Balls and bombings
Natalie's viewpoint
By the time we got back to the ballroom it had started to empty out. We met up with the rest of the Major Crimes squad, collected our clutches and made our way down to the foyer.
I was scared, not for me, the danger was over now, but for Ana. She'd been through suicide bombings before, in Afghanistan and Iraq; they'd haunted her, as so much of her time there had.
When we'd first become friends, then lovers, she'd been plagued by nightmares from her time there, plenty of nights I'd woken to hear her whimpering and thrashing in her sleep, once or twice I'd found her still asleep, but sobbing, tears running down her face. I'd just held her and soothed her until she'd either drifted back to sleep or woken up, when I'd sometimes been able to coax her into talking about it.
I'd managed to learn that she had survived two suicide bombings, both times out of pure luck, in one case she had walked around a corner just as the bomber set his vest off, in the other the bulk of an armoured Humvee between where she was standing and the bomber had saved her.
She'd seen the aftermath of many more, the horror's seen imprinted deep into her mind.
The haunted look on her face as she'd turned to us, to me, shook me to the core, Ana hadn't been plagued by nightmares for more than two years, I was desperately afraid this would take her back there.
I stayed as close as I could to her, unwilling to leave her be alone, she knew I was concerned; I kept getting little looks that let me know how much she needed me there, her hand in mine when we could. Ana was the strong one, but she needed me right now and there was no way I'd leave her side.
Emerging out of the lifts into the foyer the place was a disaster, every piece of glass had been shattered and sent flying, cutting down staff and guests alike. Police in tuxedos and gowns applying rudimentary first aid to victims, outside I could see staff and guests playing a fire hose over the burning and gutted wreck of a car, it looked like a stretch Humvee limo, surrounded by the remnants of the glass façade of the hotel, shattered in the blast.
I could see sprays and rivulets of blood everywhere, the moans and cries of victims, sometimes interspersed with the screams of someone reacting to first aid. As I looked around sirens announced the arrival of the first Black and White's, followed a few seconds later by the first of a fleet of ambulances, thank god.
Ana was looking around, her eyes darting from place to place, anxiety all over her face.
"Ana, what's up? What's wrong?" She turned, grabbing Brenda who was standing a few feet away.
"Brenda, we need to clear as many people out of here as we can, sometimes suicide bombers set up a second bomb, timed to catch first responders" Brenda listened, her face grim, then turned to look over the scene, before calling her squad together. I noticed Sharon standing beside her, unwilling to stray too far from Brenda's side.
"Ok everyone, we need to clear as many people out of here as we can, this is a crime scene as well as a trauma site, so let's get people cleared out" Most of the squad nodded, but Michael looked around before speaking.
"Can we do that Chief? I mean if it's a terrorist attack the Feds will take the scene" Brenda just shook her head tightly, obviously not willing to wait.
"No Lieutenant, Agent Romanov's just pointed out that often terrorists set a second bomb, timed to go off to get rescuers, I want as many people as possible out of here in case she's right" Sharon nodded.
"The Chief's right, I don't see anyone higher in rank right now so that makes her senior officer and scene commander" I looked around, looking for Pope, but I didn't see him. Brenda's voice brought me back, full of command and authority, bringing order from the chaos.
"Get moving people, get them up and out of here and send one of those uniformed officers to me, with a radio, we need to get on top of this now"
Over the next few minutes we moved as many people as we could out of the foyer, the sound of broken glass raw under our feet, setting up a makeshift triage centre in a nearby conference room, where they started taking the worst of the injured out the loading dock and into a gathering fleet of ambulances for transport to hospitals around the city, as the terrorist critical incident plan swung into action.
Brenda was on the radio, calling for specialist units; sniffer dogs, the bomb squad and the mobile command post to be despatched, bringing some sort of order to the chaos.
Ana was on her cell to the FBIs LA office, briefing in the duty officers and getting the federal bureaucracy groaning into some sort of action.
Ana had tried to get me to stay out of the foyer, leaving her to work there, but I'd brooked no argument. When she told me she was concerned for my safety I'd lost it.
