Chapter 10

As the day wore on, it brought more news. DNA had finally finished their work and the computers had found a match to both the glass and the condom; NCIS Agent Jason Collins. Gibbs sent Tripp, Tony, and Ziva to find the agent and bring him in for a chat.

Collins wasn't at work but Tony, working his charm with some of the women in the office, found out where the agent could usually be found; at a popular beach resort, more than likely sunbathing and hitting on the girls. They gained entrance with their all-access passes; their badges.

Tony, wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt that made Tripp cringe, eyed the women strolling along the beach with their drinks, and grinned.

"Bring me my pendulum, kiddies! I feel like swinging!" he yelped gleefully, quoting Big Daddy from Beach Party, 1963. "Can you please tell my parents I'm not coming home... ever?" (Summer School, 1987) Both Tripp and Ziva groaned.

"I was expecting that," Ziva said.

"Hey, if Miami hasn't got it, they haven't invented it yet," Tony said, eyeing a blonde in a very tiny bikini who smiled back at him as she walked by.

Tripp groaned. "I take it you've watched Miami Vice?"

Tony just grinned. "Every episode on DVD at home," he said.

"That and he lives and breathes women," Ziva said.

"I did, once," Tripp admitted.

"And?"

"I wound up divorced when she thought I was cheating on her," he said sourly.

"Consider yourself lucky," Tony said, "especially compared to Gibbs."

"Oh?" Tripp asked.

"His last ex-wife left him with stitches in his head when she took a swing at him with a baseball bat," Tony said.

"I thought it was a golf club," Ziva said.

"That too," Tony said.

Tripp cringed.

"And there is our suspect," Ziva said, pointing to a tanned man wearing little more than black swim briefs with a zipper down the front. He was wearing sunglasses and lounging on a beach chair, a beer in one hand, as he chatted up a woman with black hair and a bikini that would barely classify as being a bikini.

"Jason Collins?" Tripp asked, approaching the man.

"Who wants to know?" Collins asked.

"Sergeant Frank Trip, Miami-Dade PD. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

Collins snorted. "A cop with a Texas accent. How'd you get past the front gate?"

"All-access pass," Tripp said, holding up his badge.

"And this is mine," Collins said, holding up his badge, "which means I out-rank you, so beat it, buster." He looked at Ziva and eyed her appreciatively. "You, on the other hand, sweetheart, can stay, provided you change in to something a little more suitable for the beach. You really are over-dressed."

Ziva smiled but it was a smile Tony recognized and he cringed. There was a glass of ice water on a nearby table and, picking it up, Ziva took a sip while winking suggestively at Collins, which made him grin. That grin vanished when she poured the water, ice and all, directly on to Collins crotch.

"You bitch!" he yelled.

She coldly held up her badge and Tony did the same. "Special Agent Ziva David, NCIS," she said. "You may not like Sergeant Tripp because he's a cop but you will talk to us."

"And, as a result of your comments to my partner and Sergeant Tripp, we'll be having this conversation downtown," Tony said.

As they escorted Collins, still swearing, to Tripp's car, Tripp muttered to Tony, "Does she always do that?"

"No," Tony said. "That time she was polite. If she hadn't been polite she would have kicked him in the nuts."

Tripp grinned.

In an interrogation room Gibbs confronted Collins. "We found your DNA in Agent Watson's apartment and on a condom, also in her apartment."

"So? Yeah we were screwing. Big deal. Is that against the law?" Collins snapped.

"Fraternization isn't against NCIS policy," Gibbs said. "However, it does make you a suspect in her murder."

"Patty's dead? Wow, who did she piss off?" Collins asked snidely.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Gibbs said. "Do you have a safe?"

"Who doesn't?" Collins replied evasively. "Why?"

"We found a key that looks like it belongs to a safe and we're trying to determine whose," Gibbs said. "May we check yours?"

"Not without a warrant and not without my lawyer," Collins said. "Which means as far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over."

