Ho'ike
by Sammie

All notes in first part.

This is the last chapter! Thank you to everybody who read this far and took the time to review also. Enjoy.

"Sir." Chin looked up from the living room, where a member of the crime scene unit came by with a box. "We found the batch of bullets. Some are already missing."

"Get it over to Fong right away," Chin instructed, and the officer nodded. "Did you find a gun barrel?"

"No, sir."

Chin and Kono exchanged looks, and the former murmured, "Pray very hard that this batch of bullets matches with the ones from the gun grip and the one pulled from Holden."

Kono nodded. "Especially since we don't have an Italian silk green shirt around here."

"He must've gotten rid of it," Chin commented, looking around. He frowned as he looked towards the fireplace, then crossed the room and stooped down. He put his hand down and brought it up, rubbing his index and middle fingers against his thumb. "Ash. A lot of it."

"He must have had a fire going at some point," Kono replied, frowning at the thought.

"Fire in summer in Hawaii sounds pretty suspicious to me," Chin muttered, then called in the housekeeper. "Ma'am, there are ashes in the fireplace. Did you run a fire?"

"You crazy? Too hot for fire."

Kono studied the housekeeper for a moment. "Does Mr. Hoffman normally have fires in his fireplace?"

"No. Never. I clean fireplace two weeks ago, last time I here." The housekeeper leaned in towards her to whisper, as if sharing an embarrassing secret. "Full of dust, spiders."

Kono exchanged a look with her cousin, who got a trace smile on his face and nodded. "Thank you, ma'am." She turned to her cousin as the housekeeper left. "He doesn't like fires, but recently he set one in his fireplace," she commented softly. "For the shirt and pants?"

"Most likely." Chin looked over the fireplace.

"Why didn't he burn the shoes with it?"

"The other materials in the shoe might make an odor, draw attention," the older cop replied. "Let's see if there's anything left."

Chin looked around the fireplace, then slowly stooped down. He suddenly saw something and started to reach over for the set of fireplace pokers, then flipped one upward by the handle, holding the pointed edge out to Kono, whose lips slowly turned up in a big smile. She plucked off the tiny scrap of green cloth and popped it into an evidence bag.

"I've stepped up security around the Holdens," Steve said, hanging up his phone. "We'll just have to wait for Hoffman to make a move."

"I just thought of something." Danny looked around, then leaned in for a private conference with his partner. "Hoffman's obviously old enough to give blood," he said in a low, barely audible voice.

"Blood tests are private, Danny," Steve replied. "How would we get around that?"

"Legally," Danny said sharply, his tone belied by his grin. "And I got a legal method. Blood tests are private, but blood donation isn't," Danny pointed out, his grin widening. "Once they donate that blood, it becomes public property."

Steve straightened, pondering that thought before grinning. "Look at you."

"If anybody needed blood, and he was a match, the blood bank would have to give it to him," Danny continued. "We don't want to know what diseases or stuff he's had - we just want the blood."

"And a 'charitable' guy like that?" Steve grinned. "He's no doubt donated blood before."

Chin met them at the door to Charlie Fong's lab the minute they entered. "We got a problem."

"Let me drop this off first," Danny replied, putting down two tubes of blood. "Charlie. Bruce Hoffman's blood and Frank Wheeler's blood."

Chin blinked in surprise, looking up from his work. "We're sure?"

"Oh, we're sure," Danny grinned.

From behind the other man, Fong grinned. "Sounds good."

"Do I want to know how you got that?" Chin asked.

"Chin," Danny said in a tut-tut voice. "It's me. I know police procedure. He" he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Steve "might be a cop in Lala Land, but I do things by the book."

Chin grinned at that, nodding in acknowledgment, even as Steve gave them both a full-fledged aneurysm face.

"Who's that?" Danny asked, nodding at the big, burly HPD officer in the corner of the lab.

"Officer Staunton," Chin replied. "He's Fong's escort when he leaves the lab, at least until we get Hoffman under wraps."

"I don't think this is necessary," Fong commented. Given Chin's expression, apparently this wasn't the first time Fong had said this.

"It is now," Kono replied shortly, coming into the lab. "Livy Holden just called. Her HPD guards just moved her and Billie, because they saw people come in who were suspicious."

