Tuesday
Emily McGarrett's POV
To my surprise, I wake up to the sound of Steve's voice. "Hey, hey, hey, come here." He's whispering, just outside my door.
I get up, wondering what was going on. I begin walking down the stairs slowly, not really wanting to know what was going on. "Don't move!"
What the hell?
Mumbling is all I can hear until I reach the door way. That voice. I've heard it before. I wait until the woman begins talking about Steve and Catherine to go in.
"Why are yo-" my question is cut short when my vision clouds with anger and sadness. "Doris?"
"Well, I'm your mother, sweetie. You can call me mom." I chuckle sarcastically.
"You lost the title a long time ago." She continues to scrape eggs from a pan and into a bowl.
"I told you it was safer upstairs." Steve says to Catherine before placing his gun on top of the fridge.
"I was just... I-I should really..." she pointed over her shoulder for indication.
"No, no, no, no, you should join us, absolutely. It's no trouble at all. How do you like your eggs?"
"How do you like your eggs?" Steve asks her sarcastically.
"Oh, no, no, you three want to catch up, and I really have to run, so..." Steve looks at her suspiciously. "Briefing at the base."
"Aww. That's too bad. Another time then?" Doris says while looking at her.
"Absolutely." Cath smiles.
"Great. See ya." Did she just dismiss Catherine?
"Okay." She mumbles to Steve before turning to me and apologizing through her eyes. "Good luck." She whispers as she walks out the door.
Doris looks at Steve after a few seconds and picks up the tray of food. "Ooh, I like her."
"Okay, Mom?" I glare at Steve who looks back defensively as he calls after her while she continues walking into the other room.
"What the hell Steven?" He raises his hands in defense.
"I didn't know she was coming, Em. I came down the stairs with a gun."
"I will not be talking to her."
"Yes you are. You need to patch things up eventually."
"Breakfast is getting cold guys!" She yells from the dining room area.
"Mom I don't want breakfast." He answers as we walk into the room.
"You know, your security system sucks." Steve and I stand next to the table.
"Okay, you know what, stop. Okay? What are you doing here?" Steven grumbles out.
"I never left the Island, but I think you already knew that." She pinches off a piece of toast and begins eating.
"Yeah, you persuaded WITSEC to turn the plane around."
"I can be very persuasive."
"Why'd you do it?" Steve asked.
"I wanted to come home. Tired of running."
"Okay, well, where have you been for the last few weeks?"
"Few weeks?" I ask incredulously. "You mean, she was here?" They both turn to look at me.
"Em, you just got back yesterday."
"From where?"
Steve and I answered her at the same time. "DC." "None of your damn business."
"You still had almost an entire day to tell me." He turns back to our mother to interrogate her, tired of how it feels when done to him.
"I just needed some time. I-I wasn't sure how you'd take this." Doris says.
"Well you should've told me what the plan was."
"Sure, sure, you never would have agreed to it."
"No, I probably wouldn't have agreed to it." His voice is getting louder.
"See." She says.
"W-what is this? What are these bags? You're staying?" I chuckle at Steve's tone.
"Oh hell no." I walk back up the stairs.
"Emily!" Steve yells. I spent 5 minutes packing a bag before changing into my clothes for the day.
"Emily, are you coming with me?" He knocks on the door before opening it.
"Yeah. I'll be downstairs in 5." He nods his head and walks out, closing the door behind him.
As promised, I was downstairs within 5 minutes, but was stopped before I could make it to the door.
"What, Doris?"
"What's wrong?"
"What's wrong is that my mother faked her own death because she thought it was the right thing to do. What's wrong is that you showed up here after.. you know what, I don't need to explain myself to you." I walk out the door, ignoring her calls behind me.
"You okay?" He asks once I walk to where he can see me.
"Yeah. I'll just drive myself today, get a head start." He nods.
"I'll be there after I pick up Danny." I get in my SUV, start the engine, and call Chin, seeing as I had no idea where the crime scene was.
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Steven McGarrett's POV
"So what, she breaks in your house and just starts cooking?"
"Yeah, pretty much." I answer Danny as we walk towards the yellow police tape surrounding the crime scene.
"That's very strange. Although, she is a McGarrett after all. Why'd she come back?"
"I don't know, Danny, she says she's tired of running."
"Now she's tired of running, after all these years? What happened in the house with Wo Fat?"
"We didn't get that far."
"How could you not get that far? Steve, this is a man who's been chasing her for 20 years. She's got a shot to get him and she doesn't take it? That doesn't seem weird to you?... Oh, silence. That's good. Both of you. Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree."
"Hey, guys." Kono interrupts. "So, the victim's name is Billy Keats. He was a star player of the Diamond Head Polo Club."
"I never knew they had polo on this island."
"Five clubs." Chin answers from beside Kono.
"Why, you a polo fan?"
"Absolutely, it's the sport of kings. It fits me, doesn't it?" We all ignore Danny's comment and keep going.
"Diamond Head Club's owned by Spencer Madsen." Chin says.
"The, uh, the billionaire mogul guy?" Danny asks.
"One and the same. All these stables are all part of the Madsen estate." Chin answers.
"Yeah, that's why Keats was up here. Hey, there's something you should know before you..." I peeled back the cloth before Kono could finish. Danny groans along with me before Kono speaks again. "That's the something."
"Seriously, I mean, a headless horseman? Come on." Danny says, clearly repulsed.
"Yeah, so, about that: according to the girlfriend, Keats rode to the practice field this morning with his head attached. About half an hour later, the horse returned to the stables, dragging the body, minus the head." Kono finishes.
"Just got a text from Max. He found the head."
