The Cost of Divorce 6/?. Crossover NCIS/The Sentinel.
"Visitors?" Tony let his eyebrow do the talking. "You don't have the authority to be bringing strangers into my PD," Tony added with a glare.
"I don't think the visitors Blair's talking about are actually on this plane of existence, DiNozzo," Jim explained while he cast an interrogative look at his partner.
"Something Gibbs needs to take care of." Blair didn't care to explain. "While we wait for him to wake up, how about you let me have a look at those files?"
Tony wasn't happy, but it was apparent that neither Jim nor Blair were budging on the 'visitors' front. Tony was also savvy enough to exercise discretion and this seemed one of those times where it was definitely called for. "Don't you think Gibbs would rather hear this as well?"
"I'm just going to read though your files first, Tony. Making notes, that kind of thing; nothing Gibbs really needs to listen to. I've kind of got the feeling he will want to read over the files himself, without contaminating input from either you or me."
"So do you need me here still?" Tony would have preferred to stay but he had a number of reports pending and if he wasn't able to contribute anything, his time would be better spent dealing with his own paperwork backlog.
"Actually Tony, it might be easier if you’re here. Apart from maintaining control of these files, it means I can get you to clarify events if I need to. How about you grab any other paper work you might have to do and work here rather than out on the bullpen?" Blair wasn't letting Tony out of his sight at the moment if he could help it. Not that he doubted Tony's ability to look after himself. Tony had shown that he was more than capable of that. That being said, Blair Sandburg was constitutionally incapable of throwing anyone into the lion's den.
"How about I give you a hand transferring anything you might need here to the conference room?" Jim offered. He'd picked up his partner's reasoning, and though the chain of custody excuse was kind of weak given Blair was then sending Tony out of the room, it made for a nice face-saving gesture. "If your paperwork backlog is anything like mine -- before the professor here took over -- you'll need an eighteen-wheeler to move it." The scary thing was Jim wasn't kidding. Until Blair had taken over most (all) of the paperwork for team Ellison, it had been difficult, if not impossible, to find Jim's desk at times.
Tony recognized what the two Cascade detectives were up to, but with Bunka being an ass he wasn't about argue. "Nah, a U-Haul should do it. Still, a hand would be useful, Ellison. I hope those muscles are for more than show."
Jim proved it by walking over to Blair and giving his partner a hug; that the hug included lifting Blair off the ground was purely coincidental. It was also something of a coincidence that the hug occurred in such a way that Tony couldn't see what Jim was doing with his hands; suffice it to say Jim groped Blair's ass as much as was possible in such a public setting.
"Okay, they're not for show," Tony commented dryly.
"Nope, not even the muscles between his ears," Blair quipped as Jim set him down again. Lowering his voice so that only Jim could hear him, Blair went on to instruct Jim to keep Bunka way from Tony. Jim already intended to do so, but this time it was the Shaman, not Blair giving the instructions.
"How about we grab some coffee while we're getting those files?" Jim suggested as he turned and followed Tony back to the bullpen.
"Coffee only, no donuts," Blair yelled at the retreating form, though Blair sensibly also took a moment to enjoy the view.
"Yes, Chief," Jim replied before he was heard to ask DiNozzo where the nearest Starbucks was. Blair smiled, as it had exactly the same tone as the phrase 'Yes, dear' so despised by many woman.
With Tony and Jim out of the room -- likely gone for at least the better part of an hour if Jim convinced Tony that a cholesterol hunt was necessary -- and Gibbs blissfully resting, Blair finally sat down at the table that formed the base of the U. After pulling a couple of profiling notepads and his favorite writing pen out of his backpack, Blair settled down and did a first pass read through of all the files Tony had brought to the conference room. The Philadelphia and Peoria files would wait; these files apparently had enough in them to lead Tony to believe this was a serial offence.
On the first pass Blair wasn't consciously looking for anything, instead what Blair was doing was somewhat akin to loading the data files for a computer game. Effectively, Blair was making sure he had all the data input and then he'd run his own internal analysis programs over the data. Yes, he could have used some fancy computer programs, and that was being pushed heavily by some sectors of the computing research industry, but while the artificial intelligence field had come a long way in many ways, it was still in its infancy; particularly at pattern recognition from sparse data. While computers were great for handling massive datasets, humans were basically still better at identifying patterns of behavior.
