Chapter 3
Tim was checking the news headlines as he did every morning when he saw one for Silver Spring. He pulled it up.
Maryland man declared missing
As he read the article, he noticed that the man had disappeared at a bar not far from his place. It was a little chilling to have that kind of thing happening so close to him.
Jethro seemed to sense his unease and whined at him.
"It's okay, Jethro. Just strange is all. He'd just been laid off. His friends said that he was feeling rather discouraged. I wonder if he committed suicide. It's too bad. I hope he's all right."
Jethro nudged him.
"Right. Right. Time to run. Let's go. Maybe Danica will join us again. I don't know if you care, but I wouldn't mind."
Tim chuckled, closed the browser and got ready to go running. When he got out, Danica wasn't there. Tim was tempted to linger but he chided himself for being ridiculous. Instead, he just headed out. While he was running, he thought he saw Danica, but he didn't pursue her. He continued on his usual route and then back to the apartment.
He got ready and went to work.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"I don't know why you're hiding still, Joey, but I won't stand for it," Danica said.
There was no response. She walked over to him and carefully cut off a lock of hair. It was close, but perhaps not quite close enough. She would try again.
"Oh, Joey. Where are you?" she asked.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"Did you see this, Probie?" Tony asked as Tim walked in.
"See what?"
"Some guy was found dead in a restroom at a gas station in Massachusetts. The girl working the counter found him when another customer wanted to get into the bathroom."
"Wow. Any suspects?"
"Not that ZNN said."
"What killed him?"
"They didn't say."
"Weird. It must be a different method than a gun or a knife."
Tony nodded.
"Why did it make ZNN? I mean, it's too bad, but..."
"Because it's the second one in a few days and they think they're related."
"A serial killer, huh? Did they say why they think the two are related?"
"Nope. Must be keeping that to themselves for now."
Tim sat down and pulled up the news story on his computer. It was worse than the missing man he'd seen this morning. Two men killed within a couple of days of each other...somehow related. He was glad they didn't have to investigate it. The more gory cases still had the power to disturb him sometimes.
"So...how's your new girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend, Tony," Tim said, rolling his eyes. "I told you already. She's just nice."
"And good-looking."
"Yes, and good-looking. Look, just drop it, okay?"
"Come on, Probie! Admit that you're attracted to her!"
"Between you and Ziva, I'll be lucky if I can get one word out without feeling like an idiot."
"What do you mean? Ziva hasn't been teasing you."
"No, she just thinks that I'm so desperate for a girlfriend that I'll dive in too far," Tim said with a grimace.
"Ouch, McGee. She told you that?"
"She tried to be nice about it, but yeah. Basically."
"Well, then, you should go after her and prove Ziva wrong."
"No. No, I'm just going to keep on as I have. If I see any hint that she's actually interested, then, maybe...but I'm not throwing myself at her. That doesn't work so well for me."
"Agent McGee."
Tim looked up and saw Vance.
"Can you come and assist in MTAC again, please?"
"Of course, Director." Tim looked at Tony for a moment and then headed up to work on the cipher some more.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"Where is McGee?" Ziva asked when she got to the bullpen.
"Up in MTAC again. Hey, that wasn't cool to tell the Probie he's too desperate to think clearly about a girl."
"What?"
"You should at least let him fail first."
"I did not say that."
"What did you say?"
"That this woman may not be all she seems. You never know at the beginning."
"Well, it wasn't very nice."
"Usually, if someone seems too good to be true, they are."
"But you're not even letting him decide that for himself."
"I just told him what I thought. I did not force my ideas on him."
Tony shrugged. "Well, I don't blame McGee for being bugged by it. Sure, you could be saving him some grief, but still...it's not nice to imply that he can't hook up with anyone."
"And you do not do the same thing?"
Tony grinned. "Yeah, well, he expects it of me. You're supposed to be his friend. If you say it, then, it's what you really think. When I say it, it's a joke because that's all I ever do."
"I did not want to make him feel bad, but why would it be better to let him blunder into something without a warning?"
"When it comes to trying to pick up girls...unless you know that something is wrong, it's better...because otherwise, you're questioning his manhood!"
"Men are so strange," Ziva said with a grimace.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Tim ended up in MTAC most of the day, and Tony and Ziva were sent out to do some canvassing for an old case of theft that had come up again.
