[Witch Hunt: 2]
...
3rd Person POV:
Back out on the street McGee, Tony and Claire were talking to a 'zombie' who saw the car driving away from the crime scene.
"So, you saw the C-ring driving that way?" McGee asked slowly. However, the 'zombie' didn't respond instantly as he was currently staring down Claire's legs that were on show. Claire sighed in annoyance. She had the NCIS jacket on to cover up her torso but without a change of clothes or the time to change she was stuck with the shorts. Tony glared at the man.
"Hey! He asked you a question." He snapped. The man jerked out of his haze and looked up to see Tony's glare. After a moment he shook his head before mumbling out an answer from under the mask that was attached to his face.
"What? Is that German…are you….is he speaking German?" Tony asked in mock curiosity as he looked to Claire in frustration.
"I wish." She muttered with a heavy sigh. The zombie shook his head again and continued to mumble, holding up two fingers.
"I think he's saying two people." McGee narrowed his eyes trying to hear the words. The man nodded, looking between the three agents.
"Two people where…." Tony continued. The man mumbled while using his shoulders to gesture something.
"What is that? Moving a manhole, using a rake?" Tony chuckled incredulously, staring at the masked man with wide eyes. The zombie grumbled and turned to Claire for help.
"No, he's just saying you're bad at charades." She explained to the man, fully in agreement. Tony rolled his eyes. How was he the only one that didn't understand at least some of what was being communicated.
"Alright, this is ridiculous." Tony sighed, reaching over to rip off the bottom half of the mask. The man yelped in pain as the glue pulled on his skin.
"Dude, you ruined my costume!" he shrieked in pain.
"Do you want to be charged with obstruction of a federal investigation huh? Then speak, zombie." Tony instructed sternly.
"Ok look I saw the vehicle all right, and I think there were two people in it." The man explained, much more clearly now.
"Which way did it go?" Claire asked.
"That way, it cut the corner so hard it ran over the curb." he pointed down towards the end of the street.
"Show me." Tony ordered. The man glanced at the group before sticking his hands out and moaning like a zombie as he began to stagger. Claire instantly pushed on his chest to stop his walk.
"Let's not do that." She told him pointedly. The guy rolled his eyes.
"Ok look, it crashed into all that stuff and then it drove off that way." the zombie pointed out the overturned hay bales and pumpkins on the curb.
"Did you get at the license plate?" McGee asked.
"Dude, I can barely see you with all this makeup on." He threw his hands up. With a tired glare, Tony slowly reattached his 'mouth' and pointed for the man to walk away. The man did so but not before displaying his zombie imitation once more. Claire rolled her eyes and groaned before walking towards the curb, letting the boys grab the stuff from the car. Once Tony had grabbed his flashlight he took off after her.
"Couldn't see…he seemed to be looking at one of us just fine." Tony muttered sourly.
"Oh give it a rest, it's not like he was the only one." She countered, shooting him a knowing stare. Tony sputtered.
"When?!" he asked. She turned to look at him with an incredulous grin.
"Abby's lab." Tony quickly turned red and looked away sheepishly.
"You saw that huh?" he asked quietly.
"What? Did I see how yours and McGee's tongues practically dragged the floor…. Of course I saw it." She snapped in amusement. Tony winced but remained silent as they slowed down enough for McGee to join them with the camera. At the curb Tony was shining a light on the smashed pumpkins that McGee was snapping photos of.
"You got a time of death on the Great Pumpkin here Charlie Brown?" Tony inquired.
"I might have more than that. The car left an impression on it." McGee indicated, pointing out markings on the pieces of smashed pumpkin.
"Perfect. Let's get it back and let Abby work her magic on it."
...
Claire's POV:
Back in the lab, Abby was twirling around in her costume, enjoying the feel of the dress as it swirled around her legs.
"Dawn of the Dead was awesome." She chimed in to our current horror movie conversation.
