oOo
"Boss," Tony called as he rejoined Gibbs, McGarrett and Williams at the smart table.
"Yeah, DiNozzo, what've you got?"
"I did some more digging into Rochelle Clarke's history in case we missed something important."
"What did you find?"
"Several years ago she was working for a firm in Ireland but it was shut down when the company that owned it was closed down. There's no mention why it was shut down."
"What was the name of the company?" Gibbs asked.
"Faraday Brothers Incorporated."
"I'm sorry, what?" McGarrett froze slightly at the name and shared a look with Gibbs.
"Faraday Brothers Incorporated," Tony repeated watching the look exchanged between his boss and the head of Five-0.
"Hey, what's with the face?" Danny had also noticed the meaningful look.
"Faraday Brothers Incorporated was a shell corporation used by Victor and Anton Hesse to fund their arms deals. It was shut down when we exposed it," Steve explained as he looked to each member present as he spoke.
"And by 'we' you mean..." Danny left the question open for Steve to finish.
"Naval Intelligence and NCIS, when my department was being investigated."
"Where's she working now?" Gibbs looked back to Tony for answers.
"She moved back to the States when the company closed down and has been working for a real estate firm ever since; "Pines Real Estate."
"Pines Real Estate," Steve recalled the name. They have a branch here in Hawaii."
"Says here that they're owned by a company called Operations United," Tony added as he looked at the notes he had written.
"Wow, that's generic," Danny raised his eyebrows at the suspicious name.
"Never heard of it," Steve commented, also suspicious. "Who owns it?"
"Ah, a man called Hiro Noshimuri," Tony stumbled slightly over the last name.
This time both Steve and Danny froze at the new piece of information and quickly glanced at each other.
"Noshimuri?" Steve repeated, shocked at the discovery.
"Yeah." Tony frowned slightly at their reaction. "He owns a bunch of companies, a lot of which are in Hawaii, especially in the shipping industry. Why? Do you know him?"
"Hiro Noshimuri is the head of the Japanese Yakuza here in Hawaii," Steve explained. "he's been charged for kidnapping my sister."
"This man kidnapped your sister?" Gibbs frowned; he had to admit he hadn't seen that coming. "Why would he do that?"
"To get evidence from an investigation my father had been working on before he was killed."
"We weren't able to nail him for his connections to the Yakuza," Danny added bitterly.
"Well, if Noshimuri was behind your sister's kidnapping, could he be behind kidnapping Rochelle Clarke?" Tony was hoping they had finally found a lead.
"It's possible," Danny conceded with a tip of his head. "He got out on bail several weeks ago."
"I'm not sure we're looking at a kidnapping anymore." Gibbs' statement shocked the others.
"What, you think she's involved in all this somehow?" Danny's eyebrows shot upwards at the accusation.
"Gibbs has a point," Steve agreed with what Gibbs was insinuating. "I mean she just happens to work for a shell corporation run by Victor and Anton Hesse? Then when it closes down she starts working for a company owned by Noshimuri, one of the heads of the Yakuza who has known ties to Wo Fat."
"The arms dealer Hesse worked for, who's a person of interest in this latest arms deal," Gibbs finished.
"So, what? She faked her own kidnapping to force her brother to act as a mole for them?" Tony wasn't sure he agreed with their accusations.
"That's pretty cold," Danny stated as he started to see Gibbs' point.
"She has strong ties to someone in Naval Intelligence; that makes her a valuable employee for arms dealers if they ever needed to manipulate someone on the inside," Gibbs pointed out.
"Hang on, can we slow down for a minute?" Tony held his hands up as he spoke. "We have absolutely no evidence to support that she was involved in this other than a few coincidences."
"I don't believe in coincidences," Gibbs and McGarrett stated at the same time and quickly glanced at each other slightly amused.
"Wow, already in stereo," Danny remarked with a slight smirk.
"All I'm saying is, that we shouldn't stop treating her like a victim until we have proof that she's not," Tony finished.
"Ok then, give me proof that she's not," Gibbs ordered him to go and do more thorough research.
"Right, on it, Boss," Tony moved to head back to McGarrett's office when Steve's cell phone rang.
