Chapter 9 — More fun than a barrel of fireworks
Danny's flailing hand caught the back of the driver's seat. He wrenched himself up and, getting his feet under him, dragged himself and the baby up the steeply sloping seat. He launched himself out the SUV door.
Curling around the baby, Danny landed with a thump on his unbruised shoulder and rolled clear of the SUV. The woman clawed him to his feet and pulled him farther from the collapsing cliff.
But Steve wasn't clear. He had his foot jammed on the Silverado's accelerator. If he let up, he'd be pulled over the cliff before he could jump to safety.
Danny shoved the baby into his mother's arms and sprinted toward the knife, half-hidden in the smoke pouring from the Silverado's spinning tires.
Danny snatched up the knife and slashed at the straining towrope. Thank God for Navy SEALs who maintain their weapons obsessively. The razor-like serrated blade cut three-quarters of the way through the rope and the rest snapped, smacking Danny's shin as it whipped past.
The SUV plunged over the cliff with a horrific cacophony of crashing metal and smashing glass that — finally — frightened the baby.
The released Silverado zoomed forward, fishtailing wildly until Steve got it under control and braked.
With a woof of relief, Danny collapsed on his back on the dirty asphalt of the remaining half of the road. The wail of a crying baby was sweet music to the father in him.
Steve checked the mother and child, then ran to his partner who was just lying there, breathing — happy to be breathing. Steve knelt beside his friend.
"Nice knife." Danny pushed the blade back to its owner.
"Nice save," Steve answered.
A siren approached, heralding an HPD patrol car and a Public Works road crew. Danny tipped his head up, then let it fall back. "Where'd they come from?"
"I called Lori," Steve said casually. "Only needed one hand to drive the truck."
Steve and the Works crew walked gingerly toward the cliff edge. Looking down at the SUV, they saw the metal railing pierced the driver's side and exited through a passenger side window.
"Lucky no one was in the car," one of the workers commented.
"Yeah, lucky," Steve said flatly.
"Danny, you're bleeding," Megan said to the man still catching his breath on the ground.
Danny waved away her concern. "It's just a rope burn," he said, touching his shin.
"No, I meant your side," the woman said.
Steve saw that the cut in Danny's armpit had reopened. Danny sat up, grimaced and rubbed his shoulder, then rubbed his other shoulder.
Steve gave him a look.
"What?" Danny protested. "I banged my right shoulder when the SUV tipped and my left shoulder when I jumped out of the car. They're just bruises."
"Why don't we let a doctor decide that?" Steve said. It wasn't really a question.
Danny started to protest again, but was interrupted by Steve's satellite phone. "Yeah, Chin. Really? Honolulu General? OK, Danny and I are on the way." He hung up, then offered a hand to help his partner to his feet. "Looks like you're going to the hospital whether you want to or not. Chin and Kono have a body."
"This officer can take you home," Steve told Megan "Or do you want us to give you a ride to the hospital?"
Cradling her baby, the woman hesitated when she looked at the pickup.
"What?"
"I can't. It's illegal to take a baby in a car without a car seat."
Danny leaned against the Silverado and laughed.
Margie Chandler led Chin and Kono out to the loading dock where Paramedic Ab Riley waited patiently, sitting on the bumper of his ambulance, blocking the loading dock and keeping an eye on the body. When he saw the Five-0 pair coming, he whistled.
"The big guns! Think this is related to the drug thefts?'
"No!" Chin and Kono said together emphatically.
Riley was taken aback. "Are you sure?"
"No!" the cousins said just as vehemently.
"Okaaayyyy."
Chin and Kono shook hands with their paramedic friend, then donned latex gloves and began to prowl around the accident scene. They didn't want to touch anything until Max arrived. A pudgy Asian man lay amid a shower of bricks and mortar, the bright red blood from his shattered skull contrasted dreadfully with the red and white dust scattered all around. Above the loading dock was a small patio that connected to the cafeteria where all the Five-0 officers had spent some time. The officers could see the tips of shade umbrellas beyond a ragged brick wall.
"How'd you get the honor of finding the body?" Kono asked Riley.
