Chapter 14
The Opus restaurant in the heart of the city currently played host to Senator Kellock, Rosemary Sinclair and her business partner, Peter Corby. Natural sunlight shone into the cubical making the silverware and glassware sparkle like crystal against the Egyptian cotton tablecloth.
Rosemary was on the phone and an unnatural, if not uncommon, silence fell between the two men. They listened intently to the call, hoping to glean whether the news was good or bad, but as Kellock knew, his wife played her cards close to her chest.
Rosemary shut her cellphone and turned to her companions. Their faces were full of expectation and impatience. She let the moment linger longer than necessary. "We're through to the final round of the tendering process." Rosemary said, a smile lighting her face. "By this time tomorrow we'll know if we've been successful in securing the ten year contract to supply the Air Force with drugs and medical equipment. I have it on good authority, it is ours to lose."
Peter pumped the air with his fist before leaning in to Rosemary and kissing her hard on the cheek. Kellock got up and hugged his wife. "Congratulations."
"See Conrad, we're back on track. We'll have a multimillion dollar contract sewn up and we'll have got rid of that other little problem, which would have destroyed both your career and the business my father created."
Peter coughed loudly.
"Sorry Peter, your parents too."
"How much do you know Peter?" Conrad asked. He'd known Peter too many years to remember, but he still wasn't sure who the man really was: the sophisticated, intelligent careerist, or the over-achieving, spoiled child of demanding parents, some might say psychotic parents. He certainly resembled his father in looks, he wondered if he did in psychoticism too.
"Peter is in this as much as we are Conrad; there can be no secrets. If this glorified police officer discovers anything, we all suffer, through no fault of our own."
"Rosie is right," Peter said, "we have to be in this together. And I trust Rosie more than anyone in the world. I am one hundred percent behind her. I mean how hard can it be to stop one insignificant nobody?"
Kellock took a sip of the champagne he'd ordered before studying the man opposite him. "Have you ever heard of a Colin Caller?"
Peter furrowed his brow, as though thinking more deeply than he needed.
"It's an easy enough question."
"I meet a lot of people in my line of work Conrad; I'm sifting my database." He tapped on his head. "No, sorry, the name's not familiar."
"What is it Conrad? Who is Colin Caller." Rosemary asked.
Kellock smiled at his wife. "No one dear. Just another name from the past that has been laid to rest. Seems to be happening a lot lately." He took one last glance at Corby, trying to weigh up whether the apple really didn't fall far from the tree. He finished off his drink and rose. "I really must get back to the office, but if you hear of anyone else dying who was connected to our 'little problem', be sure to let me know. Although I might be running out of condolence cards soon." He shot a look at Corby, before dropping two, hundred dollar bills on the table and leaving.
OOO
Gibbs strolled up to Tony's desk, taking the opportunity while Nova was on the phone to the Head of Security.
"Let's talk?"
Tony looked over at Ziva, who was pretending to not pay any heed to the conversation between her colleagues. "Usual Conference Room?" They headed for the elevator.
Ziva's phone rang just as they passed. She picked up and answered.
"Gibbs!" She shouted after him, as he was stepping into the elevator. "I have Mildred Mahoney on the phone."
Gibbs looked at Tony, who'd just stepped into the elevator.
"Go. It'll wait five more minutes." Tony said.
Gibbs walked back to his desk, followed by Tony, and picked up the transferred call. "Mrs Mahoney, what can I do for you?"
"I remembered."
"Remembered?"
"I remembered that Lang used to go a see a chiropractor every month, without fail. I don't know how much use it is to you, but I thought I'd better let you know."
"Appreciate it Mrs Mahoney. Do you know the name of this chiropractor?"
"He said she was called Doctor Rebus. I always wondered about her ability though; he always seemed in more pain when he returned than when he went."
"We'll look into it." Gibbs put the phone down. "I need an address and background for a Doctor Rebus."
"On it." Tony replied.
"Likely an alias." Nova said, having finished his own call. "For some underground medical fetish dominatrix."
"Ducky said it was definitely self-inflicted." Ziva said.
"I'm sorry, but sometimes doctors are wrong." Nova replied. "My father was one, so trust me, I know. I think we'll find Doctor Rebus is a pseudonym." He turned to Gibbs. "I spoke with the Head of Security and emailed him the photo of our suspect. He says he doesn't recognize him. He'll ask around and get back to us if anyone knows anything."
Gibbs phone rang again. He picked up. "What you got Abb's."
"Got a hit on our fake Gregory Dathis."
"On my way." Gibbs put the phone down. "Ziva, Nova with me." They stood up. Gibbs looked up to see Vance standing, leaning on the banister at the top of the stairs. He remembered Vance's forthright message about DiNozzo's supervision order. "Actually Ziva, you stay and help Tony locate Doctor Rebus." He strode off with Nova.
Ziva frowned, never before having known him change his mind. It didn't go unnoticed by Tony either. He looked over his shoulder up towards the mezzanine and saw the back of Vance as he returned to his office. Tony stood up. "I'm going to speak with Vance."
Ziva grabbed his arm. "What do you think you are doing?"
"I thought I'd made it quite clear when I said the words, 'I'm going to speak with Vance'." Tony replied, prising her vice like fingers from his arm.
Tony carried on towards the main stairwell.
