It didn't take long for them to figure out that nothing was being trafficked, this time, at least, that Werth had been hired to highjack another truck.
That left them with more than a few questions, but eventually, Szwed and Lucas pulled out, Ziva and Werth quickly following suit They'd been on the road for about two hours, although it hadn't actually felt that long, when DiNozzo alerted Jethro to a signal he'd got from Werth about a fuel stop. "Boss, near a service station on 409. Possible rendezvous spot. Where are you at?"
"We just passed it," he said, Tobias immediately pulling a u-turn and beelining it to the rendezvous location.
Jethro and Tobias pulled into the gas station just a couple of minutes later, arguing not unlike an old married couple and actively seeking to draw attention.
"Slow down," he said. "Tobias!"
"What?!" his friend exclaimed.
Jethro eyed the other man. "It was a mistake to let you drive this car."
"Don't get your underpants in a twist!" Tobias retorted. "I know what I'm doing. Don't you believe me?"
"No! No, I don't!" Jethro scoffed, starting to get out of the car. "I don't believe any of it! You drive like a maniac!"
"My impression of you!" Tobias shot back as he got out.
"Use the 91," he said. "Moron."
Tobias chuckled.
"Nice car!" Jethro commented as he walked past both Szwed and Lucas and noted the red Ferrari they were driving. "How are you guys doing?"
"Doing," Lucas said. "Nice ride."
"If you go for the Mopar," Szwed added.
Jethro started walking towards the doors of the station, and once there called out to Tobias. "I'm gettin' a Slim Jim!"
"I don't want a Slim Jim!" Tobias yelled back.
He threw Tobias a dirty look. "I wasn't asking ya!" He then walked into the station but could hear Tobias laughing before starting to engage in loud car talk with Werth.
Heading inside the station, Ziva handed off the highjacking truck's GPS to Jethro as he was walking back out. He then watched as Tobias backed off and apologized to Werth for something. Lucas and Szweb were keeping an eye on the situation, but Werth and Tobias handled themselves well.
At that point, Ziva walked out and handed Szweb back his change, both the truck and Ferrari pulling out of the gas station a short moment later.
"Well," Tobias said, "Werth was very convincing. What exactly are the skeletons in this guy's closet you didn't want to tell me about?"
"Small bout of steroid-induced psychosis," he said, knowing Tobias was not going to be impressed that he hadn't been given a heads up before.
Tobias eyed him. "Oh, great."
They were back on the road for a while when he got a phone call from McGee who had managed to get a new lead for them.
Jethro was on his cell phone saying "slow down" over and over, which he quickly came to regret when Tobias thought that Jethro was talking to him and hit the brakes on the car. "Not you. McGee!"
Tobias apologized and Jethro started to explain that McGee had narrowed the run down to a garage owned by David Devoisier. "Truck cleared a weigh station in Roanoke forty minutes ago."
The FBI agent looked at him questioningly. "Bill of lading?"
"Assorted machinery," he replied. "Put the pedal to the metal, Tobias." They needed to try and talk to the target ahead of time.
Tobias sped up, saying, "Still won't make it before dark."
At the location, Jethro and Tobias chatted with Devoisier. He couldn't shed light on why someone would want to hijack a machinery shipment to his garage full of fancy cars. But when he heard that the hijacking truck in question was out of San Diego, the man identified Szwed. And then it got weird, because apparently what is on the truck belonged to Szwed, but Devoisier won it in a wager.
Jethro couldn't believe that it was all over some stupid bet.
Devoisier explained that Szwed wanted to prove he could 'run with the faster crowd' and got in over his head. Szwed challenged his fastest car to race Devoisier's fastest car in a cross-country race; winner takes pink slips. Each party had a support team for emergencies and spare tires and such. Hence Heatherton's involvement.
Devoisier chuckled that he heard Szwed cursing Heatherton's name at the finish line in San Diego. Szwed was furious Heatherton was nowhere to be found when Szwed overheated outside of Barstow. Szwed claimed Heatherton cost him the race. Devoisier did seem genuinely surprised to learn that Heatherton was dead.
"Can you get ahold of your driver?" he asked.
"Sure," Devoisier said. "Why? Do you want to stop my truck?"
Jethro looked at Tobias, who looked back confused.
"No," he said, "I want to get in it."
