Chapter Four
When Tony awoke, all the pain came flooding back. He groaned as he tried to sit up, holding his side as pain shot through his abdomen. His head was pounding as he stood up slowly. That's when he saw the message taped to the wall next to his front door: 8 days. There was no doubt in his mind anymore that this—whatever it was—was real.
He checked his watch and saw that it was 06:00. Ignoring the nausea he was currently feeling, he hopped into the shower to get ready for work (and also rinse off any dried blood from the night before). As he stepped out of the shower and glanced in the bathroom mirror, he saw all the dark bruises covering his abdomen. It seemed that, fortunately, the injuries seemed to solely include his abdomen and the back of his head, which made it relatively easy to cover any trace of them as he dressed for work. However, hiding them as he moved (or breathed) was going to be a lot harder.
Because he was moving so slowly due to his injuries, Tony didn't arrive at the office until 07:10. "You're late, DiNozzo," Gibbs pointed out as Tony set his bag down.
After a few seconds, Tony said, "Won't happen again, boss," even though they both knew it would.
"Why are you still wearing your sunglasses?" McGee asked after several minutes.
That was when Tony noticed that he was, in fact, still wearing them. However, he figured, given how his head felt at the moment, that taking them off would be a very bad idea and the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows would cause him to vomit in the middle of the squad room, which did not sound appealing to him at all. So without removing the sunglasses, he simply told McGee, "Because I'm cool, probie."
"Are you ready?" Kate asked Tony.
Tony, clearly not knowing what she was talking about, said, "For?"
"To bring in Bill and Andrea..?" she supplied.
Tony thought about it. He didn't really feel like moving at all and, if either suspect decided to make a run for it, he was more of a liability than an asset currently, but on the other hand, if he suggested Kate take McGee instead, Gibbs would see right through that and know something was up, and he didn't think he could withstand an interrogation from Gibbs at the moment. So, instead, he just said, "Yeah, let's do it," as he stood up.
Fortunately, neither tried to run and complied with the two agents. Kate brought in Andrea while Tony brought in Bill and they left them in separate interrogation rooms. Kate called Gibbs to let him know they were ready.
By this point, Tony's head was absolutely killing him as it pounded. While Kate was distracted talking to Gibbs, Tony tried to take some deep breaths to help with the pain and nausea, but that caused pain in his abdomen, so he abandoned that plan as he heard Kate hang up her phone.
"Gibbs is on his way, but he wants you to go in and talk to Andrea," Kate told him.
"O-kay," Tony told her, but didn't move.
She stared at him for a minute, then, unsure if Tony was joking, said, "I think he meant now..?"
After another minute, Tony said quietly, "Right," before he finally headed towards one of the doors, but then paused and turned back to Kate. "Which one is she in?"
"Left," she told him as she studied him. Then, as he reached for the door knob, she asked, "Are you drunk or something?"
He gave a half-hearted laugh, then told her, "I wish," before he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Andrea..?" Tony began, but paused when he couldn't recall her last name.
"Porter," she supplied.
"Right," he said.
"Look," she told him, "you must be busy, so I'll cut right to the chase. There's nothing I can tell you about Josh or his murder—if he was murdered. I hadn't even spoken to him, let alone seen him, for nearly a year."
"Okay," Tony said sarcastically, "you can go."
She stood up. "Really?"
"No, not really," he told her. She sat back down. "See, here's the problem. Your husband was murdered, but you didn't really seem surprised by that. You didn't even seem surprised that he was discharged and supposedly didn't tell you."
"Is there a question?" she asked impatiently.
Tony smiled. "Yes. Now, granted, I'm not married, but I would imagine, if my spouse were murdered, I'd want to be kept in the loop and you can bet I'd be on the ass of every investigator working the case and making sure they solved the case."
"I still don't hear a question," she told him.
"Okay, fair enough," Tony told her with a smile. "Why are you apathetic to the fact that your husband was keeping secrets and more importantly, that he was murdered?"
"I'm not apathetic," she told him.
"Really?" he asked. "Could've fooled me."
"Okay, maybe I'm a little apathetic. The truth is I've known Josh was keeping secrets for a while now. I saw him with his mistress. I guess I didn't seem that surprised because I'm used to his secrets. I mean, honestly, he probably didn't tell me because he wanted to start a new life with her," she said.
