Pampero
Joy parks the Porsche and gets Jethro out, putting him on the leash, and walks towards the baseball game.
Little Rick was sitting on the reserve bench, and sometimes he would look towards the seats, where his mom would wave for him.
"Hey, loser, it's your turn," says one of the pitchers, calling him to the base.
He takes his bat, and walks slowly towards the base, hearing slurs from the other team all the time.
"Hey, little girl, let's see if you can even see our ball!" shouts one boy from the other team.
Rick raises his bat, and gets ready to play.
"GO RICKY!" a female voice shouts, and there is a bark accompanying her shout.
He looks at the benches, and the special agent from the other day is there, cheering for him, with a tall man by her side and a dog, barking excitedly.
"Ready to play?"
Ricky smiles, "yeah."
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
After a very tense game, Ricky's team won. The kids were all cheering, and Rick turned to the benches, where his mother had approached the agents, and waved.
Once Joy saw that Rick was coming towards her, she leaned down and whispered something in the ear of the German shepherd, and released the leash. The dog went running towards Rick, jumping and slobbering all over him, and making a doggie party.
Rick simply laughed, and fell to the ground, hugging the dog and scratching behind his ears.
"Thank you very much," says Lannie, Veseley's widow, "I can't remember when Rick last laughed like that. Thanks for coming watch the game."
"It was a pleasure, it was a nice game," says McGee.
"Have you found anything new about my husband's killer?" Lannie says, and the toddler in her arms puts his head on her shoulder, blinking sleepily, holding a purple dinosaur in its tiny fists.
"That's actually why we would like to talk to you," starts Joy, but she shuts up when she see a man approaching them.
"Hey Lannie," the stranger calls out.
"Hi, Malcolm, please come here," she turns to the agents, "this is Malcolm Beckinsale, he was helping Lawrence coach the baseball team."
She turns to her friend, "these are Agents Joy Buchanan and Timothy McGee, from NCIS," they shake hands with him, "they are investigating Lawrence's murder."
"Really," says Malcolm, looking both agents, becoming interested with this piece of news, "so, have you found anything to bring his murderer to justice?"
McGee smiles politely, "not yet, we're still in the investigation phase."
A car horn sounds twice, and a woman's voice shouts, "MAL, WE'RE LEAVING." The adults turn to the car, and see a dark blue SUV, and a cute buxom blonde is in the driver's seat, with a small boy sitting behind.
"My wife," says Malcolm, "gotta go," he turns to Lannie, "call us if you need anything, Lannie, we'll keep in touch," and he runs to the blue SUV, hops in the passenger seat and leaves.
"Lawrence and Malcolm organized the carpool to take the kids to games or for an ice cream," says Lannie, with a sad smile. The agents start walking, and Lannie calls out to Rick, who runs closer happily followed by Jethro.
"Special Agent Joy, you brought your guard dog!" says Ricky, breathless.
Joy laughs, "he's not a guard dog, he's a drug dog."
"Drug dog?"
"Yes," says Timothy, and he messes up with Rick's hair, "he was trained to find drugs, which is fine because," he looks at Jethro the dog, that now had laid down on the floor and had all four legs up, and was twisting its body begging to be patted on his belly. Rick, of course, happily complied, and Tim adds, "he would be completely useless as a guard dog."
Jethro whines, and opens his mouth and lets his tongue hang outside, while Rick rubs his belly.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
After some insisting from Tim and Joy, and some begging from Ricky, Lannie and her children accepted the invitation to visit the Buchanans' home in Norfolk.
There, she was introduced to Lisa, Johnny's wife, and Lannie and Lisa immediately connected, over their worries about mortgages and school bullying.
Joy and Tim left the two mothers to talk alone a little bit, and were relieved to see Lannie finally relaxing. Her little toddler, Carson, was playing excitedly in the backyard with Priscilla, both running after Jethro, who was basking in all the attention devoted to him. Matt and Sarah were sitting outside, watching the two little children and keeping an eye on the dog, ensuring that he wouldn't be too rough with the baby, but Jethro the dog would placidly lay down and let the baby crawl all over him.
Jacob Buchanan, known as Jake, arrives with a thud of the door, and is introduced to Rick by his Aunt Joy. She suggests he take Rick to see his computer, and to play a little bit online, and despite their age differences – Rick is eight, and Jake is fourteen – both promptly agree and rush upstairs to start battling with dragons in Dungeons and Dragons.
After sharing a cup of coffee and a small piece of carrot cake, Lisa leaves Tim and Joy with the widow, and goes to check on the boys.
"Mrs. Veseley," starts Tim, just to be interrupted by Lannie.
"Lannie, please," she smiles, "Mrs. Veseley is my mother-in-law."
"Lannie," starts Tim again with a kind smile, "were you aware that your husband collected Comics?"
