End Game

by Rachel Dylan

  Izzy was used to Marco’s gruff style. Bailey’s different approach was a breath of fresh air. She knew that Bailey was right about all of it, but Izzy had a hard time connecting with other women. She always felt like she was being judged, and she didn’t even know for what. She put up a lot of walls. “The police academy was pretty brutal. There were five women in my class, and I didn’t connect with any of them. It’s like you said. I think we all saw each other as the competition.”

  Bailey shook her head. “There’s enough room for all of us to succeed. You seem like a dedicated and hungry agent. That’s what is needed to excel.”

  “I’m glad to be working this case with you. As awful as the facts are, it’s the biggest case I’ve been exposed to so far. I can’t afford to make any mistakes.” Izzy knew Marco wasn’t very forgiving. He constantly demanded the best from his team.

  Bailey placed her hand on Izzy’s arm. “We all make mistakes, Izzy. It’s part of learning and growing, and that’s why we’re part of a team. Just work hard, ask questions, stay engaged. The rest will come with experience.”

  “I hope so.” Izzy’s self-doubt was always present.

  Bailey led her into the war room. “Let’s get to work.”

  Izzy might put up a tough front, but she had struggled with confidence since she was a little girl. It might have been one of the reasons she gravitated toward law enforcement, to try to overcome those fears and insecurities. But she knew that wasn’t the biggest driver for her career choice. She was passionate about catching bad guys, and for good reason.

  CHAPTER

  SIX

  That afternoon in the war room, Bailey looked into Marco’s dark eyes as she tried to unravel this puzzle.

  “What’s the latest?” she asked.

  “I got bad news from the team. They couldn’t salvage anything of use from the storage unit. The documents and any tech in there were obliterated by the blast.”

  “Battle was willing to go to great lengths to keep his secrets. We have to figure out what he was hiding. We’ve got people claiming Rogers is an assassin, and Battle willing to blow up storage units. There has to be something big going on here.”

  “Big enough to get them both killed,” Marco responded.

  “I just don’t get the motive for Kappen to kill Rogers. They don’t appear to have known each other, and I can’t put together anything that makes logical sense.”

  Marco nodded. “You’re right on face value, but we have to look further in case there’s something that isn’t apparent.”

  He had a point, but her gut was saying that Kappen didn’t kill Rogers, and it was telling her something else even more illuminating. “If Kappen didn’t kill Rogers, then he most likely didn’t kill Battle either. We have to be open to that prospect, especially since all we have now is bad blood and a brawl between them. I’m not ready to jump out and say he’s guilty— especially since he’s a Navy SEAL. I think we owe him more respect than that.”

  “I understand that the rocky relationship is all we have to go on, but men have killed for a lot less. I’m not trying to lock him up without due process. I just want to make sure we’re fully considering all options, even if we don’t like what it means. As an NCIS agent, unfortunately, I see the dark sides of these military members sometimes. And to compound matters, we have Kappen’s history of PTSD. Even if he’s been doing well recently, he could’ve had a setback.”

  The lawyer in Bailey made her want to get this right even more. “We don’t have anything to even detain him on right now. I just want to make sure we don’t rush to judgment.”

  Marco placed his hand on her arm. “I’m not doing that, Bailey. I promise you. The last thing I want is to have the wrong guy. Please don’t take my pushing him as a suspect as anything but trying to make sure we aren’t blindsided. And the good news is that if we clear his name, then we can move on.”

  “I understand. But there’s still a distinct possibility we’re dealing with a spree killer who could strike again at any moment.”

  Izzy walked into the conference room. “Ryder says he has something for us, and we should go down to the lab.”

  Marco stood. “I like the sound of that.”

  They made their way down to the lab in the basement of HQ, and Bailey clenched her fists as she anxiously waited to hear what Ryder had to say. Maybe this would be the break they were looking for.

  “Ryder,” Marco said, “what do you have for us?”

  “Well, hello to you too, Marco.” Ryder smiled. “I can tell you definitively that no other blood is present and no prints. The hair follicles are the only other evidence. You connecting the dots?”

  Bailey was. “You’re saying that if someone goes through the trouble to make sure no blood and no prints are left but leaves hair . . .”

  “That the evidence could’ve been planted,” Marco finished for her. “Professionals are just that. They take precautions to make sure nothing is left behind.”

  “Is that all?” Bailey asked Ryder, hoping for a bit more.

  The analyst grinned. “I see I haven’t earned your confidence just yet, Bailey, but I will. We were able to run a few computer-generated simulations of the attack. I’d like to play those for you.”

  They had high-tech stuff at the FBI, but in most of the crimes that Bailey worked, they didn’t use these types of tools. She was interested to see what this simulation could tell them.

  “Roll the tape, Ryder,” Marco said.

  Ryder turned to his computer and started typing. A video popped up on the large screen for them all to see. “We ran a few different scenarios—the first one is a single attacker.”

