Too Many Motives

As Vera edged along the car, she noted that this was some kind of industrial mini-estate. There were lots of low walls marking loading bays and various bits of equipment scattered around. She peeked around the rear of the vehicle.

Two of the young lads had taken up station behind some packing crates. The holes in them indicated that whatever was inside them was bullet-proof. The other was crouching by some fuel drums and clearly less than happy about it. They all started firing at once, spraying lead around like air-freshener, but the commotion gave Vera a chance to scuttle away from the car and into the shelter of a large, sturdy but evil-smelling rubbish skip.

What a way to spend a bloody 'oliday! She mused. This frock's done for! 'Ope they've got a Marks and Spencers in town!

But now she could see what was going on better, and they still hadn't seen her.

Steve was behind one of the low walls, popping up occasionally and firing, though as he usually didn't have a target, Vera hadn't a clue why. Nearby, she could now see a parked forklift. It would give anyone behind it a better angle on Steve, she realised. Then she saw the lad behind the fuel drums looking at it, and knew what was going to happen.

Sure enough, while his mates were firing he made a dash for it. He took aim at Steve, just as Vera squeezed off a shot. The recoil wasn't as bad as she recalled, but the noise, without ear-protectors, was worse, even in the open air. In any event, the lad went down with a yell, clutching his leg.

One of his mates promptly started looking around for who had shot him, and poked enough of himself out of cover for Steve to put a couple of rounds into him. The third hesitated a moment, then put his gun down and pushed it clattering over toward Steve before standing up with his hands above his head.

Vera hurried over to the man she had shot as, right on cue, HPD and the rest of Five-0 arrived. He was lying on the ground, cursing and clutching his thigh, which fortunately wasn't bleeding too much -she'd missed the big vein.

"Don't move, pet!" She warned him.

"Lady, I ain't goin' nowhere!" He replied. "I think you broke my freakin' leg!"

"Serves you right!" Vera pointed out. "Go around shootin' at people long enough an' somebodys' goin' to shoot back!"

"You think I don't know that?" The lad asked. "Goes with the territory. But you just shot my cool out from under me along with my leg! Shot by an old lady! An old English lady. I'm never gonna live that down!

"Think I'll join the Sewing Circle now!"

Then the paramedics arrived, along with Steve.

"You OK?" He asked Vera. "I figured you wouldn't stay put, but I couldn't see what you were doing. That was a Hell of a shot! If it was his leg you were aiming at!"

"'Course it bloody was!" Vera growled. "Bad enough 'avin' to shoot someone without killin' 'em as well!

"You could do with some trainin', though! Bullets don't grow on trees, yer know. Our firearms instructor always says if you can't do it with one shot, don't bloody do it!"

Steve grinned at that, which brought him up in her estimation. She'd thought he might get defensive.

"That was what we call suppressing fire." He told her. "I was trying to keep them in place with their heads down till backup arrived! Never figured one of them would try to flank me! It was a good thing you were there, Vera!"

"Tell that to my knees!" She grumbled. "I'm getting' too old fer this!"

Just then, Tani came up. She had ditched her micro-shorts and halter top for a short-sleeved shirt and skinny jeans, Vera noted.

"Steve, DCI Stanhope." She said. "We found Stephen Kowalski. He was with his cousins, hiding in a store-room at the back of the shop. He wants to talk to us about Tennant."

"Reckon these lads give 'im a scare!" Vera noted.

"Guess so." Steve said. "We'll get them all back to HQ and see what we got!"

The gang-banger was singing like a canary. Cuffed to the only chair in the dismal concrete interrogation room, he was giving Lou and Danny chapter and verse, with footnotes.

"Ain't like we're one of the big gangs." He was saying. "We got like a block and a half of territory that nobody else wants and most of us are family. But my cousin Ricky – he's the boss – has these big ideas. He starts advertising on the dark web, tryin' to build a reputation. Says that technology is the key, shit like that.

