Chapter Ten: Minus one
She was the first one he called. He knew she was the only one who could be knowing more of this. After 5 minutes of waiting, 5 minutes of banging on the motel door and trying his cell a hundred times, he had enough. He asked the key to the motel manager and noticed he gave it way too quickly, he didn't even had to show his badge. But the moment he entered the motel room and only saw the toothbrush and the bottle of water, he knew something was off. He pressed speed dial number 3 and waiting impatiently. She picked up after the first ring.
"Sam! Where are you guys?" The mentioned noticed she sounded stressed and nervous.
"Well, I'mat Callen's motel, but he is nowhere to be found." It became deadly silent at the other end of the line.
"I'm getting the feeling you know more of this, Kensi." Still silence.
"You need to tell me. I don't know what you guys have been up to, but Callen is not in his room nor picking up his phone, Kensi. That means GameOver.Tell me what you know." After another long pause of nothingness on the other end, Sam was about the hang up until he heard her.
"Stay there. I'll be there in ten."
Sam awkwardly stood still in the middle of the empty motel room of his best friend with a growing uneasy feeling. Whydidn'tKensijusttellhim?Whathavethey'vebeendiscussingbehindhisback?WhathadhappenedtoG?
She arrived exactly ten minutes later. Sam saw she was visibly upset and omit the reprimand he had made up in his head while waiting. She stood next to Sam and her eyes frantically looked around the room. Bed unmade, toothbrush untouched by the looks of it. Some clothes were dropped on the only chair in the room. The clothes he had been wearing yesterday. His telephone on top of the pile, a light flickering as a reminder of missed calls.
"Oh God.." Sam gently touched her shoulders to let her face him.
"Tell me what happened, Kensi. Tell me." Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw the touched but determined eyes of her colleague. She bowed her head.
"It's my fault." The scene in the OPS room with Callen popped up in Sam's head. It'smyfault, he had said.
"Tell me everything you know." Kensi sighed heavily, trying to get rid of the emotions and to think clearly. Before Sam had called, she had been at the office for an hour already, waiting for anyone to arrive. She wasn't allowed in the OPS room since Hetty had forbidden her the moment she had seen her sitting at her desk. And so she had waited impatiently but got nervous when no one had shown up at the usual time. Just when she was about the call Sam, he had called her.
She sighed another time before she began.
"Callen never wanted me to come to that crime scene. He never even wanted me involved in this case. But I forced him in ways I'm not proud of.." She left a pause, most afraid to admit this part of the story to Sam. But his eyes kept insisting, and so she told him.
"I told him he put our lives at stake with his reckless actions. That he starts infiltrating militia groups and just expects us to save him when he's in danger. Of course I didn't mean it, but I just wanted in so badly." She bowed her head again. "I knew he'd feel guilty and let me in on the case."
Deep inside Sam, a razing fury was building up. How could she have betrayed him like that? But he stayed as calm as possible. He momentarily closed his eyes to return to his calm self before talking to Kensi again.
"Continue." Kensi felt a lump down her throat she couldn't get rid of.
"When we were at the crime scene, Callen was calling with the coroner when I found a post-it with an address on it. I bagged it but didn't mention it to Callen until the moment Hetty threw me off the case. He took the paper from me, but I insisted to not put it together with the rest of the evidence yet. I wanted to check out the address on my own. I had a huge feeling I'd find the cause of my father's death at that address. I just knew it." Although Sam could've guessed the rest of the story knowing the full selflessness of his best friend and partner, he didn't speak but let the woman in front of him finish the story.
"He wouldn't let me. He didn't want me to destroy my career and my life. He was too afraid something would happen to me. And so he told me he'd go. He never told me when or how. Just that he would go. I'm so sorry Sam."
She couldn't fight her tears anymore. Sam pulled her closer towards him and held her for a minute. It was also the time he needed to change the anger and despair inside him into determination to find his partner. If it was the last thing he'd do. He looked at Kensi one more time.
"You remembered it?" She only nodded.
"Let's go."
They smelled the burned wood and grass before they saw it. Instinctively, Sam hit the accelerator when his nostrils alerted him of the recent fire that apparently had been raging in this street. The abandoned street with the dreary empty houses gave both Sam and Kensi the creeps. Kensi looked at the house numbers and calculated the amount of houses they had to pass by before they made it to that faithful number on the post-it.
10..9..8..The car was deadly silent while the Challenger raced past the numbers.
7..6..5..Panic arose when the remains of the house came into view.
4..3..2..Kensi's heart skipped a beat with she saw police cars parked beside it and CSI preparing to enter the house. Sam abruptly hit the brakes which made Kensi pushed forward. His hands were tightly holding the steering wheel as if it was about to fall off. He breathed heavily when he saw the sight before him. Only the basis construction of the house was still holding up, while even the garden was completely vanished by the fire. CSI's entered the house, police men were leaning against their cars, apparently bored by their job to monitor the situation and the people.
Sam turned to face the woman beside him, trying to hide his fear for the life of his partner.
"Are you sure..?" Kensi felt her voice getting caught in her throat. She couldn't look at him.
She only nodded once. After that, everything happened in a rapid. She saw Sam jumping out of the car and hurrying himself towards the police men. When Kensi also exited the car, she saw him showing them his badge. She slowly walked towards them, still complete in trance because of the sight in front of her. Her heart rate had became tachycardic and she felt a drop of sweat making its way down from her temple. From the corner of her eyes, Sam was heavily discussing with the police and some CSI who had become interested when he heard about a possible victim of the fire.
Although she didn't notice it, Kensi had walked closer to the house when she was suddenly stopped by a cop.
"Hey lady, you're not allowed here. Please step away from the scene." She was pulled out of her current state of mind and stared straight into the green eyes of a young cop. It took her a minute to collect her thoughts when she finally showed her badge. He looked at it in shock.
"Oh. Excuse me. But I have orders not to let anyone in. Please talk to my supervisor." He pointed towards the guy Sam was talking to. Kensi wasn't about to give up.
"I have to. There's possible a colleague inside. He could've been there when.." Her voice faltered when she thought about the possibility of Callen in that house at the moment the fire started. The young cop stayed determined.
"I'm sorry. Please talk to my supervisor." She then felt the hand of Sam touching her. She turned to look at his tired face.
"They won't let us in. We have to wait till they find something." Kensi couldn't utter a word. Sam sighed.
"The only good news is that they haven't found anything yet. Or anyone.." Without saying another word, they both looked at the remains of the house. More CSI's entered and exited to house, taking photos and collecting every piece of burned something they found. For a while, they just stood there, watching the rush of people and cars.
"Oh Sam.." Just when the male NCIS agent was about to comfort his colleague, he saw a CSI taking pictures of an object before bagging it. Sam's eyes grew wide. It lay hidden underneath a piece of what looked like cardboard, that way partly saved from the surrounding flames. The CSI slowly lifted it up to put it in a plastic evidence bag. It was black and had a shape Sam would recognize from a thousand feet away. His eyes were trained to notice these objects. When the crime scene investigator walked passed by them, also Kensi had becomes aware of the object. Sam stepped forward, asking the guy to let him show him the evidence. He watched it up close and was struck by horror. When his eyes found Kensi's, he noticed she had the exact same expression on her face.
He was holding a black .45 gun.
A cop gun.
Callen's gun.