Behind the glass, DiNozzo made a face. "Was he just quoting Rick Yancey?" he asked rhetorically, but Gibbs paid no mind to him, his eyes on his other underling.
Suddenly they saw Swan springing to her feet, files in hand, making a beeline for the door, so Tony quickly grabbed the door handle on his side to meet her outside.
"Not now," Bella glared at him before he could say a word, slapping the manila folder against his chest as she stormed by him. They had everything they needed, and if not, Tony or Gibbs could just go in and continue with the questioning. "I need some fresh air."
The special agent wanted to follow his partner to find out what had riled her up so much in the seemingly straightforward interrogation – mind you, it was disturbing, but she had handled others much worse without any problems – Gibbs stopped him though, with his arm outstretched in front of the other man's chest.
"Give her time," was all he said with that mysterious all-knowingness. The light-brown haired man stood there dumbfounded for a whole minute before the senior agent snapped at him. "Don't you have something to do?"
"Right. On it, Boss," he scurried off to consult with Ducky and Abby on their findings whether they were consistent with the information the suspect had provided and to nudge the search warrant along with McGee.
Bella burst out of the station, the doors swinging wide from the force she put into the motion, her vampire strength barely contained. She looked around frantically, trying to find a good place where she could hide for a few minutes to catch her breath and gather her thoughts. Strictly speaking, she didn't need to breathe to survive, but she still felt like hyperventilating at the moment.
The vampire ducked into the alleyway by the left side of the station and slumped with her back against the brick wall, slowly sliding down into a sitting position, resting her head between her knees.
Five years of relative peace. Was that all she was entitled to? What did Klaus want with her? Kill her? Use her up in some twisted ritual to gain access to her weird hybrid capabilities that even she hadn't fully explored yet? Like he wanted to use Elena's doppelganger nature for unlocking his werewolf side? Just why? Wasn't all he had enough for the Original? He was already practically indestructible. Was she a threat to him? But she never would have sought him out for a fight if Klaus just let her and her friends alone.
"Did you like my gift, love?" from her left side a baritone voice with an antiquated accent that although Bella had never heard in person could only imagine belonging to one Original, or at least to one of the males in his family, snapping her out of her wallowing thoughts.
Agent Swan's shoulders tensed at his arrival. Why did she manage to attract all the egotistical male vampires in a five-mile radius?
"Can't say that I did," she quipped sarcastically, purposefully looking to her right, opposite from Klaus.
"No? Such a shame," the werewolf hybrid sounded truly regretful that his little ploy didn't appeal to the agent. "In any case, you have the perfect suspect. You will find all the evidence that you might need to corroborate his confession in his apartment."
"Did he really do it?" Bella found herself asking, still intently looking the other way, not wanting to risk getting compelled.
"Of course not, love," Mikaelson laughed out darkly as if the mere idea was preposterous. "But he had been fantasizing about doing similar things for a long while. I'd have given him maybe a year or two until something that truly made him snap happened. It was an utter delight getting into his mind to explore his take on how to kill someone mimicking a vampire attack."
The brunette could just imagine that in a twisted sense Klaus thought that he had really done her a favor by bringing Joey's most sinister nature to the forefront and getting him off the streets before he genuinely did go on a rampage. What was one dead petty officer to him, if it meant that Ms. Swan was brought back to Mystic Falls? And he even had the perfect cover to keep federal agencies unsuspecting of the actual monster lurking in the shadows. Rule 10 was a real bitch, even Gibbs admitted to having a hard time following it. Although it was difficult not getting personally involved in a case that was a rouse explicitly aimed at you.
A quite familiar resolution began taking hold in Bella's mind. Once upon a time she was prepared to throw her life away for someone she loved. Enough so that she put herself at the mercy of a tracker because she believed that would keep Edward, Alice and everyone else safe.
"You have me where you want me, Klaus. Let's get this over with and kill me already. Without getting everyone else involved," the vampire trained her gaze finally at the Original, determination shining in her eyes.
Yes, if this choice ensured that everyone else in Mystic Falls and at NCIS was kept away from danger, she was willing to make the sacrifice. Even if it meant that she would never see Charlie or Renée again. Not that Bella saw them much anyway. Graduation more than five years ago was the last time either of them laid eyes on her before she took off to travel. Phone conversations weren't exactly her forte either, especially since becoming a police officer then an agent, she maybe got around to calling her parents every other month.
