CHAPTER 14

Tuesday morning, McGarrett residence:

Steve McGarrett awoke that morning feeling better than he had in a long time. There was no lingering tiredness or aches and pains. He felt like himself for the first time in months. So much so, in fact, he felt like he could go for an actual run instead of the slow, shuffling jogs he had been reduced to.

He quickly got dressed in a blue t-shirt and black shorts before tying up the laces on his sneakers. He grabbed his phone and slipped it into his pocket before dashing downstairs to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.

He jumped the last step and was surprised to find his legs held his weight. He smiled. He was definitely recovering. Maybe today would be the day he could go back to active duty. He had his appointment with the doctor later in the morning followed by an appointment with the Governor to discuss his progress and eventual return to full duty.

As he entered the kitchen, a sudden uneasy sensation came over him. He looked around but saw nothing out of place. He shook himself. He knew it was just a lingering side effect of everything he had been through. Plus the disturbing gifts that had been left for him by some unknown person. It was enough to make anyone a little jumpy.

Besides, the last time he'd felt this jumpy was because of his neighbour's feline companion. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out how the animal had gotten inside. He'd repaired the window and he couldn't find any other fixtures the cat could have entered through.

Steve put the mystery from his mind for now. He opened the fridge and grabbed one of the chilled bottles of water. He knew it was just going to get warmer outside so the hydration would be a welcome relief.

He locked the front door behind him and slipped the key under the mat for when he returned. He stretched before taking off at a slow, steady pace in the direction of his favourite grocery store, Mr Chang's Supermarket.

As he jogged passed the shop, he made a mental note to stock up on some bananas and carrots as he was running low. Maybe some fresh mango too.

He could feel sweat starting to pour down his face as he continued pumping his legs. He took a few swigs of water, enjoying the feeling of the cool liquid on his parched tongue and continued along his usual route.

As he rounded a corner, he decided to put on a burst of speed and truly test his limits. He felt the wind on his face as he pushed harder and harder, taking deeper breaths as he increased his speed. He had missed this feeling. The feeling of being free, of pushing his limits and going even further.

He felt unstoppable.

Until suddenly his vision started to become blurry at the edges. He slowed his pace, deciding he'd probably pushed a little too far. His breathing suddenly became quicker and more difficult. Yeah, he'd pushed himself too much. He stopped and took a few moments to get his breathing under control before he took a few gulps of water.

He turned around and started to walk back home. As his breathing slowed, he realised he'd gone further than he had in the few weeks since Doctor Palamo had granted him permission to run again.

An intense wave of dizziness had him almost pitching forwards. He leaned against a nearby wall and waited for the dizzy spell to dissipate. He tried taking deep breaths to clear the sudden foggy feeling in his mind. Instead of the unwanted feeling vanishing, it got worse with each breath. The last time he felt like this…

No! That wasn't possible. Unless—

Steve tossed the bottle of water aside and staggered forwards. He reached clumsily into his pocket and tried to get a grip on his phone. His numb fingers refused to cooperate as he dropped to his knees, the mobile device scattering across the pavement and out of his reach.

He heard what sounded like car doors slamming behind him, followed by footsteps. Part of him hoped it was a friendly motorist checking to see if he was alright. His gut, however, told him otherwise. Who had he pissed off this time?

He scrambled to get back onto this feet, which took much more effort than he cared to admit. His leaden legs refused to hold his weight and he collapsed in a heap on the ground. The footsteps (three pairs, he realised) quickened behind him and a sense of urgency came over him.

Move!

He urged himself to move, to defend himself from the rapidly approaching threat.

He was just about standing again when he sensed the presence of three people closing in. Without more than a second's thought, he turned and dove blindly at them. He landed on top of one of them, the muffled curse music to his ears.

Suddenly, he felt his arms being grabbed and he was pulled off the man he'd taken down. The sudden change in position did nothing to help his vertigo. The world spun around him and dark spots started clouding his vision. Through increasingly blurry vision, he saw the man he'd tackled struggling to regain an upright position.

