Chapter 29
Gibbs hung up his phone and tucked it in his pocket. "McGee, Ziva, get the evidence to Abby and make our friend comfortable." He glanced over at the subdued man sitting out of the way and under guard by Ziva. "Call me if there are any problems."
"Where are you going, Boss?" McGee asked. When Gibbs raised his eyebrows, McGee suddenly looked like he wished he could disappear.
"Ducky!" Gibbs called as the medical examiner climbed into his truck. "Got room for me?"
Ducky gave him an odd look, but he nodded, so Gibbs jumped in after him. Palmer was driving, Gibbs was glad to see. Ducky drove like . . . he drove slowly.
"What is up, Jethro?" Ducky asked, his natural formality making a hash of the idiom.
"DiNozzo's gone out in the field," Gibbs said sardonically.
"Oh dear," Ducky said, and Palmer's eyes widened. His speed increased slightly, for which Gibbs was grateful, even though he suspected it was just Palmer's subconscious desire to get an angry Gibbs out of the truck.
His phone rang again, and he pulled it out. Jenny. He grimaced, then opened it. "Gibbs."
"Where's Agent DiNozzo?"
"Did you try calling him?" he asked.
"I did. He didn't answer."
"When did you call, Jen?"
"Just a moment ago."
"He was on the phone with me," he said. "Rock and a hard place." He could almost see her narrowing eyes. "He's on his way to talk to Midshipman McCormick. There's been a development."
"A development that couldn't wait for his team? Something so urgent that he couldn't wait to be cleared?"
"The shrink downcheck him, Jen?" Gibbs asked.
"Not precisely," she said.
"What does that mean?"
"It means he has reservations given the way that DiNozzo disappeared immediately after the session."
"Holly swept him off to lunch, I told you that."
"Did you send DiNozzo out to talk to McCormick?"
Gibbs sighed internally. It was the question he'd been sidestepping. "No, I didn't, but I'm going out to meet him as soon as I get back in. I'm riding in now with Ducky and Palmer."
"Do you know where he's going?"
"Stirling Falls," Gibbs said.
"You taking your car, or shall I have a sedan waiting for you?"
"A sedan, I think," he said. "Anything else?"
"No, Jethro. Just you see he comes back in one piece."
She hung up, and Gibbs found himself wondering just how DiNozzo had left the office. He didn't have his own car, and he wouldn't have thought that the motor pool would have checked one out to an agent who wasn't cleared for field duty.
"Is there cause for concern, Jethro?" Ducky asked a moment after Gibbs had put his phone away.
"Maybe," Gibbs said, mentally cursing DiNozzo for being too headstrong and full of initiative. Then he leaned his head back against the seat and sighed. "Maybe."
zzz
"What happened?" Gibbs exclaimed.
Tony grimaced. Far from handling the matter before he got there, the local LEOs had let it devolve into a hostage situation. "Apparently, Parker was already inside when the deputy showed up, so he took the store clerk, a couple of customers and Diane hostage."
"How'd he get Diane?"
Tony shook his head. "We're not altogether sure how he got her to come out of the bathroom, but she's been seen. One of the deputies went to high school with her." Gibbs was silent for a long moment. "I'm five minutes away, now, Boss. It would be pointless for me to –"
"You shouldn't even be there, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled, and Tony flushed. "But so long as you are, get in there and get things handled. I'll make it right later."
"Yes, Boss," Tony said.
"And don't get hurt."
There was a click as Gibbs hung up on him, and Tony put his own phone away. Once he'd gotten to the middle of town, he didn't have any trouble finding the spot. Four cruisers stood outside the store, deputies gathered behind them. Tape held bystanders back, though not as far back as Tony would have preferred. Tony pulled up as close as he could to the tape and parked parallel behind a trio of cars that had their noses to the curb. One of the deputies started towards him, clearly planning to chastise his parking decision, but when he pulled out his badge, the man simply held up the tape and led him over to the conference instead. "What's the latest?" he asked.
Deputy Reynolds, according to the name strip on his uniform, gestured towards the glass front of the Quik Shop. "When Deputy Sivell pulled up outside, we think your man Parker was already inside."
"How is Deputy Sivell?" Tony asked.
"He's in critical, but he'll make it," Reynolds said, glancing over at the old fashioned hospital building across the way.
Being injured across the street from a hospital had its perks, Tony thought in mordant amusement. "He made any demands?"
"Actually, yes," Reynolds said, and Tony raised his eyebrows expectantly. "He wants to talk to you."
"NCIS?"
"No, Agent Tony DiNozzo." Reynolds gave him a curious look. "He know you?"
