“The sad truth is most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” - Hannah Arendt
Kate was looking decidedly queasy in Jeanne’s eyes, more so since her apartment had been broken into earlier in the week, that would shake anyone up. Office gossip was that Tony had originally been hired to install a security system, but had been otherwise engaged with getting Kate in the sack and had apparently moved in with her. Jeanne took everything that was said with a pinch of salt, but knew there was some truth in it; Kate was an attractive woman, it wouldn’t have taken her much to get Tony to drop his tools.
Or his pants.
Jeanne wouldn’t let herself worry about Kate, but she had begun to wonder if perhaps everything was finally beginning to get on top of her; it wasn’t easy moving to a new city, starting a relationship and getting stalked at the same time. It was a situation she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, but since Kate was already her worst enemy the thought seemed pretty redundant.
It wasn’t that she disliked Kate, she absolutely hated her. Jeanne only wanted her to see that she should never have gone anywhere near her man. Tony was simply taking some time from their relationship to get his head together before they got married; he may have been living a bachelor lifestyle, but that didn’t entitle the tramps of DC to sink their claws into him and take their pound of flesh.
Jeanne wasn’t stupid, she knew Tony had been with other women in his time away from her, but he’d never once flaunted it. At most, those women were a drunken fumble in the alley behind a club, but he seemed different with Kate. The thought that he may actually decide to leave her, his fiancée, for that two-bit whore upset her greatly.
Her desk was angled so she could clearly see Kate when the door was open, and Jeanne had been watching her all morning, before Kate had shut the door while she spoke with Jethro and it remained that way all afternoon, waiting for a sign to show she was unravelling at the edges but it just wasn’t showing. Jeanne was a patient woman and it wouldn’t be until she backed off would Jeanne put an end to it all. When it had first started, she had merely set out to scare Kate enough that she would leave Tony alone, but this break in was so much better than anything she had originally planned.
When the elevator announced it’s arrival and a man and woman in matching trench coats stepped off, Jeanne began sweating. She’d seen him once before, outside Kate’s as she’d driven past and had later been informed by Charlie that he was Detective Tobias Charles Fornell, currently investigating Kate‘s stalking.
The way he and his partner had looked at her before silently conversing meant that she had screwed up somewhere along the way and they were on to her. She’d been so sure she’d covered her tracks, made sure her numbers were withheld; perhaps she’d been too careless when the phone started going to the answering machine. But it might not have anything to do with her personally, they may have another reason for looking at her like that.
She was spending way too much time around Charlie, whose middle name was Paranoid.
As they approached her desk, Jeanne tried to calm her racing heart and act casual. When they stood in front of her desk and pulled out their badges, the female eyed her warily and Jeanne knew the jig was up.
“Detectives Fornell and David, we’re here to see Kate Todd.”
“Certainly. I’ll just call through and let her know you’re here.”
***
Kate was getting restless as well as already being nervous as hell.
Work used to provide a sanctuary until the phone calls had started there, and although there had been no calls placed to her office since Wednesday she still couldn’t get comfortable, let alone concentrate on work especially since Vance was scheduled for a meeting with Jethro that afternoon. The only phone call she wanted to receive was from Fornell, telling her they had evidence or a suspect, or something to eradicate the fear that she was being watched while she sat at her desk.
In the two days since the break in, Detective Fornell had been amazingly accommodating, easing the majority of her and Tony’s worries and had doubled his efforts to bring the situation to an end now that Kate’d had her home invaded.
On Wednesday he’d brought along his partner, Detective Ziva David who was working on tracking down the names on the list of possible suspects, when he’d been called to the crime scene, as well as a forensic team to gather any potential evidence.
While Kate had been doing a thorough check of her home, with David by her side, Tony had been in the kitchen with Fornell and was trying to put a date to the photos laid out before them on the table; since there was only a small handful he was in made the task more difficult. He couldn’t fathom the amount of single shots of Kate there where in such a short amount of time, not to mention the amount of time he and Kate spent apart from each other even though it seemed they were constantly joined at the hip; two weeks really wasn’t much time when it was laid out like that.
Kate had eventually returned to the kitchen where she had her first proper look at the photos she’d been sent. The ten shots in which she was alone and either shopping or running, she could date to being from the previous week; the five of her with Jethro could’ve been from Saturday or Sunday of either week and the nine shots where Tony was featured had obviously been taken over the two weeks they’d been together. It was the last photo of her at work she really couldn’t understand.
And it was that one which ultimately ruled Ari from the list in Kate’s mind.