  Bailey’s eyes were glued to the screen as she watched a male figure come up behind Battle and grab on to him before he began stabbing him. “This looks very awkward,” she said, thinking out loud.

  “Is this even possible in real life?” Izzy asked.

  Marco moved closer to the screen. “Replay it, Ryder, can you?”

  “Sure thing.”

  They all watched the simulation again. It became apparent that it would have been very difficult for one person to physically accomplish this feat.

  “Even though the computer makes it happen, in real life, it seems unlikely,” Marco said, expressing all of their thoughts.

  Ryder chuckled. “That’s exactly why we run these simulations. One attacker is possible but not probable. He would’ve had to have amazing strength, especially since we tailored this to Battle’s specifications.”

  “Like another Navy SEAL,” Bailey couldn’t help but say. “This simulation doesn’t make the one-attacker theory impossible. And with Kappen’s size and strength, it still has to be on the table.”

  “Show us the next simulation,” Marco said.

  Ryder proceeded to run the program with two attackers. One subdued Battle while the other stabbed him.

  “That’s more like it,” Bailey said. “Based on these simulations, the two-killer theory makes more sense.”

  Marco stepped back. “This is great work, Ryder.”

  “Yes,” Bailey added. “This will really make a difference in cracking the case.” But she knew they still had a long way to go.

  Marco watched in amusement as Bailey scarfed down the Thai food that was spread out in the war room thanks to Izzy making a necessary food run before Marco had sent her home for the evening.

  “I realize now that I haven’t been feeding you enough,” he said.

  Bailey grinned. “Yeah, I have a big appetite. It’s a joke among my friends. They get a little jealous that I seem to be able to eat anything I want. My mom and dad were both the same way.”

  “Were?” he asked, fearing the answer.

  She looked down at the plate of noodles in front of her. “Yeah. They died in a car accident my first year of college.”

  Marco felt like he’d been punched in the gut. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks. It was a test, that’s for sure. If I didn’t have
my faith, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it, and it was still the biggest challenge of my life—and my faith. Even now, years later, there are some days when I cry because I miss them so badly.” She stared off into the distance, the Thai food now forgotten.

  “I honestly can’t imagine.” The pain of that idea was too much for him to fathom.

  She looked back up at him. “You’re close to your parents, then?”

  He laughed. “We fight like cats and dogs, but I love them like crazy. We fit the stereotypical Italian family in a lot of ways. My mom would love you since you actually enjoy food. She’s always complaining that my female friends don’t eat her special lasagna based on her grandmother’s secret recipe, and she takes it as a personal insult.”

  Now it was Bailey’s turn to laugh. “Got a lot of female friends, huh?”

  He was glad that the mood had lightened, but he felt terrible about Bailey’s loss. “Yes, I do, but my mom constantly reminds me that I don’t have a girlfriend. Or a wife. Or kids. She’s champing at the bit for grandkids. It’s basically a continuous topic of conversation on her part every single time we talk. I’ve learned to give her the stiff-arm in the most loving way I know how.”

  “It’s good that you’re close with your family. I know it’s easy to take them for granted. I think I did many times in my life.” Her voice started to shake. “Then, with one phone call, everything changes.”

  Their conversation at dinner the other night started to make more sense to him. She had been holding back then, but he’d seen the sadness in her eyes. He was glad she’d decided she could open up to him now. “It’s at times like that when your faith is really put to the test,” Marco said quietly. He’d certainly had tough times in his life when he wondered if God still loved him.

  She looked up at him. “It sounds like you speak from experience?”

  His family had seen the darkness, and it was a place he never wanted to go again. “My little sister was diagnosed with cancer years ago. She beat it and is in remission, but it rocked my entire family. My dad’s a quiet guy, but his faith is rock solid—he helped us all get through it. I put on a brave face for my mom and sister, but at the time, I was questioning God a lot. Wondering how he could subject a young girl to such pain and disease.” He took a moment, remembering those days.

  “How did you get through that?”

  It had been a struggle day by day. “A lot of prayer, a lot of questioning. The thing is that even in the darkest hours, seeing the faith that my dad put in the Lord and the example he lived out for me really put things in perspective. If his little girl was going through this and he could put it all in the Lord’s hands, then shouldn’t I be able to? I tried to push aside the anger I felt, because at first the anger almost consumed me. I asked God to walk with me through it. To pull me through the roughest of days. To give me a purpose for living.”

  Bailey took another bite of noodles. “Faith and family is really what life’s all about.”

  Marco looked at Bailey and for the first time felt an inkling of attraction that went beyond the external. It was easy to be drawn to her. Way too easy. He didn’t really have a type, but Bailey was beautiful, and she did it without trying. The real Bailey he was coming to know was a whole lot more than a pretty face. But unfortunately, they had murders to solve right now, and he couldn’t get distracted. “And we have work to do to give these families answers.”

  “Any word from the JAG attorney?” she asked.

  “I expect to hear from her tomorrow morning. I think she’s feverishly trying to talk Kappen out of voluntarily submitting the sample.”

