It
was seven in the evening when Gary pulled into the parking lot of the Iolani
Palace. Just as he was about to
park the car he saw Betty at the foot of the stairs that leaded into the
Palace. So he stopped the car next
to the curb where she stood. Her
back was towards him, and being taught to be a proper southern gentleman, he
got out of the car and walked over to her, “Evening Betty.”
“Hello
Gary, I didn’t see you pull into the lot.” she said with a smile as he led
to the passenger door. “Nice
car.”
“Thanks,
but it’s a rental for the moment. I
wasn’t sure what to do about a car for the short time that I will be here.”
He replied as he closed the door and headed to the other side of the car
to get in.
Betty
was a little nervous about this date, because it had been a while since she had
a man interested in her, but Gary had seemed be so nice on the phone.
After he left the office that afternoon, she finally finished composing
all the data on him for Williams to review to make sure everything was what it
was suppose to be.
Professor
Gary Shipp was a quiet man from North Carolina who taught History at two of the
Universities there, University of North Carolina and Campbell University. His annual income was about average for a college professor
and he owed money. The money he
owed was due mostly to his educational loans.
He
graduated from University of North Carolina with his Bachelors and East
Tennessee University with his Masters in History.
He was a military child who lived in Germany for about four years and
then back to the United States about the time his younger brother was born. Then he lived in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and a
couple of other states as a teenager.
Now
that Gary’s theory had been proven to be correct, he had become the hottest
commodity in the academy area. He
has received offers for positions at the Ivy League University, i.e., Duke,
Harvard, Barkley, Yale, Princeton, and others.
He had managed to get himself into a position where he could name his
own price and get it.
Some
of his likes were Chinese and Italian food, along with white chocolate and
popcorn. He enjoys all types of
pies and likes good company to share his time with.
His favorite color was blue.
He
has brown hair and eyes. Single
with no known long-term relationship. Average
height five foot eight inches and heavyset.
Gary is known be kind hearted and very caring to anyone he called friend
and/or loved one. He was strong
willed and determined. He was
known to make up his mind and stick with that decision and then there was very
little anyone could do to change it.
Betty
liked the fact that Gary had not lied about his being single and while he was
few years younger then her, that didn’t bother her. Of course, there were the visual factors that Betty began to
enjoy. But that didn’t need to
be verified, now that she has met the man in person. He was cute and very pleasant to observe and he had a voice
that was sexy, deep and comforting. Betty
felt that any woman could get lost when listening to him talk to them in more
romantic surroundings.
She
enjoyed his history lecture that afternoon and wondered ‘if she would learn anything in his classroom because his voice was
so smoothing to listen too and wonder what he was like in private.’
She could barely remember things from his lecture itself.
If it wasn’t for the fact that she had to transcribe the tape, she
would have missed half of what he said.
“So
Betty, where would you like to go eat?” Gary asked.
His
soft voice pulled Betty out of her haze. “What?
I’m sorry my mind was elsewhere.”
She smiled at him as she got lost in his brown eyes.
She could not tell ‘him she had
ideas about him that were not professional.
No, not professional at all, they were totally desired driven to get to
know him much more intimately. Much
more intimately.’ She smiled
to herself.
“I
asked,” he said smiling at her, “where would you like to go eat?”
“I
was thinking of oriental food at Uncle Lee’s.
It’s about five minutes from here.”
She saw he liked the idea and knew it was a good place to eat.
Not to expensive on a cop’s or a college professors pay.
“Is
it good? I love Chinese food?”
Gary started the car up and headed out of the parking lot.
“Yeah, the guys on the team get deliveries from there all the time. What I’ve had from there was pretty good.” Betty felt comfortable in the car, not because it was a nice car, but it was more due to the man she was with, he made her feel that way.
Betty
gave the necessary directions to Gary to get to the restaurant and they managed
to find a parking space right in front of the entrance.
When they entered, they were greeted by the maî-tre D’ and shown to a
table in a quiet corner.
