Thanks to all of you that have reviewed and read this so far. This is really more of a testing the waters type of story since I do not feel that I'm very skilled with case writing. I hope you continue to like it.
Morning came quickly and with it, a group of LAPD officers that worked with Deeks. Hetty had arranged for them to work together to compile a list of people who would want to kill Deeks and make it look like a suicide. She, like the rest of her team, was of the opinion that Deeks would never take his own life. He loved life too much to do something like that.
"Let's face it." Officer Mike Daniels sighed. "Deeks is a cop; we make a lot of enemies quickly. There could be hundreds of people that want him dead."
"Yeah but how many people would go as far as to stage the scene to look like suicide?" Sam challenged.
"That's to say that this wasn't a suicide attempt." Officer Anna Hetch stated.
"No, Deeks wouldn't do this." Callen shook his head. "And if he were going to take his own life, we would have seen signs. Opening up of emotions, the giving away of personal items; none of that happened."
"Okay assuming that he didn't do this to himself, there is still the fact that he doesn't have any defensive wounds." Daniels pointed out.
"And he wouldn't." Eric stated, seemingly showing up out of nowhere.
Callen was fairly certain that the younger man was picking up Hetty's less than desirable skill of materializing out of thin air.
"What do you got?" Sam asked, sitting forward in his chair.
"Tox screen just came in." Eric waved a piece of paper on the air. "Deeks had high levels of Rohypnol in his system. He was more than likely unconscious when his wrists were…Well, you know…"
"Rules out suicide." Nell stated. "There is no way that he could do this to himself while having that high a dose coursing through him at the time."
"Okay so apparently he didn't try to off himself that still leaves us with a very long list of people who would want him dead." Hetch pointed out and gestured to the three pages of names they had compiled.
"Well let's split up the names and see if we can find anything." Callen stood up and looked around at everyone, until his eyes fell onto Kensi who was sitting at her desk and hadn't said anything. "Kensi, how about you come with me and Sam?" He suggested and just got a nod from her.
"Have you gone to see him today?" Sam asked and gazed at Kensi.
"No, I figured the best thing that we can do is find the person that tried to kill him." Kensi explained and climbed into the back of the charger.
"I want to know how someone got into his place without him realizing it." Sam pointed out.
"Crime techs are still going over his place. Once they find something they'll let us know." Callen stated.
The suspects that they brought in and interviewed mostly turned out to be a bust. While some boisterously stated that if they got their hands on Deeks that they would kill him and make sure that he was dead. Others however claimed that being arrested by Deeks had changed their lives for the better and that they would never hurt him.
The list slowly whittled down, a large number of names having been taken off quickly due to those suspects still being behind bars. By the time that they reached the last person on the list, their hopes were down and their patience was running very thin.
"Dude, I wanted to off him I would…"
"Make sure that he was completely dead." Callen finished for the guy sitting across from him in the boatshed.
The man was rather large, taking up about half the table and making the chair under him groan. He had more tattoos on his body that Callen cared to count and so many pierces he practically glowed in the light. His name was Hubert Grayson, best known as Tiny.
"Yeah man," Tiny nodded. "I've heard a few people say they want to off someone else, but not many are dumb enough to target a cop."
"Do you know anyone that would want to hurt detective Deeks?" Sam asked from his spot in the corner where he was leaning against a wall, his arms crossed.
"Yeah sure, but none of them would try and kill him." Tiny shrugged.
Callen and Sam shared an exasperated look before they dismissed the guy and headed back to OSP to meet up with the others.
"Crime techs are still going through Deeks place and testing stuff to see how he got the drug into his system." Nell said when they joined up in the bullpen.
"We were not able to get much of anything from the people we talked to." Daniels explained and looked over at Kensi, giving her a once over with an appreciative look in his eyes that Sam noticed.
"There is only one person that peeked our interest." Hetch announced. "His name is Franklin Reese. Deeks put him away for murder years ago but he was released due to over population. He's at least worth talking to."
"Alright Kensi, how about you go talk to him and see what you can find out?" Callen suggested.
"You've got it." Kensi said and stood up.
"How about I go with you?" Daniels asked and got a disinterested shrug from Kensi.
"Has anyone heard anything about Deeks?" Sam asked before Kensi and Daniels could leave.
"He's still sleeping, but is doing well." Hetty said, popping up behind Callen and making him jump.
"I wonder if he even realizes what happened." Eric pointed out with a frown.
"From what I've gathered, he was out before anything happened so probably not." Nell stated.
"Let's go interview Reese." Kensi said to Daniels and led the way out of the room.
Normally she would be on top of her game, but had found that she was too distracted. Deeks had been hurt before, getting shot twice because someone wanted to draw Kensi out, but this time was different. If she hadn't have shown up to his place when she had, then he would have died there on the bathroom floor. She wouldn't have known that her partner had died until they went back to work on Monday only for him to not show up.
"So you were partnered up with Deeks huh?" Daniels asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"We've been partners for years." Kensi nodded and got behind the wheel of her car.
Daniels got a small smirk on his face and let out a quick chuckle.
"What did you do wrong to get roped with him?" He asked and visibly flinched when Kensi sent a glare his way.
"Deeks is an exceptional cop and a great asset to the team." She seethed. "He's an excellent partner and a wonderful friend that doesn't deserve the crap and scrutiny that he gets from his fellow officers. He may have made some mistakes in the past, but that doesn't mean you have to be an ass to him."
"Whoa, okay, calm down I didn't mean to offend you." Daniels stated with his hands raised in surrender. "He's your friend, I get it."
"Let's just talk to this guy and see if he's the one that did this to Deeks." Kensi heavily sighed and focused her attention on the road, trying to ignore the man beside her.
As it turned out, the guy was no more help than Tiny had been.
"Look I got arrested because I killed someone." Reese stated. "You don't think that Deeks arresting me was something that was needed?"
"That's not what I want to know." Kensi said. "What I asked is if you had anything to do with what has happened."
"I don't know anyone that would go after a cop." He shook his head. "I know I wouldn't."
"Great." Kensi sighed and closed her notebook.
Once the guy left, Daniels turned to Kensi with a slightly annoyed look on his face.
"No one seems to know anything and that was the last person on our list." He pointed out. "We're back to square one."
"Then let's start making another list." Kensi said and walked away and back to her car.