Glancing up at the clock, Blair was surprised to realize that nearly an hour had passed and while he'd jokingly thought Tony and Jim might be gone close to that long, he hadn't really expected it. Blair hoped it was a sign the two men were getting along. Jim, after all, had a habit of not playing well with others. Still, as they weren't back yet, Blair settled down again and went back to the first file; this time making detailed notes.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"So what's he like?" Tony asked Jim as they wandered off down the hall.
"Who?"
"Sandburg," Tony cocked his head back towards the room where they'd left Blair reading. "I mean, he certainly doesn't look like a cop."
"Know what you mean," Jim smiled remembering the first time he'd met Blair Sandburg, "and he's actually trying to dress more like the man as he'd say. First time I met him he was pretending to be a doctor at Cascade's General Hospital; all lab coat and big feet, almost like a young pup." Next time, though," Jim chuckled, "if I'd met him on the street I'd have said his clothing was enough probable cause to pat him down for drugs. Ended up throwing him against a wall and basically accused him larceny, false impersonation, and harassing a police officer. To top it all off I then threatened to shake his office down from top to bottom for narcotics."
"Bet that went over well," Tony grinned as he imagined the sight. Ellison might have been dressed in a casual suit but the fit gave away the fact that there was some serious muscle under that jacket; hell, he'd seen how easily Jim lifted Blair earlier without breaking a sweat so those unseen muscles weren't just for show either.
"You have no idea. Next thing I know he's calling me Joe Friday. . ."
"Compliments all round, I see," Tony opened the precinct's door indicated Jim should head left with a nod of his head.
"Plenty. Starbucks this way?" Jim checked that was where they were headed.
"Yep, reckon we deserve a coffee after the morning we've had and I bet a couple of vente sized cups will be appreciated by Gibbs and Sandburg."
"Probably a double vente," Jim quipped. "Gibbs is an ex-Marine and you never come between a Marine and his coffee."
The two men made there way along E Baltimore Street turning down S President Street towards the Port Discovery Centre in companionable silence until a youth, running up S President Street, nearly ploughed into them. The youth dodged left and continued running past them obviously intent on escaping some doom or danger. The doom became apparent when a large woman came barreling out the front door of the children's museum yelling, "Stop, thief."
Tony estimated the youth had a good hundred yards on them when he and Jim turned -- and he was willing to be that Jim had a good ten years on him -- none of which mattered as Jim took off like a shot. Tony knew he was no slouch in the fitness area, he'd made his way through college on a prestigious athletics scholarship after all, yet he was hard pressed to keep pace with Jim. As a result it was no surprise that Jim was the one to actually tackle the youth to the ground leaving Tony to come up behind to make the arrest official.
"What do you think we ought to do with him, Tony" Jim wasn't even winded.
Looking at the youth, and thinking of the paperwork, Tony griped, "Can't we throw him back?"
"I didn't think Baltimore was catch and release," Jim smiled.
"Feels like it sometimes, especially for misdemeanors," Tony echoed the sentiments of many in law enforcement. "What say we wait and see if she," Tony nodded at the woman approaching them, "wants to press charges."
"Gods, I hope not," Jim prayed. "If Sandburg heard about this I'd never live it down."
"So, the big bad detective needs protection from his partner," Tony teased, rather enjoying the banter even as he kept a firm hold on their captive.
"Little shit's devious as all get out," Jim actually looked pleased with this fact, "but he's normally the trouble magnet and he is always looking to shove that title off on someone else."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the lady whose bag had been stolen rushed up enthusing all the way. "Such nice young men," she said as she racked both Jim and Tony with a rather lecherous look.
"Ma'am, Detective DiNozzo with the Baltimore PD," Tony introduced himself with a polite bow.
"Ooh, a policeman too. Are you married?"
Tony shot a warning glare at Jim as the out-of-town detective bit down on his knuckles in an attempt to stifle the laugh that threatened to overwhelm him as Tony tried backing away from the flirtatious victim.
"Hey, man," the thief whined as he nearly fell over when he was literally dragged along by Tony in Tony's effort to escape.
"Yes," Tony lied. "Do you wish to press charges, Ma'am?"
The lady, disappointed with Tony, turned her predatory gaze on Jim. " Are you married?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Jim answered politely, "Now do you wish to press charges?"
