A/N: Here we go folks another chapter. To my recent followers/favourites, welcome aboard the ride! To my reviewers, thank you so much! I love reading your thoughts!
Guest reviewer: Sue Dooley: Thanks! So glad you liked it
Momcat: I myself know nothing about american football (gridiron) but i try to write the football (soccer) scenes in a such a way people get somewhat of an understanding. And to answer your question, Gibbs definitely wouldn't anyone walk allover his son!
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, I am not a banker, nor accountant. The medical & technical banking talk in this chapter, I either looked up through Google, or used a creative licence, I do not pertain to know about the medical issue nor how bank account & transfers work.
The shit is about to get real, so pay attention! Lots of details in this chapter..
"Congratulations on the win, sounds like it was some game" Tristan smiled at Gibbs, as she greeted him in their outer office.
"It was definitely something" Gibbs replied with a smile "they've headed off to some new bar or club down at the port, I've sent McGee & Jonas with them, along with a few others"
That caught Tristan's attention "everything ok?"
"Just wound a little tight is all, felt more comfortable that they had a few people with them, Captain Bond, Lieutenants Andrews & Carter, and Ensign Evans have gone along too" Gibbs said, she needed to know & it wasn't like he'd sent the whole detail that had gone to the game, Donnelly & Dyson were both already back working.
"Ok" Tristan conceded, that was his call, but it was like he'd sent an army with them, Lt Andrews & Lt Carter were both security officers for the base, neither man were to be messed with, and she was sure that statement rang true for Captain Bond. As for Ensign Evans, she worked in Naval Fleet Operations & was a member of the team that just won the marital arts competition that NSA Naples held between branches, she was hardly a kitten! Add them to McGee & Jonas, and it was… well, it was his call.
"What's the latest?" Gibbs asked as he finished making himself a coffee, but before she could answer, the door opened, it was Kruse.
"Agent Le Salle is ready to go boss, ma'am" Kruse said upon entering the area.
"We're coming" Tristan confirmed "looks like we'll find out now" she'd been waiting for him for over an hour.
Gibbs entered MTAC & found Tony & Ziva already in there, two control operators - Brian & Michelle – along with Donnelly, and Le Salle was already on the screen "Agent Le Salle"
"Sir, Ma'am" Le Salle nodded
Tony smiled at Gibbs "San Siro?"
Gibbs smirked "don't get ahead of yourself, and don't say anything like that to Nix Tony"
"Sure" Tony nodded
"Agent Le Salle, we were expecting to hear from you well over an hour ago, have you had some trouble?" Tristan enquired
"Ah no ma'am, just the opposite, I was able to obtain quite a lot of information & had to follow a lead through" Le Salle replied.
"Let's hear it then Le Salle" Gibbs stated
"Yes sir" Le Salle nodded "I was able to obtain details about Jacob Kaplan's stay in hospital, he'd been in & out for the past 6 months, all stints at least a week in length"
"Why was he in hospital?" Tony asked concerned
"He's got Aplastic Anaemia" Le Salle answered
"What's that?" Ziva asked, that didn't really sound good, especially if he was in & out of hospital for the past 6 months.
"It's a rare disease that results in deficiencies of all blood cells caused by the failure of bone marrow development" Le Salle answered.
Gibbs really didn't like the sound of that "prognosis? Treatment?" he'd seen Tony pale considerably.
"He takes a steady flow of medication & has regular blood transfusions, for now its adequate to prevent it from gaining ground in his system, but to really get back to full health they are looking to do a bone marrow transplant but for that they need a…." Le Salle answered but was interrupted
"A donor" Tony remarked "that's why Patricia was looking for her family, she needs…" now more than ever he had to find both his sister & his nephew.
"The hospital have already put him on the list & are doing searches of the databases, but said that they knew Patricia was trying to find whatever family she could, the odds are greater for a match between family members" Le Salle remarked.
