Chapter 93

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Hadrian looked up from where he was bathing the children and smiled as Tim stopped at the bathroom door laughing as he saw his husband's clothes covered in bubbles and the floor awash with water.

"Get a little carried away?" Tim asked. With magic to clean it up, the mess was never a big deal and Hadrian often started the bubble fights when he thought that he or the kids needed to blow off some steam before settling down for the night.

"A little, but we had fun," Hadrian admitted as the children called out for their Daddy joyously.

"I can see that, you're going to need a shower yourself, and you'll be lucky to get them calmed down in time for bed," Tim replied.

"They're ready to get out. Take Daisy and I'll dry Rosie," Hadrian said handing him the baby. Ignoring the state of his jacket, Tim cuddled her little wet body to him and dried her tickling her a little to hear her laugh then dressed her in her pyjamas before sitting in the rocking chair softly reading her a story.

Hadrian came and dried his clothes with a spell, deposited Rosie on his other leg and went back to get Teddy out of the bath. By the time he came back with him Daisy was asleep and Hadrian lifted her out of Tim's arms to put to bed and Teddy climbed onto his lap to wait his turn for his story and Tim hugged him firmly as he continued to read to Rosie. Rosie's eyes were already beginning to droop and Tim kept his voice soft and even as he read. Eventually she was also sleeping and Hadrian picked her up and took her to bed.

"Hey Teddy, how was your day?" Tim asked putting the baby book aside.

"It was good, we played kickball, I scored a goal. And Papa and me made cupcakes," Teddy said.

"Cupcakes! Did you save one for me?" Tim asked, smiling at the little boy's happy recitation of the day.

"Just one Daddy. They're for the bake sale at school," Teddy said scoldingly in obvious imitation of Tim's mother.

"Did you and Papa make cupcakes with Grandma Heather?" Tim asked grinning.

"Yes, Grandma Heather makes the best cupcakes and we made blue icing," Teddy said.

"You're right, my Mom's cupcakes were always the best," Tim agreed enthusiastically. "Are you ready to read me a story?" He got out Teddy's school reader and the little boy started reading it to his father. He read very well for his age and he enjoyed reading to his fathers not realising that it was actually assigned homework and not just a treat to show off what he'd been learning. After listening to Teddy reading to them, Tim and Hadrian would put him to bed and take turns reading Teddy a more complicated story.

-o0o-

Hadrian looked at Tim as they left the room. "Have you eaten?" he asked.

"Not since lunch, but I don't think I could eat," Tim replied.

"Tough case?" Hadrian said sympathetically, fixing Tim a meal that would sit easily in his stomach, determined that he would at least eat something.

"A Lance Corporal eleven weeks pregnant found gutted with a knife and dumped, we think she was killed by the baby's father to keep their affair a secret," Tim said sighing.

"Can you prove it?" Hadrian asked.

"No but he tried extremely hard to keep the relationship completely secret. The evidence we have on his identity so far is only circumstantial and hearsay. We haven't got enough a warrant for his DNA yet, but we have for his phone records which will prove the affair so we should be able to get a warrant for his DNA and prove he's the baby's father, but the murder? Not yet," Tim replied.

"That's odd. He must have known that an autopsy would be performed and would find the pregnancy and potentially expose him as the father," Hadrian said.

"Yes, and he made no attempt to hide the body. You're right, that doesn't fit, he hid his affair perfectly. We never would have caught it if the Lance Corporal wasn't charging bar snacks and room service to her credit card and we pinged all the phones in the area," Tim said.

"So he was trying to hide the relationship and she was trying to get caught?" Hadrian asked amused.

"Yes she told her friends about it too, and has been talking recently of having a way to get him to come back to her and even leave his wife." Tim said.

"So he killed her for it, but then wouldn't he have tried to hide the body?" Hadrian asked.

"He wouldn't have left it in plain sight in an alley quarter of a mile from the Navy Yard," Tim replied.

"You think he would have made an effort to hide it or destroy it, or at least mutilated her womb so we wouldn't find the foetus. For that matter there are plenty of things he could have poisoned her with that would have caused her to abort the baby before he killed her and we would never have known about it," Hadrian said nodding.

