Chapter 1 - Eventful Homecomings
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Edited by: Trish

June 1962

He was going home.

It seemed odd after so many years away, but as his plane slowly descended toward Oahu, Danny Williams knew that Hawaii had never really left him. He had been born and raised on the islands, as much as of a true Hawaiian as any haole could be. He lived for the sun, the surf, and the unique spirit of the islands. It hadn’t been by choice that Danny left Hawaii for the first time at the age of seventeen, but he was mainly to blame for only coming back for one year out of the last seven; a choice that he still looked back on with a small sense of regret.

While the tourists seated behind him chatted excitingly about what they were going to do when they landed, Danny considered his own options. He wanted to head straight to the beach and hit the waves, but he needed to rent a car and check out the apartment that Lew had found for him. Once he was settled in, he should prepare for his interview tomorrow with the local police. Chief Dann had sounded interested when they had spoken over the phone, and Danny was hopeful that he could land a position. Although, Danny had no idea what he would do if wasn't offered a job.

As the plane touched the ground, Danny leaned back in his seat and pushed his worries from his mind. He was home and that was enough for now.

*~*~*

Aimi Fumito lingered as she walked down the empty Waikiki streets in the pre-dawn light. Her friends often teased her about always having to open her uncle’s jewelry store, but privately she admitted to herself that this was her favorite time to be on the streets. All too soon tourists would wake up to see the famous Hawaiian sunrise and spend the day vacationing in the district, clogging the streets without a care or thought for those who worked and lived here. Nighttime was worse and Aimi had no taste for the type of nightlife that most of the tourists enjoyed. No, Aimi let her friends tease, but at least by opening the store she could enjoy a moment of peace in her home.

However, that peace quickly disappeared when Aimi reached her uncle’s shop. She immediately noticed that the door that should have been locked tight was slightly ajar. After a moment of hesitation, she opened the door only to be frozen by what she saw inside. The store was neat, everything appeared to be in its proper place, but all the jewelry was missing from their cases! The entire store was cleaned out; her family’s livelihood had disappeared overnight. It took every ounce of will Aimi had to back out onto the street, find a phone, and call the police.

*~*~*

With the police radio abuzz with the news on the latest jewelry heist in Waikiki, Detective Duke Lukela of the Honolulu Police Department was very glad that he wasn’t Steve McGarrett. Incidents in the tourist district were a political nightmare, not that Duke didn’t have his hands full with a theft case of his own.

It had started out of the blue: one night, three cars were stripped for parts right in downtown Honolulu. At first, no one thought anything of it, even though the cars were stripped where they were parked, instead of being hauled off to a chop shop. It was when the incidents continued night after night with no abetting that the public and the press began to complain, and loudly too. The audacity of leaving the stripped cars in the middle of downtown made Duke think that someone was purposely trying to make a statement.

The simple truth of the matter was if the thieves would have hauled the cars off to a chop shop, no one except HPD would have noticed the increased rate of thefts and they would have had a lot more breathing room to deal with the problem. Though if the thieves had a centralized chop shop, Duke reasoned, they probably would have caught them by now.

It was always tricky when someone tried to change the rules of the game.

HPD had responded by putting more men and patrols out in the area at night and they had even managed to catch a number of kids in the act, but the thefts continued unabated. And the kids they caught spoke of a very organized system: changing drop points, middlemen, and decent money in return for the goods. The problem was that none of these kids were able to provide information that would lead them to the man pulling the strings.

Duke had been on the case for three and a half weeks and it still felt like he was grasping at straws. That was why he feeling more than a little frustrated at being kept waiting outside the Chief’s office. He knew what the Chief wanted and his report would not have those answers in it. Duke would rather be out on the street, doing something, anything, to feel like he was making progress in this case. However, Duke saw his own internal frustration mirrored on the face of Lieutenant Henry Kainoa, Head of HPD Detectives, when he walked into the room.

“What happened?” he asked his boss.

The large, but built, hapa-haole man quickly poured a cup of coffee before sitting down in the chair next to Duke. “That kid,” he growled.

While there was a decent number of young cops on the force, Duke knew that there was only one officer that Henry could be referring to. “You mean Williams,” Duke said.

Henry shrugged as if to suggest who else.

“What did he do this time?” Duke asked as he remembered what happened last week when Henry responded to a call from a local residence. A woman had woken up and found her husband’s dead body in his study. Walking in on the scene and seeing the body, the gun, and the note, Henry had strongly suspected that the case would be ruled a suicide. He had been about to hand the scene over to the lab boys when a young officer that he hadn’t recognized asked to speak with him. The officer stated that the handwriting on the suicide note wasn’t that of the victims because it didn’t match the handwriting on another document he had seen. The officer’s comment had surprised Henry, but the greater surprise came when the lab had confirmed the officer’s suspicions. Within a few days, Kainoa’s men had been able to trace the note back to a business partner of the victim and the details of the murder started falling quickly into place. When Kainoa asked about the officer whose insight had sent them looking in the right direction, he had been shocked to find that the officer had been hired only the week before. Duke knew that Henry was slightly embarrassed by the whole incident by the way he labeled Williams’ insights as beginner’s luck.

“Did you hear we busted Rikko?”