The amused laugh of the Original brought her out of her mental farewells to her family members.
"Kill you? No, love, I have entirely different plans for you," he revealed with a wry, knowing smile, his dark blue eyes glinting with mirth. A moment later he offered a hand to her. "Come, sitting on the dirty pavement is quite unbecoming of a queen."
Utterly confused, she took his hand in a daze, not really thinking of her actions. He was a good seven inches taller than her, so the agent still had to crane her neck upwards to maintain eye contact as she tried searching for some kind of explanation in his features. Queen? Surely he wasn't implying that he wanted to… Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough to hide the hint of realization from her chocolate brown eyes.
"Ah, beautiful Isabella, seems I have said too much. Don't fret, I've always enjoyed women who were more than mere eye candy," Nik ran his thumb down her cheek in a sort of tender way, but it made Bella shudder nonetheless, unable to move as if transfixed into place. Less than a second later, the dark blond Original's pupils dilated as he prepared to compel her. "You'll forget that we have met and what I had told you, but you are to remain in Mystic Falls until I'm ready for you. Now go off and bring your killer to justice."
The irony of that last part wasn't lost on Bella. On her right, from around the corner, footsteps could be heard, and Klaus was gone in less than a blink of an eye. The brunette couldn't help but gaze in the direction he had disappeared to. Three seconds later the owner of the footsteps rounded the corner to the alley she was standing in.
"Bella…" Tony started tentatively. "Good now?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," the brunette turned back towards him with a small smile as if everything was right in the world. "Did the warrant come through?"
DiNozzo had long ago resigned himself to never finding out how Swan had the uncanny ability to anticipate most of the things he was about to say to her if it was related to a case.
"Yeah, Gibbs wants us to search the apartment while he cross-examines Bates one more time. Rule 3." Double checking everything, the male agent affirmed with a nod. Meanwhile, Bella's mind was elsewhere, and noticing her spacing out he reiterated his earlier question. "Are you sure everything is alright? You did kind of just storm out of an interrogation."
The vampire considered the benefits and drawbacks of compelling the guy into leaving her the fuck alone with the personal inquiries but just resigned herself to an unamused glare.
"Yes, everything is dandy, he just gave me the creeps," she asserted while crossing her arms in front of her chest as she stepped around her partner to make her way towards the car.
There was only one thought on her mind the whole way. She still remembered everything.
Truthfully neither of the agents were surprised by what they had found in the Charlottesville apartment. A portable box dialysis machine. Check. License for the use of said machine for out-patient care and house calls. Check. Needles and tubes in the trash with blood on them. Check. Several pairs in fact, but Abby would run the sample from each of them to try and match them with the victim anyway. Also, little metal cones that likely matched the entry wounds. Check. A bottle of Diethyl ether on the suspect's desk. Check.
So conveniently and perfectly set up, Bella didn't think anyone would question the case in court, even if the evidence was way too straightforward, especially if Ducky got back to them that the murder weapon and manner in which it was used corroborates the autopsy findings. She surely would have been fooled if not knowing otherwise. There was still no explanation for the syringe, but it could have been lying under that bush for months, even years given the town's history.
The petty officer's strange behavior though… Why was he seeking Bonnie out and what did he know about the Cooke family, more importantly, how? Surely Klaus didn't feed the info to him, right? Why would he have? "Hey, I'm going to eat you in a few hours but before I do let me tell you something about the random dude who is going to be convicted of your murder…"
More likely that this was part of the tale planted in Joey's mind to make the crime and motive extra believable. Higher priority question: if Kris really didn't die in a car crash, how did Klaus know about that? Smelled eerily like a vampire attack cover-up, and all signs pointed to a certain egotistical maniac. Not that this was relevant to the official standing of the case, it just piqued her own curiosity. The very same one that would likely get her killed in the near future if she kept this up.
Soon all the pictures were snapped, and everything was carefully tagged, bagged, swabbed, dusted, prints were taken on their crime scene. There weren't any blood splatters, cleaned up or otherwise, but given that a) Klaus drank it all, b) according to the suspect all five liters were in blood bags at the hospital that wasn't a surprise.
"The hospital is just down the street. How about we try and retrieve the blood, or what we can of it?" DiNozzo suggested when they were finally finished and outside, sealing the entrance to the apartment with yellow crime scene tape ribbons.
