Ziva rubbed a hand over her face as she tried to process what the suspect in front of her had just said. She was just making sure that she was fine and fully in control of herself. Okay. A deep, calming breath. In through the nose and out through the mouth. And again. Right. She was good to go. She just had to double check that she had heard what she had thought she heard.

The man was just staring at her like he had done nothing wrong. It was baffling.

"You were...?" She trailed off and looked at him, promptly him to finish the sentence.

Because she had to have been hallucinating when he had first spoke. She just had to.

"Enchanted," he said, nodding his head.

Yeah, that is what she was afraid he said. Deciding to not try and wrap her head around how he came to that conclusion, she tried to push forward.

"Enchanted," she repeated slowly.

Surely he could hear how ridiculous that sounded?

"Enchanted."

He actually beamed at her this time, lile she understood what he was saying. She did not.

"I am sorry," she said slowly, not believing that she was actually saying this, "I do not understand what you mean by that."

Maybe it would all be obvious once he explained? Faint hope.

He squinted at her. "What do you mean by what?"

She tried not to show her impatience, though she suspected that she failed, and took a deep, calming breath.

"Enchanted, Mr Coyle. I do not understand what you mean by enchanted."

"It's obvious, innit?"

"No. It is not."

He let out this enormous, long suffering sigh. Something he had no right to because he was definitely not the one suffering at the moment!

"I was enchanted."

"You have said that."

"Let me finish!"

She was not allowed to harm suspects in the interrogation room. She was not allowed to harm suspects in the interrogation room. Too many potential witnesses. She glared at the security camera in the corner. The light blinked. It was not fair.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth, clenching her fists. "Continue."

He did not look concerned by any of her actions at all and beamed at her. Beamed at her. Like he was happy to tell her things. Did he not realise that he was in an interrogation room? And that he was therefore a suspect?

He then went on to explain that he had been enchanted by a sorceror, which was different than a witch or wizard apparently. This sorceror then went on to take away his free will and make him do things. Crimes. Which included hacking a navy database and stealing information. And physically harming a marine. Things that allegedly he was not capable of so of course that meant he had been enchanted. Yeah, yeah. It sounded lile one big lie to her. A good story but nothing more. But telling him that would only agitate him.

And now he was going into all this detail about magic and how it worked and she really did not have time for any of this. How did people even come up with things like this? It just did not make sense to her.

She was going to have to interrupt him and try and get him to explain himself without magic. Which would be difficult and she did not think that he was capable of it. But she did not think that Gibbs would be too pleased of she reported back to him with their suspect's relief in magic being the cause. No. She definitely did not want to do that.

"I do not think that any of this is a valid defence..."

The man frowned at her.

"Of course it is."

Of course that was his response. Why should she expect anything else?

"I do not think a jury would believe that you were enchanted," she tried to say tactfully.

When all she really wanted to do was very bluntly tell him that magic was not real and he should stop wasting everyone's time with such nonsense. He was obviously just making things up in an effort to get away with his crime. He could not possibly believe in all of this. But she did not. Because she was a professional. And because Gibbs really did frown on her causing unnecessarily bodily harm to suspects.

"But I'm telling you that I was enchanted," he said earnestly. "How else are you supposed to explain my behaviour?"

"Because you want to cause harm?"

"Well, yes. No! Wait! You aren't tricking me! I didn't do those things of my own volition."

He looked incredibly pleased with himself, knowing that word.

"Did you just admit to wanting to cause harm?"

The man looked panicked for a split second before shaking his head frantically.

"Only when I'm enchanted! I'm a nice guy! I don't want to hurt people! Aren't you listening to me? I was enchanted!"

Ziva resisted the urge to turn around and glare through the two way glass. Because she knew Tony was behind there, laughing at her predicament. He should be in here suffering with her. She made a gesture for him to come in but of course he did not. He would pay for that later. If this... This magician did not drive her insane first. Which was starting to feel like a very real possibility.
How did someone even exist like this? In a world of complete fantasy? And without the use of drugs from the looks of things, though she still was not fully convinced of that. And he still had to have a psyc eval. Something Ducky was going to do after the autopsy he was doing downstairs.

"Are you sure you did not... take anything?" She tried to ask delicately.

He gave her an offended look.

"I don't steal. I am no theif!"

Another deep breath. It wasn't really working but she had to at least give the appearance of trying.

"Drugs. I meant drugs," she said through gritted teeth. "Have you taken any drugs?"

"Magic is the only drug I need."

Which conveniently did not rule out the possibility of him taking drugs. Would they be able to have his blood tested?