I've just been to THE most amazing firework display. For the finale, the black sky poured down golden rain for about three minutes. I could have watched for ever. So now the big kid has to get this chapter finished.
Deck The Hall
Chapter 2
A watcher in the shadows raged silently. He had been so close. He had been so patient. Almost fifteen years of waiting, and the bastard was dead before he could kill him. He ground his teeth. Dead with the man were all the answers; the answers to the questions he'd carried with him for so long; the answers that would have finally set him free.
He hissed in fury, and was alarmed to see how the cop, agent, (shit, who'd have thought there were law officers already here,) whoever he was kneeling over the body, lifted his head sharply. As the man slowly rose to his feet, easing up the heavy sweater he wore to uncover the holster at his hip, the watcher took two silent steps back, turned and vanished into the backstage labyrinth, not waiting to see if he was followed.
Tony was almost certain he'd heard something, but there was no-one in sight, and he realised that if he followed the sound there were too many escape routes to cover. His quarry, if there really was one, would have rejoined normal backstage life and become indistinguishable from it. He grunted in frustration; even if he had just heard the killer, and just missed seeing him –or her – what sort of proof would he have had? The hiss puzzled him though – if someone really was hanging about, why would they make a sound that suggested they were as frustrated as he was? Surely they'd achieved their purpose? Tony sighed andreturned to the corpse.
He and McGee and Ziva had moved smoothly into action the way they always did; the enormity of the job was not lost on any of them, however. Tony's first action given a choice would have been to lock down the building, but in the circumstances, that was impossible. In any case there had been enough time between the murder and its discovery for any number of people to leave the building by any number of exits. The Dread Triumvirate stood anxiously by, trying to look as if the question uppermost in their minds was 'who killed that poor man', and wasn't 'can the show go on?'
McGee photographed the blood marks on the wall with his phone camera, as they had no equipment with them; the arterial spray showed that this was the crime scene, as did the trail where the body had slid down the wall, and the pool as it had slumped forward when the dead man's knees hit the floor. "You can see the marks in the trail where the dancer's hands touched the wall and she felt the blood," Tim said. "Nasty."
Tony nodded thoughtfully. "That was nasty too," he said, pointing to the drumsticks.
"It would seem to make it personal," McGee said. "Motive would help to narrow things down. At the moment we've hundreds of suspects…"
"And no way of controlling them," Tony agreed.
Ziva came over, hearing their remarks. "It will be extremely difficult for us," she said softly. "The work towards the performance has to go on, and we have to work around it."
"We're agreed, then?" Tony asked. "We don't just close the whole thing down?"
"I am surprised to hear you even suggest it when you have worked so hard," Ziva reproved him. "I know you are not seriously considering such a thing."
"You're the senior agent –"
"At least until Gibbs gets here," Tony interrupted, not wanting to hear McGee say it.
"That's right," Tim went on, unfazed. "It's your decision."
"Well, so much for democracy," Tony thought. "We're up to it, aren't we?" he said brightly. "Ziva, keep a lookout for Gibbs. I thought he'd be here by now; he'll want to know what we've done so far. Hey, you know about dancers, right?"
"You are thinking maybe that if one came down here to obtain a costume then others might also have done?"
"No… I hadn't thought of that." He nodded approvingly. "I was just wondering why this place was chosen, but of course –"
"It may simply be because it is secluded," Ziva finished for him. "It may not be anything to do with the dancers, but I will speak to them, and try to find out. I will try also to determine how many of them were together, or have some other alibi for the time." She moved away, managing to hurry without ever making a graceless rush. He'd have to ask her how she did it.
"Ziva?" She turned back and raised her eyebrows enquiringly. "See if you can find someone to direct Ducky round to the properties door. We need all the equipment in the truck as well as the Man Himself."
"I will ask them to harry him along," Ziva said obligingly, and disappeared.
"McGrissom, you're in charge of the crime scene, I'll see that you're not disturbed, and get back as quickly as I can, then you can see about getting whatever computer fire-power you need. If Gibbs arrives, call me, OK?" He stood up, and straightened his sweater over his holster again. Damn, he was fond of it, it was the one Jackson Gibbs had given him, and he'd just as soon not have risked it by wearing it at a crime scene. He walked unhurriedly over to the three waiting ladies, drawing his investigator persona round him like a cloak; he didn't rush because he'd found that an air of calmness begets calm.
Selina thought, "Where's the goofy guy gone?"
Gillian thought, "Ah, Very Special Agent DiNozzo. I remember him!"
Nadia voiced her thoughts to them both. "Ah, Tony the cop is very sexy, no?"
They both shot her reproving looks as the sexy cop approached.
"Tony," Gill began hesitantly.
"I know," the tall agent said, "you're worried about the show. As far as I'm concerned, it goes on. We'll work the investigation round that. Somehow. Hey, it might not be my decision. You need to talk to a lot of people I guess, but my feeling is that there's already too much goodwill tied up in the show for it not to go ahead."