What
Gary and Betty didn’t know is that two different cars had followed them to
the restaurant. Remington Steele
and Laura Holt were in the first car. While
in the other car was the team of Billy Swan and a sidekick Keleko from the Kumu.
These
people wanted more information and they hoped that Shipp or Kouba might reveal
some of the information as they ate their dinners. They figured Shipp must have been told about the information
on the security system in the meeting after the bugs had been found and were
destroyed. Kouba, who worked for
Five-O could know what McGarrett and Williams were up to. Little did they know neither of these two knew what they
wanted to know, and of course, neither of them cared about the security issue
as they enjoyed their dinner and each others company.
After
Betty and Gary sat in the restaurant they looked over the menus, then ordered a
combination of chicken and seafood dishes that they would share.
Betty felt a little guilt because she knew more about this man then he
knew about her. She wondered if
she should tell him that she knew of his life history due to the research by
the Five-O to make sure he was who he claimed to be.
“I
hope you don’t mind sharing the food this way, I always enjoyed trying
different things.” He reached
across the table, taking hold of her hand and started to caress it.
Betty’s
stomach felt like butterflies when he touched her and her reaction was to hold
his hand in return. “NO,” she
cleared her throat from the higher then necessary pitch of her reply.
“Not at all. I usually order the same thing because I enjoy it and
don’t care to order some of the other things because am not sure if I would
like them.”
Steele
and Hold had taken a table behind them in hopes to overhear what the couple
might talk about. On the other
side of them sat Billy Swan, who also wanted to hear what the couple would
discuss. So enthralled with his
date, Gary, who in his own little world didn’t realize that they were under
observations.
By
the time their food was delivered, Betty had noticed the other patrons in the
restaurant, so she made sure their dinner chat was about North Carolina,
Hawaii, families, or the weather. They
chatted for a couple hours before they left without discussing any information
in relations to the exhibit. In
fact, the subject never came up.
About
ten p.m., Danny and Kono walked into the restaurant to get some food to take
back to the Palace just as the couple was about to leave. “Evening Danny, Kono.”
Betty said as she passed them to wait for Gary to finish settling up the
dinner check.
“Hello
Betty,” Kono said. “What are
you doing here?”
Betty
responded, “Just having dinner with a friend,” just as Gary came over to
join her.
“Professor
Shipp!” Dan said in more of an observation of who Betty was on a date with
for the evening.
“Williams,
Kono,” Gary greeted them and continued to head for the door with Betty at his
side. “Evening gentlemen.” he
told them as they left, Dan and Kono at the ordering counter.
“I
knew he was interested in Betty but that is fast work getting a date with
her.” Kono remarked.
“What
Kono?” Danny was puzzled at what
he just saw and heard from Kono.
“Shipp,
said he was interested in Betty this morning when he was watching you and Steve
leave the office in reply to Caterina’s note.”
Kono turned to the counter person to place their order.
“Really,
I wonder about that,” Danny said
skeptically, for he wondered if Shipp was after something more then just a
date with Betty since she was a good friend to both Caterina and him.
He would have to ask Betty in morning about their date to find out if
she revealed any information about the security on the exhibit.
The
fact that Steele and his lady friend, along with Billy Swan were in line to pay
their dinner checks had also caught Danny’s attention.
He made a mental note to tell Steve about this.
When he heard his named called, he thought that his food was ready and
was surprised to find it was a phone call.
“Williams.”
“Danny?”
Betty said.
“Yes.
Can I help you?” Dan replied.
“Good,
you must have noticed that Steele and Swan were in the restaurant after we
left. Just to give you some peace
of mind, all Gary and I discussed in the restaurant had nothing to do with the
current case assignment.” Betty
told him quickly before she hung up and before Dan could reply.
“What
was that about Danny?” Kono said puzzled.
“Tell
you out in the car, Kono.” Danny
said because Steele and Swan had just headed out the door of the restaurant and
he didn’t want anyone else to overhear.
Short time later, Kono paid for the food and got a receipt for his
expense report.