"All the good ones are taken," the lady bemoaned before deciding that seeing as her bag had been returned to her with nothing taken that going through the whole legal process, when she wasn't going to snag either of the arresting officers, wasn't worth it.
Tony, with a great show of regret, allowed that there was probably nothing to be gained by turning the youth in. Instead, Tony took the youth's details and issued a stern warning; the warning might have worked a bit better if Tony had been able to wipe the grin off his face.
"Coffee?" Jim looked at Tony as the youth went one way and the bag-lady returned to the Port Discovery Centre.
"Yes."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Blair was pondering the conundrum that was the possible signature when Tony and Jim staggered back into the conference room. Looking up, Blair was kind of glad he'd sent Jim along to help Tony as Jim walked in laden down with paperwork, Tony was also carrying a stack of files but he also had balanced on top of the pile, two vente sized coffees.
"Geez, Jim," Blair grinned as he watched the two men put down the files they carried. "I'm never going to complain about your paper work backlog again."
"Really," Jim looked happy at that thought.
"Complain, no. Rib you if you let it get that bad again, yes."
"Is he always like this?" Tony asked as he nodded his head in Blair's direction.
"Nope, most of the time he's worse." Jim grinned broadly as he yanked his partner's chain. "He's just behaving because he's got company."
"This is behaving?"
Jim suddenly looked thoughtful, a fact that worried Blair, before he quipped, "actually, no. In fact if he doesn't start behaving, he won't get his coffee."
"Laugh it up, Jim. Laugh it up, and next time Simon's looking for someone to attend a seminar on paperwork management I'll be sure to volunteer you," Blair snarked back good naturedly.
Tony watched the byplay with a tinge of jealousy. The hug before had confirmed Tony's suspicions that the two were more than just partners. Tony just wished he could find a partner who he could trust to have his six, let alone a partner that he could have a relationship with like the one Blair and Jim obviously had. How they got away with being that openly out of the closet while working in mainstream law enforcement was another question for another time.
Blair watched the play of emotions across DiNozzo's face. The Baltimore detective might think he had his expression under control but Blair was a past-master at reading subtle signs. "You'll find a partner like that one day, Tony," Blair commented with such confidence that Tony almost believed him, almost.
Jim just sighed to himself; Blair was up to his tricks again and there was nothing the Sentinel could do but hold on for the ride. Mind you, with Blair concentrating on Tony and Gibbs, maybe Blair would forget about Jim's own little misdemeanors. Yep, and the moon was made of green cheese, too.
"Okay, so what have you got, Chief?"
"What I haven't got is coffee yet," Blair reminded to two men. That sad state of affairs was fixed forthwith, while the second cup was left on the table closest to where Gibbs still napped. Interestingly enough, as soon as the cup was put down near Gibbs, the NCIS agent's nose twitched.
"In terms of the case," Blair continued after taking a long pull from the cup he'd been handed, "I've just finished up with victim number one. I'm not sure yet but I don't think she's actually the first victim of our unsub."
"Why not? You've only read one file." Tony was curious as to how Blair could have come to that conclusion based on, as far as Tony could see, reading through only the one of files.
"Blair's read them all," Jim interjected. "That," Jim pointed to the notes in front Blair, "is just his notes based on his first detailed pass over the first homicide. It's the way Blair works; he'll read them all before going back and taking notes."
"Read them all?" Tony looked at the pile of notes they'd left with Sandburg originally. "He read all that," Tony was now pointing at the pile, "in less than an hour?"
"Speed reading 101, or was that 401, Chief?" Jim kind of didn't explain. "I've watched Blair read books the size of Lord of the Rings in less than a couple of hours and be able to tell you all the main plot points. It's a real handy skill when dealing with other agencies when they try and bury us under paperwork," Jim finished with a grin.
"Hey, the CIA only tried that trick once," Blair mock whined.
"But the AFT. . ."
"Fine, "Tony broke in on what looked like the beginnings of an old and oft repeated argument, "that still doesn't explain why you don't think the Corken case is the first in the series," Tony persisted.
