Fic: How To Disappear Completely, pre S/D, PG-13, 1/2
Title: How To Disappear Completely
Author: superbadgirl/SBG
Characters: Steve, Danny, Chin, Kono, Catherine
Pairing: Steve/Danny
Genre: pre-slash, angst, H/C
Rating: PG-13
Word-count: @16000 total
Spoilers: None, really.
Warnings:
Summary: In a bad moment, Steve wishes something bad to befall Danny. When it does, it puts him on the suspect list.
AN: From rainbow_goddess's prompt: Steve and Danny have an argument and in a moment of anger, Steve blurts out something like, "Oh, I could kill you." Danny laughs it off. Later, though, Danny goes missing, and someone from HPD just happened to have overheard their argument. Suddenly Steve is suspected of Danny's murder. He has to find Danny not only for his own sake, but because Danny might be in danger. Unbetaed and, unfortunately, not quite done. I HOPE to get it done by end of day tomorrow, my posting date, but RL has tossed me an intense new job and I'll be on the road and in classes all day. I figured I should at least put the first half up. *crosses fingers for second half on time, hotel wifi willing...*
(Read on AO3)
The room had never felt so claustrophobic, the perspective flip making it seem the size of a postage stamp. HPD had extended the courtesy of not restraining him, but the door was most definitely locked and he was on the wrong side of it. The dim blue of the lighting cast shadows deep and unnerving, and the longer he was stuck here the more it seemed those shadows would swallow him. And those were all very big problems, because he needed to be out there in the broad light of day, with his team. Every minute he was stuck in here due to a stupid misunderstanding was another minute lost and he had a horrible feeling the minutes were numbered. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the door, as if he could will it to open. It didn’t work like that, and he knew the tactic of letting a suspect stew in his proverbial juices for a while before beginning the interrogation was a standard one.
Suspect.
Jesus, this couldn’t be happening. That anyone could seriously entertain the thought he had something to do with this was beyond him. Hell, he didn’t even know what this was, or where they were in the investigation to determine the true nature of the case. He needed to get out right now. If anyone could break the case wide open, it was him. Maybe that was arrogance; maybe it was that he had just slightly more motivation than anyone else and was closer to being ready to acknowledge that. He just needed the chance to.
He took two steps toward the door, then realized it wouldn’t help his situation if he pounded the walls and demanded to be released like the frantic person that he was. He sagged instead onto the lone chair in the room and buried his face in his hands. He wasn’t a man to regret his words or actions, but if he could turn back the hands of time in this case, he would. He blew out a shaky breath. It was all so unbelievable. His head wouldn’t stop reeling, all of his thoughts on what kind of progress had been made while he was trapped in here. He could only hope that there had been some. Maybe they’d solved it, and his worried gut would be eased and he’d get out at the same time.
Another twenty minutes passed before the door opened. He leapt to his feet when he saw who it was. Then his heart nearly stopped at the expression on Chin’s face.
“Oh, shit,” Steve said. He could barely get the words out. “Danny? Chin, tell me…”
With the deepening of Chin’s frown, Steve’s heart sank. Oh no. No, no. He must have looked close to passing out or something, because Chin took two steps toward him.
“No,” Chin said quickly, holding his hands up. “He’s not…”
Injured. Dead. Any of the countless things that had gone through his head in even more vivid detail since his detainment. But Steve’s relief was fleeting because of Chin’s hesitation to say exactly what Danny wasn’t, though he figured none of them were ready to put their thoughts out there in solid form. Because the truth was they didn’t know. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all some sort of dream, nightmare, and he was going to wake up any second in a cold sweat. Everything would be the way it should be, not the way it was.
“You have to get me out of here.” Steve paced a tight line, eyes flicking over Chin’s left shoulder at the door. “I can’t be locked up while Danny…”
Chin slid to the left, blocking the escape route. He shook his head.
Whether it was a conscious movement or not, it rocked Steve as surely as a punch to the gut. Chin couldn’t … there was no way Chin believed this bullshit. Not after the conversation they’d had earlier. Steve fell back into the chair and resumed holding his head in his hands. Danny wasn’t even there, and the guy was causing him headaches. Danny wasn’t even there. Shit, shit.
“Jesus, Chin, you cannot possibly believe I actually had anything to do with this.”
“I don’t.” Chin crouched in front of him, put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “But we have to do this by the book. Not only because the governor has stepped in and issued an edict, but because of where the accusation originated. They’ll be in shortly to ask you those questions. Neither Kono nor I can participate in this part of the investigation for obvious reasons, but I’m not leaving, either.”
Steve slumped back, let his arms fall into his lap. Chin stayed crouched for a moment, then stood and headed for the wall to have a lean. It was amazing how much better Steve could breathe now that he had company.
“I suppose by the book means you can’t tell me anything,” Steve said. “They dumped me in here almost two hours ago.”
“No, I can’t. Only after you’re cleared,” Chin said. “And you will be cleared, Steve.”
Of course he would be. Steve would rather be dead himself than intentionally harm one single, ridiculous hair on Danny’s head.
H50H50H50
Ten hours earlier
Steve drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, beyond ready to get back to work. Consecutive days off weren’t that unusual but also weren’t the norm for Five-0, given the nature of their job. They were, therefore, appreciated, though this particular weekend had seemed to drag. What was unusual was not being called somewhere for a case by now, and starting the day at HQ instead of at a scene. He wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He hopped out of the truck and leaned back in. He snatched the bag of malasadas and tray of coffees off the passenger seat, then headed into the offices quickly. While he didn’t think the unexpected treats would solve anything, they sure couldn’t hurt. He frowned.
Perhaps it was that he hadn’t yet established a group of friends outside of his team, or reconnected with people he’d known years ago. Branching out seemed unnecessary, when Chin, Kono and Danny filled in so many emotional gaps on their own. And now he had Cath so close, too, and Doris; he wasn’t sure where to slot Doris into his life yet. Still, nine times out of ten, if Danny didn’t have Grace, he managed to find his way to Steve’s. At first, Steve had thought it was strange, but had quickly become resigned to the fact it was just Danny. Who, come to think of it, had fewer people in his life - in proximity, anyway - than Steve did, and it worked. They worked, somehow, right from the start and so easily that life changes were easily absorbed into their friendship.
Knowing Danny hadn’t had Grace and also hadn’t come over or answered his phone made Steve worry that their little argument the other day hadn’t been as little as he’d originally thought. He knew it wasn’t Cath - she didn’t mind how much time he spent with Danny, and Danny never had any problem barging in whenever he wanted. Steve, on the other hand, had started getting twitchy about Cath and Danny and it all got muddled in his head, but that was another story. No, he was convinced it had been their discussion, which really had been little more than him spouting off.
He’d replayed the scene in his mind’s eye over and over, and he couldn’t shake that look on Danny’s face. He just wanted to make it right, something difficult to do when Danny wouldn’t give him the time of day. The silent treatment from his partner was a big deal, but something that often passed quickly, within hours, not days. Danny was a man’s man - quick to anger, quick to brush it off (unless it came to Grace). Apparently, Steve had discovered another exception.
Appealing to Danny’s appetite for sweet, fried dough was basic and obvious, but at least a place to start making up for it. The worst thing was that even though most times the complete opposite was true, he’d almost meant what he’d said, in that moment; Danny had honed in on that, even if he hadn’t said as much. Actually, after that, he hadn’t said anything at all. Two and a half days of radio silence; it had unnerved Steve to the point he felt like a kid again, waiting for punishment after he’d pushed Mary out of a tree for following him around like an obnoxious talking shadow.
Steve trotted up the stairs of the Ali’iolani Hale, the greasy smell of the doughnuts making his stomach growl despite the way it had generally been rolling uneasily for days. It gave him an idea, though. As a show of good humor, he’d indulge in one and only one. He knew he wasn’t going to fool anyone with that, but the effort might not go unrewarded. He was going to eat one with the hope doing so would prompt some snarky jabs from Danny.
The road to forgiveness was paved with snark.
“Breakfast,” he called as he pushed through the main door. “Got caffeine for everyone.”
Kono was on him before he made it halfway to the tech table, grabbing the tray of coffees from him and searching out hers. She was like a coffee bloodhound, that one, and he could tell she’d just arrived. Her hair, while styled into a neat ponytail, was still a little damp and her eyes were not quite as sharp as usual.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “I didn’t want to make a pot.”
Chin strolled up, retrieved a doughnut from the bag Steve had opened and held out in offering. He nodded his appreciation and accepted the coffee Kono handed to him.
“Make a pot?” Steve asked, tipping his head at Danny’s office, which had the door closed and blinds all shut, exactly the way it had been when they’d left for the weekend. “Didn’t Danny when he got in?”
“He apparently didn’t want to do anyone any favors,” Chin said wryly, then brushed the sugar off the corners of his mouth. “Whatever you did to put him in this mood must have been pretty bad if he’s still holding it against you … and us. He was in there when I got here and hasn’t emerged.”
“Neither of us are masochistic enough to poke the tiger, brah.” Kono shoved three-quarters of a malasada into her mouth, so when she spoke the last bit it was barely intelligible. “But, you know, it’s really not like him to hold a grudge against anyone but his ex. You better go in.”
