Finishing up at the crime scene, the MCRT headed back to the Navy Yard. Jethro then had Ziva take the evidence down to Abby to be tested while he figured out how he was going to handle briefing his ex-wife.
After that lovely chat, there was a bit of a lull in the case. In the meantime, Jethro had a short meeting regarding the latest Middle Eastern threat assessment and tried to get some of his paperwork done.
Shortly after they all finished shovelling some food in their mouths for lunch, however, Abby finally phoned to let Jethro know she finally had something for him. Stopping for a fresh coffee and Caf-Pow on the way, Jethro headed down to the forensics lab.
"Took you long enough," she commented when he walked in.
"What d'ya got?" he inquired, noting the clipboard she was holding.
She took the Caf-Pow from him with a smile. "Questions. And lots of them."
Not exactly what he expected to hear. "Shoot."
"Okay," Abby said eagerly, "first up." The goth glanced down at the clipboard she was holding as she continued to speak. "How quickly after you and Diane got a divorce did she start dating Fornell? Because that must have been, you know, awkward."
Caught off guard and not really wanting to answer the probing questions, Jethro just stared at her. When she said she had questions he thought they were about the case not his relationship with Diane. Then again, he knew Abby. That was probably naive of him to not think Abby and the rest of his team wouldn't pry.
"Um," the forensic scientist said awkwardly. "Okay, so we'll just circle back to that one. Question number two: Were you jealous?"
He just stared at her some more.
"Okay," Abby said as she finally took the hint, "so I see you're not ready to talk about this yet. Um, can I get a do-over?"
He made a hold-on gesture with his hand and walked out of the laboratory. Humouring her, Jethro walked back in. "What d'ya got, Abs?"
"Security footage," she replied happily.
That piqued his interest. "Which was erased."
The goth nodded. "It was, but not securely. So I'm working on reformatting the data. I had more success with the gun that you found. It is registered to Victor Sterling, and it has been fired, maybe for the first time. Which reminds me, did it bother you when Diane chose a husband so opposite to you?"
"Abs," he grunted. He wasn't in the mood for this.
"Sorry," she said before refocusing on the case. "Victor's prints were on the gun, so it looks like he did put up some sort of fight. The most interesting thing that I found is what I didn't find." She gestured to the brown wallet on the table. "Victor's wallet was obsessively organized, but one card was missing." Abby proceeded to open the wallet. "Now, leather deforms when it's compressed and it takes hours for it to return to its prior shape." She turned towards him. "Based on the amount of residual deformation that card was removed almost the same time as the murders."
Well, that information might be useful. "Any idea what?"
The forensic scientist shook her head in the negative. "No." She then gave him a funny look. "Like I said, I have more questions than answers." She raised the clipboard.
Jethro gave Abby a look of fond exasperation, kissed her on the cheek, and then made his way back up to the squad room to see if anyone else had anything new for him.
Upstairs once more, Jethro noted that Tobias was back from his little trip to the Hoover building and DiNozzo was ribbing the poor man about their ex-wife, saying, "She can't be all bad. You married her."
Trying to save Tobias, Jethro made his presence known. "Don't remind him."
"Got background on our two dead burger employees," Tobias said, swiftly changing the subject and handing him a file. "One's a Navy reservist."
"Guess that makes it official now," DiNozzo said. "NCIS, FBI, joint case. A marriage of sorts, if you will." Both team leaders gave DiNozzo a dirty look. "Sorry."
"The other's an aspiring model," Tobias continued. "Recently divorced."
"You check the ex-wife?" he questioned.
"It was an amicable split," Tobias said. "Imagine that. Fifty-fifty down the line. You and I had our accounts cleaned out. She even took your grandfather's watch."
Jethro sighed. He was admittedly still a bit bitter about Diane's having done that. He wanted his grandfather's railroad watch back badly. It was one of the few things he'd had of the man's and Jethro's mother had passed it on to him shortly before she had passed away when he was fourteen.
"Let it out," DiNozzo said. "Just let it all out."
"I'd rather you didn't," Jethro countered.
"We finished the background search on Victor," Ziva informed him as she walked into the room with McGee following close behind her.
"It's pretty much what Diane said," McGee chimed in. "He grew up in Chicago, went to college at UW-Madison." Their resident computer buff started typing away, presumably getting something ready to show on the plasma.
