Chapter 28 "Rachel's Interrogation"
A/N: (29 November 2016) Once more I have to thank all who reviewed, read, followed and/or favorited this story! I really do appreciate your real kindness and caring about this story.
This was such an important chapter, it took a bit of extra research. It also took a little longer to write, which was partly because Thanksgiving turned into a nice little vacation for my de-gall-bladdered sister, so we used the holiday to play, since she is feeling better and thanks all of you who prayed and wished her well. She's back to normal now!
I'm hoping to finish this story by the start of the new year, so obviously you will be getting chapters at a quicker pace. :-D And of course there is another story waiting to be written when this one is finished. Five-0 is fun to write for!
CBS owns Hawaii Five-0.
Chapter 28 "Rachel's Interrogation"
(Friday, 23 December 2016, 8pm)
Danny paused in his nearly non-stop sawing of the chain back and forth on the metal plate. He felt very ill, shivering and aching in the way one does when feverish. His appetite had vanished, which meant for the first time since being locked inside the box, he was not starving. He had eaten his tiny 'spoonful' of peanut butter, and had almost given it right back, but thankfully it had stayed down, and his nausea was not the kind that made him feel like any second he would have to run for the latrine hole. Except for that brief and worrisome ten minutes just after the peanut butter, he merely felt sick, not like he was actually going to be sick. He had to force himself to keep drinking water.
Danny's knee was sore, and his thumb ached sharply, and was swollen. It no longer felt like it was still 'burning', but the burn was far from healed. The gash was not bleeding anymore. Instead, his makeshift bandage had to be changed because there was a small discharge of yellow pus where the scab should be forming. It was definitely infected. His head ached too, his stomach was touchy, and he was doing his best to keep his bare feet on the blanket, for he really was surrounded by cold walls and air. Hawaii was hardly ever this cold. When one is used to temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s, with nights in the 70s, and lots of sunshine, gray days of rain in the 60s felt like snowstorms in New Jersey, without the snow. Danny's body had transitioned to what was normal in Hawaii. He wanted thick socks and a jacket with a hood, not a thin coverall and a blanket not much warmer than a bedsheet.
Between all his physical discomforts was the stress of the past few days, the worry, the sleep deprivation from short sleep times and his schedule having been flipped upside down, so day was night and night was day, even if physically there was no sunlight to see at all, no clocks but what he could discern from how long the lights lasted and when the Christmas lights came on at dusk.
All Danny wanted to do was curl into a ball and maximize the coverage of the blanket. Angel was doing her best to warm him, but she was very small, and Danny was trying to make sure she got her share of the blanket too. It was cold for both of them. It had not been that long since the 'day' had begun – which acutely reminded Danny that it was now night outside, and the air would only get colder for several more hours – and already he was struggling to stay awake. The sawing of the chain was force of will, yet that will was unable to muster as much strength as the day before. His illness and exhaustion had severely depleted his strength.
The sawing could not produce enough heat to warm the box perceptibly, but the link still heated up enough that he had to pause and let it cool. The air did the cooling, and he would actually hunch over the heated link, to benefit from the small oval of metal. It was a little like trying to use a match as a heat source.
But now, Danny knew he had to take more of a break than he wanted to. He needed to rest, and wrap in the blanket, and just close his eyes for a few minutes, until the link cooled. So he laid down, Angel cuddled to his chest inside the coverall, and pulled the blanket around them both. Not even a minute later, he had fallen into the sleep of the exhausted and sick. The colorful lights of Christmas shone down on a scene that was anything but happy.
H50 H50 H50
Steve rubbed his eyes with his left hand as he waited for Rachel Edwards to be brought to an interrogation room at the women's jail where she was being held until she was moved to the facility that would be her home until her trial, or sentencing if she waived a trial. He had changed into a lined shirt jacket to replace the single layer chamois he had been wearing over his cotton cargo-shirt. He felt warmer now, but he could not shake the inner chill and aches he had been feeling since the weather changed and the temperatures dropped into the low 60s, with drizzle and horizon-to-horizon gray clouds, which were expected to last another 24 hours before breaking into more seasonable temperatures late on Christmas Eve. Steve could not stop thinking how the cold had to be affecting Danny, who was not dressed for it, nor able to find enough warmth in the thin blanket Stan had left for him.