He and Tobias quickly got back on the road, where Jethro checked in with McGee. The younger agent confirmed Devoisier travelling from San Diego to D.C. McGee also confirmed there were several speeding tickets for both men.
Ordering McGee to search for unsolved incident reports off the same route, he hung up and quickly went over what he wanted to do with Tobias.
He and Tobias, luckily, got where they needed to be on time and, momentarily going dark, the pair hid in the back of the truck, the truck driver then continuing along the route as though nothing was amiss.
It wasn't much later when everything came to a had. They were driving down the road and Szwed ordered Werth to block the truck, the man driving his truck and blocking the path of the one Tobias and Jethro were in. Werth and Ziva stand beside the truck as the other driver struggled to stop and control the truck.
The truck finally skidded to a stop right in front of the two, and Lucas ordered Ziva and Werth to put a gun on the driver.
Not knowing that they were in the back of the truck and that the driver was aware, she quickly asked the driver to not resist.
Pulling their own guns out, Jethro and Tobias waited for someone to come around and open the back of the truck mere seconds later.
As Lucas finally opened the door to the back, Tobias eyed the man. "Do I even have to tell you, your under arrest?"
Ziva walked up, astonished, and looked in the back of the truck, Jethro just smiling smugly back at the young woman.
He then noted that DiNozzo and McGee weren't there, the pair having apparently had some mechanical issues, the truck breaking down. Getting that sorted, he and Tobias quickly debriefed with the pair to see if they had anything new, and was rather pleased by the new information that McGee had found out.
Back in NCIS's evidence garage, Devoisier thanked Jethro and Tobias and was gazing lovingly at his car. Abby makes a comment about boys and their cars, saying that she was a hot rod girl herself.
Devoisier tells her the car cost $1.2 million. Abby was surprised but Fornell pointed out that only eighteen were made and it's a Hemi Cuda.
Devoisier made a comment about having a perfectly restored car, but Jethro stated that he didn't. Abby then took out a magnet.
"Always take a magnet when you look at used cars," Tobias said.
Devoisier chuckled.
"The magnet sticks to metal," Jethro informed the man, Abby demonstrating with the magnet as he spoke. "It does not stick..." The forensic scientist demonstrated it again, the magnet immediately falling to the ground this time. "... to Bondo."
Tobias eyed Devoisier. "Quick repair job."
He and Tobias then told say that Szwed and Lucas admitted to various things, but categorically denied murder and that they believed them. They looked into it, and it turned out that Devoisier had been the driver in a hit-and-run out west when he'd knocked down an eighteen-year-old girl. Hetherton had seen the accident, took the girl to the hospital and then stayed with her until she passed away. Devoisier had killed Heatherton because he was the only witness and he didn't want to destroy his precious car.
Jethro had to grin as he then watched Abby take great pleasure in telling Devoisier she's going to take the car apart. "You want to bet I find traces of blood and hair when I start taking this whole thing apart, piece by piece?"
Shaking his head in amusement, Jethro placed Devoisier under arrest, Jethro sent his team home, deciding that the case reports could wait, and headed upstairs with Tobias to brief the director on the outcome of the case.
It'd been a long case, so Jethro was more than happy to get out of there and to finally be walking through the doors of his home at 2130 that night.
His wife immediately pulled him in for a hug and kiss. Once they separated, Shannon smiled up at him. "The case finally over?"
"Yeah, it is." After that confirmation, he gave her another quick kiss. "I know I've been rather absentee this week, Shan, but -"
"Your job is what it is," she replied simply, a small smile still on her lips. "I'm not about to hold that against you." Shannon eyed him. "We could handle your deployments, so I think we can handle a few days' craziness." It wasn't him working that had irritated her the other day, rather the fact she'd been left hanging when Jethro could've let her know what was going on.
He smiled, pulling her in for another kiss. "Still, thanks for understanding."
"I've always got your back," his wife assured him. Shannon then smiled at him with a rather mischievous glint in her eyes. "You've stolen a pizza my heart."
He shook his head in amusement at the pun. "Cheesy, Babe."
"That was kinda the point," she said with a chuckle.
"I love you," Jethro said, his nose crinkling in contentment as he gently pulled his wife in close to him.
"I love you too," she told him before he started kissing her again.