Death in the Desert
By: Suisan, just one of the Twisted Evilettes
A Numb3rs story with NCIS Original Characters (mostly)
Synopsis: The FBI always works cases of death (accidental or otherwise) in our National Parks. NCIS always works cases involving Navy or Marine Corps personnel. What happens when those absolutes conflict? Sparks Galore! Granger'Verse
Cameos by 'NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigation Services' characters and mention of other another character from another CBS show.
A/N: Now, before you go thinking I didn't have my fellow Twisted Evilette's ample assistance on this tale – think again. AmyD did assist, sometimes by just listening as I bounced ideas off her, or with dialogue or even with ideas when the muse was being stubborn and just plain not cooperating with me. She also acted at First Beta-Reader. This tale is a part of the Cascade Granger 'Verse we created and, oh yes my pretties, there be Original Characters within. Many thanks to Elysium & RiverOtterUS for providing their services as Proofers and Editors.
Disclaimer: I do not "own" Numb3rs, NCIS or any of the characters that you might recognize from television; I am merely borrowing them to explore an alternate universe and will return them in a (mostly) intact condition. Many, many, may thanks go out to Cheryl Heuton, Nick Falacci, Donald Bellisario, Don McGill, Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahue, Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony & Ridley Scott . . . without your vision and your ability to bring things like storylines and characters to life, this world would be a much duller place. I really am just an admirer, a fan and a poor college student trying to get her Associates in both Criminal Justice and Criminal Sciences.
Part One
It was a rare event in Colby Granger's life; a Saturday afternoon where he didn't have fighter practice - canceled due to only two people showing up, no active cases at the office who's paperwork he'd allowed to fall behind, and so he found himself with free time to spend in one of the University libraries to conduct research on 7th Century armor patterns. Any guilt he might have felt by taking the time to indulge in the more cerebral part of his other life, the historical exploration, didn't even try to surface as he walked up the steps into the cool, quiet interior of one of the largest buildings the main UCLA campus.
He took a moment to stop and sign in as a 'guest' at the main desk, inquiring after the librarian on duty if their collection of antique tomes on the Middle Ages was still housed in the basement - it was, he headed down a often overlooked staircase off on the north side of the building to where he recalled the books he needed were housed. When Colby had come here on Saturdays in the past, he hadn't been here in over 6 months thanks to a heavier than usual case load - including a couple that had damn near resulted in his death, and trying to balance that with his fighter practice leading up to his earning his Marshal's Card from the Society, he'd always had the entire history section to himself. Sunny days in Los Angeles weren't rare, but this was the first time one had fallen on a weekend after several days of continuous cloud cover and the ever present, but never presenting, threat of rain. He was actually surprised to see someone lurking in the stacks of the very section he'd hoped to peruse.
Students should've been out in the quad or exploring the city and the beaches on a day like today, but here was one, her nose buried in a book, standing right in the middle of the 8th Century section. 'Maybe she's got a paper coming up.' He thought as he took note of her appearance.
She had to be close to his own height of six foot, he couldn't be positive without standing right next to her and, for the moment, he was doing his best to observe her covertly. He moved into the aisle and started moving slowly toward the 7th Century section, keeping one eye on her while the other actually scanned the spines of the books on the shelves, looking for the one he seemed to recall finding in this library before. Colby took in the girl's - make that woman's - appearance as he searched for the book on armor design. Besides being tall, mostly in her legs, she was trim and had a tanned complexion, as evidenced by her bare arms shown off to toned and lightly muscled perfection in a white, sleeveless blouse over blue jeans. Dark brown hair, long and straight, reaching midway down her back, was caught up in a loose, messy ponytail that was held only by a pencil tucked into place.
He moved over another section, closer to the reading woman, and noticed how heavy her hip bag seemed to hang on her right side. She moved a little, adjusting her weight distribution and actually turning her torso a little more square to his location - a classic defense posturing - giving Colby the opportunity to see the make of the bag on her hip, which exactly matched the one on his that carried his sidearm, badge and identification. He stopped his leisurely perusal of the shelves as he found the book he'd been hunting for and took it from the shelf and started to flip through it.
Just a few minutes later, the library's air conditioner kicked on, valiantly trying to combat the heat and humidity outside, and Colby caught a whiff of something very intriguing on the artificial breeze. He closed his eyes as he took a couple of deep breaths in through his nose, trying to place the unique soft scent, and realized it was some sort of rose with an underlying note of sulfur and cordite. Gunpowder.
"You going to say anything or just stand there and exercise your olfactory sense?"
His eyes snapped open, surprised that the woman had addressed him and in such a sultry and amused tone. "Excuse me?" Colby said, not sure what else he could say after that.
She aimed him a tolerant and slightly bemused smile, which actually lit up her blue-gray eyes, and spoke again with that high alto voice. "Okay, maybe I'm mistaken and you weren't sniffing around me like some sort of hound and actually suffer from allergies. Can I get you a tissue or something?"
Colby felt the heat rush up his neck to his face, but smiled at her anyway as he responded. "If I admitted to sniffing, would you think me a dog?"
"Depends on the why." She closed her book and shifted it to her left hand, leaving her right hand free. Smart.
"Your perfume caught my attention. It's a very odd, but nice, combination of some sort of sweet rose and, unless I'm totally mistaken, gunpowder?"
"Interesting." She noted. "Very few people would know the underlying scent was gunpowder." A dark brow, shaped but not overly so, moved up a smooth forehead in a Vulcan-like fashion. "You don't look like some LA gang-banger, your hair is a little too long to be military regulation … street cop or detective?" Her eyes traveled downward as they obviously took in and recognized the bag on Colby's own hip before those blue-gray orbs snapped back up to his face.
It was professionally done and not at all subtle; he had just been sized up. He wasn't going to tell her the truth, a lot of the local cops had bad feelings toward FBI agents in general, but an agent of his standing did a lot of street work…. "Street cop and I'm willing to bet you are as well." He motioned toward her hip with his head.
The woman nodded in agreement and then held out her right hand, her weapon hand, to Colby. "Yes, I am. Yelena Dunbar."
