Twenty minutes later, the agents, plus Hetty and Granger were all in the boatshed looking at Tony and Abby on the monitors. "You question them at all, Kensi?" Callen asked.
Kensi shook her head. "I just spent hours on a plane listening to DiNozzo act like an ass. If I had even tried to question him, I would've killed him.
"Now you know how I felt last year after spending hours in a car with him," Sam said.
"Are you ready, Mr. McGee?" Hetty asked.
Tim turned to her in disbelief. "What? Why me?" He didn't want to interrogate Tony. He wanted as little physical contact with Tony as possible. The man infuriated him on a good day.
"We can take it, Hetty," Callen said indicating himself and Sam
Hetty shook her head. "He is the only person here who knows this particular suspect on a personal level. You spent every day for years with him, Mr. McGee. You know what makes him tick. You know how to get under his skin."
Tim sighed unhappily. He could see he wasn't going to get out of this one. He was going to have to be the one to interrogate Tony. He hated it, but he knew Hetty was right. He was the only one who could anticipate Tony's every move.
Tim put an earpiece in his ear and then grabbed the file that was currently next to the monitors and headed down the hall to the interrogation rooms. He walked into the room Tony was held in.
Tony chuckled condescendingly. "You've gotta be kidding me. You? Come on, I rate more than a computer geek.
Tim ignored him and sat down across from his former colleague. He then opened the file and took out a picture of Tony walking out of prison with Sterling and put it in front of him.
"I take a nice picture, don't I? Better than you. But then I do everything better than you," Tony said.
Tim wordlessly took out another photo. This time it was of Tony standing over Sterling's body."
"Oh, I get it. You're trying to be Gibbs. Keep silent until he cracks?" Tony asked.
Tim reached in again and pulled out a copy of the ballistic results on the bullet that killed Sterling. He wouldn't normally do this, but with Tony nothing went normally. He wanted the man to see exactly how much trouble he was in.
Once he was done, Tim leaned back in his chair. "Do I need to lay all this out for you or are you smart enough to figure it out on your own?"
Tony just glared at him defiantly.
"Alright, fine. We have you illegally escorting Charles Sterling out of prison, we have you standing over his dead body, and finally the ballistics report that matches the bullet that killed him to your service weapon. Not to mention the fact that you went off the grid for weeks giving you plenty of opportunity, and it's no secret that you had a grudge against Sterling. So tell me, Tony. As an agent, what does all this mean?" Tim asked.
"Why don't you tell me since you seem to think you have all the answers?" Tony asked.
"It means that you need to get your head out of your ass and take this seriously or you're going to spend the rest of your life behind bars," Tim said.
"With you on the case? Not likely," Tony said.
Tim shook his head. "You just don't get it, do you? This isn't like every other time you screwed up. You got out from all of your messes before because Gibbs risked his ass and everyone else's to save yours. But Gibbs isn't here. You're on my turf now."
"Oh, you're turf, huh?" Tony asked with a condescending laugh.
"Yeah, that right, my turf. And no one here is going to risk their hides to save you. No one here gives a damn if you fry. So for God's sake, Tony, stop acting like an ass and treat this with the seriousness it deserves! What happened with Sterling?"
"Wow, you really feel like a big man now, don't you? You think you got me boxed into a corner," Tony said with a smug smirk.
Tim sighed. "You know what? Yeah, I do. In fact, I know I do. You wouldn't be acting like this otherwise. Yeah, you're an ass on a normal day, but even you know when to quit. This isn't your normal crap. This is how you act when you know you're in deep. And you are in deep. We've got enough evidence to put you away for murder one. Any good prosecutor will argue that you broke Sterling out of prison with the intention of killing him. But I don't think that's what happened."
Tony scoffed. "Oh, is this where you play good cop. Where you tell me that you can get me a lesser charge if I confess. Like I haven't done that one a million times."
Tim ignored him. "If you were really set out to kill someone, you would've done it better. You may underestimate my abilities, but I don't underestimate yours. You're smart enough to hide the evidence better. But you didn't. That tells me that something else is going on here." And it was true. If nothing else, Tony was smart enough to know how to cover his tracks better. After all, he'd been in law enforcement practically his entire adult life. But he hadn't covered his tracks. That meant that whatever happened to Sterling wasn't planned, at least not by Tony.
"I don't underestimate your abilities. You overestimate them," Tony said.
Tim sighed. He should've known that was the only thing Tony would actually here from everything he said. "Tony, do you wanna spend the rest of your life in prison? Because if that's what you want, tell me right now. I'll walk out that door and hand all this over to JAG and let them figure out what to do with you.
"Oh, so now you're playing hard ball, huh? Sorry to tell you, probie, but you suck at it. So why don't you get out of here and send in the big boys," Tony asked.
"You want the big boys?" a third voice asked.
Tim and Tony both turned to see Granger in the doorway with a cold yet eager look on his face. "Ask and you shall receive.