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Liar, Liar (2/2)

Five-0 Headquarters

Tuesday 8:45 A.M.

Steve, Danny, Kono and Chin stood at the smart table examining photos from both the Trice and Sherman crime scenes side by side on the overhead screens. They searched every frame for any clue they may have missed that would help point them towards anyone who might have wanted these two men dead. Some signature, aside from the words Liar, Liar that could help them identify the killer.

Catherine offered to stop by HPD on her way to the office and pick up a complete list of all items catalogued at each crime scene. Once she arrived the team planned to compare the two lists looking for any similarities that might point towards the killer or killers. In the meantime they searched for any visual clue they might have missed.

According to Max both men died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the torso. However, serious bruising on the faces, hands and torsos of each victim were a clear indicator they were involved in a serious fight for their lives before being stabbed. The size of the bruises along with apparent downward trajectory of many of the blows led Max to estimate the killer was well-built male over six feet tall.

It was obvious from the "Liar, Liar" message left at the scene of both murders that the deaths were related, but to this point the team had been unable to find any evidence that Trice and Sherman knew each other, or had ever even met. Trice wasn't a patient of Sherman's, they didn't travel in the same social circles, they had no financial dealings in common, didn't bank at the same bank or work out at the same gym. No one interviewed in connection with Sherman ever remembered him mentioning anything about knowing Federico Trice and vice versa.

There were no unaccounted for fingerprints at either scene and Max hadn't turned up any DNA evidence under the fingernails or anywhere on the body of either victim.

HPD was attempting to track down anyone who might have purchased the large number of Tritan condoms found at the first scene but so far they'd had no luck. Forensic testing on the manure found in Sherman's office indicated the presence of anti-inflammatory drugs and a specific antibiotic used to treat leg infections in horses. A check of local veterinary records led the team to Wahini Ranch, the largest recreational horse riding venue on the island and the site of several yearly rodeos as well as monthly polo competitions.

One of the horses at the facility was being treated with the drugs found in the manure in Sherman's office. However, because the manure was shoveled several times a day and placed in large piles on the property while awaiting disposal, and because the facility was open to the public seven days a week, there was no way of determining who might have helped themselves to some of the manure that later turned up in Sherman's office.

"We might have just caught a break," Catherine said as she entered the bullpen and headed towards them.

"We need one," Danny replied. "What did you find out?"

"Trice's housekeeper, Marisol, agreed to do a final walk-through of the house with HPD this morning before they released the crime scene. Duke wanted to check one more time to see if she noticed anything missing or out of place."

"Did she?" Chin asked.

"Nothing missing," Catherine said as she reached the rest of the team and placed a photo copy of a Hawaii state driver's license on the smart table. "But in the dressing room off the master bedroom she found a few pieces of women's clothing she's sure weren't there prior to Trice's murder. And along with the clothes there was a small clutch purse containing a lipstick, a compact and a driver's license."

"Keala Aleula," Chin read off the license as he typed the name into the computer. A few seconds later a series of records popped up. "Twenty-four years old. Single. Works in pharmaceutical sales." He tapped a few more keys. "Grew up on the island."

"Where is she now?" Steve asked.

"HPD went by her apartment," Catherine said. "Landlord said she stopped in over the weekend to pay her rent but she seemed nervous and jumpy. Other than that he hasn't seen her. Which he claims is unusual because he normally sees her almost daily. Duke is putting out a BOLO and checking with her employer. He said he'll call as soon as she turns up."

"Good," Steve said hopefully, "We might finally be able to get some traction before somebody else dies."

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Thursday 1:15 P.M.

Sgt. Duke Lukela met Steve and Danny as they got out of the Camaro in the observation point parking area and began walking toward the crime scene tape. "A couple of tourists hiking the lip of the volcano found the body about an hour ago. As soon as I saw it I knew you guys need to be in on this."

"Why?" Danny asked as they negotiated the uneven terrain to the spot where Max Bergman knelt next to the dead body of a man dressed in a business suit who had clearly not been out for a day hike.

"Take a look," Duke said as he pointed to a spot directly north of the body.

There was no mistaking the message.

Spelled out this time in black lava rocks.

"Liar, Liar."

Steve breathed a heavy sigh. "What do we know, Max?"

"My cursory examination indicates his cause of death is the same as Trice and Sherman; multiple stab wounds," Max reported. "I can't be sure until I get the body back to my office and conduct a full examination but it appears he also has bruises indicating some sort of altercation. It looks very likely this is the same killer as the other two victims."

"Yeah, I got that from the "Liar, Liar"," Danny said.

