A/N: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments. It's been so much fun to read all your messages and see all the speculations. Keep them coming!
Chapter 3: Profiling a Killer
As quickly as the commotion had started, Steve's authority over every one came out and the chaos turned to a fearful and anxious kind of calm - not many people had heard the SEAL yell like that, many would never hear it again.
Max arrived on the scene before Charlie and his crew, but by the time they'd arrived Kono and Chin had collected every last piece of recording equipment - phones, cameras, digital recorders - that they could and there was a lot because the crowd was made up of reporters and photographers, and tourist mulling about the statue of King Kamehameha.
"There really isn't any doubt this is the same person," Charlie stated as he surveyed the scene doing his preliminary investigations and photographs.
Danny rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He's been standing guard over the body since the moment it was found - by Five-O. Enough interest in the dead man had arisen and Danny was placed in charge of giving the man a little privacy - even though he would never have afforded any member of Five-O the same luxury if it would have been one of them.
"No doubt about that," Danny said with a sigh, "but I'd like to know what we did to get this kind of fan mail."
"I'll do my best to give you an answer to that," Charlie said sympathetically, "but with these kinds of psychopaths, you just never know what is going on in their heads. Most of the time they end up dead before you can question them and, if you do get them into custody, the crazy is so thick that you never really understand what their reasons are."
"It takes a special kind of crazy to do what this guy is going in a crowd and community as small as Oahu." Danny said as he scanned the crowd of people gathered together like cattle behind the yellow caution tape. "He's probably still here watching us."
"Maybe, it will be all over the news tonight, so if he's not here watching to see people's reaction to his handy work, he can catch it tonight. He may be out getting ready for another one, as these last two have been so close together." Charlie said without thinking as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves.
"Don't talk like that." Danny scolded.
"You know it's probably true. I can see it in your face. You've been working it out in your head this whole time. I just said it - you were thinking it."
5-0
Kono and Chin retreated inside with boxes of electronics to sort through the mess of the massive amount of possible evidence.
The computers would do all the recognition work once everything was input into the system - that would take the majority of their time and was a bit much for only two people. After a quick phone call to their resident hacker and the wait for him to find his way into the office, Kono and Chin breathed a sigh of temporary relief when Toast finally walked though the double glass doors looking more disheveled than usual.
"What have you done? It's a zoo out there!" Toast stated and there was frustration on his tone.
"It wasn't our fault," Kono stated defensively.
"That's not what I heard from the angry mob gathered outside behind the caution tape as I had to fight my way to the building. If you keep this up, they will get torches and pitchforks, and will be out for your heads! Thank goodness I have identification for this place or I would have never gotten out of the herd." Toast argued. "They aren't pleased with Five-O for getting two of their own murdered in the same day."
"Mass hysteria has set in," Chin said with a sigh.
"Maybe we blame them and really freak them out. Maybe they'll get the clue and they'll run and hide." Kono grumbled.
"But if we give out that one little piece of information that the killer left us then there will be even more panic." Chin said thoughtfully.
"You have something?" Toast asked.
"Yes, we have a note left in both murdered blaming the victim for their own actions." Chin stated.
"So what am I here to skillfully acquire for you, if you already have that kind of evidence?" Toast asked accusingly.
"We really just need an extra set of hands for data-input..." Kono answered and smiled weakly.
"You're so lucky the job pays well." Toast sighed and stepped up to the computer system to log in."
5-0
Steve and Danny followed the body of Johnny Tao back to the coroner office. As they waited and watched Max work, Steve's phone rang.
"What the hell have you done now?" Governor Sam Denning yelled into Steve's ear causing him to hold the phone up and away from his head. "The general media is calling for the immediate disbanding of the task-force and for HPD to be put on the case to protect them."
"If you pull us from this case, many more people will die." Steve said when the Governor stopped yelling.
"What do they not know about this guy?" Denning asked - sounding calmer than before.
"He leaves a message scolding the person he has just killed - saying that Five-O will avenge him, or her, but that they are undeserving of our help." Steve explained.
"Sounds to me like more people are going to die."
"I think it has to do with one case," Danny said in a side to Steve.
"What is Danny's theory?" Denning asked, having only caught the tone in the familiar detective's voice.
Steve handed the phone to Danny.
"I think this is a revenge plot. These deaths are complicated and violent but completely pre-meditated. It took a lot of time to kill Lauren LaBelle and, though Johnny was quicker, it was so similar to Lauren that it screams revenge. It all had to do with a case, or an incidence, in which both reporters reported in a way that angered the killer - maybe even led to the negative outcome of another case." Danny explained.
"So you think we should be narrowing our search to cases that went poorly and got a lot of media attention" Steve asked.
"Yes." Danny stated.
"Give me your phone." Steve ordered.
"Why?"
"Because you're on mine!"
Danny handed the phone to Steve and returned to his conversation with the Governor, while Steve called bat to HQ.
"What can I do to calm the hysteria?" Denning asked when he knew that he had Danny's full attention - or relatively so.
"Do you want to do the press conference on our behalf?"
"I could do that, but what do you want me to say?"
"It would be best if you could get the whole lot of them off our case, but as its the media, that's probably not on option."
"Do you suspect someone among them?"
"No, but I believe we will see more victims if we aren't left to do our jobs." Danny said with a sigh. "I believe that this person may be familiar to the people that he's killing, but we won't know the link until he's either killed all the people he is seeking revenge against, or we catch him. He left a note - a hand written note - in the Johnny Tao murder. The first note was in the form of a computer screen saver, but said exactly the same thing. We need this kept to ourselves. It's been sent to the crime lab for analysis and hopefully it will be the evidence we need to catch him."
"Are you looking into other reporters that are big critics of Five-O? Maybe you are the common denominator in this whole situation." Denning suggested.
"We will be, but what are we to do, put HPD protective details on all the people who hate us?" Danny asked. "There happen to be a lot of them. We're not very popular with the media, though we do have a devoted fan base of civilian supporters."
"We can deal with protection if it comes to that, but I would like to know that you are checking in on certain people to see if any of them are dead as well." Denning suggested.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. It may make it look like we're not just chasing our tails."
"I'll let you get back to work. I apologize for my anger."
"Don't worry about it. I'd be angry too if I had hysterical reporters crashing down my door - oh wait, we already had that. I'm angry too." Danny stated sarcastically.
"It will only get worse if you keep letting their peers turn up like human piñatas."
"I know."