ChiefB

Three weeks before the convention was to take place, news had reached Honolulu about the Commissioners’ Annual Convention in New York, which had been hit with a possible firebomb. The bomb had destroyed the meeting room that fifty commissioners had been scheduled to meet in. Due to the change in plans, the meeting time had changed. Fortunately, for the commissioners, only a few had been injured that were in that meeting room discussing various subject matters that they had learned about at the earlier sessions. Only the fire had destroyed the contents of the room, and the rest of building was still very much intact.

Now Caterina had a new concern to worry about with the Chief’s Convention happening in 20 days. She had heard about some of the details through the coconut wireless but she needed the real facts. Dannya’s life could depend on their knowledge about that bombing in Eastbridge, New York.

Honolulu was lucky, in the fact that Commissioner Lukelaf was in another part of the hotel when the bomb went off. Caterina had called in to her dear friend to see if he could put some light on the bombing.

“Hello Tony, thanks for letting me come by.” Duke extended his hand to shake Commissioner Scali’s hand.

“No problem, Duke, just wish it was under better circumstances,“ Tony finished shaking Duke’s hand. “Of course getting to chat with one of the finest top state cops, sorry former state cop of Hawaii is a pleasure. Tried to meet you at hotel but we just never got together.”

“I wish our meeting could have be under better circumstances,” Duke replied.

“I gather the reason for your visit has to do with the bombing two days ago at our annual convention,” Tony questioned.

“That’s right. In the next couple of hours you should be getting a call from Chief Williams’ Deputy Chief Caterina requesting a current information on what has happened here.”

“I already have had a call from your State Police. I told a Deputy Chief Paul Murphy that I would be sending him the information overnight.”

“You spoke to who?” Duke was surprised the call was from Murphy and not Caterina.

“Murphy is Danny’s Deputy Chief of the Detectives for Five-O but Caterina is in charge of the Chief’s Convention and should have been the one to call you.” Duke just shook his head and realized Murphy was trying to show up Caterina again. He tried to figure that one out when the phone rang.

“You have a call from Honolulu, Hawaii, from the Office of Chief Dan Williams of Hawaii Five-O.” Tony secretary informed him.

“Thanks, I’ll take it.” Scali waited for a heartbeat. “Duke you said, a Deputy Chief Caterina should be calling me regarding the situation?”

“I have a Deputy Chief Captain Caterina on hold now. Is that same person you just mentioned would be calling?” Tony asked.

“That’s her, she’s the only person I know that puts her rank after her Deputy Chief.” Duke smiled at the thoughts of the way * Caterina always introduced herself to people, depending on the situation depended on the introduction Caterina would use. *

“Is she the same ‘Lady Caterina’ that is in charge of the Honolulu State Police Academy?”

“Yes, she is.” Duke was a little surprised at the question but should have known better after this convention. He had answered a number of questions about Lady Caterina and her management and control of the Academy in Honolulu, including a question of “Why does she not attended these conventions and give lectures of how she got the academy to its present position among all the police academies throughout the country?” Duke knew the answer to that had learned quickly how to bend the truth on that issue. Her first lecture regarding the academy would only come at Danny’s first Chief Convention and only his first Chief’s Convention.

Caterina was trying to get through to Commissioner Tony Scali to see if he could get some more up to the minute details about the bombing.

“Hello, Commissioner Scali, this is Deputy Chief Captain Caterina of Hawaii Five-O.”

“I was hoping you could give me some of newest developments in the bombing at your annual convention?” Caterina was taken back by this greeting, she had not introduced yourself as Lady Caterina to this man.

“I’m sorry Lady Caterina that information is on a need to know bases only.” Scali was firm about this statement because he was not sure he was speaking to the right person even after what Duke had just told him.

“Commissioner,” Caterina took a deep breath, “I have been requested by Chief Williams to obtain this information. He would like to know what happened in Eastbridge and what we need to be reconsider here in Honolulu because of the annual Chief’s convention is in 20 days. We need to know all the details of what happened at your convention. We also need to be aware of whatever happened that might have been unusual, so we can keep an extra eye out for it as well.” Caterina spoke quickly but firmly with her request.

Dan had come into his office to see Caterina sitting behind his desk. She had the plans for the convention spread out before her and making a few notes while speaking to a man on the speakerphone about needed information.

“You have to understand, Captain, that is, if you are Chief Williams’ assistant Deputy Chief Caterina and you are in charge of the security for the Chief’s convention.” Scali looked at Duke to get a confirmation that the voice on the other end of the phone was indeed the woman he knew as Lady Caterina. “I spoke with a Deputy Chief Paul Murphy regarding this situation.”

Caterina heard herself being referred to as Assistant Deputy Chief and not Deputy Chief. She knew then that Murphy had put a call into Scali before she did. She was burning mad at that reference. She had not been an Assistant Deputy Chief in years and was not going back to that level ever again.

“He spoke with Murphy about this.” Dan said pointing to the materials on the desk. “I had not given authorization,” Caterina hit the mute button, “to him to discuss this issue with him or anyone. Caterina you are in charge of the conventions security.” He was angry at the disregard of his orders.

“I know, Chief, I’m in charge of the convention security and I’m trying to follow up on any possible problems. With the events in Eastbridge, New York, I was giving Commissioner Scali the first thirty-six hours to get the investigation underway and to get some hard facts. Even you have taught me that, it takes about that length of time to get your teeth into any investigation.” Caterina had gotten up from his chair and moved to the edge of the desk to be still near the speakerphone.

In New York, the phone seemed to have gone dead. “What happened?” Commissioner Scali asked Duke.

