The next day, Tim bumped into Abby as he entered the building. He took one glance at her face and knew he was going to get an earful as soon as they were in the elevator.
"She's blond!" Abby exclaimed the second the doors shut. "And perky! She can't be Amy! Amy's not perky! Tim, you have to make her stop!"
"I don't have any control over casting," Tim told her. "Besides, we haven't even seen her acting yet. She might be really good."
Abby shot him an incredulous look.
He cracked a smile. "Okay, so probably not."
"She's blond!" Abby whined, leaning against the back of the elevator. "I hope they at least dye her hair. Did you notice how she doesn't walk, she bounces?"
Unfortunately, he had. Sabrina Ellwood was definitely not what he'd had in mind when he'd been writing Amy's character. He'd imagined Abby, of course, or at least someone who seemed more like Abby. He'd already planned on asking Chloe about it if he got a chance, but she didn't have any more power than he did.
When they reached the bullpen, Abby sighed. "I suppose I have to go be nice to her. Ugh! I'm going to kill Gibbs for promising them I'd help."
Tim paused before getting out. "Aren't you on the wrong floor?"
"No." Abby crossed her arms and looked mutinous. "Gibbs left me a message that I should come up here as soon as I get in. If he thinks he's going to foist that overgrown cheerleader on me again he's got another thing coming..."
"Weren't you a cheerleader?"
Abby turned dangerously narrow eyes on him. "This is not the time, Timothy."
Tim tried not to smile as they exited the elevator. He and Abby headed right and froze.
The scene in the bullpen was not what either of them was expecting. Ziva appeared to be comforting a crying Maddy Hesse and Evan was ranting at Tony, gesturing wildly while Chloe sat quietly in a chair behind him. There was no sign of the rest of the cast.
"What's going on?" Tim asked Ziva as they approached.
Maddy wiped her eyes. "When I left the hotel this morning there was a box in front of my door, addressed to me. When I opened it there was a note." She took a deep breath. "And something bloody inside."
"Abby!" Gibbs shouted across the bullpen. She hurried over to him while Tim was still standing dumbfounded in front of Ms. Hesse.
Gibbs held up a thin evidence bag. "Get this and the evidence downstairs processed ASAP. I need to know what we're dealing with here."
While that was happening. Ziva managed to get Maddy to take her seat and she walked up to Tim. "There was some kind of organ in the box," she said, speaking low enough so Maddy couldn't hear. "Ducky doesn't think it's human, but between that and the note, she's pretty shook up."
"What did the note say?" Tim asked.
Ziva pointed to the plasma screen, where a scan was displayed.
Tim took a few steps closer so he could see it clearly.
Go home, or else.
"Or else what?" Tim asked the room, feeling confused. That was it? That was the threatening note? It was kind of vague.
"That's what I'd like to know," Evan said loudly, turning towards Tim. "I don't have time for this crap. I'm supposed to be making a movie, not coddling actresses."
That last part was obviously aimed at Maddy, who amazingly enough did not react. She simply lifted her chin and stood firm, not allowing Evan to agitate her further.
"I'll keep that in mind the next time someone sends you a threatening letter," Ziva said dryly, her eyes narrowing with disgust.
Maddy took a deep breath. "I can get to work any time you're ready," she told Evan.
"Don't be ridiculous," Chloe interjected. "There are plenty of scenes we can shoot today without you, right?" She looked pointed at Evan.
Tim exchanged a look with Ziva. He was surprised at the authoritative way Chloe was speaking.
It must have shown on his face, because Evan looked over at him and laughed. "This is what happens when you hire your favorite niece, huh?" He rolled his eyes. "She orders you around."
Chloe raised her eyebrows.
"Fine!" Evan threw up his hands. "We'll shoot with Chris and Paul this afternoon."
"What about Adam?" Maddy asked.
"Adam?" Tony asked, perking up.
Evan turned back towards him. "Adam Adler, he's playing L.J. Tibbs."
Tim cringed a little. What had he been thinking when he'd created that name? It was a miracle Gibbs hadn't killed him.
"He's kind of a hermit," Evan explained. "You probably won't see him much. I practically had to sedate him just to fly out here."
Tony had a gleeful look on his face. "A hermit? Does he have a basement? Has he ever expressed an interest in building boats?"
"I don't know." Evan frowned. "But he hates the water. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing," Tony murmured, avoiding eye contact with Gibbs.
"Take Tony with you," Gibbs said, standing up. "The rest of us will try and nip the bud on our gruesome gift giver."
Tony shot up. "Thank you boss!"
Ziva smiled at Maddy. "We will get to the bottom of this."
"Thank you so much." Maddy smiled back. "I'm not usually so wussy, I guess because I haven't eaten meat in seven years I've gotten more sensitive than I remember."
"That would have scared anyone," Chloe reassured her. "It was gross and freaky."
"Come on, Chloe," Evan grumbled. "Time is money and we're shooting a movie."
"Fine." She rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever you say, Uncle Evan."
Gibbs sent Tim and Ziva to interview Maddy in the conference room where they learned very little information, and even less useful information. By the time she took a cab back to her hotel, all they really knew was that she took her career very seriously, had no enemies, and on top of being a vegan she couldn't digest gluten.
