This chapter is very case intensive. Don't worry though, we're going to have plennnnnty of honeymoon! :)
Chapter Six
Ned saw the little light blinking on his phone that meant that he had a text. He'd seen Elly move towards the break room, and he assumed the message was from him. He chewed his lip as he looked at the text.
-Hey, are you okay?
Ned shook his head no slightly without thinking about it. He wasn't. This was eating at him. And if he couldn't talk to his fiancé about everything, he shouldn't be marrying him. He knew he needed to tell him about the texts with Andy. Not even for Elly's sake, but his own. He needed the support, and he knew that Elly would provide it.
- -Yeah, I think so. I need to talk to you privately for a few minutes when I get back from MTAC.
It only took a few seconds before the phone started blinking again. Ned smiled involuntarily at the reply.
-Okay, baby. Whatever you need. Go kick ass upstairs, and I'll be waiting for you when you're done.
- -Thanks :) I love you.
- I love you, too.
Ned got up to head into MTAC before Elly could come back into the room and distract him. He headed up the stairs, a sudden exhaustion coming over him after such a long day. He hoped Davis' CO had something good for them to work with. They needed a fresh angle to blow this case open.
He made his way into the dark room to find that Evelyn wasn't the one at the boards. She'd been replaced by Doug, an older man who only worked part time during the night. He was kind of crotchety, and Ned gave him a general greeting before looking down into his notebook to remind him for the thirtieth time of what he wanted to make sure they got answers to.
It was only a minute before McGee and Vance joined them.
"Director," Ned greeted with a nod. "Any word from Director Spots?"
"He's out of the country," Vance said bitterly.
"Oh? And can't be reached?" Vance shook his head no. "How convenient." The sarcasm was quick and finished. Ned tried to clip it, knowing it wasn't his place to comment further, but dying to.
"Hadley is trying to track him down to set up an MTAC briefing with him."
Ned gave a tight smile and nodded. He sighed as the screen started to come to life, and Tim raised an eyebrow at him. Vance turned towards the screen, and Tim mouthed, "You okay?" to Ned, who just shrugged.
Staff Sergeant Melbourne came up on the screen, and they introduced themselves. Vance gave him the rundown of the situation, and he seemed thoughtful at the description of what happened.
"You're thinking about something right now, and I'd really appreciate knowing what it is," Ned said, too tired to take anyone's evasive crap, even with the director standing there.
Melbourne's eyebrows rose, and he shook his head a little. "It's just odd. Davis is exemplary, but the last few months he was here he started acting… strange. Unfocused, detached from everyone. I tried talking to him about it, and he just said that he had a lot on his mind. The only person who he let close to him was Corporal Jessup Carmichael. They'd never been close, and then suddenly they were thick as thieves. Carmichael was the problem child of the bunch. Had a mouth on him, was always in trouble for one thing or another. I'd hoped that Davis was trying to set him straight, but… it didn't really turn out that way."
"Did Davis start following in Carmichael's footsteps? Was he getting in trouble?"
Melbourne shook his head. "No. The closet thing was that he snapped at me when I tried to ask him what was going on. But he apologized and said that he was trying to work through some stuff. He wouldn't talk about it. Said it wasn't his story to tell."
"Did he have any romantic relationships that you knew of?" Ned asked.
Melbourne shook his head again. "Not this tour. Heard he was sweet on this USO gal last tour. Don't think anything really came of it."
"What were your orders around the time Davis started acting differently?"
"We had just finished building a clinic in Hawija. Davis had taken some debris from an IED explosion, but just had to rest for a couple of days. No long term issues. I thought at first it was the incident that had done something to him. Maybe a concussion that we missed, or maybe bruised ego, though he wasn't an ego kind of guy. He was confident, no doubts, but he was a gentle giant. The guys called him Bear."
"Was Carmichael injured in the explosion?" Ned asked, putting together some pieces in his head.
"No, why?"
"Just wondering," Ned asked. "Where did you go after Hawija?"
"Al Awja. We were doing safety checks on cargo going into Tikrit from the south, and while we were there we were helping dig ditches for irrigation of a community farm. It's along the Tigris river."
"And it was during this time that Davis was… different?" McGee asked.
"Yeah. He just kept getting more and more aggravated. He was so relieved to be going home."
"Do you think there was something he was eager to get back to?" Ned asked.
"More like he was eager to get away from something. Never could figure it out though. We were only in Al Awja for two months before the tour ended. During those two months he pulled away from everyone but Carmichael. You should reach out to him. See what he knows."
"Any idea where we can find him?" McGee asked.
"He's a big city kid. New York. Bronx."
The three men in the room exchanged sideways glances at each other.
"Now it's your turn to look suspicious. What's significant about New York?"
Vance tilted his chin up a little as he answered. "It's where the organization that killed Davis is based out of."
"Shit," Melbourne said softly, running his hand through his hair, then looking back at the camera. "That's not good."
"No, it's not," Vance agreed.
"Was Davis privy to any classified material?" Ned asked.
"Of course. He knew trade routes for weapons and materials. He knew the coordinates of where we were going to build the next school and clinic, and where we'd hidden a group of women who were targeted for being a part of the last school we built."
"Were any of those women significant politically?" McGee asked.
"All of them had some significance. We were hiding them from their own families. None of those families were clan leaders, or major government officials, but they were related to some clerics and influential families in various political circles."
"Did Carmichael know the same things Davis knew?" Ned was scribbling furiously in his notebook, but looked up as he asked the question.
