Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or NCIS or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
-o0o-
Tony and Tim worked on their cold case for the rest of the day. They had several witnesses they wanted to reinterview but were told to remain in the bullpen. They did as much as they could on the cold case before Tim moved over to help Balboa analyse the information coming out of the searches he did for him this morning, handing over the evidence they needed to make the arrest. Balboa's team weren't restricted to the yard and left to bring in their suspects while Tim and Tony moved onto the next cold case.
"Wow that one's ancient, do you really think you're going to get anywhere with it?" one of the IA guys asked.
Tim shrugged. "It's from before Ziva and Director Sheppard were involved, which is what you asked. Gibbs was on assignment in Russia at the time too, so there's no chance of contamination. Computer forensics have come a long way since the last time this file was looked at so it's worth another look," he said starting to run searches.
"Don't you need warrants for that?" another IA officer asked.
"We already have warrants for all of the suspects' financials in the file" Tim said. "The judge didn't time limit them. Even if we can't get them for this, if they got away with it once chances are they've tried it again. If it wasn't on the navy this time, then we'll hand the information over to the relevant authorities."
The two remaining members of the MCRT weren't even allowed to leave for lunch, luckily there was a local store which was prepared to deliver though Tony did complain about having to eat a relatively healthy lunch. They went back to work, not even willing to speculate why they still hadn't seen anything of the director. The deputy directors both arrived mid afternoon giving rise to some gossip when they walked through the bullpen and were accompanied upstairs by the IA workers.
"Did you see the director come in this morning?" Tony asked Balboa.
"No DiNozzo, and her office lights weren't on when I got here, and her car hasn't been here all day either," Balboa replied frowning. "She might have had meetings of course but a good director would've rescheduled her meetings to be here while IA are crawling all over the top team."
"I haven't heard from Abby all day either. I thought she'd be up here by now demanding to know why Gibbs hasn't been down to visit her," Tim said.
"Abby's not in her lab, there's a locum tech running things," Balboa said.
"Why would they go after Abby?" Tim said worried.
"They wouldn't, unless she tried to stop them from arresting Gibbs," Tony replied.
"She wasn't up here at the time but they took him out through the garage, so they may have come across her on the way," Balboa said thoughtfully.
"Are Ducky and Jimmy in autopsy?" Tony asked.
"I haven't been down there, my current case is theft not murder," Balboa said.
"It's business as usual in autopsy, Ducky and Jimmy came out to our crime scene and collected the bodies, they've got a lot of work to do," Carter said.
"Do you need DiNozzo and/or McGee?" Balboa asked. "They're stuck on cold cases until they find out what's happening to the rest of their team."
"For a triple homicide their team should have picked up anyway, you bet I could use their help, especially McGee's computer magic. So far, I have three bodies who don't seem to have any connection other than being found dead within 300 feet of each other," Carter said running his hands through his hair in a sign of stress. Tim and Tony got up and consulted with the team for a moment before going back to the spare desks to start their searches. They discussed the findings they had on each of their people not finding anything in common in their service histories or financial records.
"So far I can't find any evidence they were stationed at the same port let alone on the same ship," Tony said frustrated.
"Their cards weren't used in the same place in the last month," Tim said. "I'm going back further but Petty Officer Stanford seems to be either very frugal or more of a cash transaction guy. The only charges on his account in the last month are rent, utilities the gas station and the grocery store. Do we have their cars here to compare their GPS?"
"I hadn't thought of that. I'll try to locate them, they weren't found near the bodies," Carter said picking up the phone.
"Was it the crime scene or a body dump?" Tony asked.
"They were killed where they were found, though for the life of me I can't see what they were doing there," Carter replied. "It is possible they were abducted elsewhere and taken their by the killer to be killed."
"What's Tim doing?" Carter asked watching his hunched over his computer typing furiously. "He looks like he's got something."
"Writing code," Tony said after glancing at the screen. "He'll explain when he's finished, we wouldn't understand if he tried now."
Carter laughed.
"I've set up a search to find if there's anyone that worked with all of the three victims. It will probably need to run all night before we get results."
"There's a program that can do that?" Carter asked astonished.
"There is now," Tim said proudly. "I wrote a program a couple of months ago to compare two marines' history, I just had to extend it to work for the Navy and add a third set of data to compare. The program will take as many people as you want now."
