Timing Interlude

Chapter 2

Tuesday, September 2, 1997

JAG Headquarters

Everyone in the bullpen was astounded at John's display. Normally they saw a very professional officer in John who kept his displays of affection private and never uttered any derogatory remarks. They all surmised that the woman was some kind of good friend or relative.

As he put her down Gail said, "Oh you're just like your father except he always pinched my cheek till it was blue."

Still holding her hand John said, "Come on get in here before we embarrass ourselves further." They both walked into Sarah's office.

When they entered, John closed the door and said, "Major Sarah Mackenzie and Lt. Traci Manetti, my I present my cousin Gail Grayson."

After shaking hands with each of them Sarah asked Gail, "So why does he call you Goofy?"

Gail smacked his arms as she said, "He's the only one who calls me that."

John spoke up saying, "Ever since I've known her she's had this goofy laugh. She would use it more times with me than anyone else." He changed the subject saying, "Well how did Peter get himself into this mess?"

Gail sat down to tell her story saying, "Well he was trying to help a petty officer in his command named Limon who he suspected was pilfering drugs. Pete found a case of morphine bottles in Limon's locker. So instead of reporting everything to NCIS Peter confronted him. Limon said that loan sharks were into him for thousands of dollars and they said they wanted morphine to sell on the black market.

Well Pete, ever the white knight, offered to help him out. They went and signed a Humvee out of the motor pool and went to meet the loan shark and his friends in Norfolk. It seems that the loan shark was associated with a local gang.

Well the deal went sour and there was some shooting. Limon and Pete got out of there with Limon driving. As they tried to get away, the Humvee was shot up. They apparently passed a Norfolk cop that was responding to the gunshots. He put out a BOLO on the Humvee. The Virginia troopers set up a road block on the I-264 bridge from Norfolk to Portsmouth. Limon tried to crash it but he was stopped. As a result two troopers were struck by the Humvee and thrown down the road. They both had severe head injuries."

"Ouch, I bet the Virginia troopers were reluctant to release them to the Navy," Traci said.

"Yeah they were. It took all my vast powers of persuasion to get him released to the Marine guards who showed up to take custody. I don't know the UCMJ like John or any of you here do, that's why I was so set on getting Pete into Navy custody. I knew he'd get a fairer shake than in any civilian court," Gail responded.

"We'll do what we can for him. Just so you know when we go into court for the Article 32 hearing, Sarah will be his first chair defender and Traci and I will assist, you will only be able to sit in the audience," John reminded.

"How come you won't sit first chair? I've never know you to pass on responsibility," Gail said.

"Well it's like I said before in our Staff Meeting, it would be like a doctor treating his own family. Don't worry Sarah is the best attorney we have," John said.

"Wow that's some admission coming from him. He must be in love with you," Gail said facetiously to Sarah.

The three officers each ducked their heads half in embarrassment and half in humor at Gail's joke.

She saw it immediately exclaiming, "He really is?"

John was the one who nodded, saying, "Yeah I really am."

Sarah jerked her head up at his declaration while Traci smiled brightly.

"Well it's about time." Gail said.

Only the fact they were sitting in an office with the blinds open to the full view of those in bullpen kept Gail from jumping up and hugging her cousin. She instead grasped his hand and looking to Sarah with a big smile said, "I am so happy to hear that."

"Has everyone in the Marshall family been rooting for John to fall in love?" Sarah happily asked.

Gail just smirked happily and nodded her head saying, "Yeah pretty much."

The four attorneys just laughed at that.

John was the first to speak saying, "Alright Traci you can get to Portsmouth by the late afternoon if you leave now. Start in the pharmacy and go from there. Since it's such a long ride you may as well stay overnight and come back tomorrow. Keep me informed all the way," John instructed.

Traci got up saying, "I thought of that to. I have an overnight bag already in my car. I'll call when I know something." Before she left she said, "Gail it was a pleasure meeting you. It will be nice working with you."

