This chapter is much longer compared to the other ones. Believe it or not it's harder than i thought making it this long. Hot you like it. PS. Assistant Director Granger finally makes an (implied) appearance in this chapter. He and Hetty will both be in the next chapter. Hope you like it.
At the boatshed:
Kensi, Deeks, and Chloe are waiting in the outside of the interrogation room looking in through the big screen that shows, Sam and Callen questioning Ms. Bradford.
Sam is the first to start the interrogation. "Do you always carry a gun on you when you go to work? Expecting some company, were you?"
She of course doesn't answer.
"Ms. Bradford, are you aware of what your boyfriend, Scott Ainsley, does for a living?" Sam asks.
His question is reciprocated only by silence. He tries again with another question. This time he takes a picture out, it's of Chloe. "Has Scott ever mentioned this woman to you," he asks holding the picture up so he can see.
She is silent for a few moments until she finally asks the question any normal person would have asked about minutes ago, "Why am I here?"
"We are here because that woman was shot at by your boyfriend and his brother about a few hours ago."
"What!? No! Scoot could never, would never do that. Neither would David." The words leave her mouth, but it doesn't take a federal agent to hear the doubt cased over the words.
"Really? You sure about that?" Sam looks over at his partner, "Was she asking or stating? I couldn't really tell," Sam tells him sarcastically.
"Oh. I don't know. It didn't sound like she was sure to me." The same kind of sarcasm is in his voice as it was with Sam's.
"Yes," She tells them defensively. "I'm sure. Scott would never do that. He is a kind and loving man. I know about his past," Sam and Callen look at each other. "He may have used to live a life of crime, but he's over that now. I'm sure of it!" It sounds more like she is trying to convince herself that, than she is trying to convince the federal agents leading her interrogation.
This time its Callen's turn to ask the questions. "Is that what he tells you? Do you believe him?"
Regina looks at her hands folded on top of the other in her lap. She doesn't answer. Callen tries a different tactic. He pulls out pictures from the manila folder in his hands, curtesy of Nell and Eric. Spreading the pictures out just in front of her, being sure that she can see them, "Are you sure you're not just turning a blind eye?" Regina looks at the pictures, all victims of the Ainsley's work. Their MO is three 9 mm bullets to the chest. "These are just some of the people that had the displeasure of being on the other side of your boyfriend's handy work. Your boyfriend and his brother kill people for money, and you know what? I think you've known about his choice of employment, and you know what else? In Know you know where they're staying." Callen kneels by her chair and angles his head to ensure she's looking at him. "We've got you for assault with a deadly weapon. Tell us, what you know and we might just shed some time off your sentence."
Regina's eyes bulge at the idea of going to jail. "I didn't know. I swear. I didn't think he was capable of something like this. I thought it was just a couple robberies when he was a teen with his brother. I don't understand why he would do this, especially know when…"
Sam's eyebrows raise in question. "When what?" He urges.
"A few weeks ago I found out I was pregnant."
Callen and Sam exchange a look. Things just got more complicated for them. "Tells us everything you know and we'll see if we can get the charges dropped," Callen tells her.
Looking to Sam for confirmation, she gets a head nod in return and starts, "A few days after I told him I was pregnant, he got a call. I don't know who was on the other line or what they were saying, but it got Scott all stressed out. That's when he started acting a little weird and secretive, and gave me the gun. He said he wanted me to be able to protect myself if something were to happen. I thought it was just him being overprotective about the baby, but maybe it has to do with the woman in the picture. One night he told me that I didn't need worry about our financials, that he had it all figured out and that we were gonna be okay. That's all I know. I'm sorry. The only reason Scott is doing this is because he wants to be able to take care of us."
Sam nods sympathetically at her, "Okay, but the people who hired you boyfriend are dangerous people. If you don't want the father of your child to get hurt, or hurt someone else, then you're going to have to help us find him. Is there place that you know of where he and David would go? Anything you can give us would be helpful." Sam's voice is soothing, but firm.
After a minute of reluctance she tells them, "I followed him once to some storage garage place. I can write the name of the place down for you, but I don't know if that's where he'd be or the number of the garage he uses."
Sliding a notepad and pen to her, Callen says, "That's okay. We can take it from here."
Regina writes down a few words on the notepad and hands it back to agent Callen. "Unfortunately, until we find Scott and David we can't let you leave yet. It wouldn't be safe for neither you nor Scott and David."
"I understand."
"There will be an agent waiting outside the door. In case you need anything, just ask him."
Once Regina gives them a nod of comprehension, both Sam and Callen join the others outside of the interrogation room where the screen and table with chairs are.
The faces of the team's tech operator and analyst appeared on the screen. Eric speaks first. "We put Daniel Hague through facial recognition, and we got a hit. He got off a private plane from New York just a few hours ago. From the looks of it, Daniel found you in New York, took one of the family jets to get you, only to find out he just missed you on your way to Los Angeles and here he is."
"We are still looking the Ainsley brothers," Nell adds.
"I think we can help with that. Regina a have us the name of a storage garage company that she followed Scott to. Fort Wayne Storage Rental. She doesn't have a garage number for us though," Callen says.
"I'll look into it," Nell says. "And just a heads up, Hetty and Granger are on their where over to you guys now."
Deeks asks the question that popped into everyone's mind. "What does Granger want with such a low profile case?" Hearing Chloe's somewhat offended sounding huff, he turns to her and adds, "No offense."
Chloe ignores him, being low profile not really offending him as much as he thinks. "Granger? As in Owen Granger?"
The team gives her a skeptical look, intrigued as to how Chloe knows Granger. "Yup, that's the one," Kensi conforms.
"He's the Assistant Director of NCIS."
Chloe chuckles under her breath. 'Never would have guessed the guy with a big nose and ears like Dumbo would be so important.' Of course Chloe's never been one to keep her thoughts to herself, she realizes when she hears the quiet sound of snickers from the agents around her. Suddenly they come to an abrupt stop and she hears Deeks choke trying to hold his in. She senses a presence behind her. On instinct she turns around is presented with an interesting sight. One tiny, yet frightening unamused looking manager, and one even more unamused, frighteningly tall director. There's no way any one didn't hear her gulp.