Chapter 4

Fornell waited for the door to close, then turned to face the DiNozzos. Mrs. DiNozzo was on her feet now, beside her husband, talking quietly to him. "Leonard, calm down, it's not his fault. You remember that seminar. Determined kidnappers are difficult to stop, and he didn't have much warning."

"Warning?" Fornell repeated, wondering if Gibbs knew about this.

DiNozzo blinked and looked up at his wife. "He didn't have any warning, Joyce," he said, and her eyes widened.

"You said you were going to call him." Her voice was calm, but her eyes glittered with fury. Fornell wondered what it meant. She could be angry that her husband hadn't called because it had endangered Tony, or she could be angry that he hadn't called for . . . less savory reasons.

DiNozzo shook his head irritably. "We get a dozen of those things a year. I meant to call him, but I didn't get around to it. He's a federal agent. He should know how to protect himself."

Fornell cleared his throat and they both turned to him. "So, I take it you had threats?"

"Yeah," DiNozzo said. "An acquaintance told me he'd heard some rumblings."

"I can't believe you didn't call him," Joyce said sotto voce, and her husband glared at her. "He's your son!"

"Did you report it?" Fornell asked, trying to keep the proceedings on track. Mrs. DiNozzo nodded and composed herself.

"Sure," DiNozzo replied. "The FBI were looking into it."

Fornell filed that away for future reference. If there was some danger of an NCIS agent on his patch being attacked on account of his father, he should have heard about it, by God. "If you knew kidnapping was a possibility, then why did you think it was a joke?" he asked, still a little incredulous that the man had disregarded his son's danger for so long.

DiNozzo shrugged. "It sounded like one of his friends from college, a football player."

Fornell's eyebrows went up. "Do you remember the guy's name?" he asked.

"Ted. Tom. Something like that." DiNozzo shrugged again. "What does it matter? It obviously wasn't him if this is for real, and it is for real."

"It could be important," Fornell said. It was good that years of experience in dealing with stupid people had taught him to remain calm, otherwise he might strangle this guy, and he didn't even really like the younger DiNozzo. Gibbs might have shot the bastard by now. "So if you remember the name, let me know."

"Fine," DiNozzo muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Leonard, give him the disk," Joyce said.

DiNozzo nodded, then reached into his briefcase and pulled out a disk that was in a plastic sleeve. "I got another demand, that's why I came down here. This one was a DVD." Fornell pulled out a pair of gloves and took the disk, wondering if there was any point now in checking for prints. "I just realized, no one introduced you," DiNozzo said suddenly. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Special Agent Tobias Fornell, FBI. Agent Gibbs called me in."

"I'm Anthony Leonard DiNozzo II, and this is my wife, Joyce." Joyce gave him a weak smile. "Do you know my son?"

Fornell nodded. "I've worked with him before, and I was part of clearing him when he was accused of murder last month."

DiNozzo stared at him, and Joyce looked up with round eyes. "When he was what?" she said.

Fornell blinked at them. "You didn't know about that?" he asked.

"No one ever tells me anything!" DiNozzo thundered. "My own son, accused of murder, and does he bother to tell me?"

"Leonard –"

"No, he just carries on . . . was he arrested?"

"Yes, but we cleared him pretty quickly. He was –"

"I told him!" DiNozzo growled. "I told him time and time again what he was letting himself in for. That boy doesn't know what's good for him." He met Fornell's eyes as if inviting him to sympathize. "I offered him a good job with the company, everything most boys would want, and he just had to go slumming."

Joyce stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Leonard, not now!" she said firmly, and her husband clenched his jaw tightly, but he did shut up. She turned to Fornell with a worried grimace. "I'm sorry, we really didn't know. What happened?"

"He was framed by someone who made an error that DiNozzo . . . that Tony caught a few years back. Apparently the man lost his job and he blamed Tony for it."

"And my son was in prison?" DiNozzo demanded angrily, but the rest of his remarks made it clear that he wasn't upset that his son had been wrongfully imprisoned. "A member of my family, locked up, that's just great. His grandfather must be spinning in his grave."

"Don't be an idiot, Leonard," Joyce said. "How long did it take? I wish he'd called, I would have come down." She paused, shook her head, and said, "This is all beside the point in any case." Her husband spluttered, but she ignored him. "Agent Fornell, what news do you have on the investigation? Have you got any leads?"

"We're working on it, ma'am."

At the same time as Fornell spoke, DiNozzo began muttering. "He brought shame on the family name. My son . . ."

Joyce glanced over at her husband and took Fornell aside. "Give me a few minutes alone with him. I'll get him calmed down and . . ."

"I'll check on you in a half hour?" Fornell suggested.

"Perfect," she said. "If there's anything I can do to help you find Tony, please, let me know. Leonard is . . . he's not always rational where Tony's concerned. I really don't understand it, but family can be like that."

"Of course," Fornell said, and he left the room, utterly appalled. He headed down the stairs to Gibbs' area. Ziva was working diligently at her desk while Sacks and McGee discussed DiNozzo's computer in civil terms. Ignoring them, he went straight for Gibbs, who was hanging up the phone as he approached.

"Well?" Gibbs said, looking up.

"That is the weirdest damned family I have ever run into," Fornell said. "The stepmother seems to care more about DiNozzo than his own father does, and apparently they don't talk very often."

"That was my impression," Gibbs said, and though he didn't articulate the question, the slight raising of his eyebrows asked it just as clearly.

