Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Mingo
Happy birthday to you
Mingo!
My dear friends.
My good partners.
Thank you, from deep in my heart where it counts.
Right on, baby.
Happy birthday.
- Open your presents. - Sure.
Here we go.
Look at the big green one over here. How pretty it looks.
Don't crowd me.
Let's just back off.
That's more better, like my native friends say.
Now...
It's from Tommy.
Thanks, kid.
What I've always wanted.
- Let's have a big hand for Tommy. - Yeah.
"Happy birthday, pilau kane, Mingo.
It is your last."
No signature.
What's it mean, Akamai?
Oh, nothing. Forget it.
What does it mean, Akamai?
It means "filthy scum."
Well, forget it. Open the next one, huh?
- What is it? - Mingo?
- What is it? - Hey, watch it.
Better get started inside, Danno.
All right, doc, what's the story?
I'm not sure. Very strange.
Something hit his central nervous system.
Turned the lights out, but fast.
Nervous system? What does that mean?
Some sort of cerebrovascular accident.
We'll have to put the pieces together.
- It will make an interesting autopsy. - Not for Mingo.
He was opening some presents and reading this note when he collapsed.
"Happy birthday. It's your last."
Cream of society, huh, Danno?
Yeah, con men, grifters, pimps, assorted playmates.
See if there's a typewriter inside, will you?
Well, well.
Two of our leading real estate operators, huh?
Here he comes again with the big hassle.
Move it, girls.
- What happened to your partner'? - He got sick.
He just got sick and died.
Yeah, one minute, everything's going great.
You know, he's opening his birthday presents, everything's fine,
and then suddenly, pow.
Kind of makes you think.
- Nobody touched him? - Nobody.
- Black magic? - You figure it out, pal. That's your job.
You three are partners, is that right?
Who gets Mingo's piece of your real estate shill game?
Oh, no, McGarrett, that's no way to talk to respectable businessmen--
Who? Who stands to profit?
Oh, no sweat, McGarrett.
Mingo's dead, we cut everything two ways instead of three, that's all.
All right, folks, n I have your attention please?
I don't want to stay here any longer than you do.
So just do as I ask and we can all go home.
Now...
Will you kindly arrange yourselves just as you were earlier
when Mingo was opening his presents.
Exactly as you were earlier.
Steve, note was typed on the portable in the den.
So any one of Mingo's good friends could have slipped in and done it, huh?
The rd was ordinary stationery store stuff.
- Che's dusting it for prints. - Good, Danno.
Okay.
So, Mingo was standing here, is that right?
Then what happened?
Well, then he was opening his birthday presents.
Which one was he touching when he got the attack?
This one.
- And before that? - The necklace.
No. No, that's not right.
Between the two, he had a little one. A little box.
- Is that right? - Yeah, he's right.
There was a little box, the one that had the note in it.
Can you point the box out to me, please?
It's not here.
How do you like that? It's gone.
Could you describe the box?
- What did it look like? - Oh, it was just a little box.
You know, like from a store. About so big.
- And what was in it? - Never did get to see.
But Mingo looked inside the box, just after he read the note.
And I told him forget it, to open another present.
- And then he passed out. - Passed away.
Did anybody see what was in the box?
Did anybody see what happened to the box?
When Mingo got his attack, did he hold it in his hands?
Did he drop it? What?
Nobody knows.
All right, so, Mingo looked in the box and then what?
Well, then he starts gasping like:
And then he just caves in.
And nobody touched him?
Mingo had this thing. He didn't like people to touch him.
Anybody missing?
No, everybody's here.
All right, folks, will you just sit down now please?
Just sit back.
How many people have you swindled?
Now, now, McGarrett. No unsubstantiated charges.
Okay, I'll put it another way.
How many phony real estate lots have you sold?
Oh, have it your own way.
Four thousand, give or take a few.
And aside from these 4,000 people, who else wanted Mingo dead?
In this group, for instance, who else wanted Mingo dead?
Look, nice Mingo wasn't. You know that, McGarrett.
But nobody wanted to kill him.
If nice he wasn't, why do you come to his parties?
Because he asked us to come.
- When Mingo asks, you come. - Sure.
