Gibbs waited for Tony in the mobile bay. It felt like forever.
He arrived arrived in due course, but seemed very confused. The elder McGees were also perplexed, but had wisely chosen to say nothing. Both had a strong feeling that Gibbs didn't personally greet his investigators just for making it back to the ranch. Something was up.
Tony quickly put the car in park and poked his head out. "Hey, boss."
"Did you get the memo about going out to Harbinger's Field?" asked Gibbs.
"I did."
"Good man. How is McGee's mother?"
"She's fine, sir, and recovered from fainting."
Gibbs gave a nod of approval, and then there was a beat of silence. Tony was waiting for further instruction. He was also thinking about how enjoying a quiet evening at home with Ziva was now on his to-do list.
Gibbs brought him to reality with a head slap and sharp words. "For God's sake, Tony! Let them out and go to Harbinger's Field!"
Tony began a hasty exit from the vehicle. "My bad, boss. Just one second..."
He led the McGees out of the car and over to Gibbs before heading out on the road again.
"So we meet again." John said dryly to Gibbs—the last time they'd seen each other was at the birthday party, moments after Sarah's fight with Lance Corporal Baranski. "Where did DiNozzo just go?"
"Elsewhere, but follow me." Gibbs beckoned for the couple to follow him to the elevator. "We're all overdue for a long chat."
Both McGees heeded Gibbs' no-nonsense tone and followed him on to the lift. They rode it all the way to the top floor. Gibbs even helped them get comfortable in the conference room before going to look for Jenny and Ziva. They weren't going to want to miss this.
He found them at Jenny's work table, studying the profiles and arrest records of everyone involved in the case.
"What's going on in here?" Gibbs asked.
They both looked up at him.
"We have been covering our bases, just now." replied Ziva. "Making sure all of our ducks are… oh, I forget how the expression goes..."
"That'd be 'all of our ducks in a row,' Ziva." Jenny told her gently.
"Yes." she took this in stride. "We have been making sure that no one has missed anything in this gigantic web."
"What's the verdict?"
"All of our ducks are in the exact rows they need to be in." Ziva said cheerfully. "What brings you up here?"
"Tim's parents are in the main conference room." Gibbs explained. "Since everyone is all spread out, I figured that the two of you would appreciate sitting in on the chat."
Jenny smirked as she and Ziva stood. "You just wanted to make sure I was there so you don't have to repeat yourself."
"Maybe, maybe not." Gibbs held the office door open for them and gave a mock salute. "At least I can be a gentleman."
"That is appreciated."
Ziva just followed along behind them, very amused.
The elder McGees were now feeling exasperated in different ways. Neither of them were so keen at being at their son's place of work so soon after having a falling out with him; it was almost as if they were about to eat their words. But they had been roped in from the moment Tony had entered John's office. They had no idea what to expect.
Especially since neither of them had a clue about Sarah's abduction yet.
John spoke as Jenny, Ziva, and Gibbs each sat at the table. "First DiNozzo shows up at my office and starts asking risqué questions, then he says that something's happened to Sarah—which sends my poor wife into such tailspin that she faints and has to go to the hospital. What is going on?"
"We are extremely concerned." Ellis added.
"Has no one told you yet?" Jenny asked them.
Both McGees cried their answer together. "No!"
"We sent Special Agent DiNozzo to talk to your husband because his name came up in in connection with a homicide investigation we're working on."
"I look forward to finding out just what it is that he knows," Ellis' tone was just as dry as John's had been. "But can we skip ahead to the part where you tell us what's happening where Sarah is concerned first?"
"That's fair enough. She was abducted forty-five minutes ago."
They watched the McGees digest this. It was a lot for anyone to take. But they had proved by treating McGee poorly for making his own family, and then completely abandoning Sarah that they were capable of anything. Who knew if they had anything else up their sleeves?
Ellis gasped and held a hand over her heart. "Oh, my God."
John held his wife as she leaned heavily against him. "What happened? Is she hurt?"
Gibbs answered, "We don't know anything about Sarah's current status. What we definitely know is that she was taken from the front of her work building."
"But who would do this?" interjected Ellis. "Our daughter can have a hell of a temper, but she would never do anything to attract… this kind of sordid affair."
"Times change with occupations." observed Ziva. "Our team also learned that Sarah is not alone. She was last known to be in the company of the one and only Julia Hildebrand."
John was now rubbing his temples. "What? But we just saw her husband at the party! Where is he?"
Ellis interjected again. "What about Julia's children and her dog? They're her entire life."
