Retribution | By : ambrosiarush Category: M through R > NCIS: Los Angeles Views: 13277 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS:LA or any of it's characters. I do NOT make any money from writing this story. |
Callen had dropped Nell off at work, waited around until Sam came in with Eric. “You have a lead?” Sam asked as they stood side by side in the garage.
“Just a thought, might not lead anywhere,” Callen said as he watched the door to the stairwell close behind Eric. “There was another investigator on the Trent Stadden case, a guy named Brent Harrison. He was a rookie at the time.”
“And you think he too might have been targeted,” Sam caught on quickly.
Callen nodded. “It crossed my mind.”
Sam opened the drivers side door “Guess we’re going to pay him a visit.”
::
Deeks walked into the office, Kensi at his side. He’d already called Ray who had assured him that both he and Delaney were just fine. Deeks wanted this entire thing over. He wanted Ray to go home to Jenna and Aaron. He wanted Delaney too be safe to visit. He wanted Jax out of the hospital and back in his new condo. He wanted to know that Kensi, and their team was safe.
They both tossed their go-bags down by their respective desks and looked to the empty seats where Callen and Sam usually were.
“Ops?” Kensi suggested with a slightly raised brow.
Deeks shrugged in return and started to walk toward the steps, Kensi falling into step beside him. They jogged up the steps, turned around the banister and the doors to ops opened with a slight hiss.
Since Nell and Eric were both inside, Kensi knew that Sam and Callen had been to work. “Where is the golden duo?” she asked with her hands on her hips.
“They went to speak with Detective Harrison,” Nell explained pushing back some of her dark hair that was once again starting to get too long. She’d have to find time to book a hair appointment, later, after they found out who was targeting Deeks.
“I didn’t even think...” Deeks trailed off and ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t particularly like the officer who’d been a rookie at the time, but it didn’t mean that he wished the detective harm. “I should have warned him.”
Kensi wanted to offer some form of comfort to her partner, but this was the office, she reminded herself. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her black boot cut jeans to be a constant reminder to keep her hands to herself.
“Callen and Sam will handle it,” Eric said.
“Anything we can do?” Kensi desperately wanted a task.
Eric shook his head. “Afraid not.”
::
“It’s kind of sickening how we, with all the advantages ops provides, can’t find this guy,” Sam said miserably as he slammed the car door shut.
Callen said nothing, he agreed. They knew Gail Turner was dead, the quantity of blood left behind too great for survival- the case ice cold. They couldn’t find her body, or the men or women responsible. Thomas Murphy, her fiancé was left alone to mourn the loss of his love with no closure. Even with their advantages in osp, sometimes cases became cold and you couldn’t spend more time digging, more cases were constantly coming in and the agents had to move on.
The cases were twisting Callen. The Turner case holding too many parallels to his own life it made him distinctly uncomfortable to even think about. The Stadden case was disturbing in it’s history, and had become personal now with the man targeting Deeks and everyone around him. Callen couldn’t shake the feeling that there would be more blood shed before the end. He wanted to be able to protect his team, protect Deeks. Personal cases dug deep. Tracy had cut him pretty deep coming back. Kristen had twisted him inside out with that kid that for a while he’d suspected was his own. The Comescu family... Callen knew personal, and personal could severely screw you up.
Callen opened the door and stepped into the precinct, holding the door for an extra second for Sam. Callen stood there a moment taking stock. It reminded him of his first day back after the shooting. “It’s loud.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “Really, didn’t notice.”
“Sarcasm won’t get you anywhere, Sam.” Callen walked to the first desk he saw. “Hey, where can I find Detective Harrison?”
“And you are?” The old man asked wearily.
“NCIS,” Callen quickly flashed his badge.
“Don’t you have a liaison officer,” the man muttered under his breath and Callen fought the urge to roll his eyes.
“Who you lookin’ for?” A young traffic cop in her blue uniform asked, the pin on her shirt having her last name, Vogel etched in. She was short, had short, platinum blonde hair and stared at them for a second with bright blue eyes.
“Detective Harrison,” Sam said shifting slightly to face her.
“Oh, come on back, I just saw him in his office,” she waved her hand, motioning them to follow her. “I’m Ava,” she introduced herself.
“Callen.”
“Sam.”
“Nice to meet you boys,” she responded as she lead them through the crowd, she made it look easy and she kept to a quick pace while Sam and Callen tried to keep up with out spilling other people’s coffee or stacks of paperwork. She lead them to the left hall, it was far less crowded. She knocked and then poked her head in. “Hey, Brent,” Ava said as she pushed the door open. “These boys want a word.”
