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Family Ties - Part 5
"Ok. Gibbs. We'll see you tomorrow then." Kate hung up the phone and paused for moment before turning to McGee, who was looking at her expectantly.
"Gibbs is on his way back. He said Tony wouldn't be in for at least a week and that he'll be back by tomorrow. What've you got for me?" McGee handed Kate the non-descript brown file, which contained every known detail about the victim, it wasn't a very thick file.
"Not a lot sorry, Kate. She was orphaned at 10, adopted at 11 by a well-to-do middle class family and attended a co-ed boarding school before attending Yale and finally joining the Navy. No criminal record, kept mostly to herself. Her colleagues aren't sure if she had a boyfriend but they did say that she was seen quite a few times with a handsome man in his 30s, they were of the opinion that he was either a good friend or a brother though. Oh and uh… Lt. Cmdr. Diablo was adopted by a couple, who also adopted a young boy, who was 12 or 13 years old when he was adopted. The children were adopted on the same day and went to the same boarding school. However I can't find anything on the boy." McGee started to get nervous, he was sure that Kate was going to get mad like Gibbs does when he hasn't done a good enough job, even though he'd tried his best. He understood why Gibbs got mad; it made McGee push himself to do even better, to become a better agent. IT still scared the crap out of him though.
"What do you mean you can't find anything on the boy? There has to be something, Gibbs will go mad if he gets here tomorrow and we tell him there was a boy that the victim grew up with and that we know nothing about him. He will be seriously pissed off though if we tell him that she was regularly seen with a man, who could be the same person as the boy but we're not sure because we know nothing about him either." McGee nodded slowly. - I know you're right Kate but I couldn't find anything. -
"I know but I tried everything I know and all I came up with was dead-ends, sealed records and walls which claimed my clearance wasn't high enough. I couldn't even hack my way through them!" McGee had an earnest schoolboy expression on his face that begged Kate to believe him. Kate frowned slightly, thinking about what McGee was saying, but didn't seem to know he was saying. - Sealed records? Well that's normal for minors but what's with McGee's clearance not being high enough, and him not being able to hack through it? This all smells, suspiciously, like Witness Protection, but what had the boy seen? And why had he been placed with the same family as their victim and at the same time? -
"Ok McGee. You keep working on the visitor, see if he left a name anywhere, and get some of her friends to talk to a sketch artist, let's see if we can at least get an idea of what he looks like to give to Gibbs tomorrow. I'm going to talk to some of the people I knew when I was with the secret service, maybe I can get some of those records unsealed." McGee nodded, grateful that Kate had given him something to do that he could achieve before Gibbs got back.
After getting a few dead ends on the telephone, Kate bit the bullet and called Fornell. She arranged to meet him later that day, via video conference in MTAC. McGee was in an interview room with a sketch artist and a couple of the victim's colleagues. Kate was about to begin another search into the boy's background when she got a phone call from a very excited Abby, telling Kate to come down to Abby's lab because she had something. Kate quickly made her way to Abby's lab, glad that at least someone had been able to get something.
When Kate got into the lab Abby started talking very rapidly about all of the things that she had done to get to the point she was at. Normally Kate thought Abby's run up to the information was fun but today she really needed something she could work with, quickly.
"Abby! Please, what did you bring me down here to see?" Abby stuck her hands on her hips and frowned, pretending to be mad at Kate for interrupting her.
"What, Tony's not here so you have to take on the Gibbs role?"
"Abby, please." Abby went over to her computer and pointed for Kate to look at the big screen. Abby's fingers flew over the keyboard as she ran Kate through what she had found.
"Ok I was working through the Video footage that we got from that couple. They really should by better quality stuff next time they want to make a video diary of their holiday. Anyway, I managed to clear up the number plate on the car. I traced it back to this man, Sammy Martello. Now for the really good bit, Sammy Martello is only the son of the leader of a mafia family, which is currently at war with another mafia family.This second mafia family, the Zitos, uses members of two different families as bodyguards and protection details. Do you wanna know who those families are, it could just be coincidence." Kate turned from looking at the information of Sammy Martello on the big screen to looking at Abby.
