Chapter 21
Tim grabbed copies of everything Tony and Ziva had gathered about Melissa's death. He snuck down to Autopsy and did the same. He needed to know what evidence there was. He'd looked once, but it had been a long time. Was it just his own obsession, an attempt to make sense out of something senseless? Maybe, it was. Maybe, he was acting like a teenager still. Gibbs had told him to start doing his job, to deal with it. It was time to do that, and he couldn't if he didn't know what was really there.
Since he couldn't be involved in the investigation into who had tried to kill him, Tim figured that no one would miss him if he hid out in the conference room and tried to reason his way through something he had never been able to reason through. The whole situation had been too hard for him as a teenager. Without anyone believing him, he had felt the desperation to make someone listen. It hadn't helped his case. Tim could acknowledge that. He could admit that he'd only made things harder.
Even now, years later, he felt the anger and helplessness tie his stomach up in knots. He wasn't happy about being forced to think about it all again. Gibbs had made it impossible to set it aside and so he had to work through it...without interference from anyone else. Well-meaning though they were, they couldn't really understand Tim's feelings about this. They couldn't understand how it felt to have to accept failure time after time.
He spread the papers out on the table. He told himself he wouldn't look at the pictures, the photos from the crimes scene, from the autopsy. ...but he couldn't not look. It was so awful to see Melissa cut open. He knew it was a necessity, but it made him ill.
Then, he forced himself to turn away from the photos, and he went back to the rest of the evidence. It was better to look at the words.
Ducky had been making notes about the discrepancies he'd found. There were so many. How could he possibly be wrong? The hyoid was fractured and Ducky had noted that it wasn't common in hanging deaths. The ligature marks were consistent with throttling and then hanging afterwards. The abrasions from the rope had marred any marks from hands. No rope fibers on her hands as would be expected if she had tied knots herself.
Her body said murder. The evidence supported what he'd always said. It was gratifying to know that. ...even if it didn't fix anything.
Then, he looked at the write-ups Tony and Ziva had made about talking to the people who had given David and Louis alibis before. The three they'd found had all admitted to being told what to say. No big surprise there...but wait. They'd been told what to say...by David, not Louis. That made Tim pause. David always made the plans. Tim knew that. Louis wasn't smart enough or patient enough to plan things out. David was. ...but David never did anything more than help Louis. He didn't do things. He hung back and let Louis do it all. ...which meant that Louis could take the blame if things went wrong.
Why had he changed on that night? What had made things different? David had too much a sense of self-preservation to just let Louis force him to take control.
A thought began to form in his mind. It was difficult to conceive because he had never considered the possibility. It went against every experience he'd had with Louis and David.
In Deep Six he had written the murder in a certain way. Lawrence had killed Sandra with Colin helping hold her down. Then, Colin had tried to clean up after her death so that he could hide the fact that Sandra had seen Colin and Lawrence stealing for some kind of pseudo-terrorist group. That was the necessity when he wasn't going to reveal what had happened to Melissa and when he couldn't think of any other reason for her death.
The fact that these people were saying that David had told them what to say, not Louis...it was a change from how David operated. Why?
Could the roles have reversed in some way?
Tim felt the churning in his stomach increase.
What if David had killed Melissa, not Louis?
But why?
Louis was the one who had raped her. Melissa had told him, and Tim trusted her. Louis was the one who didn't think he'd have to face consequences. He was the one who enjoyed the power he had over others. He was the physical one. Why would David kill her?
Louis had wanted to kill him but hadn't succeeded. He'd tried twice and failed both times. David would have had to have helped him, but apparently it didn't matter to him as much.
So why Melissa?
It was something making him think, re-evaluate what he'd thought he knew.
Was he right, now? If so...why had David killed Melissa?
Why?
Then, he remembered something else, something that only one other person knew, something Tim himself had tried to forget...almost as much as he had tried to forget how he had seen Melissa in the tree.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"Where's Tim?" Abby asked.
Gibbs looked around, as if surprised that he couldn't see Tim there.
"Gibbs! You brought back one of the bad guys and you don't know where Tim is?"
She sounded affronted.
"He's here, Abby, and Dietrich is in holding."
"But how is Tim feeling?" she asked. "It's been so hard for him lately. I mean, he's been letting us see how bothered he is. Now, they're here. Is he okay?"
"He's fine," Gibbs said.
"But where is he?"
"I'm right here, Abbs," Tim said, walking out from the direction of the men's room.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
"I'm fine, Boss," he said. "Just thought that I should be...out of the way while Louis was...being...taken care of."
Abby ran over and hugged Tim tightly, but Gibbs could tell Tim wasn't telling the whole truth. He looked troubled about something.
"Are you feeling any better?" Abby asked.
"Yeah, Abbs. I am."
"I told you we would get them! I told you we could do it!"
"Yes, you did. But you know we've only got Louis."
"You said he'd give up Larson," Gibbs pointed out.
"He will," Tim said, and at the mention of David, he seemed bothered again.
Tim was hiding something, but Gibbs decided he didn't want to get into it with Abby there.
"His lawyer here yet?" Tim asked.
"Not yet. He will be."
"Yeah. He'll be a good lawyer. Nothing but the best for Louis," Tim said with some bitterness.
"And it won't matter," Abby said, "because we've got evidence, and we won't let it disappear."
"Have you heard anything from Tony and Ziva?"
"They went and talked to the guy who gave Larson and Dietrich an alibi the night you were assaulted."