"But would he have known about them and known what dose to give her?" Tim asked. "He isn't a doctor or a chemist."

"It doesn't have to be something esoteric. There must be a way to get the abortion pill on line or on the black market, you can get just about anything else," Hadrian said.

"I've got to go back to work and find out who would have set him up," Tim said pushing away his dinner.

Hadrian pushed it back. "Eat and then I'll take you. I'll make coffee and pack something for you to eat again later. Do you have a clean shirt at work?"

-o0o-

Hadrian popped Tim to an alley close to where the body was found and Tim then decided he wanted a look at the dump site in the dark of night, to see if it was possible the Commander thought the body was better hidden than it was in the day? Hadrian accompanied him to use some detection spells which might find some new evidence.

"No traces of magic, it's a completely mundane crime scene," he said as he cast a spell that made all fingerprints glow but other than the fingerprints you'd expect on the rubbish in the alley there wasn't anything. Casting again to make blood glow like luminol under a black light he was able to point out a few drops the team had overlooked and Tim was able to gather a couple of drops for evidence, after Hadrian popped him to the Navy Yard to pick up his kit.

"It's probably the victim's blood, or if not perhaps some homeless person who normally lives there but has been spooked by the body and all the federal agents," Tim said sighing. "I don't think we learned anything new, but eliminating the possibility of magic might help and it's good to know we didn't miss anything. Even late at night it's obvious that the body would be found early in the morning, if not before. So now I just need to find out who wanted to frame the commander. Which might be easier said than done."

"If you can clear him, I'm sure he'd be willing to assist in pointing out suspects," Hadrian said.

"He might point out enemies, but this is just as likely to be another woman jealous of Marina or the baby. He won't want to identify other lovers if it means his affair becomes public, he's her CO so it would ruin his marriage and his career," Tim replied.

"I hate to sound like Tony but are you sure the wife didn't do it?" Hadrian asked.

"I didn't meet her but Tony said she's an invalid, chronic pain of some sort, back issues I think. I don't think she'd be able to lift an adult dead body into the car to dump her," Tim replied.

"But you told me that she deliberately didn't alibi her husband even though he said he was home with her, and that means she doesn't have an alibi either unless their house is tiny. She could easily have just agreed he was home. You need to check her medical records," Hadrian replied. "Chronic pain can't be seen or definitively diagnosed, it could be faked. Back pain too unless there are X-rays to prove it."

"That's true but it also could have been a previous girlfriend. Tony thought he was a serial philanderer," Tim replied.

Hadrian burst out laughing at the term. "Serial philanderer, that sounds like something Ron or Neville might say," he explained when Tim gave him a questioning look.

Tim grinned. "Previous girlfriends are going to be hard to find," he said sighing.

"Hard to find because his secrecy and coverups were flawless? That's another strike against his wife, he could have gone to the lengths he did to keep her finding out about the affair because he was afraid of what she'd do if she found out, they can't all have been subordinates," Hadrian suggested.

"Yes, but she's the one who comes from money, it could easily be that he didn't want to lose out on his meal ticket, particularly if they had a prenup," Tim said sighing.

"We could pop over there, stun him and his wife and question her under veritaserum whether she killed the lover and him under Veritaserum for their names so you know where to start looking," Hadrian suggested.

Tim laughed, "I think I'll try traditional methods of investigating first. It will be too hard to explain where I found the information if you do that."

Hadrian laughed, "Yeah but it might make Tony's head explode,"

"That will make up for having to tell him his favourite theory might be right, but it isn't going to save me from having my arse handed to me for discussing the case with an FBI Agent," Tim said grinning. Hadrian may have been one of Gibbs favourite FBI Agents and have worked for a division in the FBI that he had almost nothing to do with but his dislike of sharing cases was still an issue.

"You didn't tell me a thing I could use to steal his case. I don't know the name of your victim let alone the poor sod who's being framed for the murder, and you definitely didn't tell me anything that makes me think it could be an FBI case unless you think he's being framed by a federal agent," Hadrian reminded him.

"You really believe he's being framed?" Tim asked.

