Chapter 7: Missing Maddie
Tony and Ziva shared a worried glance at the news that a girl was missing. They knew they had to act fast, but to do that they needed her father to pull himself together. "Harm" Ziva ventured quietly. "We are going to need your help to find Maddie, OK? Do you have a recent picture of her that we could use?"
"Not on me, but up in my apartment." He said forcing the tears to stop their treacherous trek. He needed to be strong for Maddie.
"Good. What else can you tell me about her? Height, weight, age. Does she have any friends she might have gone to? Does she have a cell phone?" Ziva prompted as Tony pulled out his phone and walked a little ways away.
"She's 16, 5'7", 135 pounds. … I don't know about her friends. If she was in trouble she would just call me, or maybe Mac. Where did you find Jen? It would be easier to narrow down who she would go to if I knew where she was." He rambled in a detached tone that belied the emotion swirling in his eyes.
"We found Petty Officer Cotes in a park in downtown DC. Do you know anyone around there?"
"Um, Mac. Mac lives there! Sorry, Colonel Sarah MacKinzie."
"Ok good. We need her number and Maddie's if she has one."
"Of course."
"Officer David, why don't you take him to get that picture of Maddie while I finish up here?" Tony suggested flipping his phone shut after putting out an amber alert on Maddie. Ziva nodded and followed Harm up to his apartment as Tony gathered up the computer and a few fingerprints from the apartment.
"Probie, I need you to get a location on this number right now." Tony announced as he handed a piece of paper with Maddie's cell phone number to him. "Boss, you're not going to like this. Petty Officer Cotes was watching a neighbor's 16 year old daughter last night. Ziva's bringing the dad up now. I'm gonna get this stuff down to Abby."
The look that crossed Gibbs' face spoke volumes. However, before he could say anything, Ziva stepped off the elevator followed by an attractive, albeit devastated looking man. "Gibbs, this is Commander Rabb, Maddie's father. Harm, this is Special Agent Gibbs, my boss." she introduced.
The two men shook hands but before either could say anything, a slightly anxious "Um, boss, I think you should see this." came from McGee's desk. Glancing at him Gibbs bit back the urge to simply tell him to put it up on the plasma and walked around behind him to look at the monitor.
"I need to make a call and get someone to cover for me in court today." Harm said as he made his way over to the window to allow the agents to do their job. Dialing the phone he wondered just how much he should divulge. If Bud was going to cover for him in court, he couldn't be thinking about Jen and Maddie and Harriet really didn't need the stress right now. He took a deep calming breath as someone picked up the phone on the other end.
"Hello? Roberts' residence." AJ answered the phone stumbling though the proper greeting his mother had been teaching him.
"Hi AJ, its Harm. Is your dad there?"
"Hi Harm. Daddy!!! Phone!!! He's coming."
"Bud Roberts."
"Bud, its Harm. I hate to do this to you on the weekend, but something came up and I need you to cover for me in court today. It's just an arraignment and the file is on my desk."
"Sure, I can cover for you. Is everything alright? You sound kind of off."
"No everything is not alright but I'll explain latter. Give me a call when you get out of court and we can talk. Thanks Bud, I owe you. Look I gotta go." Harm said quickly hanging up the phone before his voice could betray the situation any further. He stood for a minute looking at the phone in his hand trying to decide if he should call Mac when he remembered that she had to be in court today as well. He would just have to wait. She would call when Bud showed up instead of him. Sighing, he slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Meanwhile
"Boss, I was going over security camera footage from stores around the park and I found this" McGee said, trying to keep his voice down and glancing nervously at Harm.
"Well, show me McGee!"
"Right, sorry boss." The three agents crowded around the monitor and watched as two men with ball caps followed the two women down the street and disappeared as they crossed the street to the park. Five minutes later, Maddie came running by another camera looking terrified and watching over her shoulder. Unfortunately, she was not fast enough and one of the men caught up to her at the last store on the street. They watched mesmerized as a van materialized around the corner and the man shoved Maddie into the back before it took off.
"Get out a BOLO and find that van!" Ziva walked quickly over to her desk and called in the BOLO while Gibbs continued to give instructions. "And get me a license plate before sending this to Abby to see what she can get off of it. Where are you with the trace on the girl's phone?"
"The phone is turned off boss, but as soon as it's turned back on I'll be able to get a location. I've been through Petty Officer Cotes' records and nothing seems off about them. No real changes in her bank account activity or unusual phone calls, but I'm running through all of the numbers anyway." McGee informed Gibbs half suspecting him to order him to find a useable lead.
Down in Abby's lab
"Hey Abs, I got fingerprints and the computer from the apartment to start." Tony said cheerily as he entered her lab. "I hear you were having car trouble this morning, anything I can do to help? McGeek really doesn't like driving with Ziva." He continued handing her the box and clipboard to sign.
"Do you have any idea how much evidence Gibbs wants me to go through?! And everything is top priority! I am only one person. And by the way, where is my Caf-pow?" she complained as she accepted the clip board and signed for the evidence. "And I just got a flat again, but I didn't have a spare so I needed a lift last night and it just made since for me to use his car since I was already there and didn't have to leave for at least an hour and he and Ziva were going to the same place. What is it with my hearse and flat tires? I mean really, it's not like I drive like Ziva and pick up all kinds of things in my tires, but I keep getting flats. Half of the time it happens when I really need to get somewhere like after Gibbs got blown up. So anyway, I ask you Tony, why do you think …"
"Abs, I need you to take a breath, give me back the clip board, and run these fingerprints against all the prints from where the petty officer was killed." Tony cut in.
"Oh, do we have a suspect already? That was fast. Usually it takes a lot longer than this, but I guess you never know." Abby went on happily ignoring Tony's further attempts to cut her off while scanning the prints to compare to the scene.
"No Abs, we don't have a suspect right now, we have a missing 16 year old girl." Gibbs announced walking into the lab holding a Caf-pow. "So, what do you got Abs?"
"I don't know yet Gibbs, you just walked in and you beat my babies, but if you wait a minute I'm sure they'll catch up to you. And what do you mean there is a missing girl? I thought that Cotes didn't have any kids."
"She doesn't, but she was watching a neighbor and we have video of them being followed and then the girl getting shoved into a van."
"Since when Boss? I was just up there a couple of minutes ago." Tony said.
"Then it's obviously been since you've been down here DiNozzo."
"Gibbs, I could really use some help down here. Maybe McGee can go through the laptop while I finish running the evidence." Abby said with a sweet smile as she reached for her beloved Caf-pow.
"Not yet Abs, you haven't given me anything yet." Gibbs chided as he gave her his half smirk. "Besides, I have McGee going through the surveillance videos looking for anything to identify the men that killed Petty Officer Cotes and kidnapped Maddie."
As Tony walked out of the lab he heard the beep of one of Abby's machines followed by her squeal of delight when Gibbs gave her the caffeinated drink.
