Thanks to everyone who has taken to time to read and review/message.
Sorry this chapter is so late; I haven't forgotten or given up. I've been up to my eyeballs in real life stuff trying to sort everything out. Because it has been pretty hectic lately, I haven't had much time for reading or writing…sorry! It is, however, a pretty long chapter to make up for it; hope you enjoy.
So…Téa relates her story to a rapt and relieved audience, Abby does some digging on Tony and his past in Philly in an effort to get to know him better, and Tony has a few words for Fornell.
Everyone in the room let out an audible sigh of relief; Téa had agreed to help them and that meant catching one very bad guy!
Tony and Gibbs shared a brief look, each trying to gauge the other. Tony saw the NCIS Agent give him a brief nod of support and encouragement; it was good to know that while he might not be able to trust in the FBI or their intentions, he could trust NCIS…or in Gibbs at any rate.
The man seemed to be pretty determined on just about everything, from catching the bad guy to getting his coffee fix to delivering the most withering glare possible.
He knew that men like Gibbs were not easy to work with and that gaining their trust was next to impossible, and while Tony was more than certain that he would never meet the Agent's no doubt extensive requirements he was positive that Gibbs would not go home until they had resolved the case; that was what mattered most, after all.
Gibbs saw the concern in the young Detective's eyes; concern for their newfound star witness or something else…he couldn't really tell. He was getting better at reading the various emotions in the younger man but he didn't know why he should feel as though it was such a great accomplishment.
Once he had twigged onto certain aspects of the Detective's very unique personality traits he realised that the young man's eyes were really very emotive if you knew what you were looking for.
It was clear that with a conscious effort DiNozzo could hide his volatile emotions, even from his eyes, but Gibbs would catch a millisecond of hurt or confusion or amusement flicker through them before burning away to reveal whichever mask he might choose to wear for the masses.
There were other clues too, that he had begun to notice, that led to a greater understanding of the complex young man's real feelings about a given situation. He'd only been in Baltimore a few days, but it was clear that the clothes the young man wore were an extension of the mask he carried; they were yet another weapon DiNozzo had in his arsenal to redirect people's attention and mislead them.
When DiNozzo had been wearing a suit, he and his partner were facing pressure from the press, from their Chief of Police and no doubt their Captain as well as various other city officials.
Then NCIS had come.
The younger man had donned a well-cut, tailor-made, clearly very expensive suit in an effort to present a professional image. It was apparent that the smarter the clothes were, the more insecure the young man was feeling with his current environment or the people surrounding him; he would dress himself up in expensive Italian suits, not as an homage to his heritage, but to act as yet another buffer.
Once DiNozzo had come back from the hospital and the drama with Fornell had calmed down, Sam had thrust some clean but casual clothes in his young partner's face. There was a pair of faded dark-blue jeans, a well-worn grey Ohio State t-shirt and a bottle-green zip-up hoodie; this DiNozzo compared to his expensive tailored suit persona was almost unrecognisable.
The behaviour had been very different too.
Tony had been far more relaxed and his smile reached his expressive eyes and paper-balls flew across the room and landed (with dead-on accuracy) on the desk Fornell had acquired for himself…even the impressively dark glares the young Detective had been sending the FBI Agent's way had been toned down.
DiNozzo's body language spoke just as loudly as his clothes in relation to his mental well-being. His shoulders had clued Gibbs in on the fact that the younger man did not trust the FBI Agent, even before the bitter words and angry countenance were expressed…even before the look of shock and confusion had left his face with Fornell's initial appearance.
DiNozzo was clearly a natural athlete; the man had earned himself a sports scholarship that got him into Ohio State, after all. He was still in good physical condition too, judging by his toned form and the ease and strength with which he carried himself despite what must be a crippling head-ache from the concussion.
However, despite his well-defined shoulders and natural poise, the young man had been unable to hide the slight tensing of his shoulder muscles as he took the briefest of moments to digest Fornell's unexpected and clearly unwelcome appearance in Baltimore's 22nd Precinct Homicide Department.
His reasonably tall stature no doubt gave him an advantage over most of the people the young Detective came across most of the time, but he could achieve the exact opposite effect too with very little effort.
When the young man had been consoling Téa, he had left a bit of room between the two despite being close to her; he had also knelt down so that he was not towering over the distressed young woman sitting in the chair. DiNozzo had kept his tone quiet and reassuring, while taking care to make sure his posture could not be read as threatening or domineering.
That DiNozzo had been so careful with his body language with the young Albanian spoke volumes not just to his understanding of the poor woman, who would no doubt be uncomfortable with the close proximity of an unknown man given her current circumstances; it also showed an acute awareness of body language, both his own and how other people might interpret it.
Of course, the biggest and certainly the loudest clue to DiNozzo and how he was feeling at any one moment was his voice. The young Detective did seem to like talking; he talked as much as Abby…or maybe not…maybe it only seemed that way because everything the Forensic Specialist said was at hyper-speed and she could fit more words into a second than DiNozzo, even at his most verbose, might hope to achieve.
Naturally, being a walking, fast-talking paradox, what he said rarely had anything to do with what he meant. However, there were other clues; DiNozzo seemed to talk a lot, but he talked a lot of crap when he was nervous or uncomfortable with the situation or people.
He would openly use sarcasm and cynicism with those he didn't like, except when the young man was faced with a more authoritative figure who could have an effect on his career. In those situations DiNozzo seemed to pull off dumb insolence with a practised ease; offending people who were unsure of whether or not they were being insulted was a talent few had and many wished for.
He seemed to use humour and aimless drabble to distract people and throw them off-balance. DiNozzo's jokes could be rude and misogynistic and Gibbs didn't doubt for one second that anything he said was unintentional; being offensive in such a blasé manner was highly effective at re-directing someone's attention away from the subject and onto righteous indignation.
Of course, DiNozzo was an equal-opportunist and seemed to take great joy in mocking himself just as much as anyone else he set his sights on; pointing out his flaws and bragging about his accomplishments, even infuriating people with unexpected strengths that made it all the more difficult for people to get a proper handle on the Detective.
