Mallory sat on Ducky's desk chair, elbows on his desk, palms supporting her head. She stared, somewhat blankly, at the wall, as Ducky and Palmer leaned over an empty autopsy table across the room, looking over the autopsy reports delivered from the FBI. As Ducky turned the page, Palmer glanced up, and tapped his hand.
"Uh, Dr. Mallard?" he asked, raising an eyebrow over his glasses. Ducky looked up, and turned to see what Palmer was nodding to, before sighing.
"Keep looking, Mr. Palmer," Ducky told him, tapping the papers before moving away from the table, and stepping up behind Mallory. He stood still, silent, for a moment, waiting to see if Mallory would notice he was there, or say anything, but when she didn't, Ducky placed his hands on her shoulders lightly.
"I should have called McGee right after it happened, Uncle DD…I should have done something…" she said, her voice soft and shaky. Ducky's hands squeezed her shoulders lightly, before he moved down, and embraced her against him. She moved her hands, grasping his wrists, and leaning her head against his. "I should have called him, Uncle DD, then we wouldn't be here…"
"You don't know that, my dear, you shouldn't blame yourself. Things happen the way they do for a reason, they always do. It will be fine, Kristi will be here, safe and sound, before you know it." His voice was soothing, and she turning around in the chair, clasping her arms around Ducky.
"I pray your right, Uncle DD…." The doors behind Ducky slid open, and closed, and Palmer glanced up, smiling.
"Hey, Agent McGee." Tim looked over, and waved to Palmer with a smile, before moving towards Ducky, a new file in his hands.
"Hey, Palmer…Uh, Ducky? Gibbs asked me to bring you this," he said, holding up the file. Ducky turned around, and carefully released Mallory, placing a light kiss on her head before taking the file.
"Thank you, Timothy. I promise, dear, things are going to be fine," he emphasized, pointing the file at Mallory before moving back to the autopsy table with Palmer. Tim looked between Ducky and Mallory before moving and leaning against the desk.
Mallory looked up at Tim, and smiled very awkwardly up at him. Knowing it wasn't a natural smile, Tim shook his head.
"I don't believe that. C'mere," he replied, squeezing her shoulders to urge her to stand up. Mallory hesitated, but stood, throwing her arms around his shoulders. "Mall…don't do this to yourself. It's not going to end well for you if you do. We'll get Kristi back here in time for girls' night with you and Abby again. Even if we have to give up Tony to do it," he added, smiling as she laughed.
"I needed that, Tim…thanks…" she said, kissing his cheek. He held her against him, running his fingers over her hair as he rocked her to keep her smiling, and somewhat calm, until his phone began to ring. With a soft sigh, he moved, and put the phone to his ear.
"McGee…I'm on my way, boss…I gotta head back upstairs. I'll see you in a little while, okay?" he asked, as Mallory stepped back. She nodded, and kissed him quickly before he blushed, and headed out to the elevator. Mallory turned, taking a seat in Ducky's chair once again, and paused when she saw that, while Ducky was going through the files still, Palmer was looking over at her, smiling. She raised an eyebrow, mouthing What? to him. Palmer, a little surprised, looked back down and continued thumbing through the file with Ducky.
As McGee rounded the corner, and walked to the office, he saw Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva standing near the plasma, with a couple of FBI agents behind them. He hesitated, but walked up, nodding to the FBI before looking at the plasma.
"What did I miss?" he asked, glancing over at Tony. Tony clicked the button, bringing up the military shots of the dead colonel and private, and the autopsy photo of the tipster, that the FBI had brought them.
"Three dead in the past five years, all similar deaths, all with matching prints at the scene, but no idea of who left them. FBI ran the prints when it happened, but Abby is running them again, against any database she can hack her way into – no one around heard me say that," Tony said, shaking his head and pointing over his head at Fornell behind him.
"McGee, you keep checking into the three of them, try to find some sort of connection. DiNozzo, you and Ziva are coming with me, we're going to see if we can find anything at Kristi's place," he said, tossing the keys over Tony's head and into his open palm.
