Chapter 5
Steve sits restlessly in his bed. He has a very strange feeling. He throws the covers aside, swings his legs over the edge of the bed and then has to breathe away the pain. On the tray is still the pillbox with the painkillers, maybe he should take them after all. He swallows them quickly with a little water.
Then, swaying, he stands up and gets his clothes from the closet. He gets dressed as quickly as he can. He is about to hurry out of the room when the door opens and Lynn is standing in front of him.
"What?..Steve?... What are you doing?"
"Lynn, I don't have time to explain. I need your car, fast!"
Befuddled, she hands him her keys and Steve is out the door. Outside the hospital, he climbs into Lynn's Challenger and speeds out of the parking lot with tires spinning. Soon after, as he turns into the street where Danny lives, he just sees a vehicle leave the street at the other end. Following an intuition, he drives on and after the vehicle.
Catherine and Chin enter the house and secure it. They find Rachel, Kono and the two children unharmed in the living room. But where is Danny? While Chin frees the four from their bonds, Catherine leaves the house through the back door. Not far away, she finds Danny's gun. She gulps. The guy set her up, and achieved his goal, he finally has Danny. With an uneasy feeling in her stomach, she goes back into the house. In the living room, three pairs of anxious eyes look back at her, and as she shakes her head just slightly, she sees the pairs of eyes moisten. She would have so liked to have delivered a different message.
Together they drive to the HQ. Kono and Rachel have described the guy pretty well. Maybe they can at least find out who wants to kill Danny.
The computer doesn't take long. It throws up a former police officer, Gerry White. The latter shot a colleague in the line of duty when he threw himself protectively in front of a shoplifter. Danny and another policeman were also at the scene and then testified against White in court. Gerry White had always maintained it was an accident. He had appealed and yet had truly managed to get out of jail after years with a shrewd lawyer. Allegedly because of a procedural error.
Chin looks for the other cop in the system who testified with Danny. He gulps. The man was in a fatal car accident a few days ago.
Steve has trouble following the vehicle. Again and again he loses sight of it in the heavy traffic. Meanwhile, he is annoyed that he only asked Lynn about the car, but not about the cell phone. He could really use some help. Finally the traffic clears a bit and it becomes easier to keep an eye on the other car. Still, he suddenly disappears. Cursing, Steve turns the Challenger around, backs up and turns into the off-ramp. He knows the way. It leads into a wooded area, with an off-road vehicle you could get quite far into it. Soon, however, the Challenger can go no further. Steve parks it somewhat hidden on the side. He looks in the glove compartment and closes it again, disappointed. He doesn't know what he was expecting. It's Lynn's car, not Catherine's Stingray. He finds nothing in the trunk to help him either. Then he cautiously continues on his way.
Danny notices them turning off a paved road. It rumbles and shakes and the car slows down. He's already tried to free himself somehow, but White has pulled the cable ties so tight they're almost cutting off his blood. When he loaded him into the trunk, he recognized him. Sure, he'd gotten older, too, and the years in prison hadn't left him unscathed. Why was he at large in the first place? He was serving a life sentence at the time. Danny would probably never know all that again. Then the car comes to a stop. Danny braces himself. No one can save him this time. Steve is in the hospital and his team has probably just stormed his house and hopefully freed his family and Kono. The trunk lid opens and White roughly pulls him out by the arms. He maneuvers him further into the woods until they're standing in front of a freshly dug pit.
"Get in there."
Danny descends. He waits for the shot, but nothing happens. Instead, earth trickles down on him. Panic rises in him.