All these different methods allowed Gibbs the chance to decipher the young man opposite him and still he was no closer to understanding him. Sure, Gibbs could now just about work out when the Detective was being serious and when he was taking the piss, but there was a difference between recognising an emotion and understanding the reason behind it.
DiNozzo just didn't seem to react to situations the way a normal person should!
"So, Téa," Tony said softly as his partner put a cup of coffee in front of her; Tony nodded his thanks for Sam's thoughtfulness as well as reassuring his partner that he had everything in hand. "What can you tell us about how Teresa Kastrioti died? Was it Radoslav?"
She nodded slowly, looking up at the Detective through lashes thick with tears. "When they first brought us here, they kept us in the warehouse," she began, her accent thicker because of her distress. "Gave us drugs and beat us if we did something they did not like. Then, they would take us to the club at night. Teresa was already there; she tried to help us, tell us what to do…how to stay out of trouble.
"The soldier came often; Teresa said that he wanted to save her. She tried to tell him, many, many times, but he would not listen; he loved her, I think. Teresa liked him but she said he wanted a fairytale, a happily-ever-after; she said girls like us don't get a white knight…a hero.
"He kept coming back to see her, to try and talk her into leaving; we couldn't leave. Do you know what they do to the girls who try to leave? They kill them...they hunt them down and then they kill them. Nadia was punished for protecting herself and she died because of the beating Goran gave her. Teresa told me about a girl who ran away and they cut her stomach and left her to bleed to death. We could not leave."
"Hey," Tony said quietly, gently resting a hand on the young woman's shoulders. "You're safe; I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. You can leave now."
Gibbs knew that Téa's trust in Tony was crucial to gaining her full co-operation to the end of the case, but as much as he wanted to help her, he knew that someone needed to play bad cop; she'd told them a lot so far, but she seemed intent on skirting the information about the three murders they were trying to solve. He only hoped DiNozzo understood what he was about to do.
"What about the murders, Téa?" Gibbs asked firmly. "We can only protect you if you give us a reason; we can only protect you if there is something to protect you from!"
Téa jumped in her seat at the harsh tone and looked towards the seemingly angry Agent with apprehension. While she was looking away from him, Tony offered Gibbs a small nod, letting the older man know that he understood what he was trying to achieve; he might not know Gibbs very well, but at both the warehouse and at Club Abër itself, the man had clearly been effected by the lives these young women were forced to lead.
He was glad he got to play the good cop here; he wasn't sure he'd be able to act so callously towards the young woman crying in front of him. It was time to play his role.
"Agent Gibbs!" he said sharply, drawing shocked glances from the NCIS group and curious looks from both his partner and Fornell. "Give the poor woman a break; I'm sure she is going to tell us what she can." He turned to Téa, "Ignore him, you can take your time."
"No, you can't take more time," Gibbs said, slapping his fist down on the table. "You said Teresa was your friend; you said Nadia was your friend; if you don't give us what we need to know then Radoslav could get away…move somewhere else and do this all over again, to someone else's friends! Is that what you want? So far you've told us nothing except that Jennings and your friend knew each other."
"Agent Gibbs!" Tony shouted once again; he was becoming a little fearful that the charade had gone too far, but he was also fairly confident that the Agent's many years on the job meant that he knew what he was doing…or at least, he hoped so!
"No," Téa said quietly, offering her white knight a tremulous smile. "He is right; you need to know what happened so that it cannot happen again."
"Ok, but only if you're sure you're ready," Tony reassured her with a weak smile of his own; a quick but discreet nod from Gibbs let him know that he had approved of the way the play had turned out.
"It was like I said," Téa continued quietly. "The soldier…"
"Corporal Paul Jennings," Gibbs interrupted; this time he was not trying to prove a point, he just thought the man deserved to be called by his name rather than being referred to as simply 'the soldier.'
"Yes," Téa said. "He came back to the club in his uniform; he was supposed to be going away to war but he said he had to try and get Teresa out of there one last time before he went. She still refused; she was too scared to try and leave.
"The soldier, Jennings…" she added hastily after she caught a quick glance of Gibbs' face. "He said to Goran that if he didn't let Teresa go then he would tell the police what was going on at Club Abër; Goran said they should talk in private and he took Teresa and Jennings into a room at the back of the club with some of the other men.
"They didn't come out. Pasha closed the club early and he took the rest of us back to the warehouse; Goran was waiting there. Jennings was not hurt, but Teresa was; Goran said that if Jennings tried anything then Teresa would pay the price. We knew that nothing good would happen; Teresa was hurt and Jennings was outnumbered, and we all knew not to cross Goran," she sniffed, subconsciously rubbing her arm as if soothing an ache that rested bone-deep there.
Tony picked up her the cup of tea, still quite warm. "Here," he said, offering her the mug along with another paper tissue.
"Thank you," Téa mumbled with a weak smile. "Goran told us then that we could never leave unless he told us we could…he told us there would be consequences…he told us that we would not live to regret crossing him. That was when he shot the soldier."
"Goran shot him, no-one else…Goran?" Gibbs demanded and Tony found himself leaning forward in eager anticipation of the answer. Like Gibbs he realised the magnitude of Goran being the trigger man; if they could get the supposed leader of the trafficking ring then dealing with the smaller fish should be relatively easy.
The higher up a man was in an organisation like a trafficking ring, he tended to get other people to do the dirty work and so limit evidence of his involvement; it was why putting these kinds of men behind bars was so much more difficult.
Goran had left himself wide open. So far they only had one witness who, by her own admission had a drug habit, one forced upon her by her captors. However, one witness could turn into several when the girls realised it was safe to talk; regardless, they now had enough to merit a warrant. Hopefully the forensics could dig up the rest of the evidence needed for a hands-down conviction; he only hoped that this Abby was as good as Gibbs said she was.
"Yes, Goran shot your soldier," Téa nodded with certainty. "He had blood all over his clothes."
