AN: Thank you so so much for the reviews!!!
Survival Italian:
Mi scusi: Excuse me
Il mio nome: My name
Mio caro: My dear
(Tony)f
Gibbs is going to kill me. He is going to outright kill me. Hopefully in time he'll forgive me, but if he never does I'll understand. I have to do this though. This is family, you back your family. If it was Gibbs in that seat I'd do it for him too. Of course Gibbs would never be accused of killing a senator's daughter, but that's not the point.
Those cops, they will break my cousins, especially since this is such a high profile case. And the only way I'm going to get information is if I dive head first into this. And I don't care what the evidence says, there is no way they killed anyone, especially a sixteen year old girl.
I walk up to the secretary of the station.
"Hello ma'am", I say as sweetly as I can, "I'm counsel for James De Luca, could you please point me to the direction of the interrogation room?"
She looks up and tells me exactly where they are. I walk past the two way room, see a million cops, the senator himself, and surprisingly my father. I push past all of them, and go into the interrogation room. I ignore the angry protests from the police. Simona is standing and both my cousins are sitting looking somber.
"I can take it from here Simona", I tell her, "You go to Christian."
She nods and leaves.
The officer looks at me, "And who exactly might you be?"
"Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo", I say with a smile and extend my hand. "What might your name be?"
He shakes my hand, but he's unsteady and evaluating me.
"Special Agent George Carter", he says, "You here to relieve me?"
"Oh no sir", I say smiling, "I'm sorry for the confusion but I'm actually here for the defense. These boys here are my cousins."
"DiNozzo", he repeats, "Anthony DiNozzo you said?"
I nod my head.
He touches his earpiece and someone quickly reminds him why my name sounds so familiar to him.
"So", I say, "My cousins are not yet ready to produce a statement."
"Like I was telling your lawyer", he starts.
"Simona", I interrupt him, "Her name is Simona."
"Fine", he says getting flustered, "Simona, like I was telling Simona these two are under arrest and we are not letting them go, so either they talk now or I bring them back to gen pop."
"Jail don't scare me", Carmine shouts, "You don't scare me!"
I bang the table and look directly at my cousin, "You say nothing. Nothing."
He shrugs and goes back to looking like a badass.
I figure its best to get all of the information out now, so I'm going to let him ask his questions. I won't let them answer any of them, but I need information so let the games begin.
"You direct all questions to me Georgie", I say, "I'll help you sort this mess out."
(Gibbs)
I don't remember being this angry in a very long time. I will kill him, I will kill him, I will kill him. I catch a cab, and I will kill him. I walk past the secretary, and I will kill him. I find the action myself, and I will kill him. I walk into the room where I can see my agent in action, and I will truly kill him. Interesting enough I also find DiNozzo senior here. Hell I'll kill him too for producing DiNozzo. I look into to observe.
"You care to explain how there is no evidence Special Agent DiNozzo?"
So apparently they are going to try and take advantage of the little time they have with DiNozzo to get all their questions in.
"Mi scusi?"
Tony is in full arrogance mode, and ready to annoy. He's quite good at this.
"No trace evidence. You and I both know with this video that Meagan Broome died in that room!"
"No", Tony corrects slowly as if he's talking to child, "We know from the video that you just showed me that we can place her in my cousin's shed, not that she was killed there. You can't even prove that the attackers were my cousins, hell you can't even prove that there were attackers! All you have is a video of a girl crying in a shed that has similar qualities to one that my cousins own."
"Special Agent DiNozzo", he grits, "You mafia?"
The reaction is instantaneous. All three cousins jump. The brothers' chairs fall onto the ground and start screaming. Their hands are still cuffed, but they seem to have forgotten that as they try desperately to throw their hands in the air.
"Hey", Tony yells at his cousins, "Sit, you two sit! Non dite niente, nothing, you hear me? Hey, mi avete capito?"
The two grumble and reluctantly sit back down muttering in Italian.
