Castle of glass (Lara)

[Edgar Sheppard]

Sheppard Residence,
2200 hours

With the day having winded down to an end, Edgar had been mostly at home today. There were no-call outs that he needed to tend to and that meant he had time to spend with Lois and Tova. She insisted on sitting inside the makeshift train they made together out of boxes he had brought home with him whilst he was building it. It sat in the doorway between the corridor and the living room, haphazardly left and forgotten with drawings of flowers and butterflies all over.

Once she had been laid to sleep, Ed had snuck out of bed and down to the basement. There was a small project he was working on, a wooden play frame that he would hopefully put out in the backyard for Tova. It had been sitting there for a couple of months now, still needing to be smoothed over and sanded before being painted. His hope was that he was able to give it to her for her seventh birthday or maybe as an early Christmas present. Edgar had thrown on his pink shirt over his light blue t-shirt and replaced his PJs with a pair of work trousers, nothing that he wouldn't mind getting dirty as he worked away at the wood, sawing and measuring every part of the way.

Admittedly, he had lost track of the hours that he had spent down in the basement or how many times he had to head back upstairs to get the coffee granules that sat on the kitchen counter. It was on his way to the kitchen that he saw a pair of headlights driving down the road and frowned. It wasn't unusual to get people driving this late at night, so he headed back to the kitchen to stir up more coffee.

It was the knocks that had him frozen, his eyes fleetingly glancing upwards to check that it hadn't roused the house before padding over to the front door. Ed's hand paused at the doorknob, before pulling the door open - the chain pulling tight across as he found himself face to face with a woman standing outside on his step.

Lara DunCroft

[Lara DunCroft]

It was 1:15 AM as the last two officers made their way into the briefing room to take their seats after. Having arrived a couple of minute earlier Lara was already settled at a desk, fiddling with a marker pen as she waited to find out what kind of development in the case there must have been for them to be called in at this hour. "All right, settle down." Their CO called out, standing at the front with a whiteboard ready to address the room.          "Now you're all probably wondering why you're here. I'm sorry to get you out of bed at this hour but there has been a significant development in the case. We just got another victim, Lina Dalby." He pointed to the picture of her on the whiteboard. "She was found in her living room with multiple stab wounds. Though cause of death has been different each time all of our victims have bee killed at their own home with no signs of forced entry matching the MO." "How do we know that's not a coincidence?" Asked one of the male detectives. Lara looked to the detective as he spoke, it was a valid question. An attack at home wasn't unique on it's own and Lara looked back at her CO for the answer.   "We found a button at each scene, putting our body count at three and linking the murders. Confirming, boys and girls, that we have a serial on our hands." A couple of despondent groans and sighs drifted through the room. Lara lowered her head a moment as she fiddled with her marker. Getting a serial killer on their raider was something every homicide detective hated. "Are the victims connected?" Lara asked, lifting her head again. "On the surface it seems random. Victims are different ages, different genders, different causes of death and they all live in deferent areas. But digging deeper they all have one connection or another to a former NCIS case years ago. Now I've requested everything NCIS have relating to the case to try and get a list of suspects, but for now we have to work with what we have and time is of the essence. I know it's late but we have to move on this now." He looked at his detectives as he handed out assignments "Chandler and Polverini are already working the scene. So Dunson, Gillespie I want you to go knock on doors near Lina Dalby, see if the neighbors saw anything or anyone. Barsky and Mazzola see if she had any enemies, find out if anyone ever threatened her. DunCroft..." He put a folder containing Ed's info and address in front of her.  "Take a couple of uniforms and go to Edgar Sheppard, He was one of the Agents on the case and it stands to reason our perp will targeted him if our NCIS theory is correct.  Keep an eye on him and see if he can give you any insight." "What?" She protested in a lethargic tone. "I was the first one on this case, now I'm getting babysitting duty?" "Don't argue, okay? We need eyes on him. He might know something that could help and if he is a target that means the killer will come to us."       "Good point." Lara replied with more enthusiasm. She opened the folder to glance at the details inside, suddenly happy to take the assignment. If she was on protective detail that meant that she would be the one standing between Ed and the killer and would be the first one in the line of fire, and that sat well with the suicidal detective. "Remember your job is to keep him alive, Lara, not to get anyone killed." With that everyone stood up and cleared the room. It was just before 2AM when Lara pulled up on Ed's drive way, a squad car pulling up on the road along side it. Lara knocked on the door and waited for an answer, two uniformed officers standing behind her. "Mr. Edgar Sheppard?" She asked. "I'm detective Lara DunCroft." She held up her badge. "I know it's late but can we come in?" She asked. Once inside Lara handed him a photo of each of the victims. "In the past six weeks we've had three homicides. All the victims seem to have a connection on a case you worked on during your time at NCIS." She told him. "We was hoping you might be able to tell us everything you remember about the case." She began, "We also have reason to believe you might be targeted." She told him. "Which is why I'm here." Tag: Edgar Sheppard . ~*~

