Chapter 61

Brent didn't react to the threat, and the cadaver dogs didn't find anything, neither did Tim or Tony. There was no evidence in the house that Petty Officer Foster had been planning to leave his job or his even take a vacation. His passport was in the drawer and once they'd been through the packed clothes and had Brent return them to the wardrove there didn't seem to be any empty spaces. Brent confirmed there were no clothes or personal effects missing, other than his wallet cell-phone, keys and car.

Tim and Tony returned to the yard and Tim searched through the petty officer's bank records. There had been no activity in the time since he'd last been seen leaving work the night before and other than some large cash withdrawals which matched deposits into Brent's account, nothing suspicious.

"So he left work as usual and just fell of the face of the earth?" Tony asked incredulously.

"He hasn't withdrawn cash or packed a bag, there's no evidence he planned on leaving. His credit cards haven't been used and there's no outgoing calls or texts on his cell phone after seven last night," Tim reported.

"What about previous calls?" Gibbs asked.

"Nothing that stands out, in the last week he's made several calls to Brent, one to his drycleaner, one to his mother and several calls to colleagues, tracing back the last couple of months none of those calls were unusual," Tim replied. "I got his office phone records from the pentagon though the official calls are heavily redacted, there was nothing unusual left there either."

"Can you get a location on his cell phone?" Gibbs asked.

"The phone was turned off approximately seven thirty last night, it's last locations showed it pinging off the towers along the highway, he was headed for his home. It's an old phone that cannot be turned on remotely but I have an alert set on my computer in case it is turned back on," Tim said.

"His car did not have GPS. On my calculations, he had about half a tank of gas, he normally filled up on a Tuesday. So, he could have travelled approximately 140 miles before having to either fill up or find an alternative form of transport. He was a creature of habit and nothing in his routine in the last week was out of the norm," Tony added.

"So you have nothing for me?" Gibbs snapped.

"If he did plan to leave he had to have stockpiled cash without changing his banking habits. He had to have been planning it for months if not years. My gut says he didn't leave by choice," Tim stood up for his analysis.

"Any hits on the BOLO?" Gibbs barked at DiNozzo.

"No Boss. I think that he arrived home and was attacked by his boy toy, and the kid has hidden the car somewhere," Tony speculated.

"The cell towers show him heading for home, not arriving. The cell phone was turned off before he got there," Tim countered.

"Is there any CCTV footage of him driving home, try to trace his route, and bring up the satellite images of the road involved," Gibbs ordered.

"On it Boss," Tim said beginning the searches for traffic management camera's along the highway.

He has an idea and checks the speed cameras. Finding what he's looking for he puts the entire route up on the plasma. "Boss I've got something."

"What is it McGee?" Gibbs looked up.

"Petty Officer Foster was caught on speed camera here, here and here. On this one he was going almost twenty miles over the speed limit. But on the next camera he wasn't caught so either he slowed down after this point for some reason or he left the highway, there's only one exit ramp between them and unfortunately the camera on it wasn't operational. I'm looking for other camera's that might have caught him in that neighbourhood but the timing fits he was caught on this camera at 7.28 and he turned his phone off at 7.31," Tim said using the laser pointer to show positions on the map up on the plasma.

"Show me the satellite image of the area, enlarge the section after he was last seen," Gibbs ordered.

"Tony, Ziva. Go out and check that section of highway make sure that our Petty Officer did leave the road via the off ramp and not off the edge of the road into the river there," Gibbs ordered.

Tony jumped up and grabbed the keys. "Boss?" Ziva asked.

"There are no collision reports filed for that time" Tim reported. "But a truck did lose control and run off the bridge earlier in the day so there was a section of guardrail missing," Tim reported.

"Go!" Gibbs barked.

Tony phoned in an hour later, we found paint transference that looks like it could have been from Foster's car. Unless the truck was red then we need to call in the divers."

Tim had already pulled up the accident report and it only took a moment to confirm. "The truck was blue, Boss."