"Kono, what've you got?" he asked as he held the phone to his ear. The other three investigators in the room watched with interest as McGarrett's expression changed to one of shock which was quickly replaced by triumph.
"What? What did they find?" Danny couldn't contain his impatience.
"Ok, great work, we'll see you back here," Steve looked around at the others as he hung up. "Kono and David were able to get photo ID of the person who the e-mail account belongs to."
"Hayden Salisbury," Tony nodded as he recalled the name.
"So, who is he?" Danny urged his partner to continue.
"She, is Rochelle Clarke," Steve couldn't believe they had been right about their accusations. "She's working for the arms dealers."
oOo
The doors to Five-0 headquarters opened as Chin and McGee made their way into the bullpen where most of the teams were once again was gathered around the smart table, Kono and Ziva having returned only five minutes earlier.
"Hey, what did you find out from the guard?" Steve looked up from the computer to greet them.
Chin started, "He remembered the ship being unloaded and after some prodding, remembered that the trucks the cargo was loaded into had a company name written on the side..."
"Operations United?" Gibbs cut across his explanation.
"Yeah," McGee frowned in surprise; how does Gibbs always do that?
"How did you know that?" Chin was also surprised.
"We did some digging while you were out. Turns out Rochelle Clarke works for a real estate office owned by what we believe is a shell corporation owned by Hiro Noshimuri; Operations United. DiNozzo's looking into their financials right now," Steve filled them in on their discovery.
"Noshimuri?" Chin repeated, surprise evident on his face.
"Yeah," Kono joined the conversation. "And that's not all; Ziva and I managed to get a picture of Hayden Salisbury, who sent the photo to Clarke's computer and look who it is." She flicked the security camera photo onto the screen for Chin and McGee to see.
The two men stared at the picture. Rochelle Clarke now sported dark brown hair as opposed to her usual blonde and she appeared to have lost some weight; other than that she was still easily identifiable as Rochelle Clarke.
"Clarke's sister," Chin stated grimly as he realised what the photo meant.
"She matches the description Jennings gave us," McGee turned from the photo to look at Chin.
"What description would that be, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
"The guard we spoke to, Walter Jennings, said he remembered seeing a woman hanging around the docks when the trucks were being loaded," Tim explained. "Description matches the photo of Clarke's sister," he nodded at the screen.
"Well, we're running her picture and the name Hayden Salisbury through facial recognition and customs right now; the internet cafe attendant said she has a Canadian passport," Kono explained. "We're also looking for a credit card under her name."
"Hey, Boss," Tony called, once again emerging from Steve's office where he had been working. "I did some more digging into Operations United. They ship all over the world, mostly commercial equipment belonging to the smaller businesses they own, but check this out; one of the ships registered to them is the Fleur de Lys. It left the UK several weeks ago. Clarke was tracking it since it left port."
"Then why didn't the Navy make the connection to Operations United and to Noshimuri?" Gibbs frowned.
"Because Clarke didn't mention it in his reports. The only place I could find reference to it was in the encrypted file he had on his hard-drive."
"Can we just go back a minute here," McGee asked, "who exactly is Noshimuri?"
The others took a few minutes to bring McGee and Chin up to speed about the details they had uncovered.
"So if we find Rochelle Clarke, she can lead us to the arms dealers," McGee summarised after their explanation.
"At least that's what we're hoping," Danny nodded.
"We just got a hit through customs," Kono interrupted as their attention all shifted back to the main screen.
Ziva leaned over Kono's shoulder to see the information on the screen. "Looks like 'Hayden Salisbury' arrived in Hawaii just over eleven weeks ago."
"That's our time line," Tony stated the obvious.
"Was she travelling with anyone?" Gibbs asked.
"Doesn't look like it," Kono shook her head. "But, the ticket was payed for using an American Express card." She smiled triumphantly.
"Whose name is the card under?" Steve asked.
"Hayden Salisbury; she has an account with the Royal Bank of Canada," Kono finished as she flicked the passport photo along with the payment details onto the big screen.
"Ok, go over the account's history and see if there's any places she likes to hang out," Steve instructed.
"DiNozzo, call the bank the card's registered to, see if you can get us an address for where she's staying in Hawaii," Gibbs ordered.
"On it, Boss," Tony nodded, but before he could head for a computer Kono called him back.
