CHAPTER FOUR
After Gibbs left the care home he drove around aimlessly trying to put all the pieces in place. Hollis, was married to a man who was paralyzed for the past seven years... and his condition was getting critical now; as the doctor told her. Gibbs has known her only three years, but she sure hasn't acted like a married woman. Maybe after all these years she decided to lead her own life… away from the care home. It was obvious she still loved the man; actually she was a woman trying to love a shell of a man. He heads back to the office, after all… he had a killer to catch.
******Ziva grabs her stuff and heads to the locker room to transform herself into Trixie, the dockside waitress at the Rusty Bucket. When 'Trixie' returns to the bullpen, she finds the guys all assembled and waiting for her. Gibbs smiles at the outfit as the other guys make comments about her 'fitting the part'.
"All right, children… can we get to work?" As usual, Gibbs' growled order is quickly obeyed.Ziva, I'm sending you in with DiNozzo outside to cover you. Maybe you can overhear something as the waitress."
"Are there even barmaids in such a place?"
"Yea… not as nice as you, but not bad." DiNozzo's eyebrows raise suggestively at her.
"Thank you. So, it's a Trixie kind of crowd?" Ziva gives him an exaggerated curtsey.
"Absolutely… but you might want to wear the Kevlar panties. I hear those guys are part lobster." DiNozzo gets a head slap as his fingers make pinching motions towards her, and a glare from Gibbs reminds him to keep his mind out of the gutter.
Tony and Ziva arrive in plenty of time to talk to the bar's owner… who insists they have his full cooperation… as long as they don't yank his liquor license. It takes only a call from the owner to convince the bartender that Ziva will be filling in for the other girl tonight. It had happened before so the bartender simply shrugs and says he'll keep an eye on her. Ziva shows up twenty minutes later and introduces herself to the bartender as Trixie Larue. He eyes her appreciatively and tosses an apron her way as he explains that all tips get split with the bartender and not to try and skim any from him because he'll be watching her. Ziva plays her part well and rolls her eyes as she smacks her gum loudly and turns away to begin work. As the sun goes down, the place steadily fills up until there is very little room to maneuver between the tables. True to Tony's word, Ziva finds herself being patted and pinched several times as she carries heavy trays from the bar to the tables.
Outside, Turk has just arrived in the parking lot. The surveillance unit covering the front of the bar don't see him, but he catches sight of them watching the three crew members of the Cyclops as they walk past his car. DiNozzo is across the street watching as Turk suddenly opens his door in the face of Mark Tobin, bringing him up short. Delgado and Skow are right behind him and they also stop short when their path between the vehicles is blocked. Tobin sees the man starting to get out of the car and abruptly shoves the door closed, almost pinning Turk's legs in the door. Turk was ready for him and meets force with force, holding the door from smashing his legs.
"Pull your legs back in or I'll break em' off!""Easy partner… no harm done."
Tobin eases the pressure just enough to allow Turk to pull his legs back, then he slams the door shut and continues on his way. Delgado and Skow both glare at Turk as they go by, but don't say anything. Turk waits until they are past then gets out to call after them, "Sorry, buddy… can I buy you a beer?" They ignore him and continue into the bar. Across the street, DiNozzo shakes his head at the dumb cowboy.
Once inside Turk allows his eyes to adjust to the gloomy lighting. This bar is just like hundreds of others he's been in… cheap nautical decorations adorn the walls, a fishing net is suspended from the ceiling, a juke box blares out songs and the room is filled with long shoremen, fishermen and sailors. He sees one empty booth, which happens to be next to where Skow and his two apes have decided to sit. He can overhear some of the conversation in the next booth.
"We should be ready to off-load after midnight."
"What about the cops?"
Turk smiles as he realizes he's already heard everything he needs to hear from them. Whatever is going to happen it will be on the boat after midnight. He returns his attention to the waitress as she skirts around a table next to him. She has her back to the booths carrying a heavy tray of drinks, but she doesn't move. It doesn't take Skow long to become suspicious of her inactivity. Turk sees it to and intervenes, "Hey, darlin' how about one of them beers?"
"Hold your horses, Tex..."
Ziva pivots with the tray still held aloft on her upturned hand just as Turk stands up beside her. He intentionally bumps her tray, sending the glasses of beer clattering to the floor. The glasses shatter and beer splatters all over Skow and his companions' legs. The crash causes instant silence in the crowded bar as everyone turns to see the commotion. Ziva stares in stunned silence, but Manuel Delgado is instantly out of his seat. He advances on her in a rage. "You clumsy broad! Look what you did! That beer splashed all…!"