"Could Billie identify any of them?"

"No."

"Hoffman's running scared," Danny groaned softly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You get Stan on the phone. Tell him and his detail what's going on," Steve instructed as he started to leave the lab, his team members hurrying after him.

"What are we going to do about Livy and Billie?" Kono asked.

Steve grinned as he sprinted towards the car. "Let's give 'em something to catch."

"You'll be fine, Mrs. Holden," Chin offered as he handed Livy Holden into the helicopter. "You'll fly out from from Hilo International Airport to Los Angeles."

Danny lifted the three-year-old into the helicopter and climbed in after her, buckling her up and tucking her arms securely into her arms. "You OK, Billie?"

"Uh-huh." Billie reached up and gave him a hug. "Bye-bye, Uncle Danny."

"You be good, squirt." He shut the door to the helicopter, then came around the other side.

"Thank you, Mr. Kelly," Livy Holden said, her voice trembling ever so slightly as she shook his hand. "Thank you, Detective Williams." She shook the other man's hand.

Chin nodded with a smile as he shut her door and he and Danny stepped away. The blades began to rotate, and the pilot threw a thumbs up as he slowly lifted off.

Chin waved at the departing helicopter for several minutes continuous before Danny leaned in, surreptitiously looking arond him before whispering, "They're gone."

The helicopter landed at the Hilo International Airport's helipad, and men ran onto the tarmac. The men swarmed the plane, and the pilot's door was yanked open. One of the men stuck a gun into the pilot's face. "Get out."

"You're not lookin' to hijack me, are ya?" came a laidback, Texan drawl.

"Shut up and get out." The man suddenly blinked when he saw his partner open the back door for the passengers, only to see his eyes wide, focused on the barrel of the shotgun pointed at him. He himself turned back to find a pistol pointed right in his face, the pilot's helmet and headset off, and a very angry cop in its place.

"Get on the ground," Steve bit out, his normal accent back.

The man slowly lowered his gun and lay down face-down on the ground, while Danny came in, followed by Hawaii County police department cars.

The door behind Steve suddenly flew open wider, and a body came flying out, knocking one of the attempted attackers to the ground, followed by a hard right hook to the jaw to knock him out and then and a flurry of fists.

"She's a child! She's a little girl! What kind of animals are you!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Chin muttered, quickly releasing his suspect to to a Hawaii County officer and then pulling back a furious Livy Holden. Her knuckles were bruised and red with blood from the nose of the failed kidnapper. Pulled backwards by the cop, she lashed out one more time, swiftly hitting the downed man with a well-aimed kick right where it counted. As he curled into a ball, moaning, she hissed, "That was for Billie."

Chin pulled her back, putting her behind him, then looked down with disgust at the man on the ground. "Get up," he bit out.

"Where're we goin', Auntie Kono?" Billie looked out of the backseat window of Kono's car, her stuffed toys sitting cheerfully in her lap.

"We're going to - we're going back to my office, OK? Just 'til your mommie gets back with Uncle Steve and Uncle Chin and Uncle Danny."

"Can I rides in a hel'cop'er?"

"You didn't like your little ride?"

"Want a longer one."

Kono and the HPD cop sitting shotgun both chuckled. "Perhaps some other day."

"'K." The little girl talked to herself in the backseat, commenting on random things as they drove past. Kono smiled at her in the rearview mirror, then focused on the road.

After ten minutes, she felt a hand on her arm. She looked over to her right, where the protective escort for the Holdens sat. Aneko's eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, then to hers. 'Billie', he mouthed.

Kono tuned in to the child's commentary, listening for a few minutes. "Billie? What did you say?"

"Dere's the black car again," the child repeated.

Kono exchanged tense looks with Aneko. "Are you sure it's the same car, honey?" she asked.

"'Fink so," Billie said cheerfully. "'S got a white line on a door."

"Don't look," Aneko warned, then carefully turned adn brought up a small pair of military binoculars to look at the black car near them. "There's a long scratch on the back right door, like somebody ran a key on it."

"Where did you think you saw the car before, hon?"

"At the big house."

"At the hotel?"

"Uh-huh."

"Where'd you see it at the hotel?" Aneko asked.

"When I looked out the 'indow."