It was becoming clear to him that he'd been drugged. Steve knew he didn't have much more time before whatever was in the water finally took hold. When it did, he would be left completely defenceless. That was not an option.

Gathering the last of his dwindling energy, he leaned back against the men holding him and lifted his legs, pushing them into the chest of the man that had finally stood up. The man staggered backwards, his hands clutching at his chest.

Steve smirked as the man rounded on him, fist raised and face twisted into an angry scowl.

"Wait! You know our orders. We are to deliver him unharmed," one of the men holding him up said.

The rest of the conversation was lost to him as he swallowed thickly, suddenly overcome with nausea. He focused his scattered thoughts on keeping his revolting stomach in check. He felt himself being dragged backwards. He couldn't get his legs to cooperate. He was quickly losing hold of reality as his vision greyed out.

He couldn't fight back. He vaguely felt hands patting him down and going through his pockets before he was lifted and dumped onto a hard surface. The last thing he felt before everything blacked out entirely was the floor vibrating underneath him.

Danny pulled the Camaro over on the side of a residential street. He checked the map again and saw he was in the right place. He climbed out of the vehicle and searched the immediate area for his partner. There was no movement on the quiet street and no sign that Steve had ever been there.

"Steve?" he called out only to receive no response. Not that he really expected one.

Danny tried not to think the worst as dialled Steve's number. He waited anxiously for the line to connect. He heard a familiar ringtone somewhere in the distance. He followed the sound and quickly found Steve's phone lying face down on the footpath. He picked up the device and saw that it was scratched, like it had skidded across the coarse ground before coming to a stop.

He looked around again, hoping Steve would just pop out somewhere and give him that shit-eating grin of his. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a water bottle laying inconspicuously on someone's front verge. On closer inspection, he realised it was the brand that Steve often bought from Mr Chang's Supermarket.

Danny jumped when his own phone rang. After checking the caller ID, he answered. "Hey Chin."

"Danny. Have you found Steve?" Chin answered without so much as a greeting.

"No, just his phone."

"I just got a call from Doctor Palamo. Apparently Steve missed his appointment with him too."

Danny groaned. This was so not good. "Okay. Meet me at Steve's place. Bring Catherine with you. Oh, and get Kono to call us when she's done with her interview of Michelle Ka'aukai. We're going to need all hands on deck."

"Okay, see you soon."

Danny hung up and took one last look around the last place Steve had been before he disappeared. "Where are you, Steven?"

Tuesday afternoon, unknown location:

The day was finally here. All the waiting and planning…it was finally done. Now she could live her life like it was always meant to be; with the man she'd fallen in love with. She would show him just how much she loved him, how much she cared. There would be no one to stop them from sharing their lives together.

She smiled as she caressed his cheek. The soft moan the touch elicited from the unconscious man filled her with excitement. She'd dreamed of this moment for a long time and now it was finally happening.

She stood and walked over to the door. She turned back, a pleased smile on her face before closing the door behind her. Everything was finally falling into place.

No more waiting.

Tuesday afternoon, McGarrett residence:

"Danny?" Chin called as he entered his boss' house with Catherine following close behind.

"In here."

Chin followed the sound of Danny's voice and found him sitting in the living room. "Hey. What did you find?"

"A whole lot of nothing." Danny threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "The house is clean, even the bed has been made. No sign that anything has been tampered with. It's like he just vanished off the face of the planet."

"You found his phone?"

"Yeah," Danny replied as he passed it over to him. "In the middle of the footpath. It's possible it fell out of his pocket on one of his marathon runs and he hasn't realised it's missing. I also found a water bottle nearby. It was half full."

Chin checked the phone over and saw the scuff marks on the screen. Ignoring them for the time being, he unlocked the phone and searched for the latest activity on the phone.