Colby shook her hand, pleased with her firm grip, even as he introduced himself - noting as he did so that Yelena hadn't offered up the name of her department either. "Colby Granger. You a history student here, Dunbar?"
For some reason his question caused her to blush, very prettily, and avert her eyes back to the shelving holding the 7th and 8th Century books. "In a round-a-bout way. I'm actually looking for a new surcoté pattern."
"Surcoté?" Colby repeated, his curiosity piqued. "Society or LARP?" Yelena Dunbar's reaction was one of clear surprise and he grinned at her.
The Society of Creative Anachronism wasn't a secret society, but very few people would admit to being a member - especially if they were in law enforcement in their mundane lives. There weren't many members in the SCA who still partook of 'medicinal herbs' like marijuana at events, but there were enough that members who were cops had learned to turn a blind-eye to the fact.
Yelena didn't respond to his question, seemingly still shocked that anyone could make such a leap in logic, and Colby understood her reluctance; if she was local, she wasn't in his Barony and - therefore - might actually be part of an "enemy" state. "I'm SCA. Part of the Lyonmere Barony and, in fact, just made Marshal here in Caid Kingdom." He hoped by admitting his own involvement, she would open up. She did.
"I just returned to Caid and I'm actually an inactive member of the Stronghold of Calaphía until I decide if I'm going to stay down there or move further up the coast."
For Colby Granger, that last response from Yelena Dunbar was just the start of a lovely afternoon, which blended into a wonderful evening of food, coffee and conversation. They even decided to catch a movie together, as long as it was, like everything else that day, Dutch treat. By early Sunday morning, they had exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet again Monday evening after they both got off work. Tuesday they agreed to meet at yet another 'neutral' location and by Wednesday all was going well between them, until Yelena's cell phone rang. She answered, after stepping away from the table she shared with him, then made her excuses when she returned. Something had come up at work and she needed to drive down south that evening. The evenings and nights of dinner, dancing, coffee and conversation were temporarily put on hold but not permanently if Granger had anything to say about it.
Thursday, all went to hell in a hand basket.
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Don Eppes hated long road trips that were necessitated by remote cases. In this particular instance he was sharing the drive down to Joshua Tree National Park with David Sinclair, even as Colby Granger and Megan Reeves followed in Reeves' issued sedan. Potential felonies on national park land fell into the FBI's lap, even when there were fully qualified US Park Rangers who could handle the investigation and, if the ranger who'd discovered this body was correct, they were heading to a possible homicide scene. They'd already been on the road for well over two hours and Don found himself looking forward to stopping, if only so he could get out and stretch his legs.
The case had been called into the Riverside County Sheriff's Office who had, in turn, notified the closest FBI office - Los Angeles - who's Assistant Director of Investigations had decided that a potential homicide on federally protected lands was just what Don Eppes' crack team of sleuths needed to get back into the swing of things after several weeks of extremely dull and uncomplicated cases.
Seeing the entrance to the park marked on a highway sign, Don gestured to David who nodded and pulled out the two-way radio he and Granger had thought to bring along. "Colby, did you see the sign?"
"Yeah, I did. Don't be surprised if…."
Colby didn't get to finish his sentence, but was nice enough to wave at Don through the passenger's side window as Megan Reeves put her foot through the firewall of her sedan and passed Don's SUV like it was standing still.
Don shook his head as David broke out in laughter. "I guess we'll meet them at the main entrance."
"With no need to rush, either." David responded as he finally settled down. "I'm guessing we probably shouldn't tease her about too much tea before a long road trip?"
"Not unless you want to volunteer to the be the practice dummy at Megan's next Krav Maga demonstration." Don pulled off Hwy 10, then followed the marked signs to the main entrance of Joshua Tree National Park and found Reeves' sedan parked, its engine slightly ticking as it cooled off, in front of the main ranger station. Granger was standing out front, leaning up against the adobe-style building, but careful about not standing in the sunlight. Don understood that as he parked, turned off the engine of his SUV and opened his door.
It was like opening the door on a pizza oven. Heat spilled into the cool interior of his GMC, sucking the cold air right out into the dry heat and instantly causing sweat to break out on his skin. It had been a nice, if somewhat humid, 89° Fahrenheit when Don had left their offices in Los Angeles. Here in Joshua Tree it felt like it was already over 100° with little or no humidity and it wasn't even noon yet. Don didn't wait for David to catch up to him, just walked as fast as he could over the sweltering asphalt to the building and what he'd hope was a nice cool interior.
He was sadly mistaken. The inside of the Ranger Station couldn't have been much cooler than 90°, but after the heat of outside, it felt a little cooler, the worst part was there was no air circulation. At least outside there had been a small breeze blowing from the south. Don found Megan in the office off the main lobby, across from the gift shop, and was pleased to see she was already looking at the heavily detailed map of the park pinned on the wall behind the two desks crammed into the small office.
"Feeling better, Reeves?" He couldn't resist asking as he closed the door behind him, leaving David and Colby to their own devices.
"Much, thanks. This is not going to be easy, Don." She placed a long finger on the map. "The scene is clear over on the eastern edge of the park, right up against the Coronado and Mojave Deserts. Ranger Blakemore went to grab a spare cooler from his house, we're going to need it to haul in water or risk dehydration." Which, to Don's mind, explained why Megan was in here alone and where the Ranger who was supposed to meet them had run off to.
"I'm guessing Granger already knows this and is out there enlisting Sinclair's assistance in gathering supplies?" Don asked as he stepped up alongside Megan and looked to where she was still resting her finger. "Sheesh, could there be a more remote spot in this whole park?"
The door to the office opened up behind him and a man in the uniform of the US Parks Service stepped through. "There might be one more spot that is more remote, but this one's bad enough. Ranger Daniel Blakemore." Blakemore was a solidly built man with brown hair bleached nearly blonde by the sun and skin so deeply tanned that it made his blue eyes almost startling.
"Agent Don Eppes. I guess you've already been introduced to Reeves and Granger." Don shook the man's hand in way of greeting. "I'll introduce you to the final member of my team when he and Granger finish rounding up supplies."
