I Can't Be Perfect...
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the characters, hopefully if I keep them long enough they'll like me better!
Chapter 7-Wasting My Time
As they believed the teasing and supposed sexual tension was nonexistent. The entire team was questioned inside and out and never once considered Special Agent Martin Tyler capable of murdering Lily. He was a flirt maybe a little protective of her; they all were, but not a flirt in the sense of murderous jealousy.
It was bull. If the team considered Martin a murderer then Tony should have been shipped off to jail awhile ago. He probably had enough threats of sexual assault to be put away for years.
He did however mention an old boyfriend, Dylan King, who Martin thought was a little too forceful with her. They had checked out Mr. King and discovered that he had plenty of reasons for the increased forcefulness and none of them for supposed thoughts of abuse.
"It turns out that Lily McNamara received a series of threatening letters." McGee read off his sheet. The entire team had come together once again in the elevator to talk about the case. It was the only silent place they had. With all Lily's friends at the agency continuously questioning their abilities to solve the case and the Director's watchful eye, following their every movement they needed one place to focus and throw out theories or ideas without everyone listening in.
"What did they say?" Gibbs asked, sipping his coffee.
"All three basically said the same thing with just different wording. First said, 'Terrible days are heading your way. Better bring an umbrella. Maybe a knife too.'" McGee stopped reading. "The others said something about fire but I'll save you the confusion. I know; it's very vague and really...random. I'm not sure where to go from it."
"How are they signed?" Ziva questioned as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. She had an excessive amount of energy this morning. The six hours of sleep she had gotten were all she needed to stay hyper and active throughout the day.
McGee didn't even need to lift the papers to know who signed the notes he remembered it because it was so odd.
"Borealis" Ziva looked as if to ask him to repeat it but she stopped when another, seemingly quiet person so far spoke.
"Aurora...Borealis. Practically a free lightshow in Alaska, Northern Canada and Europe." Tony said. "It's the solar emissions from the sun that react with the atmosphere at the Poles."
The three turned to Tony who was absorbed in the journal. His brow was furrowed in a hard gaze, and his eyes seemed to spin as he read through the pages. He lifted a hand and rubbed his temples gingerly not bothering to stop reading to end the coming headache or engage in conversation with the other three.
" I think that it's obvious. Aurora Borealis…Aurora McNamara. Anyone else see the connection?" he mumbled still not glancing upward. He finished the last journal entry and closed up the book. "What? It's beautiful. Amazing display of every color imaginable."
Ziva shook her head at Tony's odd behavior. Tony always had a way of paying attention even when nobody thought he was or when it was clear he was absorbed in something totally different.
"You're just full of surprises aren't you?" McGee asked. Tony shot him a dirty look.
"What? I'm not allowed to know anything?" he asked. Tony lifted his eyebrows challenging McGee to answer the question without insulting himself or bruising either of their egos.
"I never said that," McGee shot back. Before anymore could be said and before body parts were severely damaged, Gibbs asked.
"Yes, we see the connection. What did the journal say?"
Tony shook his head and looked up. "Well it's safe to say that Aurora has serious issues. This girl was seriously messed up. She was definitely depressed and suicidal…maybe even homicidal. She doesn't get really weird until about the sixth entry when she finally finalizes her abuse. Her mother was hitting her but never touched her 'perfect' daughter." He said his even tone wavering.
Tony looked back into the journal for reference. "She wrote that she fought with her mother about everything. She wanted to be an artist but that wasn't considered a career choice, screaming and yelling resulted. Then hitting."
"Sounds like she had a great childhood." McGee muttered suddenly grateful for his quirky but loving family.
"Oh it was." Tony said speaking about personal experiences as well as Aurora's. "The journal was very detailed. She was very meticulous about her planned suicide attempt down to the exact place she was going to cut her arms."
"Arms? Don't you mean wrists?"
Tony shook his head. "Nope arms. Wrists are for amateurs. We have some very plump veins running through our arms." With an imaginary knife he gestured slicing the skin an inch below his elbow.