"No, he didn't. At least not about where the women were being hidden."
"How many of your men did know?" Vance asked.
"Davis, Sergeant Quintaw and my superior, Master Sergeant Stefanopolis took Lance Corporals Hatter and Breaden to escort the women to where they're hidden. Other than them, I'm the only other one that knows."
"Did Carmichael try to befriend any of the others?" Ned's pen was poised over his notebook, the puzzle coming together halfway in his mind.
"No…" Melbourne's expression changed and Ned knew he was synching up to his way of thinking. "If Carmichael wanted to know where the women were for some reason, why would he pick on a superior officer instead of one of the Lance Corporals whose lives he could make a living hell?"
"Blackmail perhaps? Or maybe Carmichael was in trouble and went to Davis for help and got him roped in."
"I can't imagine Bear having anything that could blackmail him into giving up the location of those women." The scoff and way Melbourne sat back from the camera told Ned that he needed to walk carefully.
"Obviously he didn't give them up while he was there because he was tortured and executed here in DC last night. What I want to know is what NSA Piper knew about it that got him dragged into this."
"Well, I don't know a Piper, but we did get a tip about the potential targeting of the clinic we were building. It came down from above, but a lot of those briefings originate in NSA channels."
"We'll look into it," Vance said. "What are Davis' order now? What's his station?"
"He's at Norfolk doing logistics training. He's actually on a really light schedule right now since he's only been back a month."
Vance nodded. "We thank you for your time."
"One more question," Ned said, looking up from his notebook again. "If you had to say Davis had one weakness, what would it be?"
McGee and Vance both looked at Ned with neutral expressions, but they both thought he was crazy. Melbourne though was nodding, understanding the question.
"He cared too much."
"About?" Ned pushed.
"Other people's suffering."
Ned's heart stopped beating, the weight of Andy's texts weighing on it. Finally, he swallowed and nodded. "Thank you, sir."
The screen went dark and Ned turned to Vance and McGee. He saw their expressions, and a daunted feeling came over him. "What?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing," Vance said, giving Ned a once over before turning to walk out of the room. The others followed. "I want Carmichael. Find him."
"Yes, sir," McGee said.
"Anyone know that FBI agent that they have working with them?"
"Keo, sir? No," Ned said. They exited MTAC and entered the catwalk.
"I want whatever info the FBI has on these Children of the Prophet. Try to get it by playing nice first, and if that doesn't work let me know ASAP."
"Yes, sir," McGee said. Vance went towards his office and the other two men went down the stairs. "You try to find out whatever you can through your channels about The Children, and I'll try to ferret out the FBI's information from Fornell."
"Sounds good. I have something I have to do first. I need about fifteen minutes."
"Fair enough," McGee said, drifting away from Ned at the bottom of the stairs.
Ned moved into his side of the bullpen, opened his drawer and sat his notebook in it. He looked over at Elly and tossed his head towards the bathroom. Elly raised an eyebrow and got to his feet, following him. They went into the room, and Ned locked the main door. His heart was racing and his palms were damp almost immediately, even though they were going cold. He felt like his face and chest were on fire. The anxiety was palpable.
"I need to talk to Elly, my fiancé, not Elly my Senior Field Agent," Ned said, leaning against the door. Elly's expression filled with concern, and he nodded.
"What's wrong, baby? You look horrible. What happened?"
Ned swallowed, knowing that there was no going back now.
"I reached out to Andy for anything he may know on 'atfal Alnabii, and this happened." He handed Elly his phone. Elly gingerly reached out for it, his mouth partially open as he squinted at Ned. He tried to hold back a surge of jealous temper that he knew he needed to check. Ned was coming to him with something that obviously shook him. He looked at the phone and read through their conversation. He backed up against the wall and leaned against it, then looked up at Ned, who was wringing his hands and chewing his bottom lip.
Their eyes met and Elly's jaw dropped like he was going to say something, then he closed his mouth again, licked his lips, and cleared his throat. He took a breath and looked back at the phone, then up at Ned. "I'm not sure what you want me to say."
"I was really hoping it would be something like, 'Holy fuck, Ned! That's not fair of him to dump that kind of monster guilt trip on you'."
Elly nodded, then looked back at the phone and reread Andy's rant. Then he handed the phone back to Ned. "It's not fair."
Ned nodded, but he didn't like the tone to Elly's voice. "It's not. I know what I want, and I have it, but to know he's been hanging on for nine years like that is…" He shook his head. "I didn't realize I was hurting him like that. I didn't mean to give him any kind of false hope by staying in contact with him. He's not really a bad guy or anything. I don't want to see anyone hurt, and he at one time meant a lot more to me than an informant. I feel really, really bad."
Elly took a deep breath. He was seething on the inside. Reading what Andy had written hit him somewhere deep, and it vibrated all the wrong nerves. He knew how much Ned considered life to be precious. And this man was very well aware of that as well. So much so that he'd sought him as solace.
Ned had killed a man for Elly though, and didn't regret it. They'd talked about it numerous times. He had expected Ned to take it incredibly hard that he'd taken a life, but he hadn't. He could only say that he'd kill a hundred men to protect him, and that made him feel both loved and worried. He didn't want to take away Ned's "gentle heart". He loved that gentle heart.