“So you just brought them back?” Harrison raised an eyebrow.
“Well, they’re so darn cute, I couldn’t help myself,” Ava replied, hands on her hips and her eyes slightly narrowed. “They have badges, figured it would be best to play nice, don’t’ you?”
Harrison sighed. “Great. Feds.”
Ava shook her head, appearing annoyed with the detective. “We’re all on the same side.”
Harrison rolled his eyes but said nothing.
Ava turned pivoted to face Sam and Callen. “Mr Cranky pants is all yours.”
Both agents tried to hide their grins as Ava stomped out of the office. They looked to each other, shared a grin and then got their game faces on as they turned to Harrison. Sam took the time to shut the door as Callen approached the desk.
Callen sat down in one of the hard chairs, making himself at home leaning back. “We’re here to talk to you about a case, old one, from your rookie days.”
Harrison shook his head. “Why’s that.”
“Because,” Sam said as he walked over to the desk. Unlike his partner, he stayed standing using his size to be as intimidating as possible. “A recently released felon, one that you helped put away, started to target the lead detective.”
Harrison sat up a little straighter. “What? What felon? Which detective?”
“The case was of a murdered girl, Madeleine Stadden. You arrested her father, Trent Stadden for the murder and sexual assault of a child.” Sam felt sick, it didn’t matter how long he worked the job, children assaulted, sexually or otherwise bothered him greatly, the murder of a child made him loose a bit of faith in humanity each time.
Harrison sat back in his seat, he looked like he was mulling the information over, processing it slowly. He shook his head. “I can’t believe he got out,” he whispered.
The partners looked at each other and then back to the detective before them.
“Deeks... Martin Deeks was the lead on that case... oh, I see,” Harrison said. “He’s your liaison officer, I couldn’t figure out why some feds would be so interested.”
“I take it you haven’t received anything... odd in the mail.”
Harrison shook his head. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”
Callen frowned. Trent Stadden was apparently fixated completely on the lead detective that had put him away. “Did you cuff Stadden?”
“No,” Harrison responded. “Deeks was the arresting officer, he was the on who went on stand in court to put the guy behind bars.”
Callen tilted his head just slightly, his eyes narrowing fractionally. Was that jealousy in Harrison’s voice? He looked up at Sam who was eyeing Harrison in a curious manner. Callen returned his attention to the detective. “I think that’s everything... Sam? Anything more?”
“Nope,” Sam responded still staring down the detective.
“Well if you receive anything,” Callen passed over a generic OSP card that linked to the phone in ops.
“I’ll call you guys,” Harrison agreed appearing to be a bit dazed by the information as he took the card.
Callen got up, studied the man a second before leading Sam out of the room. “Was that odd?” Callen asked after the door was shut.
“Do you think he’s lying about having received something?”
“No,” Callen replied. “That he seemed genuine about... but...”
“Something was off.”
“Yeah.” Callen was silent as they walked through the busy halls.
Sam stepped outside, the morning sun already warming Los Angeles to uncomfortable levels. Callen fell into step as they jogged down the steps. “Think we should talk to Deeks about Harrison?”
Callen nodded. “Something was off with that guy.”
::
“I got to go,” Delaney said at eleven, dressed in black skinny jeans, and a tight fitting black tank top, a black leather jacket already over it, and a pair of designer black heels with tiny gold embellishments she looked around her hair was done up in an intricate braided bun at the back of her head. “Where did I put my clutch,” she wondered out loud looking around.
“No going anywhere,” Nassir said flipping the page of the newspaper he was reading for the third time.
“Go where?” Ray had asked at the same time suddenly sitting up. He was bored. Dead bored. He’d already tried to sneak out and take a walk three times, but even when Nassir appeared to be asleep, Ray was guessing he wasn’t, since he’d been caught all three times.
“It’s safest to stay here,” Nate tried to reason.
“I have a go-see,” Delaney explained flashing a smile at apparently nothing, but she walked across the room in a way that completely explained her occupational choice, she lifted her clutch from where it had fallen from a side table. “Found it.”
“Cancel it,” Nassir said.
“No,” Delaney responded, her green eyes narrowing. “I’m not cancelling it. It’s a potential job. I got a call from my agent in New York, she called up a couple of agencies here, got a few agencies interested. I’m going.”
Nassir looked over at Nate and raised an eyebrow.
