I'm baaaack with the monster story... Gory ahead alert.
Chapter 3: He's got a child.
Where was I in the story? Ah... Yes, the queen's disobedience, right? Anyway, the Queen's disobedience would cost dearly to the kingdom. The Queen did conceive and at the right time and moon she started to feel labor pains.
The whole kingdom waited anxiously for the announcement of the birth of the throne's heir. However, instead of cheers and joy, only screams of horror came out of the royal chamber.
In one version, the one with the onions, two children were born. The firstborn was a monster, while the second was a normal child.
In the other version, the one with the roses, only one child was born.
Either way, the direct heir of the throne was a hideous creature, a snakelike dragon with a scaly skin and cunning eyes.
It was a Lindorm.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Our intense search for clues resulted in a chilling discovery, which brought all of us to a halt.
"Guys," Tony called out, making us stop our investigation of the footprint molds on the floor and look up to him. Laura and I were kneeling on the floor checking for any evidence the perp might have left behind and when we looked up, Tony had a bright pink hat in his gloved hand.
"Oh my…" Ziva couldn't finish her sentence as Laura immediately went beside Tony and silently requested to be handed the hat. She looked inside of it, even sniffed it, bringing a cringe to Tony's face.
"Are you going to lick it too?" Tony asked with distaste.
"No." She turned to me "It smells of Johnson & Johnson shampoo mixed with sweat." She frowned at the two senior agents, still discussing jurisdiction. "I can't believe they are still going strong."
"Well, Boss is very protective of his cases…" I added, just to hear Ziva murmuring under her breath.
"… he also hates the FBI nosing around our business."
"I see." She looked at Ziva. "Then they are in for a nice wake up call."
Laura started to march towards them with the pink hat, making us look at each other in astonishment before we ran after her, eager to hear and see what that pixie woman would do. She reached the two agents who were still growling at each other and waited for them to acknowledge her, but they were too immersed in their conversation to notice her.
"Sir?" She called.
"Can't you see I'm busy, right now?"Agent Thoreau glared at his Probie, before looking at Gibbs and going back to his head butting conversation, neither man letting the other finish their sentences, the atmosphere getting colder than the Arctic.
"For God's sake, could you two please stop bickering about jurisdiction and focus?" Both senior agents turned to glare at Laura, who showed the hat once she saw she had their attention. "He has a child."
"What?" Both asked simultaneously.
"She's right, Boss. I'm sorry, I didn't see it when I …" I started, feeling Gibbs glare briefly land on me before Laura interrupted me.
Again.
"He has never deviated from his M.O. before. Here he was sloppy and he was in a hurry." She said.
"Why would that happen?" Thoreau asked, silently asking for the hat.
"He was interrupted. Probably by the child." Ziva conjectured, receiving a nod of agreement from Laura.
"The knife wounds weren't carefully done as in the other two murders. These were fast and furious cuts while the others he took his time." Laura said.
Tony looked around, noticing the movement of children several yards back, with several teachers herding kids into school buses at the end of the morning.
"There was a game a few yards back... It's the little girls' baseball league opening season, I think."
"We have to interview every teacher and parent on those buses because one of them is missing a child." Thoreau said, handing the hat to Gibbs, who fingered it sadly, probably doing the same I was doing: wondering what possible horror that kid might be going through.
"And our kid is with a psychopathic killer." Gibbs said as he looked back towards the playground.