This other guy obviously loved him too, and he wanted to give Ned his entire world. He was a CIA agent, and they had so much history together. Elly felt inadequate for some reason. He was always so hard to love, and he struggled so hard for so long with being able to show real love. What if he stopped being able to give Ned the love that he deserved? What if he turned cold again? Andy was willing to give up being a CIA operative for him so they could go run away together and live happily ever after. Would he be willing to give up NCIS for Ned? Would he be willing to give up everything for his fiancé?
He felt like he was going to get sick.
"What's going on in there, Elly?" Ned asked, becoming more and more concerned about how Elly was reacting. "Are you mad at me for reaching out to him?"
"No," Elly finally said, looking at Ned and steeling his face. "But are you sure? I mean, how could you be sure?"
"Sure of what, honey?" Ned asked, coming to put his arms around Elly's waist. Elly stood stiffly, unsure of how to react.
"Are you sure that I'm-" Elly's voice cracked and he had to swallow and blink multiple times, surprised by the tears welling up in his eyes. "That I'm worth it?"
"Oh my god, yes!" Ned said, pulling Elly tightly against him, his right hand going up to cradle the back of Elly's head as it rested on Ned's shoulder. "You are what I want. You are what I need. You are my everything, Elly Critten. You are the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn't be nearly as happy, as confident, as hopeful if you weren't the sunshine in my life every single day. You make me brave, and fearless, and driven because I want to give you my world, and I want that world to be worthy of you."
Elly felt himself start weeping against Ned and clung to him. Something inside of him that was old and raw and incredibly painful exposed itself to him, and he couldn't put off addressing it anymore. His new therapist warned him that something like this could happen; that he would experience emotions he'd kept hidden for years. Now was probably the worst possible timing with a joint investigation to help run, but here he was, broken in the arms of the man who for some reason made him feel like he was worth the world.
"I love you so much, Elly," Ned said, stroking his back soothingly. "I only want you, and you are very worthy of an infinite amount of love."
"I love you, too," Elly managed between sobs. He clung to Ned's jacket, pulling him tightly against him. "I don't want to lose you. It terrifies me."
Ned swallowed hard. He felt a knot in his throat at the thought of losing Elly and tried to talk around it. "Losing you terrifies me, too."
"I know. I know what you'd do for me, and I hope you know I'd do it for you, too."
"I do know," Ned said, stroking Elly's hair. "And nothing is going to come between us. Not another person, or our jobs, or our fears… it's you and me until the end."
After a long couple of minutes, Elly pulled back, wiping his eyes. His face was a blotchy red mess, and Ned reached over Elly's shoulder for a paper towel to hand to Elly to blow his nose. Elly took it and blew, then tossed it in the trash.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why that just triggered me so badly. I just… I hate him. I know it's irrational to hate someone you've never met, but I can't help it. And I hate hating someone. It's not in my nature."
"I know it's not," Ned said, rubbing Elly's bicep. "Would you like to talk to him? Clear the air? Meet him? What's going to help?"
"No, I have a feeling he'd get his ass kicked as soon as I saw him. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't want you to think that. But for some reason he feels like a threat to me, and I just want to take him down. I'll talk to my therapist. See what she thinks."
"Okay." Ned looked at Elly and shook his head a little. "Come here. I'm not done holding you yet."
Elly smiled and fell against Ned, his arms going around him and Ned's embrace pulling him close. They stood like that for a couple of minutes with Ned rocking them side to side in a soft sway.
"Today's been stupid. This case needs to end so that we can go snuggle," Ned said, pouting. Elly chuckled, looking up at Ned even while their arms stayed locked around each other.
"Snuggles sound amazing."
"Alas," Ned said dramatically. "We are being torn apart by terrorists and traitors! Oh, the world!"
Elly laughed out loud at Ned's acting parody. "You're a complete dork, and it's totally what made me fall in love with you."
"Really?" Ned asked quietly, looking from Elly's eyes to his lips.
Elly nodded, looking at Ned's lips. "Really. Never change."
"Okay," Ned said, then leaned in and kissed Elly. Elly kissed him back, and they suddenly lost themselves. The need to touch, to be close, was like fire through their blood. Elly started reaching for Ned's belt, and Ned reached up to pull Elly's hair in that way that he knew he loved so much. Then there was a sudden thump!, and they heard the last voice they wanted to hear on the other side of the door.
Their foreheads fell against each other as they sighed in resignation. They made sure they looked presentable quickly, and then opened the door to Sommers who raised an eyebrow at them standing there.
"Am I interrupting something?" he asked with a smart-ass edge to his voice.
"No, we're done talking," Ned said, holding the door open for Elly to exit first.
As Elly walked past he leaned in towards Sommers. "Get your mind out of the gutter, perv." Sommers gave him a douchebag of an expression, and then Ned stopped where he was and glared at him.
"What's your problem?" Sommers asked Ned when he turned and saw his face.
"You," Ned said. "I can't wait for our bosses to get back so that you can get lost."
He went to move past him, and Sommers grabbed his arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Ned laughed sardonically, and Elly turned around to watch what was happening, his teeth clamped shut at the realization that Ned was about to let the cat out of the bag, but he was utterly frozen in place, unable to stop it.
"You don't really think you're staying, do you? After that dumbass outburst in the conference room yesterday? After the way you're dragging yourself around this place like doing the very basics of your job is beneath you? With the attitude you give every single person in this bullpen? No. As soon as they get back, you're gone. Enjoy your career while it lasts."
