“Man, you’s messin’ with the wrong man,” bemoaned the shorter of the two men. Having picked the lock on the black mercury, he placed the dripping sack onto the driver’s seat and left the door open.

“Shut up! I know what I’m doin’. This is goina to send him a message he won’t misunderstand,” the bald heavyset man said pinning the note onto the top of the sack. “I’m tired of his do nothin’ attitude. As a citizen, I have the right to see justice is done right. This piece of shit got what’s comin’ to him and I invoke the rights as a Hawaiian in doing so.”

“Yeah, but in his car?”

“Yeah, IN his car. That way he can’t help but see it.”

“Man, you’re crazy. I wouldn’t have done this to HIM,” the short man said before he took off in a different direction than his companion. “He’s goina come after you with a vengeance.”

*****

Not wanting to be bothered by the Halloween trick or treaters, McGarrett had chosen to work late. It was 11 PM when the phone rang. Putting his pen on the page as a marker, he reached over and grabbed the handset. “McGarrett.”

“I thought you’d like to know I just took care of Ken Mathews for you. You don’t have to run around like the Key Stone Cops anymore looking for him,” the heavily accented Hawaiian voice told him.

Immediately on the alert, McGarrett clicked on his recorder. “Would you please repeat that? I’m not sure I heard you right.” The hairs on the back of his neck pricked up from the savage suggestive quality of his caller’s voice. But his request was answered by a dial tone.

Putting down the phone, McGarrett contemplated what the caller meant. We’re close to getting the needed evidence against Mathews but nothing yet that could be taken to court.

Walking out to the lanai, McGarrett took in a deep breath as he surveyed the dark park below. That’s when he noticed something odd about his car. “What the hell!”

Running out of his office, he cautiously approached his car. Drawing his gun, he warily stepped over to his driver side door. A large canvas bag was sitting on the seat leaning against the back. Looking around, McGarrett didn’t see anyone near so he holstered his weapon.

Carefully making sure he didn’t touch anything, he checked over the rest of the car, but the only thing he found was the bag with note pinned to it. Making sure he handled only the corner of the paper, he removed the pin and brought the paper out so he could read it under the nearby streetlight.

Hawaiian laws have been enforced.

An involuntary chill went down McGarrett’s back as he carefully placed the note on top of his car. Extracting a pen from his pocket, he bent down and cautiously approached the bag.

There was an odd but familiar odor inside the vehicle, something almost earthy yet…something else…something repugnant. The closer he got to the bag the stronger the odor became.

Ignoring his churning stomach, he flipped away the folds of the bag, layer by layer.

“What the?”

Inside the bag he saw something fibrous that looked like hair. Using his other hand, he managed to open the bag enough so that the folds fell away. The stench was ten times more powerful. It couldn’t possibility be. The severed head of Ken Mathews stared up at him, its eyes wide-open with fear and lips pulled back voicing a soundless scream.

*****

“That’s one of the ways a chief would tell another chief he’s taken care of a problem,” said Kono who was filling in his boss on some of the old Hawaiian laws the next morning. “They’d use a Ku'eku'e Lima Lei-o-mano to cut the throat of the victim before decapitating them and then disposing of the body, usually by feeding it to the sharks.”

Danny Williams, who was leaning against the bookcase near McGarrett’s desk, turned white at the thought. “Did they tie their victims up first before doing this?”

“Not all the time. Many times two others held the person down while a third did the job or, if they got lucky, came up from behind him, without his knowledge and did the job,” replied Kono. His own pallor had lightened at first when he looked at the pictures of the head.

“So you don’t think we’ll find the body then?” McGarrett asked.

“Won’t say you won’t, but I doubt it if he was following the old laws,” answered Kono. “This guy must think he’s related to royal blood or maybe to one of those who served as a King’s guard though. A commoner wouldn’t do this or he’d forfeit his own life.”

“Can Bergman see if the attack was done from the front or the back, Boss?” asked Chin Ho. His own ancient ancestry frequently took the heads of their citizen and for much less than what Mathews was suspected of doing.

“He’s not totally done yet, but from the preliminary, he thinks from the front. Doc’s estimating the death occurred last 24 hours or so,” McGarrett said. “Che’s not found any useable prints although he thinks he has a scant partial on a thumb print. Said it was badly smudged.”