"Because there's no mess about the death," Blair started to explain focusing his attention back on the cases at hand. "I mean, there is no indication that there was any hesitation between shots, but it's a very rare killer that gets that right first time out of the box. Look at the autopsy report," Blair handed the relevant report to Jim, "multiple gunshot wounds to the head, one shot to the glabella with a second GSW to the left supra-orbital process with a distance between the two shots of one and a half inches. The ME had noted no other injuries, significant or otherwise. No mess, just the shots. But even someone well-versed in target shooting is likely to hesitate on the second shot when it's an actual person they are shooting not a paper outline. You only have to look at the firing patterns of rookie cops when they've had to deal with armed offenders instead of those nice targets, even in the Sims. On the other hand our unsub isn't really a professional killer either."
"Why?" Jim was looking over the autopsy reports as he asked the question. Both other victims had died from GSW's to the head like Michaela Corken -- the second victim had died as a result of a GSW to the right forehead boss with a second GSW to the right supra-orbital foraman, in the third victim the shots had been to the left forehead boss and the glabella slightly right of the center line. If Jim remembered correctly Lt. Kirby's GSW's where also close to 1.5 inches apart. Thus, the placements for all shots was never more than 2 inches apart, but none of the placements so far had been closer than 1 inch. As a result Ellison agreed with his partner but he he'd leave it to Blair to articulate the reason.
"Think about, we have two shots from far enough away that there's no powder burns on the victim; yet sufficiently close enough together in time that it's hard to say which is the kill shot. Yet, while the shots were fired off quickly, the person isn't a full marksman with his weapon."
"Funny, I remember the shots being fairly close together," Tony remembered that it had been about one and a half inches between the shots 'centers'.
"Jim, if you had a stationary target ten to fifteen feet away from you, how close would your shots be?"
"A lot closer than one and a half inches," Jim answered as he read the distance noted down on Blair's notepad. "The unsub can shoot, but he's not super proficient with his weapon. That sort of distance between shot centers is a result of not keeping the gun totally under control. Sort of like qualifying results for someone who's never had to fire a weapon under anything other than controlled conditions."
"That's what I thought," Blair remarked as he was flipping the pages of the report on victim two, Kong An. "Two inches here," Blair pulled out the ME's report.
"Maybe the victim moved," Tony postulated as he played devil's advocate.
"Even so, two inches isn't close for someone well trained in firearms. I bet your groupings are better than that, Tony," Blair asked with a smile.
"Alright, so you think our perp has some training with firearms but not the proficiency you'd expect from someone active in law enforcement?" Tony inadvertently echoed Jim's earlier comment.
Blair stared at Tony for a moment before he appeared to almost disappear inside his own head.
"Now you've done it, Tony, he's off thinking," Jim explained away the suddenly blank look in Blair's eyes.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I know you miss us, Gunny," Shannon whispered as she kissed her husband's cheek while disentangling herself from his tight embrace, "but you are needed elsewhere now."
"But," Gibbs grunted as he suddenly found his arms empty of wife and child.
"We will always be here, love," Shannon smiled with a touch of sadness. "But you have work to do in the land of the living."
Gibbs was for once in his life truly torn between duty and family; which was rather ironic given his family was actually dead. He hadn't liked it but he'd gone off to war when ordered without much of a fuss. But leaving this place, wherever it was, was something he really, really, really didn't want to do. What if he couldn't come back?
"Jethro," the giggle softened the rebuke slightly, "you can always come back here. This is the inside of your heart, silly."
"And Daddy, you can bring anyone you want here," Kelly commented with the age old wisdom of children. "Your heart has lots of room for other people as well as us."
"How do I bring them here then, sweetheart?" Gibbs humored his daughter's spirit.
"Easy, just hold their hands, close your eyes and click your heels together saying there's no place like love." Kelly knew what she was talking about. The lovely man, Blair, had whispered the spell to her before he'd withdrawn to leave Kelly, and her Mommy, to look after Daddy. Kelly liked Blair; she hoped he'd come and visit as well. "Daddy, can you bring Blair here again, too?"
Gibbs might have meant to humor his daughter but her instructions combined with the request to see Blair again shook him to the core; was it possible that he still had his family?
"You're likely to have a larger family now, Jethro," Shannon rather enjoyed watching her husband trying to deal with the inexplicable. "Blair takes his responsibilities as seriously as you do, and he carries a much heavier load, but he considers you one of his, now. Of course, Jim will follow wherever Blair leads. As for the long tall drink of cappuccino, Anthony DiNozzo. . . well you always did have great taste." The last was said with a wink and a smile.
"Shan," Gibbs blushed brightly.
