Chapter Ten – Sitting on My MOAS

Gibbs entered the interrogation room, making a movement with his head that told Ziva to leave. She left to join Tony, Tim, Abby, Brenna and Jenna in the observation room.

"It's a bit crowded in here," the technician said. He turned back to his equipment when everyone stared at him, daring him to say more.

Gibbs had taken a seat across from the red-haired woman when Tony remarked, "He shouldn't be in there. He hasn't been able to take his eyes off her."

"What are you talking about?" Jenna asked.

McGee looked over and explained, "Gibbs has a thing for redheads. In the time we've known him, he's only been involved with one woman who wasn't, and that didn't last long."

Abby nodded. "Redheads are his thing. His past wives – all redheads."

Jenna stared at the woman who held her life in her hands and resented her. Not just for the fact that she was going to destroy her life, but because her hair made her interesting to Agent Gibbs. She heard him ask the woman, "Who sent you?" and bit her lip. 'How much did this lady know?' she wondered. She supposed they would all soon find out.

---

Steph smiled.

"Who are you and who sent you?" Gibbs asked again.

Steph's smile morphed into a grin. "You may call me Steph. A man sent me."

Gibbs eyes narrowed. "What's his name?"

She shook her head. "I'm not making it that easy on you, Agent Gibbs. There are answers I want too, you know. Answers I've yet to hear."

"You're not going anywhere near Abby."

"I wasn't going to hurt her."

"I'm not taking that chance with you, Steph," Gibbs said. "Now, answer my question."

She shook her head, and then sighed. "Stop recording," Steph told him, "and I'll give you your answers."

With a hard stare, Gibbs watched for signs of untruth. Seeing nothing in her eyes that would give her away, he signaled with his hand. Not repeating his question again, he waited.

"Who do you think I work for Agent Gibbs? What do you think of when you look at me?" Steph asked, avoiding his question for the moment. She was growing weary of Sterling, but giving him up too quickly wouldn't be in her best interests.

Standing, Gibbs stared down at her. "You're not just a hired gun, are you?"

Tipping her head to concede the fact, she said, "Very good detective work, Special Agent Gibbs."

Planting his hands on the table and staring straight into her eyes from a much closer distance, he asked, "You're government?"

"When they claim me," she admitted.

With a look of disgust, Gibbs muttered, "CIA then, not FBI." He muttered something under his breath about spooks. "What do they want with my forensic scientist?"

Patting his cheek, she told him, "Sit back down. I have a little story for you." Waiting long enough for him to reclaim his chair, she began.

"Several years ago, my boss received a memo. A business man in Louisiana was suspected to have ties to terrorist organizations in the Middle East as well as Central America. He wanted someone inside and quickly. I was fresh off a successful mission and he chose me to get close to this man. So I did what I do best. I infiltrated his operation and became indispensable. Recently, this man received new information regarding his son's unexpected death ten years ago. The information led him to uncovering names, and those names brought me to DC."

"What does that have to do with Abby?"

"If it's as I suspect, it has a lot to do with Abby. The man I've been 'working for', investigating, whatever is Sterling Lancaster. His son was Mike Lancaster. His son was hot for some girl back in high school – Jenna Davis. Lancaster recently got a tip that Mike was to see Jenna the night of his death. While searching the ruins of Ms. Davis' great aunt's house, a message from Abby Scuito was found. Since Jenna Davis couldn't be located in San Antonio, I was sent here to locate Ms. Scuito and find out what she knows."

With every word she'd spoken, Gibbs' gut was telling him more and more that she was being honest and that this was what Abby and Jenna had been hiding. Standing, he looked down on her once more. Resisting the urge to punch the wall, he walked out, shutting the door hard behind him. Opening the door to the observation room, he stared first at Abby then Jenna. They both looked sick. "With me, now."

Brenna started to reach for Jenna but Tim held her back. When the door shut, she turned to him and asked, "Where is he taking them?"

"Probably the elevator," Tim told her.

"Why the elevator?" she wanted to know.

"It's like his conference room," Tony replied.

Brenna wrapped her arms around herself at the waist. She didn't know what would happen now.

"Do you know what this is about? Is what she said true?" McGee asked in concern.

Brenna just shook her head, holding herself that much tighter. To her it seemed as if the temperature in the room had just dropped ten degrees – figuratively and literally. "Let's just want for Abby and Jenna," she said softly, clearly not wanting to talk.

---

Jenna felt sick, knowing it was all over. She couldn't hide anymore. She stole a look at Abby and saw the same look on her face. Angry with herself at how foolish she'd been to come here, she made up her mind to try to salvage someone out of this mess.

