Burn
By
Landon Richardson
Official Disclaimer
The characters of Lieutenant Commander Steven 'Steve' McGarrett, Chin Ho Kelly, Kono Kalakaua, Adam 'Toast' Charles, Governor Patricia Jameson and Detective Meka Hanamoa, do not belong to me in any shape or form. I am merely using them for my own entertainment purposes.
The character of Detective Sergeant Danielle 'Danni' Williams probably can be considered to be mine by now. Although she was originally based on male Danny, she soon evolved becoming her own person. She has her own background, her own family, her own history and her own distinct personality. This isn't to say that the Danny Williams we all know and love is completely gone, he still emerges through her at times. I like to think of female Danni as what Danny could have been if everything in his life had gone his way. As in full custody of Grace and a decent relationship with his ex.
The character of Grace has also changed slightly due to the change in Danni. Her surname is Taylor as this is her father's surname and was Danni's married name (Danni reverted back to her maiden name when she was divorced). Her parents also are amicable which has also impacted Grace but never fear, she's still the sweetheart we know and love, if anything she's more a sweetheart now.
The character of Supervisory Special Agent Jack O'Connor, Detective Abraham Lee. Doctor Rosie Lange, Kent Deacon, Ross Hall, Sasha Hall, Nicole Hall, Brent Cox and Special Agent Walker Humphries however do belong to me as does any other character who you do not recognise from the show. Please do not use them, or my version of Danni and Grace without first asking for my permission to do so.
Author Note
Welcome to what is technically the fifth chapter of 'Burn'
Please enjoy!
Overall Summary
Fire, fire burning bright, which member of Five-O will you try to claim tonight… When Five-O are tasked with hunting down an arsonist who has graduated to murder, they didn't expect themselves to become potential targets. Now it's a race against time to find the murdered before it's too late.
Chapter Summary
Danni hung up her cell phone with a sigh, glancing down at it for a moment before she leaned forward in her seat, her palm resting against the open files on her lap to stop the sheets of paper within falling to the floor, as she unzipped her bag and dropped the handset into it before she leaned back, shifting to make herself comfortable.
Overall Romance
Hints of Steve McGarrett / Danni Williams (McDanni)
Mentions of past Duncan Taylor / Danni Williams (Dunni)
Hints of Ryan Moore / Danni Williams (Rynni)
Meka Hanamoa / Amy Hanamoa (Mekmy)
Chapter Romance
Hints of Steve McGarrett / Danni Williams (McDanni)
Warning
This story features a female Danni Williams in place of a male Danny Williams. Although in some stories I write, Danny does exist, he does not exist in this one.
If this is not your cup of tea then please hit the back button.
Another note
I do not have a Beta so please forgive any mistakes which may creep in, I always do my best to edit the story and check it but sometimes mistakes do creep in.
The places I've mentioned in Hawaii are ones which come from google, including the addresses. I've never been to Hawaii myself in person so I apologise for any mistakes which I may make, these are not intentional.
Chapter Five
Time to split up
Monday 4th October 2010
Highway 68
Waikiki
Oahu
Hawaii
Danni Williams point of view
Danni hung up her cell phone with a sigh, glancing down at it for a moment before she leaned forward in her seat, her palm resting against the open files on her lap to stop the sheets of paper within falling to the floor, as she unzipped her bag and dropped the handset into it before she leaned back, shifting to make herself comfortable.
She glanced fleetingly at the radio with a slight frown wondering why Steve would have picked a radio station which was playing nothing but power ballads from the 80's from what she could tell. Songs which were normally only suitable for drunken nights out with friends or a long road trip with someone who had been your best friend since you were young.
She was briefly tempted to change the channel or to put on one of the various CDs she kept in the doors of the car and in a holder in the compartment in front of her but resisted, knowing there was little point now that they were on their way back to their headquarters. She looked away from it, shifting slightly again, her eyes flickering out of the window watching as various cars and scenery moves passed the, Scenery which even after seven months living in Hawaii she still had trouble adjusting to.