He tried not to even think that the person next on his list to interview after Rachel was the man who had caused so much grief when he tried to murder Danny. Steve had not forgotten the others Stan had murdered, nor that he had only failed to murder Steve because he had been thrown from Danny's car just before it plunged over a high, steep embankment, and burst into flames when it landed below.
Chin was with him again, and he sat in the chair near the door, while Steve was in an uncomfortable chair in front of the table, behind which Rachel would sit in an equally uncomfortable chair while her right wrist was cuffed to the bar on the table, which was bolted to the cement floor. There were no frills here. One side wall was a large mirror from this side, but was in fact two-way glass, so others could watch the interrogation from the room behind the glass. Kono and Abby were in that room, also wearing heavier jackets than before. There was a camera and microphones so they could hear everything as it was being recorded. Chin had placed his phone on the table, and would be recording everything in audio and video.
Steve would have liked to talk to Rachel Edwards at least once in the blue room, but at this late an hour, it was better to keep her in the jail, and use one of the regular interrogation rooms.
Steve turned to glance back at Chin and also at the mirror when they heard awkward footsteps approaching. Rachel was being spared nothing; her ankles were cuffed, as well as her wrists. Both men rose and stood aside as Rachel and the matron guard entered the room. Rachel blushed immediately, and at the urging of the matron, whose hand was on her upper right arm, she shuffled in her black rubber slippers and white socks over to the chair behind the table. There was a pause while the matron locked the ankle chain to the lower crossbar of the chair, and her hands were cuffed to the table's bar.
The matron left the room when Steve nodded to her, knowing she would wait in the room with Kono and Abby. They would probably all have coffee or tea, and Steve wished he could have a hot coffee, something full of caffeine to keep him awake once the interview ended.
He reached over and turned on the recording/video app on Chin's phone.
Rachel, her pregnancy now in the middle of the fourth month, was clearly subdued and embarrassed, not looking at either Steve or Chin but for the briefest possible glance.
"You don't look so good," Steve finally remarked, his voice professionally neutral as he continued to stand, a subtle interrogation technique to remind Rachel who was entirely in charge.
Rachel's brown eyes flicked upwards, and her temper flared before going out like a match that had failed. "I do apologize," she said in her soft British accent. "The maternity wardrobe in this place is as unpalatable as the food, and it is impossible to look one's best when even the shampoo is unpleasant, and smells vaguely of industrial cleaner. At least I am allowed my pre-natal vitamins."
"The shampoo here is odorless dish soap," Steve commented. "And let me guess," he continued, noticing the cheap gray pants, the even cheaper dark blue scrub-like shirt with a white T-shirt underneath. "Dinner was chicken."
"Was it?" Rachel replied wryly. "It was so hard to tell what it was. It tasted like cardboard."
"Get used to it."
Rachel flinched slightly, and sighed. "I know, Commander. I suppose I have lost any right to call you Steve. I have been 'a very bad girl', and now comes the payment. I wondered why it has taken you so long to get around to interrogating me. So I suppose Stan is blaming all of this on me?"
"Commander is fine," intoned Steve flatly. "And we haven't interviewed Stan yet."
This startled Rachel, and her posture, which had been lax for her, straightened. "Whyever not? He did everything."
"Did he?" asked Steve, and his voice had hardened just a bit, like a blade that had been run over a whetstone only a couple of soft strokes. "Mrs. Edwards, this is your chance to tell us everything you know, and I do mean everything. Because we know a lot at this point, and if you lie to us, believe me, things in here can get a lot worse than they currently are. Some of the cells here are very very small, and the mattress is more like a folded blanket on the floor, and the inmate uniform is made of mismatched blaze orange and black horizontal stripes, and there is no heater or air conditioner."
"My, that does sound unpleasant. My cell now is not dissimilar to what you describe, but I should not complain. While my mattress is on the floor, and only 3 inches thick if I am generous, it is at least not in a cell with other inmates." She paused, and finally asked, carefully, "What will happen to my baby?"
Steve was honest. "There is an infirmary here, fully staffed. If there are any complications with the birthing process, you will be transferred to Queens Hospital. Once you have the baby, you will be allowed to see it, but then it will be taken from you and placed immediately in foster care, where it will stay until you and Stan make arrangements for other family members to care for it. You might want to begin making those arrangements now, so everything is in place when you do give birth."
"Will Stan be allowed to be with me?"
