Chapter 8

"We have a new case," McGee said when he put down the phone.

"How can anyone think about cases when we're on critical alert," Tony complained.

"Only the agencies are on critical alert. For normal people time passes normally. They just lived with the explosion," Marissa said. "It wasn't them experiencing it," she added while she put the gun into her holster and picked up her rucksack.

"But there are people out there planning the next attack. A school, a kindergarten,...!"

"Tony, you have become quite sentimental since Kathleen," McGee commented.

"Wouldn't you?" the older agent asked and walked towards the elevator. McGee and Marissa exchanged looks. They followed him and arrived at the crime scene only twenty minutes later, about the same time that Gibbs appeared after his early-morning meeting with Agent Fornell. No agent dared to ask what it had been about, of course, but every agency had switched to higher alert. A terroristic attack without anyone seriously claiming responsibility meant no good. There had been made no announcements to the public and the risen safety had made changes very discreetly so that no one really noticed.

It was early afternoon when the team arrived and together with Gibbs they walked into the grubby hotel hallway. There was a long corridor until they arrived at the reception where a local police officer was talking to the receptionist. "The body was found in room 202," he informed the NCIS agents and followed by Ducky and Mr Palmer they walked upstairs.

Tony already smelled the decay scent on half way to the room. "Are you ready?" another police officer commented. Tony already had a bad feeling when he noticed the pale face of her.

Then he entered the room and the terrible odour became worse. The body must have hung here for a while, he thought. And then he realised what he thought and looked at the hanging body.

"Well, this was obviously thoroughly planned," Ducky commented. And indeed, the murderer must have brought his utensils to the crime scene.

Tony walked around the body and looked up to the ceiling. Someone had taken his time to fix a metal plate on the wood ceiling, which was connected to a chain hanging down. On the lower end, there was a kind of bracket or clamps. The person was naked and hanging upside down, his balls literally clamped into the brackets. The body was immobile floating in the air, only his testicles holding him up. They were hardly recognisable balls in dark lilac colour. The penis was stretched and looking like white glass right under the brackets, only gaining paler colour further down. The skin was very pale, only the head and upper chest were red, as the blood had flown downwards. His eyes were closed, his legs in an usual position, pointing sideward due to rigor mortis.

"This is disgusting," he muttered out of his mind. Who the hell would put him up there? Who had the strength – and who had the stomach to do such thing?

Without a comment, Ducky silently picked the temperature measuring device. It was a deadly silent in the whole room. Everyone was shocked and the forensic technicians tried to make no sound while numbering and photographing the evidence. Ducky sighed heavily before he walked around the hanging corpse and put the measuring device into the anus. "The time cannot be exactly calculated due to the unusual position of the corpse. The cooling blood has left this part of the body very quickly," he explained and the device began to peep. He took it out and looked at the ciphers. "But nevertheless, I would say that he is dead for about twelve hours now."

"What about the decay scent? It's much stronger than usual?" Tony said. Was it only his sensitive nose?

"I think I can explain this," Mr Palmer, who had been examining the body's head, claimed. Ducky kneed down next to him. "There are several grubs inside his mouth which had been eating the flesh and who have also scuttled into the trachea."

"Someone must have deliberately placed these insects in here to make dental recognition useless. We will probably need the help of forensic entomology," Ducky added.

"What about fingerprints analysis?" Gibbs asked.

"No result on the quick search," McGee answered.

"I don't think this is necessary," the police officer in charge who had just entered the room, said. "His name is Manuel Sochero, he is a politician and should have appeared in his office this morning after a two-week vacation. There he would have signed a petition against another, higher politician. Without his vote, the other politician could stay in his position. It's a lot of politics, I guess, and that's not really my cup of tea."

"Neither is it yours," Fornell said to Gibbs before he could open his mouth. The FBI agent had only just appeared in the doorstep and quickly looked to the ground when noticing the body.

"You taking away each of our cases now?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm sorry that NCIS had been called. But we have found two worn uniforms in this room so we wanted NCIS on the case first," a SOCO said.

Gibbs nodded and looked back at Fornell.

"I have only been sent here to clear the crime scene. A special unit of CIA is taking over, they claim this murder to be in relation with the attack a few days ago. This man here should have personally brought some files from the crime lab in Norfolk to the CIA office in Washington. I assume that you haven't accidentally found the explosives analysis?"

Gibbs shook his head.

"But they surely have backups in the lab, don't they?" Marissa asked.