They were still none the wiser, after their trip to the boat house which Peter and Elizabeth Kane, the first known targets of the person they were hunting, had been renting for a six months period. The scene had been surprisingly conserved, the man who owned it admitting that he hadn't gotten around to beginning the repairs on the chatted remains. She had questioned him while Steve had moved around the scene, asking him about the victims who he had described as a nice friendly couple who had decided to take a long holiday before starting new jobs in a big city though he couldn't remember whether it was New York or Florida where the jobs were. He had gone on to say that the couple had been due to leave the day after the fire occurred.
Danni had thanked him for his time but that small piece of knowledge had buried into her head, bringing questions to her mind over whether the Arsonist had known they were leaving the island and that was his reasoning for striking when he did or was it just sheer dumb luck on his part. He or she hadn't killed before as far they knew which made her wonder whether killing the couple had been a mistake which had triggered something dormant and dark within his mind.
A flash of the Hall family remains crossed her mind making her shudder slightly as she reheard Rosie Lange's explanation about what had happened to them.
Somehow, she truly doubted the Kane family were the first victims, they just hadn't found the other victims yet.
Victims who could very easily not even be in Hawaii.
Danni closed her eyes for a moment, taking in a deep breathe before she looked away from the window and lowered her eyes back to the files, the couple of files which she had managed to look through so far were surprisingly good, the language used to describe both crime scene was clear and concise. She could tell everything which Detective Lee had done since being handed that first case back in late May. He had even gone as far as to go back and begin establishing links between the six cases he knew for definitely belonged to the Arsonist and the ones he suspected did. Links which made sense.
She had to admit that it made a refreshing change to finally encounter someone other than Meka in HPD who was actually knowledgeable about the information which needed to be in a case file.
She pushed the thought away from his mind and focused her full attention back to the file she had been reading when Steve had called Toast, turning the top page and reading through the first paragraph on the next page. Her eyes narrowing slightly as she read Lee's analysis on the possible accelerants that the Arsonist could have used to ensure that the fire had spread with the quickness and ferocity that it clearly had done.
She blinked when she felt a light touch on her bare forearm, dragging her attention away from what she was doing and focused her eyes on her partner who she realised was watching her closely. She raised an eyebrow at him, making a questioning sound at the back of her throat, indicating without words to him that she was listening.
"What are you reading that causing you to frown like you're doing?" He asked, nodding his head towards her lap and the files to indicate what he meant.
"Frown?" She repeated in surprise, resisting the sudden strong urge she had to reach up and touch her forehead, instead settling for simply rolling her eyes at him when he smirked in response.
"Yep I'm talking about the frown that's on your face, I've seen it before and it always means that you've seen or read something which has got you thinking, so I want to know what it is." He stated, searching his face for a second longer with a searching look before he focused back on the road, weaving the car in between the slower car in front of them in a show of skill and impatience. Danni tilted her head slightly to the side as she watched the side of his face, surprised by the fact that he could already read her facial expressions so well after such a short time of them being partners. It had taken Meka at least three months of constantly being in a car for her to be able to do the same and more often then not he would still make mistake. It was slightly disconcerting that Steve had seemingly managed it so easily. "Hey" Steve said as he looked back at her, taking his hand off the steering wheel and nudging her gently in the side with his elbow. "It wasn't a statement that was meant to stump you so much, are you still with me?"
"Yeah of course I am Steve." Danni responded with a shake of her head. "And its honestly nothing really." She went on to assure him when he reacted by merely shooting her a disbelieving look. "It's just…" She stopped for a moment, picking her words before continuing speaking. "I'm just surprised by the fact that this case is really well executed." She stated as she patted her hand on top of it, keeping her eyes fixed on Steve before she looked away with a sigh, her free hand coming up to rub at the back of her neck as a wave of tiredness came over her. "Detective Lee is possible the best Detective I've come across since being in Hawaii except for Meka that is." She remarked, noticing the way that Steve's eyes narrowed slightly at her comment, she chose to ignore it as she continued speaking. "He seems to know exactly what he is doing and he seems really good at it, being able to determine what the signature was had really helped because there are no other discernible links between this victims, they are all completely different from each other at first glance and even the areas of the fire have nothing linking them. Whoever is behind the fires is extremely capable and good at being able to cover his tracks, he isn't going to be easy to find and apprehend." She told him seriously.
