Authors:
Chin’s feet were killing him. He had spent most of the morning walking all over the University of Hawaii’s campus trying to come up with anything useful. In talking with people about Susan Carver, he found out that her life revolved around her schoolwork and her boyfriend. She seemed to be well liked by both students and faculty.

Chin also checked up the roommate and discovered that Meredith Brown was an average student who was a notorious partier and was said to have a new boyfriend every night. While a little wild, Brown had a solid alibi as multiple students confirmed her presence at a party at the time of the murder.

Richard Mint was the interesting one. According to his transcript, he was a brilliant student but his fellow students admitted that he never showed up to class. He never lacked for money and Chin began to get the impression that he used his money and his name to get whatever he wanted. However, Mint did have a redeeming attribute as everyone he talked to agreed that he was faithful to Carver.

When Chin was about to call it a day the report from the lab came in. The bat was confirmed as the murder weapon and it had been wiped clean. The prints in the room where all identified as belong to Carver, Brown, a few female friends, and a man named Brian Cain.

After some more digging, Chin discovered that Cain was another student and a close friend of Richard Mint. But unlike the other students, no one had any recollection of him ever visiting the women’s dorm. When Chin sought Cain out at his dorm room, he also discovered that no one had seen him since yesterday afternoon.

When further searching yielded no results, Steve ordered Chin to visit the Last Call Bar to check Mint’s alibi. As Chin pulled up to the bar, he could tell that it catered to college students with a Bohemian-like atmosphere.

Entering the bar, Chin noticed a young woman wiping down the tables and approached her. “Miss, my name’s Kelly, Five-O.” Chin flashed his badge and continued, “I need to talk to someone who was working last night.”

The woman straightened and gave him a perky smile. “I was working last night so I’ll help if I can though I don’t know what you’d want to know from me. Wait a minute, is this about poor Susan?”

“Did you know Susan Carver?”

“Yes, she came here with Richard Mint a lot. I can’t believe that someone would want to kill her. She was such a nice girl.”

“Were they here last night?”

“Richard was here until closing but he does that a lot. He’s one of our most loyal customers…”

There were some days that Chin wasn’t sure that Steve didn’t do this on purpose. As a father of six, Chin was known as a man of patience but, as the witness continued to rumble about how Mint came to the bar all the time and preceded to give him details of every last visit, Chin realized that even his patience had limits.

Finally, when the woman paused to breathe, Chin was able to get a word in. “Miss, can you just tell me if there was anything different about last night?”

“Well,” the woman mused. “Yes, there was. Richard was by himself. It was weird that Susan wasn’t with him. I had wondered if they had a fight or something.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well he was just sitting there. He looked like he didn’t want to be here but he just keep ordering drinks until Brian came back.”

Following this woman’s train of thought was giving Chin a headache. “Brian?”

“Brian Cain. Him and Richard are best friends; you hardly see one without the other…”

Chin jumped in before the waitress could go off on another tangent. “You said Brian came back.”

“Yes. Richard and Brian showed up together but Brian didn’t stay. He came back right later and the two of them talked until closing.”

Finally, some useful information! “Do you remember the time when Brian left and returned?” Chin asked eagerly.

“I don’t know…wait! They showed up right after the band started playing. So that would be about ten-thirty. Brian came back when they when the band finished playing which I thought was odd as they are one of our more popular groups but maybe he didn’t like the music. Oh, your question. The band stops playing at midnight so that’s when Brian returned.”

Chin thanked the young woman and walked briskly out of the bar. While Mint’s alibi had held up, Cain was absent during the time of death which made him their prime suspect. However, the meetings with Mint suggested that if Cain committed the crime Mint may have been involved as well. Regardless, Chin’s feet wouldn’t be getting a rest anytime soon.

*~*~*

As Danny stood in the McGarrett’s office listening to Kono’s report he tried not to think about what would have happened if Kono hadn’t showed up. The whole situation didn’t feel real to him and as Kono related the events it was like they had happened to someone else.

McGarrett didn’t appear fazed by the news. “Good work, Kono. Chin found out that another student by the name of Brian Cain was seen in the company of Mint before and after the time of murder. I want the book on him.”

“Right, Boss.” Kono turned and left the room.

“Sit down, Danno.”

As Danny took a seat he ventured a question. “Mr. McGarrett, what’s going on?”