Steve supposed it was only fair, though he was honestly starting to think Danny was carrying this all too far. There was dramatic and then there was dramatic. He rolled his eyes at Chin and Kono, set the bag of treats on the table, squared his shoulders and stalked to Danny’s office, intent on dragging the guy out by his hair if he had to. He didn’t knock, just barreled in, more than halfway hoping that would also spark some kind of overblown reaction out of Danny too. He’d take just about anything.
“Hey, Danno, we’ve got foo…” Steve trailed off, confused. He stared around the office, then back out to the others. “It’s empty. He’s not in here.”
“What?” Chin said.
“But his car’s here.”
The last thing any of them were prone toward was jumping to conclusions. Sure, in the midst of a case, there was a lot of speculation, tossing out ideas and chasing leads that made sense. Sometimes they panned out, sometimes they didn’t but led to another avenue of investigation. What Steve felt in his gut wasn’t unlike that, except it wasn’t exactly like it either. Danny’s office had been shut up like this when they’d all left. Danny hadn’t answered phone calls or texts.
“What if it never left?” Steve asked. “Would he have left it here all weekend?”
“Not without a good reason,” Chin said. He tossed his half-eaten pastry into the nearest garbage can, shifted the coffee tray and started tapping the smart table to life. “I wouldn’t buy that for a second.”
Neither would he. No way. Steve’s brain was already racing, coming up with a multitude of scenarios which might have resulted in Danny leaving the Camaro and most of them not particularly happy ones. He shook his head. There was a reasonable explanation, he was sure. Had to be. Any second, Danny would storm into the offices, pissing and moaning about his carless disaster of a weekend.
“Steve.”
“What?” He realized he’d been staring at the doors, as if his will alone would bring Danny through them. “What did you say?”
“I asked what time you left on Friday, and if Danny was still here.”
“Six. And, yeah, he was.” He’d had dinner plans with Catherine, but he hadn’t had much of an appetite, for food or her company. “His office was just like that, and I didn’t even…”
Steve ran a hand through his hair, an odd déjà vu feeling coming over him, though he was fairly sure there was no way another frenemy of Danny’s had crawled out of the woodwork and strung him on a wild goose chase. The odds were astronomically against that, and he had no logical reason to jump to the idea that Danny was off the grid. He watched mutely as Chin called up multiple security cam feeds from around the building, though there was really only one route Danny would take. Better to be thorough than not, but Steve’s eyes honed in on the most obvious screen as Chin flicked them to the monitors on the wall.
It didn’t take long to spot Danny leaving their offices at twenty past six. The unhappy moue and weariness of his expression made Steve cringe inwardly, evidence of their argument still very much apparent. He ignored the way Kono shot him a look that told him he hadn’t schooled his reaction as well as he should have. They all watched silently as Danny reached the car, parked in the perfect spot for a good camera shot. Danny got in and made to start the engine. Instead of rolling the car into reverse, though, he sat there for a second, then tried to turn the engine over again. Then again. And then he lowered his head to the steering wheel and rested it there for a second. It didn’t take a master lip reader to catch the invectives Danny tossed at the car. Steve caught several fucks, a shit and a McGarrett. Of course Danny would blame him for the car’s malfunction. It almost made him want to laugh.
“So, car trouble,” Kono said.
Danny was pacing angrily, shoulders stiff, and was on the phone by this point. They all watched as a cab pulled up, Danny got in and it took off.
“That doesn’t explain why he’s not here now,” Chin said, reasonable and calm, but with an air of tension. “But maybe it’s realistic, given the circumstances.”
Steve started shaking his head before Chin was finished speaking. It wasn’t the car that was making him uneasy. It was the car plus the unanswered messages. As angry or hurt as Danny had been, he would have picked up and he would have had Steve hauling his ass all over the island to get his car fixed. Kono was right. Danny didn’t stay mad forever, he just didn’t, and Steve wanted to believe that was especially true when it came to him.
“No. He would have called m…one of us, gotten the car fixed. He wouldn’t have just let it sit all weekend. It’s a police vehicle, it needed service and he’d arrange for a replacement in the meantime,” Steve said, certain that was precisely what Danny would have done. The smell of coffee and doughnuts now made him slightly queasy. “He didn’t answer any of my calls this weekend. Did either of you have contact with him?”
“No.”
“No.”
“Chin, call him. He might answer for you. Kono, track Danny’s phone, just in case.”
Steve clenched his jaw against the looks they both shot him, like he was overreacting. Maybe he was. He hoped he was.
Chin kept his eyes pinned warily on Steve even as he lifted his phone to his ear, then started frowning when Danny apparently didn’t answer. He shot Kono a look after a solid thirty seconds of pressing the phone with an increasingly white-knuckled grip, started shaking his head.
“He’s not picking up,” Chin said.
“Looks like his phone’s at his apartment, though,” Kono said. “He’s probably okay.”
“Yeah, probably.” Steve nodded, now torn between irritation and worry. There had to be a reason outside of their verbal altercation that Danny was being unresponsive to everything. He hoped his partner had simply overslept and was now in the shower, unable to hear the phone. “We’ll give him an hour and if he’s not here by then, I’m going over there and hauling his irresponsible ass in. He’ll need a ride, anyway. Save him the cab fare and us from having to hear him gripe about how much money that cost him.”
Steve grabbed his coffee and Danny’s, headed for his office where he pretended to do paperwork but really spent his time hoping they didn’t get a call out as he studied the closed blinds of Danny’s office. The longer he sat and stared across the bullpen, the more he thought was unlikely that Danny had spent the weekend avoiding him due to hurt feelings. That just wasn’t Danny’s style, even if he were the type to hold a grudge. He’d want to hash it out, get over it or make sure Steve knew how wrong he was. And he had been so very wrong. Steve felt stupid, and worse, for not coming to this conclusion sooner. The pit in his stomach kept growing the longer he sat.
An hour, as it turned out, was too long to sit and wait. Though he had no logical basis to think it, it felt like he’d already waited two full days. Danny would have been in long ago if he were coming, and the what-ifs rattling around in his brain were making him crazy. It had only been twenty minutes, but he stood abruptly and headed for the door.
“I’m coming with,” Kono said the second Steve exited his office. She already had her bag of gear.
Any argument to the contrary would fail, that was clearly written on Kono’s face. Steve nodded, caught Chin’s eye and stalked out. Kono met up with him at the truck, jumping in with nervous grace as he started it.
“You think something’s wrong with Danny,” Kono said after a few minutes of tense silence.
It wasn’t a question, and he wasn’t surprised by that. They all knew each other very well by now. He hadn’t been hiding his concern. At all. Steve shot her a quick glance, but she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was averted and she stared out the window, as if she wanted to know but didn’t want to face it. Still, he wouldn’t do her the disservice of lying and wouldn’t have even if she didn’t already know.
“My gut is telling me there is,” Steve said. “There’s no way he’d no call, no show.”
“Yeah.” Kono shifted in her seat. “I know.”
One of the worst worst-case-scenarios running through his head cropped back up, the image of him walking into Danny’s apartment to find him long dead, decomposing and unrecognizable as anything but bloated flesh. Steve choked back the bile of that thought as it coupled with experiences of discovering bodies in such a state. It was unpleasant with strangers. He was more well-versed in losing people he cared deeply about than anyone should be, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle seeing Danny like that.
Not like that.
They said nothing for the remainder of the drive. There wasn’t really anything either of them could say that would ease the worry and dread. Only one thing would, but Steve was starting to think they would never get that either. The silence continued as he pulled the truck in front of Danny’s place.
“Okay, this is how it’s going down,” Steve said after a few seconds of trying and failing to will Danny out of his apartment with his arms waving about, punctuating his mood. “We’ll go up to the door. We’ll call him one more time, see if the phone is inside or on the grounds nearby. Then, if it comes to it, I go in alone.”
Steve had her until that point, then she scowled at him.
“Steve, he’s my friend, too.”
“And if this is worst case, the last thing I want is for you to see it, see him.” Steve gave her the look that always worked on Danny - heartfelt with a little brokenness on the side. “Please trust me. You will not want to see it.”
The idea of Danny, careful but tough cop and devoted father, dying in some household accident was almost unthinkable. As was already established, Danny dying, period, was not high on Steve’s list and he’d be a lying liar if he said any means was better or worse than the next. Dead was dead.
“All right,” Kono said. “I trust you.”
Suddenly she seemed too young for the job, which was ridiculous because she was a natural born cop. Her eyes were wide and shimmering, though underneath that was still her inherent toughness. Kono pulled out her phone and called Danny, exchanged a frown with Steve as they heard the ringtone. Right now, Danny was using Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys for her, and something about that was so sweet it felt almost like a blow.
“I’m going in,” Steve said.
He fumbled with his key ring a bit, searched for the one to Danny’s place. There was only so long he could delay the inevitable and, with the pit firmly in his stomach, he let himself in. The first thing he noticed, thank goodness, was the lack of the telltale smell of putrefaction. Steve knew that wasn’t a guarantee or proof of life, so he kept himself steeled as he took a few steps into the living space.
“Danny? You here, buddy?”
No cantankerous or pained reply came, and Steve hadn’t expected one but it was still disappointing. He scanned the living area, poked his head into the kitchen and found a bowl of over-ripe bananas and Danny’s phone there. He ignored the phone for the moment and moved to the interior of the place, to the bathroom and bedrooms. His senses were on high alert as he cleared Gracie’s room, then Danny’s. Danny’s was a mess, bed unmade and the clothes he’d worn on Friday in a heap at the end of it, shoes kicked halfway under the bed. On the small bedside table were his gun and badge.
