Never Going Back Again: Chapter Thirty-seven
Kensi was pacing the kitchen, like she'd already had about six espressos on an empty stomach. "I've got it," she announced the instant Callen appeared, still looking sleep-ruffled.
"My condolences. Does Deeks know he's going to have to be tested? I hear they're very discrete."
"Funny man." She htrust a cup of coffee into his hand and took another gulp of her own. "The whole business with Max – setting up that dead sailor, Adam Stoddart, with the coke and the note about Max. that was all so Marty had to go back undercover. It's so damned obvious: it was staring us in the face the whole time. I can't believe we didn't work out who was behind it."
"Okay, I'll bite. Tell me about it." Despite his feigned indifference, Callen was sitting on the edge of his seat with barely restrained impatience. Sam had been missing for days now and they were still no nearer to finding him. And he knew only too well that once the first twenty-four hours had passed, the chances of finding a kidnap victim decreased rapidly. And when there wasn't a single ransom demand, those odds went down even further. Things were looking incredibly bleak. If Kensi had some sort of insight, then as far as Callen was concerned, they should run with it, no matter how off the wall it was. Because anything would be better than sitting doing nothing, and all the time worrying that Sam was already dead and Deeks was off on some sort of suicide mission.
"Nicole," Kensi said triumphantly. "Sweet, innocent, betrayed Nicole. Yeah right. She's like a barracuda in human form. Worse than that…"
"She wants your man." It all made perfect sense, Callen thought: Nicole, not so much the poor, wronged woman, but the woman who would sleep with her husband's best friend, who would then put out a contract on said husband and think she could take up where she'd left off with a man she'd last seen over two years ago. He'd seen the tapes when she and Deeks met in the boat house, he had seen with his own eyes the way the woman had looked at Deeks: and Callen knew obsession when he saw it. Dangerous obsession. "Could be. You might just be onto something there, Kensi." He threw back the rest of the coffee, even though he could already feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. "Come on then – what are we waiting for?" Grabbing the car keys off the hall table, they raced out to the car, Callen running across the gravel in utter imperviousness to the fact that he hadn't bothered to pick up his shoes and was bare-foot, because the pain didn't even register.
"What's your best time to the Mission? Because I bet I can beat it by five." Callen felt lighter in spirit than he had in days. Maybe they were about to break this whole case open at last? God knows, it was time they got a break.
"You're on." Kensi fastened her seatbelt and smiled for the first time in over 24 hours. She didn't care how bumpy this ride might be, as long as it brought Marty back home to her.
"Interesting. Very interesting indeed." Hetty pursed her lips as she considered their theory.
"It all fits – you have to see that, Hetty." Kensi would have got down on her knees and begged, if that would have made a difference. And judging from the look on his face, Callen would be right there on the floor beside her, grovelling good style. They all had too much at stake here not to take up the smallest lead and run with it.
"Of course I do." Suddenly, Hetty's face lost the strained look it had worn ever since arriving back in LA. "And I got some very interesting information this morning, regarding our late unlamented sailor, PFC Adam Stoddart. Do you know that he and Nicole Martindale grew up in the same neighbourhood? And that after her husband walked out, she rekindled their friendship? I believe things got quite passionate, for a while. Until Max reappeared. I think PFC Stoddart rather resented our Mr Gentry."
Callen mulled this over, mentally putting all the pieces together and hoping to God that he had them in the right order. "It all suited EJ perfectly: she continues on her mission to get rid of the other Operation Frankenstein agents, and at the same manages to start taking out our team in LA, by setting up Nicole to take Sam and leaving that note about Max, knowing that Deeks would go back undercover."
Hetty nodded gravely. "Indeed. That's my exact summation of the situation, Mr Callen. I can only resume that her almost unprecedented levels of access allowed Ms Barrett to learn that Mr Deeks and Max Gentry are one and the same person."
"I knew I should have hit that bitch harder," Kensi said. "Promise me one thing, Callen – when she comes back over here, make sure I get at least one good swing at her."
"Only if you let me have the second one." Normally Callen felt uncomfortable about hitting a woman, but in EJ Barrett's case, he was willing to make an exception.
"Oh good." Hetty clapped her hands together with glee. "That leaves Nicole Martindale all to me. How lovely." She hadn't looked forward to anything quite as much since the day she met her old friend Nelson Mandela when he was finally released from his long years of captivity.
"Save a piece of her for me," Gibbs requested. He'd never forgive EJ for deliberately leading her team into an ambush that had resulted in one man dying and the other being severely wounded. In his mind, that was almost worse than her murderous spree since. Because she was their officer and she had betrayed them. And that went against all his rules and the code of behaviour he lived by. In Gibbs' mind, there was only one person more culpable in this sorry whole affair, and that was the man who had started off the whole shooting match, the man who had been crazy enough to come up with the idea of Operation Frankenstein in the first place and who had sanctioned all the activities since, up to and including the kidnapping of Sam Hannah. Leon Vance was the missing link between EJ Barrett and Nicole Martindale, of that he was quite certain. And while he had no concrete proof, Gibbs was certain that the call made from Vance's car had been to Nicole, telling her where to pick up Sam. And the only way Vance could have known about Nicole, was via EJ. Everything fitted together perfectly. It made sense that EJ would have no compunction about betraying yet another NCIS agent. Hell would seem like a day trip to the seaside when Leroy Jetho Gibbs got his hands on her. Besides which, he had a man involved too. And as annoying as DiNozzo could be, Gibbs was determined that nothing would happen to his agent. Not on his watch. Apart from anything else, it took far too long to train up a replacement.
"I've always believed in teamwork, Jethro." Hetty was more than delighted to share her prize with such a good friend.
"Can we just call Marty and let him know what's happening?" Kensi pleaded. She wanted him out of this whole mess as soon as possible. And once all the necessary debriefing was done, and they'd all thumped Sam on the back and told him how much they had missed him, after all that was over, she was taking Marty home to Malibu and making damned sure he stayed there. Even if she had to handcuff him to the bed. Actually, now she thought about it, that was a brilliant idea. She might even wear the corset again. And once she had him exactly where she wanted him, Kensi was going to make him set a date for their wedding. She'd waited long enough.