Kono took a deep breath, then carefully began to accelerate, ever so slowly. She passed a few cars, making two lane changes to do so. She settled back into the right lane, carefully eyeing the road signs for the upcoming exits. 'Please, let us just make it to the exit,' she prayed.

"He knows we're on to him," Aneko commented, just a minute before the black town car suddenly veered up to the lane next to them, and suddenly jerked right. Kono shouted as she floored the pedal, shooting forward. The car still caught her trunk, pushing it towards the right and thus turning the front towards the left, jerking her car around into a spin. "They're certainly after us!" She twisted the wheel against the spin, forcing the car back into a forward motion. In the back, Billie whimpered in fear.

"Left!"

Kono jerked the wheel to the left, passing a car and then speeding up before jumping into the right lane again. "He still behind us?"

"Oh, yeah!" Aneko tore the radio transmitter off its spot on the dash. "This is Officer Aneko," he radioed. "We're on Ala Moana Boulevard, and we're being chased by a black" he paused "town car. Lincoln, I believe."

"Can't trust a guy who doesn't drive a Chevy!" Kono shouted over the din of honking cars and screeching brakes, the police radio, and the scream of her own wheels on the payment as she made another sharp turn.

"Start heading back to headquarters!" Aneko shouted, one hand gripping the passenger handle above her door and pointing across the windshield to Kono's left. "That way! That way! Take that turnaround. Let's see if we can't get this one trapped."

Kono started to turn into the turn around, then suddenly jerked up her handbrake. The car fishtailed, the front wheels staying in place as the back whipped around, now turned in the opposite direction. She floored the gas pedal. Behind her, the town car started to brake to make the turn.

"There, there!" Aneko pointed towards a residential street, and Kono quickly turned into the unlit street. The officer was nearly pulling her and Billie out of the car, pointing down towards the end of the street. "Head in a straight line. The street dead ends, and if you pass between the two middle houses of the dead end, you'll see the back of HPD headquarters. Go, go!"

Kono scooped Billie into her arms as Aneko climbed into the driver's seat, a devious, feral grin on his face. "I'll see if I can lead them away." He gave her a mock salute as he floored the gas pedal and took off.

"Who hired you?" Steve shouted in the makeshift interrogation room at the helicopter landing site.

"Look, we were just told to scare - scare her a bit," the man exclaimed from his chair. "We weren't supposed to do nothing more."

"You don't start giving me some names, and I'm going to let that mother back in here, and I'm going to turn off the cameras," Chin snapped. "Give us a name."

"Look, I don't have a name," the man exclaimed. "He had a - deep voice. Promised ten grand for it, and put one thousand in my bank account as a deposit."

Chin clicked through his phone, then played a voice recording of Wheeler's voice.

"Yeah, that's the guy who hired me." The man nodded.

"Where is he right now? And where's Bruce Hoffman?"

"How should I know?"

"Max, I need help." Kono burst into his morgue, Billie in her arms. "You - "

"You have a deep wound," Max interrupted, his eyes drifting from the blood on her clothes to its source, a deep gash on her forearm. It had been wrapped clumsily and was bleeding, the cloth sticking to the wound; she was nursing it against her side, Billie tucked securely in her other arm. He quickly whirled around, going to his desk for gloves.

"Max, not right now. You have to hide me."

"But your - "

"Hide, first!" she snapped, turning back and forth, searching the room desperately.

He blinked, panic on his face. "Where?"

"I don't know where." Her eyes scanned the area desperately. She quickly set Billie down, then suddenly turned back to the ME with an excited look. "What were you doing with the body - the one with sarin, the one we brought in when Danny was sick?"

"It was an infectious autopsy. I - "

"You lock down the morgue," Kono finished. "Nobody in or out until you've decontaminated everything."

"Well, yes, but - "

"Good. You've got an infectious autopsy." Kono herded him over to the controls. "Get your gear on. Which button for infectious autopsy?"

"Far right."

Kono quickly slapped it, and outside, a warning light went on. "Whoever shows up, unless it's Lukela or 5-0, tell them you have an infectious autopsy. Get your gear on."

Bergman quickly obeyed, but he turned to Kono, deeply distressed. "I don't lie well."

Kono swore colorfully, then quickly took a pan and started dumping chemicals. It bubbled and fizzled, and she quickly dumped some more chemicals inside, then handed the bowl to him. "If they ask, show them this. Stomach liquids."

