"What do you mean, you can't? Why? Busy, my ass. I'll have you know that I have complete jurisdiction over this case, and if you don't cooperate with my investigation I'll have you in court for obstruction. I don't care if you are a detective. It was you and your fellow genius who missed all the signs of murder at the scene. You, who couldn't find the body that my partner found after less than 10 minutes on the scene, and you who missed the fact that the suspect was still at the scene when you cleared it for us. My partner and I could have been killed because of your crappy investigating. Yeah, well, same to you!"
Kate slammed the phone down in frustration.
"What was that about, Agent Todd?"
Kate turned around to see Gibbs behind her. His eyes were unreadable. Shit. I'm in trouble, Kate thought. "I was talking to one of the detectives who was at the scene of the drug murder. He was being uncooperative. He and his partner came back after our little incident there and did a little poking around. They bagged some things at the crime scene that I'd like to have Abby look at."
Gibbs nodded, pulled out his cell, and flipped it open. He made a quick call, uttered a few terse words into the phone. He flipped the phone closed. "Your evidence is on its way, Kate. Let me know if you find anything."
As he walked away, Kate looked after him with eyes wide. How the hell does he do that?
Gibbs rounded the corner, and then popped his head back around. "Kate, call DiNozzo, and tell him that if he isn't here in less than 30 minutes, his ass is fired. Ok? You do have his phone number, don't you?" He said with raised eyebrows.
He popped back out of sight. Kate stared at where his head had been, with a suspicious look on her face. He doesn't know, does he? No…he couldn't. Abby is the only one who knows…She better not have spilled anything. Kate looked over at Tony's desk. He wasn't there. She'd just figured he was in the lab, bugging Abby, or the morgue, bothering Ducky again. If he really wasn't here yet, he was really late. She dialed his house. "You've reached Chez DiNozzo. Leave one at the beep." She hung up and dialed his cell. Ring…ring…ring…ring. "Hey! This is Tony. Leave me a message." Beep. "Tony, it's me. Gibbs said you'd better get in to work now, or he's firing you. Call me when you get this, ok?"
She hung up, determining to give Tony a talking to in matters of punctuality when he did show up.
She picked up the trace reports that Abby had given her yesterday from the dead sailor's body, determined to finish looking through them. She'd gone through a few trace reports so far, but nothing out of the ordinary had shown up. The next trace report listed Palmitic Acid, Triethanolamine, Stearic Acid, Sorbitol, Isopentane, Propylene Glycol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Diaszolidinyl Urea, Methyylparaben, Hydroxypropylcellulose, and Tocopheryl Acetate. Kate's head swam simply trying to decipher the words that made up the description of the complex chemical compound. She read the printout of the final analysis. Shaving gel. Great. Our vic was clean-shaven. Tell me something I don't know. She analyzed more printouts. Nothing…nothing…nothing…and then she saw something that made her pause. Even the translation of this chemical compound had a complicated name. "Diacetylmorphine…what the heck is that?" She turned to her computer and googled it. She clicked the top link. "Diacetylmorphine…otherwise known as Heroin. Heroin?" Here at last was a trace of the mysterious drug cache that no one had been able to find at the scene. Kate got up and went to the lab to find Abby.
As usual, the metal was blaring, practically making the walls shake. Abby was bent over a sample in her high powered microscope. Kate turned down the music enough to make conversation hearable. In other words, all the way down. Abby looked up. "Aww, Kate, it was just getting to the best part of the song."
"I'm sorry, I'll see if I can get McGee in here to scratch some sheet metal with spoons for you. That make a song, if not as loud, at least equally as bad." Kate said snarkily.
In spite of the insult to her music, Abby laughed. "Funny, Kate. Did you have something for me?"
Kat nodded. "Yeah. Remember those trace reports you gave me yesterday? Well, I was wondering if you could maybe run some more tests on the heroin you found, see if there is anything else it can tell us. Maybe where it was from, that kind of thing."
"Sure, Kate. I'll get started on that as soon as I can. Now, turn my stereo back on!"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Tony became aware of the pounding in his head before anything else. What the hell happened? He groggily opened his eyes. Too fast. His vision swam and he grew dizzier. Did I hit my head or something? The last thing he could remember was letting himself into his apartment. After that…nothing. He looked around. He was definitely not in his apartment. This place was dingy, damp, and if he was not mistaken, smelled slightly fishy. He tried to move. It was no use. His hands were tied in front of him. He tried to inspect the knot in the dim lighting. It looked as if had been tied by a professional. But Tony had not taken NCIS training for nothing. He began to work at the knot with his teeth. Slowly but surely, the knot began to give way. The adrenaline rushing through his body suddenly made him dizzy again.
"I wouldn't be doing that if I were you, Agent DiNozzo." The voice above him made him look up suddenly. He hadn't noticed the figure approaching in the dim lighting.
"Who are you and what do you want with me? And how did you know my name?" Despite Tony's best efforts, his voice shook a little.
The man laughed. "You'll find out soon enough."
"If you're after a ransom or something, you can forget about it. My parents would never pay it." Tony said. He scrutinized the man in front of him. He was tall, dark, and someone Tony would have guessed was a stereotypical Mafia hit man.
"Ransom? Hardly. I'm not after money. What I'm after, Agent DiNozzo, is something more inherent. I'm after…revenge."
Tony was uncertain as to what he meant. "What do you mean, revenge? Did I do something to you? Arrest you once?"
The man grew irritated. "You ask too many questions, Agent DiNozzo. However, I think you should know why you are going to die slowly and painfully."
Tony's heart was pounding. "Nobody has to die. You could just let me go now and I won't tell anyone. No one has to know anything. Be smart. You have no idea who you're messing with. If you kill me, I have friends who will hunt you down and make your death slow and painful." Please God, let Kate and Gibbs find me.
"I think you are a little too sure of yourself, Agent DiNozzo. One of the reasons you will die." The man was slowly walking back and forth in front of Tony. Suddenly he turned to face him. Tony gasped as the man's steel-toed boot caught him in the side, right where his stitches were. Pain shot through him and he was sure he felt one of his ribs give way.
"Do you remember ruining me, Agent DiNozzo?"
Tony could only gasp for air, and shook his head slightly. The man continued. "Stop playing stupid. It does not become you." Another kick left Tony in pain once again. He wanted to ask him to stop, but Tony refused to give this asshole the satisfaction of hearing him ask for anything. "Think back to three days ago. What happened three days ago, Agent DiNozzo?"
Suddenly it clicked. The drug deal.
The man saw the understanding on his face. "Yes, I see you remember. Your actions that day are costing me millions as we speak. Because of you, my men and I must lie low for quite some time. Who knows what the man that you captured will spill to the police about my operation. It may be months before I am able to restart my business."
"Business?" Tony scoffed. "Don't you mean drug ring?" He feared that he had once again incited the man to anger, and anticipated another kick with gritted teeth. But the man kept control over his anger this time.
"Perhaps. But nonetheless, you have ruined what is mine. And you will pay." He turned and pulled out a cell phone, dialed, and spoke shortly. A large metal door creaked open and another man slipped inside. He approached them. "Enrique, watch our friend, Agent DiNozzo. Make sure that he doesn't do anything he will regret. I will be back soon to take care of him once and for all."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
TBC.
Please continue to read and review! Thanks to everyone for your encouraging words!
