Authors Note: So thank you for the overwhelming good response to the last chapter. I'm sorry this one took so long. It's been half written forever but I was very unhappy with it and had trouble finishing it. It's been almost totally re-written, which, I'm guessing means that the chapter I wrote before sucked and had no place in this story. Thank you for being patient with me. The story is almost finished and I hope that this chapter was worth the wait.
Disclaimer: Not mine. But you've got to do something while waiting for the strike to end...
Rating: Nothing worse than you would see on the show.
Abby's Lab
"Divide and conquer" Said Grissom as Abby handed everyone PDA's loaded with information about the suspects.
"I want this done today." Said Gibbs as he watched his team interact with the group from Las Vegas as they shared files and information with one another.
"To that end." Said Grissom, "You will be divided into teams of two and each team will take a suspect."
"We have too many cases to let this one take up any more of our time."
"Seeing as how we have a few too many suspects for my liking." Said Grissom, "I've asked Eckle to allow, Catherine, Nick and Brass to stay for a bit longer."
"He went for that?" Asked Nick, surprised.
"When the Mayor ordered him to allow it yes." Answered Grissom,
"The Mayor of Las Vegas and the Secretary of the Navy are old friends." Answered Director Shepard as she walked in.
"The Sec-Nav is old friends with the mayor of sin city." Said Tony grinning wildly until Gibbs smacked him on the back of the head. "I don't find that interesting at all."
"Jethro, Julie Danner is waiting outside my office. Whenever you're ready."
"Sara, I are going to go interview Julie Danner." Gibbs walked out, motioning for Sara to follow him, "Get ready, the suspects arrive in less than an hour."
Director Jenny Sheppard Office
Julie Danner was already in Director Shepard office when they arrived. She looked like a child, dwarfed by the giant office. She was quiet during the introductions and twirled the ends of her short bob nervously.
"It was stupid." Julie looked away, I needed the money. I'm surprised that it look you so long to find me."
"Why is that?" Gibbs asked gently as he watched the girl curiously. She was younger than Kelly would be if she had lived. He knew he should still consider her a a suspect but he couldn't help the fact the most of him just wanted to save her.
"Victor told me that he would make sure that John got in trouble for what he did to me. He said no service man should treat a women the way John treated me. He promised to help me" She was crying now, "I believed him. Do you know where he is?"
"What did John McCoy do to you?" Sara asked as her heart jumped into her throat.
"It had always been kind of fun before. The girls decided to leave but Tom and John asked me to stay. They said they would pay me extra. They seemed like decent guys.
"Decent guys that pays for sex." Jenny said, disgusted with the men that they were investigating.
"Director." Said Gibbs, raising his eyebrows and looking at her
"After the girls left, Tom took me into the bedroom so we could be alone. He wanted me to dance for him, so I did. Tom had been doing coke all night. " Julie seemed stronger as she began to tell her story, "It didn't surprise me that he couldn't... you know finish..."
"He couldn't ejaculate." Said Sara, clarifying.
"He got angry. I tried to calm him down."
"Hard thing to do with a guy on coke." said Gibbs.
"Yeah." Julie Danner agreed as tear reformed in her eyes, "He started yelling at me. He said it was my fault. He was yelling in my face and I got scared. It was my fault."
"No it wasn't." insisted Jenny Shepard as she handed the girl a tissue.
"Yes it was. I put myself in that situation. I let myself get locked in a room with a guy twice my size who was jacked up on coke." She looked at them, "I hit him first."
"You hit him?" Sara asked, surprised.
"He shoved me again the wall and I smacked him across the face." She almost laughed in spite of herself, "He wasn't the only on coke you know. Last time I do any drug that makes me feel stronger and smarter than I really am. That's when he went crazy."
"What happened?" asked Sara, bracing herself for the answer.
