Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Crossed over with

NCIS

The Dying of Skid317

by Lancer47

STFarnham

See Part 1 for notes and disclaimer.

Chapter Eight

Angela, Faith, and Willow sat on the balcony of the hotel suite sipping fresh made lemonade. The bright sunshine, chirping birds, and gentle breeze was a sharp contrast to the discussion. Willow was gently asking questions, horrific questions, but Willow felt she had to clear up as much as possible about Angela's attack. Although Faith was listening intently, she appeared to be staring off into the distance.

After painfully going through the whole rape scene again, Angela paused before she added, "There's worse."

"Worse?" whispered a horrified Willow, "what could be worse?"

"At the start of the attack, the Skids were knocking my brother around and laughing. One of them said, 'What you and your compadres did to my sister, we're gonna do to yours! But I'm twisting the knife you sister-fucker! You get a ring side seat, you get to watch the whole thing!' "

"Ah jeez," said Faith, "it was all retaliation, wasn't it?"

"Yep, I knew my very own brother was a killer, but it turns out he was also a rapist, and he was so thoughtless in his choice of victim that I got to pay the price. Well, he paid too of course, and died painfully. But it's all so pointless; you do me, I do you; you fuck me, I fuck you; you kill me, I kill you; forever and ever."

Faith looked at Angela and observed, "The only proof of that is from your brother's sworn enemies. He never got the chance to either refute the accusation, or admit to it. Don't you think we should check out some independent sources and find out whether or not your attackers were liars as well as rapists and murderers?"

"When you put it that way," said Angela, "I guess so. Jamie's sister is Tonya Wilson, I haven't seen her since she graduated high school with my brother three years ago."

Willow said, "Let's see if we can find her, if she'll even speak to you or not should tell us volumes."

--- ---

Faith and Buffy got off the elevator at NCIS. Buffy walked and Faith sauntered seductively over to Gibbs desk, with a pause in front of Tony's.

"Hello Agent Gibbs," said Buffy, "I don't know how much help we can be, but here we are, as requested."

Buffy sat down and crossed her feet. Faith slouched in her chair and stretched her legs and arms luxuriously before putting her feet on Gibbs desk. At Gibbs glare, Faith slowly put her feet down.

Gibbs said, "OK, the last time we talked, you promised to see if you could locate Angela Ruiz for me. Were you successful?"

"Kinda, sorta," said Buffy, "we caught with her as she was leaving for England. Here's her statement." Buffy pulled a couple of printed pages from her pocket and put them on the desk.

Gibbs skimmed the sheets. "So that's it?" asked Gibbs, "that's all the help you can give me? After I didn't put either of you in jail?"

"Um, sorry, that's all for now," said Faith. Buffy looked at the floor with downcast eyes.

"It feels like you promised to get me a box of doughnuts, but you delivered the holes with some vague promises for fried dough and sugar at a later date," said Gibbs.

"Sorry, but how could she have pulled off these murders anyway?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know," Gibbs replied, "but my next best suspect is Faith here."

Faith eyebrows went up. "Moi?" she said innocently.

DiNozzo spoke up, "But your alibi held up. I called the Cleveland Police Department, and you were where you said were when you said you were there. That's a tongue twister. Mind, a suspicious person could see a way for you to fly under an assumed name, and make a bunch of incognito trips. We checked tapes of the airport to see if that happened. So far, you're in the clear. I also checked Ms. Summers, she could have done some of them, but not all. Besides, we don't know why either of you would have."

--- ---

Tonya Wilson opened the door to her condo and admitted Angela Ruiz, along with Willow and Faith. "Uh, hi," she said, a little hesitantly, "please, sit down. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Cookies?"

"No, no, we're fine."

Tonya grabbed a tray with coffee and snacks and put it down on the coffee table, "Well, if you change your mind, it's already made."

Faith and Willow exchanged glances. Angela stared.

"After what my brother did to you, how can you be so nice to me?" Angela asked.

"What he did? What do you mean? We were in love."

"What?!?"