Gail got up to shake hands saying, "Likewise."

After Traci left Gail gave into her curiosity asking, "How did she get that drawl?"

John told Gail Traci's story of adoption ending with, "Her dad is Senator George Manetti from Virginia."

Gail just whistled saying, "Jeez I thought Ann Marie was connected, but Senator Manetti is the ranking member of the Senate's Appropriations Committee."

Both John and Sarah said together, "Yeah we know." John added, "Not a lot of people here at JAG know so keep it on the low down."

"Hey my lips are sealed,' Gail said mimicking turning a key at her closed lips.

"Okay Sarah, after Gail and I finish interviewing Pete, why don't we meet for lunch?" John suggested.

"Since I'm going to be first chair, let's have him brought over here. That way I can get a feel as to how to defend him. Then we'll go to lunch," Sarah said picking up the phone and calling the brig.

Gail and John nodded at that. Gail had to smile as she said, "Sarah really takes charge. Do you two ever argue about that?"

Gail just burst out laughing when both John and Sarah emphatically said, "NO!"

1130 Local Time

JAG Headquarters

Conference Room

Peter was brought over to JAG in his uniform. He was fit and medium built standing about 5'9" with close cropped brown hair. He wore glasses. He sat straight in his chair as he waited for Sarah, Gail and John to come in.

A marine guard stood at 'parade rest' at the door of the room. When the door opened and Gail came in with the two officers, Sarah on her crutches, Peter sprang up at attention. The marine guard went to take up his guard station outside the room to give the group their privacy.

It was John who said, "As you were Pete." John went over to shake his hand and give him a quick embrace. Then he introduced Sarah saying, "Senior Chief Peter Tierney, meet your attorney Major Sarah Mackenzie."

"Ma'am, pleased to meet you" Peter said taking her hand to help her into the chair at the head of the table next to him.

"Thank you Senior Chief. Your pleasure at meeting me remains to be seen." Sarah replied, going into her attorney in charge mode.

"Yes ma'am," Peter said contritely. He looked to John and Gail as they sat on the opposite side of the table. He was about to voice his question as to why John wasn't the attorney in charge when John said, "I'll explain later. Right now the major is in charge."

Peter nodded his head and waited for Sarah to start.

Sarah opened the case file and went right to business, "Senior Chief I'm going to be your lead counsel. I have some requirements from those I defend; one, do not lie to me and two outside our privileged conversations keep your mouth shut and three, do what I tell you. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes ma'am," Peter immediately said.

"Now tell me how this mess got started," Sarah asked.

Peter sighed as he said, "Well I am the Assistant Director in the Pharmacy at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Petty Officer Limon is one of the medical corps man assigned to work there. One day as I was double checking the inventory when I saw a discrepancy in the count for the prescriptions and the narcotics, such as the morphine."

"How much of a discrepancy was there?" Sarah asked.

"Well over the course of two months, I noticed that there was a case of morphine and a few bottles of 'Oxy Contin' missing."

"How much is in a case of morphine?" Sarah asked.

"Twelve vials ma'am," Peter answered.

"Morphine is a strictly controlled narcotic. How can a whole case go missing without being immediately discovered?" Sarah asked incredulously.

"Well when you give out morphine to the floors, you have to account for every vial in a master log. Apparently Limon was falsifying the log. I only discovered the discrepancy when one of the nurses on the floor called to say she needed some. Before we give it out, we check to see when the last time that unit got some and how much against the log. Well the nurse said she received four vials, I immediately knew something was wrong. Because the log said five vials went up to that unit at that time."

"What did you do then Chief?" Sarah asked.

Peter went on to explain, "At first I thought that it was a simple error. But when I went back in the log and checked it against the nursing station records, I saw that the same discrepancy occurred more than a dozen times over the past two months. I also saw that the count of Oxy Contin was off to. That is almost on the same level as morphine."

"Who did you tell about this?" Sarah asked.

"I went and asked PO Limon why there was a discrepancy." Peter answered.

