Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 4

Gibbs stood and sipped his coffee. "A drug kingpin, Daniel Diaz, is our suspect. We just found the connection between him and the victim last night."

Bishop and McGhee leaned forward. "What's the connection?" McGhee asked.

Perplexed, Loki held up his hands in confusion as he sank back into his seat. "May I ask a question?"

"No," Gibbs said.

"Why is he a suspect?"

Gibbs turned to Loki, a shrewd look in his eyes. "You seem to have a problem listening to authority, kid."

Inside, Loki fumed. He hated being called a kid by mortals. He was a god. "Yes, there does seem to be a problem with that," he acceded. He leaned back in his chair and flung out his arms, flashing his characteristic smile. "After all, I did steal the Tesseract, didn't I?"

Bishop rolled her eyes. "Are you just going to keep talking about your failure to do good acts?"

Feigning a hurt expression, Loki directed his gaze to her. "Darling, what you call a failure, I call a success."

"Like getting your butt kicked by the Avengers?" Tony quipped.

Loki glared at Tony. "You make me wish I was carrying a knife right now."

Tony laughed.

"So, is anyone going to answer my question?" Loki asked. "Daniel Diaz: why is he a suspect?"

"A Marine petty officer was murdered," Gibbs answered. "John Samson, age twenty-five. We've traced a connection to him back to Diaz. Apparently, they grew up together, buying drugs from the same guy that Diaz eventually murdered. He took over the drug operation."

Tony clicked a key on a remote and the screen between Tony's and McGhee's desks lit up, displaying a photo of Daniel Diaz. "Samson and Diaz talked the week before Samson's murder. Three times, two days; all long conversations but for the last one. That one was five minutes. Three days later, Samson is found dead from a substance of some kind. Seems to be an overdose."

Loki furrowed his brow. "But you said he did drugs before. Couldn't it be of his own free will that he took them again?"

"Samson's been clean for the past six years," Gibbs said. "He was never addicted to them, but he got help, got away from them. There was no evidence at the scene, and Abby's still testing the drug to determine what it is."

"It's not any of the usual," Bishop added. "Not cocaine, or heroin, or marijuana. It's strange."

"How long ago was Samson murdered?" Loki asked.

"Two days ago," McGhee answered. "We just got the body yesterday. Ducky and Jimmy are still working on the autopsy."

Loki nodded. "All right, I feel I am all caught up now."

Gibbs tossed his coffee cup into the wastebasket and walked away from his desk. "Just hang on, Laufeyson – the ride gets faster from here."