Family business

Warnings: references to violence, including OC deaths.

Word count: 4,900 words for this chapter.



Author's note: the bank robbery stuff is not based on detailed research, so please overlook any unrealistic aspects (such as the lack of FBI involvement in the investigation).

***

CHAPTER THREE

Wednesday morning, Danny's only been at his desk half an hour when word of an armed robbery comes in.



"The Hawaii Savings Bank out in Waianae just got hit, and the security guard was killed," Captain Makaha announces. "Looks like that same crew from last week – and they made another clean getaway. I want everyone who's not working something urgent to go find these bastards."



Since their bow-hunting case from yesterday is still waiting on forensics results, Danny gulps down his coffee and follows Reyes. She explains the situation as they drive out to the island's west coast.



"We had a robbery around this time last Tuesday morning, in another small town over on the North Shore. Three masked guys stormed in, immediately killed the sole guard with a single shot to the head, and then threatened to shoot anyone who pressed an alarm button or called 911."



"Jesus – that's one hell of an entrance," Danny says.



"Yeah, and it worked. None of the hostages alerted us until the coast was clear. The crew got all the cash from the teller drawers, but left the vault untouched. They were out again in just a few minutes."



Danny nods. "Smart move: opening the vault takes precious time, and increases the chance of getting caught. But the drawers would be pretty flush, so early in the day. Banks get local retailers making cash deposits, first thing, and they wouldn't have had many big withdrawals yet."



Reyes glances at him. "Lot of bank jobs back in Jersey, huh?"



"Yeah; I was in Robbery before moving up to Homicide."



"We don't see too many, here, and definitely not violent take-overs like this," she says. "It's mostly a lone guy passing a note to the teller. And even that is hard to get away with on an island this small."



"So what leads were there from the first robbery?"



"Hardly any," Reyes tells him. "No ballistics matches, either here or on the mainland. The crew disabled the surveillance cameras, and managed to wipe the previous footage too. The getaway car was stolen, of course; they abandoned it in a parking garage and boosted another, then ditched that too. The trail ended out in a rural area with no traffic cameras. Plus there's been nothing too useful on the forensics front, so far, and none of our CIs have given us any actionable info either. Seriously, it's like these guys are ghosts."



"They're pros – that's for damn sure," Danny says, shaking his head. "Or one of them is, and the others are very good at following orders."



At the scene, they find Ahuna taking lead; he directs Reyes, Lee, and Takahashi to start interviewing the traumatized but unhurt hostages sitting outside. When Danny doesn't get given a task, he says, "Hey listen, I used to work Robbery. Can I look around the scene?"



Back home he wouldn't have stopped to ask, but Danny woke up this morning determined to take Reyes' advice and play nice with his new colleagues. Hell, he's not even wearing a tie.



Ahuna waves a hand at him and says, "Yeah, go ahead. Just keep out of CSU's way."



The first thing Danny sees when he walks into the bank is the young security guard, Tony Delacruz. He's lying just inside the door, his own weapon still holstered...poor kid was shot before he even had a chance to defend himself. At least he died pretty much instantly.



In Danny's experience, bank robbers try not to kill people unless absolutely necessary: it leaves more evidence, the police investigation is given much higher priority, and the jail sentence for murder is even longer than for plain armed robbery. Of course there are total psychopaths who are willing to kill anyone, or everyone, but luckily they're a whole lot rarer.



This unprovoked, selective execution suggests a cold and controlled personality, and previous experience too. Clearly the shooter didn't learn his tricks in Hawaii, because HPD would have recognized the M.O. So did all three men – four, counting the getaway driver – arrive on the island together, or did the ringleader relocate and pick up a new crew here?



From the doorway, Reyes tells Danny, "Witnesses confirm the roles played by each robber. The man who killed Delacruz then threatened the staff and customers, herded them all together, and held them at gunpoint. The second guy disabled the cameras and raided the cash drawers, while the third watched the doors. From the physical descriptions, it's exactly the same configuration as last week's job."



"So this probably isn't a copycat crew, then," Danny says.



