Chapter 2

The door to the Hawaii Five-O outer offices swung open and in strode Steve McGarrett, quickly, broadly—the king of his castle entering his domain and clearly owning it, as usual. Behind him followed Dan Williams just as quickly, looking a little self-conscious but deadly serious—not the fun-loving detective's usual demeanor around the office. Not making eye contact with anyone, he knew that today the eyes of his friends and colleagues would be on him. He knew what they were thinking. What is he doing here? How is he reacting to the news? Will he be OK?

So much like it had been…after Jane died.

Danny went straight into his office to check his desk for his mail and phone messages, while Steve proceeded into his big office, leaving the door open. Glancing at Danny in his cubicle as he walked, Chin followed Steve, talking as he went.

"We found out that there were some clothes stolen overnight from a patient's room at the hospital—could be that Gregson took them, got rid of his hospital gown, and redressed to look like an ordinary hospital visitor. There was a little money in the pants pockets—not much but maybe enough to get him bus fare, maybe a taxi ride. That's all we've got, so far, boss."

"What about Gregson's friends in prison?" Steve asked while standing and perusing his own messages on his desk.

"Ben is at the prison to find out if Gregson has any links to someone on the streets who could help him. But Gregson was never a part of the street scene. It's not likely that he could get any help there or that he would even try to tap into that," Chin offered pessimistically.

Steve thought through Chin's words. "Unless he has no one else to turn to. He's probably desperate. He's got to know we're looking under every rock for him. Danno says that Gregson's wife—his ex-wife—isn't even in the islands anymore, so he can't turn to her—not that she would help him, since his whole scheme years ago was supposed to end in her death."

At a pause in the conversation, Chin looked behind him into the outer office as he walked over closer to Steve's desk to speak to him quietly. "Steve, what is Danny doing here? I thought you were going to send him off for the day to keep him out of this?"

Steve sighed and sat down heavily in his desk chair, running both his hands down the front of his face in frustration. "Chin," he hesitated. "First of all, he didn't buy my bit about the boat. I had to tell him what was going on with Gregson's escape. And then," he hesitated again. He paused as his mind's eye went back to the box of mementos on the high shelf in Danno's closet, and how Danno calmly fingered them and talked about them as if it was someone else's life Gregson had destroyed. He continued, "Then…, I couldn't say no. Besides, he wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, even from me." He looked up at Chin, resigned to Danno's need to be on the team today.

"Maybe it really has been long enough in the past that he can deal with it and wants to help us just locate Gregson and get him back in prison," Chin suggested, still speaking quietly and keeping an eye on the open door behind him.

"Maybe. I hope so." Steve thought a few seconds, canted his head, then spoke in a low, concerned voice, "He's so… so calm about it..., but very determined to find Gregson. And we need all the hands we can get."

Chin offered generously, "We'll keep a close eye on him, boss."

Smiling, Steve was confident in his men's mutual concern for their colleague. "I know you will, Chin. Thanks."

Hawaii Five-O ~ Hawaii Five-O ~ Hawaii Five-O ~ Hawaii Five-O ~ Hawaii Five-O ~ Hawaii Five-O

The foursome of Five-O detectives re-convened in the big office after following leads in Gregson's escape. But the leads were few and didn't take long to dead end. The prisoner had been in the hospital since yesterday morning, guarded, undergoing some continuing tests on a heart condition the prison doctors had recently discovered in him.

Despite being imprisoned for life on multiple charges, Gregson had a reputation for being a model prisoner. Although he had two guards with him that knew him well from the prison, he used his "model prisoner" label to outsmart them when he had a rare opportunity to slip away. He had fled quietly into the corridors of the hospital, re-dressed to appear as an everyday sort, melted into the ordinary crowd of early-morning arrivals for outpatient procedures and, from there, disappeared. The hospital had been thoroughly searched, and he was very gone.

From the prison, Ben found out that the "model prisoner" Gregson had been a loner. He believed himself above the common pushers, druggies, thieves, and even the professional killers he came into contact with. After all, he had been the wealthy head of his own construction company, built it from the ground up and supervised huge crews of big hulking men. He had dealt million-dollar deals as easily as if he were trading peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for ham and cheese in a school cafeteria. He had no use for the convicts with whom he was surrounded.

Ben reported, "He mostly talked to the guards-and made friends with them," probably aiding in his eventual easy escape. No doubt the guards would be guards no longer…, but that wouldn't help Five-O to find the escapee now.

The All-Points-Bulletin had cast a very wide net all over Oahu. Every police officer was looking for Walter Gregson, but so far he had been well-hidden in whatever hole he had burrowed into. HPD had worked for hours canvassing the vicinity around the hospital, looking for Gregson and anyone who might have spotted or aided him.

Everyone in the room was surreptitiously keeping an eye on Danny. He was calm and unusually detached but extremely focused on the case. They listened intently as he spoke up, "I called Sally, Steve, in Phoenix. She needed to know about Walter's 'newfound freedom'."

"What did she say?" Steve questioned, with narrowed eyes.

Matter-of-factly, Danny reported, "She was concerned, but I assured her that there was no danger to her because of the distance and the unlikelihood that Walter could get off the island. Just in case, though, I talked to the Phoenix police and made sure they were aware of Gregson. Oh, and Sally did give us some names of Gregson's old friends and associates to check with."