"He grabbed my head and slammed it into the mirror." The girl reached up and removed the scarf from her head followed by her hair, which turned out to be a wig, "It took 324 stitches to sew up the back of my head." She looked at Sara earnestly, "Victor saved me. He pulled Tom off of me and took me to the Emergency room. He stayed with me the whole time and promised that he wasn't going to let them get away with it. He held my hand as I fell asleep. When I woke up he was gone. He left his card. I've called him so many times." The girl was crying again, "Where is he?"
"We need to record your statement for the record." Gibbs said gently, not wanting to be the one who had to tell her what happened to Sargent Victor Tyler.
"What did they do to him?" Julie asked.
"They killed him." Sara answered, honestly, "And we need your help to put them away
"In that case I'm glad I kept this." Julie reached into her bag and pulled a large zip lock bag full of bloody glass, "I thought Victor was weird when he asked the hospital to keep the glass.
"You kept the glass." Gibbs said, surprised and a little proud.
"I watch Law and Order." She said, "I know how this works."
Abby's Lab
Abby took close up photos of Julie Danner's head wound. Her usual loud music was subdued, playing softly in the back round. The girls conversed quietly. Abby was able to intently calm the young women down long enough to take photos of her wounds. Grissom, Sara and Gibbs stood in Abby's office reading Julia Danner's medical report as it came in on the fax machine.
"The medical records say that it took them over two hours to admit Julie Danner to the ER and remove the glass from her head." Sara read aloud.
"Those guys had a lot of time to plan out what they were going to do Sargent Tyler."
"This wasn't a heat of the moment thing." Said Grissom, agreeing, "It was cold blooded murder."
NCIS Interrogation
An Hour Later
Tom Shepard sat at the table in the interrogation room looking arrogantly confident in a manner that made made Ziva's blood boil.
"Three weeks ago, you went to a bachelor party. According to Kevin Monroe it was quite... Reisque, yes?" Ziva leaned towards Sargent Tom and smirked at him.
"What happened?" Nick asked, sitting down.
"Had some fun with a couple of girls."
"Fun?" Asked Gibbs as he burst through the door. "That that what you call this." He through a small stack of photos on the table. They were close ups of Julie Danner's wound that Abby had taken in her lab, only minutes before.
"I don't know what that whore is telling you, but I had nothing to do with this."
"She's a nineteen year old girl trying to put herself through college." Nick said sharply.
"You're not the one who put her head through a mirror." Said Gibbs, "But you most certainly had something to do with it. The hospital suspected a crime when Julie Danner came in. The ER collected DNA."
"So I screwed her. It was a bachelor party. I wasn't the only one."
"Oh don't worry." Said Grissom, walking in a large file, "your buddies DNA is all over her too."
"Your life as you know it is now over." Gibbs starred him down. "What happened that night?"
"I want a deal." Tom Shepard looked desperate.
"The deal." Gibbs looked at him harshly, "Is that if you tell me what I need to know, You might get to live."
Interrogation Room One
Gibbs and Sargent John McCoy
"How's Married life treating you?" Gibbs sat down.
"It's fantastic." answered Sargent McCoy dryly.
"Must be quite an adjustment." said Sara, glaring at Gibbs, "After all, not everyone is prepared for what living with someone entails. Sharing everything, never being alone."
"Never being alone." McCoy laughed in agreement.
"You wanted one last night of freedom" Sara Sat down
"I love my wife."
"You've got an odd way of showing it." Gibbs said, "What do you think she will say when these." One by one, Gibbs lay out photographic evidence of both the murder and the assault on Julie Danner.
"Actually I think your wife were be far more interested in these." Sara laid out more photos on the table. "One of your buddies took these pictures with his cell phone. This one of you receiving, what's a delicate way of putting it?"
"Receiving attention?" Grissom offered smiling at his true love as sh took his down.
"You're receiving attention from two?" Gibbs looked at the photo, "Make that three young ladies. This must be the fun that Tom Shepard must have been talking about earlier."
"You talked to Shep?" McCoy asked.
"You wouldn't believe how fast people role on their buddies with the death Penalty on the line." Sara smirked at the suspect until he cracked before her very eyes.
TBC: On to romance for the next chapter. It shouldn't take me that long to get it up, since it's already partly done.