Reyes nods, then looks over her shoulder and beckons to Danny. "Hey, you were curious about Five-0, right? Well, here come the cavalry now."



A blue pick-up truck screeches to a halt outside, followed by a smaller SUV. Steve gets out of the truck, along with a shaven-headed guy in his early 30s...Meka Hanamoa, Danny guesses. So the people in the SUV must be the married couple, Kono and Chin. The rookie looks to be in her late 20s, while the veteran's gotta be pushing 40.



Steve's teammates are all highly attractive people. They could feature on the front cover of a Guns & Ammo special edition: 'Hot and Heavily Armed in Hawaii'. But Danny must be fundamentally broken, because he only has eyes for Steve.



He can't tell Ma this, but there's a part of Danny that wishes she'd never revealed her big secret. Then he could have seen Steve for the first time today, and lusted after him in blissful ignorance. Hearing Steve introduce himself wouldn't have made his stomach turn over, or not in a bad way at least. And if Danny had tested the waters with a little flirtation, a homophobic freak-out on Steve's part would've been his worst fear.



Steve flicks a brief glance in Danny's direction, now, before heading over to Ahuna. "Oh, man," Reyes says in Danny's ear, "turf war time again. I'd say we could take bets on this, except it always ends the same."



Danny's seen this kind of pissing contest before, between Captain Novak and whichever federal agent had to claim jurisdiction from him. Novak tended to lose, too, but he enjoyed the fight anyway.



Today's argument ends with Steve striding away, and Ahuna throwing up his hands and calling the detectives together. "Five-0 will take over the hostage interviews," he announces with a scowl. "Go find eyewitnesses who were outside the bank."



***



A quarter hour later, Danny pauses for a moment to check the notes he's taken so far. Steve is standing behind him, just a few feet away. Danny's been trying not to look over, but he can clearly hear the conversation Steve's having.



"Ma'am, we need to know what the robbers sounded like," Steve says to the bank manager, his tone much gentler than Danny expected. "How many of them spoke? Did any of them have accents, or speech impediments, or unusual voices?"



"The one who shot Tony –" she swallows a sob "– he did all the talking. His voice was deep and quite raspy; he sounded like a smoker, and he smelled like one too. I think he was a mainlander, but I couldn't place the accent."



Danny turns to his final witness, an elderly man who was walking his dog as the robbers left the bank. The little fluff bundle is now twining around Danny's ankles and shedding on his slacks. He likes dogs, yeah, but not yappy ones like this.



"Where were you standing when the getaway vehicle drove off, Mr. Kim?" Danny asks.



Then a hand tugs on his shirtsleeve. Danny wheels around, surprised, to see the bank manager staring at him open-mouthed.



"That pupule kanapapiki talked just like this guy," she informs Steve, who raises an eyebrow at Danny. In the face of that intent gaze, Danny feels uneasy despite his airtight alibi. He was in a room full of cops during the robbery, after all, and surely at least some of them would vouch for him.



Luckily, the woman adds, "But he was skinnier and a lot taller." Danny offers her a pained smile, while Steve's lips twitch slightly.



"That's very helpful, ma'am," Steve tells her. "Tell me: have you met anyone from New Jersey before, or been there yourself?"



She shakes her head. "The furthest east I've been was Chicago, for a conference. But the robber didn't sound like the people I met there."



"Okay. So the other men, they didn't speak?"



"Nope, not a word – they just communicated with nods and hand gestures."



Danny turns back to Mr. Kim and continues taking his statement, but his mind is on what the bank manager said. If an East Coast pro has moved to Hawaii, Danny could find out if his style seems familiar to anyone back home.



But this is Five-0's case, now, and Danny's wary of pissing Steve off even further. He didn't exactly look pleased to see Danny on the scene, and has made no effort to talk to him.



Solving the case is more important than their personal problems, though, so Danny decides to make some calls anyway. Better to ask forgiveness than be denied permission, he figures.



***



With Steve's team firmly in charge, the Homicide squad is no longer required. Reyes drives back to HQ.



"So that was Five-0, in the flesh," she says. "What'd you think?"



