Ziva pulled into the alley behind the convent. As she killed the engine, she opened the glove box to remove her sig and credentials. After changing back into her habit, she returned to interrogation to get more information from Father Miguel. He told her what he knew of the deaths at the convent and pointed out that Sister Theresa was in DC more than a month before her death. The subsequent murders could have been someone covering up for each previous one.

"So why was Sister Theresa killed?" she asked Perez.

"That I do not know," he told her. "I do know that my outside activity was not a factor. No cocaine had come through my route while she was here."

"So who do you suspect?"

"Honestly?" he asked. "If it is anyone related to the church, it has to be someone in the support staff. The sisters are very protective of one another. Father Thomas has a heart as pure as any I have seen. I mean he works tirelessly placing the children with good families. He is the only man I know who can get the older children adopted."

"Why is that so difficult?" Ziva asked him.

"No one wants older children," he replied. "Father Thomas has a nearly perfect record with the children over eleven."

"So he is able to find parents who do not wish to have a long term investment in the children."

"Every adoption is a long term arrangement," Perez said. "Do you think parents just throw children out when they become adults? No. Parental love goes on forever."

Those last words were the ones that echoed through Ziva's mind. Perhaps her strained relationship with her father jaded her, but she could not understand how anyone would adopt an older child for what was essentially a short-term relationship. Perhaps Abby could explain things better.

Ziva got out of her car and locked it. She made her way to the convent and slipped into the back door. She barely made it into the building when she saw Sister Rosita walking by, tears still streaming down her face.

"Sister Rosita," she said. "I am truly sorry for your loss. I promise Abby and I will find out what is going on."

"Ziva," Rosita said. "I just can't fathom what we may have done to bring this upon us."

"Whoever is behind this is doing it for a reason that may not be related to you or the other nuns," Ziva reassured her.

"Please promise me that nothing else will happen to these women," Rosita sobbed.

"I promise that no one else will be hurt while I can stop them."

"But can you stop them?"

"No, I cannot do it myself," Ziva admitted. "Fortunately, I have you and Abby helping me." She put an arm around the nun's shoulder. "For now, we need some tea. Maybe you can help me figure a few things out."

"Like what?"

"Like how to stop whoever is doing this to you."

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Abby came into the kitchen and stopped smiling as she watched Sister Rosita enjoy a cup of tea and a story. She stepped further into the kitchen and got a mug from the shelf.

"Then when Abigail grabbed her ball, she stepped right where Sister Margaret had spilled her water and went sliding feet first halfway down the lane," Sister Rosita said to Ziva's amusement.

Abby smiled as she turned back to the two women. "Then," she said. "Because she felt so bad, Sister Margaret came to pick me up and slipped in what was left of the water. I still have her footprint on my butt."

The laughter felt good for all of them. They continued sharing stories for a while before Sister Rosita excused herself and went to bed.

"Have you told them about Father Miguel?" Ziva asked Abby when the nun was out of earshot.

"No," Abby answered getting up to fix more tea. "I have to go out tomorrow."

"Why?"

"I've been running on adrenaline the past couple of days, but I need to get some Caf-Pow in my system if I'm going to be any more use."

"No," Ziva said. "Why haven't you told them?"

"Because Father Miguel had me fooled too," Abby said returning to the table. "He's been here for years, he's taught at the school. It will destroy them to know they were fooled by a drug smuggler."

"Abby, these nuns are stronger than that."

"Yeah, but it's something else too," Abby sighed. "Whoever's been killing these nuns, if it's Father Miguel, we'll find the proof. But if it's someone else, I don't want them to know we're looking in to it."

"Fair enough," Ziva said. "We have a long day tomorrow. I'm going to get Perez's files then head to bed."

"Me too," Abby said. "I mean head to bed, not the files thing."

While Abby went upstairs, Ziva went over to the church offices. She was surprised to find the door still unlocked, so she made her way back into the room where she first saw Perez this morning. She looked through the scattered mess from his escape attempt and picked up all of the files for church employees along with those still on the desk. She gave the office a final look before leaving to study through the people of St. Michael's.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

The alarm sounded at 6:30 bringing Ziva fully awake. She double checked the time and grabbed the file she was looking at last night. Something Perez had said made her look into the orphanage closer. According to their records, the orphanage took in more than seventy children over the age of twelve in the past eleven years. Of those, the church successfully adopted all but six. Ziva remembered meeting those six children earlier. One of them agreed to help her teach the younger children about the Rosary prayer.

She scanned the file reading Father Thomas's accomplishments through the church and noticed that he had a remarkably high success rate, not only here but also with other orphanages. Ziva got out of bed and dressed in her habit to go to the offices and check some other files. On her way out of the convent, she noticed Abby coming out of the chapel with two of the smaller children. Abby was smiling and telling them a story, which made Ziva smile as she exited the building. As she entered the office of the orphanage, she ran into Sister Rosita who was already there going over some files.

"Sister Rosita," she said. "You are up early."

Rosita looked up and smiled. "Yes Sister Zelda," the older woman said. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to come over and go over the paperwork for Father Thomas. He has an in-home inspection for one of the children scheduled tomorrow. If all goes well, we will be placing Alice with her new foster parents next week."

"Alice," Ziva said thoughtfully. "She's the twelve year old correct?"

"Yes," Rosita said. "She has been very difficult to place."

"She is hard to place because of her age?"

"Yes," Sister Rosita said, "that and the fact that she has Heller's Syndrome."