"What did he say?" Sarah asked.

"Well I wanted to speak with him out of the office so I went looking for him. I found him in the locker room. When I found him at his locker he at first didn't see me. As I was behind him I saw him put a vial of morphine into a case with some other vials. I thought he had a habit or was addicted. So I asked him what was with all the morphine," Peter explained.

"What did he say?" Sarah asked.

"That's when he told me about the loan shark he owed and the gang associated with him. Limon said that if he gave the gang drugs from the hospital to sell, the loan would be wiped clean. Well Limon agreed and he had been pilfering for the same time as it was indicated in the logs," Peter said.

"Why did you agree to go with him to see the loan shark?" Sarah asked.

"I thought I could get the loan shark and the gang to back off seeing as the debt should have been paid. Limon is a good kid I just wanted to help him," Peter said.

"Didn't it occur to you that stealing narcotics was a federal offense? Also you could have been charged with obstruction," Sarah asked.

"No ma'am I didn't think that far ahead. I just thought of helping PO Limon out of a jam." Peter explained.

"Okay what happened when you met the loan shark?" Sarah asked.

"Well we were supposed to meet in a parking lot across town from the hospital. When we got there he wasn't there. The gang members were there. They were a local biker gang named the Sons of Fire. I tried to convince the gang leader to back off but he wanted Limon to keep the 'pipeline open'. I told them we'd think about it. I just wanted to get us out of there and I told Limon to get back in the Hummer.

He got behind the wheel and in his panic he put the car in reverse instead of forward. He ran down one of the gang's bikes. That's when they pulled their guns out and started shooting. We peeled out of there and almost hit a patrol car that was just pulling into the parking lot. The officers must have heard the gunshots. We didn't know they had called for help until we got to the bridge to Norfolk. That's where Limon panicked again. I tried to tell him to stop, but he was too scared and he tried to ram his way through the roadblock. That's where we got arrested."

"So your contention is that you failed to report the theft in order to do your own investigation. When your investigation showed that Limon was in trouble, you tried to help him out it by trying to convince the loan shark and the gang to back off. Am I right so far?" Sarah asked.

"Yes ma'am that sounds about right," Peter agreed.

Okay we can admit to the failure to report missing narcotics, but based on what you told me I think we can make a deal. We still need to do an Article 32 hearing to get this story on the record. Would you be interested in turning state's witness against PO Limon, the loan shark and the gang?" Sarah asked.

"At this point ma'am I will do whatever you need me to do to get this mess cleared up with little damage to my career as possible. I still have a family to support." Peter agreed.

"Well you're going to have to accept some punishment but we'll see what the convening authority thinks. I read your record. It's been spotless until now with a Bronze Star and so forth. Where did you earn the 'Star'?" Sarah asked.

"In Panama ma'am when..," Peter began to explain but John coughed loudly. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

John told the story from there. "He won it by taking me out of the line of fire. When we were in Panama our SeAL Team was assigned to root out some of Noriega's loyalists who were hiding in the jungle. When we encountered them there was a fire fight. During the fight, I stepped into a hole and twisted my ankle. Before I could gather myself and take cover Peter came from his cover and pulled me behind a rock. He was firing into the trees as he pulled me back. When everything calmed down there were four dead loyalists. My sprained ankle was the only injury on our side. Lt. Comdr. Hutchinson our team leader put Peter up for the medal. The other members of the team corroborated the events and so forth."

Sarah and Gail just looked between Peter and John. Gail asked John, "I know he won the Bronze Star, but I didn't know he got it for saving you. Why didn't you tell us when you two came home from that?"

"The incident was mentioned at his awards ceremony, but you were unable to be there. Only Pete's wife and kids and I were in Norfolk when he received the medal. You being his only other family, after Aunt Pat and Uncle Billy passed away, were busy being a cop in New York and trying to get into law school that you couldn't get away. After that the subject never came up when we met for the holidays and so forth." John explained for him and Peter.

