Chapter Twelve: Phone Numbers

Tony hung up the phone after his conversation with Gibbs and tossed it onto the table. Ziva sat down at the table and looked over at McGee, who was looking over a stack of papers. She leaned forward so she could see what it was.

"Phone records?" Ziva asked. McGee looked up at her a second, nodded, then went back to what he was doing. Tony sat down next to him.

"Anything useful, Probie?" Tony asked.

"So far it's mostly what you'd expect. She made calls to the office from here, her neighbors appear a lot. There are calls to local food places. Lt. Commander Blake's number comes up a lot. Calls to a car repair shop, umm, looks like to the school."

"Ok, but is there anything useful?" Ziva asked raising an eyebrow.

"There are five numbers I've yet to identify. Two have base prefixes but don't seem to be listed. One seems to be a cell phone, and the others I'm guessing are off base," McGee continued to explain.

"Can you find out who they belong to?" Tony asked leaning on his elbows. McGee looked up at him.

"Yeah, Tony, I just have to dig some more. There not listed in the phone book is all," McGee said.

"Did you try calling them?" Tony asked as if he was talking to a child. McGee glared at him and shook his head. He pulled the laptop closer to him and ignored Tony while he plugged away at the keys attempting to track down the remaining five numbers.

"Well geez, Probie, don't you think that would be an easy way to figure it out?" Tony asked.

"Not if we don't want to tip off whoever we're after. Especially since we don't know who we are after," McGee said still staring at the computer screen, making Ziva smile.

"He has a point, Tony," Ziva said.

Tony shrugged his shoulders and pulled the top page off the stack. He skimmed it over and then tossed it back. He got up and moved into the kitchen to get something to drink. McGee continued to pound away on his keyboard as he dug deeper into the phone company's database. He found the two base numbers.

"I found the two unlisted base numbers. One is for a two star Admiral, looks like his private office line. The other belongs to Captain Jacob Lariman, office line as well," McGee said squinting at his screen.

"Didn't Admiral Morse say something about a guy named Jacob?" Ziva asked looking up at Tony. Tony was trying to recall the conversation they had had with Admiral Morse and slowly began to nod his head.

"Yeah, he said he was a marine, that he thought Commander Conrad was possibly seeing a guy named Jacob," Tony said his voice growing with excitement.

"Might be worth checking out," McGee said with a shrug. He continued to search for the other three numbers. He found one of the off base numbers about half an hour later. Ziva was still sitting at the table reading over the interview notes, as well as the notes McGee had compiled during the day. Tony was in the living room lying on the couch sleeping.

"Anything yet?" Ziva asked as she laid the papers down in front of her.

"Maybe," McGee said softly as he pulled up another page. "Looks like I may have found one of the off base numbers. That's odd."

"What?"

"It seems to be a payphone," McGee said his face showing the confusion. Ziva stood up and walked up behind him, leaning over his shoulder to stare at the screen. She leaned back then and looked at the notes on the table.

"Why would she be calling a payphone?" Ziva asked. "Tony!"

A few seconds later Tony walked through the doorway still looking half asleep. He blinked a few times and ran his hand through his hair. After yawning he slumped into a chair and stared up at Ziva.

"What?" he asked some what annoyed.

"McGee found another one of the phone numbers," Ziva said.

"Way to go, Probie. So?" Tony asked leaning forward.

"It's for a payphone. I think it's about three blocks from the base," McGee said.

"A payphone?" Tony asked scratching his chin. Ziva nodded as McGee shrugged.

"That's what this says," McGee said.

"Doesn't make much sense. All right we need to find out why she called that payphone then," Tony said looking at the table.

"Might be difficult, Tony, I mean it could have been any number of reasons that she called," Ziva said.

"First let's talk with this Captain Jacob Lariman," Tony said. "See what he has to say about Commander Conrad."

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe you should call Gibbs and let him know what's going on," Ziva said.

"I think we should interview the neighbors first," Tony said looking at Ziva. She shrugged. Tony glanced at the clock and decided to start trying to see if the neighbors had arrived home yet. After the interviews they would call Gibbs and fill him in. McGee was plugging in the last two numbers now, the other off base number and the cell phone.

Tony stood and stretched, then he walked around the table. Ziva stood to meet him. McGee stayed in front of the computer typing away. He was determined to find the last two numbers.

"McGee, stay and finish up. Ziva, let's go see if the neighbors are home," Tony said and walked for the door. McGee heard the front door shut and he continued to work. He worked for another hour but still came up empty on the two numbers. He was running out of ideas on how to find them without a search warrant.

He finally gave up and decided to fix himself something to eat. He made a sandwich and sat at the table quietly eating it. He pushed the case away from him to help clear his mind, maybe if he came at it with a new angle he'd be able to see whatever it was he was missing. It was a while before he heard the front door open and he noticed it had been close to two hours. He sat down in front of the computer again and began his searching.

Tony slumped down in the chair next to him as Ziva marched past both and out of sight. McGee looked up from the screen and gave Tony a quizzical look. Tony seemed drained and shook his head.

"You get anything, Probie?" Tony asked half heartedly.

"Ah, no, nothing more," McGee said. "What about you?"

"Bogus. Her neighbors didn't know anything. Except Captain Harper remember the car was a black sedan. He didn't know the make or model or license plate number, and he doesn't remember seeing it anywhere else."

"So we got nothing basically," McGee said.

"We have Captain Jacob Lariman. Which none of the neighbors knew," Tony said frustrated.

"I guess next step is talking to Captain Lariman," McGee said.

"No next step is calling Gibbs before he calls us," Tony said grabbing his cell phone.

TBC…