"Who caught her?" Gibbs asked.
"Lily. I think she might have been sneaking looks at her diary because after the entry about uh…her attempt, the following ones became a lot less detailed but generally they remained thorough. I guess habitually she couldn't stop being thorough."
"Did it say anything about Lily?" Ziva asked.
"A lot. Aurora was overly resentful about her sister almost to the point of complete obsession." Tony opened the diary to the middle page, flicking a page either way. "Let see, in May that year she really started writing all about her sister, negatively. She says,
'Lily this, Lily that. That's all I hear around this dump. Lily's always been the star of everyone's attention. Whose report cards hang on the fridge? Lily's. Whose name appears at least twice in every conversation? Not mine, Lily's. Perfect, exceptionally smart Lily McNamara. She's sweet and perfect and not to mention brilliant! God I wish that she could just make a mistake, do something not perfect. Maybe that will show my drunken mother that she's not the only talented one. My artwork made it into the State Fair and I might get a full ride into Felton Art. But to them, art isn't as important as criminology.Why do I even try?'
That's the basic premise of her rants about Lily. It's all tit for tat type of things. She stopped writing in this diary for about two weeks than regained her usual pace at once a day. She complained that some witch is condemning her to writing in another diary."
"Psychologist?" Ziva asked.
"Most likely."
"You said homicidal before, why?" McGee asked. "Does she really have the capability to kill her? You saw her yourself Tony, she's a tiny little thing barely reaching 120 pounds, and she doesn't have the muscle to take down a trained federal agent."
"I don't know. An adrenaline can do some amazing things. You know about those women that lifted up their SUVs to save their trapped children. Maybe Aurora acted like that at that moment in some warped sense to save her sanity." Tony sighed. "I really don't know." The four left the elevator for their desks. It was late and hopefully no one would bother them.
"She did say. In full detail her plan for her sister's death. I'm guessing she must have found a nice place to hide this book or she would be holed up in an asylum with a straight jacket."
"It must have been really bad." Ziva murmured seating herself at the edge of her desk as both McGee and Gibbs stood around her and Tony.
"Well, unless you consider explaining how she would cry out and whine and plead for a normal life for herself, then yes was bad. She went into complicated study of which was the best way to die and what artery carried the greatest supply of blood. It was really graphic and carefully planned." He grimaced. "She read several psychology books and case studies about victims of sexual abuse and torture. More importantly, the effects of the case."
"Why did she do that? Why did she break the pattern if she went into such painstaking steps to make her suffer? Why bother with just a broken kneecap and bumps and bruises?" McGee asked.
"Guilt? Maybe she couldn't stand her sister but isn't as cruel as to make her suffer." Ziva said.
"It's a possibility but we need concrete proof if we want to convict her. Plus we need to find that James she talked about. I have a feeling that he has a part."
Maybe it was by luck or ill fated on his part but James O'Connor was an easy person to find.
And not very subtle. From just the video feed at the little shop across from the club, the team got a clear picture of what James looked like. It was a little grimy but through a facial recognition program and a few hours questioning officials at art galleries all over DC they found James O'Connor.
James O'Connor was an odd guy. He came from riches and showed it smugly. Decked out in Abercrombie and too big confined in the small interrogation made him look small and childish. Funnily enough, he had his reddish hair gelled and sticking up making him look sixteen instead of twenty-eight.
He alternated between tapping his fingers against the table and banging his feet in rhythm to a phantom melody. Either he had severe ADD or he was nervous about something. Tony guessed the latter.
James O'Connor was a cocky fellow. He acted pompous and obnoxious throwing their rumpled appearances to being underpaid and too hardworking. It was save to say that he had never tried working really hard before or suffered for his art.
He was stupid though. He never once asked for an attorney, even though his high end father probably had dozens lined up to take his case, and was easy to pick through for the truth.