"They sure seem to know their shit – I was impressed." Danny was expecting more of a cowboy approach, but all the interactions he witnessed were calm and professional. "Hey, you said HPD accused one of them of being dirty. What was that all about?"



Reyes sighs. "A few years back, Chin Ho Kelly was suspected of stealing $200,000 from the asset forfeiture locker. He denied it all the way and nothing was ever proven, but eventually he was forced out. Personally, I still can't believe it. Chin was so supportive when I was the first woman to join Homicide. He was my mentor; he was the cop I respected most."



Smiling a little, she adds, "I guess Kono didn't believe it either. All the other members of his family turned against him, but she proposed to him the day he resigned."



Danny nods, and then mentally replays that last sentence. "Wait, what? Do you mean Kono was a member of his family too?"



"She's his first cousin," Reyes explains.



"But they were dating...and now they're married?"



Reyes shoots him a sharp look. "Yes, it's legal here for cousins to marry. It's less common these days than it was in traditional Hawaiian society, but nobody bats an eye."



That's so fucked up, is Danny's first reaction. Quite apart from any genetic worries if they ever have kids, it'd be weird to sleep with someone you'd known your entire life.



But then Danny considers that Pop and Ma had met when they were still in diapers, due to their parents being neighbors and close friends. Yet she was the only girl he ever loved, or at least that's how he's always told the story. Ma took longer to see Pop in the same light, Danny suspects, since theirs was kind of a shotgun wedding. Over time, though, she clearly developed feelings for him. They've been married 35 years, raised four children, and still seem very happy together.



And anyway...given the feelings Danny's currently trying to fight, he's really in no position to be judgmental about relatives hooking up.



So all he says to Reyes is, "Huh, okay."



It's just as well Danny didn't make any mocking comments about only Hawaii and the southern hick states allowing cousins to marry. Because when he gets back to the precinct, a quick google search informs him that it's legal in Jersey, too – in about half the country, actually.



The Wikipedia page on cousin marriage links to an entry about incest. Danny bites his lip, and closes the browser window.



***



Danny's been looking forward to this afternoon, when he gets to pick Grace up for their regular weeknight visit. He's already planning to take her shopping, since she was keen to help pick out some things for his new place. They could go see a movie and then grab dinner, after that. Burgers, maybe; Danny is getting a little sick of crappy pizza.



But just before lunch, Rachel calls. "Grace stayed home from school today, with a nasty cold," she tells him. "She's got a sore throat, a cough, a headache, and she's running a low fever."



"Damn." He frowns. "Sounds like the head cold she used to get every November back home, but you could hardly call this winter weather."



"Perhaps you picked up some bug on the plane, and passed it on to her?"



Gripping his phone tight, Danny says, "I just flew 5,000 miles to get here, for my daughter's sake, and now you're saying it's my fault she's sick? Jesus, Rach, that's low."



"No, I'm not saying that," Rachel sighs. "I was merely suggesting one possibility. Kids are germ magnets, so she could have got it anywhere."



"Okay, fine," Danny says, after counting to five in his head. "So you think we should cancel my visitation tonight?"



"I do, yes. I know you're perfectly capable of taking care of her, Danny, but it's probably best to keep her settled while she's feeling so rotten. You can come over after dinner, though...and if she's doing better by Friday, how about you have her for both nights this weekend?"



"Yeah, that'd be good," Danny concedes. "Can I talk to her now?"



"She's asleep, but I'll call you back once she wakes up."



Once he's hung up, Danny is embarrassed to realize that several other detectives overheard that conversation. But Lee gives him a knowing smile from the next desk over and says, "Any phone call from my ex makes my blood pressure go up, and last-minute custody rearrangements are the worst of all."



"Yeah, for sure." Danny spreads his hands. "I just spent three months apart from my only daughter, missing her like crazy. And now Gracie's sick, and Rachel's first assumption is that I'm to blame because I breathed near her."



Takahashi leans against Lee's desk and says, "Man, that's rough. The longest I've ever gone without seeing my two boys was a couple of weeks, and that was hard enough."



Danny nods, somewhat cheered by their sympathetic response. His old partner, Chris, had been a pillar of strength throughout the divorce. But as a happily married man, he couldn't truly understand.