Max looked at the bowl doubtfully.

"Max!" Kono grabbed his chin, jerking his face up from its gaze on the bowl to her face. "Listen to me. This is for your protection. They find out you helped me, they'll shoot you through that glass door. If they think there's an infectious autopsy, they won't shoot; they won't risk letting those germs out and infecting themselves.

She looked around quickly. Each spot was visible to somebody standing at the glass doors to the autopsy room, except for - "Do you have any body trays that are empty?"

"Yes. I only have bodies in trays four and eleven."

"They clean?"

"Oh, yes."

Kono quickly yanked out the bottom body tray in the far corner. She looked around wildly, her eyes settling on the far corner in the autopsy room, with a fire extinguisher hanging from the wall and an aluminum-coated fire blanket next to it. She ran over, yanking the blanket off the wall and out of its bag before rushing back to the child. She gathered Billie over. "Billie, honey, close your eyes for Auntie Kono, OK? We're going to hide for a little bit."

"OK." She obediently closed her eyes.

"Stay very quiet." Kono wrapped her tightly in the blanket, then lay her on the tray before climbing onto it herself and lying down on her right side, facing the wall. Max came over to push her inside. "Max. Leave the door open a tiny crack." She reached her hand over her head, looking out at him from inside the body locker. She gripped his hand, giving him a grateful smile. "Thank you."

Max nodded, then shut the door.

Rachel Edwards smiled at the older man as she came up to the restaurant bar, holding an empty shot glass. "Frank Wheeler, isn't it?"

"Yes," he greeted as he turned on the bar stool. "Mrs. Edwards?"

"You've got a great memory," she greeted with a genial, if tipsy, smile. "Rachel, please. I thought I recognized you. Do you mind if I join you?"

"Please." The man smiled and indicated the stool next to him. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, well." She laughed lightly, then gestured, her movements exaggerated. "Stan's working, and my daughter's asleep." She leaned towards him to whisper, but the volume came up slightly louder than intended. "I managed to slip my guard for just a little time out on my own," she whispered, looking at him with slightly glassy eyes but an earnest expression on her face. "It's a bit smothering."

"A guard?" Wheeler asked, frowning.

She looked around, as if not wanting others to hear, and said, "My husband got into some bad deals with somebody," she said, and didn't appear to notice when Wheeler paled and his eyes widened slightly. "And now we all have to suffer until they catch this guy."

"Catch...him?"

"Oh, yeah." She waved dismissively. "Oh, they'll get him. My ex-husband's like a dog with a bone when it comes to this."

"They...can certainly catch this man, huh?" Wheeler looked ill.

Rachel chuckled mirthlessly. "Show no mercy," she joked, waving for the bartender to pour her another shot.

"Rachel, what the h-ll," came a snap as Danny came into view. "I told you - you know what," he said, waving in an exasperated fashion. "You never listen, do you."

"Daniel," Rachel replied in a barely controlled tone of irritation.

"I told you to stay in your room and with your guard," Danny snapped. "Do you listen? No, of course not. I tell you to stay put, and - "

"Bite me." Rachel glared.

Wheeler fidgeted. "I think I better go," he said.

"No, don't," Danny replied, standing up and holding up a hand to stay Wheeler's departure. "I'll be the one going. In fact, I've got some suspects to question."

"Finally," Rachel said sarcastically. "It's about time." She tossed back another shot.

"It's going to be a whole lot of fun." Danny said, a faint trace of a wild smile on his face. He looked rather impatient for his fun to begin. "When they give up whoever hired them to go after the kid - " he trailed off, a feral grin saying everything for him. He gave his wife another glare and departed.

Rachel heaved a sigh, and there was an awkward silence. "I'm sorry you had to see that," she said quietly. "My ex-husband is extremely protective of our daughter."

"As any parent would be," Wheeler acknowledged, swallowing.

"I think the murder of Travis Holden speaks to all of us," she said quietly, leaning towards Wheeler and speaking earnestly. She smiled. "People tend to be very unforgiving of those who threaten small children."

"Yes," Wheeler said quietly. "Yes."

"As they should be, of course." Rachel smiled. "I'm not saying that the life of an adult is more valuable than that of a child, but the innocence and the defenselessness - it's hard to forgive that."

