Ch 9
Nate Smythe was not at home that evening, but he made the mistake of showing up for work the next morning. Tony and Tim were at the shop waiting to question him. When Smythe saw them, he turned and ran. That was enough for the NCIS agents and he was apprehended after short chase. They returned him to headquarters and placed him in interrogation.
Gibbs entered Director Shepard's office. "Jen? Could I have a word with you?"
"Of course, Jethro." She put aside the work she'd been doing to give him her full attention. "Have you heard anything from the hospital this morning?"
Gibbs sat in the chair across the desk. "Not yet, Ducky should be calling soon with an update. Abby is supposed to be released this morning."
"That's good news."
"Yes it is." Gibbs changed the subject. "I came in to tell you that we have a person of interest in interrogation right now."
"And why do I need to know this?"
"Because this isn't in a case we've been working on officially." Gibbs stopped the director's question with an upraised hand. "Let me finish. Before the explosion, Ziva had been investigating Chip Sterling. She wasn't comfortable with his behavior following the arrest and wanted to find an explanation for it."
"What did she find?"
"He pled guilty to the assault charges because he didn't want anyone digging into his past. Chip has connections to Salinitri crime family. The whole purpose of his work at Pemberton Medical Analysis was to eliminate evidence that could be damaging to them."
"Does Ziva have proof?"
"It's enough to convince me." Gibbs' tone became accusing. "Didn't anyone look into Chip's background before he was hired?"
"We've had this conversation before. Extra scrutiny is given to the credentials of every employee at NCIS who handles evidence."
"How did they miss his connection to the Salinitri family?"
"Evidently, they don't have the connections that Ziva does."
"It took DiNozzo half a day of searching to find the same thing."
"We don't treat prospective employees like criminals."
"Maybe you should. Human Resources didn't even check his previous employers, or they would have found false information."
"We are in the process of setting up a system to ensure that something like this will never happen again." Jenny was placating; she could understand frustration. She redirected him before he could resume his complaint. "All of this is interesting, but shouldn't you hand this investigation over to Metro? And why do we have a person of interest in our interrogation room?"
"We found a connection between Chip Sterling, this person, and an attack on someone within our jurisdiction."
"Really?"
"Nate Smythe, also known as Nate Sciacca, has connections with the Salinitri family, and a personal relationship with Chip. He's also the technician who's been working in Abby's lab the past few weeks."
"What!"
"We think he used the equipment repair as an excuse to scope out the lab, find a time when she would be gone, and set up the bomb."
"Do you have proof?"
"Not yet, but there are too many coincidences there to ignore. I sent DiNozzo and McGee to question him and he ran when he saw them."
"Is he intact?" Jen winced at the thought of what they might have done to the man they believed to be responsible for trying to kill Abby.
"Enough for our purposes."
"Jethro…"
"Relax, Jen. I wouldn't do something to endanger the case."
"You'd better hope not." The director said as she picked up the phone to call in the FBI.
FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell stepped off the elevator with Agents Sacks and Williams in tow. Gibbs fell in step with them. "Did you catch your cocaine dealer yet?"
"The arrest went down last week. We received an anonymous tip that led us right to him."
"And since you were free they assigned you to us?" Gibbs grinned.
"No one else wants to deal with you." Fornell sighed. "Why am I not surprised to find you working this case? Why didn't you tell us about this guy?"
"We're telling you now. Before it was just supposition, we didn't have enough evidence to bring it to you."
"We're the ones who are supposed to be gathering the evidence. I'm hoping you haven't interviewed him already. You're not impartial in this."
"Nope, we've just had him cooling his heals until you could get here." They'd arrived at the director's office while talking. "Come in, we need to brief you first."
Jenny Shepard stood to greet the agents. "Agent Fornell."
"Director." Fornell shook her hand. "I believe you know Agent Sacks," who moved forward to greet her, "and this is Agent Todd Williams."
"How do you do, ma'am." Williams shook her hand in turn.
"Good morning gentlemen. Thank you for arriving so promptly. Agent Gibbs will bring you up to speed on the situation here."
"We have a man in interrogation, Nate Smythe. Gibbs tossed a file down in front of them on conference table. "He was in the lab the day before the explosion, and we wanted to ask him if he'd seen anything. While we were searching for him, we discovered that he'd been known formerly as Nate Sciacca. Sciacca has a criminal record and he's the childhood friend of a man with a grudge against our forensic scientist."
As Gibbs continued to outline their suspicions, Sacks looked over toward Williams with a questioning glance. However, Williams would not meet his eyes; he focused on the file on table in front of them instead. A suspicion formed in Sacks mind, but he waited until the briefing was over to say anything. "Excuse me, Fornell could we have a word with you?"
"Of course, excuse us." The agents moved toward door for a conference.
Jenny and Gibbs moved toward her desk and away from the FBI agents. "I assume you've heard from Ducky by now. How are the girls doing?"
"Abby's better, and she's spitting mad about someone blowing up Bert and her lab. She wants to come in to see it, but the doctors won't allow her so the agents protecting her are keeping her at home. To cope, she's taken to detailing what she plans to do to them if they don't allow her to come in to work. One of them cracked his head open when he fainted and hit her coffin."
"Agent Donaldson?"
"How did you know?"