"If not for you Tony, then for Chaplain Mahoney." Ziva called out. "He does not deserve to have his murder play second riddle to your personal issues."
Tony paused for a few seconds, biting down the desire to correct her English, before reluctantly returning to his desk. Ziva moved to sit on the edge. Tony blocked out her ninja stare and continued his computer search for the doctor.
After a few minutes he'd got all the information he was looking for. He typed up the details of her address, work history and qualifications for the case file and printed off three copies. "Our Doctor Rebus is not the chiropractor Mrs Mahoney believes." He rose from his seat. "I thought you were supposed to be helping, not just trying to psych me out." He said, when she continued to stare at him.
"You were ready to talk to Gibbs, so talk to me."
He went to retrieve the paper from the printer. She blocked his way with her leg.
"You know I could torture you to get the information I desire." She said, interlocking her fingers and flexing them. "Like riding a bike; some skills you never forget."
"Still not talking." He again tried to move around her leg. She blocked his way again. "Come on Ziva, I've got work to do." Tony's personal cellphone rang. He turned back to retrieve it from his jacket pocket, and answered it.
"Agent DiNozzo, it's Nancy. We spoke the other day."
With everything going on, he'd forgotten about her call when he was at the grocers. He remembered that he'd meant to get her business address and pay her a visit. He looked at Ziva and knew he needed to move this conversation away from prying ears quickly. "Just hold on one sec." He tried to manoeuvre his way around Ziva. She stood resolutely in place until, for the first time ever, he physically moved her.
He made his way to the back of the stairwell to continue the conversation.
"Sorry about that." Tony said as he re-commenced the conversation. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Ziva hadn't followed him, or, more likely, come to end his life in the most public and imaginatively painful way possible. Luckily for him, she was no where to be seen.
"I've been doing my research; seems you've been dealt a bad hand."
"You have sources?"
"I do and I'm not revealing them, but the general consensus is that you're one of the good ones."
Tony let the silence continue, not wanting her to change her mind by making some ill-considered remark.
"It still haunts me, his death," she eventually said, "and if you can get to the bottom of it well..."
"So what can you tell me?"
"You were right, three years is a long time to wait to kill someone. Only James had continued researching the article all that time. He truly believed he'd uncovered a truth the public should know about and which people should be held accountable for. He thought he'd finally managed to track down who the drugs were supplied by. He'd arranged a meeting with someone who worked for the company at the time and who was willing to get some documented proof that experiments had taken place. Only he never got to the meeting. He was killed a few hours before they were due to meet."
"Did he say who he was meeting, or the company?"
"He only gave me the name Peter, but I doubt that was his real name."
"Is there anything else you can tell me?"
"Check your email and don't contact me again." The phone went dead.
OOO
Abby's lab was blaring music from the sound system. Gibbs tapped her on the shoulder, she jumped before turning her music off with the remote.
"Gibbs. Have you got new shoes? I couldn't hear you coming."
"That music's probably blown your eardrums Abb's."
"You might be right. But luckily for you, not my ability to perform magic." She pressed the remote and a picture of a man appeared on the large screen. He was dressed in a Navy Captain uniform. He looked close to six foot with short, dark hair.
"He's a Navy Captain?" Nova stated as he looked over at the screen.
"Good observational skills Nova. I can see why you're Gibbs' temporary Senior Field Agent." Abby said. Gibbs tried to hide his smirk. "His name is Ben Benson. He joined the USMC and got to the rank of Captain and was dishonourably discharged in '97, having served four years for dealing drugs."
"Four years seems light for dealing, for a man in his position." Gibbs stated, moving round to Abby's computer screen to see the charge sheet.
"Well as you can see, these were no ordinary drugs. We're not talking heroin, cocaine or even pot."
"Never done drugs." Nova stated. "Bad for the body and mind."
"Quite right Nova." Abby said. "But maybe you'd have liked these. Benson claimed they were there to help his men; to improve their mental prowess and ability to deal with emotionally and physically taxing situations. He only got caught because one of his men had a negative reaction, became incoherent and blurted it out to the doctors."
"Experimental drugs." Gibbs said.
"Yes. The investigation concluded that he was working for a drug company, but he would never admit to it, never mind disclose the name of anyone. His sentence was increased from three to four years due to his lack of remorse and refusal to assist in naming the company involved."
"You got an address for him?"
"Running it through the system as we speak."
"That's good work Abs." Gibbs said kissing her on the cheek. Nova looked on with unease.
"Not that I don't appreciate your appreciation, but it is premature." Abby grinned. "I have more."
Gibbs cocked his head.
"I might have found a link between Benson and Mahoney." She turned to her computer and brought up Benson's details. "Benson was placed on something called the Second Chance Programme as a teenager. It was run by the Department of Health & Human Services."
"Same department Mahoney worked for." Nova said. He peered at the screen. "And at the time he was there by the looks of it."
"Until McGee gets into their database, we wont know for sure." Abby said, "But there's a chance that they met there. It's not exactly a motive though, from all accounts the programme was a success and hugely beneficial to its participants."
"Could be that Mahoney abused his position." Nova said.
"Let's leave the guesswork until we get more facts." Gibbs said. He turned to Abby. "I owe you a CafPow."
"Just the one?" She smiled.
"Get me an address and I'll buy you a crate."
End of Chapter 14