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She was shaking. Couldn't stop. There was so much blood. Everywhere. Her ears were ringing from the shots. Lots of shots. So loud. She should put the gun away and clean up the mess. Clean up, baby girl, or daddy will be mad. Except he wouldn't because he was on the floor. She felt a giggle burst up out of her chest. She put her hand to her mouth to stifle it. She tasted burning. Maybe she should run away, but she didn't have anywhere to go? No, best to stay where she was and wait for someone to tell her what she was supposed to do now.
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Steve was elbow deep in the engine of the Marquis when his phone rang. He debated ignoring it, calling whoever it was back later, but he knew in reality he'd never finish the job if he did because he'd be worrying it was something important. What if one of the team needed him urgently? What if Danny needed to bring Grace to the house because his apartment was a rat hole?
He disentangled the still unattached drive belt and pulled it from the engine, standing up and stretching out the kinks in his spine. He dropped the belt on the workbench, and gave his hands a quick scrub on a none too clean rag before he picked up the phone. “McGarrett.”
“Commander,” Governor Denning said, by way of greeting. “I'm sorry to disturb your weekend but there's a case I need you to look in to.”
“Yes sir,” Steve said, already running through scenarios in his head, noting the time and assessing where his team would be.
“There's been a double homicide out in Waikane,” he said, sounding tired and worn down. “I wouldn't normally call you for what seems to be a domestic incident, especially as they have the shooter in custody, but one of the victims, Austin Jervis, was a prosecutor in the Career Criminal Division. I'm sure there's no connection to his work, but I'd like you to run the inquiry and make certain.”
“I understand your worry, sir,” Steve assured the governor, already heading up the stairs to change out of his oily clothes. “You said they have the perp?”
“HPD arrived to find the sixteen year old daughter of the home owner with the gun in her hand,” Denning sighed, and Steve guessed the other man didn't want it to be some kid throwing their life away any more than he did. “She's not talking though, so I asked them to just hold her and the scene until you get there.”
“I'll call the team and be there in thirty minutes,” Steve said, knowing Danny would fume at the thought of the speed he'd have to drive to get there.
“Thank you,” Denning said, sounding a little happier than when he'd first called. “I'll get the address sent to your phone.”
Denning disconnected the call without further comment, and that was something Steve liked about the man. No unnecessary words, no false friendliness. He just passed on his orders, gave the information needed to carry them out, and left Steve to do the rest. After Jameson's betrayal of what Steve had thought of as a friendship, albeit a slightly odd one, he was quite happy to work for someone who expected nothing more than he do the job he was paid for.
Steve stripped out of his wife beater and cut off jeans, throwing them in the laundry hamper, before stepping into the bathroom and quickly washing the worst of the grease and dirt from his hands and face. His hair still damp at the edges, and his skin barely any dryer, when he grabbed a black tee and a clean pair of cargoes a couple of minutes later.
He pulled them on, running through his plans for how to handle the case. Danny had Grace this weekend so there was no way Steve was going to disturb his precious few hours with his daughter unless he absolutely had to. The same went for Chin who was spending the weekend with Malia. If the case was as open and shut as it sounded then he wouldn't have to disrupt everyone’s weekend. With Lori gone it only left Kono, but she was fair game though, he thought with a grin. It was tough being the rookie again.
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Steve parked his truck in the secluded drive of the isolated Waikane house thirty two and a half minutes later, still fuming about the tourist bus with engine trouble that had traffic backed up along the Kahekili Highway. Kono's car was there already, surfboards in the rack on the roof, and Steve felt a slight pang of guilt at interrupting her precious free time.
He slammed the door of the truck and stamped over to the young officer standing on the edge of the lawn in front of the house. Before he could say anything the man spoke. “Officer Kalakaua's inside, sir.”
“Thanks,” Steve replied, and then remembered how Danny always spoke to the first responders to get their thoughts on the scene. “Did you answer the call?”
“Yes, sir,” the Officer, Brady according to his name tag, said. “Me and my partner. It's a mess in there. The girl, she was just standing there with the gun in her hand. Hasn't said a word since we got here.”
“And there was no one else around when you arrived?”