"Joined Homeland Security five years ago," Ziva said. "Lives a simple, modest life."
"Except?" DiNozzo pressed.
"Nothing modest about his bank accounts," McGee said, a list of offshore accounts now showing on the plasma.
"At least the ones he has taken great pains to hide," Ziva added.
Jethro got up from his desk and walked up to the plasma.
"Oh, Victor!" Tobias said with something akin to smugness in his tone. "He has dozens of offshore bank accounts. This guy's loaded. Where'd it all come from?"
Why is he hiding all this money? "Not what I'm wondering."
"Why is he hiding it?" McGee guessed correctly.
Jethro grinned at McGee. The young agent was really coming into his own.
Next stop, to the director's office to show Vance the wreckage that was washing up on his beach this not-so-typical day.
"Two dead bodies, a missing Homeland Security agent and a lot of cash. Maybe that's what made him a target." The director glanced between both the team leaders. "Did you ask his wife about the money?"
Jethro shook his head. "Not yet."
"Are you going to?" Vance pressed.
"He can!" Jethro and Tobias chorused.
Both team leaders shot each other dirty looks, neither man wanting to do it.
"I don't think she knows about it," Jethro conceded.
Vance eyed Tobias. "Well, have fun finding out, Agent Fornell. I spoke to your boss. We have a dead Naval reservist, but kidnapping is your territory."
"Fine with me," Jethro said. Actually, I'm great with that.
Director Vance almost did a spit take. Jethro never willingly surrendered jurisdiction or lead. "Agent Fornell will take the lea... Excuse me?"
"Works for me," he reiterated.
"Well, it doesn't for me," a clearly pissed Tobias said. "Any chance we can flip for it?"
"No," Vance said without any sympathy. "National security trumps your ex-wife issues. She can't be all bad. You married her."
And speaking of the Devil… Diane apparently decided to crash the party in Vance's office, a very sheepish McGee following right behind her.
"When the hell were you gonna tell me?!" Diane yelled as she stormed in.
"Speak of the devil," Tobias quipped.
The director stood up to greet her. "You must be..."
"Two million?" Diane said. "Victor has $2 million?"
"Boss," an embarrassed McGee said, "she made me tell her."
Tobias gave him a look. "Who needs enhanced interrogation?"
"What haven't you told me?" Diane demanded.
Jethro decided to try to save Vance who impressively hadn't tried to sneak out of the office before Diane noticed him. "We can talk about this downstairs."
"You have a basement here too, Mr. Woodchuck?" Diane retorted.
"Mrs. Sterling," Vance said, "I'm Director Vance. Rest assured, my agents are doing everything possible to find your husband."
"Thank you," Diane said. "Just make sure they keep me informed. It wasn't any fun trying to pry information out of Macaulay Culkin here." The redhead noticed Victor's wallet on the director's desk. "That's Victor's wallet." She went to touch it but Jethro gently stopped her by putting his hand out. "My God, there's blood."
"It's not his," he reassured her.
"If it had been a robbery," Diane said, "they would have taken his wallet, right?"
"They did take one of his cards," Tobias told her. "We don't know which, though."
"Which slot was it in?" she immediately asked.
Jethro balked. "Excuse me?"
Diane rolled her eyes and moved to prove her point, reciting the contents of Jethro's wallet. "Driver's license, ATM card, Visa, photo of Shannon, cash. In that order." She then turned to face Tobias and did the same with his. "Trifold wallet. Starting from the left side, condom beneath the fold..."
Jethro noted that the director was just standing there and watching everything unfold with an amused little smirk. But, to be fair, Jethro also fully intended to give Tobias a hard time about the whole condom in the wallet thing, so couldn't be too upset.
"Okay," Tobias said, wanting to end the little demonstration, "we got it!"
"Excuse me," McGee said, needing Tobias to step aside so he could get to the wallet. McGee opened it and tapped the empty slot. "Do you know what Victor keeps here?"
"Didn't have a name on it," Diane replied, "but I remember the logo."
That was something they could work with and McGee helped them to identify the logo as belonging to a company called Iron Crypt. Jethro sent both DiNozzo and Ziva off to the company and shook his head as Tobias and Diane started in on the usual bickering. He eyed his boss and then headed towards the door. "I need coffee."
He rolled his eyes as he heard Vance's laugh follow him out of the office.