Especially when you got plenty wahines,
free booze, free entertainment.
All right, folks. Let's wrap it up.
Mingo is dead.
If he died of natural causes,
one of you is a prophet and I'd like to meet him.
Or her.
All right, go home. The party's over.
And no sudden departures from this rock.
You know a pathologist waits for an interesting case.
And this is a beaut.
- Cause of death? - Unknown so far.
Mr. Mingo did not die of natural causes.
He did not die of a disease of the nervous system.
And he did not die of cerebrovascular accident.
- He is dead. - Oh, yes, quite.
He suffocated. Now let me show you something.
I did a workup on the sample of his blood.
The slide on the left is a sample of normal blood.
Healthy, type A. Not Mingo's, the same type.
The slide on the right is Mingo's.
Notice anything?
Those particles.
- Hexagonal? - That's right.
Amazing thing. It's foreign matter.
An alkaloid. Unusual.
- Have you identified it yet? - Not specifically.
But I do know that it's an ammonium derivative of some kind.
- You're saying he was poisoned? - In effect, yes.
And that this poison causes paralysis
- and death by suffocation? - That's right.
Was there any of the stuff in his stomach?
No. If you're thinking that it might have been ingested with food or drink,
negative. In the blood only.
- How could it get there? - That's what's so interesting.
I looked over his body quite carefully.
There are no wounds, no skin abrasions, no means of entry.
Look, doc, that poison is in Mingo.
He didn't swallow it. It had to get in somehow.
Right.
At least you know now that it was definitely murder.
Or suicide, cause unknown.
Doc, that's not good enough.
We need to know what the poison was,
we need to know how it got into his system, and we need to know fast.
- Did you ll the oops? - Why should I?
Well, because Mingo got a notice like this, that's why, and he's dead.
He rattles easy, don't he? Well, not me.
Come on, babies, let's catch our wave.
You're a lunatic!
You're crazy, out of your Hawaiian head!
Operator, this is an emergency. Get me Five-O.
- Hey, man. - Where is it?
I wouldn't have believed it. You really called him, huh?
Well, sure, I called him.
Hey, you're too dumb to be scared.
The note.
Same bit?
Yeah. It says, "Rest in peace, Fred Akamai Loy.
Born July 6, 1929. Died September 10th."
Hey, that's tomorrow, Williams. Tomorrow.
And this weirdo goes swimming with a broad on each arm like it's nothing.
When did you get it?
I found it under the bedroom door this morning.
After we got up.
Got any ideas who put it under the door?
Now, how would I know?
Wallis?
Well, don't look at me. I was asleep.
Akamai woke us up with this note.
How do I know you were asleep? Maybe you were awake.
Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?
Whatever you want it to mean, pal.
Akamai is saying you might have faked being asleep
after putting the note under his door and sneaked back to bed again.
I didn't write that note to you or--
- You think I killed Ralph? - How do you know Ralph was killed?
Well, he's dead, isn't he?
Somebody wrote him a note saying he was gonna die, now he's dead.
Manoa, let's go out on the reef.
They say fishing is good for the soul.
Right, boss. How about I change clothes?
Maybe you wrote that note to clear yourself of suspicion, huh?
- How do I know you didn't? - You don't.
Listen, cop, I don't like you here.
You're busting up my party.
You think Ralph was murdered, you go and find the murderer.
Wallis here is scared? You hold his hand.
Me, I'm not interested.
And now I'm going fishing.
You wanna ask me any more questions,
you gotta come in the water.
Come on, girls.
Hey, Akamai.
I can think of at least a dozen things I'd rather do than babysit you.
Akamai.
Hey, Danny, look at this.
Dead fish, dead man.
Same house, same day. Interesting, huh?
Okay, enough with the deep Hawaiian symbolism.
Check out Akamai's room, huh? I'll take Mingo's.
What's the videotape machine for?
Oh, it's a sales tool.
Our mainland customers can't come to beautiful Hawaii,
so we bring beautiful Hawaii to them.
Nice, huh?
None of that stuff is anywhere near your property.
That shot, it's way over on the other side of the island.
Well, it's the same island.
One of these days,
you guys are gonna slip off the legal tightrope you've been walking.