"I was simply saying," Max turned to face Danny, "that it appears that the actual wounds were caused by a single perpetrator and not a group of such."

"Don't mind him, Max," Steve said, attempting to soothe the medical examiner's ruffled feathers, "He hasn't had enough coffee yet. Do we have any idea who this guy is?"

"According to the ID in his wallet his name is Dallas Palmer," Duke said. "We're working on getting information on him right now."

Steve surveyed the surrounding area then took a few steps closer to look at the body. The scuffed heels of the man's dress shoes, combined with a fairly clear set of drag marks between the parking lot and the spot where the body was found indicated the altercation had taken place elsewhere. But the large pools of blood around the body definitely meant he was stabbed after the body was dragged to the lip of the volcano.

"Any chance there's a security camera in that parking lot that might have caught a picture of our killer," Danny asked hopefully.

"Sorry, no." Duke shook his head. "There are cameras down at the main entrance and in the ' center but none this far up."

"It's a longshot but have someone look at those tapes and see if they can spot anything suspicious," Steve said. "And run every license plate you can make out."

"I'll get someone on it right away," Duke said.

"Thanks," Steve nodded. "Let me know the minute you find anything."

Five-0 Headquarters

Thursday 3:30 P.M.

"What have we got," Steve said as he and Danny entered headquarters after finishing up at the crime scene. Chin was standing at the smart table, digging for everything he could find on the latest victim. Catherine was holed up in her office searching for a connection of any kind between the now three victims.

"Dallas Palmer," Chin indicated the picture on the overhead screen. "52 years old. Plant manager at International Plastics. He's worked for the company for twenty years. Relocated to the island in 2010 from California to oversee operations at the Honolulu plant. He has a wife and four kids. No criminal record."

"Let me guess," Danny said. "No obvious connection to Trice or Sherman."

"Not at first glance," Chin said. "Kono is over at International Plastics now interviewing Palmer's co-workers to see if any of them know anything."

As if summoned by the mention of her name Kono entered the bullpen.

"What did you find out," Steve asked.

"Nothing really," Kono sighed. "I mean no one there knew of any reason someone might want to kill him. Most of the women, and actually a few of the men as well, said he was kind of … skeevy is the word most commonly used. Stood a little too close, got a little handsy once in a while, made comments that weren't actionable but weren't exactly appropriate either."

"Sounds like another charmer," Chin said.

"I checked with their HR Department and while they admitted they'd heard some murmurs, and even talked to Palmer informally a couple of times about his behavior, no one has ever actually filed a complaint," Kono said. "When I asked some of the female employees about it they said that the company has a history of not promoting people they see as quote unquote troublemakers so as long as Palmer's behavior didn't cross the line too far they all kept their mouths shut."

"Talk to some of the women who were reluctant to file complaints outside of the plant. See if they're a little more forthcoming with details when they're not worried about who's watching," Steve suggested.

"Will do," Kono said. "The shift changes at 5:00 so I'll go back then and see if I can get anyone to open up to me."

"Good news," Catherine said as she hurried down the hall from her office to the bullpen. "HPD located Keala Aleula, the woman whose ID we found at Trice's house. She was holed up in hotel on the big island. They're bringing her back now. I'm gonna head over to HPD so I can talk to her as soon as she arrives."

"Keep me informed," Steve said. "We know from Max's report she isn't the killer but what we don't know yet is whether she's an accomplice or a witness. Tread lightly with her."

"I will," Catherine assured him. "I'll call as soon as I know anything."

Sidestreet

Thursday 6:00 P.M.

Steve left a message for Catherine to meet them at Sidestreet as soon as she was through interviewing Keala Aleula and the team headed out for a combination dinner and brainstorming session. Halfway there Catherine texted to let him know the interview was over and she was on her way. They'd just ordered appetizers and a round of drinks when she entered and slid into the seat next to Steve's.

"I ordered you a beer and some stuffed mushrooms," he smiled.

"Perfect. Thanks." Catherine returned his smile and gave his thigh a quick squeeze.

"What'd you find out," he asked as the waitress, a young woman who had waited on them many times named Sarah, appeared with their drinks.

"According to Keala she and Trice hooked up occasionally when he was on the island. She went to the house on Monday evening. Everything seemed normal. She says they ordered take-out, had a few drinks, soaked in the hot tub for a while, watched a movie then had sex on one of the couches in the media room and fell asleep."

"Typical day in the life, huh?" Danny said. "Then what?"

"She said about 5:00 A.M. someone started pounding on the front door. They waited thinking the person would go away but the pounding continued. Trice got up, grabbed his robe and headed for the front door. She said he was using his cane because his knee was still very tender."