"That would be Agent Sinclair, right? Met him just now when I turned my cooler over to Granger." Blakemore rounded the desk and stood beside Megan. "Agent Reeves, I looked at your car on my way back here, there is no way that'll make the haul out to the site. Agent Eppes, I just heard from my supervisor over at the Oasis Visitor's Center … I don't know how to tell you this but…"
Don wondered what was making the man so hesitant and couldn't help but notice that Megan's shoulders had tensed up. "What is it, Blakemore? Don't tell me you found another body?"
The ranger had the grace to smile, albeit weakly, at Don's attempted joke. "No sir, not another body … He got more information from the hikers who found the body and, well, that's where things get a little sticky."
"Sticky?" Don did not like the sound of that.
"Yes … seems the body was wearing dog tags and my supervisor called it in to the local Naval base, who then in turned dispatched a Navy Criminal Investigation Services team from Camp Pendleton."
Don didn't miss Megan's eyes rolling up into her head, just as he was sure she hadn't missed his similar reaction. "NCIS? I'm going to have a jurisdictional fight with an NCIS team from a Marine base?"
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Yelena Dunbar entered the NCIS office, which was nothing more than a series of cubicles tucked into the open bunk bay of a post-World War II dormitory building that also housed the base's JAG, Legal Aid and Medical Examiner's offices, and started calling out to her team members. "Lenny! You're driving the van for Doc Meese, go make sure it's fueled up and stop by Mouse's office and tell him we're in a hurry." Her senior agent, Leonard Goldblum, acknowledged her orders and, after grabbing his gear bag and sidearm, left his desk at a rapid pace and she turned her attention to the other member of her team who was present. "Rick, go find that Probie of ours, grab her gear and yours and go sign a SUV out of Motor Pool."
Agent Richard Stringfield took a moment to ask a question before leaving to follow Yelena's commands. "What have we got, Boss?"
"Freaking dead Squid out at Joshua Tree and we're the lucky SOBs who get to process the scene." She stopped by her desk and grabbed up the backpack she used as her gear bag. She was already wearing her Stringfield 1911 .45 caliber sidearm.
Richard rolled his eyes and then pointed toward the nearby head. "Probie's in there, you really want me to go in and get her?"
Yelena stopped her walk toward the stairwell and reversed course to enter the women's bathroom. "Sunny!" She called out as she entered the head, and started knocking on every stall door. "You'd better make like a lemon. We have a case and I'm not stopping between here and the scene so you can piddle." She found a locked stall door and stood in front of it, talking through the metal. "You've got five minutes to get done, meet up with Rick and get your ass over to Motor Pool!" She gave the door one final rap, then moved like a speed demon out of the bathroom, down the hall, into the stairwell where she took the stairs downward - three at a time, and in seconds found her way into the even worse excuse for an autopsy bay she'd ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on.
When she'd been assigned to Camp Pendleton five years ago, the base hospital had decided it had a better use for the previous autopsy bay in their basement and 'temporarily' moved Doctor Michael Meese, his equipment and small staff (one lowly Navy corpsman) to a small corner of the first floor of the Joint Use building. She found the medical examiner standing behind his cramped and overflowing desk, packing his medical bag.
"Dunbar," Meese said by way of greeting. "I heard we have a dead sailor over in Joshua Tree National Park. Would I be guessing correctly that you are responsible for Agent Lenny G 'volunteering' to drive my van?" He finished putting another prepackaged set of exam gloves in the ancient leather case and snapped it shut.
Yelena held a hand up as she dialed a number on her cell phone. "Sunny, don't forget to grab the 35 mm film camera, and grab that new digital one from my desk, the charger for it as well as the extra memory sticks and two portable flash attachments before you go over to Motor Pool. We might actually have need of a backup camera this case." She didn't wait for the young agent to answer, just disconnected and snapped the flip phone shut.
Meese quirked a bemused smile. "You're still riding Agent Keynes' butt? When are you going to forgive her lack of preparation from," he looked at a wall calendar, "four weeks ago today?"
She returned the doctor's warm smile with one of her own that would freeze salt water. "When she no longer has to be reminded what gear to grab when she's called out on a case." Yelena knew she was being hard on the fresh-from-academy-Probie, but Sunshine 'Sunny' Keynes was on her shakedown assignment before being shipped to her first permanent duty station and Yelena knew it was up to her and her team to shape the young, blonde, blue-eyed, fresh-faced agent into something another Team Leader would appreciate. "You ready, Mouse?"
Meese sighed as he picked up his back and walked out of his area at Yelena's side. "I really wish you would stop calling me that, Dunbar."
"Can't. You remind me too much of the House Mouse in my class when I went through Boot Camp." She beat the doctor to the outside door, pushed it open and stepped out into the 90 plus degree weather. "And, before you ask me again, yes. I asked Lenny to drive you to the scene because it's just now coming up on 1000hrs and I happen to know for a fact that you didn't get back to base from your ME Conference in Las Vegas until well after zero-three-hundred." He snorted in resignation, as if her knowing what time he'd gotten back to base was only natural. "Besides, Doc, I really didn't want to scrape you and our only coroner's van off the grill of some speeding 18-wheeler. This way, Lenny can drive and you can catch a nap if you want. We've got a pretty long drive ahead of us, ya know."
Doctor Michael "Mouse" Meese let out a spurt of laughter as they entered the Motor Pool and made their way to the waiting team mates and their vehicles - already running to cool off the interiors. "You are all heart, Agent Dunbar. You know I can't sleep in a moving vehicle of any sort."
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
The drive from the south entrance to the plains below Aqua Peak in the Coxcomb Mountains had taken Don, his team and Ranger Blakemore more than an hour to transverse and most of the way had been over vastly under-improved roadways that were little more than dry creek beds. Don was pretty sure his backside needed more padding, at least his driver's side seat did, and he was also betting that after he returned to Los Angeles, he was going to need to put his SUV into the shop for a suspension overhaul. Blakemore had been nice enough to offer to haul part of the team and their supplies in the back of his HMMWV (Humvee) but Don hadn't wanted to tie the park Ranger up any longer than they had to, so he asked Daniel only to led them into the site where the body was discovered, hoping the entire time that his team would be at the scene and processing it long before the NCIS team from Camp Pendleton showed up.