Gibbs nodded; Goran may have disposed of the clothes, but hopefully Abby could find something on whatever they might dig up in Goran's place. "Teresa was raped," he said bluntly, still prepared to play bad cop to get this case sorted; she'd proven she was a strong girl to have survived everything life had thrown at her so far. "Did you see who did that?"
Téa nodded. "After the…after Jennings died; Goran did not…but he let the other men…over and over. They were so rough; she kept crying, begging for them to stop, but they would only hurt her more. After they were…after they had finished, Goran said that if we tried to leave then this would happen to us; that was when he strangled Teresa.
"I tried to stop him…tried to save her!" she cried, tears were freely flowing down her cheeks. "I couldn't…I couldn't save her; I wasn't strong enough."
"Hey," Tony said quietly, he tenderly used his hand to lift her chin up and gently force her to look into his eyes. "You tried…that's the main thing. Most people in that situation wouldn't have even done that; the fact that these guys were stronger than you is not something you should feel guilty about…you have nothing to feel guilty about!"
Téa nodded but Tony wasn't convinced that his words had sunk in; he doubted this was something the young Albanian would ever learn to live with. He looked over at Gibbs and could see the man's hands tighten on the chair he was holding; he was clearly just as angry as Tony felt.
Goran was a sadistic son of a bitch that they desperately needed to stop; he couldn't believe that the FBI had this man in their sights for so long and let him get away with so much! As much as he would have liked to bring that question up with Fornell, he knew that he couldn't do it in front of Téa.
"Ah, Jethro," everyone who had been raptly listening to Téa's story turned to look at Doctor Mallard. The M.E. was stood by the doorway to the Homicide Department…a doorway that was filled with two members of the US Marshal's Office. "It seems we have some visitors."
Tony frowned; he hadn't called the Marshal's Office yet, having been too busy with Téa's statement. "I called them when I went to get Téa here something to drink," Sam informed his partner and Agent Gibbs. "I thought it made sense for you to be here for the handover." With that, he stepped back, allowing the fragile woman in front of him some space.
Gibbs nodded at Detective Jacobs…it did make sense; Téa had placed whatever faith she had in Detective DiNozzo, and she would no doubt trust him more than anyone else to ensure her safety by handing her over into the US Marshal's protective custody.
"Hello, ma'am, I'm Deputy Marshal Greenwell," one of the Marshal's stepped forward and knelt down by Téa's seat. "That is my partner, Carlson. When you're ready we'll move you to a safe-house when we'll protect you until your part in this case is resolved, and then we'll look into relocation and a new identity."
Téa spent a few quiet moments trying to judge the two US Marshals for herself before looking to Tony for reassurance, who offered her what he hoped was his most reassuring smile.
"This is what they're trained to do," he told her. "They'll take you to a safe-house where the novelty of being in witness protection will soon wear off, and you'll be playing scrabble for the 108th time in a row after your 245th game of solitaire after reading all three books that they provide you with over and over and memorising the take-out menu."
Téa let out a soft chuckle as she dried her face, the tears having stopped.
"Then you can decide whether or not you'll help us put Radoslav away and give evidence at his trial, or you might simply want to leave Baltimore and never look back; either way, eventually, if you want, you will end up with a new identity in a new city with a fresh start ahead of you."
"It sounds good to me," Téa confessed quietly. "I do want to go and never look back."
Both Gibbs and Tony shared disappointed glances; without Téa's testimony they would have to rely upon evidence, and so far they had none. Goran Radoslav could walk!
Téa caught the glances shared between both the Detective and the Agent and knew what conclusion they had jumped to. "I want to leave and never come back, but I can't. Goran will pay for what he has done!" she promised with sure a steadfast certainty that Tony could not equate her sudden ferocity with the tearful young woman that had previously been sat before him.
"If I co-operate, will the rest of my family be safe? I don't think I can do this if they will be in danger," she said fearfully, all previous signs of certainty melting into insecurity and anxiety.
While Téa looked to Tony for an answer, he knew that he could not provide one for her, so he looked to the one man who would probably have the strongest influence over the right sort of people. "What do you say, Fornell?" he asked quietly and as politely as he could manage, knowing this wasn't the time to showcase his resentment and distrust of the man and his presence.
"I can't make any promises just yet, but I don't think you'll need to worry, ma'am," Fornell said with what passed for a gentle smile from him. "We'll try to bring them out here and get them settled, either with you or wherever else the Marshals might think they would be safe."
Téa nodded, some of her fears having been allayed. "Do I go now?"
Tony nodded, "Sam here was clever enough to record this little chat of ours, so we'll get it transcribed and you can sign it at a later date. You should go with these men and start on with the scrabble; you definitely deserve a break…I'm sure it must have been pretty intense for you."
Before Téa had got to her feet, Gibbs' voice halted her movements. "Wait!" he ordered. "What you've told us only accounts for two of the three murders. What about the other guy? What about May?"
Téa shook her head, "I didn't see him, or at least not that night, anyway. I've seen him in the club a couple of times; I think Goran and his friends get some drugs from him, but I don't know…no-one ever really tells us anything."
"Alright," Tony smiled gently at her, aware of just how much they had pushed the poor woman for answers. "You should go and get some rest. Don't worry about Goran and his friends; they're our problem now."
The office settled down into a relatively calm and quiet atmosphere once Téa and the US Marshals left; Sam had agreed to take Blackadder with him, as part of the continued Baltimore PD/NCIS co-operation, to the interview rooms where they would be questioning witnesses and trying to corroborate their statements with anything Téa had said or might otherwise have inadvertently revealed.
Fornell was making a few calls to people in Washington DC trying to secure Téa's co-operation by securing her family's safety, while Abby was travelling back to DC to check on her tests; evidence along with Téa's testimony should make for a slam-dunk case. Agent Batista had gone to the FBI's Baltimore Field Office to get any more relevant information on the trafficking ring.
Ducky and Dr. Metcalf had gone down to the morgue about half an hour earlier to start the autopsy on the recently discovered body of Téa's beaten friend from Club Abër, Nadia.
