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Danny Williams stared at the mound of freshly dug dirt and the newly erected, white headstone that adorned the head of the grave. Someone, he suspected most likely Steve, had left a single rose on top of the white headstone, giving the grave its only splash of color to honor its lonely and abandoned occupant.
The Five 0 detective knew that the inscription only gave the barest description of a life snatched away before it even began to anyone passing by who cared enough to look at the young girl’s final resting place.
It offered no more than the briefest glimpse into the brutal and tragic end of a young girl’s life, whose photo had been the lead story of every national newspaper and every TV news broadcast for the last three weeks with an appeal for someone to recognize her.
He swallowed hard as he stared at the brief inscription of the young, mystery girl who went by the name of Sarah Riley. It was the name that now graced her gravestone, although Steve and himself knew that Sarah Riley was not her real name. Their investigation that discovered that there was no record of anyone about the young girl’s age named Sarah Riley, no social security number, no driver’s license, no hits with fingerprints and dental records, and even more heartbreaking for the Five 0 detective, not even a missing person’s report. And despite his and Steve’s best efforts and the nationwide media blitz surrounding the case, no one had stepped forward and claimed her as their own or even had given her back her real name. There seemed to be no one who cared, or even missed her.
He knew that if it had been Grace who had been missing, he would have turned over every rock, every grain or sand, and tore apart every nook and cranny in every state to find her. And that’s what made this case personal, probably more personal than any case he had ever investigated before.
It was as if she had somehow become a nobody. A ghost of the streets who had no background, no place to call home, no family who cared or were even looking for her and no name, other than the name of Sarah Riley that she had used when she had rented a room in the small hotel on Hotel Street. And that broke his heart. He knew that he had to do something more for her than just catch the animal who had killed her.
He ignored the tears that began to fall as he knelt down and traced his fingers over the inscription etched in the cold stone. There was no birthdate inscribed, even Max was uncertain of her actual age, except he was certain she was no older than sixteen or seventeen. All that was inscribed on the pure white stone was the name she had used, Sarah Riley, and the date of her death 23rd September, 2011.
“You do know that Sarah Riley isn’t her real name, don’t you, Buddy?” Steve McGarrett carefully asked his partner, acutely aware of just how much this case had gotten under Danny’s skin … under all their skins. The murder of the young girl had been one of the most challenging and hardest cases he had faced so far as the Five 0 commander. He could only imagine just how hard it had been for Danny, especially because he knew it would hit Danny harder with Grace only being a few years younger than their nameless victim.
It was only after the small funeral that was attended by Danny, Chin, Kono and himself and he had seen the name scribed on the headstone when he returned to place a rose on the grave today that he had even realized just who had paid for the burial. He would wait until Danny had finished grieving before he would quietly place half of the funeral costs back into Danny’s bank account.
Danny swallowed hard and nodded as he brushed away some of the dirt that clung to the headstone, before slowly turning his head, and looking up at his partner who had suddenly appeared beside him, “I know that, Steve, but…”
“She deserved more than a grave marked as ‘Jane Doe’.” Steve finished for him staring down at the grave before he looked back at his partner as Danny slowly rose to his feet.
Danny nodded.
“You know if we find her family, that they will want her remembered by her real name, don’t you?” Steve asked gently, aware of just how much this case had affected the man whom he considered his closest friend… his ohana.
Brushing away the tears that trickled down his face, Danny swallowed hard and sighed as he looked back down at the grave, gently placing his fingers lovingly on the headstone, “I know but until then at least she has a name to be remembered by and I know that she won’t be forgotten.”