'After all, possession, or processing, is 9/10ths the law … right?' He was already in a sour mood, fighting over a case was not how Don wanted this day to end. Or start. Whichever.
He spotted the desert-camouflage painted HMMWV long before Ranger Blakemore pulled along side it and parked. The government issued plates on the back bumper didn't reassure him either as Don stepped out of his SUV and stretched his legs as he looked around. The NCIS team was already on location and screwing around his crime scene. Great.
"Don…" Megan called out to get his attention, then pointed toward a small rise about 50 yards from their current position.
"I see 'em, Megan. Get the guys and grab our gear while I head over to hash out who's in charge of this scene." He pulled his FBI ball cap out of the backseat of his SUV and, after making sure his badge was also plainly visible on his belt, walked over toward the group of four people Megan had pointed out. Before he got more than 10 yards closer to them, one broke free from the group and started to approach, the slim form silhouetted against the backdrop of Aqua Mountain in the distance but even that couldn't distract Don from noticing the approaching form was decidedly female. As was the voice that called out to him when he was nearly halfway to her.
"You Febbies made good time, I wasn't expecting you before late this afternoon."
He hated the nick name, had since he'd first heard it after graduating from Quantico, but Don chose to ignore it. For now. "You know us Feds, we turned on the lights and sirens and came screaming down the highway from LA. You the Navy people?" Tit-for-tat … He knew there was a good chance the woman in now standing right in front of him wasn't active duty Navy and would resent being called such.
The woman's hazel-colored eyes flared, then the fire was immediately quenched as she clearly sized him up. "Yeah, NCIS. This is our crime scene, Febbie."
Don couldn't help but snort. "Yeah? Based on what? From my read of things, we've got a dead body on federally protected lands, that kinda puts it in my court."
"We've already established that the body is dressed in dungarees, Navy undress uniform if you didn't know, and wearing dog tags which tell me he's a Seaman First Class and that makes it MY case." Don couldn't help but notice the woman's eyes flickering off to his left and maybe focusing on someone or something behind him, but he wasn't about to turn to see what or who it was.
Aiming to deescalate the tension building between them, Don tried another tactic. "As you've already, and astutely, figured out, I'm from the FBI. Don Eppes." He held out his hand in greeting to the woman, who's eyes flicked back to hold his as she shook his hand and introduced herself just before her gaze flipped back over his shoulder and rolled like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Agent Yelena Dunbar … Oh shit."
Not exactly what Don had been expecting, but her reaction caused him to finally caused him to look over his shoulder and he spotted Granger standing like a statue and staring at Agent Dunbar. Feeling a little claustrophobic stuck between the two, Don moved out of their way and quipped, "Guess you know Agent Granger?"
"AGENT?" The NCIS agent's tone was accusatory as she glared at Granger.
"Yes. You weren't exactly honest either, AGENT Dunbar." The heat in Granger's voice and the expression on the two faces … Don looked over at Reeves and Sinclair and saw the same confusion in their faces as they caught on to what was happening between their teammate and the NCIS agent.
"Well, Agent Granger, that could be because I'm not in the habit of telling guys I'm thinking about dating that I'm a federal investigator for the US Department of the Navy."
"What makes you think I tell everyone I meet in a library that I'm an FBI Agent?"
Don caught Megan's attention and mouthed 'library?' to her only to have her shrug like she was just as lost as he was. Realizing there was a lingering moment of silence between the two bickering agents, Don stepped back into the fray. "Agent Dunbar, while I'm sure you and my agent have a few - personal - issues to work through, can we work out who's case and scene this is before you do that?"
The growl that escaped the woman's throat wasn't pretty, but she turned her flashing eyes back on him and Don suddenly felt sorry for Granger. If, by not doing a full disclosure with this woman, Colby had somehow killed his chances with her, he was going to kick himself for a long, long time. "I'll make you a deal, Agent Eppes." Dunbar said, as a feral-like grin crossed her face.
"What's that?" He was pretty sure he wasn't going to like this….
"You've notified a coroner's wagon, right?" He nodded to confirm her question. "Good, then whichever coroner's wagon gets here first, gets the body and the case."
"Sounds fair enough to me. Where's the DB?"
"Follow me." Dunbar led the way back the way she'd come and up and over a rise in the land, Don trusted the others to follow him and didn't look back, and once he reached the top of a small ravine and looked down at the badly decomposed body, he was glad he hadn't eaten lunch. Dunbar pointed to the one man dressed in the uniform of Park Services, standing off to the side and out of the way of her team, and started to introduce people. "Ranger Sean Kicklighter was nice enough to led the way into the sight and also happens to be the person who was lucky enough to find our dead Squid." She pointed to another gentleman, this one actually taking physical measurements of the scene, who looked to be quite a few years older than Dunbar, "Agent Rick Stringfield." Then she pointed to a woman so young looking that Don was having a hard time believing she was out of high school, let alone a Federal Agent of any description. "Agent Sunshine Keynes. Probie."
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Yelena was walking the perimeter of the scene, approximately 100 yards out from the body, looking for anything that might be potential evidence and trying not to gloat. However, she wasn't sure she'd be able to remove the smile from her face for a long time. It wasn't often that NCIS-West, or its agents could one-up the Federal Bureau of Investigation and, yet, that is exactly what she had managed to do. Twenty minutes after she had struck her deal with Special Agent Eppes, Lenny and Mouse had pulled up in the NCIS coroner's van and, from the expression on his face, Eppes knew he'd been 'had' by a lowly Naval investigator.