Tony and Gibbs were looking at the FBI files, focusing particularly on Radoslav and Pasha; according to Téa, these were the two that seemed to be more involved than the others. Every now and then, the two would compare a few bits of information and found that they had each reached similar conclusions.
Gibbs' ringing mobile ended the brief respite. "Gibbs," he barked by way of an introduction.
"Gibbs!" came a voice squealing down the line.
"Abs, how many Caff-Pows have you had?" Gibbs let out wryly.
"Oh…umm…well, I'm not really sure," Abby confessed in one quick breath. "I had to make up for the fact that they didn't have any in Baltimore; I mean really, not one place? There has to be somewhere…really…I mean no city can live without its share of Caff-Pow, Gibbs…that would be a world gone topsy-turvy! Maybe it's more of a back alley thing there; I mean Baltimore isn't really anything like DC, is it? I mean there's no White House for one, and there isn't a…"
"Abby!" Gibbs shouted down the line, eager to stop the caffeine/sugar induced rambling; for someone as intelligent as she undoubtedly was, the Forensic Specialist sure could spout a lot of nonsense. He moved away from the young Detective who was quietly laughing at what he had heard being shouted down the line from his hyperactive colleague. "What did you want?" he asked out of DiNozzo's earshot.
"Oh, well, I've got a bunch of test results for you," she revealed, not the slightest bit put out by Gibbs' sharp interruption. "The blood you pulled from the warehouse was a match to both the Marine and Jane Doe…"
"Teresa Kastrioti," Gibbs insisted. It felt wrong to call her Jane Doe now that they had a name for her; for everything that she had suffered through in life, she at least deserved to be remembered by name if nothing else.
"Yeah, Teresa…it's a match; that's our primary crime scene, Gibbs. However, there was no blood match for Richard May. However, pretty much all the blood in the alley matches his DNA; only a few areas of transfer for the other two though; they were probably moved there after they had been dead for maybe an hour…enough for bleeding not to be an issue, anyway. I couldn't find any other DNA there, so we can't tie it to anyone just yet."
"What about the biologicals from our vics?" Gibbs asked, desperate for something to tie the murders to Radoslav.
"Well, both May and Jennings suffered two shots; one to the head and one to the chest, so there was never much chance of finding anything on them, other than transfer traces when Jennings' body was moved. The bullets were 9mm, pretty standard ammo for a whole bunch of side-arms, but I would still need a gun to match them to if we were to use them as evidence. Otherwise, there was no mystery DNA on either of them that I could find.
"Teresa…she had a lot of DNA and transfer on her, but the searches haven't turned anything up; I'm still running them through a whole bunch of databases, but because these guys are most likely from somewhere in Eastern Europe the chances of them being in a system, any system, are slim, especially if they haven't been over here for long.
"I picked up three different samples from the swabs that Ducky took of her vaginal fluid, but some of them were a little more degraded than the others, so it is possible that she was raped by more than three men, but those are the only three that we could convict in a court of law.
"She did have some skin under her fingernails…she fought back Gibbs," Abby swallowed back a sob. She hated having to read these sorts of facts out about a person as if it was a list, a dehumanising list; she had to explore the last moments of a person's life in all the grisly details because it was her job to uncover the truth and make sure the bad guys went to jail…it was her job, but that didn't mean that she always liked it.
"She's still fighting back, Abs," Gibbs said quietly; reassurance had never been his strong suit, not even with Shannon and Kelly, but he could hear the stark emotion in Abby's voice and wanted to get her back on track and shift her focus off the bad things. "That skin…it could tell us who hurt her, right?"
"Yes," Abby confessed quietly, all previous signs of a caffeine and sugar overload having disappeared.
"So she could still win this fight, Abs; you need to pull that DNA so that we can nail the guy that did this to the wall!" Gibbs insisted firmly; he wanted Abby focusing on catching the bad guy and not on Teresa Kastrioti's horrific end.
"I've pulled it already, Gibbs," Abby protested, offended that he might think she wasn't on the ball. "All my tests are done; I'm just waiting on those searches I told you about. Can I come back to Baltimore and help out at the lab there?" she asked hopefully.
"Abs," Gibbs sighed, not entirely sure what to say. He never liked saying 'no' to Abby, but he wasn't sure why on earth she would want to come back here and run the more mundane lab work that she usually complained about. "It is just a whole bunch of people trawling through a whole load of crap that they pulled out of the alley-way, including a pile of vomit and a hell of a lot of rat shit infested litter; why would you want to travel up to do that?"
"Because I'm bored!" Abby whined in a manner that suggested her reason should have been obvious, and she was bored, but that wasn't the only reason why she wanted to go back to Baltimore.
She had seen the way her Bossman had worked with DiNozzo when they were both trying to uncover the truth with Téa Kadare; they had worked well together and Abby hadn't seen that sort of flow going since Stan left the team. She wasn't sure how DiNozzo went from being an irritant to Gibbs, from being described as nothing more than 'loud' and 'difficult' to being someone that Gibbs trusted enough to run an important interview.
Detective DiNozzo was becoming more and more of a mystery that she wanted to unravel. She had read his files and, like Gibbs, found that they did little to explain the man they found themselves working alongside. Everything he did seemed set to countermand any previous expectations anyone might have about the man, before going off and doing or saying something else to rock the boat.
She can still remember the way DiNozzo's eyes roamed over her body the first way they met and the mischievous grin he sent her way, but in his dealings with Téa the man had not shown the slightest hint of lasciviousness; he had been gentle and respectful of her personal space, comforted her when she had needed it and backed off when the young girl was describing what Teresa had been forced to endure out of consideration.
It had been a side to the young Detective that she would never had imagined to exist.
She was determined to try and understand the eccentric Detective and to understand why Gibbs seemed to be so prepared to work alongside him and his partner, co-operatively, when he would purposefully rile anybody else he was forced to work with; to do all that she needed to be in Baltimore.
"I've set it up so that if I get any hits on the DNA, my baby will automatically e-mail me the results; it's a long shot anyway, Gibbs, at least until we have some samples to match them to…please?" she begged, sure that Gibbs would not refuse her.
