Next Generation Profiler

Chapter 22

Days go by and we find out that a hit man was hired to kill Mr Casey, we suspect the bar owner being the one to order the hit on him. But that's only one theory. We spent over two hours going over possible theories of why and who ordered the hit on Casey. Most logical so far is the bar owner, an angry gambler, and even the wife.

"Explain to me again why we think the pregnant wife ordered a hit on her husband?" Deeks asked.
"If Kensi never told you about running an illegal casino, wouldn't you think she'd order a hit?" Callen asked.
He thinks a second before saying, "I may see you're point there. But she'd kill me herself, no matter if she's pregnant or not."
"The money in his pocket wasn't his," I say setting the phone down. Everyone turns to me.
"And how would you know that?" Deeks asked.
"Full of questions today Deeks, do you doubt me?"
"I do not, I'm simply asking how you've figured out this information."
"Well forensics called and said that the victims fingerprints weren't on the money."
"Why would the killer plant money on him?" Matt asked rhetorically.
"Did they find any prints on the money?" Kensi asked.
"Only partials."
"Have we looked into the man that approached the wife?" My dad asked.
"From what Eric's dug up, there's no connection."
"If you don't mind, I think we should see what Penelope could find," JJ said.
"Of course, we can do that upstairs if you want." They nod and we all head upstairs.
As we enter the room, Eric and Nell are arguing about something about how the chairs should be at a decent height since Nell is shorter and Eric is taller.
"All I'm saying is that you should respect my shortness and not have the chairs that low!" Nell said oblivious to the large group of people that just walked into the room.
"And I'd prefer not to have my knees scraping the desk!" Eric rebutted.
"You'll both work standing if you don't stop arguing!" I say causing them to turn and look at me.
"Oh, I did not know there were others in here."
"Surprise," I say dryly. The team than video called Penelope and her beautiful face popped up on the screen in front of us.
"What can I do for my favorite--" she looked at us and a large smile appeared on her face," it's my favorite person in the world! Krista you need to call more and-"
"Penelope we need you to look into something, I love you though." She smiles wider at me.
"Ok, ok, what am I looking for?"
"We need a name and connection between a man from the videotape and the victims wife," grandpa said putting his hands on his hips.
"The doorbell one?"
"The very one." She starts typing away on the other line and soon stopped and quickly said, "Lance Langerhans?" She pauses, "interesting last name."
"What connection does he have with the victim?"
"Served together two years ago."
"Have they kept contact over the years?"
"Uh," she paused, "not that I can see." There was a beeping on her side and she soon gasped.
"What is it Penelope?" Emily asked stepping closer to the screen.
"911 call was just made by the victims wife. According to the call transcripts, someone's in her house looking for something."
"Ok, thanks Penelope, love you!" We call before hanging up and rushing to the cars.

We pull into the driveway and all hop out quickly, and just as I step out though I have four people standing in front of me, shielding me. "Great, it's going to be like this from now on," I think to myself.

The door was wide open and a window to the left of the door was broken. We quickly and quietly enter the house and split up to cover more ground. I was with Sam and Emily going on the right side of the house. As we clear rooms, nothing stands out as suspicious or abnormal until we heard a "hey guys we got the guy, you might want to come see this though".
We go over to that part of the house and once I enter the door I'm surprised to see a flat bellied Joanna, no baby bump.
"You know he lied to me for the longest time," she took a sip of vodka, "told me that he was a man of God, that he would never do something to harm me." She than threw the bottle against the wall and stared at the raised weapons aimed at her, "and he was the one that killed my baby."
"What do you mean 'killed your baby'?" JJ asked.
"I miscarried last year, right before he decided to start lying to me and sneak out of the house to go to the bar." She was way to calm, she shouldn't be this calm.
"And you blame him for losing your baby?" I ask getting an idea of where she's going with this.
"He said he was going to be there for me, but all he worried about was his work, the gambling rink," tears started falling down her face, "never me."
"Did you order the hit because you blamed him for your depression?" She looked at me like I was crazy.
"No, I blamed him for my loneliness."
"Joanna, with him dead how is that going to help?" I look at her with sorrowful eyes, yet with a bit of disgust.
"Because than I have a reason to feel lonely, not wait at home waiting for him to come home and finally think of me as his wife not a shield," she started weeping. When she feel to the floor, Sam went over and put handcuffs around her wrists. She walked off with Sam saying, 'it wasn't fair', I watch Sam taking her to one of the cars and sitting her down in the backseat before signaling me over to him.
"What's wrong?" He asked me as I approached.
"Nothing, I'm fine." I smile at him.
"Krista, than why are you crying?" I scrunch my eyebrows before reaching up to feel a cold, wet, tear roll onto my fingers. "See you're not fine."
"I don't know, I don't think I could ever do such a thing to Hank. Even if I were to miscarry, we'd go through the pain together." I smile weakly at Sam.
"But you're not," he pulled me into a hug, "you're a wonderful person, a brilliant agent, and you're going to be a fantastic mother."
"Thank you Sam."