Out
by the car, Gary waited for Betty to return from her phone call.
He wondered
‘What is that all about?’
“Sorry
Gary, I had to report what I saw inside the restaurant.
This exhibit is very important to Five-O and the State of Hawaii.
Therefore, any kind of leaks wouldn’t be tolerated.”
Betty said as she tried to explain.
“I
know, it is my chance of lifetime to do something important in my field.
I can only hope it can lead to other projects just like this one.”
Gary told her as he helped Betty into the car and then headed to her
apartment.
It
was late, plus the long drive home by way of the beach, plus Betty was tired
from the long hours she had been put in at the office. So she said good night to Gary at the door of her apartment
and apologized for not inviting him in at this time.
She watched him leave a little disappointed. With present alert status in the Five-O office she just
could not take any chances of saying something she shouldn’t reveal.
Betty knew activities around the coin collection were starting to heat
up and come to a boil.
Down
in his car, Gary sat a few minutes a little sad and wondered if there was
something he said to offend Betty. Then
he realized nothing was said wrong, it was just that Betty was a real lady and
left a lot to be desired. Desires
in a way he wanted to get to know her better, a lot better.
He
would like to have stayed for a little while longer but he did have classes in
the morning. He started the car to
leave, but it would not turnover. Then
he tried again and nothing happened again.
“Damn, now what?” he muttered under his breath as he got out of the
car and headed back up to Betty’s apartment but when he got there the door
was ajar and he heard noises come from inside the apartment. Cautiously, he entered the apartment and found two men who
were trying to grab Betty in her nightgown.
Quickly, he went after the man who had his hands around her ankles.
“That’s
it sweetheart, just keep up the fight. That’s
it, wear yourself out now so we can have a little fun later.”
The man said as he tried to caress her leg.
That’s when he was hit from behind by Gary and was knocked unconscious
when his head made contact with the wall.
The
second man let his grip slip just a little and that was when Betty saw her
chance to break free and tossed the guy onto his stomach as she held one of his
arms behind his back. Betty saw
the other guy was out cold, so she turned to Gary and asked, “Would you get
the handcuffs out of my handbag?”
Gary did as he was requested without thinking. It was only when Betty had placed the second wrist in the handcuffs that there was something about Betty he didn’t know. He thought, * why does she carry handcuffs with her? Is she into some kind of kinky thing? *
Betty
got up off the floor and fixed her nightgown so it would hang straight and then
headed for the phone. While she
dialed she told him a little more about herself, “I’m are retired cop from
HPD, or I should say a disabled cop from HPD.”
She raised her hand to stop him from asking a question.
“Yes, McGarrett, it’s Kouba, I’m at my apartment with two very
uninvited male guest. One will
need a little medical assistance while the other is in cuffs…Yes sir, I’ll
be here when you get here.” She hung up the phone and realized what she had on.
There was a look on Shipp’s face that told her she need to consider
what she had on or rather what she didn’t have on.
“Would you excuse me for a minute and keep an on eye on the one trying
to sit up.”
Betty
entered the bedroom to put some proper street clothes back on because she knew
she would spend the next couple of hours at HPD with the booking process of her
uninvited guest.
When
Betty returned from the bedroom she had on a pair of pants and shirt on, then
she began to explain, “A couple of years ago I was severely injured on the
job and for a cop it was mortal wound. As
a result, I had to find another line of work.
It took six months to recover from my leg injury.
That’s when I found out that the Five-O office had an opening for a
high level administrative assistance. Since
I had worked with the team in the past on active duty, I knew the team, and
what they needed when they had done a lot of the field work via phones,
computer system, etc. So, I went to McGarrett and told him of my status with HPD.
Due to the fact, the bullet hit the femur bone splintering it in such a
way that the physical stress of being a cop could destroy the leg totally.
I couldn't return to active duty again.
“McGarrett
spoke with the Medical Department of HPD, he found out that I would be placed
on permanent disability. As a
result, I got the job on the team, plus my status of a disable cop with some of
the same privileges of being an active cop but I work as inside investigator
for Five-O. In a way, I’m an
auxiliary officer for HPD.”
