Gibbs watched Deputy Chief Jordan as Devin revealed who she was. His reactions didn't fit. Fear and doubt clouded the Chief's face, and that told him he was afraid of Devin, and what Devin might bring to the table. What were they hiding? The two were silent for a long moment as they studied each other, Gibbs waiting for Jordan to react. The man pushed from the table and stood abruptly.
"This is absurd," he shouted before glancing at Watson. He then fixed his glare on Gibbs before continuing. "What kind of stunt is this? I've fulfilled my obligation to your Director Vance, Special Agent Gibbs. I promised him I'd listen to you and then decide how much cooperation you'd receive from the LAPD. And I'm utterly repulsed that you would come in here and try to force yourself into a cold case by bringing outlandish claims."
"Who's being outlandish?" Devin asked in a calm and quiet voice. Gibbs let his eyes drift to her, the tone worrying him about her state of mind. He watched her eyes become hard and sharp, predatory in nature. Jordan's head snapped to Devin so quickly, Gibbs thought the man might develop whiplash. His eyes breathed fire, and his face was drawn tight, his skin flushing a brilliant red.
"I'm appalled that you would come here and claim to know what happened to Duncan Riley after all these years," Jordan gnashed out through clenched teeth. Gibbs tilted his head to the side, waiting for the next bout in the match. He knew he would have to stop this soon, but he was very intrigued by Jordan's reactions to Devin.
"Claiming? You think that I'm not who I say I am? Look at me, Jordan, look closely," Devin said in that same eerily calm voice, her eyes had been on the table when she spoke, but as she finished her eyes came up to met his. Gibbs felt his stomach catch as he watched the exchange.
"I never said you weren't who you said you were," Jordan replied tersely. His eyes roamed over Devin quickly, and he swallowed hard. Gibbs watched the other man become nervous. Jordan looked like he was a cornered animal looking for the fastest escape route. Something had him spooked…but what was it?
"Then you're calling me a liar. You're saying I don't remember what I say I do and that I'm making it up…for what…attention?" Devin continued again in that same tone that was sending chills down Gibbs spine. He saw Eddie reach over and put a hand on Devin's shoulder, and the look on the younger man's face told Gibbs he was worried too.
"Devin," Eddie's voice was soft and quiet. Gibbs looked at Watson and the man was ghostly white. He was truly perplexed on Jordan's reaction and had no idea how to react. Gibbs sucked in a deep breath as quietly as he could and stood to match Jordan's height.
"Are you saying NCIS will no longer have the cooperation of the LAPD in this investigation?" Gibbs asked smoothly, his voice low.
"As far as I'm concerned there is no investigation. The FBI took this case years ago, after their agent helping to investigate disappeared. Talk to the FBI," Jordan rumbled, his voice laced with caution and fear. Gibbs' head shifted slightly his eyes locking onto Jordan's. The man was starting to sweat.
"I think I'll stick with the LAPD. Captain Watson has agreed to help us obtain what we need, which we have here. We'll let you know what we find out. And I do plan on contacting the FBI, don't worry about that," Gibbs replied before sinking back into the chair. His steady gaze made Jordan swallow again. He raised his hands in defeat, his face going an even deeper shade of red.
"There's nothing to find, Special Agent Gibbs! Good luck," he ground out before spinning and leaving the room abruptly. All eyes followed him out of the room, before slowly coming back to the center of the table. Watson stood at the head of the table, his eyes downcast pondering what had just happened. He finally brought his attention up.
"I'm sorry," he said softly shaking his head. "I have no idea what that was about."
"He's hiding something, that's what that was about," Devin spat out angrily. "He's covering up something."
"Easy, Devin, we don't know that," Gibbs replied. She shot him a nasty look but he took it in stride. Stress was getting to all of them, but her most of all. He looked up at Watson again. "Thank you for all your help so far, but I understand if…"
"No. I'm in. I told you I'd help, so I'm going to help. His reaction makes me wonder, think about what was going on back then. Things were like that a lot right after, lots of harsh conversations, lots of ruffled feathers."