He didn’t have time today to critique Danny’s horrendous housekeeping habits, though part of him still half hoped Danny would burst out and yell at him for invasion of privacy. He frowned down at the gun and badge, a knot of tension forming at the base of his spine. He exited the room and, once in the hall, eyed the bathroom door open only a crack. Those same horrible things he’d been imagining all morning replayed as he took a deep breath and gave the door a good push. It met no resistance, no unconscious (or worse) body blocking entry. His shoulders sagged, relieved.
The reassurance that he had not lost his partner this day lasted all of five seconds, when it was replaced with the realization that Danny was still gone. Just as there was no way Danny wouldn’t show up to work, he wouldn’t have left home without his phone any more than he’d have left his gun and shield. No cop would, let alone one on a task force which saw a higher-than-average case rate. He headed back to the front door and Kono waiting outside dutifully, picking up Danny’s phone on his way.
“He’s not here,” Steve said.
“Oh, thank god.” Kono leaned against the doorframe. “That’s good.”
“Maybe.”
The last thing he wanted to do was kill Kono’s relief, but he also knew it wouldn’t take her long to figure out on her own. Steve ran his thumb across Danny’s phone’s screen, input the password Danny didn’t know he knew and saw the number of missed calls. Unless Danny’s popularity had increased he thought they were mostly from him, and he’d called off and on all weekend. Damn. He didn’t check the voicemails, not yet.
“I’m not sure he’s been here all weekend.” Steve held the phone up. “He’s got missed calls back to Friday. That sound like good news to you?”
“Shit,” Kono said.
H50H50H50
Danny was just … gone.
Almost six hours into the official investigation of Danny’s disappearance, they had precisely zero viable leads. Nothing panned out for them. One of the problems was that other than confirming Danny had gone directly home after climbing into that cab on Friday evening - he’d used his debit card and it had run at seven oh five - they had no idea where he might have gone after that. He hadn’t mentioned his plans for the days off with Chin, Kono and certainly not Steve. There’d been no outgoing calls on his phone, none of his messages had been checked. Two of those calls were from Grace, and it was impossible Danny wouldn’t have called his little girl back. That had been all the proof Steve had needed to create a rough timeline. Danny had left their offices on Friday night. Grace’s first call had been at eight-thirty on Saturday morning.
Steve wasn’t used to feeling so powerless. The only comfort he took was that neither the morgue nor any of the hospitals in Honolulu had record of his partner crossing their thresholds. Somehow, even that comfort seemed too little. He let out a long breath, and pressed his fingertips into his closed eyes.
He had his hands still pressed against his face when he sensed a presence nearby. He didn’t move, halfway hoped whoever it was would go away. That was the precisely wrong attitude to have, of course. What he needed was to get off his ass and get back to it.
After the phone call he’d just had to make, he thought maybe he deserved a minute or two to decompress. Rachel had taken it as well as could be expected, had even made him believe she did still care beneath all the acrimony, and assured him she’d handle Grace. He wanted to ask her why alarm bells hadn’t gone off when Danny didn’t call Grace back, not once, but he restrained himself. What was done, was done, just as his own lack of action damned him. In the end, he’d just wanted it to come from him rather than the five o’clock news, and he’d wanted to do it before Grace was done with school. He knew avoiding direct interaction with the little girl made him a huge coward, just like hiding behind his hands did. A soft knock on his doorframe joined the person standing in it. He sighed.
“What?” Steve said. He cleared his throat when his voice sounded hoarse. “What’ve you got?”
“Kamekona, on the phone,” Chin said
“One of his contacts come through for us?” Steve was instantly at attention, on his feet with his hand stretched for the phone. “What line?”
“No, sorry. He hasn’t heard anything from his extensive network, but this isn’t about that. He, ah …” Chin looked a little sheepish. “He figured with what was going on, we hadn’t had time for grinds. He wants to know your preference today.”
Jesus. That was actually sweet, in a totally misguided, Kamekona sort of way. Steve couldn’t possibly choke down a plate of shrimp right now if he tried, though he knew eventually he was going to need the fuel. He waved a hand at Chin, who simply nodded and ducked out of the office. He followed after a minute, needing to get his brain back in the game. He knew better than anyone that there were ways of making someone vanish without a trace, which might mean he was the only one who was going to be able to think like whoever had done this. If someone had. They still didn’t know anything, really. The timing of his last conversation with Danny and Danny vanishing was coincidental, horrible, and it was tearing away at him. For many, layered reasons.
“No, thank you. I appreciate your time. Please call me if anything changes,” Kono was saying into her cell as she strode into HQ. She looked at Steve somberly, shook her head as she hung up. “That was the last clinic. No sign of him.”
They’d expanded their hospital and urgent care clinic check to facilities outside of Honolulu. O’ahu wasn’t a huge land mass, and it stood to reason Danny could have gotten or been taken outside city limits. It still stood to reason that he might be out there right now, hurt or worse. No, O’ahu wasn’t a huge island, yet trying to find one man amid all the mountains and ridges wouldn’t be an easy feat, not without knowing where to start. Danny wouldn’t voluntarily go into the wilds on his own, though, that much anyone who knew him understood.
“Good. That’s great,” Steve said. “What have we got from Fong, or anyone from CSU?”
“Exactly nothing. A majority of the prints so far have come up as belonging to Danny, Grace and you. Kono and I are in the mix, but none foreign. With no sign of a struggle, there’s no real evidence to collect.” Chin scowled at the computer for a moment, like it was the machine’s fault GPS on car or phone were worth nothing here. “Even if we can’t rule out foul play at this point, I would bet my next paycheck that if it is, then whoever’s responsible is too damn good to leave trace, which means there probably would have been no prints to collect at his apartment. It’s like Danny has dropped off the face of the planet.”
The urge to slap the table in frustration was strong, but Steve knew outbursts would accomplish nothing. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like nothing would accomplish anything.
“Okay, I know it’s a long shot, but we’ve got to access any CCTV footage from cameras in a mile radius of Danny’s apartment.” Steve narrowed his eyes. Nothing had showed in the initial search, and he knew it would be like looking for a needle in an even bigger haystack at this point, but if they could just get a direction Danny had gone. Something, anything they could follow. “I’m sure HPD can help us with that again. The more eyes, the better.”
“On it,” Kono said, stalking to her office, already lifting her phone to her ear.
“Chin, any luck sifting through Danny’s Newark caseload?”
“You mean in the ten minutes you were on the phone with Danny’s ex?” Chin said dryly. “Actually, since we had to do this once already, the information was already compiled. So far, anyone that seems capable of something this slick is either dead or still in prison. Before you ask, that includes Rick Peterson.”
He chewed on the inside of his lip. He was glad he wasn’t the only one who’d had Peterson on the brain, though he had to admit that that assholes style was much more overt. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Peterson had spent the last months plotting a new and better way to exact what had to be even bigger revenge now. They’d dealt with an inmate orchestrating complicated plots from within a cellblock, which … Kaleo was also an option.
“Steve, if we’re going to assume there is malicious intent, have you considered that maybe it’s not one of Danny’s enemies that could be responsible for it?” Chin moved a step closer. “Danny being targeted doesn’t mean he’s who it’s about. If it’s about anything.”
“Make your point, Chin,” Steve said, though he was already there.
“I know what’s in my past. I’ve got a fairly good picture of what’s in Kono’s, and it could…” Chin darted a look toward Kono’s office. “It could be Yakuza related, because something’s going on there I can’t put my finger on, but I don’t think so. Kono and I, we both consider Danny family, absolutely. But who’s the one of the three of us that spends the most time with him outside of work? And who has a prior work history that requires high levels of clearance which likely involved those with skill sets perfect to pull something like this off?”
Steve was an idiot. Worry for Danny had made him stupid. Of all the countless things rattling around in his head since ten o’clock this morning, someone out of his own past having a hand in whatever happened to Danny hadn’t occurred to him.
“And who has a known international criminal with messy, personal ties attached to him?” Chin said, finishing his calm speech with a deadly twist.
Hanging from his arms, the pressure immense on his shoulder joints. Expertly placed jabs to already tender flesh, the acrid smell of an electric prod and the sheer, unthinkable agony of it burning into him. Jenna, filthy and terrified and repentant.
Jenna, dead.
“Wo Fat. You think Wo Fat could have Danny?” Steve shook his head, even as his heart practically beat in triple time in his chest. “No. Subtlety isn’t his style, and besides, he’s all about money these days. If he took a break from that to come at me for some reason, he’d come right for me, or someone…”
Someone exactly like Danny was to him. Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. These were feelings he hadn’t begun unpacking, and now he had to think about the way Chin’s first guess who was close enough to him to inflict maximum pain was Danny. Not Catherine. Not Doris. Not Mary. Danny. He couldn’t let himself think about how transparent he’d been. He couldn’t think that it might be his fault Danny was gone, one way or another.
“No, I really don’t think it’s Wo Fat, Chin,” Steve said.