"And you're not bothered by that?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter now, does it?"
Tony gently nodded, taking her tactless comment and her obvious indifference to her husband's murder in stride. "I guess not."
"You told one of my agents that Petty Officer Porter was having an affair," Gibbs told him.
"Well, that's what Josh told me," Bill said.
"Hmm," Gibbs replied.
"What?" Bill asked.
"You know her name. He tell you that too?" Gibbs asked.
"What are you implying?" Bill asked, clearly getting angry.
"I'm not implying anything," Gibbs told him. "I'm telling you that I think you made up Grace Johansson to lead us away from you."
Bill immediately exclaimed, "Whoa, wait. You think I killed Josh?!" Gibbs just looked at him, daring him to deny it. "Josh was my best friend. Why would I kill him?"
"Oh, I don't know. Probably so you could marry his wife," Gibbs told him.
"Andrea? I don't want to marry Andrea!" Bill denied.
"Sure spend a lot of time at her house for someone who's not interested in her," Gibbs pointed out.
"We're friends. And her husband just died. I've been comforting her," Bill told him.
Gibbs smiled as he said, "Oh, yeah, I bet you're comforting her."
"Not like that," Bill told him. "Look, I swear. Her name is Grace Johansson. She exists."
"Then, why can't we find her?" Gibbs asked.
"I don't know, but you have to believe me. She exists," Bill told him.
"Well," Gibbs said as he stood up, "you better hope so."
"Wait," Bill said. "She worked for some company—Eagle something."
"Eagle what?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"I don't remember, okay? I just saw her coming out of a building and that's all I remember," Bill explained. At Gibbs' look, he added, "I was just looking into her for Andrea." Then, he asked, "Can I leave now?" Gibbs left without answering. He met Tony and Kate outside the interrogation rooms.
"Well?" he asked them.
"She's definitely hiding something," Tony began. "Complete personality shift from the last time I spoke to her."
"Well, accusing someone of killing their husband will do that," Kate pointed out.
"Hey, I just asked her why she doesn't care that her husband was murdered—which she unabashedly admitted to. I didn't accuse her of anything yet," Tony told her.
"But you think she did it," Gibbs said knowingly.
"I think…" Tony said slowly, "she got too defensive—and angry—too quickly for me to presume innocence. If she wasn't the killer, I can almost guarantee that she's an accomplice."
Kate shook her head. "I don't know. She seemed pretty blatant about not caring about him to be the killer. You'd think she'd be acting overly loving towards him if she was hiding the fact that she killed him."
Tony shrugged, clearly not agreeing with her, but then turned to Gibbs. "What about him?"
"He was definitely having an affair with Andrea," Gibbs said.
"He admitted it?" Kate asked.
"No," Gibbs told her.
"So do you think he did it?" Tony asked.
"He's got motive," Gibbs replied. Tony and Kate nodded. Then, Gibbs told Tony, "Let 'em go."
Tony just stood there for a moment and then asked, "What? They're our best suspects."
"Well, unless you have some evidence to go along with your gut, we can't arrest them," Gibbs reminded him.
"We can hold them for 48 hours," Tony told him.
"If we hold them, we only have—" Kate looked at her watch, "—46 hours to find the evidence to prove this hunch, assuming they are the killers. Not to mention, they'll get suspicious."
"They're already suspicious," Tony explained. "We let them go, and they are the killers, they'll run." He turned to Gibbs. "I'm telling you, they'll run."
Gibbs thought for a minute, then said, "Okay." But before Tony could celebrate, Gibbs added, "But if they are the killers and we don't close this case within 46 hours, it's on your head."
"Deal," Tony told him.
"Then, go find some evidence. Start with this Grace Johansson," Gibbs told them.
"We've looked for her, boss," Tony told him. "She doesn't exist. He's just trying to buy time."
"Maybe. But look again. And Kate, while he's looking for her, you look for any business in the area with the word 'Eagle' in it. It's possible she works at one of them," Gibbs told them, and they headed back to their desks.
It took approximately 24 hours, but finally Kate found the business Bill had been talking about. "Eagle Eye Security," she said as she hung up her phone.