"They didn't know he'd been arrested for murder," Fornell said. That seemed to startle Gibbs, which was a rarity. Fornell could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that man had shown surprise in his presence.

"They did not know?" Ziva exclaimed. "But surely Tony would have told them."

"Not if he expected his father's reaction to the news, he wouldn't," Fornell said darkly, and Gibbs' eyebrows went even higher, but Fornell wasn't going into detail about that in public. "In any case, I left them up there to calm down, but I brought this with me." He held out the DVD between his gloved fingers. "It's the latest communication from the kidnappers. I couldn't watch it up there because I don't know where you keep your AV equipment."

"Here," McGee said instantly, and, slipping on a pair of gloves, he took the disk from Fornell and put it into his computer. A couple of clicks and the image was on the plasma screen between his desk and DiNozzo's. Fornell had to confess to some jealousy with regard to the level of tech in this office. He didn't always understand it, but it could be cool.

The DVD started on a black screen. White letters began to appear, spelling out the demands in the simplest possible form.

Ransom: 15 million dollars
Deadline: Thursday at noon, Eastern time

Those letters remained on the screen for maybe fifteen seconds, then faded. Letters began to appear then to spell out a new message.

To verify that we do indeed have
your son
and offer incentive to increase
your efforts,
we provide this meager demonstration.

Again, the words stayed for about ten seconds and then faded. Perhaps five seconds later, the black screen was replaced by an image of DiNozzo straight on, stripped to the waist and barefoot, his hands cuffed through a stair railing above his head. Fornell leaned closer. It looked like there might be some kind of mark on DiNozzo's chest, but for all he knew the man had a birthmark. Otherwise, he seemed entirely untouched. Clearly that was about to change. DiNozzo was looking away from the camera, his expression shuttered, and his body was taut as a bowstring.

Another figure moved into the frame. Male, all in black, wearing gloves and a ski mask. They weren't getting any details off this guy beyond build and height. The camera moved to the left so that the masked man's body didn't block his actions as he threw a punch to DiNozzo's ribcage. Unable to defend himself or dodge, DiNozzo grunted, swaying sideways. Fornell glanced over at Gibbs, who had come around his desk and was watching. His expression gave no hint as to what he was feeling, but his eyes burned with anger.

A voice came from the screen, drawing Fornell's attention back. To his surprise, it wasn't one of the kidnappers speaking, it was DiNozzo himself.

"You know," he said, then he grunted again when his attacker struck him another blow. "If this was a movie –" Grunt. "I'd get out of this –" Grunt. "With nothing more than –" Grunt. "An artistic wound –" Grunt. "At the corner of my mouth." Red marks and bruises were appearing on DiNozzo's torso, and Fornell shook his head at the man's antics. The next punch was to DiNozzo's gut, and it deprived him of breath for several seconds. Mercifully. What kind of an idiot was DiNozzo, provoking them like that?

"He is methodical," Ziva observed calmly. "He knows what he is doing."

Fornell turned towards her, a little shocked by her clinical tone and her calm attention to the screen. McGee shifted uneasily, not looking at her, and Fornell could see Sacks' eyes widening. A sidelong glance at Gibbs told him that he, at least, was unsurprised and undismayed by Ziva's attitude.

Incredibly, DiNozzo began to speak again. "And Danny Glover would be coming down the stairs right now with a gun." Fornell suppressed a grin. True as it was, it wasn't the smartest thing to say to people who had you handcuffed to a staircase.

Two final punches to the head silenced him, and he sagged unconscious, blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth. The screen went black again and new letters came up.

Instructions will be sent in two days.
If they are not followed to the letter,
Anthony Leonard DiNozzo III will suffer
a painful and humiliating death.

The screen flashed on an image of DiNozzo's face, bruised, bleeding and insensible, then it went blank again.

"Oh God!" Fornell recognized the voice and turned to see that Gibbs' pet forensic tech was staring at the screen. She'd evidently dropped one of her caffeine laden beverages onto another agent's desk, because the man was standing up and swinging his hands as though to rid himself of liquid. Sizzling and snapping sounds also issued from that direction, as well as a slight smell of ozone. Interestingly, he didn't begin cursing the girl. Apparently she wasn't just Gibbs' pet. She was moving forward, her eyes fixed on the screen in shock. "Was that . . . what . . . Tony?"

"Abby," Gibbs said. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. "We're going to find him, and he's going to be fine."

Her eyes were still on the screen. "But he . . ."

Gibbs gave her a slight shake and she looked up at him. "He will be fine, Abby. I need you to take a look at that disk. Check for fingerprints and anything that might help you identify the computer it was made on."

"Right," Abby said. "Of course." She turned and McGee had the disk ready for her, inside the plastic sleeve, in an evidence bag. She took it and went towards the elevator.

"I didn't see anything to help us identify the location," McGee said. "Anyone else?"

"I did not," Ziva said, "however, that man knows a great deal about how to hit someone without doing serious damage. That cannot be all that common a skill."

"So we look for enforcers," Sacks said. "Any chance this could be related to the Mob? They are Italian and from New York."

"It's always a possibility," Fornell replied.

"But don't lock yourself into anything," Gibbs said. "Keep an open mind."

"Boss, we've got to consider the possibility that they moved him up north," McGee said.

"Yeah McGee?" Gibbs gave McGee a blank look, waiting for an explanation.

"Well, the kidnappers were in contact with the DiNozzos in Long Island, and they can't have expected them to come down to Washington, so they'll probably be planning the exchange somewhere in New York or New Jersey."

"Start by figuring out where he was taken from."

"Right Boss."