"Whoa there, fella'… just calm down. I believe that was my mistake."
Delgado is standing toe to toe with Turk, who stepped in between him and the clumsy waitress. His eyes filled with rage and hatred for the man who has twice inconvenienced him tonight. Turk towers over him by several inches, but Delgado has his fists clenched at his sides. He is just bringing them up to take a swing when Skow gruffly barks out an order to his deck hand.
"Manny! Sit down… now!"
Delgado hesitates a moment, but then wipes the beer from his jeans and slides back in the booth.
Turk backs down, turning back to see Ziva kneeling on the floor, picking up pieces of broken glass. He kneels down to help her as he sets the broken shards on her tray. With no fight to watch, the other patrons quickly return to their conversations and forget about the clumsy barmaid. Ziva's eyes come angrily up to Turk's, but he merely grins. "Hi, darlin', I'm a friend."
She doesn't reply, but Turk winks, letting her know he understands her position here in the bar. They can't talk now and Turk watches as she stands up and hurries back to the bar with the mess on her tray. Turk resumes his seat in the booth to watch her being lectured by the bartender for several minutes. Ziva finally returns with a fresh tray of drinks and slams a mug down harder than necessary to let him know she's mad at him. He tosses a five dollar bill onto her tray and smiles sweetly as he tells her to keep the change. She hurries away to continue delivering drinks.
Later, Ziva is beginning to lose her patience, both with her inability to overhear anything from Skow and the rude patrons who keep pinching her. She has only managed to hear bits of the conversation and discovered that something is happening tonight. She is trying to make her way over close again when she sees Delgado finish off the last of his beer and make his way through the crowd towards the front door. Turk also stands up, but heads towards the back hallway and the restrooms. Ziva watches him go right past them and out the back door, realizing he intends to tail Delgado. What she doesn't know is that Turk has a much more direct method in mind. Once outside he hurries around to the front in time to intercept the angry Mexican; blocking his path once again.
Delgado hesitates only a moment before he advances on Turk, intent on finishing what he started inside. Turk lets him get close as Delgado draws one fist back, but he never gets the chance. With lightening fast jabs, Turk quickly has Delgado lying on the pavement, stunned and bleeding from the nose. Turk steps up to place his foot in the middle of his chest. He presses down hard enough to hold him in place as he bends down to growl at the smaller man. "All right, maggot… let's have a talk…"
******Ziva waits until Skow and Tobin have also left the bar before she takes a break to call Gibbs to let him know what little she was able to overhear. The bartender comes around the end of the bar to grab her arm. "Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Home, pal… I've had enough of these bottom feeders."
"I got news for you, honey… the night ain't over yet. You got two more hours to work and you ain't gonna short me on my tips."
"Here… you can have it all. I'm out of here."
She pushes her apron into his hands and heads for the door without a look back. The bartender quickly searches the pocket to find almost one hundred dollars in tip money for these last four hours. He is shocked to see so much money, but he's even more stunned that she gave it all to him. He starts to call after her, but when he looks up Ziva is gone.
Outside, Ziva weaves her way through the other cars. She stops several feet away from her car, staring in disbelief at the man, Turk Daniels, who appears to be napping in her car. She sighs heavily, wondering again who this annoying man is and what connection he had to their investigation. She unlocks her door and slides in behind the wheel. Turk casually sits up, eyeing her with a slight smile as Ziva scolds him. "It was locked."
"Your spare… under the left front fender? You really should hide it better than that." She snatches the key from him and drops it into her purse and then takes a moment to put her own key in the ignition. Turk watches her with a smile until she lets out a long, slow breath and finally looks over at him with a slight smirk.
"And just who are you, Mr. Texas Ranger?""I'm not a Texas Ranger... anymore. Name's Turk Daniels."
"Yea, well, you're a long way from Texas."
Turk has turned in his seat to face her and now casually runs his arm along the back of her seat. Leaning closer his fingers slip under her hair to caress her neck. Ziva quickly grabs his hand, twisting it into a painful hold as she puts him in his place.
"You move one muscle and I will cripple your hand, is that understood?" Turk winces in pain and nods his head, "Now why are you here?"
"Thought you might need some intel on what's going on with that bottom feeder, Skow." Ziva reluctantly allows his hand to relax and he eases back in his seat. Obviously this was not a woman to be flirted with. "You are interested in John Skow, right?"
"I saw your partner there... across the street coming off Skow's boat yesterday. Now, I find you here, obviously working undercover in this dive. Even for an old country boy like me, it's not hard to figure out. I got some info that can help ya'll out."
