"Did you find the buyer?" Gibbs asked.
"Not yet, but I found something interesting on the cell phones," McGee reported, pulling up the records on the plasma. "On the night before Captain Reynolds died, he made a call to this number. It shows that the conversation lasted 8 minutes and 53 seconds. At the exact same time, Rinnert made a call to Reynolds lasting 13 minutes and 25 seconds."
"Three way?" Gibbs asked. Tony's snicker cost him a smack to the back of his head.
"Looks that way. In fact there are several calls to that number on Reynolds cell phone, but none on Rinnert's until 7:45PM on the night that Reynolds died. He didn't have any contact with the buyer until.." McGee continued.
"He stole the number off Reynolds cell. That's good work. You got a name for me, McGee?" Gibbs probed.
"Akmed Ghadrane. Been on the FBI's watch list for a while now, suspected Al Quaeda operative. He's currently living in the DC area. Got the address right here and I put out a BOLO." McGee replied.
"Who would use their actual cell phone in a deal like this? Sounds too stupid to be Al Quaeda." Colonel Mann remarked.
"He didn't. It was pre-paid, but I was able to trace it after I triangulated GPS coordinates off of Rinnerts' cell. See, what I did was…"
Gibbs glared.
"I did…computer stuff. Worked though." Was McGee's response to the glare.
"So if this isn't the buyer then who the hell is, McGee?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"Well I didn't say he's not the buyer. He's just the suspect…the suspected buyer." Gibbs had moved uncomfortably close to him, and McGee could feel the older man's icy glare burning a whole right through him. McGee cleared his throat. "Suspected buyer, boss. But probably the buyer."
"Ya think, McGee? Ziva, with me," Gibbs demanded as Colonel Mann and Ziva geared up. The Colonel looked displeased with the decision, and shot Gibbs daggers. Her glare resulted in him telling her that the DIA needed another briefing. "DiNozzo, you find out what Abby has and get her to lift any prints that she can off Reynolds phone."
McGee knew that Gibbs seemed to be pissed about before, but it was worth a shot. It was case related after all. He spoke.
"Boss, maybe I should help Abby with the laptop, she might have missed something."
Gibbs simply shouted the response as he walked to the elevator. "Leave her alone McGee and you find that money!"
The Colonel had retreated upstairs to MTAC and a dull sense of quiet took over the squad room. McGee sighed and returned his attention to the computer screen in front of him. He had traced deposits more complicated than this before. It was just a matter of linking the money to Ghadrane. An inability to focus on the task at hand happened almost immediately in the form of one senior field agent Tony DiNozzo.
"What's the matter Probie? Upset because Gibbs won't let you go see your girlfriend?" he asked, mockingly.
McGee continued typing. "Shut up, DiNozzo."
"What exactly did we walk in on earlier? Seemed a rather intimate moment between you and the lovely lady goth." Tony remarked.
"It wasn't anything Tony."
"Oh, please McLiar. I saw the look on your face today when Abby slugged him. That kind of happiness…you were jealous."
"I was not."
"Were too."
"DiNozzo, seriously. Let me finish this."
"Why, so you can go play in the lab?"
And there it was. Tony's merciless teasing never got under McGee's skin. Their relationship was a sibling rivalry of sorts, and while he enjoyed the majority of the jokes and pranks that they played on each other, he wasn't in the mood. He had reached his breaking point, so he stood and locked eyes with the man who was now casually perched on the corner of his desk.
"Tony, I know that your contributions to this case," McGee began angrily, picking up the bag that held the uneaten cheeseburger Tony had left on his desk, "Have really been essential in nature, but I'm actually working. So if you wouldn't mind leaving me the hell alone, so I can find the evidence we need to put this other guy away, that'd be great."
McGee tossed the bag in the garbage and gave Tony a final warning. "Go help Abby and leave me alone. Now."
DiNozzo popped the last of his meal into his mouth, and mumbled. "Oh yeah, you're in love all right," as he walked away. He knew McGee had heard him and smiled to himself because torturing the probie…it was just too good.
The music was deafening as the elevator doors opened. Abby seemed to have gotten her spirit back, Tony demised. Once again, she didn't even hear him come in. Although this time DiNozzo was sure that it had more to do with the pounding bass of Plastic Death and less to do with a distraction caused by a certain probie.
"Brought 'cha something!" Tony, whispered into her, causing her to jump.
"Tony! Don't sneak up on people like that, do you want me to bust my other hand?" she asked.
"That was quite the punch you delivered. Who taught you how to hit like that?" he wondered aloud.
"Granny. So what'd you bring me?" she asked, leaving him no time to ponder how or why her grandmother knew how to deliver a nose-breaking blow.