"Cinematic blasphemy." Tony frowned in horror, while McGee was busy staring at Abby.
"Fast zombies? There's a reason you don't remake classics." Tony continued.
"John Carpenter's The Thing?" I pointed out with a grin. Tony's expression faltered and he stared at me, his lips pursed in displeasure.
"Well there's an exception to every rule." He relented, moving his hand up to take a bite of his lunch.
"The Fly?" I continued. Tony paused, his wrap almost to his mouth.
"Ok maybe two." He conceded once more. I grinned smugly, to which he simply huffed that I had proved my point.
"Didn't you say Al Pacino in Scarface was the best…"
"Okay!" Tony quickly cut off McGee, realizing that we were pointing out his inconsistencies.
"My point is, zombies should be slow." He reiterated with finality.
"Tony, there's nothing scary about a zombie dragging his butt around." Abby pointed out, as she continued to flutter her dress around.
"Well a zombie's not a zombie unless its dragging its butt around." Tony shot back, as if it was obvious.
"But you like 28 Days Later." I pointed out smugly. Tony let out a cry of betrayal, as I added fuel to the fire against his argument.
"Those zombies were really quick." McGee added on. Tony groaned in exasperation. I laughed, reaching over to rub his arm sympathetically.
"Okay, enough with the zombies already." He whined.
"Did we find an impression on the vegetable or not?" He asked instead, turning his back on everyone so he could stare at the big screen.
"Technically it's a fruit." McGee corrected, watching Abby closely as she walked around to the screen. I rolled my eyes with a grin and made my way over to stand by Tony. However, his wrap caught my eye. I had forgotten to get lunch today. Pulling his arm towards me, I leaned forward to snag a bite. Tony sputtered in disagreement until he noticed that as I leaned over to bite into it I was showing off my cleavage. Tony quickly stopped and stared down instead, his eyes lingering even as I straightened back up. I shot a side eye his way with a smug grin. Realizing what I had done was completely purposeful, Tony grumbled under his breath about 'vixen', 'thief', and 'cheating'.
"We finished laser scanning the surface of the great pumpkin, McGee can you invert the image…..as soon as you're done undressing me with your eyes." Abby pointed out with a knowing stare. McGee shrunk back sheepishly. Tony quickly turned his head, realizing that I wasn't the only one who had taken notice of their lingering stares. I held back a snigger, ignoring the withering glare Tony briefly shot me.
"Bring up the gamma and increase the contrast." Abby requested as she watched the screen.
"And flop it." She requested. Once the image had been flipped, I gasped in mock surprise.
"Smashing." I muttered with a grin. Tony rolled his eyes at the pun, but still grinned.
"It's the left-hand side of a Virginia license plate." Abby added proudly.
"Run it McGee." Tony ordered.
"The first four letters, cross referencing against Chrysler c-rings." McGee muttered aloud as he worked. We all watched as the results were pulled up on the screen.
"And we've got a hit. The car was registered to a rental car company in Kentland Virginia." McGee relayed.
"Yes, DiNozzo does it again." Tony chuckled triumphantly. I smacked him on the arm.
"You mean Abby and McGee did it again." McGee corrected for me. Behind us I could hear another slap as Abby swatted McGee. Tony and I glanced backwards at them curiously.
"Ow what was that for?" McGee flinched.
"Those days ended, the moment you started sexing up the cheerleader." Abby told him pointedly. Tony and I quickly turned back. Interesting.
"Find out who rented that car, I'm about to make Gibb's night." Tony requested, already dialing.
"Sorry Tony, there is no name. The car was reported stolen three days ago." McGee sighed.
"So much for that. Now what?" I sighed in disappointment. Tony quickly hung up as he stared at the information with a glare.
...
3rd Person POV:
"She's just telling you this now?" Tony asked in exasperation as McGee ran the name Robert Miller through DMV. Ziva was calling to inform the rest of them that there was a chance Sarah had a different biological father. It was another kidnapping suspect to run down.
"Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean she tells me everything, Tony." Ziva shot back.
"Really? So, you women don't have some gossip pact or something?" Claire scoffed and turned to give him a deadpan stare. Tony shrugged with a teasing grin.
"Robert Miller, there's over 300 listed in the tri-state area alone." McGee relays, distracting the others from the topic.
"What about the rest of the criteria?" Tony suggested, going off of the physical description they had been given from the wife.
"Still over 100 Robert Millers listed." McGee answered.
"We've got her cellphone records, right?" Claire pointed out.
"We tapped her line" he nodded.
"So, check the record of calls in the last month." she told him pointedly. McGee's eyes widened in realization before frantically typing the info into the computer.
"Abby's right. I am three cans short of a six pack." he muttered sourly; how could he not have thought of that before?
"I think she was talking about your six pack, McFlabby." Tony quipped, earning a scowl.
"Ok three calls about a month ago, called from his home phone." McGee pointed out.
"Calls from his home phone, three calls in the last month." Tony relayed to Ziva over the phone.
"Well if it's his home phone, then that means we have an address. Let's go." Claire indicated, already grabbing her gear and heading towards the elevator.
...
"The last time I did Halloween I was an astronaut. The neighborhood we grew up in….well it wasn't really a neighborhood. There were these estates with mansions smack dab in the middle of them with really long driveways. Made Halloween very tricky, that's a lot of walking. God my feet were tired that night, my dogs were barking." Tony reminisced as they drove to Robert Millers address.
"Yea I can imagine it was rough growing up rich like that." McGee deadpanned from the passenger seat.
"My costume was fantastic though. Wicked awesome. I was a spaceman….no ventilation though. I was burning up. Sweating like roger Federer after a 5 set tie breaker…and stinky. Stinky like a cheese." Mcgee grimaced and looked into the rearview mirror to stare at Claire with a bored yet mildly amused look. She merely grinned. She didn't mind Tony reminiscing on the good points of his childhood. There weren't a lot he liked to talk about.
"But man what a haul, I made off with more candy than I could carry." Tony continued, oblivious to the looks from the other two.
"I'd imagine this story is coming to an end soon." McGee muttered under his breath.
"But when I got home, my old man made me throw it all away. Even the apples." Tony mused with a frown.
"He was concerned with your teeth." McGee supplied for the ending. Tony glanced over at him in surprise.
"Oh…no I made my astronaut costume out of one of his $3,000 designer ski suits." Tony corrected with a grimace.
"Ouch." Claire frowned.
"I don't think I sat down again till Christmas." Tony nodded in agreement.
"Good times probie…good times." Tony trailed off with a strained grin, which McGee shared.
"Well that was almost a great story. The ending needs a bit of work." Claire quipped. Tony chuckled and turned to shoot her a grin.
...
Claire's POV:
Meeting Gibbs at the address, we pulled up to an apartment complex that seemed to be hosting a party along with lots of kids trick or treating in the neighborhood.
"Caruma." McGee identified as we approached the car just behind ours.
"The plates match." Gibbs added as we used our flashlights to look over the car.
"This is definitely our stolen ride." I concluded, kneeling down to take a closer look at the pumpkin guts that were all over the license plate.
"This is his building. Second floor, apartment 207" Tony confirmed as he eyed all the costume clad people coming in and out.
"Maybe Halloween doesn't have to suck after all." I mused, hoping this was the end of the case. Tony shrugged.
"Still skeptical." He muttered.
"It smells like something was burned in here recently." McGee sniffed as he opened the driver side door, bringing Tony and I back to the present moment.
"It's still smoldering." Reaching into the ashtray he pulled out a smoking paper. This meant that the car was parked here recently. Hopefully Miller was still here.
"Pop the trunk McGee." Gibbs requested, already making his way back. Having his gun at the ready, Gibbs lifted the trunk. Reaching in he held up a princess cone hat, knowing that was part of Sarah's costume. But no Sarah.