"Yes please Abby. Oh and could you put the video footage back up, I think I may have seen something." Abby grinned and took a long drink from the Caff-Pow drink before turning to face the computer once again.
"The families are Diablo and DiNozzo. That's too hinky to be a coincidence Kate. What do you see?" Kate was staring at the frozen video footage. Her focus was a little way up the street from the car.
"Abby can you take this back to just after the car hits the Lt. Cmdr. I think we may have another witness." Abby typed a number of keys in rapid succession and up came the frame Kate wanted. Kate's instinct had been right; the man did turn to look at the crash. She pointed to the man and asked Abby to centre in on him. Abby did so and when she cleared up the picture, both ladies stood there in absolute shock. It was at that moment that McGee walked in.
"You are never going to believe who Lt. Cmdr. Diablo's colleagues described to the sketch artist." McGee looked at the picture on the big screen and paused. "Ok. Maybe you will."
"What did you find out McGee?" Kate asked, after tearing her eyes away from the picture of Tony on the big screen. The look of absolute horror which covered his face was heartbreaking for her to see.
"I… The colleagues of the Lt. Cmdr. They described Tony. They couldn't quite agree on the description but when I saw what the sketch looked like I showed them a photo of Tony. They all said that it was him." McGee handed Kate the sketch artist's drawing. Abby suddenly began to pace up and down the lab. She waved her arms around as she spoke.
"Oh man, this is too weird! We have a Lt. Cmdr. with only a skeletal history who happens to know Tony. Tony is witness to her death but doesn't tell anyone. A mafia hit-man runs her over and Tony goes to tell the family, who Gibbs thinks may be dangerous. If it was an intentional mafia hit, and not just coincidence, then it's possible that the Lt. Cmdr.'s family isn't really dead but is mafia. If that's the case then why the hell is Tony the one who is going to tell her? Informing the family isn't normally a job done by NCIS unless it's one of our own, or we know the family, personally." Kate and McGee were beginning to get dizzy watching Abby walk backward and forwards while, at the same time, trying to understand what she was telling them.
"Abby, McGee, start closing up this part of the investigation. We know who the car belonged to so we can start chasing that angle of the investigation now. I think it would be best if we left Tony's possible involvement out of our reports. However, if you want to keep yourselves covered then I can't stop you from putting Tony's name in to your reports. I have to go to a video conference with Fornell in MTAC now. I will try and find out everything I can about that boy who was adopted with Lt. Cmdr. Diablo. When you've wrapped this up call it a night, I'll see you tomorrow morning." With that Kate left the lab and headed for MTAC. Abby turned to McGee and whispered to him her best conspirator tone.
"Come on McGee, we can wrap this up and run what we've found out past Ducky. I bet he'll have a ton of theories." McGee nodded and groaned. It was going to be a long night, listening to Ducky and his strange stories.
In MTAC Kate wasn't having much luck with Fornell. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at Fornell.
"I need the information on this boy, Fornell. It could be the vital key to breaking our case." Ok, she was twisting the truth a little, but she really needed the information to save the team from Gibbs' wrath.
"I'm sorry agent Todd but I can not give you the information you want. The boy would still be in grave danger if the information were ever to be leaked. His job and his past would also collide, meaning that it would, quite possibly, lose him his job too. I understand that he has become quite attached to his job and if he lost it all hell would break loose. Think of a very angry Gibbs and times it by 4 ½. I'm sorry agent Todd but I can't risk any of that happening." Fornell cut the video feed. Kate left MTAC and decided that there was nothing more she could do tonight and so she headed for home. She could do her report for Gibbs there just as easily, and in more comfort.
Unknown to Kate, McGee and Abby were also just exiting the building. Their meeting with Ducky hadn't gone as well as Abby had hoped. Ducky had told them straight up that he had no opinion on the case, other than his opinion that the Lt. Cmdr. had been killed as a result of the impact of the car hitting her, and that they should stop trying to find out Tony's link to it before they put more people in danger. When he was ready Tony would tell them what they wanted to know. They had left a little disappointed and a little more curious. However their respect for Ducky meant that they would do as he said and stop trying to find out why and how Tony was involved. Tomorrow Gibbs would be back and maybe he would clear things up a little.
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