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Emily McGarrett's POV
"Oh, Gentleman." I hear Max say. "Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Keats."
"Yeah, we just met the rest of him." Danny replies.
"Okay, we got any idea what did this yet, Max? Some kind of sword?" Steve asks.
"That is unlikely. If you note the precision of the cut as well as the fact that the instrument in question was wielded high in the air. High enough to reach our victim while he was straddling a horse." Max informs the two.
"Ah, so what did it?" Danny questions again.
"Well, I believe I have the answer if you allow us to test our hypothesis."
"Test, please." Danny answers, while Steve looks around.
"As you can see, the trail of blood indicates the trajectory the victim's head took after being severed. Working backwards, we can determine that it was at this location where the final blow was struck." Max answered as they walked closer.
"All right, we got a boot print right here. Can we get a cast?" He asks the crime lab guys.
"Okay, so, uh, so, what's your theory, Max?" Steven asks.
"Ahh!" Max whips his temporary cane in the air, causing it to be sliced and the piece shot to the other side.
"What the hell is that?" Danny asks.
"Garroting wire." I answer from the side of the post. "It's strong and can cut through almost anything." I look away, thinking. The two boys look at me for the first time, confused. Steven probably thinks I'm planning Doris' murder right now.
"The placement of which took into account of the victim's height, as well as his daily schedule." Max concluded.
"Okay, so this is personal. Whoever strung this wire and killed Billy Keats was trying to make a statement." Danny comments.
"Message delivered. Loud and clear." Steve says.
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Steven McGarrett's POV
"How did your sister take it? Your mother popping in this morning." I take my eyes off the road for a second to look at him.
"Fine. She was a little angry, but she's going to be fine." I nod my head.
"Were you fine when you saw your mother for the first time after 20 years?" I thought about.
Damn it.
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Emily McGarrett's POV
"I really thought we'd be together forever." Nicole says, tears rolling down her face.
"Were you and Billy engaged?" I asked her.
"Not exactly. He wasn't ready and neither was I." She then laughed to herself. "Maybe I was. He just needed some time, you know? We only knew each other a few months. Billy came to play for the Diamond Head Club mid-season. He started on a different team. The Island Blue Club."
I hear footsteps behind me, I turn to see Danny and Steve approaching us.
"Nicole Carr, this is Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams. They're both Five-0. Nicole was Billy's girlfriend."
"We're, uh, very sorry for your loss." Steve says sympathetically.
"I still can't believe he's gone. Just yesterday we were..." She pauses. "The psychic. She predicted this."
"You saw a psychic that predicted Billy would be decapitated?" Danny asked.
"She said that I'd be touched by death and I thought that she meant I was gonna die but she meant Billy. She meant that I would be touched by his death." She replies.
"Okay, when was this?" I questioned her.
"Yesterday. In Chinatown." We thank and apologized to Nicole once again before walking away.
"You think the psychic knew more than she was saying?" Steve asks.
"Yeah, well, if she did, I doubt her intel came from a crystal ball." I answer him.
"Best case scenario: she is psychic and she can just tell us who murdered Billy Keats. And where the hell did I put my keys?" Danny says.
"I'm sure it's just a con." Steve replies.
"Yeah, but you know what? Cons are observant, so she might have noticed something out of the ordinary. Uh, like somebody following them or strange behavior." I say.
"All right. Go ahead and check out the psychic. I'm gonna see what I can dig up on Keats." Steve says before walking off.
20 minutes later, I pulled into the psychic place with Danny in the passenger seat.
"I should have known I wouldn't drive." I chuckle as we walk in.
"Come in, come in. Madame Esmeralda can feel your bond. This relationship is very strong, and it will yield many children." I look at the woman as if she were crazy.
"Us? No." I said, while Danny started talking.
"No, we, uh... No, I don't think that that's ever gonna happen."
"No, um, not that you have any reason to sense this, but we're not here for a reading." I pull my badge from my belt and show it to her.
"Please sit down." She says.
"Uh, we actually would like to know about a reading that you have Billy Keats and Nicole Carr." Danny says as we take our seats.
"I see many people every day."
"I understand, um, but do you tell all of them that they're gonna be touched by death?" Her mouth parts slightly as she remembers what Danny is telling her.
"Okay, let's... let's just drop the act. We both know enough about interrogation technique to know that all you do is manipulate people into offering information about themselves that you feed back to them." I finish speaking with a small sigh.
"Esmeralda also knows a thing or two. First thing is you can't force me to talk to you."
"That's not what... We don't want to force you to do anything. Uh, we are here for your help. Uh, Billy Keats was murdered this morning and we thought maybe you could use your gift to help, uh, bring his killer to justice." Danny says, clearly sucking up to her.
She sighs and flips over one of her cards. "You want Esmeralda to talk, you pay for a reading."
"How much?" I ask, a small, annoyed smile on my face.
"50 bucks." I sigh and pull out my wallet, taking the money out and handing it to her. "The boy got a phone call during the reading. He didn't answer it, but, uh, it made him nervous. I could see the caller ID. It was from someone named Al."
Danny shrugged. "That's actually very impressive."
"Okay, what else?" I ask.
"After the reading, the boy stayed back. He told the girl he needed to pay, but I knew he wanted to ask a question. I told him I knew he had secrets. I told him he can ask me anything."
"And did he?" Danny asks.
"Yes. He asked me one question: 'Does he know?'" Danny and I look at each other, confused.
"Does who know what?"
"The universe hasn't shared the answer with me. Whatever it was, I sense it contributes to his death." I laugh and nod my head to Danny as a signal for us to leave.