"Who was at the door," Steve asked as Sarah appeared with the first of the appetizers.

"She has no idea. She's never seen the guy before. She said he was tall, practically as tall as Trice, and muscular. He started yelling about something almost as soon as the front door opened. She couldn't really make out what was being said but she could hear the arguing from the bottom of the stairs."

"Why didn't she call the police?" Chin asked.

"She said in her panic she couldn't find her cell phone. She figured she must have left it by the hot tub." Catherine lifted her beer to her lips and took a sip.

"So what happened next?" Kono asked.

"They got closer to the top of the stairs and Keala could hear Trice saying he had money and jewelry and the guy could have it all but the guy kept insisting he wasn't there to rob anyone. Trice was a strong guy but apparently his bad knee gave the killer just enough of an advantage. The guy grabbed the cane and once Trice was off balance he attacked. Trice tried to make it down the stairs to barricade himself and Keala in the media room but the guy caught up with him before he could close the door completely."

"So she witnessed the murder?" Steve asked.

"She heard it but she didn't see it. As soon as she realized they were coming down the stairs she grabbed her swimsuit and robe and hid in the tiered seating. Once she heard the struggling stop she said the guy hung around for a while. She could hear him moving around but had no idea what he was doing."

"That must have been when he was staging the scene," Steve nodded.

"Must have been," Catherine agreed. "She said she was so scared she didn't move for at least an hour after she heard him leave. Then she slipped out the back to the hot tub area, grabbed her phone and shoes and left in her bathing suit and robe. She didn't even go upstairs after her clothes and ID. She was afraid if the guy knew she's been there he'd come after her."

"Could she give any description of the killer?" Steve asked as he stole a mushroom from Catherine's plate with a grin.

"She only caught a very brief glimpse of him but she's sitting with a sketch artist now to see if they can come up with anything. And Duke is checking the security footage from all the cameras on the houses in the area hoping to catch a picture of a car pulling into Trice's driveway early Tuesday morning. I asked him to match the tapes with the cars pulling into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park hoping we can find a match."

"Good thinking," Steve nodded as he reached for another mushroom but had his hand slapped away playfully by Catherine. "This might be exactly what we need to solve these three cases. I'd like them wrapped up sooner rather than later so they don't mess up our trip."

"Nothing is going to interfere with the trip," Danny said confidently as he leaned back in his chair. "The power of Nonna will see to that."

They all laughed as Sarah approached to take their dinner order. Twenty minutes later they were enjoying their food and wracking their brains trying to think of where they could possibly have missed a connection between the three victims.

Steve lifted his fork to his lips and caught Catherine's expression as he glanced her way. Her expression was a very familiar one, and as his partner signaled for another round of drinks, he turned to her and said, "I can see the wheels turning, what are you on to?"

"Hmmm," she said, her brow knitted.

"You're onto something, Cath?" Danny noticed their exchange. He knew that Steve and Catherine shared a level of non-verbal communication unlike anything he'd ever seen before so if Steve thought Catherine was on to something, even without her having said a word, she most likely was.

She tucked a section of hair behind her ear and leaned forward, grabbing a clean napkin from the center of the table.

"Maybe." Grabbing a pen from her purse, she wrote,Liar, Liar. "I don't think he's taunting us, or anyone else. I think he's labeling the victims."

"As liars?" Steve asked.

She nodded and pulled out her phone.

"Why write it twice?" Steve asked.

"The kids' poem." Catherine looked at the other members of the team before focusing back on the phone. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," She read from them the screen. Apparently, the rest of the verse reads,

Deceiver, dissembler

Your trousers are alight

From what pole or gallows

Shall they dangle in the night?"

"So maybe the connection is that the killer believes all the victims are liars?" Steve said excitedly, hopeful they might finally have a direction to focus the investigation in. "But still how would he connect them?"

Playing a hunch Catherine began typing web addresses into her phone's browser. After several unsuccessful attempts she pumped her fist triumphantly. "I found it. "

"Is that a real website." Steve leaned over and looked at the image on her phone.

"Yes," Catherine nodded animatedly. "And it's based right here in Hawaii. Let me look real quick," she said as she scrolled through the site scanning its contents "There are all sorts of forums where posters discuss people they think have lied to them and done them wrong. All we need to do is find out if our three victims were discussed in any of these forums and then look for anyone who might have been particularly angry in those discussions."

"How many forums are there to search," Chin asked.

"Over 400 separate threads," Catherine inhaled deeply. "And very few of them use the name of the person being discussed in the thread title. So we'll have to look at each one individually."