Steve remained still for a moment as though he was running through what she had said to him in his mind before he slowly nodded at her, hitting the indicator and pulling the car into an unfamiliar road to the left of them, no doubt taking one of the many shortcuts which he seemed to know intimately.
"It's hardy surprising if he or she has already had as many successes as they have, that they have managed to evade Law enforcement." He pointed out thoughtfully. "I know that Lee believes that the Kane death is what triggered him but it wouldn't surprise me if they were merely what triggered him here in Hawaii and that they have done this before elsewhere."
"That's what I've been thinking as well." Danni agreed. "There's only two reasons that I can think of why the suspect would come to Hawaii. Either he or she came here because they were transferred here due to their job or the authorities where he or she had previously lived got too close for their liking and so they did the sensible thing and cut their losses and left before anything could be pinned on them. You heard what Lee said, he believes the fires linked to this guy started two and half years ago though it's only recently in the past four months escalated to murder. I think we should either look for someone who came here two and a half years ago and check to see whether there were any similar fires from where they came from or see if there is someone who visited during the initial fires but who moved here about six months ago. It is a lot of work but if we set Toast on something then I'm sure he can come up with a way to have it running in the background using Jack's database. I'm waiting for Doctor Lange to call me in regards to the autopsies, I'd like to look at the other ones performed on the victims to see whether they were shot as well, I know they were badly damaged but perhaps if we know what we are looking for then we might find something." She told him as she closed the file and placed them into the paper bag, she kept with her and placed it by her feet.
"You're right, if we can pinpoint where the Arsonist had initially come from then we can get in contact with the police department and speak to the Detective who had been in charge of the case and see what information they had gathered and request for them to send copies of the files to us. If we're lucky then perhaps Toast will find one of those names on the flight manifest." Steve agreed with a nod.
Danni nodded at him, making a soft sound of amusement at the back of her throat and she twisted in her seat slightly so she could see Steve easily.
"Yeah Toast can add it to the large pile of stuff he has already been given by us to do, you're not really a believer of easing people into the job, are you?" She commented dryly before she reached up and hooked some escaped hair behind her ear. "These are good ideas for us to have going on in the background but right now I think we should focus our attention on Martin Chen, even if its just the rule him out as the Arsonist and to find out what his role in this actually is. I know that Detective Lee has already spoken to him and decided there wasn't enough evidence to link him to anything but the fact he was at two separate crime scenes is suspicious to me, especially when those crime scenes were on opposite sides of the island from one another according to the files." She commented, tilting her head back to the front and looking out the window screen, her eyes focusing on the blue car in front of them. "I want to see the photos of him that Lee took of him in the crowd so I can see his expression while he was looking at the house. Somehow, I get the feeling that he won't be showing much remorse. I'll give Riona a call as well when we're back at headquarters to see if the photographs Kono took have been developed."
Steve nodded, twisting the steering wheel in his hand and pulled the car into the Ali'iolani Hale car park, automatically heading for Danni's reserved space, parking up and killing the engine.
Danni took a moment to gather her things together before she climbed out of the car, using her hip to close the door behind her, her eyes moving around the area out of habit while Steve locked up. She glanced towards him and nodded in response to his questioning look before he moved around the front of the car and joined her, heading into the building. Danni flashed her badge at the security man who waved them both through before they headed to the elevator.
The journey up to their floor was quiet. Danni risked a glance at Steve from the corner of her eyes but he was staring in front of him with a preoccupied look on his face. She wondered what he was thinking but ignored the impulse to ask. She was already beginning to get the impression that her partner would only speak about what he was thinking when he was ready to, pushing him would probably just cause him to shut down.
