Honolulu, Hawai'i, Wednesday morning [NFB]

[grenadesandohana]

Steve and Danny had caught a few hours of sleep in their office after Jerry had figured out the small carved ivory pieces were pawns from an 11th Century chess set, and Chin set their insane McGuffin database searching to see if something like that had ever been seen in Hawai'i.

(Steve didn't know how Jerry had figured that out about the chess piece. He suspected it had involved a reverse image search on Bing, then a lot of Antiques Roadshow binging.)

He rubbed grit from his eyes and was starting up the coffee when Chin finally called them in with a hit.

"A young Kahala couple--Steve and Marissa Blake--disappeared, along with several high-priced items including an 11th century-style walrus ivory chess set, about eight years ago," he said as the photo of the chess set flickered onto their computer screen. "Look familiar?"

"Yeah, those are identical to the ones we recovered from the mouths of our victims-slash-also murderers," Steve replied. "Were there any suspects in this case?"

"One," Chin said with a pleased smile. "A Pierre Shaw, 32 years old. Recently paroled for possession of stolen goods."

"Looks like we're going to pay a visit," Steve said. "Danno, with me."

Comments

[hatesparadise]

"Yeah, yeah," Danny said, grabbing a malasada for the road. "I don't miss these kinds of cases in Maryland."

[grenadesandohana]

"At least we're not ponies, too," Steve said, ignoring Jerry's "What?!" as they left the office. "I'm driving," he added unnecessarily.

[hatesparadise]

Poor, poor Jerry. He didn't deserve this.

"The sky is blue," Danny replied. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were saying obvious things."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve grinned. "And the weather is perfect," he added.

Because Hawai'i.

[hatesparadise]

"Putz," Danny said with a snort.

[grenadesandohana]

"You love me," Steve declared, settling in behind the wheel.

[hatesparadise]

"I do," Danny agreed, buckling in. "You're still a ridiculous man."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve had barely begun to be ridiculous today, Danny!

They pulled up in front of a fifteen-story tall apartment building. "He was on twelve?" Steve confirmed.

[hatesparadise]

Danny took a deep breath as he looked up. "Don't even think about the stairs."

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, not on the way up, at least," Steve said with a grin, heading inside.

[hatesparadise]

Danny rolled his eyes, following after him. "We get anything from his parole officer?" he asked as they stood at the elevator.

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, he wasn't surprised to hear from Grover, so that's probably not a great sign," Steve said.

He wasn't going to call for backup, though. Don't be crazy.

[hatesparadise]

Of course not!

"He doesn't seem like a criminal mastermind," Danny said, thinking it over. "Not from the record, at least. Just lucky he wasn't caught sooner."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve nodded as they got into the elevator, then went silently to the 12th floor and headed down the hallway.

[hatesparadise]

Danny paused at the door to Mr. Shaw's apartment, listening for a moment once they were outside. It sounded like a muffled conversation inside. "Well, that's interesting," he muttered quietly to Steve.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve silently pointed to a camera placed above the door, raising his eyebrows, before he rapped sharply on the door.

[hatesparadise]

Nothing happened right away. In face, it was long enough for Danny to knock too. And only then did a flustered looking man appear at the door.

"Sorry, I was on the phone. Can I, uh, help you guys?"

Nothing suspicious here at all.

[grenadesandohana]

"Yeah, Five-O," Steve said, flashing his badge. "We're just wondering if we can ask you a couple of questions."

[hatesparadise]

"Now's not really a good time. I was just on my way out," he said like that would deter them or something.

"It won't take long at all," Danny replied, glancing over at Steve.

[grenadesandohana]

"I'm kind of in a rush," the suspect said as Steve shoved the door open with his shoulder and invited himself in. "The conditions of your parole allow us to drop in whenever we want," Steve said. "We want to drop in right now." He glanced around the apartment. "Is that gonna be a problem?"

[hatesparadise]

Danny made sure to keep their suspect between them as he followed on into the place.

"No," Shaw said like he didn't have anything else he could say. Which was true, honestly.

"Anybody else here besides you?" Danny asked.

[grenadesandohana]

"No, sir, I live alone," Shaw replied, looking at Danny. "Look, I really don't know why you guys are here," he said. "I've been clean since I got out."

Somewhere almost out of earshot was a muffled thump. Steve barely caught it, tilting his head slightly. "Steven and Marissa Blake," he said. "Young couple, went missing about eight years ago. You were a suspect in the case."

[hatesparadise]

Danny tilted his head that way in acknowledgement, but kept his eyes on Shaw.

"Yeah, that's right, Shaw said, shifting anxiously. "HPD accused me of ripping 'em off, and making 'em disappear. But it was crap. And they never found no bodies or any of the stuff that went missing."

"Yeah, till now," Danny said.

[grenadesandohana]

"Yeah, one of the things that went missing was an ivory chess set," Steve said, holding his phone screen out with a picture of the pawn on it. "And that right there is one of the pieces."

The muffled sound he'd half-heard was suddenly much louder. "Somebody!" came a female voice. "Help! I'm in here!"

Shaw bolted, crashing through the sliding glass door and scrambling over the railing. "Danny!" Steve cried, pointing to the sound of the voice and following Shaw out the door.

[hatesparadise]

"It's the twelfth floor!" Danny shouted after him, but went to find the woman shouting for help. A gag loose around her neck and still chained up. "You're safe, okay? You're safe. I'm with Five-O. Everything's gonna be all right."

He tested the restraints to see if he could get them off in the moment.

"I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?" he said as the woman sobbed in relief at being found.