Chapter 2: Interrogation

Callen looked at his fellow agent who seemed oddly hypnotized by the man sitting across from them. He cleared his throat, which seemed to get Kensi out of whatever trance she was in. She looked over at her team leader, nodding slightly, letting him know that she was ready for him to begin the interrogation of the third employee so far.

Callen started the interrogation "Martin Deeks, thirty-three. Why did you-"

"Marty Deeks, I prefer Marty, or just Deeks. Sorry, please do continue." The man interrupted. To his credit, he did look slightly apologetic about cutting off Callen's sentence. He seemed almost compelled to correct the use of his name, as if merely uttering the name Martin was hurtful to him, Kensi thought.

"Okay. Marty Deeks. Why did you leave your work earlier today?" Callen started once more.

"I needed a break and some food. Arrived quite early today to go over some things for an upcoming product. Didn't want to lose my train of thought by getting breakfast before having it down in writing" The blonde man answered somewhat cryptically as though he did not want to disclose exactly what he had been working on.

"Wait, you are a lawyer, right?" Kensi asked wanting to make sure, she remembered the little information they had gotten prior to the interrogation correct. The shaggy appearance of the employee in the room much more of equal resemblance to a laid-back surfer type than the one of a lawyer for a successful Department of Defense contractor.

"Yes! IP lawyer actually," He responded cheerily, then slightly tilting his head looking at Kensi and smirking slightly he continued, "Despite this golden mane I really am a lawyer."

"Where did you go to get a break and some food?" Callen continued the questioning, using the same words as the scruffy lawyer previously had.

"I got this amazing breakfast burrito from a Mexican food truck in Venice. Diego's Deli Truck, if I recall correctly." He quickly responded, barely taking a second to think about his reply.

"And you go there often?" Callen asked, trying to find any possible inconsistency in his story for the team in OPS to unravel.

"The beach, sure. I think clearer there. Working with intellectual property you often have to get a little creative in your thinking, and I have an easier time doing that after clearing my head." He replied, smiling slightly. Just the thought of the beach seemingly brightened his day. "The food truck is mostly a different one every time, you know, trying something new, keeping it fresh and interesting."

Callen and Kensi continued the interrogation of the lawyer, aligning the questioning more towards the subject of Jonathan Hanson but without mentioning the missing flash drive, no need to let him in on the fact that the team had noticed that, if he indeed did have something to do with it. The team leader was mostly asking the questions whilst Kensi closely studied Marty Deeks' face for any possible micro expressions not aligning with what the scruffy interrogate said, only adding a few follow up questions sporadically. After about another fifteen minutes they wrapped up the questioning.

Marty Deeks stood up and made to shake the agents' hands. Leaving his business card to Kensi afterwards telling her that she could call if they needed anything else. He finished that sentence with a not so subtle wink, which made Kensi huff lightly at him unable to keep a small smile from appearing though. Internally she was fighting the slight blush she could feel rising. Because Kensi Blye does not blush, certainly not at suspects in a murder and potential treason investigation.

The interrogation of Marty Deeks did not necessarily lead the agents to believe he was part of it, but given the lack of alibi and his friendship with the diseased, he would have had the means to plan something like this with Hanson, and therefor they could not yet rule him out as a suspect in the case.

The two agents went to the break room to get some coffee, because not unlike law enforcement officers agents too seemed to mainline caffeine. Deciding that they should not continue by interviewing random employees as it would take weeks maybe even months to get through everybody. All they could do now was wait for Sam to return from the victims' apartment, hopefully with any leads, and any suspects that Eric and Nell might be able to uncover through whatever type of electronic magic they were performing in the operations room.

...

Sam entered the break room at Minerva Precisions to find his two fellow agents sitting at a small table off to one of the sides, quietly discussion something he could only assume was the case, given the low volume of the conversation. He walked over and grabbed a chilled water bottle out of the refrigerator before joining his coworkers at the table.

"Hope you've had more luck than me!" The big agent said somewhat sourly, "Roughly twenty-five thousand, non-sequential bills, stashed in a hidden compartment in Hanson's closet. Got the crime scene folks over there to continue the search, they will let us know if they find anything else. But I doubt it."

"There was a flash drive missing from Hanson's lanyard. Whoever he was working with probably has the information already." Kensi replied, confirming the suspicion that Sam had from his finding in the apartment. The team went over the case updating Sam on the interrogations they had already been conducted. In agreement that the flash drive and by that logic, the perpetrator, must still be within the walls of the facility, seeing as only three employees had left before the arrival of the NCIS team.

Eric and Nell had been in contact with their team leader confirming everything that their best suspect, Marty Deeks, had already told them during the investigation, right down to confirming that he, in fact, did use a different food truck every time he went to Venice for a think and a break. Good news for the potential suspect, bad news for the team as that placed them back at square one. No good suspects, no good leads.

The team split up at the facility, deciding that dividing and conquering would be the best approach. Kensi went to the desk of Hanson, while Sam and Callen continued interrogations in a room each of the closest coworkers to Hanson. The team was running out of potential leads and ideas quickly, until a techie from Hanson's team said something that clicked inside Sam. "Hanson was always happy, unlike a lot of the older ones, always so bloody displeased and unsatisfied with their positions, thinking us younger generation haven't worked as hard for our success, compared to them." The techie huffed in his posh English accent.

The large agent didn't know exactly what it was that made that sentence seem so important to the case, but he quickly called into OPS, having them look into any employees who had gone through hardships that may have led to distress or perhaps an increased need for money. Thinking he might be on the right track, hoping that the potential sale of classified information was because of money, plain and simple, instead of being unpatriotic sat well with Sam, being an ex-SEAL he was as patriotic as could be, and anything that threatened troops and the constitution was the worst possible thing in his book.

Half an hour later, the three agents reconvened in the break room once more, in need to satisfy their caffeine need and to discuss the case. They had the room to themselves, so discussing the case was safe, but Callen still turned the radio up to a decent noise level to discourage any potential eavesdropping. Just as he sat back down Sam's phone started to ring, OPS calling.

"Hey Eric, you're on speaker with Callen and Kensi. What do you got?"

"So, I looked into people whose situations matched what you told me, and I found one matching almost all the pointers. Alfred Mitchell, fifty-eight, he is a lawyer for the company. Has worked there for the past fifteen years, we're working on getting into his phone records to see if he has had any contact with Hanson." Eric briefed the team.

"Recently went through a long divorce losing custody of his kids, as well as a great chunk of his net worth whilst being forced to pay quite a lot of alimony, even for a lawyer." Nell continued, picking up where Eric had left off.

"That definitely fits with the motive for needing some money," Kensi concluded.

"I seems that it would be wise to have a little chat with Mr. Mitchell." The voice of their operations manager sounded through the phone, she had obviously entered OPS some time during the short briefing. She always seemed to know when the team were making progress in any case.

"We'll keep you posted!" Callen replied as Sam ended the call, and the three agents went to find the unsuspecting lawyer for, as Hetty put it, a little chat.