Chapter 10 – Closet

Inside Newlands house they couldn't believe the sight. Let alone what had happened. It was a mess. The air hung with the smell of blood. But now everyone from the team was there. Doing what they did best, collect evidence, and find out what happened. Nicole bent down next to Newlands and picked up a bloody note in his hand, "Guys your never going to believe this." She said.

Before any of them could answer her, Gibbs' cell phone rang, "Yeah. We're on our way."

/Boats and Home/

In the park, Tony and McGee were already there when Nicole and Ziva arrived. McGee handed Ziva a photo of yet another little girl; "Six-year-old girl went missing around 9 this morning." Tony explained.

"Courtney Jones. The mother had to be sedated." McGee added.

Ziva shook her head; "Newlands is dead. Couldn't have been him."

"Newlands lives a couple of blocks from here. Could've grabbed her just before." Tony pointed out.

Nicole held up a hand, "Woha! Snatching girls is not part of his MO." Just as she said that, Tony held up and evidence bag, "Okay, that's definitely his signature."

"What's that?" Ziva asked.

"A stirrer that dispenses honey. You find them in your upper end cafes." Tony answered, "Which, I found in the trash over by that bench."

"It could've been anybody sipping tea." Nicole answered.

McGee shook his head; "We interviewed all the mothers. Couple of them put a man sitting right here."

"Caucasian, late 30s." Tony added.

"And no tea, right?" Nicole asked.

McGee nodded, "No tea."

"Well, he didn't attack her here. There's no privacy. And what's – what's with the honey?" Ziva asked.

"Excitement." Gibbs said walking up to them, "That straw was sucked dry. The taste alone was enough to trigger the bastard sense memory of past assaults."

"Okay, then Abby can see if she can matche it to Newlands' DNA." Ziva replied.

"Any chance the girl's still alive?" McGee asked.

"We've been through the house. He didn't take her there." Nicole answered.

"He wouldn't have." Gibbs stated.

Nicole thought for a moment, "Maybe something on him will tell us where he took her. Ducky has him in autopsy right?"

/Boats and Home/

Now at NCIS HQ, down in the basement in autopsy, Ducky was just performing it. He was digging around in an incision in Newlands' left arm. Gibbs, and Nicole were watching, "Ducky what the hell are you doing?" Gibbs asked.

"Digging, Jethro." Ducky answered, looking up as he pulled a small tube from inside Newlands' arm.

"What the hell is that?" Gibbs asked.

"My guess, some kind of tube." Ducky answered.

Nicole looked at Ducky, "What for?"

"I have no idea." He answered, "But there is blood in it."

"So how'd it get in there?" Gibbs asked, looking at the tube from a distance.

Ducky raised an eyebrow, "Maybe he did it himself, Jethro. He is a doctor."

"How?" Nicole asked.

"My best guess, my dear. Was he could have given himself a local, inserted the tube, and stitched himself back up."

"Why would he do that?" She asked.

Gibbs through for a minute, "To beat the paternity test."

"Son of a bitch." Nicole cursed, "Newlands was the father of Chealsy's kid. He put somebody else's blood in that tube!"

"We have professional people taking that bastard's blood out of his arm. Why the hell didn't they notice that?" Gibbs asked.

"Jethro, you only have to roll your sleeve up to the elbow. The scar would've been hidden." Ducky explained.

Gibbs sighed, "I thought I'd seen everything."

Nicole thought for a moment, "At SVU we dealt with this, it was similar. And the doctor had the same thing. Which had both this Doc Newlands and the Doc Newlands in New York, pointing back to the mum and her kid."

"And if that's not his blood. He didn't rape Molly Stratton."

"No whosever blood he stole did. And that's the guy that's still out there with Courtney Jones."

/Boats and Home/

Now on the street, Ziva, Nicole and Tony were walking and talking, "Okay, so in order to beat a murder rap, Newlands used someone else's blood. Just happened to be our pedophile's." Tony stated.

"Okay, we've consulted Brianna's case file, that I helped work on. The doc in that record did the same thing. And the same thing happened. Now we're on the hunt for our own honey rapist." Nicole pointed out.

"So, the honey rapist reads about the trial, whacks him?" Ziva asked.

"Dr. Huang – guy I worked with said in the Brianna case that the doc Newlands there must've known the rapist's real identity and that he could've turned him in at any time." Nicole answered.

"Then why didn't he?" Ziva asked.

"Newlands turns in his own blood to clear himself of child molestation; we get him on double homicide." Nicole answered.

"Either way, he was screwed," Tony said getting it, "He knew he didn't rape those two girls. He just couldn't figure out a way to prove it."

"Right." Nicole nodded.

"Okay then, but dead men don't talk. So how are we going to find out the honey rapist?" Ziva asked.

"Well, we know one thing for sure. Newlands had access to his blood." Nicole answered.

"It then has to be one of his patients." Tony stated the obvious.

Ziva smiled, "Who's experiencing a new-find sense of freedom…"

Tony cut her off, "New-found, Ziva."

"Okay whatever, a new-found sense of freedom now that everyone thinks he's dead. And he grabs another girl." Ziva said finishing her sentence.

"But he can't lay off the honey." Nicole pointed out, "Because he has what Huang explained as a compulsion. He didn't use it in his usual way. He never dreamed we'd make the same connection."

"Well he doesn't know we have," Ziva commented, "If he's gonna keep up his act, he's going to have to kill this girl."

"We've got to subpoena Newlands' patient list." Tony stated.

"Wife made it. So let's see if she can save some time. She wasn't home." Nicole answered.

/Boats and Home/

Mrs. Newlands was in the Newlands' Dermatology Practice. Both Nicole and Gibbs had her rooting through old files; "I don't know where to start. 25 percent of our patients are male."

"But how many have blood work done?" Nicole asked.

"Not the dermabrasions, acne treatments, resurfacing. None of these." She answered as she continued to look; "I lied for him. The day he killed her, he was already gone when I woke up."

Gibbs frowned, "Look, it has to be one of his patients and we need that name."

"He probably took the blood sample the same day he put the tube in."

Mrs. Newlands looked at them, "He told me he cut himself. I remember exactly when that happened. It was our daughter's birthday."

"It was right after Chealsy first contacted him." Gibbs stated.

"Nothing."

"What about your patients? Did you take any blood that day?" Nicole asked.

Mrs. Newlands looked on the computer again, and she got something, "Just when I thought that bastard screwed me over every possible way."

"Who is he?" Gibbs asked.

"Pete Nestler. Botox and collagen. He's in his 30s, but panics whenever he sees a wrinkle."

"Why do you think it's him?" Gibbs asked.

"First off he wouldn't shut up about the fact he is in the navy. Second he had a small melanoma on his back. I did a work up to make sure it hadn't spread. He's the only one I took blood from that week."

/Boats and Home/

It turned out that Peter Nestler was a Petty Officer second class. The team rushed in with guns drawn, and their NCIS bullet-proof vest on, "NCIS!" Gibbs yelled.

"Nestler!" Nicole yelled after Gibbs.

Tony went to the bathroom, "Clear." He yelled to his boss.

Ziva yelled out, "Clear over here."

Gibbs came back from the kitchen, "Clear there too."

"And here," Nicole answered.

Gibbs noticed a cabinet line with dozens of bottles of honey, "He's definitely our guy."

"Sick freak." Nicole commented.

Ziva shook her head, "No sign of our girl."

Just then Tony came out of the bedroom holding stacks of magazines, "Kiddie porn. Closet's full."

TBC…