"Abs…" Gibbs sighed again.
"I can tell you what I found out about Philly," she said with a smile, knowing she had just played her trump card.
"You could tell me that over the phone," Gibbs suggested firmly.
"I could," Abby agreed. "But I won't."
"Fine," Gibbs said through gritted teeth; Abby was getting far too good at getting her own way, but he knew that he would never even attempt to curb that particular trait. "I'll see you within the hour, and I expect a damn good explanation…and bring your own goddamn Caff-Pows; I don't have the time to trawl through Baltimore looking for one."
"I'll bring enough to see me through, and I can promise you, this is something pretty special," Abby assured him, before hanging up and performing a victory dance as she gathered her things together.
While Gibbs was talking to his bizarre Forensic Specialist, Tony went for a cup of the god-awful departmental coffee. He set up the now empty percolator and ensured that the coffee brewing could double as paint thinner; he needed caffeine to get him through the rest of the day. His head was still pounding and Téa's testimony had done nothing to improve his mood. As he waited for the coffee to finish he surveyed everyone else in the office.
Sam and Blackadder had returned from the interview rooms and were now raking through all the signed witness statements and comparing them with their initial accounts. Sam felt his partner's eyes upon him and nodded to him, which Tony swiftly returned; the unspoken enquiry about each other's well-being was answered just as silently.
Doctors Metcalf and Mallard were still absent, and so Tony assumed they were still working on Nadia's autopsy. He couldn't wait to catch Radoslav; the sadistic son of a bitch was going to pay for what he had done!
He turned to find Gibbs still on the phone and due to the obvious signs of irritation radiating off the man, Tony turned round and filled up two cups of coffee; he doubted Gibbs would count it as good coffee, because no one in their right mind could possibly define it as anything even remotely close to 'good,' but it was still a cup full of much needed caffeine if nothing else.
"Is there enough in there for another cup?" Fornell asked from behind and Tony had to try his hardest to suppress a small jump of surprise.
"No," he replied shortly, despite being well aware that there was at least enough for two more cups of coffee. He wasn't going to make things easy for Fornell; if the man was in Baltimore to 'right some wrongs,' as he had said he was, then he would be able to prove himself, but Tony wasn't going to sit idly by and wait to see which direction the man might go.
Fornell rolled his eyes and picked the percolator out of the young Detective's hands before pouring himself a generous amount.
"I've just spent the last two hours on the phone with immigration; what I really need is a double bourbon on the rocks, but caffeine will have to do for now." He took a big gulp and Tony had to smoother a laugh as he took in the FBI Agent's expression.
"You ok?" Tony asked with feigned compassion.
"At least it's strong, I suppose," Fornell commented dryly while raising an eyebrow at the young man that he undoubtedly blamed.
"I was trying to make it Gibbs strength," Tony shrugged before pouring another cup of coffee and carrying it over towards the other two working quietly in the corner. "Agent Blackadder, milk and no sugar," he said before placing it next to her. "Sam, Fornell drank yours, so you're going to have to wait for the next batch."
"Its fine," Sam smiled, catching Fornell's frown at his partner's words; it seemed DiNozzo was not ready to forgive and forget just yet. "Thanks," he offered his partner a mischievous wink before turning back to work.
"Yes, thank you, Detective DiNozzo," Blackadder smiled at him.
"No problemo," Tony responded with a flirtatious smile of his own, before going back to the coffee pot to reset it for his partner.
"How's the reading going?" Fornell asked casually.
"It's a slow read," Tony shrugged. "I think the ending is pretty obvious too. There are no real surprises or entertaining twists; I won't waste my money on the sequel, that's for sure."
"Hopefully there won't be a sequel," Fornell replied, not in the least bit hazed by the Detective's tangents.
"Hopefully," Tony agreed, shooting the FBI Agent a calculating look; he was trying to figure out just how sincere the man was, but it was a hard task with someone whose face seemingly only held three different expressions…ever!
"You don't trust me, DiNozzo," Fornell said matter-of-factly, no questioning tone to his voice at all. "I understand it, too, but I'm not sure what else I can say to make you understand that I'm trying to make sure my mistakes in Philadelphia are not repeated here in Baltimore."
"You don't have to say anything," Tony hissed quietly, his mood changing to one of bitter anger in the blink of an eye. He stepped into the FBI Agent's personal space; "If you're really here to make sure that Radoslav doesn't walk, then you prove it to me by catching the son of a bitch and nailing him to the wall and throwing the whole goddamn book at him!
"If you want to prove it to me, then make sure that the so-called 'good citizens' that got themselves involved in his business, one way or another, are going to be standing right there beside him in the dock at court. You make sure that no one walks because it might embarrass someone on Capitol Hill or in the Mayor's Office, or your own goddamn Director.
"If you can do all that," Tony hissed, "Then maybe, just maybe, I won't break your nose for screwing me over like you did in Philly."
"You're asking for a lot," Fornell pointed out. "I can promise you that I will not let Radoslav walk, no matter what kind of deal he tries to make; I can't promise you that everyone associated with him will go down too.
"If you can bring me any evidence to suggest that there was someone from Capitol Hill or the Mayor's Office or even from the FBI that solicited sex from this trafficking ring, then I can make sure they pay for their crimes; if it only comes down to one person's word against another's…then there's nothing I can do. We need evidence for a conviction; 'innocent until proven guilty,' DiNozzo, you know that."
"I do," Tony agreed. "Vargas and Brewster have some photographic evidence about various different people who visited Club Abër; understandably they were hesitant about bringing up some of the names to the higher-ups, considering some of these higher-ups were involved and could make their life difficult…even end their career."
"Can I see this photographic evidence?" Fornell asked, a frown present; important city officials involved in something like this was going to cause problems, with the media, with the Brass…the whole legal system would be tipped upside down.
"Not a chance," Tony shook his head. "You help us catch Radoslav and I'll let you take a peek, but nothing until then. If you don't help us catch Radoslav…well, let's just say that Sam has more determination than my last partner did and he's about as likely to let this go as I am; I think you already know what Gibbs would consider doing to see this thing through to the end."