"No. He will receive a photograph of the baby, and you will too, to keep after you are back in your cell."
Rachel sighed again. "A photograph. I am not at all surprised." She had noticed the strokes of the whetstone on Steve's voice. "So, what do I know? Danny is dead, Stan killed him and dumped his body at sea, where sharks were feeding, and the clothes and hair were going to be put in the current near one of the smaller beaches today, in fact, after being soaked in the blood, so they could wash up and be found in another day, and with any luck we would have been able to put on a convincing, heartbroken act, and in due time receive official permission to move to Dubai, no longer stuck here because of Danny's parental visitation stipulation that we cannot move from Hawaii."
Steve and Chin both hid their shock at this new information, but Chin was keeping notes, looking impassive as he did it. They would find out how Abby and Kono reacted when they met up after the interrogation of Rachel.
"Go on," intoned Steve.
"Is there a reason I don't get to do this with my lawyer present?" asked Rachel, quietly.
"Five-0 can question you without your lawyer present."
"I am so lucky. Well, let's see. Stan thought you would be able to figure all this out, so he wanted to kill you too. Obviously, he bungled that. We both thought that if you and Danny were both dead, Five-0 would be sent into chaos, and the investigation would pass us by as suspects entirely. Even with you still alive, we never thought you would suspect us. Oh well. Stan also killed that disgusting homeless man who was helping him. At least, Stan told me he got him to fall off the helicopter, out in the middle of nowhere so he would not be found. Let's see, the man, Jason Black, who stood in for Stan on the business trip to Singapore was paid quite a lot, and he's now in Dubai at the firm Stan was going to join once we could move from the islands. He was to provide Stan with an alibi while he killed you and Danny, and my job was to get you and Danny out of the house so Stan could use Grace's key – which we duplicated without her knowing - to get inside the back door of Danny's house so he could drug your tea and then hide, while you were talking to me at my car. Then I would meet Jason at the airport, put on a good show for the security cameras, and then meet up with Stan at a diner after he had taken care of you and Danny. I never saw Danny after leaving his house, before I went to the airport. That's the gist of it."
"Was the homeless man with Stan when he entered Danny's house?"
"No. Stan said he told him to hide in the bushes near where he'd parked his car – Stan's car – and he would call him and let him in once you were both drugged."
Steve was digesting all the news quietly, while acting inscrutable. He suddenly asked, "Do you have a neighbor whose cat had kittens about eight weeks ago?"
Rachel looked puzzled. "Yes. Almost nine weeks now. Five kittens. What does that have to do with anything?"
Steve switched direction again. "How did Stan get the Rohypnol?"
"Oh." Rachel thought for a moment. "He has a disguise, and he said he bought it on the street. I don't know from whom – I never asked."
"Why did he shave Danny's head?"
Rachel shrugged. "That was my idea. Danny was so vain about his hair, and it seemed like it would be good to add to the clothes and blood, since the sharks would, you know, not leave anything else. Stan wanted to rip off some scalp too, since Danny wouldn't feel it, but we thought that would be too messy, so he just shaved his head."
Steve nodded. His gut was churning, but he did not show it. He glanced back at Chin, still expressionless as he took his notes, then turned back to Rachel.
"And the reason for destroying Danny's house was….?"
"Oh. That." Rachel sounded almost bored. "Stan hoped it would destroy any evidence he might have left behind when he drugged you and Danny. Besides, he was very angry after you came to the house to inform us Danny was missing, but not believed dead, and you clearly weren't. That gave us some very bad moments."
Steve stifled his reactions, as did Chin. He was fuming, and horrified, but this was not his first interrogation; he would react later. "So Stan bought the linseed oil where? Which store?"
"Seriously, Commander, he didn't tell me and I didn't ask. I didn't care. I was beginning to worry we might be caught, and with my pregnancy, I wanted to minimize my stress as much as possible."
Steve nodded. "I guess it is stressful to have to go through the motions of not letting on that you are an accomplice in the murder of the father of your two other children, and the attempted murder of me, and the homeless man who helped your husband."
Rachel met Steve's gaze, chocolate brown locked onto sea green that had darkened almost to a deep stormy water color. "I know you are unsympathetic, Commander, but it was stressful, and I have to think of my baby."
"I notice that you have not asked at all after Grace and Charlie."