"I don't know, Jethro," Shannon teased, "I'm sure you'd like the taste of a mellow Italian roast topped off with creamy foam."
"Mom, ewwwwwwwwwwwww," Kelly complained with her face all screwed up at the allusion to S E X; she might have been eight when she died but she's been a spirit long enough to have learnt a lot about the human condition. "Love you, Daddy."
"Love you too, Jethro. Now as they've finally gotten coffee for you, maybe you should go back and join them." Shannon suggested in the same way that Gibbs' drill sergeant had suggested back during his days on Parris Island.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Something you said must have triggered one of his weird thought paths."
"How long is he going to be like that?"
"No idea, Blair could be gone as long as two hours."
"Two. . . hours?" Tony was a little astonished at the thought.
"There's a lot of brain power there. Blair's kind of scary like that; mind you I wouldn't trade him in for all the Wonderburgers in DC. Those scary thoughts however have solved more than one weird case in the past," Jim explained fondly. "How about we go check and see if the paperwork from your other sources is in yet?"
"Should be. In fact, I would have expected it on my desk when we got back from Starbucks," Tony commented, looking a more than a little worried now that he thought about it. Ted, in Peoria, had at said he'd make getting the files scanned and off to Tony his first priority once he hung up; Ted's exact words had been "if Sandburg's interested, you've got a yourself serial, Tony, bet on it. I'll have the details of our two cases to you within the hour." That hour was well past.
"Any reason why it wouldn't be there?" Gibbs asked suspiciously from right behind DiNozzo. DiNozzo's reaction would have been an instant youTube classic if the video feed from conference room one had been let loose on the internet. DiNozzo had jumped nearly three feet, straight up, like a startled cat, before landing in a tangle of limbs. Tony had also taken Gibbs down with him was just the icing on the cake.
"Still sneaking about the place, Gunny?" Jim smiled as he looked down on the tangled mess that was one NCIS agent, a Baltimore detective, and the remains of one vente coffee. "Hope you've both got a change of clothes."
Gibbs attempted to glare Jim into submission; it didn't work.
Gibbs shifted his glare until it was aimed at a certain not-so contrite Tony DiNozzo. DiNozzo just lifted one eyebrow in the interrogative, almost daring Gibbs to try and lay the blame for their current predicament on Tony's shoulders. Since Gibbs hadn't let it be known that he was awake, let alone awake and listening for the past 5 minutes, meant that the NCIS agent had no one to blame but himself when his sneaking up behind DiNozzo had resulted in such a spectacular accident. Not that Gibbs would willingly admit any fault.
"I've got a change down in the car," Gibbs grumbled.
"Good, because I'm not lending you anything of mine," Tony snarked as he looked over the damage done to his Armani suit and tie. "Come on, I'll show you where the shower rooms are," Tony continued as he led Gibbs, and Jim, back towards the homicide bullpen.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"This is Sandra Sully coming to you live from the Baltimore Police department. I have with me Chief of Police Fredrick Jones and Detective Francis Bunka. In breaking news this reporter can confirm that after months of extensive investigation that members of the city's homicide squad, lead by Detective Francis Bunk, has identified a serial killer preying on divorcees in Baltimore and the surrounding counties. Detective Bunka has identified four local homicides with further cases from Peoria, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and Boston have now been confirmed to be part of a larger serial offence. Detective Bunka, how are you handling the sudden pressure to find this killer?" The perky voice of Sandra Sully was somewhat muffled by the group of detectives that were standing around Rhonda Macintyre's desk trying to get as close as possible to the wall mounted television behind her desk.
"DiNozzo's going to freak when he hears this," Trent muttered loudly enough to be heard over the sudden roaring in the ears that afflicted DiNozzo, Ellison and Gibbs as they walked into the bullpen.
"What the hell does that moron think he's doing," sounded out in prefect tri-phonic sound. The following snap of necks whip-cracking as all the men, and women, huddled around Rhonda's desk all turned to face the three very angry would have been comical under any other circumstances. Then, like the parting of the Red Sea, the huddle dispersed, so that DiNozzo, Ellison and Gibbs could get closer to the television; Tony's less than sartorial splendor ignored in the face of the wrath evident of DiNozzo's countenance.