"Comics?" she looks, confused, at the agents, "yes, he adored them, he even got mad at Rick for taking some of them to school, but…" she looks at Joy, "is this somehow related to his death?"
"Lannie, Mr. Veseley… Lawrence, your husband, was a top of the line collector. He had some of the most coveted editions ever published and he was slowly selling his pieces during the last three years," says Joy gently.
"Were you aware of that?" asks Tim, looking at her face, looking for any evidence of false surprise, but she seemed genuinely shocked.
"Selling his comics? But … are they worth any money? He usually hid them, because Rick basically ransacked the attic looking for them some months ago."
"Did Rick mention these comics to anyone?"
"No, Lawrence urged Rick to promise him not to tell a soul, because that would be his legacy to him," she shakes her head, "I never understood the connection those two had, since Rick was a baby, Lawrence would sit down on his bed, whenever he put him to bed, and read the same comics over and over again with him, until both of them had the story memorized. Lawrence told me his father would do the same thing to him, and that's why he kept the comics so carefully."
She looks confused at the two agents before her, who are looking at each other, as if deciding how much to tell her.
"Lannie," starts Joy, and turns to the widow, "we checked your alibi and we're spoken extensively to people who could corroborate it, we're confident that you have nothing to do with your husband's death, and that's why you have to know this," Joy makes a pause, and looks the widow in the eye, "Lawrence sold eight comics in the last three years, and in just eight sales he accumulated a net worth of two hundred eighty five thousand dollars."
Lannie gasps, "but… what… how…"
McGee leans towards her, and supports his elbows on his knees, and continues, "He was in contact with the top five collector's of the country, and he was negotiating the sale of the rest of his collection. If he had stayed alive to finish it, with the great pieces he has, he could easily have reached one million dollars.
Lannie is breathing harshly, "I had no… I …" her eyes fill with tears, and she looks at the female agent, broken-hearted.
Joy stands up, and sits beside her, and takes her hand and squeezes it in her own, "Lannie, that's a lot of money for a simple petty officer to have, and he was bound to have had someone watching, or at least aware of what he was doing, so I have to ask you again, did anyone else know about Lawrence's collection?"
Lannie shakes her head no.
"Did you ever mention his comics to anyone?"
Lannie shakes her head no in shocked silence.
"Did anyone ever ask you about Lawrence habits or quirks, or did you mention his reading habits with Rick to anyone outside your family?"
Again, Lannie's answer is negative.
Joy sighs, and nods. She looks at Tim, silently asking if there's anything else he wants to add to the interview.
"Lannie, on the day of the murder, did you notice anything different about the way Lawrence acted? Was he nervous, worried, sad, anything out of character?"
"As I told your Agent Gibbs," she glances at Joy, who nods, "Lawrence seemed a little worried, but that's probably because he had to oversee a big incoming shipment arriving in one week, he was always worried about the last minute details. He was a very perfectionist man, my Lawrence."
"Anything else that seemed a little odd?" Tim is looking at the widow, "a word, a sentence, anything that you might remember?"
"No," she shakes her head, then slowly frowns, "yes," she glances at Tim, "one day, after arriving with Ricky from a game, he told me not to wash Ricky's uniform."
Joy frowns at that, and glances at Tim, then back at Lannie, "why?"
"He never told me," says Lannie, "he took the dirty uniform and went out for a while, and when he came he didn't have the uniform with him." Joy glances again at Tim, "I had to ask for a new uniform for Rick, as he never returned that one to me."
"Did he ever tell you why or where he took the uniform?"
"No," she says, "when I asked, he told me that it wasn't my business and then," she shrugs, "he was dead three days later."
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Jake leaves Rick killing a twelve foot dragon, and goes to the bathroom on the end of the corridor. While he's taking a leak, someone knocks on the door.
"Wait a second," he shouts. He finishes, washes his hand, and opens the door and has the biggest shock of his entire life.
There is a God, He exists, and His masterpiece is right before him.
Soft skin pale skin, doe like eyes, long curly brown hair framing an oval face, a small perky nose, all crowned with a small pink mouth made for kissing, which right now was stretching into a smile.
"Hi, you must be Jake," the Angel before him spoke.
"Ahhhh…"
SLAP.
"Ouch," Jake rubs his head, and looks at his uncle Matt, who is standing behind the Angel and looking down at him, almost growling.
"Stop gawking at my girlfriend, carrot head," growls Matt.
"Your girlfriend?" Jake looks again at Sarah, who now can't hide her mirth over his reaction, "This hot girl is your girlfriend? Do you even know what to do with such perfection?" Jake blushes as soon as he realizes what he has said, and Sarah starts laughing wholeheartedly.
SLAP.
"Ouch," says Jake.
"Shut up, carrot head."