"Fine," Gibbs said, watching as Collins stood up. "Oh, by the way, what do you think of Agent McAllister?"

A nasty look came over the agent's face. "She was a meddling bitch who didn't belong here; she should have stayed in D.C.," he said.

"What do you mean?" Gibbs asked.

Collins smiled nastily. "No one's seen her for a few days, Agent Gibbs, and she's new to the area. I'll bet she found out that if you're not careful, people can vanish in the Glades. She really should have stayed in D.C." And with that parting shot, the agent left.

"What do you think?" Tripp asked Gibbs outside of the interrogation room.

"He's a prick," Gibbs said, already taking out his cell to call Tony. When Tony answered, he said, "Pull Agent Collins' file. Everything and anything." He hung up. Then he got a call. "Yeah, Gibbs." His eyebrows went up. "Be right there," he said, hanging up. "And my team just got bigger."

Despite the fact that she was now in Miami, a much warmer climate, Abby was wearing a dress that was typical Abby; a dark red halter dress with black polka dots and a black petticoat underneath, with a bow on the bust. Long black lace finger-loop Lolita gloves were on her arms and she even wore black fishnet tights with her knee-high black and silver platform boots. Typical Abby, she even had her black lace parasol with her and her coffin backpack on her shoulders.

"Gibbs!" Abby shrieked excitedly, nearly bowling him over with her rather-enthusiastic hug.

"Hi Abby, what are you doing here, Abby?" Gibbs asked, struggling not to lose his balance.

"Director Vance said you needed help, so here I am," she chirped cheerfully. "This place is beyond fabulous! How is Janet? Have you seen her? Who is this Horatio guy she mentioned? What does he look like? Probably has red hair. Janet always had a thing about guys with red hair. Me, not so much but if he's cute enough, I'll pay attention. Where's McGee? He said something about doing a major tracking thingie for Janet."

Gibbs patiently waited for Abby to run out of breath. "McAllister is with Lieutenant Caine and they're going through some photos in the hope that it may jog her memory. McGee is in the AV lab, whatever the hell that is, working on the computers. And yes, Lieutenant Caine does have red hair," he said. "McGee will bring you up to speed on things."

"Great," Abby said. "But first I want to see Janet. I brought a few things for her."

Knowing Abby wouldn't do anything without first seeing the agent, Gibbs called Horatio who advised them they were heading for the morgue. Wanting to see the video file Agent Watson had done, Gibbs sent Abby with a lab technician.

In the morgue, Abby spotted her friend leaning against a wall of silver metal doors and staring down at the body of a battered blonde woman, her arms folded across her chest. Nearby, Horatio watched, giving her space. Seeing the sadness and confusion on Janet's face, Abby went up to her and pulled a brightly-colored wool lace shawl from her bag, putting it around Janet's shoulders. Janet looked at her and smiled, recognizing her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey yourself. Is this Patty?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, my probie," Janet said. "Dr. Loman said she was beaten to death with the butt end of a gun." Abby nodded, laying her head on Janet's shoulder. "I don't know what she did to get killed like this, but I do remember she was a good agent and a friend. A bit naive, maybe, and I envied her for it. Carefree, happy, not yet dulled by the harshness of the world." She snorted softly. "She was my responsibility and I let her down. She didn't deserve this."

"We'll catch the guy who did this," Abby said. "I promise."

"I hope so. I really don't want to have to tell her parents that their daughter is dead and we don't know who or why," Janet said. "I wouldn't be able to live with that."

"You won't have to," Horatio said, coming up behind her and sliding an arm around her waist from behind. "because you won't do it alone."

Janet sighed heavily and nodded. She reached down and, with Horatio's help, pushed Patty Watson's body back in to the cooler. "Bring me up to date on the case. Memory loss or not, I'm in and Patty was my probie, which means I have a stake in this. Someone out there has a bullet with Patty's name on it waiting for them."