A/N: I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting for this story! The good news is that I have finished writing it. The bad news is that I am going to be spacing out the chapters to give myself time to write more of other stories. But the updates with be at regular intervals from here on out, so thank you for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy where I take this!

Chapter 8: The Little Girl

"She's really gone now." Eric laughed as he'd been watching the computer for the termination of the connection with Nell back in his own operations centre. The Five-O office had fallen into a deadly silence as everyone seemed to hold their breath for fear of Hetty. "We can work now." Eric added and rubbed his hands together.

"All right, our forensics team have given us dates to go on. Have you pulled the information?" Steve asked as he turned back to Toast.

"Everything we could find," Toast answered, "but I'm not really sure how much of it is going to prove useful to you."

"The first article LaBelle wrote was a tip from Johnny about the new task-force funded by the state and backed by the beloved Governor Jameson."

"You should hear what she's written about that woman after her disgrace and death," Toast added and whistled for effect. "If you thought she had it out for you then she's literally trying to prove that the former Governor was Satan. She is not nice in the articles that she wrote after Jameson was murdered and you were proved innocent of the charge of murdering her." He added and pointed at Steve.

"Anyway," Eric piped in again, "it was a relatively good article, almost praising the idea of the task-force, but it did touch on the crime organization under the fugitive Sang Min and the people that had come to this country as illegals. The first article fuelled a string of editorials written by LaBelle about some of the struggles of the immigrants in this country. She wrote passionately about old outdated laws and how hard it is for some people to escape poverty even within this first world country. She was well liked by the community at large and her opinions meant a lot because of her interest in this growing and corrupt social problem. She's been a really interesting study." Eric admitted.

"What about the other articles we're interested in?" Steve asked with an approving nod at Eric.

"Those are far more specific. The case in question morphs itself after it was handed over to the HPD for follow up. Most of the victims in the tanker are either placed into custody and then moved through the system, or others had relatives here who claimed them - these were mostly minors - but there were some among the victims who were strategically acquired for Sang Min's purposes." Toast explained.

"Sex trafficking?" Danny asked as he came out of his office.

"Yes, but not with regards to this case." Toast answered as Danny came back up to the computer with his tablet and swiped a bloggers web site onto the screen.

"Who is that?" Eric asked.

"In our triangle of victims, I've added a forth to make it a square." Danny answered.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked with a shake of his head.

"I did a quick search when I retreated from Hetty. If you google LaBelle, Tao and Pintanell, a forth name always comes up in connection with the stories these three seemed to target. Booker James. All the big cases, he's blogged about, and of the four, he's the one who really seems to hate us. But here's the kicker, no one knows who he really is." Danny explained. "Booker James is a pseudonym, or maybe his hacker tag, but the real man is a coward and has to hide behind a computer to get his opinions about us out in the world."

"I've never heard of him, so more likely its his pseudonym." Toast stated. "If he was a hacker and running in the same circles, I'd know who he was."

"The blog is protected." Eric said after having typed something into the Smart System. "I can't access it through any of my usual back doors."

"The site is encrypted - probably to keep him safe and anonymous. I can break this." Toast added with a nod. "But it will take some time."

"I need to know how to find this ghost before our murderer does." Steve demanded.

5-0

Kono and Chin moved quickly as the darkness started to fall on the day from hell. They switched out their vehicles at an HPD precinct that was not their usual turf, dropped Wallace off with their friends at HPD and then met up again with rental vehicles for secrecy and stealth. They wanted to avoid the media at all costs. They then made their way back to the palace and in through the back and down through the tunnels to the basement.

"Here, I'm sorry this isn't the Hilton, but you'll be safe. We'll bring you whatever you want." Chin stated as he opened the door to the private Five-O interrogation room and Kono ushered the man inside.

"Am I under arrest?" Wallace asked sadly.

"No," Kono answered. "This is just the best we've got to keep you safe. If Steve and Danny want you upstairs in the bullpen we'll come back for you, but you'd have to pass through the common areas of this place and what if the killer really is watching us?"

"Then I don't want to be seen." Wallace stated fearfully.

"Exactly."

"Why bring me here if it's not safe?"

"This room is basically our bunker. It's the safest place we've got." Chin reassured the frightened young man. "Is there anything we can get you before we get back to work?"

Wallace shook his head and began pacing the length of the room.

"We're going to lock you in. Five-O are the only people with the access code to this room." Kono said trying to be reassuring.

"Lock me in." Wallace stated and continued to pace as the door shut behind Chin and Kono.

5-0

"I'll get to that but don't you want to know what the other two articles were about?" Toast asked as he snapped at the impatient navy SEAL.

"Yes," Steve stated.

"Okay. So it would seem that you guys got put back on the case once Sang Min was in jail and his organization was picked up and continued by another man. A man who had been expecting his whole family to come over in that shipment of illegals. You were turned on to that case when Sang Min tipped you off." Toast explained.

"He also pulled the wool over our eyes, but continue." Danny said as Toast shot him a look to scold his interruption.

"Anyway, you wrapped that case, took the new boss right out of the organization and turned the findings back to HPD because the case was technically theirs. What you didn't know was that Sang Min's second had out sourced the moving of the illegal immigrants and once again you were brought in to assist HPD."

"Oh my God, I know where this is going. It has nothing to do with the trafficking of people." Danny stated as he jaw dropped. "It was a raid gone wrong."

Toast nodded. "Exactly."

"Why don't I remember this?" Steve asked as Eric moved two headlines onto the monitor before Steve's eyes.

"Because you were a train on a single track moving at highway speeds." Danny answered. "The only person you were worried about was the man who'd been identified as the one to move, house, and accommodate the people Hiro Noshimori moved into his path." Danny explained.

"I caught that guy and took Noshimori and his brother right off the streets." Steve said still at a loss.

"You did, and you did a very good job, but as you went after the man on foot and tackled him on the beach, the media followed you way too closely and obscured what he was leading you into."

"A little girl was shot and killed that day." Toast jumped in. "The article that LaBelle wrote that second day wasn't about the case, that captured, you, or the island, but rather about the collateral damaged left in your wake."

"But that wasn't my fault. I was being corralled, as it was, by reporters and cameras on foot and following my every move. I couldn't get back through the crowd without going right through a parking lot adjacent to a play ground. I remember this now. I was separated from my back up, blocked off by reporters as I tried to get my fugitive back to my team and I'd lost sight of the men working with my fugitive. It was a mess and by the time I realized that the scene wasn't locked down by my people I was cut off, blocked in and the only way out was through the park, and his men opened fire."

"Exactly," Danny said with a shake of his head. "That's when the pursuing paparazzi hit the deck and scrambled, and we managed to get things back under control and we took the two other gunmen into custody, but we couldn't save the little girl."

"But we released a statement - the Governor was so harsh with regards to letting us work and staying out of our way. A little girl died because they were too involved in getting their story." Steve said as if he were trying desperately to justify his action all over again.

"That is were LaBelle's last article comes in." Toast said with a sigh.

"It was her retort to your statement spinning the media point of view and placing all the blame back on Five-O for being careless and a danger to everyone that comes around. Tao and Pintanell got behind her - one hundred percent - and no matter what was said, it was spun out of Five-Os control." Eric finished.

"And the little girl who died as a result of the reporters getting too close, no one even nows her name and the story was buried in the controversy." Toast added.

"This is all about that little girl." Steve said and buried his face in his hands.