"Got it boss," he said, dropping the clicker onto Tim's desk before grabbing his bag and heading to the elevator, Ziva right behind him. Gibbs walked around his desk, grabbing his jacket, gun, and badge, and looked at Fornell.
"Find some way to entertain yourselves," he said, before walking off to join Ziva and Tony at the elevator. McGee sat down at his computer, going back to work searching through the history of the three pictures on the plasma.
[PAGE BREAK]
The door opened soundlessly against its hinges, and closed just as silently. Heavy boots thumped across the carpeted floor, catching Kristi's attention. She looked up, and groaned lightly, lowering her head and closing her eyes. The footsteps stopped beside her chair.
"Have you had time to think about what I said, Reis?" he asked, eyebrow raised, as he pressed his gloved finger into her shoulder. She grimaced, leaning into it some in his attempt to get the finger out of her shoulder.
"Stop…please," she begged, her whispered voice hoarse. A smirk formed on his lips, but he moved his hand, clasping his fingers behind his back.
"So are you saying that you believe what I've told you?"
"No…you're just…a liar. You'll say anything to get me to talk, and it won't work," Kristi replied, coughing a little and shaking her head. His finger dug into her shoulder again, harder this time, making her cry out and grind against her ropes, trying to free herself and stop the pain.
"I am not just a liar. I am a man looking to get what I have earned, what I have waited a very long time for. No one is going to stand in my way, not even you," he replied, shaking his head. "You know something that I need to know. The location of a lock box once held in the name of Logan Reis." She looked up at him, tears sliding down her cheeks from the pain permeating throughout her body. "It was left to you, with instructions not to be opened and simply to be 'lost'. But you have his blood in your veins…and, of course, now, all over the rest of you. You may never have opened that box, but you sure as hell did not lose it, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise." His voice was low and calm, but there was a threatening undertone to it, one that sent a chill through her spine as she shook in the chair.
"I don't…know what you're talking about…" she replied slowly, shaking her head. His knuckles struck her jaw, turning her head away from him, and sending another wave of pain through her body. She whimpered, spitting a little of the new blood in her mouth onto the floor, and the curtains.
"You do. You have five minutes to remember – then I'll be back," he growled, turning and walking back out of the room. As the door slammed closed behind him, Kristi dropped her chin painfully against her chest, and let out a soft sob, squeezing her eyes closed as the tears freely flowed.
"I can't….I can't…" she murmured to herself, shaking her head as she quietly sobbed.
[PAGE BREAK]
Tony climbed out of the elevator, and paused, sighing as he scratched the back of his head. From her desk, Ziva watched as he shut his eyes, and for a brief moment, the expression on his face changed from the strong feeling he'd held onto around them, into that of worry, and fear. She stepped around her desk, peering over her shoulder to make sure the others hadn't noticed. It was one thing for her to see Tony's face change as it had, but it was something different for Tim and Gibbs to see it.
"Tony…" He looked up, the fear gone, replaced with surprise.
"Ziva?" She stood in front of him for a moment, not saying anything, before she stepped closer and embraced him quickly.
"It will be fine." Even though Tony had heard those same words from Gibbs and Tim earlier as they spoke to Noah, it was good to hear it again, from Ziva, who actually was directing it at him. He watched her for a second as she stepped back, and nodded reassuringly to him.
"Thanks, Ziva," he said, nodding his head, as well, before moving to his desk.
Tim peered over, and pointed towards Tony, clicker in hand.
"Tony! Good timing. I think I found something…" he said, turning back to the plasma. Tony stepped behind him, beside Gibbs.
"Whaddaya got, McGee?" Gibbs asked, looking around Tim's shoulder to see the plasma.