Ziva relaxes and reluctantly smiles at him as she starts her car, "I love your Texas drawl."
"Well, I aim to please, but don't forget I spent some time playing cop too. You don't have to tell me what's up, but I want Skow out of business as much as you do, all right?"
Their eyes meet for a long moment. Ziva doesn't want to give details of their investigation, but she agrees to listen to Turk laying out his involvement. When he is done she nods her agreement to pass on the information to Gibbs. Before she can stop him, he pats her cheek, grinning as he gets out of her car.
******With the new information quickly relayed to him by Ziva, Gibbs and Tony are able to scramble the Coast Guard to assist. What she didn't tell him was where that information came from. With the Coast Guard cutter waiting out of sight, Gibbs and Tony watch as Skow returns to the Cyclops and quickly puts out to sea. He appears to be in a hurry and Tony casually comments on the flurry of activity. "Where do you think he's headed at this time of night... all alone?"
"I don't know, but I'll bet it ain't fishing."
The Coast Guard cutter silently moves out of the harbor, still in virtual darkness and staying as close to the shore as their sonar will allow. They track the Cyclops on radar for about an hour, following it down the coast until it comes to a stop about a mile off shore. The cutter continues to hug the shoreline as it keeps pace with the fishing boat. Captain Matt Clark, Gibbs and DiNozzo all stand around the radar monitor, watching the green arm swing around in circles.
"No idea what he's up to?""Nope. Our undercover person only overheard a part of the conversation about this rendezvous, offloading something and the time."
"Well, he's got company… and they're coming in fast."
The screen that had been monitoring one stationary blip now indicates a fast moving, smaller blip headed straight for the first. They watch for a moment and then the Captain turns to Gibbs.
"It's your show. You call the shots, Agent Gibbs."
"He's got radar too. How close can we get before they see us?"
"We're in tight enough to the shoreline and we've got radar jamming capabilities. Unless he's got the night vision, he won't know we're here. If he gets preoccupied with the other boat, we could get right up on them before we light them up."
"All right… let's go."
The Captain turns to his helmsman and gives him a nod, having full confidence in his team to carry out the mission. Suddenly the engines roar to life and then settle down to a low hum, as he pushes the throttle up slowly. The sleek cutter moves forth in the water; causing Tony to grab the edge of the radar console to keep from losing his balance. Gibbs and the Captain just grin and return their attention to the radar.
On the Cyclops, Skow was too busy with the new arrival to keep an eye on the radar screen. He is waiting in the gunwale as the smaller, high powered speed boat slows down and comes drifting in close beside him. Tobin puts the speed boat in neutral and then rushes out to toss a rope up to Skow. "Everything went smooth." He reaches down for a small suitcase that had been stowed behind the seat. Holding it up for Skow to take, but Skow just frowns scanning the smaller boat.
"Where's Delgado?""He didn't show."
"Didn't show! Who handled the other…?" Before he can finish his question he gets his answer as they are suddenly illuminated by the powerful spotlight on the Coast Guard cutter. A loud PA system blares out through the still night.
"This is the US Coast Guard… cut your engines and prepare to be boarded!"
Both men stand dumbfounded for a moment and then Skow reacts as if suddenly struck by lightning. His mind quickly puts the pieces together as he flings the rope back at Tobin.
"Damn, that Mexican! Shove off! Get out of here!"Tobin throws the suitcase up to Skow and dives for the controls as he shoves the throttle up into high gear. As the two boats part, the cutter's spotlight quickly scans from one to the other. Gibbs curses under his breath and points after the speed boat as Captain Clark gives the order to pursue the smaller speed boat. The huge engines roar to life as they take off after the fleeing boat, leaving the lumbering fishing vessel behind them.
Captain Clark shakes his head, "We're going wide open and he's pulling away from us with ease… if he gets close to the shore we'll lose him on the radar." They continue the chase until the faster speed boat finally disappears from the screen.
Gibbs can barely contain his frustration as he curses and slams his fist down on the radar console. They throttle down and make a wide arcing turn back towards home, intent on catching up to the fishing boat if they can locate it again. Unknown to them, the speed boat is closer than they realize. In total darkness Tobin now watches the cutter from behind a rocky cove entrance. He grins to himself and reaches down to open the flood valve. As the boat begins to sink, Tobin calmly dives overboard and swims to shore.