Chin put his hands up. “Okay, it’s just that Victor Hesse didn’t hesitate to use me against you, under the guise of ransom, and we’d only been working together for a couple of months. I’d imagine even back then, if it had been Danny…” He shrugged. “Wo Fat or someone else, I don’t think this particular motive can be ruled out yet only because it’s unpleasant to consider.”
Steve did know people from his past who could make someone disappear completely. He knew how to do it himself. He winced at that thought.
“Yeah. Okay, you’re not wrong, but Chin - the people I know capable of this are either on the right side of the law, dead or locked up. And I can’t exactly name names.” Steve ran a hand through his hair. “I can have Cath check up on some of them, though, the ones she’s got clearance for. She can do it more efficiently, while we concentrate on the CCTV footage.”
He almost missed it as he turned to head into his office, but out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught a fleeting look on Chin’s face. He paused and looked at the other man directly. The expression had dissipated, had probably either been nothing or the worry teeming below all of their surfaces peeking through, but it sparked something in him.
“What was that look?” Steve narrowed his eyes when Chin said nothing. “Now’s not the time to hold back, Chin.”
“Does Catherine know?” Chin asked quietly, his eyes darting toward Kono’s office again.
“That Danny’s missing? My mind’s been racing.” It had been a loop of Danny’s gone, Danny’s gone, Danny’s gone. “I hadn’t even thought to tell her yet.”
“No, that Danny means so much to you that someone might use him as leverage.”
Steve tried not to react. This wasn’t the place for the Danny-sized compartment to bust open and spill out everywhere, and Chin wasn’t the person who he needed to help him sort through it all.
“Chin, you just said yourself that any one of you would hit me hard, and that’s on me. Cath knows how much I lo…” Steve said, the word catching in his throat, “…care for Danny.”
Damn it. That expression was back on Chin’s face, equal parts wistfulness, sadness and maybe pity. Steve wasn’t easily unsettled, contrary to how he’d been about Danny’s perceived hurt silent treatment and now his disappearance, but he didn’t know if he’d last long under that gaze.
“Let me amend the question. Does she know you think it’s possible someone might use Danny as leverage against you before they’d use her?” Chin asked.
“That’s not … Chin, that’s not a fair assumption to make.”
“Isn’t it? Look, I know this is really none of my business. I also know I’m not a kahuna hana aloha. I’m not some old, wise master of anything, really. I have no credentials, but I know chemistry when I see it, Steve. You’ve got a great thing going with Catherine and I’m not trying to diminish that. I know you care for her deeply, but I also know I see something in Danny that brings out the worst in you and somehow turns it into the best. I see two people clicking as equals.”
“Chin…”
“No, brah. If you could see yourself, you’d know exactly why I’m saying this and why I’m saying it now. Just take it from me, okay? Life is too short to waste one single second of it. If you think, no, if you know there’s a chance your happiness lies on a different path to the one you’re on, you should take that detour while you can.”
Chin might as well have ripped both of their hearts out of their chests and stomped on them. Steve swallowed and looked away from the other man. He jumped a little when Chin put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently and damn it all to hell, anyway, when had he lost the ability to mask his feelings? It would be pointless to deny there was truth there, even if it was truth he wasn’t sure how to handle. Or, hadn’t been sure.
“That’s just it, Chin,” Steve found himself saying, “what if -”
Kono flew out of her office, interrupting the thought Steve hadn’t truly wanted to voice anyway. She was pale, her eyes wide.
“When I was on the phone with Duke requesting the expanded CCTV footage, a call came in. He said there was a new report of a DB in a recreation area on Sand Island,” Kono said, and she looked about one point five seconds away from puking. “HPD has detectives on it, but he thought we’d want to check it out ourselves. Boss … boss, the description is male, Caucasian, light hair. Max is already en route.”
Steve stared at Chin, helpless and sick. Kono’s message mirrored what he’d been about to say, and from the pinched look on Chin’s face his own words hadn’t been necessary. The what if was presenting itself in full color. He strode out of the offices then, headed for his truck and Sand Island with nothing but that same helpless and sick feeling in his gut steering him. The drive took forever, and yet suddenly he was in the recreation area and pulling up next to a bunch of squad cars, their lights flashing. He took in the scene. The yellow police tape flickered in the breeze, a young couple stood huddled and looked vaguely ill next to a car with someone taking their statement, the ME van. The body, mostly obscured. Someone knocked on his window. He jerked, saw Chin and Kono both peering up at him worriedly. He got out.
“Okay,” Steve said, though he had half a mind to again tell Kono to hang back. The problem with that was he’d want to stay with her, safe from seeing Danny lifeless. “Let’s get this over with.”
They made it just past the police tape when Max looked up from his crouch next to the fair-haired victim. He stood immediately and noticeably shoved something into his pocket. He scurried toward them, looking upset. Or excited. On a good day, Steve could never quite tell with Max and today was about as far from a good day as one could get.
“I was just going to contact you. The victim is most definitely not Detective Williams,” Max said quickly, avoiding his usual rambling style to get right to the point. “I just arrived myself, or I would have been able to prevent you some time and, judging by your pallor, a good deal of distress.”
“It’s not Danny?” Kono said stupidly. “Really?”
“No, I can assure you…”
Steve didn’t stick around to hear what else Max had to say. As far as he was concerned, this case was in capable hands and he, he had to take a moment. He put a hand on the front bumper of the Silverado as he hunched over and breathed. It felt like he’d just dodged a bullet. No, like he’d taken a bullet to his body armor; he was still alive, but had that numb sensation which would ultimately and very horribly turn to intense pain. And he’d just wasted time racing to a scene on the possibility of it being Danny. He heard Kono and Chin return to his side.
“We’ve got to get back to it,” he said as he righted himself and stiffly moved to the door. “Danny’s still out there.”
“You want me to drive?” Chin murmured at him, hand on his back. “You look shaky.”
“No, it’s … I’m fine.” If fine was about ready to fly apart with frustration and worry and all of the things Chin had poked at, then Steve was fine. Great, even. “We need to get on the CCTV footage and I still have to call Cath.”
He couldn’t call her while driving, primarily because he wasn’t quite ready to hear her voice. His head was filled with paths and detour signs and she’d only make him more confused. The trip back to HQ was as long and sudden as the drive to Sand Island had been. Steve tried to ignore the figurative map in his mind and concentrate on who in his past would be the likeliest candidates to not only pick up on his apparently not well hidden biases toward Danny but also be able to take his partner down. Danny didn’t make an imposing figure, but Steve knew he had power and skill. Someone would have to be close to his own level of good to pull it off.
He was still worrying it over in his head when he pulled into his parking spot. He’d just gotten out of the truck when Chin and Kono pulled up in her Cruze. They walked together up the steps and into their offices, none of them speaking but all of them fairly thrumming with tension. Steve ignored the glances Chin kept darting him. When they crossed the threshold into their suite, the first thing that hit Steve was a wave of garlic and butter. He scowled, saw the bags of food piled on the tech table. They hadn’t locked the damned doors, or Kamekona had picked his way in. He didn’t even know which. Jesus. He scowled harder when he saw a man in a cheap suit standing there, take-out plate lunch in his hand and munching away as if he owned the place. His hackles raised.
“Cage,” he said. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Detective Cage wasn’t alone. He had two uniformed officers with him, and that did nothing at all to ease Steve’s alarm. Neither did the grim, yet also smug look on the guy’s face.
“I heard about Williams,” Cage said. He put the box of half eaten shrimp down and picked up a napkin. He wiped his fingers off carefully. “The whole department has.”
“And?” Chin asked.
“And after the news broke, an individual employed by the Honolulu Police Department also brought to IA’s attention that Commander McGarrett was very recently overheard telling Williams that he could and I quote disappear him. It’s not something we can ignore under these circumstances.”
For a blink, maybe two, there was absolute silence and Steve heard his own voice say the words. He hadn’t meant them.
“You know, I could disappear you and leave no evidence. My education, experience and skill combined would make it so easy, Danny. One day you exist, the next you don’t.”
“What?” Kono finally said. “Steve?”
Steve clenched his jaw, couldn’t look at her or Chin. He could feel Cage’s eyes on him, assessing.
“That makes you a person of interest in his disappearance,” Cage said. “You can understand that.”
“Five-0 isn’t subject to HPD’s internal affairs department,” Steve said, only realized how defensive it was when Kono let out a little gasp.
“No, it isn’t. Feel free to call Governor Denning. The Chief has already had a conversation with him, and he agreed in this instance that a neutral party needs to be involved just to make sure it’s all above board. None of us want bad press on this.”
It wasn’t like Denning to not give him a head’s up. Steve had no problem cooperating, but ever since it had taken Five-0 - Danny - doing IA’s job when all they’d been interested in was posthumously crucifying Meka Hanamoa rather than finding out the truth, he understood the animosity between all other departments and internal affairs. There wasn’t anything neutral about the way Cage operated.
“We’re going to need you to come with us,” Cage said. “We have some questions.”
“No,” Chin said. He put himself between the officers who’d stepped forward, ready to lead Steve away. “Any conversation you have with Steve, you can do in our facilities.”
“Sure.” Cage shrugged. “I trust you won’t fight us on this, Commander?”
“Of course not,” Steve said, his throat dry. “I have nothing to hide. Step into my office so I can explain the misunderstanding.”
“Oh, no. Sorry. Obviously, we need to have this on record. I believe you have an interrogation room we can use,” Cage said, and smiled.
