Chapter Sixteen
The Queen of Hinky
It's an hour later when Pride and Brody step into the orange cinder block corridor and when he looks right he sees the petite Asian woman Palmer (okay, Lee would be easier to remember) step out from the Observation room. He doesn't like the haunted expression on her face but he closes the door firmly before approaching the women. She looks normal, but not to him. "Holding. You have two? I want to keep them apart."
"Yes, sir. Gibbs has already taken the husband up. He lawyered up."
"S.O.P. for slime balls."
"Yes, sir. I'll call for an agent to escort her up."
"You all right?" he asks, seeing the answer in her eyes.
She looks along the corridor beyond him. "Yes."
He could have read that lie from around the far corner. "I'll see you upstairs," he tells both agents. Whatever is disturbing the woman, he'll let Brody work it out with her - if it can be worked out. Lately, on this case, he hasn't found too many things he's comfortable about predicting a happy ending on.
He heads on toward the elevator, leaving them alone.
"I... think... I want to see Abby for a few minutes." Michelle breathes.
"Come with?"
Palmer looks like she'd love to find an excuse to say 'no', but none seem to come to mind. "Sure."
xxx
The rapid beeps over the clear door announce the Agents' arrival and Abby Sciuto, dressed in her open white lab coat over black and white Referee style tee shirt over matching skirt horizontally aligned to be a complete mismatch, approaches them. In the moment needed to take in the outrageous woman they see that her boots continue this black and white stripe motif to excessive extents, for her left boot is vertical but the right is horizontal.
Palmer, who hadn't said a word during the trip, is forced into announcing that "This has got to be a record for you."
"I'm planning on this coming Halloween. Sammy's going as Beetlejuice and I'm shooting for a cartoon Sandworm motif."
"I want pictures," Meredith announces.
"I'm scared of your pictures," Michelle declares.
"Then I won't send you any, Vampi."
"I'm not going as Vampirella this year, no matter where the party is."
"Well, yeah, over three months along, I guess not." Then her eyes alight in well displayed inspiration. "You could go with an oven suspended about your waist."
"Please," she puts her hands to her head, "I can't even think about any of that." She lowers her hands and her mood. "My brain won't work anymore. I can't take this in. I needed to see the 'Queen of Hinky' for you to put it back on."
This is a hinky enough request in itself, and the two taller women exchange a bewildered look over their friend's head. It is so clear that Halloween costumes in late July are not their friend's problem.
x
"What's up?" Abby asks. She remembers the last time she'd seen Michelle conflustered, but fortunately this doesn't approach by half the minutes before her wedding. Part One.
"I can't get my head around this," she confesses. "I keep trying to, but it doesn't come. I need Vamperstein to help me."
At Abby's extra bewildered expression, Brody fills her in on the interview with Debbie Devlin and everything that had come of it, particularly the woman's portrayal of her abuser as 'a good husband'.
"I know how it can be," Michelle says, fingers pressed to her temples as though to keep her mind in when it wants to flee. "I've seen more than too much, I studied things from the Stockholm Effect to the... whatever. I can't see how she can think this èdú dí rǔmà nüèdài kuáng could possibly be fit for anything. When I see him I want to shove him into an Iron Maiden and slam the door."
Abby takes her arm firmly enough to silence her. "'A Witch who can't control her emotions'..." is the only reminder she'll give.
Brody glances to the silver circled five pointed star with the cross in its center suspended from the silver chain to hang between the Agent's breasts, explained on the way to Norfolk as the dual faith charm Jimmy had given her as their engagement present.
"This has more to do than with emotions," Michelle counters.
"Okay, how about Rule Number 20? 'Never get personally involved in a case'."
x
She backs out of the grip, but does take a step back emotionally as well. "I can't help but think of Jimmy," she confesses. "Jimmy would never hit me." At Abby's smile and 'tell me another one' look, she declares "I'm not talking about that. When Jimmy pulls me over his lap it's because we both want a warm up. I love those smacks, especially the 'smacks and pets', and the best are the 'smack, pet and inserts'."
