Chapter 6

February 11, 2018

New Orleans, Louisiana

Walgreen's, Canal and Dauphine Streets

12:34 a.m.

All Sebastian Law wanted to do was get away from New Orleans.

Walking through the aisles inside the vast drug store, Law knew he was a marked man. The authorities had to be onto him by now, he thought, and his concern now was how, and where, to hide.

That's why he – with a short hairstyle that could charitably be called 'chopped' and a short beard that needed a bit of sprucing up – was in the beauty section of Walgreen's. He stood in front of a row of hair coloring products, with men's shaving and grooming products in his cart.

"Can I help you…sir?", said one of the store employees on duty. The young woman looked at Law a little suspiciously; he wouldn't be the first vagrant who came into the store at this time of night, and he wouldn't be the first vagrant she kicked out onto the street either, if it came to that.

"I'm fine," Law blurted. Already on edge, he wondered if she could be a cop.

"Sir," the woman replied, "the men's section is in Aisle 5—"

"I know what I'm looking for!", he snapped. He then realized he needed to be in full control of himself, at least more than he was now, and especially if the woman was some sort of law enforcement officer. "I'm sorry…I…thank you for your concern. I've been, uh, to the men's section already. I'm looking at something I can find, um, here."

"Something to match your pretty brown eyes?", the woman asked, with a smile and in a slightly sarcastic tone. Law didn't care. His money was as good as anyone else's, and with luck, he'd never have to deal with her, or New Orleans, again.

"I'm fine, really," he said, grabbing a bottle of blonde hair coloring off the shelf. He then decided that he had everything he needed, that the toiletries and snacks could wait. He was going right to the checkout counter.

Reeves and Lund had already made their way into the store. Lund 'browsed' the snacks aisle, Reeves 'browsed' the magazine section near the checkout counter. Reeves was the first to spot Law, who turned the corner from the far wall of the store and pushed his small cart towards the counter. "Subject's heading for the counter now," he whispered; Lund could hear him in his earpiece, as could Torres standing outside the entrance, and Bishop, Percy and Gregorio waiting outside near the entrance. The NOPD undercover officer and two just-arrived uniformed officers had the rear entrance covered.

Law reached the counter and began pulling his items off the cart: 20 disposable razors, two bottles of shaving cream, a bottle of blonde hair coloring, deodorant, a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and eight bars of soap. He reached into his pocket to pay, pulling out two $50 bills.

"Wonder how much cash he has?", Lund said in a low, but not low enough, voice. Law heard something and turned around. He looked up at a mirror hanging above the entrance that looked out to the interior of the store, and saw someone in the snacks aisle who looked familiar. Law squinted his eyes to get a closer look, and a chill ran down his spine.

Law recognized Lund from one of former Mayor Hamilton's speeches, where Pride and his team made an appearance. Lund, watching Law over the top counter in his aisle, knew he had been made as soon as Law turned around; he ducked from view anyway, too late to keep himself from being seen.

He works for the Navy cop, thought Law as he quickly descended into a panicked state of mind. $# %! I've been made!

Law stuffed the two $50 bills in his pocket and ran for the door. He dodged Reeves' attempt to grab him and got ahead of the taller, more muscular man by a few feet.

"STOP!"

Torres, Bishop and Percy yelled in unison at Law, as he dodged Bishop and Gregorio and ran into the street and into traffic.

Desperate to get some distance from the federal agents, Law found himself in the path of an oncoming Civic going 45 miles per hour. He thought fast on his feet and, in a move straight out of a Hollywood movie, jumped onto the Civic's hood as the driver hit her brakes. Law grabbed the windshield wipers to steady himself; a few seconds later, he rolled off the hood towards his left and landed on his feet, then ran towards the other side of the street.

"Sonofa—you see that?", Torres yelled at Gregorio.

"Yeah! Just don't lose him," she yelled back.

Torres and his teammates almost lost Law when he made another out-of-the-blue move: running full sprint into a moving trolley that had its middle doors wide open when they weren't supposed to be open. Law kicked open the doors on the opposite side as the trolley's driver began coming to a stop, finding himself in front of an empty storefront on the street corner opposite Walgreen's.