Wheeler swallowed.

"I hope they catch whoever it is," Rachel said softly. "Though," she said with a smile, "I would hope that HPD does the arrest. My ex and his partner can have quite a creative streak when it comes to interrogation." She looked amused. "I pity the suspects they have now."

The banker looked nervous. "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Edwards, but I'm afraid I have to be going." He smiled weakly. "I've been here a while, already," he offered as explanation. "Enjoy your drink. Have one on me."

"Oh, thank you," Rachel smiled sweetly at him. "Pity you couldn't stay longer."

Wheeler nodded, laid the money down on the counter, and then started quickly going for the side door. He'd barely opened it before he stopped short, Steve McGarrett blocking his path, his arms crossed across his chest; Chin Ho Kelly stood at his side, his large shotgun pointed straight at Wheeler's chest. The banker turned back, just to see Rachel Edwards appear in the doorway, not drunk in the slightest, Danny Williams at her side.

"It was - it was just an act in there, wasn't it." He swallowed hard as Livy Holden stepped out of the darkened hallway. "It wasn't me."

"Why are you running?" Steve replied, in a tone which indicated he didn't believe a word of what Wheeler was saying.

Wheeler looked past McGarrett and Kelly towards the stunned widow. "Livy - Livy, it wasn't my idea."

"Your thugs gave you up," Danny retorted. "Said you paid them to go after the Holdens when they landed in Hilo, said you were the one who provided cash and directions to rent the champagne-colored SUV which showed up at the Holden house the night of the murder."

Wheeler looked from one stoically unforgiving face to another, then blurted desperately. "He made me go along with it!"

"Nobody makes you do anything," Steve replied tonelessly.

The banker looked nervously from one to the other before turning to Livy Holden again to plead his case. "Travis - Travis was digging into the land deeds and the land permits. He would've found out that some were fake, and he would have uncovered the bidding wars Hoffman was running."

"So you shot him," Chin replied.

"No! No. I wouldn't - I tried to talk to Travis. I wanted him to back off. He wouldn't." He watched in a panic as Livy Holden's face turned into one of horrified betrayal, and she unconsciously backed away from him. "Livy, I - by - by the time it got to Stan Edwards, and then to Travis, I was in too deep. Bruce made me hire those men for him! Hoffman told me he'd bring me down with him if I didn't help him. He said we had to make sure Billie didn't say anything. I didn't want to hire anybody to hurt her, but - Livy!" He called desperately after the retreating figure. "You've got to believe me!"

Danny slammed him against the wall. "I'm about to land you in a shallow grave," he hissed. "Tell us where your partner is."

"Auntie Kono, you're squishing me."

"I'm sorry," she whispered back, lightening her hold.

Kono lay on her side on the body tray, allowing her eyes just to fix on the wall in front of her. The body locker was dark and cold. At least the reflective barrier technology used in the fire blanket seemed to be working, radiating the heat back to the little body huddled in it. Billie had not yet complained about being cold, which was more than Kono could say for herself.

The rookie cop did not look behind her, staring resolutely at the wall of the body locker just a few feet from her face. She knew Max had bodies on the other trays behind her.

She could hear the voices outside, despite the sound being slightly muffled by the doors to the body locker. Still, with the silence in the morgue and the intercom connecting those standing on the outside to whomever was inside the morgue, she could make words out.

"Open up." The intercom crackled.

"The light indicates an infectious autopsy." That was Max.

A pause, then the crackling of the intercom again. "We know she's here, with the kid."

Hoffman. Kono clamped her hands over Billie's ears, but it was too late. The child began to shake. "It's all right, sweetheart," she whispered directly into Billie's ears. "I'm here."

"What's happening?" came her scared voice.

"Don't move until I say you can," Kono whispered. "Don't make a sound."

"Auntie Kono?"

"Be brave, sweetie. I'll be right here with you." Kono clamped her hands back down over the child's ears, then strained to hear the conversation.

x x x x x

Outside, Bergman looked at the three men on the other side of the closed autopsy door. He swallowed, then said as stoically and resolutely as he could muster, "Officer Kalakaua was here, but has gone, because of the infectious autopsy." He swallowed, then pointed to his headgear and his suit with one hand and the light outside the autopsy room with the other. "That light indicates nobody who is unprotected may be here, especially not a child."