And when you do, we're gonna be there to catch you.
We won't slip.
If it's a sales machine, what's it doing in the bedroom?
Well, it has to be somewhere.
- Well, sometimes Mingo- - Mingo what?
Well, remember he had this thing about being touched?
Yeah.
Well, some people...
Well, it's like sports.
Some like to play
and some like to watch.
Mingo, he was kind of like a spectator,
if you know what I mean.
Just one big beautiful human being, your late partner Mingo.
Well, nobody's perfect.
Not even me.
Would you like to look at some really beautiful scenery?
Sure.
Oh, you shrewdie.
You'd probably have me pinched for pornography.
Paul, we're going in.
I'm gonna set around-the-clock watch.
I'll send your relief later.
Williams to Central. Patch me through to McGarrett.
- You okay, buddy? - Yeah, yeah, I'm okay.
- You want me to ll a doctor or-? - I said I'm all right.
Anything I can do?
Not right now, sweetheart.
Manoa.
- Thanks, bro. - That's okay.
You like this watch?
- It's yours. - No.
You take it.
All right, girls.
Let's get back to the booze.
The show is over.
Akamai needs his rest.
And what have we got on the so-called guest list of theirs?
They're all in the same bag.
On the hook to the partners for one thing or another.
Plus a few moochers. You know, good-time mp followers.
Plenty of resentment, but motive for murder?
Chin, what about the staff? Give me the book.
Start with what's-his-name, the cook.
Name, Chang Lu, 52. Bachelor.
He's worked some of the best hotels in the island.
Born in Canton. Changes jobs a lot. No police record.
And what about the houseboy?
Jack Manoa, 43. Local.
Respected old Hawaiian family. Married.
One child, daughter, deceased. He's worked as a fishing guide.
He's clean.
And the maid?
Kyo Sasaki, Nisei. Married, two children.
Husband also Japanese, successful fisherman.
Operate fleet of five boats, runs one of them himself.
She works on and off as a domestic.
All three look clean as far as we've gone.
- Well, then go farther. - Like what?
If Chang is such a good cook, how come he can't hold a job?
Manoa's daughter, what did she die of?
Any details on that?
How come the wife of a successful fisherman
has to work as a domestic?
That's what I mean.
You know, Steve, digging into the guest list and staff,
okay, that's about 40 people.
And if there's a murder motive there, we'll find it.
- But. - But what?
Well, if we have to start going through the customer list,
that's a few thousand people.
Yeah, that's where it's going to get tough.
We may have to run a computer on them.
After my meeting with the governor,
I stopped at the attorney general's office again.
His book on Wallis, Akamai and Mingo gets thicker every month.
- Were there any threatening letters? - No, none that he knew of.
Plenty of letters of complaint from all over the country, lots of lawsuits.
- Nothing to indict on? - Not yet.
They always manage to operate just inside the law.
A guy in Indiana buys a lot from these people.
Never saw it, of course.
Buys it from a description in a brochure.
Finds out that he's bought himself a quarter acre of lava rock.
Hawaiian Palms Estates has no palms on it,
twenty miles from any beach, and is one royal swindle.
A guy gets done in for his life's savings,
could move him to murder.
Yeah, it's been done for a lot less.
Meanwhile, we don't even know what kind of poison killed Mingo.
Or how it got into him.
- Akamai not up yet? - He sleep late.
Maybe not feel so good after almost drowning yesterday.
All right I bring him tray?
Sure.
Oh, my God.
I'll get an ambulance.
- Get Five-O. Get Five-OI - Yeah.
- Paul, everybody inside? - Sure.
He just ran up and he jumped in my r.
He's scared out of his gourd.
Mr. Wallis. No more jokes, witty sayings?
All right, do we walk or do I carry you in?
Does this list have all the people
who wandered in and out of here last night?
What time did the last one leave?
It was at 3:05 a.m.
Anything you can add?
You?
- You? - I'm leaving.
- I will not work here anymore. - All right, Mrs. Sasaki.
But keep yourself available if we should need you.
The island is my home. I would not leave here.
But I will not work in this house again.
Okay.
You know, she's got something there.
I'm gonna take the next plane out of here myself.
