Chapter 2
"Hey guys, I did some more digging on Ami Lavery," McGee said over Bishop's phone. "She works for a construction company by the name of Weebly and Co. The company wouldn't confirm or deny she works for them, or tell me where she is, and I can't ping her phone without a warrant. And something interesting; she's a Journeyman Electrician."
"And Commander Lavery was stabbed with something sharp and pointy," Bishop said, seeing where McGee was going.
"Exactly. I'm running the cell phone listed to her name, but I'm not seeing anything suspicious, other than the fact that it was her that did receive that text from Commander Lavery's phone."
"Anything else?" Torres asked.
"Yeah, for a husband and wife they don't talk very much," McGee said. "From what I'm seeing, the number of texts between them drops off a lot in the first month. Same with the calls."
"Something happened during that time," Bishop guessed.
"How long have they been married?" Torres asked.
"About six months. I checked for Facebook pages, and I found Ami's page, and it's the same thing all over again. First month, the wedding, the dating between them, that's all there. After that, it's pretty much non-existent. No pictures of them together, no mention, nothing. Her work and her hobbies become forefront. She had her birthday two months ago, and there's plenty of well-wishes from everyone, including Commander Lavery's brother, Corporal David Lavery, but nothing from the commander himself. She's also a big Minnie Mouse fan."
"What are her hobbies?" Bishop asked, curious.
"She makes industrial pipe lamps, for starters, and some of them are really nice," McGee said. "She also does volunteer work at various shelters, providing free labour for any electrical work they need done."
"Nice," Torres said.
"Does Commander Lavery have a Facebook page?" Bishop asked.
"Not that I can see," McGee said.
"Okay, well, we're about to pull up to the hotel, so keep us posted," Torres said.
"Will do."
As Torres and Bishop went inside the hotel, Bishop quickly went to Facebook and found Ami Lavery's page. "Wow, those are some really nice lamps she's done," she said, showing Torres one. "And she's got a Marketplace link."
"And?"
"And yes, I would," Bishop muttered, spotting a floor lamp for about fifty dollars. She was already mentally checking her bank account.
Inside, the manager raised an eyebrow when he saw them and their badges. "Who did what?" he grumped.
"This guy, Commander Lavery, accepted a delivery here two days ago," Torres said, showing him a picture of the commander.
"Didn't see him," the manager said, shaking his head.
"Okay, so who did you rent Room 114 out to?" Bishop asked.
The manager pulled a book towards him and checked what was written inside. "Some guy by the name of Davey Jones. Paid by credit card. Had to charge him extra because of the mess he left in the room," the manager said.
"Mess?" Bishop said.
"Don't know what he did, but it looked like he'd spilled wine or something all over the carpet. Had to pull the carpet out just to get it cleaned," the manager grumbled.
"Where's the carpet now?" Torres asked.
"In the bin out back. Even took the blankets and the sheets," the manager grumped. "Those things ain't easy to replace."
Torres and Bishop shared a dry look. "Since he paid by credit card, do you still have the slip?" Bishop asked.
"I'll check," the manager grumped.
"And I'll check that garbage bin," Torres said, heading outside to find the garbage bin.
"What about cameras?" Bishop asked, once the manager came back with a plastic envelope.
"I'll check," a young man offered, joining them. "I'm Pete," he said, by way of introduction.
"Nice to meet you, Pete," Bishop said, following the young man to the back. "Do you remember seeing this guy here, about two days ago?" she asked, showing him Commander Lavery's picture.
"Sure. Dad doesn't pay much attention, but he's a frequent flyer. Always here with some other guy," Pete said. He sat down at a desk with a monitor and started working the cameras and recorders. "Okay, here we go," he said, after a moment. He cringed. "Not a really good angle, I'm afraid. I've been nagging at Dad to move the camera for a better angle, but he likes technology about as much as I like old time rock and roll."
All they could see was a man with a dark baseball cap and dark clothes, paying and signing for the room.
"Okay, he didn't use gloves, so we might have prints on that paper," Bishop said. "I need a copy of that, please. Do you have any outside cameras?"
"We do, but the quality isn't any better," Pete said, "and one of the cameras was damaged two days ago. I'm not sure, but it looks like someone pulled it down or something. The camera didn't see who."
"But it might show someone before that," Bishop pointed out.
"True." Pete quickly copied the video for Bishop, and while he was doing that, Bishop grabbed their evidence collecting case from the car and sealed the credit card slip. In the back, Bishop found Torres hauling out a lot of garbage and grumbling.
"You find anything?" she asked, grinning at his obvious discomfort.
"Yeah, a hell of a lot of garbage, and a carpet that Kasie is going to have a field day with," Torres grumbled, pointing to a rolled up chunk of carpet. "I found a lotta blood on it, soaked right through."
"Anything else?" Bishop asked.
He pointed to another bag. "Yeah, sheets and bloody towels. Looks like the killer tried to clean up the carpet but when he or she realized that it wasn't going to work, just abandoned the job for the manager to clean up. And in that bag are the remains of stuff from Jimmy John's and, urgh, used condoms."
"You're right; Kasie is going to have a field day," Bishop said. "We need to get her down her and have her take a look at Room 114, see if maybe there are other biologicals and prints." She pulled out her phone and dialed.
Back at NCIS, Gibbs and Sloane were having an interesting conversation with Commander Lavery's parents, retired Captain Lavery and his wife, Sarah, in one of the conference rooms.
"We're sorry for your loss," Gibbs said.
"Thank you," Captain Lavery said. "Do you know who hurt my son? And why?" he demanded.
"We were hoping you might," Gibbs said.