Fornell nodded his agreement; he knew exactly how far Jethro would go to make sure Radoslav spent the rest of his life in a small, barred room. The real question was did DiNozzo really understand? He stole a quick glance towards the young Detective and looked back on the behaviour between the young man and Agent Gibbs.
Jethro seemed to be more than tolerant of the Detective's antics and his overly verbose nature; Tobias couldn't even remember a time when Jethro had shown that much patience with anyone, certainly not a cop who would no doubt have refused to bow down to his authority! He hadn't missed the look the two shared when he had been trying to explain to DiNozzo why he was really in Baltimore; he hadn't missed the looks between the two during the interview with Miss Kadare.
It seemed as though Jethro had found someone other than himself that he trusted enough to complete an interview, just as it had also seemed that DiNozzo did not only look to his partner for reassurance. He had no idea what had happened, if anything, that had brought that trust into existence, but he knew that it was rare for either of them to trust easily.
Yes…he believed that perhaps Detective DiNozzo was aware of what lengths Jethro would go to in order to catch the bad guy.
"I need a coffee!" Gibbs' gruff voice demanded behind him.
Tony handed one over; it was not as hot as it had been, but it was warm enough and he didn't think Gibbs cared as much about the temperature as he did about the strength of the drink.
Gibbs took a big gulp of coffee in an attempt to wash away Abby's rambling voice; he loved her like family, but God that girl knew how to talk! "Oh, God!" he pulled a face at the coffee before turning a glare towards DiNozzo.
"It's strong," Tony pointed out unnecessarily.
"You think so, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "It tastes like crap!" he complained.
"Departmental coffee," Tony agreed, nodding his head wisely.
Gibbs held his glare on the young Detective, never moving his eyes as he shouted out, "Blackadder!"
"Yes, Boss?" she asked, a hint of anxiety in her voice, as she hurried over to her team leader.
"Coffee trip; strong and black…two cups," he ordered.
"We have coffee here, Gibbs," Tony said, as if he were explaining it to a rather slow five year old.
Gibbs' eyes narrowed at the young Detective. "Real coffee," he clarified.
"I don't know," Tony shook his head with mock despair. "Here I am slaving over the pot to ensure Agent Gibbs gets his caffeine fix and this is the thanks I get." The effect of his miserable countenance was ruined by the mischievous glint in his eyes. "You really want to hit me right now, don't you?" he enquired with a small grin after seeing the NCIS Agent's eyes narrow even further in his direction.
"DiNozzo, you have no idea just how strong that urge can be at times," Gibbs said matter-of-factly.
"Well, that's not true," Tony pointed out. "If I guessed correctly then surely I have some idea."
Gibbs scowled and mumbled unintelligibly before eventually turning round to face his Agent. "Coffee run, Blackadder, now!" he ordered before returning to his paperwork; maybe reading would stop him strangling the young Detective in front of his partner.
"Hello, Bossman!" came Abby's cry of joy as she entered the Homicide Department.
"I'll be back," Gibbs promised with a stern glare at his current partner; DiNozzo just smiled back. He had understood that Gibbs had meant for him to carry on working, but…well…everyone needed a break at some stage, right?
"Abs," Gibbs greeted his Forensic Specialist. "What do you have for me?"
"Honestly, Gibbs," Abby sighed. "Patience is a virtue, you know…" she paused and gave him a quick once over, taking in his stance and his own sigh. "Clearly not one of yours though."
"Abs…"
"Ok, ok," she put up her hands in mock surrender and waved a file under his nose. "Never doubt me again, Gibbs!"
Gibbs nodded and felt some of the tension leave him; finally…finally, he would have some answers. "Come on, let's find somewhere a little quieter."
Abby nodded him and followed Gibbs into one of the small conference rooms off the corridor outside the Homicide Department. "Ah," Abby nodded wisely as she looked around. "Coffee machine; gotcha reasoning, Bossman."
Gibbs shook his head; DiNozzo had said the same thing. He wasn't that bad with his coffee; a good cup of coffee could set the tone for a good day, after all.
"Sit," he directed the young woman into a swivel chair on one side of the desk; he sat himself in the chair at the end and waited with feigned patience while he watched Abby twist and turn into a comfortable position. "Talk," he ordered her once she seemed to have settled slightly.
"Ok, so an old friend of mine from college, Phil, he worked in Philadelphia a while back and he still has some ties there; he owed me…like…big time! I mean it Gibbs; he owed me so big that if I killed someone, he would have to help me drag out the body to the middle of some woods, dig the grave all by himself, cover the dead guy in quick-lime and then provide me with an alibi if I needed one, and we still wouldn't be quits!" Abby said with wide eyes as she waved her arms about madly trying to show Gibbs just how much her old friend was in her debt.
"Abby," Gibbs rolled his eyes as he tried to get her back on track.
"Yeah, so I asked him to do some digging around…on the down-low, of course," she nodded her head sagely.
"Of course," Gibbs added dryly.
"Anyways, so he found out everything…well, pretty much everything; there are still some grey areas, so he's still gonna have to do one or two more favours if he ever wants to get back into my good books."
Gibbs ground his teeth and pulled his hands into fists in a desperate bid not to lean across the table and strangle the answers out of one of the few people at NCIS that he actually liked.
"So…it turns out there was…like…this major drugs cartel doing big business in Philly, and no matter how many raids there were on suspected labs, or how many warrants were executed for house searches and all the arrests that were made, nothing really ever seemed to stick. A few of the small time crooks did some time, but nothing major; Phil said that none of the big timers even saw the inside of a police station, let alone a holding cell!"
"There was someone on the inside…an informant within the Police Department," Gibbs astutely surmised.
"Bingo!" Abby clapped her hands and pointed at her Silver Fox for emphasis. "But that's the thing, Bossman; Phil said that there wasn't just one man giving out info to the Cartel and protecting their operations; there was a whole host of people getting payouts from the Cartel for all sorts of things. There was some major scale, seriously down and dirty corruption going on in fair old Philly, Gibbs, and not just in the PD!