"I'm almost sure he must be, he's got nothing to gain from her death except a lack of child support payments in his future. Dumping her body here ensured the secret would be more likely to come out than if she was still alive, and being investigated for her murder will will harm his career even more than if she'd filed a complaint. Only a true narcissist could believe he could pull this off, and narcissist or not he's too used to covering his movements to have been this stupid unless he panicked and that should have been trained out of him before he got to the rank of Commander, shouldn't it?," Hadrian said.

"He's a career paper pusher so he could have panicked, but he's also the type to plan things out before hand, and this dump doesn't seem planned unless it was to frame somebody," Tim agreed.

"Okay, if you don't want my help I'm going to head home to the kids. Call me if I can help with anything. Where are you going to start?"

"I'm going to head off Tony's knee jerk reaction and start the searches that will rule the wife out first. I feel a lot better about the Commander being set up than that he killed his own unborn baby," Tim said.

"Remember though that just because it restores your faith in humanity doesn't mean he was set up, it's possible that he is a narcissist and he could have set himself up as a double bluff," Hadrian said gently.

Tim groaned.

"I'll call you in the morning so you can talk to the kids," Hadrian said before heading out.

A few illegal hacks and broken HIPPA laws later he had some backup for his suspicions the Commander was being framed. According to her medical records, Mrs Robert Carter nee Veronica Farrer had never been treated for chronic pain or diagnosed with a back injury, what she was being treated for by a psychiatrist was a borderline personality disorder, therefore her alibi for the night of the murder that she took a sleeping pill because of the pain in her back was highly suspicious, even more so since she could have just agreed that she was at home with her husband and they would have alibied each other. If she had murdered the Lance Corporal she'd given up her own alibi to deny her husband's.

The fact that the traffic cameras had been inconclusive for Robert Carter worked equally well for his wife being the culprit. But there was no way to actually prove or disprove that either or both of them had left the house that night.

Tim checked her financials and her phone records, even hacked into her phone's GPS and was able to prove that the phone at least had remained in the house all evening and overnight. And like her husband, she drove an older model car, neither of which had been retrofitted with a GPS. The only real indication that she wasn't the killer was the strength required to put Marina Schubert into the car to transport her to the dump site, and the lack of drag marks or defensive wounds on the body. But Veronica Carter was a tall well-built woman and even at three months pregnant Marina Schubert had been barely 120 pounds, it was possible that the wife could have done it if she didn't have a back injury.

His search into Robert Carter's financials and phone records didn't show anything which discouraged Tim at first but then he realised that there weren't any changes in his spending pattern either when his relationship with Marina finished or when her friends thought it had started, adding credence to the idea that Marina had been one of a series of affairs for the married man, though he couldn't find any evidence of who the previous affairs might have been with. He realised they only found out about his affair with Marina by investigating her financials and phone records and wondered what Gibbs would say if they had to do that for all the likely candidates until they found one who hopefully could point out the others.

With all four of the team computers maxed out on searches he put his head in his hand for a moment to rest his tired eyes.

-o0o-

Gibbs was surprised to find a dishevelled McGee sleeping at his desk when he arrived at 0600 next morning. Before waking Tim, he called down to the gate to see what time he'd arrived.

"According to the logs Agents Tim McGee and Hadrian Black-McGee arrived at 2145 and Agent Hadrian Black-McGee left the yard at 2200. Agent Timothy McGee isn't logged out," the gate keeper said.

'Well if Hadrian brought him in at least it isn't a domestic disagreement that has him sleeping at his desk,' Gibbs thought, relieved.

"McGee," Gibbs said loudly shaking his shoulder.

"What? Oh Boss, is it morning already, I must have fallen asleep," Tim stammered.

"Ya think McGee," Gibbs said sarcastically. "What brought you back to the office?"

"Um, can I get coffee and maybe explain it once Tony and Ziva get here so I don't have to explain again?" Tim asked hopefully.

Gibbs grunted, and Tim decided to take that as permission whether it was or not, grabbing his wallet and scuttling out of the bullpen towards his favourite take away coffee place. He knew better than to not buy Gibbs a cup as well and headed back to the bullpen.