To Chapter Two
Author: superbadgirl/SBG
Characters: Steve, Danny, Chin, Kono, Catherine
Pairing: Steve/Danny
Genre: pre-slash, angst, H/C
Rating: PG-13
Word-count: @16000 total
Spoilers: None, really.
Warnings:
Summary: In a bad moment, Steve wishes something bad to befall Danny. When it does, it puts him on the suspect list.
AN: From rainbow_goddess's prompt: Steve and Danny have an argument and in a moment of anger, Steve blurts out something like, "Oh, I could kill you." Danny laughs it off. Later, though, Danny goes missing, and someone from HPD just happened to have overheard their argument. Suddenly Steve is suspected of Danny's murder. He has to find Danny not only for his own sake, but because Danny might be in danger. Unbetaed and, unfortunately, not quite done. I HOPE to get it done by end of day tomorrow, my posting date, but RL has tossed me an intense new job and I'll be on the road and in classes all day. I figured I should at least put the first half up. *crosses fingers for second half on time, hotel wifi willing...*
(Read on AO3)
The room had never felt so claustrophobic, the perspective flip making it seem the size of a postage stamp. HPD had extended the courtesy of not restraining him, but the door was most definitely locked and he was on the wrong side of it. The dim blue of the lighting cast shadows deep and unnerving, and the longer he was stuck here the more it seemed those shadows would swallow him. And those were all very big problems, because he needed to be out there in the broad light of day, with his team. Every minute he was stuck in here due to a stupid misunderstanding was another minute lost and he had a horrible feeling the minutes were numbered. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the door, as if he could will it to open. It didn’t work like that, and he knew the tactic of letting a suspect stew in his proverbial juices for a while before beginning the interrogation was a standard one.
Suspect.
Jesus, this couldn’t be happening. That anyone could seriously entertain the thought he had something to do with this was beyond him. Hell, he didn’t even know what this was, or where they were in the investigation to determine the true nature of the case. He needed to get out right now. If anyone could break the case wide open, it was him. Maybe that was arrogance; maybe it was that he had just slightly more motivation than anyone else and was closer to being ready to acknowledge that. He just needed the chance to.
He took two steps toward the door, then realized it wouldn’t help his situation if he pounded the walls and demanded to be released like the frantic person that he was. He sagged instead onto the lone chair in the room and buried his face in his hands. He wasn’t a man to regret his words or actions, but if he could turn back the hands of time in this case, he would. He blew out a shaky breath. It was all so unbelievable. His head wouldn’t stop reeling, all of his thoughts on what kind of progress had been made while he was trapped in here. He could only hope that there had been some. Maybe they’d solved it, and his worried gut would be eased and he’d get out at the same time.
Another twenty minutes passed before the door opened. He leapt to his feet when he saw who it was. Then his heart nearly stopped at the expression on Chin’s face.
“Oh, shit,” Steve said. He could barely get the words out. “Danny? Chin, tell me…”
With the deepening of Chin’s frown, Steve’s heart sank. Oh no. No, no. He must have looked close to passing out or something, because Chin took two steps toward him.
“No,” Chin said quickly, holding his hands up. “He’s not…”
Injured. Dead. Any of the countless things that had gone through his head in even more vivid detail since his detainment. But Steve’s relief was fleeting because of Chin’s hesitation to say exactly what Danny wasn’t, though he figured none of them were ready to put their thoughts out there in solid form. Because the truth was they didn’t know. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all some sort of dream, nightmare, and he was going to wake up any second in a cold sweat. Everything would be the way it should be, not the way it was.
“You have to get me out of here.” Steve paced a tight line, eyes flicking over Chin’s left shoulder at the door. “I can’t be locked up while Danny…”
Chin slid to the left, blocking the escape route. He shook his head.
Whether it was a conscious movement or not, it rocked Steve as surely as a punch to the gut. Chin couldn’t … there was no way Chin believed this bullshit. Not after the conversation they’d had earlier. Steve fell back into the chair and resumed holding his head in his hands. Danny wasn’t even there, and the guy was causing him headaches. Danny wasn’t even there. Shit, shit.
“Jesus, Chin, you cannot possibly believe I actually had anything to do with this.”
“I don’t.” Chin crouched in front of him, put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “But we have to do this by the book. Not only because the governor has stepped in and issued an edict, but because of where the accusation originated. They’ll be in shortly to ask you those questions. Neither Kono nor I can participate in this part of the investigation for obvious reasons, but I’m not leaving, either.”
Steve slumped back, let his arms fall into his lap. Chin stayed crouched for a moment, then stood and headed for the wall to have a lean. It was amazing how much better Steve could breathe now that he had company.
“I suppose by the book means you can’t tell me anything,” Steve said. “They dumped me in here almost two hours ago.”
“No, I can’t. Only after you’re cleared,” Chin said. “And you will be cleared, Steve.”
Of course he would be. Steve would rather be dead himself than intentionally harm one single, ridiculous hair on Danny’s head.
H50H50H50
Ten hours earlier
Steve drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, beyond ready to get back to work. Consecutive days off weren’t that unusual but also weren’t the norm for Five-0, given the nature of their job. They were, therefore, appreciated, though this particular weekend had seemed to drag. What was unusual was not being called somewhere for a case by now, and starting the day at HQ instead of at a scene. He wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He hopped out of the truck and leaned back in. He snatched the bag of malasadas and tray of coffees off the passenger seat, then headed into the offices quickly. While he didn’t think the unexpected treats would solve anything, they sure couldn’t hurt. He frowned.
Perhaps it was that he hadn’t yet established a group of friends outside of his team, or reconnected with people he’d known years ago. Branching out seemed unnecessary, when Chin, Kono and Danny filled in so many emotional gaps on their own. And now he had Cath so close, too, and Doris; he wasn’t sure where to slot Doris into his life yet. Still, nine times out of ten, if Danny didn’t have Grace, he managed to find his way to Steve’s. At first, Steve had thought it was strange, but had quickly become resigned to the fact it was just Danny. Who, come to think of it, had fewer people in his life - in proximity, anyway - than Steve did, and it worked. They worked, somehow, right from the start and so easily that life changes were easily absorbed into their friendship.
Knowing Danny hadn’t had Grace and also hadn’t come over or answered his phone made Steve worry that their little argument the other day hadn’t been as little as he’d originally thought. He knew it wasn’t Cath - she didn’t mind how much time he spent with Danny, and Danny never had any problem barging in whenever he wanted. Steve, on the other hand, had started getting twitchy about Cath and Danny and it all got muddled in his head, but that was another story. No, he was convinced it had been their discussion, which really had been little more than him spouting off.
He’d replayed the scene in his mind’s eye over and over, and he couldn’t shake that look on Danny’s face. He just wanted to make it right, something difficult to do when Danny wouldn’t give him the time of day. The silent treatment from his partner was a big deal, but something that often passed quickly, within hours, not days. Danny was a man’s man - quick to anger, quick to brush it off (unless it came to Grace). Apparently, Steve had discovered another exception.
Appealing to Danny’s appetite for sweet, fried dough was basic and obvious, but at least a place to start making up for it. The worst thing was that even though most times the complete opposite was true, he’d almost meant what he’d said, in that moment; Danny had honed in on that, even if he hadn’t said as much. Actually, after that, he hadn’t said anything at all. Two and a half days of radio silence; it had unnerved Steve to the point he felt like a kid again, waiting for punishment after he’d pushed Mary out of a tree for following him around like an obnoxious talking shadow.
Steve trotted up the stairs of the Ali’iolani Hale, the greasy smell of the doughnuts making his stomach growl despite the way it had generally been rolling uneasily for days. It gave him an idea, though. As a show of good humor, he’d indulge in one and only one. He knew he wasn’t going to fool anyone with that, but the effort might not go unrewarded. He was going to eat one with the hope doing so would prompt some snarky jabs from Danny.
The road to forgiveness was paved with snark.
“Breakfast,” he called as he pushed through the main door. “Got caffeine for everyone.”
Kono was on him before he made it halfway to the tech table, grabbing the tray of coffees from him and searching out hers. She was like a coffee bloodhound, that one, and he could tell she’d just arrived. Her hair, while styled into a neat ponytail, was still a little damp and her eyes were not quite as sharp as usual.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “I didn’t want to make a pot.”
Chin strolled up, retrieved a doughnut from the bag Steve had opened and held out in offering. He nodded his appreciation and accepted the coffee Kono handed to him.
“Make a pot?” Steve asked, tipping his head at Danny’s office, which had the door closed and blinds all shut, exactly the way it had been when they’d left for the weekend. “Didn’t Danny when he got in?”
“He apparently didn’t want to do anyone any favors,” Chin said wryly, then brushed the sugar off the corners of his mouth. “Whatever you did to put him in this mood must have been pretty bad if he’s still holding it against you … and us. He was in there when I got here and hasn’t emerged.”
“Neither of us are masochistic enough to poke the tiger, brah.” Kono shoved three-quarters of a malasada into her mouth, so when she spoke the last bit it was barely intelligible. “But, you know, it’s really not like him to hold a grudge against anyone but his ex. You better go in.”