"We want to look," Hoffman snapped.

"It is infectious."

"Just search with your flashlight." The third man looked around nervously. There were a few minutes of silence as Hoffman glared at Bergman, who simply stared straight back. "Look, the GPS on her iPhone is only accurate within a couple hundred feet," the third man continued. "She could be outside, or she could be above us."

"I doubt those cops would endanger a child by bringing her here if there's possibility of infection," said the man on Hoffman's other side.

"Fine. We'll check the rest of the building," Hoffman growled.

Hoffman turned to go and nearly smashed his face into the barrel of a short-barrelled shot gun. "Commissioner Hoffman," Chin replied shortly, flanked on either side by his two teammates.

Steve looked at Hoffman, a tiny, feral smile crossing his face as he crossed his arms. "Book 'im, Danno."

Danny smirked as he came around to Hoffman. "With pleasure," he commented as he clapped him on the shoulder. Hoffman winced as the cop clapped the cuffs on. "Too tight? Good."

Lukela came running towards autopsy with a group of his men, just in time to see Hoffman being led away by a smirking Williams. Two of his officers took the two accomplices from McGarrett and Kelly.

"How'd he get in?" Lukela asked.

"He's got a swipe card, government issue. He's can just swipe his card in the reader outside the HPD building; he's been entering from the back hall of autopsy for the last few years," Steve replied. "That's why we never saw him on the video of the bullpen."

"He made it up to the breakroom without passing the cameras," Lukela replied, shaking his head.

"He did sign in," Steve replied, holding up the list of people who had checked in to HPD. "But we looked at Lonoehu first."

"And Billie?" Lukela asked.

"She's with Kono and Officer Aneko," Steve replied. "Somewhere here, from what the guys tracking her GPS said."

Lukela frowned, looking at him, his expression instantly one of worry. "No. Aneko is here, but they were not. They were chased, and Aneko dropped them off and took her car and led their pursuers on a chase. We just arrested them at McCully Shopping Center."

Chin and Steve exchanged looks, and Steve was about to speak with his phone began to ring. He hit ignore. "Did Aneko say where he dropped them off?"

"The neighborhood right behind us."

"We'll sweep the neighborhood," Steve replied. "Blanket the place. We're looking for two people on foot. With Billie, Kono couldn't have gotten very far," he said as his phone began to ring again. He held it up, then answered it. "Max, this is not a good time." Silence as he listened to the voice on the other end. He hung up, then called after Lukela and Kelly, "Cancel that! She's here."

Chin and Lukela stopped, exchanging puzzled looks. "She's here in the building?" Lukela asked incredulously.

The three men ran towards autopsy, where Max met them in the hallway. "Let me turn off the light," he commented as he opened the door.

"Please tell me you don't actually have an infectious autopsy," Chin said, looking about in consternation.

"No, no. No infectious autopsy." Max quickly turned off the light. "Officer Kalakaua had me turn it on, so nobody would want to come to autopsy."

"Where are they?" Steve asked. Max pointed towards the last door in the body locker, the one on the bottom right. "You left them in there while you called us?" Steve asked incredulously.

"Oh." Max blinked, genuinely disturbed. "Oops."

Chin shook his head and opened the door as Steve bent down and gripped the handle on the tray before yanking it out.

The huddled figure lying on the body tray slowly moved from her position, lying on her side, and flipped onto her back, gently moving Billie in the same motion to rest on top of her. Kono grinned up at them, her lips a cold blue but her eyes twinkling. Chin just grinned, impressed and relieved.

Steve grinned down at her. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

They sat in the warmer bullpen, a blanket around Kono's shoulders. Billie sat on her mother's lap but watched her auntie Kono intently as Max carefully bandaged the cut in her arm. "You must go to the hospital," the ME said. "This is very bad."

"How'd you get it?" Chin asked.

"Cut it going over the wall right behind the housing development, the one behind HPD," she replied. "The wire fence on top of the wall cut me up."

Danny appeared then, a few HPD officers with him, pushing Hoffman along. Hoffman refused to look at them as he passed by, but Billie suddenly sat up, pushing her mother away. She watched intently as he left the building and went out into the night.

