Chapter Five
Betrayal
Tim McGee opened his eyes when the body behind his moved slightly and turned over carefully so he wouldn't wake his sleeping companion.
The woman lay enshrouded in deep slumber, much of the light sheet she'd covered herself with pushed off her bare body. Though the bed was king sized, he'd been the one to suggest separate coverings, not wanting to pull hers off in the midst of the night. It was an appreciated though useless gesture, she was the 'tosser' and was most likely to awake in the middle of the night with blanket on the floor or twisted about her lithe body.
He boosted himself up on one elbow, the better to look at her. She was still profoundly asleep, the dénouement of hours of occasionally slow, sometimes frenzied, always passionate lovemaking. Often he had to cover her mouth to muffle zealous, ecstatic screams that would've resulted in calls to Metro. This was a difficult proposition at best, as she frequently preferred the upper position, so he had to depend upon her to quiet herself.
Her long black hair was tousled upon the pillow and her unbearably exotic features seemed translucent in the dim light. She lay on her side facing him, her left leg extended out to him, her breasts rising and falling slowly with her quiet breaths. Unable to help himself, he reached out to rest his hand high on her inner thigh. Her uncovered flesh, which he'd expected to be cool, was warm.
She opened her eyes to look up at him without moving. "Good morning," she whispered softly in a lyrical accent.
"Not quite."
"What time is it?"
"A little after two. Not time to get up," he replied as quietly.
She shifted her eyes down the length of his body, seeming to enjoy the exploration until she focused upon a particular part of him and she smiled even more broadly. "You are halfway there already." She looked back up, reached for him and her hand slipping behind his neck to pull him closer. "I would say you need only another minute."
"With you, thirty seconds." He came down to her lips, his hand slipped further up her warm thigh, touching her already moistening flesh as he cupped her left breast with his other hand.
Ziva David sighed, licked his tongue as she drew his body down to hers, shifted her hips and arched her back to raise her breasts to his chest as she gave herself over to him, and in turn accepted gratefully everything he gave.
It was many hours to go before she had to endure the pretense in Operations.
xxx
Abby Sciuto sat behind the wheel of her black convertible, the miles slipping unheeded under them as they left Washington, the sun having barely cleared the horizon. The wind that played about them from the open top didn't affect her pigtails, though her companion again had to hold her long blonde hair in her left hand, close to her chest, to keep it from blowing about wildly. Abby had insisted upon an early start, the eighty plus miles would have to be traversed twice before she could report for work. She had told Dawn that she had to face returning home, face her fear and secure herself, that the tests she was running would take hours or days to complete and she couldn't stay in Virginia and run them at the same time.
For every mile they traversed, Abby felt more and more wretched. The evidence she had collected was in the trunk of her car. She had lied to her friend, who had trusted her and had turned to her for help. She was going to turn everything over to the State Police, and she wished Gibbs was in the seat behind her to administer an endless series of hard slaps to her empty skull!
x
It took a very long time to traverse the distance to the hills of Virginia, seemingly far longer than it had to come up to Washington; but she knew the reason was because of the black mood that flooded the car to drown both women. For reasons neither would discuss nor admit, neither of them wanted to make this long trip.
As they passed the guard house, this time manned by a different guard who actually did stop them the check their IDs, Dawn broke her long silence. "I really wish I could've stayed with you." She kept her hands clasped on her bare legs below her ultra-short blue denim pants, pants that only hinted at hiding anything at all, pants such as she wouldn't ever have worn again if they had not been the only ones Abby had packed. They were her other set and she'd packed them in anticipation of having a good time, something Abby had reminded her of quite firmly when she'd found them in the bag this morning. But now she wished she could cover up instead. She looked down at the brief sleeveless pink halter tied below her breasts which left her midriff bare, kept her hands firmly upon her lap in an effort to hide as much of her thighs from high crotch down, and felt absolutely naked. She'd caught the unknown guard's gaze upon her legs and for the first time she could remember she had not liked it!