“Delaney, it’s dangerous. This is a safe and controlled environment it wi-“
“My brother was stabbed,” Delaney said, her voice soft but unwavering. “Don’t tell me this is safe or controlled.”
Nassir took out his gun and waved it in display. “It’s much safer.”
Delaney looked at the gun with distaste. “Put that away. I don’t feel any safer with it around.”
“Look, you have two... cops protecting you,” Nassir rubbed his eyes tiredly. Agents, Christ, he’d nearly said agents. He needed some sleep, but every time he closed his eyes Ray kept trying to make a break for it.
Delaney tilted her head and looked at Nate. “I thought you were a psychologist.”
“I am,” Nate explained calmly. “But I have been trained...”
Delaney shook her head. “I have to go, I can’t be late.”
Nassir looked to Nate and raised an eyebrow.
“Delaney...” Nate realized that she wasn’t going to just stay. “I’ll go with you.”
The woman scoffed. “I can’t take you to a job interview.”
Nate shifted uncomfortably. “Let’s compromise. I’ll wait outside.”
Delaney crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine.”
Nate looked to Nassir. “Keys?”
“We can take my rental,” Delaney cut in. “That way they’ll have a car... might be good for you to go and see Jax,” Delaney said looking at Ray.
Ray would take any excuse to get the heck out of the condo. He nodded.
Nate nodded his head toward the door, he didn’t want to take her out, but knew he couldn’t make her stay either. Best to go with her, keep her safe. He subtly reached around and checked to make sure the hard steel of his gun was at his back. Satisfied that he was armed, he shut the door behind them.
::
“Deeks,” Callen found the younger partners in the gym climbing the rock wall. The man looked down and Kensi surpassed him to hit the button.
“Damn it Callen!” Deeks shook his head. “No fair. Doesn’t count Kensi!”
“Of course it counts,” she argued. “It’s not my fault you’re so easily distracted.”
Callen waited until they’d both climbed down and were on the mat below.
“You talked to Harrison?” Deeks asked.
“Yeah,” Callen replied. “Seemed genuinely surprised when we told him you were being targeted by Stadden.”
“So Stadden is only targeting me,” Deeks wasn’t sure how to feel about that, he crossed his arms over his chest.
Callen nodded. “But he seemed... off.”
“Off?” Both Kensi and Deeks asked at the same time.
Callen shrugged. Maybe it was nothing. “I sent Sam up to Eric and Nell... I want his entire record... something about him just doesn’t sit well.”
“He’s an ass,” Deeks said with a shrug. “He’s not even an undercover, but no one likes him much. I mean.... undercover officers piss off shields, we leave our brothers in blue to clean up a lot of our shit, but... this guy isn’t undercover, he’s just a detective... but he rubs everyone he works with the wrong way.”
“You know a officer Vogel?” Callen asked.
Deeks smirked. “Etch-a-Sketch, yeah sure, she gets along with everyone, why?”
“She seemed annoyed with Harrison.”
Deeks snorted. “Well, if anyone could ruffle Ava it would be Harrison... or Burnhart... but that’s a different story.”
Kensi raised an eyebrow and looked at her partner who shook his head. “Point is, Harrison has been stepping on a lot of fingers and toes on his climb to the top, made a lot of enemies- on both sides. Other cops don’t like working with him.”
“And back then?” Callen asked.
“Eager,” Deeks recalled. “Overly so. Had a lot to prove...” he gave a shrug of his shoulders. “ I guess we’re all like that when we first get our gun and our badge.”
Callen ran his hand over his head. “Okay... I’ll go see if Eric and Nell dug up anything, you two get showered and back up to ops.”
Deeks waited around by the climbing wall until Callen was gone. Kensi sticking by her partner who she suspected had been waiting for their lead agent to leave. “Deeks? What is it?”
There was something, something niggling at the back of his head. “I don’t know,” Deeks admitted. He kept trying to think back all those years, tried to remember every single detail, tried go over every bit of evidence... “I think I should go over my old case notes... maybe... maybe it’ll... shed some sort of light on all this.”
Kensi nodded. “Maybe there is something in your notes about... places he liked to stay, places he might return to... the guy has to be sleeping somewhere.” They had officers canvassing hotels, motels and hostels in the area handing out the image of Stadden and requesting a call if he was seen. So far, nothing but silence.
Deeks let out a sigh and started to walk across the gym. Kensi knew there was nothing at the moment that she could do and she deferred from his path as she went into the women’s locker room.
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