"Yes, they did. Until the lab suffered from an unexplicable fire last night and the server of them had been hacked. They're slowly gaining back some information, but we think that something wants to remain undiscovered. Whoever bombed the school did a mistake, and now they're trying to cover it up. And they're taking a lot of risks to do so..."

With that words, NCIS had to pack up their things and were put back on the streets.

"Unbelievable," Gibbs muttered and the agents hurried to get in the car before their boss drove away.

Katarina woke up by an awkward noise. She lay silent for a time and only suspected another group of drunks on the street. But then she heard the distinct sound of footsteps and was awake all of sudden. She sat straight up in bed and slowly slid into her house shoes. She tiptoed to the door and leaned her head against it. There definitely was someone in their flat. She walked a few steps backwards and opened the night table drawer. Her fingers clenched around the semi-automatic when the door flung open. Instinctively, she raised her arms and pointed her gun at the intruders. There were two men, both pointing their own guns at her.

Katarina heard a shout and Caroline was pushed into her bedroom by a third man. They all wore clothes matching to the scene, but the man themselves didn't. They wore too pale for living in Italy. "CIA, put down your gun," the third man said.

Katarina looked over to her older sister who only nodded. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Some of our men died."

"We didn't do it," Caroline said firmly.

"They were here to observe you."

"They were operating on foreign soil. I assume the Italian secret service won't be happy," she answered.

The third man smiled and came closer. "You cannot simply kill agents of CIA and get away with it. Your cartel might own half the cops, but remember, there's still the other half."

"We did not kill your men. Didn't you listen?" Katarina said angrily.

"Then who did?"

Both sisters remained silent. When CIA did house visits, it was better to keep silent than to lie at them.

"Did you order their cold murder?" one of the other agents wanted to know.

Caroline shook her hands. "I had nothing to do with it. I had only heard about it when it had happened. What should I have done? Call you and tell that my shadows were just killed?"

"This is the last warning, Miss Montebello. Both of you," he said ignoring her rhetoric question. "One more thing and we'll arrest you and I'll move everything to get you both accused and charged." He turned around immediately and left the flat, followed by his two colleagues.

"Nice people," Katarina commented while Caroline hurried in the room where her daughters were. Carey was still sleeping but Scarlet sat fixedly on her bed.

"Everything alright?" Caroline asked and sat down next to her. Katarina leaned against the wall inside the room and regarded the baby sleeping calmly.

Scarlet nodded. "Who were these men?"

"They were from the police from America. They were here to check on us."

"Did they want you arrested?"

"Yes, they do. But they will not be able to do it. Because we pay attention. We do everything to not lose you, okay?"

The four-year-old nodded.

"So, what about returning to sleep? It's school time tomorrow," Caroline said warmly and kissed her on her front head. "Sleep well." She stood up and left the room. Katarina closed the door behind them and pushed her sister into the living room.

"I don't want to tell you it's too big – but it's too big. CIA is on you already and even if they're Scorpia or not, you shouldn't risk it anymore," she hissed.

"You are rising through the ranks of Italian's most fear crime organisation and you tell me what to do? You're second-head of the Bertani cartel and that's not less dangerous."

"I'm getting in contact with the right people. High profile criminals who don't get into prison. And they can get me out of there as well. When I get close enough, I can get on their level."

"Yeah, just sleep with enough people in suits and kill enough people on your way. It'll solve all problems!" Caroline shouted in a low-voice back. Her daughters shouldn't hear them argue.

"I'm not the one to watch two daughters. Well, actually I am."

"Oh, is it that? That you'd rather go off screwing big wheels instead of helping your sister to get her life back on."

"You got pregnant a second time!"

"It wasn't my fault. You know that," Caroline said and sat down on the small couch. She covered her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't fair," Katarina admitted and sighed. "Carey really wasn't your fault," she added and sat down aside her to put her arm around her shoulder.

"You had Edoardo and I had Yassen. It's only a coincidence that I had time to really build a family...but you were the one who wanted to settle down. I had only been his girlfriend, and I had thought we would have time. But you were the one already acting, you were the one being a grown-up. You got...engaged," Caroline muttered and wiped away a tear running down her cheek.

Katarina lay her head against her shoulder. "And now it's the two of us and we'll manage to get on...together, alright?"

Caroline nodded and silently the two sister hugged. "We should really go back to bed," Caroline commented after a while.

I would - indeed - appreciate reviews.

PS: I don't bite.

PPS: Unless -