“No. Billy, I mean Officer Kama, searched the area as soon as we secured the house and I stayed with the girl. Once backup arrived we did a better search but there was no one around.”
Steve glanced quickly around the exterior of the neat little house. The garden seemed to be a lush, untamed jungle, but he knew enough about his mother's attempts to create the same effect that it didn't happen without a lot of work. He'd examine the garden himself to see what it could tell him after he'd seen the inside of the house and spoken to the girl. The suspect, he told himself.
“Thanks,” Steve said, nodding at Officer Brady and heading inside.
The front door lead directly into the open living room of the house. It was a stylish space, all cool island tones and dark wood, but it's pristine, magazine-spread quality was ruined by the bloodbath in front of the fireplace. Kono was standing in the center of it, taking pictures of two dead men where they lay, the flash of the camera lighting the scene in horrifying detail every few seconds. Jesus, how could a kid do this to her father?
“Hey,” Kono greeted him quietly, her normally ebullient mood absent in the face of the carnage.
“What have we got?”
“Two victims,” she stated, lowering the camera and gesturing to the men in turn. “The home owner, Mathew Hale and a visitor, Austin Jervis. Max is on his way to confirm this, but I think we can say they both died of gunshot wounds. The neighbors called it in when they heard the gunshots. They wouldn't normally have heard anything as they're about half a mile away but they were fixing up the fencing on the edge of this property.”
“Did they see anything?”
“No, just heard a whole bunch of gunshots,” Kono answered with a shake of her head. “They called nine one one and high-tailed it back to their house.”
Steve looked at the mess of blood and brains spattered over the floor, and the bullet holes dotting the walls. “Wise move.”
“Yeah, these shots are wild.” She pointed at five bullet holes that were dotted across the wall over the fire. “There's two more holes over there, near the bookcase and there's a smashed window at the back. I think it was just bad luck that both of these guys died.”
“The daughter's not said anything?” Steve asked, wondering where the girl was. It still surprised him that someone could wave a gun around and kill people when they were just sixteen years old. He remembered being sixteen himself, and as angry and hurt as he was at being sent away, he would never have hurt anyone, especially not his dad.
“I don’t think so,” Kono said sadly. “Billy Kama's with her in her bedroom.” He set off towards the stairs but Kono called him back. “Wait. Steve, she's kind of shut down, like there was no one inside. I think something really bad's happened to her.”
“She shot her dad,” Steve replied, pretty sure someone who killed a parent probably should be freaked out.
“Maybe,” Kono admitted, but Steve could tell something was really bothering her.
“What's your gut saying?”
“Not sure,” she said, looking frustrated. “There's something though. Something, I don't know, hinky.”
“You'll work it out,” Steve told her with a quick smile, because he was a supportive team leader, despite what Danny sometimes yelled at him. He also had a lot of faith in Kono's feelings about people and places. She'd always read suspects well, and her instincts had been honed with eighteen months of Five-0 cases.
“The kid was doing everything the HPD guys were telling her but it was like she'd retreated behind some pretty huge walls. Billy's usually great with people, kids especially. Real great guy. But even he wasn't getting anywhere.” She rolled her eyes at the questioning eyebrow he raised. “Get your mind out of the gutter, McGarrett. He was in my class at the academy, and his boyfriend would be pretty pissed if I put the moves on him.”
“Okay,” Steve said, his hands up in mock surrender. He knew when he was being told to back off for a while, both from questioning the kid and tormenting Kono about her love life. Or lack of one. “I'm going to have a look around, get a feel for the place. I'll talk to the daughter after that.”
“Sure thing, boss.” She smiled, a sad parody of her usual bright grin and went back to photographing the living room. Steve headed towards the back of the house, where he assumed the kitchen must be. He could help Kono process the scene but she was more than capable of doing it herself, and he wanted to see if the house, and eventually the daughter, would set off alarm bells like they had done for Kono.
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“Ho, McGarrett,” a voice shouted behind him. He turned around, pretty happy to leave his fruitless search of the cluttered garage, and saw sergeant Palakiko waving him over to the end of the drive where a small group of people were gathered.
