Washington DCâ"Crime Scene #8?
Pulling up to the crash and seeing the flashing lights, Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. It would be hard to get them to turn anything over to them. They would claimâ"as he had suggested the courts wouldâ"that their reasons were circumstantial.
âWhatâs wrong?â Kensi asked.
âMetro PD,â Tony answered, as if that should have been enough explanation. It wasnât.
âSo?â
âTheyâre local LEOâs. Theyâll say weâre just trying to steal their glory, and they wonât give us anything,â he said as they got out of the car.
Approaching the first officer he came to, Tony flashed his badge. âSpecial Agents DiNozzo and Blye, NCIS.â Seeing the fearful look in his eye, he sighed again. Probie, he thought. âCan I speak with the officer in charge?â
Another police officer walked over and cleared his throat. âThat would be me. Officer Quinn Thornby. This is Simon Cory. My partner is over by the car. Randy!â he shouted. The police officer turned around and waved. âWhy are you here?â
Tony blinked. This guy wasnât one to mince words. âAs I was telling Officer Cory, Iâm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, and this is Special Agent Kensi Blye. My boss sent me here because we have reason to believe that a serial killer is behind this crash.â
âDo you have any proof?â
âHe matches the description.â
âHow do you know that? Weâre not through with our witnesses yet!â
âOne of our guys back at base caught him saying âcheeseâ as he ran the next red
light.â
âAnd youâre sure heâs the guy from your sketch?â One of the worst things about being a cop in DC is thereâs always a fed claiming theyâve got jurisdiction on the interesting cases. And how.
âYes,â Tony said confidently, though they didnât have a sketch to match. Which Kensi was all too eager to point out.
âTony, we donât have a sketch. He matches the profile.â
âWhich isâŚ?â
âOh, you know, the usual,â Tony said with his trademark anger-fueled sarcasm. âIsraeli Mossad assassin trying to kidnap his directorâs daughter on his directorâs orders, because she made it clear that she wants nothing to do with him anymoreâ"â
âTony!â Kensi forcefully interrupted his rant. âAnyway, Officer Thornby, if we could just take a look aroundâŚâ
Tony was taking pictures of the car when Kensi approached him.
âYou know, Tony, itâs none of my business, but I donât think itâs right, what youâre doing to Dr. Benoit.â
He turned to face her. âYouâre right, it isnât any of your business, but Iâll bite. What are you talking about?â
âWell, you can call it womanâs intuition, or blame it on my job as an investigator, but I think we both know how you feel about Agent David.â Ignoring his rapidly changing expressions, from surprise to embarrassment to anger, to a mix of all three, she continued, âHear me out. I suspected before, but it really shows now that sheâs in danger.â When the anger won out again, she said, âIâm sorry. I just felt bad for Dr. Benoit, and I know no one on your team has the courage to face you, even if they know, which the guys on my team definitely do not. And trust me on this one, you do not want a lecture from Hetty. So, now that thatâs over with, I donât understand any of the references your team is making. Whoâs Kate, and what happened in Somalia?â
He looked at her for a moment, then sighed and said, âIâll just tell you about the important stuff thatâs happened to the team over the years, starting with Kate. We met about seven years ago, on Air Force One. She was Secret Service. A naval commander was poisoned during his lunch with the president, so we flew out to Wichita, Kansas to take care of the body. There was a huge jurisdiction battle between NCIS, Secret Service, and the FBI, but we won out; donât ask how. But Kate refused to leave the plane.
âAt the end of the case she was forced to resign, because she had been dating one of her co-workers. Gibbs told her there was a job for her at NCIS, and she took it.
âTwo years later, she was shot in the head by Gibbsâ nemesis, Ari Haswari. Gibbs
thinks itâs his fault. He still hasnât forgiven himself.
âKate was a great agent, and when I got the black plagueâ"again, donât ask howâ"she stayed with me in quarantine even after she found out she didnât have it.â
âWow, she sounds like a great friend. Iâm so sorryâŚâ
âYeah, it was tough. The director retired right after that. Thatâs when the real change came. Female director, new Mossad liaison officer position, new face in the bullpen.â He chuckled. âI dare you to ask Abby what she thought about Zivaâs replacing Kate.â
âA year or two after that, Gibbs was in an explosion and put into a coma. He retired to Mexico after he got his memory back. Ziva got into some trouble, and he came back to save her. I donât think heâs taken a day off since.
âYou may have noticed that we donât like Director Vance. Let me help you to
understand. Director Sheppard died on Zivaâs and my watch. Then he comes in, and the first thing he does is separates us. McGee goes down to the basement to work in cyber crimes, Ziva goes back to Israel, and Iâm sent onto a boat somewhere. Then he doesnât want to waste the resources to rescue Ziva from being tortured in Somalia. That was all us. McGee and I were actually in the middle of it, being tortured with her, until Gibbs shot him and we got out.â
Before she could respond, he took a deep breath. âLetâs go take a look at the body.â
He pulled down the sheet, and suddenly his entire body tensed. He hurriedly covered the womanâs face again before Kensi could see anything more than she was a brunette.
She watched as he took out his cell phone and walked towards the car, running his hand through his hair over and over. No, she thought. She pulled down the sheet again, hoping she was wrongâŚ
But she wasnât. Lying there was Dr. Jeanne Benoit.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Crime Scene #8 has a twist... and for those of you who arent as obsessed as I am, Tony tells Kensi about important events the team has gone through. So, some spoilers, if you're not completely caught up.