Case One: Fighter Down
Disclaimer: Same as before.
Author's Note: I couldn't resist wondering about how Ziva might react to the film You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
H1 West Freeway
1000 18 August 2014
Enroute to Waikele, Hawaii
"Right. Got it...thank you." Brent began as he spoke with the Honolulu County Medical Examiner over his cell phone while reading the report with his newly issued Blackberry.
"What's going on?" Kate asked from the driver's seat, more than mildly irritated that the fastest speed she could drive on the H1 was 60 miles per hour.
"That was the Honolulu County Medical Examiner. She was saying other than traces of DMSO on Ashida's skin it looks like he suffered a stroke of some kind and...Jesus Christ!" Brent shouted, both work and personal cell phones flying from his grasp as Kate slammed on the brakes, to the chorus of honking horns and pulled right into the shoulder of the road.
"What in God's name was that all about?" Brent replied when his heart rate dropped back to normal, "Are you barking mad?"
"You were saying on the DMSO?" Kate asked, looking over at Brent.
"The ME found traces of DMSO on Ashida's skin and that he showed signs of having suffered a stroke." Brent replied, "Might I ask what that was all about?"
"I had a case exactly like that, a triple homicide where three victims died because of a poison administered by touch." Kate replied.
"I take it the case had some rather personal connotations to it then, as evidenced by my most recent case of whiplash." Brent quipped.
"Don't be a baby." Kate countered as she took her foot off the brakes and merged with traffic, "And its old news..."
If you count the years before Mindbender did whatever weird science brought me back to life then that was almost eleven years ago when Tim...Kate thought, feeling the sudden stab of pain. I saw what it did on Air Force One, and imagining Tim going out that way.
"Kate?" Brent asked, "Are you alright?"
The dashboard GPS said, "In 200 feet turn right on Lumiana Street..."
"Kate?" Brent said, noticing that Kate was still driving past the turn, "We're about to...For fuck's sake!"
Kate blinked her eyes and realized that she was about to miss their turn before turning the wheel around hard to yet another chorus of honking horns and a few angry shouts.
"Kate, are you sure you're alright?" Brent asked.
"Sorry, just my mind moving a mile a minute over this case." Kate replied as she pulled the car into the parking lot of the Ultimate Combat Academy parking lot.
"Your mind may be moving a mile a minute, but your driving reflexes certainly aren't." Brent quipped. Kate shot him a dirty look as she put the car into park.
"I've just got a couple things on my mind." Kate said tersely as she stepped out of the car and looked over the scene before her. There were still a couple of Honolulu Police Department patrol cars in the area, a chalk outline where Brian Ashida's corpse had lain.
A graying haired Hawaiian wearing a pinstriped white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a tie, and gray slacks with black shoes stood over the chalk outline. He noticed two haole's walking from the sedan that just pulled into the parking lot.
The first, the male with the green long sleeved collared shirt and brown slacks had a distinctively military or ex-military air to him. The second, a woman in a pair of black slacks with a blue silk blouse, her brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail behind her head looked like a woman on a mission. She was walking at a faster pace than the man.
He turned to face the two and said, "You two must be the ACME Agents here to help with the case. Detective Keola."
The Hawaiian held out a hand, and the female of the pair shook it, "Agent Caitlin Todd, ACME Honolulu Office, and this is my partner Agent Brent Taylor."
Brent shook the man's hand. Whatever it was about this DMSO thing, it really had to have hit close to home to have Kate rattled like that. Enough to nearly crash the sodding car twice. Brent thought.
"So what have you found out so far?" Brent asked.
"From what witnesses are saying after a match last night to determine who would represent Ultimate Combat Academy in the Honolulu MMA Expose next month Brian Ashida beat Ryan McCarthy. After the fight in the octagon they decided to slug it out in the parking lot and then Ashida fell to the ground dead." Keola replied.
"The witnesses?" Kate asked.
"They're at the gym. Mr. McCarthy is currently in a holding cell downtown." Keola said.
"Right, thank you." Brent replied, "Who were the most significant witnesses you found?"
"McCarthy's cornermen, Tony Stackwell and Reed Kline." Keola replied, "I've kept them back at the gym since the fight."
"What about McCarthy's gloves? Were those bagged as evidence?" Kate asked.
"We bagged all of McCarthy's belongings after the incident as a matter of course." Keola said, looking slightly miffed, what did this woman think he and his men were, a bunch of amateurs?
"I'd like to ask for your lab's findings as well as a look at your evidence." Kate replied.
"You sure ask for a lot." Keola said regarding both the Brit and the woman as they spoke to him.
"Well, in particular we would like to look at McCarthy's gloves. Your coroner identified a particular chemical compound relating to a case my colleague once dealt with." Brent replied.
