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Patience
The first time I met Anthony DiNozzo, I so wanted to shoot him, or at least punch him really hard! It was ten p.m. when I arrived at the crime scene in a dark alley in Baltimore, after a long annoying drive to a city I never wanted to visit. I got this case because the director thought it was rather easily solved and would only need the work of one agent. Since Stan got transferred, I was still looking for his replacement and worked alone most of the time.
The crime scene was properly secured, and nobody seemed to have contaminated it; that was not the problem. They surely all did their job. What annoyed me was that kid in his designer shoes, flirting with that female police officer at my crime scene. Just as I wanted to yell at that guy to get the hell away from here, he seemed to have noticed me and came over to me, introducing himself as Detective Anthony DiNozzo. He didn't seem to notice my anger though, since while he explained the circumstances of the crime to me, he didn't quit that stupid smile of his. When he told me that my Petty Officer was shot two times in the back and died instantly, I had to use all my self control not to hit him in that damn smile. Instead I just growled at him to get out of my crime scene then and let me do my work. He just grinned and said that he had other plans for the night anyway. I bet that kid didn't have to work the whole day; otherwise he wouldn't have been so good-humoured.
I was just glad that there would be no arguments about juridiction here, and that I wouldn't have to work with that Detective, because I certainly did not have the patience for that. That was used on the time I spent with my wife, trying not to start an argument!
Petty Officer John Paddington was on a trip to visit his family, living in a small town near Baltimore. He was due back to work in three days; instead he was on his way to Ducky's morgue. He was wearing civilian clothes, so probably on his way to spend the night out in the city. But nowhere near the place he was found, was a bar or a club. I was told from the director, that the police thought the Petty Officer was probably just at the wrong time at the wrong place, since this area of Baltimore was famous for its shootouts between two rival gangs. There was probably no way of finding out who exactly shot him.
But if that had been the case, there should have been more victims after a shootout, and definitely more bullets in the alley. That was bugging me, but I decided to wait till the next day and talk to the police captain. I couldn't think properly anyway, since I whether needed a coffee or some sleep.
My night at the local motel wasn't really relaxing; I guess I should have taken the coffee instead. Anyway, after two cups, I headed for the PD. Although I never really liked working with other agencies and police departments, I had to admit that it would just go faster and easier with their help, given that I was alone.
So I entered the building with every intention of talking to the captain, when I saw that DiNozzo kid sleeping at his desk. It was already way past 8, since I first had to find Starbucks in that damn city I was pretty late, and that guy is still sleeping, was probably out drinking the night before. Although it was none of my business, I went over to his desk and wanted to just shout at him, maybe give him a heart attack. Just then he started talking, though without opening his eyes:
"Figured you'd be coming around, not as simple as you thought it would be, he?"
Then he sat up, looking at me, again with that infuriating smile. God, but how could he know it was me and that I'd come by, all he was looking at at the crime scene was that female officer. Of course I would never admit that I was surprised by his behaviour!
"What do you know DiNozzo, and why didn't you tell me immediately, that would have saved me a lot of time, don't you think?!"
I didn't care that my tone was more than a little impolite, when that kid knew what had happened, he should have told me right away, and forget about his plans for the night. I kind of figured he was the type to put their personal life first, I didn't like that. What he said next stunned me therefore:
"Well I didn't know anything then, so I couldn't tell anything, okay! I took a look at the pictures I took at the crime scene before you arrived, and I started thinking: if this had been a shootout as they thought first, there should have been more bullets around, and your Petty Officer would not have been the only victim. Plus, what the hell was he doing there anyway; there aren't any fun places at all, so this doesn't really look like wrong time, wrong place!"
Good that I have so much control over my facial expression, so that my surprise at that statement didn't show. I certainly hadn't expected that kid to be able to think so far. On the other hand, he wouldn't still be working as a cop if he wasn't able to investigate, I guess. And when for god's sake did he do that, when had had other plans that night?
We decided to go interview the woman that reported the shots. Maybe they could find out more. I was again surprised to notice that DiNozzo didn't even seem to think about helping me in this case. Before we headed up to the woman's apartment though, I had to make clear that he wasn't allowed to goof around and flirt with the woman; that would have cost all of my patience. He just smiled.
Interviewing the woman turned out to be a little difficult, she seemed rather shy and probably scared by my rather brusque questioning, I always forget not to interrogate. I guess DiNozzo noticed the tense situation and decided to act on it. He smiled charmingly at the lady and asked for a glass of water, so that she had to leave the room. Then he told me he would continue questioning her, obviously disturbed by my behaviour towards the poor woman. Turned out he had a lot more success by being calmer and less demanding.
She told us that she heard two men arguing, rather agitated. When she wanted to look outside to see what's going on, she heard the shots and was just too scared to look outside. She just called the police. This increased our suspicion of another murder than the shootout, since she only heard the two shots.
To find out who the Paddington was meeting in that alley, we needed to pull his phone records, and went to talk to his family he was visiting. I really wasn't looking forward to that, seeing grieving family is always hard to take. I went their on my own, DiNozzo had to talk to his captain and would check the phone records. It was odd how well we worked together in that short time.
The mother of Petty Officer Paddington confirmed that he was going to meet with a friend in Baltimore that night, but she didn't know with whom and where. She was just too heartbroken to answer more questions.
Finding out who that friend was wasn't too difficult though, since his phone records showed seven calls to a certain James Craden, known at the PD for smaller crimes, mostly drug use.
So DiNozzo and I went to find out more about our possible murderer. It wasn't too difficult to find him, since DiNozzo had quite the idea of where to find junkies in that city. And well, when we found our suspect, he didn't even try to run, since he was as stoned as you can probably be. So interrogation had to wait a few hours. But the case was solved anyway, because our little friend was too stupid to at least hide his gun or change into another T-shirt without blood from a dead one on it. The Petty Officer found out he was dealing with heroin and wanted to report him to the police. In his drug indused mind, Craden freaked out and shot him when he wanted to leave.
The rest was easy, just bureaucratic stuff, since NCIS had used the help of the Baltimore Police Department. It really surprised me how easy it was working with the cop; normally I'm not good with working with people I don't know and trust. Maybe I trusted DiNozzo though, which surprises me even more, since the kid annoyed me from the first moment. But he proved to be able to do his job.
When he handed me his report of the case before I got to drive back again, he smiled. And this time I even kind of liked it.
END
Story Notes:
This is just a short idea, will probably be followed by at least another story. Please let me know what you think of it.
Author's Chapter Notes:
He smiled, and I just wanted to punch him!
Chapter End Notes:
This is just a short idea, will probably be followed by at least another story. Please let me know what you think of it.