Lasalle, Brody, and Percy leapt out of Lasalle's truck and into the chaotic scene a car accident on one side of the Huey P. Long Bridge.
"Whew," Percy noted, "A lot of traffic on the bridge today. Not a good time for an accident. I hope the Lieutenant didn't hit anyone when he put his car in the drink."
"It's never a good time for an accident, Percy," Lasalle corrected her, with his usual swagger; that earned him an eye roll from the newest member of the team.
"Uh-oh!" Brody said, looking ahead, her pace quickening, "I see Loretta; that's not a good sign."
"No, ma'am, it's not," Lasalle agreed, as they hurriedly weaved around paramedics and police. In a few moments they came up to their coroner friend. "We were hoping that you could sit this one out, Miss Loretta," he finished.
"Ah, well, no such luck, my dears," the older woman answered sagely, with a serious, but not unsympathetic smile, She bit her lip, and added, "I'm mighty glad that you're all here now, but where's Dwayne?."
"Coming," Lasalle answered, "He was at the office; we weren't."
"What have you got for us?" Brody asked, getting down to business.
"Ah, well, this poor soul, who I have yet to identify, is a petty officer," Loretta replied, shaking her head as she indicated the full body bag that she'd just zipped up, "He was the Lieutenant's passenger."
"The Lieutenant is over there fighting the police" she went on, pointing towards a feisty brawl between a huge man with a deep barrel chest, thick neck, and enormous arms and NOPD officers by the water, "I suspect that he's high on something but, obviously, he's not going to my table right now, so that's just a guess." Turning back to the dead man, she sighed and added, "He doesn't look much older than Danny."
"High on something?" Brody questioned, "Can you guess what?"
"I've never had much use for guessing, Merri," Loretta answered, matter-of-factly, "But, if I did guess, I'd say the Lieutenant was using Flakka."
"Oh, brother!" Percy groaned, "Not Flakka again."
"Unfortunately, yes," Loretta nodded, "The NOPD was keen on arresting him to find out who he's buying from until they found out that he was Navy." She shook her head again, "Now they're just trying to manage him until you get her."
"And their doing a fine job," Percy said sarcastically, as she cocked her head to watch the NOPD officers being slung in every direction.
"He's ours now," Lasalle said, narrowing his eyes as his gaze zeroed in on the angry officer.
"You sure that he's not a Minotaur?" Brody asked, as she stared aghast at the muscular man.
"Mino-what?" Percy asked, giving her an incredulous look.
"Minotaur," Lasalle said, in a knowing smile and a wink, "It's a mythical creature, Percy; half-man and half-bull."
"Oh, brother," Percy said, rolling her eyes. Staring at the ferocious fighter, she added, "So, let me guess, which end of him is the bull part?"
"There's something else, my dears," Loretta interrupted their banter in a serious tone, catching them by surprise. She bit her lip before continuing, "Our Lieutenant sideswiped another car when he lost control." She hesitated again, rising the tension, "Laurel's car went into the canal too."
Laurel?" the three gasped in unison, then added their own colorful expletives.
Loretta waved her hand, as if to calm them and herself down. "She's alright, she's fine. God have mercy, do you think that I'd be here doing this if she wasn't?"
"So, her car went into the canal?" Brody asked, still pale with alarm.
"Yes, yes," Loretta shuddered, "A witness pulled her out before he called it in." She pointed to the familiar figure, laying on the grass, being watched by a couple of paramedics, "After I made sure that she was okay, I told those two to watch her like hawk and tell me if anything changed." Indicating the body bag again, she added, "Unfortunately, this poor man had to wait for the jaws of life."
"Only they didn't come in time," Percy mused.
"I'm going to Laurel!" Brody stated, and dashed off.
"And I'm gonna nail somebody to the sidewalk," Percy growled, her eyes flashing indignantly as she stomped off towards where the Lieutenant and NOPD officers still fought, "I watched over that girl when the Militia was after Pride and I ain't gonna let no idiot steal her away from him."
"Well then," Lasalle said, smiling tensely, "I guess I'm gonna watch for Pride and make sure that he knows before he sees."
~*0*~
When Brody reached Laurel, the LSU sophomore tried to sit up and hug her before sinking back to the ground and breaking down.
"I didn't even see him until he hit me," she managed to say in audible tones.
"Hey, hey," Brody spoke soothing encouragement, "It'll be okay. Loretta said that you're gonna be fine." She smiled as she soothed the young woman's soaked hair, sighing with gratitude that, other than being very shook up, Laurel seemed fine.
"Where's my dad?" Laurel asked haltingly, shivering despite the sweltering late summer Louisiana heat. Brody immediately slipped out of her NCIS coat and tucked it around her.