Yeah, good luck with that… Bella internally scoffed.
"Sure, we can also question the doctors and other nurses. If nothing else they are character witnesses," she replied aloud, ignoring her own better judgment. There were bound to be some discrepancies to the story here.
The entrance of the medical center turned out to be so close that they decided to leave the car where they had previously parked it. The mild mid-September sun was really nice, and the vampire couldn't help but relish in the fact that she was still able to enjoy it.
"By the way, Bella, isn't it your birthday tomorrow?" Tony asked all of a sudden as they walked. Right, it was the 12th. "Twenty-four it will be?"
"Yes," the brunette replied without giving it too much thought. Birthdays had meant nothing to her for the past almost five years. "Here we are," she said, entering through the sliding doors before her partner could comment on her lack of enthusiasm for the event. The permeating odor of disinfectants and sickness hit her hyper-perceptive nose, which sensation she promptly tried to ignore.
The female agent purposefully walked up to the reception desk, barely paying mind to the hurried footsteps trying to catch up with her.
"Hi, we'd like to speak with the director of the hospital," she told the blonde nurse running the station.
"Do you have an appointment, miss?" Jenny, her name tag revealed, inquired not unkindly.
"We don't, but I'm sure that won't be a problem," Bella sweetly but firmly told her, getting her ID badge case out from her jacket, and showing each side to the young woman, Tony doing the same. "I'm Special Agent Swan, and this is my partner Special Agent DiNozzo from NCIS. We'd like to ask some questions related to a murder investigation."
"Just a moment," the blonde, suddenly apprehensive, moved over to the phone to dial the director's assistant.
"Smooth," the male agent whispered to the brunette, winking playfully.
"Shut up," Swan rolled her eyes. He wasn't the only one who could be charming if he wanted to be.
"His secretary will be down shortly to escort you to Dr. Monroe's office if you could wait over there please," Jenny got back to them with the instruction she had gotten from her boss.
"Thanks," Bella said, pulling her partner away before he got any ideas about asking the pretty nurse for her number.
True to their word another gorgeous blonde – what was this, the Stepford wives? – in a sharp navy blue costume and impossibly high heels strutted towards them. The vampire groaned inwardly at the blatant way Tony was ogling at her.
"Hello, I'm Cynthia, you are the NCIS agents, right?" When they nodded, she motioned for them to follow her. "This way, please."
"Lead the way," DiNozzo flashed a charming smile, thoroughly checking her ass out too once she turned around, walking a few steps in front of them. Bella rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs, probably a bit too strongly.
"Ouch!" he mouthed at her with a hurt expression asking "what was that for?" while rubbing his bruised muscles. If the vampire's unimpressed frown weren't able to convey the message, then nothing would have.
An elevator ride, five floors, and two hallways later they arrived in front of the hospital chief's office.
"Go right in," Cynthia urged them as she took her place behind her own desk.
As they entered the blue and brown themed office, a plump graying man in his fifties shuffled out from behind his desk coming to greet them.
"Dr. Steve Monroe, what can I do for you agents? Cynthia said there was a murder?" he pleasantly introduced himself offering his hand for a shake, first to Tony. So typical. Why couldn't anyone assume that she was the leading agent?
"Special Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Isabella Swan," the older agent revealed their names then waited until Bella shook hands with the doctor too before continuing. "We'd like to ask you about one of your employees. Joey Bates."
"Is he alright? He didn't show up for work this morning," Monroe motioned for them to take a seat in the chairs in front of his desk.
"He is currently being detained at the Mystic Falls sheriff's station, about to be charged with the murder of Petty Officer James Sheridan. What can you tell us about him? Did he behave oddly in the past days, weeks?" Tony revealed, getting right to the questions too.
"He has worked here ever since getting his nurse's license, for ten or eleven years I think. His older sister died shortly after, which had really shaken him up at the time. Was never too sociable, quiet kid that one, but he got on well enough with his colleagues and we never had a problem with him, never missed a day of work. Beside his shifts, he did regular house calls too," the doctor dumbfoundedly told them, still not over the shock of the news.
"Is there anyone we could speak with who might have known him better?" Bella interjected. Surely he had at least one confidant.
