Year 1 finished of uni finished now can get back to the fun stuff! Don't own any of it.
By the time they arrived in Las Vegas the chapel was closed and despite Ziva's best efforts and DiNozzo's effort (?) they could find no one to talk to that night. DiNozzo went to a show, Ziva spent the night going over everything they knew – not much. They left the hotel first thing in the morning, well DiNozzo's idea of first thing for the chapel.
'Wow, this is really…..' actually DiNozzo wasn't sure what it was. But he knew what it wasn't, it wasn't big, but as no one knew about the marriage he guessed that there weren't too many guests.
'How can we help?' the receptionist smiled, 'We have no services left for this morning but I could fit you in for after lunch!'
'I think not,' Ziva smiled, 'NCIS, can we talk to the manager?'
'NCI what?,' the receptionist asked.
'Federal agents' ma'am, the manager?' DiNozzo replied, not too many sailors in Vegas I guess.
Five minutes later Ziva and DiNozzo watched a couple who had obviously just tied the knot, a man left their side and approached the 2 agents. 'I'm Paul Quinn, I run Five Star Chapels how can I help?' DiNozzo looked the man up and down, he had to give Callen some credit, at least this guy wasn't dressed like Elvis.
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'Boss we've identified 3 more of the couples, again the only connection is….'
'Five Star Chapel,' Sam finished for McGee.
'Yes,' McGee wished he had something more but even with 4 of them working the systems there was nothing else.
'Were any of them reported missing?' Deeks asked.
'All of them, mainly by work colleagues or neighbours, none by family,' McGee looked up, 'only 4 of the couples lived in LA.'
'Yet LAPD received their photos,' Sam thought aloud, 'they ended up here.'
'Guys,' Eric appeared at the top of the stairs, 'Tony and Ziva.'
As they walked up the stairs Sam and Deeks gave each other a look that Hetty recognised although not usually between the two men. The look said one thing TROUBLE.
'Hey boss,' Tony smiled, 'so we spoke to the manager and we went thru the records,' Ziva coughed, 'Ziva went thru the records,' he corrected.
'All 15 couples married here within a 6 to 13 month span,' Ziva continued, Sam flinched at how Callen and Kensi had been casually added to the list. 'Not one of them had any guests at their weddings.'
'While this is all very interesting Miss David, how does it help us?' Hetty was done playing nice 5 days had passed since they had last seen Callen and Kensi, time was running out, if there was any time left.
'There was a guy working here,' DiNozzo spoke up, 'details coming your way McGeek, guy was caught in the confidential files'
'He was fired 6 months ago, when he was caught copying down addresses from the chapel files, apparently the files he accessed was all of couples who had married with either no guests or only a few. Manager remembers that there was a couple who came in, he took one look at them and went out the back, he didn't return until they left. The manager identified Callen and Kensi as that couple. Manager got the feeling he was avoiding them.' Ziva completed.
'Tom McGuire,' Nell read from McGee's PDA, 'on it.'
'Family?' Gibbs asked.
'None known of, no real friends either, guy was a loner by all accounts, went to his place but the landlord said he left 6 months ago, no forwarding address,' Ziva wasn't happy with the info she was giving, but it was all she had.
'Very well, get back here ASAP,' Gibbs looked to the 4 people working the computers, 'find him,' he instructed.
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'Tom McGuire,' Eric announced to the crowded room, '45 years old former DEA agent.' Eric allowed the information to settle in before he continued. 'He was convicted of drug smuggling 11 years ago.' Eric stopped as he looked to his screen.
'He was arrested by Callen,' Nell took up the commentary, 'looks like an undercover operation. McGuire had been smuggling drugs for a cartel out of Mexico. The cartel was known for terrorising small towns into working for them, by abducting family members of targets and leaving them to die in hidden containers. If the target gave the cartel what they wanted the kidnap victim was returned, if not…'
'They were left to die,' Deeks finished for them.
'Same tactic was also used by other cartels, to hide their real targets they would kidnap and kill innocent victims so the police couldn't identify who the real target was,' Gibbs told the assembled agents who were both fascinated and appalled by the information.
'He was born in Las Vegas, looks like he went home after his release,' Abby was reading more information from the screen, 'Got a job at Five Star Chapels'.
'Current address,' Sam and Gibbs asked in unison.
Eric would have smiled if he hadn't been so tired, 'he has a property in Glenwood…'
'Send it to my phone,' Sam told Eric as he and Deeks left the ops centre.
'We're not waiting for an invitation McGee,' Gibbs said as both he and McGee followed them out.
'Mr Beale,' Hetty approached, 'keep looking, I doubt they'll find our friends in the basement.' We're not that lucky, she added silently to herself.
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It was late in the evening when a car drove into the driveway, Sam recognised McGuire from his photo, finally, it's time to get some answers.
Sam kicked in the front door with Deeks just a step behind, the others were covering the back in case he tried to run. It was a calculated risk just gong straight to the only suspect they had, but they been waiting over 3 hours to come home and after 3 days of doing nothing and another 2 where I didn't even know they were in trouble, Sam wasn't prepared to spend god knew how long following McGuire just in case he was kind enough to lead them to Callen and Kensi, they had already broken in and searched the house but there was nothing to indicate where he might be keeping them.
'Freeze,' McGee could be heard out the back.
Sam ran out the back just in time to see McGuire raise his gun to fire at McGee, instinct took over and he fired 3 shots. All 3 found their mark and McGuire slumped to the ground. Sam looked at his gun as Gibbs and McGee went to McGuire's side.
'Sam…' Deeks trailed off. Gibbs shook his head and stood up. Sam turned and left, not saying a word. He already knew he had just killed the only man who knew where his friends were. He didn't need to hear from anyone else about it.