A/N: Thank you to castlencis and leath for reviewing, and a big welcome back for afrozenheart412, who left long and detailed reviews on the the last FOUR chapters AND added me to author alerts. Also, thanks to ladyyuuki16 for adding this story to favorites and alerts. (And yes, leath, the date in the last chapter should have been October instead of June; I have corrected the oversight. Thank you for pointing it out.)

Now, sadly, this particular story is drawing to a close, as we begin the last chapter. I have a feeling quite a few of you will be just about ready to throttle me by the end of it, because of the ginormous cliffhanger and so many unresolved loose ends - but do take heart in the fact that this tale is far from over. And with that, I leave you to the final chapter of New York's Urban Murder.

Chapter Nine

08:22, October 30; New York Mercy Hospital

The smiling nurse came into the room and pulled the curtains apart, allowing the bright morning sun to stream through.

"Good morning, Dr. Hawkes," she greeted cheerfully. "How are you today?"

"Fine," Hawkes replied from his bed. He adjusted his position, wincing as the movement jarred his injured shoulder.

"You've got a visitor," the nurse told him. With another sunny smile, she exited the room just as Danny came in, carrying a large paper bag.

"Hey, Doc," he said. "How you doin'?"

"I'm okay, Danny," answered Hawkes.

"Good," Danny responded. "That's good." He sat down in the visitor's chair. "I can't stay long – Mac wants me back at the lab to work on the case by nine."

Hawkes nodded in acknowledgment. "How's it going?"

"Slowly," Danny replied. "And it isn't just a homicide now either. The whole thing's expanded to something really big and complicated, and I can't explain it completely. Flack's gonna drop by later to see you – he can tell you the full story. In the meantime…" He reached his hand into the bag and started pulling out things one by one. "…you've got plenty of stuff to keep you busy. This one's from Stella" – he withdrew a beribboned jar of homemade cookies – "that one's from Mac" – he pointed at a thick hardcover book – "this is from me and Lindsay" – another jar, this one filled with cake – "this is from Flack" – out came a Sudoku puzzle book and a pen – "and these are from Sid." He set a pile of medical journals on the table beside Hawkes' bed. "I don't know, I think he wants you to brush up on your doctoring or something."

Hawkes chuckled.

"Oh, and…" Danny's hand dipped into the bag again and came out with a bunch of colorful, glossy magazines. "This is from Agent DiNozzo."

"Tony?" Hawkes was surprised.

"Yeah." Danny's expression was wry. "I don't know what the heck he's thinking with these magazines, but he says you'll find them interesting." He shrugged. "Of course, if you'd rather I dumped them in a trashcan on my way out…"

"That's okay, Danny," Hawkes said with a smile. "I appreciate the thought, though. Thanks."

Danny nodded, then checked his watch. "All right, I'd better get going. You get well soon, okay?"

Hawkes chuckled. "Yeah, all right. See you, man."

"Oh, come on," Lindsay groaned, staring at the computer in frustration. Stella, walking by, heard her.

"No luck?" she guessed.

"None," Lindsay confessed. "I've looked in every database I can think of; there's no mention of either Kendall or Vincent Wilcox."

Stella sighed. For the past one and a half days both they and Gibbs' team had been searching for the two Wilcox brothers – but so far, they had not managed to find any record of them, except for a couple of addresses McGee dug up yesterday, which turned out to be fake.

"Okay, then let's try a different approach," she suggested. "Look for Joelle Bright."

"Janice's mother?" Lindsay questioned as she typed it in.

"Right," said Stella. "Kendall married Joelle, so in all likelihood he's living with her. If we find Joelle, we might just find Kendall."

A short beep from the computer signaled the first success they'd had in their hunt.

"Okay, I got it," said Lindsay. "Joelle lives on Reade Street, Apartment 222."

"Let's go," said Stella.

When Joelle Bright opened her door, she found two NYPD officers and one NCIS agent waiting outside.

"Can I help you?" she asked cautiously.

"Mrs. Bright, NYPD," Stella said, showing her her badge.

"NCIS," Tony added, doing the same. "Is your husband at home?"

"Kendall?" Joelle looked surprised. "Uh, no…no, he left on a business trip this morning."