Duke nodded; the coconut wireless worked quickly.

“Did you hear how?”

“No.”

“We got word that he was holed up in this dump in Palama. I go in with Nick and two squad cars. Rikko decides to be on his best behavior and doesn’t make a fuss as we search the place. Now, Williams was just to guard Rikko, keep him from trying anything.”

“What did he do?”

“While the boys were searching the place, I noticed that Williams kept taking quick glances up at the ceiling. Since his instincts helped us out last time, I asked him what he was looking at. He said that the one light didn’t appear to be giving off as much light as the others. Duke, I almost laughed right there, except Rikko turned as white as a sheet.”

“The drugs were in a light? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Fake light. I don’t understand how he set it up, but it only appeared to give off light.”

Duke shook his head slightly. This kid was good, maybe too good.

“Can you believe it, Duke? I mean who does this kid think he is, Steve McGarrett?”

Duke took a sip of coffee as he pondered his answer. Because no matter how much Henry griped, Duke knew that his boss didn’t bear Williams any ill will. His boss might look like a bear, but he had a soft spot for the men who served under him, especially the ones he growled about. The issue was that Henry saw the promise in the rookie officer, and his frustration came from the fact that Williams hadn’t been on the force long enough to justify a transfer into his department. It didn’t matter how talented the kid was, he needed to spend time on the street and out on patrol in order to learn some of the essential skills and harsh realities of working on a police force.

“Maybe,” Duke began, hoping to change the subject. “What’s the chance Dann is calling us in to congratulate you on the bust?”

Henry snorted. “Lower than zero. The noise is getting loud enough that the governor has taken notice. He wants this trend stopped and fast.”

Duke shook his head; he really didn’t like it when people started playing politics with police work. It was just a sign of how, to many, perception could matter more than the actual seriousness of the crime. And stripped cars sitting in the middle of downtown Honolulu didn’t look good to the tourists passing through.

The soft voice of Dann’s secretary broke Duke out of his thoughts. “Lieutenant Kainoa, Detective Lukela, the Chief will see you now.”

Downing the rest of his coffee in one gulp, Duke stood and pitched the cup while Henry did the same beside him.

“Please tell me you have good news, gentlemen,” Chief Dann said as they entered the room.

“Only bad, Chief,” Duke reluctantly admitted.

“How many?”

“Another six cars last night.”

“It’s an epidemic.”

Henry agreed. “Unfortunately, most of the local gangs seem to be in on it.”

“Tell me about it. We’ve sent more kids to juvenile hall this past month than the previous six months combined, and it still hasn’t made a dent in the thefts.”

“Someone’s throwing enough money around to make it worth the risk,” Duke stated.

The Chief shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense. There isn’t that much money to be made in car parts.”

“Somebody thinks there is,” Duke insisted.

“Humph,” sighed the larger detective next to him as he settled into a chair. When Duke glanced at his boss, Henry caught his eye and joked, “Too bad we couldn’t throw wonder boy at this one.”

Duke was about to laugh when an idea popped into his head. “Wait a minute…” he said slowly while trying to sort out his thoughts. “I think we just might be able to.”

In an instant Henry’s expression became serious. “Explain.”

“We know someone is pulling the strings of these gangs, but the kids we’ve caught aren’t talking or more likely they don’t know.”

“I agree.”

“The way I figure it is that we are dealing with a rigid hierarchy and that we’ll either need to catch someone fairly high up and the only way I see us succeeding is by getting one of our own men on the inside.”

Henry didn’t appear convinced. “Didn’t we have this conversation a couple of weeks ago?”

“Williams wasn’t on the force a couple of weeks ago,” Duke countered.

Chief Dann tapped a pen on his desk as he added, “Also, Williams hasn’t done much work downtown. He’s a new face.”

Henry appeared to be thinking it over. “Maybe, but that’s a lot of responsibility to put on a rookie.”

“Perhaps,” the Chief pondered, “but I have a hunch that Williams might be up to the task.”

Henry sent Dann a questioning look.

“Let's just say that his background includes some rather unique experiences."

"Alright, give," Henry said.

"Williams is a graduate of the Maritime Law Enforcement Academy and served as a Maritime Enforcement Officer with the Coast Guard for two years.”

Not bad, Duke thought. "How familiar is he with Hawaii?" he asked.

"Grew up here, studied for a year at the University of Hawaii."

Duke was impressed, but Henry seemed to battling different emotions. “You hired an officer with experience in international drug smuggling and didn’t tell me.”

Duke held back a retort, though he wasn't surprised by his boss’ statement. Since Five-O handled a lot of the homicide and other difficult cases, HPD’s detectives mostly tried to keep a handle on Honolulu’s growing drug problem; a job that Henry took very seriously. With that background, Duke knew that it would only be a matter of time before Williams would be brought into Henry’s fold.

Dann laughed as if he was expecting that reaction. “I wanted to give the kid some time to settle in first.”

"Kid," Henry stated. “Wait a minute, just how old is this kid, anyway?”

“Umm,” the Chief murmured. “Twenty-four, I think.”

“Doesn’t look it.”

Sensing that the Chief and his boss could go for hours, Duke quickly jumped in. “And that’s why we can use him.”