Chapter 10 is up! Now you'll find out who the blood belongs to, and the team's reaction to who it belongs to. The plot to kill Mac slowly starts to come together, finally. Enjoy!
"Chief Brigham Sinclair." Kendall snarled, her eyes narrowing as she checked the DNA profile very closely. Stella's eyes went wide, and quickly she whipped around, Lucy still clutched tightly in her arms, and she strode out through the glass doors, fury dancing in her eyes.
Hands suddenly gripped her arms tightly, and yanked her back, preventing her from going any further. "Let me go," She hissed, glancing back to see Danny's angry face.
"No." He said simply, and Stella felt the tears well in her eyes. She shook her head viciously to fight the tears back and demanded,
"Yes. Let. Me. Go. Now!"
"I can't do that, Stel," He replied, still restraining her. She fought against his grip desperately, but he wasn't budging.
"I have to know, he has to answer for what he did!" Stella growled, still clutching Lucy in her arms.
"He will. But we need to think about this, Stella. Think before actions." He said gently, and slowly Stella stopped fighting him, but leaned towards him, sobbing quietly into his chest. Danny's arms encircled her tightly, and she clutched at his shirt.
"Why? Why did he have him killed? Why?" Stella moaned in agony, and Danny felt tears of his own in his eyes as he swallowed hard and said regretfully,
"I don't know, Stel, I don't know."
"Are you sure they don't suspect us?"
"Positive. How's our patient?"
"Still unresponsive, in that damned coma. You know what's going to happen if…"
"Yes, I know." The man, who was obviously in charge, snapped, and the other man shrugged.
"So what's next?"
"We wait, monitor the team's progress. Our informant will help with that, and if they get too close, I'll let Brigham know."
"All right. I hate staying here, playing guard when the person I'm guarding sure as hell can't get up and walk away." The other man whined, and the man in charge growled,
"Stop complaining. My plan will work, and we can get back. So just shut up and do the job."
"Fine, fine."
Stella walked back into the conference room, her red-rimmed eyes hidden by her makeup. She looked at Danny gratefully, and he just nodded and handed Lucy to her. Stella smiled at the little girl before looking up and saying,
"So who are the three lucky winners?"
"Brad Anderson, Mark Danville and Jude Zadora. They were all identified as being in the store where the gun oil and guns were purchased, along with the bullets." Lindsay said, pointing out their mug shots.
"Me, Kendall and Adam matched the gun oil to the brand they sell at the store, along with the bullets, which are engraved with their logo, and when we find the guns we can match them too. I love specialty stores, they always mark their goods." Abby sighed, and Stella nodded absently.
She was staring at the three men who killed Mac. One had put the bullets in him, one had driven the vehicle and the other, well, they didn't know where the other man fit in, but he was there for a reason.
Sheldon cleared his throat, and when Stella jerked herself out of her stare, he said, "We know one man is the driver, and according to our witness, it was Jude Zadora. Either Brad or Mark was the shooter, but what was the other one doing?"
Don said thoughtfully, "Maybe he was the brains of the operation; planned everything out."
"He didn't need to be there; his plan was being carried out and that's all that matters." Danny added, and everyone nodded.
"And according to their rap sheets, Mark was the one with the smart crimes, like electronic identity stealing and other crimes that would require either a good plan or a smart brain." Adam piped up, and Stella walked over to the board, uncapping the dry erase marker.
She wrote 'shooter' under Brad's name, 'driver' under Jude's name and 'planner' under Mark's name. "Mark's smart, technically we can only charge him with intent to murder, if we can charge him at all. We have no proof that he planned any of this whatsoever." Stella said with a scowl, and Abby said quickly,
"Get me his computer and I'll get you that proof."
"Gladly." Lindsay replied, grabbing her phone to get a warrant to search the suspect's apartments, cars, anything, and take anything that pertained to the case, like computers or any other evidence.
It took the rest of the day, but the warrant came through and it was near sunset when Don and Danny went to serve the warrant to the apartment listed on Mark's parole release, Stella, Lindsay, Gibbs and Tony went to serve the warrant on Jude and Brad's shared apartment.
"For being professional assassins, they sure didn't care much for cleanliness." Lindsay commented as she and Stella went through the two bedrooms.
"They didn't plan on the NYPD coming through here, Linds," Stella said with a tired smile, and Lindsay looked over at her in concern.
"After we collect all the evidence, you need to go home, Stel," Lindsay said gently, and Stella went to shake her head, but then realized that Lindsay was right. "Mac would want you to sleep." She added hesitantly, and Stella rubbed her eyes.
"Yeah, you're right, Lindsay. As long as everyone else goes home, then I'll go without a fight."
"Deal." Lindsay said with a smile, and went back to processing. When they finished collecting their computers and any other thing that seemed pertinent to the investigation, the pair started carrying boxes out. Stella saw two men walking down the hallway, and when they saw her walking out of their apartment, they froze, turned tail and booked down the hallway.
Stella dropped the box and barely heard the crash as she chased after them, her gun appearing in her hand as she yelled, "Suspects fleeing down the right stairwell!" Stella followed them down onto the almost deserted street and kept following them, her eyes narrowing in triumph when they turned into an alley that she knew was a dead end.
She caught up to them, and when they hit the brick wall, both whipped around and Stella raised her gun, barking out, "NYPD, put your hands up!" When neither cooperated, Stella added between gritted teeth, "Please give me a reason to shoot both of you. Please, please, please give me a reason."
"You're our target's lover, right?" Jude sneered, and Brad snorted when Stella's muscles stiffened.
"Carrying his kid, too. Ah, that's gotta suck. Too bad the kid's gonna grow up a bastard, no father, probably a bad mother too, look at her," Brad spat, and Stella's hands started shaking.
"Be careful, Brad, she might shoot us," Jude mocked, and both of them roared with laughter.
Two shots rang out from the alley, and Lindsay froze for a split second before running into the alley, Tony and Gibbs on her heels.
I don't know if you can count that as a cliff-hanger, but I tried! And I know, my updating is seriously bad, but I'm working on it, I promise! Thanks so much for reading, and let me know what you think so far! Chapter 11 coming soon, as soon as I can get it written! Adios for now!