"Will it work for the other services?" Carter asked. "Could you market it?"
"It would easily be adapted to work for the other services or any huge corporation in the private sector that moves their staff around a lot if they don't already have a program that does it. I'll look into it once it's been through patent registration," Tim replied.
"You're thinking they may have all served with their killer in the past?" Carter asked.
"It's a long shot but we don't have any other connections at the moment," Tim replied.
"They could have all dated the same woman," Tony said grinning lecherously.
"Yeah, and if you could find a way to find that out, I'm all ears," Carter said rolling his eyes.
"Ask his mates," Tony replied. "They'll know the down low. What are you searching for now probie, I thought you said we were out of leads."
"I'm searching the history of the crime scene, looking for a reason they might have all been there," Tim replied.
"It's a run down old park, barely used and in desperate need of refurbishment," Carter said.
"It's actually in danger of being rezoned for housing development," Tim said. "There is an application in with the city."
"An application that has more chance of being approved now there has been a mass homicide there," Carter said cynically. "When you're done with the current searches, check into the developer who made the application."
A few moments later he gave an exclamation. "There have been multiple arrests for indecent exposure in the last six months," he said. "All men."
"You saying that this was a hook-up place?" Tony asked.
"Looks like it might have been, I'll call the local Leo's for more information," Tim said.
He had a quiet conversation with the local police station and got given a couple of number of guys that had been on patrol in that area last night as well as the names of the officer's named in the most recent arrests.
Making a couple of other calls he then reported back.
"It seems the park has been used for a hook up place for a while now. The police have taken to patrolling through the park when they can but unfortunately they were busy last night with a couple of domestic incidents, and didn't get there," Tim reported.
"At least we can rule out dating the same woman," Carter said looking at Tony.
"Not really, with DADT they may all have dated women as a cover or they may have a male lover in common which if so, will be a lot harder to find because they're less likely to have spoken about it to their work colleagues," Tony said sighing.
Carter cursed.
-o0o-
Abby came up to the bullpen late afternoon intending to complain about the fact that none of her favourite team had been down to visit her lab today.
Tim and Tony managed to catch her before she accosted the IA agents.
"Stop right there, Abs" Tony ordered. "You don't want to piss off IA and draw their attention unnecessarily."
"What are they doing here? Where's Gibbs, he'll get rid of them. He'd be angry you weren't trying to stop them taking over your team's space," Abby hissed.
"He tried Abs, he's been taken into custody for trying to interfere with the investigation," Tony said.
"Where is he Tony" You can't leave him on his own. Do something!" Abby demanded stomping her foot.
"I don't know where he's being held, he was arrested before we got here this morning," Tony said.
"With IA it's best to just let things run their course, getting ourselves arrested for interfering with the investigation isn't going to help anyone, we can learn more by being here," Tim tried to reason with his ex-girlfriend to no avail.
"We have to go visit him. Show out support!" Abby exclaimed.
"Wait here and I'll ask of we are allowed to visit," Tony ordered.
"Why wouldn't we be allowed to visit? He has rights like everyone else," Abby demanded.
"He probably hasn't been charged. They can hold him 72 hours before they have to release him. So if he's in holding, he will be limited to his next of kin and his lawyer. And depending on what they're investigating here at NCIS, you could also be part of the investigation in which case you wouldn't be allowed to speak to him. Tony and I weren't allowed to leave the building today and we weren't allowed down to visit you, Ducky or Jimmy either," Tim tried to explain.
"They can't keep me here. I'll find out where they're keeping my silver fox," Abby declared stomping back to the elevator.
-o0o-
"I think we have a problem," Tim said when Tony returned. "Abby has gone to track down the Boss and she plans to go and demand to see him."
"Shit, I was just told that he's not available to talk to. Will she be able to find him?" Tony said.
"If he has his phone on," Tim replied.
"I better warn them," Tony said tiredly.
"No you go down and try to head Abby off, there's more chance that she'll listen to you than me, I'll talk to IA," Tim suggested.
"I just told your SFA that we don't want him talking to Gibbs, there's no way I'm going to let him send in his probationer," the IA boss said grumpily.