"I", Tony punctuates looking right into Carter's eyes, "Am not mafia. We, are not mafia. My family is not mafia. You have absolutely no evidence that this family could be involved in mafia other than the fact that our last name ends in a vowel."
"You sure Antonio", he cop asks. With extra spite on his name.
"My name", Tony spits out, "Il mio nome, is Anthony Di fucking Nozzo."
Di fucking Nozzo. Yeah that about sums it up. He's so dead when this is over.
"My apologies", Carter responds sarcastically.
"I don't particularly care for this", Tony continues, "Perhaps I should air my greviances with the press."
This time Carter is unfounded.
"What?"
"You are bigoted and streotyping me based on my ethnicity", Tony continues smugly, "Wait until I shout from the mountain tops that the NYPD and the fucking FBI is accusing of a wealthly Italian family of mafia connection based on those two facts alone. You have no evidence. Officer Carter, what did you say your first name was again, I want to make sure I have it right before I speak to the reporters. George isn't it?"
"Now wait a minute", Carter starts, "You can't do that."
If this was my operation I would have pulled Agent Carter a while ago and have yelled at him for being so unguraded to let DiNozzo annoy and get him so off point.
"Watch mio carof", Tony says while regaining his footing in the room, "You might want to sit down because you just might get a tad dizzy with all the spinning I'm about to do. Wealthy Italian family wrongly accused of mafia connections after white senator's daughter goes missing with no evidence! Preferntial treatment showed to white victim over Italian rape victim. Police accuse Special Agent of mafia connections because of his ethnicity, imagine what they do to those who are just plain civilians! FBI illeglly charges into church to wrongly accuse grieving family! FBI assault funeral attenders in church!"
"Meagan Broome's body was in that coffin! How do you explain that?"
"I don't have to", DiNozzo shoots right back, "That's your job, your job is prove guilt, and you have yet to show anything concerete. There were at least a hundred people in that church, including your cops and agents."
"Shut up DiNozzo", he screams, "You listen here, it's either it was mafia or it was you!"
That silences DiNozzo only temporarily.
"And exactly how do you figure that?"
"Either mafia became involved to clear that crime scene so perfectly, or you did. And since you have clearly stated that your family is not mafia that leaves no option now doesn't it? Her body was mutilated, and we can't find any blood!"
"You are forgetting one other option", Tony says smiling.
"And what would that be?"
Tony fingers for him to come closer. He puts his hand up to Carter's ear like he's telling a secret, and voice gets real low.
"Or", he starts then takes away his hand and screams to the two way glass, "They didn't do it."
"Oh they did it", Carter spits back, "That's all you got? We have them on tape leaving the scene with her-"
"Yes" Tony cries, "Leaving willingly." He takes a breath and puts on his patronizing face, "Georgie, you are forgetting things now, we already went through this. Getting old in you age?"
"Georgie" is about DiNozzo's age, but he's too pissed to be thinking logically and gets insulted all the same.
"She had no idea what their intentions were!"
"She left willingly."
"We pulled a video of her crying from their computer!"
"That video was put online, a million people saw it! And additionally that video does not show her attackers. It's not enough. You also pulled a video from her phone of my cousin being raped! Or did we forget that little detail?"
"Yes but Mary didn't end up dead!"
"And they didn't kill Meagan! Here's a tidbit, Italians don't touch women!"
Carter laughs in face, "Spare me please."
Tony sees how weak the argument is, but I know that to him that's all the evidence he needs. Tony trusts that his cousins wouldn't hurt her physically.
"You want to explain how her corpse ended up in your aunt's coffin?"
"Do you have any evidence that we put it there?"
Silence.
"That means no", Tony says confidently, "That means you have no forensic evidence that shows any semblance of us putting that body into that coffin."
"You don't seem too concerned regarding the whereabouts of your aunt", Carter says, "Is it perhaps because she isn't dead? Or because you already had her buried."
"I'm not answering that", Tony replies, "Until I see all the forensic evidence. After I see the reports I happily explain to you what happened since you can't seem to do that yourself too well."
