Of Jews and Gentiles: Chapter 28


Dr. Jeremiah Silvers was in the middle of an emergency splenectomy when NCIS Special Agent Tony DiNozzo called, so he left a message with the receptionist or nurse or whoever it was that answered the phone to call him back at Dr. Silvers' earliest convenience, hoping that he was remembering the time zone difference in the right direction. The last thing he needed was a phone call from Israel at 0200 the next morning or something equally ridiculous.

Fortunately, it was about 1300 when Silvers called back. "I got a message that you called," the trauma surgeon said curtly as a greeting. If DiNozzo had the time zones correctly, it was 2000 there, and if the emergency splenectomy was any indication, Silvers had had a long day. He decided that a little bit of attitude was probably appropriate. "What does NCIS need with me?"

"We're investigating the death of a Lt. Christopher Shaw," DiNozzo began. Silvers gave a short barking laugh.

"I'm pretty sure I have a good alibi for that," he stated, "seeing as I was in Israel."

"You know about Lt. Shaw?"

"Of course I know," Dr. Silvers replied, sounding as if he were speaking to the dumbest student in the class. "He was living with my cousin."

"Hannah Sault is your cousin?"

"Well, more like my second cousin," Silvers admitted. "But we didn't realize that until we had known each other for a few years. Both of our fathers are rabbis, and we were sent to the same summer experiences in Jerusalem when we were teenagers. She's quite a few years younger than me; her first summer was my last. But what does any of this have to do with a car accident?"

"Lt. Shaw was shot, Doctor," DiNozzo explained.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't do it."

The NCIS agent have a short chuckle. "Your name come up as part of a related case. Dr. Stephanie Quinn."

Silvers was silent for a moment. "What does Steph's murder have to do with Chris?" he finally asked.

"There have been at least four murders of people who were dating members of the Jewish community here in DC in the last few years," DiNozzo explained simply, glossing over any details, "including Dr. Quinn and Lt. Shaw."

There was another long pause. "That doesn't seem like much to build a pattern on," Silvers finally said. "I'm sure it's just a coincidence."

"Well, that's the thing," DiNozzo replied. "We here at NCIS don't really believe in coincidence."

"Statistically, it wouldn't be unheard of."

"We're just looking into all angles."

Silvers gave a long, annoyed sigh. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Metro PD ruled Dr. Quinn's murder a home invasion," DiNozzo prompted.

"That's right," Silvers agreed. "Her laptop and about a thousand dollars worth of jewelry were missing. I still don't see what that has to do with Chris."

"Well, we're trying to figure that out, too," DiNozzo replied diplomatically, even as his patience with the surgeon was wearing thin. "But back to the jewelry. You just visited a jewelry store the week before Dr. Quinn was killed, right?"

"Yeah. I got her an early Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever present—an aquamarine on a white gold chain, which I gave her the day I left for New York, so about three days before her death. I also bought an engagement ring, which I was going to give her when we took our post-holidays vacation together—a Caribbean cruise in the middle of January. Never got the chance to do that."

"I'm sorry," DiNozzo said, feeling slightly awkward saying so, as Dr. Silvers didn't really seem all that remorseful. Of course, more than a year had gone by. "Metro investigated everyone who knew about the jewelry, right?"

"Yeah, but that seemed like a waste of time. If someone was after the jewelry, why go to her place instead of mine to lift it? And why wait until a week later?"

DiNozzo had to admit that the surgeon had a good point. It seemed like Metro PD was just looking for excuses to stick with the home invasion/robbery theory. "Do you happen to remember the name of the jewelry store you went to?"

"Of course," Silvers replied. "Same one I went to every time I bought any sort of jewelry or needed my watch repaired while I was living in DC. Steiner's Jewelers." DiNozzo clicked through the file on his computer until he found Lt. Shaw's credit card receipt, confirming what he thought he remembered: the jewelry store Shaw had frequented was none other than Steiner's Jewelers. Silvers filled in the silence that had fallen over the phone. "Metro investigated them, too, which is ridiculous. Saul Steiner is an eighty-five-year-old Holocaust surviver. I doubt he'd be after a laptop and thousand dollars worth of jewels. If that's what he wanted, he'd rob his own store, not drive out to Chevy Chase to kill Steph. I doubt he can even handle the recoil of a gun."

"Anyone else working for Steiner?"

"His daughter, Elsa, who must be in her fifties. She does most of the work, and Saul just sticks to the complicated and big orders, like that twenty-eight thousand dollar engagement ring." DiNozzo whistled silently; must be nice to have a surgeon's salary. "During the holidays and the weeks before Valentine's Day, they hire some extra clerks, but Metro checked them out, too. Everyone was clean."

DiNozzo changed the subject abruptly. "You and Hannah Sault are pretty close, right?"

"Yeah, fairly," Silvers agreed. "I helped her find a place when she was moving to DC and helped move Chris' stuff in a year later. We met for dinner or lunch every once in awhile, when we both had time. When she first moved, I suggested places for her to shop and get her dry cleaning done and routine stuff like that."

"You guys went to the same synagogue?"

"The one in Georgetown," Silvers confirmed. "And then when her and Chris started having some problems because of the whole Jewish-not Jewish thing, I suggested they go to this adult education class there. The rabbi and his wife teach this series that's focused on mixed couples. Steph and I had been going for quite a few months when Chris and Hannah started coming."

Ah-ha! DiNozzo thought, even though he had already established that they knew each other through family. "So you helped them out."