Billie scrambled to stand up on the chair, still watching Hoffman. As he walked out of the building, he was illuminated by just the lights in the street. She kept looking at his hand. "He come-d to the house!"

Chin looked at Billie, then broke into a run, rushing out of the building towards Hoffman.

"You saw him?" Kono asked urgently. "You're sure you saw this man."

"He come-d to the house," Billie repeated as she looked out the window into the night. Outside, Danny and Chin were conversing, and the blond jerked Hoffman around to face the window, and Chin uncuffed him, forcing him to hold out his right hand with the ring on it.

"You're sure," Steve commented, looking at the little child's profile, even as she looked out of the window at the man.

"Uh-huh." She paused. "A shiny 'fing on his hand." She paused. "And shiny shoes."

"But the ring - that's what he was wearing."

Billie nodded. She was staring straight at the man's face, now, however, and she said with certainty, "He come-d to the house."

Steve leaned over, tossing a thumbs up sign to Chin and Danny, who turned Hoffman around and continued on their way. "It's all right, Billie. We've got him, now."

The afternoon was overcast but cheerfully warm. The team headed over to the courthouse after lunch and arrived just in time to see Deputy Prosecutor Chen talking with Livy Holden outside in the hallway as they waited. Both rose to meet them.

Chen greeted them, shaking their hands. "I think we've got a slam dunk conviction. Mr. Fong's lab work was excellent."

"We'll be sure to tell him." Kono smiled.

"And Billie?" Chin asked.

"On the recommendation of the HPD psychiatrist's evaluation, Judge Kamalei agreed to allow Billie's testimony, though the weight given to it may not be especially heavy, given her age," Chen explained. "Once he permitted her to testify, we petitioned for private testimony in the judge's chambers, not in open court. Hoffman's lawyers agreed."

"Of course," Danny snorted. "You haul that three-year-old up on the witness stand and the jury'll execute Hoffman themselves."

"She's testifying right now," Chen nodded. "Taking a bit longer than we anticipated. They should have been out ten minutes ago."

"Who's in there?"

"Kamalei, chief prosecutor Lana Kichida, and Hoffman's lawyers. Billie's seen Kichida several times already, and she's already had an orientation with Kamalei. She likes them both, but especially the judge."

"For a man with a reputation as a hanging judge, Kamalei looks like a sweet old grandfather," Kono commented, which got a smile out of the deputy prosecutor. "How did the contractors' testimonies go?"

"Mrs. Holden." Steve took her to the side as Chen continued to speak to the two cousins. Danny looked back at him, but Steve just waved them on, and Danny turned back to the conversation with the others. "I understand your in-laws want you to move back to the mainland with them after the trial," Steve commented.

Livy Holden nodded. "Yes, they do."

"You may want to consider it. Your husband was and you are too much of targets here, especially after all this." Olivia Holden said nothing, just watched him steadily. "Your daughter lost her father," Steve said. "I'd hate for her to lose her mother, too."

The door to the chambers opened, and out came the judge, his black robes flowing over him. He held the hand of his smallest witness, who was cheerfully trotting alongside of him, panda tucked under her free arm. She worse a pastel pink dress with a cheerful white sash across the middle, her hair up in her normal pigtails.

Steve smiled unconsciously, and he turned to look at Livy Holden, who was smiling as she watched her daughter come out. The judge turned her over to the 5-0. The little girl hugged Chin Ho and Danny and chattered away to them before wrapping her small arms around Kono's neck and giving her a kiss. The rookie cop responded in kind, smiling and conversing with the child.

The woman then set the child on the ground and crouched down next to her, pointing down towards their direction, and the little girl lit up and ran towards them. Her mother scooped her up, and the small child wrapped her arms around her neck and gave her a kiss before greeting Steve. "Hi, Uncle Steve."

"Hey, kiddo." He tugged one of her pigtails.

Livy Holden turned back to him, drawing herself up as she adjusted her daughter in her arms. "Thank you for your concern," she said, measuredly. "But I am finished running. I swore on Travis' grave that I would not become a victim, and that everything we worked so hard for wouldn't be taken from us." She smiled, her expression tired and pained but full of hope. "It's all I have left to give to Billie."

He looked at her steadily for a long time, then nodded, smiling.

END