"I'll call in the divers, stay there and meet them," Gibbs ordered.

Tony groaned.

It took the divers an hour to arrive and about fifteen minutes to find the car and confirm it was empty.

"All the windows were open, not smashed and the seatbelt unfastened, the driver definitely got out of the car," they reported to Tony. "We can keep looking for a body but I don't think we're going to find one. The airbag engaged but the drop isn't big enough for hitting the water to incapacitate the driver and the banks easy enough to climb out of."

"And yet the driver is missing, with nothing in his possession except a dead cell phone soggy clothing and credit cards he hasn't used since the accident," Tony said thoughtfully pulling out his phone.

"Probie, check the hospitals around here. The guy got out of the car," he ordered.

"On it!" Tim disconnected then updated Gibbs while. "They've found the car and Foster wasn't in it. Tony asked me to check hospitals for a car accident or drowning victim."

Gibbs grunted. "Why wasn't this done before we were brought in?"

Tim fought the urge to apologise or make excuses and turned back to his work.

"There were no call outs to an accident or drowning in the area, checking hospitals now.

-o0o-

He's not been admitted to any hospital in the area," Tim reported after an hour on the phone with various hospital receptionists.

"Call the divers back in," Gibbs ordered.

"We will need to wait for daylight Boss," Tim said hesitantly after looking out the window at the darkening sky.

"Canvas the houses on each side of the riverbank, maybe someone saw him climbing out of the water," Gibbs ordered.

"Yes Boss," Tim said. He rang Hadrian to tell him he'd be late. "Unless you have a magical way of locating our Petty Officer?" he said jokingly.

"I could try but since I've never met him I'd have to be pretty close to him," Hadrian said.

"Would it help to have something he touched or wore recently?"

"No. It would help to have a good picture so I can focus on him," Hadrian replied laughing. "I'm not some whack job fortune teller or diviner."

Tim laughed. "Sorry! He drove his car off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Stevensville. His body wasn't found in the car and we think he escaped but we haven't managed to trace him after leaving the bridge."

"I'll be there as soon as I can. Bring a good map of the area," Hadrian said.

"I'm at the Navy yard it will take me nearly an hour in this traffic," Tim replied.

"I'll see you there then," Hadrian replied.

-o0o-

"I'm supposed to be canvassing the houses along this side of the river for potential witnesses," Tim said.

"At this time of night, without backup?" Hadrian protested.

"Tony and Ziva were meeting me here," Tim said. "I don't know what's taking them so long."

"Well I better get this done before they get here. Point me Petty Officer Dennis Foster," Hadrian said and they watched as his wand slowly moved to point towards the water.

"It didn't work. Oh well, it was worth a try," Tim sighed.

"It did work Tim, the wand wouldn't have moved if it didn't," Hadrian said.

"Does that mean Foster is alive?" Tim asked.

"Not necessarily, I concentrated on him or his body, because I don't know him I couldn't concentrate on searching for anything else," Hadrian said.

"Well he made it out of the car…" Tim said thoughtfully, "I would have thought that the divers would have found him if he was caught in debris or something."

"Did they check the boot?" Hadrian asked.

Tim looked at him blankly for a minute.

"I think you call it the trunk, the part of the car you would store groceries and suitcases?" Hadrian explained.

"I don't know," Tim replied. He called Tony.

"Tony, Tim. Did the divers check the trunk?" Tim asked.

"Hey McGoo. No why would they, nothing was missing from his home or his office?" Tony asked confused.

"I think we should have them check when they pull the car out of the riverbed. Petty Officer Foster hasn't been admitted to any of the hospitals in the area and hasn't accessed his credit cards. Even if you had the cash, how many hotels would rent a room to a man that was dripping wet and looked like they'd been in a car wreck?"

"None without gossiping about it, that's for sure!" Tony said.

