Chapter 25

Abby was getting as much information on Sheriff Alan Drake as she could. Knowing what he'd tried to do to Stan and what he may have done to Mary and what he did do to Tim, she was determined to get everything. No secrets would be buried deeply enough to escape her notice.

So far, however, there didn't appear to be any secrets. If Sheriff Drake had a criminal past beyond what they now suspected, it hadn't left any trail.

"But that doesn't matter," Abby said aloud. "I will figure this out, and even if I can't, Gibbs will when he hears everything I've found."

Determined, Abby returned to her searches, compiling everything she could about the Drakes and anyone connected with them.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"What do you got, Kate?" Gibbs asked.

"Photos. Lots of them," Kate said.

She clicked on an icon and Gibbs leaned over to see what she had found.

"I don't know if this is all of them, but there are a lot of photos, here, Gibbs. And look at this."

Gibbs looked. Photos of Mary, yes, but there were other photos, too. Kate stopped on one.

"Isn't this Margaret McGee?" Kate asked.

"Looks like it."

The photo was of Margaret McGee walking down the road. She didn't appear to be aware of the camera. She looked tired and unhappy. Her dress was worn but clean, and her hair was long and curly, much like Mary's was.

"He was watching her, too. Some of these are older, maybe even scanned in. Sheriff Drake was watching Tim McGee's mother."

"He said he didn't like him," Tony said, leaning over Kate's other shoulder.

"You think Tim knew?" Kate asked, sounding skeptical.

"I don't know if he knew, but he never liked the sheriff. He was really open about that."

Gibbs considered what he was seeing here. Ducky was very firm that Margaret McGee had died of an aneurysm. No question of Sheriff Drake having killed her. That didn't mean he hadn't been watching her before, though.

"Anyone else?" Tony asked.

"I don't know. Not so far. Just Mary and Margaret."

"All right. Pack it up. Abby'll check it when we get back. We need to see what she's found, too."

"What about tonight, Boss?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, are we leaving?" Kate asked.

"The sheriff is gone, and Stan will be on duty. Morrow's sent another team to be here. We'll be back first thing in the morning."

Even as he said it, though, Gibbs wasn't sure he liked it. Still, they did need to get back and see what Abby had found. They needed to get everything figured out that they could, but at the same time, he didn't like leaving Hazard. Both Stan and the younger officer, Ned Dorneget, had said they didn't think anything would happen, but still, it only took one person to make them wrong.

"Rachel has to get back," Kate said. "She has other clients, but she'll be coming back tomorrow, too."

"I don't know," Tony said. "It kind of feels like we're abandoning him."

"We're not," Gibbs said.

That was the end of it, but he could see that no one was happy about it. Everything felt too unfinished. Something more needed to happen before this was over. He just didn't know what that would be. He wouldn't put it past Alan to make some trouble for Tim later, but he'd already seen that Tim had a protector. All in all, he just didn't know what more needed to happen, but for now, they did need to find out what Abby had discovered and see where they would go from here.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim sat on the couch for most of the day, thinking. He was vaguely aware of movement around him, of Ducky and Rachel being in and out, but mostly, he was thinking. He was thinking about what Ducky had said to him. He was thinking about what Tony had said. He was thinking about what had happened, yesterday.

As awful as it had all been, this had given him a glimpse of a different world, a much better world. One that had good people in it who actually cared about him. There had been times when he had questioned whether or not even his mother had cared in any significant way.

But now, there were people who said they wanted things to be better for him than they had been. No one had ever said that before...except for Mary.

And Mary had betrayed him, too. He couldn't reconcile the feelings he had for her, the desire to be with her and the anger at what she had done. Part of him thought that he should just accept that Mary might have liked Alan, even though Tim himself hated him. The louder part insisted that what she had done was wrong and that she had betrayed him and then tried to take it back.

It was too much like his mother had been.

"Tim?"

He hated that he couldn't figure out how to manage those conflicting emotions.

"Tim?"