[Edgar Sheppard]

"I'm detective Lara DunCroft."

Ed's eyes moved from the face at the door to the badge that was held up. Something was wrong, that much he knew. The two officers that were flanking her were an indication to that. He wasn't going to ask questions, and the badge looked legitimate.

"I know it's late but can we come in?"

He took a moment silence, before closing the door to unlatch the chain - reopening it wider for the trio to step through. Shep took a moment to note the police car and an unmarked vehicle sat on his side of the road. Guiding them through the corridor and moving the cardboard train to one side with his foot as he passed by. Only before he reached the kitchen, did he stop.

Already the wheels were turning, he could see that they weren't messing about with the visit, no small talk and it went straight to the point. Though, his brow furrowed deeply as she addressed his previous occupation and the fact that they thought there was a connection. A large hand went to the back of his head to scratch at the base of his neck, stifling a yawn. NCIS was a few years ago, the case that they had come to discuss about even longer ago. He wasn't a young man any more and he had had his fair share of injuries out in the field. But, this particular case was something of his past slapping him in the face. The victims were old colleagues of his, people he had used to rely on to have his back because he had theirs. The skin around his jaw tightened.

Especially when they brought in the notion that he was possibly going to be targeted.

"Which is why I'm here."

Edgar sighed, perhaps a long overdue suffering sigh. "Protective detail." Be it that he didn't think himself in any need of protective detail and he wanted to argue the point, but he was going to play along for the sake of his family; wife and the safety of his daughter. It was late and yet the effects of needing sleep hadn't arisen, at least not yet. "Why don't we go into the kitchen, it's going to be a long morning."

Leading them into the kitchen, Ed switched on the light. A hand indicated for them to take a seat should they so wish as he put the kettle on and making four cups of coffee should they want it.

"That case is at least a couple years old now," Ed said, more for his own peace of mind than theirs. "Lemme guess. No forced entry, deaths all different? Three plus bodies means serial. Bringing the total up to six. And here we thought we caught him."

TAG | Lara DunCroft
NOTES | Let me know if you need anything else or you need me to elaborate more on Ed's response!

[Lara DunCroft]

Lara couldn't fault Edgar for his sigh, being assigned a protective detail was never a thrilling prospect. And she couldn't imagine anyone (other than herself) would be happy to hear that they are on someones hit list. "I'm afraid so." She replied. "I mean we have to leave if you tell us to, but that wouldn't be advisable. I mean we wouldn't hike our tails out here if there wasn't a credible threat." Lara and the officers followed as Ed walked them to the kitchen. She couldn't help but notice pictures on the wall and the train that Ed had pushed to one side. The house seemed to give off warm vibes of home and family, but it somehow filled her with a cold and hollow echo inside. Not that she let that show, well not any more that her tired and somewhat unkempt temperance already did anyway. Lara took a seat and put her hands around the coffee mug Ed set in front of her, feeling the warmth from it as Ed surmised the facts of the case, "Well, you're not wrong." She said, confirming all that he had said. He obviously knew what he was talking about and she hoped he would be able to give them some answers. But first she had a couple of question she needed to ask regarding Ed's home and living arrangements, "Before we get into that I need to secure the house. Does anyone else live here?" She asked. She needed to know how many people would need watching and who would be coming and going, when and where. "What is your current security like? Do you have locks on all the windows and doors? Any alarm system in place?" She asked. "If so then I want you to lock everything and set the alarm, if not then we need to get that into place for you." She stated. "These officers are going to be posted across the road in their squad car. I'll set up in the living room, keep eyes on you from inside the house. We'll try to keep it as invasive as we can." She finished, letting him know the plan. Tag: Edgar Sheppard. ~*~