"Let's get this son of a bitch." he huffed, leading the way into the building. Making our way up to the appropriate door we found the source of the party music. Gibbs shoved open the door, shouting 'federal agents'. Everyone inside merely stared at as curiously. No one even flinched. A very different reaction than we are used to for sure.
"Yea alright!" the carrot man up front cheered, all the other guests following shortly after. A large spider dropped down on top of me. Unfortunately, giant spiders tend to freak me out and naturally I reacted badly to the surprise attack. I lept backwards into Tony, shrieking while trying to swat it away. As if I couldn't get more embarrassing the carrot man snapped a photo of the event. I felt Tony tremble as he tried not to laugh and I quickly righted myself. Gibbs stared down at me, unphased by the spider.
"Sorry." I mumbled, flashing a menacing glare back at the boys who were trying hard not to giggle.
"Great group costume guys, but you spelled CSI wrong on your hats." The stupid carrot chuckled. Gibbs pursed his lips in displeasure and holstered his gun, signaling for us to do the same. Although I very much wanted to shoot something….or someone.
"Robert Miller." Gibbs requested.
"Somebody's in a bad mood." The carrot taunted but grunted in surprise as Gibbs swiftly lifted him off his feet and held him to the wall.
"Right over there by the alien ladies." The man quickly pointed in the direction of the opposite end of the room. Everyone was quiet as they watched, now fearing us instead of thinking we were just in costume.
"Hey buddy I want that last photo." Tony grinned as we walked past carrot man.
"I swear Tony DiNozzo…"
"Whatever the threat it would be totally worth having your freak out expression forever." Tony quickly cut me off, beaming at the idea. I glared at him but continued following Gibbs.
"Robert Miller?" Gibbs asked looking over all the elaborate alien costumes. A man with a severely wrinkled forehead, Klingon, answered in gibberish.
"Boss he just said 'your mother has a smooth forehead'." McGee translated. Gibbs shot him a weirded out expression.
"It's a Klingon insult." he explained. Tony looked over at McGee incredulously.
"You speak Klingon?" he asked.
"Not fluently but yes." McGee avoided eye contact.
"….why…" I asked. McGee shot me a disgruntled stare but I thought my question was valid.
"Federal agents." Gibbs flashed his badge. Instead of cooperating like a normal person he continued in Klingon, flashing his blade. Tony and I looked to McGee in confusion; Tony's hand hovering over his gun at the sight of the weapon.
"Now he's saying Klingons don't surrender." McGee deadpanned. Tired of the charade Gibbs quickly disarmed the man and pushed him against the wall.
"Are you Robert Miller?" Gibbs asked sternly.
"Who are you people?" Robert asked in surprise. Gibbs growled and yanked the man to his feet.
"Yea, yea, yea!" Robert shouted, finally answering Gibbs' question.
"Sarah Niles, where is she?" I asked him. Robert huffed and took out his false teeth.
"That bitch sent you here? Look my lawyer said I had the right to know if she is my child. I'm just trying to do the right thing. If she's my daughter I just want to be a part of her life." Robert defended. Gibbs just stared at him.
"She looks exactly like me…..well except for the fake teeth and the bumps on the forehead." He amended after the looks we gave him.
"Is that why you kidnapped her?" Gibbs asked. Robert frowned in confusion.
"I didn't kidnap anybody."
"The car that was used is parked just downstairs." Gibbs countered.
"Look I have no idea what you're talking about, look I've been here all day with my friends preparing for this party. You can ask them." Robert insisted. From behind McGee and Tony emerged from the crowd.
"Boss, no sign of Sarah." McGee told him.
"See I told you." Robert pointed out.
"The only thing I hate worse than Halloween are Klingons." Tony growled irritably.
"Look ask them. Ask the guy with the cheese head hat, ask the vampire, carrot man. Ask him." Robert pointed out various characters.