Forget it.
Well, you can't hold me. I'm not under arrest.
You will be the minute you try to leave Hawaii.
- On what grounds? - What about material witness?
Which is just a nice way of saying, as of now, you're suspect number one.
Are you crazy? I am target number one now.
Maybe. Maybe not.
What would a grand jury say?
Three little Indians, two are gone.
Leaving the third one rich,
and sole owner of the Hawaiian Palm Estates.
You wanna buy a hot real estate company--?
You had opportunity and motive. Now what do you say?
Well, I say...
I'm scared.
You want protection?
Yeah, every day, unless it snows.
We've got a nice cell downtown, solid steel bars.
- No way. - No other way.
Well, you find a way.
That's your job.
Can you imagine me walking into a jail voluntarily?
I've been booked, pinched, indicted for more raps.
But jail?
Oh, man, that's one scene I don't make.
Me and Eadie and Donna,
we are gonna stay right here, huh?
- Have fun. - You know it.
Eadie.
- Where were you this morning? - Me?
I was just around.
- Donna? - Well, let me see.
- I was... - I know, around.
Find anything?
I thought you said Akamai hadn't been swimming since yesterday.
- Yeah. - This pillowcase is damp.
It smells like seawater.
Let me have it. I'm going back to the lab.
Where are your two friends?
Oh, well, l...l told them to cut out.
Hope I didn't spoil your fun and games.
Paul, double the manpower. I want the house sealed off.
- Two men inside, two men out here. - Right, Danny.
What do you see, big kahuna?
Two dead fish. Pretty soon, maybe three.
Well, what are you, a cop or a fortuneteller?
Maybe a little bit of both.
You're crazy, out of your Kanaka head.
- All right, doc. What have you got? - We may have some goodies.
- Just may. - Good, go.
We took some spectrophotometer readings.
Okay. The alkaloid we found in Mingo's blood.
No wonder we couldn't break it down.
It never did show up in the routine blood tests.
You'd have to be looking for this baby to find it.
Anyway, it's an alkaloid of quaternary ammonium compounds,
consisting of N-methylpyridinium ho-
Doc, English please.
Works like curare, the South American poison.
Short circuits right here at the myoneural junction.
The nerve signal is stopped there,
PERM"!!! the autonomic nervous system,
including the muscles that control breathing.
The victim suffocates.
Like curare? So they were poisoned.
- How? - Don't know yet.
Meanwhile, there is something else.
Akamai's pillowcase. It was damp with seawater.
- Though he hadn't been swimming? - Right.
And another thing. Once I found that, I went back and checked.
The note that Mingo got
when he was opening his presents and keeled over?
It checked out same as the pillowcase. Seawater.
That note was damp with seawater too.
What did I tell you? I knew there was a connection.
Same day, same house, dead fish, dead men.
Seawater and Akamai. Seawater and Mingo.
Kono.
- It keeps coming back. - That it does.
Danno, get me some answers.
What kills people and fish and lives in the sea?
What kills fish and people and lives in the sea?
Well, gentlemen, there are many poisonous organisms in the sea.
Some fish are deadly when they attack,
others, when you eat them.
Skates. Sea snakes.
Some of the corals. Some of the jellyfish.
- Capable of killing a grown man? - Oh, yes.
For example, there are two gastropods living in Hawaiian waters.
This one, for example.
Hold it, don't move.
If you were to take this shell by the front, as you were about to do,
you would be very dead, very quickly.
This way, by the back.
Away from the aperture, it can't hurt you.
This beautiful little baby?
This beautiful little baby can paralyze a man in less than a minute.
Kill him in a couple of hours.
And it's a particularly horrible way to die, death by inches.
- Is it fatal only to humans? - No.
Other gastropods, fish. Each other.
They're shy, but anything comes near, they're vicious killers.
Beautiful, and as deadly as they are beautiful.
If it's all the same to you, doc, let's put that little baby back in the tank, huh?
- If you wish. - I wish.
How does this--? What did you call it?
Cloth of gold will do.
How does it kill?
Now, here is the Leiblein gland, where the venom is stored.
And here is the proboscis. It's extendable.