"Yeah," Dr. Silvers said thoughtfully. "All of their problems, well, Steph and I had been through those already, so we knew what they were going through." He paused. "That was a long time ago, Agent DiNozzo, and I don't want you to think I'm some cold-hearted bastard, but I've moved on. I'm dating someone else now, an infectious disease physician here at this hospital." He gave a short barking laugh. "I guess that says something about me, that I can't even leave the hospital to find dates, but that's not really the point. Avi's Jewish, too, and, well, that makes things a lot easier for us. I really did love Steph and would have married her, but I never realized until now that love doesn't have to be a lot of work, do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," DiNozzo said automatically, even though he didn't. His past relationship—relationship? He didn't know how to define what was happening between him and Ziva yet, and he could hardly call anything else a 'relationship'—had just shown him that love was a difficult and painful thing to deal with. He cleared this throat slightly; he didn't really want to talk about Dr. Silvers' relationships, or any other relationships, for that matter. "So, uh, how well did you know Chris Shaw?"

"I just knew him through Hannah, we didn't really hang out without her there. Not exactly the same social circle, you know? Not that there was anything wrong with him, we just had our own friends. The only time I can remember talking to him outside of conversations with Hannah or at the synagogue was when he saw a bracelet I got Steph and asked where I got it. He was looking for a birthday present for Hannah or something and thought some earrings would be nice, so I gave him Saul's name and address."

DiNozzo processed that information with a raise of his eyebrows, his pen idly sketching the connections between Saul Steiner's jewelery store and Lt. Shaw's death. Despite Dr. Silver's insistence otherwise, he wasn't willing to chalk it up to a coincidence. He drew an arrow between Silvers and Shaw, but there was still a blank spot between Steiner and Silvers. "This may seem like a random question, Doctor, but do you happen to remember who first told you about Saul Steiner?"

"Of course," Silvers replied automatically. "It was Saul's great-niece. Lena Rosen."


Officer Ziva David entered the squad room at NCIS to find her partner's attention focused on the computer monitor in front of him as he typed away furiously—well, as furiously as he could. She smiled slightly at his continued awkwardness around computers, despite the fact that he used them every day. Her smile turned into a frown at the realization that she found that somehow endearing. I will not turn into one of those women who thinks everything her boyfriend does is 'adorable' or 'sweet', she scolded herself. Instead, she put on a slightly wicked grin and made her way around to the other side of his desk.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked innocently, her mouth only millimeters from his ear. He jumped nearly a foot off the chair at the surprise.

"God, woman!" he scolded. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"

"I have lost count," she replied lightly. "Hello, McGee," she greeted as the third agent stepped into view.

"Uh, hi, Ziva," McGee replied, seeing the Mossad officer all but molded to the senior field agent, her face next to his and her loose hair covering his shoulder. "Do you want me to give you guys some privacy?"

She shrugged. "We are only looking at Tony's computer, but we can do other things, if you prefer."

"No, thanks," he said quickly. "Just...continue with whatever you're doing."

"What are we doing, Tony?"

He swallowed at the memory of the last time she asked that, a few nights before, and the events that immediately followed. Later, he scolded himself. "I found something else Daltron, Quinn, and Shaw had in common: Steiner's Jewelers." He filled her in on the crime scene photos and conversation with Dr. Silvers. "I called Steiner's, and asked his daughter, Elsa, for their client list to compare to homicide victims, but she didn't take the implication that their business is somehow related to a mysterious DC crime syndicate too well. I'm working on drafting a court order."

"Can McGee not hack into those records?"

"That's not legal, Ziva," DiNozzo said as if speaking to a child. "Besides, he already said he couldn't."

"Their records aren't on any sort of database or list on-line," McGee explained. "The best I could do is check for people who made credit card purchases at the jewelery store, but I would literally have to search millions of records one-by-one. It would take decades, if not longer."

"I hope our mission does not take that long."

"Getting tired of pretending to my girlfriend already, Ziva?" Tony asked with a grin. He didn't see the slight flicker of uncertainty in his partner's eyes at the word 'pretending'. "So as I see it, someone in the family doesn't approve of Rosen and Daltron dating and takes Daltron out of the picture. Then—"

"They expand to all mixed couples?" Ziva interrupted, shaking her head. "That is a stretch, Tony, even for you."

"What do you mean, even for me? I'm a highly trained criminal investigator—"

"Ziva's right," McGee put in. "Crimes of passion don't suddenly expand to killing sprees."

"Maybe whoever it was rationalized the crime as a favor to the Jewish people. Once he started to see it that way, maybe he decided to keep doing favors."

Ziva considered that for a moment before again shaking her head. "I agree that there appears to be a connection between the jeweler and the murders, but I do not think it is that simple."

"So what is it?"

"I do not know, Tony, or I would have said something already. Maybe things will be clearer once we get Steiner's records. But I think we should label it a day and get ready for Commander Patel's dinner."

"Call it a day," DiNozzo corrected as he began packing up his stuff.

"Same difference," Ziva replied with a shrug. "It is only semantics."

"Yes, Ziva, it's semantics. Word choices are what make idioms what they are. What if somebody had used the wrong word when saying that in Hebrew?"

"That is not a Hebrew idiom." They continued to argue lightly about it as they headed for the elevator to take them to the parking garage, McGee watching them silently. At one point, Tony jokingly grabbed Ziva's shoulders and gave them a squeeze, and the junior agent waited for the retaliatory action which never came; for as much as she did it, Ziva didn't like it when people invaded her personal space, and often reacted violently, but not this time—almost as if she was accustomed to having Tony so close. He frowned and found himself wondering, once again, if Abby was on to something.