Ned jerked his arm from Sommers' grasp and moved past Elly towards the bullpen. Elly nodded his discontent at Sommers' dropped jaw and then turned to follow Ned. He'd never seen Ned get so blatantly harsh, and though he knew it was going to cause hell, he had to admit he was a little turned on by it.
********WDYG?********
Bishop looked at her phone. There were three new texts from Jake and she sighed. It didn't look like she was going to make it home. She didn't have a problem with that if that's what it took to find Mark's killer, but she wasn't sure Jake was going to see it the same way. They both worked long hours sometimes, but she got the feeling this was different.
- -Are you still at NCIS? Are you going to make it home tonight?
- -Ellie? Is everything okay? What have you found out?
- -Is there anything I can do? I wish you were working from your office. Then at least I could help.
Bishop sighed. She usually loved that Jake was so willing to support her, and they worked really well together when the opportunity presented itself. She felt like she had to do this on her own though. Mark was her partner. This was personal. Thoughts swirled through her head and she hoped to God that Mark didn't end up being Crow. It didn't fit, but so much about this situation was far out there and unexplained.
She texted Jake back that she didn't think she would be home, and that they didn't have any real leads. She wasn't sure what Hadley would be okay with her telling him, so she left things vague.
Ned and Elly came back from wherever they had gone, and their expressions left her feeling uneasy. Elly was looking over at Ned worriedly, and Ned looked… odd. She couldn't tell if he was pissed or happy.
"McGee wants us all to gather what we have and head to the conference room to debrief. He said the research can wait," Greg informed them.
Elly shuffled around and got his laptop and a notebook. Bishop gathered a stack of files. Greg took the reports he'd been reading and notes. Ned sighed, opened his drawer and grabbed his notebook. He printed off a couple of things quickly, and then the group of them headed for the stairs.
They found Ziva and Tim in the conference room waiting for them. Sommers wasn't there yet. Elly was worried that Ned's verbal smackdown on Sommers was going to get them in trouble somehow, either with McGee and Vance, or with Sommers.
They all sat down, each of them looking as tired as the next. McGee was waiting quietly for them to get settled. Once they were all seated, the door opened, but it was Abby and Jimmy who walked in, not Sommers. McGee sighed as he realized Sommers was MIA, then shook his head.
"I will go get him if you'd like," Ziva offered quietly.
"Don't bother. We'll move on without him. Will probably be easier that way anyway." Ziva nodded at McGee and then set back in her chair, looking around the room.
Jimmy smiled and gave everyone a little wave, then moved to sit at the other end of the table from the door.
"Hi! I'm Abby!" Abby said to Bishop, holding out her hand. Bishop smiled at her and shook it.
"It's nice to meet you. I've heard impressive things," she said.
"Aw, you guys!" Abby said with a smile as she sat next to Bishop. "It goes both ways," she said quietly as she leaned towards the other woman, earning another smile from her. Bishop liked her immediately.
McGee leaned forward on the head of the table, addressing the group. "We've all been spread out through the day, and I wanted us to get all of the information down in one place. Fornell is going to try to get us what he can from what the FBI knows, but we need to consolidate what we know." He got to his feet and went over to the large whiteboard he'd rolled up from the bullpen. "Let's take it one by one and get the basics down. Who wants to start?"
"I will," Bishop said. "So far we have pretty good reason to believe that The Children of the Prophet are behind the murders. Their group has someone communicating between them and ISIS, believed to be a man, who is referred to by agencies familiar with him as Crow. He goes by that name on secret message boards that Ned and I have infiltrated. Mark had access to those boards as well.
"Because Mark was taken the morning before he left for a week's vacation, and I say vacation loosely right now, we believe that Crow, or at least one of his informants, works at the NSA and knew Mark or his work schedule."
"Playing devil's advocate here," Greg said, one elbow on the table as he was turned to look at the whiteboard that Tim was writing notes on. "What if it's just someone who hacked Mark's phone or something and found out about his trip that way?"
Bishop nodded. "I'd have liked to believe that myself, but this wasn't just a random person from the NSA. Mark was the Senior Analyst for Middle Eastern Communications. He and I had just written an analysis of communications between ISIS and Crow, and Crow to the Children and another quasi-organization called Only. Only is out of California though, and is incredibly disorganized. The only people who knew that Mark was the main analyst were our people and a couple of FBI agents."
"Have you narrowed down a list of people who have had access to that paper?" Tim asked.
"The NSA is narrowing it down and working that angle. I was warned that my name is on that list." Bishop clamped her lips shut in a tight sarcastic smile, then looked up at McGee, who nodded at her.
"Don't worry," Elly said, getting her attention. "We know better."
"Do you though?" she asked. "I thought I knew better, too, but someone in my house is a traitor. The entire NSA is up for scrutiny. I'll feel better when I've been thoroughly vetted. The one thing I have going for me is that I co-authored the paper, so there shouldn't be any research that Mark had access to that I didn't. It actually makes me more of a target than a possible traitor."
"Yeah, not really sure I would say that's what you've got going for you," Ned said with a shake of his head.
Bishop chuffed and nodded. "Do you want me to continue with what we did and didn't find at Mark's?"
McGee nodded. "When we searched Mark's apartment earlier we didn't find anything worth much to the case, though I'm hopeful we pull something off the thumb drives and computer we took. However, we did find out that Mark's suitcase had been found out in front of his building, so we believe that's where he was taken. A-"
"Hold up," Elly said. "What was his address again? I want to map this."
"4219 Blount Street."
"Thanks. Please continue."