"You know you can't," Abby retorted more sharply than she'd intended to, guilt tearing at her. She mentally backed up and tried again, more calmly, following the irregular curves of the main road by rote alone. "There's nothing for you in the city. You've got to go to the Police, tell them again what happened and make them do something about it. You don't need me to hold your hand to do that. You're a tough gal; you can stand up for yourself."
"Stand up for myself?" Dawn asked with a trace of high hysteria in her tone, looking up at Abby in open astonishment as they turned left off the main road by the eastern beach and started to ascend the hill. "I can't even face going into that house by myself."
"Well, you're gonna have to do that too. The only way you're going to conquer your fear is to face it." They approached the first of the three intersections. "It's hard, it's cruel, its –."
"SHIT!" Dawn yelled. Abby, startled, barely managed to keep her eyes, and the car, on the inclining road.
"Yeah, it's shit too, but–"
"STOP THE CAR!" Dawn shrieked.
Abby slammed her foot down on the brake and the convertible slid to a stop on the packed dirt and gravel. Angry, she turned on the girl.
"Look, I know you're stressed out, but if you –!" The words died in her throat; Dawn wasn't looking at her. She was looking back the way they'd come, though the trees that bordered the roads, back beyond the intersection they had just passed. Through the thick trees, Abby could see flashes of colored lights, but nothing more. Dawn turned back to her, her expression matching her frantic voice.
"Back up!"
Abby needed no further urging. Relaxing pressure on the brake, she eased the convertible into a controlled descent down the hill until they were sitting in the intersection of two packed dirt roads, looking at a white Lake Security Patrol car, two silver gray State Police RMPs and an Ambulance all parked in an irregular mob about a hundred forty feet down the road.
"That's Dottie Higgins' house!" Dawn stared at the scene for many seconds; then turned back to Abby. As the two women stared at each other, each knew with mounting dread the reason for the scene. Neither could ever say how they knew, but both knew they were right.
Dawn threw her seat belt violently from her body, wrenched the handle of her door up, threw the metal barrier aside and dove out of the car, ran at breakneck speed along the road, her wooden soled clogs beating a staccato rhythm.
"Dawn!" Abby yelled. She knew her running friend could hear her, but the blonde girl never slowed. Biting back a curse, she stepped on the emergency brake to lock the car in place, pulled open her seat belt, leaned across to reach the open door; having to almost lean out of the car to reach it and pull it shut. As she grasped the shift control, Dawn was already out of sight, having run to the right onto the property and beyond view, hidden by the trees.
"Day just keeps getting better," she muttered angrily, backing up, shifting gears, and turning the 'Batmobile' toward new and worse trouble.
x
When Abby stopped the car as far out of the way of the Emergency vehicles as she could, she looked to her right at a yellow and white one story bungalow, a carefully manicured lawn and a Lake Security Officer. He knelt on one knee on the grass, favoring his other shin. The picture told the story well enough; the Security Officer had tried to halt the frantic girl, and had gotten kicked for his efforts. Those clogs were a danger.
She recognized the Guard as the same one who had so kindly waved them though yesterday. Apparently friendship only counted for so much. Abby turned off the motor, at the same time checking to make certain her badge was in her jacket pocket. It did not grant jurisdiction, but maybe it would serve to cool tempers. "I'm gonna blister her ass," Abby muttered, realizing the only temper it was not going to cool was her own.
x
Sweet smiles, polite professional manner and an official gold badge got her past a civilian Security Officer, but when she got inside the bungalow there were four State Troopers, three EMTs, one frantic blonde being blocked from reaching her friend by an annoyed Trooper and a sobbing brunette; Caucasian, twenty eight to thirty years old who sat huddled in a chair and wrapped in a blue blanket, surrounded by the EMTs. Her face was bruised and fresh bandages marked her face. When Abby came in, everyone wearing a uniform looked at her. None of them were happy to see her.
"I'm really sorry about this," she said.
"Who are you?" The tallest of the four Troopers asked. With his Smoky Bear hat still on his head, he was tall indeed. She saw the metal Sergeant's insignia attached to the lapels of his blue uniform shirt, so it was to him that she gave her full attention. The silver bar pinned over his right shirt pocket said 'R. Johnson'.