"How long can he go without getting treatment?" Gibbs asked, this had now turned into a race against time, but how long did they have?
"Well, he'd just had a transfusion, so on that front he's got maybe a month, 5 weeks at a push, but he takes medicine every day & that he can't go without for more than a day." Le Salle remarked & continued "The Doc said that when Jacob was checked out by his grandfather, he had enough stock for a week & given they departed 5 days ago, we've got 3 days before it gets tricky"
Ziva didn't like the sound of that, they had 3 days to find Jacob, that wasn't long at all!
"Send through the details of the medication required, we will get it distributed to the teams we've got looking for them" Tristan instructed, she wanted that medicine on the agents that were searching, because 3 days was not a long time frame, at all!
"Yes ma'am" Le Salle nodded, before continuing "We also found a second address for the Commander's father, he has a place across in Clermont Harbour"
"Clermont Harbour? There was no address for the Commanders father in the records apart from his apartment in the French Quarter & the house he lives in on base with the Commander" Tristan remarked.
"Yes ma'am, but we tracked the cab he left the hospital in on Monday and it ended up at a house in Clermont Harbour. Upon investigation the property is clearly owned by Laurence Alexander, the Commander's father" Le Salle offered
"What did you find there?" Gibbs enquired
"It was fairly empty, but I found some paperwork, still need to go through a lot of it, but we've found some pertaining to Jacob's hospital condition, and what we think relates to the Commander's search for family" Le Salle reported
"Have everything uploaded, the paperwork can be shared between you, the Great Lakes, us & DC" Gibbs ordered
"Of course" Le Salle replied, he had 2 agents with him from the Great Lakes office already helping out as Pride was out of town "we also found evidence that they left in a hurry, the safe was left open, papers were everywhere & that there was a bit of a struggle"
"Struggle? What kind of struggle?" Tony asked cautiously.
"Broken furniture & a small amount of blood" Le Salle cautiously, he knew of the connection that Agent DiNozzo had to them "it's only a small amount on a broken lamp shade, we're having it tested against both Jacob's and Laurence's blood types"
"Let me know as soon as you do" Tony instructed, he prayed it wasn't Jake's.
"Anything on the Commander's whereabouts?" Ziva enquired.
"Not a great deal I'm afraid, the hospital staff said the last time they saw her was on Tuesday, but by then Jacob and his grandfather had departed, they said she just took off like lightning. We checked the security footage hoping for a way to track her, but she took off on foot & we couldn't track her" Le Salle reported
Gibbs didn't like this one bit "how far a net are you casting?"
"BOLO's have been issued to all LEO's, along with all airports, train & bus stations within 300 miles for all three" Le Salle answered "we're scanning as much of the area as possible, but it's like they've vanished"
"Make it 500 miles" Gibbs replied, it had been 4 days, 5 since the pair had checked out of the hospital & they'd gotten nothing, he had to expand their search! He saw the nod from Le Salle, so he continued "anything else to report?"
"Nothing solid sir, we're still following up on…" Le Salle tried to say but got interrupted
"Well take whatever you've got, even if it's not solid" Gibbs interrupted, he'd take anything right now.
"I did find a piece of paper in the safe at the place in Clermont Harbour, not quite sure what to make of it" Le Salle, this was one thing he really didn't get.
"What's it say?" Ziva enquired.
"A lists of places New Orleans, Belfast, Liverpool, New York, Naples, Swansea, London & Carlisle," Le Salle reported
Tony shared a look with Ziva & Gibbs, what on earth was that about?
"Our tech was able to use a sample of the Commander's handwriting to match the handwriting of the list, it's her's" Le Salle remarked "that's our tech again calling, if you don't need anything else, I'll see what he's got & check back in soon."
Tristan nodded "that's all great work Agent Le Salle, please update us with anything further as soon as you get it"
"Of course ma'am" Le Salle nodded before cutting the call.