"I did a full background on Private Williams," he said, bringing up one of the Army photos on the screen. "Williams was a soldier in a battalion in the early 1980s in Iran, the same battalion that was commanded by Colonel Perry," he continued, bringing up a second photograph. "By the early '90s, Williams had been shot in the…abdomen, and was no longer on Active Duty. He was, however, assigned to Basic Training." Tim glanced at Tony, before pressing the button and bringing up another picture. "The tipster, Victor Mulligan, didn't have a direct connection to Perry, but he did sign up for the army a few years before he was killed…Mulligan wound up being dropped before Basic was ever completed when it was revealed he wasn't stable enough to last, but he kept in contact with Williams after he returned home."
Tony and Gibbs looked over the three images, and the small pieces of information still visible on the screen, before Gibbs looked at Tim.
"McGee…what do those three men, and the Mystery Man Abby is looking for in her lab have to do with Kristi?" he asked, frowning and pointing at the screen. Tim looked at him for a second, mouth open, before clearing his throat and turning back to the screen.
"Right. Uh…after a little more digging into Perry's battalion, I found a very interesting piece of information," he said, clicking the button a few times, before sighing, setting it down, and moving to his computer, clicking the keys for a moment.
"Probie! Hurry it up!" Tony snapped, frowning as he looked at the monitor. Tim's hands stuttered slightly on the keyboard, but a picture shot up of an older gentleman, posing in his Army uniform, a complete stranger with familiar eyes. Ziva glanced at Tony, noticing his look was more confused and uncertain than that on Gibbs' face.
"Perry was commander of the very battalion that Williams was a Private in, in the early '80s…that same battalion, though, had this man, Sergeant First Class Logan Cale Reis….Kristi's father," he said, glancing up at Gibbs, then Tony. While Gibbs' eyes showed a look of gradual understanding, the look that Tony's held was surprise. Tim hesitated as he looked at Tony, before Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
"So far, so good, McGee, but once again, what do all these men and the Mystery Man have to do with Kristi being kidnapped?" Gibbs specified, holding out his hands expectantly. Tim clears his throat, turning back.
"Yeah, that…I'm still working on it, the lack of knowing who our Mystery Man is sort of puts a damper on figuring out the full connection, but boss!" he called over his shoulder as Gibbs made his way down the hall. "I promise I'll figure it out!" he finished, before sighing, and looking back at Tony, and frowning. "What?"
"You figure this out now, Probie," Tony spoke, his voice a snarl, before he followed Gibbs down to Abby's lab. Tim looked over at Fornell, before putting the clicker down, taking a seat at his desk, and going to work to find more of their history to connect them.
The elevator doors dinged open, and Gibbs and Tony stepped out, silently walking into Abby's lab. Her music pumped through the speakers, filling the room as she danced lightly on her toes, her fingers dancing along the keyboard, as well.
"Whaddaya got, Abs?" Gibbs called over the music, grabbing the remote and turning it down. She glanced over her shoulder, flipping her pigtails, before looking back at the monitor.
"Not much, Gibbs…I'm still running the finger print, in every database possibly imaginable," she said, shaking her head and frowning.
"Just keep lookin', Abs. We're still looking for the connection to Kristi's kidnapping," he replied.
"Well, Gibbs, as always, you'll be the first to know when something comes up."
"You mean second."
"No, first," she corrected Tony. "You know he always comes down right as something shows up – it's like he knows, he just…knows," she replied, shaking her head. Gibbs, with a small smirk, nodded, and started out of the room, right as her computer beeped. He paused, turning to see the flashing green disappear as Abby pulled up the picture.
"Where did that come from?" Tony asked, moving to her other side so Gibbs could take his usual place.
"A police record, in Washington state, tiny little town that seems to have done it as an afterthought," she said, pointing to a couple dates – the date of the fingerprinting coming well after the date of arrest. "His name is Walter ," Abby announced, nodding at the computer. "Spent two years in and out of jail on multiple misdemeanors, before spending two years in prison for murder…"
"Two years?" Tony asked, uncertain. "Two years isn't standard – or usual – for murder."
