A/N: Happy First Day Of Spring! I hope everything is going well with all of you. I'm quite busy will planning a concert for may (it takes a lot of work) but I still wanted to get this update posted for you. I hope you like it!
Chapter 26: Acknowledged Truths
Danny and Steve stayed at the scene of the crime until they were quite certain that the whole block was locked down and the people in the candy shop, as well as the sale lady, Karen, and the landscaping youth, whose name was Thomas, were safely in protective custody to be questioned at length later. The medical examiner's office, with Max at the helm, and the forensics team of Charlie and his Partner Ruby, as well as their supervisor Mona Blainson also arrived to investigate while the Five-Os were still on the scene.
Danny and Steve were left alone in the office with the body of Mack McMillan. He too was dead, hung and displayed, and likely tortured by the man who was also dead in the parking lot. Mack hadn't been dead long, by the looks of things, and his body was still warm to the touch, even with the high level of air conditioning in the building. The family however had been dead much longer and to preserve the evidence, they were the first attended to.
"Is this what she really has planned for us?" Danny asked as he sat staring at the displayed body while Steve paced nervously along the length of the office space. "She's always two steps ahead of us. Plotting to hold us captive, torture us while she rounds up our families and makes us watch, while she kills them all? I can't help but see Kono, Chin, Lori and Catherine in those stains on the floor, or you and Grace kneeling before me to be murdered and I can't stop it. I can't do this."
"You can, and you've got to. We can't let her get away. She's ending everything because we're too close to her now. She's wrapping it all up, destroying the witnesses and anyone she forces to work with her, and once they are gone, she'll be gone, and we'll have to wait in anxiety for her next move, because we know there will always be a next move so long as she lives." Steve explained as he moved back and forth across the floor, avoiding the patches, and yet moving like he didn't care what was disturbed. "We have three of her men and their families at the Hale. She will have to end them, in her twisted mind, before she can move on."
"And the Waiholi brothers," Danny piped up. "We know that they helped her with the abduction, but we haven't seen them since. They come from a huge family and so all of those people are in danger. We have to find them. They are likely already dead, and so we are likely falling behind again."
"And then there are the two hikers who helped our team find us. They knew Gladys when she was still Gloria Kalani. She's bound to know of them and I would dare to assume that they are also on her list to be eradicated." Steve added.
"The Kuluskis." Danny said the names aloud and stood. "You're right. There are still people we can save. I'll have my break-down later."
5-0
Back in the office, after having cleared the bond office crime scene and making sure that all six bodies were respectfully removed, the Five-Os left the scene in the perfectly capable hands of their HPD counterparts and headed back to regroup. There wasn't much left there for them to find, and much of it what would be found was already known to them.
Danny and Steve walked into the bull pen to find Vladimir Prokovia, Alexander Ward and Christian Vale huddled at the smart system with Toast. They were deep in conversation as Toast's fingers flew quickly over the surface of the computer table. Chin and Lou had been sent into interrogations with the people that had been taken into custody at the different businesses from that morning and were sending information back to Toast. The women of Five-O had been sent out to retrieve the Kuluskis, while the families of the men - fugitives turned friends - sat on the floor in Steve's office, having moved the arm chairs out of the way, and were drawing in a pile of colouring books with the crayons that Danny and Chin kept in the office in the event that children did come in. The mothers of the children sat in a line on the sofa in Steve's office and watched everything that they could through the now open blinds. There was anxiety in the eyes of the women, but there was also thankfulness upon seeing Steve and Danny's return.
"What's going on here?" Danny asked as he stepped up to the smart table, making the men around him jump.
"We're just trying to help." Ward said as he and his counterparts threw up their hands.
"They were the ones that gave us the names of the Waiholi brothers, in the first place so they are helping me map the island and track them down." Toast explained.
"We'll graciously accept any help we can get at this point." Steve said and shot a look at Danny.
"We figured with the confirmation of your theory of loose ends, and the number of bodies that have come out of this ordeal, we're likely next unless we make things right with you and hand every scrap of intel that we can give over to be useful." Ward explained.