"So how many kids have you got, Lee?" he asks.



Lee, Takahashi, and Danny spend the next few minutes talking about their children, with pictures pulled out of wallets as visual aids. Reyes doesn't join in, but she's smiling slightly as she types up her interview notes.



***



After lunch, Danny asks Ahuna about checking in with Chris and other East Coast contacts.



Ahuna shrugs. "You might as well try. We've got sweet fuck all on last week's robbery, to be honest. And unless Five-0 can pull miracles out of their collective ass, they won't find much at today's scene either."



With the time difference, it's already 6.30pm in Jersey. Chris should be heading home about now, unless he's caught a big case, so Danny calls his cell. The ambient noise when Chris picks up indicates that yeah, he's driving.



"Howdy, stranger," Chris drawls. "Missing me already?"



"You better have me on speaker, asshole," Danny says, smiling at the sound of his best friend's voice. "How many goddamn times I gotta remind you about the cellphone ban?"



"Hands-free, Detective Williams, I promise," Chris says in a fake-pious tone. "And my son is riding with me tonight...so ix-nay on the swearing and the insinuations of illegal behavior, if you please."



"Oh hey, kiddo, what's up?" Danny says to Julio.



"Hi, Uncle Danny," Julio says cheerfully. When Grace was five years old, she always used to get real cranky by evening. But Chris and Angela's little boy is like the Energizer Bunny.



Chris asks, "So is this a social call, mi amigo, or did you want something?"



"I need help with a case, actually," Danny says, mentally translating his summary into something suitable for little pitchers. As he knows all too well, Julio will ask the meaning of every second word otherwise.



"Some bad men have started visiting small suburban banks, here in Hawaii," Danny begins. "Two banks have been hit in just eight days. Man A walks in, says 'bang', and makes the guard lie down with a sore head. Then Man B empties the drawers but leaves the big piggy bank untouched, while Man C stands by the doors. A lady at the bank they visited today thought Man A had an accent like mine, so I wondered if any of this sounded familiar to you."



"A+ for effort, bro," Chris says, after a short silence in which Julio doesn't pipe up demanding definitions. "But no, it doesn't ring a bell. I'd have heard if three bad men had been pulling that kind of repeat job anywhere in north or central Jersey. You think that lady has a good ear for regional accents?"



"She's never even been to the East Coast, so I'm guessing not. But I thought I'd call the biggest departments in the tri-state area, to start with, and see if anything pops."



Danny lists the contacts he already has in mind, and Chris suggests a few more names which Danny notes down. "These guys must be real good, Danny, if you're trying this scattershot approach."



"Yeah – Man A's gotta have a solid track record, at least, which is why I'm thinking his M.O. might have been honed back east."



"What's M.O. mean?" Julio asks, and Danny laughs.



"I'll leave you to field that one, Chris. Thanks, buddy."



"Stay safe out there," Chris replies.



***



Calling Chris when he's off the clock is one thing; bugging other LEOs up and down the East Coast is not so kosher.



This five-hour time difference is seriously annoying. So far Danny's been able to talk to Ma and Pop only once, last Sunday. And since Grace was with him, he didn't mention his plan to find out more about Jack McGarrett's life and death. He'll hold off on calling them again until he gets some news from Max.



Maybe Danny can't work the phones today, but he can check if other bank hostages noted the ringleader's accent. With Reyes' help, he pulls together the statements from the previous robbery and the raw notes from today's interviews.



The witnesses who mention the shooter's voice all agree that he was no local. One woman has a friend from Philadelphia, and claims this guy's accent was similar. Two suggest he was a New Yorker, while three others think he sounded like someone off The Sopranos. Danny grits his teeth; at least they didn't mention that fucking awful 'reality' show, where almost none of the 'stars' are even from Jersey.



It's still a big area to cover, but it firms up Danny's resolve to start making calls first thing tomorrow.



Reyes has gone back to working their hunting case, writing up the report for the DA's office. She asks Danny to head over to the lab for an update, and he's glad of an excuse to stretch his legs.



