"There a reason you're here, Tobias?" Gibbs asked, stopping in front of his desk.
"Can't a guy drop in an' say hello to a friend?" Fornell cocked his head with a telling smirk.
Gibbs raised a brow, "Yeah. But that's not why you're here."
"Well," Fornell stood, "It's not the only reason. Ms. Scuito ran a DNA sample through the system and got a hit on someone we've been looking for. I wanna know where you got the DNA."
"You're lookin' for Shaun Cullen?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"We've been looking for him for six months, Jethro. Tell me this ain't the guy you think took DiNutso..."
"Found the DNA in DiNozzo's car. We think Cullen's brother could be working with him. Again, I'll ask, why is the FBI looking for Shaun Cullen?"
Tobias looked around the bullpen at McGee and Ziva before looking to Gibbs again. "Your office, Jethro?"
Impatiently, Gibbs rolled his neck and headed out of the bullpen. "McGee!"
"Y-yes, Boss?"
"Warrant!"
"Right, Boss. Sorry, Boss..."
Gibbs and Fornell entered the elevator and Gibbs hit the emergency switch once the doors closed. "Tell me everything you know, Tobias," Gibbs glared.
Fornell took a breath and appraised the worn look on his friend's face. "It's not good," he told him. "And if he's workin' with his brother, that's news to us. We interviewed Michael four months ago. At the time, we were searching for Shaun for a murder in Berkley. Found skin under the fingernails of the victim, belonging to him. But other than that, we had no leads. Not two weeks after we talked to Michael, we found another body. We're pretty sure Shaun is the same killer."
"Killed the same way?"
"No, actually. That's what threw us off at first. Both vics were found dumped on the side of the road, but they had no similarities or connections. And they were killed in different ways. First vic was female, early 30's. Blonde hair, brown eyes. She was beaten over a period of two weeks before she bled to death internally." Gibbs swallowed and waited for him to continue. "Victim number two; male, Asian, late 30's. He didn't even live in the area we found him, which was Norfolk, by the way. He'd been held for, what our pathologist says, according to the wounds and degeneration of internal organs before death, over two months. He was subjected to being drugged the entire time, sodomized as well as beaten, and purposefully exsanguinated."
"How the hell did you make a connection?" Gibbs' voice seemed hoarse now.
"We later found out there was a box sent for each victim to someone close to them," he said.
Gibbs' eyes widened. "Blood, hair and urine samples..."
"Yeah," he narrowed his eyes. "Shit, Gibbs, did you get one for-"
"Yeah, we did. There were no prints...nothin'."
"Never leaves a damn thing," Tobias said. "It's why it's been so damn hard to find him. That, and the guy's been off the radar for over ten years. His brother hadn't even seen him; volunteered for a polygraph and everything."
"Doesn't mean he hasn't seen him since," Gibbs said, flicking the switch back on and hitting the button to open the doors. "When did you find the second body?"
"Little over six weeks ago, Jethro," he told him as the walked out and toward the elevator. Gibbs paused in his steps and looked at him. "I'm sorry."
So that was that...this was their man. "I want everything you have from the autopsy findings sent to Ducky," he told him as they continued to the bullpen. "We work together on this, Tobias. Don't care about credit; just want my agent found."
"Wasn't about to try an' fight you for it," Fornell replied. "I'll make a call and get the files sent," he walked over to the window as he pulled out his phone.
"Gibbs?" Ziva anxiously approached him as he went to his desk. "What is going on? Why is the FBI looking for Cullen?"
Gibbs looked up at her once he sat down, and she was slightly taken aback at the momentary, unfamiliar flash of despair on his face. He masked it immediately, allowing determination to take over instead. "Cullen has killed at least two people in the past six months."
Ziva raised her brows, "A serial killer?"
"Fornell is having the autopsy findings sent to Duck. I want the victims' names run through every database we have access to. I wanna know where they lived over the past decade; where they shopped; who their friends were. I wanna know what they ate for breakfast every morning for the past year!" he shouted and looked around the bullpen. "Where's McGee?"
"He is getting the warrant," she reminded him. "I will start looking, Gibbs. I just need the names," he voice was firm but quiet, and Gibbs appraised her for a moment.