Peter DiNozzo is outright chuckling and not too discreetly at that. I see the way he is looking at his son, there is a new found respect and admiration for Tony.
"That's my boy", he tells me.
I nod my head. Apparently he is no longer angry with me.
"Some things never change", he tells me, "This is what he was like as a child. My boy, he's smart eh?"
"Very", I say.
"He's got personality too", he tells me, "He got that from my wife Rosemarie. I'm smart now too Mr. Gibbs, but I never had that fire, not like my Rosie, or Tony. It's such a shame she died so early. Tony would have really benefitted from knowing her. Sometimes, when I look in his eyes, I see his mother's heart and soul. He was always her son."
"He does have heart", I agree. "You do realize that this could destroy his career."
"What career", DiNozzo responds hastily, "Mr. Gibbs, my son just likes to act out. His supposed career with NCIS is nothing more than him having a temper tantrum. He's just waiting for me to come around and finally tell him that it's okay, and I tell you, the second I do that he'll come running back to New York. But I'm not going to give in, you can't do that Mr. Gibbs, that's not how you negotiate."
I have nothing to say to that, so I settle for looking at him.
"What", he asks me indignantly, "You don't agree?"
"No Mr. DiNozzo", I state, "I don't agree. Your son is brilliant and his investigative skills mirror nothing but excellence. He loves his job sir, and with all due respect, he will not come running back with his tail between his legs. You want to know why? Because when you're good at something, it's addicting, and he's good, and better yet, he knows it."
I take a breath and then decide I only have so much time here that I might as well take advantage of it. Any information could be used to help Tony.
"You dying Mr. DiNozzo?"
The question takes him aback, and for a while he says nothing as we continue to watch the interrogation.
"I am", he says suddenly, "Why do you ask?"
"Your son", I say, "Loves you. Make peace with him. Tell him you're proud of him, tell him that you're sorry for the years lost, tell him that from now on out you'll call and that you expect him to do the same. Tell him that you are going to ignore the past and that he should do the same and only look forward. Your son Mr. DiNozzo, is stubborn and if you confront about his life choices you will not get the desired results. You haven't gotten them so far, so I wouldn't count on it for the future."
"He abandoned his family", he says quietly.
"Oh yeah", I say, "Cause right now it looks like he's defending his family at a great career risk to himself, and it took Mr. DiNozzo, only one phone call."
I turn to face him head on, "Be a father", I say, "Be a father for once in your life to that boy."
The man is dying and because of that his ego seems to have been stripped from him.
"I don't know how", he tells me. "I never did, that was Rosie's job."
"Just tell him you love him."
"He was such a difficult child", he states, "Everyday he came home in trouble, detentions, suspensions, nothing worked on him. He had no respect for me either. You think I'm too hard on him? You don't know what it was like. He was impossible. Sex in the bathrooms with teachers, speeding tickets, drag racing, public intoxication, you have no idea what he put me through. He was such an embarrassment. And then him and Dominic, you have no idea how bad they were together. I tried, I did, but I couldn't fix it. He was out of control, and he didn't listen. He listened to nobody, except maybe Dominic, he's always loved him something fierce. Nothing I did worked, you couldn't punish him hard enough. You couldn't hit him hard enough, there was a point Mr. Gibbs that I thought my son was the antichrist. All I ever had Mr. Gibbs was my business, it was the only thing I've ever done right, and I wanted so badly to share that with him, to give it to him to make up for the crappy job I had done as his father. I thought things would be different, we could work together, we could be together, we could be friends, and he just threw it all in my face. I work like a dog day in and day out and for what? I gave him the nicest clothes, food, cars, money, the world, and he tells me that he wants to go to college in friggin Ohio of all places so he can be a cop. A cop! And Ohio! Who the hell wants to go to Ohio when you're in friggin New York! I love my son Mr. Gibbs, but he gave me no choice."
"Tell him that then", I offer.
He sighs and looks back to the scene unfolding in front of us.
"Those stupid boys", he tells me, "I told their mother that they would end up in jail one day."
