so we can't check the ballistics against the bullet pulled from Holden."
Steve sighed. "Shoes?"
"Yup. Unfortunately, Morris buffed and shined them up. I don't know if we'll have any fingerprints." Chin turned the pair of shoes over. "Look, though. Supination of the foot."
"Soles look like they would fit the cast Fong made of the shoeprint from the crime scene."
"Left shoe's missing its Gucci tag." Chin pointed at the missing logo.
"Serial number?"
Chin held up the shoe to show the inner lining. "Right here. Matches the serial number you and Kono got off of Bruce Hoffman's customer record at Noble House."
"We met Bruce Hoffman at a charity dinner," Livy Holden said softly, folding her hands in front of her. "I think it was one of Travis's - the disability fund for the Honolulu Police Department."
Danny nodded. "Some of the cops mentioned it."
Livy gave him a weak smile, then looked back out to the pool. Billie was in the shallow end of the pool, tearing about happily under the watchful eye of Kono, who was in the pool with her. "She loves the water. She and Travis - always in the ocean." She took a deep breath and then got back to the task at hand. "Hoffman - he was generous, as was Frank Wheeler. We never thought much about where the money came from, and neither did the people running the fund."
Danny squinted against the bright sun. "Did you notice anything odd concerning Hoffman? You or your husband?"
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. After another moment, she stopped. "Yes." She paused. "Hawaii Medical Center East wanted to expand, and for awhile couldn't get a contractor to stick with them. I thought that was odd, of course. They were making a good offer to anybody who would build."
"Who finally got the deal?"
"Um, Balino. Robert." She paused. "I'd also heard the name Miranda Akina pop up once - when Travis was talking about a new development."
"We got Frank Wheeler as an accomplice," Kono announced as she and Danny came into the bullpen. "Seems Hoffman had a partner who did all the financial stuff for him, including hiring Morris."
"We bring down both of them," Steve said determinedly. "We'll get one on the hook, make him sell out the other."
"Hoffman fits Billie's description," Danny replied. "When I met him, he had the posh shoes, the expensive clothes, the ring." He paused. "Compared to her father, Billie would consider Hoffman fat."
"Right-handed?" Chin asked.
"I saw him hand something to the waitress with his right hand. Talked to Stan. He can't be sure, but he remembers Hoffman signing things with his right hand."
"Speaking of Stan - you arrange police protection show up at your ex's?" Steve asked as he came out of the office.
"Yeah. Rachel doesn't like being restricted, but she'll have to suck it up."
"So considerate," Chin chuckled, and Danny just grinned. "What else did you guys find?"
"Not much beyond the names Livy Holden gave to us and the names Lonoehu pulled off the accounts. Some contractors went to Hoffman privately for permits and that sort of thing, and they said he's got a price for everything - they'd agreed to a price, and then he'd jack it up," Kono replied as she pulled up a chair, helping Danny to distribute the food.
"It's what Stan said," Danny added.
"Some of the other contractors said they kept getting frozen out during certain bidding wars - especially on lucrative contracts, and they couldn't figure out why," Kono finished. "Miranda Akina said she got stalled out repeatedly, and that's why it took so long to start on that housing development for the PD."
"Everything else was similar. Seems everybody thought he was the only one facing Hoffman's corruption, so nobody did anything," Steve concluded.
"Except Stan," Chin commented, looking at Danny.
"Except Step-Stan," Danny agreed. "That man's either brave or stupid."
"I'm guessing you're leaning towards stupid," Chin commented with a chuckle, pointing a French fry at Danny.
"Right in one." Danny grinned.
"So why don't we arrest Hoffman now?" Kono asked.
"We can get him on corruption, but we need more for murder," Chin replied. "A lost Gucci insignia and an Italian silk fiber just mean that he was at the house, and Charlie hasn't processed the shoes or the gun yet."
"That, and Hoffman's not going to give us a DNA sample to match against the swabs from Holden's fists," Danny added as he stuffed another fry in his mouth.
"We know he's capable of violence," Steve replied. "Carjacking a woman and a child? He's capable of violence. I don't think shooting a father would go to far for him."
"His lawyer will argue that he didn't have anything to do with that carjacking, and the lawyers for the two thugs will point out that they didn't take Rachel's purse or harm Grace or Rachel during the carjacking," Danny replied somberly. "The gun's no use. Right now all we have are shoes tied to him. We need DNA."
"Or we need him to do something stupid," Steve replied. "McGarrett. Hey. Yeah, I'll be right over."
"I got in touch with some labs on the mainland," Charlie replied as Steve and Danny came in. "I think I can get around the missing barrel problem."
"Don't you need it to do ballistics tests?"
"No." He paused. "What I've got is good, very good, but this alone won't convict anybody. At the twin looks he was given, he held up his hands. "I just want to be clear. This will help, but it won't convict. There are some challenges being mounted to this methodology."
"But if we have other evidence we'll be good."
Charlie nodded.
"All right. Tell us what this is," Steve replied, leaning forward with interest.
Charlie turned to his computer and called up an image. "See these two images?"
"Yeah? So?" Steve shrugged.
"They're chemical fingerprints. In an earlier case, the killer took the barrel off the frame of gun so that barrel couldn't be used in ballistics tests to match the bullets. Their lab tried a new format - using a nuclear reactor, they got the chemical fingerprint of each bullet. Each batch of bullets is slightly different in the amount of things which go into it - it's like, you know, your mom's casserole."