Everyone looked up as Rayford walked in with a worried look on his face. He closed the door behind him and looked at everyone in the room briefly before taking the seat Jordan had been in. He licked his lips and tossed a folder down on the table.
"That was tense," he said lowly. Gibbs couldn't hide the smile that crossed his lips, understatement of the year he thought.
"You get some names for us?" Gibbs asked nodding towards the folder in front of the LAPD detective. Rayford bobbed his own head before he opened it up and pulled out a sheet.
"Yeah, got some names and numbers for some of the guys. Six are dead, four are still active, two are in nursing homes, two are retired in the area, one retired to Arizona, and the other retired to Oregon," Rayford replied.
"Where do we want to start?" Eddie asked. Gibbs thought the still active men would be easiest to contact.
"The four active men. Where are they stationed?" Gibbs asked quickly. Rayford spun the sheet around so he could read it as he listed the men.
"Jorge Tomayo is still working Wilshire Homicide; Eugene Griggs is working RHD as is Brian Wexler. And Daryl Corbin is working Hollenbeck Homicide," Rayford answered.
"Get on contacting them; let's get them here to talk to them. Maybe they can shed some more light on this case," Kate said quietly. Gibbs nodded.
"Give me their names, Rafe, I'll have their captains send them over," Roland replied tiredly reaching for a pen and paper. Rayford repeated the four active names and then Roland left the room with it.
"What about those that are retired? Can we talk to them too?" Devin asked. Gibbs noticed the ice had left her voice; her eyes were calm, not hard and sharp anymore. He let out a sigh of relief.
"Two are local, two left the area. We can contact them and ask, but it's up to them if they want to be involved or not," Rayford countered with a roll of his shoulders.
"You have contact numbers for them?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, I got numbers and addresses for both. Dawn Hardin lives in Van Nuys, and Pedro Rodriguez stayed in Rampart," Rayford replied.
"Devin can take Rodriguez, Kate you take Hardin. See if they'll talk to us," Gibbs replied rubbing his neck. "Who else is local?"
"Conner Baker and Jesus Gonzales are both listed as residents at nursing homes. Baker is in Wilshire, a nice assisted living place, and Gonzales is in Culver City," Rayford added. "We also have Andrew Wolinkowski in Eugene, Oregon, as well as Benjamin Oliver living in Flagstaff, Arizona."
"Ok, let's concentrate on those that are local. We can deal with the two that are out of state after. We need to get an idea of the state of mind from back then. Jordan is scared of Devin, scared of what she might remember," Gibbs continued tiredly. He was starting to feel the fatigue of the last couple days.
Captain Watson came back in the room at that moment and everyone looked up. His face showed signs that he had lost some of the tension and stress brought on by the meeting with Jordan. He shut the door behind him, closing off the curious onlookers from the bullpen, before taking his seat once again.
"I've got Wexler and Corbin heading in right now, Griggs is off duty but his captain was going to contact him to come in as soon as possible, and Tomayo is at a scene. His captain said he'd send him over as soon as he could," Roland stated.
"Good, that gives us somewhere to start. Devin and Kate get on the two retired detectives that live locally, Eddie, you take the one that lives in Oregon," Gibbs ordered as he felt his cell phone buzz on his belt. His hand absently gripped the offending object and pulled it up so he could see the caller ID. His frown caught Kate's attention.
"What is it?" She asked hesitantly. He glanced at her briefly.
"Tony. I was supposed to check in with him about the case," he said before snapping the phone open and placing it to his ear. "Yeah Gibbs."
"Hey, Boss, I just thought I'd check in with you since you know, you didn't call us about the case or anything," DiNozzo rambled on. Gibbs sighed and motioned for everyone to get started. Kate sat for a moment next to him.
"Yeah, got kind of busy, DiNozzo, I thought you could handle a case on your own," Gibbs replied.
