Chapter 7 - Tension
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As Danny's fingers deftly moved amongst the wires the pressure to disarm the bomb quickly mounted. Grabbing the wire cutters, Danny cut three wires and then considered the next step as he took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. He knew that he needed to identify solutions and act; the last thing he could afford to do was second guess his decisions. There were enough other people who doubted him and his abilities, who believed that he was not the man for the job.
But in the end, the pressure to overcome those doubts and affirm the trust that others had put on him was nothing compared the pressure Danny placed upon himself. He had to disarm this bomb, because if he failed innocent people would die.
There had been days when being in the office was long and tiring, days when there seemed like there was never enough time to get things done, and even days when he had seriously wondered if he would even make it out of the office alive. But never in Chin Ho Kelly's thirteen years of working for Five-O had there ever been days when he was uncomfortable going to the office because of the tension caused by the people working there.
Chin was normally a very easy going man but he was getting very close to storming into the governor's office and screaming at the man who responsible for appointing Alexander Zar as the head of Five-O. Three days had passed since Zar had arrived; three long days in which the head of Five-O continued to refuse to even hear reasons why they should take on that case of the Chinese Jane Does. HPD was directed to take over and Danny, Chin and Kono were forbidden from even discussing the case with one another.
But none of them could let this case go.
Kono spent all his time working on tasks that Zar assigned to cover for the fact that Chin and Danny weren't always following his explicit directions. Chin continued to work through his contacts in Chinatown while Danny stayed in contact with Ben Kokua, who was officially in charge of the investigation, feeding Ben any new information they received while keeping up to date with what HPD found. Chin managed to investigate in-between his normal work but Zar was suspicious of Danny and kept him so busy that Danny had to work the case in his time off.
Both Kono and Chin were worried about Danny, but they also knew that nothing was going to stop him from discovering the truth. Chin admired that quality in his friend while wishing that Danny would realize that after a while no amount of coffee was going to make up for all the sleep he was missing.
The phone on his desk rang and Chin received a break that they all desperately needed. One of his most reliable informants received information about a printer who had been approached about forging immigration paperwork for Chinese immigrants six weeks ago.
Writing down the relevant information, Chin passed the note to a weary looking Danny Williams who quietly grabbed it before heading out the door. There was no doubt in Chin's mind that Danny was leaving on another task from the boss that served little purpose other keeping the detective busy. Chin understood what the boss was doing, that the boss was establishing his authority over his team, but it didn't change the fact that it was a waste of Danny's talents to be giving him busy work. He and Kono handled most of that stuff or they got HPD to do it but there was no point in telling the boss that.
Chin heard the door to what he still considered Steve's office open and close and looked up to see Kono walk into his cubicle.
"Bruddah, we got problems," Kono whispered as he sat down in a chair across from Chin.
Chin gave the Hawaiian detective a look that dared to say something worse than what they were already dealing with.
"Da boss wants us crack down on all the major crime bosses in town, including da Vashons."
"How does he expect us to do that?"
"Bust out games, arrest their men, try and shut them down."
Puzzled, Chin countered, "That will disrupt their operations, maybe even make them shut down for a period of time but we will never catch the men running those operations if we work that way."
"I told da Boss dat but he didn't listen."
Chin shook his head in disgust. Was Zar incompetent? He couldn't believe that Zar came as highly recommended as he did if this was how he normally worked. Knowing that Kono was looking to him for guidance, Chin replied in resigned tone of voice. "Then we do what he says and maybe once he sees that his methods aren't working he'll start listening to us."
At least that's what they could hope.
Worn-out and stretched to the limit, Dan Williams had long passed the point of being effective and simply sat in his car, stared at the house in front of him without really seeing it, and waited for the sun to rise. He was supposed to watching the home of a mob boss because his boss had a hunch that the man met with his unidentified partner in the middle of the night. It was job that Danny considered to be absolute waste of time but, with Zar still smarting over their meeting, he knew better than to protest.
Besides, the alternate was to admit that the reason Danny didn't want to stay up all night on a stakeout was because he was exhausted from working a case behind his boss's back in addition to Five-O's regular caseload. The whole situation was absurd and Danny was beginning to think that none of this would have happened if he hadn't disappeared to mainland for six weeks.
When it neared six in the morning the rays of the sun began to peak over the horizon and Danny forced himself to wake up. Technically, he had the morning off to sleep but since he figured his body could last another twelve hours before crashing he had already set up a meeting with a few of his fellow co-conspirators at the county morgue.