"Like I said he wasn't too chatty, just came in every morning, did his job, and then left at the end with the list of places he had to visit after his shift. I'm afraid no one would be able to tell you much more," he shook his head.
"Alright. We would also like to inspect your blood bank. Mr. Bates, when confessing to the murder, mentioned that he deposited the blood he drained from the victim there," DiNozzo took the reins back on the interview.
"I assure you that our blood bank is strictly regulated. No one would be able to access it without the proper authorizations, which Mr. Bates did not have," the director advised after a momentary outrage at the mere insinuation that the blood they used at the hospital might be compromised.
"Is there any way to trace the origins of all bags that come in?" the senior agent inquired further, unfazed by the change in attitude on the other side of the table.
"Yes, all bags are identifiable by a bar code in the donor's database. But we don't have access to the names or any personal information of the donors on our side, only the detailed blood type and the clearing from Red Cross that it is safe to use," Dr. Monroe revealed, apparently, a bit taken aback that the agents didn't know this information yet.
"We'd like to see an itemized inventory of the O negative blood typed bags for the last two days, and we will need testing samples from any remaining bags in your blood bank for analysis to ensure it isn't from our victim. We also need to ask you to put the use of those bags on hold until our forensic team tests the DNA," Tony instructed the chief of the hospital with such ease and authority Bella had to wonder why he wasn't leading his own team by now.
"Do you realize what you are asking? Even if we rescheduled all surgeries that needed O negative blood, we are also a trauma center, many times there is no time for blood typing, and we have to default to using O negative," the man's gasped affronted by what NCIS was asking of their hospital.
"I assure you, our lab works quickly, we can get the results back to you by the afternoon. Until then reroute all trauma cases to Staunton," the male agent insisted without thinking.
"I'll have to ask you to come back with a warrant," he said morosely, gone the helpful demeanor.
DiNozzo reached into his inner suit pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, catching even Bella by surprise. She thought that was only for the apartment. Thinking about it, she should have anticipated this turn of events. They already had probable cause to search the hospital too, since Joey admitted to stashing Sheridan's blood here, so they weren't expecting to find it at his apartment.
"Here it is," Tony handed it over with a smirk, pleased that they were prepared. Every hour that passed made it less likely that those blood bags would still be sitting in the bank and not used in a transfusion.
Dr. Monroe quickly scanned through the document before returning it, gruffly accessing some kind of system on his computer to retrieve the necessary data, then picked his phone up.
"Cynthia, bring in the documents I just sent to the printer," he curtly instructed his assistant. Moments later she entered, complying with the request. "That'll be all," he said to her once the papers were in his hand.
As she left, the director handed the lists to Tony, who promptly gave the documents to Bella so that she could study them. She was much better at spotting crucial details and information among loads of similar entries.
"Dr. Monroe…" she addressed the chief a minute later, continuing when she got his attention. "I believe we will need the entire inventory, and samples from all the blood bags from all types since there is no indication in these that there were any extras. If Joey stashed them in your reserves under false tags, it might not be devastating as our victim's blood type was O negative, given it's a universal donor type, but in some cases, there are many other factors taken into account than just the red blood cell types and Rh factor, right?"
Her partner regarded her in awe for her knowledgeability and quick thinking, while the good doctor grimaced at the implications. Before you think that becoming a vampire made her so well-versed in the biology of blood, you are wrong. Bella was always a good student, and for once her high school studies were good for something.
"Just a moment," he huffed, getting back onto his computer.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Could you show us to your blood bank so that we can collect our samples?" DiNozzo cordially requested as he stood up once he thought the director was finished.
The older man led the two agents out of his office, his assistant jumping up from her place when she saw them, trying to be helpful. Steve waved her off, signaling that he was handling this matter personally as he grabbed the newly printed documents from the printer tray and handed them to the female agent this time.
They walked towards the elevator in silence, Agent Swan reading the complete inventory. As she had previously thought there was still no sign of approximately ten extra bags anywhere on it.
They got off on the first floor where the blood bank was located. With a card swipe, they were let in through the sliding doors. More of the same white, blue and grey greeted them there too, like with the rest of the hospital.
"Larry, we'll need samples from all blood bags currently in stock, carefully tagged, the agents here will supervise the process," the head of the hospital ordered the Red Cross blood bank coordinator stationed at their hospital.