  “If I were her, I’d do everything in my power to stop that from happening. If he’s that adamant about doing it, though, that also speaks to his state of mind. Guilty men don’t voluntarily submit to DNA tests. Has Izzy found anything yet linking Rogers and Kappen?”

  Marco shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

  “Izzy’s been here less than a year, right?” Bailey asked after a short pause.

  Marco laughed. “I see she must have gotten to you if you’re calling her Izzy.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  He could tell that Bailey had taken a liking to the rookie. “Izzy is green. Very green, but she has great instincts and a killer work ethic. Those two things are worth their weight in gold to me.” He paused. “Has she told you that she hates me?”

  Bailey shook her head. “No, not at all. But I get the sense that she thinks you’re being extra tough on her.”

  Then he was succeeding in his job. “Good, because I am.”

  That made her smile. “Because she’s going to be really good if you do.”

  He nodded and decided it was time they got back to work. “Izzy left her research here so we can go over it too. I always like to have multiple eyes on things.”

  “I’ve got all night.”

  Marco figured there would be many long nights until they solved this case.

  Two days later, Lexi’s pounding headache had just gone from bad to worse. Tobias had not only decided to submit the samples, but she’d just gotten word from NCIS that they wanted to interrogate Tobias again ASAP. She didn’t know if they had the DNA results back yet, but they most certainly would have the hair analysis.

  As she waited to meet Tobias and escort him into NCIS headquarters, her phone rang. It was Derek. It wasn’t the best time to talk, but she really wanted to hear his voice. She’d had such a nice time with him at dinner the other night, and she was hopeful for what could be next for them. It wasn’t that often she was this excited about her romantic prospects.

  “Lexi, hey, it’s Derek.”

  Just hearing his voice made her stomach do a flip. “Hey,” she said. “It’s good to hear a friendly voice.” She was met with silence. “What is it?”

  “I’ve got some news I have to share with you, and you’re not going to like it.” His voice sounded somber.

  And just like that, her excitement was doused. “What is it?” Her pulse sped up.

  “I got a call from local PD. They want to talk to your client.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “The murder of Michael Rogers,” Derek said.

  “And how are you involved in this?” she asked, fearing the answer.

  “I’ve been assigned the case,” he said quietly.

  She couldn’t believe how this had turned south so quickly. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Yeah, it’s not ideal. The police are still in the investigation stage, but it’s going to be mine. I think we’ll have to postpone our personal plans until this gets sorted out. I know you understand.”

  She wanted to ask why he didn’t just have another prosecutor take the case. But she wouldn’t want him telling her how to run her career, so she did the only thing she could. “Okay. I get it.”

  “I can’t really say anything further, but between NCIS and the locals, you’re going to have your hands full. And I’m sorry about how this worked out.”

  Again, she held back what she really wanted to say. “Thanks for the call.”

  She hung up and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Tobias. She only had to wait a few more minutes before he got there.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  “We’ve got problems.”

  Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Bigger than me being accused of murder?”

  “They’re going after you hard for both murders now.”

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, they matched your hair to both crime scenes.”

  Tobias shook his head. “But, ma’am, that is impossible. I wasn’t there. I didn’t do it. I did not kill either man.”

  “Then it’s even worse, because you’re being framed, and we have no idea by who or for what reason.” She’d dealt with some trying cases before, but this one had the most troubling fact pattern. She wanted to believe Tobias, and yet all the physical evidence was m
ounting against him in the worst possible way. Putting all that together made her fear for what was to come. She wondered if she was fully equipped to handle a case like this.

  “Ma’am, we have a name for a situation like this, but I won’t say it in polite company.”

  Being around military guys her whole life, Lexi knew exactly what he was talking about. She wondered how in the world she’d be able to get him out of this mess.

  Bailey stared at the computer screen in Ryder’s lab. “So we’re certain the hair follicles are a match to both crime scenes?”

  “Yes,” Ryder answered. “And that they belong to Tobias Kappen. I can confirm that as well.”

  “If there were two attackers, wouldn’t you expect to find the other man’s hair as well? Also, what’s the likelihood of the hair of only one of them showing up at both scenes?” Bailey was skeptical about this entire thing, but the problem was that this hair evidence, the only concrete piece of evidence they had, pointed to Kappen, even if there were a lot of unanswered questions.

  “All good points,” Ryder said. “All I can do is tell you what I’ve found. I could hypothesize, though, if you’d like?”

  “Go right ahead,” Marco answered.

  “If someone was trying to set up Kappen to take the fall, planting hair evidence at both scenes would do the trick. It would point to there only being one attacker, and that it was him. Even if our simulations say that a two-attacker theory is most probable, the physical evidence points to a different scenario—one in which Kappen is the single guilty party.”

  Marco looked at his watch. “Kappen should be here any minute. We’ll get another run at him and see if anything changes when we present him with the evidence. But I also want to make sure we are first in line here. Local PD will be coming after him for Rogers’s murder now that there’s physical evidence tying him to the body.”