After informing Central that he was leaving his post, Danny started the car and set off in search of a decent cup of coffee. His search was successful and, an hour later, Danny walked into the morgue with his third cup of coffee in hand.
"You look terrible," the crusty coroner stated without any preamble.
"Good morning to you too, Doc," Danny replied.
Looking around the room, Danny caught Ben Kokua holding back a snicker while Che Fong shook his head. Bergman, however, wasn't backing down. "When's the last time you had a decent night's sleep?"
Realizing that this would be over quicker if he cooperated, Danny answered truthfully, "Not since Steve died."
"Figures. Are you trying to follow him to the grave?"
Holding up his hands in surrender, Danny promised, "Once this case is over, I'll sleep as much as you want me to."
A snort told Danny how much Bergman believed that but the coroner got the hint and turned his attention to the case at hand. "I personally performed the autopsy on the girl."
"And?" Danny prompted.
"Cause of death is overdose from heroin but I did find some faint bruising on arms and elsewhere on the body."
"So she might have been held down?"
"Possibly," Bergman said. "I was able to place her age at fifteen and confirm that she had intercourse repeatedly before she died."
"Lending more evidence to our theory that she is a prostitute," Ben added. "So it possible that the bruises could have come from a customer or her pimp, not because someone killed her."
"I know it's a long shot to get a murder charge to stick," Danny admitted. "But if someone is dealing in underage girls we need to put a stop to it."
"She had dental work done so I was able to confirm that she is Chinese. Also, while her body shows signs of malnourishment, it's only recent." Bergman voiced went serious as he spoke softly, "I think she came from a home where she was taken care of before she ended up in an alley in Honolulu."
Danny felt sick and Che's and Ben's faces showed that he wasn't alone. "How did a girl whose family cared enough to take her to the dentist end up sold as a sex slave?" Ben asked incredulously.
Danny was thinking the same thing but he had learned a bit about human smuggling when he worked with the Coast Guard and shared the information. "She could have been tricked. Some slavers promise the girls that they are taking them to jobs in America, mostly as housekeepers or nannies, and the girls don't learn the truth until it's too late. You get a girl in a foreign country where she doesn't know the language and she won't have anywhere to go."
"That might explain why they fight back," Ben stated, referring to information Chin had received earlier.
"Disgusting," Bergman declared. "I thought I'd seen it all but…"
Che placed on a comfortable hand on the coroner's shoulder before beginning his report. "I ran her prints but couldn't find them in any system. But I was able to identify the ink used in her tattoo. The artist used a compound that's used by artists located mainly in one city: Singapore."
"Danny, you said the Rat was the guy Steve was investigating in Singapore?" Ben asked.
"Yeah," Danny answered as his brain worked through the implications of his hunch looking like it was correct.
"So the FBI wasn't lying," Ben added.
"Looks like it," Danny admitted. "Steve must have discovered something important and was killed to keep it a secret."
"Humph," Bergman replied. "That doesn't explain or excuse the FBI's methods."
Sensing that Doc was more upset by the events of the past month than he was letting on, Danny couldn't help but wonder what other emotions Bergman's gruff demeanor hid. Knowing that now wasn't the time to push further, Danny changed the subject. "Chin got a name of printer who may have been in contact with the slavers but we haven't been able to check it out yet."
Ben jerked his head toward the door. "What are we waiting on?"
After checking that no one else had any more information to share, Danny asked that official reports be sent to Ben at HPD and followed the HPD detective out the door.
A commotion on the docks caught the attention of everyone on deck. However, most just shrugged and went back to work but Steve McGarrett walked over to the railing to get to a closer view.
A teenage girl was speaking in rapid Chinese to a few of the workers on the dock and Steve didn't have to understand the language to understand the pleading tone in her voice. Steve started to move towards the ramp when a co-worker, an Englishman named Billy, placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "John, don't."
Steve looked at the man who had shown him the ropes when 'John Lorden' started this job. "Do you understand what she's saying?"
The way Billy looked away told Steve that he did and that he didn't want to translate. Steve looked again at the girl; she was young and skinny – too skinny – with long unbound black hair and bare feet. As Steve studied her, the girl turned and looked him in the eyes with gaze so haunting that it made the hairs on his neck stand on end.
A stinking feeling in his stomach told Steve that he have just discovered what Da Shu was smuggling into Hawaii when one of the thugs who had been guarding the next pier over came over and placed a firm hand on the girl's shoulder and took charge of the situation.