"Right, Boss. And we can, I mean we did. Seems the dead Marine got himself tangled in a drug operation and…" Tony was explaining. Gibbs cut him off, eager to get back to the investigation in front of him.
"Tell the director. I'll catch up later," he growled out.
"Uh, what's going on, Boss?"
"I'm busy right now, DiNozzo," Gibbs said with a tired sigh.
"It's just that you left on a family emergency, then Kate left on a vacation, and neither one called me like you were supposed to and…"
"Goodbye, DiNozzo," Gibbs said as he snapped the phone shut. Kate looked at him, her hand coming down on his forearm gently. He looked at her.
"Maybe you should have told him," Kate said softly. Gibbs cocked his head to the side and shook his head.
"He doesn't need to be part of this."
"He could help," Kate shrugged then got up to find a desk she could work at. Gibbs rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. He glanced at his watch and grunted, not realizing how late it was getting.
He stood and walked to the doorway, looking out over the bullpen. There were LAPD detectives milling about, but most of them had disappeared over the last couple of hours. He didn't know if there had been a shift change, or if they had been sent into the city to fight crime, but he noticed the number had dwindled. Kate was sitting at an empty desk with the phone to her ear, apparently on hold with someone. Devin was sitting at Rayford's desk talking to the young detective. Eddie was standing at another empty desk, talking to someone on the phone, and Captain Watson sat in his office with the door open, simply staring at his computer screen.
Gibbs walked to the office, knocking lightly on the open door. Watson looked up and motioned for Gibbs to enter. He dropped himself into one of the two chairs in front of Watson's desk and waited a beat. He was anxious for the other detectives to arrive, but he kept himself calm on the outside.
"What's your thoughts on this?" Gibbs asked the other man. He watched his face closely. Watson's eyes dropped to his desk, his fingers drumming idly as he thought.
"Something went down. I think I knew there was something going on back then, but you know you turn a blind eye when you're scared. We were threatened. My job was who I was. Homicide was where I wanted to be, and I finally got a spot at the table. I hated the reason I got it, I mean I knew Duncan Riley personally and it hit all of us very hard when we heard, but I got my spot at the table.
"I'd been working B and E in Hollywood before I got jumped to Homicide. Big jump, you know, more high profile, the real detective stuff. When we started to investigate, all in, nothing held back, things started happening. Suspicious things. The FBI came in and started helping, even before Agent Jefferson disappeared. The Captain was always getting calls from higher ups, conferences, stuff.
"Three guys from the unit, Steve Bailey, Walter Crum, and Andre Johnson, all got bumped after the FBI guy went missing. I remember they were talking about a cover up, talking about how the FBI was involved, and that LAPD was rolling over on Riley because of it. Bailey ended up in Harbor Division, Crum in Mission, and Johnson in Devonshire."
"What happened to them after the transfer?" Gibbs asked. He suddenly wanted to talk to those three men. They might know more about what was going on back then inside the department.
"You know I've been thinking about that," Watson said with a nod. "They would have known more about what was going on. They were more involved in it than I was."
"Look into where they ended up. You think they are still active on the force?"
"I don't know. Johnson was older, already had twenty years in then. Most guys call it quits at thirty if they last that long, full benefits, no sense to keep pounding it out. Crum was a young guy though, he might still be hanging around, if he survived freeway therapy that is."
"What's freeway therapy?"
"They make you drive over an hour each way to work and back. A lot of guys quit because of the traffic they got to battle to get to work," Watson replied with a heavy sigh. "Worth a try. I'll look them up and see if they're still around."
Gibbs nodded. He didn't have anything else to say so they sat for a moment in silence. Watson suddenly picked his head up and looked around Gibbs, so Gibbs turned in the chair and looked out the door. A man with silver hair, average build and height, and dark brown eyes had stopped into the bullpen. His eyes were scanning slowly, as he moved cautiously towards the captain's office.
"I think that's Wexler from RHD," Watson said as he stood.