"Captain Reynolds cell phone. Boss wants you to dust it for prints. Have you found anything on Rinnert's computer?"
Abby sighed when she was reminded of her own failure.
"Not yet. I've tried a few things, but Captain Reynold's computer was much easier to crack. McGee might be able to do something with this though." She answered.
"Don't think that's going to happen. Per el jefe's orders McGee is to leave you alone." Tony replied, pleased that the door had been opened for probing.
"Why?" Abby asked.
"Don't know. Maybe the boss thinks you two are breaking rule number twelve."
"Me and McGee?! Are you kidding? No. No Gibbs would never think that."
"Wouldn't he? Seemed like we interrupted quite the intimate moment earlier," DiNozzo said.
"Tony, McGee was just making me feel better. If this is because you guys saw him kiss my hand, that was nothing. Besides Gibbs kisses me all the time," Abby said, realizing two things: the first that she attempting to convince herself more than Tony and the second that she was failing on both counts.
"But you and Gibbs don't have the same relationship that you and the Probie have, Abs. I mean, come on. Has Gibbs ever slept in the coffin?" Tony then shuddered at the thought and added, "Don't answer that."
Abby continued typing as she replied, "The only thing that McGee and I share right now is an intense hatred for that dirtbag upstairs. Has anyone interrogated him yet?"
"Nope. Boss and Ziva went to go pick up the supposed suspect that the secret seller sold the secrets to, supposedly. Wow, that was unbelievably difficult to say." Tony noted, after his battle with alliteration. "They're waiting on interrogation until they get some more evidence."
"Which, I'm supposed to be providing them with. Rinnert's computer is harder to crack than I thought it would be. I could really use McGee's help. Of course, I wouldn't need it if that jerk hadn't tricked me into leaving my lab." Abby vented.
"Well, he didn't have a choice. It's not like he was going to let you watch him destroy evidence."
Tony missed Abby's eyes growing large at his statement, and continued.
"I mean he's dumb, but he's not that"
Abby's hands framing his face forced him to stop speaking. He knew she had to have stumbled upon something, and by the look in her eyes, it was something big.
"Tony that's it! You're a genius!" she exclaimed. She immediately turned around and headed for the recording device that produced a live feed to Autopsy. She hit a switch and saw the feed of the room appear. Palmer appeared to be immersed in lab reports as he sat at the desk.
"Palmer!" Abby screamed, causing the young man to practically jump out of his skin.
"Oh, hey Abby. Wh..what's up?" he asked, trying to conceal the fact that he had just nearly wet himself.
"Tell me you haven't turned off the computer or the video feed today," she asked. If this worked, it would solve everyone's problems.
"No, looks like it's been on all day. Camera's been on stand by though." He replied.
"That's fine. I'm coming. I'll be right there. Whatever you do Jimmy do not turn them off." She ordered.
"You got it," he replied even though, she had disappeared off the monitor.
Abby raced to a drawer and pulled out an unopened DVD.
"What am I missing?" Tony asked, having been completely confused by the preceding events.
"The camera that produces the live feed to autopsy activates by a motion sensor, but its keeps real time recordings. It records even when the screen isn't turned on and the camera's in stand-by mode. McGee installed a safety program that will record an entire days worth of surveillance onto the hard drive of the computer that accesses it. As long as the computer hasn't been turned off or restarted, the feeds are stored. So, I can go on my computer and see what Ducky was doing at 9:15 this morning." Abby explained, as she hurried to the elevator.
"So, that means that the computer in Autopsy.." Tony, began putting the pieces together.
"Has the recordings of my lab today. Tony, we have video taped proof of Rinnert wiping the evidence!" Abby replied excitedly.
"That's a lucky break. So do all the cameras record everything for daily surveillance?" Tony asked, suddenly slightly nervous that every thing he did could be captured and watched at any given moment.
"No. McGee originally installed the program on the autopsy camera after Ari shot Gibbs. The software wasn't installed on my lab camera until after Chip tried to frame you for murder and kill me."
Tony recalled Chip. He hated Chip.
The elevator ride down one floor to Autopsy took less than a minute, yet Abby couldn't have been more impatient. When the doors finally opened she bounded out and headed straight for the computer.
"Abby, I heard about your injury," Ducky began, as she rushed towards the computer.
"I'm fine Ducky, I promise," she answered as Jimmy bolted out of the chair.
"Who wrapped this for you?" the elder man asked.
"McGee. It's fine. Doesn't even hurt." Abby lied. She was pounding the keys on the computer so hard and fast that it felt as if bowling balls were being dropped one after the other on each of her knuckles.
"Yes, well, I don't believe that for a second. But I will refrain, if you agree to let me look at it before you leave this evening."