"I'd rather be know as a snitch to save my family than live in fear while Gladys is free." Vale added.
"Then we're going to assume you've heard the news about the McMillans." Steve said.
"And my brother, yes, we have." Vladimir confirmed.
"They were at the system when it happened, and they heard, and saw, everything through your live connections." Toast explained.
"I'm not surprised that that is how it happened." Vladimir said with a shake of his head. "It's how Misha was trained and it was how he lived his life. Better to go down fighting than to be taken in. It shows weakness." He explained.
"So now what does Gladys do?" Steve asked. "She must know that we're on to her. She must have gotten word of the take over of her businesses and the death of her fifth husband. So what does she do now?"
"She wants you to come for her." Christian Vale stated.
"I would have to agree, and out in the open where she can take as many people with her." Toast added. "Taking into consideration all the intel that we have, I've been able to pin point her current locations. The wedding today was not a cover. It's a huge society wedding down town. Hundreds of people are in attendance. One of the largest most exclusive hotels in Honolulu is hosting it. She's working as if nothing has happened and I can guarantee that if we move in to take her out, we'd be in for a major battle" Toast added and brought up the hotel surveillance cameras that he'd commandeered - with permission. "Gentlemen, that is Dahlia Fillee, a.k.a Gladys McMahon and she is legitimately working this afternoon." Toast said and pointed at the fiery red head who popped up on the screen.
"She has to know we're watching her." Danny stated.
"Oh yes, I'm sure she does. Why else would a photographer have brought body guards, twelve of them in total. We are running facial recognition on them as we speak, and the Waiholi brothers are with her, in disguise, but with her all the same." Toast explained. "If you didn't know what to look for, you wouldn't recognize her either. She seems very good with disguises and yet, Dahlia Fillee always looks like that, and the Waiholi brothers are always her right hands. They are in all the advertising material that we were able to pull in from the business, always in disguise, and well respected with Dahlia."
"Really?" Steve asked.
"Kimo and Kona," Toast stated with a nod and swiped the video feed off the smart table and onto the monitors. "Her right and left hand men. So far the others seem to be men for hire, just like the rest of them have been. But, my research shows that Kimo and Kona are on her payroll for the photography business and have been since it opened."
"And I'm sure we'll find records of all of those men in the files kept by Mach McMillan." Danny added.
"I believe you would be correct." Toast said with a nod. "I've already contacted Charlie to have him pay close attention to the files at your crime scene."
"So what do we do?" Danny asked as he turned to his partner.
"We watch and wait. I'm not going to risk all of those people." Steve answered. "I'm not going to fall into her trap and risk lives."
"What if she pulls something? What if her Plan B is to smoke us out? What if this photoshoot is just a cover for her to bomb that hotel, or take hostages?" Danny asked frantically.
"Plan B is always the more dangerous plan because failure and desperation are now factors in the outcome that you did not achieve with Plan A." Toast reasoned and sided with Danny.
"Yeah, what he said, and this is crazy, murderous, Gladys McMahon we're dealing with. You'd better have a Plan B too." Danny added.
"I'll make some calls." Steve said with a nod. "We will work to prevent everything but we're not going to engage her with that many innocent people at risk. I'd like to get her back to the construction site, or the cabin, if we can, and so you and I are going to go out there to get the lay of the land." Steve said as Danny paced and grumbled.
"You know that place is likely a trap."
"Not while Gladys is down in Honolulu, and not as long as Doris McGarrett keeps Gladys McMahon in her sights."
"So now your mother is your secret weapon?" Danny asked and huffed his displeasure.
"I'm just going to have her do what she does best. Spy." Steve said. "She'll be in her element and out of our hair for the time and this will be right up her alley."
"But you put your mother at risk," Danny countered. "She's been seen by Gladys!"
"She's also a master of disguise. If Doris doesn't want to be seen or found, Doris McGarrett will not be seen or found. We know this."
"But she's your mother!"
"And you're defending her, that's sweet." Steve mocked.
"Fine, be like that, just hand over your family to a crazy family killer, go for it!" Danny stated loudly, threw up his arms, and walked away just as Doris walked back into the office.