Steve scanned the faces of the crowd, noticing mostly people who were there when he arrived. Neighbors, he guessed. There was one man though that he hadn't seen, and he was standing next to Palakiko, something that suggested to Steve that the stranger was the reason he was being called over.
“Sergeant,” he greeted the uniformed officer, as he strode over. “What've you got?”
“This is Dr. John Anderson, the girl's psychiatrist,” Palakiko said, gesturing at the man by his side. “He's got some information you need to hear.”
“Psychiatrist?” Steve asked, more than a little suspicious that the guy was here.
"I'm Matt's emergency contact," the psychiatrist explained, obviously sensing Steve's concern about his sudden appearance at the crime scene. "I got a call once HPD ascertained it was Matt that had been killed."
"I can't let you in to the crime scene," Steve said, keen to get rid of the guy and get back to his investigation. Identifications needed to be done at the morgue and not out in the field. Civilians didn't need to see their friends and family with their blood spread all over their homes. They didn't need memories like that.
"I realize that, Commander McGarrett. That's not why I'm here. I came to offer my expertise in dealing with his daughter. She's a very troubled child and needs careful handling. Especially in this situation."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Steve insisted, hoping he wasn't jumping the gun by telling him what he was about to. "It's too early to be certain but we consider her the prime suspect right now."
"I suspected as much," Dr Anderson sighed.
Steve felt the smoldering anger in his chest burst to flame. Had this guy known the girl was dangerous and done nothing? "What do you mean?”
“Alison is...well I shouldn't really talk about it of course, but I do feel that I have to share this so you aren't taken in by her manipulations. She's very clever, very good at telling people exactly what they need to hear to get her own way.”
Steve hoped his surprise at what he was being told wasn't showing on his face. He'd been expecting the psychiatrist to try to explain away the kid's, Alison's, actions with some stupid excuse about her being sick, or having suffered abuse. She'd shot her dad, and there wasn't any excuse for that. "How much can you tell me without breaking confidentiality rules?"
"A lot," the psychiatrist answered. "When a crime's been committed or we know (a crime) might be committed then we have an obligation to tell the police. I know that some therapists don't, and are very reluctant to share anything with the 2police. I work with some very troubled youngsters so I know that sometimes passing on information to the 3police is an option. Perhaps the best option."
"That's very noble of you," Steve said, wishing he didn't find the man's eagerness to help just a little creepy. Yes, he wanted the information about the girl, and he'd be cursing and making threats if the doctor had been unwilling to pass it on, but somehow the polished cooperation was setting his teeth on edge. “Perhaps we should go inside and you can tell me what I need to know.”
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Kono wasn't happy with the crime scene. Not that she was ever 'happy' at a crime scene, but there was a certain sense of being able to put the pieces together that she liked, the meticulous gathering of information that let them find the bad guys and put them behind bars. This one though? This was all wrong. Maybe it was the fact that a kid had shot her dad that unsettled her, but she didn't think it so. Steve had said to trust her instincts and she was going to do just that.
She was the only one in the house now that Steve and the kid's psychiatrist had left. And Dr Anderson was another niggle in Kono's instincts. She couldn't say what it was, as he seemed perfectly pleasant, good at his job, and truly regretful that Alison had done what she had, despite his efforts with her. But still there was something that set off alarm bells, albeit quiet ones, in Kono's head.
Max and the bodies had followed the cruiser taking the girl downtown and Kono felt better knowing Billy Kama was still with her. She grinned a little at the memory of Steve's face when he first saw Billy. The guy was big, six five at least, and built in a way that made Steve look kind of scrawny. Kono knew, from bitter experience on the training mat, the man could move with more grace and finesse than a ballet dancer but threw punches like Mike Tyson.
But it wasn't Billy's size, or the fact that he was smoking hot, that Kono was grateful for. It was his quiet calm that seemed to roll over everyone else and put them at ease, especially kids. Even animals seemed happier around him. People, okay mostly Danny, teased Chin about being some kind of Zen master, but Billy made Chin look like an angry Jersey devil. Kono snorted at her own joke, and then shook her head in annoyance.
She needed to process the scene really carefully, especially if she was going to find whatever it was that was pinging her weird-o-meter.