She had guessed her coroner was going to beat the one called up from Los Angeles and used that supposition to trick Eppes into letting the arrival time of the first meat wagon decide which agency was going to handle the case. Her mentor back in Washington DC would've been proud of the way Yelena had handled the senior FBI Agent
Yelena had hovered close to Eppes, basically being a nuisance rather than telling the man anything truly helpful and, if she was honest, she was also avoiding Granger. When the rooster-tail of dust was spotted on the horizon, she and Eppes had turned hopeful eyes toward it and she had removed her sunglasses to watch the approaching vehicle until she was sure it was, indeed, her van. Slipping the eyeglasses back onto her face, she watched Eppes until he realized the van belonged to NCIS and then she just added insult to injury by smiling at the Febbie.
"Sorry, Agent Eppes. All's fair in love, war and interagency rivalries, right?"
"Yeah, right."
And with that blunt sentence and the snide tone in his voice, Special Agent Don Eppes had turned the scene over to Yelena Dunbar's team, but stuck around to 'render assistance if needed.' Which Yelena thought was very chivalrous of the FBI to offer.
Yelena had spotted what could have been a drag mark on the sandy surface of a otherwise smooth surface of a rock outcrop and had hunkered down to photograph it, when her name being screamed out in a terrified tone made her drop the Minolta 35mm camera.
"Agent DUNBAR!"
Staying low, her sidearm cleared its holster and Yelena was scanning the horizon for any and all potential threats before she realized it was Agent Keynes who'd screamed. Most of the agents in the area were down hill and closer to the body than Yelena, but that also put her nearer to where Keynes was standing - unnaturally still - approximately 250 feet to the east of the body and only 30 yards from where Yelena squatted with her Springfield 1911 clenched in both hands.
Moving forward, slowly and at an oblique angle to where Sunshine was standing, Yelena was surprised to catch movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to identify if the movement belonged to a threat or a potential ally. She was surprised to see Agent Granger moving in perfect tactical counter to her own approach as she kept scanning the area for whatever had set Sunshine off.
She and Granger were within five feet of Keynes' location and still hadn't spotted anything to warrant the kind of alarm the Probie had sent up. "Sunny, what the hell is it?" The young agent finally moved, her right hand slowly motioning at a patch of ground near her feet. "Damn. Snake?" The girl shook her head. "Scorpion?" The ones in that could be found in this section of desert could be deadly, but the young agent again moved her head in a negative fashion. Curious and more than a little concerned, Yelena looked over at Granger to make sure he was covering her before moving in to see what her agent was pointing at. Dropping even lower to the ground, actually belly crawling, she moved in the last five feet and cautiously peered down and over the sandstone ridge behind which Sunshine was standing. What she saw did not please her, nor would it thrill the FBI team.
"Oh, that's just … great." Yelena was looking at the chest cavity of a very desiccated body, which, somehow, Sunshine Keynes had managed to stick her foot into. "Clear!" She called out, motioning for Sunshine not to move even as she waved Granger over. "Your boss may have a case here after all, Granger."
He'd holstered his sidearm, but did not secure it, as he approached and looked down into the small cleft where the body had been stuffed and hidden, before Agent Keynes' foot found it. "Damn. A second body; just what every investigator wants to find a crime scene." Yelena tried not to laugh at the sarcasm in Granger's voice as he knelt down close to Sunshine's side, pulling a mini-MagLite from his pocket to peer into the crevice. "Yeap, that's a human body all right. Agent Keynes, please don't move." He stood up and let out a shrill whistle that made Yelena's ears hurt but did wonders for grabbing the attention of the group of FBI and NCIS Agents who had remained near the first discovery and he waved for them to join him.
Agent Sinclair and Agent Eppes approached, leaving Agent Reeves behind with Stringfield, Goldblum and Doctor Meese. "What'cha got, Colby?" Sinclair asked as he walked up the slight incline.
"Another body." Granger turned to her, his hazel eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, but Yelena still felt them bore into her. "Don't let her move," he indicated Sunshine. "I need to grab a kit from the boss's car."
"Right. Like I don't have anything else to do here, Granger." She muttered at his retreating back, even as she moved in closer to Sunshine and put a supporting arm around the young agent's waist. "Sunny, you heard the nice Febbie, don't you move."
"You really don't like the FBI, do you, Agent Dunbar?" Sunshine asked in a very quiet voice, but from the way Eppes' head snapped up from where he was observing the scene, Yelena knew he'd heard.
"It's a genetic thing, Probie. When we get back to post, I might tell you."
"Genetic?" Eppes asked, his tone incredulous as he moved in real close on Sunshine's other side so he could see how the young woman had stuck her foot in the chest of a dead body. "How can dislike for a federal agency be genetic?"
"It's easy … you learn from your Mentor who has a dislike for anything and anyone that didn't wear Marine blue." Yelena answered, not entirely truthfully but close enough for this conversation. "Eppes, any idea what Granger went to get out of your car?"
"Probably the kit he built up a few months back after realizing we didn't have always have access to a forensic anthropologist or archaeologist."
"What?"
Eppes straightened up from his inspection, gave Sunshine a friendly pat on the shoulder and a sweet smile. "We'll get you out of that mess shortly, Agent Keynes." He turned to face Yelena again. "Granger has some not insubstantial skills at body recovery and there have been times where we needed those skills. So I found a few spare dollars in my budget and told him to build a field kit."
Yelena shook her head, not quite believing what Agent Eppes was telling her. "How does an FBI field agent gain skills like that? Last I read, it's not exactly listed as part of the curriculum at Quantico."
"It's not." Granger's voice drifted up from behind her and Yelena turned around to see him hauling a fairly large pack, complete with shovels and a couple of PVC pipes and a roll of what looked like screen-mesh strapped to the sides, up the incline. "But you gain the experience pretty fast when you work grave detail in Petrovo Selo."
She nodded, understanding exactly what Granger was saying, even if Eppes and Sinclair didn't. "Try Srebrenica in '96 … that was a whole lot of Not Fun."
"Wait a minute--" Agent Sinclair waved a hand, catching her attention. "I may not know what Colby meant by Petro-slo-whatever, but Srebrenica? Are you referring to the mass graves that were found all around that city, Agent Dunbar?"