"I think he could have been in the trunk, I'm going back to the Navy Yard to see if I can identify the driver on those speed camera photos. We assumed it was Foster but may not have been," Tim said before disconnecting.

"Thanks Hades, you've probably saved us hours of slogging along trying to work out the street addresses for all the houses with river frontage," Tim said kissing his husband.

"You can thank me properly later. Try to get home for dinner, I made lasagne," Hadrian said kissing back before ducking out of sight and apparating home.

Tim headed back to NCIS Headquarters and pulled up the traffic camera photographs of Petty Officer Foster's car, this time enlarging the photos to try to identify the driver of the vehicle, something they didn't do earlier, assuming that Foster had been driving his own car which they knew he had been when he left the pentagon secure carpark that evening.

"Brent Spinner!" he exclaimed. "We've got him."

He phoned to Gibbs who was out of the office perhaps having gone home for the day.

"Boss I had an idea and came back to check the traffic camera's. Foster wasn't driving his car, his boyfriend Brent Spinner was, and his boyfriend had a trophy in the house stating he was the schoolboy champion for the 1500m freestyle in Ohio, his home state. I think before the divers look along the river bed for Foster's body they need to check the trunk of the car," Tim said. "Either he's in the trunk or Brent helped him conceal his disappearance by driving his car into the river."

"Good work Tim, I'll meet you in the parking lot and we'll go to pick up this boyfriend tonight before he does a runner as well, we'll leave him to sweat in the cells for the night. Make sure the divers and crane are booked for first thing in the morning, this is now a priority case," Gibbs ordered.

Tim smiled. "Thanks Boss."

He called Tony and Ziva to update them and set things in motion for the next day before hurrying down to the car park with a set of keys.

-o0o-

The divers went in at first light and hooked the car up to the crane to pull it out of the water. Gibbs had given Tim the early morning off choosing to supervise the operation himself and calling in Ducky, Tony and Ziva once the body was discovered.

Tim arrived in the bullpen just before seven to Tony and Ziva clapping as soon as they saw him.

"What's up? I'm not late," Tim said confused.

"No but you saved us a whole day canvassing the houses along the riverbank. You were right, Petty Officer Foster was in his trunk. How'd you guess?" Ziva asked.

Tim had thought about this and had his explanation ready, "I don't know, I looked at his behaviour driving. Foster had a perfect driving record and drove that highway every day, he would have known where those speed cameras were and looking at the footage I couldn't see any cars keeping up with him so he wasn't being chased. If he had driven off that bridge on purpose then he wouldn't have started speeding so long before the bridge, it was out of character, so I checked the camera firstly to see if he'd been alone, and then if it was him driving. Once I saw Brent driving I knew it had to be one of two options, either they were running from something together, in which case I wouldn't have expected Brent to still be sitting at home barely packed, or Brent had kidnapped or killed him. Where's the Boss?"

"Coffee run," Tony replied. "We've just got back from the crime scene. Where were you McTardy?"

"Gibbs told me to come straight here and start running background on Brent. He didn't call me out this morning because he and I worked late apprehending the guy who drove the car into the bay. It was nearly midnight before I finished booking him and setting up my searches Tony," Tim explained.

"Oh poor little Timmy. You miss a hot date with Hades, wait you don't do that anymore with two kids, I know you missed story time," Tony teased.

"Yes I missed spending time with my children last night, which is why Gibbs didn't call me out to the crime scene before the kids got up this morning," Tim replied calmly.

"Hey maybe I should have a kid if it gets you consideration like that," Tony said.

"You have a child?" Ziva hooted with laughter. "You need a stable relationship first. You can't even date a woman for more than a couple of weeks."

"I could use a surrogate," Tony said stung.

"You live in an adult only complex," Tim reminded Tony, "and even with two of us Hadrian and I need a live in nanny because of the hours we both work when we have a case. But if you're sure I could get you the details of some reputable agencies."

As expected, Tony hurriedly backpedalled. "I think I need more time to think about it, kids aren't really my thing you know, they wouldn't fit with my lifestyle."