"Fuck that Ana, I'm not going anywhere without you and you're going nowhere without me, I'm not letting you out of my sight" She shook her head.
"It's not safe here, you should get out of here" I just got angrier at her words.
"If it's not safe then why're you here then, Are you going to leave?"
"I can't this is my job" I just stood there, my arms crossed as I stared at her.
"And where you go, I go, so get used to it" I could tell she was pissed at me, she really wanted me to be safe, but there was no way I was going to leave her, fortunately she was distracted as Pope came up, calling her name.
"Romanov, I need you talking to the FBI and the Homeland Security people. You're point liaison officer on this case, grab whatever resources you need for this" Her head bobbed as she took it in.
"Who's lead for the LAPD on this one Chief?" He looked around; his face a grim mask as he watched a man in a tuxedo, probably an officer, being helped limping from the foyer, blood soaking through his shredded pants leg, helped by two others in tuxedos, before he replied.
"Chief Johnson for the moment; if this is a terrorist attack then that makes it a Federal case. At the moment that's what it looks like, but until the Feds take over, its Johnson's case" We both nodded as Brenda strode up, Sharon close behind.
"Will, we have a victim count" Pope just nodded grimly, waiting for the worst. "43 victims with a range of injuries including 11 officers, plus two dead civilians and whoever was in the car" I was surprised; looking at the devastation I expected it to be much worse. David looked up as a thought hit him.
"Chief, we probably need to get the rooms checked, the bomb will have blown the windows in on the rooms at the front of the building" Brenda nodded in agreement.
"Good idea David. Please get the hotel staff to start searching rooms, they'll have master keys to get into everywhere" He nodded and walked towards the remains of the reception area as Andy Flynn walked up.
"We got lucky Chief; they just finished checking in a tour group of seniors from Alabama, over a hundred of them, here to do Disneyland and the studio tours. The last of them had just gone up to their rooms when the blast hit"
I looked around at the rivulets of blood criss-crossing the floor, this was lucky?
My eyes picked up on Maura walking this way; I remembered she'd stepped in to help with the injured. She didn't seem to notice the blood smeared on her dress. Jane was at her side, another who felt the need to stay close to the one they loved, here amongst the devastation.
"Chief Pope, Chief Johnson. The majority of the injuries were caused by flying glass, generally lacerations of varying degrees. Several victims will lose an eye; the damage is probably too severe to save their sight. The two dead were apparently closest to the car when it exploded" Jane nodded before speaking up.
"One was the doorman, the other a guest standing close to the front window, the doorman was blown through the door and had an artery sliced open on the glass, he bled out before anyone could have helped him" I remembered a nice young man smiling and holding the door for us when we arrived, oh god.
I tried hard to put that thought behind me. I had to be strong for Ana; she had enough on her plate without worrying about me.
"The other victim had a shard of glass embed itself through the eye socket into the brain. Maura says it was pretty much instantaneous" We watched as members of the dog squad started fanning out, the dogs looking for another bomb, desperately hoping they wouldn't find one. Pope nodded and turned back to us.
"I want the names of each officer injured and which hospital they're in, we need to get families notified ASAP" Everyone nodded at that, families took precedence, especially for our own.
Captain Collins walked up to us, his expression grim.
"I've got four of my team down, they were waiting for a cab when it went off, not life-threatening, but they'll be off for a few weeks" Pope nodded, losing four members of the Tactical Response team wasn't good. "Who the hell did this to us, Al Qaida, someone domestic?"
"I don't think it was a terrorist or at least not a competent one" I turned to look at Ana, her voice pensive; she was suddenly the centre of everyone's attention.
"Why" it was Pope, marginally faster than Brenda and a couple of the others.
"If this was a half-way competent attack everyone in the foyer would have been dead and the front of the hotel would be gone" She indicated where the smouldering ruin of the bombed out vehicle sat halfway up the driveway, watched by fire crews. "The bomb vehicle looks like a stretch Hummer limo; you could pack something like that with enough explosive to demolish the entire front of the hotel" Collins nodded abruptly.
"She's right, especially if they'd waited until they were under the overhang, more likely to take out the building's structural supports that way, god knows terrorists have bombed enough hotels over the years to work that out"
Ana looked around, taking in the damage.