"No kidding, Tony. Legner was released after two years because they overturned his sentence…apparently his lawyer was incompetent, and…." she trailed off, her eyes scanning the information on her screen. "And it turned out there wasn't enough evidence to have convicted him in the first place – he was just the first person they looked at. After his release, he disappeared…popped back in for a few weeks around an Army base….Fort Belvoir, in Virginia," she said, tapping on the monitor screen. "After that, he vanished again. Seems to have shown up in various spots for about a day or two at a time before disappearing into the mainstream again…I'll send it up to McGee," she said, typing a few things down on her keyboard before the information disappeared from her screen. Gibbs leaned in, planting a light kiss on Abby's cheek.
"Good work, Abs," he said, leading Tony out of the office, and back to their office.
Mallory sat in a spare chair next to Tim's desk, her eyes focused on the floor as he worked.
"A-Anything new?" she asked, not looking up. Without glancing back, Tim paused in his typing, and reached back, patting his hand over hers on her knee.
"Abby found out who the print belongs to, so I'm trying to make them all fit together…somehow," he says, before returning both hands to his keyboard. She nodded, and moved, giving him a quick hug, sitting back in her chair just as quickly. A small smile formed on his lips, one that grew rapidly into a large grin as he dropped his hands down. "Mallory….I think I figured this out…" he said, glancing at her. She lifted her head, a hopeful look on her face.
"You think, McGee?" Gibbs asked, stopping at his desk to eye Tim. Grabbing the clicker, Tim brought the images from his screen onto the plasma.
"The dead tipster, Victor Mulligan, owned a handyman company in Brookes Corner, not far from Fort Belvoir," he said, clicking a few times, "which is where Williams, Perry, and Reis were all stationed…" Tim pressed the clicker a couple more times, loading all four shots onto the screen, before bringing up the final shot, of Legner. "And at the same time all four were placed in those exact spots, Legner worked at the exact same handyman company, for Mulligan."
"The big question is still, how did all this lead to Kristi going missing," Tony pointed out, his voice somewhat gruff, as he looked across the plasma at all five faces.
"Gettin' to that, Tony," he said, pushing the clicker a couple more times. "Looks like almost five years before Reis was killed, he had some property near Belvoir that he hired Mulligan's handyman company to fix up…Reis kept in contact with Mulligan and Legner for the next two years, though," he said, pulling up three bills from varying months, "and those two even did work for Williams and Perry," he finished, clicking twice to show them two more bills, one with Williams' name on the top, and one with Perry's.
Gibbs looked over the information on the screen, as did Tony, and neither of them said a word, silently taking in what Tim had just said, and trying to make it all connect as to why Legner would kill any of them, let alone all of them. As Gibbs opened his mouth, to prod Tim further, Ziva jumped from her chair, moving around to hand Gibbs a slip of paper.
"I have one to top that, McGee…," she said, shrugging a little but still smirking.
"Spit it out, Ziva," Tony said, turning to look at her. She gazed at him, the smirk still on her lips, before nodding and taking the clicker from Tim's desk.
"A few months before the date on the final bill," she started, clicking to bring up the final bill on the plasma, "Reis took out a safety deposit box at his bank – the bank where he was killed. I called the bank this morning, they said that the box was bought by someone else a year after his death, and they no longer have what it contained…but Reis was not the most careful with his safety box."
"How so?" Gibbs prodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Almost everyone at the bank got a look at what was in the box, at one point or another, and he tended to go in to access it with someone," she said. "A few tellers confirmed that, at various times while he had that box, one of these four went in with him – never more than one at a time, and never for less than twenty minutes at a time," Ziva added, handing over a log sheet for Gibbs with times and dates.
"Did anyone say wha-"
"A lot of cash, some photographs…they said there was a lot in the box, but most of it was cash and coin," she replied.
"Who has the contents now?" he asked, frowning as he looked at Ziva, somewhat annoyed she hadn't elaborated on that point already. She smirked, and turned to look at Tony, who was staring at her expectantly.
"Kristi signed for it and walked out with it ten months after her father was killed."