Tony DiNozzo loved a good mystery, there was no question. So when the enigma of Hannah slumping over in Ziva's desk chair with exhaustion after telling Gibbs the director wanted to see him and was in a foul mood, well, Tony had to get to the bottom of it.
"What happened?" he asked Hannah. She did not respond immediately and he thought she might have fallen asleep. Grabbing a pen from the cup on his desk, he stealthily made his way over to her side and gave her a hard jab in the shoulder.
"DiNozzo," she said without moving, "do that again and I'll shoot you."
"Then what happened?"
"I interrogated Chen. He admitted the DC Beans bombing. He didn't know anything about Agent David."
"Since when is this case related to Agent David?" Tony asked warily.
"Since forever, DiNozzo."
"Yeah, but the explosion…" Hannah glanced up at Tony, shushing him with her eyes. "Uh, the explosion that I don't know about, that is…"
"Just shut up, DiNozzo. I'm in deep enough already. I don't need to add you three knowing too much about things you're not supposed to know anything about." Hannah sat up suddenly. "That son-of-a…" she said as she brought up Google Maps. She typed in the address that Chen had given her and did a street view.
"Gray," Gibbs broke in, an edge to his voice. "You pull crap like that again and Leon won't have to take your badge, I'll do it for him."
"Yes, Boss." She was in no mood to argue. Again, Tony's curiosity was piqued. "Shut up, DiNozzo," Hannah said before he could ask. "I know where Sizer is."
"Yeah? How'd you get that information, Gray?" Hannah ignored her boss' snide remark.
"He's in Georgetown," she continued. "Bastard's in my old place."
McGee and Hannah were on the third day of the stakeout across the street from Sizer's headquarters. They alternated 12-hour shifts with Gibbs and DiNozzo, something Tony hadn't been very happy about—he had grumbled that stakeouts were more fun with McGee than Gibbs. Hannah had pointed out that Sizer expected her to be at Gibbs' side, given that he would assume her old boss would want to keep a close eye on her.
Not much had happened. He'd left a few times and come back, but the team was waiting for a concrete piece of evidence to tie him either to Wells' death or one of his operations with Chen. If they were lucky, they'd be able to throw in his association to Freedom's Light, but nothing had come up with that lead so far. So they waited. In the meantime, Hannah tried to get to know Tim. They'd had a lot of fun conversations: she confessed that she was quite the computer geek herself and Tim had admitted that he was Thom E. Gemcity. Hannah hadn't read the books but promised to on her return to New York. It turned out that she and Tim had quite a lot in common. Plus, he was kind of adorable.
"So, exactly how long have you been working on Sizer?" Tim asked, returning to the topic at hand when day three rolled around.
"Almost two years. He's been doing this probably since he went to San Diego. He met up with Chen there, and then New York opened and he asked me to come on board. Sheppard asked me to do a little digging and here we are."
"Wait…you left DC how long ago?"
"Eight years."
"New York's only been open for four."
"I was abroad the first four years. Different missions and stuff. I mostly worked out of Europe but occasionally I'd do something in the Middle East. I lived in London for most of the four years I was there. I spent six months in Italy when I first got there."
"So how'd you get to know Sizer?"
"We did an op together in Egypt. It was near the end of my time abroad, and with everything that was going on with Wall Street and whatnot, the powers that be decided to open up a specialized branch in the New York field office concerned primarily with economic crimes. Sizer was going to run it and he asked me to join him. They wanted someone with field agent experience and an accounting background, and here I was, ready-made." Hannah turned the conversation to other topics; it was a little painful to talk about Sizer, as he'd been her friend. She and Tim chatted a little longer, then fell into an easy silence while they watched the townhouse across the street.
"You know, I still can't get those deposits out of my head," Hannah commented later. "They're bugging me. If Wells got them from Freedom's Light, he obviously didn't use them for anything. But Chen didn't know anything about the bombing at Agent David's. So Chen's not connected but Sizer is. If Wells was supposed to be holding the money, what was he holding it for? He wasn't giving any to Sizer's activities."
"Was he supposed to and didn't?" Tim wondered.
"I doubt it. They would have acted much more quickly. They wouldn't have let it build for two years. So where's the money coming from for the other bombings? Furthermore, where is Freedom's Light getting it?" Before anyone could answer the question, Hannah's phone rang.
"Gray," she said.
"Hannah! You are going to love me forever."
"Abs, I already love you to death. You got something for me?"
"I found a partial. It's not much, but it had enough points to make a match. It's Sizer's." Hannah did a silent fist pump at this news.
"Where did you find it?"
"Remember that soda can that was all crushed? Well, I uncrushed it."
"Abby, you are the greatest. The greatest. Before I go, remind me that I owe you something awesome."
"Oh, I will." Hannah flipped her phone shut and gave Tim a huge grin.
"We're going in," she said softly. "Abby found Sizer's partial on the soda can." Tim smiled and began to gather his gear. "Wait," Hannah stopped him. "I've got a better idea."
Tom Sizer was a very clever man. So clever, in fact, that he'd become one of the Marine Corps' foremost weapons experts before he'd even reached the age of forty. Now, nearing the twilight of his career, he'd added a few more things that he was terribly clever at: arms and intelligence dealing, and pulling a fast one on Uncle Sam. The trouble was, Tom knew how clever he was. It made him careless at times, though he'd been lucky so far. As he strolled down the Georgetown street, he was about to realize that no matter how clever he was, imprudence would always trump.
"Evening, sir," a young woman's voice greeted him. Tom turned around to see his colleague and friend, Hannah Gray.
"Hannah," he said smoothly.
"Out for a little walk?"
"I needed some fresh air."
"Well, take a deep breath. It's the last you'll have for a long time. You're under arrest for the murder of Petty Officer Nicholas Wells. Because of this, you have the right to remain silent." Hannah got no further than this before Tom pulled out his knife and attempted to stab her. Hannah blocked him, expecting some kind of attack, and was able to get hold of Tom's wrist and spin him around, her thumb exerting an excruciating pressure. Another young agent stepped out of the shadows, his gun raised and ready to fire. Tom had not even noticed him and he mentally chided himself for not being more careful.
"As, I was saying, then. You have the right to remain silent…"