Tony was thinking about the list of cities & suddenly considered something "New Orleans, New York, Naples"
"Tony?" Gibbs asked wondering what he was thinking.
"All three cities are where we live, she's New Orleans, Senior's New York & I'm Naples, maybe she'd narrowed her search down for family to cities?" Tony guessed
"That leaves Belfast, Liverpool, Swansea, London & Carlisle, do you know of any family in those cities?" Ziva asked gently, she also realised that those city names could mean cities in many different countries or even states.
"Uncle Clive lived in London. His brother Jeffrey lives in Liverpool if I remember correctly & I recall something about cousins from Belfast, but nothing about Swansea & Carlisle" Tony remarked.
Ziva looked at him surprised "you have another uncle?"
Gibbs of course had heard about Jeffrey from Linda Turner, but was intrigued as to what Tony would say. He'd noted that during the conversation both Kruse & Donnelly had been shifting in & out, and right now, both were out, he was glad that this would be discussed with fewer people around.
Tony sighed "Jeffrey Paddington, my mothers oldest brother, I have never really had much to do with him, he didn't even speak to me at Clive's funeral. Clive once said that he & his brother had a falling out with my mother, and that Jeffrey couldn't put that aside to see or speak to me. Uncle Clive was the only member of my mother's family that ever really kept in contact with me after she past or showed any interest in me"
Ziva didn't like that, she saw that there were similar veins of unhappiness across Gibbs's face, she was about to say something when Michelle interrupted.
"Excuse me Boss, Ma'am, FBI Agent Fornell has dialled in & requests an immediate conversation, he says its urgent" Michelle replied
"Bring it up" Gibbs instructed, he waited for the screen to move to the centre screen "Fornell" he greeted, but he was also with "Michael" what on earth was Michael Barnes doing with Fornell? And there was also a third man there too, his gut started to churn, yet again.
"Jethro, it's good to see you, I wish it were under better circumstances" Michael greeted him, this wasn't going to be easy to tell or hear.
"What's wrong?" Gibbs asked, but he saw Michael looking at the other people in the room "Deputy Assistant Director Tristan, this is Michael Barnes, lead partner & co owner of Barnes & Associates, the Law Firm Kelly works at, Michael Deputy Assistant Director Megan Tristan" he introduced.
"Mr Barnes" Tristan greeted, wondering what information required the FBI to meet up with them.
Michael nodded in greeting "Deputy Assistant Director Tristan, its nice to meet you. I'd also like to introduce my lead investigator Jim Nelson, Jim, Kelly's father Deputy Special Assistant Director Gibbs, Supervisory Special Agent DiNozzo, and Senior Field Agent Ziva David"
Tony eyed the guy, this was who was looking for the connection of his sister "hi"
Jim nodded at all of them, but his gaze fell to Tony "Agent DiNozzo, it's good to be able to face to all of this"
Tony nodded but was eager "have you found anything?"
"Yes" Jim answered shortly "I presume Kelly informed you that we'd narrowed the search down to two adoption agencies?"
"Yes, have you been there yet?" Tony asked impatiently
"We had to get the FBI's assistance because they were playing hardball, but Agent Fornell got us access & I can confirm that your sister was put through the Louise Fallon Adoption Agency" Jim answered "she spent only 2 weeks there, before being adopted by Laurence Alexander, at which time he had her name changed from Patricia Danielle to Patricia Marie & he took her to New Orleans"
"So the Commander is my sister?" Tony asked quietly, was he finally getting confirmation?
Jim smiled "Yes, Commander Patricia Marie Kaplan is your older sister Tony" glad he could confirm that.
Tony smiled & shared it with Ziva & Gibbs.
Gibbs smiled, he was glad they'd gotten confirmation finally, one issue though "what's the problem & why are you still with them Fornell?"
Tony saw Fornell & Michael share a concerned look, what was the need for Fornell & Michael to be there for the briefing?