"What is Heller's Syndrome?"

"You're familiar with autism?" Sister Rosita said, closing the file.

"Barely," Ziva said as she took a seat across from the nun.

"Well," Sister Rosita began. "Autism is a group of developmental disorders that affect social development and communication skills. Heller's is similar however it usually presents in girls over the age of three, where autism can present as early as a few months." Ziva nodded her understanding.

"Alice began regressing in her communication skills when she was five. She maintains most of her social skills she acquired to that point but her communication and motor skills are far below where they should be."

"Her potential parents must be very special people to take on such responsibility," Ziva said.

"Indeed," Rosita said.

"What do they do for a living?"

"Let's see," Rosita said, reopening the file. "Jonathan Hyde is a pediatrician at Children's National Medical Center, and Noora is a housewife."

"Isn't that a research hospital?"

"I believe so," Rosita answered. "Why?"

"It just seems odd that a pediatrician at a research hospital is adopting a child with a mental illness."

"Heller's isn't a mental illness," Rosita said. "It is a developmental disorder."

"What's the difference?"

"Mental illnesses do not inhibit the development of a child and are treatable enough to allow development to continue. Developmental disorders are just that. They are conditions within the brain that prevent development."

"Still," Ziva said thoughtfully. "It seems odd that a pediatric researcher is adopting a child with such a disorder."

"Perhaps," Rosita said. "Maybe he has just developed a level of understanding that he wants to help the child have a normal life."

"You are not concerned he may be adopting her to use as an Italian pig?"

"If that is his intent, these home visits will suss it out," Sister Rosita said with a smile. "But I am not worried about it. Father Thomas does not allow the adoption process to get this far if he suspects maleficence." She once again closed the file and placed it to the side. "Anything else?" she asked.

"What is 'suss it out'?"

"It means figure it out," Sister Rosita said with a short laugh.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

After their talk, Ziva explained to Sister Rosita that she needed to look through some of the files from the convent and orphanage. Rosita was initially reticent to allow her access until Ziva informed her of Father Miguel's arrest and his outside enterprise. Sister Rosita was troubled and asked if he was responsible for the deaths. Ziva could not confirm that.

"I do not believe he killed your fellow nuns," she told Rosita. "He is a criminal, but I believe someone else may have targeted your order." After Sister Rosita accepted that shock, she excused herself and left Ziva to read the adoption records for the orphanage. Something did not add up with the records though. She grabbed her phone and dialed McGee's number. She got frustrated when it went straight to voicemail and she hung up. She tried a couple more times before giving up and trying Tony's cell.

"Wha?" he answered in a sleepy voice.

"Tony, I need you to do me a favor," she said, not caring that he was asleep.

"Nnng," he mumbled.

"I need you to have McGee to look into the financials for St. Thomas Convent and Orphanage here in DC," she said. "I need to know where all of the money is coming from and where it is going."

"Mm-hm," he said.

"Tony," she yelled through the phone. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I heard you. You want me to have McGee look into the financials for the orphanage where Abby's friend works."

"Correct," Ziva said.

"And why can't Abby do this?"

"She is busy with other things," she said.

"Alright," Tony groaned. "As soon as they get back, I'll put McSnooper on it."

"Thank you Tony," she said and paused briefly. "And I'm glad to hear you're ok."

"That's a subjective term right now," he said. "But thanks."

Ziva disconnected the call and grabbed another file. This one belonged to John Farrell, a boy who the orphanage adopted out just this week. She reviewed the adoptive parents' profiles and saw that like Alice's prospective adoptive father, John's new mother, Janet Davenport, was a pediatrician. Dr. Davenport, however, worked at Johns Hopkins, while her husband was a fifth year associate at a law firm in Baltimore. She took out her cell phone and snapped off a digital image of the all the photographs in the files. She quickly made her way back to the convent and grabbed her keys. She stopped into Abby's cell to let her know she was following a lead.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Abby was worried, but she knew Ziva could handle herself. There was more work to do here though. Carol had sent over the police files from the other 'accidents' and the analysis that she and Marty had done on the evidence. The police found paint chips on a wall near Sister Theresa's body from the hit and run. They determined that it came from a late model Ford. The particular color made it likely to have come from a 2010 to 2012 Taurus. Well, for sure no one at the church owns a car that new, she thought. There was also broken headlight glass and signal cover. The location of the glass and paint chips indicated that the vehicle approached from the far end of the alley and struck Sister Theresa from behind before swerving into the wall. It was a long shot, but Abby decided to check and see if any local garages had to repair a Taurus with damage to the front right side.

She made a note to check into that later as she grabbed the file for Sister Elizabeth's accident in the library. She already knew that someone moved Sister Elizabeth's body, now she was going to find out what the police knew. It turned out that Sister Angela had found Sister Elizabeth after the 'accident'. Sister Angela was not on their bowling team, but Abby knew her from her few visits to the convent. She remembered the nun as being wispy and frail looking, certainly not someone who could easily move the body of the bulkier Sister Elizabeth.

Abby read the autopsy report and found that Sister Elizabeth sustained bruised kidneys, a broken rib, several contusions and the coup de grĂ¢ce, a broken neck. All of these injuries could come from falling down stairs, but something about the injury diagram looked hinky. She made another not and moved to the next file, Sister Angela. Angela's mugging came just days after finding Sister Elizabeth. After hosting an AA meeting, she headed home when someone attempted to rob her. She had defensive wounds, but her stab wounds were too great for her.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._