Law looked all around him, saw agents coming towards him, and ran towards what he thought was the path of least resistance: northwest up Canal.

He got as far as the entrance to an iHOP restaurant when he felt something hit against his calves, forcing him down to the sidewalk. Law jerked his head back while planting his palms towards the pavement, and saw Torres trying to wrap his arms around Law's legs. He kicked Torres's jaw hard with his heel, breaking the agent's hold, then saw Reeves rushing towards him from his right. Law jumped up, reached into the front of his pants, and pulled out a small can of pepper spray which he proceeded to spray into Reeves's face; Reeves got his hands up, but not quite in time, catching some of the spray directly into his eyes.

Lund ran towards Law's backside, hoping to catch him unaware, but Law saw the agent from the corner of his eye. Law threw a hard elbow to Lund's face, briefly knocking Lund unconscious. He turned to go into the restaurant, then felt something hit his back and, two seconds later, a jolt of electricity went through his body.

"STAY DOWN!", yelled Bishop, but Law got back up. Whether it was adrenaline, or desperation, Law wasn't about to abide her if he could help it.

Percy decided this would end now, one way or another.

"Lock the doors and get everybody to the back!", she yelled to the customer standing on the other side of the door, filming the scene with his smartphone. By now, other customers had gathered on the other side of the windows facing the street to watch, and they were yet another reason she didn't want to use her gun and shoot the bastard unless as a last resort.

Law regathered his senses enough to try to get to the door just as the night manager inside began to lock it. Law ran for the doors but was tackled by Percy, causing him to fall forward and hit the pavement just an inch short of the glass.

Again, he threw his elbow back, but Percy dodged it and then grabbed it. Bishop, having checked on Lund and Reeves, kicked him hard in his stomach. Gregorio and Torres piled on top of him, and Percy managed to handcuff him.

She looked up to a round of applause from the night manager and his customers and employees, several whom had their phones out, filming the whole thing.

"Well. Look at you," Gregorio said to Percy as they pulled Law off the ground, with four NOPD cruisers and an ambulance down the street racing towards their position. "America's newest YouTube sweetheart."

"Oh boy," Percy replied, with a touch of sarcasm. "La Salle will never let me live that down."

New Orleans

NCIS field office

1:59 a.m.

From the observation room adjacent to the field office's interrogation room, Pride drank down his third cup of coffee in the past ten minutes, as Gibbs watched Torres and Gregorio drill Law with question after question.

For the 29th time, Law repeated what he had said to them, and to Bishop and Percy before: "Pride."

"Think he wants to talk to you, Dwayne," Gibbs quipped.

"Maybe he'll rethink that once I get in there," Pride replied, with an edge to his tone. He wanted this bastard in custody, and now that he had him, one way or another, Pride was going to get answers. "Now's as good a time as any to give him what he wants. You coming?"

"Think he'll talk with me in the room?"

"Oh, he'll talk."

Pride entered the room, with Gibbs right behind him, and Pride nodded to Torres and Gregorio. "Looks like your wish finally came true," Gregorio told Law, not trying to hide her sarcastic tone.

Pride sat down across from Law, with Gibbs leaning along the back wall behind Pride. "He stays, whether you like it or not," Pride growled.

"Fine by me," Law said.

"You wanted me, 'slaw'. Here I am. You have a confession to make?"

Law leaned back, as far as he could with his handcuffs chained to the table. "I did it."

Pride looked at him evenly. "What did you do, exactly?"

"You want me to say what I did."

"What I want to know, 'slaw', is whether or not you murdered an Admiral of the United States Navy."

Law smirked. "You want me to say that, don't you, you sanctimonious—"

Pride jumped out of his seat and leaned over the table until he was nose-to-nose with Law. Gibbs turned to look back at the agents watching from behind the one-way mirror separating the interrogation and observation rooms.

"Better watch yourself, Pride," Law said with a smirk. "Your buddy's right behind you. You snap my neck, he's there to see you. So's that camera in the corner. So are those agents behind that window back there. My lawyer's on her way and she'd be real interested to see the film. So would the media—"

"I won't snap your neck," Pride growled. "I won't lay a hand on you. Besides, you're eager to talk."