"Grace Johansson works there?" McGee asked.
"Sort of," Kate explained. "It turns out Grace Johansson is her alias. Her real name is Anna Novak."
"Why does she need an alias?" Tony wondered without looking up.
"Apparently, she's a private investigator. Guess she wanted to keep her true identity a secret," Kate told him. She turned to Gibbs and told him, "She's there now."
"Take DiNozzo. Pick her up," Gibbs told her as the two agents headed out.
Tony led Anna Novak to the interrogation room as Kate notified Gibbs that she was ready. After Tony closed the door, he leaned against it as he rubbed his temples as his head continued to throb. But he regained his composure as Kate turned back to him and he asked, "Gibbs on his way?"
"No," Kate told him. "Director wants to speak with everyone on this case."
"Why?" Tony asked after a minute.
"I don't know," Kate responded.
Tony thought for a minute—which was difficult given his piercing headache—then, he asked, "What about her?"
"Said to let her stew," she explained with a shrug. Then, when Tony didn't respond, she said, "Come on, they're waiting on us."
The first thing Gibbs noticed when his two agents entered the conference room was that Tony was still wearing his sunglasses, for the second day in a row, and Gibbs was pretty sure it wasn't because Tony was "cool", but he decided to let it go for now as the Director started speaking.
"Where are we on this?" he asked.
"What's your interest in this case?" Kate asked. Then, after realizing that may have sounded disrespectful, she amended, "With all due respect."
Before the Director could respond, someone knocked on the door and entered the conference room. The someone turned out to be a secretary who immediately said, "Sorry for the interruption, Director."
The Director waved off her apology as he asked, "What is it?"
"There's three men here. They said they need to speak with Agent DiNozzo," she told him.
Everyone turned and looked at Tony, who, after a minute, simply asked, "Who?"
"They didn't say," she replied.
Then, after another minute, he asked instead, "Regarding what?"
Again, she told him, "They didn't say."
After yet another minute, Tony coolly told her, "Then, it can't be that important. Tell them I'm busy. Tell them if it's vital, they can leave a number and I'll call them back at my convenience."
Everyone was still staring at Tony after his odd response, but regardless, the secretary left to tell the visitors what Tony had told her.
"Anyway," the Director eventually said after the door shut, "my interest in this particular case, Agent Todd, is bureaucratic, not that it should matter. We need to close this case—that's all you need to know. So, where are we?"
Before anyone could respond, the secretary reentered, holding a yellow manila envelope, and she said, "Sorry for another interruption, but the men gave me this for you, Agent DiNozzo."
Tony's brows furrowed in apprehension, but he eventually stepped over to her and grabbed the envelope, immediately looking at what was inside, while also making sure no one else in the room could see. Inside the envelope was a single picture of a boy around 8-years old and written on the back of the picture was 'Your time is running out'. Tony, without saying anything to anyone, immediately walked past the secretary and out the door. Gibbs called out, "DiNozzo!" but that didn't slow him down at all.
Screw being afraid, Tony was starting to get pissed now. Who did these people think they were? Calling him at home was one thing—a violation, sure, but at least it secured him some privacy. But not only calling, but visiting him at his job? That was too far. And Tony intended to let them know exactly that. As he approached the three men, his anger only intensified.
"Ah, Agent DiNozzo," one of the men said. "Perhaps there's somewhere we can speak? In private?"
"Oh sure. I can see privacy is your top concern," Tony said through gritted teeth and led them to the elevator. Once they reached the dim car garage, they all stepped off the elevator and Tony finally removed his sunglasses to look the men in the eyes.
Tony immediately turned to them and asked heatedly, "Where did you get this picture?"
"We took it," one of the men said.
"What are you talking about?" Tony asked. He wasn't sure if it was his probable concussion or if he should legitimately be confused.
"You clearly haven't done your research yet, so let me just tell you this: last Friday, we gave you 12 days to repay your father's debt, which we feel was more than generous. It is now Wednesday. You are down to 1 week. Trust me, Agent DiNozzo, it's in your best interest to pay us back," the man told him.
"Why are you going after me? Why not my father? It's supposedly his debt," Tony asked.
"Look into your father and his finances, and you'll find out," the man told him.
"And what if I don't pay you back? What exactly are you going to do?" Tony asked.