"You also told your son he'd end up in the gutter", I say before I can stop myself.
"Yeah", he says like its nothing, "Anthony was always too smart to get caught."
So that was a compliment in his mind, I'll make sure to pass that along some day to Tony.
"I think we are done here for now", Tony says, "They are answering no other questions. I will let you know when I solve this for you."
"You think this is funny", Carter screams, "A man just lost his daughter!"
"I am sympathetic to that fact, but what you are not appreciating is that these two morons sitting here did not do it. I didn't do it. None of us did it. Your bigotry blinds you. I'll keep you apprised. Just so we're clear these two are not to be spoken to without counsel or myself present."
Carter laughs.
"You think it's that easy", he says, "No Agent DiNozzo, you don't get to call the shots."
He motions for someone behind the glass to come forward. Another agent enters the room.
"Agent Wang", he states, "Please take James De Lucas into a separate holding cell. Let's see how loyal they are now to each other."
Agent Wang goes over and forcibly takes James in his hand and leads him out the door.
"You can't be in two places at once DiNozzo", Carter says.
"Jamie", DiNozzo shouts, "You say nothing, you listen to nothing, you say or sign nothing! Do you understand me?"
Despite his tough guy bravado the kid is terrified and nods.
"Jamie", DiNozzo shouts again, "Nothing! You don't listen to them, you only listen to me! He wants a lawyer."
"And he will get one Agent DiNozzo", says Agent Carter, "But he will still be in our custody with our agents escorting him around."
DiNozzo picks up his cell and dashes out of the room following Jamie and Agent Wang.
"Jamie", he says, "They are going to fuck with your head, but you say and sign nothing! You don't listen to anything they say, it's all lies, you do nothing without me or Simona!"
DiNozzo picks up his cell and calls Simona apprising that she is needed in another room.
"You can't do this", DiNozzo shouts to the glass wall where there are several agents and myself watching. "They have rights! They want legal counsel! You pull any tricks with them and I'll know about it, and I'll call you on it in court!"
DiNozzo senior steps out of the room with his phone ready for a presume to be a call to a law office.
Another agent walks into the room. A small blonde thing, but I can tell that she can yield more power and is more dangerous than Carter. She takes the main seat as Carter stands in the background looming over the still seated Carmine. Tony was able to break Carter, I have doubts he will be able to do the exact same to this one.
"Agent DiNozzo", she says, "My name is Linda Blaris. And you are in no position to be making demands."
"Linda", DiNozzo pleads trying to win her over, "There are several gaps missing, and you know that until you can explain you cannot hold them accountable."
"Anthony", she says coyly back to him, "You must understand that the only reason you have not been forcibly removed from this room is because we do not want anyone clamming up. What you just did with Jamie was a grave mistake. We are simply investigating to learn the truth. We also share your zeal in finding out exactly who is responsible for what. You must also understand agent that in addition to Meagan Broome's death an undercover agent has also gone missing in relation to this case. What you are doing, and how you are advising your cousins is obstructing the truth."
"Excuse me Agent Blaris", DiNozzo says, "But my cousins asserting their legal rights is not a mistake. You do not share my zeal as you put it. You have an agenda. Please do not mistake me for an idiot, I know exactly how it is that these things work. Also Linda, you should understand that if you remove me from this room, a lawyer will quickly replace me and his advice will be to say nothing. I am here to help mediate things so we can conclude this. Trust me agent Blaris, agent Carter, you do not want me out of this room."
"You are destroying your career" she responds back calmly.
"I am protecting my family", Anthony says with the same grace. "And I am disabusing these fallacies. A girl is dead, and I want nothing more than to help find her killer. Unfortunately, you do not have them sitting here."
That's my boy. This is why I react so strongly when Tony talks and walks like some playboy. He's smart, he's good, and he's got balls. And when he acts like some child and lets other people treat him like the village idiot, I get angry, and mind you, I get angry at him. He should always present himself in this manner, without the cursing, without the flair and without the ridiculous clothing. And despite how angry I am at him, his loyalty is something that is unbreakable, and I can't help but be proud.