"Has anyone been out to the vehicle yet" We all shook our heads, we'd been too busy. She turned to Julio. "Can you go check, see if you can smell diesel or ammonia" Brenda nodded at Julio's questioning look and walked out through the hole that had been the plate glass window. Collins nodded slowly.
"You're thinking anfoh?" Ana nodded as the rest of us looked on, I'd never heard the word; everyone except Collins and Ana looked as confused as I felt, except for Maura of course. It figured.
"Ammonium nitrate/fuel oil or A.N.F.O. as it is usually abbreviated; is a common explosive comprising pellet's of ammonium nitrate and a fuel oil, commonly diesel. It's used for a mining and a range of other domestic uses" Ana nodded at Maura's dissertation.
"The stuff's easily manufactured and you can find the recipe on the net. It's rarely used by terrorists unless they can't get their hands on more capable explosives" Collins looked out at the vehicle as we saw Julio walking around the wreck.
"It's what they call a low explosive, the shock wave propagates slower than the speed of sound, so you need a lot of it to make up for the low power compared to high explosives. Back in Iraq the Jihadists used ANFO when they couldn't get their hands on military grade high explosives" He sighed, looking around the foyer.
"Most car bombs using ANFO there were SUVs and trucks cause they could carry more than a car. Once they started getting military grade explosive, they'd use them in suicide vests and motorcycles as you didn't need the bulk to do the job"
Pope looked around at the wreckage.
"It looks like they did well enough"
Brenda just pursed her lips, I could practically hear her mind turn over as she watched Julio turn and walk back towards us.
"So you're saying it should have been much worse?" Collins and Ana both nodded before she spoke.
"Done right no one in here should have survived" Ana looked around as Julio walked up to us.
"Yep, it stinks of ammonia and there's definitely a smell of diesel, the lab will have to confirm it when they tow it back in" Ana's head snapped round.
"Tow it?" Julio looked surprised.
"Yeah, the fronts wrecked, but the rest is intact" I looked out, you couldn't really see too well out there in the dark, the explosion had knocked out the lighting outside and the angle meant you couldn't really see the rear of the limo. Ana turned to Pope and Brenda.
"If it's a terrorist attack their either rank amateurs or completely inept. Done right that car should have been completely destroyed, along with most of the front of the building" Collins nodded in agreement as Ana continued.
"The intention is to have enough explosive to destroy the vehicle, mixing shrapnel from the car with the shockwave to cause maximum damage. If the rear of the car's there it suggests the explosive amount was fairly small and concentrated up front" I watched rapt as she held court, capturing everyone's attention as she thought it through.
"If the car's only partly wrecked it probably means that they only used a small amount, which doesn't sound right, not for a terrorist attack" Collins spoke backing Ana up.
"Yeah, with ANFO more is always better, god knows it's not that hard to get, or that expensive" Ana nodded.
"We need to find out who was in that car, it might have been a hit rather than a proper terrorist attack" Brenda nodded, before turning to Michael.
"Lieutenant, can you get the tag number run, see who owns that limo" He nodded. Sharon had been standing there quietly but leaned forward, murmuring something to Brenda quietly, who nodded and turned to her squad.
"Lieutenant Flynn, Detective Sanchez, we need to find out if a possible target was here, staying in the hotel or visiting. Talk to the management and get them to provide you with a list"
Pope spoke up from where he'd been watching.
"Until we know otherwise we're treating this as a terrorist incident, is that clear?" Heads nodded in response. "Oh fuck, already? That's just what we need" We looked up to see him staring out into the darkness where a camera crew was filming. Pope turned to me, indicating the crew outside with his thumb. "Dearing, get out there and deal with them"
"What do you want me to say?" Pope looked frustrated.
"I don't know, just don't mention terrorists, got it?" I nodded, mentally editing what I would say. "And don't say anything that might piss the Feds off either" he turned away as I shot him a venomous look from behind his back. Thanks for nothing.
I could see Sharon and Ana both watching me; Sharon rolling her eyes while Ana gave me a supportive smile. I reached out and gave her arm a quick comforting rub before I turned away.
