A/N: I know I am building this story up a lot, and the more I think about it, the more I'm feeling good about where it is going. I may also bring a character in – not just in mentioning – from another popular crime drama that has ties to the Five-O canon in real life. If Kensi can come to Hawaii and give insight, why couldn't Eric?
After reading the chapter tell me if you think he would be a good addition tot his case of characters or if I should just carry on and leave it where Toast leaves it. I'm curious to see how people react to the idea.
Looking forward to your feedback…
Chapter 5: Artist Unknown
"I guess we're stuck with all this grunt work," Chin stated as he dropped a box of paper files on the floor beside the smart table just after Steve and Danny had left.
"Or you could go and find Johnny Tao's camera man and driver." Toast stated.
"Johnny was the only one in the van," Kono said in confusion.
"And yet his camera was all set up and ready to film while he was being attacked and murdered in the back of the van. How long had they been there? How long was Tao alone? Where is the camera man now?" Toast asked.
"All very good and relevant questions," Kono stated excitedly as he turned to her cousin.
"But who's going to deal with all this?" Chin asked and pointed to the box at his feet.
"I've got this," Toast said with a wave of his hand as he continued to stare at the screens before him.
"Toast, you could be a detective one day!" Kono stated and rushed out of the office after her cousin.
"Or you could just make me your Eric Beale." Toast called over his shoulder.
"You already are!" Chin stated after sharing a knowing glance with his cousin.
"Little do you know, but I went to school with Eric at MIT." Toast mumbled under his breath and continued his twisted game of Where's Waldo.
5-0
The front of the gallery was dark and moody as Danny and Steve arrived and pulled to a stop right out front. The windows on the front were huge and blacked out. Artistic, old, looking drapes - red velvet and completely out of place in Hawaii - obscured the view to the inside of the building.
"Door's locked." Steve stated after he tried the bell and the knob, and there was no answer.
"Count to one hundred before you break it in." Danny said with a sigh as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
"Why?" Steve asked with a huff - his weapon drawn and his stance ready to move in.
"Because the sign on the door says the place is closed until Friday for the gala opening of their new modern American art exhibit." Danny answered and placed his phone to one ear and his other ear to the door. "No one is answering but it's ringing inside." Danny added.
"How did you know the number?" Steve asked in shock.
"It's in the fine print!" Danny stated and pointed at the poster again as he pocketed his phone and drew his weapon. "Now you may break down the door." he added and moved aside.
"But it says they are closed until Friday's gala. No one is here." Steve protested.
"But they should be to get ready because the paintings aren't going to hang themselves!"
"Good point!" Steve said and then threw all of his weight into the door while Danny rolled his eyes.
5-0
Danny and Steve burst into the gallery to find it completely dark. There weren't any light switches on the wall beside the door, so Danny side stepped around the small outcropping wall and found the curtains in the dark. He threw them open and flooded the clean, crisp, and very modern lobby with light.
"It's very...minimalistic." Steve stated as he looked at the block like desk, the white vase with white orchids in it, the white phone and the white appointment book open on the surface of the desk.
"It's so that nothing in here takes away from the art." Danny stated and motioned to the one very bare wall adjacent to the desk. "The light controls must be in the back." He added as he looked to the tracks of lights that were positional for the art that would be, and should be, hung on the walls by now.
"The answering machine is flashing," Steve stated as he moved around the desk.
Nothing was out of place but the blinking red light and the digital screen heralded that the message box was completely full.
"Not a good sign," Danny stated as he raised his weapon again and placed a flashlight he'd retrieved from his pocket right up against the barrel of his gun.
On the other side of the first wall that opened up into the first of the large show rooms, Danny found a bank of light switches - by the light of his flashlight – as he and Steve moved to clear the gallery room by room. He hit them all and flooded the room and the previous one with light - before he heard the sound of approaching sirens.
"You think Kono and Chin sent back-up?" Steve asked as he quickly scanned the big empty room before moving toward the next dark corridor.
"No, if they are coming here, it's because we tripped the silent alarm when you broke down the door." Danny stated and moved quickly past his partner.
In the next corridor Danny caught a dank, pungent smell that made his heart drop. He rushed forward, toward the smell while Steve covered his six - always sweeping the walls for more light switches. At the entrance to another large room Steve found another bank of switches and the smell grew stronger. He hit the lights and jumped back at the sight before him.
The room was plastered with images of his face - and the faces of the other members of Five-O. High gloss, huge prints of photographs Steve and Danny had seen in news papers and on tabloid stands, and in the middle of the room - propped up on a painter's easel was Erik Pintanell.
He was wrapped up in his own work and on display.
Spilling from his open mouth in a silent scream were hundreds of negatives on thirty-five millimeter film and Steve and Danny knew he must have died before Lauren.
"Where is it?" Danny asked frantically as HPD officers – led by Duke Lukela - began to spill into the crime scene.
"Where's what?" Steve asked.
"This!" Danny stated as he stopped and pointed at a small, white, square framed in black.
The small sheet of paper was printed on in stark black writing and was credited to an 'artist unknown'. The description of the work...
Five-O will be the one to avenge you, although you are undeserving of their help.
You are completely to blame.