Meredith grins and Abby points to the smaller woman's abdomen. "Which was responsible for that?"
Michelle returns a lascivious smile. "A heck of a lot more than that, and for longer than I care to remember. But that's my point. That's fun time." But her smile vanishes and her voice goes flat. "But I told Jimmy, well before we got married, I told him 'you will hit me only once. Because when you go to bed I'll dent my cast iron skillet on your head. I won't leave you, but in the morning I'll go to my desk and start to make your life a living hell'."
"Nice that he knows where he stands."
"Darn right. But he's never touched me in a way I didn't like to be touched. But this... woman. She takes the most horrendous beatings, I don't know how many times Metro had to be called but she had to be treated by doctors three times this year."
"What Chris and I saw," Brody confirms, "was no 'lover's tiff'. I didn't see the start of it, just heard about it from Chris, but what I saw of her with his ham hands crushing her breasts, that was more than enough."
"I wish I knew," Abby says longingly. "Statis–."
"Please don't quote statistics we all know," Michelle appeals.
"Then what should I do? You came to me."
She stares up at her friend, finally has to admit. "Goddess, I have no idea. I just needed to vent."
"How was it?"
"Lousy."
xxx
"The fact remains," Pride tells the seven agents in the bullpen, "we can hold the Devlins for only twenty four hours but I really don't see it going anywhere. I spoke to Ducky; he'll meet with Mrs. Devlin in the morning, try to sort through whatever's going on with her. But unless we want to charge her with assaulting Brody she gets cut loose tomorrow afternoon and she's our only leverage with him." He looks to Brody who turns the responsibility over to Gibbs. If the Deputy SAIC wants the woman held, she'll press the Charge but
"No. If we can't break her by then we probably won't. Unless you want to," he turns it back to Brody.
"No. She's no fighter. The fact is I landed better punches than she did and I was trying to keep her off me. And she can't have had anything to do with Saunders."
"Not at four years old. No, we'll try to use her to break his story, but since he's waiting for his Lawyer, we'll have to find some other way. McGee."
"Um, yes, Boss?"
"Where's Paul Saunders?"
"I have Agent Ned Dorneget tailing him now. He left the hotel twenty minutes ago, Dorneget's hanging back to watch him but not crowding. He's reporting back on Saunders' activities but so far there's not much. I've gone over the Contacts I got from his cell phone before I gave it back to him when he was here yesterday, but so far I haven't gotten to someone who knows him from way back when."
Gibbs looks to the distant clock. It's 1546 and while this case has already taken twenty one years to solve there's not enough progress nor potential for same to justify the Overtime for two teams. Further, he needs a break from his usual 2100 departures. He's waited long enough on this rapidly concluding weekend to exchange a few hours relaxation with his old friend.
"DiNozzo, LaSalle, in the morning you keep trying to find someone who could've known about that Secret Room. McGee, tell Dorneget I want Saunders here in the morning when he relieves Gamma Shift on the Stakeout. Palmer and Brody, you work on Mrs. Devlin. Palmer, did you get in touch with Devlin's Lawyer?"
"Tina Larsen at Holding let him make a call, but apparently it didn't go well, not from how steamed he got."
"Okay, we'll see what a few hours of steaming will do. Go home, everyone. Tomorrow's a new day and it won't be as good as this one was."
x
No one manages to do more than to begin collecting their personal items before nine people enter the bullpen; the other three Alpha Shift teams: Fred Higgins, Susan Bourne, Max Crawford and Sol Kirchner; Melanie Kelman, Patrick Larsen and Kenneth Templeton; and Kevin Lamb and Lisa DuBois. The only shift agent who does not invade the room is Janet Levy, recuperating at her parents' home following a horrific attack.
"What is this," Gibbs asks the sixteen generally, "a Convention?"
"If so," Lisa quips, "is it too late to get my money back?"
"I'm afraid so," Director Jennifer Shepherd says from the nearby staircase from the elevated MTAC platform before making the final turn and approaching from beside the wide window.
