She finds herself slinking off to Abby's lab for refuge. She manages to sneak up on Abby. She stands behind her, silently. Abby spins around, and looks at her in surprise.
"What are you doing down here?"
"I'm hiding."
"From?"
"DiNozzo."
"Why?"
"He just keeps looking at me."
"He can be creepy, but aren't you use to that by now?"
"I just needed to get away."
"I see. Anything I can help with?"
"I do not think so."
"You would be surprised."
"I will miss you."
"Miss me? Where are you going? Are you leaving?"
"I am if they don't sort all of this out soon."
A light bulb goes off in Abby's head.
"It's you."
"What is me?"
"He is protecting you," Abby answers.
"Who is protecting me?"
"No one," Abby lies.
"Do you know what is going on?"
"No one will tell me, do you?"
"Of course."
"So you'll share?"
"I am a suspect," Ziva reveals.
"The prime suspect?"
"Most of the other suspects have been cleared. Tony refused to talk about the investigation. Tony has Gibbs out looking for the murder weapon. And I have to sit by and do nothing."
"I'm sorry."
"I am the prime suspect, and there is no way to clear my name."
"Are you sure? The evidence is circumstantial, and I can see how you would be considered a suspect, but I am sure that there is a way to prove you didn't do it."
"Let's hope so."
"Ziva?"
"Yes Abby?"
"Are we going to talk about this, or would you prefer that I stick to the evidence?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The sample that DiNozzo brought me, it was from you."
"Yes."
"Did he tell you what he had me test for?"
"No. I just assumed that..."
"He didn't tell you the results?"
"Of what?"
"You didn't know? It's probably better that he didn't tell you."
"Tell me what? Abby I know that I am..." she trails off.
"So do I, but I am not talking about that."
"Are you sure? Are you sure that you fully understand?"
"Yes, but you should ask DiNozzo," she responds.
Tim looks up from his computer screen.
"I may have just eliminated one suspect," McGee announces.
Gibbs and DiNozzo join him around the plasma. He clicks a button and a video feed plays.
"It's from an ATM, the day of the murder" he points to the frame, "And that is Ziva, at 5:48 A.M. I've got her on the same camera, on the other side of the street, half an hour later. I also have her on another camera. He clicks again, and another window pops up. They watch Ziva appear on the screen. "This is a stoplight, near her apartment, ten minutes later. I fast forwarded through the footage, she doesn't appear again for an hour," he clicks, "And there she's in her car. She wouldn't have had the time to kill him."
"That's good McGee. We keep eliminating suspects. We still haven't found the lieutenant's killer."
Ziva comes into the squad room. She holds up a file.
"I think that I know who did it."
"Yeah? Who?" Tony questions.
"I spoke to Lieutenant Graham. He remembered someone else who had a grudge against the Lieutenant. It was Patterson's former commanding officer, Jamie Cameron. She filed several complaints against him. She transferred, to another department. Abby was able to trace phone calls from at least four of Lieutenant Patterson's victims to Jamie Cameron. Jamie Cameron just happened to be in D.C. for a conference the day that Lieutenant Patterson was murdered. She was staying at the Capital Hilton. She never signed in for her eight o'clock seminar."
McGee makes a beeline for his desk.
"I'll pull up the footage," he offers.
Moments later the footage is on the screen. They watch her leave the hotel around 0530, and return at 0826.
"Check with rental car companies," Gibbs adds.
McGee makes a few keystrokes. "She put over a hundred miles on her rental. It would take her about forty minutes to get to the Lieutenant's house. That puts us somewhere around ten after six, it would take her about an hour in traffic, to return to her hotel. She would have had plenty of time to kill him. She could have even stopped for coffee on her way back."
"Has she checked out of her hotel yet?" Gibbs questions.
"She doesn't check out until tomorrow."
"Then why did she return her rental car?" Gibbs wonders. "DiNozzo, McGee, pick her up."
They leave the squad room. Ziva returns to her desk. She stares at her blank computer screen. She sits silently. Gibbs approaches her desk.
"Ziva?"
"Yes?" she looks up at him.
"Go home. Take the rest of the day off, you need to get your mind off this case."
"That isn't going to happen."
"It wasn't a request."
"I meant, the getting my mind off this case, that isn't going to happen."
"You know I once read in a book somewhere that, Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because it's true. I am not going to give you advice. You know that I stand behind you, no matter what you do."
"Even when my choices are wrong," she adds.
"Because they are your choices."
"But this time, neither of them are right."
"Maybe not, you just have to choose the one you can live with."