Authors:
The news was on everyone’s lips as Danny came to work. McGarrett had arrested Richard Mint last night and charged him with first degree murder. There was a general sense of disbelief and anticipation as no one seemed to be very productive. Danny tried to ignore it all as he had already discovered that no one was willing to discuss these matters with him. It was like his association with Mint was a bad cold that they were afraid of catching.

Danny really tried to not let it bother him but he was failing miserably.

However, there was some good news as Danny was making good progress on the cargo manifests and was narrowing down the possibilities for Kainoa to search. He was hopeful that he would be able to finish the project by the end of the work day.

A growl in his stomach reminded Danny that it was time for lunch. So he set down the manifests and walked toward the break-room. As he approached the room he heard a voice was complaining loudly, “I chased him through several hundred feet of brush before I caught him. I’ve got the scratches and a torn uniform to prove it.”

“Sounds like a walk in the park,” a deep voice joked.

“If it’s so easy you do it. You’d think after twenty years on the force I’d be beyond chasing suspects through the underbrush.”

“Yeah,” another voice called out, “can you believe they got that rookie Williams sitting at a desk?”

Danny froze outside the door, too afraid that they would think he was eavesdropping to enter the room, too curious to move back.

“I hear you,” the original speaker answered. “They baby these kids now-a-days.”

“Whenever we got ourselves in trouble we got ourselves out. A cop who can’t protect himself is a worthless one.”

Hardly daring to breathe unless they would hear him, Danny listened as a chorus of voices voiced their approval at the last statement. Then someone slammed a locker door shut and a new voice entered the conversation. “If Williams’ job is so cushy which one of you is going to volunteer to trade places with him? I haven’t forgotten what happened to Leota or Mason.”

“Mason’s death was ruled an accident.”

“That’s not my point and you know it.”

“Still I don’t remember McGarrett running in to save their hides.”

“McGarrett wasn’t…”

An angry sounding voice speaker interrupted Danny’s defender. “Answer me this. How many guys on the force does McGarrett have pet names for? Don’t try and convince me that McGarrett’s not playing favorites. There’s no way he go to bat for me the way he has for his precious little Danno.”

Danny had heard enough and he spun around and raced down the corridor before anyone could see him. Once he was a safe distance away, Danny leaned back against the wall and tried not to scream as he processed the conversation that he had just overheard.

Danny’s coworkers, the men he served with and risked his life alongside, thought that he was incompetent, that he was incapable of protecting himself, that he was receiving special treatment.

Most people would grab the opportunity to find out what others thought about them but Danny learned the hard lesson that it would have been better to have simply turned around and walked away. Now, he would have to work with people and wonder if they too were one of the ones who believed that he was a worthless cop. Now, he would have to decide if the people he considered his friends were really his friends at all.

Why was this happening to him? Why did McGarrett insist on calling him Danno? The Five-O detective should have known that such an outward sign of liking a particular HPD officer would lead to charges of favoritism. If only the officers who he overheard knew just how much “preferential treatment” he was really receiving. If only they knew that his cushy desk job was nothing more than a ploy to keep him ignorant of what was really going on.

Mason’s death was ruled an accident.

No one, not Chief Dann, not McGarrett, saw fit to tell him that he was risking his life by going up against the Mint family. If only someone had warned him maybe he wouldn’t have needed Kono to save his butt; he would have been prepared.

Danny was tired of cryptic hints and small pieces of information. That wasn’t enough, not if he was risking his life. But who was he to walk up to Dann or McGarrett and demand that they tell him exactly what was going on? He was a nobody, a rookie with three months experience, apparently not someone who could be trusted to know all the facts of a case.

What had to done to deserve this?

The hard truth was that the answer was nothing; Danny had only been doing his job. How could he have ever known that a simple DUI arrest would ever lead to so much trouble?

A familiar voice broke Danny out of his thoughts. “Aren’t you coming to lunch?”

Danny looked up and saw Ben Kokua. Normally, he would gladly eat with his friend but today the thought of being around his co-workers, some of whom hated him, made him lose his appetite. “I’m not hungry,” Danny murmured as he walked right on past Ben without saying another word.

*~*~*


Steve McGarrett sat with legs crossed in chair across from Attorney General Walter Stewart. As Steve watched the other man rifle through sheets of paper he asked seriously, “Do you think we have a case?”

Walter replied, “I wish we had more than circumstantial evidence.”

Privately Steve agreed but he doubted that it existed. “We just need enough to convince the judge to take it to trial.”

Walter nodded. “We should have that but I’d feel a lot more confident if you had been able to find Cain.”

“We’re looking,” Steve assured Walter.

Setting the papers aside, Walter concluded, “Well Steve, everything’s in order for the preliminary hearing tomorrow. We drew Judge Lawson and he’s reasonable. We just need to be ready for whatever tricks Goulart tries to pull. Unless you think he’ll save it for the trial.”