Tim winked at Ziva as he finished booting up his computer, "Has anyone gone further into the toy boy's background?" he asked.

"No, nothing further than the information you got yesterday," Ziva replied, "Why?"

"There was nothing in his history to suggest he was the killer, and he was way too calm when we were searching the house."

"There was nothing in the house Probie," Tony reminded him.

"Yes but he had started packing up Foster's clothes, who knows what other mistakes he might have made, he should have been worried or at least nervous," Tim said.

"You mean he couldn't know what else you were looking for?" Ziva said.

"Abby did you run Brent Dyson's prints?" Tim asked via telephone.

"No Gibbs hasn't even spoken to him yet," Abby replied.

"Can you run them please? There's something fishy in his background, I can't put my finger on it," Tim requested.

"What is it McSuspicious?" Tony asked.

"His history is very average standard, maybe too average," Tim said. "It wouldn't surprise me if it'd been faked."

"You're thinking witness protection?" Ziva asked.

"No, I think we would have heard from the Marshalls by now if he was," Tim replied. "I think he could be a fugitive from a previous similar crime."

"A serial killer?" Ziva asked.

"He didn't look like a psychopath," Tony scoffed.

"And exactly what do you think a psychopath looks like Tony, the movie interpretation of a geeky hairstyle and glasses is pure fiction and you should know that," Tim retorted.

"Because you've met so many serial killers, McMoviecritic," Tony snarked. "Thanks Boss" he added facetiously as Gibbs head-slapped him.

"Report! What do we know about this clown, McGee?" Gibbs barked.

"His record's clean boss, almost too clean. He's enrolled at GWU studying business management, no priors, he's never even had a speeding ticket. He says he's from Ohio but there are no records of him being born or attending school there. Abby's running his prints now," Tim dutifully gave what information he had.

"You think he's using an alias?" Gibbs asked.

"For someone with no priors he was awfully calm when two federal agents arrived to search the house. I thought at the time it meant he had nothing to hide, but if he murdered Petty Officer Foster then that means he was confident he wouldn't give himself away and there was nothing to find in the house, and that suggests experience," Tim replied.

Gibbs nodded and headed down to get results from Abby.

"He's twenty-one, how much experience do you think this guy has?" Tony scoffed.

"I killed my first mark at seventeen Tony," Ziva said quietly.

"And he could also be lying about his age" Tim replied. His computer beeped. "I have a birth and death record for a Brent Spinner matching his date of birth in Las Vegas Nevada. The baby lived for four days." He sent a text through to Gibbs phone, not wanting to ring in case he was interrogating the suspect.

-o0o-

"It was late in the day before they had all the answers. 'Brent Spinner's' fingerprints were found at two previous murder scenes, and facial recognition resulted in another three cases where he was a person of interest. Sending out to the local PD's for the information revealed a pattern. 'Spinner' or whoever his real name was would pose as a young gay university student and catch the eye of an older man. He would be the perfect boyfriend for several months before the older man died in a suspicious accident and then 'Spinner' produced a will leaving everything to him. Several families had tried to protest these wills stating how uncharacteristic it was for their deceased not to leave anything to his family or to use the family solicitor. In one case the police reopened the case when the family solicitor was able to produce a will signed less than a week after the will 'Spinner' produced.

"We still don't know who he is," Ziva growled.

"We might also be missing a victim," Tony said looking at the time line Tim was making.

"Possibly two, here in 2004 we have no known address for him for nine months and here in 2006 for six months though maybe he was just taking a break, that timeline is pretty short for a crime like this. To attract a victim, start a relationship, be with him long enough for it not to raise flags if the family protest the will and then to kill the victim and wait for the estate to settle before moving on," Tim said pointing to the gaps in the timeline he'd established from the fingerprint matches.

