Jethro cracked his eyes open, squinting against the sunlight that was seeping into their bedroom. Peering across the wrinkled sheets, he noted that Shannon was still fast asleep, her chest rising with every breath, cheek smooshed into the mattress adorably. Thankfully, Jethro'd given his team a slightly later start time for that morning and had been able to sleep in some.
Shannon's steady breaths halted as she stirred. "Morning," she said groggily.
Jethro positioned his body so that he was laying face-to-face with Shannon and kissed the half-awake redhead. "Good morning, Shan."
"We actually slept in?" his wife asked as she sat up in bed.
"It would seem that way," he said with a little nod.
She gave him an affectionate smile. "You still gotta go into work today?"
"Yeah," he said a touch ruefully. Jethro leaned over gave his wife a peck on the cheek. "For 0800. I'll make it up to ya once this case is over." With any luck, they'd be able to wrap this mess up sooner rather than later.
She gave a little hum. "It's fine, Babe. I get it."
He gave her a small smile. "What are your plans for the day?"
"Brunch with Mom," she replied. "Might pay Kel a visit later. Stacy wanted a hand with something, so I'll see if she needs a hand with that."
"Sounds like a full day," he quipped. Jethro glanced over at their alarm clock, checking the time. "I need to get up, sadly. My coffee needs me."
Shannon rolled her eyes at his comment, tickled. "Good thing you're pretty."
He raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Well, aren't you the sweetest thing?"
Getting out of bed, they went about their usual morning routine and then it was time for Jethro to head to the Navy Yard for another day's work, leaving Shannon and his father - who was busy playing with Bailey - back at the house.
He met with the agent working the Middle East desk in the conference room and then headed down to grab a coffee before meeting with his team, having a quick chat with Abby on the way back inside. He was less than impressed that Vijay Chaya had been creeping Abby out and had literally tried to buy her off with a job offer and dinner date during the drop-in to pick up the Ferrari.
She assured Jethro the man hadn't laid a hand on her, though, so that was something, at least. Jethro hoped that the goth knew she could tell him; Jethro really didn't want a repeat of the Mikel Mauher incident.
Walking into the squad room, a cup of fresh black coffee in hand, DiNozzo quickly got his attention. "How'd it go with your father last night?"
"No bloodshed," he deadpanned. His plan of practically locking LJ and his father in his basement had worked; the men had talked and reached a measure of understanding. With that being said, it could've exploded spectacularly. "What do we got?"
McGee glanced up from his computer screen. "A theory."
Ziva immediately jumped in to explain the aforementioned theory to him. "Dell thought he was killing Vijay Chaya when he shot up the Ferrari."
"What's his beef with Chaya?" he questioned.
"Two summers ago," McGee informed Jethro, "Dell interned at Chaya's company. While he was there, he pitched an idea for a file-sharing application." I have a feeling I know exactly where this theory's going. "He was told it wasn't feasible, but later Chaya had his attorneys patent it in the company's name." Of course, he did. No wonder the kid is royally pissed at him. "They think it'll generate $100 million in profit."
"Dell threatened to sue," Ziva said, "but he could not get a lawyer to take his case."
DiNozzo chimed in. "Sounds like a slam dunk, but..."
McGee pulled up what was very clearly a contract onto the large plasma screen. "As a paid intern, Dell had to sign an agreement which included a clause that said anything he developed while there was intellectual property of the corporation."
He eyed all three of his field agent. "Well, we got a motive. Find Dell."
McGee gave him a pointed look. "The guy's got an I.Q. of 148, Boss." Dell was MENSA level smart. "If he wants to stay hidden, it's gonna be hard to find him."
He titled his head slightly, thinking. "Let's make him come to us."
Ziva eyed him, clearly baffled. "Why would he do that?"
Jethro walked over to his desk, picked up the phone, and then called down to autopsy. He wanted to take advantage of Ducky's profiling skills to get an answer to that exact question. If ever there was a time to use those, it's now.