-o0o-

Tim arrived back as Tony was arriving and Ziva was already checking her emails.

"You're late Probie," Tony said, in spite of the fact it was still five minutes before the start of the working day. It was rare that Tim wasn't already at his desk by the time Tony arrived.

"No I'm not Tony I just went for coffee," he said handing a cup to his boss.

"Where's mine," Tony asked.

"You just got here. If you wanted coffee you should have got some on the way," Tim retorted.

"They're here, so how about you explain what had you turning up in the middle of the night to run more searches," Gibbs ordered before Tony could argue.

"I was talking to Hadrian about my day after we got the kids to sleep and we realised that dumping Schubert in a public place would be monumentally stupid of Carter if he killed her to hide their affair, unless he's absolutely positive the baby can't be his," Tim replied. "The first thing we did after the autopsy revealed the pregnancy was start trying to identify the baby daddy. If he wanted to hide his relationship, he would have been better off hiding the body or cutting her up and removing the uterus entirely so there was no trace of his DNA. For that matter he could have just slipped her an abortion pill and made her think she'd had a miscarriage. It took me less than half an hour last night to find out where to get abortion pills on the black market, and the doctor wouldn't test for it."

"You think he's being framed?" Gibbs asked.

"It seems likely, having the body dumped so near the Navy Yard with her dog tags still on almost insured our involvement straight away, and would point to her job being a potential reason for her death. He hid the affair effectively so why didn't he try harder to hide the murder?" Tim replied.

"Tim's right, unless he knew that the child was not his, that Lance Corporal Schubert had cheated on him or had a one night rebound fuck when they broke up and was trying to manipulate him with someone else's baby. Unless she lied and told him it wasn't his and he killed her for cheating on him" Tony said.

"I thought about that. There's no record of Robert Carter having a vasectomy or being treated for fertility issues in his medical records anywhere, so why would he be so sure it couldn't be his baby," Tim replied.

"He and his wife have been married nearly ten years without having a child," Ziva pointed out.

"But with her health issues and back injury it would be inadvisable for her to carry a child," Gibbs said.

"Alleged health and back issues, I can't find any medical records indicating a back injury or chronic pain treatments, what she has been treated for is borderline personality disorder, which still might have made him leery of having a child that he'd have to leave in her care during the day though they could have afforded a nanny," Tim replied. "Of course, I don't have any evidence that would stand up in court."

Gibbs nodded knowing that Tim was hinting at information he couldn't have acquired legally.

"Is there any evidence that could implicate her?" he asked.

"You think Schubert was killed by the vengeful wife?" Tony asked almost gleefully.

"Not specifically, but she could just as easily avoid the traffic cameras as her husband," Tim replied, ignoring Tony's comment to focus on Gibbs.

"But we speculated that he'd have a reason to look for the cameras in order to hide his affairs. What reason does the wife have," Ziva asked.

"Stress related paranoid ideation can be a symptom of borderline personality disorder," Tim suggested.

"Okay keep looking for evidence to either convict or clear the wife, have you managed to identify any other suspects?" Gibbs asked.

"I figure any previous mistress might bear a grudge or the husband of one of his previous lovers, but I haven't been able to identify any of them, he was too careful," Tim replied.

"Too careful for his own good. We might need to call him in and ask him," Tony said cheerfully.

"What about other enemies?" Ziva asked. "For that matter we should be looking into other enemies this Marina Schubert might have had. The pregnancy may have nothing to do with the murder, and she was dumped near the Navy Yard to turn the focus on her work life rather than investigate her personal life. Particularly if it was someone who knew she'd been having an affair with a fellow marine."

"Carter never served in a war zone, nobody in his team was ever seriously injured in a training accident. He's never been reprimanded for giving an order that lead to another marine's death or incapacitation, never had the power to do that actually, so he couldn't even be wrongfully blamed for a marine casualty. None of his promotions were unexpected or controversial, and on the face of it he doesn't appear to have much of a social life outside of his wife and neighbourhood events. If he has any enemies, I couldn't find them in the middle of the night. I do have a list of his previous CO's it might be worth contacting. I hadn't considered looking for someone unrelated to Carter or the pregnancy," Tim admitted.