"I'll make this short. On an undetermined morning last week, and we are still gathering Intel, Grekor Kanyicska was murdered by person or persons unknown."
"Why is it," DiNozzo asks, his voice laden with doom, "when you make something short there's always so much to say?"
"Because, Agent DiNozzo, this tilts an already unstable 'Balance of Power' considerably more than it had been."
Grekor Kanyicska, whom they had encountered on Memorial Day, had been perhaps the only Arms Dealer in the world who gave the late Rene 'LaGranoille' Benoit significant challenge. Benoit had been assassinated some time ago, leaving his organization firmly in the hands of CIA's mole Trent Kort, who would play the role of Arms Kingpin for so long as it suited the Government's needs.
None of the agents hold much hope that Kanyicska's organization is in such good hands.
"Do we know anything?" Higgins asks.
"LAPD has jurisdiction, and while OSP is on Alert they have no information. They learned about the death a little more than an hour ago. Detective Deeks has no particular insights. Apparently Kanyicska's own organization sat on this for some time."
"You think it was Kort?" Lamb asks.
"According to the CIA, there was no intent to remove Kanyicska from the picture. As you know, it is far easier to know what the body is doing when you keep the head in sight."
"I can think of one person," McGee says, "who I'm sure isn't sorry he's dead." During the days leading up to and then during the Greater East Coast Comic Art Convention, Special Agent Nell Jones had had to deal with issues above and beyond any reasonable expectation. What she'd been forced to endure was not the kind of thing anyone would issue a Medal for, and he doubts anyone would have been so tasteless as to offer one.
"Well, no, McGee," Gibbs says. "Not when the last time they were together she was stomping the hell out of him."
"I am putting all of NCIS on Alert Level Orange."
The stability of Kanyicska's organization had been something to be desired. Now, as both sets of Arms Merchants strive to rearrange their operations, a close eye is needed. The transition may be smooth - unlikely - or it will mean bodies, perhaps a great many, on the ground.
xxx
Abby had decided to wait out as much of the blistering heat as she could before braving the trip back home. The Forenzchic's A/C isn't truly up to the challenge of a 90 plus degree commute on sagging asphalt but she manages to eventually slog home and climb Mount Everest (if only) up to her third floor apartment.
When she pushes the door open she walks into a wall of gloriously cool air and is grateful Sammy beat her home. She'd called before leaving the lab and found that her friend was already there and at 5:00 had turned off the timer on the air conditioner, originally set for 6:00 pm, that one hour making a huge difference.
She peals off her striped shirt but decides to stop at her bra, last night's ambush sharp in her mind. The living room looks normal but she'll check the rest of the apartment after the cool air permeates her skin a little more deeply.
She could well be safe, however. Kahn Noonian Singh had pointed out that 'Revenge is a dish best served cold', so she might have several months of safety before a winter assault. Then again, Kahn hadn't mentioned air conditioning and he didn't have an impish room mate like Samantha Sky to contend with.
Sammy comes out of the kitchen before her wearing an extra large and long Nationals tee shirt as a sleep shirt that reaches below her knees, the can of Reddi Whip in her hand and an evil smile upon her lips.
"You wouldn't dare," Abby declares, pulling herself up to her full height to add to their natural eight inch difference plus her extra tall mis-striped boots vs. Sammy's bare feet. She's already seen her friend's pink furry bunny slippers, complete with whiskers at the toes, pink ears tucked back and white cotton balls set behind the ends, on the floor in front of the couch.
"No. When I get you back it'll be when you least expect it." She shakes the can. "For now I'm getting you back in that I'm polishing off the sliced strawberries." She goes back into the kitchen.
"Bone at your teat," Abby calls.
"Already was," she calls back.
x
Abby listens to the swoobossheh of the ejecting cream as she steps closer to the laboring conditioner, not giving a whit what thrill she might give the passersby three stories below. If anyone is looking up, they deserve a treat.
A few seconds later Sammy returns with a white ceramic bowl and a thick sheaf of papers and carries them to the black convertible. When she sits down the overlarge Nationals shirt drops off her left shoulder and she leaves it there. "'Sides, nothing I could come up with could top the kinky sex in this book."