"An undercover agent is missing", she says smoothly, "We fear that he is dead."
Tony runs his hands through his hair, "Ma'am I know absolutely nothing about that so you are going to have to catch me up."
"I have a better idea", she says, "Carmine is it?"
De Luca nods.
"You have been arrested twice before for selling drugs and convicted. Last night you were arrested again. If you were to be tried and convicted you would spend the rest of your life in jail. If you help us now we will cut you a deal."
Carmine looks at Tony nervously.
"Say nothing," Tony quickly advises.
"Carmine" she says again sweetly, "We know you didn't do this. We know that you were in someway involved, but we find it unlikely that you orchestrated this. Mary and Christian go to high school together so we are assuming that is where it started. Christian then went to Jamie, didn't he?"
"Say nothing", Tony repeats again.
"We know that's what happened. You just got pulled into this. We know that you weren't even around enough to have initiated this. And we also know that you are not violent."
She's working him, and she's doing an excellent job at it too, I just hope she isn't working Tony in the process.
"James is the one that has a history of violence. You tell us what we want to know and we will cut you a deal."
"Say nothing", Tony says deeply, and then to Blaris, "I have to speak with my attorney before we consider this."
"Simona Parsano?"
"Yes" Tony repeats.
What the hell? I look at my agent trying to get into his head. What the hell is he pulling? It's not like DiNozzo to sacrifice two to save the one. Especially the most idiotic one at that. I glance over to DiNozzo senior and see he is also confused.
Simona is brought into the room, but Tony takes her outside. When they return Simona speaks.
"Full immunity", Simona states.
"Absolutely not", Blaris replies.
"Oh no?", Simona asks. "And here I thought you would do anything to find this girl's killer. Let's cut the negotiation crap. You and I both know damn well about the public and political pressure your office is under to solve this case as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Trust me Ms. Blaris this is in your best interest. You know he had nothing to do with this. You want Jamie? You want the killer? Fine. We are not dealing for anything less than full immunity on the drug charges, and any involvement regarding Meagan Broome's death, kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of your unnamed agent, and ma'am, you have thirty minutes to draft it up or else we walk."
"I don't think so", Carter shouts at her.
"Thirty minutes", Simona grits out, "Clock is ticking, you better get on it, and as a show of good faith I'll cancel all interviews with the press regarding your intrusion into the church."
She has interviews already? These two are good.
"Give it to them", screams the senator from my end. "I don't care, I want that son of a bitch! Not some third rate drug dealing WOP. You give it to them! That bitch will walk out of here, take advantage of this now!"
The agents in charge try to calm the senator and advise him against it, but he is too upset to care. The lawyers scramble to put together the will in the time constrictions. I still do not see where this is going. I look at Simona and then Tony. Their faces are taught but their eyes are smiling. This could turn out to be quite interesting.
Tony leans down and whispers something into Carmine's ear. Carmine looks at him eyes wide open but nods. Everyone is too busy arranging the agreement and getting new leads on the missing agent that no one else is noticing the three cousins in the room but me.
Within the time limit set by Simona there is an agreement sitting on the table. Simona reads it over and nods to Tony.
"Sign it", Tony tells his cousin.
Carmine does so.
"Thank you Mr. De Luca", agent Blaris says, "Now tell us what we want to know."
I look at Tony and Simona, they're smirking.
"Okay", Carmine says, "I did it"
There is silence on both ends of the room.
"Excuse me", agent Blaris stutters for the first time loosing her cool, "What do you mean you did it, you did what?"
"All of it", Carmine says obnoxiously. "Her fucking boyfriend raped my sister, and this bitch was tormenting her everyday making her relive it. So I did it. I'm the oldest male in the family and it was my job to protect my baby sister. I did that. I acted alone. Now, as I understand it, I can go now right?"
"No", screams Carter, "No you cannot go now! Linda!"