"About what, exactly?"

Pride stepped back, then sat down in his chair. "The floor is yours, Law."

"Call me Sebastian, Pride."

Gibbs, not trying to hide his annoyance any more than Law was hiding his arrogance, walked to the corner of the table. "You kill the Admiral, Law?"

"Another member of the Fed Five," Law said to Gibbs. "One lost his mind, another as crooked as, well, as anybody in Congress, your boss as much of a fu—"

Gibbs grabbed the corner and, in one fell swoop, tossed the table to its side, throwing Law out of his chair and onto the floor.

Law swore, loudly. "What the hell?" he said over and over, as Pride put the table back in place, and while Gibbs shoved him back into the chair that he had just put upright.

"I swear to God I will sue both of your asses and NCIS," Law yelled. "Where is my lawyer? Did you even contact her?"

"She's delayed," Pride said, again leaning across the table into Law's face while Gibbs stood next to the suspect. "She'll be here. Before she gets here, let's talk about you and the Admiral."

Law stared at Pride for a full minute, then nodded.

"That a confession, Law?", Gibbs asked. Law looked at him briefly, then turned to Pride, and spit in his face. "Yeah, I killed the Admiral," he said, before Pride could react.

"Talk," Gibbs said, menacingly into Law's ear.

"You screwed over a lot of people when you put Hamilton in prison," Law said, staring at Pride. "Me included. Anyone on his staff was toxic, politically. I had to work at a freaking call center! People staring at me, me, like I was the devil himself—"

"Poor old you," Pride interjected.

"All Hamilton wanted to do was help people—"

"Hamilton only wanted to help himself."

"You had a grudge against him from day one and you finally got what you wanted, Dwayne Cassius Pride. King of New Orleans. Blinding yourself to the fact you screwed over hundreds of 'your' people. Ever think about them, King?"

"Every day, and I'm sorry about the men and women who lost their jobs. A hell of a lot more than you are," Pride replied. "Did you kill Admiral Jenkins because of Hamilton? Did he put you up to this in any way?"

Law started to get out of his chair. He couldn't move due to Gibbs's hand pushing down hard on his right shoulder. He glared at Gibbs before turning his gaze back to Pride.

"Pride, it took me every favor I had to get an interview with Craig Boudreaux, and he took me on his campaign at a distance," Law said. "I worked for him but not publicly. Politics, you know. Hell, as long as he paid me I didn't really care. Got me out of that damn call center, anyway. Boudreaux was motivated to get out of Louisiana. He had a shot."

"What's this have to do with the Admiral?", Pride asked.

"The moment those reports about Jenkins considering a run hit the political blogs and Twitter, Boudreaux was screwed. People supporting his campaign told me they were switching to Jenkins on the spot. I did the math. Boudreaux wouldn't even make it to the primary—"

"And you'd be out of a job. Again."

"And that pissed me off. I wasn't going back to a call center, reading from some damn script full of quack psychology. I wasn't going on welfare. So I decided to eliminate the competition."

Law looked at Pride, waiting for him to ask him how he 'eliminated the competition', and then looked at Gibbs. "Do I have to say everything?" Law said after looking at the window along the far wall. "I spiked the bastard's whiskey bottle. Potassium chloride and calcium gluconate. Read about it online, on the dark web. Figured it was worth a shot. Worked like a charm."

"Didn't work well enough," Gibbs said.

"Maybe it was that damn kid hiding in the cabin," Law mused. "Maybe I should've—"

Before Gibbs could react, Pride jumped over the table, grabbed Law by the collar and pulled him over the table as far as his handcuffs would allow.

"You should have done what?", Pride said in a low, angry tone. When Percy opened the door, he turned his head and gave a look that led her to step back outside and shut the door behind her. "You better not be suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

"I wouldn't kill a kid," Law said, although neither Gibbs nor Pride were fully convinced of that. "I already did what I went there to do."

"What was that, Law?", Pride said, still nose-to-nose with Law.

"Come on—"

"For the record."

"I went there to kill Admiral Jenkins. Now would you like to know why?"

"Yes."

"Put me down."