"A homeless man had discovered the suitcase and taken the clothing and camera from it. We found the suitcase, and inside were Mark's credentials, which is weird for us. We don't carry our creds with us all the time like one of your agents or a cop would. We analysts don't usually arrest people, so we have no need, and it's safer if we don't take them on trips. We were able to retrieve the camera from the pawn shop that he hocked it at, and that's where things get… weird."
"How so?" Ziva asked. Bishop turned to address the table instead of watching Tim writing at the whiteboard. "There are twelve pictures on the camera. Only twelve. He takes hundreds of pictures when he goes on his beach trips."
"And he takes a lot of trips," Ziva said, remembering her original workup of him.
"Yeah, every few months he's going on another. And there's so many pictures it's unreal. So, we wondered why were these twelve saved on the camera, and that's when McGee realized that the pictures were geotagged. I ran the numbers and the pictures are from twelve different trips. I can't find any similarities in the photos other than they are at the beach."
"We believe that Mark may have been working on a side operation of some sort," Elly explained.
"And Agent Hadley wasn't very forthcoming with information," McGee added. "Which is why Director Vance is trying to get in touch with their director."
"But, he's conveniently out of the country," Ned said, with more than a touch of frustrated sarcasm.
There were nods around the table. McGee fiddled with the marker in his hands and turned to Abby. "Care to go next?"
"Sure! I haven't had a chance to work on the computer yet, but it's my next project. I've been busy, but it's worth it. There are multiple blood types on our Marine's clothing. He put up a fight. There are also skin samples under his nails. So far none of the samples are getting a hit though. I'm running them through every database possible though, so if someone has them on file, we'll find them.
She looked at Bishop with a sad smile as she decided to call Piper by his first name for her benefit. "Mark's clothing only shows two blood types- his and Davis'. And a lot of Davis' is on his back, which leads me to believe that they were tied together or forced to sit back to back after they had been carved into. Mark's shoe however is covered with great stuff! Not only was there sand on his shoes, but sawdust. I narrowed it down, and the dust is from a specific type of lumber called Purple Heart. It's imported from South America, and there are three places that boast the use of it within a hundred-mile radius. I've emailed you all the locations, except for you Ellie because I didn't know your email address."
"That's awesome!" Ned said, suddenly ecstatic at what could be a breakthrough.
"You're amazing, Abs," Tim said, his shoulders slouching the slightest. "We'll finish up here and then go check them out."
Jimmy raised his hand timidly, then picked up. "Also, Ducky said to tell you that the carvings were done with a straight blade, most likely a knife with at least a centimeter-wide blade within four millimeters from the tip."
Abby jumped in. "I'm narrowing down possibilities now. And the murder weapon is a nine-millimeter, but we're still working out what specific type."
Jimmy parried her. "And Davis has multiple contusions from what looks like a metal rod or something thin, like a fire poker. It's not wide enough to be a baseball bat, and it would've had to been some really strong wood with how hard Ducky thinks he was hit, so probably metal."
"What about Mark?" Bishop asked quietly.
Abby shook her head. "He doesn't have those kinds of markings on him." She hesitated, then continued. "But he'd lost a lot of blood from there they cut him multiple times. Considering how things went, that's probably a godsend. He would've been delirious by time they shot him. He wouldn't have felt much, and it looks like he held out at long as he could."
Bishop nodded, her lips in a grim expression. She laid her hand on top of Abby's that sat on the table. "Thanks," she said somberly. Abby nodded, her own expression fallen.
"What about you guys?" McGee asked, looking from Ned to Greg.
Greg shrugged and looked at Ned.
"We believe The Children are using some kind of watchtower as their headquarters in New York. Either that or some kind of tower, like a water tower, or the roof maybe of a tall building. They call it the watchtower, only in Arabic of course. We also believe that The Children are actually children. Or at least young adults. Their linguistic patterns show that they're probably between sixteen and twenty-four. Their dynamic is like that of a gang. This was probably a group of people who took these two. They would have to be in order to capture a seasoned Marine."
"Unless, of course," Greg said, gesturing aimlessly, "they created some kind of rouse and coerced him. Thinking maybe using one of the youngest of them to look like they were being kidnapped, then they all turn on the Marine, subdue him somehow, and get him locked in a van. Maybe used blackmail."
"That would be conducive to the lack of evidence we found," Ziva said. "We discovered that Davis was taken from Cobb's marina in Norfolk. His car and boat are both still there, and there were the remains of a lunch in the trash can, but it smelled horrible. We're estimating the same time of capture. The owner of the marina is going to overnight us the security footage from this past week. He has to burn it all to DVD, and he stated he would work all night on it. He's going to begin with Friday and will check to see if he can find anything happening to Davis. He knew him, and seemed quite fond of him. Was very distraught when I told him of Davis' passing."
"Oh, and we have his car," Abby said. "But I don't think we're going to find any evidence there. It's pristine." Ziva nodded her agreement.
"Then there's what Davis' CO told us in MTAC just now." Ned looked to McGee for his approval to continue. He got the nod, and started in. "Davis was slightly injured four months ago during an IED explosion at a clinic they were building in Hawija. After that, his behavior started to change. He disconnected from everyone except one Corporal Carmichael. Carmichael was the trouble maker of the unit. They had never been close before, and then suddenly they're all up in each other's business, and they isolated themselves from everyone. CO says that Davis was eager to get away from the unit and come home. Carmichael lives in New York. Coincidence? I think not."