Fornell glanced around the room that Gibbs was in, there were a lot of people "this is rather, shall I say more personal, maybe get the room cleared"
Gibbs was just confused "what?"
Tristan saw that Gibbs was confused but she thought she'd do as asked "Brian, Michelle, clear the room" she'd leave the decision to remove Tony & Ziva to Gibbs.
Tony watched as Tristan took out the MTAC operators & shared a look of concern with Ziva, what the? Would Gibbs want them to leave too?
"They stay, now spit it out" Gibbs said looking back at Fornell.
Fornell sighed "Jethro, this is rather personal, you may want them to…"
Gibbs had no idea what was going on "Does it relate to Tony & his sister?"
"Well…. yea" Fornell finally replied
"Then they're here for it" Gibbs replied, he was getting really concerned.
"Ok then" Fornell nodded "the forensic accountants have finished one branch of their investigation"
"What's that got to do with this?" Gibbs all but demanded. He knew that investigation was taking time, it wasn't exactly something that could be done quickly, given the years of transactions they were sifting through, but what on earth did the investigation into Mac & his financial dealing have to do with this situation?
Fornell really didn't want to say this next part but knew he had to "those monthly payments he sent Kelly"
"What about them?" Gibbs asked, he really had no clue what was going on "I thought you were investigating his business dealings?"
"We are Jethro, that's still on going, but as the accounts linking Kelly to him were intertwined with his businesses, we checked them too and well…the entire sum didn't come from MacDonald" Fornell answered warily as he traded looks with Michael.
"What are you talking about?" Gibbs was getting more confused by the sentence.
"On the 10th of every month he sent the amount that was in one of his 'secondary' business accounts over to Kelly" Fornell started to explain, he was careful not mention amounts, as he wasn't sure what Tony & Ziva knew about how much money had actually changed hands.
"I know that!" Gibbs asserted, he was loosing his patience.
"Yes, we knew that Jethro, but…" Fornell said, he took a breath before continuing, Gibbs was going to loose it very soon, that was certain! "The funds were transferred out at the same time every month, 10th of the month at 15:00, like clockwork. They worked out that that account was cleared via a sweep program into the account belonging to Kelly, meaning whatever funds were sitting in it got moved across to her"
"Fornell, if you don't get to point soon, I will reach through the screen & whack you!" Gibbs barked, he needed the point of all of this, and he needed it now!
"It'd be a bit of stretch, sir" Fornell couldn't stop the smirk from forming, glad they could have one moment where the tension broke before the shit got real.
Gibbs eyed him and smirked "I've grown a greater reach, Agent Fornell" while he was ready to loose it, he had to reply to his friend's remark "get back to transfer Tobias" he sighed.
Fornell nodded "they found that MacDonald transferred the funds into the account that same afternoon, at 14:45 actually, meaning he didn't leave his money sitting in that account for any length of time that could draw any interest on it" he took a breath, a deep one "the thing is the amount he transferred into the account was only 15-20% worth of what actually reached Kelly's account" he finished holding his breath.
Gibbs wasn't sure what he was hearing, it sounded like "are you saying that … what are you saying?" he actually didn't know what he was hearing.
"I'm saying that 80-85% of the money that reached Kelly did not come from MacDonald, Jethro" Fornell stated "At exactly 14:58 each month a deposit hit the account, because it then got cleared out 2 minutes later it never showed up on the account records, funds have to be in the account for a solid 5 minutes in order to show up & as it got included in the sweep, Kelly only ever saw one amount, so she'd presumed it had all come from MacDonald"
Tony saw Gibbs just staring at the screen in utter shock, he traded looks with Ziva, both were concerned & neither knew what to say, the conversation was leaving them a little confused, what did this talk about money & bank accounts have to do with Patricia?
Gibbs was just confused, really confused, Mac wasn't the one that sent the money to Kelly? Mac… "you saying he basically sent her nothing?" that bastard had said he would take care of them! Said he felt sorry for what he'd done! Not that he ever believed that, but he'd always considered that at least he'd done the right thing & provided financially for his kids.
