Chapter 42
Sam and Callen followed close on Kensi's heels as she broke just about every known traffic law to get to Culver Boulevard and Deeks. She skidded to a stop just behind three LAPD black and whites, jumping out of the SRX before it had come to a full stop. Sam pulled the Challenger up behind her and he and Callen sprinted to catch up with the junior agent. All three pulled out their badges and held them up as they barreled down on the lone officer standing a short distance beyond the cars.
"Agent Blye, NCIS, these are Agents Callen and Hanna. Have they found him yet?" Kensi asked breathlessly.
The officer looked at her badge and then at the two men flanking her, taking in the NCIS Kevlar vests similar to the one the armed man was described as wearing. "Officer Stan Wolinsky, ma'am." He reached out and shook her hand, then the other agents. "I thought the description matched Marty so I volunteered to come down here. A few months ago, I, um, I was the officer who hit Marty over the head when I didn't recognize the code words for an undercover cop. He forgave me pretty quickly and we've become friends. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to locate him. No one we've talked to so far has seen anyone matching his description. "
"How is that possible?" asked Sam. "There were four separate calls. A heavily armed and beaten man obviously makes an impression on people!"
"I'm well aware of that Agent Hanna. I can only tell you what we've been able to determine at this point. I want to find him as much as you do."
Sam and Callen exchanged looks. There should have been scores of witnesses. Callen tapped his earwig "Eric, we're at the scene. Do you have eyes on him yet?"
"Nothing yet Callen. I take it LAPD hasn't had any luck either?"
"Nothing, it's like he was never here." Callen stopped short and thought about what he had just said. "Eric, go back to the time when the calls started coming in and see if you can find him then."
"On it." The agents waited impatiently as Eric went through all the footage he could find of the area. "Guys, there's no sign of him anywhere at that time either!"
Catching onto what his partner was getting at, Sam said "Damn it! Eric, can you trace the calls that came into LAPD reporting he was down here?"
"Yeah, it'll take me a bit though. I have to get into the LAPD database, find and then trace the calls. What are you guys thinking Sam?" Eric looked at Nell, not liking the look of fear on her face.
Sam looked at Kensi, not sure how she was going to take this. "We're thinking he was never here to start with. We're thinking we were lured away from that damn warehouse. We'll head back there now to do a more thorough search." Kensi paled and immediately turned to head back to her car, intent on getting back to the warehouse as quickly as possible. Callen reached out and snagged her arm, stopping her single minded crusade to find her partner.
"Kensi, wait! We need to go back there together. We can't have you disappear as well."
Hetty's voice came over the comms. "Mr. Callen, will you need additional hands to search for our Mr. Deeks?"
"Absolutely Hetty. The place is huge and full of places to hide. We'll meet whoever you can gather together there as soon as possible. Bring crowbars, there are tons of crates in there we may need to open. Eric, let us know what you find!"
"Will do."
Callen looked at Kensi and his partner. "Let's go!"
Stan Wolinsky yelled at them as they left "Let us know what you find!" worried about his friend.
They raced to their cars and headed back towards the warehouse, fearing that it may already be too late. They had been gone almost half an hour now and it would take them more time to backtrack. The chances that Deeks was still there? They were getting smaller by the minute.
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Hetty looked at Granger and both headed out of Ops without a word, both wanting to be involved in the coming search for their Liaison Officer. As she exited the room, she turned back and said "Find him Mr. Beale, Miss. Jones. Do whatever you have to!" The two analysts nodded and went back to their keyboards, Eric hacking into the LAPD database to get the information on the recorded calls.
As they made their way down the stairs, Hetty was surprised to see a group of people waiting for them at the bottom. "Mr. Franklin, what is this all about?" she asked, addressing the man standing to the front.
"We heard that Marty's gone missing and that you might need some assistance searching the warehouse he disappeared in. We're here to offer our help." The NCIS agent replied.
Hetty was always amazed at how quickly bad news traveled. She looked at the people watching her anxiously, four agents and Sheila Karle from wardrobe. It would appear their Mr. Deeks was well liked outside his core team, but she wasn't all that surprised. She wondered if his team would be.
Looking at the wardrobe mistress she said "Mrs. Karle, you aren't a field agent and this could be dangerous. I'm not sure it would be appropriate for you to join us."
"I'm going Miss. Lange. Marty's a good guy, someone who always takes the time to say thank you and to stop and chat with me. I want to help. Plus, he's helped my husband and me with some legal issues we've had over the last few years. I owe him! I may not be a field agent, but I am an NCIS employee, just like everyone else here."
Hetty looked at the others gathered there and saw them all nodding in agreement with the woman. She decided that it wasn't worth arguing. "Very well, I'll have Mr. Beale send the address to your phones, please meet us there. Mrs. Karle, you will go with Agent Franklin. Mr. Franklin, you are to watch out for her, do you understand me?"
Jim Franklin nodded in acknowledgement and the group left the Mission.
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Sam, Callen and Kensi roared back to the warehouse, still waiting on word from Ops. They had barely arrived when Hetty and Granger pulled up, followed shortly by two more cars with personnel from the Mission. The group that had started out as five had grown to seven as the news continued to spread throughout OSP. They all gathered by the back door to the warehouse and Callen walked them through the events of the day. After Franklin handed out the crowbars, they split up into four groups; each assigned one quadrant of the warehouse. Kensi, Sam, Callen and Hetty each took charge of a group. They had just started to split up when Eric's voice sounded over the comms.
"Guys! I got the information on the calls into LAPD about Deeks. They were all from burn phones! None of the calls were long enough to trace but I was able to determine what cell tower they used." He paused. "All four used the tower closest to the warehouse."