Mary had been a little bit of light, but now, that light was gone, and he was left with only confusion.

"Tim, can you hear me?"

There was a hand on his shoulder and he was startled. He jumped a little and looked up at Rachel who was looking at him sympathetically.

"You look like you're thinking deep thoughts," she said.

There was that passing resemblance to his mother that Tim couldn't avoid noticing when he looked at Rachel. In reality, they looked nothing alike, but something made him think of his mother whenever he saw her.

"Bitter, maybe, not deep," he said and looked away.

"What is it, Tim?"

"Nothing that you can fix."

Rachel smiled. "My job isn't to fix things for you. It's to help you fix yourself."

Tim just shook his head. Trying to put words to all the conflicting emotions he felt right now was too much, too hard, too difficult for him to manage.

"I'm going home tonight, but if you don't object, I'd like to come back tomorrow."

"The case is over, isn't it?"

"Hardly, but even if it was, I'd want to keep helping you."

"Why? I'm a hopeless case," Tim said.

"No, you're not, and that's why I'd like to keep it up as long as you'll allow it."

"Won't be any easier, will it."

"Not for a while, no."

Tim did appreciate that Rachel was honest with him, at least. Some things were so hard for him to think about, and she didn't try to pretend that they'd suddenly be easy.

"Will you let me, Tim?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She pulled out a card and handed it to him. "If you need to talk, you can reach me at this number."

Tim looked at the card, surprised that she'd open up a line of communication like that.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"Positive. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay."

Rachel left, and Tim looked at the card for a long time before finally getting off the couch.

He went into the kitchen where Ducky was making dinner.

"I hope you're hungry, Timothy, because I've made enough to feed an army," Ducky said, not looking up. "I've never been very good at figuring out how much dry pasta makes the right amount of cooked pasta."

"A quarter," Tim said, without thinking.

Ducky looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"A quarter. You take a quarter and use as much spaghetti as fits in the area that the quarter takes up. That's supposed to be one serving."

"Really."

"Yeah, but Mom and I usually made less than that. It's not expensive, but that is a big serving."

Ducky smiled. "I will certainly keep that in mind for the next time. However, this time, there will be quite a bit extra."

Tim ventured a smile, too. "I won't eat it all."

"I won't insist. Have a seat."

Tim sat down and ate dinner with Ducky. It wasn't a normal occurrence for him, but it was better than normal.

It was wonderful and, for the first time in years, Tim tried to let himself enjoy it.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"All right. Talk to me, Abbs," Gibbs said.

"Okay. So Sheriff Alan Drake, Senior, is from Hazard. His parents moved to Hazard back in the fifties. His dad was the sheriff, Jonathan Drake. Mom was Janene Chandler. He's worked for the police department for 30 years. His wife, Sally, was from Omaha. She died when Alan Drake, Junior, was six."

"How?" Tony asked.

"Complications due to diabetes."

"And then, a year or two later, he's taking pictures of Margaret McGee," Kate said.

"And then, a few years after that, he's taking pictures of Mary Fields. Lots of them," Tony added. "Any signs of why?"

"Not in his records. The guy has nothing. No reprimands, no traffic tickets, no criminal record. Honestly, guys, if you looked at his background, you'd never think he'd be the kind of guy to commit murder."

"Just because he doesn't have a record doesn't mean he's never done anything wrong," Gibbs said. "What about his son?"

"Alan Drake, Junior, is another story," Abby said. "He's had plenty of speeding tickets, reckless driving, but he's interested enough in school to get pretty good grades. Not enough for full funding in grad school, but pretty good."

"Never lost his license?"

Abby shook her head. "Nope. Maybe his sheriff daddy smoothed the way for him."

"Since he was doing that this time, too, that makes sense," Tony said.

"And Alan got his way with Mary Fields because he threatened to bring his dad down on Tim," Kate added. "Whether he was serious or not, Mary thought it was possible. So Sheriff Drake has not shown himself as someone who puts the law first if he has a personal interest."

