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Chapter Three: Field Day

The crime scene was about 30 minutes away from their office, and the ride to it was silent. Neither Kensi or Callen could find the right words to say.

Kensi was quietly thinking about the best time to apologize to Callen, while looking out of the window of the Silver Aston Martin. Although she wasn't sure about the timing yet, one thing was for certain: she was going to apologize no matter what. Callen had been the best friend and colleague she could have ever wished for since joining NCIS.

He always had her back and protected her, but also encouraged her to do things she thought were out of her limit. He had seen great potential in her since the beginning and Kensi knew she could never have gotten this far without him. And now she had offended him like she had never before. She knew Callen had nobody besides his family at NCIS and therefore his ambitions were simple: protecting and serving them. And with one sentence she had brought all of that in peril, just to be in on a case. And there was no way she was going to let him wonder about that any longer than was necessary.

The slowing of the car brought Kensi out of her trance-like state. She carefully turned her head towards the driver but never got a real chance to look him right in the face since Callen was already leaving the car, pulling the keys out of the ignition while the car hadn't even fully stopped yet.

Truth be told, Callen couldn't handle it any longer inside of the car. The quiet ride gave way to his thoughts, and he was never happy to give them a free ride. It was only a matter of time before they wandered off towards the dark place. The guilt would always wash over him one way or the other. With Kensi's words still ringing fresh in his ears, he wondered about the true meaning of these words.

What if she was right about it? Did he lure them towards danger only because he was on suicide-patrol? He'll admit he didn't care much about himself, he only thought about the people he would save with his missions, but bringing his friends and colleagues with him would be unbearable for him. But on the other hand, was he all responsible for their wellbeing just because he was the Senior Field Agent? His thoughts were beginning to make less and less sense and he was relieved when he saw his GPS warning him they were closing in on their destination. Without bringing the car come to a complete halt, he let the engine die and got out of the car before he let way to more negative thoughts.

Sam and Nate choose to pay Fortell's wife a visit before going to the brother. Although it wasn't officially part of their job, Sam had always felt the need to pay his respects to the family of those who were lost. Neither Sam nor Nate knew if either the wife or the brother knew more of why Glen Fortell was murdered in the first place, so it was an easy choice to follow Sam's gut and go to the spouse first.

Soon they found themselves standing on the doorstep of a humble but nice looking home just on the outside of the downtown of Los Angeles, and Sam knocked, his other hand carefully wrapped around the gun strapped to the backside of his waistband. After a second knock from Nate, both of the NCIS agents heard footsteps coming closer and the door being opened. Sam felt his hand around the gun loosen when he saw the red-eyed middle-aged woman opening the door.

"Please leave, I'm not in the mood for selling any..." the woman started, but Nate interrupted her.

"Mrs. Fortell? NCIS, this is Special Agent Hanna and I'm Nate Getz. We're here to talk about your husband, Glen Fortell?" Upon hearing the name of her deceased husband, the eyes of the woman in front of them starting welling up again.

"Oh... Please come in." She held out the door for the two men to enter the house. A couple of footsteps later and they were in the living room, Sam still looking around the house with an observant eye.

"Are you alone, Mrs. Fortell?" Sam needed to be sure.

"Yes, yes I am. And please call me Jennifer. Or Jen." The woman had settled down on the couch, tissues at hand.

Nate saw multiple used tissues spread out on the floor next to her. He consequently lowered himself to her level, enabling himself to look the woman straight in the eye. He looked up towards Sam and with a nod from the former navy SEAL, he started, "We are very sorry for your loss, Jennifer. We can imagine how hard this must be for you."

The woman didn't reply, but blew her nose into one of the unused tissues.

"Do you have any idea who would want your husband dead? Or why?" Upon hearing this, Nate saw the woman straighten up, looking him directly in the eyes.

"I've been thinking about that the moment I heard about the news. I have no idea. Glen was so..." Fresh tears were falling down while Jennifer spoke up, "sweet and nice. So selfless. Everybody in the neighborhood loved him. He didn't have many friends from his time as a Marine, but he seemed pretty content with the life he had here. With me."

Nate let a silence fill the room before continuing, "Were you already with him or married to him while he was Marine?"

"Yes, I've been married to him since we were 26 years old. 18 years of marriage, just gone in one moment…" Another sob could be heard.

"Do you know why he quit the Marines to start working in a supermarket?"

This got Nate an angry look from Mrs. Fortell, "Have you ever served in war, Mr…"

"Getz. Nate Getz. And no, I haven't."

"So you don't know what you're asking then."

At that point, Sam returned from his quick tour through the Fortell house which turned up nothing worth mentioning. "But I have, Jennifer. You only quit the Marines when you are certain you can't add anything to the job anymore or are very upset about something that has happened causing you to lose your trust in the Marines. It must've been one of those two reasons why your husband quit, Mrs. Fortell."

Jennifer stared at Sam for a couple of seconds, suddenly forgetting about the tears and tissues she had used before. After a long pause, she slowly rose up from her chair and stood right in front of Sam.

