Chapter 9
Several hours earlier:
"The damned fool is drunk and not listening to reason anymore! He just told me he was going to confront Ami and get a confession out of her, one way or another!" Sarah said. "And Ami's not answering her phone! And I just checked his study, and his gun is missing! It's an old revolver type gun, hasn't been used in years, and I'm terrified about what he might do!"
"I'm on my way," Gibbs said, tearing out of his house. His next calls had been to the rest of his team, who all swore they'd be at Ami's house as fast as possible.
When Gibbs got there, there was a car in the driveway he didn't recognize, but suspected it was Captain Lavery's. As he got out of his car, he was quickly joined by the rest of the team in their respective vehicles, and Gibbs was sure there were going to be a few speeding tickets mailed out in the near future.
The living room window curtains were open slightly, and the federal agents went low. Gibbs carefully peeked inside and saw something that had his blood running cold. It was Ami, clearly scared, facing off against a yelling Captain Lavery, who was waving around a black revolver, his face red with anger.
"You killed my son!" Captain Lavery yelled, waving the gun. "He was a good boy and you killed him!"
"I didn't kill him, you crazy old fart!" Ami shot back. "His own arrogance did that! He screwed someone over who didn't deserve to be screwed over, and someone finally did something about it! But it wasn't me!"
"It was you! And once I get those idiots at NCIS to listen to me, they'll see that I was right, that Michael was perfect and you're just a lying slut!" Captain Lavery shouted.
"If you're so smart, why did I kill him?" Ami demanded, seeing the NCIS agents in the window. She nodded sharply when she saw Gibbs' hand move.
"For the house, for his money, why else!" Captain Lavery shot back. "He should have never married you! You're not a proper wife! You're not respecting of him!"
"He only married me to keep you happy! There were only two people that bastard ever loved, and I sure as hell wasn't one of them!" Ami fired back.
"He loved you!" Captain Lavery shouted. "He was a good boy!"
"He was gay, you arrogant jackass! And he was an abuser, a narcissist, and a compulsive liar, and I hope he rots in Hell, and I hope you join him, because if anybody put him in that grave, it was you!" Ami yelled.
"Nooo!" Captain Lavery shouted, waving the gun around again.
"Boss, if he starts shooting, with the way he's going, someone is really going to get hurt," Torres said.
"The house isn't that big inside and there's not a lot of cover," Sloane said, having been alerted by Bishop through a chain call, "especially if the shooting starts."
"We need to get Ami out of there," Bishop said.
"I can do that," said Corporal Lavery. He had appeared so quietly they hadn't even really noticed. "Mom called, said Father was going off his rocker and threatening Ami." Gibbs nodded. "Can you tell Ami to get ready? We may need a distraction."
"Go," Gibbs said. "Bishop, go with him." He watched as Corporal Lavery and Bishop went low and snuck around to the back of the house. A few seconds later, his cell phone rang. "Yeah Gibbs."
"I'm in."
Gibbs snapped his phone shut and quickly signed to Ami that she needed to throw something in three seconds, and that Corporal Lavery was at the back, waiting for her. She nodded and reached for what looked like a coffee mug, tucking it behind her back.
"Torres, hammer that door. We need to create enough of a distraction for Lavery to get Ami out of there," Gibbs said, holding up his hand.
Torres moved to the front door, and on Gibbs' signal, banged on the door loudly. Then Ami threw the coffee mug at Captain Lavery as hard as she could, catching the old man in the shoulder, before taking off running to the back of the house. Moments later, the team heard Captain Lavery shouting, Ami and Corporal Lavery came running around the side of the house.
"He's out of his Goddamn mind!" Ami snarled, the couple ducking behind the cars.
"Mom says he's pretty drunk," Corporal Lavery said, watching as his father charged out of the house, yelling for Ami, ignoring Bishop's yell to put the gun down.
"Stop right there, Captain!" Gibbs yelled. "Federal agents! Put the gun down!"
Captain Lavery froze when he saw the weapons aimed at him. Breathing hard, he slowed down. "That bitch killed my son! She killed my son and no one will believe me!"
"That doesn't matter, sir. You need to put the gun down before someone gets hurt!" Gibbs said. "You're already looking at some pretty serious charges with regards to the weapon, don't make it worse! Put the gun down!"
"Put the gun down, and then you can tell us why you think Ami killed Commander Lavery," Sloane coaxed. "But we can't talk to you with you waving your gun around; it's not safe for anyone."