"Well if Carter's the specific target of a frame up we can't ask the man until we can prove he didn't kill Schubert himself, so get to it, McGee. Ziva you look into whatever else Schubert might have been up to in her personal life in the last nine weeks since breaking up with Carter, and check her history, had she ever been stalked or taken out a restraining order against anyone, are there any previous lovers that were overly possessive, anyone with a reason for a grudge," Gibbs ordered. "Tony you're in favour of the wife did it motive so see if you can collaborate that she knew of the affair and/or the baby or if she had another motive in trying to get her husband hung. Tim check to see if there was a pattern in the locations of his assignations or if he had a favourite motel then request their CCTV footage as far back as they have it and split it up get DiNozzo and David to watch it with you, see if we can identify any other women he might have been meeting. I'm going to contact Commander Carter's current and former CO's. Hopefully one of them was bright enough and nosy enough to notice who the man was sleeping with."

"On it Boss," Tony chirped while Tim and Ziva just nodded and got to work.

-o0o-

Tim received some good-natured teasing when Hadrian appeared with a duffle bag containing a hot healthy breakfast and clean shirt and underwear. It caused a little bit of a stir across the other teams as few had actually met Tim's husband and they were all waiting for Gibbs to tear the man to pieces for interrupting in the middle of a case. They were astounded when Gibbs greeted Hadrian in a friendly manor and Hadrian casually apologised for the disruption and handed over a second thermos of coffee.

"Don't apologise! You're not sorry, but never mind the interruption, Tim said we have you to thank for his epiphany last night and I'm sure McGee will work more efficiently with a full stomach and not having to worry about his clothing. Eat up Tim and hit the shower," Gibbs replied easily, happy that his agent's marriage apparently wasn't suffering from his workload.

"Thanks Boss," Tim replied.

-o0o-

"Paternal DNA results came back, is the baby's father matches the evidence number thirty-one you provided. I still have another seventy-two items. Do you want me to continue testing them?" the lab tech called.

"Robert Carter is the baby daddy" Tony announced to the team.

How did you get his DNA, we haven't got enough for a warrant yet," Tim asked concerned.

"The rubbish collection was late the day we went to question the wife. We just emptied the entire bin into an evidence bag and brought it with us. No warrant required it was out on the road," Tony said smugly.

"So we have evidence that DNA matching the baby's father was found in the Carter's rubbish bin but no evidence proving that the DNA is Robert Carter," Gibbs corrected.

"Come on Gibbs, how many other peoples' DNA is in your trash can this week?" Tony whined.

"Yours and Fornell's, possibly Tim's since I gave him a lift last night, and cleaned out my car this morning. The employees at my local supermarket and Fornell arrived with a takeaway that could have contained skin cells from the server and beers which could have DNA from the supermarket employees in his neighbourhood or near his office where he bought them, and that's just those I'm aware of off the top of my head," Gibbs shot back.

"But we have proved that the baby's father was in Robert Carter's house in the last couple of weeks, depending on how often he puts out his rubbish bins. That's probable cause for a warrant to get his DNA sample," Tim suggested.

"Or to bring him in for questioning and offer him a drink," Tony said. He called the lab back and asked for the rest of the evidence to be processed. They needed to know whether the DNA match was on one or multiple items in the trash.

Gibbs picked up the phone to call legal to process the requests for the warrants.

"What are you searching for now? I thought you'd reached a dead end with previous lovers," Ziva asked Tim.

"I have, I'm looking for previous assaults of female colleagues or known acquaintances, if it's Carter then he may have gotten a little rough or in the past or someone's reported him for threatening behaviour, or alternatively if it is the wife then maybe Schubert isn't the first lover she's attacked. Most people don't start with a murder as efficient as this one appears to be," Tim replied.

"Good idea. This murder seems very organised and controlled. Do you think that this boundary personality would be able to do that?"

"Borderline personality Ziva, it's a clinical diagnosis so you need to get it right in your reports, but that worries me. Borderline personalities are capable of being cunning and manipulative but they're also prone to sudden bouts of violent rage. I have no doubt Veronica Carter was capable of killing Schubert in a rage and of being manipulative enough to attempt to frame her husband, but I'm not sure she was capable of the preplanning and attention to detail to pull it off on her own," Tim said.

