Chapter 5

When he arrived at the hospital, he was not allowed to come into the trauma room. He paced restlessly in front of the door. He was still very afraid that he would lose his daughter and so he couldn't calm down. Various thoughts came to his mind, on the one hand he just wanted to kill Raúl and on the other hand he also had feelings of guilt. If he had taken better care of Helen and brought her home straight from school instead of allowing her to go to Grace, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. It should have been clear to him that she wasn't telling him the truth. Just when she wrote 'I love you too', even though she was so angry with him, should have made him suspicious. And now Helen could die at any moment and even if Raúl went to prison, it wouldn't help. Nothing would compensate for her death. Suddenly Catherine stood next to Steve and took his hand. Danny had driven her here. Steve could tell she was just as worried as he was.

The time seemed endless until the door finally opened again and a doctor came to them. Steve and Catherine looked at him pleadingly. "Your daughter is doing well under the circumstances, luckily you were there early enough. She was given knockout drops and Valoron, both of which we were able to neutralize. She will sleep for a few more hours and may not remember what happened." He paused. "I can also tell you that she wasn't raped."

Steve and Catherine breathed a sigh of relief. "Can we go to her?"

"Of course."

Steve and Catherine quietly entered the room. Their daughter lay pale in the white hospital pillows. When Steve saw her lying there, his heart clenched painfully. He swallowed and ran his hand over his face. Catherine came up behind him and gave him a comforting hug. After he had regained his composure, he pulled two chairs close to Helen's bed, sat down and took Helen's hand. Tears were in his eyes again. Almost the last thing they said to each other was a stupid argument.

After a few hours, Helen stirred, her eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes. "Hey, sweetheart, how are you?" Tears welled up in Helen's eyes. "Shh, you're okay, everything's fine." Steve stood up and took his daughter in his arms. She cried uncontrollably, pressing her face into his chest. Then she slowly pulled away from him and looked at him. "You were right, Dad. I'm sorry."

"Me too. Please promise me one thing. Don't ever lie to me again."

"I promise."

Suddenly, Helen quickly pulled out the IV and stood up, but she immediately felt so dizzy that Steve barely managed to catch her before she fell. "Hey, take it easy. You've been unconscious for hours. What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to leave now and have a talk with Raúl."

"No, you're not. You're going to lie back down and rest. You almost died, remember?"

"That's exactly why I want to talk to Raúl. I need to know why he did this."

"First, you need to lie back down. Please."

Helen saw the plea in his words and was surprised by the tone, one she had never heard from her father before. But she could guess that he had been extremely worried about her, so she stopped arguing and lay back down.

"That's better. Now, since it seems you're feeling a bit better, I can leave for now. I promise you, I'll talk to Raúl. I'll find out why he did this and make sure he ends up in prison, so he can never harm you again."

"Thank you."

Steve gave his daughter a kiss on the head, then kissed Catherine briefly and rushed out of the hospital. He had wanted to deal with Raúl the whole time, but his daughter had been more important. Now that she was doing better, he could focus on his work while Catherine watched over Helen.

Steve drove to the HQ, where Raúl was still in the interrogation room, refusing to talk. After a brief discussion with his team, he went down to Raúl with Danny. Raúl sat indifferently on the chair, not even looking up when Steve and Danny entered the room. As soon as Steve had Raúl in his sights, he couldn't hold back and gave him an uppercut. Raúl took a moment to recover and then shouted at Steve. "You can't do that, you're cops! I'll get my lawyer, and he'll take you both down!"

"And you can't spike someone's drink with drugs! And add to that unlawful detention and attempted murder! Not even the best lawyer in the world can help you with that!"

"Wait a minute, murder? I didn't try to kill her!"

Steve grew even angrier at this statement, walked up to Raúl, leaned down, and looked him directly in the eyes, making Raúl afraid. "Are you kidding me? You gave her knockout drops and Valoron! You must know that stuff leads to cardiac arrest if you take just a bit too much! You nearly killed her!"

"It's not my fault; she wanted to try drugs to see what it's like!"

That was too much for Steve. He became so angry that he pushed Raúl, causing him to fall backward with the chair. "Hey, you back there! You have to do something, your partner is nuts! He's going to kill me!"

But Danny fully understood Steve's actions, certain that he would react the same way if this were about Grace. "I didn't see anything."

"You didn't see anything?! This guy hit me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Damn it, you're cops! You can't just do this!"

Steve was done with this charade and turned to Danny. "You know, Danny, he's kind of right. We are cops, so we should follow the rules. But if you're not a cop, you can do whatever you want, like our friend here says."

Steve took off his gun and badge and handed them to Danny before turning back to Raúl and helping him back up. "Alright, now I'm not a cop anymore, and my colleague here sometimes has memory problems, so he won't remember what happens next."

"You're crazy! What do you even want?!"

"I want you to tell me why you did this to my daughter and where you get your drugs! I'll give you five seconds to answer, or you'll regret it. Five... four... three... two..."

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you the truth! Honestly, I really love your daughter and didn't want to kill her. I just wanted to show her that drugs are good, but she didn't want to take any voluntarily. So I thought I'd help a bit."

Steve had to control himself not to punch the guy again, he was so furious.