"Nobody," Captain Lavery said, shaking his head vehemently. "Nobody would have hurt my son. He was a good son, a good officer."
"What about a good husband?" Sloane asked.
"He was a good man," Captain Lavery said firmly. "If anyone would have hurt him, it would have been his wife. I always said she was no good for him, wouldn't listen to him. Tried to tell me she was an electrician, but women don't belong in the trades. It's a man's job."
Sloane stared at him, and so did Gibbs, with Gibbs fiddling with his pen. "What about any of the cases Commander Lavery may have worked on?" Gibbs asked.
"Talk to JAG. Those fools told him he was going to be passed over for a promotion if he didn't clean up his act, but they were wrong. My son was a good man, a good lawyer. Those idiots over there didn't recognize greatness when they saw it," Captain Lavery snapped.
Sloane saw the long-suffering look on Sarah Lavery's face, and made a decision. "Ma'am, the coffee here isn't really that good. Perhaps I could offer you some tea from my office?" she asked.
"Do you have any looseleaf?" Sarah asked, standing up.
"I do. Could I interest you in some strawberry white tea?" Sloane asked, also standing up.
"Health food crap," Captain Lavery grumbled, as the two women left the room. "In my day, men drank coffee, real coffee, not that decaffeinated fancy stuff they sell in those overpriced coffee stores."
Outside the room, Sarah sighed heavily. "Thank you," she said, as she followed Sloane to her office.
"Are you okay?" Sloane asked kindly. "Losing your son like that, I would imagine that's quite a shock."
"It is, but I'm afraid I was expecting it," Sarah said, taking the seat Sloane offered her at the couch.
"That doesn't sound good," Sloane said, bustling about her office to make a pot of tea for them.
"Charles will try and tell you that MIchael was a god who walked on water, but as his mother, I knew otherwise," Sarah said. "Michael hurt a lot of people, including Ami and David, and I'm ashamed to say I did nothing. The only thing I could do, and perhaps it was for the best, was convince David to join the Army, instead of the Marines, so he wouldn't have to constantly compete with his brother."
"Was the sibling rivalry that bad?" Sloane asked.
"Charles idolized Michael, put him on a pedestal the day he was born, and Michael wasn't willing to share that spot with anyone, not even his brother," Sarah admitted. "I saw evidence of Michael's cruelty, towards other women, junior officers, anyone he felt was beneath him."
"What about Ami? From what we're seeing, their marriage was pretty good for the first month, and then something happened," Sloane said.
"Those two should have never gotten married," Sarah said, "but Charles kept harping on about Michael settling down and having children, and Ami, well, she was taken by him, but yes, I think something happened about a month after the wedding. Ami is a wonder person, generous with her time, but she's got a rough past. She never talks about her own family, and other than a few co-workers and her mother, there was none of her own family at the wedding."
"Wow."
"Do you know I admire her? We were having issues in our garage, wiring problems, and when she overheard Charles and Michael talking about it, she offered to help cut costs by taking a look at the problem and helping us figure out what to do. Charles told her they would hire a 'real' electrician, but I spoke to her later, and found out the truth, that she was a good Journeyman Electrician and serious about her offer."
"Did you take her up on it?"
"I did. She came in when Charles was gone, and told me, in terms I could understand, what was wrong and what needed to be done to fix the problem," Sarah said, accepting the cup Sloane handed her. "She then said that if we covered the cost of the materials, she would take care of the problem, which was simple enough, just a bit time-consuming." Sarah smiled. "That was how I got to know my daughter-in-law. Did you know she volunteers her time at various animal shelters, helping them make repairs and upgrades? She even volunteered at a couple of the women's and veterans shelters, making sure their electrical needs were being met."
"Did she say anything about her and Michael?" Sloane asked.
"When I asked, she said that Michael was busy with his career. But then she asked me if I knew Michael was gay, and I said I had suspected it for quite some time."
"Commander Lavery was gay? Did Captain Lavery know?" Sloane asked.
"Charles doesn't believe real men can be gay, and any man who was gay should be ashamed of themselves, because a real man should be able to sleep with a woman, or he isn't a real man at all," Sarah explained.
"That could lead to problems," Sloane said.
"I think it did," Sarah admitted.
"Do you think he was having an affair?" Sloane asked.
"It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. What Michael wanted, Michael got, even if it meant trampling over everyone else," Sarah said.
Back in the conference room, Gibbs was dealing with a very angry father.
"My son was not having an affair! That woman of his was! My son would never do that!" Captain Lavery yelled, slamming his fists down on the table. He had just been asked about the possibility of Commander Lavery having an affair.
"We have evidence that says otherwise," Gibbs said calmly.
"Then your evidence is wrong!" Captain Lavery yelled. "Someone falsified your so-called evidence in an attempt to slander my son! My son was a good man!"
"Sir-"
"No! I won't listen to this!" Captain Lavery yelled. "I won't! And if you keep this up, I will be giving your CO a good talking to! I won't let you slander my son! He was better than you, better than all you Navy cops!"
That was when Gibbs decided to end the meeting. "Thank you for coming in, sir. An agent will escort you out."
"Not without my wife! If I hear about you slandering my son again, you will be dealing with my lawyer!" Captain Lavery snarled, watching as Gibbs left the room.
Outside, McGee was waiting for him. "Wow," he said.
"Yeah. Whatcha got?"
"Just heard back from Bishop and Torres. They found the crime scene and we need to send Kasie out there."
"Good. Have an agent escort him out, preferably with earplugs," Gibbs grumbled, going to find Sloane. Hopefully things went a bit better for her.