A/N: Thank you so, so much to all who reviewed last time! I hope that you all like this chapter as much as the last one!
Disclaimer: NCIS is not mine, those rights go to CBS.
" A professional hit?" Tony demanded. "What, like an assassination?"
Ziva pursed her lips and shielded her eyes from the glaring morning sun.
" Yes. It was most certainly carried out by an experienced shooter."
Tony groaned. " Great. Gibbs is gonna love this."
Gibbs did not love it. If you didn't know him very well, you wouldn't be able to see his dismay. But Tony and Ziva could read it in the thin set of his lips and the sudden onset of steely coldness in his eyes.
" Go. McGee, go back to the office. Tony, Ziva, you go to Halden's home. Find everything you can about his life. Exhaust every avenue you can."
Three voices rang out in unison.
" On it, Boss."
…
Fifteen minutes, Tony and Ziva were pulling up to Corporal Halden's humble one-story house, just outside of Quantico. Ziva dug out two bobby pins to pick the lock and paused. The front door was secured with not one but two heavy locks.
" Quite the line of defense." Ziva commented. Tony shrugged it off.
" A man's home is his castle."
" All that is missing is a moat." Ziva griped as she struggled to pick the locks.
Tony pushed the door open and they stepped inside. The apartment was neat and clean, with white walls and simple décor.
The two federal agents were also not alone. A rustling sound coming from the bedroom alerted Tony and Ziva. They drew their guns in unison and moved down the hallway in practiced movements.
" Federal agents! Freeze!" Ziva demanded, banging the door open. A woman screamed.
" Omigod! Don't shoot!" A blond woman in a pink sweatsuit was holding her hands above her head, looking terrified.
Tony and Ziva exchanged glances and holstered their weapons.
" Excuse me, but who are you?" The woman demanded.
" I think we should be asking you the same question." Tony replied.
" I live here." The woman answered, affronted.
" Are you Corporal Halden's girlfriend?" Ziva asked. The woman looked confused.
" No. Who's Corporal Halden?"
" Matthew Halden, United States Marine Corps?" Ziva clarified. The woman shook her head.
" My name is Trina Liams. My husband, Rick, is in the Marines."
Tony nodded. " Okay. Did he know anyone named Matthew Halden?"
Trina shrugged. " Maybe. Rick has a lot of friends in the Corps."
Tony took out his phone and retrieved the crime scene photos of Corporal Halden's pale, bloodless face.
" Does he look familiar?" Tony asked. Trina gasped.
" Oh my God, yeah! He came over a few days ago, but he was really weird. Quiet, pretty shy. He didn't talk much. He said that he was here to see Rick, but Rick wasn't home. He was carrying a big package, said that it was a delivery for my husband. I told him that Rick wasn't here, and the guy said that it was okay, he would come back later. I offered to take the package, but the guy said no. I invited him to stay for dinner, since he was a friend of Rick's, but he refused. Politely, though. He didn't seem rude, just kind of weird." Trina paused. " He looks a little pale. He wasn't that pale the last time I saw him. Is he okay?"
Ziva and Tony glanced at each other.
" Actually, he was murdered last night, outside of a bar on base." Tony informed her. Trina gasped.
" Oh, God. That's awful."
" He listed this house as his personal address. Any idea why he might do that?" Tony asked.
Trina looked mystified. " No. It wasn't like he was a good friend of Rick's. Rick never even mentioned him before."
" Well, thank you for your time." Ziva said. Trina walked them to the front door.
" The Corporal is hiding something." Ziva decided as they pulled away from the curb.
" That's fairly obvious." Tony scoffed.
" The only question is, what does he have to hide?"
…
So far, McGee had found nothing. Corporal Matthew Halden lived a very plain life. His military records were clean and unremarkable and his private life was void of any red flags. He didn't travel; he wasn't married and had no family aside from his parents who lived in Oregon.
Matthew Halden was not carrying a cell phone at the time of his death, and no cell phone was registered to his name.
It was all very strange, McGee thought. It was as thought this Corporal Halden was a ghost living amongst humans, hiding in plain sight.
…
" Gibbs Gibbs Gibbs-" Abby bounced up and down on the heels of her Doc Martins. " Guess what I found!"
" Tell me it's something good." Gibbs said tiredly. Abby glanced sideways at her grey-haired boss. The man practically lived on coffee, so it wasn't often that she saw him looking tired. But now he looked exhausted and a little disappointed. Abby spun on one foot and pointed to the compute screen.
" Well, I tested the bullet, and I got a match. But you're not gonna like this one, Gibbs."
Gibbs stared at the screen. Abby typed something on her keyboard and two images appeared on the screen. One of them was of a sniper rifle, the same kind that Gibbs had become familiar with during his time as a Marine sniper. The other photograph was a mug shot. A man of Hispanic descent glared at them from the screen. Two cold black eyes were set deep in a craggy and unforgiving face. The waxed handlebar mustache would have lent the man an almost comical air, but the cold gleam in his eyes said that he was a cold-hearted killer.
" Jose Varquez." Gibbs muttered. Abby nodded.
" That's the gun used to kill the Corporal, and it's registered to this man, but it's impossible that he committed the murder. The FBI put him in prison for drug and murder charges. He's been in there for 6 years, and he's not coming out anytime soon."
Gibbs stared at the screen and then gave Abby a light peck on the cheek.
" Good girl, Abs."
Abby watched Gibbs lope out of her lab with a sinking heart. It wasn't often that Gibbs looked disappointed, but now was one of those times. She just hoped it wouldn't last.
…
In the bullpen, Gibbs placed a call through to Tony and Ziva. The senior agents answered on the second ring.
" DiNozzo."
" DiNozzo, get your ass over to Red Onion State Prison. You're talking to a man named Jose Varquez." Gibbs ordered.
" On it, Boss." Tony replied.
" I'll send you the files now." McGee hollered from across the bullpen, emailing every NCIS file on the notorious smuggler through to Tony and Ziva.
Gibbs watched McGee hurriedly type something into the computer, and the former Marine felt a sense of pride. He had taught McGee well. Gibbs opened up one of Varquez's case files and stared at the photograph of the cold-hearted gangster. He hoped that DiNozzo would interrogate the crap out of the man.
…
" Turn left here!" Ziva snapped as the sedan flew through the misty, curving mountain roads of Virginia. " Look, 'Pound, Virginia, 14 miles.'"
Tony grappled with the steering wheel. " The GPS says to turn right!"
Ziva groaned. " I am a trained navigator, Tony. Do you think I know what I am doing? Thank you, because I do!"
" I don't doubt you, Miss Da-veed." Tony drew out the syllables in her last name as he did when he was annoyed with her. Ziva rolled her eyes.
" Look. Red Onion State Prison, 8 miles." She pointed out the window to a green road sign.
Tony gave the steering wheel an unnecessarily hard spin and the sedan lurched to the left. A few minutes ticked past in silence as Tony piloted the car towards a pair of high gates topped with barbed wire. Ziva sat back in her seat, allowing herself a satisfied grin.
" Fine. You win this round, David. But next time, we go where the machine tells us."
" Tony, if we had followed the GPS we would have been halfway to New York State by now."
" Very well." Tony slowed the car to a crawl as they approached the guard tower. " I hear it's very nice this time of year."
Ziva just rolled her eyes and groaned.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading this! Please tell me what you think.