“Woo,
you’re a cop.” Gary shook his
head. “Well, I guess I can tell
people that I’m dating a cop and not an above average secretary?”
He looked up to see if there would be a chance for a second date.
Betty
looked at him and saw that he was the first man in a long time that did not
want to head for the hills when he found out what she was.
“Just the way I get to tell people, I’m dating a History Professor
from the University of Hawaii.” She
smiled at him and would have gone over to kiss him if it was not for that
uninvited company and that new company had just walked through the door.
“Hello
Sgt., what’s going on? We got a
complaint about a disturbance going on in …”
Patrol Office Pena saw the knocked out crook and the one with handcuffs
on the floor, in addition, to the guy on the couch. “What happened here?”
“Hello
Pena, they have you on night duty in my district now?”
“Afraid
so.” Pena took out and little
notebook and pen to take notes.
It
just dawn on Betty that Gary was there in her apartment and was suppose to have
left, she was glad he came back. Now
she wanted to know why. “Gary,
would tell me why you came back, because I thought you left to go home.”
“O
yeah, I forget in the commotion, my car wouldn’t start. When it didn’t turn over at this hour, I didn’t want to
disturb one of your neighbors so I came back up here to your apartment.”
He looked at the guy who who started to come too.
“I’m glad I did.”
“So
am I, so am I.” she said as she turned to Pena, “I suggest you put cuffs on
the other one before he regains full consciousness and decides to try and leave
us. McGarrett is on his way over
here. I hope you don’t mind
waiting for your answer Pena to what happened because I rather say it once,”
very quietly “if I can get away with only once.”
Pena
looked up after he put the cuffs on the other man, “No way Sgt. at least not
with McGarrett.”
“I
heard that Officer,” was McGarrett’s comment as he entered the apartment
with Danny and Kono in tow. “I
see the department owes you for a new door Betty,” as he touched it with his
fingertip and it fell to the floor.
“I
believe so,” Betty sighed as the door fell.
All
this was a little much for Gary at one in the morning. He was tired and some how he knew he was not going to get to
bed anytime soon. Of course,
spending a little more time with Betty, even down at Police Headquarters would
beat sleeping alone.
Kono
and Officer Pena took the two men from Betty’s apartment and headed towards
the blue and white units downstairs. Kono
hoped that by the time they got down there the medical assistance requested
would be there.
Dan
was on the phone to the lab. He
wanted a team to come out and take photos of the destroyed door and the general
condition of the apartment. Dan
looked around and could see that the apartment and been tossed somewhat, and
thought that Betty must have walked in on
the two possible burglars in the process of robbing her. He also noticed that she didn’t have on the same outfit
she had on in the restaurant.
“All
right Betty, what happened here?” Steve asked after he had taken a look
around the apartment.
Every
body that was in the apartment was all ears for the explanation, “A little
more then an hour ago, Gary dropped me off at the door, I went to get something
cold to drink from the kitchen. Then
I headed to the bedroom to get ready for bed.”
Betty hated this part. This
was an invasion of her private life and she really didn’t want to tell
McGarrett any of this. What made
it harder this time was Gary was there on the couch and she would have to say
something that could end this new relationship before it could get started.
“I was in bed when I heard a door open, and before I knew it or could
react, they were in the bedroom. I
left my handbag on the couch,” she looked to see if it was still there.
“So, I didn’t have my handgun in the bedroom me.
They grabbed me before I could get out of bed and defend myself.
I would have sworn there was a third one with them, but I don’t see
him now.”
McGarrett
was a little surprised that Betty was taken by surprise.
But if she had been in bed, she wouldn’t have had time to react to the
situation if they had moved as quickly as she said.
“How long were you in the apartment before the attack?”
“About
half an hour not much more.” Betty
hesitated a moment before she continued, “I was so exhausted when I went to
bed I was almost fully asleep before I got under the covers.”
