Chapter 11

As Steve got upstairs, he heard a rumble in one of the rooms. He pushed open the door and ran inside. A man tried to get Helen into his power, but the teenager fought back with everything she had. With two steps Steve was with the two and missed his opponent a decent uppercut. This left Helen and threw himself on Steve. Helen quickly got out of harm's way and watched from across the room. The two men wrestled with each other, sometimes Steve had the upper hand, sometimes his opponent. Steve was just lying under his opponent again when he suddenly had a knife in his hand and tried to ram it into Steve's chest. Quick-witted, Steve threw himself to the side, wrested the knife from the guy and struck himself. Panting, the kidnapper let go of Steve, climbed out the window, and was gone. Steve got back to his feet, but when he looked out the window, the man was no longer to be seen.

Steve turned to Helen. "Are you ok?" She looked at him with wide eyes and nodded silently. She stood trembling at the door. "Come here." Steve pulled her into his arms and stroked her back soothingly. "Everything is good."

She slowly pulled away from him and looked into his face. "You're bleeding there."

Steve wiped his hand across his forehead, which immediately turned red. "May I use your bathroom?"

Helen nodded. "The door on the right."

"Thanks." Steve went to the bathroom and washed the blood off his face. Then he called out, "Do you have something like a first aid kit?"

But Helen was already in the doorway with a pack of plasters and disinfectant. Steve smiled. "Thanks."

"Sit down, I'll do it." Steve did as he was told and sat on the edge of the bathtub. Helen disinfected the wound and then stuck the adhesive plasters over it. "Okay, done."

Steve looked in the mirror. "Thank you, doctor. How does it look, do you have everything? We should then order CSU to take a look at the whole thing here. Someone was definitely looking for something here."

"I have everything I wanted to get."

"Okay, then put that in the Camaro, I'll call Danny in the meantime."

About fifteen minutes later, the Grand Cherokee pulled up with Danny and Catherine, the CSU and Ben's car. When Danny saw Steve's battered face, he just shook his head. "I forgot to mention the danger magnet when I was listing it on the plane." Then he winked at Helen.

"I believe you."

However, Steve intervened, speaking seriously but finding it amusing. "Hey, I wasn't the target this time, okay? Also, you were attacked, not me."

"Yes, but look at my face and then yours. Who was paying better attention?"

Danny couldn't hold back the laughter, it was too funny how a young girl, probably a whole head shorter than Steve, was arguing with Steve like only he usually did.

"I already love the little one."

"Danny, you love everyone as long as they're against me. But now joking aside and get to work. We need to find out who the attacker was and what he was doing here, plus I'm pretty sure this incident has something to do with Liana's death. So while CSU do their job here, we should speak to Liana's colleagues to learn more about the day of her death."

So after Steve had briefly shared his thoughts with the others, he pulled Danny a bit aside to talk to him privately. "Danny, I need you to do me a favor. Please keep an eye on Helen and feel free to take her with you to the questioning of Liana's colleagues. I'll join you later."

"May I ask what you're up to?"

"Yesterday I commissioned Liana's exhumation and autopsy. A few minutes ago I got the info that the autopsy was over and the results were in. I'd like to drive over to the medical examiner's office and speak to him and I don't think it's a good idea to have Helen around."

"Does she even know about it?"

"No, but I'll tell her about it soon."

"All right then, see you later."

"Thanks buddy."

Steve pulled away from the others, got into Liana's Camaro, and drove off. Outwardly he seemed calm, but inwardly there was pure emotional chaos. He didn't want Helen to come with him because he was afraid she wouldn't be able to take it all that well and now he was asking himself if he could take it. He hadn't seen Liana in sixteen years, but he loved her, so he wasn't sure if he was ready to see her corpse right away.

After 20 minutes Steve had arrived, entered the building and met the medical examiner. "Commander McGarrett, right?"

"Yes I am."

"Well, I don't want to keep you long so I'll be brief. There were no abnormalities at the autopsy. So I classify her death as an accident."

"Okay, thank you very much... Could I maybe just see her? I knew her and didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

"All right, I'll give you a few minutes."

"Thanks."

So Steve entered the next room with a queasy feeling, where Liana's corpse lay on one of the silver tables and was covered with a white cloth. He took a deep breath when he saw her lying there like that. It hurt him incredibly and he felt his tears slowly coming down, which is why he now took his eyes off her and left the room. There he said goodbye to the ME and sat down on a bench in front of the building, where he couldn't hold back the tears.

Suddenly he felt a hand put on his shoulder. Steve opened his eyes and looked into Catherine's face. In the next moment, Catherine coaxed Steve to stand up and then immediately pulled him into her arms, noticing him relaxing a bit more and slowly stopping his crying. The two stayed the same for a few more minutes before they pulled away and looked deep into each other's eyes, Catherine clearly seeing the pain in Steve's eyes. "How are you doing?"

"I… I just can't believe she's dead. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye." Another tear ran down his face. He continued, more quietly, "If I had kept looking for her back then, do you think she would still be alive?"

"Steve, don't do this. Please don't blame yourself. She left, not you. And you were looking for her, and from the way you told me I'm convinced she just didn't want to be found, for whatever reason." Catherine put her right hand to his face and gently wiped the tear from his cheek with her thumb.

His voice was almost a whisper as he replied, "She was my first love, Cath, and it took me a long, very long time to get over the breakup. I always thought I made it, but seeing her like this today hurts me more than I expected." His eyes were dark with sorrow and sought hers.

Meanwhile there were tears in her eyes too. Seeing Steve like this pained her. Pulling herself together, she replied, "I promise we'll find her killer."

"Thanks Cath, and thank you for being there for me. I love you."

She gently took his face in both hands and gave him a comforting kiss on the mouth. Then she pulled him into her arms again and whispered, "I love you too."

They stayed like that for a while. Then Steve broke away from Catherine, took her hand and slowly walked her back to the Camaro.

When Steve and Catherine arrived at the Naval Base, they were shown to the department where Liana had worked and met Helen and Danny who updated the two. "Pretty much all of Liana's co-workers say that a certain co-worker named Donald Moore seemed to want something from Liana and was very pushy, but was rebuffed several times. This made him very angry with her. I think that would be a motive. Also, the head of department said that dear Mr. Moore left here shortly after Liana on the day of her death and that was also the day his vacation started. So he hasn't been here since that day either."

"Then we'll pay him a visit. Do you already have the address?"

"Of course."

"Okay, then we'll start right away. You go ahead with Catherine, I want to talk to Helen for a moment."

So Catherine and Danny made their way to the cars and Steve looked at Helen with a straight face. "What's up?"

"I still have to tell you something." He cleared his throat and his mind went back to the pale face of Liana in the ME's office. "Since your mother's death was ruled an accident, there was no autopsy. We have now had that made up for."

Helen looked at him with wide eyes. "But Mom's already buried, isn't she? How….?" In that moment she understood what he wanted to tell her and her eyes got wet. She quickly turned away so Steve couldn't see her tears. Steve stared at her back a little helplessly. As her shoulders began to tremble, he wordlessly walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. Helen let it happen and when she broke away from him a few minutes later she defiantly wiped her tears from her face. "I understand. Did you come up with anything useful?"

"No, unfortunately not. But that doesn't mean anything. Her car will also be examined and maybe there will be a clue."

"And if not, I'm sure this Donald Moore can tell us more. So we shouldn't just stand here wasting time and go to this guy and interrogate him."

Helen ran past Steve and made her way to the cars. Steve looked after her and then followed her.