"And I get my drugs through a dead drop. But the first time, I met some guy at a cabin where he keeps his stuff. It was somewhere in Waimānalo. But I have the exact address on my phone."

Raúl gave Steve the address, and after turning him over to the HPD, they set off. The rest of the team came along since they didn't know what to expect.

After about fifteen minutes, the team arrived at the cabin. Steve went ahead to open the door. They all rushed in immediately, but the cabin was empty. Absolutely empty. There wasn't even a table in the room. Steve had two explanations for this: either Raúl had lied, or this cabin was no longer being used by a dealer. Steve's eyes fell on a small piece of a plastic bag on the floor. When he picked it up, he saw part of a unicorn on the bag, so Raúl hadn't lied; a dealer had clearly been here. They would have the piece examined, but the chances of finding anything useful were slim. Since they had no other leads at the moment, it was their only chance. Steve instructed Kono to take the piece of the plastic bag to Fong for analysis and gave the team the rest of the day off. He himself drove back to the hospital.

When Steve entered Helen's room, he walked right into the middle of a conversation between Catherine and Helen. They didn't notice him at first, so Catherine continued talking. "Well, he just called me, I went there, and he forced me to go to the roller derby to learn more about the victim. I always liked helping the team, but the problem was that I couldn't roller skate."

"But you could ice skate," Steve added as he approached and sat in the chair next to Catherine.

"Dad, did you talk to Raúl?"

"Yes, I did, and he told me why he did it. Apparently, he wanted to get you to like drugs and accept him because he loves you. But he didn't say why he added the knockout drops."

"Do you think he... he wanted to...?"

"I don't know, but the important thing is that nothing happened, and you never have to see him again. So don't even think about what might have happened."

"Okay. Can you tell me more about the roller derby thing now?"

"Well, it didn't go very smoothly, but since Cath has already started, go ahead."

Steve and Catherine began recounting the roller derby incident, and Helen listened attentively. They then told more stories until Helen eventually fell asleep...

Two days later, Helen was finally discharged from the hospital, as the knockout drops and Valoron were no longer in her blood. However, the doctor gave her some instructions to follow, such as resting, avoiding strenuous physical activities, and seeing the doctor if she felt worse again. Unfortunately, the team hadn't made any progress in the drug case, and another body had been found at a different school, increasing the pressure on the team. This morning at least started quietly. Steve was sitting with Catherine at the breakfast table, chatting, drinking coffee, and trying to put work stress aside. Since they planned to leave in 20 minutes and Helen still hadn't come downstairs, Steve went upstairs to check on her. He knocked on Helen's door and heard a soft "Come in." Steve opened the door and saw his daughter lying in bed. She looked pale, which made him worry immediately, so he sat on her bed's edge. "Hey, what's wrong? You said you wanted to go back to school today."

"Dad, I don't feel so well."

Steve put his hand on her forehead and felt it was a bit too warm. "I think you have a fever. You're staying home today, and I think we should go to the hospital right away."

"Dad, it's nothing serious. I just need to rest at home. Please, I don't want to go back to the hospital."

"You know what the doctor said, and I'm not taking any risks."

"But I'm not that bad, just a bit of a fever. Maybe I just caught a cold. So, you and Catherine should go to work, and if I feel worse tonight, you can drag me to the hospital, okay?"

"Alright. But maybe Cath should stay here with you, just to be safe."

"No, you need all the help you can get with this case. I'm old enough to take care of myself."

"We'll see. I think I have another idea. So, Cath and I will head to HQ, but you can call anytime. Rest and don't do anything silly, okay?"

"Got it, Dad."

Steve gave her a kiss on the head and left her room. About 10 minutes later, Helen heard the Silverado drive away. She tried to sleep a bit more, as she really didn't feel well.

Two hours later, she was awakened by loud noises coming from downstairs. Helen immediately jumped out of bed, which wasn't easy given how dizzy she felt, but she pulled herself together and carefully went downstairs, following the noises to the kitchen, where she found Kamekona. "Kamekona?"

"Ah, hello, Mini-McG. Your dad asked me to look after you while you're sick."

"That's great."

"I think so too. I'm making you a shrimp casserole. That'll get you back on your feet quickly."

"Uh-huh. But I'd really just like to sleep, so could you maybe postpone the cooking? Mahalo."

Helen turned and went back to her room before Kamekona could say anything more to her. Once upstairs, she took out her phone and sent her dad a message. "Seriously? Was that really necessary?" Helen wasn't mad at Kamekona for waking her up; her alarm would have gone off in 10 minutes anyway. It was actually very convenient for her to be sick today. This way, she could execute her plan more easily. She desperately wanted to help with the drug case, but knowing that Steve would oppose it, she had to act on her own. Her plan was to go to the other school and find the dealer to track down the source of the drugs. She knew it was dangerous, but it was worth it to her. She wanted to do it for Aliya.

Helen arranged some pillows under her blanket to make it look like she was sleeping. Then she got dressed, took her phone, and used the same tactic as last time. She waited until no one was in the garden outside her window and climbed down quickly, immediately heading off. She knew Steve would kill her once he found out, but she had set her mind on her goal and was determined to follow through. In her view, it was the least she could do for Aliya...