"I just received a call requesting a new agent to be assigned to her. I wondered what had happened."
"Better that than what happened to Agent Ekas."
"Yes, I know. Ziva does not make a good patient."
"At least she only had a straw." Gibbs smiled.
"Imagine the damage she could have done with a spoon." Jenny shook her head.
"You'll have to warn them when she's taken off of the liquid diet."
Their conversation came to an end as they watched Fornell's face grow red. The private FBI conference ended when Williams handed over his badge and gun to Sacks. In a voice that carried Fornell said, "Agent Sacks will escort you back to headquarters. When I return, I want a full accounting of the events on my desk."
Agent Williams walked out of the room with his head hung down and Sacks following him with a look on his face that could be either scorn or pity. Fornell waited until his agents were well out of the room to explain. "Evidently the anonymous tip that led us to Terry Snyder came from a favor Agent Williams did for Mark Agnoli."
"What?" Gibbs turned on his heel to follow after Williams, but the director caught him by the arm.
"What kind of favor?" Director Shepard asked in a frosty tone.
Fornell sighed. "Rumor had it that Agnoli supplied Snyder with weapons, so I sent Sacks and Williams to lean on him for answers. He insinuated he'd trade for the information. All they had to do was fix something to break in the NCIS forensics lab and he'd be willing to talk."
"Really." The director's voice became even icier.
"They didn't take him up on the offer, though Ron told me Williams was tempted. Then that kid was found murdered in the playground. We all took that hard, but Williams was the worst. He saw an opportunity to find out what Agnoli knew about Snyder when we visited NCIS."
"It's not an excuse." Gibbs pulled his arm out of Jenny's grip.
"No it isn't. As of right now he is suspended and I'm submitting his case to IA."
"That's not good enough." Gibbs started to leave.
Fornell stepped in front of him. "Gibbs, he won't get just a slap on the wrist for this. His career as a field agent is over at the very least. Please, let us handle him."
"Let it go, Jethro." Jenny said.
"It's another indication that your guy was working for the Salinitris, or at least Agnoli." Fornell moved to the door. "Let's see what he has to say.
In the observation room, Tony and Tim were watching Smythe who was staring at the wall. Fornell immediately noticed several bruises coloring the suspect's face.
Tony answered the FBI agent's questioning look. "He ran when he saw us."
"Really?" Fornell could believe that.
"Unfortunately, he wasn't watching where he was going and he hit a wall." Tim explained.
"And then fell against a car." Tony added.
"Before hitting the ground with some force." Tim finished.
"It's a shame that some people feel that they have to run away from us when all we want to do is talk to them." Gibbs said.
"Really." Fornell repeated dryly. "I'll take it from here."
Fornell entered the interrogation room, well aware that the four people in the observation room were ready to burst into the room the minute they didn't like the way his questioning was going.
Smythe looked up as Fornell sat down. "Who are you?"
"Special Agent Fornell of the FBI. I'm here to ask you some questions."
"Good. I have nothing to say to the psychos who brought me in. Do you see what happened to me?"
"I understand you fell while running away from the agents."
"They tackled me; it was totally unnecessary."
"They wouldn't have had to do that if you hadn't run. Why did you run?"
"I was nervous."
"Why?"
"I read about the explosion in paper. I was afraid I'd be blamed."
"Is there a reason they'd blame you?"
"I was in the lab."
"So were a lot of other people." Fornell paused and waited for Nate to respond. "But maybe you have something to hide, Mr. Smythe. Or should I call you Mr. Sciacca?"
Nate showed no surprise. "That's not my name anymore. I left it behind with my old life. One of the counselors at State suggested it; a new name for a new start."
"It's a nice idea, but you have to have more than just a new name. You need new values and new morals. Sometimes it's hard to live up to them if you hang around old friends."
"What?"
Fornell slid one of the pictures in his file across the table. "Do you recognize this guy?"
"Mark Agnoli, I grew up with him. Haven't seen him in years."
"And this?"
"That's Charles Sterling, Mark's little brother."
"Would you be surprised to hear that Charles is in jail?"
"Charles? He was the one always followed the rules, mama's good little boy. It's hard to believe."
"It's true though. He's in prison for assaulting Abby Scuito."
"No! What happened?" Nate was overdoing it a bit.
"She discovered he was guilty of framing a federal agent for murder. So you can see why NCIS was interested in speaking with you. You were in her lab the day before explosion and you have a history with the man who assaulted her."
"I understand now. But like I said, haven't seen them in years."
"Really. What if I were to tell you that we have proof that you've seen him recently, like within a week of the explosion?"
"I'd have to say you were mistaken." His voice stayed level, but Nate shifted in his chair uncomfortably.
An alert interrupted Fornell and he checked his text message. "How much do you know about forensic science?"
"Not much, just what I see on CSI."
"They've made great strides in technology that will identify small amounts of chemicals, like the residue from a bomb. Our forensic techs just finished processing your van and found traces of explosive in your tool bag." Fornell paused and watched Smythe squirm. "Is there anything you'd like to tell me before we match it to the residue found in the lab?"
"I'd like to talk with a lawyer." Nate screwed his lips shut.
"That's fine. But while you are waiting, you have a decision to make. We know you weren't the only one involved. You can go down for the attempted murder charges alone, or take a deal and tell us who put you up to it."