Sam, Callen and Kensi stared at each other. This was exactly what they had feared. They had been tricked into leaving Deeks behind, they should have left at least one of them onsite, for just this reason. They no longer had any hope that they would find him here but would search the warehouse anyway, maybe they would be able to find something that would lead them to whoever had their friend. Callen shared the information with the group who deflated a little at the information he imparted.
"We can't assume he's not in there, ladies and gentlemen. Let's do our best and, even if he is no longer here, look for anything that could help us find out who took him. Earwigs in, keep in touch, no one is to go anywhere alone. " said Hetty. Two groups went around to the front of the building and the other two entered through the back. Each group then split up again, one moving right, one moving left.
There was silence for the next half hour as each group carefully combed their section, looking for anything that would indicate what had happened to the shaggy detective. Finally Jim Franklin's voice came over comms. "We found something! You guys are not going to believe this."
"Where are you Jim?" said Callen.
"North side of the warehouse. From what you told me, this was the section Deeks was clearing when he vanished. Now I know why."
"Mr. Hanna, Mr. Callen, Miss. Blye, meet me at Mr. Franklin's location. The rest of you keep looking for anything else that can help us find him." Hetty said over comms. Sam, Callen and Kensi left their groups and quickly headed to the north side. They arrived to find Hetty and Granger already there. They were all standing in front of a crate whose front was swung open like a door, looking in.
"What the hell?" blurted out Sam as he moved up to peer in as well. Inside he could see a lockbox and nothing else. "Has anyone gone in yet?"
"No Mr. Hanna. We were waiting for Mr. Deeks's team. I thought you would like to be the ones to investigate."
Kensi swallowed hard and said "Thank you Hetty." Sam and Callen nodded at her, knowing she wouldn't be able to contain herself if someone else went in, she needed to do this. She pulled on latex gloves and moved into the crate, which was large enough for at least six of them to stand in comfortably. She pulled out a flashlight and methodically swept the area for any evidence, the lock box looming large in her peripheral vision. It's not large enough for a man's body, it's not, it's not she thought, hating the image of her lover crammed into it that came to mind.
"Found a footprint!" She pulled out her cell and snapped a picture. "Looks like a size 11 or 12. It's not Deeks's. Not the right pattern for his boots." Sam raised an eyebrow that she would know that but Kensi didn't see it.
"There's a cloth thrown in the corner." She picked it up and sniffed it, immediately feeling dizzy. "Smells like myoflurane. It's not widely known or used, the only reason I know about it is because we talked about in a class I took a couple months ago. It acts like chloroform but is only takes seconds to knock you out instead of five minutes." She pulled a baggie out of her vest and dropped the cloth into it, sealing the smell and any possible DNA evidence inside.
Once she had been over every inch of the crate, she moved to the lockbox, knowing she wouldn't be damaging any other clues. She pulled out her lock pick set, hesitated for a second and then went to work on the padlock, making short work of opening it. She raised the top and couldn't stop the gasp that the contents evoked. She recognized the knife she had given him last Christmas, similar to the one she always wore. She reached in and pulled out the leather badge holder, knowing what it would contain. She slowly opened it and saw his face smiling up at her. Her breath caught in her throat, wondering if she would ever see that smile in person again.
Sam entered the crate when he realized she wasn't moving. Carefully, he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. When she leaned into his hand a little, he said "We'll find him Kensi. He's tough and he's strong. He'll wait for us and we will find him!" She nodded mutely, still staring at his badge and running her thumb over the raised letters.
Sam looked back at his partner and realized Callen was pissed. Somebody was messing with his family and he was not going to let them get away with it. The team leader tapped his earwig and asked "Eric, you were monitoring the warehouse when we went in. Did you continue after we left?"
"No. I'm sorry! We were focused on Culver Blvd. Let me go back through the traffic cam footage to see if we catch anything."
"Do it. And see if you can find anything odd going on around this warehouse in the last two weeks. This started when the phony tips started coming in. They didn't just plan this today. Deeks was right, we were being tested and they knew exactly where the best spot to grab him would be."
"On it."
"Kens?" Sam said gently, breaking the woman out of her trance.
She looked up and searched his eyes, taking comfort from the quiet confidence there. Pulling herself together, she stood and moved out of the crate to stand in front of Callen. He pulled her into a side hug and looked at Hetty saying "Obviously this is where they kept him. They used the myoflurane to knock him out and sat in here listening to every word we said. We were out here wondering where he was while he was just feet away the whole time. I want these guys Hetty."
It was Granger who answered "You're not alone Agent Callen, not by a longshot. I have no problem if these bastards don't see a day in prison and I don't mean that they get away with this."
Kensi opened her mouth to add her agreement when Eric's voice interrupted her. "I found him, sort of. A little over ten minutes after you left the warehouse for Culver, a black van pulled up out front. A man came out carrying someone over his shoulder. He threw the man into the back and I could see his face. It was definitely Deeks and he was out cold!"
"Plates Eric? Can you see the man or the driver's face?" asked Sam.
"Sorry, no plates on the van. No good angle for facial rec either. The guy carrying Deeks never turns his face to the camera and the driver is wearing a ball cap pulled down over most of his face. They must have known where the cameras were. I've got nothing. Sorry guys!"
"Can you track him?"
"I'm trying. They went north from there but then I lost the van. I've already got kaleidoscope on it."
"Eric, check for other cell phone usage in the area. These guys must have been in communication somehow." Sam continued. Callen nodded in approval.
Granger looked at the agents in front of him. "Who the hell would want Deeks so badly that they would go to all this trouble?"
Kensi narrowed her eyes at him. "Timmons!" she hissed with absolute conviction.