"There were a whole bunch of cops, that's true, but there were also some FBI agents involved, as well as some senior city officials and even a Senator's aide; they couldn't find any evidence linking Senator Hammers to the whole mess, but a lot of people seemed to accuse him of being involved."
"FBI was involved?" Gibbs asked. "That could explain why Fornell was involved too."
"All too true, Bossman," Abby agreed, nodding her head so fast that Gibbs though she might strain something. "Washington sent out Fornell to keep certain facts from coming to light in the media. The former Director had a very old, very close friend heading up the Organised Crime Department in Philly's Field Office. These two were such good bosom-buddies that former Director Walters made a very public, heart-felt endorsement of Special Agent Gibbons' application for the post of Deputy Director back in DC."
"So they had to cover it all up to stop the Director from making an idiot of himself," Gibbs shook his head in disgust. God he hated politics; he thoroughly hoped that no one was ever stupid enough to promote him into an office! "None of this explains DiNozzo's involvement," he pointed out.
"Au contraire, my impatient, little Marine," Abby wagged a finger at him, but caught the affronted look at the use of the word 'little' so she quickly corrected herself. "Not little...at all; big, scary, badass Marine!" she assured him with vigour.
"The point, Abs," Gibbs asked with a sigh.
"Well, DiNozzo was just a lowly officer in those days, assigned to the Vice Department of one Philadelphia Police Department. A uniform's job is pretty much doing all the legwork for the Detective's investigation; he noticed something was hinky…that the Cartel always seemed to be one step ahead of any bust, so he took his concerns to his Captain, and then an investigation was launched."
"The one Fornell came in on," Gibbs accurately surmised.
"Yep," Abs nodded fervently. "Once it was clear that there were some dirty FBI agents involved, the Hoover Building received some very unpleasant calls from a pissed off Chief of Police in Philly and the former Director put one and one together and came up with one very naughty old friend!"
"Ok, so this explains the cover-up, but none of this explains why DiNozzo made the jump from an Officer in Vice to a Detective in Homicide. Did he go along with the cover-up; was he involved some other way? These are the things I want to know, Abs."
"I know that, Gibbs," Abby replied in an affronted manner, irritated that her Bossman thought she would leave her investigation so open-ended. "Apparently, DiNozzo got on well with the lab folk in Philly, and they told Phil that DiNozzo came to them with evidence linked to all sorts of higher-ups and that the evidence was squashed by the Chief.
"They reckon that for DiNozzo to have gone along with it all, considering how pissed off he was with just the idea of a cover-up, that they had to have had something over his head; they didn't know what, but they thought that it maybe had something to do with his partner. Apparently, they did not get on, like, at all! But DiNozzo's supposed to be as loyal as a St. Bernard, so he wouldn't grass up his own partner."
There was a moment's silence as Gibbs tried to digest everything his Forensic Specialist had told him; just as he was about to ask her something else, a voice interrupted him from the doorway.
"Danvers wasn't involved," Tony said, without any emotion in his voice or on his face as he leaned casually against the doorway.
Gibbs silently cursed himself; he hadn't noticed anyone opening the door because he was so intent on the story he was hearing.
"He came across one or two dirty cops during the investigation, but he didn't take what he found out to IA," Tony explained.
"They pay him off?" Gibbs asked, with no apology or explanation for his snooping into DiNozzo's life.
"No," DiNozzo shook his head. "When a bunch of cops finally went down, one of them said that Danvers knew about his involvement and that he had done for a few of months…just a couple of weeks after the investigation started off, really. Danvers had been on Patrol for a few years by that stage, and everyone knew he was next in line for a promotion; he'd get a desk and a golden shield and he'd be able to wear a suit to work.
"Pay isn't great when you're walking a beat, and Danvers wife was over eight months pregnant when the investigation started; with a kid on the way, bills and a mortgage to pay…he definitely needed the promotion and the bigger pay-check that went with it. If a dirty cop threatened your family and you had no idea just how deep the corruption went within your own department…I think you'd hesitate before turning to IA, too, wouldn't you?"
"How does that affect your co-operation in the cover-up?" Gibbs asked, ignoring DiNozzo's questioning; someone went beyond threatening his family and Gibbs saw to it that the man paid for it with his life.
"I didn't like Danvers; Miss Scuito's source was right about that," Tony said quietly, looking down at his feet. Abby felt the start of something that she easily identified as guilt building up in her gut; she didn't like that her actions were now causing someone emotional pain, and it was clear that DiNozzo still had unresolved issues about what had happened in Philadelphia.
"He was more than a little condescending, always treating me like an idiot because I only had two years on the Force and he had seven. He would rarely tell me what his plan was when a bust went south and if I didn't back him up because I didn't have a fucking clue what he was up to, then I was the one to get reamed out.
"He always left the majority of the paperwork to me, left me to handle the Brass if something had gone wrong, and he made me run every stupid little errand he could think of. This wasn't the standard hazing, by any means; I could handle that…I have handled that, in sports teams and military academy and the Police Academy and my first years on the Force in Peoria.
"However, I was so busy trying to prove myself worthy of being something other than his errand boy that I had learnt a lot by the end…probably a lot more than I would have done with an indifferent partner. Sam's taught me a lot, but Danvers taught me a lot too; he had just never meant to do it."
"So why did you protect him?" Gibbs asked. "I'm pretty sure that must be what happened."
"He wasn't a good cop, not in the same way that Sam is good or that Blackburn is good, but at the end of the day he was on the right side of the law and he tried to put those who weren't behind bars; that is the job, after all. But he wasn't a bad cop either; I knew without a doubt that he wasn't involved in the whole Cartel mess. When it came out that Danvers knew about one of the cops, the FBI threatened to fire him, maybe even have him up on criminal charges."
"What kind of charges?" Gibbs asked with a frown; he knew that Fornell was all about the job and he couldn't imagine the man condoning any kind of cover-up. Had his ambition really caused him to go against his own set of ethics?