She looked quickly down at her handcuffed wrists. "Well, I am upset with Grace, if you want to know. She betrayed her mother and father, and her unborn baby brother. But, of course I am concerned about them. How are they?"
"Oh, so you are having another boy. Stan finally gets an heir. How nice," Steve commented flatly. Then the whetstone sharpened his voice even more than before. "They are both staying with good friends of mine. Charlie doesn't really understand what is happening, but thinks it a great adventure right now. Gracie is angry and upset with her mother, and now hates her step-father. She remains very loyal to her father."
"Danny is dead. Stan is her father now."
Steve finally leaned on the tabletop with his uncasted arm. "Stan never was allowed to legally adopt Grace, or Charlie, so he is father to neither of them. He is only your husband, and Danny … is not dead." He rushed on, his voice frozen. "But let me tell you who is. Let's see. There is Neil Lane, the roofer Stan hated because he looked too much like Danny. He was murdered, and was put in Danny's car with me, and his body was burned beyond recognition, while Danny's police shield was left in the car. Max Bergman determined the passenger seat had been doused in gas, so it would burn the body and make it very difficult to identify. But we had DNA. And it did not belong to Danny, nor did the remains carry any of Danny's scars. And there was the presence of a gall bladder, which Danny does not have since the liver transplant. It is amazing how clumsy Stan was in what he did. We found out about the roofer, and his wife is grieving him very deeply. Then there is Jason Black, the guy who stood in for Stan on that trip. He has been reported missing and is presumed dead, though we have only circumstantial evidence. We can go into that later, but he is probably the one fed to the sharks. Let's see, oh yes, the homeless man, who has a name: Mo Morris. He is clinging barely to life in the hospital, and did indeed fall from the chopper, pretty much landing on his head, but we did find his phone. He recorded video of Stan leaving Danny in a small shipping container, and filling the padlocks on the door with superglue. He admitted to spoiling almost all of the food in the container, so Danny would starve over time, and die an agonizing, slow death. But he did leave him with a string of Christmas lights, and a little kitten from the neighbor's litter."
"But Danny hates cats!" Rachel said, shocked.
"That is what startles you the most about this scenario?" Steve frowned, disgusted.
"I think you are lying to me, Commander." Rachel's voice was angry.
Steve pulled out the phone, and very selectively showed her stills from the scene, playing only the dialogue of Stan bragging about having spoiled most of the food. "I am not lying, Mrs. Edwards. Your husband planned very carefully for Danny to die in agony, over a period of time. With a kitten for company."
"I – I did not know any of this!" There was a horror and sincerity in Rachel's voice that was believable. "He told me he fed Danny, unconscious from that drug, to the sharks, and that he would never feel a thing! I would not have been okay with Stan torturing Danny the way you say he is being tortured. I mean, his claustrophobia in that small space! -If he is alive, you have to get him out of there! And the poor little kitten!"
"Does Stan own a shipping container anywhere on this island, or any of the other Hawaiian Islands?" Steve's voice was the sharpest knife.
Rachel was upset and very flustered. "Um … not that I know of, but obviously he kept several secrets from me. Very obviously. I don't know, he might, but I swear I would not know where."
"Projects his company abandoned? Anything like that?"
"I'm terribly sorry." Rachel's voice was shaking, and she was fighting tears. "I wish I knew, I mean that! I would tell you if I knew! You will have to ask Stan."
"We will, Mrs. Edwards. We will. Thank you for cooperating. If we have any more questions, we will see you again." Steve signaled to the mirror for the matron to retrieve her charge. She entered the room only seconds later. "Return Mrs. Edwards to her cell."
Rachel said softly, "I am sorry for what I did. Find Danny. Please find him, Commander."
"We will, Mrs. Edwards. Searchers are already looking for that shipping container."
Rachel paused. She looked Steve in the eyes, and she sounded alone and frightened. "I can't stay married to a man who would do that. I have to divorce Stan."
Steve's voice was like ice. "You were okay staying with Stan after he murdered people, so long as he did it quickly and painlessly, so you could live a nice life of luxury in Dubai. Has much really changed?"
Rachel looked away. "When can I see my children?"
"After we find Danny. And then, no promises. Grace is old enough to refuse visiting you, and Charlie is too young to do so without his father's permission."
As the matron led Rachel from the room, Steve turned off the recording feature on Chin's phone.
A/N: Obviously, things got brought up here which will need some explanation, but they will be part of Stan's interrogation.