Disclaimer-NCIS is so not mine at all.

7

Six o'clock came and went and still DiNozzo and Becca sat at their computers sifting through every person they could prove their nine persons of interest had ever known, talked to or been connected with. Becca felt like she was on the verge of a breakthrough, but it was nothing more than her intuition-so far she had come up empty handed. But she recognized this feeling. She had experienced it many times before.

"Anything?" DiNozzo asked wearily. He was too tired even to tease her.

"Nothing. I can't help thinking..."

"What?"

"You weren't in that interrogation room, DiNozzo. You didn't see that girl's face. I just know she's hiding something, and Gibbs agrees with me, and as compelling as the shared gun theory is, it doesn't take her into account."

He shrugged. "Maybe it's just a coincidence." She deadpanned him a look.

"How many coincidences have you come across in murder investigations?"

His eyes turned serious. "Not many."

He wheeled his chair over to her and sat with their knees facing each other. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking...I'm thinking about how good women are at keeping secrets, and how bad they are at keeping it a secret that they have a secret."

"I think I'm with you; keep going."

"I just...I just have this gut feeling that the women are the key to this case. I think we need to..."

Her eyes lit up. "Garrison and his wife weren't married a long time. What was her maiden name again?"

"Uh....Mueller." He pulled up the file. "We only checked her out under Cristina Garrison."

They spun around to face her computer together. "Ok, let's see what we can find on Cristina Mueller. Here we go...only her name is spelled with a K. That's traditional German, not Americanized."

DiNozzo shook his head. "I remember that interrogation. I didn't pick up on an accent. It says she was born in a town called Gelban. That sounds familiar. Look it up."

The town of Gelban had its own website in German and in English.

"It's like a tourist town for the men at the naval base-it's only five miles from the parameter."

He started digging through the other files. "I swear I've heard that name somewhere else, I...Becca." He held up a familiar picture. "Henrietta Baumenhower is from Gelban."

"We did it," Becca whispered. "We found the connection."

He grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her hard on both cheeks, just in time for Ziva and McGee to get off the elevator to see him.

Ziva sighed. "Oh not you too!"

"What? No no no, we found it! Call Gibbs!" DiNozzo was jumping up and down like a little boy as he shoved the phone at Ziva and dialed the number. Before Gibbs had even got the receiver to his ear, DiNozzo grabbed the phone from Ziva's hand.

"Gibbs, we got it. Cristina Garrison's maiden name was Kristina Mueller. She and Henrietta Baumenhower are from the same town in Germany, five miles outside the naval base!"

He almost hung up, but Ziva yanked the receiver back. "Gibbs, wait! McGee and I found it too! The house that had the terrible leak in its old copper pipes belongs to an elderly Mrs. Cooper. She let us in to take a look. Not only is there a three inch wide pipe missing from her exposed fixtures, but she recognized Garrison's cousin Bernie from a family photo-he's a friend of her grandson Louis. And we found blood in her back yard. A lot of blood."

Becca started typing as fast as she could

Gibbs slammed down the phone and came running out of his office. "Bex, what have we got on Bernie Garrison?"

Becca shook her head. "Nothing. I can only access his records for five years back when he came to D.C. They're clean-I can't get into anything before then."

"You can't access anything at all? Come on!"

"God, Gibbs, I never was a computer whiz!"

"Whoa!" Ziva pulled them apart. She was now convinced that McGee was right about the two of them, but now was not the time. "Look at this." She scanned the family photo into the computer, blew it up and enhanced Bernie's face, and held the picture of Cristina Garrison up next to it. "Does anyone else see what I see?"

McGee squinted at the faces. "They have the same nose. The same chin, the same shape of eye..."

DiNozzo smacked his forehead. "Bernie's Garrison's cousin by marriage! He's the wife's blood cousin!"

Gibbs took a deep breath. "McGee."

"Boss."

"Can you hack into the German government's system and access the census records prior to two thousand four?"

"I...can. Do you want me to?"

Becca leaned into Gibbs. "Can't we get in big trouble for breaking international protocol? We can get warrants-the German government will hand over their records."