"For your sake, hopefully, you won't find out," the man told him.
"No," Tony told him brashly. "Tell me."
The men looked at each other, then the man leading the discussion turned to the man on his right and told him, "You heard him. Give him a sneak peek."
Before Tony could react, the man immediately punched him hard in the face and he fell to the ground. The men then walked away and as Tony sat up with a groan, holding his left eye, he blurrily saw the three get into a black van—Tony took note of the license plate number (BSR-4795) and quickly jotted it down on the manila envelope just in case—and drive away. His head pounding more than ever now, he nevertheless slowly stood up, put the envelope into his back pocket, and headed back into the elevator as he put his sunglasses back on.
Unfortunately for Tony, the meeting apparently finished while he was gone, and so as soon as he stepped off the elevator, he was met with two pairs of eyes looking at and observing him after his weird reaction to the envelope he'd received. Also unfortunately for Tony, his left eye had started to swell and the bruising now extended past what his sunglasses could cover.
As he sat down at his desk, he casually asked, "Where's Gibbs?"
Ignoring his question, Kate walked over to his desk and ripped off his sunglasses. As Tony winced at the sudden bright light that seemed to be splitting his head in two, Kate and McGee asked simultaneously, "What happened to your eye?!"
"Nothing," Tony lied. When Kate and McGee made it clear they weren't buying that, he finally told them, "What do you think? I got punched."
"Who punched you, Tony?" Kate asked.
"Does it matter?" Tony asked as he focused his attention on the file on his desk.
"Kind of," Kate told him, obviously perturbed by Tony's weird behavior that day and especially because Tony seemed like he couldn't care less that someone punched him in the face when usually, he would complain constantly about even the smallest of injuries.
"Well," Tony finally responded without looking up as Gibbs reentered the bullpen, "let me put it this way, Kate. If you had the opportunity to punch me—free from consequences—wouldn't you take it?"
Kate thought for a minute, then said, "That's perhaps the best point you've ever made, DiNozzo," as she headed back to her desk.
Tony's answer may have been enough to satisfy Kate and McGee, but Gibbs knew Tony too well and was well aware that Tony was just using self-deprecating humor as a tactic to appease Kate and McGee to stop their questions. But as long as Tony didn't let whatever was going on affect his job performance, Gibbs decided it really wasn't his place to get involved—that was entirely up to Tony. But Gibbs would be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit concerned for his agent after today.
"DiNozzo, with me," Gibbs said, standing up. When he didn't hear an "On your six, boss!" in response, he looked over at Tony. "Tony!" he called again, once again to no response as Tony just seemed to be staring off into space. "Tony!" Gibbs called for the third time. "Hey! DiNozzo!"
Tony finally looked over and asked, "What?"
Gibbs had been noticing Tony's uncharacteristically slow reaction time since yesterday morning, but had no idea why it was happening. But ever since his ominous meeting that afternoon, he just wasn't focused on the case at hand. He knew Tony could get distracted—okay, he got distracted pretty damn easily, more so than anyone else on the team—but this time, it was different. Normally when he got distracted, it resulted in a tangent about something off-topic and distracting everyone else around him in the process, but today, Tony was very quiet, even aloof, and seemed more zoned out or spacey than just distracted—like he had too much on his mind to focus on the case, which wouldn't have been as noticeable had he not been so eager to focus on this case the day before.
"Are ya coming?!" Gibbs asked, losing whatever patience he had left.
That was when Tony finally looked up and realized Gibbs was no longer at his desk, but was standing by the elevator.
"Uh," Tony said, standing up to follow Gibbs, but not knowing where they were going. "On your six, boss." It was belated, for sure, but at least it came eventually, so Gibbs took some comfort in that.
The doors hadn't been closed five seconds when Gibbs pulled the emergency break. Tony didn't seem to notice for several seconds, which Gibbs noticed. Tony finally looked up and turned to Gibbs, a confused look on his face.
"Are you up for this?" was all Gibbs asked.
Tony looked genuinely confused as he still wasn't entirely sure where exactly they were going or what exactly he needed to be up to. Then, in less than a second, his expression changed into his usual confident, carefree smile. The change in his expression was so fast, like flipping a switch, it was almost jarring and if you blinked, you would've missed it. Gibbs didn't miss it. "Of course," Tony finally responded cheerfully.