Gibbs grabbed Law's forearm and put him back in his chair. "Talk," Gibbs told him.

Law looked Pride in the eye. "You."

"Me," Pride said.

"You. You took my job, my career, my life, when Hamilton went down. I had nothing to live for. No one was going to take a chance on me. When it became apparent Jenkins was going to run for Senate and win that seat I decided to take him out."

"Because of me."

"I knew you would get the case. It was the closest way I could get back at you, Pride. Kill one of those Navy officers you hold in such high regard. Get caught by you. Get put into prison—"

"Prison? Don't tell me you did this to get into prison—"

"No, I did it to get back at you," Law said, flippantly. "But prison's a helluva lot better deal than $12 bucks an hour at a call center."

Pride kept his eyes locked on Law. At the moment, he honestly didn't know if he was looking at a competent murderer or a madman.

Law admits to killing Jenkins out of selfishness: Boudreaux promised Law a spot on his staff, and Law knew the challenger could never win against the Admiral.

Epilogue

February 13, 2018

New Orleans, Louisiana

Orleans Parish Prison

2:19 p.m.

"Are you crazy, Slaw?"

Law sat in the visitor's center, handcuffed to his table, but he wasn't staring at Pride, nor any other NCIS agent or law enforcement official.

"I have got to hand it to you, Law, you've got balls," said Law's visitor, dressed in a grey business suit and red tie. "If you used your brain, you might not be here."

Law said nothing.

"I could have still used you," the man in the grey suit told him. "I can't use you now, not any longer."

The visitor got up from his chair, making his way towards the door, where a prison guard waited on the opposite side. He stopped just before he knocked on the door to be let out, then turned back to Law. "Good luck, and…watch your back."

Law didn't try to turn his head to watch Eric Barlow, the Assistant United States Attorney General, walk out of the room. He was beyond caring, about anything and anyone, especially himself.

February 14, 2018

New Orleans, Louisiana

NCIS field office

7:24 a.m.

"Sebastian's fine," Pride said as he cooked himself some eggs in the kitchenette. "No aftereffects from the chase from the other day."

Pride had his smartphone on speaker and was talking to Gibbs, who was already back at his desk, at NCIS headquarters in Washington. Gibbs and his team had returned to D.C. the day before, after Boudreaux formally announced his resignation from the campaign and Law had been transferred to Orleans Parish Prison to await sentencing for Admiral Jenkins' murder.

"How is Reeves doing?", Pride asked Gibbs.

"The same," Gibbs told him. "Said he'd been through far worse. Take a lot worse, too, to take him down."

"I have no doubt about that, Jethro," Pride said, putting just the right amount of pepper on the eggs. "You try that gumbo recipe I gave you yet—"

"King!", said LaSalle as he burst into the kitchenette. "Something on TV you need to see. Right now."

"Gibbs, I'm taking my phone with me," Pride said, grabbing the phone as he quickly made his way to the squad room. The main monitor showed the feed from the local CBS television affiliate. LaSalle, the only other team member in the office this early in the day, turned up the volume. A reporter stood outside the front entrance to the Orleans Parish Prison.

-Eyewitness News has learned that Sebastian Law, a former staff member of Mayor Douglas Hamilton who confessed to the murder of U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel Jenkins, was found dead this morning in his jail cell. Sources tell us a formal announcement will be made within the hour—

Pride felt his phone buzz in his hand, and saw an incoming call. "I'll call you back, Jethro," he said, disconnecting from Gibbs to take the call. It was the warden of the Orleans Parish Prison, a man who had once been partnered with Pride when they were both with NOPD. Pride listened, thanked the warden, and disconnected.

"Law hung himself," he told LaSalle. "No note. No suspects. They've just started their investigation, but right now they're looking at it as a suicide."

"You don't think it was a suicide," LaSalle said.

Pride paused. "Whatever it was, Christopher, it's not for us to investigate. Our job was done when we got justice for Admiral Jenkins by putting Law behind bars."

"And what if someone at Orleans Parish Prison decided to dish out their own brand of 'justice'?"

"Unless it sheds more light on why the Admiral died, it's not our case, anymore."

-phoof-