Chapter 3

Suddenly frozen no longer, Dan Williams blinked and lowered the handset from his ear just enough so he could grab the telephone base with both hands. Then he raised his hands high over his head and with anger and an ear-splitting growl, he crashed the phone down against Steve's massive wooden desk. Again and again he smashed it until it was broken in multiple pieces of plastic and metal. He wished it had been Walter Gregson himself.

"Danno! Stop!" Steve charged at his friend, trying to clutch his arms. "Danno! Stop it!" Steve's extra height on Danny helped him do just that. He shook what was left of the broken telephone out of Danny's hands and pulled his arms down and back behind him—not hard enough to hurt him but enough to contain the violent reaction.

With another loud angry snarl, Dan shook out of Steve's now loose hold and stalked out onto the lanai. Filled with hatred, he grasped the protruding finials of the balcony and roared out unintelligible rage to anyone who could hear.

All the while, the wind blew through the office, but no one noticed. Chin hovered mutely in the background. Ben came in from the outer office to report on the trace but could not utter a word when he saw his friend in such a fury.

Steve focused only on Danny, letting the anger work itself out. Honestly, though, he did not know whether to go to Danny or whether Danny even knew he was still nearby. Steve stood thunderstruck on the inside of the lanai doorway. Dan Williams was in his own world at this moment, with Steve afraid to disturb it.

Danny huffed and puffed with all his breath again and again until he was exhausted physically and emotionally. After a while, with his voice and energy expended, he turned his back on the city, leaned against the balcony railing, and melted—tiredly sliding his body down until he was seated on the lanai's hard floor. He reclined his head back and closed his eyes tightly against the world.

In his head, Danny's thoughts swirled. He had rarely felt rage like this, even fewer times had he acted on it in the uncontrollable way he just had. It scared him.

Worriedly, Steve approached him and crouched down on his feet to be at eye level with his now quiet, but still seething, friend. "Danno?"

At Steve's words, Danny opened his eyes and turned to look at him. He saw Steve's face filled with concern and anxiety. For a few moments, the two just stared at each other. In Danny's face, Steve saw raw anger slowly turn into recognition of reality and resignation to it. "Are you all right, Danno?"

Danny did not answer. I don't know, he thought, but the silent stares between the two men let Steve know that Danny was cooling down.

Concerned, Chin and Ben approached cautiously. Ben spoke softly, "Steve, the call wasn't long enough for a definitive trace."

Not taking his eyes off Danny but acknowledging Ben's words, Steve distractedly answered, "OK. Thanks."

Bending down, Chin also spoke, "Danny, you okay?" Again, Danny did not answer, but averted his eyes from all three of his colleagues. He felt crowded.

Turning to Chin and Ben, Steve answered the question for Danny, confidently, reassuringly, "He will be." Then he added, "Give us a minute, gentlemen." Honoring the request, Chin and Ben left Steve's office and closed the door silently.

Turning back, Steve asked again, "Danno?"

This time, Danny answered, "I'm okay." Steve sighed, glad for some kind of response, even if he didn't believe that it was true. With the fog in his mind clearing, Danny tried to sound more normal than he felt. With a shaky voice, he stated, "You know, Steve, this is why you get the big bucks."

Confused at the response, Steve asked, "What do you mean?"

Slowing getting his equilibrium back, Danny clarified, "You were right. I can't do this. I can't trust myself with Gregson. What if I did corner him? I'm afraid…I'm afraid I might kill him."

Without doubt, Steve reassured him. "No. No, you wouldn't, not unless you were forced to. I know you better than that. Tempted? Yes. But kill him in revenge? Never."

Danny recounted Gregson's words from the phone call. "Steve, he said on the phone he won't be taken alive. He'd rather die than go back to prison." Danny got a faraway look in his eyes, imaging the worst. "If I found him, and if I were pushed to kill him, how would you ever know if it were justified? How would I ever know if there had not been another way?"

Steve just listened.

Having made his decision, Danny went on, resigned to his realization. "I can't deal with him, even after all these years, and I shouldn't be on this case. Just like I should never have been on Jane's murder case years ago. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have attacked Pete King when he was totally innocent."

Steve reminded him, "But you broke the case. You put all the pieces together for us about Gregson and his wife and her friends."

Shaking his head, Danny was resolute. "But you and HPD can find him without me today. Gregson can't survive long out there alone. He'll turn up, but you're going to have a difficult time bringing him in peacefully."

Stating the bottom line as he saw it, he said, "And, I am—a liability."

Steve nodded in acceptance and stood up. He offered his hand to his friend on the lanai floor to help him up, and Danny stood. "I'd like you to keep me updated on where you are today. Are you going home?"

"Yeah, I think I will," Danny confirmed, "maybe by way of a bar with a good supply of scotch." At that, he looked over pointedly at Steve to see the expected disapproving look-and was not disappointed. "Or…maybe I'll take you up on your offer of the boat."

Steve looked to his desk and picked up what was left of his telephone. "I don't know, Danno," he said, as he solemnly turned the broken equipment in his hand to examine it. "I'm suddenly a little worried about whether my boat would come back in one piece," he quipped.

With a chagrined look, Danny apologized. "Sorry about that, Steve. I'll be more careful with the boat, I promise."

Steve fished out the keys to his boat from his pocket, handed them to Danny, then reached over and put his hand on Danny's shoulder and said, "I know you will. But… on your way out, YOU have to be the one to tell Jenny to get someone in here to replace the phone!"

Then Steve turned serious once again. "You sure you're all right?"

Sighing appreciatively, Danny said, "Like you said, Steve, I will be." With a tired voice, he added, "Just catch him, and let me know when it's over." Steve nodded supportively, and Danny left the office under his own steam.

After Danny had closed the door behind him, Steve sat down at his desk, pressed the button to rewind the tape of the phone call between Dan Williams and Walter Gregson, looked up at the door that Danny had just walked out of and wondered, Will it ever be over for you, my friend?

The rewinding of the tape stopped. Steve pressed PLAY and listened.

H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O ~ H5O

Dan Williams felt drained as he dragged himself home. He was tired of thinking about Walter Gregson, of remembering Jane's murder, of feeling and acting less than professional about an escapee and his victim.

Why had Gregson called him? To gloat at his freedom? To dare him to find him? To get back at him for sending him to prison? To rub salt in the wound of his loss so many years ago?

On and on the thoughts tumbled, mixed with recollections of Gregson's last ugly words, his loss of control in Steve's office, and his fear at his own anger and what it was capable of making him do under the proper circumstances.

He had been half-serious when he considered spending the rest of the evening drinking himself into a stupor until the consuming thoughts from today were pressed down beneath his conscious awareness. Instead, he thought better of it and put himself on automatic pilot to get home in the Five-O LTD.

It was getting late to consider taking the boat out today. If he hadn't heard from Steve by in the morning that they had tracked down Gregson, then he would take the boat out first thing tomorrow. The beauty and peacefulness of the ocean and the solitude would calm him down, and the distance from the tension of the search would do him good. Plus, Gregson couldn't reach him by phone there.

At the moment, though, the tension was still very close. As he turned the key in the lock of his apartment, he again thought he'd like to have a good, stiff drink, but at least he would be-

THWACK! came something hard, heavy, and sharp on the back of Dan Williams' head as he entered his darkened apartment. He collapsed forward into the carpet, dazed.