In Newark, the forensics folks were crammed into the precinct's basement. Here, though, they're in a spacious lab one floor up from Max's office. Danny thinks of stopping by to see if the test results are done yet...but in his experience, M.E.s hate being rushed. And anyway, the guy's probably been swamped with more important work.



Up in the HPD lab, a friendly tech called Charlie Fong shows Danny the pictures and measurements they got from the scene. The evidence indicates Keahi had been stationary for quite a while before the shooting, so he wasn't following Campbell through the forest. And a reenactment suggests it would've been very tricky for vic and perp to spot each other through the dense foliage, especially in camo gear.



"So it does seem like an accident?"



"Yeah, I'd say so," Fong confirms.



Danny nods. "Okay, great. Hey, one more question for you. I'm working an angle on the bank robberies, and I was wondering if any surveillance footage got retrieved from the scenes."



"Nothing from Tuesday's robbery," Fong says. "As well as disabling the cameras, the thieves shot up the security desk's computer. I couldn't get any data off the hard drives and there was no offsite back-up."



"What about this morning's job?" Danny asks.



"The computer evidence went straight to Five-0, so I guess Chin is working on it – he's their tech genius. Want me to check with him?"



"Yeah, thanks."



Fong makes the call, and puts it on speaker phone.



"I haven't been able to pull anything off the security system yet," Chin says, in response to Fong's question. "A well-placed bullet can do fairly severe damage to a computer. There could be a work-around, but it'll take some time."



Danny leans forward and says, "Hi, it's Detective Williams here. Any chance of getting just the audio feed?"



"It's possible, but not that likely. Is there something in particular you're looking for?"



Explaining about the bank manager recognizing his accent, Danny ends with, "Now, all Jersey accents may sound the same to folks here – hell, maybe all East Coasters sound alike, from this far away. But trust me: even between East Orange and West Orange, there's a difference. If this scumbag's from my neck of the woods, I'd be able to tell."



"That could be very helpful," Chin says. "Give me your number, and I'll let you know if I get anywhere with the data retrieval."



Danny's on his way back up to the bullpen when he gets a call from Rachel's cell.



"Hi, Danno," Grace says in a croaky voice. It hurts him to hear her like that.



"Hey, sweetheart," he says. "You don't sound so good."



"My throat hurts, but Mommy got me some shave ice."



"Oh, yeah? What's shave ice? Is that when you get shaving foam and mix it up with water, and stick it in the freezer?"



She laughs, but it turns into a cough and he winces in sympathy. "No, it's like a snow cone. I got grape flavor and it turned my tongue purple."



"Awesome," Danny says. "Hey, listen: your mom and I decided it'd be best for you to stay home tonight, instead of coming to my place. But I'll stop by later, anyway, so I can kiss you all over your little monkey face. You know Danno-kisses have magic healing powers, right? It's a scientific fact."



"But Danno, I might make you sick too," she points out, so sweetly earnest that it makes him smile.



"Don't worry about me, Gracie. You just focus on getting better, and remember how much I love you."



"Love you too," she tells him.



Danny hangs up, leans his forehead against the stairwell window, and closes his eyes. It's been nearly three years since Rachel kicked him out, but there's still an ache every time he has to tell Grace he loves her over the phone instead of in person. And it's even harder when his baby is sick and miserable, and he can't be there to comfort her.



***



It's getting close to 5pm, and Danny's starting to think of heading home. And then he gets a text from Steve. It just says, "Meet me at Max's, 1830."



Shit, the genetic tests must be done after all. Danny's heart begins to pound; he's glad Reyes already left, and can't ask him any tricky questions.



Once again, Danny and Steve meet in the corridor outside the M.E.'s office. Tension is evident in every aspect of Steve's body language, and his expression is grim.



"Let's go face the music," Danny says, with a lightness he doesn't feel.



Max must've had a rough day, between the bank robbery this morning and a murder-suicide at a Waikiki hotel this afternoon. Still, he beams when he sees the two of them.



"Your DNA results were quite intriguing, and unexpectedly nuanced," he begins. "I had to run them twice, just to be sure."



Steve folds his arms, frowning. "Okay...and?"