"Is there anyone she would have trusted to help her? Or anyone who would have done this on her behalf? Does she have a lover?" Ziva asked.

"Not that I can find from her phone records or credit card use," Tim said. "Then again she wouldn't have to use motels, her husband is a workaholic who rings her every day on his way home."

"That's strangely possessive for a man who is cheating on his wife," Tony said.

"He probably thinks she will see it as a sign of affection. If she really did have chronic pain then calling and offering to pick up shopping or medications or even dinner wouldn't be unreasonable," Tim said. "I often ring Hadrian as I leave the yard, so he will delay putting the kids to bed or feeding them before I get home."

"Yeah, but you don't do it to check up on Hadrian," Ziva said.

"No but to an outsider it might look that way, it's hard to tell why Carter does it but the fact that he does means that it's possible for her to entertain a lover at home instead of having to find a motel, particularly if they worked the swing shift or nights," Tim replied. "I'd need to question the neighbours whether Veronica Carter has any regular visitors or if she and her husband have been fighting lately, but it's too early to give our hand away like that."

Gibbs returned and barked. "Report."

Tony jumped up, "There's nothing to say that the wife knew or didn't know about the affair and or the baby. No reports of her visiting Quantico or of making a scene or fighting with her husband. She is seeing a psychologist but client privilege will prevent us from accessing what she talked about and the appointments go back more than two years. Her phone records identify a few close friends we could question, but all of them were home the night of the murder according to their cell and car GPS."

Tim added. "There's no indications that Veronica Carter was having an affair either or an accomplice and her personality disorder makes it unlikely that she would commit a murder and frame up as well as this seems to have been done."

"According to her friends and colleagues, Marina was well liked. I spoke to her other friends and none of them had met Robert Carter but they were all aware of the affair and the pregnancy. There's nothing in her service history that anyone could be jealous over in fact she's about six months overdue a promotion and there are no negative performance evaluations in her history to explain it," Ziva reported.

"That's not true, Lisette said she had met Robert, though she later denied it," Tim said.

"So she did, that's odd," Ziva said frowning.

"That's hinky! maybe she's the new mistress. A serial philanderer like Carter wouldnt have broken up with Schubert and remained single for two months," Tony said.

"He has a mistress, his spending habits haven't changed. I'll look into her," Tim said making a quick note.

"I have CCTV records on their way from three of the motels Carter and Schubert frequented the most. I also looked for reports of Carter's female colleagues or associates being assaulted in the past, thinking that if it is the wife, she may have struck out against prior lovers but didn't I find anything. I also consulted the DCPD and confirmed that they don't have any unsolved or recently solved murders that match so the Lance Corporal isn't likely to be a random victim," Tim reported.

"Carter's previous CO's confirmed that they suspected he had a lover but none of them could or would speculate who he may have been dating. So we have nothing new," Gibbs added grumpily. Even unborn victims upset him more than adults.

"The lab has several more DNA hits from the trash, one of them was a used toothbrush so it wasn't just the delivery guy or supermarket staff," Tony replied.

-o0o-

A/N: Thank you to Kourtney Uzu Yato, mother oracle, DarkRavie, ldavis02.02.2015, Rainbow2007, SpiritBlackPaw, lilly-flower15, FraulCruz, linzi, aisa.32, Firehedgehog, Ghostisreading, Jacqueline Sun, xDarklightx, ellainaparker, rmiser1994, buterflypuss, DevilishAngel666, mooneysfate, sandipi, RoseeQueen, caged21hearts, jilumasam, Saissa, daithi4377, Vladimir Mithrander, DS2010, mayawene, charm13insomnia, mizzrazz72, serenityselena, HoneyBear84, Rori Potter, acherongoddess, SSGRet, brnkofeternity06, Silvermane1, Anonymous, Kawilger, 777angeloflove, Tetradical, Village-Mystic, Blosiom, cyiusblack, Sakiq-Sakik, Fallow56, finkarhu, sillygabby, Jostanos and all those who followed and favourited for your support.