Betty looked at Gary who looked a little nervous at this questioning.
‘Oh boy, Betty thought to
herself, something not to say around a
new possible boyfriend. He must
think I don’t have the ability to work and then go out for the evening.’
“Do
you think these two followed you home from the restaurant?” Dan asked after
he hung the phone.
“Couldn’t say for
sure Danny, I only remember Swan and Steele in the restaurant with us.”
There
was a look of shock on Gary’s face, “What are you talking about?”
Both
Dan and Betty realized that little piece of information would be a shock to
someone not truly aware of the situation with the coin collection that is about
to go on exhibit. “Professor you are now the center of attention
because of your part with the coin exhibition,”
The
realization of what he was involved in had finally started to sink in as he
leaned back on the couch and started to shake a little internally at the idea
of having a target on his back for some to take shots at.
“Evidently
Professor, some people believe that you and Betty know something about the
security going up around the exhibit. And
they want to get the information from either of you.”
McGarrett added with a cool attitude on the subject when he finally
realized the Professor hadn’t any idea of the various dangers that were
involved in this coin collection, then again it was a surprise to him too.
Just then the lab crew showed up and McGarrett decided to take this
little get together back to the Palace to continue the discussion.
“Let’s continue this discussion in my office.”
“To
tell you the truth McGarrett, you can go to your office and have your little
meeting but I’m staying here until my door is repaired and I know I can lock it
again.” Betty was tired and
wasn’t about to put up with the bully named McGarrett. She was not a detective that had to jump on command and had
gotten a little tired of being treated like one.
Everyone
but Gary had stopped dead in their tracks with that statement and Betty went
over to phone to call the super to get the door fixed.
Steve
was on the spot. There had been a
few conflicts of late between them. This
was a stand that they both had to take, and they both need to bend to the
wishes of each other. “You have
been hanging around my Cousin Caterina to much Betty. You’re starting to act the way she does at times.”
There was a smile on his face, and noticed the clock on the wall as it
chimed two in the morning. “All
right, how about we all meet in my office first thing in the morning and
continue this discussion? Danno
why don’t you stay here until the door is fixed, and then give Professor
Shipp a ride home.”
“Sure
Steve, no problem.” Dan was
happy that McGarrett gave a little on this one.
He wanted to go home and get a few hours of sleep himself.
The
next morning, Danny entered Steve’s office with the information on the
two-uninvited guests that had been at Betty’s the night before. “Steve, Here’s
the info on those two intruders from last night.
They’re just a couple of kids that needed a little cash to get a fix.
And there was third person like Betty mentioned last night.” Danny
handed over the arrest report to Steve for his review.
“What’s
wrong Danno?” Steve asked before he started to review the file because of the
look on Danno’s face.
“Evidently,
someone from the Kumu hired them to break-in to Betty’s apartment because
there was a third set of unknown prints found in the apartment.
We are running them throw the iron brain now.
My theory would be, they were there to toss the place and wait there to
grab her. After that, they would
bring her down to the van that was parked in front of the apartment building
and took off when we arrived.”
“That’s
a good possibility, Danno, but why Betty?”
Steve questioned as he snapped his fingers a couple of times.
“Don’t
know. We need to find out who
ordered the hit from the Kumu,” Danno replied.
“That is if it was from the Kumu.”
“What
about the rental car that Professor Shipp had that wouldn’t start last
night?” Steve asked as he
started to flip through the files. Steve
looked at the file and agreed, someone had to have hired these two kids, and
they didn’t have enough brains to do this on their own.
“Kono
gave it a jump start last night and it turned right over.
So we had someone drive it over to the garage to have it checked out.
Then Kono took Shipp back to his hotel.
Then this morning Kono stopped by the garage and found out that car had
a bad battery. It had not been
tampered with, it was just bad timing. Or
in Betty’s case good timing,” Dan smiled at the bad pun.
“You’re
right about that. If it wasn’t
for Shipp, they may have gotten way with grabbing Betty last night.”