"First of all, I can state with reasonable certainty that you are not half-siblings."



Danny lets out a breath, feeling both disappointed and relieved – and confused as hell, too. He glances up to see Steve close his eyes and scrub one hand over his face.



"So where's the intriguing nuance, then?" Danny demands, irritated by Max's drawn-out delivery of the news. This might be a fun puzzle to him, but it's pretty damn important to Danny.



"However," Max continues, "you are closely related nonetheless. It seems highly probable that you are, in fact, first cousins on your paternal side."



"What?" Danny looks from Max to Steve, incredulous. "Don't tell me you got an Uncle Jack who was in the Navy, too."



"My father did have an older brother who was a sailor, yeah," Steve says slowly. "But his name was Winston, not Jack. He died when I was just a baby and Dad hardly ever mentioned him, so I'd almost forgotten he existed."



Max nods. "If that man was Commander McGarrett's only paternal uncle, then I am fairly certain that he was your biological father, Detective."



"Winston McGarrett," Danny repeats, just to test how it sounds.



"He was born in 1940, and I guess my grandparents admired Churchill's stand against Hitler," Steve explains.



"Right. So maybe Winston found it hard to get girls, with a name like that, and borrowed his brother's name to chat up Ma?"



"That could be it," Steve says. "Anyway, Max, I appreciate your help and your discretion."



"I live to serve, Commander."



Danny can't tell if Max is being sarcastic, but adds his thanks anyway. It never pays to piss off an M.E.; they're among the few people who could kill someone and get away without leaving any forensic evidence.



Outside Max's office, Danny asks, "Hey, is there a McGarrett family Bible, or some kind of family tree? Because that might confirm whether you had any extra uncles you don't know about."



Steve looks thoughtful. "Yeah, there's an old Bible around somewhere...I remember Mom adding Mary's name, when I was a little kid. I'll have a look for it."



"Okay, cool."



"And I've got a couple of ideas, if you want to know more about Winston," Steve adds. "First of all, I can order a copy of his personnel file. There should be a record of the ships he served on, so we can find out if he really was in Boston for Fleet Week '75."



"Yeah, that sounds good. Would the file mention if he had a wife and children?" Danny thinks he could deal with any number of half-siblings, now, so long as Steve isn't one of them.



"It should do. I'm pretty sure my uncle was never ashore long enough to settle down, though."



"But if I'm any indication, he might have gotten a woman pregnant in every port," Danny points out.



If Jack had been the guy Ma met, at least he would've had the shitty excuse of already being married. If it really was Winston, and he was single, then maybe he failed to respond to Ma's letters because he just didn't give a damn.



Steve's mouth twists. "Well, I'll let you know if any more of his offspring turn up."



With a sigh, Danny asks, "So what's your second idea, then?"



"Dad was a total packrat – the attic's full of boxes from his Navy days and his time with HPD. If Winston ever wrote him about your mother, the letter is probably in there somewhere. I needed to sort through it all, anyway, so I'll make a start when I get home."



Briefly, Danny considers inviting himself over to Steve's place tonight. They could look through Jack's stuff together...and maybe even have a conversation over dinner, instead of an interrogation.



But although Steve seems more relaxed and more civil than before, he's not exactly projecting warm or welcoming vibes. And Danny has to think longer-term: if they have months, even years to get to know each other, then he can afford to give Steve some space now.



Anyway, Danny could use time to adjust too. If Steve is his cousin, and not his half-brother, that reclassifies Danny's interest in him from 'sick and wrong' to 'somewhat disturbing and potentially problematic'. He'll have to consider, very carefully, whether that's enough of a change to make any real difference.



So he just says, "Thanks – let me know if you find anything."



Steve nods. "'Night, Danny."



Hearing Steve say his name, for the first time, sparks a shameful little thrill up Danny's spine.



"See you around," Danny replies. He walks to his car, slowly, thinking about Steve and Winston and Ma. He's glad he already arranged to stop by Rachel's place on his way home tonight. Focusing on Grace, and trying to cheer her up, should take his mind off this complicated mess...for a while, at least.



***