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“So what you're saying is that she's a psychopath?” Steve asked, swinging the truck round the corner with the last glimmer of the yellow traffic signal.
“Ummm,” Dr Anderson managed, his white-knuckled grip on the oh-shit handle giving Steve a burst of perverse joy. “It's difficult to be definitive about it with children, but she does seem to present that way.”
“But shouldn't she come from a more broken background? I know her mother died but doesn't it usually require abuse or real trauma to create a psychopath?”
“Contrary to what you see on TV it's not always the way,” the psychiatrist said with a smug little smile. “In fact there's increasing evidence that environmental factors are much less important than genetic ones.”
“Okay,” Steve said, switching lanes quickly and taking the turn fast enough that Danny would have been shrieking if he were in the truck. “But how does that help me question her?”
“Well, firstly I would suggest that I accompany you in the interview,” Dr Anderson said, bracing his shoulder against the passenger window. “I know the way she lies, the little manipulations that you won't be expecting.”
“I'm not sure that's such a good idea.”
“I know you think you can read people pretty well, and I'm sure you can, but all your experience in life is going to be telling you to believe the things she's saying because she's a little girl who looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly.”
Steve thought he might be right about that. Alison was tiny. She was probably at most four feet ten inches tall, and, as stick thin as she was, couldn't be more than seventy pounds. She had long blonde hair, and the biggest blue eyes he'd ever seen. Steve was man enough to admit, to himself at least, that Officer Kama standing next to her probably made her look even smaller, because he was sure there were giants who felt inadequate next to the man. “I'll concede that. I'm not agreeing yet, but what other pointers can you offer.”
“She'll probably clam up completely,” Anderson said, looking relieved as the Iolani Palace came into view. “She's learned that she can get her own way a lot by making herself small and vulnerable looking, letting people imagine all the ways she couldn't have done what they're accusing her of. If she does talk, she'll most likely spin some story of abuse and neglect so awful that it would have Hitler weeping in sympathy.”
“She's not got any tells?” Steve asked, sliding the truck into his parking space.
“None, other than I think when she's looking her most truthful she's probably lying. She killed the family cat last year, beat the poor creature to death, and I'm pretty sure she would have passed a polygraph if we'd made her take one. Eventually she told me it had scratched her and she was mad at it.”
“Jesus,” Steve breathed, wondering how such a cute looking kid could do something so awful. “Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to question her on my own and you can be a second set of eyes watching the video feed. If I don't get anywhere with her, then you can come in and try.”
“That seems very reasonable, Commander,” Dr Anderson agreed, opening the door and getting out of the truck. “Matt was my friend and I do feel responsible for this in a way. I should have insisted that he take more aggressive treatment seriously.”
“It's not your fault,” Steve assured him, striding up the steps to the palace. “From what I've read psychopaths know right from wrong, they just choose not to follow the same rules as the rest of us. She did this herself, with no help from you.”
“Thank you, Commander,” the psychiatrist said, with a sigh. “But I think it's going to take me a while to get over it. Making sure Alison can't hurt anyone else is the best I can do now.”
Steve could get behind that. The thing he hated most about the cases they worked was that the majority of what they did was reactive, solving a crimes usually after some poor bastard had been killed. Some days he'd like to save people before they were victims, maybe even save the criminals from themselves.
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Kono looked around Alison's bedroom, deeply confused by what she saw. Or rather, what she didn't. There was no computer, no cell phone, no TV or DVD player, nothing that you'd expect of a sixteen year old girl. The psychiatrist had given them a little background, like the kid being home-schooled, so surely she needed someway to stay in touch with her friends? She'd seen a laptop downstairs in what was obviously the victim's study, maybe the kid used that. She'd have to check it later.
The bedroom was girly. Too girly. Okay, so Kono had been on the pro-surf circuit for a couple of years before she reached sixteen but she didn't think she'd been anything other than normal in how her bedroom looked. She'd had some of the same childish things, stuffed animals, some books, maybe even a few dolls hidden away in drawers, but she'd also had posters of NSYNC, 98 Degrees and Keanu Reeves. There were none in Alison's room.
