The Ballad Of Mona Lisa

I don't own any of it... *sigh*...

Chapter 3

'A lonely speaker in a conversation,

Her words are swimming through his ears again...'

'That was Kensi,' Callen said, hanging up his phone. 'She's not one hundred percent certain, but she's pretty sure that Murphy's death wasn't an accident. She and Deeks found pour patterns.'

'Pour patterns?' Sam asked absently.

'An accelerant was used,' Callen said.

'Oh,' Sam said, typing into the database. 'Hey, I found what Murphy was looking into at the time of her death.'

'Case?' Callen asked.

'Yeah,' Sam confirmed. 'Drug ring on the Lincoln. Three people have been in the bay because of withdrawal. Simple stuff.'

'Lincoln got into port yesterday,' Callen said.

Sam looked at him. 'You thinking that her murder might have something to do with this?'

Callen shrugged. 'It's as good a lead as any. Are there any notes in the file? Anything about who might be involved.'

Sam shook his head. 'No, just the names of the men who were hospitalised because of the drugs.'

Callen sighed grimly. 'Well, let's go talk to them.'

'Special Agent Hanna.' Sam held up his badge.

The man in the bed, Petty Officer Paul Lite was as pale as the sheets surrounding him, but he still managed to sit up. 'Sir? Where's Agent Murphy?'

'I'm sorry to inform you, but Agent Murphy died about two hours ago.'

Lite paled even further, if that were possible.

'Died? As is dead?'

'As in dead,' Sam confirmed.

'Oh, man. She was so nice.'

'That she was,' Sam replied.

'Oh, I'm sorry, man. You're NCIS too, aren't you?'

Sam nodded.

'Gees, man, I'm sorry for your loss.'

Sam nodded again. 'What can you tell me about the drug ring?'

Lite groaned. 'Oh, man, that's sh... stupid. Can't you just, I don't know, look at Agent Murphy's notes or something?'

'By the looks of things, her only notes were destroyed in the fire, and the ones that have been recovered or found are either badly burnt or indecipherable. What did Murphy ask you about?'

'How we got the drugs.'

'And how did you?'

'You call a number, place a coded order - like pepperoni pizza is code for coke, right? - and two hours later, you pick it up from a spot. Never the same spot twice.'

'The number?'

Lite gave it to him.

'Anything else?'

'She asked me if anything had ever been wrong.'

'Wrong?'

'Yeah, like they asked for more money than we agreed, or they tried to blackmail me or anything like that.'

'Had they?'

'Well, last time, two guys did the delivering instead of only one. And both were armed. They're never usually armed, but that day they were. Said that they were expecting trouble. You see, last time I picked the stuff up, the other Petty Officer, the first one to get caught, the one that died from the stuff that was off, he'd died about two days before. But I only heard about the bad stuff after I used the stuff that I'd got and I panicked and got my sorry ass delivered to hospital just in case. I use the stuff to get high - not to die.'

'Well, if you don't want to die, you'd be better off just not using at all.'

Lite smiled grimly. 'Oh, trust me, dude, I've learned my lesson. I'm going clean from now on.'

'That's good, Marine. Thanks for your time.' Sam took out a calling card and placed it on the bed side table. 'You remember anything, you call me, day or night, okay?'

'Yes sir.' Lite picked it up. 'Hers was just like this... I don't suppose I need it anymore.'

Sam nodded grimly. 'Bye.'

'Bye.'

Callen met Sam outside the hospital, and they compared notes.

'Both boys are telling the same story,' Callen said.

Sam nodded. 'Kid seemed pretty shocked that Murphy was dead.'

'My kid was sorry and asked when the memorial was. Turns out, Murphy got the kid to the hospital just as he was crashing. He would've died if it weren't for her.'

Sam shook his head. 'Damn pity she's gone.'

Callen nodded in agreement. 'Well, I think that's all the information that we're gonna get for the moment.'

Sam nodded. 'Let's get back to OSP.'

Hetty looked grim as she stood over a nervous Kensi and Deeks (figuratively) when Callen and Sam walked in.

'What's happened?' Callen asked in a low voice.

Sam shrugged. 'Do I look like a mind reader?'

Callen shook his head.

'Were such actions necessary?' Hetty asked the two younger members of the team.

'They seemed justifiable at the time,' Kensi offered.

'And your rudeness towards Detective Harvey?'

'Harvey was pretty damn rude to us,' Deeks said, stumbling to a halt when Hetty turned her icy glare into him. 'Hetty,' he added belatedly.

'What exactly happened?' Hetty asked.

Callen and Sam took their seats in the bullpen.

'Harvey was running the crime scene completely wrong. He was compromising and tainting evidence, he thought that this whole thing was an accident and everyone was just trampling over the scene.' Kensi seemed annoyed.

'And thus you kicked LAPD off of the scene?' Hetty asked.

'Well, not me,' Deeks said.

Kensi almost rolled her eyes, and then remembered where she was. 'Yes.'

'And then you and Detective Harvey exchanged words,' Hetty said slowly.

Kensi nodded. 'Not really. I told him that NCIS was taking over the investigation and that he and his men could leave.'

'In those exact terms?' Hetty asked.

Kensi and Deeks looked at each other, and Callen and Sam knew that they knew that they had been caught.

'Maybe that was a loose summary of the conversation,' Deeks finally allowed.

Hetty's lips thinned to the point of non-existence. 'And then Miss Blye, you attacked Harvey.'

'Just one kick,' Kensi said pleadingly.

Callen and Sam exchanged a glance. They knew exactly where the kick had been placed.

'Unprovoked?' Hetty asked. 'Because that's the feeling I was getting from Detective Harvey.'

'Unprovoked? Hetty, I would never attack someone unprovoked, you know that,' Kensi defended herself.

Hetty allowed herself a brief smile. 'Yes, I know that much. So what provoked you so much that an attack seemed justifiable?'

'He... he...' Kensi mumbled the rest.

'He what?' Hetty asked.

Callen and Sam hadn't caught that either.

Deeks broke back into the conversation. 'He asked me if Kensi was as good as Jess in bed.' His blue eyes betrayed his otherwise cool countenance.

Hetty allowed herself a short, almost inaudible gasp. 'Well then, I feel that the attack was justified.'

Callen and Sam smiled, and Kensi and Deeks relaxed.

'However,' Hetty began, 'in the future, I'd prefer it if our dealings with the LAPD were somewhat more calmly handled, and I'd most definitely prefer it if you avoided all dealings with Harvey.'

'You and me both,' Deeks muttered, still stinging over having to repeat the offensive comment.

'Well, then?' Hetty asked the team. 'Don't we have a murderer to catch? After all, we have to get a conviction to prove our Mr Harvey wrong.'

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