Steve put the files down and snapped his fingers a couple of times.
“You know Danno,” Steve had one of his faraway looks come over his
expression, “it’s a possibility that Billy Swan might have arranged to have
Betty kidnapped but didn’t tell those boys why they were to grabbed her.
Which would make them believe it was just a simple kidnapping not
something else. You said last
night that Swan was at the same restaurant as Betty and the Professor.
Plus he was in one of the three van outside yesterday during our
briefing from the Professor.”
Betty
and Gary opened the door just in time to catch the last statement from Steve.
“That
would make sense, because if they were there just to rob the place, why did
they wait until after midnight when Betty would most likely be home.”
Dan stated. “Morning
Betty, Professor.”
“Anything
is possible,” was all Betty said before she sat down in one of the chairs in
front of the bookcase. “Then
again, they could have been hired by someone else to prevent me from testifying
in a case that I’m schedule to testify for.”
“Do
you get threatened like that a lot?” Gary
sat next to Betty and for some unknown reason to him, he was very concern about
this lady’s life being threatened.
“No.
Thank God,” she looked at him seeing a tenderness and concerned look
in his eyes and facial expression that she thought she only imaged last night
at two in the morning.
“Good.”
He seemed to relax a little at her statement.
Steve
and Danno watched this exchange before they continued, “What other cases have
you worked on where someone would want you out of the way?”
McGarrett questioned.
“There
is nothing that comes to mind and there nothing that I’ve been working on
here that would be life threatening, that I can think of.” Betty was tired from the long night, which she only got a
couple of hours of sleep, the mind was not fully functional at this point.
“I’ll have to go through my log books and check to see if anyone I
put away has been released that wanted to do away with me.”
The words were out to fast before she realized what they would mean to
Gary, because they wouldn’t be the same as the meaning for McGarrett and
Williams. “I’ll check with HPD
when we get done here.” Betty yawned from her exhaustion.
“Are
we keeping you up Betty?” McGarrett
teased her.
“Actually,”
she said with smile at McGarrett’s statement when she saw a comforting smile
on his face, “yes.” Betty
yawned again, “There was to much paperwork that went with the breaking and
entering last night.” She
chuckled and was joined by both McGarrett and Williams.
Gary
was confused by the exchange because he didn’t understanding the inside joke.
“According
to my sources, regarding Billy Swan, he has one major reason to go after Danny
than me. If they are correct, he
plans on taking his pound of revenge for the death of his brother.” Betty
said.
“Why
do you say that?” Danny was not
aware of any threat from Swan.
“My
rumor mill told me that Billy Swan is planning to take his revenge for his
brother Koka’s death, just as something major happens in Dan’s life. Something that could cause him enough of a distraction as to
have some major event to go total wrong.”
Betty looked at McGarrett as she continued, “Whatever Swan has up his
sleeve will happen with this exhibit. It
will not be a direct hit on Danny but by some kind of indirect hit.”
Both of them were surprised at what Betty had just stated.
“I don’t think I qualify for an indirect hit that would take Danny
down in a major way or cause him a major distraction.
There is someone else Swan will go after, that will do the damage he
requires. That’s my guess, I’m
just a pawn in his over all game.”
Danny
understood what Betty had meant without the need to say it aloud.
‘The hit will be on Caterina’s
life, the only person in his life that could destroy his world.’
He also realized that Betty wouldn’t verbalize it because Steve was
not fully aware of his true relationship with Caterina yet.
Steve was under the impression that he was only renting a room in
Caterina’s beach house to help with the rent.
Danny thought, ‘this may be the
time to let him know what is going on in that arena of his life.’
“Who
is this person that Swan is going to go after?”
Steve requested.
“That
much I wasn’t able to get from my rumor mill, but only time will tell.”
Betty said as she tried to dance around the edges of the truth.
Betty knew who the target would be but it was up to Dan and/or Caterina
to tell Steve the whole truth.
Original content © 2001
Betty's Book-Me Danno
Last modified: April 27, 2002