"No Jethro, from what we could work out, in the beginning he sent her sustainable funds & the addition deposit was minimal. Over time however, my guess as he saw Kelly start earning a decent wage he decreased the amount he was transferring, the catch was that the additional deposit seemed to rise on the same curve, so she was always receiving a sustainable amount. The 15-20/80-85 split is over the total period" Fornell explained
That was something, marginally Gibbs thoughts, that now left one massive question "you know who deposited the additional money?" who on earth would do this? Who would transfer funds that only had one purpose, to provide for his kids, there was no one else left..
Ziva saw Fornell & Michael exchange yet another look of concern, she was rather taken with the conversation she was hearing as she really didn't know that much about the financial matters that Mac & Kelly had had with each other, but what could this have to do with Patricia?
Michael decided to take this one "Jethro, the funds originated with a Mr Laurence Alexander, of New Orleans"
This time it wasn't just Gibbs that was staring at the screen in shock, Tony & Ziva had joined him.
"What?" Gibbs & Tony exclaimed
"The man that adopted your sister Tony, is the same man that sent the funds to your children Jethro" Michael explained "We caught the connection while Tobias was helping us at the adoption agency" he added
"Who the hell is this guy?" Gibbs asked completely gobsmacked, he saw that Tony was just as stunned as he was.
"Well, that's the mystery" Fornell said but he shared a look with a Jim
"He adopted her, without a wife, and in that era, that was basically unheard of!" Jim said, he was really perplexed by that.
"Our records indicate that he was married, to a Leah Oden" Ziva remarked
Jim nodded "They only married when Patricia was 3 years old & they didn't stay married for long, they divorced 5 years later…"
Fornell picked it up "from what we've worked out she left for Australia and never looked back, no communication, nothing"
"I have to say that the adoption is rather perplexing, the records clearly show that he adopted her as a single man, which as Jim mentioned…" Michael tried to say
"Is unheard of" Tony finished "so how'd it happen?"
"Well, the Louise Fallon Adoption Agency was a private establishment, it had only been open for 6 months when she was put through. So there's a chance the people running it were ahead of their time, it's the only possibility I can think of" Jim answered
"What's the connection…." Gibbs started to ask
"I did a background check on the guy & Laurence Alexander of New Orleans, died when he was 8 to influenza, in 1897. This Laurence Alexander was only in existence for 3 years before the adoption, we don't know who he actually is" Fornell said hesitantly, Gibbs was definitely coming apart at the seams.
Gibbs let out a barrage of words that he knew would fill more than one swear jar, fuck! This wasn't good!
"So wait a sec, you're saying that some 'random' guy had taken a new identity only to adopt my sister & then what send money for 20 years to Kelly & Nix & we have no idea who he is?" Tony barked
"That's pretty much it DiNutzo" Fornell agreed, though he was taken aback a little, that sounded like Gibbs! He continued "as of this minute we have no clue of this guy's real identity or what the connection is, but I find it rather odd that the same guy that adopted Patricia was also sending money to Kelly. Your families didn't know each other, did they? And the two of you only met in Baltimore when you were with PD & NCIS, yes?" he asked, he was dumbfounded!
Gibbs & Tony shared a look, what was the connection? They'd only met on the job, not before Tony was even born! And each man was certain the families didn't know each other.
Ziva was about to say something when the MTAC screens & their phones all went nuts, flashing & beeping like crazy, she rushed to the terminal to check, oh no! "Gibbs! It's an Agent in Distress alarm"
"WHO?" Gibbs barked, but he got a really bad feeling.
"Jonas" Ziva stated looking at him, this wasn't good!
"Fuck!" Gibbs yelled, he knew it, fuck!
A/N: So…. yea, I will just leave you to think about that…. haha
You know I love to hear your thoughts, so review away! More up soon