Emily McGarrett's POV
We were on the road again before Danny spoke. "I am not saying that Madame Esmeralda was, in fact, the real deal. There are obviously bad apples in the bunch." I stop him right there.
"Okay, seriously. You, Danny Williams believe in psychics?" I look at him incredulously.
"Hey, listen, all I know is that when I was a cop back in New Jersey, there was a lady and she definitely had something. Uh, a gift." I chuckle.
"A gift?"
"Don't mock me. You gonna mock me? I know what I know, okay? There was this girl in Hoboken. She went missing, she was seven years old. We got no evidence. We got no leads, we got nothing. This lady, she came in. She lights a candle, she starts touching the girl's clothes, and then out of nowhere, all of a sudden, she takes us right to the kid. It was amazing."
"You sure she wasn't in on it?" I ask.
"In... what are you, impugning my investigative skills? We-we cleared her obviously. She had a gift." He looks absolutely offended.
"Okay, so let me get this straight, you do believe in psychics, but you don't believe in ghosts."
"That's correct."
"Oh, that makes sense. Totally." I say, sarcastically.
"What can I say? I'm complicated." I chuckle.
"That's quite the understatement." He scoffs and stays somewhat quiet the rest of the ride to the palace.
"Hey, guys." Steve says as we walk in through the glass doors. "So, I pulled Billy Keats' financials. Turns out his former team was still paying him."
"Okay, wait, his girlfriend said he left that team a few months ago." I say, confused.
"Right. And not only was the general manager keeping him on the payroll, he actually upped what he was paying him." Steve responded.
"Hold on." Danny stopped the two of us from speaking. "Who quits their job and gets a raise?"
"Very good question. The general manager's a guy named Al Reingold."
"Al. Al! The, uh, the psychic said that Billy ignored a call from a guy named Al and it made him nervous." Danny spoke quickly.
"Okay, well, that would make sense if Billy was taking hush money from Al." My brother now looks convinced.
"Hush money?" I ask. "For what?"
"Horse doping." Danny and I look at each other, confused.
"I like it, it's a good theory. Where did it come from?"
"Billy Keats left Al mid-season and for a rival team, I figured that Al wasn't paying him out of a goodwill gesture. So, I looked into who else was on Al's payroll and I found the name of a veterinarian from the mainland. This guy was busted for supplying racehorse owners with a performance enhancing drug called Dermorphin." I nodded while looking at the screen.
"So, you think he supplied Al with the same stuff for his polo ponies?" Steve nodded.
"Well, I mean, the guy was based in Nevada. I don't think he's going to be making house calls to Honolulu."
"Okay, so, uh, Al, he gets tired of being extorted, maybe he decides to wipe Billy off the books for good." Danny theories.
We all nod our heads in synch. "Danny and I will will go get him. You send us the address." Steven finishes before they walk out of the doors.
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"We got something?" Danny asks as he and Steve walk in from interrogating the suspect.
"Yeah, so forensics came back on the boot print you found at the scene. There was a logo on the sole: some kind of a crest." I answer while Kono highlights the crest on the bottom of the shoe.
"Did you track down the manufacturer?" Steve looks at me with slight concern.
"Yup." I whisper.
"Okay, good, please tell me that you can trace it back to Al." Danny exclaims.
"Uh, hate to be a buzzkill, but the boots were custom made for Spencer Madsen's team, not Al's." Kono admitted.
"The Diamond Head Club." Steven mentioned.
I really feel the need to be a sarcastic pain in the ass right now.
"Right, and, sorry again, Danny, but Al Reingold's alibi checks. He was at the horse auction on Molokai. He was placing bids all weekend and only got back in to Honolulu about an hour before you guys tracked him down." Kono says.
"You know, I really, really wanted Al to spend the rest of his life in prison. Son of a bitch almost got me trampled to death while a bunch of one percenters sipped champagne and cheered." I couldn't help the small smirk that appeared on my face.