Gibbs was privately pleased by how this interview was going. Just like Tony's father, McGee's parents' reactions thus far were showing that they were innocent. The last thing he wanted was to have to arrest either of them.
"Missus Hildebrand's children—and her dog—are downstairs, in the lab with Abby and Clementine. They all just came over from The Daily Trumpeter."
"But for that to happen, someone would have had to call from that building."
John spoke to his wife when he connected the a dot first. "That would be Clementine."
Ellis continued to connect the dots. "What were so many members of the Hildebrand family doing at the newspaper building, anyway?"
"Then what was that many people of one family even doing over at the newspaper family to start with?"
Jenny answered his question with a question. "Admiral, how close are you to Julia Hildebrand?"
"Not anything so in-depth, but I know her name and her kids' names." he said nonchalantly. "Things like that."
"Thank you. That is helpful."
Gibbs looked to the general's wife. "How close are you to her, Missus McGee?"
"The same. We're more friends with her husband." Ellis looked around, as though expecting Clark Hildebrand Senior to materialize out of thin air. "Does he know that Julia's gone? Or that the kids and dogs are here?"
Jenny blanched inwardly—this next part of the job wasn't her favorite. "You mean you haven't heard?"
Ellis arched an eyebrow. "Heard what?"
"I am so sorry to have to tell you, but Senator Hildebrand is dead. He was murdered."
The McGees were more flabbergasted than ever.
"H-how?" Ellis managed with a stutter. "Who? When? Why?"
Jenny didn't know if or when she would ever forgive John and Ellis McGee for choosing to have an actual falling out with Tim and Sarah, but they didn't need the details of their friend's death in their heads. It was already sad enough that they cared more about the Hildebrands than their own family, whose hearts they had so easily broken in the blink of an eye. Jenny also felt that it would be unwise to give the McGees all the bites at the apple. Just in case.
"The how is irrelevant right now. The when would be sometime late last night or early this morning. The where is the hotel where the party was."
"I haven't seen Clark since the party, but I shouldn't be all that surprised that Julia is even in town because she's always never been far behind him—that's life of a political wife. I know the name of the tune very well." Ellis regarded her husband again. "John? When was the last time you saw them?"
Admiral John McGee was beginning to grow uncomfortable. They were almost back to the part of the case concerning the senator, himself, their talk at the massage parlor, and the masseuse called Lan Zhao. He just wanted to discuss this without his wife in the room.
Unfortunately, this didn't appear to be within the realm of possibility at all.
"I didn't know that Julia was in town, either." he finally said. "I don't think we've seen her since we bumped into her at a function awhile back. October, maybe? I saw Clark at the party because he said hello."
"Did you see where he went after that?" Jenny wanted to know.
John shook his head. "I'm afraid not because things got busy."
"Understandable. What about Lance Corporal Ian Baranski? We know what you and your wife saw his as he ran away from Sarah."
"What about Sarah?" blurted Ellis. "Our pregnant daughter is missing!"
"We're doing everything we can to look for her. Missus Hildebrand, too. The rest of the team is following leads." Jenny soothed. "They just happen to be doing so in other places at the moment."
Ellis wound back down. "Thank you, Director Shepard. I just had to ask."
"Of course. I understand that, too."
Gibbs addressed John again. "Talk to us about Lance Corporal Ian Baranski. Now."
John deflected him. "Where is he? Clark once described him as loyal, but more in the fashion of a Cocker Spaniel."
That's harsh, Gibbs thought to himself. "Baranski was also murdered. I'm not going to ask you about him again."
"Fine. I only know about him because he was Clark's personal assistant." John sighed. "Then I suppose you know about the parlor?"
"Yes." Gibbs, Jenny, and Ziva said together.
"Great." John griped in a very sarcastic way.
"Admiral," Ziva said to him. "We know about the parlor, and that you were with Senator Hildebrand. We also know about Lan Zhao."
"Let me guess—just because this day has been so great—she'd dead, too?"
"Correct."
John finally ripped off the proverbial bandage. "I don't abide by things like what the parlor provides, but I wasn't there for that. I was there because I was trying to talk the senator out of something."
"Do continue."
"Clark had plans at the old shipyard to move… something that sounded suspicious. All I wanted was to find out what he meant. My plan of action after that was to alert the proper authorities."
"That is a very wise course of action, sir." Ziva said. "How were you alerted to these things in the first place?"
"He was my friend, and I knew that he was on the way to town—mostly for my wife's birthday party, so I asked him out to lunch."