"Files are being sent now," Fornell walked back into the bullpen as he put his phone in his pocket.
Gibbs looked past Ziva at the agent, "Give Ziva the names of the vics," he told him, then looked up toward Vance's office. "I'll be right back," he said as he stormed out of the bullpen and around to the stairs. Ziva and Tobias watched as he took the stairs two at a time all the way up.
"Agent Gibbs-" the secretary tried, only halfheartedly, to stop him from advancing into the director's office, but knew there would really be no point.
Gibbs entered the office as Vance was in the middle of arguing against McGee's request for a warrant. "I thought I told you to drop this, Agent Gibbs," Vance said, ignoring the fact that the agent had waltzed in without announcement.
"We have new evidence," Gibbs said as he approached the desk to stand beside Tim.
"A hair from a Shaun Cullen, yes, I heard. Doesn't give probable cause to search his brother's home."
"It does when his brother has a connection to DiNozzo, and our only other lead is that the kidnapper had access to a specific type of square nail that only he has ordered in the past three months, of all private and public contractors in the area."
"I'm still not hearing enough to get you a warrant," Vance narrowed his eyes.
"How about the fact that we're workin' with Fornell on this?" Gibbs retorted.
Vance straightened and raised his brows. "Fornell is workin' DiNozzo's case now?"
"He's workin' Shaun Cullen's case, Leon. Michael is our only connection to Shaun, and he has to be involved somehow. You get me that warrant, Director, or I'll give you my badge and gun and do it myself." Gibbs' words caused Tim to glance over at him in a bit of surprise.
But then he looked back at Vance, "That goes for me, too," he told him. If Vance hadn't been obviously surprised by Gibbs' threat, he sure as hell was taken aback by McGee's.
"McGee..." Gibbs looked over at him.
"No, Boss," he retorted. "Tony is my friend, and he's a member of our team. We never leave a man behind. I'm sure as hell not gonna start now." Gibbs felt proud of his agent for the second time that day. Tim turned to look at Vance, and took a step closer to the desk, "Director, Tony could be out there, right now, on Michael's property. It's the closest thing we've got; the only thing we've got..."
"What makes either of you think he's still even alive?" Vance asked.
"Shaun Cullen is a serial killer," Gibbs said. Tim backed up a bit and looked over at Gibbs with a furrowed brow. "He takes his victims, tortures them; keeps them for however long they can stay alive. The guy before DiNozzo was held over two months. Cullen dumps the bodies out in the open. If Tony was dead, we'd have found him."
McGee's mind tried to compute what Gibbs had just told Vance. The two older men continued their discussion, but Tim didn't hear. He'd been afraid for Tony's life the entire time the senior field agent had been missing. But somehow this new information seemed to further confirm the morbid possibility and shove any inclinations he'd hoped for, that they'd find him alive and well, out the window.
"McGee?" Tim was pulled abruptly from his thoughts at the sound of Gibbs' voice, and he looked up at him.
"Boss?"
"Ready to go?"
Tim furrowed a brow and looked over at Vance who was now sitting, then back to his boss, before giving a confused nod and following the man out of the office. "Sorry, Boss," he said in a low voice as they exited the secretary's office out onto the landing. "I think I zoned out of the last part of that conversation."
Gibbs stopped and turned to face him, "You okay?" Tim bit down on his bottom lip and, after a moment, he nodded. Gibbs recognized the agent's unwillingness to have answered otherwise. He placed a hand on Tim's shoulder, "Let's go find Tony."
11 00 11 00 11
McGee rode with Ziva, and Fornell rode with Gibbs on the way to the Cullen residence. Gibbs had made a new rule since Tony's disappearance; no riding alone to or from a suspect's home. That was rule 53. Rule 53a was now, 'Always check your trunk'. Neither agent questioned the new rules.
As the cars pulled up the long dirt driveway and came to a stop in front of the house, Gibbs noticed, right away, the work van parked beside it. The four of them exited their vehicles and Gibbs motioned for Ziva and Tobias to go ahead to the door as he and Tim headed toward the van.
"What is it, Boss?" he asked as they reached it.