Tony shook his head, a little alarmed. "We've never met. You got a phone number?" At that moment, Tony's phone began to ring. He looked down at the screen. The number on the caller ID was the one Abby had texted him. "Looks like I've got it," he said, and Reynolds guided him over to where their tech team was set up. Tony opened the phone and put it on speaker. "Agent DiNozzo."
"Are you the bastard that made Diane say I did it?" Parker demanded.
"What do you want, Miles?" Tony asked.
"I want you to get all those cops out of here so I can have a pleasant, private conversation with Diane."
"Not going to happen," Tony replied. "You shot a deputy sheriff. People don't take kindly to that."
"I did not kill Colonel McCormick."
Tony bit his lip. Telling Parker just how irrelevant that statement was to the current situation would probably not be particularly productive just now. "Look, Miles, this isn't the way to prove that."
"Then how?"
Tony repressed the thought that immediately came into his mind – coming to our office peacefully and providing a verifiable alibi would have been a good start – and tried to address the situation as it stood. "Well," he said in his most persuasive tone, "you could try letting all those people go, including Diane, and then we can talk about it."
"Why not now?" Parker asked obstinately.
"I can't do that while you still have hostages," Tony said. He grabbed a pen and the back of a sheet of paper and scrawled the words how many? Reynolds shrugged, and Tony pursed his lips. "How many people you got in there with you?" he asked.
"Six," Parker said. "The clerk, some girl who looks about fifteen, a woman with a . . . make that seven. The woman has a baby and a kid. Then there's an old guy and Diane."
Shit. Tony met Reynolds' worried gaze. "You've got to let them go, Parker. No one's going to listen to you if you're holding hostages."
"They have to," Parker growled angrily.
"Okay, strike that. No one's going to believe you're not a killer while you've got hostages."
Parker was silent for a moment. "I'll call you back," he said, then hung up.
Tony looked over at the window and stared. Gibbs was going to be pissed. "Have you guys got SWAT?"
"They're on their way over from the county seat, but it's going to be a while," Reynolds said. Tony nodded. "Who's this Colonel McCormick character?"
Tony grimaced. "The girl, Diane? The one I asked you guys to protect?"
Reynolds winced slightly at the implication, but he nodded. "Right."
"He's her father. He was murdered two years ago."
Reynolds' lips pursed in a whistle as Tony's phone rang. Picking it up, he looked at the screen and let out a deep breath. It was Gibbs. He flipped it open hastily. "Parker's using this number for negotiations, Boss," he said before Gibbs had a chance to say anything.
"You got another number for me, DiNozzo?" Gibbs demanded. Tony reeled off the cell number he'd been using to communicate with Reynolds and hung up his phone.
Reynolds was staring at him. "Did you just hang up on your boss?" he asked.
Tony nodded. He was beginning to feel a bit of the reason why the doctors and Gibbs were insisting he wasn't ready for field work. He was fatigued, and his wrists and shoulders ached. He ignored it because he didn't have time to deal with it right now. This should have been an easy pick up. The local sheriffs scare the bad guy off, Tony swoops in and carries the damsel in distress back to the Navy Yard and no one gets into any more trouble than they can handle. It was rapidly growing more complicated. Reynolds' phone began to ring. He pulled it out and reeled off a string of digits.
"That's Gibbs," Tony said. Reynolds handed him the phone. Tony answered it and said, "DiNozzo."
"Report, DiNozzo," Gibbs snapped.
Tony's phone rang again. "Parker's calling, Boss."
"Then get it, DiNozzo, and put both phones on speaker."
Tony put Reynolds' phone on speaker and set it on the back of the cruiser he was standing next to. Then he opened his own phone and put it on speaker, too. "This is Agent DiNozzo."
They could all hear the baby crying in the background. "I need more time to think," said Parker. "But the brat won't stop howling. He needs a diaper I guess, and the mother doesn't have one, and this place doesn't stock them."
"The easiest solution would be to let them go, Miles," Tony said gently.
"No!" Parker growled. "Nobody goes anywhere till I've had some time to think. Just get a diaper in here somehow."
Tony looked over at Reynolds, who sent someone off to find a diaper. "We're getting you one, just stay calm."
"Call me when you've got it," Parker said, and then he hung up again.
Tony closed his phone and, carefully putting Gibbs back on private again, he put the other phone to his ear. "You hear that, Boss?"
"There's a baby in there?" Gibbs demanded.
"A baby, a kid, their mother, a teenaged girl, an old guy, Diane McCormick and the clerk. I don't have names on anyone yet."
"Just keep him calm, DiNozzo. I'm fifteen minutes out."
Tony nodded, though he knew Gibbs had to have been flooring it all the way to be getting here that fast. "Right, Boss. On it." And Gibbs was gone before he'd finished speaking. Tony closed the phone and handed it back to Reynolds. "We got the diaper?" he asked.