Steve supposed it was only fair, though he was honestly starting to think Danny was carrying this all too far. There was dramatic and then there was dramatic. He rolled his eyes at Chin and Kono, set the bag of treats on the table, squared his shoulders and stalked to Danny’s office, intent on dragging the guy out by his hair if he had to. He didn’t knock, just barreled in, more than halfway hoping that would also spark some kind of overblown reaction out of Danny too. He’d take just about anything.
“Hey, Danno, we’ve got foo…” Steve trailed off, confused. He stared around the office, then back out to the others. “It’s empty. He’s not in here.”
“What?” Chin said.
“But his car’s here.”
The last thing any of them were prone toward was jumping to conclusions. Sure, in the midst of a case, there was a lot of speculation, tossing out ideas and chasing leads that made sense. Sometimes they panned out, sometimes they didn’t but led to another avenue of investigation. What Steve felt in his gut wasn’t unlike that, except it wasn’t exactly like it either. Danny’s office had been shut up like this when they’d all left. Danny hadn’t answered phone calls or texts.
“What if it never left?” Steve asked. “Would he have left it here all weekend?”
“Not without a good reason,” Chin said. He tossed his half-eaten pastry into the nearest garbage can, shifted the coffee tray and started tapping the smart table to life. “I wouldn’t buy that for a second.”
Neither would he. No way. Steve’s brain was already racing, coming up with a multitude of scenarios which might have resulted in Danny leaving the Camaro and most of them not particularly happy ones. He shook his head. There was a reasonable explanation, he was sure. Had to be. Any second, Danny would storm into the offices, pissing and moaning about his carless disaster of a weekend.
“Steve.”
“What?” He realized he’d been staring at the doors, as if his will alone would bring Danny through them. “What did you say?”
“I asked what time you left on Friday, and if Danny was still here.”
“Six. And, yeah, he was.” He’d had dinner plans with Catherine, but he hadn’t had much of an appetite, for food or her company. “His office was just like that, and I didn’t even…”
Steve ran a hand through his hair, an odd déjà vu feeling coming over him, though he was fairly sure there was no way another frenemy of Danny’s had crawled out of the woodwork and strung him on a wild goose chase. The odds were astronomically against that, and he had no logical reason to jump to the idea that Danny was off the grid. He watched mutely as Chin called up multiple security cam feeds from around the building, though there was really only one route Danny would take. Better to be thorough than not, but Steve’s eyes honed in on the most obvious screen as Chin flicked them to the monitors on the wall.
It didn’t take long to spot Danny leaving their offices at twenty past six. The unhappy moue and weariness of his expression made Steve cringe inwardly, evidence of their argument still very much apparent. He ignored the way Kono shot him a look that told him he hadn’t schooled his reaction as well as he should have. They all watched silently as Danny reached the car, parked in the perfect spot for a good camera shot. Danny got in and made to start the engine. Instead of rolling the car into reverse, though, he sat there for a second, then tried to turn the engine over again. Then again. And then he lowered his head to the steering wheel and rested it there for a second. It didn’t take a master lip reader to catch the invectives Danny tossed at the car. Steve caught several fucks, a shit and a McGarrett. Of course Danny would blame him for the car’s malfunction. It almost made him want to laugh.
“So, car trouble,” Kono said.
Danny was pacing angrily, shoulders stiff, and was on the phone by this point. They all watched as a cab pulled up, Danny got in and it took off.
“That doesn’t explain why he’s not here now,” Chin said, reasonable and calm, but with an air of tension. “But maybe it’s realistic, given the circumstances.”
Steve started shaking his head before Chin was finished speaking. It wasn’t the car that was making him uneasy. It was the car plus the unanswered messages. As angry or hurt as Danny had been, he would have picked up and he would have had Steve hauling his ass all over the island to get his car fixed. Kono was right. Danny didn’t stay mad forever, he just didn’t, and Steve wanted to believe that was especially true when it came to him.
“No. He would have called m…one of us, gotten the car fixed. He wouldn’t have just let it sit all weekend. It’s a police vehicle, it needed service and he’d arrange for a replacement in the meantime,” Steve said, certain that was precisely what Danny would have done. The smell of coffee and doughnuts now made him slightly queasy. “He didn’t answer any of my calls this weekend. Did either of you have contact with him?”
“No.”
“No.”
“Chin, call him. He might answer for you. Kono, track Danny’s phone, just in case.”
Steve clenched his jaw against the looks they both shot him, like he was overreacting. Maybe he was. He hoped he was.
Chin kept his eyes pinned warily on Steve even as he lifted his phone to his ear, then started frowning when Danny apparently didn’t answer. He shot Kono a look after a solid thirty seconds of pressing the phone with an increasingly white-knuckled grip, started shaking his head.
“He’s not picking up,” Chin said.
“Looks like his phone’s at his apartment, though,” Kono said. “He’s probably okay.”
“Yeah, probably.” Steve nodded, now torn between irritation and worry. There had to be a reason outside of their verbal altercation that Danny was being unresponsive to everything. He hoped his partner had simply overslept and was now in the shower, unable to hear the phone. “We’ll give him an hour and if he’s not here by then, I’m going over there and hauling his irresponsible ass in. He’ll need a ride, anyway. Save him the cab fare and us from having to hear him gripe about how much money that cost him.”
Steve grabbed his coffee and Danny’s, headed for his office where he pretended to do paperwork but really spent his time hoping they didn’t get a call out as he studied the closed blinds of Danny’s office. The longer he sat and stared across the bullpen, the more he thought was unlikely that Danny had spent the weekend avoiding him due to hurt feelings. That just wasn’t Danny’s style, even if he were the type to hold a grudge. He’d want to hash it out, get over it or make sure Steve knew how wrong he was. And he had been so very wrong. Steve felt stupid, and worse, for not coming to this conclusion sooner. The pit in his stomach kept growing the longer he sat.
An hour, as it turned out, was too long to sit and wait. Though he had no logical basis to think it, it felt like he’d already waited two full days. Danny would have been in long ago if he were coming, and the what-ifs rattling around in his brain were making him crazy. It had only been twenty minutes, but he stood abruptly and headed for the door.
“I’m coming with,” Kono said the second Steve exited his office. She already had her bag of gear.
Any argument to the contrary would fail, that was clearly written on Kono’s face. Steve nodded, caught Chin’s eye and stalked out. Kono met up with him at the truck, jumping in with nervous grace as he started it.
“You think something’s wrong with Danny,” Kono said after a few minutes of tense silence.
It wasn’t a question, and he wasn’t surprised by that. They all knew each other very well by now. He hadn’t been hiding his concern. At all. Steve shot her a quick glance, but she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was averted and she stared out the window, as if she wanted to know but didn’t want to face it. Still, he wouldn’t do her the disservice of lying and wouldn’t have even if she didn’t already know.
“My gut is telling me there is,” Steve said. “There’s no way he’d no call, no show.”
“Yeah.” Kono shifted in her seat. “I know.”
One of the worst worst-case-scenarios running through his head cropped back up, the image of him walking into Danny’s apartment to find him long dead, decomposing and unrecognizable as anything but bloated flesh. Steve choked back the bile of that thought as it coupled with experiences of discovering bodies in such a state. It was unpleasant with strangers. He was more well-versed in losing people he cared deeply about than anyone should be, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle seeing Danny like that.
Not like that.
They said nothing for the remainder of the drive. There wasn’t really anything either of them could say that would ease the worry and dread. Only one thing would, but Steve was starting to think they would never get that either. The silence continued as he pulled the truck in front of Danny’s place.
“Okay, this is how it’s going down,” Steve said after a few seconds of trying and failing to will Danny out of his apartment with his arms waving about, punctuating his mood. “We’ll go up to the door. We’ll call him one more time, see if the phone is inside or on the grounds nearby. Then, if it comes to it, I go in alone.”
Steve had her until that point, then she scowled at him.
“Steve, he’s my friend, too.”
“And if this is worst case, the last thing I want is for you to see it, see him.” Steve gave her the look that always worked on Danny - heartfelt with a little brokenness on the side. “Please trust me. You will not want to see it.”
The idea of Danny, careful but tough cop and devoted father, dying in some household accident was almost unthinkable. As was already established, Danny dying, period, was not high on Steve’s list and he’d be a lying liar if he said any means was better or worse than the next. Dead was dead.
“All right,” Kono said. “I trust you.”
Suddenly she seemed too young for the job, which was ridiculous because she was a natural born cop. Her eyes were wide and shimmering, though underneath that was still her inherent toughness. Kono pulled out her phone and called Danny, exchanged a frown with Steve as they heard the ringtone. Right now, Danny was using Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys for her, and something about that was so sweet it felt almost like a blow.
“I’m going in,” Steve said.
He fumbled with his key ring a bit, searched for the one to Danny’s place. There was only so long he could delay the inevitable and, with the pit firmly in his stomach, he let himself in. The first thing he noticed, thank goodness, was the lack of the telltale smell of putrefaction. Steve knew that wasn’t a guarantee or proof of life, so he kept himself steeled as he took a few steps into the living space.
“Danny? You here, buddy?”
No cantankerous or pained reply came, and Steve hadn’t expected one but it was still disappointing. He scanned the living area, poked his head into the kitchen and found a bowl of over-ripe bananas and Danny’s phone there. He ignored the phone for the moment and moved to the interior of the place, to the bathroom and bedrooms. His senses were on high alert as he cleared Gracie’s room, then Danny’s. Danny’s was a mess, bed unmade and the clothes he’d worn on Friday in a heap at the end of it, shoes kicked halfway under the bed. On the small bedside table were his gun and badge.