The three law enforcement officers exchanged glances.

"Where?" Tony asked.

"He didn't say."

"Do you know when he'll be back?" Lindsay inquired.

Joelle shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. What's this about?"

"We're investigating the murder of a Navy officer," Tony replied. "We'd like to ask you a few questions about your husband."

"Oh, my God. He doesn't have anything to do with this, does he?" Joelle asked.

"Well, that's what we're trying to find out," answered Stella. "Do you mind coming down to the station with us to answer a few questions?"

"Um, okay…I'll get my coat."

"Good morning, Mr.…well, I'm afraid I don't know your name." Ducky chuckled. "Still, I don't suppose it makes a difference now, does it?" He lifted a scalpel from his tray of tools to begin the autopsy on one of the four shooters who had tried to assassinate Stella and Hawkes. "The important thing is that you tell me your secrets – then perhaps we'll be able to solve this case, hm?"

Beside him, on another table, Sid smiled and bent to autopsy another shooter, but before he could get his hands dirty, the telephone rang, and instead of beginning the autopsy, he went over to answer it.

"Dr. Hammerback."

"Hey, Sid, we've got a body here that looks like it's been dead for days," Flack's voice informed him on the other end. "Driver's license says it's Harvey Gates."

Sid frowned. "Isn't that…"

"The judge in charge of Janice Bright's case?" Flack completed. "Yep. He's got the letter 'M' on his ankle too, so I'm guessing we're looking at another Main Wave killing, even though this guy obviously wasn't drowned with a swimming cap. The guys from the ME's office are transporting him back to the lab now. Mac wants him autopsied immediately. Top priority."

"You got it," said Sid.

"Gibbs!" McGee called, rushing over to his boss' side.

"You got something, McGee?"

"Yeah, I finally managed to locate Kendall Wilcox." McGee looked down to refer to the computer pad he was using. "Early this morning he used his credit card to purchase a one-way ticket to Washington, D.C."

"When's the flight?" Gibbs questioned.

"It's already left, boss."

Gibbs barely hesitated before delivering his next order: "Book us a flight, McGee. Then get packed." He moved to the end of the hallway to inform Mac and collect the rest of his team.

"Um, okay." McGee paused a bit before he realized that he didn't have a destination. "Uh, boss? Where are we going?"

"Where do you think?"

"Um…"

"D.C., McGee," Gibbs told him, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We've got a murder suspect to catch."

10:00, October 30; Conference room, NY Crime Lab

They were back in the conference room for another confab, minus Hawkes, Sid, and the entire NCIS team, who had already left for the airport.

"Okay, so we know Kendall Wilcox is at least guilty of smuggling jewels," Mac said, "and possibly the murder of Leah Jasper. He might also have sent those shooters after Stella and Hawkes, but we can't prove either of those until we get his DNA and prints, and we can't do that until we find him."

"He's running to D.C., but he could get on a connecting flight from there to anywhere in the world," Adam added.

"We also need to find Vincent Wilcox; he's the only other possible suspect for Jasper's murder," Stella put in.

"And Harvey Gates was found dead this morning," Flack finished.

"Sid's still doing the autopsy on him," said Danny. "He put TOD around five a.m. four days ago."

"Around the same time Leah Jasper was killed," Lindsay contributed, "making it unlikely that they were killed by the same person."

"Gibbs and his team have gone back to D.C. to chase Kendall," said Mac. "Meanwhile, we have to work the case from our end. We still have to find Vincent Wilcox, and Harvey Gates' killer." He stood up. "We'll be coordinating our efforts to solve both these murders. It's a complicated case that has to be kept low-profile, which means we'll need to proceed with caution and discretion. This cannot be made general knowledge; it would hamper our investigation. Understood?"

A general murmur of assent and head-bobbing met his words.

"Good," he said. "Now let's get to work. We've got two killers to catch."

A/N: So? Do you feel like throttling me? And before anyone suggest otherwise, yes this is the end of the story - but not the trilogy. Hopefully I can have the next installment up by the end of the year - key word here is 'hopefully'. I'm not making promises I can't keep.

See you all in Washington, D.C. for the next part of Cross Country Case - Capital Offense.