"So that's it? I'm not even going to get time to grieve before you're barging into my home to accuse my husband of something bad?"

Both Sam and Nate were taken aback by the angry response of the woman. Sam felt the need to clarify himself, but didn't get the chance.

"I would like you gentlemen to leave my house now." Jennifer Fortell folded her arms, making clear it was best to follow her advice. And so Sam and Nate nodded towards the woman as a goodbye and slowly made their way out of the house.

Once back in Sam's car, Nate spoke up, "So… that went well. Do you get so much love from all those people when you're with Callen?"

This earned a chuckle from Sam. Whenever G is involved, there's always time for mocking. "It usually takes Callen less time to make them upset. He always manages to get himself thrown out of the house before we even enter."

Somehow, Nate could perfectly imaginethat. He started laughing when Sam started the engine, already heading for Fortell's brother. This is going to be fun.

Callen had parked his car just in front of the yellow crime scene tape. Both his and Kensi's eyes were immediately drawn towards the grass field in front of them.

Blood.

Callen's left eyebrow rose. His head turned towards Kensi, who stared at him in return. They slowly ducked underneath the tape and walked towards the little blood pool in the middle of the scene. Kensi kneeled down and put two of her fingers in it. Not even sticky yet.

"It's fresh." Callen was already looking around the scene but came up empty after a few minutes.

"No blood drops or blood trail anywhere near the place the body was found." Kensi stood up, hands putting on her side.

"So he wasn't bleeding while he was running from the initial crime scene towards here." Without another word, Callen was dialing the coroner's number while Kensi looked around, looking for other evidence that was possibly left behind. Callen heard the coroner picking up the phone.

"Pathology Center, Dr. Rose Schwartz.."

"Hey, it's Callen. Did you already examine the body of Glen Fortell, the dead ex-Marine?"

"Uhm... let me take a look. Anything you want to know in particular?"

"Did he have any other wounds besides the one done by the syringe?"

"Let me check." Callen was put on hold while the coroner was looking over her report.

Meanwhile, something got Kensi's attention. In the bushes around 50 yards from the middle of the scene, a small piece of paper was stuck between two branches. Kensi pulled the yellow paper from the bushes with her black gloved hand. It was a Post-It with an address scribbled down on it. In the upper left corner, Kensi saw a tiny red smear that looked like blood. She turned the Post-It around. The whole backside of the piece was covered in red blood, with only little voids drawing small lines over the paper. Someone held this in their bloody hand.

She turned around to look at Callen. She saw him standing with his back towards her, looking at some imprinted part of the grass below him. She made up her mind quickly. She grabbed a plastic bag and dropped the piece of paper in it only to put the bag into her black leather jacket. It could be the only clue to whoever had murdered her father and why. While still deep in thought, she didn't hear footsteps approaching her.

"You find something?"

Kensi turned her head let out a big sigh of relief. "Jeez, you scared the hell out of me."

Callen's eyebrow rose. "So if I was the killer and came back to finish the job, you would've been dead."

Kensi didn't answer but narrowed her eyes while relaxing again, "Funny."

"It's not funny actually. It's not that farfetched that I could've been someone that wanted to hurt you. Are you still focused, Kensi?"

The woman's heart skipped a beat when she heard Callen saying her full name instead of her pet name, Kenz, which was solely used by Callen, "Yes, yes I am. And no, I didn't find anything. You?"

Callen wasn't convinced but let it slide for now. He focused on the case again, "Yeah, I'll show you."

Both of them walked towards the middle of the scene again where they first found the blood. G pointed towards two imprinted parts in the grass.

"Looks like someone had been standing here." He also motioned to the imprinted part of the grass in the form of a person who had been lying on the ground. "That someone was probably standing over the victim, Glen Fortell."

Kensi let out a small shiver upon hearing the name of her father's friend, which didn't go unnoticed by Callen. Her reaction had been the main reason why he mentioned the full name of their victim.

"Where does that lead us?" Kensi spoke up, while Callen concentrated on the grass again.

"The coroner wasn't finished with examining the body yet, but what she did find was another little entry wound very close to the puncture in his leg where the syringe was injected. Would probably fit another syringe. Almost like someone wanted to use the same entry point of the first syringe to cover up his tracks."

Upon hearing this, Kensi's mind started to work in overdrive.

"So that could've been the same person who injected the first syringe, or someone who knew what was going on and wanted to finish what the other started."

Callen nodded, "The coroner said he could've easily been bleeding from the last puncture wound since it was deeper than the first, which could explain the blood over here and not on the way he came from. But it would've never caused him to die from it."

"So he died from whatever they injected him with."

Callen's face now dropped, "Exactly. And there's the problem. A Tox screen is running as we speak, but if there are two different kinds of toxins used, we may not be able to identify both of them because they are likely to contaminate each other."

Both of the agents stood in silence while thinking about the difficult turn the case had just taken. Slowly the reality crept in.

"So we not only have squat..."

"... We can't prove a thing."