Chapter Six
Unbelievable
Michelle Palmer steps off the elevator into the alcove bordered by the glass and steel door to Autopsy. She's about to step close enough for her presence to be detected by the sensor mounted over the doors but she halts.
Inside the brightly lit room, Jimmy and Doctor Isles are again working on another cadaver. Or is it the same one? Autopsies can take hours, and much as she wants - needs - to see Jimmy, the sting of her last visit is still too fresh. The sting of Special Agent Higgins' accusation is fresher still. How could he accuse her of something so horrible? And she can't even put away some of the sting in discussing it with her husband.
She reaches for the door, pulls back.
Attention focused on their patient, neither the visiting ME nor her husband see her.
xxx
The summons to MTAC, mysterious and ill timed as it is, doesn't make Gibbs happy. It is, in fact, a despised interruption at a time when one of his cases is finally showing the prospect of progress.
When he opens the door he sees that the big screen in the well at the base of the incline shows a still image of the upstairs Café. There had better be a good explanation for that.
As he descends the ramp toward his counterpart, he sees the other man is grim, not his usual affable self.
On the screen, which shows the upstairs Café dining area upward toward the cashier stations and then partway into the food dispensation area at top, Gibbs can recognize the back of his friend's head. Fred Higgins seated near the lower right portion of the screen. The white Time Stamp on the lower right portion of the screen indicates that, whatever the issue is, it happened slightly more than twenty five minutes ago.
"There was an incident in the Café a little while ago that you need to see. Tina Larsen," Higgins says as he points to the blonde woman seated two rows upward and to the left of the SSA's position, her body facing the camera and the body of the dining area, "was scalded with hot soup and tea."
He's not sure why this should be of any interest other than concern for the woman's condition. He exchanges his 'so?' for "She okay?"
"First degree burns to her face, torso and legs. She's being treated in Yard Medical, doctor says she'll be okay in a few days. But I want you to see this." He signals to the operators at the left wall and the image begins to move.
x
Even when knowing an accident is about to happen and where to focus his attention, Gibbs finds the scene quite ordinary. He watches Michelle Palmer enter the Cashier station at the top of the screen, pay for her meal and carry her tray into the dining area. On her tray is a large white Styrofoam cup and bowl, undoubtedly the before mentioned soup and tea. At least now he knows where to focus his attention.
The image is too small for much detail but it appears from the slight turns of her head that Palmer is looking for a seat.
Knowing that something is to come, he expects to see a trip, slip, collision or some other minor flub with unfortunate consequences for the seated woman. He does not expect to see Palmer approach from behind Larsen, pause beside the woman, glance down at her and deliberately turn the tray over, scalding her with a considerable amount of hot liquid.
He's astounded at the deliberate act, barely believes the woman did what he just saw her do, and is glad there's no sound, for Larsen leaps to her feet, screaming. Palmer drops the tray to the floor, looks shocked, apparently honestly distressed as Larsen rips her blouse open and nearly a dozen agents converge upon the scene.
They fan her with trays and all else but their bodies obscure most of the detail. One agent splashes a cup full of liquid upon her; ice cubes bounce off the woman's chest as she continues screaming.
He can see Palmer at the far right of the throng, looking frantic, saying something most emphatically but it doesn't look like there's any anger such as might accompany so outrageous an act. She looks distressed, appears genuinely shocked by the incident, but there are too many people mingling into the scene, all trying to help, for him to see many details clearly.
x
As Gibbs watches, appalled as much as surprised by what his agent has done, the image of Higgins establishes order, sends three women off with the wounded Larsen out the bottom of the screen. Agents clean up the area or return to their places and Higgins steps in front of Palmer. They talk for several seconds, and then he leads her out through the bottom of the screen.
At a signal from Higgins to the console operator, the footage switches to the end of a hallway, the time stamp shows less than half a minute has passed as Higgins and Palmer step from the lower part of the screen about two thirds up to where Higgins halts them. He confronts the petite woman.
