Chapter 5, Clues: Late May 2016
He carefully put the picture frame on the coffee table and cleaned up the glass. Tali was watching a video on his laptop; something about Disney Princesses. He picked up the picture in its now shattered frame and carefully shook the remaining glass into the trash. Placing a newspaper on the table, he turned the picture so that the back was up. Before he pried the back off, he carefully inspected the entire back and frame. Lifting a corner of the back with his knife (rule nine "never go anywhere without a knife") he saw that the blue paper was about the size of a wallet photo. He lifted it out and turned it over several times. It seemed to be a blank piece of paper, but on one corner, he noticed the word "lemon" in tiny print.
Lemon? He wracked his brain, trying to think about what significance a lemon would have to Ziva, or to himself, for that matter. Lemon? Was it a cryptic message for him? Was it a discarded grocery list that got caught up accidentally? Rule thirty-nine; "there is no such thing as coincidence." Lemon?
Tali made a noise and he looked up to see her movie had finished and she was walking towards him. "Abba?" He looked at her, asking, "what do you need, Tali?" "Hungry." "What do you want?" "Pizza. Juice." Luckily, there was some left over pizza in the fridge from last night's dinner and he took out a piece for her. There was orange juice and lemonade in the fridge and he lifted Tali to show her the choices. She picked the lemonade, calling it "lemjuice." As he heated the pizza slightly in the microwave, a thought hit him.
Lemon JUICE! One could make "invisible ink" with lemon juice! He and Ziva had passed notes back and forth in the bullpen one day by using a variant of the lemon juice invisible ink. They would swap a file, with a seemingly blank sticky note on a random page, appearing to marking a piece of info. The recipient would put the note over the hard drive on the laptop and have the note appear from the heat of computer. The notes made a boring day of paperwork tolerable, until they started making them more suggestive. Then, they couldn't wait to leave for the day. When the day finally ended, they had rushed to her place and spent the next four hours exploring each other. Tony shook his head; bringing himself back to the present.
He put Tali's pizza on a paper plate and placed it in front of her with her sippy cup of lemonade. Excited, he grabbed the blue paper off the coffee table and used tongs to hold it over one of the electric stove burners. Slowly, a message appeared "Layers in go bag."
A slight groan escaped from Tony, but a little flurry of hope also crept its way into him. The writing was definitely Ziva's; he would bet his life on it. He knew her handwriting anywhere. Another puzzle to decipher and another cryptic clue were not what he hoped was on the blue paper. Tali finished most of her pizza and lemonade; Tony cleaned her up and set up "Cars" on his laptop for her to watch.
He picked up the go bag and noted the solid, flat bottom. Nothing seemed obvious from the outside, so he started emptying the contents. He really needed to do so, just to see what supplies Tali had and what he needed to get. Clothing, diapers for night time, wipes, the scarf that still had Ziva's smell, a few children's books and an extra sippy cup. Nothing unusual so far; but the scarf distracted him. He pressed it to his face, breathing in her scent. Tears formed and he tried to blink them away. Tali touched his face and startled him. "Abba cry." So, she has her mother's ninja skills, he thought, as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Yes, Tali; Abba is crying. Abba is sad because he misses Ima." Tali threw her little arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.
"Toda, Tali. You made Abba smile again." His little girl seemed to do something that amazed him and made him love her even more so often; he was grateful that Ziva had instilled caring and compassion in her at a young age.
Tali glanced inside the now empty go bag and pulled out a DVD in a plain paper sleeve from a pocket on the inside of the bag. "Mobie, Abba. Watch mobie." Tony took the DVD from Tali and looked at the sleeve and disc. On the back of the sleeve were a series of numbers, in varying patterns. He studied them for a minute, but Tali wanted to watch the DVD, so he slid it out of the sleeve and along with the DVD came a tiny key. Groaning inwardly at more cryptic clues and more mystery to solve, he took the DVD to his laptop and put it in the drive.
Ziva came on the screen. "Hello, Tony."
Tali screamed out, "IMA! IMA! Want IMA!" Tali began to cry, loudly. Tony immediately stopped the DVD from playing, and gave himself a mental head slap. Not the best idea, having a virtual Ziva show up when Tali was clearly missing her Ima. He spent the next fifteen minutes soothing Tali by holding her, rocking and rubbing her back. She slowly quieted her sobs, and finally fell asleep on his shoulder. He took her into the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed, tucking Kelev under her arm. He kissed her forehead, whispering, "Sleep, my tiny ninja. Abba loves you." She whimpered one last time and curled on her side to sleep clutching Kelev.
Tony went back to his computer, grabbing his headphones from the shelf. He plugged the headphones in the jack and tapped Play. Ziva's face appeared again.
"Tony, if you are seeing this, you have Tali. I regret not telling you about her sooner, but I had to keep all of us safe. When I found out from Adam that Trent Kort and his associates were after my father's files, I knew we were in danger. Adam helped me get documents showing my identity as Sophie Ranier, French national. He took Tali to Orli for me. I expect to have left the country by May nineteenth.
"Eventually, I will end up in Paris, but do not come there right away. Go to Israel first. Use the key to get the documents and papers out of the safety deposit box at the bank. There is also a deposit account at the same bank. Both have your name as an emergency contact and the bank will let you access with proper ID. Take the papers and documents, they include Tali's birth certificate, medical records and deeds to most of the properties that my father owned. If something happens to me, there is also a will that gives all of the assets to you and Tali.
"Raise her to be a free and independent person, with no bad guys in her life. Give her the childhood you and I never had. I hope I will see you in Paris, but in case I do not; I LOVE you, Tony, with every part of me. You complete me."
The rest of the DVD had pictures of Tali from day one to almost the present. There was a video of her first birthday and the mess she made with her cake. Tony chuckled at her with cake and icing in her hair, on her arms, face, chest, hands, just about everywhere!
Tony browsed through the pictures, most of just Tali and her milestones, some of Tali and Ziva and a few with Tali, Schmeil and Ziva. There were also a few with an older woman that Tony recognized from pictures he had seen in the farmhouse as Ziva's Aunt Nettie. One of his favorites was a picture of Ziva holding newborn Tali. Ziva looked both happy and terrified, and the look made him long for what he had missed. He closed the file and checked if the date was on the picture, hoping it would tell him what Tali's birth date was. There it was; 18.06.2014 15:32. June eighteenth; their daughter's birthday. Glancing at the calendar on his computer, he realized that her birthday was only a few weeks away.
Tony looked at the DVD sleeve again. The first two sets of numbers were now clearly a bank routing number and an account number, but the third set still puzzled him. Too many digits to be a PIN or access key. Too few to be another account number. He would need some help from Tim on this one. He picked up his phone and sent a text to Tim, "What are you doing tonight? Need some help"
"I can stop by after work for about an hour or so," came the reply. A second message popped up almost immediately after, "I'll send a text when I leave the Navy Yard."
"Thanks" Tony wondered how Tim would react to the DVD.