Surprised when Gibbs led them to the elevator, she preceded him into it. He stepped inside, pressed a floor then immediately stopped it.

"Would one of you like to explain what is going on to me?"

Jenna's chin came up and she met his gaze. "Mike Lancaster was a schoolmate of mine in high school. He died in a car accident right after graduation." He kept staring at her and she told him, "I was there. I was at the scene when he died. I ran. I called the cops after I'd gotten far enough away."

"Running a habit with you, Jenna?" He asked.

Biting her tongue to hold back her temper and tears of frustration, she told him, "Not normally."

"Did the police contact you?"

"No, there wasn't any evidence that I was there."

Gibbs turned his stare on Abby and Jenna protested, "She didn't have anything to do with it, Agent Gibbs. I covered it up and I've kept it covered since then."

"You don't have to protect me, Jenna," Abby spoke up and looked at Gibbs. "I covered it up, Gibbs."

"Why would you do that, Abby?" Gibbs desperately wanted to understand what had happened back then. He didn't want to lose Abby.

Jenna spoke again, filling in some of the blanks. "Mike was rich and he always got everything he wanted except for one thing. That one thing was a reaction from Ben. He'd insulted him all through school, picked on him and once we started dating, he started to pursue me. That night, Mike was so mean and so provoking that Ben asked what it would take to get him to leave him alone. Mike proposed a car race. Ben didn't want to do it. I certainly didn't want him to do it, but Mike started up again with his insults and Ben told him that he'd race him." Jenna ran her fingers through her hair and looked up at the top of the elevator. "Mike swerved, trying to hit Ben, but he lost control. His car flipped and by the time we got to him, he was dead. We panicked. We knew who his father was and that if he knew we were there that night, we wouldn't have lived long enough to tell anyone what happened. It wouldn't have been the first time Sterling Lancaster had made something controversial go away."

"So you came in and saved the day?" He asked Abby.

"He's my brother, Gibbs. I wasn't going to sit back and watch him disappear because of a stupid mistake someone else made. Yes, it was stupid for Ben to race him, but Mike Lancaster had it out for him for a long time. We sat back and waited for the police to contact us, but they didn't because I was very good at getting everything that incriminated either one of them. When we heard that Mike's death had been ruled an accident because he was high, we agreed to let sleeping dogs lie."

"Ben went to college, Abby went back to school and I moved in with Brenna in San Antonio." Jenna finished.

Gibbs looked at her. "You went along with this to cover your own six."

Jenna laughed but it was a bitter sound. "Yes, I admit it. I was all for getting Abby's help back then! I was a little too fond of living I suppose. I knew that one call from Sterling Lancaster could wipe out my whole family, what was left of it anyway. What chance did any of us have against a man that had pockets deeper than Donald Trump? And he was scary. Any time there was a press conference for one of his businesses you could see it all over him. He didn't care. And man, Agent Gibbs, do you know the stories Mike told everyone about his dad? About how one guy crossed him and was beaten for days before they killed him? And yes, I realize Mike could have been bluffing about that but there were too many coincidences surrounding that man and I don't like coincidences. They've bit me on the butt several times in the past."

"Why didn't you go to the cops? To the feds even?"

Shaking her head, Jenna tried pacing in the elevator but either way she moved she would bump Abby or Gibbs. "Please. Sterling Lancaster is a puppeteer and when he pulls your string, you move. I have kept an eye on him for the last ten years and too many things don't add up. Mike even suspected him of things. He had this…"

Gibbs stepped into Jenna's personal space and asked, "He had this what?"

"It was an envelope full of handwritten contacts. It was on him the night he died."

"You have it." It wasn't a question, not the way Gibbs said it.

"It's in my bag at your house. I've never known for sure what it was, but I knew that for him to have it that it had to be important."

Gibbs stepped back. "This doesn't go beyond the team."

"But what about that spook in interrogation?" Abby asked.

"She doesn't know it all or she'd have told me," Gibbs said. "Abby, you take Tony somewhere secure and tell him what's going on. While we are busy looking into DAX, I want us looking at Lancaster too. I want to know more about him. Jenna, have Brenna tell McGee and you tell Ziva while I talk with our spook. She's in our custody now and once word gets to Sterling, he'll most likely send someone else to do his work. Stick with Ziva for the rest of the day."

"Where will you be?" Jenna asked.

"I'll be getting what information I can out of Steph. She's been with him for years and he trusts her, she has to know what is going on."

Jenna looked down at the floor and said, "Sure, okay, will do."