"The emergency entrance was jammed," Riley answered. "I dropped Margie and the patient off and then pulled around here to get out of the way. And found the poor guy. I knew right off I couldn't do anything for him, so I called Margie and she told Admin. Then they came traipsing out here to see if it was true, and then they want back arguing about what to do. I guess we should have called it in ourselves, but that didn't seem politic. So I've just been sitting her praying for Mr. Pham and his killer."
That was Riley, a religious man in the best sense of the word.
"Did you know him?" Chin asked.
"By sight. He was the facilities manager. Kept the building clean and in repair. Nothing to do with those of us who come and go." Riley looked past his friends. "Chin, when you get a minute, can you talk to Mr. Stainten? He needs to get back to his hardware store."
Riley pointed at truck marked "Stainten Hardware" that was parked at the loading dock. The green panel truck stood out among the white hospital vehicles and two paint- and cement-spattered black pickup trucks.
A gray-haired man climbed out of the driver's seat of the green truck when he saw Riley pointing his way. Two other men left the vehicle as well.
"I'm doing your job for you," Riley said. "Sort of," he amended. He offered introductions. "Chin, this is Joe Stainten. He owns a little hardware store in Punchbowl. He and his friends came out to their trucks just after I got here."
"I'm Arnie Innis," said the shortest of the three men, a stocky, powerful looking man with dark hair. He wore coveralls, spattered with pale green paint. "This is my assistant, Darrell Dugan."
Dugan was the tallest of the trio with light brown hair, a rangy build and muscular arms. He had raggedly cut off the sleeves of his coverall to free his broad shoulders. Like Innis, he was spattered with paint.
"We're making repairs up in the cafeteria," Innis said, pointing up at the patio. "Joe brought us some more paint. We were coming down to get it when the second earthquake hit."
Joe shivered and looked nervously at the ragged brick wall above. "I was afraid we'd be trapped, but now I'm glad we were in there. If we'd been at the trucks, we might have been hit by the bricks."
Chin could see that some of the brickwork had fallen behind the black trucks. There were even a couple of bricks in the back of the nearest pickup.
"Close one," Chin said sympathetically.
The questioning was interrupted when the medical examiner's van arrived followed closely by the Silverado.
"What happened to you two?" Riley exclaimed when he saw the burn-spotted commander and the blood-streaked detective. Kono exclaimed and hurried to check out her friends.
"We've been having more fun than a barrel of fireworks," Danny answered sarcastically. He described Steve throwing himself on the fireworks to protect them from the shower of sparks, while Riley inspected the burns.
"They just need sunburn cream," Steve said dismissively. Surprisingly, Riley agreed. Chandler went to get it while Riley turned his attention to Danny.
It was Steve's turn to tell about his partner's mishaps, first with the shattered glass and then with the SUV on the cliff.
"He looked like an acrobat," Steve said. He'd seen it all in the rear view mirror. "An acrobat holding a baby!"
"They're always showing us up, Chin," Kono complained with a humorous pout. "All we have to talk about is a car chase and an art thief."
"I'd rather be overlooked than take all the battle damage those two do," Chin offered, touching the scab on his lip. "I like my pretty face just the way it is."
"You have a point," Kono admitted. She had come through her battle unscathed and was proud of it.
"You reopened this cut with all that jumping around," Riley judged, looking at Danny's side. "But it's already closing up again." Riley taped a dressing over it, then checked Danny's other wounds. The cut in Danny's arm was fine, but new gash on his leg was seeping blood. The rope burn was half-an-inch wide but shallow. Riley cleaned it carefully and wrapped a bandage around the shin.
"Thanks," Danny said. "I don't know how long we'd have to wait if we went to the emergency room."
"Quite a while," Margie answered. "They're swamped. Two fear-induced heart attacks, lots of injuries from falls and flying glass."
Innis cleared his throat apologetically. "Speaking of waiting," he hinted.
Chin apologized immediately.
"No, it was fascinating," Innis said. "I've heard stories about McGarrett and Williams. I thought they were exaggerated, but apparently not."
Steve looked sharply at the painter, but he didn't seem to be sarcastic.
TBC
A/N: Can't have fireworks or a cliff every time.