"What if he didn't wait for settlement?" Tony said. "Sioux City is a border city. What if he started trolling for his next victim on the other side of the state line as soon as he killed the last one. He could be in a relationship and ready to move in with the guy by the time the estate settled. Already moved in if Randle Georgeson didn't have family watching his movements. Likewise, Sioux falls where he showed up after that isn't so far away either. Sioux City, Iowa is one of the places he didn't get the money before the police became suspicious so he would have been desperate for his next target then you can see the time line slows down after that, he became more cautious of his behaviour as a newly grieving widower or take time to choose targets without children or close family."

"It's possible," Ziva said thoughtfully. "Gibbs will get it out of him."

Gibbs easily used the information they gave him to break the suspect and he confessed to all his murders, including the three they didn't know about in Sioux City Nebraska in 2006, Chicago 2004 and Albuquerque New Mexico 2001. They contacted local law enforcement with the information on the deaths. Gibbs allowed them to leave the paperwork for the morning and they left the Navy Yard on time for a change.

-o0o-

Tim arrived home to find the house fragrant with the smell of Thai cooking and Teddy running towards him yelling. "Daddy Daddy!"

Tim scooped him up over his head and spun him around before pulling him down into a hug. "What have you been doing Teddy?"

"We made a blanket fort and Papa said if we leave it up until the weekend then we can have a sleepover in it," Teddy said excitedly.

Hadrian appeared in the playroom doorway with Rosie in his arms and grinned sheepishly.

"Whipped!" Tim mouthed to Hadrian, grinning.

"Dad dad dad," Rosie said.

"Hey Rosie Girl" Tim greeted reaching to take her out of Hadrian's arms and kissing his husband on the cheek as Hadrian took Teddy.

"Did you have fun with your brother and your Papa in the blanket fort?" he asked.

Rosie babbled back to him.

"Dinner's ready whenever you want it," Hadrian said.

"It smells wonderful, let me help the kids wash up and we'll join you at the table," Tim said, happily immersing himself in the chaos of his family life.

-o0o-

"You're going to regret it tonight when we have to sleep on the floor in that wretched fort," Tim said as they finished getting dressed Saturday morning, ready to go to the local farmer's market. Teddy had been talking excitedly about their sleepover for days, there was no way they were getting out of it.

"It will be comfortable enough with cushioning charms, and maybe a small expansion charm so we all fit," Hadrian reminded him.

Tim laughed, "It will be comfortable enough to sleep but we're going to miss our alone time," he reminded his husband.

Hadrian pulled a face, "I'm sure we can think of something, maybe turn some time for ourselves," he replied.

They headed out to the market to buy supplies for their night in the fort, and Hadrian tried to involve Teddy in choosing the fresh fruit and vegetables, showing him how to look for bruising and smell each one. He allowed him to put the sugar snap peas in his satchel along with some homemade fudge after he made Teddy promise not to eat the fudge before they got home.

Teddy promised solemnly and Hadrian and Tim both turned a blind eye to the little boy snacking on the fresh peas as they made their rounds around the rest of the stalls, buying homemade bread and jams as well as their week's fruit and veg. finished with the stalls they headed over to have a picnic beside the play park and let Teddy run off some energy while Rosie happily spent some time playing on her tummy with her Daddy.

Teddy soon found his friends in the play park and their mothers came over to talk to Hadrian.

"We haven't seen much of you lately?" Ethan's stepmother Tiana said.

"I had some family issues at home, so we've been to London sorting things out," Hadrian said. "And then we took a long weekend to relax and recover as well."

"Somewhere lovely and warm from the look of that suntan, but Tim didn't seem to have tanned at all when I saw him in the market earlier," Tiana was fishing, wondering if the two were having problems.

Hadrian laughed, "Tim doesn't tan, in fact we should donate money to sunscreen research since it looks like Rosie is going to take after him," he joked.

Tiana laughed too. "That would make a beach holiday unpopular," she commiserated.

Hadrian shrugged, "We still had fun, the beach we were at had some really great shade."