Steve glared at Billy and this time he translated. "He's says he's her uncle. They're immigrating to America but the girl is scared and ran off."
"Do you believe that?" Steve asked incredulously.
Billy's eyes reflected feelings of guilt as the cargo loader stated, "John, you seem like a nice guy but sometimes it is better not to ask questions."
Steve didn't answer; he didn't trust the words he would say. For as Steve watched the thug lead the girl away he felt like he was going to be sick. When he had been first told about smuggling operations he would have bet good money that they would be dealing with drugs. Never had he imagined that they would dealing with those who bought and sold human beings. He knew that the human smuggling trade existed but to be confronted with the reality was something entirely different.
Could Steve really be a man who just stood there as he watched a young girl be lead away into slavery?
It wouldn't help. Acting now to save the life of one person would do nothing to help the lives of the other girls that Steve now knew where somewhere on that ship. So while Steve might not immediately act he would never be the man who would do nothing at all. He promised to God and the innocents abroad that that ship would never unload its cargo in Honolulu. By the time that ship was ready to leave port, Steve would have a plan to stop it.
When the girl disappeared from Steve's sight, he remembered a report Chin gave right before Steve left Hawaii. Chin was investigating a series of suspicious deaths of Chinese girls and wondered if that investigation could be connected to what Steve was investigating in Singapore. If so, that knowledge gave him hope for it meant that when Steve was ready to reveal his presence, Five-O would be in a good position to stop the slavers.
Until then the girl's eyes would continue to haunt him.
As Ben Kokua looked over at his friend, he was glad that he had insisted on driving. Bergman wasn't the only one concerned about Danny's health, they all were, and the coconut wireless was full of stories of how Alexander Zar was making the life of his second-in-command difficult. Only yesterday Ben had been approached by a couple of HPD officers about joining a pool that was betting money on when Danny would either quit or be fired. Furious, Ben had given the officers a stern lecture but that didn't the change the fact that the majority of HPD only considered it a matter of time before Danny would no longer be a member of Five-O.
"Turn here," Danny ordered, breaking Ben out of his thoughts.
After following the directions to the shop, Ben asked, "What did Chin say?"
"That this guy's name is Jerry Wong and that six weeks ago he was approached about making some false immigration papers for a large group of Chinese."
That sounded suspicious and was definitely something that they needed to check out. Once parked, Ben followed Danny into the shop and let the Five-O detective take the lead.
Danny walked straight up to a short balding Chinese man. "Mr. Wong. Danny Williams, Hawaii Five-O. My companion is Ben Kokua, HPD."
Wong bowed in welcome. "Can I help you?"
"You were approached six weeks ago about creating false papers for some Chinese immigrants."
"I do not know where you got your information, Mr. Williams, but I only do not take illegal jobs."
"For your sake I hope so," Danny said sternly, "because if we find you assisted in a human smuggling operation you would be put away for a long time."
Wong's faced paled. "The man did not say that. He said he had a large family and their request to immigrate to the U.S. had been denied and he needed some papers made up so they could be reunited."
"Did you take the job?" Danny pushed.
"I considered it, I know what it is like to be separated from your family, but after I found out that his family included eighteen nieces I showed him the door."
Ben stepped so that he was standing closer to Wong. "If you were suspicious why didn't call the police?"
"How could have I? If these men sell children do you think they would hesitate to kill me?"
Ben looked at Danny and saw that they both sensed that Wong was telling the truth. "Can you give us a description of this man," Ben inquired hopefully.
"No. He was a man like any other. I do not remember."
Danny handed Wong a card, "Thank you for your help. If you think of anything please call."
Ben and Danny walked out of the store and took their seats in Ben's car. Ben placed his key in the ignition but didn't turn it on. "Eighteen," he murmured aloud.
"This is bigger than we imagined," Danny agreed.
"How can Zar refuse to take this case?" Ben declared his voice full of disbelief.
Sighing, Danny confessed, "I backed him into a corner. Once he said no the first time, Zar couldn't change his mind without looking weak."
"We can't – you can't – keep working like this."
"We won't," Danny promised. "We're going to go to your office and prepare a report with all the information we got today and when I meet with the boss at noon, I'll ask him to reconsider."
"What makes you think giving him more information will change anything."
"Because Zar is a cop and no cop is going to let a human smuggling operation move in on their watch, regardless of what others think."