They were all quiet for a few seconds. Then, Tony sighed.

"In reality, what have we really got on him? We have him for assault on Tim and attempted murder of Stan. We have him for stalking Mary Fields, at least, but we don't have anything to tie him to the murder. Not directly."

"We have a pattern of violent behavior. We have obsession," Kate said.

"But that's circumstantial," Tony said. "We have reasons why he attacked Tim and why he tried to kill Stan. Why kill Mary? We don't even know what triggered his obsession with Margaret McGee, and we know he didn't kill her."

"Okay, I have a hinky idea," Abby said, suddenly.

"What?"

"We never knew why Margaret McGee moved to Hazard. There was nothing to explain her decision to move there as opposed to anywhere else. Tim has never said he knew why. She has no ties to the town. She wasn't moving there for a job, even if she had one, later. So why would she come to a little town like that and hope there was a job available? A big city would be a much better option and probably an easier place to hide, if it came down to that."

"What are you getting at, Abby?" Kate asked.

"What if Sheriff Drake knew her already? What if that's why she went there?"

"Knew her? How?" Tony asked. "She's not from Hazard. And he never left."

"He never moved anywhere else, but that doesn't mean he has to be there all the time," Abby said. "And we know that Margaret McGee was earning a living through prostitution for a while."

"You think that Sheriff Drake was one of her clients?" Kate asked.

"I don't know. But think about it. One of the things we know about Tim is how much he hated the sheriff when he was little, even though he never could exactly explain what triggered it. We know that the sheriff hated Tim, too, from the time Tim was a little boy and would really have no reason to cause that kind of feeling."

"I see where you're going with this," Tony said. "You're thinking that Margaret McGee moved to Hazard to be Sheriff Drake's private prostitute, and when Tim had so much trouble, she ended it, meaning that he lost his access to her...except through stalking, obviously."

Abby nodded. "Then, after a while, when she dies and Mary comes back to Hazard, he has someone else."

"And I already noticed the vague resemblance," Kate said. "...but how can we prove that? If Tim knew that himself, he would have said something...at least to us."

"There's got to be some kind of a record somewhere," Tony said. "This idea makes so much sense."

"Doesn't mean it's right," Gibbs said.

"I still think we should look into it, Boss," Tony said. "We missed Tim's sketchpad the first time we went to the house. Maybe we missed something else."

Gibbs gave the possibility consideration. It was true that this would explain a lot that they couldn't yet explain about what had happened, but the plain fact of the matter was that they had no evidence for it. Not yet. And without evidence, all they had was a story. A good story, but just a story.

Still, if there was something to it, there would have to be a trail somewhere. No one was perfect.

Then, an idea came to him.

"Tomorrow, we'll check the house again. Tonight, go home and get some sleep."

They all nodded and prepared to go. After they were gone, Gibbs pulled out his phone and made a call.

"I need you to pull an old file for me. From twenty years ago. A woman was arrested for prostitution. I want to know if she gave any names. She was booked as Maggie Millet. Real name, Margaret McGee."

Then, all he could do was wait, and he hoped that this would pan out. Until they solved Mary Fields' murder, it felt like anything could happen.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Alan looked at his work. He was ready. All he needed was darkness. He knew that he couldn't get caught. A few of the state people were still around, and he didn't trust Nerdy Ned or Stan to look the other way. Stan had accused Alan's dad of attacking him, and while that infuriated Alan, too, he could at least acknowledge that Stan might have been mistaken after his head injury. Besides, no one would care if Tim got hurt. They'd care about Stan.

He'd made four of the Molotov cocktails. That should be enough. It would accommodate the possibility of missing on the first try. He looked out the window of his truck. He'd driven a few miles out of Hazard to make sure he didn't have any witnesses. He hadn't really wanted to come back here. Hazard was dull, boring, and he had been happy to get away. Coming back was simply practical, not desirable, but he wasn't going to let the town freak destroy his father.

He waited until it was full dark. Then, he started his truck and headed back toward Hazard. He was ready.