Lawyers frantically run into the room to reread the contract. Under the pressure of thirty minutes and the continuous interruptions set forth by DiNozzo and Parsano the legal team wrote it a bit too hastily. No one expected this.
"You can't do this", Linda says.
"Actually", Carmine says, "My lawyer tells me different. Sim, I'm free right?"
"You're not going anywhere", screams Carter.
And on my end? Peter DiNozzo is laughing quietly to himself clearly enjoying the spectacle. He however he is alone in his joy. The rest of the agents are screaming back and forth, and the Senator has punched the wall and is screaming for DiNozzo's badge.
And as much as I love Tony, and I do love him like a son, its time to involve the team. The senator just lost his daughter; I know what that feels like. He is going to be ready to kill and I trust that his threats to take DiNozzo's badge are not empty. I text quietly in the corner without being noticed to Abbs to very vaguely to tell the team to track down Donna Brunelli and to get their asses up to New York.
One of the lawyers shouts above the rest, "This contract was set in place based off of the evidence that Carmine De Luca would provide us."
"Yes", Tony says, "He did that."
"He is lying", says Linda her voice getting dangerously close to screaming.
"Then arrest him for perjury", Simona states, "Of course you would need evidence of that."
"Fine", Linda yells, "How did you end up putting the body into the coffin? The true killer would know that. Where is your Aunt's body?"
"Don't answer that", says Simona, "You are under legal representation and you answer nothing."
"This is over", Tony says quietly, "Now, I'm going to have to ask you to remove the handcuffs on my cousin."
"And considering how you now have a confession", Simona states, "I'm going to have to ask that you also release Christian and James De Luca. You have nothing on them."
"We are not releasing them", says Linda.
"For the time being", Simona states, "By law, you are going to have to. You have your confession. This is over."
The screaming and panic on my end of the glass could be described as pure insanity. No one on the other side of the glass moves.
"Hey", Tony shouts, "Take off the handcuffs! And best believe that if you do not release James and Christian that we will immediately request a trial, and seeing as how you have no evidence it will only result in further embarrassment."
"You fucking Sicilian nigger", screams Carter and physically lunges himself at Tony.
Well shit.
Security teams run to take him off of DiNozzo. I however stay put. He won't kill him in a room full of a cops and I need to know exactly what is going on.
"That is illegal", cries Simona, "You have just assaulted a federal officer!"
"Yeah", Tony says getting up rubbing his neck from where he was strangled, "There's a penalty for that you know."
Simona starts in again. "If you do not release the three De Luca brothers this instant, we are bringing charges against you personally Officer Carter. And we will then follow with a lawsuit seeking punitive damages which will be sure to include that slur, come on now, how easy are you going to make this for me?"
I see a lot of Tony in Simona, its that throat-strangling cockiness these two share just so perfectly.
Linda Blaris to her credit calms herself and does what it is that they are asking.
I decide to wait for Tony outside in the lobby. DiNozzo senior exits before anyone of them can even say hello to him.
The five come out with people screaming at them. The brothers are whooping and being outright obnoxious, and Simona also shares in the excitement. DiNozzo, he however looks crushed.
The senator comes out and rushes them, "This is not over! They will find something and you will all pay!"
"Your daughter was real good in the sack", James screams at him, "We had real fun!"
The senator pales and rushes off before anyone can see him breakdown.
Tony also reacts to the comment. He grabs Jamie and pushes so hard against the wall that he must be seeing spots.
"That was his daughter", he says and slams his head against the wall again, "Show some fucking respect!"
He walks off angry and leaves the four in his dust. He's about to stomp off out of the place until he sees me. His eyes widen a bit.
"Hey boss", he says shamefaced.
"Come on DiNozzo", I tell him. "Let's get going."
My phone starts vibrating but I don't bother to look. I already know that the director is going to insist on DiNozzo's resignation.
Italian Translation:
"Hey", Tony yells at his cousins, "Sit, you two sit! Non dite niente, notfhing, you hear me? Hey, mi avete capito?" (Say nothing, you understand me?)