He didn’t have time today to critique Danny’s horrendous housekeeping habits, though part of him still half hoped Danny would burst out and yell at him for invasion of privacy. He frowned down at the gun and badge, a knot of tension forming at the base of his spine. He exited the room and, once in the hall, eyed the bathroom door open only a crack. Those same horrible things he’d been imagining all morning replayed as he took a deep breath and gave the door a good push. It met no resistance, no unconscious (or worse) body blocking entry. His shoulders sagged, relieved.
The reassurance that he had not lost his partner this day lasted all of five seconds, when it was replaced with the realization that Danny was still gone. Just as there was no way Danny wouldn’t show up to work, he wouldn’t have left home without his phone any more than he’d have left his gun and shield. No cop would, let alone one on a task force which saw a higher-than-average case rate. He headed back to the front door and Kono waiting outside dutifully, picking up Danny’s phone on his way.
“He’s not here,” Steve said.
“Oh, thank god.” Kono leaned against the doorframe. “That’s good.”
“Maybe.”
The last thing he wanted to do was kill Kono’s relief, but he also knew it wouldn’t take her long to figure out on her own. Steve ran his thumb across Danny’s phone’s screen, input the password Danny didn’t know he knew and saw the number of missed calls. Unless Danny’s popularity had increased he thought they were mostly from him, and he’d called off and on all weekend. Damn. He didn’t check the voicemails, not yet.
“I’m not sure he’s been here all weekend.” Steve held the phone up. “He’s got missed calls back to Friday. That sound like good news to you?”
“Shit,” Kono said.
H50H50H50
Danny was just … gone.
Almost six hours into the official investigation of Danny’s disappearance, they had precisely zero viable leads. Nothing panned out for them. One of the problems was that other than confirming Danny had gone directly home after climbing into that cab on Friday evening - he’d used his debit card and it had run at seven oh five - they had no idea where he might have gone after that. He hadn’t mentioned his plans for the days off with Chin, Kono and certainly not Steve. There’d been no outgoing calls on his phone, none of his messages had been checked. Two of those calls were from Grace, and it was impossible Danny wouldn’t have called his little girl back. That had been all the proof Steve had needed to create a rough timeline. Danny had left their offices on Friday night. Grace’s first call had been at eight-thirty on Saturday morning.
Steve wasn’t used to feeling so powerless. The only comfort he took was that neither the morgue nor any of the hospitals in Honolulu had record of his partner crossing their thresholds. Somehow, even that comfort seemed too little. He let out a long breath, and pressed his fingertips into his closed eyes.
He had his hands still pressed against his face when he sensed a presence nearby. He didn’t move, halfway hoped whoever it was would go away. That was the precisely wrong attitude to have, of course. What he needed was to get off his ass and get back to it.
After the phone call he’d just had to make, he thought maybe he deserved a minute or two to decompress. Rachel had taken it as well as could be expected, had even made him believe she did still care beneath all the acrimony, and assured him she’d handle Grace. He wanted to ask her why alarm bells hadn’t gone off when Danny didn’t call Grace back, not once, but he restrained himself. What was done, was done, just as his own lack of action damned him. In the end, he’d just wanted it to come from him rather than the five o’clock news, and he’d wanted to do it before Grace was done with school. He knew avoiding direct interaction with the little girl made him a huge coward, just like hiding behind his hands did. A soft knock on his doorframe joined the person standing in it. He sighed.
“What?” Steve said. He cleared his throat when his voice sounded hoarse. “What’ve you got?”
“Kamekona, on the phone,” Chin said
“One of his contacts come through for us?” Steve was instantly at attention, on his feet with his hand stretched for the phone. “What line?”
“No, sorry. He hasn’t heard anything from his extensive network, but this isn’t about that. He, ah …” Chin looked a little sheepish. “He figured with what was going on, we hadn’t had time for grinds. He wants to know your preference today.”
Jesus. That was actually sweet, in a totally misguided, Kamekona sort of way. Steve couldn’t possibly choke down a plate of shrimp right now if he tried, though he knew eventually he was going to need the fuel. He waved a hand at Chin, who simply nodded and ducked out of the office. He followed after a minute, needing to get his brain back in the game. He knew better than anyone that there were ways of making someone vanish without a trace, which might mean he was the only one who was going to be able to think like whoever had done this. If someone had. They still didn’t know anything, really. The timing of his last conversation with Danny and Danny vanishing was coincidental, horrible, and it was tearing away at him. For many, layered reasons.
“No, thank you. I appreciate your time. Please call me if anything changes,” Kono was saying into her cell as she strode into HQ. She looked at Steve somberly, shook her head as she hung up. “That was the last clinic. No sign of him.”
They’d expanded their hospital and urgent care clinic check to facilities outside of Honolulu. O’ahu wasn’t a huge land mass, and it stood to reason Danny could have gotten or been taken outside city limits. It still stood to reason that he might be out there right now, hurt or worse. No, O’ahu wasn’t a huge island, yet trying to find one man amid all the mountains and ridges wouldn’t be an easy feat, not without knowing where to start. Danny wouldn’t voluntarily go into the wilds on his own, though, that much anyone who knew him understood.
“Good. That’s great,” Steve said. “What have we got from Fong, or anyone from CSU?”
“Exactly nothing. A majority of the prints so far have come up as belonging to Danny, Grace and you. Kono and I are in the mix, but none foreign. With no sign of a struggle, there’s no real evidence to collect.” Chin scowled at the computer for a moment, like it was the machine’s fault GPS on car or phone were worth nothing here. “Even if we can’t rule out foul play at this point, I would bet my next paycheck that if it is, then whoever’s responsible is too damn good to leave trace, which means there probably would have been no prints to collect at his apartment. It’s like Danny has dropped off the face of the planet.”
The urge to slap the table in frustration was strong, but Steve knew outbursts would accomplish nothing. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like nothing would accomplish anything.
“Okay, I know it’s a long shot, but we’ve got to access any CCTV footage from cameras in a mile radius of Danny’s apartment.” Steve narrowed his eyes. Nothing had showed in the initial search, and he knew it would be like looking for a needle in an even bigger haystack at this point, but if they could just get a direction Danny had gone. Something, anything they could follow. “I’m sure HPD can help us with that again. The more eyes, the better.”
“On it,” Kono said, stalking to her office, already lifting her phone to her ear.
“Chin, any luck sifting through Danny’s Newark caseload?”
“You mean in the ten minutes you were on the phone with Danny’s ex?” Chin said dryly. “Actually, since we had to do this once already, the information was already compiled. So far, anyone that seems capable of something this slick is either dead or still in prison. Before you ask, that includes Rick Peterson.”
He chewed on the inside of his lip. He was glad he wasn’t the only one who’d had Peterson on the brain, though he had to admit that that assholes style was much more overt. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Peterson had spent the last months plotting a new and better way to exact what had to be even bigger revenge now. They’d dealt with an inmate orchestrating complicated plots from within a cellblock, which … Kaleo was also an option.
“Steve, if we’re going to assume there is malicious intent, have you considered that maybe it’s not one of Danny’s enemies that could be responsible for it?” Chin moved a step closer. “Danny being targeted doesn’t mean he’s who it’s about. If it’s about anything.”
“Make your point, Chin,” Steve said, though he was already there.
“I know what’s in my past. I’ve got a fairly good picture of what’s in Kono’s, and it could…” Chin darted a look toward Kono’s office. “It could be Yakuza related, because something’s going on there I can’t put my finger on, but I don’t think so. Kono and I, we both consider Danny family, absolutely. But who’s the one of the three of us that spends the most time with him outside of work? And who has a prior work history that requires high levels of clearance which likely involved those with skill sets perfect to pull something like this off?”
Steve was an idiot. Worry for Danny had made him stupid. Of all the countless things rattling around in his head since ten o’clock this morning, someone out of his own past having a hand in whatever happened to Danny hadn’t occurred to him.
“And who has a known international criminal with messy, personal ties attached to him?” Chin said, finishing his calm speech with a deadly twist.
Hanging from his arms, the pressure immense on his shoulder joints. Expertly placed jabs to already tender flesh, the acrid smell of an electric prod and the sheer, unthinkable agony of it burning into him. Jenna, filthy and terrified and repentant.
Jenna, dead.
“Wo Fat. You think Wo Fat could have Danny?” Steve shook his head, even as his heart practically beat in triple time in his chest. “No. Subtlety isn’t his style, and besides, he’s all about money these days. If he took a break from that to come at me for some reason, he’d come right for me, or someone…”
Someone exactly like Danny was to him. Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. These were feelings he hadn’t begun unpacking, and now he had to think about the way Chin’s first guess who was close enough to him to inflict maximum pain was Danny. Not Catherine. Not Doris. Not Mary. Danny. He couldn’t let himself think about how transparent he’d been. He couldn’t think that it might be his fault Danny was gone, one way or another.
“No, I really don’t think it’s Wo Fat, Chin,” Steve said.
Chin put his hands up. “Okay, it’s just that Victor Hesse didn’t hesitate to use me against you, under the guise of ransom, and we’d only been working together for a couple of months. I’d imagine even back then, if it had been Danny…” He shrugged. “Wo Fat or someone else, I don’t think this particular motive can be ruled out yet only because it’s unpleasant to consider.”