Gibbs wasn't ready to answer yet. He slipped on a pair of latex gloves, causing Tim to do the same, and reached for the handle to open the back doors and flung them open. The back of the van was closed off from the front with what looked like a sheet of plywood that had been turned into shelving. It looked like the inside of any work van, really. Except for the metal bench on the right side of it.
"Check the toolbox for those nails," he told McGee. "The square ones like the one you an' Abby found in the tire." McGee climbed into the van, opened the box and began to rummage through it as Gibbs concentrated on the area of the out-of-place bench. There was an eye screw bolted into the floorboard. A few metallic shavings, almost like power, around it on the floor. It didn't take longer than a moment to register what it had been used for.
He looked closer at the bench and something caught his eye on the wall behind it. Right where the seat met the wall, a 'X' had been scratched...
33 days ago...
In the darkness, bound with no where to go, Tony knew there was no way out of the confines of the van. With the sharp metal edge of the cuffs that bound his hands behind him, he began to scrape against the wall.
"I'm gonna need your help gettin' outta this one, Boss..."
Present Time...
"This is the van they took him in," Gibbs said aloud.
"I think you're right, Boss," McGee said, holding up several square nails...
*~.~*
Gibbs and McGee ran back to the front of the house. "There is no answer, Gibbs," Ziva informed him.
"Break it down," Gibbs commanded. Fornell gave him a questioning look, but Ziva immediately obeyed, kicking in the door.
"Federal agents!" Ziva loudly announced them as they hurriedly entered the house, weapons aimed in every possible direction.
"Gibbs!" Ziva called from the kitchen. He made his way to her and she motioned with her head toward the center of the room.
There, sitting at the kitchen table with a resigned look on his face, sat the occupant of the house; his head bowed toward the table and his hands folded neatly on its surface.
"Michael Cullen?" Gibbs asked. The man simply lifted his head to look at him. "Where's your brother? We know you've been helping him." Cullen simply pasted a wide, closed mouth grin on his face. "Ziva, McGee; search the rest of the house." They scrambled off to obey as Fornell came to back up Gibbs.
"You won't find my brother in here," Cullen told him. "I've helped him all I can. Now it's done."
"What do you mean?" Fornell asked.
"Michael had always been...a bit off..." the man told them; his gaze drifting off to the side a bit.
"You're Michael," Fornell replied.
The man grinned and looked at him again, "That's what he wanted you to think. What we both...thought we wanted..."
"You're Shaun..." Gibbs surmised.
"Excellent detective work, Agent Gibbs," Shaun said, eerily. "It's too bad it took you so long to figure it out."
"Where's my agent?" he stepped closer, aiming the gun at the man's face.
Shaun didn't so much as flinch. "Whoa there now, Gibbs," he said calmly. "I had nothing to do with your agent."
"You're lying. We found your hair in my agent's trunk," Gibbs said.
Shaun cocked his head, "Do you still not understand, exactly, what I'm saying, Agent Gibbs?"
"Why don't you make me understand!" Gibbs shouted. "I wanna know where the hell you're keeping my agent!"
"Like I said, I don't know. When Michael was charged with distribution, I could only go in and take the fall for him," he explained. "What better way to do that than to pretend I was him. And after the polygraph and the blood tests, they didn't have much choice but to release me. But without his medication, Michael grew paranoid. He insisted that he keep my name and that we both move on; move out. I didn't realize that he'd been... taking certain matters into his own hands. You see," he looked at Fornell, "I hadn't seen my brother in...many years. I've been here a long time. He moved around a bit, apparently. Unfortunately, some people ended up crossing the wrong path at the wrong time. He found me, thinking he might be safe here. But then he saw your agent one morning, downtown...just running down the street," his voice wandered with his attention.
"Where is your brother?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes, losing his patience.
Shaun met his eyes again and grimly smiled, "He's buried out back. You're a few days too late, Gibbs."
"House is clear, Boss," McGee said as he and Ziva returned to his side.
"Ziva, cuff him. McGee, call Ducky."
"Boss?"
"There may be a body out back," Fornell told him. "I'll call my guys to come excavate," he left the room to make the call.