Yelena wasn't even really looking at Sinclair, her mind was too busy spitting memories of poorly buried, dumped and otherwise desecrated bodies of the men, women and children she'd helped unearth back in 1996. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had called in all sorts of military investigational teams from all of the NATO allies when the first reports of mass graves had started pouring in. At first the military entities were needed because it was considered too dangerous to send in any of the civilian recovery teams but, now, civilian teams were carrying out the on going investigations with minimal NATO presence.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when someone touched her on the elbow, breaking her chain of thought - for which Yelena was actually grateful. She turned slightly to see it was Granger who had come up beside her and was now gently holding onto her arm.
"You okay, 'Lena?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, CeeJay. Thanks." She stepped away from him and waved Eppes out of the way as she moved in close to Sunshine's side and answered Sinclair's question at the same time. "Yes. I'm talking about the mass burial incidents around that once lovely little town, Agent Sinclair."
She smiled at Keynes and, after dropping back down to her stomach near where Sunshine had put her foot through the ribcage of some poor unlucky soul, did her best to reassure her agent. "Sunny, sounds to me like you got lucky after all. There's two people here who know how to keep you from crushing anymore evidence - not that you meant to, I know - and who can preserve the body you're standing in enough so Mouse won't chew your hide."
"I'll be the judge of that, Agent Dunbar." Yelena nodded and moved aside as Dr. Michael Meese finally found his way up the hill to the new body and dropped down to his knees on the other side of Keynes to peer into the crevice himself. "This poor bastard's been out here a while. He's damn near mummified from the heat and dry conditions. Do be careful getting her foot out of his chest and him out of the hole, will you, Dunbar?" Meese stood back up and brushed sand off his dark tan Dockers. "I'd like to have something to possibly identify him off of when I get him back to my lab." Then, instead of offering to stay around and help, the medical examiner strolled back down to the previous scene, whistling a rather dirty sea chanty.
"Gee, thanks, Mouse!" Yelena yelled after the departing man, then turned her attention back to Granger. "You got this for a few minutes? I need to go finish up what I was doing before I can help you. That is, if you want the assistance?"
"Yeah, I could probably use it." Granger had started to unpack the kit and arranged the various tools and instruments around the scene. "Go finish what you were doing though, it'll take a little bit for me to decide how best to extract Sunny's foot from John Doe's chest."
Yelena just nodded, then got to her feet. After brushing by both of Granger's co-workers, she headed back to where she'd dropped the camera. It wasn't until she was picking up the broken, but now obsolete thanks to digital technology, piece of equipment that it occurred to her than both she and Granger had used each other's more 'familiar' nicknames. In front of others.
"Oh, great."
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Don motioned for Sinclair to return to the primary site and, thus, silently gave the Agent the task of catching Reeves up on what had happened … if Meese hadn't already done so. He waited until David was out of easy earshot before turning to Granger and approached Agent Keynes' side again. "So, Granger, how long before you can help Agent Sunny here out of her predicament?"
Granger just shook his head. "Depends on how stuck she is. If I can help her remove the chest from her foot without further damage to the corpse and if I really have everything I need to extricate the body."
"About ten minutes, then?"
Don relaxed a bit when Granger let out a small chuckle, the agent had been way too tense since finding out his date of the previous week was a NCIS Agent. "Yeah, about ten minutes. Give or take five."
The next few minutes passed in relative silence, Don didn't want to disturb Granger's concentration and, apparently, neither did Agent Keynes. Finally, Granger looked up at the young NCIS agent and Don and gave a very reassuring smile. "Okay, I've got the plan. Don, you're going to help Sunny keep her balance while she does exactly what I tell her, all right?" Don just nodded in agreement then Granger turned his gaze back to Keynes. "Sunny, I need you to absolutely trust me and not to help me while I guide your foot out of the hole it has made it's way into. Got that?"
Don could feel Keynes' body start to tremble and he wasn't sure if it was from fatigue, relief or if the young woman was about to burst into tears. He heard someone kick loose a couple of stones and looked back toward the first potential crime scene to see Agent Rick Stringfield coming up the slope. "Hey, hey, Sunny-girl, what did you go and step in this time?"
"Oh, Rick! Agent Dunbar's going to toss me out of NCIS for sure after this!"
"Oh, I doubt that, Sunny-girl." Agent Stringfield motioned for Don to move out of the way and he took up supporting Sunshine Keynes on that side while Don stood by to catch one, or both of them should Keynes simply collapse after Granger got her unstuck. Stringfield did his best to reassure the younger agent. "Tell you a secret, Sunny … Dunbar's all bark and no bite. Well, no. That's not exactly true. Her bite is bad, but she never bites unless you really, really need it."
Don looked back down to see how Granger was doing, and was surprised to see him slowly lifting the NCIS agent's foot out of the hole, one miniscule movement at a time while Stringfield was talking to Keynes.
"But she's been so damn mad at me since she came back--"
"Hush, Sunny. No talking out of class, remember?" Don could see that whatever Keynes had been about to say had caught Granger's attention, but that hadn't stopped him from slowly removing her foot from the corpse even as Stringfield keep on talking. "Yes, you screwed up at the first scene she worked with you and, yes, you screwed up the paperwork on the arrest from that case and, yes, you've gone and put your foot in a corpse - literally - on this case, but that doesn't mean Dunbar's going to kick you out of NCIS. She's got clout, I'll grant you that, but not that much clout. If she sends you back to the Academy, the assignment coordinator there will just rotate you to another team."
"You really think so, Rick?" Don winced, Keynes' tone of voice had gone from ultimate despair to guarded optimism in a very short span of time but after hearing about her screw-ups, Don was pretty sure Dunbar was about to kick the young woman all the way back to the East Coast. If she'd been one of his probation Agents and had screwed up that good, he would've kicked the agent back to Quantico personally.
"Yeah, don't you worry about it, kiddo. Now … look down, Sunny."
Stringfield's words caused both Keynes and Don to peer down to where Granger knelt next to the crevice, only to see that he'd managed to get her foot completely free of the cadaver while the older NCIS agent had been yakking away.
