Hi Everyone! Longish but important note at the end, please read!
Danny knocked on the door to the small apartment, pulling his badge into view. The man who opened the door is in his early forties, and despite his hair being more salt than pepper, his eyes had a youthful spark.
"How may I help you gentlemen?" he was softly spoken, and Danny felt immediately at ease.
"Jacob Bell?" There's a nod. "I'm Detective Danny Williams from the 5-0 taskforce and this is my partner, Kono Kalakaua." He felt as if the introduction had been made a thousand times in the last day. "We're investigating a serious case of what is shaping up to be biological terrorism and we'd like your help regarding policy made a few years ago."
"Of course, come in." He moves back into the apartment, revealing a well kept if sparsely decorated living room.
"Can I offer you a drink?"
"No, but thank you, we're hoping this will be a quick visit." As Kono spoke, Jacob motioned for them to take a seat.
"Dr. Bell," began Danny, "The research programme you headed that got cancelled, on Batten Disease, can you tell me about it at all?"
"Oh, I didn't think anyone still cared about that." He Smiled sadly. "We were hoping to extend and increase the quality of the lives of those with battens, as well as identify a cause. Horrible, really, what it did to those poor children. Anyway, we really didn't get very far. It was a small grant, to begin with, and I had only just assembled a team when it was cancelled. I hadn't hired anyone yet. It was disappointing, but that is the world of medical research, grants get cancelled and the money reallocated all the time."
"Do you know anyone that would be particularly put out by this?"
"Well, lots of people, really. We campaigned for years for the grant and there may be a small percentage of the population that get battens, but those who do suffer greatly. Losing the grant was hard because funding on the island, especially for something rare like this, is hard to come by. But most people understand, they've been suffering, with little help, for a long time. A little setback is something they've learnt to live with."
"That must be hard. Can you remember anyone that caused any ruckus at the cancellation? Someone who stood out?"
"No, I'm sorry. There wasn't…" He trailed off, eyes glazing for a second.
"Dr Bell?"
"Sorry, just making sure. Nope. No one. Anything else while you're here?" The smile was less casual.
"Are you sure there's no one else you can think of?"
"No, sorry. If you leave a number I'll call if I think of anyone."
Danny pulled da card from his wallet for a coffee shop he no longer frequented, scrawled his name and number across the bottom. "Please, if you can think of anything, call."
They leave, Danny glad to be driving his own car for once.
"Tell me you noticed the slip at the end?"
Danny took his eyes off the road for a second, looked at Kono. "Yep. He definitely remembered something."
"He seemed like a good guy at the beginning, he was genuine and not mad about the grant; why would he hide something that was going to cause more grief for people?"
Danny pulled onto the highway, heading back towards the palace. "I don't know."
Pathogen of synthetic origins. Once administered, symptoms will begin to display in 4-12 hours. Pathogen latches onto muscle cells and from there multiplies and enters the bloodstream. Believed to have been ingested orally. No evidence to suggest any of the victims have been exposed more than once. Preliminary testing suggests that multiple dosages would lead to more severe symptoms. Cure being manufactured currently from existing antibiotics.
Chin looked up, disappointed. "That's it?"
"Give them some credit Chin, they're working with an unknown."
"That doesn't change the fact they're working with real lives."
"I know Chin, we need to do everything we can from our end to help them."
"Alright, but we don't have much to go off. We have a health policy, emails from a burner address and no lead at all."
"Danny just texted, they're on their way back. They found the found something while they were looking at the archives, said they went and spoke to someone on their way here."
As if it was planned, Danny and Kono chose that moment to walk in.
"Howzit boss? Cuz?" Kono handed out wrapped sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, taking a seat around the table.
"Thanks, Kono. We've got nothing, you?" Steve set the sandwich aside, not wanting to eat it and then throw I up in front of the team.
"We found the files from the policy." Danny tossed a stack of files onto the table as she spoke. "They showed a list of research grants that had been cancelled to provide additional funding for the health policy."
"Let me guess, there was one for Batten Disease?"
Danny nodded affirmatively. "We went and saw the guy who was in charge of it, a Doctor Jacob Bell. He was helpful at first, told us what we asked, but right at the end when we asked if there was anyone he could remember who was mad about the cancellation, he seemed to remember something but wouldn't say so."
Steve put his hand on his chin, deep in thought for a second. "Chances are he knows who it is then. A guy like him though, I'm surprised if you told him someone was hurting people that he didn't give whoever it is up." He paused. "The only reason would be that he's protecting someone." His vision suddenly flickered. "Alright. Take twenty minutes for lunch and come back here. I have something to take care of." Without waiting for a reply, he headed towards where he knew his office door to be, trying to use muscle memory to compensate for the growing grey patches in his vision.
"What's up with Steve?" The three remaining members of 5-0 watched as their boss retreated, stumbling as he crossed the threshold to his office.
Chin looked at the blonde-haired man. "No idea. He's been quiet today, but with a case like this he must be stressed."
"There's something more than that. I can feel it."
Kono placed a hand on his arm. "I'm sure he's fine brah."
None of them quite believe it.
After twenty minutes, Steve was feeling marginally better. He'd managed most of the protein shake he'd found in the fridge and his vision had cleared. As he walked back out towards the rest of the team, he formed a plan of attack.
"Danny," he started, his voice broke the others out of their conversation. "You and I are going to head back to the hospital. On the break I checked, there was another researcher involved with the Batten Grant, Susan Li. We'll talk with her, see what we can find out. Kono, you and Chin stay here. I want everything you can find on Jacob Bell. His family, history, any dirty dealing, everything, you hear?" There were three nods, the cousin's immediately turning to their respective screens. He turned to Danny. "You ready to go?"
"Yep. I'm driving."
For the first time that day, Steve managed a smile. "Sure you are Danno." He pulled the Camaro's keys from his pocket and jingled them in Danny's face. At the outraged look on the blonde's face, he headed towards the door, laughter spilling from his lips.
Location Unknown.
He picked up the phone on its first ring.
"Yes?"
"We need to hurry dose four SJM. They know about the Bell and the grant."
"Consider it done."
What do you think? Any ideas yet? Let me know in the comments! Hope you liked it, this one was actually a lot of fun to write, though once again, not as long as I would have hoped. Next chapter out next Tuesday. Additionally, if you've read my story Broken Blue, the timestamp for that with Steve and Danny's wedding is out now! Head over and check it out. I have noticed, much to my dismay, that I have been shifting tense between chapters. I am trying to stick with one and apologise for the issue. At some stage, I will go back and format the story into one consistent tense. To the guest reviewer that said my formatting made it impossible to read, please leave more detail and I'll fix this.
On a side note, I made myself giggle as I was writing which is always nice. Not sure if anyone else will appreciate this:
This was going to be Chin's line, but when I re-read it, I had to change it to Steve's. Oops.
original- Chin put his hand on his chin, deep in thought for a second
revised-Steve put his hand on his chin, deep in thought for a second.
Anyway, until Tuesday,
Rose xx