"That's McGee's new book?" she asks, abandoning her monopolization of the air conditioner and sitting on the couch beside her friend.
"Yeppers."
"How is it?"
She plops the papers onto her lap and dips into the bowl, coming out with a white and red treat. "I only skimmed though it, but a couple of scenes convinced me that Tim seriously needs to go to his wife and have her clean out his mind with Holy Water."
"Really."
"There's a section between your fantasy counterpart and mine in your lab that'll curl your pubic hair."
"Where?" she reaches to snatch the pages but Sammy is faster and pulls them out of reach.
"Chill out, Vamperstein. You can read it later."
"Be-yatch." Sammy sticks her tongue out at her. "So who did Tim put in this one?" The cast list of his last one had been formidable.
x
"Well you're in it, or rather 'Amy Sutton' is," she says, popping another strawberry slice into her mouth." He calls me 'Sabrina Shore'. Everyone else is intensely recognizable." She ruffles through the pages, getting strawberry and cream on the edges before she fishes out another treat. "Except I don't find Siobhan. You'd think she'd have a major roll."
"After 'Cearbhall's Quest' and what we all went through, coupled with what Princess Mairenn was seen to go through, she made him swear never to use her as a character ever again."
"I should have done that." The real quest had happened before she'd met him, but if he'd taken warnings seriously she might have done well in preventing him from using her in book 4, at least without asking permission.
"Wouldn't have worked. After 'Rock Hollow' each and every one of us told him in explicit and agonizing detail what we'd do to him if he used us again without permission."
"That was book two." She ruffles the pages, sets them down and bites another creamed strawberry. "This is book four. How come it worked for Siobhan and none of us?"
"She's his wife."
Sammy nods, takes another slice. "She can give him pain none of us can."
"The kind that will really have him singing the blues."
"Oww-we-ouch."
"Speaking of pain," Abby says, "I remember how hard he works to keep his work secret, what precautions he takes, until the gang had to get copies for their case. How did you get an advance draft?"
"I threatened him." She takes another slice, licks the cream off before eating it.
"What could you possibly threaten him with?"
"I told him that if he didn't, I'd go crying to Siobhan and tell her that he's sexually abusing me."
x
Abby freezes, and at the lack of glee in her friend's eyes she's reduced to a horrified whisper. "That... is... Evil."
"Actually, I didn't." She grins and takes another cream and berry slice. "I'd never do such a thing. I appealed to his better nature."
"Ah."
"I told him that if he didn't I would cry and wouldn't stop until he did."
Abby considers this. "You know, that'd be an interesting challenge, see who'd cave first."
Sammy waggles the papers, getting more strawberry marks on them.
"Well, now that you've got it, what do you think of it?"
She drops them back on her lap, thinks about the answer, finally confesses "I'm not sure."
"I told him he should have gotten permission before using you."
"He seems to have taken Gibbsie's Rule 18 to heart."
"'It's better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission'."
"From what I've read so far, he's going to be seeking a lot of forgiveness."
x
"What are you up to?"
"Chapter Five. Tibbs is interrogating me, rather he's interrogating Sabrina Shore, but she tells him that when Karen - Mavis SanAntonio, rather - betrayed me - her - that I -" she slaps the papers, "God, these pronouns are going to be the death of me. That Sabrina beat Mavis up. That didn't happen, not in real life. Okay, I tried to fight Karen and she beat the crap out of me. This makes me look like I'm some kind of violent bitch. Or should I say violent Butch?"
"I guess he wanted Sabrina to seem guilty."
"Maybe. I didn't do anything to make myself look guilty. I was too busy telling everyone I was innocent."
"Well, you were. Innocent as a new born baby."
"Thank you."
"Baby rat, that is."
"No channeling Bugs Bunny." The strawberries finished, she runs her finger within the bowl and sucks off the splotch of cream.
"Well, perhaps it's good he changed some things."
"Wait until you read it."
To Abby she sounds neither happy nor consoled.