The medical examiner picked up almost immediately. "Autopsy."
His response was simple. "Hey, Duck."
"Yeah?" Ducky asked.
"Need you up here," he stated.
"I'll be right up," the medical examiner agreed without missing a beat.
He talked to the medical examiner, explaining what he wanted, and his longtime friend readily agreed. Leaving the slightly older man with several files to aid with forming his phycological profile, Jethro set up a meeting with their multi-millionaire playboy before sitting down to get some more paperwork done.
DiNozzo ended up grabbing the team hoagies around noon and then, working on more of his reports, Jethro played the waiting game.
Vijay Chaya finally joined them at NCIS shortly after 1400, the man immediately being escorted up to the conference room.
Mr. Chaya evidently felt no remorse for stealing credit from his former intern. "I never denied it was Alec Dell's idea," but my lawyers assured me I owe him nothing."
The medical examiner immediately jumped in with a retort. "Well, legality aside, in Mr. Dell's psychologically-disturbed mind, you deceived him." And the kid ain't wrong. "You stole a piece of invaluable intellectual property from him. He sought vindication but failed. But then he sought revenge when he attempted to take your life."
Dr. Mallard has profiled Alec Dell," he stated. "He wants you dead. Help us find him."
"How?" Chaya inquired.
"His life revolves around computers and the Internet," McGee explained. "He's staying away from phones or anything traceable, but if he gets the right e-mail from you, he might respond."
That got the billionaire's attention. "What would I say?"
"That he scared you," he said. "That you got the message. That you cheated him. That you're gonna pay him what he thinks he's owed."
"Mr. Dell is broke," the medical examiner pointed out. "He's desperate. He's going to need money to support himself on the run."
McGee placed an open laptop in front of Mr. Chaya. "Took the liberty of composing the e-mail. I can forward it to you. All you have to do is cut, paste and hit 'send.'"
Mr. Chaya leaned over for a better look and started reading it aloud. "As a sign of good faith, I'm going to deposit a million dollars into his checking account?"
"That's chump change for you," he pointed out.
"No," Chaya said with a shake of the head. "I'm not going to do that."
"Okay," Jethro retorted, a sneer playing on his lips. "Spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder." That got the man's attention. "He's already tried to kill you once. If we don't find him, he's going to find you."
Despite Mr. Chaya's initial reluctance, the young billionaire eventually saw sense and sent the email to Alec Dell. At that point, it was just a matter of waiting and hoping that Dell would take the bait.
The waiting was always the most annoying part. Jethro hated sitting on his ass. With a BOLO out, given that it was a Sunday and they had no other leads on the case, Jethro was about to send his team home when they finally caught a break.
McGee pulled footage from what was clearly an ATM security camera up on the plasma screen. "That was taken an hour ago in Greenup, Kentucky."
Not nearly specific enough, Tim. "Where?"
"The Appalachian Mountains," McGee said. "NSA did a satellite scan of the area. Found his bike five miles from Greenup."
There was no way he wanted to make an almost seven-hour drive just for an arrest. It was an utter waste of time given that they knew the suspect and the general area the young man was in. Jethro much preferred to spend that time at home with his family if travelling wasn't strictly necessary which, in this case, it wasn't.
To that end, Jethro ended up making a couple calls. One to the Greenup County Sheriff Office and one to NCIS Special Agent Cunningham. Jethro had the local LEOs agree to handle things on their end. They'd execute Dell's arrest warrant alongside agents from NCIS's much, much closer Dayton, Ohio field office.
Sometimes a little inter-office cooperation could go a long way.
That handled, Jethro sent his team home for the night, the director offering to have a visiting MCRT team from Rota cover their shift that following day. That particular offer from the director was a godsend. The entire team was grateful for the reprieve.
Relieved that they were going to get at least one day off that week, Jethro hopped into his old pickup truck and headed home to his wife and father.