"Another thing, Dr. Monroe," Bella peered up from the papers that she was still pretending to read, given that humanly it wouldn't have been possible to get through the data in their short walk. "We need a list of all the people and their card numbers that have authorization to these doors, and the records of access between 1 AM yesterday and 6 AM today."
That was the time Joey gave himself up at the station so whatever tampering he might have done should fit into that time frame, given that the time of death was between 1 AM and 2 AM the previous day.
"I'll have Cynthia get them to you shortly. I assume I can leave you to it?" Steve nodded, seemingly resigned with the whole procedure.
"We can find our way back to your office if we have any more questions," Tony quipped to him. Once the doctor left, he turned to his partner. "Good thinking."
"Don't thank me yet. I'm not entirely sure Joey did really drop those off here. I can't find any irregularities in these inventories yet," Agent Swan shook her head, knowing full well that there were none.
"Maybe we should request them digitally and have Tim cross reference it on the computer?" DiNozzo suggested. McGee was a real wiz with computers.
"I don't think that would yield any different results," the brunette looked at him pointedly.
"Excuse me, are you talking about Joey Bates?" Larry, or what his name was, asked, seemingly intrigued by the agents' banter.
"Yes, do you know him?" the male agent turned to him.
"Not really, but yesterday afternoon he came in here asking if the blood bags he dropped off had been used yet. The whole thing was weird. He couldn't have dropped off anything, he is not an official blood supplier. He was also acting a bit strange, like he wasn't exactly himself, sort of in a daze," the coordinator told them. Signs of compulsion alright, Bella assessed. Klaus must have found him shortly before that to pin the murder on him.
"So you aren't aware of any tampering with the blood bags on stock?" Tony inquired.
"I was on duty yesterday too from 8 AM to 5 PM. Surely not during that time," he sighed, getting the thirty or so vials ready to take samples from all the bags they currently had.
It was a rather straightforward process. All standard blood bags had a little valve like access point and extra stickers with barcodes attached to them that he tagged all the vials with after filling them with a small amount of blood. Bella counted 34 in the glass-doored coolers used for storing them. Precisely the same amount that was supposed to be there according to the inventory. The numbers also matched per blood types too.
Interestingly enough she found that she had absolutely no problem staying in the room while this took place. She could smell a faint trace of blood in the air, but her true face never even threatened to show, no signs of blood frenzy. But at least she wasn't squeamish either anymore either like she used to be. The whole thing was just odd. Mind you, these little ports, as well as the rubber tops of the test tubes, provided perfect sealing.
"Thanks for the help," Bella absentmindedly said as she packed the samples into their evidence bags as put them away.
"No problem," Larry smiled at her warmly. A little too intensely. Great, another admirer. At least he belonged to the human species. Not like that mattered much.
As they were exiting the room, the Stepford blonde assistant was just coming to deliver the rest of the records they requested.
"Is there anything else you need?" she inquired professionally.
"No, that is all for now," Tony smiled at her, fishing out a business card. "You can reach me on this if anything else comes to mind."
Bella wanted to gag. Nowhere in there did he mention that it was only for topics related to the case.
"I'll get it to Dr. Monroe," Cynthia nodded, completely missing the hint at flirting, causing DiNozzo to sag a bit in his enthusiasm and the female agent had to choke back a chuckle, disguising it as a cough.
"Do you think he sold the blood on the black market?" the light-brown haired agent inquired between dirty glances that he had been throwing at his partner the whole way to their car.
"Most likely. If so, there is no way we would ever find them," Bella shrugged. Please have everyone go with this assumption. She wasn't in the mood for trying to cover for Klaus anymore.
"Wanna drive?" he asked suddenly, then threw the ignition keys to her, which she caught without a problem.
Bella raised a brow at him. DiNozzo relegating the car to her when he was perfectly capable of driving? Unheard of.
"Your funeral," Agent Swan laughed out finally, getting in the driver's seat after placing their bags safely in the trunk of the car.
Once Tony got in too, she quickly put the car into drive and shot out from their parking space with ease, then threaded the streets of Charlottesville towards the high-way at daredevilish speeds. With her reflexes, they were safer than anyone else out there, but Tony, knowing nothing about that, shot frightened glances at her, regretting his choice after all.
Yes, since becoming a vampire, Bella had indeed discovered what Edward had meant about fast cars all those years ago.