Granger smiled up at Keynes as she fairly danced away from the body, then came back to give him a quick hug, before she turned back to Agent Stringfield. "I should probably finish my perimeter search, huh?"
"That would be a good idea, Sunny. Why do you head that-a-way," Don couldn't help but notice that Stringfield pointed in the opposite direction from where Dunbar had been last seen. "And when you're done, we can help Lenny and Doc Meese bag up the first deader. Okay?"
The youthful Agent nodded in agreement, then damn near ran off in the direction Stringfield had indicated. The older agent then turned to Granger. "Thanks for helping out there, Granger. You gonna need any help with this poor bloke?"
"Nah. I think Dunbar's planning on helping me, once she gets back."
"She'll be back. But don't be surprised if she kinda-- well, just understand, Srebrenica kinda messed with all of us who worked the trenches."
Granger stood up and shook the hand of the NCIS Agent. "Trust me, I know. Petrovo Selo might not have been as bad … but it was bad enough. You might want to go check on Keynes. She's not feeling it now, but I'm pretty sure she twisted her ankle when she came down on the spine of mister John Doe here. I noticed it was already swelling when I lifted her foot out."
"Will do. Thanks again, Granger."
Don watched as Stringfield took off after Keynes and as Granger dropped back down to sit next to the crevice and just stare at the remains now clearly visible now that Keynes' body wasn't in the way. He squatted on his haunches next to his agent. "You going to be able to handle this, Granger?"
"Yeah, Bosnia-Herzegovina was bad, but after that, this will be damn near a walk in the park."
"You sure about that?" Don asked, only to get a silent answer as Granger nodded in agreement. "Then why don't you tell me how you managed to call Dunbar by what could only be a pet-name and how in the hell she knew yours? CeeJay?"
"What?" The stunned looked on Granger's face almost made Don laugh. Almost. But he restrained himself and decided that there was a chance that neither Granger nor Dunbar had been aware of the slip when it happened.
"It happened right after you mentioned Bosnia, and she'd mentioned Srebrenica and kinda flaked out. You called her 'Lena."
"Oh man … damn. Don, can you just forget you heard that?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't the only one to see and hear that little exchange between you two. David and that Keynes girl heard it too." Don couldn't help but notice Granger's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Hey, I'll ask David not to mention it, but I got to know … how long have you two been dating without being 100 truthful about what you did for a living?"
"This Saturday would've been a week."
"A week? And already using nicknames?" Don shook his head and clasped Granger on the back. "Colby, you either work very fast or there's something between the two of you that you shouldn't let die. Work on it or you may regret letting it slip through your fingers."
- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Colby stared after Don, watching the senior agent carefully work his way back down the rocky slope of the hill and trying not to scuff his dress shoes. His advice about there being something between himself and Yelena Dunbar wasn't exactly amiss, but Colby hadn't allowed himself to think about it since seeing her when his team arrived on the scene. Dunbar also had seemed to want to put distance between them and he wasn't sure if it was because of their little 'issue' of not being truthful with each other or if she was trying to maintain a professional distance. Then Keynes had - literally - stepped into another case and scared a few months off his life when she had screamed Yelena's name.
Thinking back on the incident, mentally reviewing each move Yelena had made, Colby realized she had the same sort of tactical training he had and that they'd eased into tandem teamwork effortlessly. Shaking his head, he returned his attention to the puzzle before him; how to extricate the remains from the crevice without losing any potential evidence, either on the body or around it.
First things first, he turned back to the pack of tools and unstrapped the eight lengths of PVC pipe and a small roll of rabbit wire and another roll of aluminum window screening and started to put the items together into a couple of sifting screens. That done, he set them aside and pulled out a two-foot by two-foot piece of tarpaulin and only then reached for the undersized shovel and rakes he kept in the tool kit. He worked, carefully, around where he thought the body would've lain before Mother Nature had done her thing, removing sand and debris and placing it on the tarp to be sifted through later. He was reaching for another implement from the pack when the soft-bristled paintbrush was placed in his hand.
"Thanks." Colby responded without looking up, pretty sure it was Sinclair who'd snuck up on him as David had worked with him once before on a body recovery and probably had just guessed which brush he'd wanted.
"No problem."
He nearly jumped out of his skin at hearing Yelena's voice so close to his ear and ended up spinning around on the balls of his feet, only to damn near fall into the crevice. Dunbar, however, was fast enough and strong enough to reach out, grab his shoulders and keep him from totally fouling the evidence.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, Granger." She held on to his shoulders until he'd regained his footing and stood up.
"Yeah, well--" He stopped. Not exactly sure why except that meeting Dunbar's blue-gray eyes made his heart skip another beat. Thankfully, it was Yelena who dropped eye contact first rather than Colby and he was able to think straight once more.
She gestured to the contents of the pack he'd strewn around the site. "Interesting gear, Granger. Rather clever way to build sift-screens." Colby stepped aside, but not too far, as she came back over and dropped to a squat beside the nearly skeletal remains. "This is going to be a bitch." She looked back up over her shoulder at him and Colby had to fight to remain professional. "How long do you think it'll take to extricate the poor sap, Granger?"
He let out a frustrated noise as he crouched down beside her. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was FBI before today. Can we just go back to calling each other by our first names?"
If he hadn't been watching her out of the corner of his eye, Colby would've missed the slight blush rising to her face, making the lightly tanned skin glow even more than the desert heat. "I'm the one who should apologize, Colby. I have been holding a grudge against you all day for doing exactly what I had done - hiding your profession. So, yeah, I guess if you can stomach it, I can too and we can go back to being friendly again."
"Good." Colby tested her resolve by leaning into her a bit and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't pull or push him away. "Now, to answer your question, 'Lena … If there was enough room to work side-by-side or even get a third person up here to help sift sand, we might get finished in five to six hours."
Yelena looked to the sky where the sun was already on the fast slide downward to the west. "Except there's not enough room and we only have about four to five hours of sunlight left. Which, unless I'm severely mistaken, means someone will have to bivouac here with the body and resume digging operations at first light. Unless your boss can convince your FBI forensic team to drive up here in the dark?" The expression on her face, when she turned back to face him, was decidedly challenging.