"Don't diss the casserole," Danny commented with a grin.
Charlie smiled. "I can match the chemical fingerprint of the bullet we pulled out of Holden to any batch you get me, and if they match, we're good. I'm working on the bullets from the cartridge still in the sawn-off Glock."
"If the bullet from Holden matches the bullets in this gun grip, we know they came from the same group," Steve asked for confirmation. "Then all we'd have to do is tie these bullets to Hoffman - like, find the rest of the batch in his house."
"That's right." Charlie nodded.
"Anything on the shoes?" Steve nodded at the pair on the table.
"The shoes match the cast we made," Charlie informed them, holding up the shoe and the cast. "The wearer certainly has supination, as well."
"Did you find blood?"
"I did." Charlie flicked off the lights and then turned on his evidence light. As he brought the shoe up to the light, spots became illuminated in a blue flourescence.
"There's even some on the laces," Steve murmured, touching the lace with a latex-gloved finger.
"That was the best preserved. Your killer didn't apply cleaner there and the shoe polish applied later totally missed it."
"The spots of blood seem heavier near the toe," Danny commented.
"Blood splatter pattern goes from the toe" Charlie indicated where most of the spots were "towards the back."
"Most likely from where the body fell," Steve mused. "The victim was upright when he was shot."
"Get me the clothes he wore when Holden was killed, and I can give you a full-body pattern of the shot," Charlie offered.
"The blood's Holden's?"
"The DNA's still running, but blood type matches," Charlie confirmed. "Don't see why the DNA won't match. I'll call when I get something."
"What are you doing?" The housekeeper ran through the foyer, towards the door. "You cannot come in here!"
"Five-0," Kono replied, showing her a badge as she looked around the large, elegant house. "Search warrant for the Hoffman home," she continued as Chin directed a unit into the downstairs of the basement.
"Upstairs," Chin replied, directing an HPD group straight up the stairs. "Every inch. Don't miss anything."
He led his cousin up the stairs and both began searching through the closets.
"Any Italian silk green?"
"Nope. I've got Italian silk, but not the green we're looking for."
Chin whistled as he opened up the closet, revealing a large rack of mostly expensive shoes of different styles and a few different colors. "Here we go. Shoes."
"He's like a woman," Kono muttered as her cousin grinned. She pointed at the different pairs of rather light-catching pairs. "He's got a fondness for shiny ones."
Chin reached in and grabbed a pair. "Ermenegildo Zegna. Almost seven hundred dollars, this one."
"The clerk said he liked Italian shoes," Kono commented. "How do you know your shoes so well?"
"Like I said - the best front is a true understanding of the product." Chin flipped them over and showed his cousin the soles.
"What are you looking for?"
Whatever Charlie called it."
"Supination," Kono replied, coming over to look. She ran a finger along the sole of the Zegna shoes. "Significant wear along the outer edges as compared to the inner," she murmured. "The wear patterns match the ones in the cast Charlie made as well as the shoes we found."
Chin held out the pair to his cousin. "Bag 'em all."
"Hello! And how can I help you gentlemen," Hoffman greeted as he came into his office, his smile faltering as the noticed the two men in front of him, both of whom were smiling - rather broadly, too.
"Bruce Hoffman, right?" Steve greeted in an over friendly manner. "I'm Steve McGarrett, with Five-0. And I think you already know Detective Danny Williams."
Danny gave an amused, side smile as Hoffman paled slightly, and his expression fell for just a second before his mask was back up. "And how can I help you gentlemen?" Hoffman repeated as he sat down in his chair, trying to remain as calm as possible.
Danny slapped the faxed sheet of numbers down on his desk, now complete with names of different contractors on it. "Giving contracts to contractors who pay your bribes, even in bidding wars." He put down another sheet. "Your price list for all the things the contractors have to pay for." He put down three at one time. "Records of that money going in to your account in Singapore, and then from there to Frank Wheeler."
"Holden got a little too close, didn't he," Steve said, leaning down so they were eye to eye, the former Navy man a smirk on his face. "He found this all out, so you had to stop him."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hey Danny, look." Steve picked up one of Hoffman's hands and slapped it down. "This ring look familiar?"
"Sounds like the description Billie gave," Danny replied.
"It's a wedding ring. A lot of people have them. I haven't done anything wrong by wearing one."
"So you won't mind giving us a sample of your DNA," Steve said, straightening. "Since you're innocent and all."
"I know how these things work," Hoffman replied, with a practiced roll of his eyes. "You make the DNA say whatever it wants to say, and you lock up innocent people."
"Actually, evidence doesn't lie, so if you're innocent, you'll be cleared," Danny shrugged. "Unless you're not innocent."
"I'm not giving you my DNA."
"Does that sound guilty to you?" Steve asked, his arms crossed.
"Yup." Danny pinned him with a stare. "Since we know he has a penchant for protecting his interests."
"You can talk to my lawyer. I don't like your insinuations."
"Call him," Danny offered. "He's going to insinuate plenty." He gathered up the sheets.
Steve just looked at the other man, his arms crossed, a half-smirk on his face. "She's going to nail you in court. Brought down by a child," he replied, his expression amused.
"As cute as Miss Holden is," Hoffman replied, "she is only three."
"A three-year-old who notices everything, as we've found out. And who can identify the man who threatened her father and her." Steve gave him a nod of good-bye. "See you in court."
TBC