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“How was this even his life?” Tony bemoaned to himself as he chased the suspect through the neighborhood.
He didn’t even work for a police force anymore. Being a Navy cop generally led to chasing suspects through airports and military bases not actual neighborhoods. Still the murder had taken place in one of those pristine 1950s type towns where all the wives are the “good” wife and all the husbands doting or boring.
Why any military man would want to live in a neighborhood like this was beyond Tony. Apparently, he’d been renting a room from one of the “perfect” families. Not so perfect, it turned out.
The child, if one could call him that as he was 26, had apparently been having a relationship with Lieutenant Perkins. Tony had wanted to make so many ribald jokes when he’d found out the Lieutenant’s name. Needless to say the family hadn’t approved of the relationship.
They’d kicked Perkins out and told him to never return. Of course, the child insisted their feelings were mutual. Tony didn’t know if they were or not, but apparently Perkins had returned and the parents had found him in the child’s bed. This had happened on the 22nd of December, but it had taken until Christmas day for the MCRT to figure out that the family had worked together to kill Perkins.
The wife had gone quietly when they went to arrest them, but the kid had shouted, “I’m not going to jail,” and taken off for parts unknown. That’s why Tony was now chasing him down through the perfect family neighborhood. Tony didn’t know what had happened with the father, but trusted Gibbs to take care of it.
He was focused on capturing the “kid”. Tony sighed the first time the kid opened the front door to someone else’s house and ran through it. He had to follow, but he cringed and shouted apologies as he streaked through the dining room, past the family eating Christmas dinner, and continued after the kid.
Now, now, he was just tired of chasing the kid, so when the young man entered another house, he didn’t try to spare the holiday dinner. He just lept across it to tackle the young man to the ground. The family eating dinner ignored him.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Tony cuffed the kid and stood up. He’d ended up covered in mashed potatoes, and what he thought was probably beets, but might be cranberry. A number of other dishes landed on the floor, but no one in the family had moved to pick them up.
They all continued to eat as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Tony kept sending them aghast looks, unable to believe that they could be so calm. Was this really normal for this home?
Tony couldn’t help wondering if someone should look into the family in that house more if having a Navy cop tackle someone over their dining room table didn’t faze them. As he escorted, the suspect out of the house, he couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder at the dinner table. Of course, it looked exactly the same as it had before he’d led the suspect out.
Shaking his head, Tony joined the rest of the team and they took the family back to NCIS headquarters. It was time for interrogation and to get to the bottom of who did what in this family that led to Lieutenant Perkins’ death. Seriously, Tony could not think that name without wanting to burst into laughter.
McGee and Bishop got the father setup in interrogation. The wife and son were in separate holding cells for now. Tony took advantage of the time before interrogation started to change.
He’d received some ribbing for the state of his clothes. This was another good suit that his dry cleaner would hate him for because of NCIS. Tony was surprised the man hadn’t laughed him out of his shop already.
He always came in with funny stains it seemed like. It would have been nice if this Christmas could be different, but apparently that Christmas wish wasn’t coming true this year. Oh well, at least they’d be able to put another set of criminals behind bars once they wrapped this case up.
Sometimes that was the best he could hope for from the holidays. If sometimes, it struck him as sad, well he only had his holiday movies to comfort him. He knew Abby had been planning some big Christmas gathering for the team and had been disappointed when they’d all had to work, but that was just the nature of their jobs.
The truth was they didn’t actually need to interrogate any of this family. They had enough evidence to prosecute all of them. Gibbs just wanted to get actual confessions to go with the evidence.
At this point in time, Tony would be happy if they were able to go home by 7pm. It would be a late Christmas dinner alone, but at least it would be something and with the case closed, they’d be able to sleep in tomorrow which was always something to look forward to. Gibbs gut said the father was the key to all of it, but Tony actually thought the mother was the key.
That neighborhood had a bit too much stepford wives going on if you asked Tony. In the interrogation room, the father just sat silently as Gibbs laid out the case. He made no attempt to defend himself or anyone else in the family.
It was like he thought that it was their right to kill Lieutenant Perkins. Tony snorted. He couldn’t help it.
Perkins. Really who would wish that last name on anyone. Is it Perkins today?
Tony groaned at his own joke. Realizing that they weren’t going to get anything out of the father, Gibbs sent the father to a holding cell and had the mother brought in instead. As Gibbs started laying out the case, the mother immediately started confessing to all of it.
Tony and McGee exchanged glances at that. “Who do you think she’s covering for, Probie?”
“Has to be the son, right?”
“Maybe. Let’s see.”
Gibbs let the woman confess whatever she wanted to before he started pointing out the things in her statement that didn’t match with the evidence. She tried to recover and explain away the inconsistencies, but it was obvious that she hadn’t been the one to actually murder Lieutenant Perkins.
Tony still couldn’t keep a straight face when saying the guy’s name. Now, they just had to get her to confess who she was covering up for. Tony privately agreed with McGee that the son was probably the one who actually did it, though he was very curious as to why since supposedly the son had been in love with Perkins.
Tony rolled his eyes when Gibbs finally got the wife to admit that she didn’t know which of the males had done it, but that it was her job as the perfect wife to take the fall for them. Hopefully the son would reveal something useful. Otherwise, Gibbs was going to have to settle for letting the courts sort it out.
Gibbs stared at the wife in disgust before ordering someone to bring him the son and get rid of this trash from his sight. The idea of a woman so subservient bothered Gibbs on a level he didn’t even want to contemplate, like it felt morally wrong. Women were not property. They were people too.
An NCIS agent quickly removed the wife from Gibbs’ sight before the son was brought in. Gibbs was beyond frustrated now and while he wouldn’t actually physically assault the son, he did scare him by slamming his hand onto the table. The son’s eyes widened, but he held firm.
Or well he did until Gibbs started listing all the evidence that NCIS had against them. Then he cowered in his chair in fear and started rattling off what happened. How he’d just wanted to please his parents and how they’d said that they would only be happy when Lieutenant Perkins was dead.
Tony shook his head. What a sad sight. The son lost his lover through his own act and would lose his family to the same act.
Tony couldn’t wait to close this case and go home to the comfort of his movies. The christmas ones that showed true family spirit and none of this bullshit creepy sociopath or psychopath logic. He might be alone this Christmas, but it was a damn sight better than anything this family or the others they’d interrupted would get.