They exited the elevator when the doors slid open and walked side by side down the corridor, Danni sparing Steve a smile when he held the door open for her before she stepped into the bullpen, her eyes moving around her taking everything in. Toast and Kono were standing on opposite sides of the computer table from one another, typing away on what appeared to be two different keyboards and systems independent from one another, while Chin was in his office, pacing from one end of it to the other, in front of his desk, his cell phone to his ear, clearly waiting for something. No doubt he was on the phone to the duty judge attempting to get them that warrant which Danni had requested.
"Kono" Steve said as he brushed past Danni. "What more have we got on Chen?"
Danni rolled her eyes at the abrupt tone he used but chose to remain silent this time though she made a mental note to herself to have yet another chat to him about the way he addressed the team. She moved over to the table, taking the free space beside Toast and smiled at him when he glanced towards her before she looked over at Kono as the younger woman spoke, frustrating flavouring her voice.
"There's not much more than what we already told you earlier Boss." She admitted as her dark eyes moved between them, one of her hands coming up to grip her ponytail in her hand as she continued to inform them of what they knew. "Chen had been working as a front of house cashier in a local bank for the past six years. He married his wife just over five years ago but like I said earlier they have no children. He's got two brothers who both live on the mainland; one in Ohio and one in Chicago. There's also an older sister who lives over on the Big Island. As far as I can tell from his phone records, he has little to nothing to do with them unless you count the odd phone call on Christmas and birthdays as meaningful contact."
"Was there anything else you found out about him?" Danni asked as she took out the files from the paper bag and rested them on the table. Kono shook her head.
"Not really Danni-girl, I looked into his credit card and bank details but they seem pretty standard. It doesn't look like he goes out much so I'm assuming he's not got many friends. From what I can see from this." She said, waving her free hand towards the screen which was covered in statements. "He literally goes to work and then goes back home and then repeats the routine daily. The only thing he seems to do which is different is occasionally go out to buy some groceries.
"You mentioned he worked in a bank was the address for it and the address for his home?" Steve asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at her, an almost hard look as though he was testing the Rookie. Kono looked away from them both, dropping her gaze down to the computer surface as she quickly typed away against the surface and then made a sharp jerking motion with her head towards the plasma screen. Danni raised an eyebrow as the map she had seen on the table now appeared on the main screen. She found herself wondering briefly just how much that computer table must have cost before she focused as Kono began speaking.
"This little dot here." She said, pointing towards a red mark that was flashing on the map just over Hau'ula. "Is where Chen and his wife are listed as living while this one" She typed something else and a green flashing mark appeared near the red one. "Is the bank where he works at, so as you can see both of them are close together, he doesn't have to travel far to get to ether of them and could probably walk to each location from the other if he needed to."
Danni frowned, looking at the two flashing marks closely before she looked away and began searching through the files, stopping on the one she wanted and pulled it out. She flipped it open, scanning the typed words until she found what she was looking for.
"So, if those two points indicate his work and his home." She commented as she looked up and nodded at the screen. "Then why exactly did Detective Lee encounter him at a crime scene at Kapolei?" She questioned, her eyes moving between Kono and Steve. "I'll be the first to admit that my grasp on Hawaiian Geography still isn't fantastic but I'm pretty positive that Kapolei is on the other side of the island to Hauula. If all he does his go to and from work with the occasional shopping trip thrown in for variety which I assume is probably nearby to his home and work?" She asked, looking towards Kono who nodded in response. "Then what exactly was Martin Chen doing over in Kapolei? What exactly drew this seemingly home body over there? Did someone draw him there or did he know that something he wanted to see was happening over there and he wanted a front row seat to it?" She remarked thoughtfully, biting down on her lower lip.
"Kono" Steve said turning to the Rookie. "Put two more dots up on the map, one to indicate where he tends to shop and one for Kapolei."
"On it Boss." Kono stated with a single nod.