"I understand that, I came over to tell you that our technical analyst wants to see Gibbs and probably isn't going to take no for an answer. She is going to hunt down Gibbs, starting by tracking his cell phone and will arrive wherever you're holding him and will undoubtedly do something stupid like stage a sit in until she gets to see him," Tim said.
"What's their relationship?" IA asked.
"They aren't involved, of that's what you're asking. They seem to have more of a father/daughter thing going half the time. She idolises him, thinks he can do no wrong. She's his favourite, and anyone who upsets her is in big trouble with the boss even if it's her fault. I'd hate to see her get into trouble, she's not trying to deliberately impede the investigation, she just isn't thinking. Tony's gone down to the lab to try to talk her down but normally Gibbs is about the only person that can change her mind once she chooses a course of action," Tim said.
"I need to interview Ms Scuito. I will have a word with her," the IA chief said. "If she turns up and makes trouble after being warned, then she will be arrested."
Tim cringed, Gibbs would be sure to blame him and Tony for not protecting Abby. "May I ask if you're planning to charge Gibbs with anything?"
"Not at the moment, unfortunately, letting your wrong head make decisions for you isn't a crime and we can't prove anything worse than a determined attempt to remain oblivious to David's actions and intents," The IA chief said.
We think he believes she saved his life," Tim said. "She killed her brother in Gibbs basement while he was pointing his gun at Gibbs. Tony thinks they were both acting under orders and Ari was eliminated because he had outlived his usefulness and they didn't want to risk the US finding out what he knew. What I don't understand is why Gibbs didn't realise that too."
"So you don't think he was sexually involved or attracted to David?" IA asked.
"No I don't, he's shown no sign of it. He seems protective of her but it isn't sexual," Tim said.
Tony arrived back, "What isn't sexual?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.
"Gibbs relationship with Ziva," Tim told him.
"Of course not Ziva's not a redhead," Tony said as though it was obvious.
"What?" the IA detective asked in shock.
"All three of Gibbs ex-wives and the girlfriends I've met have all been red-heads," Tony explained. "Ziva might have been willing to go there if it was necessary to get Gibbs support but it wasn't."
"Then what did you think was his motivation for such a huge breach of national security?" IA asked.
"I thought that he wanted her on the team in the liaison position to keep her in the states to protect her from whatever fallout there was for killing Ari. As his handler, she shouldn't have let it get that far," Tony replied.
IA sighed, "If his death wasn't originally planned by the bosses to begin with. They might have sent him here realising he couldn't be trusted and used his death to further the career of his replacement."
"That's cold! He was her brother," Tony said.
"From what I've heard they both profiled as sociopaths," IA said. "And they weren't brought up together, it's likely she had little feeling for him."
-o0o-
The end of the day had come and gone as they chased what leads they had and now Tim, Tony, Carter's team and IA were the only people left in the bullpen.
"Go home everyone. Hopefully the Autopsies or McGee's searches will turn up something because at the moment we got nothing. Let's look at it with fresh eyes in the morning."
"Are we allowed to leave," Tony asked the IA.
"Yeah, don't try to talk to anyone. I mean it boys go home and stay there, and stay off all forms of social media," the IA leader said.
"You drive this morning McGoo?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, I did thanks Tony, I was planning to stop by the store on my way home. I've been putting it off and my cupboards are bare," Tim replied.
"You can stop at the store," IA allowed.
-o0o-
"You think they're going to follow us home?" Tim asked worriedly once they were alone in the elevator.
"More likely track us on GPS, I would assume our phones are bugged though," Tony said.
"There's a payphone at the bodega I often shop at if you want me to try to get a message to Spencer," Tim offered. "I'm not entirely sure it will be in service but I could try."
"No don't risk it, Spence will understand that we can't contact him," Tony said. "He will know not to contact us while we might still be under investigation. Get what you need for the next couple of days and go home, watch a movie or read a book. Stay off your computer. I'll see you in the morning at the usual time."
"Okay Tony. See you tomorrow," Tim said understanding the unspoken order to do nothing that might arouse suspicion.
-o0o-
The next morning began like the last, except that Tim and Tony weren't surprised to see IA in their space continuing to go through Ziva and Tim's computers.
"Are all these search programs registered?" one of them asked eagerly.