"Let's finish up guys," Steve said. "it looks like it's gonna be a long night.

Five-0 Headquarters

Thursday 9:20 P.M.

"I found an extended conversation about Trice," Catherine said as she sat in Steve's office where the team was gathered searching the pantsonfire site. Steve sat at his desk, Danny and Chin in the visitors' chairs opposite him, and Kono and Catherine on the couch. "On the 'Monstrous Egos' board, page 45."

She continued to read as the others navigated to the thread in question.

"Wow," Kono said as she located the discussion and began to read, "these posters are pretty worked up over the private life of someone they don't even know."

"I'll say," Chin agreed. "Listen to this. 'Where does he get off refusing to take responsibility for his newest baby. When he did that Sports Illustrated interview last year he said he would always take responsibility for his kids whatever the status of his relationship with their mothers. Apparently that was a lie'. He read directly from one of the posts.

"'Men like that make me sick,'" Kono read from an entry further down the page, "'Someday his kid will read stories on the internet about this whole mess.'"

"Anybody who tries to point out that the results of the paternity test aren't in yet gets shouted down pretty fast," Danny said as he scrolled through the pages.

"I'm gonna print this out," Catherine said as she sent the document to the wireless printer. "Now we need to see if we can find the other victims."

After another two hours of searching Chin stumbled upon a discussion of Dallas Palmer, the plant manager from International Plastics. "I've got another one," he said. "'Keep Your Hands To Yourself' board, page 18. It's hard to tell sometimes exactly who they're talking about because they use code names or nicknames but finally someone comes out and identifies Dallas Palmer by name."

"'I have to wear a freaking turtleneck to work every day to keep this jerk from looking down my shirt. And any time he walks past me he touches me and then claims it was accidental. Sadie in HR told me that when he worked at the Sacramento plant all the women hated him. When they offered him the promotion To Hawaii they made him promise he would behave better around the female employees. Well guess what. He lied.'" Steve read from one of the entries.

"I see a couple of names here that were also involved in the Trice discussion," Catherine said. "I'll print this out for comparison."

Finally at 2:00 A.M. they found a discussion about the third victim, Dr. Ralph Sherman. None of the women from the dental practice posted the information, or participated in any way, but the discussion got rolling after a copy of the email Sherman sent to his hygienist, detailing his plans to fire Patricia Kendrick, went viral.

In an attempt to do damage control once the email was made public Dr. Sherman actually posted on the pantsonfire site himself attempting to calm people down and keep his patients from fleeing in droves. He claimed he was actually doing Patricia Kendrick a favor because without a job and income she would be eligible for more social services, including food, cash and medical benefits, and would be able to concentrate on getting well without having to worry about getting up and going to work every day.

The posters on the site didn't buy his explanation and proceeded to tear him to shreds in a discussion that went on for more than a hundred pages.

"'This guy is the scum of the earth and I hope he loses every patient he has and ends up bankrupt living on the social services he seems to think are so wonderful'," Danny read aloud.

"Well I certainly don't disagree with the scum of the earth part," Kono shrugged.

"There were so many people involved in that discussion it's gonna be tough to single out any one person who might have been angry enough to take it to the next level." Steve winced as he scrolled through the more vitriolic responses. "I agree this guy is an asshole but threatening death and wishing cancer on him seems a little extreme."

"Now that we have threads about all three victims let's compare them and hopefully we'll be able to narrow down active posters and come up with a list of suspects." Catherine stood up and stretched before heading for the printer to retrieve the lists.

With all five members of the team working together it only took three hours to narrow the list of suspicious posters down to six.

"So now all we have to do is find out who these six people are," Danny said. "If anyone fits the general description we can show a picture to the witness from the Trice killing and see if she if she can make a positive ID."

"Sounds good," Steve said. "Let's get in touch with the website. Hopefully they'll give up the real names that correspond to the screen names willingly but if they don't we need to be prepared to get a subpoena."

"We may not have time for that," Catherine said guardedly.

"What do you mean?" Steve turned to look at her and immediately picked up on her uneasiness.

"I decided to look at the posting history of the six people on the list to see where they've posted about most recently. One of them, truthseeker71, was very active all day yesterday in the 'Politicians Behaving Badly' forum. It's the same level of activity he displayed in the threads of all three victims."

"So wait … if this is our guy he killed Palmer, dumped him on a volcano, then went home and started posting on the internet," Danny asked incredulously.