Steve did know people from his past who could make someone disappear completely. He knew how to do it himself. He winced at that thought.
“Yeah. Okay, you’re not wrong, but Chin - the people I know capable of this are either on the right side of the law, dead or locked up. And I can’t exactly name names.” Steve ran a hand through his hair. “I can have Cath check up on some of them, though, the ones she’s got clearance for. She can do it more efficiently, while we concentrate on the CCTV footage.”
He almost missed it as he turned to head into his office, but out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught a fleeting look on Chin’s face. He paused and looked at the other man directly. The expression had dissipated, had probably either been nothing or the worry teeming below all of their surfaces peeking through, but it sparked something in him.
“What was that look?” Steve narrowed his eyes when Chin said nothing. “Now’s not the time to hold back, Chin.”
“Does Catherine know?” Chin asked quietly, his eyes darting toward Kono’s office again.
“That Danny’s missing? My mind’s been racing.” It had been a loop of Danny’s gone, Danny’s gone, Danny’s gone. “I hadn’t even thought to tell her yet.”
“No, that Danny means so much to you that someone might use him as leverage.”
Steve tried not to react. This wasn’t the place for the Danny-sized compartment to bust open and spill out everywhere, and Chin wasn’t the person who he needed to help him sort through it all.
“Chin, you just said yourself that any one of you would hit me hard, and that’s on me. Cath knows how much I lo…” Steve said, the word catching in his throat, “…care for Danny.”
Damn it. That expression was back on Chin’s face, equal parts wistfulness, sadness and maybe pity. Steve wasn’t easily unsettled, contrary to how he’d been about Danny’s perceived hurt silent treatment and now his disappearance, but he didn’t know if he’d last long under that gaze.
“Let me amend the question. Does she know you think it’s possible someone might use Danny as leverage against you before they’d use her?” Chin asked.
“That’s not … Chin, that’s not a fair assumption to make.”
“Isn’t it? Look, I know this is really none of my business. I also know I’m not a kahuna hana aloha. I’m not some old, wise master of anything, really. I have no credentials, but I know chemistry when I see it, Steve. You’ve got a great thing going with Catherine and I’m not trying to diminish that. I know you care for her deeply, but I also know I see something in Danny that brings out the worst in you and somehow turns it into the best. I see two people clicking as equals.”
“Chin…”
“No, brah. If you could see yourself, you’d know exactly why I’m saying this and why I’m saying it now. Just take it from me, okay? Life is too short to waste one single second of it. If you think, no, if you know there’s a chance your happiness lies on a different path to the one you’re on, you should take that detour while you can.”
Chin might as well have ripped both of their hearts out of their chests and stomped on them. Steve swallowed and looked away from the other man. He jumped a little when Chin put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently and damn it all to hell, anyway, when had he lost the ability to mask his feelings? It would be pointless to deny there was truth there, even if it was truth he wasn’t sure how to handle. Or, hadn’t been sure.
“That’s just it, Chin,” Steve found himself saying, “what if -”
Kono flew out of her office, interrupting the thought Steve hadn’t truly wanted to voice anyway. She was pale, her eyes wide.
“When I was on the phone with Duke requesting the expanded CCTV footage, a call came in. He said there was a new report of a DB in a recreation area on Sand Island,” Kono said, and she looked about one point five seconds away from puking. “HPD has detectives on it, but he thought we’d want to check it out ourselves. Boss … boss, the description is male, Caucasian, light hair. Max is already en route.”
Steve stared at Chin, helpless and sick. Kono’s message mirrored what he’d been about to say, and from the pinched look on Chin’s face his own words hadn’t been necessary. The what if was presenting itself in full color. He strode out of the offices then, headed for his truck and Sand Island with nothing but that same helpless and sick feeling in his gut steering him. The drive took forever, and yet suddenly he was in the recreation area and pulling up next to a bunch of squad cars, their lights flashing. He took in the scene. The yellow police tape flickered in the breeze, a young couple stood huddled and looked vaguely ill next to a car with someone taking their statement, the ME van. The body, mostly obscured. Someone knocked on his window. He jerked, saw Chin and Kono both peering up at him worriedly. He got out.
“Okay,” Steve said, though he had half a mind to again tell Kono to hang back. The problem with that was he’d want to stay with her, safe from seeing Danny lifeless. “Let’s get this over with.”
They made it just past the police tape when Max looked up from his crouch next to the fair-haired victim. He stood immediately and noticeably shoved something into his pocket. He scurried toward them, looking upset. Or excited. On a good day, Steve could never quite tell with Max and today was about as far from a good day as one could get.
“I was just going to contact you. The victim is most definitely not Detective Williams,” Max said quickly, avoiding his usual rambling style to get right to the point. “I just arrived myself, or I would have been able to prevent you some time and, judging by your pallor, a good deal of distress.”
“It’s not Danny?” Kono said stupidly. “Really?”
“No, I can assure you…”
Steve didn’t stick around to hear what else Max had to say. As far as he was concerned, this case was in capable hands and he, he had to take a moment. He put a hand on the front bumper of the Silverado as he hunched over and breathed. It felt like he’d just dodged a bullet. No, like he’d taken a bullet to his body armor; he was still alive, but had that numb sensation which would ultimately and very horribly turn to intense pain. And he’d just wasted time racing to a scene on the possibility of it being Danny. He heard Kono and Chin return to his side.
“We’ve got to get back to it,” he said as he righted himself and stiffly moved to the door. “Danny’s still out there.”
“You want me to drive?” Chin murmured at him, hand on his back. “You look shaky.”
“No, it’s … I’m fine.” If fine was about ready to fly apart with frustration and worry and all of the things Chin had poked at, then Steve was fine. Great, even. “We need to get on the CCTV footage and I still have to call Cath.”
He couldn’t call her while driving, primarily because he wasn’t quite ready to hear her voice. His head was filled with paths and detour signs and she’d only make him more confused. The trip back to HQ was as long and sudden as the drive to Sand Island had been. Steve tried to ignore the figurative map in his mind and concentrate on who in his past would be the likeliest candidates to not only pick up on his apparently not well hidden biases toward Danny but also be able to take his partner down. Danny didn’t make an imposing figure, but Steve knew he had power and skill. Someone would have to be close to his own level of good to pull it off.
He was still worrying it over in his head when he pulled into his parking spot. He’d just gotten out of the truck when Chin and Kono pulled up in her Cruze. They walked together up the steps and into their offices, none of them speaking but all of them fairly thrumming with tension. Steve ignored the glances Chin kept darting him. When they crossed the threshold into their suite, the first thing that hit Steve was a wave of garlic and butter. He scowled, saw the bags of food piled on the tech table. They hadn’t locked the damned doors, or Kamekona had picked his way in. He didn’t even know which. Jesus. He scowled harder when he saw a man in a cheap suit standing there, take-out plate lunch in his hand and munching away as if he owned the place. His hackles raised.
“Cage,” he said. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Detective Cage wasn’t alone. He had two uniformed officers with him, and that did nothing at all to ease Steve’s alarm. Neither did the grim, yet also smug look on the guy’s face.
“I heard about Williams,” Cage said. He put the box of half eaten shrimp down and picked up a napkin. He wiped his fingers off carefully. “The whole department has.”
“And?” Chin asked.
“And after the news broke, an individual employed by the Honolulu Police Department also brought to IA’s attention that Commander McGarrett was very recently overheard telling Williams that he could and I quote disappear him. It’s not something we can ignore under these circumstances.”
For a blink, maybe two, there was absolute silence and Steve heard his own voice say the words. He hadn’t meant them.
“You know, I could disappear you and leave no evidence. My education, experience and skill combined would make it so easy, Danny. One day you exist, the next you don’t.”
“What?” Kono finally said. “Steve?”
Steve clenched his jaw, couldn’t look at her or Chin. He could feel Cage’s eyes on him, assessing.
“That makes you a person of interest in his disappearance,” Cage said. “You can understand that.”
“Five-0 isn’t subject to HPD’s internal affairs department,” Steve said, only realized how defensive it was when Kono let out a little gasp.
“No, it isn’t. Feel free to call Governor Denning. The Chief has already had a conversation with him, and he agreed in this instance that a neutral party needs to be involved just to make sure it’s all above board. None of us want bad press on this.”
It wasn’t like Denning to not give him a head’s up. Steve had no problem cooperating, but ever since it had taken Five-0 - Danny - doing IA’s job when all they’d been interested in was posthumously crucifying Meka Hanamoa rather than finding out the truth, he understood the animosity between all other departments and internal affairs. There wasn’t anything neutral about the way Cage operated.
“We’re going to need you to come with us,” Cage said. “We have some questions.”
“No,” Chin said. He put himself between the officers who’d stepped forward, ready to lead Steve away. “Any conversation you have with Steve, you can do in our facilities.”
“Sure.” Cage shrugged. “I trust you won’t fight us on this, Commander?”
“Of course not,” Steve said, his throat dry. “I have nothing to hide. Step into my office so I can explain the misunderstanding.”
“Oh, no. Sorry. Obviously, we need to have this on record. I believe you have an interrogation room we can use,” Cage said, and smiled.
To Chapter Two