Ben nodded and started the car but he couldn't help thinking that Danny gave Zar more credit than he did. However, Ben tried to have some of Danny's optimism and have hope they would all work together to put a stop to the slave trade in Hawaii.
But in the end, the pressure to overcome those doubts and affirm the trust that others had put on him was nothing compared the pressure Danny placed upon himself. He had to disarm this bomb, because if he failed innocent people would die.
There had been days when being in the office was long and tiring, days when there seemed like there was never enough time to get things done, and even days when he had seriously wondered if he would even make it out of the office alive. But never in Chin Ho Kelly's thirteen years of working for Five-O had there ever been days when he was uncomfortable going to the office because of the tension caused by the people working there.
Chin was normally a very easy going man but he was getting very close to storming into the governor's office and screaming at the man who responsible for appointing Alexander Zar as the head of Five-O. Three days had passed since Zar had arrived; three long days in which the head of Five-O continued to refuse to even hear reasons why they should take on that case of the Chinese Jane Does. HPD was directed to take over and Danny, Chin and Kono were forbidden from even discussing the case with one another.
But none of them could let this case go.
Kono spent all his time working on tasks that Zar assigned to cover for the fact that Chin and Danny weren't always following his explicit directions. Chin continued to work through his contacts in Chinatown while Danny stayed in contact with Ben Kokua, who was officially in charge of the investigation, feeding Ben any new information they received while keeping up to date with what HPD found. Chin managed to investigate in-between his normal work but Zar was suspicious of Danny and kept him so busy that Danny had to work the case in his time off.
Both Kono and Chin were worried about Danny, but they also knew that nothing was going to stop him from discovering the truth. Chin admired that quality in his friend while wishing that Danny would realize that after a while no amount of coffee was going to make up for all the sleep he was missing.
The phone on his desk rang and Chin received a break that they all desperately needed. One of his most reliable informants received information about a printer who had been approached about forging immigration paperwork for Chinese immigrants six weeks ago.
Writing down the relevant information, Chin passed the note to a weary looking Danny Williams who quietly grabbed it before heading out the door. There was no doubt in Chin's mind that Danny was leaving on another task from the boss that served little purpose other keeping the detective busy. Chin understood what the boss was doing, that the boss was establishing his authority over his team, but it didn't change the fact that it was a waste of Danny's talents to be giving him busy work. He and Kono handled most of that stuff or they got HPD to do it but there was no point in telling the boss that.
Chin heard the door to what he still considered Steve's office open and close and looked up to see Kono walk into his cubicle.
"Bruddah, we got problems," Kono whispered as he sat down in a chair across from Chin.
Chin gave the Hawaiian detective a look that dared to say something worse than what they were already dealing with.
"Da boss wants us crack down on all the major crime bosses in town, including da Vashons."
"How does he expect us to do that?"
"Bust out games, arrest their men, try and shut them down."
Puzzled, Chin countered, "That will disrupt their operations, maybe even make them shut down for a period of time but we will never catch the men running those operations if we work that way."
"I told da Boss dat but he didn't listen."
Chin shook his head in disgust. Was Zar incompetent? He couldn't believe that Zar came as highly recommended as he did if this was how he normally worked. Knowing that Kono was looking to him for guidance, Chin replied in resigned tone of voice. "Then we do what he says and maybe once he sees that his methods aren't working he'll start listening to us."
At least that's what they could hope.
Worn-out and stretched to the limit, Dan Williams had long passed the point of being effective and simply sat in his car, stared at the house in front of him without really seeing it, and waited for the sun to rise. He was supposed to watching the home of a mob boss because his boss had a hunch that the man met with his unidentified partner in the middle of the night. It was job that Danny considered to be absolute waste of time but, with Zar still smarting over their meeting, he knew better than to protest.
Besides, the alternate was to admit that the reason Danny didn't want to stay up all night on a stakeout was because he was exhausted from working a case behind his boss's back in addition to Five-O's regular caseload. The whole situation was absurd and Danny was beginning to think that none of this would have happened if he hadn't disappeared to mainland for six weeks.
When it neared six in the morning the rays of the sun began to peak over the horizon and Danny forced himself to wake up. Technically, he had the morning off to sleep but since he figured his body could last another twelve hours before crashing he had already set up a meeting with a few of his fellow co-conspirators at the county morgue.
After informing Central that he was leaving his post, Danny started the car and set off in search of a decent cup of coffee. His search was successful and, an hour later, Danny walked into the morgue with his third cup of coffee in hand.