"I'm Abby Sciuto, that's Dawn Caldwell. We were passing by, and I take it they know each other…." She couldn't stop her voice from trailing away. Though her eyes were on Dawn she could feel the Trooper's disapproving stare as he scanned her all the way from her black pig tailed hair past her black tee shirt with silver studded skull and crossbones upon her chest, past her black microskirt decorated with silver studs on the hem, along her black fishnet stocking covered legs to her calf high black boots. She felt that every detail of her attire was a black mark against her.
Dawn presented a no better impression, clad in a sleeveless pink midriff halter, blue ultrashort denim 'scorch' pants that only covered her with the assistance of prayer, and bare feet in wooden soled clogs. The last had doubtlessly contributed greatly to the Security Guard's newfound irritation with her and she knew she had better establish some type of credibility – fast.
Attire wasn't going to do it. When dealing with Police, the only acceptable attire to wear to a crime scene is a uniform and a badge – and she had only the badge.
She really hadn't wanted to introduce herself in this way, far preferring to walk into a Station House and present herself properly.
"I'm with NCIS," she told him, pulling out her ID case and displaying her card and shield. She very carefully did not change expression when she saw the unenlightened look in his eyes. "Naval Criminal Investigative Service."
He shook his head. "You're a long way from an ocean, lady."
"I realize that. I was bringing my friend home." She looked pointedly at the crying woman huddled in the blanket and decided to divert focus away from herself to its proper place. "Was she raped?"
"Why do you ask that?" he asked with a police officer's suspicion of anyone who is too well informed.
Abby glanced at Dawn. "So was she; yesterday. I'm betting it's by the same animal."
x
Something in her words seemed to break through the crying woman's distress. She looked up, seeing Dawn standing a few feet from her. "Dawn?"
"Yes, Dot, it's me."
Higgins reached for her, and after a moment Sergeant Johnson gave the Trooper blocking Dawn's path a brief nod. The man stepped aside, allowed her to pass. Dawn knelt beside her friend, taking her trembling hand.
"I know the name Dawn Caldwell," Johnson told Abby. "She was interviewed yesterday; declined to press charges. I'm glad to have them together."
"She didn't decline anything. Your Officers 'Hootie' and 'Blowfish' didn't make things easy on her." Too late she realized her mistake, and wished she could bite the irreverent words back. Johnson looked at her curiously.
"I have no such Officers. It was Golden and Macky that took the call."
"My mistake." Her heart flipped over even as she breathed a silent sigh of relief; grateful that he was not fluent in Pop Culture. "Nevertheless, she wants to press charges now."
"Well good. Having both of them will help put this bastard away."
x
"It's going to be okay, Dot," Dawn's consoling voice drifted over to them. "I've brought someone who can help."
"No one can help," the darker woman protested in a voice that was little more than a sob.
"She can." Dawn compelled Dorothy's attention across the room. "That's my friend Abby. She's a Forensic Detective; the Sherlock Holmes of the Navy. She's the one the Navy goes to with all their biggest problems."
Abby had to look away at this, but her eyes met those of Sergeant Johnson and she caught his wry smile, unable to restrain one of her own. But Dawn's next words washed the smiles from both of their faces.
"She has all the evidence of what that bastard did to me, and she's using it to find him and make him pay."
x
Johnson's expression was considerably less friendly. "You removed evidence from a crime scene?"
Abby wanted to kick her friend, but the damage was already done. She could only face up to the taller Sergeant, try to repair things quickly. "When your Officers declined to take action, Dawn turned everything over to my care. However, there's no jurisdiction for NCIS to handle this case, so I was returning the samples and other evidence. It's all in the trunk of my car. I was going to turn it over at your Command when I dropped Dawn off."
She glanced at the other women and instantly regretted it. Dawn's betrayal was bright on her pale face.
"Well, that's fine," Johnson said. "Dupres, you and Kane take charge of all that stuff while Simmons and I take statements. Be sure you have the results of all the analyses Miss Sciuto was able to complete as well."
"It's all in the files," Abby assured them. Johnson turned his attention back to her.