Screwing my temper down, I walked over to the nearest bathroom to get neat before venturing out in front of the camera crew's that I saw had gathered out the front beyond the scene tape. As I did I saw Jane watching me, I nodded towards Ana and she slowly nodded, they'd be there for her, which was a load off my mind.
20 minutes later I walked over to the mobile HQ semi-trailer to get an update; it was a scene of semi-chaos. Looking up at a whiteboard I could see an updated victim count, 52 injured but no more deaths thank god. I looked up and caught Provenza's eye.
"Find more?" he nodded.
"Yeah, people in some of the lower rooms hit by flying glass when the blast blew in their windows. Mostly superficial though" I nodded, smiling in thanks, looking up at a familiar voice to see the Bureau's Assistant Director Martinez talking to Pope and Brenda, hopefully smoothing out any jurisdiction friction.
I couldn't see Ana so I went looking for her, I needed to see she was ok, given the chaos here. I found her standing with Jane and Maura in the foyer, chatting about the night as I walked up and spoke.
"Hey" She turned and a welcome smile appeared.
"Hey you" I looked over at Jane and Maura, Jane caught my eye and nodded gently, they'd been keeping an eye on Ana. Once again I felt so grateful that we'd found them, that we had such good friends to count on.
I reached out and linked my fingers with Ana's for a moment, just happy to feel her touch, it grounded me, brought me home to her.
We stood there for a moment, looking out over the scene, wondering how long before we'd be released to head home, it was getting very late, or very early, depending on how you saw it.
"Excuse me?" We turned to see a young officer standing there. Maura answered for us.
"Yes Officer…Murphy?" She was reading his badge. I noticed he was a very young officer.
"There's a guy over there that says he needs to talk to you and you" He indicated Ana and I, running his eyes over us. "Probably wants a booty call and thinks your available" He snickered a little, obviously amused.
I felt anger rise inside and saw Ana's jaw harden but before we could say anything Jane leaned in, her voice low and threatening.
"You don't know us so I'll excuse the disrespect, just this once. That's Special Agent Romanov and the Department's media manager, Ms Dearing to you. Do you understand Officer Murphy?" He stood a little straighter as Ana and I exchanged a quick glance full of humour.
"Uh, yes ma'am" That didn't help him as Jane leaned further into his personal space.
"That's Doctor Isles and I'm Detective Rizzoli of Major Crimes, remember it, because I'll remember you" He nodded, a 'deer in the headlights' look in his eyes. Jane nodded once, before turning to us. "Looks like someone needs to see you" She looked across at the now fidgeting young officer and looked him up and down, making him stand if anything even straighter. "Dismissed Murphy"
As he practically ran away Ana and I nodded our thanks while Maura chuckled softly, obviously used to Jane's manner.
"Jane, I think you may have caused that young officer to reconsider his career choice" Jane didn't move, looking after where he had fled.
"Good, I hate sexist pigs" We shared a smile before I spoke.
"Thanks Jane, I appreciate it" Ana nodded her thanks as well as I looked around for whoever wanted to talk to us. Standing there on the other side of the tape was the guy we'd seen before, the one with the rapper. I leaned in to Ana.
"Is that the guy…?" She nodded.
"The CPP guy, yeah, let's have a chat" Ana waved him over and he ducked under the tape and walked over.
"Hi, thanks for talking to me" He had a dark complexion and a moustanche, looked very fit, no nonsense in his face; he looked at us, sized us up and accepted us all in one go. It was actually a bit disconcerting. Ana handled the introductions.
"Special Agent Romanov of the FBI, my LAPD colleagues Doctor Isles, Detective Rizzoli and Ms Dearing. How can we help?"
"My names William Harakaia, I work for Talisman Personal Services, we do protection services for VIPs facing a credible threat. I'm here as part of a team protecting a rapper, D-Crypt" I couldn't place his accent, it was soft but there. Jane nodded.
"Interesting, but what's the connection Mr Harakaia" He shrugged.
"That car out there, that's the limo that we came in" Quick looks were exchanged all round as he continued. "It was being driven by one of our team, Tony Jefferson"