Selina squared her shoulders. When she'd first had the idea that she now always referred to as The Snowball, she'd been so excited she'd prodded her husband awake in the middle of the night to tell him about it. The bewildered Commander had looked blank, said "Yes, very nice, darling," and slumped back to sleep. Selina had been energised; she'd imagined, she'd dreamed. She'd never imagined something like this. She said sadly, "Is there anything in particular that you want us to do?"
"Yes," Tony said positively. "Two things. One: Deal with the press however you think best, but keep them away from us, and don't talk about the case. Just say the Captain's dead, don't mention details. Two: Go and talk to the band. Two of you at least, so you can each corroborate what the other hears. Obviously you'll need to find out if they want to go on; but use that to get whatever other background information you can. What he was like, what they thought of him…. Go and gossip, girls!"
They managed half smiles for him, and went off to embark on their salvage mission, and Tony went to check that all exits to the building were manned and secure; more to keep out over zealous scribblers and snappers than anything else. He was very pleased and grateful to find that the general manager of the DAR hall had already attended to that, and that he had already organised the day's rehearsals to go ahead as closely as possible to what had been planned.
He asked Petra and Cheri to make as comprehensive a list as possible of everyone in the building. He found Pilar, being fussed over by her fellow dancers, and impressed a few by reassuring her in her own language, but left her statement for Ziva to take; he had no wish to make the Israeli agent think he didn't trust her to do her job. He went round speaking briefly to Josh and Anne-Marie, and to all the performers so that they weren't kept in the dark. The fact that one of them could quite easily be a murderer didn't escape him, but for now there was nothing wrong with basic good manners.
He organised a flow around the area of the crime scene that caused as little disruption as possible, but left them able to work unobserved and unhindered, and hunted down the technicians who ran all the cameras in the building, to obtain copies of everything they had. He knew that the next thing was to set about raising enough man-power to question more than a hundred people; that was going to be difficult. He fetched coffee for Tim and Ziva and went back to the crime scene in search of them, and into all this, at last, walked Gibbs, accompanied by Ducky, and Jimmy Palmer.
Gibbs was already clutching a Starbucks cup; Tony was relieved. Somehow, having taken charge, even for a short time, he would have hated it if the Boss's first words were to bark an order to fetch him a coffee. He told himself to stop being so negative, and simply said, "Hi, Boss, have you seen Ziva and McGee?"
"They're coming. What have you got?"
Ducky was already examining the body while Tony filled Gibbs in on the story so far. As he spoke, Ziva returned with two evidence cases, and Tim with as much computer equipment as he could carry. As soon as their hands were free, Tony gave them their coffee without missing a beat, and segued into explaining to Tim where the manager had suggested he set himself up.
Tim nodded. "I need to show you something first," he said, uncertain of whether to tell Gibbs or DiNozzo. Tony held an arm out to invite Ziva, McGee and Gibbs to precede him. "I thought with all the arterial blood that the killer may have got it on his or her clothes," Tim went on. "So I looked further afield and I found this."
There was a smear of blood on the frame of the doorway out of the costume bay towards the dressing rooms. A helpful stagehand stood on guard. Tim shone his torch at the mark, which was at shoulder height, and said, "Tell me those are fibres in there."
"Nice work, McBloodhound," Tony said, so enthusiastically that Tim wondered what the catch was, but there was no sharp follow-up. "Those are fibres in there. You said tell you. I er.. I dunno if you can see them, boss… dark coloured, I think, hard to tell with the blood." He turned back to Tim. "Did you get a sample? No… course not, that's what the guard's doing here. Smart thinking." Tim produced the necessary equipment and took a sample, as Gibbs looked on. Since his opening remark, the Boss had said not a word. They made their way back to Ducky, with Tim musing on Gibbs' silence and two compliments from Tony in one speech. There was something hinky going on. It must be the Christmas spirit.
Tony couldn't understand what was going through Gibbs' mind either; but he was going easy on Tim because he knew that however hard they'd already worked for the event, they were going to have to work harder now, and he wasn't mean enough to demoralise his junior colleague.
Gibbs said suddenly, "Well, you seem to have it all under control." He looked around. "You know this place; you've started the investigation – OK, you take the lead. What do you want me to do?"
The only jaw that didn't drop open was Ducky's. Tony shut his with a snap; nothing if not quick on the uptake, he was pretty sure that if he didn't move fast the opportunity would disappear as fast as it had appeared. He replied instantly, "Well over a hundred people to interview, Boss. Get us some more manpower?"
"Sure," Gibbs said. He flipped his cell phone open. As he turned away to make the call, Tony noticed something stuck to his cheek. It was transparent, and shiny, with edges that were not clearly defined. Tony looked hard, whilst trying not to look as if he was looking. No… it couldn't be. It looked like spirit gum, the sort of thing that was used in a make-up department. Gibbs… difficult to reach… late… in disguise…
Oh. My. Godfather. Tony turned away to hide the absolutely huge grin that was taking control of his face. Gibbs… never… wow.
Ziva said, "What are you smiling so hard about, Tony?"
"Nothing, Ziva. Nothing, honestly."
What??