"Personally I don't care two hoots in hell about territory, and I'm not about to get into any pissing match with anyone, Navy or otherwise. I care more about catching this bastard than I do who catches him."
"Glad to hear it. We go through enough matches with FBI, CIA, NSA and BSA. It's refreshing to meet someone who doesn't sweat it."
"BSA?" He'd never heard of that one.
"Bull Shit Agency."
Johnson at least kept his laugh quiet. "Nice to know, when the Feds walk in and try to take over cases, they can't get along either."
"Friend, you have no idea."
xx
It was over half an hour later before Abby and Dawn left the building. Much of that time had been taken in trying to convince Dorothy Higgins to go with the EMTs who would transport her to the hospital. She hadn't wanted to go, and it took all of Dawn's urgings to convince her. Dawn knew that what had happened to her friend wouldn't be resolved by a series of hot showers, no matter how badly the woman wanted to lose herself in them.
In that time Abby had learned a great deal, all of it disturbing. From the choking and torture through the taping of hands and ankles, the latter this time across the length of a long handled mop; to the use of a black hood and distinctive bite marks on the woman's breasts, it was obvious that they were dealing with the same suspect.
Abby was glad that this information had all been revealed while Dawn was giving her statement in another room. She doubted her friend could have stood up to the trauma of hearing her own rape repeated in such gruesome detail.
Abby and Dawn returned to the convertible in oppressive silence that broke as soon as the doors were closed. "When were you going to tell me that you were off my case?" Dawn asked in a voice heavy with the fresh wounds of betrayal.
There was no way to avoid or soften the truth. "I'm not off your case. I'm still with you. But my boss told me I can't do anything officially here. You're not in the Navy, you're not a Marine, and if you ever joined even a JROTC program you never mentioned it."
"What does any of that have to do with it?"
Abby started the car more forcibly than she needed to, and pulled her emotions back, trying to keep them under control. Nevertheless her voice was tighter than she'd intended it to be. "There are laws, Sunshine." She pulled the car out, turned it around in a driveway of a house a few yards back across the road and headed back to the ascending road. "NCIS can't investigate civilian crimes. That's the jurisdiction of the State Troopers, and we have to leave it there. They are the ones you have to deal with. Anything I find wouldn't be admissible in court, because there are clear boundaries of jurisdiction." She was really growing to hate that word. "I tried to get around them and I got caught."
"What does jurisdiction have to do with anything?" Dawn asked, frustrated fury growing in her tone.
"Everything. When this comes to court, it must be done ri–"
"I gave all that stuff to you - I humiliated myself - I even let you take those embarrassing pictures, and now you tell me you won't help me?"
Abby turned onto the road leading to Dawn's house. "Damn it, Sunshine, for a teacher you're being awfully dense!"
x
As soon as the words, driven by her own angry frustration, were out of her mouth, Abby was sorry. She looked at her friend, wanting to bite the retort back, but the expression on Dawn's face as they pulled to a stop in front of the white trimmed blue bungalow was terrible to behold.
"I trusted you," she said, her voice choked and breaking, tears slowly tracing down her cheeks. "I believed you would help me. I knew that if there was one person in this State that I could call for help it would be you. Last night I slept all through the night and do you know why? It was because I knew Abby Sciuto was on my case, that you would find the bastard that did this to me and make him pay.
"But you Lied to me! All the time you had me believing you were helping me, you had everything in your trunk and you were going to give it all away to people you knew didn't give enough of a damn about me to take a frigging statement."
"Sunshine, I–"
"No! You Lied to me! You tricked me. You brought me back because you weren't going to help me anymore, even though you know you can do the job better than these cops. You made believe you were going to help me, but you turned your back on me just because your boss said to!"
She wrenched open the car door, got out and slammed it shut. "Well, forget it then. If this is what our friendship means, then just get out of here and don't ever come back!" She reached into the back seat and yanked out her blue overnight bag, slung it over her shoulder. "We're through. I don't ever want to see you again."
Turning away, she stalked up the low hill to the bungalow, shoved her key into the lock, let herself in and slammed the door.
Abby stared after her friend, her every hate-filled word stabbing her heart.