When a gloved technician arrived to take their fingerprints, Kate had baulked at the suggestion, stating that her fingerprints were already all over her home. She’d calmly been told that it was to rule her and Tony out from the unidentifiable prints they recovered, if there were any, and so she gave in and was left with black fingertips and an almost ruined manicure.
It was that and the obvious lack of forced entry which prompted Kate to decant downstairs to Tony’s apartment once everyone had left.
The details she was aware of were that there was no sign of forced entry, suggesting someone had a key or they picked the lock, and that Walter could possibly be an eyewitness. She wouldn’t know about the call log, the fingerprints or the security tapes until they’d all be reviewed and analysed. In other words, she was in for a wait which she was hoped would be ending today.
When the phone on her desk rang, Kate grabbed at it hoping it was Fornell on the other end, but her hopes were dashed when she realised it was Jeanne. When she was told that Fornell and his partner were there to see her, her heart started beating double time; there was only one reason the cops would show up in person to tell her what they’d found. Within seconds she was opening her door and greeting the two detectives as they entered her office.
***
One of the first things Kate had done was phone Tony, telling him the minimum amount of information and he’d insisted on coming down to the office which was fine by her, then she crossed the hall to Jethro’s office and asked him to join her in the hallway. When they stepped out, Fornell and David had just left Kate’s office and were currently speaking to Jeanne, who didn’t look at all surprised about the situation. Jethro looked at Kate who merely shrugged her shoulders.
“She’s been making the phone calls.”
He slipped his hand into hers and gave her fingers as squeeze as she walked to Jeanne’s desk so she could finally confront her silent caller. Abby joined them silently, wanting to see the person who had made her friends life a misery for the past few weeks. It hadn’t taken long for she and Kate to form a special bond in the length of time they’d known each other, and Abby felt that anything that hurt Kate, hurt her too.
There’s was no time for Jeanne to gather her purse or wipe the almost smug look off her face as her rights were read and the handcuffs were put on her wrists, something, it seemed to Jethro, David seemed to enjoy doing a lot. He supposed slapping the cuffs on any criminal would bring about some self-satisfaction.
As Jeanne walked out from behind her desk, Jethro’s hand tightened on Kate’s and Abby took a step forward only to have Jethro’s arm stop her from beating the hell out of the woman before her. Kate looked at Jeanne and could only feel sorry for her; the woman must live a small life it the only satisfaction she got was from harassing people the way she did.
“Your personal items will be packed up and will be sent to you. I just have one question, Jeanne; why?”
“You wouldn’t understand if I told you.”
As she was led towards the elevator, it opened and Tony stepped out, his eyes widening almost comically as he realised what it was Kate had been keeping from him over the phone. He stumbled over to the small group in shock and instantly wrapped his arms around Kate, needing the support more than her at that minute in time.
Abby and Jethro went back to work while Kate and Tony entered her office. She was shaking and she didn’t know why. Maybe it was the fact that the person who had been harassing her had been sat a few feet away from her on a daily basis. It still didn’t explain who had broken into the penthouse though, but for now she was just glad she didn‘t have to be afraid of the telephone anymore.
Jethro came in with two glasses of bourbon and left again to start making preparations for a new assistant. Kate had just settled herself against Tony on the couch, glass in hand, when the cell phone on her hip rang, number withheld. At first she didn’t want to answer it after everything, but with Jeanne with the police she didn’t have to fear her silent stalker anymore.
“Hello?”
“They got the wrong person, girlie girl.”
***
Her bail money had been paid and there was a car waiting outside to collect her. An officer had escorted her out, made sure she was aware of her conditions, and released her back to civilisation until the court hearing. Now she had a black mark against her name, a criminal charge, Jeanne felt strange; it was oddly empowering for someone who had stayed on the clean side of the law all her life.
There was a cell phone lying on the backseat waiting for her, which she was thankful for since her belongings had been left in the office and would now be waiting in a box ready to send to her home. She would be blaming her egocentric ways on the stupid mistake she had made one of the few times she had called Kate; if she had only used the phone designated for such a game instead of her personal cell phone, none of this would have happened.
The phone in her hand contained only three numbers in the phonebook. The numbers of the three she knew would follow her rules and hers alone while they worked for her. It was in their unwritten contract that they each follow the rules of whoever’s game they played. She’d done it while they’d had their turns, and now it was Jeanne’s roll of the dice.
“Charlie, it’s Jeanne. I’m guessing you’ve been informed of recent events? Good. You know, if she wasn’t such a bitch, I’d almost feel sorry for her. But as it stands now, I can’t wait to play with her.”
Chapter End Notes:
This was a fun one. It helped listening to the NBE Album that goes along with this story, which can be found at my LJ