[Edgar Sheppard]

Edgar had turned to rest his lower back against the counter as he stood. He didn't particularly feel like sitting down right now, not with a potential threat to either him or his family. He had gone to lengths to try and keep everything separate, never bringing home work with him - or at least not in front of his wife or daughter.

"Before we get into that I need to secure the house. Does anyone else live here?"

"My wife, Lois, and my daughter, Tova. They're currently asleep upstairs." Edgar said, glancing upwards. He would allow the detective to think what she wanted about him being up later than the rest of the house, not wanting to divulge the fact that he just wanted to make Tova a gift for her birthday.

Then they got into the particulars about the case and his own home security. Edgar recounted the amount of times that he had gone about trying to explain the safety measures that he had set in place to Lois, who only could nod and resign to the fact that he knew what he was doing.

"If so then I want you to lock everything and set the alarm, if not then we need to get that into place for you."

Ed nodded, confirming that he had received the information and was going to act on it. There was no point in wasting time if he was going to be assigned protection. He glanced to the other police officers as a very faint creak caught his attention as Lara was explaining what they were going to do and how the set up was going to work. He let out a gentle sigh, knowing exactly who was there. "Tova, I'm in the kitchen."

For a moment, nothing seemed to have moved until there was a soft patter of feet against the wooden floor. Tova poked her head around the door, her eyes taking in the police officers around the kitchen table before going over to her father, wrapping her hands around his leg before he scooped her up. In the light, he could see that she had suffered another nightmare. "This is Tova, my daughter. Tov, these officers and the detective are going to be staying for a while."

He planted a soft kiss on her forehead as she buried her face in his shirt, sheepishly hiding her face away from the detectives. Edgar glanced over to Lara, shooting her what was somewhat of an apologetic look for the interruption. "There's spare sheets and pillow in the back. Then we can continue to talk more about the case."

It didn't take him long, even with Tova scooped up in one arm, for him to sort everything else out that they had previously discussed - setting the alarm, locking the back door and making sure that everything that could be secured was secured before returning to the kitchen. Tova had fallen back to sleep, but for the sake of his own sanity - Edgar had wrapped her up in one of the large chairs in the living room where he could keep an eye on her from the kitchen.

"I've got an adopted daughter, Jess. She moved out, living with her husband now. I think." Edgar said, finally settling down at the table with a fresh cup of coffee in his hand. He was going through the small things, making sure he covered everything. "Lois' is going to be getting up around 0600 to get to work and I'm on-call whenever people need something fixed up. Do we need to be doing something about that?"

Tag: Lara DunCroft | Hope this works? If you need me to change anything, lemme know.

[Lara DunCroft]