Tim continued for him. "The only classified information that we believe Davis knew that Carmichael didn't was the location of a group of women that were being targeted for being students in a school the unit had built earlier in their tour. Davis and a few others took the women and hid them somewhere. It could be that Carmichael was trying to find out where they were or was being threatened to find out the location. He could also have been blackmailing Davis to find the location."
"Obviously wasn't good enough blackmail if it took torture to get it out of him," Greg said with a raised eyebrow.
"Truth," Elly said, clacking away as he took notes of everything being said.
"Anything we're forgetting?" Tim asked.
Ned turned towards the group. "Davis' CO believes that Davis' biggest weakness was that he cared too much about human suffering. His unit called him "Bear" because he was a gentle giant. It's possible that they used torturing Piper as a way to coerce the information they wanted out of him."
Ned looked up cautiously at Bishop, who swallowed hard and nodded.
"It could be that the location of the women is what Crow was hired to find out. How he knew to come after Davis and Mark though is…"
"I believe Carmichael gave Davis up," McGee said. "The Director wants him. We're going to get him. What we need to find out is what Piper had that would've made him valuable in that hunt."
Bishop thought about it, but shook her head. "Unless he'd figured out who Crow was, or it has something to do with his trips, I can't think of what it is. There was no specific mention of a group of women hiding or locating someone of importance."
"What was the wording they used?" Greg asked, gesturing at Ned.
Ned picked up on his question, thinking about a conversation they'd had while reviewing the paper for a billionth time. "That they had a favor they needed done, and that if it was completed it would be rewarded."
"Yeah," Greg said. "But didn't it say in the paper that it was worded as a possible veiled threat? If Crow complied, he'd be rewarded. If he didn't, there would be consequences."
"What if Carmichael is Crow?" Ziva asked. "He is in New York, would have access to Davis. Maybe he was being threatened, and that is why Davis was trying to help him."
"But how would they have known that Piper was going to be vulnerable this week?" Bishop asked.
"Maybe he threatened someone at the NSA to get him the information he needed?" Ziva said.
"So, the NSA mole isn't Crow, but is an unwilling informant?" Elly asked, raising an eyebrow at Bishop.
"Mmmm. I don't know. That doesn't feel right, you know?" Bishop said. "I just feel like knowing as much about Mark, with him being such a private person, they would've had to be internal."
"What I'm wondering," McGee said, "is why the kidnappers didn't take the camera themselves. I mean, if they knew that he was a part of a side operation of some sorts, then why didn't they sack his apartment or at least his suitcase for information?"
There was a quiet in the room, then Abby spoke up. "They didn't know what they were looking for. Maybe they did the kidnapping, but this Crow does his own dirty work and did the torture."
"That would make sense," Greg said. "The other murders that The Children have taken credit for have been straight kills except for the carving. There has been no torture."
"And what was done to them was pretty sadistic," Palmer said a little too energetically. He sat back and tucked his chin as he glanced up at Bishop. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"No, it's true," McGee said. "The techniques used were not for the faint of heart. Broken bones, multiple lacerations in just the right places to keep a person alive while suffering, a beating… this is the kind of stuff someone works up to."
"Not a beginner, or even a group of beginners, especially not children," Greg agreed.
"Unless we're talking about a natural born sadist," Ned suggested.
"We would've seen the signs of that in previous kills though," Bishop said. "Unless they're new to the group."
"Maybe Crow is NSA, and he has a partner that knows information extraction," Ziva said.
"We're looking for two psycho terrorists now?" Ned said with a sigh, reaching up to run his hand through his short curls.
"Or someone in the CIA," Elly said with a hefty dose of snark, looking at Ned. Ned looked back up and locked eyes with him. They stared a long moment, and then they both looked away and back at the group.
"True," McGee said. "Wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with a rogue CIA agent." He made sure not to glance at Ziva, not meaning to bring up bad memories with Ray, but knowing he just did.
Elly sighed. "I say we go search these warehouses together that Abby has found, see what we find, and then see if it leads us to a next step."
"I'd like to stay behind and search the message boards for anything I can find on the missing women," Ned said. "Now that I know what I'm looking for, it might be easier to spot."
"I'd like to stay with him," Bishop added.
"It's probably safer if you do," McGee said. "Okay. Let's take a trip. Any suggestions on which one of these places to start with Abs?"
"I'd start with the old Henderson Lawn and Lumber. They have numerous garages and warehouses, and they only use half of them in the summer because they're focused on the lawncare side of their business."
"Perfect. Elly, why don't you, Ziva and Greg go pack up the cars. I'm going to go find Sommers and probably send him home. I don't have the energy to deal with him, and I think at this point we'll get more done without him." Tim clipped the lid back on the dry erase marker and put it on the ledge of the board. He'd notated the theories and facts, and it had helped him clear his head and start making connections between the messes they've all dealt with throughout the day.
He was ready to go chew Sommers a new one. If he wasn't willing to be a team player, then he wasn't welcome on the team. He debated talking to Vance first, but then realized that it would be better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Knowing Vance's reaction to what the jackass had said in the conference room the day before made him feel more secure in his decision. He took out his phone and took pictures of the whiteboard, and then erased it so the information wouldn't be laying around for anyone and everyone to find. He left it in the room though so they could reconvene later. If there's one thing that Tony taught him, it was the brain power of a good campfire.
Everyone else had set about their tasks but Abby. She hung back for a minute, and Tim hadn't realized it until he was about to walk out the door. He smiled once he saw her, and she smiled back.