McGarrett answered, “First, it’s Steve. Second, we’re investigating a family that’s used to having things go their way. Attempting to buy you off is nothing unusual for these individuals.”

Danny nodded. “Is that why you had Kono watching me?”

McGarrett, no Steve, sighed and said, “I was afraid of something like that happening, yes. Danno, I need you to be extra careful for awhile. This family isn’t going to give up lightly.”

Danny was so shocked by the seriousness of Steve’s words that he could barely answer, “Okay, Steve.”

“Are you armed?”

“No, I don’t to carry around my .38 when I’m off duty; it’s conspicuous.”

“What would you have done if you had been threatened with a gun instead of offered a bribe?”

Realizing the implications of Steve’s question, Danny answered softy, “I don’t know.”

McGarrett opened a drawer and pulled a gun and holster and laid them on his desk. “It’s a .22 and it fits in the ankle holster. I want you to take it and carry it when you’re off duty.”

Danny was taken aback. “I can’t accept this.”

“I didn’t ask you to,” Steve stated firmly. “I gave you an order and I expect you to obey it.”

Admonished, Danny picked up the holster and strapped it to his ankle. He then picked up the gun and checked it before placing his holster. Standing up, he shifted his weight to get used to the feel of the gun; it didn’t feel like it would impede his movements at all.

Steve watched him a critical eye and when Danny finished he said, “Ralph will help you go through the mug books. If you can’t find the man who approached you, send for a police artist.”

Danny nodded and walked out of the office. As he picked up the mug books from McGarrett’s second-in-command and starting looking through them he attempted to make sense of the whole afternoon.

Someone was concerned enough about Mint’s arrest to pay him an obscene amount of money to make it go away. Danny didn’t know what made him more furious: the fact that someone thought that he could be bribed or that the same person failed to realize the seriousness of drinking and driving. Mint could have easily killed himself, could have easily killed someone else, and someone thought they could just make the crime go away by throwing money after it.

So many people felt that it was their right to do whatever they wanted and never took a moment to think of the consequences. They never took a moment to remove their selves from their drunken glee and consider that the driver of the car they just hit was a single mother of a seventeen year old boy.

Stop it! Danny couldn’t afford to let his personal feelings get in the way of this case. Mint was the not the unnamed person who had killed his mother. He needed to focus on the here and now, especially in light of Steve’s cryptic warning.

Danny wished he knew what exactly it was that was making HPD so scared, what was making McGarrett concerned enough to have a detective tail him and require him to wear a back-up piece. These were not the normal procedures in a case like this. Something must have happened in the past to cause everyone to be acting this way.

However, there was nothing that he could do about it so Danny continued to look through the mug books. When he about two-thirds of the way through the second book, Danny saw the face of the man who approached him earlier.

“Detective Irons.”

Ralph Irons looked up from a pile of notes on Mint’s financial transactions and looked over at the young HPD officer who had called his name. “You found him?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ralph walked over and looked at the man Williams was pointing at: Su Ling, a small time crook with no connections to any of the major gangs. He was slightly disappointed as this meant that he was likely just hired for this job and Ralph knew that the likelihood of tying him to the Mint family was very small. “May,” he called out. “Find the Su Ling file and give it to Steve.”

The secretary nodded and Ralph gestured for Williams to take a seat in his cubicle. The young man’s eyes where immediately drawn to the papers strewn across Ralph’s desk. “What are you doing?”

Ralph smiled. “Looking at Mint family’s bank accounts for any irregularities.”

Danny looked interested. “Have you found any?”

“Not yet. If you haven’t guessed it’s a lot of information to wade through.”

“Can I help?”

Williams’ offer caught Ralph completely off guard. He could see the eagerness on the young man’s face and in his tone of voice and figured that it couldn’t hurt. Ralph handed him the sheet for Richard’s bank account and held onto those belonging to his father.

“You’re looking for patterns and anything that breaks that pattern, people that he gives a lot of money to, or simply anything that strikes you as an odd purchase for college-aged man.”

“Then what?”

“Then we make a couple phone calls and see if the expense is legitimate. If it is then we move on, if not, we dig deeper.”

Danny nodded and then picked up a pencil and started reading the paper closely. Ralph waited to see if the kid had any more questions but when it looked like Williams was comfortable with the task Ralph turned his attention back to his own papers.