By the time they got back, Gibbs had already sent Tim home. Tony and Ziva were released soon after.
Ziva had been thinking about what Tony had said all day. There was no question that Tim had been upset by what she had said. Perhaps it would be better to apologize. She didn't want to make things worse by having Tim thinking she thought so little of him, even if it hadn't been her intention at all.
She decided to stop by his apartment on her way home in order to apologize for what she'd said the day before.
When she got there, she parked and started in. She saw a beautiful woman coming out at the same time. The woman gave her a friendly smile.
"Hello, do you live here, too?" she asked. "I'm afraid I haven't met everyone yet."
"No. A friend of mine does."
"Oh, really? Who?"
"Tim McGee."
Her smile widened. "Oh, he's such a nice person. He welcomed me as soon as the moving truck started getting unloaded. I'm Danica."
"What brings you to DC?"
There was the merest flicker in her expression, but she remained as friendly as ever.
"I needed to...find myself. It wasn't going to happen where I was."
"What happened? ...if you do not mind my asking?"
"Have you ever just had everything you thought made sense in your life vanish? I'm here looking to find that sense again." She sighed for a moment...and there was that flicker in her expression again.
Ziva wasn't sure what it was, but it put her on edge for some reason.
"Will you succeed?"
"I'm going to try," Danica said. "Actually, I have to go out. It was nice to meet you...?"
"Ziva."
"Ziva. Very nice to meet you."
"I am glad to meet you, too."
Ziva walked inside and up to Tim's apartment. She knocked politely on the door. There was a pause. She heard Tim walk to the door, but there was that pause before he opened it.
"Ziva...what brings you here?"
"May I come in?"
"Of course."
Tim stood aside and Jethro came over to greet her. Ziva smiled and petted him.
"Is there something you need?" Tim asked.
"No. I wanted to apologize for what I said to you yesterday."
"Oh." Tim didn't seem very happy about revisiting that topic. "We don't need to get into that again, Ziva."
"Yes, we do. You are my friend, and I hurt your feelings. I did not want to do that."
"It's all right, Ziva," Tim said, quickly. "Really. It's okay."
"No. I was too quick to judge." Ziva hesitated. "I did see her as I was coming in."
"And?"
"I have a feeling that there is something she is hiding."
"Why?"
"It is hard to explain. Questions I asked her that should be simple to answer she avoided. There is something about her I do not trust...but I will admit that it could be something that she just does not want publicized."
"Ziva..."
Ziva smiled. "I will not tell you what to do, McGee. I promise. I have said all that I will say."
"Are you sure?" Tim asked, but he had a little bit of a twinkle in his eye.
"Yes. Very sure."
"Good."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"So tell me why the FBI is getting called in on this," Fornell asked.
"We've got two dead bodies. Both killed by an overdose of phenobarbital, and both missing a chunk of hair."
"What?"
"Both men were found with a chunk of hair cut from their heads. Both men have about the same coloring. Hair color is slightly different. The men were young, mid-thirties."
"You're suggesting a serial killer."
"Yep."
"And whoever it is has been on the move."
"Exactly."
"South. Any bodies south of New York?"
"Not yet, but we're watching for it."
Fornell nodded. "All right. Get all the information sent to our office in New York. If we find another body, we may get the DC office involved."
"You'll have everything we have by the end of the day."
"Great."
Fornell hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. He hated it when serial killers crawled out of the woodwork. If they were new killers, it was more likely that there would be at least one or two more victims before they could figure out any pattern.
And they already had two dead men to deal with.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Danica came back to her apartment. She was tired out. There had been more of a fight than she had expected. She had been forced to delay the final moment. There was a chance she'd lose out on it, but she was willing to take that chance.
For now, she set her alarm for early in the morning. She needed to get some sleep before getting back into battle.
There was a knock on the door. Startled, Danica hurried over and looked through the peephole. Then, she smiled. It was Melanie. She opened the door.
"Melanie, hello. Do you need something?"
Melanie laughed. "No. I found a couple of socks in the dryer. I was just seeing if they were yours. If not, then, I'll knock on doors as I go up the stairs."
"Let me see."
Melanie held out the socks.
"Oh, they are mine. Thank you!"
"Good. I'm glad I don't need to go all the way up. Have a good night."
"Thank you. You, too."
Danica closed the door. People here were so nice.
If only that were enough.