******The next morning things are very tense in the NCIS office. Gibbs is in a bad mood after coming up empty handed on last night's raid of Skow's boat. They had located it almost back to port and the cutter ordered it to proceed there under their watchful eye. Once the Cyclops had docked in her usual spot the Coast Guard, along with DiNozzo and McGee had boarded her to interrogate Captain John Skow. Much to their surprise he gave them permission to search his boat… which they did with extreme thoroughness.
Now, sitting in the bullpen, Gibbs gulps down his third cup of coffee as he sits with the phone to one ear, listening impatiently. Hollis hadn't accompanied them on the raid last night, but heard from SecNav that the operation hadn't turned out well. She heads directly towards Gibbs, curious as to why he didn't call her last night after they'd gotten back. She waits as he ends his call, "Okay, just let me know if you turn up anything else." He turns his attention to her as she sips her own coffee.
"I heard on the way in."
"That was the Coast Guard. They just recovered the speed boat we chased. Found it scuttled just off the coast in about fifteen feet of water."
"Anything on the owner?"
"The boat was reported stolen from National Harbor yesterday."
"And Skow?"
"We boarded his boat… he gave us consent to search… and we found a suitcase with sixty thousand dollars in it."
"Fishing that good?"
"No, I'm sure he just pulled his boat up to a drive-in bank. Holly, this guy is cool… I mean, met with the speed boat… we saw them side by side out in the middle of nowhere. He claims he was pulling lobster traps when this guy just comes along side him and asks to buy some fresh lobsters."
"What'd he say about the money? The guy on the speed boat give it to him?"
"He claims he sold the whole catch to the guy."
"You know anyone who meets a fisherman out at sea, at midnight to buy sixty thousand
dollars worth of lobster?" There is a silence as they both take long sips of their coffee.
Holly comes to sit in a chair opposite him. Just then, Ziva comes to join them, having been
requested to relay the information she got the night before in detail. "You wanted me to tell you,
about the information I received last night?"
Gibbs is tired and upset. He sighs heavily and runs his fingers through his hair. "Let's go over what you heard, word by word, from last night."
It is now Ziva's turn to look nervous as she shrugs her shoulders and reluctantly admits what she skipped last night. "I didn't actually overhear anything worthwhile in the bar, Gibbs."
"Then how…?"
"I ran into… aahh… this guy, a Texas private investigator, Turk Daniels, in the bar. He met me outside."
"Turk Daniels! Who the hell is that?"
"Apparently he is in town on a case… our case."
Gibbs feels the anger welling up inside him at this new complication. He turns his glare from Ziva to Holly now, wondering who this cowboy was and what his involvement was in their case.
Holly seemed surprised... but not upset. "Did you know about this?"
"Gibbs! No... I would have told you!"
"Come on… lets go." Hollis jumps up to follow, not knowing where they're going, but she
doesn't dare ask. She hurries after him as he strides towards the elevator, worried at Gibbs'
apparent anger at her.
It doesn't take her long to realize they are heading to the hotel where they have Jack Cahill stashed. He is still under protective custody and when they arrive two of their agents, Jake Barnes and Phil Harris, are involved in a game of cards. Cahill doesn't look much better today, still shaking and moaning on the bed as he cramps up from the withdrawals. Jake Barnes, not picking up on Gibbs' bad mood, closes the door after letting them in and jokingly comments,
"Am I glad to see you two… he's into me for my next paycheck.""So, what's shakin' boss? Any word on Skow or his troops?"
"Do I pay you to sit around playing cards? God Damn it! This whole operation is one big
screw up!"
Hollis stops in her tracks, not liking the anger in his voice as he once again glares at her across the room. The two agents realize something is amiss and jump up to sweep the cards from the table in an attempt to hide the obvious evidence. "AgentGibbs, I'm sorry..."
He turns his back on them and sighs in frustration as he stares down at Cahill. Turning back to the two men suddenly, Gibbs demands, "Either of you know how to sail a boat!" Jake and Phil both shake their heads, unsure if that is the right answer or not. "Great! We've arranged to use a charter fishing boat seized by customs and this guy can't even stand on his own two feet! Now I don't have a captain... so who's gonna act as bait for those guys?"
"You're a sailor, aren't you, boss? I mean... you build boats and stuff, right?"
Hollis is stunned by Jake's suggestion and recalls their last conversation about why Gibbs didn't want to go sailing with her. She watches him carefully and manages to hide her surprise as Gibbs finally puts his hands on his hips and sighs heavily, "Yes, Jake... I do. I guess I'm the bait for Skow's boys... considering I'm the only one they haven't been in contact with yet."