"No outgoing calls since yesterday morning. If he was planning to miss a meeting with the Governor, he would have at least called," Chin observed. "There was an incoming call early this morning that he didn't answer. Blocked number."

Danny's thoughtful expression caught Chin's attention. "What is it, Danny?"

"Just something Steve mentioned. He said he'd been getting calls from a blocked number since we got the Iosua case a few months ago. He got one on Friday that freaked him out."

Chin frowned. "How so?"

"He said all the calls prior had just been dead silence. The last one he heard someone breathing on the other end. He chalked it up to someone's idea of a good prank," Danny explained.

Something occurred to Chin. "Do you think the calls were made by the same person sending him the flowers?"

"What flowers?"

Both men jumped. They had almost forgotten about Catherine being in the same room as them.

Chin recovered first. "He started getting flower deliveries about three weeks ago. First at the office, then here, then on the SUV parked outside HPD. We assumed they were from you."

Catherine shook her head and frowned. "I never sent him any flowers."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Danny muttered quietly.

Chin ignored Danny's comment and tried to get back to the what they knew. "Okay, let's assume Steve went for a run this morning. What route does he normally take?"

"He normally goes by Mr Chang's Supermarket and then up the main street, depending on how far he plans to go. Lately, it's just been to the shop and back," Catherine supplied.

"Then why did I find his phone almost a kilometre away from the supermarket?" Danny asked.

"Maybe he extended his run?" Catherine suggested. "He said he'd been feeling better, stronger lately."

Chin couldn't help the feeling that they were grasping at straws, desperate for any explanation as to their friend's disappearance.

"Let's just see if anyone inside the supermarket saw him early this morning," Chin suggested.

"Dennis would definitely know if the health freak had been by," Danny commented.

Two heads turned simultaneously to look at Danny. Chin felt his own eyebrows almost disappear into his hairline. Danny, going to a health food shop? Voluntarily?

Danny help up his hands. "Okay, so I may frequent the establishment from time to time. They sell really nice mangoes."

"Okay, putting aside your sudden affinity for fresh fruit for the moment," Chin cut in before the conversation could get out of hand. "And the fact you knows the owner's name, we need to find out what happened. Danny and I will go to the supermarket and see if we can trace Steve's movements. Catherine, I know you are on leave but we could really use your assistance on this."

Catherine scoffed. "Like I wouldn't help."

Chin smiled; he really liked Steve's 'friend'. "Okay then. Can you check to see if any of Steve's enemies are out of jail?"

"On it," Catherine replied as she pulled out a laptop from her bag and sat down on the nearby armchair immediately started typing.

"Thanks," Chin said before turning to the detective. "Come on, Danny. I'll drive."

"Yeah, yeah. Story of my life," was Danny's grumbled response as he followed behind him.

The drive to the shop was short and strangely quiet. Chin figured the only reason Danny hadn't put up a bigger fight about driving was because he was worried about his missing friend and if Chin was honest, so was he. Ever since Nazeef had targeted their friend, they had been adamant about remaining contactable. The fact that Steve was nowhere near his phone was concerning to say the least.

"Steve will be fine," Chin told his passenger. "I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere soon."

Danny huffed out a bitter laugh. "You don't believe that any more than I do."

Danny was right. Chin's gut was telling him something had happened. He just prayed that it wasn't a repeat of what they had been through a couple of months ago. He didn't think they could survive it again.

Chin pulled the Mustang into the small parking lot and climbed out. Danny was already on his way to the entrance before Chin had even closed his door. Chin shook his head at the detective's impatience. For all they bickered at each other, Steve and Danny were often quite alike. At least when it came to getting information they needed.

Chin hobbled inside to find Danny already at the counter chatting up a middle-aged Asian man. Dennis, Chin assumed. The shop was otherwise empty.

"Are you looking for more cacao chips, Danny?" the older man asked with a smile.

"Not today. I'm afraid I won't be doing any shopping this morning," Danny replied.