"Look this has gone far enough, I happen to be a lawyer." Carrot man spoke up.
"Yes, please give me something else to hate about you." I snapped at him, causing the carrot to shy away.
"Look I didn't do anything alright? Laurie is the one who threatened me. She told me that her husband….her husband was gonna kill me if I didn't leave her alone." Robert explained. I rolled my eyes. She had conveniently left that part out.
"DiNozzo." Gibbs looked over, indicating for him to make the call. Tony stepped away while Gibbs cuffed the Klingon. However, when he called, Ziva told him that the women were gone. Fantastic….
...
3rd Person POV:
Back at NCIS Ziva and Claire were in the break room with coffees. The two women sat down at the table a little uncomfortably as neither was super keen on spending one on one time with each other. It was just awkward. Claire silently sipped her coffee, waiting for Ziva to calm down and talk first.
"I screwed up. I knew the staff sergeant's wife was hiding something, that she wasn't telling the whole truth. And you know what I did? I allowed myself to feel sorry for her." Ziva laughed sarcastically at herself.
"I mean do you know what that makes me?" she scoffed.
"Human." Claire suggested as she sipped her drink.
"A chimp!" Ziva protested.
"I think you mean chump. A chimp is the animal; chump is someone easily fooled." Claire corrected, Ziva staring at her unimpressed.
"Ugh…you're right." Ziva sighed, setting down her own cup.
"You're being a bit hard on yourself." Claire tried to comfort.
"I let Laurie Niles and her sister climb out of a bedroom window in the middle of our investigation." Ziva shot back. Claire nodded, she couldn't disagree.
"Ok that was bad." She relented with a wry grin.
"Perhaps they should throw me a parade yes?" Ziva threw her hands up.
"Look the things to focus on now is the why? Two thirds of all child abductions are by a biological relative." Claire told her pointedly. Ziva frowned in thought.
"She kidnapped her own child." She mused.
"You know what they say about mama bear and their cubs." Claire nodded, taking a sip of her drink.
"They eat them when the food runs out." Ziva answered. Claire coughed violently, spitting out a bit of her drink as it went down her windpipe. Ziva hastily handed her some napkins to clean up.
"What?!" she wheezed in surprise.
"I watched it in the documentary that Tony forced me to watch….grizzly man?" Ziva elaborated.
"Well that may be the case, but I was talking about her proactiveness when the cubs are threatened. There's nothing deadlier than a mama bear protecting her cubs." Claire clarified.
"I agree. They also ate the man who shot the footage and his girlfriend." Ziva nodded.
"That's horrible." Claire grimaced.
"That's what I said to Tony but you know him." Ziva agreed, getting distracted.
"Okay back to the point. Laurie Niles may have been trying to protect Sarah. Her husband filed for separation, another man was claiming to be her dad…"
"She didn't want to lose or share custody of Sarah." Claire nodded, glad she was catching on.
"It's a possibility. Did you ask Gibbs what he thought?" she ventured, watching Ziva's expression.
"Hard to tell, he's currently not talking to me." she frowned.
"Yea I know…he sent me to talk 'woman' with you." Claire grinned, earning an eye roll from Ziva.
"Care to explain why he asked that?" she hummed. Ziva sighed in annoyance but realized she needed help.
"Ok I am not good at relating to other women.."
"Duh." Ziva shot her a look.
"I probably deserved that….so…teach me what you can." Claire grinned before diving into the tricky subject that is women.
...
Gibbs slammed a cabinet drawer as he strode into the bullpen where everyone else was.
"Our dead skeleton served in the Air Force. Received an other than honorable discharge in 2003. Did one year of community college." McGee listed out.
"He was a security guard boss. Worked for a law firm, Cap and Associates in Annandale, Virginia." Tony continued.
"Laurie Niles also works for cap and associate Gibbs. She's the chief financial officer." Ziva finished out, grabbing everyone's attention.
"So, she knew him?" Claire realized.