The walls were painted pink, with a flowery trim that was picked up on the comforter and curtains. There was a neat row of stuffed toys on the bed, nestling amongst what Kono thought was an alarming amount of throw pillows. The furniture was all obviously a matching set, all white with heart shaped scroll work, that screamed Disney princess to Kono. It was all wrong. It was the bedroom of a little kid, not a teenager.
Given the magazine perfect décor in the whole house, including this room, it couldn't be a case of there being no money for redecorating. And a few posters wouldn't have cost that much. No, something was very wrong with the whole scene. It was time to call in the big guns.
Kono pulled out her cell, swiped to unlock it and thumbed through her contacts. Chin first and then Danny. She hated disturbing them but if something was as wrong as it felt then she was going to need help at the scene and no doubt Steve would appreciate Danny's experience with kids in the interview.
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“Look, we know you killed him,” Steve said, fighting all his instincts which were telling him to go over and comfort the little kid who was cuffed to the chair in the interview room. “But if you explain why, tell me what made you do it, then I'll guarantee that you get sentenced as a juvenile.”
Alison didn't answer, continuing the silent resistance that had started even before they had gotten to headquarters. Hell, she wasn't even looking at him, just staring at her shoes like none of this mattered. Steve wanted to shake her, make her understand what she'd done, what she'd lost.
“If you don't talk to me, you're going to be tried as an adult,” Steve pointed out, hoping a jolt of reality might get through to her. “I know you think that you'd get away with it, that no one would believe that you could kill two men, but I am going to personally make sure that every member of that jury knows exactly what kind of monster you are.”
Steve bent down, hooked his finger under the kid's chin and tilted her face up and, looking at her directly in the eye, whispered. “You're never, ever going to see the light of day again.”
She didn't even flinch. He'd made grown men weep in that chair and this kid was just looking at him like he wasn't there. The psychiatrist was right, she was proving to be a lot tougher to crack than he'd ever thought. Maybe he should get the guy in to help after all.
Except he wasn't willing to concede defeat just yet. She might be tough, she was certainly a killer, but he was a SEAL for god's sake. He'd been trained to resist interrogation and torture so he knew all the tricks she was probably employing, even though she was self taught. Well, two could play at that game.
He wasn't going to touch her, not physically, both because he knew Danny would kill him if he found out, but also there wasn't any part of him that could hurt a kid, no matter what they'd done. But he was going to use all the plays he'd learned in Naval Intelligence, and some he'd learned right here from his colleagues.
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Danny almost missed the parking spot as he slammed on his brakes and slid the car to a stop outside the Iolani Palace. He was pissed. Really pissed. Some of it was because he'd had to cut his Grace time short, but most of it was directed at Steve for not calling him sooner. They were partners, after all, which implied they were supposed to work together. More importantly though, Steve had zero experience questioning kids, and if what Kono thought might be true, then this wasn't some ordinary kid.
He slammed the door of the car harder than he needed too, pushing the button on the fob to lock it as he jogged up the stairs to the entrance. The halls were quiet as she strode through them, all the admins and clerks he generally greeted with a smile thankfully absent. He didn't think he was going to manage much of a smile today.
He pushed the doors to the Five 0 offices open, making them bounce off their cushioned stops and back closed with a clang. The man he assumed was the psychiatrist Kono had told him about jumped and spun around to stare at him.
“You,” Danny ordered, pointing at the man. “Out!”
The man froze where he was, his mouth opening to speak before he closed it again without making a sound. Danny was about to re-issue the order when he saw the other man spot his badge on his belt and relax a little. “I'm here with Commander McGarrett. I'm Alison's psychiatrist.”
“I know exactly who you are, Dr Anderson,” Danny said, continuing to walk towards the other man. “And I still want you out of here.”
“Commander McGarrett wants my help,” the psychiatrist said, his voice taking on a soothing tone that he probably thought was going to calm Danny down. “I think you should check with him before you make any rash judgments.”
“Rash judgments?” Danny scoffed, happy to find a target for his fury. “Rash judgments like questioning a vulnerable witness in a threatening environment? Like basing your interview on information that any half decent defense lawyer will get thrown out before a trial starts because no doctor should be giving confidential details to anybody, let alone the police? How about rash judgments like throwing away your career in your eagerness to convict someone you're supposed to have been helping?”