"So then this guy from England gets in touch, wants the Kowalskis' dead 'cause they killed his pop. Ricky figures it's easy money and none of the real pros are interested. Plus it get us a customer and if we do it right, he might have more work for us.

"So we tell him killin' people that ain't connected is bad for business, and he says we're wrong 'cause nobody's gonna think it's a hit, especially if we toss the place and steal some tools and stuff.

"So me and my brothers go over there, and it looks pretty sweet until your guy and the dragon lady turn up! How are my brothers?"

"The one with the broken leg will be out of hospital in a couple days." Lou told him. "The other's still in surgery but the docs say he'll be fine. You'll all live to go to jail."

"Ah, shit." The lad peered up at them. "We ain't one of the big gangs, like I said, but we hear and see things. My brothers and I, we got names, dates, addresses. Info your guys could use. Think we can cut a deal?"

"Well, you didn't actually kill anyone, so the most we can get you on is conspiracy." Danny pointed out. "If what you've got is worth our while, I can put a word in with the DA. No promises, though!"

Stephen Kowalski was a very ordinary-looking man. About medium height, blond, slim with a round face that was meant by nature to be cheerful. But it wasn't. It was marked by deep lines of worry and bitterness, and the eyes were haunted. His long, capable hands were clasped in his lap and he stared fixedly at them while he talked.

"I'm glad he's dead." He said softly. "Suzi doesn't have to be scared anymore. No more emails, no more pictures, no more nightmares, I hope!"

"You'd best tell us the lot, pet." Vera said.

"It's the only way you're gonna help yourself now." Steve added.

Kowalski sighed. "Tennant ruled that shift, like some dictator or Mafia boss. He had something on everybody to keep them in line. A lot of the immigrants were convinced he'd get them deported if they didn't pay him off. Another guy was gay and didn't want his family knowing. One of the women was cheating on her husband. That kind of thing.

"But he'd got nothing on Suzie, not a damn thing. But she knew what he was doing, so he got scared. Suzie always wore a crucifix -she'd inherited it from our grandmother – so he must have thought she was more devout than she actually was. He must have figured that if he messed with a good Catholic girl, then threated to tell her family, he'd have the same kind of leverage on her he had on the others.

"Suzie fought him off so he couldn't…finish. But she was traumatized and quit her job. My folks wanted to bring charges but somebody alibied him. I don't blame them, he probably had something on them, they didn't have a choice."

"He did. He also told them that Susanna was accusing him falsely." Steve said. "He was a real slimeball."

Kowalsi shrugged: "Yeah, but after that we though it was all done, so Suzie went off to college. But then she started getting emails from him. He kept changing the address so she couldn't block him. Or she'd get pictures of herself on campus through the mail. He wrote that he always knew where she was and if she ever said anything, she'd regret it. So she came home and locked herself in her room.

"That scumbag broke my sister, and I couldn't let him get away with it! So I got a gun, and talked my cousins into helping me boost a car. We'd planned it all out, you see. Most mornings, Tennant would leave the hotel just after the crowds had gone. There'd have been hardly anyone around at his usual time, but he came out early today.

"We spotted him, we'd already stolen the car and we couldn't risk trying to get another or hanging onto the one we'd got, so we just went for it. Then the gun went wrong. The creep who sold it to us said we could set for single shot, and I'd it set that way. But when I pulled the trigger it went full automatic. I panicked, couldn't control it, then the magazine was empty and we just got out of there!

"Listen, I'll plead guilty to anything you want, sign anything you give me, if you just go easy on my cousins. I talked them into it, and the worst they did was help me steal the car and drive it!"

"'Ave yer still got the gun, pet?" Vera asked.

"Yeah." Kowalski admitted. "We stashed it at the back of the shop until we could figure out a safe way to get rid of it. Your people probably found it already."

"OK." Steve said. "I'm gonna send one of my people in here with a pad and a pen. You need to write down everything you just told us, all of it, then sign it. I'll see what I can do for your cousins, OK?"