At first there's little motion between them and suddenly Palmer grows agitated, her face displays shock and confusion that quickly mount into outrage and denial. Her hand gestures grow sharp and emphatic but there's no anger on her face; it's incredulity.
The tension between them mounts and Palmer's distress grows, only to by brought under enforced control by Higgins. Finally she steps out of the bottom of the scene. There's an expression on her face he hasn't seen in about a year, the frightened rabbit look he'd gotten to know too well when he'd returned from Mexico.
x
"What did she say?" He can barely believe he's asking this. "What's her explanation?"
"Nothing. She denied the whole thing."
"She did what?" The more he hears, the less sense it makes.
"I asked if there was some issue between them, some problem. She said 'no'. She insists the tray slipped out of her hand, that it was an accident. I told her I saw everything, that I watched her dump the stuff on Larsen. She insisted harder that I was wrong, that it was a slip. She says they're friends."
"They are."
"Looks to me like the friendship went south. I gave her several chances, she wouldn't come clean. I finally sent her away, came up here to double check. I was sure I wasn't wrong." He points to the frozen image of himself alone in the corridor. "I wasn't."
x
Gibbs turns to the operator at the control panel. "Back up the first footage and close in. Let me see it slow."
The images flash backward at extreme speed for less than five seconds, and when it stops Palmer is just stepping out of the Cashier area. The image zooms to a ten square foot area with Christina Larsen on the left side of the screen, seated at her table.
At barely one quarter speed Michelle steps into the frame and Gibbs can see the slow rise of steam coming from the large cup and the bowl. His agent pauses beside the other, and at this magnification he can see her eyes glance briefly down to the woman beside her. She lowers her right hand, raises her left almost vertical and the liquid flows through the air ahead of the containers to splash onto Larsen's face and chest.
For an instant at this reduced speed Larsen doesn't move, then shock paints itself on her face and she leaps upward, her mouth open in the first of many screams.
But Gibbs' attention is on Palmer and he watches surprise evolve into shock. She releases the tray which slowly falls downward to the floor, moving less slowly than the scalded woman but Palmer's reaction isn't what he expects.
Shock and distress mount, coupled with horror, and until her hands cover her mouth she paints a very convincing image of astonished distress over the agony of a friend.
x
As others move into the frame Larsen rips open her blouse and Gibbs can see the burns are already livid around Larsen's white bra after only seconds, and he can watch her skin of face and torso grow redder even as Palmer's distress increases.
"She paints a good picture," Higgins says of Michelle's response to the 'accident'. "If I hadn't been watching from the beginning, I think I'd have even believed it was like she told it."
"She's not that good an actress."
Higgins turns on him, surprised. "You mean you believe her, that this was an accident? You want to see it again?"
He watches Palmer, who hasn't been able to put anything past him since the day they met - her face is a mask of her true thoughts - give an utterly convincing display of a shocked woman whose just been involved in a tragic and unexpected accident. If this is an act….
"She's not acting."
"Larsen's in Medical with first degree burns over 20 percent of her body."
"And Palmer denied everything?"
"Vehemently. Tray slipped, it was an accident, they're friends, she'd never hurt her. Now we've dealt with all sorts of liars, but either she's suddenly gotten better that every politician on the Hill -"
"Palmer couldn't lie about her shoe size."
"Or else she's become a Sociopath in a day."
Gibbs shakes his head. "Or she actually believes every word of her story."
x
Gibbs is glad when Higgins stops, because he has to make a decision, resolve how he's going to address this. It's an evidently deliberate assault caught on camera in merciless detail, followed by the apparent aftermath of a horrific accident, from a woman he's known for over a year to be barely capable of a convincing lie. Normally he'd go to Ducky. He'd never go to the Medics, doesn't trust their judgment but Ducky is in Scotland and Isles…. The woman's a walking encyclopedia but is she any good with psychology?
