10

Parallel Lines

A/N: Sorry for the long wait between chapters. It's been busy. Now that summer is here, I'll try to be better. Thanks to sailorjp who has been betaing this story!

o…o…o…o…o

Chapter 5

Scene: FBI Bullpen

"Any word from Bobby or Sue?" inquired Jack as he hung up his jacket.

"Just a quick phone call," replied Tara. "Bobby and Sue are going on interviews with the men in the photograph."

"With the NCIS agents?"

"Yup. They said they'll report back as soon as they get some information."

"Better them than us."

"Is anyone else astonished at the fact that we have entered into an unholy alliance with NCIS?" commented Myles as he leaned forward on his desk. "Particularly since it's with the inscrutable Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his team?"

"Well, I didn't think that Tony was so inscrutable," commented Lucy. "I think he likes Sue."

"I didn't mean his team is inscrutable," responded Myles in a long-suffering voice, "I meant Gibbs…Gibbs is inscrutable. He has quite the reputation."

"When you have the kind of success he's experienced in solving cases," remarked Jack, "you're allowed to have some quirks."

"Is that what we're calling it now?"

Tara sat up. "Quirks? Gibbs has quirks? I thought he was the original strong and silent super-agent!"

"Did you know his hobby is building boats in his basement?" Myles asked rhetorically.

"Like models?"

"No, real boats."

"All by hand," chipped in Jack.

"In the basement?"

"Uh-huh."

"How-," asked a puzzled Tara.

"Don't ask. No one knows."

"How did you know what Tara was going to say?" Lucy demanded.

"Because, my dear Lucy," Myles intoned, "everyone asks the same question—how the hell does he get that boat out of his basement?"

Lucy looked at them perplexed. "How do you guys get your information? I don't know some of this stuff you're sharing and I consider myself in the loop," she said in an aggrieved voice.

"We're the FBI," Jack stated matter-of-factly. "We're trained to find out information."

The attractive Rotor just rolled her eyes.

"And did we find out any more information?" asked D bringing the team back to the assignment.

"I did a preliminary check of the members of Grant Phillips' unit as Jack suggested," piped up Tara. "They were very fortunate not to have suffered as many casualties as some of other units. When Phillips and his unit returned after this last deployment, ten members were eligible for discharge. Eight opted to leave, two re-enlisted."

She pressed a remote to flash the pictures of the men on the screen.

"We know five of them already," she continued. "Of the other three, one is living in Pennsylvania, another in Texas and the third is in Illinois."

"So those three are out of the picture," said Myles.

"Maybe not," Jack rebutted. "At this point, we don't know how widespread this operation is. It could be the men in the other states are lying low waiting to sell their share of the stolen artifacts when the time is right."

"Good point," stated D. "So, what we need now is a more thorough background check on all of these men noting any unusual activity of any kind."

"Shall I include the two re-enlistees?" asked Lucy. "Are they considered suspects?"

"Why not?" Tara tossed in. "After all, it's entirely possible they re-upped so they could go back for more of the artifacts…although I would think there are less hazardous ways of making money."

"Less hazardous but perhaps not as lucrative," Myles responded.

"Possible," admitted Jack, "but not the most likely scenario. But again, we can't afford to discount any possible leads at this point."

"All right, Jack…you and Tara interview the people located in Virginia, while Myles and I investigate the other two," said D as he divvied up the assignments. "Lucy will keep the home fires burning while she does the background checks." He looked around. "Everybody clear? Then, let's go."

o…o…o…o…o

Scene: Delgado Home

"Man, that's terrible news," the shocked former Marine responded. "Grant dead? It's like some bad dream." He looked at the federal agents. "You know, we served two tours in Iraq and Grant came through just fine. Then we come home and he gets killed? How ironic is that?" He shook his head.

"Do you know of anyone who would want to kill him?" asked Sue.

"No, ma'am! He was a nice guy…friendly, that is, when you got to know him. A little on the quiet side."

"How'd that happen?" asked Gibbs pointing to the man's foot. His ankle was heavily wrapped.

"It was a stupid accident," responded Delgado in disgust. "Went hunting with some friends of mine and tripped over a tree root. My buddies had to help me back to the cabin."

"These buddies have names?"

"Sure."

"Would you mind telling us?" asked Tony smoothly.

"Craig Wilson, Jordan Beckett, Chad Russell, Brian Montgomery. Grant was supposed to meet us there. We wondered why he didn't show up or call. Now we know," he said grimly.

"When did your accident happen?" Sue questioned. "It looks pretty painful."

