Hauteur - Holiday Angst Version

Day 14: Three Wise Men

The warrant had come through for their suspect, so they could arrest him and question him and hopefully get him to roll over on the others involved. According to the information McGee had found, he lived in a one bedroom apartment on the sixth floor. The only entrance to the apartment was the door unless you wanted to climb six flights to get to the window.

Gibbs ordered Bishop to go around back with another NCIS team just in case the suspect decided to jump out of the sixth floor window though they all doubted that would happen. Tony, McGee, and Gibbs all proceeded to the front door with the third NCIS team staying behind them just in case. Tony knocked on the door holding his weapon at the ready while McGee and Gibbs covered him from both sides with their weapons.

Tony chose not to announce NCIS in hopes that the perp would actually answer the door instead of running if he heard it was NCIS. Fortunately, Tony’s trick worked and the perp answered the door.

“What are you? The three wise men?” A cloud of hauteur surrounded their perp. He had no fear and knew they couldn’t be after him.

“NCIS. We have to ask you to come with us, Mr. Magano.”

“What for?” The perp crossed his arms, starting to get worried now as the guns hadn’t wavered.

“We have a warrant for your arrest in the matter of the death of Seaman Jericho.”

The perp started to sweat. “I’m not going with you. I didn’t kill the guy and I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“We have a warrant that says otherwise.”

The perp’s hauteur couldn’t hold out anymore and he broke his stance and ran for the window. Tony sighed and chased him, tackling him before he could reach the window and cuffing him. “You had to choose the hard way.”

The perp glared, but remained quiet. He wasn’t going to give them anymore information until he knew what they had on him. Tony handed him off to McGee, who handed the perp off to their backup NCIS team as they all made their way back to the vehicles.

Back at NCIS, the perp was put into the interrogation room and left alone with Gibbs and McGee. McGee started off the interrogation by laying out all the evidence and just exactly what they had against the guy. Mr. Magano continued to remain stoic despite the amount of evidence arrayed against him.

Gibbs changed all that as he slammed his hand against the wall, startling Mr. Magano. “We know you did it. We want to know why. What have you got to lose?”

“This is all circumstantial. You have nothing.”

“We have enough that a judge gave us a warrant for your arrest.” McGee quietly stated.

“Which will mean nothing if this goes to court and you know it.” Mr. Magano sneered.

Gibbs glared at their perp. “We know you worked with Jordan Leven to do this.”

“So why isn’t Jordan here?” Mr. Magano held their gaze, he knew they didn’t have enough to pin this on Jordan even though Jordan was the one with the motive.

“You know why. You helped him cover it up, leaving all the evidence pointing to you instead of him.” McGee murmured.

Mr. Magano crossed his arms.

“If you want to take the blame for this, we’ll be happy to place you in a cell and let the lawyers sort it out.” McGee leaned back in his chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Gibbs crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall continuing to glare at the perp. Dead silence as they all continued to look at each other. Finally, Mr. Magano cracked.

“Jordan orchestrated it all. He’d had a run in with Seaman Jericho and it had really stuck with him. Apparently, Seaman Jericho had sexed up Jordan’s girl. Jordan wanted to teach him a lesson. It wasn’t supposed to result in Seaman Jericho’s death.”

McGee nodded along as Gibbs stayed leaning against the back wall and showed no change in expression.

“He was just supposed to beat him up a little. He wore gloves for this, so unless you found the gloves there would be no DNA to link him to the crime. All I did was help him take the seaman by surprise and help him dump the body after he went overboard. I wasn’t even there for the beating.”

“Well it sounds good.” Gibbs interrupted.

Mr. Magano glared at Gibbs. “It’s the truth.”

“Except we have a transaction between you and Jordan in the form of twenty thousand dollars. That’s a bit much for just friends and for just helping take the seaman by surprise and dump his body.” McGee pointed out.

Mr. Magano glared.

“You want to try the truth this time?” Gibbs prompted.

“I’ve told you what happened.”

Tony entered the interrogation room.

“Oh good, the three wise men are back together.”

“Actually, I’m here to take you back to your cell to think about your options.” Tony announced.

Gibbs and McGee both shot Tony a look. This wasn’t something they’d planned. Tony just winked and handcuffed Mr. Magano to lead him down to the holding cells at NCIS.