"Yes, my first boss suggested that it was important to get them registered so NCIS can sell them on if they're applicable to the other agencies and I get the recognition for my work," Tim replied. Actually his first boss had registered one of his first programs as his own work, and been complimented by their CO for it, which is why Tim registered all his programs as works in progress before he used them on the job, and then registered the finish products as soon as he'd ironed enough bugs out of them to work efficiently.
"Pity that. You've got some great programs," the guy commented making Tim smile proudly. "Since I can't use them can you come over here and run a search for me?"
"Sure," Tim replied, moving to his computer. "What are the parameters?"
"I want to know everything I can about Ziva David's financial records, here in the states and back in Israel," the man said softly.
Tim grinned and got to work. He set up the searches and moved back to his temporary desk to keep working Carter's case. A couple of hours later his computer pinged and the IA technician called him back over.
Tim looked over the results and asked. "Do you want them printed and do you need me to go through them with you?"
"Did you find anything interesting?" IA asked hopefully.
"Probably nothing you can use. There's no unexplained activity on her accounts in Israel or the US, but she has thrice transferred money from those accounts to a swiss bank account that I can't get details of. The swiss banking security is no myth. I could try to hack the bank directly but I would need a specific court order," Tim replied.
"Hopefully just the fact we know about the account might rattle her, I'll get you that order," IA told him.
"Let me know when you have it," Tim replied getting up to go back to his temporary desk.
"I told you I could get the court order," IA said.
"And anything I find before the judge signs of on it would be inadmissible. Not to mention the trouble I'd get into if their security is as aggressive as I've heard they can be and they manage to back hack into our system while I'm illegally hacking theirs," Tim retorted, was this IA guy seriously encouraging him to break the law. Were they that keen to get Ziva or was it a test of his own trustworthiness? For that matter did they already have the information on Ziva's financials and were just checking to see if Tim would find and report the same information?"
From across the bullpen Tony could see Tim becoming frazzled. He IM'd Tim making the computer on Balboa's spare desk chime loudly. "I've got search results coming in on the triple homicide, I need to get back to work," Tim excused himself hurrying away from the IA guys calculating gaze.
He read the message, smiling slightly at his SFA's observation skills and concern and typed back explaining the situation.
"You did the right thing," Tony replied.
"You think he was testing me?" Tim asked.
"Maybe. If Ziva is a foreign agent he will need to work out who she's managed to corrupt," Tony replied.
-o0o-
Gibbs was angry at being left to cool his heels in the holding cells for more than twenty four hours before being interviewed.
"What the hell was the hold up?" He demanded.
"It was your choice to continue trying to impede the investigation after you were warned. You could have spent yesterday working and the night in your own bed if you'd been reasonable," the warder said.
Gibbs bit back a sharp retort and when he'd controlled his temper, asked as politely as he could. "What is the investigation about?"
"Tell me about the members of your team?" The interrogator asked without explaining.
"You're going after my team?" Gibbs roared.
"Sit down and answer the question or I'll have you escorted back to holding," the interrogator said uncompromisingly.
"Now I will get the information I need with or without your assistance. The only question is whether I will be charging you as an accessory, recommending your dismissal for being too blind to see what's going on in front of you or deciding you were making the best of the situation and trying to limit the damages. That third option will be removed from the table if you continue to refuse to answer my questions," the interrogator said trying to glare Gibbs into a submission. "Now tell me about your team?"
"My senior field agent is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo Jr. He's been with me for five years. I recruited him from Philadelphia PD after we worked a joint operation. He's a hell of a detective, but a bit of a clown at times. My probationary agent is Agent Timothy McGee, certified computer genius. He's been with the MCRT for over a year now and is shaping up into a fine agent," Gibbs fell silent but the interrogator continued to stare at him clearly expecting more. "Ziva David is NCIS's Mossad liaison. She's highly skilled in undercover work and is learning the skills of investigation."
"What are her qualifications?" The interrogator asked.
"She's a fully qualified and experienced Mossad Agent and handler, with impressive scores at the shooting range," Gibbs said beginning to be aware what this was about.
"She completed The FLETC courses to qualify as a field agent?" The interviewer asked as if merely confirming information.
"No, she didn't need to she already has those skills," Gibbs disagreed.