Is Palmer faking this? No. DiNozzo would say she couldn't fake her way out of a paper bag - how senseless is that? - he'd expect such a mixed metaphor from Ziva but considering the man's condition he'll cut him some slack - but he knows she can handle herself if the situation calls for it. The woman's had one major Undercover assignment, had done adequately and he'd backed her on that because there was no one else who could do the job and she's a trained Special Agent but….
But she and DiNozzo are both behaving bizarrely. He'd thought that there been no connection between them during or after DiNozzo's poisoning - haven't the doctors identified it yet? - but what is going on with those two?
They were in that maze together. No, not together, but in the maze. She never reached DiNozzo, but she'd touched many of those transparent walls. Could there be something more to that place than CS discovered, some trap meant for rescuers?
Did they even look at the maze?
He turns to the operator. "Let me see it again. Slower."
xxx
McGee and David look from his car in front of the driveway to a one story home barely three quarters of a mile from Scalici's place. He's used the car to block the blue Ford Taurus backed into the driveway; no fast getaway or high speed chase through suburbia.
He sees Ziva check her Sig but does no more than loosen his own weapon in its holster. In the images of their prey she's little more than a girl, and he expects it to be more likely that he'll deal through an astounded or outraged parent.
Ziva cocks a shell into the chamber and holds the weapon in her hand as she pulls the door handle.
"Whoa, Zee, what are you doing?"
She turns to him and in her eyes he sees that he looks to her like he's spouted a second head. "We are apprehending a dangerous perpetrator."
"She's a sixteen year old girl, not Doctor Evil." He immediately regrets the comparison; Myers had proven a challenge for no one but himself.
"She is a manipulative murderess who has enticed a series of men into raping and beating to death a still unknown number of innocent women. These women sought on-line romance and she engineered their deaths. And I remind you, Tim, that the last 'girl' you challenged and underestimated nearly ruptured your testicles."
Actually, the last woman he'd 'challenged' hadn't been the one Ziva was thinking of. It'd been SA Nell Jones and she'd done nothing more than bang her palms against his chest and completely humiliate him before a hundred strangers.
He remembers the incident Ziva is referring to, but he'd prefer to forget that brief but painful encounter.
"I'd rather start out with a carrot than a stick."
"You munch on your carrot," she says, getting out of the car with Sig firmly in hand, "I shall beat her over the head with my stick."
'Is it my imagination,' he thinks as he gets out and quickly follows her, intending to reach the door first and establish a non-shooting approach, 'or am I the only one not terminally grouchy?'
x
He wishes, as he passes Ziva, that they had a warrant. Things often go far more smoothly with that piece of paper, but there's no time. Not only is Michelle Palmer, who would normally be tasked with that, erratically absent - UA Gibbs would consider her - but they must move quickly to take this girl down. If she realizes Scalici has been taken, she'll probably run.
The direct approach often being the best one when dealing with minors, they walk to the front door and he knocks.
Ziva has stopped a few feet back where she can observe the situation as a whole, and quite probably blow Waghoff out of her shoes if she does anything, yet he wishes there were more agents to cover the back.
He considers sending Ziva around the house, but splitting the team is a very bad idea.
He knocks again, more sharply. "One moment," a woman's voice calls from within. He waits until a blonde woman wearing jeans and blue blouse opens the door.
"Mrs. Waghoff?"
"Yes?"
He makes a fast introduction. "We're looking for Mary Waghoff. Is she home?"
"No, I'm sorry, she's out. Can I help you?"
McGee and David pull out their IDs, offer brief introductions. "We'd like to speak to your daughter."
Tim can read in the woman's face the many thoughts that flash through her mind when Federal Agents come asking to speak to a minor.
"Why?" is the first question the woman chooses, the classic choice.
x
Tim doesn't want to put her back up. "We believe she may be a witness to a crime. Do you know a John Scalici?"
"He's one of her friends."
"What do you know about him?"
"Next to nothing. Why? Has he done something?"
Something indeed. "Do you know where your daughter is now, Mrs. Waghoff?"
"She's gone out for the day."
There was no vehicle in the driveway. "Did she take the car?"
"Yes."
