Life, Lies and Video Surveillance
By Cortexikid
Chapter 16: Tortfeaser (Part II)
A/N: Part II/IV – where the real fun starts! Dedicated to SuperDensi427, thanks for all your encouragement and helpfulness! Hope you (and everyone else) like it! =] More obvious jealous!Kensi coming up in the next chapter! :D
SPOILERS: For both series!
Disclaimer: Seriously guys, wish I did, but I don't.
Time-Line: Oh and if people are wondering, I don't know if I mentioned this before, all the chapters in this series are based post-season-3 of NCIS: LA. I know I haven't dealt with the fallout of Sans Voir (Callen's arrest, Hetty's resignation etc.) but regardless the chapters are still set firmly in the future, when all has been resolved (as we know it will be in some shape or form). I may approach the finale issues properly sometime in the future though, depending on general consensus...
WOTD: TORTFEASER; tort·feas·er noun. A wrongdoer
"And seriously—that's what they call food? And what was with that stewardess? I thought she was gonna climb onto your lap at one poin—"
"Our bags," Steve McGarrett interrupted his partner's rant abruptly; nudging him with his elbow, before leaning to the left and clasping the three bags in one go, effortlessly heaving them off the conveyor belt as if they were as light as a feather.
"Neanderthal," Danny murmured as a tall, dark-haired woman jogged up to them, pulling a backpack over her shoulder.
"Danny still complaining about the flight, boss?" Kono Kalakaua asked with a haughty grin, her eyes gleaming as she took her bag from him.
"Don't be smug Kalakaua, you're sitting next to him on the flight home," McGarrett informed her as Danny wrenched his bag from his hands, a pointed glare directed at his partner.
Kono chuckled as she followed the two partners – who were now well in the midst of another one of their infamous bickering sessions – when a voice caught her attention from a couple of hundred yards away.
"Well, if it isn't Steve 'Smooth-Dog' McGarrett," Sam Hanna smiled widely as the 5-0 team neared one-half of the NCIS: OSP team.
"Well if it isn't Sam—"
"Don't you dare," Sam interrupted the taskforce leader with a grin and a hand-shake before pulling him into a short, masculine hug. Kono, Callen and Danny watched on as the two SEALs embraced, laughing and slapping each other on the back before turning to their friends.
"Steve McGarrett, I'd like you to meet my partner G Callen," Steve and Callen exchanged nods and shook hands before Steve turned to his companions, "Sam, Callen, this is Officer Kono Kalakaua and I think you guys already know Danny."
The NCIS agents laughed as they shook Kono and Danny's hands, the blond detective offering them a wry grin.
"Nice seein' ya again Detective...how's Winifred?" Sam asked as they made their way out of the airport.
Steve's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he caught his partner's eye. Danny shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Don't ask."
"And this, is the Office of Special Projects," Callen announced as the party of four entered the building.
"Nice," Kono commented, her eyes raking around the impressive building, as they were approached by a tall brunette, a blond with a scruffy beard and a petite bespectacled woman.
"Lieutenant Commander McGarrett," the bespectacled woman called as she halted in front them, staring at him over her glasses.
"Operations Manager Hetty Lange, I've heard a lot about you," Steve replied, shaking her hand and holding her gaze.
"All good I hope," Hetty murmured, her hawk-like-gaze flickering to the Jersey-native for a second before settling back on Steve.
Steve and Danny exchanged a meaningful glance.
"Sure. All good things," the SEAL assured her with a small smile before a sharp, loud whistle sounded from above.
Eight pairs of eyes darted up to where a blond young man was standing looking a little sheepish.
"Uh...you guys might wanna see this," Eric mumbled before high-tailing back into Ops.
With soft murmurs, many feet climbed the stairs with Hetty taking lead. In the crowd, Deeks found himself beside Kono with his partner and Danny closely behind – already in the throngs of a conversation. With a friendly smile the LAPD detective offered his hand for her to shake as they ascended the stairs.
"Officer Kalakaua, I'm Detective Marty Deeks, LAPD Liaison with NCIS: OSP."
"That's a lot of letters," Kono quipped, flashing him a smile.
"Tell me about it," he laughed as they entered Ops, all halting around the large, square table that stood in the middle of the room, eyes trained on the mounted, rectangular screen in front of them.
"Mr. Beale, Ms. Jones, meet the 5-0 taskforce, Lieutenant Commander McGarrett, Officer Kalakaua and you remember Sergant Detective Williams," Hetty called as she halted at the tech-operator's side, "I take it Lieutenant Kelly remained back at your headquarters?" she asked the Hawaiian team gently.