"Yeah?" Gibbs asked with a hint of a smile. "Where're we going?"
Tony froze as his smile slowly dropped from his face and all he said was, "Uh…"
Gibbs gave a curt nod as he replied, "That's what I thought. We're going to interrogation." Then, he looked at Tony seriously and asked him, "Is your head screwed on straight?"
After a minute, Tony replied with a nod (which he instantly regretted as it made his head spin), "Yes, boss."
"Good." With that, Gibbs restarted the elevator.
Tony was sent to observe while Gibbs entered the interrogation room. Anna looked up as soon as the door opened. "What am I doing here?" she wondered.
"How long have you been having an affair with Petty Officer Josh Porter?" Gibbs asked her.
"What?" she asked, genuinely confused. "I'm not having an affair with anyone, least of all Josh."
"That so?" Gibbs questioned.
"Yes," she told him. "Josh wouldn't have an affair with anyone. He loves his wife."
"Then why were you seen with him?" Gibbs asked. "How do you know him?"
"Who told you that?" she wondered. When Gibbs didn't respond and just cocked his head at her, she answered, "Well, as I'm sure you know by now, I'm a P.I. A few months ago, Josh came into the company I work for and requested someone to follow his wife and get some information on her for him," she explained.
"Why?" Gibbs asked.
"He thought she was cheating on him, but wasn't sure. He wanted me to find out if she was and, if so, who she was cheating on him with. So I started shadowing her. That's it. That's my entire relationship with Josh. Why? Is he in some sort of trouble?" she asked.
"Yep," Gibbs told her. "Someone killed him."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she said. "I didn't kill him. I barely know the guy."
"We'll see about that," Gibbs told her as he stood up and left the room. Tony left the observation room at exactly the same time as Gibbs left the interrogation room. As he walked toward the elevator with Tony on his heels, Gibbs told him, "Check out her story. Look into her phone records."
"Got it, boss," Tony told him.
As Tony exited the elevator and headed to his desk, Gibbs continued going down in the elevator to get some coffee. He glanced over at his desk and saw that Kate and McGee, taking advantage of Gibbs' and especially Tony's absence, were at the latter's desk, rifling through his drawers, looking for something.
As he approached silently, he heard McGee say, "I don't think it's in here, Kate."
Tony snuck up behind them, channeling his inner Gibbs, and called out, "Can I help you find something?" which caused both of them to jump.
They both headed back to their own desks as Kate answered, "We, uh, were looking for the envelope you got earlier."
"Yeah. I know," Tony told her.
"So where is it?" she asked.
"Right here," Tony said, taking it out of his back pocket to show her before replacing it.
"You keep it on you?" McGee asked.
"Well, yeah, McNosy," Tony said, looking over at him. "I can't leave it here with you two snooping through my things."
"Well, what's in it?" Kate asked.
Tony gave her an exasperated look, then said, "None of your business."
"What's the big secret?" McGee wondered.
"No secret, McProbie. Just need to know. And you don't." When neither Kate or McGee seemed to have anything to say to that, Tony asked, "Can we all get back to our jobs now? Because Gibbs is gonna be back soon and I'm thinking he wants us to have something for him." Without another word, the three got to work.
When Gibbs returned, he did, in fact, want his agents to have something for him.
Tony began, "I talked to her employer, a Mr. Henry Smith. Anna Novak, AKA Grace Johansson, has been with the company for the past 8 years. And according to him, she's a great investigator and 'an asset to the company'. His words."
Kate took over, "Yeah, I checked out her case history and talked to some of her former clients. No one had anything bad to say about her and they all said she solved whatever case they requested of her—mostly spouses suspected of cheating. She's definitely not lying about her career, Gibbs."
"Yeah? What about her relationship with Petty Officer Porter?" Gibbs asked.
Everyone turned to McGee as he put Anna Novak's phone records on the big screen and everyone stood in front of it to look. "Well, she was definitely in contact with Petty Officer Porter," McGee explained. "In the last month, there were 49 calls between them."
"Regarding what?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"Hang on, I have their transcripts here," McGee said.