Kowalski nodded, still staring at his hands.

"So, what 'appens now?" Steve and Vera were sitting in his office. Steve had somehow managed to get his hands on a decent cup of tea, something for which Vera was very grateful!

"That poor guy goes to jail." Steve admitted. "That's gonna happen whatever. How long for depends on a lot of things.

"We got a heap of evidence against Tennant, especially if Anja wants to make a statement. The DA won't be looking to prosecute her – she was under duress and no jury would convict her. We know from the INS and FBI that Tennant was part of a network of guys like him, all running the same scam on immigrants, so we know how he was able to stalk Susanna Kowalski.

"We can get a psychiatric evaluation of Susanna, and one of Stephen as well, that'll help. If the gun is faulty like he said, then that might count.

"But he still opened fire into a crowd with an automatic weapon, and bystanders were killed and injured.

"Whatever happens, it's gonna be Murder One for killing Tennant, and the cousins are gonna be charged with conspiracy. We might get the charges on the other deaths reduced…"

"Unlawful killing or manslaughter." Vera said. "That's what we'd call it back 'ome."

"Yeah, that kind of thing." Steve said. "If he's real lucky, he'll get a reduced sentence because of his mental state, and early parole. But even with all that, he's looking at ten years, easy."

"What a bloody mess!" Vera growled. "Well at least I'm still at the start of me 'oliday!"

"It can only get better from here!" Steve allowed.

The resolution of a case meant Kamekonas', of course, and Vera had a promise to keep.

"You need a nice fillet of white fish," she was telling Kamekona, "cod or 'addock or plaice if yer can get it, or a nice bit of skate. The batter is just flour and water and a bit of salt, but some people put a bit of colour in to make it more golden-like. Yer can make the batter with beer instead of water if yer want to be posh. You just dip the fish in the batter – it needs to be thick enough to coat it, mind – and toss it in the deep-fry. They say you should use beef drippin' but most people use oil these days.

"Yer need proper thick chips, not them French fry things, and yer need to use King Edward or Maris Piper spuds. You 'ave to double-fry 'em; once in 'ot fat or oil, and once in smoking 'ot. You 'ave to serve it 'ot, if it goes too cool, yer throw it out, 'cos it's 'orrible cold, so don't make a lot at a time unless you've got a queue.

"Yer goin' to need malt vinegar, the proper brown stuff, and salt to serve it with. Heinz tomato ketchup an' HP sauce as well! An' it tastes better wrapped in paper!"

The celebration was a little subdued. The case had been a messy one with no good ending possible, and everyone was wondering exactly what kind of justice was being served here. The system had let Susanna Kowalski down and driven her brother into an act that forced the system to punish him. The same system had kept Anja Rayner and hundreds more like her in fear and subjection to small, greedy men. The team registered every reaction from outrage to weary cynicism, then put it behind them and set out to enjoy the evening.

As the party was breaking up, Steve caught up with Vera.

"I wanted to tell you," he said, "it looks like Stephen Kowalski is going to plead guilty to all the charges, once they decide what they're going to charge him with. So you won't need to come back to give testimony at a trial."

"That's a relief!" Vera noted. "My boss wouldn't be appy with me 'avin' to go off an' give evidence on the other side of the world!"

"I guess not." Steve allowed. "Look, Vera, this wasn't our usual kind of case, and if it hadn't been for your instincts and experience, we might've taken forever to crack it. So I wanna say thanks for agreeing to help. Also, if we get anything else like this in future, would it be OK if I called you up for a little advice?"

"Oh, aye, if you want , pet." Vera told him. "I'm always 'appy to chat!"

"That's good." Steve said. "But remember, Vera, you're o'hana now. Family to us. If you ever need Five-0, we're here for you!"

"I'll remember that." Vera promised. "Might come in useful if I ever 'ave to go down South! They're a funny lot down there!"