Steve exchanged a look with his team-mates before nodding grimly.
"Due to the circumstances, I thought it would be best if Chin remained home with his wife. We will keep him in the loop though, he wants Delano just as much as the rest of us...if not more," he responded dourly, folding his arms and directing his attention to the screen.
"Indeed," Hetty replied before nodding to Eric, "Mr. Beale, if you would..."
Eric leapt to attention, tapping rapidly on his tablet to bring up a multitude of grainy photographs, each containing a face that was incredibly familiar to 5-0.
"That's Delano alright," Danny murmured, dragging his palm over his stubbled chin.
"Got an ID on the others?" Steve asked, motioning to the various faces that were pictured alongside the ex-cop.
"Running facial recognition as we speak, so far most of the images are too hazy to get any distinct features but we're hopeful," Nell replied, her eyes flickering from the SEAL and back to the screen.
"Any way of determining his location in from the pictures?" Kono asked, a gleam of determination lining her face as her shoulders set.
Here, Eric nodded vigorously and widened one of the images with his fingers. It was the exterior-shot of an alleyway, a large truck in the upper-right corner that was being loaded with boxes. To the left, turned slightly, stood one Frank Delano, seemingly over-looking the proceedings as a large man stood to his right.
"If you look here," he paused to point at the lower left-side of one of the photos, "you can make out a logo on one of the boxes. It appears to be for the company 'Loshaw' a printing business...thing is, when we looked into it, we couldn't find any records, invoices, nothing in their files that would suggest any importing or exporting to anywhere in Los Angeles..." Eric trailed off, as ten pairs of eyes stared at the screen, each coming to the same conclusion.
"Gotta be a shell corporation, right?" Deeks asked nobody in particular.
"Which begs the question," Kensi continued, stepping forward to regard the photos more closely, her eyes narrowed, "what's in the boxes?"
Callen moved to stand beside her, arms folded tightly, "there's only one way to find out."
"Yo, Williams, head's up," Deeks called as he threw a set of keys at him. Danny caught them swiftly before turning on his heel and immediately tossing them to McGarrett who seized them mid-air, a smug smirk on his face.
Deeks and Kensi exchanged a confused glance before directing their raised eyebrows at the partners.
"What?" Danny asked, before angling his gaze towards Steve, "you never let me drive my own car Steven, why would I think a rental would be any different?"
"And you never let me pick the radio station Daniel, I'm guessing Los Angeles won't be any different?"
"Damn straight. You know what Dr. Hook here thinks is good music?" he asked, his eyes flicking to the NCIS partners before focusing back on the SEAL, "'Sexy Eyes', I mean seriously...suicide for the ears..."
"And Springsteen isn't?"
"You take that back."
"Nope."
Steve rolled his eyes as Danny glared at him, storming out, half-yelling over his shoulder the very familiar 'my partner has control issues' rant, followed by the 'you wouldn't know good music if it slapped you in the face' rant followed by the 'all good things hail from Jersey' rant, complete with arm-flailing and overly-punctuated words as they made their way out the door.
"Huh," Kensi murmured to herself as she watched the pair.
"What?" Deeks asked, a whimsical smile on his face.
"Nothing, just...never thought I'd see the day where Sam and Callen are out-bantered."
"Yeah, it never gets old," a voice sounded from behind them. The partners turned to see Kono grinning manically as her eyes followed her co-workers.
"Mind if I ride with you guys? It may never get old but it can make you seriously rethink careers if you're stuck in the back-seat. They need a therapist and a referee, and I'm neither," the officer laughed as Deeks and Kensi joined in.
"Sure thing Kalakaua, you stick with us and we'll show you a good time," Deeks replied, wiggling his eyebrows.
"That a promise, Deeks?" Kono winked before chuckling, following him out.
Kensi's eyes darted between the two for a moment, as they laughed and walked side-by-side in front of her, biting her lip, a frown creasing her forehead.
"Well, that was a bust," Deeks murmured as he, Kensi, Kono, Danny, Steve, Sam and Callen trudged back into OSP an hour later.
"Yeah and not the good kind," Danny replied, plonking himself down in one of the extra chairs that Nell thoughtfully laid out in the bull-pen.
The rest of the team settled themselves at their desks and respective seats, a silence hanging over them. They really thought this may have been their big break, when they came up empty; it was disappointing to say the least.
"Think they knew someone was onto them?" Kono asked suddenly, "Delano can be a slippery that way, had cops on his pay-roll back in Hawaii, he coulda got a tip-off from someone in LAPD and cleared out."