"He's coming; we called him at the office when the call came in," Brody assured her, "We were just little closer so we got here first."
"I was coming home to surprise him for his birthday tomorrow," Laurel whispered.
"Shh, now," Brody responded, "Rest up until he gets here."
~*0*~
"Alright, bull-man!" Percy snapped at the Lieutenant, as she showed her credentials to the NOPD officers; they gladly stepped away, "Get your lousy tail against the car and put your hands behind your back!"
The Lieutenant gave her a raging look and, she could have sworn, smoke came out of his nose.
"Hey, do I look like I'm wearing red?" she snapped, returning his fiery glare without flinching. Then she took off, running at him in hopes that her momentum would knock him off balance and she could take him down. That didn't happen; instead, he easily sidestepped her, then then picked her up by the coat and body-slammed her into the barrier between the road and the canal.
She scrambled to her feet, having thrown up her hands in time to protect her head and the two combatants started circling each other, looking for an advantage.
Without glancing away, Percy snapped at one of the lingering NOPD officers, "Hey, does bull-man have a name?" She was getting awfully irritated by their lack of help.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied, smiling with amusement as the smaller woman took on the giant, "Lieutenant John Doe."
Percy's concentration broke for a moment as she the police officer an incredulous look, "Are you serious?" Then she let out a startled yelp when the Lieutenant took advantage of her gaffe and hurled her into the wall again.
~*0*~
Lasalle didn't have to wait long before Pride pulled up to the scene. He noted warily that, judging from his boss's easy stride and comfortable determined look, no one had informed him that his daughter was one of the victims.
Pressing his lips together, Lasalle hurried to intercept him.
"Christopher," Pride asked, in his usual gruff no-nonsense work voice, "What have you learned?"
Lasalle wince, feeling the irony in that question, "Now, King," he said, holding his hands up, "First off, I want you to know that she is okay."
Pride's mouth remained set in stone, but his eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch, "She? I thought that our Lieutenant was male."
Lasalle could only shake his head, his heartbeat quickened dramatically just before he broke the news, "The Lieutenant sideswiped Laurel just before she got on the bridge."
Pride stiffened, his face draining of color in an instant. Then he shook his head, "Laurel is at school; it's the middle of the week; she's coming this weekend for a late birthday party with me."
Lasalle caught his arm, "No, sir." It was all he could trust himself to say. After a few moments under Pride's hard incredulous stare, he forced himself to add, "Brody is with her now."
Pride yanked his arm back and spun away, pressing his way through the crowd, his disbelieve rapidly evolving into panic to find his daughter. When he saw her laying in the grass soaking wet, he dropped to his knees and caressed her face with shaking hands, "Laurel...baby girl, are you alright? It's the middle of the week; what are you doing here?" Without waiting for her answer, he pulled her upright, into a tight embrace.
Finally, after a long minute wrapped in her father's arms, Laurel murmured, "I'm okay, dad...just freaked out. I didn't even see him before he hit me." She sniffed softly, "I was coming home to surprise you for your birthday tomorrow."
Pride kissed her cheek and rubbed her back for a few minutes, chuckling softly with gratitude that her surprise visit hadn't ended tragically, while Brody and Lasalle stood guard over them. Finally he looked around.
"Loretta is here," he noted, "Is the Lieutenant dead?"
"No, sir," Lasalle said, his eyes flashing briefly, "His passenger, a petty officer, is. The Lieutenant is with Percy." His eyes lit up with irony, "Or maybe she's killed him by now."
Pride raised his eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.
"Loretta thought that the Lieutenant might be high on Flakka," Brody offered. She nodded in the direction of Percy's snapping voice, "He is as big as a bull so we sent our prize bullfighter to get him."
Pride turned his ashen face on the scene and anger rabidly took over his expression. "It looks like she needs some help," he stated. Kissing Laurel's forehead again, he eased her back onto her back, "Stay here, baby girl. I'll be right back." To Brody and Lasalle, he said, "Stay with her."
Then he headed towards the fight with long purposeful strides.
As he closed in, he called sternly, "Percy, do you have a name for him?"
"Lieutenant John Doe," she answered, without turning around, "I'm serious too." Then she gasped when the Lieutenant again ran at her and threw her smaller body into the barrier.
"I got him," Pride said, running the final few steps to close in on irate man. Using his momentum, he drew back and punched the Lieutenant between the eyes, spinning him into the barrier, almost on top of Percy.
Then Pride was on him, anger giving him the strength that he needed to wrestle the man's hands behind his back, "Lieutenant John Doe, you are under arrest."