He let out a humorless laugh.
"And he said that they weren't really there. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah," Tim echoed.
"I can't believe how easy it is for them to get people to do what they say."
"Not them. Him," Tim corrected. "Louis."
But again, he seemed bothered.
"I still can't believe it," Abby said. "It doesn't make any sense that a jerk like that would be able to force people to lie for him."
"It makes sense. It sucks, but it makes sense," Tim said.
Abby hugged him again.
"Abby," Gibbs said.
"I know. I know. I have work to do, but we're getting there, Tim. We're going to be even better than the characters in your book."
Tim smiled.
Abby hurried off to the lab, leaving Gibbs to stare at Tim.
"Do you have anything you want me to do, Boss?" Tim asked.
"What have you been doing?"
Tim hedged.
"McGee."
"I can't help out with the case...since it's about me, and all. So..."
"What, McGee?"
"I...made copies of everything everyone else has been doing about Melissa's...about how she died, and..."
"And?" Gibbs asked, raising an eyebrow.
"And since you don't have anything else for me to do, I figured I might as well do something."
"And are you really doing something?"
"I don't know yet."
"McGee," Gibbs said, "if you find something...you'd better not go off on your own. You're part of a team."
"Even about something that happened so long ago?"
"Yes. If you find something..."
Tim swallowed.
"I'll tell you."
"Good."
Tim nodded and then walked away. Gibbs watched him go. There was something going on in Tim's mind and it was a little irritating that he wasn't sharing, but maybe there really was nothing yet. Still, he was worried that Tim might fall back into the depression he'd had before. He'd have to keep an eye out.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"There he goes," Tony said.
"You think he will head home?"
"I don't know where else he'd go...unless he's noticed us."
"He has not shown that at all."
"Some people are good at hiding," Tony said. "You know?"
Ziva rolled her eyes and Tony leered a little.
"Are you going to follow him or stare?"
"I could do both."
"Please, do not."
Tony put the car in gear and followed David as he drove. He went home, got out and walked into a small townhome. Whatever he was doing, he gave no indication of realizing he'd been followed.
"I do not trust him," Ziva said. "He is too cold. He would not show if he saw us or not."
Tony nodded.
"Yeah. We'll just need to watch."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Gibbs sat down across from Louis and his lawyer.
"You have put an unfair burden on my client," the lawyer said. "Taking him from New York City, all the way down here, and on the basis of such flimsy accusations as you have."
"Flimsy accusations?" Gibbs asked with a smile. "You don't know what we have on your client, do you."
The lawyer was good. He didn't even hesitate.
"What you have is circumstantial. You have an accusation from someone who bears a grudge against my client and has since they were teenagers. You have a man who has been trying to find a way to accuse him ever since..."
"...ever since your client broke into Agent McGee's car and tampered with the car's computer?"
"My client is a trader on Wall Street. He is not a computer person, nor does he know a lot about cars."
"No, but he knows someone who just happens to be an expert at exotic car repair."
"Then, why aren't you talking to the car expert instead of harassing my client?"
Gibbs smiled.
"Because the car expert didn't leave his fingerprints on the computer in Agent McGee's car. Your client did."
The lawyer looked at Louis who was surprised.
"Impossible," Louis said.
"Your client was in Agent McGee's car, fiddling with the car's computer. No one should be doing something like that if they aren't experts...unless they were trying to change the programming."
He slid the photo of Tim's crushed car across the table.
"This is the result of your client's fiddling. We found the changed program. We have his fingerprints. He tried to kill a federal agent."
"You don't have a motive."
"Yes, I do."
"And what is that?"
Gibbs slid a copy of Deep Six across the table.
"A book?"
"Not just any book, is it, Mr. Dietrich," Gibbs said, looking at Louis. "Agent McGee told us about your visit, your anger about the characters in his book, and the security guard on duty can vouch for your uninvited appearance and the lack of friendship in your greeting. You can talk about Agent McGee's accusations all you want, but that doesn't change the evidence we have. You broke into his car. You tampered with his car's computer, changed the programming, and almost killed him."
"Hey, it wasn't just me! I couldn't have programmed his computer myself."
"Louis..."
"Shut up," Louis snarled. "I don't know how to program anything."
"It's your fingerprint."
"David is the one who told me what to do! I couldn't have done it myself!"
"Louis!"
"I am not going down by myself," Louis said. "I couldn't have done anything without David."
"David?" Gibbs asked.
"David Larson. He's your car expert. He told me what to do."
"And why did you do it, then?"
Louis stopped talking. Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of deal do we get?" the lawyer asked.
"That's not my department," Gibbs said. "I'm not a lawyer. Are you willing to go down alone, Mr. Dietrich? Because you're going down no matter what you say about Larson."
Gibbs got to his feet and started for the door.
"Wait! I'm not taking all the blame for this!"
Gibbs smiled and turned back. He walked to the table and sat down.
"If you're not going to take all the blame, what blame is there to spread around? You talk. I listen...and you'd better not be lying to me."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Tim sat in the conference room. He'd looked through everything multiple times. He couldn't see any other way of interpreting it.
So what now?
He couldn't let this go unaddressed. He had to do something about it.
...but he also remembered Gibbs saying that he should talk to him if he found something.
...and that he was part of a team.
What he wanted to do was run off and confront David. He'd faced off with them alone before. It didn't have anything to do with NCIS, with the team, with anyone except for him and Melissa...and the man who had killed her.