“That male voice you heard was Chief Dan Williams. He must of have come into Caterina’s office and overheard what you were saying. And knowing Caterina, she put the phone on mute to keep us from hearing what he was saying to her. Caterina is protective of the Five-O Chief and the department image overall,” Duke said as he spoke with pride of his friend. He was not about to tell Scali the protection was more of her husband than the Chief of Five-O.

“Okay, that makes sense.” Scali like the fact that Williams’ staff protected him in that respect, just the way his staff protected him.

“Which of the two Deputy Chief’s is the senior officer?” Scali wanted to know about the people he was about to spend the next couple of weeks doing business with.

“Caterina is the Second-In-Command of the Five-O Unit. She has been part of the department for better then fifteen years. Most of her time has been spent in the Academy, but that was her choice. She had a thing about teaching the next generations of officers to protect Hawaii. Then she had her accident that put her into the Academy on a permanent assignment.” Duke started to tell a little of Caterina’s life history while they waited for the phone call to continue.

“What kind of accident would put an officer on a permanent assignment in the academy?” Scali want to know.

“She was shot while trying to rescue a couple of kidnapped children and several other officers that were taken hostage.” Duke hated remembering that day and the months that followed. “Her knee was damaged, not beyond being fixed but her right leg couldn’t take the stress of being a street cop after that.”

Scali could see the pain of the memory across Duke’s face, so he decided not to press the issue.U

“To say the least, she managed to save everyone but herself from harm. Just the way she did and does protect others even today.” Duke spoke with pride of Caterina. “She would say it’s all in a days work, but what she did that day was beyond the call of duty.” Duke remembered the major loss she had from that incident and the time it took for her to recover.

“Lady Caterina is that good of a cop?” Scali knew cops like that. He thought * They were very rare but they are the strong backbone of any unit. The kind of cop anyone would follow into hell and back again. *

Scali had heard rumors about Lady Caterina through the usual police publications and general decisions with other Commissioners from Hawaii. Now he had just witnessed a little of what he heard. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Are they really married to each other?” Tony smiled at the question, knowing his own wife and her protectiveness of him. He loved Rachel but he would never let her be in the same line of work as he was. It was far too dangerous for that.

“Yes, they are really married. In fact, they just celebrated their twelfth anniversary a few weeks ago. Plus they have a two sets of adolescent twins.” Uncle Duke spoke with pride of his Ohana.

“Commissioner Scali, I apologize for cutting you off that way.” Dan said over the phone.

“May I ask who I’m speaking with now?” Scali inquired, surprised at the voice that came over the speakerphone.

“That’s quite all right, Chief, I’m just a little extra cautious with what has happened here in Eastbridge.”

“That is totally expected at this time,” Caterina stated. “Commissioner, one of our Hawaiian Commissioners will be stopping by your office later today on his way to the airport to pick up the information you have regarding this bombing. I’m hoping your office will be willing to give him those materials.”

“I was in the process of giving him that information just before you called,” there was a bite of cheerfulness in this tone now. He’s sitting in my office now.”

“That would explain why I couldn’t get you in your hotel before, you are out goofing off, again?” Caterina laughed.

“That’s what I get to do these days now that I’m not working for Five-O anymore,” Duke teased back.

“I always knew that promotion would finally go to your head, Duke,” Dan said as he got in a little of his own teasing. Then on a more serious note, “Thanks for helping out on this, Duke. Let me know what time your flight is landing, and I’ll meet you,” He then saw that look in his wife’s eye that told him that he would not be the one. “Sorry, Duke, I’ll send someone to pick you up at the airport because of DJ’s game tonight.”

“Chief, you should be aware that I sent a package to your other Deputy Chief Murphy last night. So you should be getting it this morning your time,” Scali informed the Five-O Chief.

Caterina left the office to go out to Dan’s secretary Aria and ask if a package had come in from Eastbridge, New York for Murphy. Then she stepped back into the office to asked “Commissioner, which delivery service did you use?”

“Thanks.” Then Caterina met the UPS delivery woman just as she entered the office with several packages. She looked at them to see who they were for, then signed for them. One was for Pike, four for Dan and there is one she wanted for Murphy from New York. She handed the Pike one to Janis so she could give it give to Pike, then took the other packages to the Chief’s office.

She dropped the Chief’s other four packages on his desk and started to open the New York one up. “Thanks, Commissioner, that package of information you sent just arrived.” Caterina started to pull the materials out only to have them taken out of hands by her boss.

“You got it already, that is great.” Scali was pleased that the material arrived on such a timely bases.

“Commissioner, I would like to ask that you only to speak with either Caterina or myself only regarding any further developments in this matter. The less people who know all the details of what happened in Eastbridge, the better off we will be here in Honolulu,” Dan requested.

“No problem Chief, I’ll instruct my staff accordingly.” The phone started to ring in Scali’s office and could be heard over the open speakerphones. “I need to answer this other call Chief, Lady Caterina. I will be speaking with you again shortly.”

“Goodbye, Commissioner. Duke, would you please give Commissioner Scali my private office fax number to him so he can send any additional paperwork over on it?” Caterina asked.

“No problem, Catie, that is a good idea. Call you later with my flight time and good luck to DJ on his match tonight. Tell him I’m sorry I wouldn’t be able to make it,” Duke said.

“No problem Uncle Duke, we’ll tell him. Bye.” Dan said as he hung the phone up.

When Duke and Scali finished up their conversation, Duke left with the package of information in new a briefcase that was now attached to wrist until he got to Hawaii.

f Continued the idea that Duke became a Commissioner from the fan stories that Liz wrote. V for Vashon: The Daughter

U {Of course your author is going to be mean, rotten and nasty and not tell you all the details at this time. That is another story that is coming in time.}