"Sierra is keeping Amira tonight and all day tomorrow. Hopefully one of us will be relieved to take over tomorrow night."
"You're truly amazing, Abs. I hadn't even thought about Amira. This has been so screwed up."
"I know," she said, coming up to him to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Just don't make things more complicated than they have to be."
He hugged her back. "I'm going to do my best."
"Are you really going to send Sommers home?" she asked, letting go.
"Oh yeah. I'm done babysitting him. We have work to do, and if he's not willing to do it, he's not welcome here."
"Oooo… tough Tim! I like it!"
Tim laughed a little at her expression. "Well, to be honest it's more like exhausted Tim."
"Well, I will put a pot of coffee on if you want."
"Thanks, but I just want to get moving. Hopefully getting out there and doing some real ground work will get my blood pumping naturally."
"Okay. Good luck! I mean, I don't really know what good luck looks like in a situation like this, but I hope whatever you find leads to more answers than questions. You know, like a signed confession by Crow, and his dead body with a self-inflicted bullet hole through his head."
"If only," Tim said, then led her out of the room. She headed for the elevator at the end of the catwalk, and he looked over the railing at the bullpen. He didn't see Sommers. He pulled out his phone to call him, but after five rings it went to voicemail. He hung up and texted him instead.
-Where the hell are you?
He took the stairs down to his desk and started packing up his go-kit. He was on the elevator on his way to the garage when his phone chimed.
- - It doesn't matter since apparently I'm not going to be an agent much longer. I'll show you all just what I'm capable of. Just wait.
"Shit," Tim cursed under his breath. "Where is this coming from? I don't need this right now." He stepped out into the garage and went over to Ziva. "What did you say to Sommers today?
Ziva looked at him, somewhat surprised by the accusatory tone to his voice. "I am sure I said a lot of things, but I tried to behave. Why?"
Tim held up his phone so that she could read the message.
"Oh, my. I did not say anything to him to cause that," she said, looking back at the phone for a moment to reread it.
"What's up?" Elly asked, coming to join them. Tim held up the phone for him to read the message as well. Elly grimaced. "Yeah… that was Ned's bad."
"What?!" Tim choked out in frustration.
"Yeah. I mean, in the moment, I understood it, but now looking back… see, Ned and I had to talk about something private, locked ourselves in the bathroom for a few minutes to chat, Sommers came along and insinuated that we were getting x-rated in there, and Ned kinda snapped at him."
"What did he say?"
"That he wanted the Gibbses to get home so that they could fire him. Basically, that he's been a lazy jerk and that he was getting the boot."
Tim groaned. "I mean, yeah, okay, it was obvious that was what was going to happen, but Ned didn't know that officially. He shouldn't have said anything."
"I know! I agree, but it just kinda happened, and then it was too late to put the proverbial cat back in the bag."
Tim turned around and started texting furiously at Sommers, and Elly grimaced again at Ziva who looked over at Tim in worry.
-If you want to prove what you're made of and that you deserve to be on this team you'll start acting like a damn team player and get engaged. That means that you don't whine about everything, you offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and you try to make a difference. We have work to do, and you're not doing it. Just had a very enlightening meeting, and you weren't there. Now you don't have all of the info, crucial info, and you're off doing something stupid. Get your ass down to the garage in the next five minutes, or go turn your badge into Vance.
Tim stowed his kit in the trunk of the car, making room so it wouldn't get smashed by anything heavier than it. His phone chimed, and he tried to keep a cool head. He was tired, he was angry, and he was frustrated that his first case as acting team lead had to be such a twisted investigation.
- -You don't have the power to order me around like that.
-Like hell I don't. You want me to go tell the Director right now the crap you're pulling? Going AWOL in the middle of a high level investigation? I'll walk up there right now and watch him fire you on the spot. This is your ONLY second chance. You're down to three minutes.
- - Even if I wanted to I couldn't be there in three minutes. I left the Yard.
- To do what?!
- -Meet a contact.
-You're not cleared to talk to anyone outside of the agency about this case. I'm going upstairs to Vance.
- - Wait! I'll meet you wherever. Just tell me where you guys are going, and I'll meet you there.
Tim wasn't sure why he was giving Sommers the chance to make this right, but as he sat behind the wheel of the car he took a deep breath and counted to ten. Then sent the address to him.
- -I'll be there in fifteen minutes.
Elly opened the door and got into the front seat, gingerly looking over at Tim. "I'm sorry. I was going to warn you once we had a minute, but he kinda beat me to it."
Tim sighed and shook his head, looking at Elly. He saw the genuine apology in his eyes and shrugged. "It's nothing he shouldn't have had the common sense to know for himself. It's almost like he's trying to get fired."
"What's he doing?"
"He said he was going to go meet a contact. He's been behind a desk for the past week and he has a contact?"
"Who the hell is he talking to about this case?" Elly said, sitting back against the door and looking at Tim with his mouth hanging open.
"No idea, but I told him he couldn't talk about it, and that if he didn't get here immediately I was going to Vance. He said he'd meet us at the lumberyard."
"That dumbass," Elly said. He was about to say more when Ziva and Greg climbed into the backseat.
Tim stopped the questions before they could start. "Sommers is meeting us there."
Ziva and Greg exchanged a look as they put their seatbelts on, but didn't say anything. Elly slipped his belt on as well, then pulled out his phone to try and discreetly text Ned.