But McGee stood stock-still looking at Gibbs. "Boss...a body?" his voice broke and Gibbs looked over at him.
"Cullen's brother, McGee," he verified, realizing what the agent must have thought. McGee let out a breath and nodded before leaving the room to make the call to Ducky.
"If he is dead," Ziva said after securing Cullen in the cuffs, "Then how will we find Tony?"
Shaun started laughing. Gibbs scowled in his direction and the man slowly stopped himself. "You think your agent is alive?"
"We know he is, or he would've dumped his body like the rest of them to be found," Gibbs said.
Shaun's smile disappeared. His eyes looked down to the table top. "I- I thought he was finished," the man suddenly paled. "I thought Michael was finished...it's been...weeks!"
"It's been over a month!" Gibbs slammed a fist down on the table.
Shaun met his eyes again. "Agent Gibbs, it's been three weeks since he assured me it was done. I was sure of it. I dropped them off and he did the ransom, and when no one responded, he said he would simply kill him and bury him...like the others..." his eyes darted around in front of him. "When he came home three days ago with blood on his clothes, I assumed he'd hurt someone else. I had to stop him..."
"And you didn't bother to call about whoever else he might've hurt?" Gibbs asked, angrily.
"I took care of the problem, Gibbs," he defended, though his resolve was starting to bend and remorse was showing through. "If I'd have called it in, my life would be over just as well."
"Where did you drop them off at?" Gibbs shouted. "Answer me!"
"There's an old...air field hanger..." his voice was shaky as he spoke now. "It's at the end of a five mile trail outside of my property..."
Gibbs looked up at Fornell who'd come back into the room to hear it. "Go on, Jethro. I've got him."
He nodded to him and turned to his team, "Let's go..." They hurried to Gibbs' car and held on for dear life as he barreled down the narrow trail and pulled out his phone, tossing it to McGee, "Call Duck and tell him we might've gotten a location on Tony. Tell him to get a medevac out here; no way an ambulance will fit. And it's an air field, so they can land out there."
McGee dialed Ducky right away and tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead of them in effort not to be sick from the jerking of the car.
Gibbs was vaguely aware of Tim talking into the phone beside him, but his focus was entirely concentrated on the task at hand. When the hanger could be seen in the distance, he stepped even harder on the gas pedal, bringing them to the building all the faster. He barely threw it into park before they were all getting out of the car and rushing into the building.
Flashlights and guns drawn, they flooded in. "There is nothing here..." Ziva said as they looked around the large empty expanse.
"Wait," McGee said as he pulled open a door in the floor. "There's a lower level," he looked up and met Gibbs' eyes. Gibbs walked to him and looked down into the passage, shining the flashlight into it. There was a ladder leading down. He pocketed the light and holstered his gun.
"Shine your light down there," Gibbs told him. "I'll go first." McGee lit up the passageway as Gibbs descended the ladder. Once they all reached the lower level, Gibbs looked up and down the corridor. It wasn't open space like the hanger above them, but what seemed like a long hallway with doors all the way up and down. "You two check starting down on the other end," he ordered. "We'll meet back in the middle. Holler if you find anything."
They nodded in acknowledgment and headed off. Gibbs walked down to the opposite end and kicked open the first door. With his light and gun aimed, he visually swept the room to find nothing. The same was true for the next room.
The third, however, once he'd kick in the door, the familiar smell of death hit him full force. He threw his arm over his nose and mouth and shined the flashlight into the room. The first thing it hit was a generator. He walked up to it and threw on the switch, causing light to fill the room to the extent that it took him a moment to adjust to it.
Straight ahead of him on the far wall, a figure was hanging on the wall; arms held up and out like a crucifixion, but with ropes. It was a man, he could tell, since he was dressed in nothing but some kind of burlap around his waste. He was emaciated to the point that he almost didn't recognize him...almost.
Gibbs was frozen in place, staring at the unmoving form across the room. He stared at his chest, hoping; praying for movement...but nothing came. He felt his own breath shudder from his chest. "Oh god..." came in the form a choked whisper. "Tony, I'm sorry..."
11 00 11 00 11
Tbc...