"It was a regular Romeo and Juliet thing. Opposite side of the tracks and all. My brother disapproved, and that's a gross understatement. After what Jamie and Tommie did to you, I can hardly live with myself."

Faith asked, "So you didn't get gang raped by a dozen or so guys?"

Tonya looked stricken. "No. My family and I can never excuse their actions, can never make it up, but we'll try."

"So it was a racist thing, after all," said Willow.

"Not really, not completely anyway. You have to understand, we all grew up together, attended the same schools and our families lived just a few blocks from each other."

Angela nodded in agreement.

Tonya continued, "Now, I'm not claiming it was all buddy-buddy or we all hung out together or anything. But we were acquaintances. There weren't any major problems in school, or in sports or anything. I know in other schools and places there were regular fights to the death between ethnic groups, but not here. There were occasional fights of course, but it was usually two guys beating each other with fists while their friends took bets and made certain it was relatively fair. In fact, when the guys started their stupid gangs, they even cooperated to buy drugs wholesale, then split it up and went their own way. It was only later when they started pushing each other for territory that the trouble started. So when Jamie discovered me and Julio getting it on one afternoon, he went ballistic mostly because he thought I was spilling Skid317 business to Julio. But I didn't know anything, and if I did, I wouldn't have said anything. Everything that happened since then, grew out of that afternoon."

"I guess it's true," said Faith, "love makes you do the wacky."

--- ---

Later, back at the suite, Faith and Buffy got together and plotted. "So," said Faith, "who can we blame for Angela's, um, transgressions?"

"One of the guys in the warehouse blast would be about perfect," said Buffy, "if only we had enough forethought to plant Angela's bloody stake in one their boots."

"Well," Faith replied quietly, "why a boot? Why not a locker, or someone's bedroom?"

"Wow, that'd work, wouldn't it?" said Buffy.

"But, we do have to hurry, B. We need to quickly choose a logical person to blame it on, and get to their place before the cops. We might try a little indirection – plant evidence on one person and then make it clear that another planted it on the first. So it appears the real killer tried misdirection. That way, if there is anything that is a little off about our planting of evidence, it looks like there's a good reason and they won't look further."

Buffy looked at Faith, "OK, that's idea I never would have come up with."

"Hey, a prison education is a terrible thing to waste."

--- ---

Here's the latest report from the Washington PD, Boss," said DiNozzo, "they found a bloody wooden stake, rather crudely carved, in a drawer in the bedroom of one Robert Ransom, the only survivor from the warehouse explosion. But they also found dried blood and bloody rags in one Jeremy Odom's belongings, in his laundry room to be exact. When they confronted Ransom and explained that they thought Odom tried to plant evidence on him, he said, 'The fuck? Slick would never do that.' Then he shut up and never said another word."

"So the suspect is dead?"

"Yep."

"Then the case is closed."

Epilogue

On the day Angela was due to fly to England with Willow, she got up feeling strangely happy. Better than she'd felt in ages, since before-- she abruptly decided to think about something else.

She came into the living room of the suite and found Willow sitting on the floor, surrounded by candles, chanting in some language that Angela didn't know. She watched quietly until Willow was done, and helped her blow out the candles. "What was that about?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just renewing and strengthening the 'I'm-innocent-don't-blame-me' glamour I put around Buffy and Faith."

"So you really believe in this magic shit, huh?"

"Oh yeah," said Willow, "look."

The Washington Post opened without human intervention, folded back all by itself and left one article exposed, floated up and over to Angela. She read it. It was an article about the demise of Skid317, including who was thought to have murdered most of his rivals in the gang.

Willow said, "Don't you think Buffy and Faith would have been major suspects if all the cops and Federal Agents had really looked at them?"

"I guess so."

"Of course, they were easy compared to you, since they really were innocent of murdering anyone, recently, at least. For you, I reinforced your victim status and made sure they never got the chance to talk to you. It worked."

Angela looked at Willow with her eyes wide open. She suddenly realized just who might be the most dangerous of them all.

The End