“That doesn’t give us much to go on,” said Chin Ho, getting a queasy stomach as he looked at the pictures on the bulletin board.

“Kono, check with your sources. See if you can find out who might have been upset enough to take matters into their own hands,” McGarrett said.

“Done, Boss,” Kono said as he left.

“Chin, check around Little China. That’s been Mathews’s last known whereabouts. See if someone might have seen him talking with someone since yesterday afternoon,” said McGarrett.

“Okay. I’ll start with Lola. She’s been known to hang around him for the most part,” Chin said.

McGarrett watched the oriental detective leave. The memory of that greasily find still bothered him some, although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone.

“You thinking this was a hit?” asked Danny, who had recovered enough to start to think clearly.

“Oh, yeah. It was a hit and it was a message meant mainly for me saying someone wasn’t happy with our work,” replied McGarrett. He hated it when someone pointed out the apparent slowness on solving a case and this one had taken an inordinate amount of time so far. “All we need now is for the news to hear about this.”

No sooner had he said that then Jenny rang him on the intercom. “Steve, I’ve got Ted Lowis, from KHWA on the line. He’d like to talk to you about ‘the head’.”

“Uh oh, you shouldn’t have said anything,” half-heartedly teased Danny.

“Put him through, Jenny,” said McGarrett, taking a deep breath and giving Danny a sneer. “Hi Ted.”

“McGarrett, I just received an interesting call.”

“I bet you did. You didn’t happen to get a name of the person who called you, did you?”

“No, but they told me you received a notice pinned to a sack that contained the severed head of Ken Mathews saying they were unsatisfied with your work. Do you want to elaborate on that?”

“No comment at this time, Ted. Did you get this conversation on tape?”

“As you know, all of our conversations are taped. I take it you’d like to hear it?”

McGarrett sat up straighter at this. Maybe we’ve got something. “Yeah, I do. Tell you what. You give us that tape and I’ll let you have an exclusive on the story,” offered McGarrett.

“Deal. Do you want me to bring it over?”

“No, I’ll send an officer over for it.”

“Not a problem, McGarrett. Just remember, you’ve given your word that I’ll get the exclusive,” reminded Ted.

“You will,” replied McGarrett looking up at Danny with a smile.

“I’ll be right back,” said Danny.

*****

“That’s the same voice I heard last night,” McGarrett said as he and Danny listened to Ted’s tape.

“How come you didn’t tape it?” asked a perplexed Danny.

“It happened too fast. By the time I got the recorder turned on, he had hung up,” replied McGarrett who was rewinding Ted’s tape. “I want you to listen to this section again. Doesn’t that sound like running water and some sort of machine in the back ground?”

Listening more intently, Danny tried to pick out the noises. “Yeah, there’s also a clunk every now and then, like something bumping into something else.”

“Right! And where on this island do we have something like that?”

Danny’s eyes grew narrow as he thought, then grew very wide when he realized where his boss was referring to. “The hydro-power plant!”

“Right!” said McGarrett, already on the way out the door with Danny close on his heals.

*****

The black Mercury’s tires squealed in protest as the car shot around the curve. Four HPD cruisers were right behind for McGarrett had asked for backup as they went to the power station.

“Everyone be alert. They’re expecting us,” ordered Danny when they came to the conspicuously opened gates.

The giant turbines were just ahead. The metallic thumps could be heard and felt even as the officers exited the cars. McGarrett silently pointed to one of the groups of men, indicating he wanted them to go around back. He then pointed to another group to go to the other side.

The gravel flooring of the compound made walking noiselessly impossible, but they hoped the turbines would cover up the sound of their approach.

Both McGarrett and Danny ran for the front door to the main building. There they flattened themselves against the wall. When the other officers reached the door, McGarrett slide his hand over to the doorknob and tried it. It was unlocked, but he didn’t open it just yet. Nodding to Danny, he held up three of his fingers, indicating they would go in on the count of three.

“One, two…three!” McGarrett turned the knob and shoved the door open. Immediately, he crouched and ran in, running along the opposite side that Danny took. The officers behind them did the same and took up positions as they could within the building.