Colby snorted. "Ha! Not a chance. We've got a damn good forensic crew, but I am pretty sure there ain't a one of them who's a night-critter. They'll be lucky to make it here, especially considering how remote this spot is, before nine in the morning." He stood up and let his gaze wander around the area, looking for a good place to hole up over night with just water, a flashlight and his sidearm to make sure nothing disturbed the site before morning. "There's a good spot over that way--" He stopped as Yelena got up, whistled shrilly and then used a set of hand signals he'd never seen before to relay a message to her team down below. "What was that about?"
Her smile was infectious and totally not worth a damn as an answer.
He watched as Stringfield waved an acknowledgement, then walked over to the camouflaged Humvee the NCIS team had arrived in and removed a rather large and rather purple and tan backpack before strolling over to where Colby's boss and teammates were observing Dr. Meese handle the recovery of the previous body. When Stringfield finally made his way up the slope, Don was right behind him.
"What's this Stringfield tells me about camping out here with the body, Granger?" Don asked as he topped the rise and walked over to where Colby and Yelena were standing.
"It's simple, Eppes." Yelena answered. "Other than myself and Granger, and maybe Doctor Meese, who else here has the skills to handle body recoveries like this?"
"No one that I know of, but that's why we have a crack forensic team and we can have them out here in the morning."
"Don, she's got a point. We've moved the body around, stirred up odors and attractors that the local wildlife isn't going to be able to ignore. Someone's going to have to stay here and keep 'em off the body." Colby explained.
"There's no way you two can get the body out of there before nightfall?"
Colby shook his head. "No, even if we had two other people helping out by running the sifting screens, Don. There's only room for one person to work on clearing the body, which leaves one to sort through the sand and debris for potential evidence and that leaves any extra bodies for holding flashlights or something."
"Besides," Stringfield spoke up, "we're kinda used to Dunbar taking all of our overnight stuff. She rarely lets anyone else handle such things."
Don grinned. "Control freak?" His question was gentle, but Colby winced in sympathy for Yelena anyway.
"No. Insomniac." Yelena took the pack from Stringfield, dropped it on the ground and opened it up. After digging in it for a few minutes, she stood up and nailed Don with a look that brooked no argument. "When the teams are ready to leave, leave behind one of the collapsible coolers and the water. We'll need it."
Colby nodded and noticed that Don had too. "Dunbar, I'll grant you the 'fact' that the body down there is clearly your team's responsibility … since there's a chance that this one will be a civilian and, therefore, an FBI matter, do you still want to be involved as lead team?"
Yelena stood up fast and - there was no other word for it - invaded Don's personal space. "Eppes, you are not taking the Squid out of my team's hands unless I'm dead. Got that?" Don nodded and backed away from Yelena, who wasn't finished. "As for this body … if it turns out to be a civilian, it's all yours and you can just thank NCIS for 'assisting' your case by extricating the body for you."
"All right, all right … I get your point. Sheesh, Dunbar. Are you always this nice with agents from other Agencies?"
"This? Eppes, this is friendly. You should see me when I butt heads with Army CID and Air Force OSI."
Colby didn't miss the look that Don shot his way and he understood why his boss looked a little worried. Yeah, he was going to have to do a full-disclosure with Yelena and hope like hell she wouldn't hold his past in CID against him. Don plunged ahead, "Fine, I'm thankful you're being nice, Dunbar. Let me return the favor … since the two cases, the one here and the one your ME is finally bagging, might be related, I'd like to extend an offer for Doctor Meese to use our facilities in LA. Unless you think it'll be contaminated just by being in the presence of a FBI-Certified Medical Examiner?"
Yelena looked over at him and Colby gave her a quick nod. What Don was offering was pretty generous, especially if the NCIS medical examiner had a lab similar to what he'd had to work around in the Army. The blue-gray gaze slid from Colby and returned to Don as Yelena stepped back and stuck out her hand. "Deal, Eppes. Mouse will probably be insufferable after working with a full lab for a change, but I'll handle that."
Colby was a little startled when Yelena abruptly turned back to the backpack Stringfield had brought up, effectively dismissing Don without actually saying anything. Don was shaking his head as he looked over at Colby. "Good luck, Granger. Something tells me you're going to need it." He was heading back downhill before Colby could even think of a possible retort.
Stringfield held out something to him and Colby took it, only to realize it was one of the more current radios being used by military forces. "Use freak Seven-Eight-Zulu if you run into any trouble. There are night training flights set up for tonight and this weekend for the Logistical Battalions out of both Camp Pendleton and Twenty-Nine Stumps. The radio operators have been told to listen for emergency squawks but you'll have to set up an L-Z if you run into trouble." And with that, he was gone down the hill, leaving Colby and Yelena alone. Well, almost.
"How much do you want to bet that our teammates down there are already placing bets on which one of us is still going to be alive come sunrise?"
Colby shook his head. "No doubt in my mind. After all, we have been snarling at each other when we weren't totally ignoring the other."
He watched, a little stunned, as Yelena finally striped off the black leather vest she'd been wearing over her white polo shirt and dark gray Docker-like pants. There really hadn't been a reason for her to keep the vest on over her holster and sidearm, but Colby figured it was part of her 'uniform' and that he understood. After all, his daily office wear consisted of either suits, sport jackets and slacks or (rarely) Dockers and jeans under a FBI golf or tee shirt. "You want body or sand sift first?" He asked as she took the time to pull a white bandana out of the side pocket of the backpack and tied it over her head.
"Sand sift. I'll spell you after 30 minutes or whenever you need to get back up on your feet."
The first twenty minutes passed by in companionable silence, the routine only broken when David Sinclair and Megan Reeves hauled the cooler with its 28 bottles of water up to their position. Reeves had actually gone so far as to ask Yelena, politely of course, not to kill Colby because she didn't want to have to break in another rookie. Yelena just smiled and assured Megan that Colby was safe and, if he wasn't, there was no way the FBI would be able to find her if she didn't want to be found.
Somehow, Colby was pretty sure Yelena wasn't kidding.