"Oh yea." Gibbs agreed.
"She hired him to kidnap her daughter, I mean it's the only thing that makes sense." Ziva pointed out.
"It's not the only thing that makes sense, just one thing." Claire corrected.
"There's another reason. They kidnapped her because they want Laurie to do something." Gibbs added.
"Like what?" Ziva bit back sharply.
"Got a hit on a BOLO here." McGee spoke up, cutting through the tension.
"Yea and McGee?" Gibbs asked, waling to the desk.
"And this is strange cause I just entered it into the system." He explained, pulling up the GPS map.
"It's Ferrin's vehicle and it's been moving." McGee continued.
"The cops were following it?" Claire asked, watching the screen intently.
"No, the hits were made electronically. He's using his easy pass for high speed tolling." McGee clarified.
"That's a lot of driving for a dead guy." Tony mused.
"He left Woodbridge right after Laurie Niles and her sister disappeared." Ziva pointed out.
"They made a little run up to Manassas. Not too far from Miller's apartment." Tony tacked on.
"The last hit was 5 minutes ago." McGee pointed out, standing up and grabbing his gear like the rest of them.
"Annandale, one exit from cap and associates." Ziva finished as they all rushed to the elevators.
...
At the firm Ziva and Gibbs went in the front way, taking note of the glitter all over the floor.
"That's from Sarah's costume." she pointed out.
"The plates match our skeleton's car in the parking lot." Tony relayed with a whisper as they started quietly clearing out the front lobby.
"You three, find the girl." Gibbs gestured to Tony and the two girls who took off a different hallway while Gibbs and McGee continued on. The trio made their way into the back storage rooms, taking turns leading the way through all the stacks of boxes and cabinets. In one of the side closets, Claire carefully opened the door, finding Sarah tied and gagged in a desk chair. Putting her stuff away she swiftly made her way over towards the little girl, talking to her soothingly. Relaying that they had Sarah, the three of them made their way back to the main lobby. Turning the corner, they came in to see Gibbs restraining Laurie while the 'sister' was on the floor battered and bleeding.
"Wow…what did we miss?" Claire asked eyeing the scene.
"Apparently she doesn't have a sister." Gibbs answered dryly before walking out.
...
Claire's POV:
Back at NCIS, I smiled as Abby led Sarah around to all the desks in the office. Since Sarah missed out on the fun parts of Halloween we figured she was deserving of some candy and enjoyment.
"Well I'm glad that Halloween is finally over." Tony mused, already packing up his desk. I looked over at him curiously.
"What do you mean over? We still have….four more hours." I corrected, glancing at my phone for the time. Tony looked at me like I had two heads.
"What are you planning?" he asked skeptically. I grinned, stalking towards him.
"Well I was thinking some scary movies at your place, since you have most of the classics." I suggested innocently. Tony nodded thoughtfully and led the way to the elevators, me following close behind him. Waving to everyone left we entered and hit the buttons for the parking garage.
"That doesn't sound too bad. It is one part of Halloween I can get on board with. But didn't you have a party to be at?" I shrugged.
"It's probably over by now, besides I'd rather spend the night with you." I grinned up at him, my heart warming as Tony shared the grin and leaned his head to kiss my temple. When the elevator doors opened a devious thought entered my head.
"You know after….we could always do some trick or treating of our own." I suggested, reaching up to fiddle with his tie. Tony paused, watching my actions warily.
"Why would we go out trick or treating for candy?" he deadpanned in confusion. I hummed.
"I was thinking you could beg for something better than candy…..and we wouldn't have to leave the apartment at all…" I stared up at him waiting for him to make the connection. He froze by the edge of the compound while I continued on to the car, glancing behind me every so often.
"Best Halloween ever!" he cheered, making his way towards me. I glanced back to see him speeding up to a jog and I made a mad dash for the car. I smiled as I heard Tony laughing behind me as we ran across the parking lot.