The scene, in glorious technicolor, shown on the television's screen, had Bunka standing proudly in front of a dais with a pile of files in front of him; the top file clearly displaying the emblem of the Peoria Police department. Behind Bunka, the Chief of Police Fredrick Jones was smiling at the press corps as he showed his tacit approval for Bunka, and Bunka's actions. Bunka, to make matters worse, was espousing details from the Peoria cases and explaining why that district had failed to identify what was obviously a serial crime in action.
"I'd like to reassure the citizens of Baltimore that we are close to an arrest. The unknown subject was seen leaving the vicinity of this morning's slaying. He is described as being short in stature with long curly hair. The subject was also wearing a charcoal grey casual suit and may have had a silver hoop earring in one ear. If anyone has seen such an individual in the area bordered by N Charles Street, E 25th Street, Greenmount Avenue and E Preston Street between the hours of 1300 and 1400 this afternoon could you please contact your local police station or. . ." Whatever else Bunka might have been about to say was abruptly cut off as Gibbs pulled the plug on the television in a pre-emptive strike; Ellison, standing beside Gibbs looked ready to deal with the equipment in a much more permanent manner.
"Is this the caliber of all of your colleagues?" Gibbs inquired of Tony DiNozzo. "Because if so, Detective DiNozzo, we are packing everything up about this case and the related cases and taking it all back to NCIS, right now!"
"Hey," Hunter started to object. He stopped objecting when Gibbs and DiNozzo, both turned to look at him with similar expressions of disgust. Jim would have joined in but he was busily monitoring his partner. The level of anger that he, along with Gibbs and DiNozzo, were feeling was likely to be sending out ripples though the aether and no matter how deep Blair was in his thought space those sorts of emotions were likely pull him back to reality, hard and fast.
"You don't have the authority to hijack Baltimore PD cases," Captain Turner finished for Hunter. The Captain had walked in on the tail end of Bunka's inglorious 15 seconds of fame and while Turner wanted nothing more than to collar his errant detective and bust Bunka back down to guarding kindergarten crossings Turner also wanted to do so in private. Airing dirty laundry was bad enough in front of the squad, but you never did so in front of members of various federal agencies; normally at least, this time it was unavoidable.
"You are correct, Captain Turner," Blair spoke with a level of authority that acknowledged no superior, "Agent Gibbs doesn't have that authority, he can only request the Kirby matter be handed over. On the other hand, I do."
"The FBI's Investigative Support Unit normally works with local law enforcement," Turner countered even though he expected to lose this argument.
"Works with. . .," Blair replied as he walked over to where Jim was standing. "But that requires that the local law enforcement officers also work with us. You do realize Captain," and the fact that Blair made the title sound like an insult wasn't lost on anyone, "that Bunka has seriously jumped the gun."
"I will admit that, but the public have a right to know to be on the look out," Turner tried to defend Bunka, though Turner would later tell his wife he had no idea why he'd bothered. Turner would have happily crucified Bunka for his publicity-seeking stunt so he couldn't really object when the FBI assigned profiler wanted to do so as well.
"We don't know what the public need to be on the lookout for, yet. While I am certain there is a serious serial offender perpetrating these homicides, I haven't had sufficient time to review all the material and yet your Detective Bunka feels confident enough to hand out details to the public, and the killer, without any filtering? There is a tenuous, additional, connection to the Navy in the unsub's behavior and I think that is sufficient reason to shift the entire case over to NCIS. I expect those files that are currently in Detective Bunka's possession will be retrieved immediately. I, also suggest we repair to your office Captain Turner. Agent Gibbs, if that is acceptable to you."
Gibbs, an old hand at office politics, had to admire the way Sandburg had just wrenched control of the entire case from the Baltimore PD even if he had no idea what the tenuous connection to the navy was that Sandburg was talking about. Still, Gibbs was well aware that they would need input from the locals and that meant taking one of the homicide squad with them; who, was an easy choice. "I think we'll take Detective DiNozzo with us. He can act as the liaison between NCIS and here."
"That will work," Blair agreed, happy that Gibbs had suggested bring DiNozzo along. If Gibbs hadn't, Blair would have. "In the meantime, Captain Turner, I suggest you put a gag on Detective Bunka and have a retraction aired about the unsub's apparent physical details; I'm not sure I want every street cop between here and Washington trying to arrest me."
"Do I get a say in this, at all?" DiNozzo finally found a break in the conversation long enough to interject.
"No," Gibbs and Blair replied simultaneously.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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