"Kono, Emily, we gotta track down everybody with a pair of those boots." Steven looks at me briefly while speaking.
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The four of us stood in the Madsen's estate, the living room to be more precise.
I had given Mrs. Madsen the photo of the riding boots, who quickly knew what they were.
"I worked closely with the designer on these. The crest on the sole was my idea." She says to begin.
"My wife has always been a polo fan." Mr Madsen shares with us.
"It's why Spencer bought the Diamond Head Club. I still can't believe it, Billy was such a strong rider. It's just awful." I looked at Danny's facial expression, noticing he wasn't really buying into her whole pity party either.
"How can we help?" Mr. Madsen asks before we can tell him.
"We're gonna need a list of everybody with a pair of these boots." Steven says immediately.
Mrs. Madsen, Amanda, responds,"That's a long list."
"All the players have them, of course, but we also give them as gifts. So, there have to be what, Amanda? A few hundred pair floating around the island?"
"At least." She responds to her husband.
"What about video surveillance?" I begin. "You must have security."
"Absolutely. There's nothing up on the practice field, but there are cameras at every gate." Amanda replies.
Danny continues with the questioning, "Whoever hung up that garroting wire had to have done it after the team practice last night and before Billy rode this morning, so something maybe on film?" He looks to Steven as he finishes.
"Yeah, I'd like Officer Kalakaua to go over that footage."
"Of course, I'll call our head of security and make arrangements."
"Great, thank you." Steve replies. Mr. Madsen nods his head before walking to the other side of the room, just as the door opens.
"Dad, what's going on? I heard Billy was killed in an accident. Is it true?" I felt pity for this kid, not even knowing him.
"It's true, Jake. But these folks were just telling us that it... it's not an accident."
"Jake, these are investigators from Five-0. They're looking into Billy's murder." Amanda says to him.
"Murder?" He asks. "What happened?" He looks towards us, but Steven answers.
"Billy was up on the practice field and he... he rode into a garroting wire." He looked even more confused.
"What?"
"Jake, Billy's been decapitataed." Steven says more bluntly.
"Oh, my god." He says out of shock. He takes a seat in one of the many chairs placed in the room.
Kono decides to elaborate,"The wire was strung between the goalposts. Someone targeted him."
"It's not him, me." We all look at each other with slight confusion.
"Jake, what are you talking about?" I ask him.
"It was supposed to be me out there this morning. Billy and I traded practice times."
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Almost an hour and half later, we were all on our way back to the Madsen Estate. After discovering that Jake Madsen was kidnapped as a child, and tortured, only to get away and later testify against his kidnappers, we got a call from Steve saying that their car blew up.
"Amanda was right there by the blast." Kono begins as soon as Danny and I join her and Steve. "She's in critical condition."
"What about Jake?" Steve asks.
"He was still conscious when the paramedics took him. He should be released pretty quick." She replies as we walk toward the crispy SUV.
"And what kind of protection does he have?" Danny asks.
"Oh, I sent three unis with him."
"Danny, track down our kidnapper, Randy Thorpe. Em, you're with me."
"I'm going with Danny." He gives a small sigh of defeat before nodding us off.
"What was that about?" He asks as soon as we get into the car.
"Haven't you heard? Doris is here." He nods his head.
"Steve told me earlier."
"She is staying with us, well, Steven. I'm booking a hotel for however long it takes." Danny looks at me from the driver's seat.
"You really despise her that much?" He questions as we turn toward Thorpe's last credit card transaction.
"Despise is a light term, I hate that woman." Danny nods his head in slight acknowledgement.
"Well, you are staying with me, however long it takes." I smile at his gesture.
"Danny, you are quite generous, but I can't do that." He shrugs his shoulders.
"Why not?" We pull into the parking lot of a small hotel, that honestly looked as if it could fall down.
"Because, I don't need your pity." He chuckles.
"It's not pity, I just want to have an ongoing movie marathon with my friend." I chuckle slightly.