- -Ooooo… you in trouble….
-What? Why?
- -For spilling the beans to the jackass that he wasn't going to be around much longer.
-Crap. That's nothing he shouldn't have already figured out. I mean, I was only guessing, but come on- duh. He should've known how deep the shit was he'd dug himself into.
- -Well, he hadn't. So now he's off trying to play informant, and McGee is all pissy, and the tension in the car right now is at a ten. I think McGee is going to strangle Sommers once we get to the lumberyard.
-Wait- he didn't send him home?
- -Apparently not, but I think that's only so that he can keep him close so he doesn't do anything stupid to jeopardize the case.
-He wouldn't do something that stupid, would he?
- - :-O The dumbass called Leroy Jethro and Tony Gibbs' honeymoon a fuckfest- *to their faces*. I mean, the levels of stupidity this guy is capable of already baffles me. Where his limits are, no one knows.
Ned laughed out loud and shook his head. He texted back that he was going to apologize to McGee and get back to work, then opened a text to Tim.
-I am so sorry. It just kinda happened. I mean, just imagine him dropping a snide comment to Abby about the two of you having sex in her lab or something. That's how angry I was. And shit has gone down today on a personal level I can't even talk about, and then he was there, and I know I was wrong, but… it felt so damn good. Still, if anyone took that crack at him, it should've been you. You've earned it. Let me know how I can make it up to you.
He put down the phone and continued reading what he was previously looking at on his screen.
"What's up?" Bishop asked.
Ned looked up at her with a questioning glance. "Hmm?"
"The texts. You looked like something was wrong."
"Oh. I said something out of line to Sommers earlier. Kinda ratted out that he's getting canned when our bosses get back."
Bishop grimaced and hissed.
"Yeah," Ned said with a grimace of his own. "He has done some pretty ridiculous things since he joined their team a couple of weeks ago. The only reason why he made it this long was because of the honeymoon."
"Like what?" Bishop asked, wondering what he could've done to fuck things up in just two weeks.
"Besides bitching about every single task in front of him, we had a meeting yesterday to discuss roles during the bosses' vacation. He was going to get put on some data entry while we all worked on our cold case database project. He said, to their faces mind you, "You mean I'm going to get stuck on desk duty so these two can go fuck for a week?"
"No he didn't!"
"Yeah. He did."
"Wow…" Bishop sat with her mouth hanging open for a minute, then closed it and shook her head. "I don't even know your bosses, but if they manage teams like yours, they must be a force to be reckoned with. I'd hate to have watched that bloodbath."
"That's the thing!" Ned exclaimed. "They didn't do anything! It was Greg that finally exploded and tore into him!"
"Wait? Greg? Quiet, thoughtful Greg?"
Ned nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah. Blew his top. Tore him a new one. And the rest of us just kind of stared him down."
"I think I would've ran out of the room with my tail tucked between my legs."
"He should've. He didn't even apologize. Tony just dismissed the meeting. It was nuts."
"Remind me to never get on Greg's bad side," Bishop said, opening another report.
"It's really hard to do, unless you're screwing with someone on the team or his family. He's really protective of us. And we're really protective of him."
"I can tell. When he was talking about his wife earlier you both just stopped and watched him with these smiles on your faces like he was your brother or something."
"He is. His story is… well, tragic. Foster kid. His foster brother and him are super tight, but that story has a tragic past too. He's in a much better place in his life now than he ever has been. If anyone tries to fuck it up for him they're going to have to deal with us, and it won't end well."
Bishop nodded slowly. Then she thought about something, and Ned saw it cross her face.
"What?" he asked.
"It's just that Marines are notorious for having each other's backs. I know that it happens, but I just don't know how Carmichael could've turned on Davis like that. It just doesn't feel right."
"Yeah, but for those of us who have worked here long enough, we get used to finding out that the Marine loyalty gets bypassed more often than you'd think. For money, for women, for drugs, for pride and ego… betrayal is more commonplace than any of us would like to think."
"It's so sad. I mean, we civilians look at our military as having such a profound code of honor. To see it obliterated by something like this is disenchanting."
"Sad is an understatement my friend." Ned and Bishop exchanged melancholy looks, then dove back into their paperwork.
********WDYG?********
Tim pulled the car up in front of the warehouses. He looked over at Elly who nodded that they were in the right place. They saw a red two door car across the street, and Sommers got out looking for all intents and purposes like an inflated, petulant child. The other four got out and made their way to the trunk to pull out some light gear.
Sommers joined them.
"Not a word," Tim said, looking at him. "We're searching these buildings because traces of a rare sawdust were found in our vic's shoes. We're here to see what we can find, if this is even where we need to be."
The group followed Tim up to the building in front of them. He motioned for Ziva, Sommers and Greg to take the left side. He and Elly took the right. They circled a few buildings, shining flashlights into the windows and seeing woodshops and a nursery. They moved to the large curved hangar-like buildings towards the back of the property. They were circling a second hangar shaped building when they noticed the large barn-sized door on the backside was open halfway.
A few hand motions later and Ziva and Greg were ducking inside, flashlights and guns out. Elly followed next, then Tim and Sommers. They all stopped in their tracks in the middle of the room once their lights landed on the scene in front of them.
"Holy shit," Elly said softly.
"That's fucked up," Sommers said, sliding his gun back in his holster.
Greg took a step closer and shook his head. "Well, looks like we found the place. Now what?"
"Call Ducky," Tim said. "This is going to be a long night."