As McGee was putting the transcripts on the big screen and began to read them aloud, Kate subtly reached behind Tony to pull the envelope out of his pocket. But, unfortunately for her, she wasn't subtle enough.
Tony instinctively reached out and grabbed her wrist that held the envelope. The action caused McGee to stop talking as he and Gibbs both looked over, just in time to see Tony lean down close to Kate's face, still holding her wrist, and utter heatedly through gritted teeth, "Do that again and I'll shoot you."
Kate had never seen Tony that angry—hell, no one had—and she had to admit it had scared her a little. He continued to hold onto her wrist tightly and glare at her until Gibbs called out as a warning, "DiNozzo."
The glare instantly slid off Tony's face and he suddenly looked less angry and more ashamed, like a kid caught in the act of misbehaving. He slowly and begrudgingly looked up into Gibbs' eyes which stared back reproachfully, making Tony look a little mortified now. In an instant, he immediately took a step back, then reached over and aggressively grabbed the envelope out of Kate's hand and let go of her wrist. After he did so, as she rubbed her wrist with her other hand, Kate breathed, "Jesus, DiNozzo."
Tony didn't say anything, but slowly stepped back as he put the envelope back in his pocket. Then, he turned on his heel and headed for the stairs—because he really didn't want to be trapped in an elevator with Gibbs right now—as all three watched him go in silence, wondering what the hell had just happened and why Tony had overreacted so much over something that, in all honesty, wasn't anything unusual or more than his and Kate's normal teasing relationship.
Without missing a beat, Gibbs told his remaining agents to "Get back to work," which they did. But as Gibbs sat back down at his desk, his mind stayed focused on his senior field agent and the uncharacteristic, and not to mention wildly inappropriate, behavior he'd just seen. But despite whatever building concern he felt, figuring Tony just needed some time and space to cool off, he didn't follow him. He instead decided to follow his own order and got back to work.
Tony didn't go back inside the rest of the day. From the stairs, he'd kept walking until he'd reached the front entrance and, once he felt the cool air and realized he'd forgotten his jacket, he looked at his watch. It was 20:06. Odds were Gibbs would be sending them home soon anyway and there was no way in hell he was going back up there and facing the squad room tonight, not even to retrieve his jacket. He needed to calm down. He couldn't have another outburst like that one. In fact, he didn't know where the hell that had come from. One minute, he was fine, and the next, he could feel his heart beat intensify in his chest and suddenly felt like his life was in danger, like he needed to fight or run and hide. Only, his life hadn't been in danger. He'd been in the squad room with three of the people he most trusted, some of the only people he trusted. As he tried to take some deep breaths, which wasn't that easy as every breath sent stabbing pains into his chest, he eventually found his way to his car. Unfortunately, the next thing he realized was that he left his keys upstairs too. Fortunately, he did have his wallet, so, since there was no way he was going back upstairs for any reason tonight, he took a cab home instead.
Once he reached the door to his apartment, he unholstered his gun—which he'd fortunately had on his holster when he'd made his dramatic escape—and slowly unlocked the door with his spare key. He pushed the door open and quickly flipped on the light to find…
…no one. His apartment was completely empty tonight. But, he still decided to search every room just in case, which all turned out to be empty as well. Finally painfully breathing a sigh of relief, he grabbed his phone as he sat down on his couch, placing his gun on the coffee table next to the 6-day old beer that still sat untouched where he'd left it that Friday night that seemed so long ago now.
He dialled his father's phone number tentatively and held the phone up to his ear as he listened to his father's phone ring and ring and ring until he heard the answering machine tell him to leave a message after the beep. After calling a few more times only to reach the answering machine each time, he finally realized he wasn't going to be speaking to his father tonight, so he decided to leave him a message that, if he was honest, he didn't even know his father would listen to.
"Dad? It's me. Tony—uh, Junior. I know we haven't spoken in a while, but I need to talk to you. These guys approached me, saying you owe them money, told me I have to pay them back. Do you know anything about this? Or why they're coming after me…and not you?" he said. The last three words were muttered so quietly, almost as if he was only saying them to himself. He closed his eyes as his head began to throb. "Just call me back as soon as you get this," he finished as he hung up the phone and tossed it to the other end of the couch and laid his head back. And before he knew it, he was asleep.