"Maybe," Callen agreed, "but a guy like him always has a plan B, has his fingers in many pies."
"I'm sure he does," Deeks mused with a suggestive smile as Kensi rolled her eyes and muttered "but how do we find him?"
Not a millisecond after the words left her mouth, the familiar high-pitched whistle sounded from above.
"Guys, we got an ID on one of Delano's men," Eric called as the large team jumped into action.
"Meet Louis Macintyre, 27-years-old, fresh outta jail after a five-year stint for an attempted bank robbery," Nell informed them as they entered Ops, before enlarging one of the pictures, it matching perfectly with the mug-shot of a young, bespectacled, bushy-haired blond male with olive eyes.
"Doesn't look like a hardened criminal," Kensi commented as she looked over the somewhat nerdy appearance of their suspect.
"According to his record he isn't. Before being sent down back in '07, he never got as much as a parking ticket."
Seven pairs of eyebrows rose at that.
"Quite the leap," Callen murmured, "model citizen one day decides to rob a bank, gets sent down and not two months after he's released jumps into bed with a dirty ex-cop?"
"That's how we got Delano, he tried to rob The Bank of Oahu," Kono chimed in, "he could be trying the same thing here."
"Sounds like something we should ask our friend Louis," Deeks offered before turning to Nell, "any idea where we could find this guy?"
The intelligence-analyst grinned, "as a matter of fact, I do. Word is, one of his haunts is a bar you guys have been to before – Club Hell."
Deeks and Kensi exchanged a meaningful glance.
"Alrighty then," the LAPD liaison murmured, rubbing his hands together, "let's pay Napoleon Dynamite here a visit, shall we?"
It was under the glow of the full moon and across the street from 'Club Hell' that Kensi, Deeks and Kono found themselves cooped up in the car, awaiting their cue. It was getting late, right around opening time and Deeks was set to enter the bar any minute. Eric and Nell had gotten a lock on Macintyre, ran his car through the kaleidoscope and found it half a block from the club. Placed sporadically around the parameter were the three teams, Kensi's car across the street, Sam's just adjacent and Steve's at the alley.
With a heaving sigh, Marty Deeks dragged a hand down his face, stifling a yawn as he sat in silence with the two women. They'd been sitting there, motionless for the last twenty-five minutes and anyone that knew the detective knew well that he didn't do motionless or silent well. It wasn't long before he broke the silence, not for the first time:
"So, I hear you got a personal history with Delano?"
Kono's head rose at that, her dark-eyes catching his in the rear-view mirror.
"Yeah, I worked him undercover. He ran a ring of dirty-cops and was planning a bank heist, leaving bodies in his wake. I was hired by his ex-partner, an Internal Affairs officer named Fryer, to infiltrate his gang and gain his trust. Once I did, he led 5-0 to the Bank of Oahu and was arrested. A couple of months ago, the bastard decided to get his revenge... by using my cousin. His guys attacked Chin's wife while another put me in some deep water, literally, but I've a surfing background so—"
"No way, I'm a surfer too!" Deeks' interjected, his eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree.
"As are half the grown men in California," Kensi deadpanned, turning her head slightly to catch Kono's gaze, who shook her head in amusement.
"Don't mind Kensi, Kono, she's just—"
"Sorry to interrupt what was probably going to be some amusing quip Deeks but, don't you think you should get going?" Danny interjected sarcastically over the coms.
"Oh I'm sorry Detective Williams, do you have a hairspray convention to go to?"
"Oho! That the best ya got Mr. Styled-by-Pillow?"
"Okay boys, break it up," Kensi murmured, rolling her eyes, "Deeks, Danny's got a point—Macintyre must be on drink number four by now."
Deeks' mouth dropped open, looking scandalised as he regarded his partner with widened eyes.
"Whose side are you on Kensi?" he gaped.
"The side that gets your ass out of the car and in with our suspect," Sam's gruff voice chimed, impatience lacing his tone.
"Guess that's my cue," Deeks grumbled, offering Kensi and Kono a cheeky grin before exiting the car and jogging across the street, entering the club with a nod to the doorman.
Meanwhile, one-half of the 5-0 taskforce shuffled in their rental car.
"What was that?" Steve McGarrett asked his partner, glancing at him sideways.
"What was what?" Danny asked, feeling the impending sulk that was threatening to engulf his partner.
"You and Deeks...you got a 'thing.'"
Kensi nearly choked on air as she heard this, an irrational sense of unease seeping into her veins. Kono looked at her strangely from her place in the back seat.
"We got a 'thing?'" Danny asked, staring back at Steve, a look of disbelief on his face, unaware of Kensi's reaction.