“Now just a minute,” Anderson started, his cheeks flushing with anger. “I came here of my own free will to offer my expertise to Commander McGarrett, who, I might add, has been more than happy with the help, and I won't be spoken to like this by someone who hasn't even bothered to introduce themselves.”
“Oh, I am sorry,” Danny said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the idiot. “Where are my manners? I'm Detective Danny Williams, and I'm going to be arresting you if you don't leave now.”
“Arresting me? For what?” The man crossed his arms and tried to look like he was settling in for the evening, but Danny could see the doubt, and maybe a little fear, flickering across his face. He was willing to bet that this guy had something to hide that he really didn't want to allow arrest to expose.
“I'm sure I can think of something,” Danny said, pulling some zip-ties from his pocket when the psychiatrist didn't make any move to leave. “Let's start with trespass and go from there.”
“Alright,” Anderson said, putting his hands up in surrender. “I'll leave, but I assure you Commander McGarrett will have me back once he realizes he's not getting anywhere with the girl.”
“Not if I've got anything to do with it,” Danny muttered under his breath, as the psychiatrist headed for the exit.
Once he was sure the man had gone he turned towards the screen and the tech-table, both of which showed the feed from the interview room. Christ! Steve had the kid handcuffed to the chair. She didn't look scared though, which started all kinds of alarm bells ringing in Danny's head. She looked like she'd checked out, sent her mind off somewhere safe while her body suffered whatever the world threw at it.
“I guess if you won't talk to me, then I'll just bring someone in who knows how to get through to you,” Steve said, his voice a little tinny over the video feed. “Your psychiatrist is out there waiting to help me find out why you did what you did.”
The camera wasn't at the best angle, something he'd get Chin to fix later, but even over the video feed Danny caught the flicker of terror that crossed the kid's face. That wasn't fear of being found out, that was genuine horror at the thought of being in the same room as Anderson and Danny wanted to kick himself for not cuffing the man and throwing him in the cells. There was something really sinister going on, and he was betting he knew at least some of it.
He would catch up with the good Dr Anderson later though, the first priority was to save the kid from Steve's clueless attentions.
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Steve had his hand on the handle when the door swung open and he found himself face to face with Danny. And he looked really pissed. Steve was going to kill whomever it was that had called his partner away from his daughter. There was no need for Danny to be here.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Danny snapped, pushing past Steve and walking over to the girl. “Sometimes I despair, I really do.”
It wasn't what he'd expected his partner to say at all, and for a few moments he was frozen to the spot. Time enough for Danny to undo the handcuffs holding his suspect in the chair. “Danny...”
“Don't even speak,” Danny ordered, turning back around and fixing Steve with a death glare. “There are no words you can use that would explain away how stupid you've been.”
“Danny...” Steve tried again.
“I told you not to speak,” Danny said, holding up his finger as though he was going to put it over his lips. “I meant it. You will not say another word in front of me or Alison. You've done enough damage already.”
“But...”
“Zip it, Steve. I mean it. Right now. Shut the fuck up, pardon my French Alison, or I will have you escorted out of here. I will call Denning and tell him exactly what you've done, and I swear to god if he doesn't sack you, I'll resign.”
Steve gaped. What was Danny talking about? His partner was serious, that much Steve knew, but after that it was a complete mystery. There was no way the Governor was going to do anything other than congratulate them in wrapping up the situation and showing it had nothing to do with the dead prosecutor's cases.
Danny took Steve's silence as acquiescence and turned to the girl, crouching down to talk to her. “Alison, my name's Danny, and I want to apologize for how you've been treated today. How about we get out of here and maybe get you a soda or something?”
Alison didn't speak, but she did look at Danny, making more eye contact than she had in the two hours that Steve had been speaking to her. He opened his mouth to tell his partner that she was a psychopath, that she was going to lie to him, but Danny flashed him a look that spoke volumes. He shut his mouth with a snap.
“That's it,” Danny said to the girl, ushering her out of the seat with out actually touching her. “Let's go into my office and sit on some nice comfy chairs. You want a soda? Course you do. How about I send my goof of a partner to get you one? You want a coke?”