He doesn't want to alert her by asking too many questions. DMV records will tell him more about the car than he can get from the woman. He'd rather she think they were trying to help her daughter. "We believe this man, John Scalici, to be dangerous. Did she say anything before she left?"
"She said something about the Crescendo."
A glance at Ziva shows Tim she has her PADD out and is quickly thumb-typing.
"What do you mean 'dangerous'?" the woman asks. "How dangerous?"
"You needn't worry about that. He's in custody."
"Thank God," she breathes. "I didn't trust him."
"I thought you didn't know him well."
"You don't have to know someone to not trust him."
"Yes, ma'am." He pulls out his wallet, withdraws one of his cards and hands it to Waghoff. "As soon as you can get in touch with her, please call me." He knows this is a gamble and he doesn't like the odds. "Does she have a cell phone?" He'd found nothing registered in her name, itself a defiance of odds for a teenage girl.
"No."
He decides that if she does have one, even if the woman doesn't know it, it will be a burn phone, disposable and virtually untraceable. Nevertheless, he must try.
xx
When Tim and Ziva walk the stone path to the sidewalk, he's very worried. Ziva reveals that "I did not find any 'Crescendo' in DC."
"It's not a place, it's a thing, like the climax of a book. She must know we've taken Scalici and that we'd eventually come for her. She's hiding."
"We shall find her." She sounds assured of that. He's sure she's wrong.
"We're not going to find her in time." She turns to him and he sees her understanding in the apprehension that shines in her eyes. "Crescendo. Climax. They're committing these murders by remote control," he reminds her.
The color falls from her face. "She is going to set the rest of them off."
xxx
When Gibbs comes down from MTAC he expects to see Palmer but she's not at her desk, and McGee and Ziva have called with very bad news. Palmer had gone for that break for lunch and that's the last he'd seen of her. She's now severely overdue, but he knows why she'd be reluctant to return to the bullpen.
He'd tried to call her, but her cell phone is turned off. He'd then called the main gate, they'd contacted their Security counterparts and within minutes had called back. Palmer hasn't left the Yard.
She and DiNozzo are both acting strangely. Is there some connection to the bizarre behavior they both display?
Palmer is absent. Why? Guilt? But Gibbs doesn't call for a search for her. He wants the chance to talk to her before bringing anyone outside the team (beyond Fred Higgins) into the issue. With worry over DiNozzo and now the stress over Wahhoff, he doesn't need a UA agent.
She'd conspired with McGee's wife to get her husband a couple of weeks in a Franciscan Friary as a way of getting his head back together and give them a chance to save their marriage. In his opinion she needs this Retreat more than he does.
He doubts she'll have the chance to get it.
x
His cell phone rings, and when he hears the voice call his name he's vastly relieved. This is his first bit of good news all afternoon. "What've you got, Abs?"
/Five tons of anxiety attacks! How can you not tell me Tony was poisoned?/ the slightly distorted voice demands.
"You were in Louisiana. I needed answers fast." It's not an excuse, he never makes excuses, but neither does he apologize.
/I was in Louisiana! We're on a plane into Dullus./
He knew this but "We?"
/Dawn's with me, but never mind that. Listen, I've already spoken to Ruby and had her call the hospital. From her analysis it's definitely Amanita muscaria poisoning. Probably a derivative. Now I'm going to land in an hour but I am monumentally pissed that you guys haven't figured out the formula on your own, since I deduced it just from what Ruby read from Major Mass Spec and Colonel Gas Spectroscope.
/I'm coming into Dullus as I said; they wouldn't let me divert this monstrosity to Reagan, but I'd've had to wait until this evening for an available seat. When I land I'm going to break every speed record you've ever set./
"I'll have a car waiting for you."
/No, Gibbs, I'm not going to argue with some Probie who won't drive fast enough. I'm getting a rental - I already booked it from up here - but when I get to my lab to concoct the antidote if it's not already made I want you and Ruby and everyone else to stay the hell out of my way!/
The click of the airphone proves she's learned at least one lesson from him.