Sarah piped up saying, "That explains that." Then she added with a twinkle, "What I find amazing is that you were so clumsy."

John was about to respond but then he saw her smile at him. He just said, "Just wait till your leg gets better and we work out in the gym I'll show you how clumsy I really am."

Sarah was about to say something about not waiting that long, but to show her tonight, but she remembered that she was at work. So she coughed loudly to calm down her erotic thoughts of how clumsy John wasn't.

John filled the verbal gap by asking Peter, "Do you think that the pilfering is bigger than what Limon was doing?"

Peter answered, "It might be. There had been reports of some drug shipments going missing before they reached the hospital. You know the usual reports of 'stuff falling off the truck' and so forth. From what I heard NCIS was investigating."

"I think that while Lt. Manetti is down there, she should look into that, do you agree major?" John asked Sarah.

Sarah replied, "I agree. Have her look into the drug logs and see who else was making bad entries. What ever she finds, she'll give to NCIS for them to investigate further."

"Okay when we get back to my office I'll call her. She should be on her way by now." John said.

They all got up to leave. As Peter was being led away to the brig, Gail went to embrace him saying, "Don't worry Pete, we'll get through this."

1715 Local Time

Portsmouth Naval Hospital

Portsmouth, VA

When John returned to his office he did call Traci's cell phone and let her know her new avenue of investigation. With midday traffic being light, she arrived at the hospital just 2 and ½ hours after she left JAG.

Traci began to interview the hospital administrator, Commander Paul Wells. Wells said that he was astounded at hearing about Limon and Peter being arrested. He stated that he didn't know anymore than what he already told the NCIS agents who already interviewed.

When Traci left Wells she went to interview the Director of the Pharmacy, Lt Commander Roger Tate. The Pharmacy was down in the basement of the hospital among some other storage and mechanical equipment rooms.

Traci began her interview by asking about Peter. Tate had nothing but good things to say about Peter. Then she asked, "Lt. Commander did you know that there was some discrepancy between the pharmacy logs and the nursing unit logs?"

"No lieutenant I did not. When I conducted my monthly audit for July during the first week of August, I didn't see any discrepancies. We are still in the middle of August's audit. I'll wait to see what I see."

Traci continued, "Sir my associates at JAG told me that a local gang was involved in the incident with the senior chief and petty officer. Do you have any knowledge of any of their activities at or near the hospital?"

"No I do not know of any involvement with the Sons of Fire," Tate answered.

Traci resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow. One of the first rules of interviewing subjects who may be suspects was to not show any reaction to untruths or revelations that were uttered. John had told her of Peter saying the biker gang was the Sons of Fire. She knew she didn't mention the name of the gang to Tate. She figured he must be lying about something. So she decided to conclude her interview.

"Thank you Lt. Commander. I think I got all that I need from you. I'm going to find some character witnesses for Senior Chief Tierney that may be willing to speak up for him." She got up quickly and left the office.

When the door to the pharmacy clicked closed behind her she wasted no time in phoning John with her suspicions. Being that it was the end of the business day the hall was deserted. When she got John on the phone she said, "John I think that the Director of Pharmacy may be involved. When I asked him if he knew of a local gang, he came out with the name of the biker gang without any prompting from me. Can we get a background check on Lt. Commander Roger Tate?"

"Sure Traci, I'll pull his file," John said.

She was too engrossed in listening to John she didn't hear when someone came up from behind her. She heard John caution her, "Be careful there lieutenant."

"Don't worry sir I will," Traci assured her partner.

Before she could disconnect the call she felt an arm grab her around her waist from behind and another hand with a rag cover her mouth and nose. She dropped her phone and managed to get one loud cry out before the rest were muffled by the rag. She smelled a strong chemical odor. As the chloroform started to take effect and she saw darkness creeping around from the edges she struggled to break free, but the arms holding her were too strong. She continued to struggle for a short time before she finally collapsed into unconsciousness.

To be continued

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