Gibbs loved cocky bastards. Not for there impressive skill of only talking about themselves but for the pride they took in the killing. James O'Connor was no different. Gibbs could almost feel the pride rolling off the young man like sweat from a fevered man. He grinned broadly, showing all of his perfectly orthodontist adjusted teeth.
It was almost too easy. A little pat on the back and he would be spilling.
Gibbs slapped the folder on the table with a little extra force than necessary. He flopped down on the chair across from James with almost an admirable smile on his face.
"You impress me, James." The other man smiled appreciatively.
"I'm glad. Now, please tell me why I'm owed this visit by you, Mr.…"
"Gibbs. Special Agent Gibbs." He answered curtly. "You're being questioned about your involvement in the murder of Lily McNamara."
The smile never faltered and made Gibbs want to reach across the table and wipe it off his face.
"I never murdered anyone, Special Agent." James O'Connor folded his arms behind his head in a relaxed gesture but his quick finger tapping became more than just a vague annoyance for Gibbs.
"I never said that. I don't personally think that you murdered her but I think that you helped."
James debated that one. He didn't want to place himself in a bad spot but wanted to claim his part of her abduction and death.
Gibbs continued, "You seduced her. She had been drinking. The events of the day plus her long time boyfriend dumping her were taking its toll and to her a good round of tequila shots did wonders." His voice spilled off is tongue, slow and soothing. "You figured that since your girl, Aurora, told you to help her with her sister, you'd have fun while you did it."
"She was beautiful." He did it by accident he hadn't meant to talk but he couldn't escape the urge to interrupt. "Not at all like Rori, I mean she's pretty, but well you know, Lily was a knock out. I'm actually a little sad that we wasted her. I thought she looked hot and I took my chances. We danced for awhile, and I bought her a drink. That's when I did it."
Gibbs was almost afraid to reenter the confession, to give James the opening to jut out of the conversation and not speak again.
"Did what?" he murmured softly.
"I drugged her. Nice and easy. GHB and a little rohypnol. For being a government agency, you don't train your agents very well. Se didn't even take a second look at what was in it. Just knocked it down." James O'Connor was so caught up in insulting the agency; he didn't notice the officer that was coming up from behind his chair and the satisfied smirk on Gibbs face.
Gibbs put a hand up to stop the officer. "What else did you do?"
"If your asking if I killed her, then no. I played with her a little but no I didn't kill her."
"Don't be modest, you were the one that shot her," Gibbs said. James O'Connor shook his head vehemently.
"No, I didn't." He sounded almost apologetic. "I just skipped my knife down her arm, and did some batting practice. She was fully conscious when I went back upstairs." He grinned smugly. "Now, if we're finished I'd like to leave.
Gibbs nodded. "Well, Mr. O'Connor, you can leave just not in the conventional way. You're being charged with kidnapping and accessory to murder. I'm not sorry to put a damper to your day." The officer proceeded to charge him and Gibbs left the room.
"Do you believe him?" McGee asked. The three other agents on his team caught up to Gibbs as he stopped the elevator.
"Yes, he's too simple minded to come up with such an elaborate plan to kill her. There has to be a leader, and I'm putting my money on the sister." Gibbs answered.
Aurora McNamara was much smarter than James O'Connor. She was thrifty and the mastermind of the murder of Lily McNamara. Conventional methods of interrogation weren't going to work. They had to be creative.
Anyone want to take a guess at what the notes McGee read mean? 'Terrible days are heading your way. Better bring an umbrella. Maybe a knife too.' I thought this is pretty blatant but maybe that's just because I know where this story is going.
Okay…here's the deal. I have extremely low self esteem issues and because I'm not getting a lot of reviews it's causing me to panic into thinking that I'm making a fool of myself when I try to write this. I hope you readers understand this and will take three seconds to write a review. Please enjoy! I know people are reading this because I have a mailbox full of story alerts but I crave reviews. Who knew reviews were so addicting?
Luvs, Ari