Gibbs shook his head. "We don't have time for that-I feel like Henrietta's on to us. If we wait much longer her, Cristina and Bernie will all be out of the country. I want them in holding tonight."

McGee sat at his computer, hands to the ready. "Boss, if you tell me to hack into Germany, I will hack into Germany."

Gibbs said nothing. After a moment he nodded. McGee's fingers started flying. Becca came around and stood behind him.

"I gotta see this," she breathed.

As if she anticipated McGee's stumbling with Becca so close, Ziva gently pulled her back a touch. "He gets a little claustrophobic," she said gently. "Give him a bit of space."

"He does not," DiNozzo whispered. Ziva shook her head.

"Shush."

"Ok, past the firewall...password request bypassed....and we're in! And oh my God, it's all in German. Of course it is."

Ziva looked at Gibbs, who threw the file at the cubicle wall.

"Can't we get a translator?"

He grimaced at her. "We have to request one-there's no way it'll get through until tomorrow afternoon."

Suddenly Becca threw her hands in the air.

"Duck reads German!"

"He does?"

"Yeah, he's big into Proust, likes to read the originals."

DiNozzo stared at her. "How do you know that?"

She blushed. "Never mind, just call him!" She reached to hand Gibbs the phone, but he was already gone to the foot of the stairs.

"Ducky!" Duck, get up here now!"

Mallard came running up the steps. "Jethro, what is it?"

"We have a language problem."

They dragged him over to the computer; as soon as he saw the umlauts, he sighed.

"Very well, let me get my spectacles, all right, what are we looking for?"

McGee handed him the mouse. "Census information for the town of Gelban before two thousand four."

"Oh gracious, I don't want that thing," Mallard said as he shoved the mouse back to McGee. "All right, Timothy, click here, yes, now click there, and, let me see, bring up oh, o two or o three. Aha! The census for Gelban, two thousand two. What name are we looking for?

"Bernard, Kristina, Mueller."

"Good Lord! Do you know how many Kristinas there are in Germany?"

"Ducky!"

"All right, All right, ahh! There you are. A Kristina and a Bernard Mueller, living in the same house."

Ziva shifted her feet. "How far back can you find them?"

Gibbs squinted at the screen. "Cristina Garrison is twenty six years old-try the late eighties."

They pulled up the page. A Kristina and Bernard Mueller, ages five and nine, were both listed in nineteen eighty-eight as children of a Frederick Bernard Mueller. DiNozzo let out a low whistle.

"They're brother and sister," Becca whispered. Gibbs had a look of deep concentration on his face.

"Duck, help McGee get into the national police records-see if Mueller has a history."

"Okay, here we go...what's it say?"

Mallard peered at the text. "Nothing too grand. Petty theft, a carjacking,.. oh my. He was arrested in two thousand three on suspicion of human trafficking."

Becca sighed deeply. "That's it. There's no record of a visa or green card ever issued for Cristina Garrison before she was married. Her brother must have smuggled her into the country. Garrison found out somehow, and Ivenner got messed up in it through Henrietta. That's what got them killed."

Gibbs laid a hand on her wrist. "Whoa, now, it's a good theory but we have very little forensic evidence. We don't even have the gun that all seven bullets came from."

"But do we have enough to pick them up?" Ziva asked.

Gibbs smiled just a little. "DiNozzo, McGee, pick 'em up. All of them. Bernie, Cristina, Baumenhower and Cooper. All four in holding"

"If they're still in the country," Ziva muttered. Becca nodded.

"Or in Henrietta's case, still alive."

McGee and DiNozzo gathered up their coats. Just as he turned to go back downstairs, Mallard cast a curious glance at them all.

"Just how did you know I read German anyhow?"

Only Gibbs caught the horror on Becca's face as the other three pointed at her.

"Oh," Mallard said dejectedly as he patted his niece's shoulder. "Right. Well, good night all."

"Ducky," Gibbs called out. "Where are you going?"

"Home!"

"Not yet. Hard day's work, successful outcome and we haven't officially welcomed Agent Compston to our team yet. When the boys get back with the suspects, we're going out for a drink."