One of the deputies came trotting up with a package of Huggies. "Should we give them the whole pack or just one?" he asked.
"Just one," Tony replied. "We don't want to give him permission to take as long as he wants." He dialed Parker back on speaker.
"Yeah?"
"We've got your diaper."
"Have someone put it on the ground outside, and I'll send someone out to get it."
Tony nodded and, after pulling one of the diapers out of the pack, the deputy gingerly went up towards the door and put it down. A moment later, the door opened, and a tiny girl emerged. She trotted forward, got the diaper, and trotted back inside.
"Alissa Tustin," Reynolds muttered.
"Now, can we –" Tony started to say, but Parker hung up again. Tony grimaced and turned to Reynolds. "Alissa Tustin?"
"She's four," Reynolds said. "That'll mean he's got Shelby and Ricky in there."
"Shelby's the mother?" Tony asked, and Reynolds nodded.
"Shelby Tustin," he said. "Ricky's maybe eight months. Dick Tustin teaches at the high school."
"Can you put names to anyone else?"
"The clerk's Joey Hanson, the old guy, as Parker puts it, is Jake Padgett, and no one recognizes the girl."
Tony sighed and looked around for somewhere to sit down. Unfortunately, unless he climbed into a car, there wasn't anywhere. He noticed the press at the edge of the crime scene tape and grimaced. "We need to move people back a bit further," he said.
"How much further?" Reynolds asked.
Tony judged the area, and the reach of the cameras, and how much he thought he could actually get away with. "Fifteen feet," he said, and Reynolds nodded. He went with his men to move the people and the barricades back, and Tony was glad to see that none of them responded to the questions from the press. His phone rang again and he saw that it was Parker. He pressed the speaker button. "DiNozzo."
"I've got a deal to offer you."
"Yeah?"
"I let the mother and the two kids go and you come in here and talk to me."
Tony thought fast. "How's this?" he countered. "You send out all the hostages, and I'll come in and talk to you."
"I'm not stupid," Parker snapped. "I'll give you the mother and her kids . . . and the girl . . . and you come in."
The closer he could get to Parker, the better, and getting all the minors out of the room had to be a good thing. "Okay," he said, but before he could propose anything else, Parker started speaking again.
"You come over in front of the door," he said. "As soon as I can see you out there, unarmed, I'll send the mom and the baby out. Then, when you come inside, I'll send the little girl out with her cousin."
New information, but useful. It would be better if he could get them all out, but he'd have a better chance of negotiating with the man if he was face to face. Gibbs was going to kill him. "Okay. Give me five minutes and be ready."
He hung up and tucked his phone in his pocket. Reynolds was walking back up as he turned. "Hey, you got any bulletproof vests I could borrow?" he asked.
Reynolds nodded and got him suited up. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm going inside in exchange for getting Shelby, the kids and the girl out. I guess she's some kind of cousin."
"You can't go in there!" Reynolds exclaimed.
"Which do you prefer?" Tony asked. "An infant and a four-year-old in the line of fire, or an adult who knows what he's going into and has experience with this kind of negotiation?"
"You been in a hostage situation?"
Tony's mind flashed first to the railing of the Isabel Damita and then to that tense hour in the morgue of Jeanne's hospital. "More than once," he said. "I'm going in. You just be ready to get them when they come out."
"On it," Reynolds said. Tony could see his misgivings, but he ignored them, along with the twinges his body was giving him. He didn't need to be reminded of just how unfit he was.
Within minutes they were ready and Tony called Parker. "We're ready."
"Come ahead."
Tony walked forward with Reynolds beside him. When he was in plain view of the store – which unfortunately meant plain view of the cameras – he disarmed and handed his weapon to Reynolds, who then backed off. "Okay, Parker, it's your turn," Tony said. Several seconds passed, but then the door opened and Shelby Tustin emerged, looking terribly torn. She had the baby in a carry-sling across her chest, and she held him protectively close as she walked across the open space. Tony crossed the open space, passing them, then opened the door. "Okay, Parker," Tony said into the phone. "Send the other kids out now, and I'll come in."
"You come in first."
"I'll come in the minute they're out the door, but you have to send them out first," Tony said.
The seconds passed like minutes, but then a frightened teenager came out holding the little girl's hand. Tony walked in as soon as they were out of the way, just as he'd promised, and didn't spare a glance behind him to see the sheriff's people scoop them up and carry them away. The door fell shut behind him and he found himself looking into the business end of a very large automatic pistol.
Author's plea: Please remind me why I'm posting my stories! Review! I am a needy soul and must have love. Or at least reaction . . . LOL.