"You fools won't listen to me!" Captain Lavery snapped. "He was a good man, a fine son, and she's telling lies about him!"
"Then why don't you tell us the truth?" Sloane suggested gently. "Put the gun down and talk to us. Tell us what he was like. We're always willing to listen, but we can't do that if our safety is an issue."
"Y'know, with the way she's talking, she could convince a nun to take off her panties," Corporal Lavery said softly to Ami, causing her to giggle, as scared as she was. "He's off his damn rocker."
"And here comes Sarah," Ami said, seeing another car pull up. "This is not going to end well."
"Maybe, maybe not. Think Mom's finally had enough," Corporal Lavery said, watching his mother get out of the car and storm towards her husband.
"Should we be worried?" Ami asked.
Corporal Lavery grinned. "Nah. I recognize that look on her face. Last time I saw it, she tore a strip off Michael because he came home drunk one night and crashed the car into the garage door. He was sixteen, and boy was she mad."
As Gibbs and team stared in shock, the dainty captain's wife charged forward, ignoring the guns, and batted the one out of her husband's wife, before slapping him hard enough to send him around, causing the agents to drop their jaws in shock.
"You stubborn old fool!" she yelled. "For years I have stood by silently and watched you put Michael on a pedestal all the while ignoring David! I listened to you put down good women who had every right to serve our country alongside our men, to pick up a trade that doesn't involve spreading our legs or looking pretty, and I said nothing! And now you're threatening an innocent woman who's only mistake was loving the wrong brother! No more! Now, you put that blasted gun down and you do as you're told, or, so help me, Charles, I will blister both your ears and tan your selfish hide by the time I'm through with you!"
Captain Lavery stared at her, eyes wide, and then grunted as Torres quickly grabbed the gun, passed it off to McGee, and yanked his hands behind his back. "Hey! Get your hands off me!" he protested. "You can't arrest me!"
"They can, and they will!" Sarah fired back. "Maybe some time in a jail cell will cool your heels, and your head!"
"Woman-" Captain Lavery snarled, but Sarah cut him off.
"Oh do shut up," Sarah snapped. "Is he covered?"
"More than," Gibbs said. "Nicely done, ma'am. Not something I would have recommended, but nicely done." He saw Corporal Lavery and Ami emerging from the safety of the cars. "You two okay?" he asked.
"We're good. He was more bluster and blowing than anything else," Ami admitted.
"And stupid," McGee said, checking the gun over. "Not even loaded." He held up his badge as several local police cars pulled up, lights flashing and sirens going.
"I just wanted to scare her, to get her to admit she killed my son," Captain Lavery snapped. "None of you fools will listen to me about her!"
Ami got right in his face. "Your son is dead because of you. You made him think he could do no wrong, that showing compassion and respect for others lesser than him was weak. That being human and making mistakes was weak. You are the reason he's dead. The killer may have put the knife in his back, but you, and you alone, are the reason the knife was put there in the first place!"
And with that, she stormed off towards the garage.
"He was my son!" Captain Lavery yelled at her back.
Corporal Lavery got in his father's face, eyes dark with anger. "So. Was. I. And you lost both of us." And with that, he went to join Ami.
"Oof," McGee said, rejoining them, two officers in tow. The situation had been explained and neither officer looked impressed.
"Make that three of us," Sarah said softly. "Because I am done with you. This latest stunt of yours is the last straw, Charles. I'm packing a bag when I get home, and I'm going to go stay with some friends for a while. You can stay in that house of yours, with your memories and your grief, but I still have a son who needs me, and I'll be damned if I'm going to throw him away the way you did."
"You can't leave me! I won't allow it!" Captain Lavery shouted, watching his wife walk towards the garage to talk to her son and daughter-in-law.
"Think she just did," Bishop said, as two other officers and Torres put the swearing captain in the back of one of the cruisers.
"Hi guys. If you check, I think we have an unregistered weapon here, plus trespassing, being drunk in public, DUI, and disturbing the peace," Sloane said.
"Agent McGee said he was waving the weapon around and preventing Mrs. Lavery from leaving the house, so we can add forcible confinement to that," one officer said.
"Think you can keep him busy for a while, long enough for his wife to pack her bags and leave him?" Gibbs asked.
"Happily," the second officer said.
"And if he demands a lawyer, which he will, make sure it's a court-assigned one, not a JAG one, because technically he's a civilian," Bishop advised.
"Gotcha," the first officer said. "She might want to get a restraining order against him."