"That's a shame. I've got some fresh mangoes in the back that I think Grace would like."

Chin smiled. The only reason Danny ventured into a shop frequented by his 'health freak' partner was because of his daughter. The things Danny did for Grace…

"Maybe another time."

"So, what can I do for you today?" the kind-faced man said.

"I was wondering if you saw McGarrett this morning. Probably in the early hours?"

The Asian man shook his head. "No, sorry. I didn't get here until nine o'clock. I usually open late on Tuesdays." Dennis frowned suspiciously. "Why?"

"We're looking for him," Chin said as he approached the counter.

"This is one of my co-workers, Chin-Ho Kelly," Danny introduced the two men.

"Nice to meet you," Dennis Chang said as he extended his hand for Chin to shake.

"Do you have any surveillance cameras for the parking lot?" Danny asked.

"Yes, I do. I can probably bring up this morning's footage for you right now," Chang said.

"That would be great," Chin said, putting on his best smile.

The man typed into his computer as Danny rounded the counter and looked over his shoulder. Again Chin observed the likeness between his boss and second-in-command.

"Here it is," Chang announced.

Chin moved into the crowded space behind the counter and looked over the Asian man's other shoulder. Danny ordered the man to fast forward and they watched the pictures flash by at twice the usual speed. There was barely any movement until about half past five when they saw a familiar figure jog passed the shop.

"Okay, so he definitely went for a run this morning," Danny muttered.

"Can you keep it running forward?" Chin asked and the Asian man nodded.

They watched the screen intensely for the next ten minutes, waiting for their boss to reappear on the screen. It quickly became evident that Steve hadn't returned using the same route. They wound the footage back to when they first saw Steve and Chin spotted something in the corner of the screen.

"Can you zoom in on that?" Chin asked, pointing to the silver object that had caught his eye.

"Not on this computer," Chang answered with a shake of his head. "I could provide you with a copy of the footage if you like?"

"Yes please," Danny said.

"Do you also have footage from the last three weeks?" Chin asked. The flower deliveries had started three weeks ago.

"Yes, I do. Just one moment. I will go find the drives for you."

As soon as the Asian man disappeared into the office at the back of the shop, Danny turned to him.

"What are you thinking Chin?"

Chin shrugged. "It's just a hunch."

"If you're thinking that someone took him…" Danny trailed off.

Chin instantly knew exactly where Danny's brain had gone. He wished it hadn't, but it was possible, likely even, that Steve had not disappeared by any means of his own. The past had shown that the man had enemies, after all.

"Hey, let's just see what the video give us," Chin encouraged the detective, although not without his own stomach knotting with dread.

"I can't believe I let this happen again," Danny muttered angrily.

Chin frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I let him out of my sight. I should have had his back. If I had, then maybe—"

"What?" Chin interrupted Danny's guilt trip. "You wouldn't have been able to stop him from going out no matter how hard you tried. Steve is stubborn and has a mind of his own. Even with a protective detail, he would have found a way to slip passed them. Besides we don't even know what, if anything, happened. He could be on his way back right now."

"He was upset after I told him about the inquiry and Tillman," Danny admitted. "What if…"

"There is no point in playing the 'what if' game. Until we have more information, we can only speculate," Chin reminded him.

"Okay, here you go." Both men stopped talking when Dennis Chang emerged from the back office. "This should be all the footage from the last three weeks."

Chin took the drive the the shop owner. "Thank you. We really appreciate this."

"I hope you give Steve hell for worrying you," the Asian man said with a small smile.

"Don't worry, we will," Danny replied. "Thanks for your time."

Chin followed Danny outside and was surprised to find that it had started raining. He was thankful for the break in humidity but not so much for the impact it would have on a certain Jersey man.

"Stupid island and its stupid weather."

Chin smirked at the predicted comment as he chased after the furious detective while trying to protect the drive from moisture.