"Oh, about two…three days ago," he replied. "Doc says it'll be about a week before I can go back to work…though what help I'll be stopping a fight I don't know."

"You stop a lot of fights on campus?" asked DiNozzo with interest.

"Enough," Delgado answered. "Kids get territorial and all those hormones, you know. Most of them are nice kids. It's just a few that spoil it for the rest."

"Where's this cabin?" Gibbs asked to the point.

"About two hours from here. Belongs to Craig. We go up there every so often to keep in touch."

"Keep in touch?"

"Yes, sir. We all served in the same unit. We liked each other enough that we said we'd keep in touch once we got back stateside."

The group heard a car pull up and a door slam. In a couple of minutes, the back door opened.

"Carlos?" called out a feminine voice. "Whose car is…?" A pretty dark-haired woman appeared holding the hand of a little girl. She stopped when she spotted the agents. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't know you had guests."

"Marla, these people came to tell me about Grant."

"Grant? What about Grant?" Agitation tinged her voice. With one look at the visitors' faces, she bent down to her daughter. "Emma, how 'bout watching some TV while Daddy and Mommy talk to these people? It's time for Caillou."

"Okay, Mommy," the little girl said obediently.

"Excuse me. C'mon, sweetheart."

"She's cute," smiled Sue. "She looks like her mother."

"She's a sweetie," agreed the proud father.

Marla Delgado was back. "What happened to Grant?" she asked immediately.

"We found his body in a burning car at the bottom of a ravine," Tony said plainly.

Her hand instantly covered her mouth. "Oh, no!" she gasped. "How awful!"

"That's not all," he husband said quietly. "They think he was murdered."

"Murdered?" she repeated in disbelief. "It wasn't an accident?"

The team looked at her in interest. "No."

"Oh my God!"

"Did you know him?" asked Sue.

"Classmates…we were classmates in high school," she answered in shock. "In fact, he introduced me to Carlos."

"How so?"

"They met at boot camp and became friends. He brought Carlos home with him one day and that was it…we fell in love." A small smile played around her lips at the memory of those early days. Then, tears formed in her eyes when she remembered why these strangers were in her house. "Oh, Carlos!" she cried as she buried her face in his shoulder. His arms came around to comfort her.

The agents looked at the couple. "If you can think of anything else that might be helpful, please call this number," said Sue leaving a card on the dining table.

"Or this," added Tony placing his card on top of Sue's. He winked at her.

"Thanks for your time," Sue said. "We'll show ourselves out."

As they walked to the car, Tony commented casually, "Did anyone think Mrs. Delgado's reaction seemed to be more than as a friend?"

"Do you think there was something more than classmates in high school?" asked Sue.

"Background check," chipped in Gibbs.

"Right, Boss," answered Tony promptly. "I'll get right on it as soon as we get back to the office."

"Why don't I contact my office and see what we can do?" offered Sue.

"How…?" Tony started a question on his face.

"I have a Blackberry," she smiled as she reached into her purse.

"Nice one," Tony commented when he saw it.

"Blackberry?" remarked a puzzled Gibbs.

"Yeah, Boss, a kind of cell phone," answered Tony just a shade patronizing. "Sue can talk into the phone and the speaker's words scroll across the screen so she can see 'em. That's why it's a little larger than a regular cell."

Gibbs asked wryly, "They make the words big enough so you don't need to squint?"

Tony grinned as Sue punched in the code to speed dial the office.

"Lucy?"

"How's everything? Missed you this morning," scrolled across the screen.

"Everything's fine."

"Good."

Tony caught her eye and grinned broadly at her words.

"Um, Lucy?"

"I take it this isn't a social call."

"No, it isn't. I need you to do some checking for me."

"Sure. Let me get a pen and paper. Okay."

"First of all, I need to find out the location of a cabin owned by Craig Wilson. It's about a two hour drive from here so maybe within a hundred…hundred twenty-five mile radius."

"Okay. Next?"

"Can you do a background check on Mrs. Marla Delgado?"

"Do you have her maiden name?"

"No, but she went to high school with Grant Phillips."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do. I'll call as soon I come up with anything."

"Thanks, Lucy." She looked at the Tony and Gibbs. "She'll get back to us as soon as she gathers the information."

"Very good," signed Gibbs. He liked efficiency in his people and for the time being, Sue was one of his.

o…o…o…o…o

Scene: Restaurant

"Is this really necessary now?" asked the busy manager. "As you can see, we're busy."

"We only want a few minutes of your time and we'll be gone," said Kate. "Or, if you like, we can take you down to NCIS headquarters to question you. Your choice, Mr. Russell," she said with a smile.