"If this is our guy then yes," Catherine replied. "He appears to be furious over three state legislators who initially voted against a bill to allow some limited industrial activity on protected lands but then changed their minds and agreed to vote for it after the bill was restructured. He feels as though they sold their votes for perks."

"So one or all of these legislators might be the next victim," Chin said. "Send me the names."

"Apparently the re-vote on the bill is at 9:00 this morning." Catherine looked up from her tablet. "Truthseeker71's last post was three hours ago."

"Call Duke," Steve said. "We need teams on all three of these guys right away."

"It looks like he has a special hatred for Jack Markhum. That's the guy who represents his district. Truthseeker71 voted for him and feels especially betrayed because he promised during the election to protect natural resources."

"Get Markhum's home address and we'll head there ourselves," Steve said as he stood and grabbed Danny's car keys off the desk. "I'll call Grover on the way and get his team on alert."

Home of Jack Markhum

Friday 6:00 A.M.

By the time Five-0 met up with Grover and his squad and brought them up to speed on what was happening Steve had already received confirmation from HPD that both of the other legislators were safe.

Repeated calls to Markhum, however, had gone unanswered.

The team arrived at the house and immediately split up. Chin, Kono and Catherine went around the back of the house while Steve, Danny and Grover approached the front. As they got closer they could hear a scuffle going on inside. Steve gave the command to enter then kicked in the front door just as Chin kicked in the back.

They found Jack Markhum on the floor in the living room, battered and bruised but still alive. Looming over him a large man holding a very large knife.

"Drop the knife," Steve said calmly as everyone drew their weapon and within seconds six guns were leveled at the man's head.

"I can't," the man growled. "He's a liar. He deserves to die. They all deserved to die."

"I'm not gonna tell you again," Steve said. "Drop the knife. Then we can talk about things. But if you don't drop the knife I'm gonna have to shoot you."

For a minute it looked as though the man might stab Markhum anyway and Steve's finger tensed on the trigger. But finally he dropped the knife with a heavy sigh and put his hands behind his head.

"I just want people to tell the truth," he said as Catherine pulled his arms down and cuffed him. "Why is that so much to expect anymore?"

Five-0 Headquarters

Friday 7:30 A.M.

"Truthseeker71's real name is Delonte Morris," Chin said as he entered Steve's office where Steve, Danny and Kono were relaxing after the bust. "He grew up on the island. His family has been farming the land for generations. As a matter of fact they've grown into one of the biggest farming operations in the state. Delonte and his brother were in line to take over the family business as co-CEOs until about a year ago."

"What happened a year ago," Steve asked.

"Delonte's wife left him for another man and he went completely off the rails. He pursued her

relentlessly insisting that she'd made a vow to him and he was going to force her to live up to it.

Eventually she filed for divorce and she and the new boyfriend moved to the mainland to get away from him," Chin explained. "His work started to suffer since he spent all his time focused on his crumbling relationship so when it was time to name a new CEO the position went to his brother alone instead of being shared between the two of them. At that point Morris stopped showing up for work altogether. He was apparently living on his share of the profits from a family trust."

"Did any of his family try to get him help?" Danny asked.

"They tried but he refused. At one point he pulled a knife on his brother and the family was forced to take out a restraining order keeping him away from both them and the farm. According to site stats he started posting on pantsonfire around that same time. His profile says that everyone in his life has lied to him. His ex-wife, his brother, his family. It looks like reading other people's stories just set him off. He couldn't get to the people in his own life so he was trying to right the wrongs others had faced."

Steve shook his head. "Well at least he can't hurt anyone else now. But I think maybe we need to take a closer look at that site and see if anything else might be festering. Venting anger and frustration is healthy but if anyone looks like they might be taking it too far someone needs to intervene."

"Duke talked to site owner and he said she's pretty freaked out about everything," Chin said. "He's pretty sure she's gonna shut down the site."

"But another one will pop up within a few days," Danny said.

"Probably," Chin agreed. "But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Keala Aleula picked Morris out of a photo line-up so we can definitely connect him to Trice," Catherine said as she entered Steve's office. "I don't think she's ever gonna need to testify though because apparently Morris can't stop confessing. All the way through booking he's been giving details of all three murders."

"That's good," Steve stretched. "It'll save us a lengthy interrogation. After all we have a trip to finish getting ready for."

"I told you … never doubt the power of Nonna," Danny smiled as his phone chimed with an incoming text. He smiled as he glanced at his phone. "It's from Grace. She wants to know if we solved the case yet and if everything is still on schedule for New Jersey."

"Tell her yes," Steve smiled broadly. "All systems are go for Christmas in New Jersey with Nonna."

THE END

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