I met back with Gibbs and his team at a remote hotel in Les Cayes, my travel expenses and all comfort taken care of by the Haitian government on the way there. Apparently, the higher-ups and the National Police (not involved with the Black Crusade, as far as I could tell) seemed a little sorry about what happened and offered me a ride back south, in exchange for information from NCIS and the full report of the Black Crusade when the case closed.
That is, if it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. I didn't have the authority to tell them either way, so had them contact Director Shepard before I left from the hospital. I guess she made a deal because I was soon on my way down to Gibbs not even a day after I contacted Jay.
"And I thought that we were cooperating with the Haitian government about the Black Crusade anyway," I mumbled as I headed into a conference room at the hotel that Gibbs was renting out for the day, another thunderstorm playing out behind me as I shook out the water from my red hair, drenching me from the rain I ran through.
"Uhh, we are," Tony suddenly replied at the door, his eyes scanning me from head to toe. His arms were even crossed as he leaned against the frame. "They just want to keep track of what's going on, Lyd-ee."
I wanted to slap Tony, but ignored the urge to. I was tired enough as it was and, with past events behind me (all of them seeming to want my attention all at once), I was in no mood to deal with sarcasm and stupidity. I wanted to fall apart as it was and I didn't need Tony (or anyone else on the team) there to see it most certainly. I had to keep it all together.
"Well, geez, Tone-ee, we haven't gotten much cooperation so far," I pointed out as I stood in front of him, my own arms crossed as water dripped from my hair to his shoes. "I mean, look at what Assistant Director General Roy did to me. He's involved with the Black Crusade to begin with, but was sent out to 'help' us. So, the question begs to be answered as to who is also really involved with the Black Crusade and who might take us seriously. Roy mentioned that there were many, but I think there are fewer than he says there are."
"Ya think?" Gibbs came out of the conference room, coming in-between me and Tony, but looking at me severely, as if I had done something wrong in getting kidnapped and then coming back to him wet.
I looked straight back at him. "What? I already slapped the back of my head for you. Need me to do it again?"
"Boss, I would happily do the honors for you," Tony offered, eying me with childlike glee, like I was his personal prey, being the new probie and all. "Lydia here has been into so much trouble with the law lately and I'd thought that –"
Gibbs interrupted Tony by slapping him in the back of the head instead.
"Right, Boss," Tony continued, as if rambling, rubbing his head. "I won't do that again."
Gibbs then suddenly turned on his heel, heading back into the conference room. "What do we have?" he then yelled at everyone, present and those ahead on-screen ahead of me and Tony.
Tony and I then exchanged quick looks with each other and chased after Gibbs, closing the door securely behind us as we seated our asses at the same table, next to McGee and Ziva. To mine and Tony's left, Ziva was inanely sharpening a knife before hiding it again, paying more attention to the paperwork in front of her (not to mention, an irritated Gibbs). To my right, McGee was clicking away on buttons that connected to the video conference, showing evidence on one screen as Abby and Ducky watched from their respective ones at the left.
"Well, all scenes of the crime revealed nothing more," Abby started. "The footprints matched a boot found in any old store in DC. The bare feet and most of the fingerprints at both sites were definitely Felix Henderson's, but since he was supposedly at two of the crime scenes already, then it could make him a bigger suspect than ever before. However, we found a single fingerprint on Major Flanders' body…well, Ducky noticed it, and we steamed it off the skin, which was pretty tough, and are running it now. I don't see any other evidence linking Felix Henderson to the crime though. I have to say though, Gibbs, that other DNA found at the scenes matched one from the Pentagon files, but not completely. There's a familial link to Henry Austin, most likely his son, who's semen was washed into mouths."
"Ducky?!" Gibbs barked once more, unsatisfied with what we had as evidence still.
"I reexamined half of the bodies and am working on the rest, as was requested, and found nothing more than what I explained," Ducky explained from his screen. "However, I did check Colonel Henderson's stomach contents and found something of interest. I am sending it to Abby's lab, pending that Mr. Palmer gets back here in time from his lunch date with that new cheerleader and keeps with the chain of command and protocol. Of course, I will keep checking the other bodies."
"What was it?" Tony asked with curiosity as Ducky disappeared from his screen for a moment and came back up, holding a container with something shiny in it.
"It's a ring, my dear fellow," Ducky replied, taking it out with gloved hands and holding it out so that we could all see it. "It's pure Hawaiian silver, as far as I can tell. However, on the top, there is a sort of symbol, painted in black, it seems. It appears to be some sort of figure, but I am sure that Abby will figure it out once it's given to her."
I was so busy watching the evidence screen that McGee had put up that the sight of the ring, when I took a quick glance, started to make me sick. It was the same feeling I got when I recalled a horrible memory from long ago, of personal assault, something that Keith kept mentioning was Dad's fault. It was like I was free falling, my stomach becoming a deep pit as it dropped from one end to another. My forehead started to sweat, the blurry past bringing back the person in black, perhaps someone not much older than I, sexually abusing me, the lonely child who only wanted her mother and knew she was not there.
I know that ring! I know it!
Ziva noticed my discomfort quickly. "Are you all right, Lydia?" she asked me sincerely.
I gulped audibly, pushing back every foul memory I ever knew about, my body language just screaming anything but being all right. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just think I know where that came from, but not exactly where."
"Was it Colonel Henderson's?" McGee asked.
"No. And if it was, why would he have that ring in his own stomach?" I scratched my head in confusion. "Wouldn't he be trying to tell us something?"
"No, wait," Gibbs then said, calmer as he turned to us, but still demanding nonetheless. "Does anyone remember what anybody from the Black Crusade wore to identify themselves? The Pentagon reports said something about personal jewelry."