"Failure to report a crime, dereliction of duty…hell, they even wanted to add aiding and abetting," Tony snorted. "I knew that wouldn't stick in any court of law, but I couldn't risk the other two, because legally they were right; he did fail to report a crime and he did fail to do his duty.
"I didn't like him, but he was my partner, Gibbs; you back up your partner when and where you can. He wasn't dirty and he hadn't gone off the reservation; he tried to protect his family…and yes, his career too, because no one likes working with an IA rat, but he was doing what he could to protect his family. Even if I could have screwed him over like that, I could never have done that to Nancy, his wife.
"She was nice, always trying to mother me, despite the fact that she wasn't more that ten years older than me. She would come to the station with Tupperware boxes full of meals for me; she wouldn't send Danvers in with them because she knew he probably wouldn't hand them over.
"She had to leave her job once her pregnancy was in the later stages; and she wouldn't be able to go back to work until after the baby had grown up a bit because they wouldn't be able to afford child-care. I didn't like Danvers, but she loved him; he was the father of her child, her husband and her childhood sweetheart. She would need him and his job. He was an arsehole in all sorts of ways, but he was a damn good father to that kid, even when it was only a couple of months old and didn't need much from him."
"So you were protecting your partner? They would ignore everything Danvers had done, or not done, if you agreed to follow the company line?" Gibbs asked, respect for the young Detective in front of him building.
"Yeah," Tony nodded. "There was nothing else I could do. The Chief gave me a Detective's shield and yeah, I took it. He wanted me to stay but I couldn't, not in Philly; I'd pretty much lost any faith I once had in the Department and that badge was my ticket out of there and into a position where I couldn't be used like that again…or so I had hoped. Everyone seemed to be so keen to keep everything quiet; Gibbons walked away from the whole mess without even a reprimand in his file, and the FBI let that happen…I let that happen!" he shook his head in disgust.
"I'm not a puppet, Agent Gibbs," Tony said, his eyes boring into Gibbs' with no trace of his usual mischief and good cheer. "Philly screwed me over and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it without screwing over my partner; but I trust Sam and I know that he'd fight alongside me right to the end on this case, no matter what the ramifications might be. I'm not going to let the FBI give another criminal a get-out-of-jail-free card!"
"I'd kick your ass if you did, DiNozzo," Gibbs said firmly, with a gentle nod to the young man as some form of reassurance that he thought no less of him for knowing the truth about Philly.
Sam had said that DiNozzo had earned his Detective's Badge, and whilst he might have received it through some rather unsavoury circumstances it didn't mean he deserved it any less. Gibbs was becoming increasingly aware of the young man's talents and no one that good would have stayed as a uniform for long if he had his sights set elsewhere.
"I don't suppose I could try and talk you into kicking Fornell's ass instead, could I?" Tony asked with a small, wry grin.
"He'll do the right thing, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, his voice laced with certainty.
"That's what he told me he was doing last time," Tony sighed.
"Did he give you any reasons?" Gibbs asked, not able to reconcile what he knew with the FBI Agent he knew.
"Yeah, and a good one too…the greater good!" Tony said with disdain. "He said that if Gibbons went down for corruption then it wouldn't just be his cases that would be reviewed, but the whole Organised Crime Department's, because he was the Agent in charge. He said they didn't want to risk letting all those crooks out of prison because of the actions of one man."
"Did you agree with that?" Gibbs asked, curiously.
"Of course I didn't think it would be a good thing if all the cases had to be reviewed, but I also didn't think that it was a good thing that Gibbons got away scot-free! He should have to pay for what he'd done; people trusted him to enforce the law, and instead he broke the law…he failed them, badly! How many people died because people like Gibbons identified the informants we had within the Cartel? How many died because he wasn't doing his job and let thieves and drug dealers and murders go free? He shouldn't have been able to just walk away from that!"
"True," Gibbs nodded. "But it happened; we need to do our best to ensure it doesn't happen again. Are you in?"
"You already know I'm in," Tony pointed out.
"I do," Gibbs said with a small, wry grin. "So I'm going to get back to digging through all that god-awful paperwork; you take five minutes and then get back to work. Abby, you came all this way to help out their lab; I'm sure DiNozzo could direct you there."
"Thanks," Tony said, surprised, not having expected such consideration from the stern Marine. Gibbs nodded once at Tony and gave Abby a considering look before leaving, closing the door as he went.
"He likes you," Abby said with a small grin of her own. It was interesting to watch the way both Gibbs and DiNozzo interacted; they seemed comfortable, when they were mocking each other or testing each other. She hadn't seen Gibbs work this well with anyone for a long time; even Stan Burley had had to fight and work hard over several years to earn the respect that Gibbs seemed to have already afforded DiNozzo.
Tony snorted. "I'd surely hate to be hated by the man," he said dryly.
"Aw…he's nothing but goo on the inside...really!" she insisted loudly when she saw DiNozzo's eyebrow quirk.
"So," Tony said quietly. "You don't seem to want to kill me in a scarily efficient, freaky forensic fashion any more."
"No," Abby agreed. "You're kind of gooey on the inside too."
"Thanks…I think," DiNozzo said with a small frown. "I can assure you that no one has ever called me that before. So...you really have a friend called Phil from Philadelphia?" he smirked.
Abby welted him with her arm, unsure of whether or not he was mocking her, only to end up rubbing her arm in an effort to soothe it. "You're definitely not gooey on the outside."
Tony laughed and gently took her hand, giving it a quick inspection. "Not even a dent," he mocked. "What are you even bitching about?"
"Humph!" Abby pouted exaggeratedly.
"Come on," Tony said as he stood up, offering her a hand up. "I'm pretty sure my time is up and I really don't want to know what Gibbs would be like if he didn't like me!"
Abby laughed; she was beginning to see why her Bossman liked the affable young Detective. Maybe this was the start of a beautiful friendship…
Ok, so finally, another chapter is done. Please let me know what you think.
IA – Internal Affairs - they police the police.
Next-Up – The team finally get enough evidence to back up Téa's testimony and get a search warrant for Club Abër and Radoslav's apartment. Things don't go quite to plan.