And here is the radula,
where a bundle of hollow needles are stored.
Maybe 20 of them, like arrows in a quiver,
each only about 5 millimeters long.
- What happens to the needle? - Oh, that remains buried in the tissue.
The guy who gets it, can he feel it?
Sometimes a slight sting, sometimes nothing at all.
You must remember that the needle
may be only five-one-thousandths of an inch in diameter.
So it wouldn't leave a very big hole going in?
Well, no larger than a pore.
You'd really have to know what you were looking for
and where to look if you'd hope to find it.
And the poison wouldn't by any chance
be a derivative of ammonia, would it?
Yes. How did you know?
We're learning the hard way.
Kono, get on the phone to doc.
Have him check Mingo's hands, Akamai's face, neck and scalp.
Tell him to use a magnifying glass.
- I need a phone too. - Oh, yes, this way.
Hello?
Yes, sir.
- Hey, officer, for you. - Thank you.
- Nakamura. - Paul, Danny. ls Wallis okay?
I guess so. I spoke with him a few minutes ago.
- Where is he? - He's up in his mom.
He locked himself in.
Well, is he okay now? Talk to him again.
Hang on a second.
Hey, Wallis? Are you okay?
Yeah. I'm okay.
And I'm hungry.
And I want another drink.
And where's my dinner?
- He's okay. - We're on our way over.
And, Paul, stick close to that aquarium.
No one but no one goes near that aquarium, understand?
Sure, Dan. Whatever you say.
Five years on the force and I wind up guarding a fishbowl.
You haven't been doing too good a job. Look.
All right, okay.
Oh, what's that?
I catch you fresh mahi-mahi today.
Nice. Broiled.
Oh, that's pretty.
Yes, boss.
Something special.
A present, from Manna to you.
The cloth of gold, Mr. Wallis.
A noble Hawaiian creature.
Its work is over.
Beautiful, isn't it?
As beautiful as a young girl named Tia.
You remember Tia, Mr. Wallis?
Sweet, pure,
as lovely as a plumeria flower.
Untouched. Until you--
- Where's Steve? - Budget hearing.
And Danny?
Well, last I heard, he and Kono were en route to Sea Life Park.
Central Dispatch, Kelly. Patch me through to Williams.
You don't remember that girl, Mr. Wallis?
Then I'll show you.
I'll show you what you did to my 'Fa.
Danny, get this.
Manoa had a daughter who died.
- When? - Five months ago.
- Age? - Sixteen.
She wouldn't do what you asked.
So you gave her drugs to make her do those things for this machine.
Filthy things.
My Tia's shame.
Her hilahila.
- Cause of death? - Infectious hepatitis.
Then you made her watch what she had done.
You played it back on this machine.
Your filth became her filth.
- Addict? - Yeah.
Same old story.
Hundred-and-fifty-a-day habit, picked up for prostitution.
More drugs.
And then the streets.
And then your final gift, a dirty needle.
Isn't it fitting that the three of you should die from a needle?
It all happened for her at a party. You know where the party took place.
I n imagine where the party took place.
- Any sign of the shell? - It's gone.
- Wallis? - In there.
Wallis?
Go in.
Manoa planned it very well.
He had the shell out of the tank before we put a watch on it.
Kono, if you wanted to hide in a canebrake,
what island would you head for?
The big island. Hawaii.
Yeah.
Danno, do you read me?
Pretty clear. Go ahead.
Well, there's a fair chance he might try for the big island.
We'll keep our present heading,
but why don't you go southeast for a look?
Okay, Steve, 10-4.
- Steve? - Yeah. Go, Danno.
The big island was a good hunch.
We're over him right now.
From where you are, it's a heading of between 125 to 130 degrees true.
Got it. All right, Danno, we'll take him from here.
Manna, this is Five-O, you're under arrest. Come about.
Come about.
Is this what you're looking for, Mr. McGarrett?
Please, Mr. McGarrett,
I don't want to hurt you.
Too many already have been hurt.
Stay where you are, Mr. McGarrett.
You can't raise the dead. It's too late.
I'm sorry about your daughter, Manoa.
But I've gotta take you in. You've already killed three men.
How can you...
arrest a dead man?