"Deal. Now let's see what Fred was up to in my lab." Abby said as a video player popped up on the screen. "As if we didn't already know," she added.
Tony's words replayed over and over in his head. He knew that his outburst had only given DiNozzo more fuel to add to the fire at a later time, but McGee couldn't help thinking that Tony was right. Seeing her interact with Rinnert earlier in the day had made him sick to his stomach. It was the oddest game of cat and mouse that he and Abby had played. She could never appropriately communicate her feelings, except to say that she loved him the way that she loved puppies. She had gotten jealous when he had been dating that cheerleader and he had been jealous when he found out about the forensic botanist she had been seeing. Their friendship and working relationship had never once been tested by their respective love lives, yet McGee had to wonder if this insatiable desire to throw Rinnert to the wolves had more to do with the fact that he wanted Abby.
He thought of the way she had looked at him when he assured her that everything would be all right. It was as if she could see right through him and understand ever fiber of his being better than he could. He knew that his promise to personally get Rinnert had to do with his own insecurities, something that Abby had accused him of having in the past. It was almost funny, McGee thought to himself. He was a federal agent who had taken down some of the most detrimental deviants that society had to offer. He was a computer genius that could hack into anything, including the CIA. He was a best selling novelist that enjoyed royalty checks of massive amounts delivered to him monthly and had tons of adoring fans. And yet, the one thing that he had never been was the one thing he longed for more than anything. It was the one thing he would trade anything in the world for, even his own life. Timothy McGee, federal agent, best-selling novelist and computer genius extraordinaire simply wanted to be her hero.
"Did you finish tracing the money, McGee?" the Colonel asked, as she entered the bullpen. McGee didn't respond, and instead looked blankly at his computer screen. "McGee?" she repeated, and he snapped out of the daze.
"I'm sorry Colonel, what'd you say?" he asked.
"If you had finished the back trace on those bank accounts." She replied.
"Uh, no ma'am. My program is still running. There's a lot that Ghadrane wanted to keep hidden, it seems."
"Is he the only one, McGee?" the Colonel questioned, probing deeper into McGee's personal life. When he didn't answer, she continued. "I saw the way you looked at her McGee. It's pretty clear that,"
The Colonel was interrupted as the Goth forensic scientist bounded full speed ahead into the squadroom.
"We've got him!" she squealed excitedly. "He is going down for everything, and there is no way that he can get away with it now. And he is definitely not getting a deal either."
"Abby, slow down," McGee said, standing. "What are you talking about?"
Abby held up the DVD. "The live feed from my lab to Autopsy. Remember that little precautionary program you installed?"
McGee's eyes widened. How could he have possibly forgotten it?
"It was on the Autopsy computer?" he asked, still shocked.
"Yes, it was. And it worked like a charm." Abby smiled. McGee allowed himself to revel in her beauty for a fraction of a second. She was so cute when she smiled.
"Would someone mind cluing me in?" Colonel Mann asked, ripping McGee from his thoughts.
"The camera in Abby's lab records all day onto a computer in Autopsy." McGee began.
"And the camera in Autopsy records all day onto a computer in my lab," Abby added.
"It was on when Rinnert was alone in the lab," McGee added excitedly.
The Colonel still didn't understand why the two were so excited. "So the most we've got him with is tampering with evidence in a federal investigation."
Tony chimed in. "Actually, it appears Freddy is one of those people that talks to himself. I hate people who talk to themselves. He made a few choice comments, some about Abby, couple about McGeek but most importantly,"
Abby interrupted, "He admitted to murdering Captain Reynolds!"
McGee had popped the DVD into his computer and pulled it up on the plasma. They watched, as Rinnert skillfully erased the hard drive of the Abby's computer first and then moved onto the laptop, all the while talking to himself. The admission came only moments before Abby had returned.
"Agent McGee," said Colonel Mann. "We've been awfully rude to our guest, letting him sit in that interrogation room for hours. Perhaps we should pay him a visit, and maybe let him watch a movie."
Twenty minutes later, as Director Shephard was walking down the stairs, Gibbs and Ziva entered the squad room.
"You're back. Where is he?" she asked, having already been briefed by Colonel Mann before she and McGee had gone to question Rinnert.
"FBI picked him up at Dulles, handed him over to the DIA." Gibbs stated.
"Where is everyone?" Ziva questioned.
"Interrogation. The camera in Abby's lab recorded Rinnert destroying evidence and talking to himself about murdering Captain Reynolds." The Director explained. "Clearly, he's not the smartest man." She added.
It was at that exact moment that the sound of a gun shot ripped through the building, followed by a scream, and seconds later a second gunshot.
It hadn't been the sound of the gunshot that had made Gibbs run as fast as he did, weapon drawn and loaded. It was the scream. It had been Abby's.