Danny steered the girl past Steve and out of the interrogation room, keeping up a stream of words and pointless questions as they carried on down the corridor, across the bullpen and into his office. Steve followed several paces behind, wondering just when things had gotten away from him.
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Danny watched Alison from behind his desk. He was quite happy to sit in silence with her until she decided to talk. Steve was pacing outside like some mad zoo animal, and Danny thought about closing the blinds so he and, more importantly Alison, didn't have to watch the guy wear a rut in the floor. But he figured closing the blinds might also be something that made the kid think bad things were going to happen.
She was petting the stuffed toy Grace had left in his office and never collected. To be fair to his daughter he couldn't really blame her for leaving it behind. He thought it was supposed to be a cow, but really wasn't sure. It had long gangly legs, something that was possibly supposed to be udders but kind of looked like a weird growth, and most bizarrely of all was constructed of pastel pink and green spotted fabric. It was a gift from the governor following Grace's abduction. But he'd forgiven the man for it because it had obviously been bought by an aide, if Denning's quickly disguised look of horror on seeing it was anything to go by. Alison seemed to find it comforting at least.
“Will my cat be okay?” Alison asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
As far as Danny knew it was the first thing she'd said since the shooting and he felt a sudden sense of gratitude to whichever member of the governor's staff had bought the ugly toy. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Steve move to the tech table, obviously going to watch the video feed of the office.
“I'll make sure it is,” Danny told her, squashing the urge to add any of the endearments. Who knew what she'd been called in the past and what memories it might trigger.
“I promise to be good,” she said, meeting his gaze for the first time since they'd got to the office, like she wanted him to see how earnest she was.
Danny held his breath for a moment, just to stop himself cursing in front of the kid. He'd been pretty sure before she spoke that she'd been abused, but now he was certain. He blew out the breath and tried to school his body to not show just how angry he was. “I'll make sure it's fine no matter what you do.”
“It's okay,” Alison said, her hand tight around the toy. “I know I've been bad.”
He was about to answer her, when his phone buzzed on his desk. He sighed, knowing the message would be from Steve but picked it up anyway because the idiot would burst in within seconds if he didn't. He unlocked the screen and read the text.
Anderson says she killed the cat
Danny sighed. He wanted to send Steve away, keep him busy with something else, because this type of investigation wasn't his partner's strong suit. In fact, the team hadn't had to deal with something exactly like this yet and he was worried about the effect it might have on Steve and Kono. He couldn’t think of any way to get Steve out of the office, however, so he settled for sending him a quick text.
Hoping he's just incompetent. So shuld you. B quiet
Alison was still watching him, her gaze assessing. Danny wondered for a brief moment if Steve was right, if in fact she was playing him, but dismissed it. Just because a kid had been abused didn't mean she couldn't be smart. He just hoped whatever she was looking for in him she found because he really needed her to talk to him.
“Daddy's dead, isn't he?” she asked, quietly.
“Yes,” Danny said honestly, because what else could he say? “And the other guy there too.”
“I didn't mean to,” Alison said, holding the cow thing to her chest. “I just...”
Danny waited for her to finish the sentence but she didn't. It was an admission of guilt, and when he looked over he could see Steve avidly watching the screen in the bullpen. Danny wondered again if he should insist that there was a lawyer present for her. She hadn't asked for one, but he wasn't entirely comfortable letting a kid, even if she was technically old enough to make her own choices, confess to shooting two people.
“Alison...” Danny started.
“Bit.”
“Huh?”
“Everyone calls me Little Bit,” she said, nervously. Danny must have looked confused because she quickly added an explanation. “On account of me being so small. Daddy always said I was just a little bit of a girl.”
“Should I call you Bit?” Danny asked, pretty sure he wasn't comfortable with using any nickname her father had used.
She didn't reply right away, and Danny could see she was actually thinking about her answer. He wondered if he was giving her the first real choice of her young life. After a few minutes of silence she squared her shoulders and gave him her answer. “I'd like you to call me Alison.”
Danny grinned at her. “Well, okay then, Alison.”