"Hey guys, I just got off the phone with the Duty Judge's clerk. He isn't going to grant us the warrant to access Chen's Juvie record unless we're able to provide him more evidence that Chen is actively involved in the fires and murders. If we can do that then he'll grant us full access, apparently being able to place him at two of the crime scenes isn't enough to open a sealed court record like this." Chin started as he left his office, his eyes moving over them as he headed towards the table.
Danni breathed out quietly, reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes drifting shut for a moment before she opened them and looked directly at Steve, meeting his gaze and giving him a small nod in response to the question she saw in his eyes.
"Toast." Steve said, turning to the dark-haired man who looked up from what he was working on his a distracted, almost startled look on his face. "Find a way to get into that Juvenile record. I want to know what he did and whether it can be linked in any way to what has been going on now." He stated to Toast who nodded at him. Danni opened her mouth to speak when she heard the door behind them when she heard the doors behind them open, she glanced over her shoulder as Jack and Detective Lee walked in. "Good you're both here." Steve stated, turning back to Toast. "Toast, I want you to stay here with Detective Lee and start working through the files, check the names and see if any of them flag up, if they do then perform a deep background check on them. If they are suspicious then I want to know everything about them. The rest of us are going to head over to Hauula and pick up Martin Chen and bring him back here for a friendly talk."
Danni began to nod when she stopped, glancing down at her watch, frowning slightly when she noticed what the time was.
"Steve." She said, attracting her partner's attention as she looked back up at him. "You're going to have to go and pick up Chen without me. There isn't enough time for us to be able to get to Hauula and then back here in time for one O'clock. I can't miss the meeting with the DA. They are waiting on our reports to building their cases against Doran and Sang Min and I don't want to waste any more time with them. The sooner we put those two behind bars the better for us it is." She told him.
Steve turned to her, an unreadable look on his face as his eyes searched hers before he gave her a curt nod.
"Understood" He stated, his voice sounding almost flat. "You have an hour until you need to be at the meeting so stay here and help both Toast and Detective Lee with the names and background checks. The rest of us will continue with the original plan of heading to Chen's work and home. O'Connor you're with me, I'm driving. Chin and Kono head to his work place, we've got the home." He instructed the rest of the team who nodded, heading off to their offices to prepare for the upcoming journey.
"So, what is your actual plan then?" Danni asked Steve, tilting her head slightly to the side as she waited for him to answer her. He was already getting a glint in his eyes which warned her that Steve's mind was already focusing on the task in front of him, a mindset which made it difficult to get through to him in. She glanced towards Jack in his office, unsurprised to see that he looked unfazed by the fact he was being partnered with Steve. Not that it really surprised her, from what she had gathered from watching and speaking to the other man, it would take a hell of a lot more than being partnered briefly to a mad man to bother him.
"Locate Martin Chen and bring him in for questioning." Steve responded briefly attracting her attention to him. "If he resists coming with us then…" Steve's voice trailed off as he shrugged. A look of his face which spoke volumes about exactly what would happen if Chen did resist them. Steve would clearly have no issues with taking him down if it came down to it.
Danni's gaze flickered around the others as they came out of their offices in time to hear what Steve had said. Her eyes narrowed slightly on Kono when she caught sight of the large grin which had come to Kono's face at Steve's unspoken threat. Danni would clearly have to keep a close eye on the younger woman to make sure that they didn't end up with two McGarrett types on the team. One was plenty to deal with in her eyes.
"Right" Danni said finally, drawing out the word, well aware of the others watching the exchange between her and Steve with growing interest. "Well, when you're in the middle of stopping him from resisting, just try and remember that we need him to be able to talk to us so if you could perhaps refrain from beating him as a favour to me then I would be most grateful Steve." She remarked dryly, shaking her head as she began gathering the files together in her hand, suddenly wishing that the DA's meeting was later on so she could go with them and make sure that everything which happened was above board. She pushed the thought away, looking over her shoulder towards the table at the back of the room, near the kitchen. That would be as good a place as any for her and Detective Lee to work from.
"I'll try but I can't make any promises Danno, it's completely down to Chen." Steve responded, glancing up at her, his mouth quirking into a half smile before he focused his attention back on checking his two guns.