While he was analyzing the accounts, Ralph noticed Chief Mike Dann and Lieutenant George Kainoa enter the room and walk into Steve’s office and knew that would be updating each other on the case and the situation with Williams. Normally, he would be included but Steve had wanted him to stay close to the rookie officer.

“That’s not the right address.”

Ralph looked at the listing Danny pointed to: a $2,000 purchase to a surf shop on the North Shore two days ago. “How do you know that?”

“I do a lot of surfing on my days off. There is a surf shop at that location but it doesn’t go by that name.”

“Call the shop and make sure they haven’t changed their name.”

“Right,” Williams said and he reached for Ralph’s phone. Ralph listened as the officer talked with the owner, got the store’s address, and asked if they had ever gone by the other name. When he hung up, Danny explained, “I was right. The address doesn’t match the name.”

Ralph handed the officer another number. “Ask them for the information they have on that company.”

“Who am I calling?”

“The IRS.”

Williams’ eyes widened but he dialed the number. He asked for the information and Ralph went back to his own work, knowing that Danny would be on hold for awhile. But if there was any information out there on a company you could count on it existing in the tax records.

Twenty minutes later, Danny started talking again. When he hung up he reported, “The agent I talked to said it’s a small business with one employee, a Brian Cain.”

Ralph couldn’t believe it. He’d been staring at these papers for hours and the rookie cop found the connection he had been looking for after looking at the numbers for a few minutes! “Good work, Danny. That shop’s a front for Mint to funnel funds to his friend.”

Danny thought things over. “You think Mint paid this Cain guy to murder that girl?”

“It’s a possibility. Cain was seen in the Mint’s company before and after the murder.”

Ralph stood up and told Williams to wait in his office. As he passed May’s desk, he asked her to keep an eye on kid for him. As Ralph slipped into Steve office he heard Steve finish relating the information Chin learned at the university to Chief Dann and Kainoa.

“In short,” Steve finished, “while we are still investigating other angles, Mint appears to be the only one with motive and opportunity. A family like his could be embarrassed by news of an out of wedlock child. And a man who feels that he’s entitled to everything could easily turn violent against someone who doesn’t give him what he wants. The only catch is he has a pretty solid alibi.”

Henry jumped in. “But you think he may have set something up through his friend Cain?”

“The evidence supports that theory,” Ralph said. “You’re not going to believe this; Williams found a money trail linking Mint to Cain that was hidden behind a false surfing company.”

Steve arched an eyebrow and held out his hand for the papers in Henry’s hand. As Steve looked over Danny’s notes his face became more serious. “Danno did this?”

“Yes. The kid is full of surprises.”

“Speaking of Williams,” Henry began. “Doesn’t his shift start in two hours?”

Mike stated, “I don’t want him out on patrol. Too many things could happen.”

“I somehow doubt that he’ll take too kindly to being put on the beach,” Ralph countered.

“My unit could use him,” Henry said. “A kid who can figure out an odd financial transaction in a matter of minutes is one I can easily put to work.”

After what Ralph had just witnessed, he had no doubt that Williams to be useful to HPD’s detective unit but Mike wasn’t sure, “That could have been luck.”

“We didn’t put him on the Kikeona case because he was lucky.” Henry argued. “Williams has a keen eye for detail. I can find him something he can do from a desk.”

Mike seemed to think over for a moment before agreeing. “It does give a reason to keep Williams inside without having to scare the boy.”

Ralph watched his boss as the HPD men talked and he could tell that Steve didn’t like the direction the conversation was taking. So he was surprised that Steve’s next words were relatively calm. “I don’t like it. Williams deserves to know what’s going on and the risks he taking.”

Henry defended his boss. “Williams is talented but he’s excitable. We need him to remain calm.”

Steve pushed back. “Ignorant he’s a greater risk.”

“He’s not your man, Steve. I’ve made my decision.” The Chief stood up and said, “I need to get back to the station. We’ll keep in touch.”

As the HPD men left, Ralph couldn’t help but think of the eager young man who had absolutely no idea about the mess he had wandered into. “Charles Mint is not going to give up after one try, Steve.”

Steve leaned back in his chair as he replied, “I know. But Mike doesn’t need to know that I already told Danno that.”