Shots from above ricocheted off the wall. One of the HPD officers screamed out when a bullet hit him in the thigh.

“Get him out of here and take cover,” ordered McGarrett who, along with Danny and several officers, had returned the fire. They had the satisfaction of seeing someone run back for cover as he and Danny worked their way towards one of the two metal ladders leading to the second floor.

“Take the other one, Danno. Be careful,” McGarrett warned.

“Right. Paul, Tom…come with me,” said Danny as they ran to the other ladder.

With a nod, both men began to ascend the ladders. Shots from another position above drew return fire, but not before Danny screamed and fell back down to the floor.

“Danno!”

“It’s nothing, Steve. Just a scratch. I’m okay,” replied Danny as he remounted the ladder and hastily made his way up. Keeping low, he made his way along the catwalk.

An odd-looking shadow moved just to his left. Cautiously Danny worked his way over to the wall of gauges. He took a second to check on McGarrett’s position and found him slowly working his way along a wall. Their eyes met for a split second in acknowledgment.

A noise to his left brought Danny’s attention back to his task. He flatten himself at the end of the wall in an effort to listen for any movement. A soft scrapping noise alerted him to his quarry’s position.

Having reached his objective, McGarrett looked back at the officers behind him and down on the main floor.

“This is McGarrett of Five-0. You have no place to go, only down. Give yourselves up.” Shots rang out in answer to his order forcing the officers to duck. Punctured steam lines released a cloud mist. Taking advantage of the return fire from below, the officers above moved to their next objective.

“Give it up! You won’t make it out of here alive if you don’t!” yelled Danny. A movement to McGarrett’s right caught his attention. Crouching and taking careful aim at a smallish man. “FREEZE!”

Startled, the man moved to the railing getting several shots off. Danny and two HPD officers fired back. Mortally wounded, the man screamed and fell back over the railing to the ground below.

“Kimo? You okay, bruddah?” the heavyset bald man called out giving away his position.

Taking advantage of the distraction, McGarrett and several HPD officers moved in.

“Drop it!” ordered McGarrett.

Caught unprepared, the bald man froze in his tracks. Squinting and not believing he had been caught so easily, he quickly weighed his options. Seeing no way out, the man allowed his gun to fall from his grip and then raised his hands in surrender.

Two HPD officers ran from behind McGarrett over to their prisoner to handcuff him and read him his rights. A quick search of his person produced the man’s identity. His driver’s license indicated his name was Lonala Lawai'a. Other items within the man’s wallet said he was an employee of the power plant and a member of a well-known Hawaiian group known for loudly voicing their objections at what they felt were violations against their heritage.

“Why?” asked McGarrett as he holstered his weapon.

“Because he befouled a princess,” shot back Lonala.

Temporarily speechless, McGarrett studied Lonala. “Explain yourself.”

“My family line goes directly back to the Queen’s guards and for years I’ve watched you haoles take over ‘our’ lands. We’ve tried to show you the wrongs you have done. ‘You’ve’ threatened to destroy our way of life by allowing scum like Mathews to step in and try to connive and lie to our youth, many of royal blood, into having sex with ‘outsiders’, which is against our native laws. Our princess was forced into a life of prostitution and drug use. No one took steps to secure the royalty here; instead, you haoles assume we’d ignore this intrusion into our way of life,” spat out Lonala.

“So you think beheading Mathews is the answer?” McGarrett countered, clinching his fist in the attempt to control his temper.

“That’s the way of ‘our’ laws. He committed the greatest sin against my people. He had to pay,” said Lonala as he struggled against the hands that held him.

Danny and two HPD officers took a firm hold on the man. As they did, Danny kept an eye out on his boss, not sure if he’d erupt with fury at what had happened.

Narrowing his eyes, McGarrett stepped in close to the man. “That’s where you are wrong. I have done my best to secure the safety of ALL the people of Hawaii, royal blood or commoner, but we have legal steps we must take…”

“Which is why I reserved the rights as a Hawaiian and was forced to use the old laws,” interrupted Lonala.

McGarrett held off replying for a moment, stunned by the man’s total lack of regard for the current laws. “Well,” he said after recovering enough, “I’ve experienced what your laws do. NOW you will experience the laws I uphold. Book’um Danno! Murder one!”