Nano Pono 9 of 11
Disclaimer: Hawaii 5-0 and characters belong to CBS, I just wish I owned them. And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Thank you my beta Traw for helping me keep on track. Any mistakes are mine since I have fiddled with this since it was betaed.
Did We Get Him/Her?
Steve and Danny arrived at Makani’s address in the early afternoon. Both men checked their weapons before exiting the car. Danny had called HPD to have them on stand-by in case anything went wrong. Steve considered protesting but decided against it considering Pouha did a runner.
Steve and Danny reached the front door. Danny stood on the right side of the door and Steve on the left. Steve nodded at Danny to knock on the door while he kept an eye out for any suspicious movements. “GUN!” yelled Steve as he spotted a gun poke around the edge of the building, aimed at his partner’s back. Pulling his weapon, he dropped and rolled in one fluid motion as he fired at the corner of the house, relieved. Danny had dropped in response to his shout.
The gun disappeared and the two five-O investigators ran to the edge of the house as they heard someone running away. Carefully looking around the edge of the building, Steve quickly pulled back and flattened himself against the wall as a couple of bullets imbed themselves in the side of the house where his head had been. He turned to Danny, silently signaling with his hands that the back yard was enclosed by a high fence. The suspect may not be able to run that way. He pointed to the other corner of the house as he silently instructed Danny to head that way, while he kept the shooter occupied. Danny grimaced at having to leave Steve alone but trusting there was no other way. Steve’s aneurysm face told its own story. There would be no way to communicate once Danny was out of sight. They looked each other in the eye and nodded an unspoken good luck.
Steve yelled, “5-0 drop your weapon!” He was answered with two more gunshots, satisfied that the shooter was still on this side of the house, he motioned to Danny to go. He then squatted down before poking head and gun around the corner to return fire. He pulled back after firing several rounds which were returned. While waiting for Danny to get into place, he decided that the shooter is an idiot for getting himself trapped until he heard a small explosion causing his heart to stop.
He was desperate to run to see what happened but his training kept him in place, the shooter would expect him to run for his partner.
“Sounds like the other cop found one of my little toys.” Steve suppressed his anger and fear so he listened to the gunman’s snickering taunts as he pinpointed his location. “Now you’re all alone.”
Steve rolled out from cover and rapidly fired two shots at the shooter, hearing a third shot from the back of the house as he fired. The shooter fell sideways, dropping his gun as Steve got up cautiously and moved towards the downed man.
“Don’t move or I’ll shoot you in the other leg.” He smiled, relieved, as he heard Danny’s gruff order from the back of the house.
Steve approached the shooter and kicked the gun away before glancing at Danny to reassure himself Danny was uninjured as he moved to cuff the shooter. “Glad to see you in one piece partner. What happened?”
Danny shrugged as he kept his gun on the suspect while Steve holstered his before cuffing and searching the downed man. “This idiot didn’t hide the trip wire as well as he obviously thought he did.” He holstered his gun once Steve was finished. “So I followed the wire to see what it would trigger finding what looked like a small explosive device. I remembered someone telling me how to trigger a trap like that safely.” Steve looked at his partner in surprise, stunned that Danny remembered the story he told, as Danny continued. “So I grabbed a broken branch, stepped carefully over the wire and moved carefully to the back corner of the house; I checked for more traps as I moved, once I was safe I tossed the branch at the wire before ducking. Just as I had ducked, boom.” Danny sympathetically added. “I knew you might think that I was injured and I’m sorry there was no way…”
Before Danny could finish Steve walked up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder stopping Danny’s apologies. “The important thing is that you are okay. I’m glad I told you about that incident now.” Danny nodded in agreement. “Now let’s take care of our friend here.” Steve said as he turned towards the handcuffed man who was moaning in pain.
Danny leaned down to check his pockets and found a wallet, opening it. “Well, what do you know? It’s Makani himself.”
“I ain’t got nothing to say to you Haoles except that I need to go to the hospital.” Makani growled.
“He seems to think he has a choice in the matter.” Danny pointed a thumb at Makani. “I guess being reasonable is out.”
Steve nodded stroking his chin. “So how do you think we should handle him? The house is only one story so I can’t dangle him out the window or from the roof. Maybe we should tie him to the hood of the car.”
Danny shook his head. “Nah, I don’t want to get blood on the car; I just washed it.” Danny noticed the glint in his partner’s eyes. “Uh oh, what are you thinking?”
Steve just smiled and knelt on his right knee next to Makani. He pulled out a glove normally used for keeping a crime scene clean and put it on before he placed his hand on Makani’s wound and pressed. Makani moaned and tried to roll away but was stopped as Danny knelt down to keep him still. Steve released the pressure some.
“I suggest you talk Makani, Steve here is a Navy Seal and very inventive when it comes to questioning.”
“You can’t do this! I got rights!” Makani yelled.
“It’s funny how criminals seem to know their rights. Unfortunately for you Makani, I have full means and immunity to get my job done.” Steve pressed on the wound harder than the first time causing Makani to scream in pain. The pressure was released again. “Are you ready to answer our questions Makani?” Steve inquired mildly.
Makani gasped. “Aurite, aurite lolo Haole ‘oe! Whatch you wan ‘ike?”
Danny looked across Steve and frowned. “What did he say?”
“Tell you later. Did you kill James McNeil? Answer in English.”
“Yeah. He tried to force my cousin to have sex with him. Nobody does that to a member of my family.”
“How did you kill him?” Steve demanded.
“Stabbed him in the heart.”
“So you stabbed him in the heart? What kind of knife did you use?” Danny pushed for more information.
“I grabbed a knife out of his kitchen.”
Steve applied a pressure on the wound again eliciting a moan before easing off. “You’re lying to us. That's not how he died. So do you want to try again and tell us who really killed McNeil?”
Makani was panting as he slumped. “Okay, okay, my cousin did it. She called me after she killed him frantic. So I told her to leave and go out with some friends to create an alibi. She mentioned some recital or something. I told her I would take the blame when the cops came looking.”
Steve and Danny looked at each other and nodded. They had what they needed. “Book him Danno.” Danny huffed in mock annoyance before reading Makani his rights as Steve grabbed his phone and called HPD and an ambulance.
Stepping away from Makani so they could talk quietly Danny asked. “So what did he say?”
Steve kept an eye on Makani. “He called me a crazy Haole,” Danny snickered, “and asked what we wanted to know.” He scratched his cheek as he glanced back down at their suspect. “Once he has been picked up, we can head to Nihipali and McNeil LTD to see if she is still there so we can talk to her.”
Danny ran his fingers threw his hair. “Yeah.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Something just occurred to me. How did Nihipali find out about what McNeil was doing? Normally complaints are handled by the HR department, or an---office manager.”
Steve nodded in agreement. “So we need to know how much she knows and if she was aware of the threats.” Steve finished as he grabbed his phone and dialed. “Hello Max. Do you have a time of death for McNeil?” Danny watched as Steve listened to the M.E’s response before Steve continued. “Good work. Thank you Max.” Quickly disconnecting the call he looked across at his partner and announced. “Well, our suspect’s alibi is definitely shot.”
“Time of death was before she went out, wasn’t it?”
“Looks like we’ll be making another arrest today.” Steve nodded as HPD and an ambulance arrived. Stepping aside as Makani was being taken care of McGarrett called HPD asking what time Makani received the call from the suspect. Once he had his answers, he quickly passed custody of Makani across to the responding officers before leaving the scene to head to Nihipali’s office.
TBC