"But…?" Ziva prompted.
"He had to cancel." sighed John. "Clark told me that he had a meeting at the shipyard with a man called Sawyer Moody."
"Had you ever heard of this man before the senator mentioned him?"
"No. I guess Clark filled me in because he trusted me."
"What did he say that led you to believe that he was going to move something suspicious, then?"
John thought about it—all he wanted to do was get out of here with Ellis. Waiting for updates on Sarah and Julia were at the top of their to-do list. Cooperation would be in their best interest. This was just turning to a very long morning.
"Clark said he had to make a deal with his own personal devil, and that his devil is this Moody character."
Ziva leaned forward slightly. "Any idea what this deal was?"
"I don't know, but…" John's words fell away in a forlorn sigh.
Everyone felt pity for him because his heavy burdens. The man was caught between a rock and a hard place.
He sighed again. "Maybe it's a good thing that Julia is out of reach, and that the kids are safe in this fortress of a building."
"Why?" Ziva questioned.
"Clark also told me that he was going to use them to transport whatever it was that he and Moody had been discussing. They don't deserve to be caught up in this any more than they already are."
"But you have no idea what it could all be?"
John shook his head. "I really don't."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." he sighed yet again. "I'm just trying to figure out who would want to hurt Sarah. Journalism is a dangerous profession, but the only time she's remotely dangerous herself, is when she's passionate about something. Is that what happened?"
Gibbs answered him, but was gentle. "We're working on figuring that out, but you have been a really big help, admiral."
"You're not just saying that?"
"Uh-uh. I'm saying it because it's true."
John leaned back in his chair. "Oh. Okay. Thanks."
Ellis assessed Gibbs, Jenny, and Ziva in turn, her shield of 'high class air' going back into place. "What now? Are there any more questions?"
Gibbs shook his head. "None that come to mind right now."
"Very good. Would it be alright if we went home? We just want to be anywhere else while we wait for updates on Sarah and Julia."
"I'll take care of it." Jenny got to her feet. "Please excuse me."
She headed out to the catwalk.
On any other occasion, Jenny would have left transporting a guest to a member of her primary squad. This wasn't a reasonable option today. Tony and McGee were out in the field, at the newest crime scene. Ziva had a sprained ankle. She was moving around on crutches or a wheelchair. Separating Abby from the Hildebrand siblings would be both careless and barbaric. Then there was Jimmy. He had a hard enough time navigating the D.C. streets, even when he could be spared. Gibbs was already at HQ.
So, the director's only option was to delegate the task to one of the other NCIS personnel in the main bullpen.
"Barlow!" Jenny barked down at the bullpen.
A young man in his twenties heard his name and immediately stood beside his desk. He just wan't sure where to look.
"Up here!"
He looked up at the director. "Yes, m'am?"
Jenny beckoned to him. "Front and center!"
Barlow made it up the catwalk in record timing.
"M'am?" he asked nervously.
"We have Special Agent McGee's parents visiting, but it's time for them to go. They just need a lift."
"Which is where I come in." Barlow deduced.
"Correct." Jenny confirmed. "Come now, and I'll introduce you."
Barlow followed her into the conference room.
Jenny stood with Gibbs and Ziva on the catwalk as they watched Barlow depart with McGee's parents.
"That conversation with Tim's father and mother was almost like pulling teeth." she remarked. "Speaking with Eli is easier. That man is a master of misdirection."
"You are not wrong." agreed Ziva. "At least my father always gets to the point. What do we do now? Run a search on Moody?"
"That's a good idea, but why don't you go down to Abby's?" Jenny suggested. "Her machines are excellent at cross-referencing."
Ziva bobbed her head. "Off I go."
She departed in the elevator.
Jenny turned to Gibbs. "And what are you thinking?"
"That Tim's childhood stories about his parents are very believable now, and that it's a damn shame that his parents showed more concern for Julia than for Sarah. I wish I could understand it."
"So do I. The good notes are that all this progress means we're inching closer to finding Sarah and Julia, and they're together." Jenny gave Gibbs a pat on the arm. "Let's go see if we can call up maps of the shipyards on the screens in MTAC."
"Sounds good to me." Gibbs agreed. "Let's do that, and see how Tim and Tony handle a crime scene together."
"That's the spirit."
Tony and McGee had been gone for awhile, but so far, neither of them had called to ask for advice. This was a good sign.
Gibbs just hoped that Tony and McGee weren't driving each other too crazy.