"Of course, it is, just make sure you're wearing your tactical vest when you knock on that door Steve, you have no idea what is on the other side and you're not superman." She told him, switching her eyes to Jack who was looking amused by the exchange. "Jack, make sure that he comes back alive okay? I don't even want to think about the amount of paperwork which we would have to complete if he didn't. We'd be chained to our desk until late into the night trying to complete it and I'm pretty sure that none of us want to have to deal with that."
"You worry too much Danni." Steve said before Jack could answer her. He reached across to her and wrapped his large hand around the back of her neck, squeezing down gently on the muscle before he dropped his hand, looking towards Toast who had stopped typing and was looking at them all closely as though he was trying to figure them out. "Toast before you start on the names, quickly do a deep background check on Chen. I know that Kono found out a bit but there has to be more than that hidden away somewhere. Get into that Juvenile record and see what its about. It might just be the leverage we need to make Chen sing. Danni." He said turning to look at Danni again. "Before you get lost in the world of reports and DA meetings, can you have a look into Chen's wife, there maybe something in her past we can use as leverage should Chen decide not to answer our questions."
"That's not a problem." Danni responded. "Should I call you if we find anything?" She asked, raising a surprised eyebrow when Steve shook his head at her and instead turned to Chin.
"Chin, do we still have the ear pieces to hand that were delivered to the office yesterday?" He asked the older man who nodded at him, his arms crossed over his chest.
"We do, I unpacked them myself this morning and put them into the storage room until you had decided where you wanted them to be kept." Chin answered, Steve nodded.
"Could you go and grab them please?" He said, waiting until Chin came back into the room holding a medium sized box in his hand which he passed to Steve. Steve took it from him and spoke as he flipped the lid of the box up. "Here, everyone take one of these." He instructed them. "We'll communicate with one another through these on channel four. Toast and Danni, you'll be able to use this to tell us all the moment you find something out that we need to know about." He stated, holding out the box to everyone. Danni gave him a pointed look at the tone he used before she leaned forward and selected one of the smaller looking ear pieces, reaching up and slipping into her left ear. She wriggled it around for a second so it was comfortable before she dropped her hand, her gaze moving around the others to see that they were doing the same thing as she had been.
"Do we need to adjust them at all?" Kono asked
"No need, I adjusted them all to that channel earlier on." Chin answered her. "As soon as you press the connect button on the side then it should start working and connect us all."
"Good job Chin." Danni remarked with a smile at him before she looked back at Steve as he spoke, directing his comment towards Toast.
"Send us both Chen's work and home address to our cell phones Toast." He told the younger man who nodded at him.
"You got it McGarrett" He responded. Steve nodded once at him before he turned to the others.
"Let's go" He stated to the others as he turned and headed towards the door. He glanced over his shoulder towards Danni, meeting her eyes before he followed Kono out of the room, leaving Danni alone with Toast and Detective Lee. For a moment she stared at the door realising that this was the first time that she hadn't been partnered with Steve while they had been at work but she forced herself to push the feeling aside. She had a job to do and she had to do it. Steve needed the information and she would make sure that he would receive it. She reached up and turned the earpiece off for a moment so she could concentrate.
"Abe" She said, turning to the Detective who was standing slightly to the side of them, looking around him with a curious expression, clearly taking in the freshly decorated room and high-tech equipment which the Governor had supplied them with. She waited until he turned to her before she continued. "I need you to start looking at the files again. I know you've probably read through them a thousand times already but what would be really helpful right now is if you could provide us with a list of the names of the people who you interviewed crime scenes." She said, picking the files up and passing them over to the taller man with a smile.
"I've already ran the names through CODIS Danni and no information pinged up for any of them Danni or rather nothing major. There were a few shoplifting charges but nothing which would end up with the person escalating up to something like this." He told her as he took the files from her, shifting them so they were under his arm.