"What—"
Before the detective could continue Deeks began murmuring under his breath.
"Got an eye on Macintyre...approaching now," he finished, stopping at the bar and smacking a palm down on it heavily.
"A glass of your finest whiskey my man," he shouted jovially, faux-stumbling a little, edging closer to the ex-con who was nursing what looked like could very well be his fourth or fifth rum on the rocks.
After being served his drink by a bemused bar-tender, the blond plonked down two seats away from Macintyre, slurping his beverage loudly while covertly surveying the other man. Now that Deeks looked closer, he noticed his flushed cheeks and red-rimmed eyes that appeared to be trained on something clasped in his hand. A photograph. Interesting...
"Hey man...you alright?" Deeks asked gently, not wishing to spook him.
Slowly, the bushy-haired young man glanced up and caught Deeks' gaze with bleary, olive eyes. Gently, he shook his head in a definitive no.
The undercover detective nodded and remained silent, sensing that Macintyre was a talker. He looked like a talker and with talkers it was only a matter of time until they—
"You ever get your heart ripped out through your ass?" he asked suddenly, knocking back his drink and slamming it back down onto the bar.
Deeks eyebrows rose before he too knocked back his drink.
"Maybe not through my ass but...sure," he replied, motioning to the bartender for a refill.
"Yeah well, I have...it's not pleasant," he paused, his thumb rubbing over the picture.
Deeks edged a little closer, angling his head to the side, a pensive-look crossing his features.
"What's her name?"
Macintyre's eyes snapped up to his again, his orbs shinning with a sharp pain.
"Melissa..." he mumbled, biting his lip.
There was a short silence then, as they both nursed their new drinks. Heaving a sigh, the detective made up his mind about his next move.
"I was in love with a Melissa once," Deeks suddenly told the stranger, "back when I was a different man. She was beautiful, smart, funny in her own goofy way, truly one of a kind. We were even married for a short time – lived in this nice, big house, it was...bliss," he trailed off, warmth and sorrow in his voice.
Back in the car, Kensi gasped, not believing what she'd just heard. Surely it was all for the op, right? Her heart lurched at the possiblities. In the silence, she couldn't help but feel Kono's gaze on her and turned slightly to meet her gaze, her eyes revealing far too much to the Hawaiian native.
"She break your heart?" Macintyre asked back in the club, his voice a mere croak, placing the picture back in his pocket.
"Something like that...she left me for another man," he paused, suddenly incredibly aware that his partner could hear his every word.
"He was a real jackass too...she's far too good for him if you ask me," he finished, reaching into his pocket.
Kensi waited with bated breath.
"I mean, just look at the guy, what the hell does she see in him, huh?" Deeks asked, sliding a photograph of Delano across the bar for Macintyre to see.
The bushy-haired man glanced down, gaping, his eyes widening comically before he leapt up out of his seat and sprinted frantically towards the side-door.
"Danny, McGarrett, he's bolted your way!" Deeks yelled, racing after him.
The detective skidded and threw himself at the heavy, steel door, bursting out into the alleyway and whirling around just in time to see Danny tackle the ex-con. Rapidly, Deeks approached and helped restrain him as McGarrett pointed his weapon down on him and ordered him to stop struggling.
After a moment, they were joined by Sam and Callen, the former looking down at the apprehended man and smirking, "good one, blondie."
"Thanks," Deeks and Danny answered in unison.
A/N: Wow. Writing a cross-over is HARD! I don't think I've ever written so much dialogue in my entire life! Too. Many. Characters! Lol.
I'm sick at the moment so I apologize if this isn't up to scratch – I just wanted to get it posted but boy...it is a toughy! The next instalment will probably take me a few days – these chapters ain't short – and my muddled mind will only work so fast lol.
Please review =]
~Ck
NEXT CHAPTER TEASERS:
"Watching my armpit display and pelvic tilt closely were you?" Kensi pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest.
"Yeah actually, turns out you're just not that into McGarrett. Danny on the other hand..." Deeks trailed off, his meaning crystal clear.
"I don't—"
"He's blond...and we all know how much you adore blonds," he smirked as the 5-0 boys approached them.
VVVVVV
"He's cute."
"Who?" Kensi asked, her eyes searching the Hawaiian-native's.
"Deeks."
VVVVVV
"Oh that's where you're wrong Williams," Kensi stood her ground, staring him straight in the eye.
"Alright Blye, a trade. You take the neanderthal animal with an affinity for grenades and cargo pants and I'll take the fluffy-haired schnauzer with grooming issues...then we'll see who's got it worse."