"Is it wrong to want a nice, rare steak for lunch?" Tim asked when Maddy was safe in her cab.
Ziva laughed. "If it is, than I am also guilty. I do not think I could handle that many restrictions."
"Being Jewish, don't you have a certain amount of dietary restrictions?" Tim asked, genuinely curious.
"Only if you follow them all." Ziva winked at him as she passed towards the door.
After lunch, Gibbs paused on his way through the bullpen next to Tim's desk. "Why don't you go downstairs and see if Abby's found anything yet."
Tim looked up at him in surprise. Gibbs rarely sent anyone else to check on Abby. Not unless he was too busy with something else.
Gibbs cracked one of his rare smiles. "Vance approved Sabrina spending the day with Abby to observe."
Oh. That explained a lot.
"Have fun in the lions den," Gibbs called after him.
Predictably, Abby was waiting by the door to the lab, arms crossed, tapping the toe of one of her gigantic black leather boots.
Tim held his hands up in surrender. "I come in peace."
"If Gibbs thinks I'm going to forget about this, he is sorely mistaken." Abby narrowed her eyes.
"Is she really that bad?" Tim regretted the words the second they came out of his mouth, but luckily Abby didn't have a violent reaction to his query.
She glanced behind her. Sabrina was sitting in her office looking at something on her computer with one leg bouncing to the beat of the music. "Well, she hasn't complained about my music. Yet." Abby was quick to clarify.
Tim gave her a small smile. "So not horrible?"
"I admit nothing." Abby whirled around and headed over to the computer. "No prints on the letter or the box." She leaned closer to him to whisper the second part. "I've been making up random tests for the past half hour."
Tim was disappointed. "Nothing?" He'd really hoped that this would be something simple they could get wrapped up by the end of the day.
She shrugged. "Not so much as an eyelash for me to test."
"Damn," he muttered under his breath. "What about the... whatever it was in the box?"
"Both Ducky's examination and my tests show that it was a cow liver. Big and gross looking, but available in most butcher shops."
Tim nodded. "I guess I'll be calling around to find out if anyone sold a cow liver yesterday."
"Have fun." Abby made a face. "One of the other teams had better bring me something bloody this afternoon to drive her away or I might snap."
"Hey Abby?" Sabrina called from the office. "You don't have any Taylor Swift on here, do you?"
Tim let out an involuntary chuckle. "I'd better get upstairs before Gibbs needs me to... do something."
"Jerk!" Abby called after him.
Tim hung up the phone and let out a sigh.
Ziva looked up from her work. "Nothing?"
"The opposite." Tim took a deep breath, staring down at the notes he made during his phone calls. "There are more than 24 butcher shops in the DC area alone, and nineteen of those sold beef livers within the past 48 hours."
"That is a lot of liver." Ziva raised her eyebrows.
Tim sighed again. "Yeah, I know. Apparently in Russia beef liver and tongue is a delicacy. Along with like 100 other countries and ethnicities. I now know more about organ meats than I ever wanted to know."
"There is a dish in Israel that consists of chicken hearts, spleens, and liver grilled with bits of lamb."
Tim wrinkled his nose. "I'm not sure I'm that adventurous."
"That is your loss." Ziva smiled at him. "I have always found it quite delicious."
"Yeah. Well, unless we get a suspect or Ducky can give us a profile of the kind of person who likes to mail organ meats, there's really nothing I can do to narrow things down further." Tim had gotten the names and credit card numbers of those who had paid by credit, and one shop owner promised to hang onto his security camera footage in case it was needed. Everyone he talked to had been nice, but there just wasn't enough to go on.
"Uh oh," Ziva said after a few minutes.
Tim looked up. "What?"
"Tony just emailed me an article on ZMZ." Ziva stared at her computer screen and read aloud, "'Claims have recently been filed against actor Chris Winston by three different women, claiming that he is the father of their children. According to sources Winston, who is currently shooting the action picture Deep Six, is already paying child support on two children from a previous relationship.'"
Tim's eyes widened. That was a lot of potential children. He'd known the actor play McGregor had a reputation for being playboy, but this was not great press. "Yikes," he said.
"It gets worse." Ziva made a face. "One of the women filing for child support is claiming that she was only sixteen when he slept with her. The District Attorney is looking into filing charges of statutory rape."
"I wonder if that's going to impact the movie," Tim mused. That didn't matter in the long run, but statutory rape was a serious, serious charge. This made him nervous. If that article was true, this wasn't exactly the kind of person he wanted people to associate Deep Six with.
Not that he had any choice in the matter, but it didn't make him happy.
Ever since he had helped Chloe with the script, Tim had been thinking about writing again. He missed it. He hadn't realized how much until now. And if they managed to make Deep Six into a successful movie, it would make it a lot easier for him to get published again.
Of course all that hinged on him actually having another book in him, something Tim wasn't so sure of yet. No more Deep Six novels, he'd learned his lesson about basing his characters too much on real people. He'd probably stick to mysteries, since that was he knew the best, but this time he'd need a completely original set of characters.
That scared him. The truth was, Tim could see now how he'd used his friends and workmates as a way to avoid being completely original. He'd grown up so much since then.
"Tim?" Ziva was watching him with a curious expression on her face. "Are you all right?"
Tim nodded. He was more all right than he had been in a long time.