Steve rose as he answered, “No way. Charles Mint can’t afford to let this go to trial. The fact that things have been relatively quiet today tells me that he has something up his sleeve for tomorrow.”

“I’ll be as ready as I can be.”

“That’s all we can ask for.”

Steve just hoped that it would enough.

*~*~*


Somehow Danny had managed to make it through the rest of the day without falling apart. He took advantage of the fact that people were ignoring him and didn’t seek out human contact. The only conversation he had was when he finished up his project and turned it in to Lieutenant Kainoa. Kainoa than told him that there was a preliminary hearing for Richard Mint tomorrow and that he was to report to the courthouse first thing in order to briefed by the Attorney General. Danny acknowledged the order and then fled the station as fast as decorum allowed.

As Danny returned to his apartment he noticed one of HPD unmarked vehicles and knew that someone was watching him, most likely on McGarrett’s orders. It was no small wonder that the entire force didn’t think that he was incapable of taking care of himself surrounded as he was with protection.

Danny was in a foul mood as he stomped up the stairs and entered his dominion. He changed out of his uniform in record time and tried to calm himself down by smoking a cigarette on his lanai. A large part of him wanted to go out somewhere and blew off some steam but he didn’t dare; not when he would be followed for his own “good” anyway. No, if he wanted solitude he would have to stay in.

As Danny finished the first cigarette and was about to lit another he heard someone knocking on his door. Reluctantly, Danny moved to answer it but first he checked to ensure that he still had the .22 strapped to his ankle.

When Danny opened the door he was surprised to see Lew Morgan and Ben Kokua standing on the other side holding a pizza box. Lew smiled and asked, “Came we come in?”

Ben added, “We brought pizza. I know you didn’t eat lunch so I figured you’d be hungry.” Underlying Ben’s words was a suggestion that he was worried about the way that Danny had acted earlier.

“Sure,” Danny said as let his two friends inside; he was no longer annoyed by the interruption and was internally grateful that he still had friends who were thinking of him. Though he wasn’t sure if he was more surprised by the fact that they had just shown up unannounced at his door or that they had shown up together; his two friends hadn’t started off on the best of terms and normally ignored one another so Danny figured that it must be a sign of how much they were worried about him that they had come to together for him now.

Danny grabbed plates while his Ben and Lew found seats at the table. They made small talk as Danny devoured three slices of pizza but as he ate Danny couldn’t shake the sense that his two friends were purposefully avoiding discussing the elephant in the room. Finally, Danny blurted out, “Why are you really here? Did McGarrett order you to check on me?”

Two guilty faces looked back at him as Ben answered, “Nobody told us to come; we sort of thought you’d be more worried about the trial tomorrow.”

“No, I’m not worried. It’s just the prelim so I doubt it’s going to be anything major.”

“They haven’t warned you!” Lew exclaimed.

Danny’s cops instincts clicked in as he turned toward Lew. “Warned me about what, Lew?”

Lew and Ben exchanged a look that suggested that they were debating what they could or should say next. After a few moments of silence, Lew stated seriously, “No one has ever gotten a charge to stick on a member of the Mint family, ever. Not even for a parking ticket.”

Ben looked solemn as he said, “A couple of years ago, before Hawaii was a state, John Leota refused to back down over a speeding ticket. Said Charles Mint was speeding and that he should pay the fine. Mint ruined him, some people came forward and accused him of police brutality, it was all over the media. Chief Dann was certain the charges were false but they couldn’t proof it so they had to let him go. Bruddah, had four kids. Couldn’t get a job anywhere on the island and so they moved to the mainland.”

“One other officer caught his wife illegally parking and wrote a ticket. Later he got a call informing him of just who he had ticketed. That officer apologized so fast and then revoked the ticket. Chief Dann was furious when he found out that he made it clear that there was no place for him on the force.”

Danny could hardly believe what he was hearing. “That’s ridiculous. No one causes that much trouble over a parking ticket.”

“Believe it, Danny,” Ben said. “Besides, that’s not the worse instance. A year ago Detective Mason thought there were shady dealings going on at one of Mint’s construction sites. Before he could gather enough evidence to take to court he was killed in a car wreck. No one could prove that it was anything other than an accident but everyone wonders. No one on the force has been willing to touch the Mint family since.”

Lew agreed, “Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t. Things aren’t looking good, buddy.”

The looks on his friend’s faces told Danny that they were serious. Plus, what they were telling him made too much sense in the face of everything else that was going on. And that hurt.

The truth of the matter was that Danny was hurt that he had to receive the truth from his friends. Kealoha should have told him that first night. Chief Dann or Kainoa should have told him later. McGarrett should have explained to him why he had ordered him to carry the back-up piece. Did they not trust him? Did they think that if he knew that he would back out?

If his friends were right and the worst was coming, who would Danny turn to when the trouble came? It was looking like not HPD or Five-O. For if they couldn’t trust him with the truth, how could he trust them with his life?

Suddenly, Danny felt very alone.