"We actually have a slightly more advanced database that we use here then what is available at HPD." Danni told him. "Trust me if they have anything, anywhere at all then we're going to know about it almost straight away." She assured him. For a moment she thought he was going to argue with her but instead he shrugged and merely nodded instead.
"You're the boss here." He remarked with a smile, the comment causing Danni to huff in amusement as she thought about what Steve's reacting to that simple comment would be if he had overheard it. She lifted her hand and pointed past him in the direction of the table.
"You can use the table over there. If you want to grab yourself a coffee then we have a coffee machine in the kitchen. Spare mugs are on the middle shelf in the first cupboard. I really wouldn't recommend using any other mugs because they belong to members of the task force. You might need to make a fresh pot as well since it probably hasn't been done since this morning. Once Toasts gets into his groove, he rarely stops for anything, not even a coffee." She explained to him as she glanced towards Toast with a fond look before looking back at Detective Lee, flashing him another smile before she headed back over to the computer table. She looked down at it for a second before turning her ear piece back on, in time to hear the end of Steve speaking.
"-Understood?"
She blinked, looking up at Toast when he answered.
"I'm hearing you loud and clear McGarrett"
"How long do you think it will take to crack into his juvvie record Toast?" Kono asked sounding distracted as though she was driving. Danni smiled, shaking her head slightly as she logged into the HPD database on the surface, frowning slightly at it before she looked back up at Toast.
"Normally It would take five minutes but…" The younger man began to say when Steve cut across him.
"Normally? Why aren't you going to follow the same procedure you normally would use? We need this information fast Toast." He stated. Danni rolled her eyes, holding her hand up to Toast when she saw a dull pink flush appear across his cheekbones indicating he was pissed.
"Perhaps if you let him finish speaking then you'd have your answer Steven." She remarked quietly. There was a moment of silence before Danni spoke again. "Carry on with what you were saying Toast." She said to him, turning her attention back to her own search page and typing in the name of Chen's wife, listening to Toast as he began speaking again.
"Like I was saying, normally it would take me about five minutes to dip in and out but now that the duty judge is aware, we're interested, he might very well have someone watching it and even if he's not then it's not a chance we can't take right? So, I just need to go through a few different routers from the mainland so it looks like the hack had come from there rather than here. They won't be able to track it back to this office but it will take about ten minutes for me to do.
"That sounds like the best way of doing it Toast, that way, like you said, even if someone is suspicious that we were behind it, then they won't be able to prove it." Jack said, speaking for the first time. Danni's mouth quirked up into a smile, if she didn't know better than she would think that Toast had managed to impress the Agent.
"What about you Danni?" Steve questioned. "How is your research into the wife coming?" Danni rolled her eyes, smirking at Toast when he grinned at her.
"You do know that you've barely been gone for five minutes right Steve? I've only just started because I was sorting Detective Lee out, he's looking through the files and making a list of the names so we can run them through the database like you wanted. Abe mentioned that he didn't have any real luck with the HPD database so maybe we will have more. I should start having some information on Rita to give you within five minutes or so." She advised.
"Good" Steve said. "Make sure that you keep in touch." He stated, sounding almost as though the command was a simple afterthought.
"We will, don't worry" She answered him "and remember that the same goes for you all as well." She reminded them all before she reached up and cut the feed, unsurprised when she saw Toast do the same. It was hard to be able to concentrate fully on the task with a constant buzzing in your ear. She watched the tall man carefully for a second before she spoke. "You know this will get easier Toast, just hang in there okay? The first day on any new job is always the worst and you've been thrown in the deep end with this case."
Toast glanced up at her and nodded.
"I got this Blondie." He said, his tone indicating that he was trying to convince himself rather than her. She remained silent, making do with nodding at him before she turned her attention back to her own task at hand as she searched through the database for Rita Chen's records. Her eyebrow rose as her eyes snagged on something.
She read it, then reread it for good measure, a small smile curving her mouth.
Now that was certainly interesting.
Author Note
Thanks for taking the time to read. An especially big thank you if you have left me a review, favourite the story or decided to follow it.
I really appreciate it