Keola's hard squint softened, "You will of course share your findings with us, right?"
"Of course." Brent replied.
"Okey Dokey." Keola said as he turned around, getting on his cell phone and talking to his Honolulu Police Department Colleagues.
Kate stood back, apparently expecting a turf war and an impasse and looked over at Brent. "How did you do that?"
"Being the middle child of three brothers." Brent replied, with a mysterious smile, "Comes with the territory, dealing with dueling older and younger siblings."
"So what do you propose we do now?" Kate asked.
"I would say have a chat with this Ryan McCarthy fellow, get his story and then speak with his two corner men." Brent replied, "Together, or should we interview them separately?"
"Together, after all I did drive us here for one...", Kate replied.
"Certainly raising my blood pressure whilst doing so." Brent quipped. Kate glared at him.
"And before I was so rudely interrupted, it allows us to keep them from getting anything past us." Kate replied, "Especially if we pull the good cop/bad cop routine."
"Right, so who should we talk to first?" Brent asked. Smart and efficient. Certainly a bit of a hardass when at work.
"Well the two in Ryan's corner while they're here." Kate replied.
"Good, it'll give my heart a chance to recover before you put us out onto the road again." Brent remarked. Kate elbowed him in the ribs with a glare.
Detective Keola watched it all with amusement. The two agents seemed to be a newly paired up partnership given how they were bickering like an old married couple.
"Lay on Macbeth." Brent remarked, with a mildly theatrical gesture.
"Lay off Shakespeare." Kate quipped as the pair walked into the gym. As cultured as Ducky and about as exasperating as DiNozzo barely hits the surface, Brent Taylor.
Somewhere over the Atlantic
2230 17 August 2014
"What are you watching?" Ziva asked Tony. Stewing in a long, tense silence wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend a Transatlantic flight.
"Huh?" Tony asked.
Ziva peered over his shoulder and her eyes narrowed. "No..."
From Ziva's reaction one would think that Tony DiNozzo was watching any number of pornographic films openly on the flight. He was watching something that, in Ziva's mind, was on that level. It was Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
Sitting in the aisle seat of the aircraft Tony moved one earpiece on his headphones aside so he could hear Ziva. "Did you say something?" Tony asked. Well, this is progress, at least she's talking to me about something not work related.
"I was asking what you are watching, and then saw for myself." Ziva remarked as she looked at the scene.
"What, You Don't Mess with the Zohan is a good movie on Israeli culture." Tony remarked.
"Pfah." Ziva remarked simply, "More like a giant force."
"Did you mean farce?" Tony replied.
Ziva glared at him and if looks could kill DiNozzo would have been roasted into cinders. "It is incredibly inaccurate for one." Ziva began.
Tony then dropped his earphones onto his neck. He had seen this movie already so this wasn't nearly as important as talking to Ziva, even if it was only about her opinion on the movie. Which he didn't see her giving it an enthusiastic thumbs up anytime soon.
"How so?" Tony replied.
Rising to the occasion, Ziva began, "First off no piranha live anywhere near Israel."
"Ok, fish and wildlife aside, what else?" Tony replied.
"Israelis, and indeed Arabs, do not go around saying Disco Disco, Good Good." Ziva replied.
"I dunno, if you got drunk enough you might." Tony countered.
"And it is soccer and not hackey sack that is a popular sport in the region." Ziva continued.
"I dunno, there is some skill transferability to keep a hackey sack airborne as keeping a soccer ball in the air, you have to admit." Tony began.
"And outlandish characters like Zohan Dvir, a complete pushtuk, would serve in the Mossad." Ziva added, "And not to mention we would likely come up with better cover names than Scrappy Cocoa."
Tony had to smile at that last one and in fact had to suppress a chuckle, "And not to mention we're not a big group of Mariah Carey fanatics."
"And it is impossible to write the words Disco Disco with a single magazine of an Uzi." Ziva added.
"Can you do it with two magazines?" Tony asked.
"No." Ziva replied, "It is a waste of ammunition."
"So you can write Disco Disco with an Uzi and two magazines you just choose not to?" Tony asked, in that oh so innocent sounding tone.
"No no no no no no no no no." Ziva began, gesturing with her hands. Several heads in their immediate vicinity turned to watch the two as they argued rather heatedly.
"Well at least there's one fact in the movie." Tony replied, "Repeatedly using the word no in rapid fire."
Ziva glared at Tony with one of those, if looks could kill expressions before turning around and tucking straight back into the paperback she had been reading muttering some rather explicit threats against whoever came up with the movie You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
Well, there's progress. Tony thought. Sure it was an argument but at least it was more of the light hearted argument variety.
To Be Continued...