"You look terrible," the crusty coroner stated without any preamble.
"Good morning to you too, Doc," Danny replied.
Looking around the room, Danny caught Ben Kokua holding back a snicker while Che Fong shook his head. Bergman, however, wasn't backing down. "When's the last time you had a decent night's sleep?"
Realizing that this would be over quicker if he cooperated, Danny answered truthfully, "Not since Steve died."
"Figures. Are you trying to follow him to the grave?"
Holding up his hands in surrender, Danny promised, "Once this case is over, I'll sleep as much as you want me to."
A snort told Danny how much Bergman believed that but the coroner got the hint and turned his attention to the case at hand. "I personally performed the autopsy on the girl."
"And?" Danny prompted.
"Cause of death is overdose from heroin but I did find some faint bruising on arms and elsewhere on the body."
"So she might have been held down?"
"Possibly," Bergman said. "I was able to place her age at fifteen and confirm that she had intercourse repeatedly before she died."
"Lending more evidence to our theory that she is a prostitute," Ben added. "So it possible that the bruises could have come from a customer or her pimp, not because someone killed her."
"I know it's a long shot to get a murder charge to stick," Danny admitted. "But if someone is dealing in underage girls we need to put a stop to it."
"She had dental work done so I was able to confirm that she is Chinese. Also, while her body shows signs of malnourishment, it's only recent." Bergman voiced went serious as he spoke softly, "I think she came from a home where she was taken care of before she ended up in an alley in Honolulu."
Danny felt sick and Che's and Ben's faces showed that he wasn't alone. "How did a girl whose family cared enough to take her to the dentist end up sold as a sex slave?" Ben asked incredulously.
Danny was thinking the same thing but he had learned a bit about human smuggling when he worked with the Coast Guard and shared the information. "She could have been tricked. Some slavers promise the girls that they are taking them to jobs in America, mostly as housekeepers or nannies, and the girls don't learn the truth until it's too late. You get a girl in a foreign country where she doesn't know the language and she won't have anywhere to go."
"That might explain why they fight back," Ben stated, referring to information Chin had received earlier.
"Disgusting," Bergman declared. "I thought I'd seen it all but…"
Che placed on a comfortable hand on the coroner's shoulder before beginning his report. "I ran her prints but couldn't find them in any system. But I was able to identify the ink used in her tattoo. The artist used a compound that's used by artists located mainly in one city: Singapore."
"Danny, you said the Rat was the guy Steve was investigating in Singapore?" Ben asked.
"Yeah," Danny answered as his brain worked through the implications of his hunch looking like it was correct.
"So the FBI wasn't lying," Ben added.
"Looks like it," Danny admitted. "Steve must have discovered something important and was killed to keep it a secret."
"Humph," Bergman replied. "That doesn't explain or excuse the FBI's methods."
Sensing that Doc was more upset by the events of the past month than he was letting on, Danny couldn't help but wonder what other emotions Bergman's gruff demeanor hid. Knowing that now wasn't the time to push further, Danny changed the subject. "Chin got a name of printer who may have been in contact with the slavers but we haven't been able to check it out yet."
Ben jerked his head toward the door. "What are we waiting on?"
After checking that no one else had any more information to share, Danny asked that official reports be sent to Ben at HPD and followed the HPD detective out the door.
A commotion on the docks caught the attention of everyone on deck. However, most just shrugged and went back to work but Steve McGarrett walked over to the railing to get to a closer view.
A teenage girl was speaking in rapid Chinese to a few of the workers on the dock and Steve didn't have to understand the language to understand the pleading tone in her voice. Steve started to move towards the ramp when a co-worker, an Englishman named Billy, placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "John, don't."
Steve looked at the man who had shown him the ropes when 'John Lorden' started this job. "Do you understand what she's saying?"
The way Billy looked away told Steve that he did and that he didn't want to translate. Steve looked again at the girl; she was young and skinny – too skinny – with long unbound black hair and bare feet. As Steve studied her, the girl turned and looked him in the eyes with gaze so haunting that it made the hairs on his neck stand on end.
A stinking feeling in his stomach told Steve that he have just discovered what Da Shu was smuggling into Hawaii when one of the thugs who had been guarding the next pier over came over and placed a firm hand on the girl's shoulder and took charge of the situation.
Steve glared at Billy and this time he translated. "He's says he's her uncle. They're immigrating to America but the girl is scared and ran off."