"She completed qualifications to process a crime scene and collect and handle evidence?" the interviewer pressed.
"I trained her to do that!" Gibbs stated.
"Are you accredited as a trainer in that area?" the interviewer asked.
"I've been training Probies for years," Gibbs declared.
"Yes Probationary agents that had already completed their mandatory classes at FLETC," the interrogator retorted unimpressed.
"I trained her well," Gibbs insisted.
"That's irrelevant. Without the necessary qualifications, the admissibility of any evidence she collected without supervision of either you or agent DiNozzo could be brought into question by any half decent defence lawyer and it's only going to take one of them to realise that for all the cases you've solved in the last four months to be at risk of being thrown out."
Gibbs paled, Tony had tried to warn him but Jen had said it had been sorted. In hindsight, he should have checked and made sure.
"Director Sheppard assured me that she had taken care of obtaining the necessary clearances for Ziva to join our team," he protested weakly.
"If she did we can find no record of it," the IA interrogator said.
Gibbs cursed. "Have you asked her about it?"
"Tell me about David's computer skills?" the interviewer asked.
"I'm hardly the person to ask!" Gibbs protested.
"I am aware of that, but what can you tell me. You said McGee does most of your computer searches. Is David capable of doing them?"
"She never has. When McGee has been out we've had to call for support," Gibbs replied.
"So it would surprise you then if we found multiple searches on her computer?"
"No McGee often borrows a second computer when he overloads his own," Gibbs replied. He frowned, it was true McGee did run searches on multiple computers but thinking back lately he always used Tony's, not Ziva's. and he spent time between most cases cleaning up the hard drives and deleting unwanted information to obtain maximum performance when he needed it. There shouldn't have been search results on Ziva's computer. Not from any searches done by McGee.
"He hasn't used Ziva's computer much lately," he admitted.
The interrogator nodded, "we will have Agent McGee go through and identify which searches he's responsible for. What about accessing case files and naval documents. Is that part of David's role in an investigation?"
"She should only access the cases we worked and the cold cases she's been assigned unless one of them triggers a memory of a previous case or a suspect's name flags on another case."
"We can check on the cases easily enough. What about classified naval and marine documents and specifications, and details on agents posted overseas?"
"No she had no reason to access those," Gibbs said frowning. "I didn't know she'd done that."
McGee should have noticed that when he was doing whatever he did with their computers, had he missed it, or had he just not told him.
-o0o-
A/N: Thank you to Reader Ethiriel, AndDeathShallHaveNoDominion, Criminal Minds Queen, Guest, DS2010, Guest, Rori Potter, Village-Mystic, XxXxJackBlackxXxX, ShadowWolf's Fables, NyxxNoxx, Calgal48, julschristine975, ladysavay, serenityselena, Locket1, Irene (Guest), Sincerely-ADedicatedFan, tlcroft, Georgia (Guest), Angel4EverLostInLife, katydidnt, Dorothy42, jpmuel01, delia cerrano, dantexsin, Jutsu Dream, Nicolediane, finnray, Funbaby911, BrothersBestFriends, kittenlore, , Buusia33, Gushlaw, Krystal1327, .71619, Zankou, BakuganShari, angle fish, WhimsyDragonQueen, EdEsE, , Mulligan, Ihatechoosinganame, lauraburle, RLBBlindBard, ShadowGuardianAngel, ButtercupHarmony, Holen-Snape, BellaBlack2012, amber10587, The Flea, Selenity84, hellshadowreaper, Dark-hunterxONihime, YueLilianPotter, ninnki92, kaz29, StoryArk, Confused Interests, amethyst0216, aDDiCTED-2-SUGaR, iroshi, LadyoftheRose1235, jot52, steelefanforever, Maikae, chrisfanatic3, LAG0802, Vickage, luna1971, pernrider, E-Nizzy, EbonyMidnight, stargazegal, Anna Maria Taigi, kisskia, EMMACAT, Deathly Sarcasm, bunny86, jonayla, killthewhispered, EMReader81, D'Nalia, LadyJen97, angeliquemb9, hochexplosiv, Shirosaki-Yuki, flora1309, Mefeather, sammy6669, Hollyowl, delnor and cfbme for your support.