"Where did you go?" Troy's mother Melanie asked, wondering whether they owned a beach house and how she could get the family invited to use it.

"Hawaii on our way back from London," Hadrian replied.

"Well I'm glad you're back, Troy said Teddy was missing his parents," Melanie said.

"Teddy and Rosie came to England with us for a while before Barbara brought them back here when Teddy started to miss school and they joined us in Hawaii too," Hadrian replied.

"Are you and Teddy out on your own?" Tiana asked.

"No," Hadrian replied without elaborating, if she wanted to go a harass Tim she'd have to find him on her own.

They arrived home and Hadrian spent the afternoon baking cookies with Teddy's enthusiastic help, they had a lot of fun but the elves looked at the state of the kitchen afterwards in horror and it was only Hadrian's abject apologies and the knowledge that their master and little master had thoroughly enjoyed making the mess that stopped them from being scolded. Hadrian handed Teddy off to a chuckling Tim to bath while he took a shower to wash off the extra cake batter, he and Teddy had gorged themselves on cookie dough so much that Hadrian had had to mix up another batch for there to be enough cookies for the evening. Teddy was incredibly excited about sleeping in the fort, so much so that Hadrian expected he would need to use a sleeping spell to get the little boy to sleep. Rosie was too young to understand the concept but she would also have difficulties settling anywhere but her own cot, and Hadrian could see a long evening of stories and lullabies in his immediate future. He got out of the shower and dressed in his warm pyjamas before taking the pillows and blankets downstairs and casting the cushioning charms on the floor under the fort and setting up for their 'campout'.

Teddy came running down in his pyjama's to join him, followed more slowly by Tim carrying Rosie. Hadrian concurred a legless copy of Rosie's cot and apparated upstairs to fetch her mattress and bedding so it would smell the same. It was barely five o'clock but the two adults hoped by starting the evening early, teddy could enjoy himself before getting too tired and have the feeling of staying up late while still getting enough sleep. The full moon was still two weeks away. And they'd missed the last one by spending DC's night time in London and then portkeying home to spend London's night in DC. It had worked and the little boy had got more sleep than usual with fewer nightmares but it still wasn't a perfect solution as the international portkey still made him sick to his stomach for a few hours.

"They played some children's board games and ate their feast, played more games and snacked on cookies before reading stories and at bedtime Hadrian wandlessly cast a sleepiness charm on both children to combat the sugar in the cookies, wanting them to calm down and settle themselves to sleep while Tim's voice got softer and softer as he read. It didn't take too long before both children were asleep and Tim pulled Hadrian into his arms to cuddle.

Mindful that Teddy could easily wake at any time they limited themselves to light kisses and cuddling.

"We could sneak upstairs for a while," Hadrian suggested.

"This whole sleeping in the fort was your idea," Tim said. "Teddy will be upset if he wakes up and we're not here."

"I could spell them to sleep to guarantee they won't wake up for a few hours and we could come back down to sleep," Hadrian said. "I checked with the healers, it doesn't hurt them unless Rosie misses a feed and she isn't due until ten o'clock, we can wake her up and feed her when we come back down."

"I ought to make you stay down here. This whole thing was your idea," Tim teased.

"Admit it, you enjoyed the evening, and Teddy loved every minute," Hadrian replied, completely unrepentant.

Tim crawled out of the fort, stood up and held out his hand to help Hadrian to his feet as he followed him out. Hadrian cast the sleeping spells and the two men walked hand in hand up to their bedroom where they proceeded to make the most of the next two hours before putting their pyjama's back on and returning to the blanket fort to feed Rosie her late night bottle and spend the night with their children.

Hadrian fell asleep with Rosie on his chest and Teddy tucked in between himself and Tim. Tim quietly called a house elf to take a photograph of the trio. Lying back thinking what a lucky man he was to have such a loving family finally, he fell asleep with a smile on his face. He slept through Tollie popping back in and taking half a dozen more photos.

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