"Do you believe that?" Steve asked incredulously.
Billy's eyes reflected feelings of guilt as the cargo loader stated, "John, you seem like a nice guy but sometimes it is better not to ask questions."
Steve didn't answer; he didn't trust the words he would say. For as Steve watched the thug lead the girl away he felt like he was going to be sick. When he had been first told about smuggling operations he would have bet good money that they would be dealing with drugs. Never had he imagined that they would dealing with those who bought and sold human beings. He knew that the human smuggling trade existed but to be confronted with the reality was something entirely different.
Could Steve really be a man who just stood there as he watched a young girl be lead away into slavery?
It wouldn't help. Acting now to save the life of one person would do nothing to help the lives of the other girls that Steve now knew where somewhere on that ship. So while Steve might not immediately act he would never be the man who would do nothing at all. He promised to God and the innocents abroad that that ship would never unload its cargo in Honolulu. By the time that ship was ready to leave port, Steve would have a plan to stop it.
When the girl disappeared from Steve's sight, he remembered a report Chin gave right before Steve left Hawaii. Chin was investigating a series of suspicious deaths of Chinese girls and wondered if that investigation could be connected to what Steve was investigating in Singapore. If so, that knowledge gave him hope for it meant that when Steve was ready to reveal his presence, Five-O would be in a good position to stop the slavers.
Until then the girl's eyes would continue to haunt him.
As Ben Kokua looked over at his friend, he was glad that he had insisted on driving. Bergman wasn't the only one concerned about Danny's health, they all were, and the coconut wireless was full of stories of how Alexander Zar was making the life of his second-in-command difficult. Only yesterday Ben had been approached by a couple of HPD officers about joining a pool that was betting money on when Danny would either quit or be fired. Furious, Ben had given the officers a stern lecture but that didn't the change the fact that the majority of HPD only considered it a matter of time before Danny would no longer be a member of Five-O.
"Turn here," Danny ordered, breaking Ben out of his thoughts.
After following the directions to the shop, Ben asked, "What did Chin say?"
"That this guy's name is Jerry Wong and that six weeks ago he was approached about making some false immigration papers for a large group of Chinese."
That sounded suspicious and was definitely something that they needed to check out. Once parked, Ben followed Danny into the shop and let the Five-O detective take the lead.
Danny walked straight up to a short balding Chinese man. "Mr. Wong. Danny Williams, Hawaii Five-O. My companion is Ben Kokua, HPD."
Wong bowed in welcome. "Can I help you?"
"You were approached six weeks ago about creating false papers for some Chinese immigrants."
"I do not know where you got your information, Mr. Williams, but I only do not take illegal jobs."
"For your sake I hope so," Danny said sternly, "because if we find you assisted in a human smuggling operation you would be put away for a long time."
Wong's faced paled. "The man did not say that. He said he had a large family and their request to immigrate to the U.S. had been denied and he needed some papers made up so they could be reunited."
"Did you take the job?" Danny pushed.
"I considered it, I know what it is like to be separated from your family, but after I found out that his family included eighteen nieces I showed him the door."
Ben stepped so that he was standing closer to Wong. "If you were suspicious why didn't call the police?"
"How could have I? If these men sell children do you think they would hesitate to kill me?"
Ben looked at Danny and saw that they both sensed that Wong was telling the truth. "Can you give us a description of this man," Ben inquired hopefully.
"No. He was a man like any other. I do not remember."
Danny handed Wong a card, "Thank you for your help. If you think of anything please call."
Ben and Danny walked out of the store and took their seats in Ben's car. Ben placed his key in the ignition but didn't turn it on. "Eighteen," he murmured aloud.
"This is bigger than we imagined," Danny agreed.
"How can Zar refuse to take this case?" Ben declared his voice full of disbelief.
Sighing, Danny confessed, "I backed him into a corner. Once he said no the first time, Zar couldn't change his mind without looking weak."
"We can't – you can't – keep working like this."
"We won't," Danny promised. "We're going to go to your office and prepare a report with all the information we got today and when I meet with the boss at noon, I'll ask him to reconsider."
"What makes you think giving him more information will change anything."
"Because Zar is a cop and no cop is going to let a human smuggling operation move in on their watch, regardless of what others think."
Ben nodded and started the car but he couldn't help thinking that Danny gave Zar more credit than he did. However, Ben tried to have some of Danny's optimism and have hope they would all work together to put a stop to the slave trade in Hawaii.