"Are you sure?" He nods his head.
"Grace comes back on Friday, and if you stay that long, she will love it. But yeah, I'm sure." I smile at him.
"Mahalo." He nods his head and pulls his phone from his pocket and dialing a few numbers.
"Got a hit on our suspect Randy Thorpe's credit card. He just used it to check into the Paradise Motel, which, by the way, looks nothing at all like paradise." I chuckle as I hear Danny speak to who I'm assuming is Steven on the other line. "Yeah. As we speak."
Danny places his phone in the center console before turning back to me, "he's on his way." I nod my head.
"Who do you think killed Billy?" I ask.
"Don't make speculations, Emily." I smile.
"They're not speculations, they are just guesses."
"Pretty sure that's the same thing." I scoff.
"Okay, so you and I both take a guess, whoever loses has to buy beer for the entire time I stay at your place." I see the smile rise on his face.
"Okay, you first." He says.
"I think Amanda did it." I reply with a certain smile on my face.
"Amanda Madsen? Really?" I nod my head. "I think it was Spencer." I shrug my shoulders as he looks at me.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and find out." He nods after I finish speaking.
Steven shows up a few minutes after our small debate starts. He knocks on Danny's window and gestures for us to hurry.
We go to the trunk and quickly get our vests on and more rounds if we need them.
Running along the concrete, outdoor hallways, we each canvas the area on the way down, as well as telling a few people to go back to their rooms.
I stand in front of the grey painted door as Steve and Danny got lower, ready to shoot. I knock on the door. "Randy Thorpe, Five-0!"
Danny looks at me, stemming slightly shocked at my outburst of anger, but brushed it off when I kick the door in.
"Hey! Five-0! Don't move!" Steven shouts.
They always move.
He runs through the other room and straight through the window in the bedroom. Without much hesitation, I follow.
"No, no, no! I don't. . ." I don't hear Danny finish as I am already on the ground, and chasing Thorpe.
After jumping over a fence and landing on my back, I jump up and continue after him. I hear a few tires screeching in the back of my head as Thorpe dives right into traffic.
He dodges them quickly, and after finding a route, I do too. "Emily, where are you going? He's over here." I'm not quite sure as to what Danny was referring to, but I continued straight across the road and tackle him over the small bridge rail and right into the water.
"Hey." I say to Danny and Steve as they approach the top of the bridge. I stand up, noticing how shallow the water actually was. "Could I get a hand here?"
"Not one of mine, you can't." Danny says stubbornly. "Hey, they're riding back with you, okay?" Danny tells more than asks Steve. He then turns to me,"And you know that's water's polluted, right? You're definitely taking a shower before tonight."
"What's tonight?" Steven asks.
"None of your business, now take this idiot away from me." I let go of the choke hold I had him in when I give him to the paramedics and then go to another one myself.
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Emily McGarrett's POV
I stand in my office, a needle in a small jar of antibiotics as I take out the appropriate amount. Danny walks into my office a few seconds after I have the amount.
"Hey."
"If I jumped in, you'd be giving two tetanus shots, okay? Why do we both have to suffer?"
I chuckle slightly at his rant before quickly placing the back side of the needle into my mouth and then unbuckling my pants and pulling them down slightly.
"Oh, whoa, whoa. What are you doing? Can you please just put it in your arm like a normal human?" He asks incredulously, but still continues to stare at me as I move my jeans lower on the right side of my body, enough so that you could see my lacy undergarments.
"You're such a girl, Danny." I grab the needle from my teeth as I speak. "Just turn around or something."
"I never said I minded." I chuckle as I pull my shirt up from where it was before sticking the needle into my hip.
"Hey, how are things going downstairs with Randy?"
"The 'good cop' routine is not working. Steven decided he'd give 'bad cop' a whirl, you coming?" I shake my head and gesture to my wet clothes on the chairs in my office.
"I'm going to take care of those really quick. Go have fun." He chuckles, walking out the large glass door.
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