He stared at them then shook his head. "Okay. We can talk in my office. Dan, I'll be in my office if you need me."

"Right," called back one of the guys.

"Now what do you want to know?" Chad Russell asked when they crowded into the small room.

"How well did you know Grant Phillips?" inquired Kate.

He looked skeptically at her. "Grant? As well as you know anyone when you spend 24/7 with them for months at a time. Why? He in trouble?"

"In a matter of speaking," responded Bobby. "He's dead. Shot to be exact."

"Shot? Who'd want Grant dead?"

"That's why we're here asking questions," Kate stated. "Have you been in contact since your discharge?"

A slight hesitation then he answered. "A bunch of us met up this past weekend to do a little hunting, shoot the breeze."

"General guy stuff," Kate commented pausing for a moment in her note-taking.

"Yeah."

"When did you get there?"

"I had to work Friday night but managed to make it out there on Saturday morning."

"You can confirm that, of course," said Bobby.

"Time card," he replied briefly. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You think I did it?"

"These are standard questions in every investigation," Kate declared. She flashed a quick smile to allay his concern.

"Could you tell us who else was there?" asked McGee, pen poised to take down names.

"Carlos Delgado, Craig Wilson, Brian Montgomery and Jordan Beckett. Grant was supposed to have been there, too," Russell mentioned. "Now I know why he wasn't."

"Jordan Beckett?" The name wasn't familiar to the agents. "I don't recall his name on the list of your unit."

"My unit? You know the names of the guys in my unit?"

"Well, yeah," replied Tony. "So answer the question."

"He wasn't in our unit. He didn't make it past boot camp."

"What happened?"

"Heart condition."

"Wouldn't his initial physical have picked that up?"

Russell shrugged in response. "I don't know. Whatever it was, it showed up when we started to go through training. He was always winded. The docs took a closer look at him and next thing we know, he's out."

"So why'd he get invited?"

"Does it matter?"

"Humor us," cajoled Kate.

Russell sighed in exasperation. "We like the guy. We hit it off in boot camp so we stayed in touch. Plus, he was good to Carlos' wife while he was deployed…kept an eye on her and the kid."

"Did all of you stay together the whole weekend?" Bobby asked.

"I wouldn't know."

"What does that mean?"

"Like I said, I came late. The guys were already there."

"All of them?"

"Except for Grant…and Jordan."

"When did Beckett get there?"

"I wasn't looking at my watch."

"How 'bout a guess?"

"Maybe an hour or so after I did."

"Did he say why he was so late?"

"It wasn't a big deal," Russell shrugged. "We all agreed we'd come when we could."

"Did anything happen during your get together?"

"Such as?"

"Someone getting hurt?"

"You mean Carlos?"

"Yeah."

"If you know what happened, why are you asking me?"

"Just trying to get as much information as possible, Mr. Russell," said Kate in a placating tone. "Everyone remembers things a little differently."

"Then you already know Carlos tripped over a tree root and sprained his ankle," he said with a trace of scorn. "We had to help him back to the cabin. We bandaged it up and he drove himself home."

"You let him drive home with a sprained ankle?" asked Kate in surprise.

"He insisted. Said since it was his left foot, he could handle the drive."

"When did this happen?"

"Saturday. No, wait…Sunday."

"Which is it?"

"Sunday."

"Excuse me for saying this," began McGee, "but you don't seem to be very broken up about your friend's death."

"What are you implying?" Russell retorted defensively.

"Nothing, I'm not implying anything, Mr. Russell. I was just…"

There was knock and the assistant stuck his head in. "We're getting swamped out here, Chad. We could use a hand."

He stood up. "Are there any more questions?"

"Not at this time. If we do, we know where to reach you."

"You do that," Russell said sardonically and was gone.

The three agents looked at each other.

"Did anyone else get the feeling Mr. Russell knows more than he's letting on?" asked McGee.

"Very good, Tim," said Kate sarcastically. "What gave it away, McGee? The pauses before he answered the questions or the fact that he couldn't wait to get out of here?"

McGee looked a little flustered. "I…uh…I didn't mean that you….I…uh," he fumbled.

Bobby patted him on the shoulder. "That's okay, mate," he consoled. "There's always one person who has to state the obvious. I guess on this team it's you."

McGee frowned while Kate tried to hide her smile as she led the way out of the office. Tim McGee was learning fast but there were still times his newness to the job showed.

"Okay," she said before getting into the vehicle. "Where to now?"

"Brian Montgomery," replied Bobby as he slid into the car.

o…o…o…o…o