Lara took note as Ed informed her he had a spouse and child that lived in the house. 'Wife and kid, how lucky.' She thought to herself as she jotted down their names in her notebook so she could pretend to remember them later on. It was good to see Ed not kicking up a fuss as everything was being put into place. It was nice that Ed wasn't a moron and refusing a protection detail or protesting being told what to do in his own house with locking the doors and turn the alarm on. Maybe this assignment would be so bad. Then Lara's head quickly turned to the direction of the faint creak, but Ed beckoning Tova eased her alert. Lara couldn't help a soft smile form at seeing the little head peek in through the doorway. She watched as the sweet little girl walked over and got scooped up by her father and she felt a mixture of warmth and sadness at the scene. Although she had now come to try to ignore it a big part of her wanted a child of her own, a husband and a family to come home to, but she had resigned herself to the belief that wasn't going to happen. And another part of her just wanted to go back to her own father and feel him wrap his arms around her, but that wasn't going to happen either. "Hi, hi there. I'm Lara" She said in a soft tone, gently tilting her head as she looked at the shy child. Lara followed a pace or two behind Ed as he secured the house so that she could note all possible entry points and where the alarms were. Then following him back to the kitchen she took a seat. "Lois' is going to be getting up around 0600 to get to work and I'm on-call whenever people need something fixed up. Do we need to be doing something about that?" "Okay, well I'll need to have a talk with your wife when she is up. Obviously she needs to know what is going on. And I need to talk to both of you about scheduled, when you leave the house and when you come back, visitors, keeping the alarm on and all that kind of thing." She answered. "At this point I don't think Jess is any concern, unless she comes here. So don't worry about her." He assured him. "Obviously you still need to work, the threat level isn't high enough for you to have to stop going out. You just need to be careful and you'll need someone with you wherever you go." Lara leaned on the table with her arms folded, "Do you have any questions?" Tag: Edgar Sheppard . ~*~

[Edgar Sheppard]

Ed took a drink from his coffee as his gaze drifted from Lara over to the sleeping form of his daughter, wary of the officers who lingered around them; despite knowing that they were there for their own protection but he was there for the protection of his family. Normality would be something that he would want them to feel, even with the presence of officers. He looked back at Lara as she explained what they were going to end up doing and assured him that Jess would not be in any such trouble.

"Obviously you still need to work, the threat level isn't high enough for you to have to stop going out. You just need to be careful and you'll need someone with you wherever you go."

"Yeah," Ed scratched at the back of his neck. Something that he often did, it had started out as a subconscious action turned habit. There was a lot to think about and his work hours varied any how that locking onto a regular enough schedule would be hard enough for some to catch onto. "The only real thing is taking my daughter to school. If this is the guy, how do we know he isn't going to be targeting her to get to me?" It was one of the option for them, as a last-ditch effort to get to him would be to target the people he loved even at the risk of exposing themselves; which again was something Ed hoped to avoid hanging his family out as bait. Ed was grumbling inwardly about having to be baby-sat wherever he went, especially if he found himself on-call, or at the very least needing some time alone to deal with what he was dealing with. "My own work schedule varies, I do call-outs and go to people's homes, so as long as your folks don't get in the way of my work then we'll be on the same level. I don't sleep much either, so you'll find me downstairs in the basement working on a project for Tova."

He leaned back, folding his own arms as he looked at the officer in front of him. "You got kids, Lara?"

Lara DunCroft

[Lara DunCroft]

"I understand your concern, we have no reason to think this guy will come anywhere near your daughter. It's not his MO." She assured him. "And as precaution we will explain the situation to the school to make sure they don't let anyone near you daughter who isn't on an approved list that we will ask you to provide." She finished. "We're not here to get in the way of your work, we're here to keep you safe." Lara replied. "Obviously you are going to notice our presence but we'll be as unobtrusive as possible." One side of Lara's mouth raised in the smallest of smiles when Ed said he didn't sleep much, "That's not going to be a problem. I don't sleep much myself." She admitted. Though for her it was a lot more than just not being able to sleep and Ed didn't know the half of it. Anything resembling a smile immediately faded from the detectives face when asked if she had kids of her own. Her expressive eyes momentarily filled with a hollowness before she brushed the look aside as she answered, "Uh, no. No I don't." She replied. "I can barely keep a goldfish alive for more than a couple of days." She joked, masking her longing with a light coat of humor. "I have a gun and a badge, I'll leave marriage and kids to the more parentally inclined." She finished before her eyes fell on the loving father and the little girl in his arms. How she had longed for a scene like that to be hers, to have children, a husband and a family of her own. But oh how far her reality was from that dream, how tragically different her life had turned out from what she had always planned. Pushing those thoughts away Lara cleared her throat, "Well I think we've covered all we can tonight. I'm uh, I'm gonna set up in the living room, let you get on with your night. If you need anything I'll be in there." She said before standing up and heading to the living room. Tag: Edgar Sheppard . ~*~