"We'll make sure of it," Sloane said.
"What set him off?" the second officer asked.
"His oldest son was murdered, and he refused to believe that he was less than perfect. Blamed Ami for his death, even though our investigation said she had nothing to do with it," Gibbs said. "She was as much a victim as Commander Lavery's victims, except she couldn't escape him."
"Well, hopefully things work out for her," the first officer said.
Back at NCIS, Vance's eyebrows shot up when Gibbs told him what happened. "What is Ami going to do?"
"She's agreed to the restraining order, and it's likely Captain Lavery will spend the night in jail until he can be arranged on bail. Might do him some good," Gibbs said.
Present:
"We're not going to get one," Sloane said.
"Why not?" McGee asked.
"Because he knows he has nothing to gain from confessing, and the more he plays the silent game, the more he thinks we have to work at it," Sloane said. "Whoever prosecutes this case is going to have their hands full with him, unless we can give them solid evidence of his guilt."
"That I think we can do," Kasie said. "Beside the prints and DNA, I was able to get into the truck's GPS and found out he had been at the hotel that Commander Lavery was murdered at. And several other times, all times that match up with calls Commander Lavery received from his cellphone. Oh, and the slam-the-door-and-throw-away-the-key part? His DNA matched saliva I found on Commander Lavery's penis and testicles. His clothing preserved it from the water. It also matches the skin scrapings Palmer found under his nails."
"Do we have anything to say that it was Donald Jones in the truck that towed Commander Lavery's car?" Sloane asked.
"We do," Kasie said. "I swabbed the tow rope that I found in the back of the truck. The fleet boss said it was standard equipment for those trucks, in case of emergency. Donald Jones' epidurals were all over the tow rope, and according to the logs, that was the first time he'd used that particular truck." She smiled widely. "Have fun explaining that in court."
Gibbs smirked. "We got him."
A few days later, Gibbs got a call from Major General Andrews.
"Took a bit of work, but I'm pleased to say we found out who Donald Jones' contact was," Major General Andrews said. "It was a Petty Officer who had been on the receiving end of one of Commander Lavery's insults once too often. He's being disciplined accordingly, but may get off light due to extenuating circumstances."
"He was being bullied and this was his chance for revenge," Gibbs guessed.
"That's what he said. Seems his complaints against Commander Lavery got swept under the rug once too often," Major General Andrews said. "As for Private Moses, due to the allegations against Commander Lavery's conduct in court, his sentence was reduced. Donald Jones, however, from what I hear, is facing serious time. Have you heard from Captain Lavery's family?"
"I have, and it was a very quiet funeral," Gibbs said.
In fact, a total of five people had attended the funeral for Commander Lavery, not including the honor guard. Ami and Corporal Lavery had attended, but it had been in support of Sarah, who had made it very plain she was separating from Captain Lavery, who was out on bail for his behaviour. The house was on the market, Commander Lavery's very nice car had been repossessed due to payment failure, and Ami had moved out. Her truck had been fixed, she had changed her surname, was currently living in a garage apartment near Fort McNair, and officially dating Corporal Lavery. That diamond Minnie Mouse pendant? Turned out it had been him that had given it to her for her birthday, along with some Minnie Mouse cupcakes and a really nice card, whereas Michael had given Ami a dozen roses, even though he had known she was allergic to them.
"I'm not surprised. From what I heard, despite what Captain Lavery tried to say, Commander Lavery was not as popular as he liked to believe. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a lot less of the captain at certain functions."
"His bragging right is gone, and the truth is out," Gibbs said. "Not a lot of bragging rights in finding out his rising star was a falling rock."
"Amen to that," Major General Andrews said. "Let's just hope this sorry chapter is closed now."
"I hear ya."
Two days nights later:
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Gibbs grumbled, heading downstairs to his door. Someone was banging loudly and insistently, and it was nearly two in the morning.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming," Gibbs grumped, as someone banged the door again. The second he unlocked his door was the second a walking tornado with bright pink hair blew in.
"Hi, I'm Sky, and Abby says 'Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, you gotta keep her safe! She's a really good friend and fantastic with animals and call me as soon you can!' Oh, and that's Artemis, and she really needs to feed her babies, and I really need to feed Brubba," the woman said, a large German Shepherd dog following her. She quickly locked the door, took off the baby sling she was carrying, which had strange whimpering and whining noises coming from it, and went into the living room.
Gibbs stared at her in confusion. "What the hell is going on?"
The End.