"Wait, I've got her account details here," she stated as she looked closely at what was written on the screen. "Hang on," she selected three payments and enlarged them. "It looks like for the last three months she's been paying $2,100 each month to Pines Real Estate."
"That's the real estate office she, as in Rochelle Clarke, works for," Danny pointed out. "Does it say what the payments were for?"
Kono continued to type for a few moments before answering triumphantly, "For a rental home in Hawai'i Kai; 18 Kanakoa Place."
"Let's go," Steve stated at the same time as Gibbs ordered; "Gear up!"
The two teams followed their orders and moved quickly towards the exit; determination in knowing that at last they had a solid lead.
oOo
The Camaro came to an abrupt halt outside the single story house at 18 Kanakoa place, followed by the loaned sedan and Chin and Kono in her car. Steve and Danny pulled on their Kevlar vests as they exited the car, Chin and Kono doing the same while Gibbs and his team were already wearing their NCIS gear.
"How do you want to play this, Gibbs?" Steve asked the agent, drawing his gun as they approached the house.
"We'll take the front, you take the back," he ordered as he too drew his gun. "McGee, Ziva, cover the garage," he added.
"All right, you got it," Steve acknowledged and then signalled for the rest of his team to move around to the back of the house.
Gibbs took his position at the front door with DiNozzo right behind him with his weapon at the ready. After waiting to give McGarrett and his team enough time to secure the back of the building, Gibbs pounded on the door with his fist.
"Hayden Salisbury, NCIS! Open up!"
Without waiting the required time for her to answer the call, Gibbs kicked open the door with his foot and entered the building, closely followed by Tony.
At the rear of the building, Steve heard Gibbs' yell and followed his lead; kicking in the door as he moved into the house with his team right behind him.
There was no immediate sign of anyone in the house as they swept their guns around what appeared to be a laundry. As they moved out of the room and into a hallway Steve signalled for Chin and Kono to move right towards the bedrooms while he and Danny moved left towards the front of the house. A few rooms away, Gibbs and DiNozzo could be heard as they cleared the front rooms.
Moving into the living room, Steve caught a flash of silver on the far side of the room before yelling, "Gun!" As he ducked behind the closest sofa, Danny doing the same, the air around where they had been only moments earlier erupted with a volley of bullets. Ignoring the broken china and wood splinters in the air, Steve quickly raised himself slightly and got off a few shots of his own over the sofa, before he was forced back down by another volley of bullets.
"I thought we had agreed that if you're gonna shoot first, ask questions later then you'd at least warn me to duck!" Danny took his frustration out on Steve.
"I did warn you," Steve frowned as he reloaded.
"Ah uh, yelling out 'gun' does not classify as a warning, Steven!"
"What did you want, a written report?" The two men flinched slightly as pieces of what used to be the mantelpiece erupted around them.
"Well, you might wanna hold off on the shoot first idea." Danny grabbed Steve's arm before his partner could raise himself to return fire. "She's our only lead so we need to bring her in alive and preferably minus the several bullet holes she's likely to get when you go all Super-SEAL."
Steve frowned at the idea of doing nothing while they were taking fire. He did, however, see Danny's point and held off firing back, knowing that they had more than adequate back-up and it wasn't long before it arrived.
"NCIS! Lower your weapon!" Tony's yell echoed around the room and the shooting came to an abrupt end.
"On the ground!" Gibbs added as he entered the room behind Tony.
Steve and Danny stood up from behind the sofa with their guns raised and saw that the two agents had their shooter covered. Rochelle Clarke glared at the agents as she lowered her weapon to the floor and placed her hands on her head as she stood up again.
Gibbs spared a look at Steve who nodded his thanks as Danny moved up behind Rochelle Clarke to handcuff her while they kept her covered with their weapons. Steve lowered his sig once the handcuffs were on and, pulling a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, bent down to retrieve her gun.
"Sigma 40P," he stated as he recognised the gun model. "Same as our murder weapon," he gave her a hard stare but she didn't waver and kept her head high as she glared back at him, not saying a word. Breaking off eye contact with her, Steve nodded to Danny, "Book her, Danno."
TBC
oOo
A/N: So who else is excited about the news of more H5-0 and NCIS:LA crossovers on the shows? :D