“And I'd like to tell you what happened today.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“And then what happened?” Danny's voice was quiet and Steve had to turn up the volume on the video feed again.
He was fighting a desperate urge to rush into Danny's office and start asking the questions that needed answers, not the stupid ones about what the kid had for breakfast or what she'd been thinking when she'd woken up. He thanked his lucky stars again that at least Danny has stopped offering her a lawyer. If she got a lawyer they'd stop her talking and Steve couldn't stand that idea.
“Daddy's friend arrived,” Alison answered, and Steve let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Finally they were getting to the meat of the confession.
“Had he visited you before?” Danny asked.
Yet another pointless question. He refused to think that part of the reason he was so angry was that Danny was getting the kid to actually talk, even if it was a pack of lies. He refused to be jealous, Danny had an unfair advantage after all. He had a daughter and knew how to talk to kids.
“Yes,” Alison admitted, almost a whisper.
“Did you like his visits?”
“No,” Alison said sadly, her eyes filling with tears that Steve would have been convinced were real if he didn't know better. “He was mean.”
“How was he mean to you?”
She didn't answer. Instead big fat tears spilled down her cheeks and Steve felt an unsettling urge to comfort her, tell her it was all going to be alright. Danny pulled out a pristine handkerchief from his pocket and passed it over to her. She pressed it to her face, as though she was embarrassed by the tears, and sobbed quietly.
Steve was surprised that Danny, who was obviously buying the act, didn't sit next to her on the sofa, didn’t comfort her physically, didn't even touch her like he'd done with other kids. Instead he sat on his chair, seemingly unmoved, facing her.
“He was bigger than daddy and he enjoyed making me cry when it hurt.”
Steve froze. He thought about running the video back to make sure he'd heard her accusation correctly but Danny was speaking again.
“Did he do that today?” Danny asked, his voice calm.
How could his partner be so controlled? Surely, if he was buying the girl's story then he'd be angry at what her father had done. But if he didn't buy it, which Steve had already discounted, then why was he pandering to her at all?
“No,” Alison said, her voice a little stronger than before. “I said I didn't want to. Daddy said he'd buy me a new cat if I did, but I didn't want another one after what he did to Jinxy. And I was scared what he'd do to Boss Cat. Then he said I should because he told me to and he's my daddy, but I shouldn't have to do things that hurt just because he said so, should I?”
Danny didn't answer right away, and Steve could see him take a breath and hold it, the only sign he wasn't as calm as he looked. He blew it out with a sigh. “No, Alison, you shouldn't.”
Steve didn't have time to react to Danny's words as the doors to the Five-0 offices opened with a muffled clang and he turned to see the other half of the team, their faces grim.
“Chin, I thought you were with Malia?” Steve said, by way of greeting.
“Kono called me,” Chin replied, not sounding in the least annoyed at having his weekend away with this new wife disturbed. “And I'm glad she did.”
“Not you too?” Steve snapped, not really understanding where the sudden lack of trust had come from.
“I'm glad she called me,” Chin explained, the sharpness of his tone cutting through Steve's anger. “Because it meant she didn't have to look through the child porn I found on Hale's hard drive.”
“What?” Steve breathed. It couldn't be true.
“I've spent the past hour at the lab cracking the encryption on the disc. As soon as I confirmed what it was, I came back over here.”
“Confirmed?” Steve couldn't quite fathom how everyone else seemed to see it when he hadn't. How could he have been so blind?
“Kono called it from the way the house looked,” Chin said, glancing at his cousin who looked like she took no satisfaction in being right. “But for Danny and I, it's experience.”
“Jesus.” Suddenly he felt sick. He'd shouted at the poor kid, tried to pressure her into telling him what he wanted to hear, what he thought was the truth. He'd handcuffed her to the chair and threatened her. And she hadn't protested, hadn't defended herself because her own father had been raping her and letting his friends do it too. Steve must have seemed like one of the monsters to her.
He'd touched her, albeit only on her arms, and roughly manhandled her into the interrogation room. Restrained her. The idea of what she must have thought he was going to do to her had him running for the bathroom, slamming through the door and barely making the stall before he lost his lunch.