Chin picked up the thread there, "Yeah, I checked them out already. Those who are still around had also known Sally. They pretty much disowned Gregson once they found out he was killing people just to get hold of Mrs. Gregson's money. He won't find any help from them."

"So here we are, gentlemen. Let's expand the primary search area even further beyond the hospital. Chin, Ben, keep checking the cab companies, the bus routes, any transportation he could have come up with. Get with HPD and see where you can help them out in tracing his steps."

Chin and Ben headed toward the door to the outer office when the intercom buzzer on Steve's desk sounded. Quickly hitting the button, he heard Jenny's voice, "Boss, there's a phone call for Danny on line one. The man is insisting it's urgent."

Looking up at Danny, Steve replied, "OK, Jenny, put it through," then casually wandered to the far side of the desk to give Danny the room he needed to get to the phone.

Danny walked over to the corner of Steve's desk and propped on it as he reached and answered it as he usually did, "Williams".

The as-yet-unidentified male voice on the phone line was a polished one. It sounded like a businessman or a banker, with a hint of a British accent or well-traveled, upper-crust American. "Hello, Dan. Sorry to disturb your meeting, but I thought I'd find out if you've been…uh…looking for me?" The mockery was blatant.

Dan Williams' eyes opened wide as he recognized the voice but stifled a gasp. "Gregson," he said in a restrained growl. Steve's eyes darted toward Williams, as did Chin's and Ben's. All three honed in on his location at Steve's desk, wanting to confirm what they thought they had heard.

From a phone booth in what looked to be an isolated area, Walter went on with his silver-tongued discourse. "That's right. I'm so pleased you remember. Oh, of course you would…." he taunted.

Coming back to reality from his abject surprise, Danny covered the phone's mouthpiece with his hand, and mouthed to Ben,

"[trace!]"

Ben backpedaled out of Steve's door as fast and as silently as he could to the outer office where he could phone in to have the call traced. Chin followed him part of the way, standing at the doorway to relay the information back and forth about the progress of the trace. Steve ran to his desk and quickly, quietly pressed the PLAY and RECORD buttons simultaneously on the ever-present tape recorder on his desk.

To keep Gregson on the line for the trace, Danny knew he had to force himself to play along with the caller. He utterly despised this man, as evidenced by the sharp tone of his words. "What do you want?"

"I just couldn't wait to give you a call, old friend!" Feigning disappointment, Gregson teased, "Aren't you looking for me?" with a wicked smirk on his face.

Danny tensed, wavering between wanting to throw the phone out of the palace window—and the caller with it—and knowing he needed to keep Gregson on the line. With difficulty, he continued as evenly as he could. "I know you're out of prison, if that's what you mean. But I've got better things to do than worry about you. I don't doubt you'll be back in custody before the end of the day." Danny had no trouble at all in sounding uncaring—he did care about whether this snake of a man was caught again, but could not care less about the welfare of the man himself.

Gregson was smart and was not fooled by Dan's nonchalant attitude about his escape. He was confident that he was shaking the detective up—and loved every minute of it. "Well, I'm sure somebody is worried about me, and maybe it should be you. And don't bother trying to trace this call; I'm just about done here."

Straining to extend the conversation, Danny spoke more loudly this time. "So what do you want from me? The only help I'll give you is a free ride back to Oahu State Prison for the rest of your life with all the other scum who don't deserve their freedom."

Insulted, "I am not one of them!" Gregson yelled into the phone.

Growing angrier by the minute, Dan now knew what he wanted to say. "Sure you are! But, you know something that you're not? You're not a pro—at anything! You never were! You couldn't keep your construction company afloat without draining Sally's money. Now, you wouldn't know how to make it on the streets if we gave you a manual. You think your old Country Club friends will help you? They know you're a murderer, and a coward! They'd rather turn you in just to keep you from dirtying their doormats. You've got no place to run, and that's why you're gonna get caught. Enjoy your freedom, Walter—it won't last long."

Taken aback by the truth of Williams' tirade, Gregson tried to cover with his superior attitude. "I expected you to say as much." He paused, then said, "Tell your friends in Five-O and HPD that I'm not going back to prison. I'd rather they kill me!"

"Oh, really?" Dan replied coolly. "I'll be glad to see what I can do about granting your wish."

"I'll bet you would."

Walter pressed on, spitefully. "Tell me, Danny Boy, it's been about six years since I took your sweet little Jane from you. My, she was a beauty. By now, you two could have had a nice little house together on the beach, maybe a couple of kids…. You'll never find another girl like her." Walter Gregson's words were dripping with false sympathy and underlying hate. "Have you been lonely, Dan?"

Click.

Dan Williams froze at the words and the disconnection. Unknowingly, he picked a vague point in space to hold his gaze.

The pain in his heart was back. Contained—no, hidden—for so long. The pain was so real that it crept from his heart up into his throat, practically cutting off his breath. But he didn't need to breathe—he was unmoving, catatonic.

Steve McGarrett had not heard Walter Gregson's side of the conversation, only Danny's. He clicked off the tape recorder and dearly hoped the conversation had been long enough to get a trace, but he would know that in time.

What really mattered now was his friend, who looked as though he had been stabbed in the heart and pinned against some invisible wall, unable to move. As frozen as Danny was, so was Steve as he waited on a reaction.

When it came, it was volcanic.