As Tony stuttered something incomprehensible and McGee went through his own notes to find something not there, Ziva found her voice. "It was a silver ring with some black thing on the top of it maybe –"
"A hand!" I yelled out, interrupting Ziva as a clearer picture of the ring came to my mind from memories alone. "It was a black hand."
Gibbs then turned directly to me, his blue eyes seeing the fatigue, frustration and fear in my own body, something that I didn't completely hide from everyone fast enough. He scrutinized this new me, this person that usually stored any and all trauma away, and showed me nothing more than concern in his eyes, seeing perhaps for the first time that I was truly in mental pain, anguish that I could not define. He was also probably thinking of why Director Shepard chose me, little old me with problems, as a new agent and wondering when and how he could get rid of me.
After all, I did hear about how much Gibbs hates tagalongs and interns…
Ducky took another look at the ring. "It does certainly appear to be a hand, my dear Lydia. Of course, Abby will let us know if you're right or not. You must certainly be so sure."
"Too sure," Gibbs added suspiciously as he turned away from me.
Tony turned to me, becoming just as distrustful as Gibbs was a moment before. "You know, you do know a lot more about this case than we do."
"Me? You've got to be kidding me." I did not need to feign innocence that time. "What makes you think that I'm some murderess of Marines?"
"You seemed so, I don't know, helpful in this investigation," Tony replied hotly. "You seem to be at the right place at the right time –"
"DiNozzo! Off her case…now!" Gibbs bellowed, his back to us.
"You know, Tony has a tip," Ziva said to me.
"Point, Ziva, that's point," McGee corrected.
"Regardless! Lydia, you do have been in a lot of trouble as if late and –"
"Ziva!" Gibbs turned back to us, about to reprimand his team about accusing me of something I did not obviously do when something from Abby's screen dinged.
"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! I got something!" Abby sounded excited as she too disappeared for a moment and then reappeared. "It's the fingerprint match from the body! And the system says that it's from –"
Suddenly, just as lightning struck outside, the power went out. We lost Ducky, Abby and the evidence screen all at once.
"McGee, get that…that thing…back up there!" Gibbs yelled again, annoyed that something as trivial as Mother Nature could disturb his plans.
McGee kept typing, but could not retrieve any of the video conferences we had or the evidence screen we had. "No go, Boss. The power's out for good."
Gibbs cursed under his breath, tensing up as another roll of thunder was heard. Another lightning storm soon followed it, as if it could not keep up with the speed of sound fast enough.
"When can we get that back on?" Ziva asked McGee, probably the same question that Gibbs was thinking, although with more frustration for sure.
McGee gave up on the quest to appease Gibbs, pushing his keyboard away quickly. "Well, we have to at least wait until the power's back on. Then, of course, I have to reset the system and reconnect it and perhaps get Abby and Ducky back. Then, depending on everything else, we might or might not get Abby and Ducky's screens to stay completely. We're international now remember and signals might get crossed."
Tony and I groaned simultaneously, both of us knowing what it meant, especially to Gibbs (not to mention, the lack of explanation was McGee was a little disturbing). Without results, there was a risk of rage. With results, we might have a chance.
Probably.
Gibbs only waved us away to go our own ways, finally aware that we all could do nothing more than sit and wait out the storm. He then leaned up against a random table, deep in thought as McGee, Tony, Ziva and I crept outside the secured door, tiptoeing into the lobby, far away from Gibbs and his thoughts. The lights from there flickered on and off, as if someone had put a generator in place and it was just kicking in.
"What do we do in the meantime?" Ziva took out her knife once more, eying it carefully as her dark orbs also penetrated the clerk behind the desk, eavesdropping on us until he saw the knife.
"I don't know," McGee replied, obvious miserable as the clerk behind us said something about the generator helping the elevator function. "We don't have a lot of leads. We have patches of everything and suspects that disappear. And anything we have is leading us into circles."
"Like what?" I then required, curious. Most things had been left out, just because I wasn't quite part of the "inner circle" yet, but for me to be in the case was enough to merit some information, in my opinion.
"Like that ring," Tony added in, ignoring my query. "That bothers me."
"And those agents, dead and/or stuck at the headquarters…" McGee trailed his sentence, lost in thought as much as Gibbs was earlier.
"Do we have a plan?" Ziva put away her knife, sure that the clerk was finally away from us.
"Gibbs will tell us soon enough," Tony promised solemnly, like he was a Boy Scout. "I'm sure of it. He'll go ahead when SecNav gives him something."
"And he'll be sure to growl about it," Ziva blurted out, for once correct in her American slang.
McGee and Tony did a double take, glaring at Ziva. I myself had to shake my head in sheer amazement. Throughout the course of my stay with the team, Ziva's been the worst to adjust to something new, especially to the English language, which must not be her first. To hear her actually use a word correctly was simply astonishing.
Seeing our expressions made Ziva more mistrustful of us though. "What? What's wrong? Was it something I said?"
"Nothing," McGee said quickly.
"Nothing," I repeated immediately afterward.
"Nothing, unless you want the truth." Tony looked pretty collective for someone caught at being surprised. "In the meantime though, we should rest, before Gibbs decides to make us run without coffee and sleep for more than a day again. There's a lot of work to do."
All of us agreed, starting for the elevator to go to our rooms, since we were informed that it would work. However, just before we heard the ding that would allow us to enter the silver doors, we all heard a familiar voice behind us.
"DiNozzo! Get over here!"
"Oops," Tony only muttered, knowing that only Gibbs would call him over at a time like this. "I guess I don't get sleep tonight. See you all later."
"Better you than us," McGee only answered as he, Ziva and I jumped into the elevator just as the doors opened and shut quickly behind us.