Chapter 13

"Tim! Wake up! Wake up!" The body turned. It was Dad. The corpse swayed slightly as if in a gentle breeze. "Tim! Please, wake up!" Before his eyes, the body began to decompose, the flesh crumbling away like dust. Except for the eyes. They kept staring at him accusingly. "Tim! You're scaring me!" There was just a skeleton left, a skeleton with his dad's eyes staring. A skeletal hand reached out toward him. The mouth opened and spoke. "Tim!" The voice of his father began to shift, becoming higher and feminine. It was frightened. Sarah. Tim opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor. How had he gotten there? "Tim, please answer me!"

"Sarah."

"Yes, Tim. It's me."

"What's wrong?" The mental cobwebs were dispersing slowly.

"I couldn't get you to wake up. You were so stiff. I thought you might be dead except that you kept moaning."

"Sorry."

"Just get up, please."

Tim stood, moderately quickly. He and Sarah ate dinner in uncharacteristic silence. She kept looking at him. He knew that he had really scared her this time. He had to do something. Despite Ducky's stern injunction, he decided that he would sneak into NCIS tonight after Sarah fell asleep. Maybe he could break the case. Then, he could come back home and no one would yell at him. Tim laid down that night and waited until he heard Sarah's even breathing. Carefully, he slipped out of bed. Sarah didn't even move. His dreams had exhausted her, too. He wrote a short note and placed it on the bed in case she woke up. Then, he left.

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NCIS was dark. Tim was rarely there when there wasn't somebody around and the empty building was a little creepy. He turned on his lamp as he sat down at his desk and started to go through the evidence once more. There was so much of it. The photos of the crime scene, the DNA samples from the corpses in the basement, more photos, interviews, IDs. The list went on and on. It was about three in the morning when Tim finally got through it all. His eyes were scratchy, but he couldn't sleep. He snuck down to Abby's lab. The composites based on the descriptions of the runners were up on the computer along with a final composite of all seven sketches. This was supposed to be the killer. Something wasn't right. He looked carefully at the sketches. Each one was similar... except the last one. It was different, and it was familiar. But why?

"McGee, what are you doing here? Ducky said you wouldn't be coming for a day or two."

Tim turned around with a jump. Tony was standing there staring at him suspiciously.

"Tony, what are you doing here?"

"I had some last minute things to do and saw your bag by your desk. Why are you here?"

"I can't sleep tonight."

"What makes tonight different?"

Tim didn't answer.

"What is it, McGee?"

"It happened today."

"What?"

Tim shrugged. "My dad's suicide. It was fifteen years ago today. I can't sleep. I've been keeping Sarah up all week long and she needs to catch up on her rest."

"So do you, McGee."

"I can't yet, but I keep thinking that if I can just finish this case, it'll be better."

"I didn't know you believed in magic, Probie."

Tim was forced to smile. "I don't. Things would be a lot different if I believed in magic."

Tony nodded. "Well, if you're daring the wrath of the good doctor, then at least tell me what you're doing."

"I'm looking at the composites Abby made. Something isn't right. Have you seen them already?"

"Yeah. They don't fit. It was too long a time for people to remember. It was a long shot anyway."

"That's just it. They do, but I'm not sure why. I feel like the answer is in these sketches."

"Remember, McGee, there weren't a whole lot of people who could give accurate descriptions about a guy that may or may not have shown up twenty years ago, or even three years ago."

"I know that, but all of them except this last one look the same, don't they?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but the composite of all the sketches doesn't fit."

"All except the last one. All except Lt. Rivens," Tim said absently, staring at the last sketch. He looked the others and then came back to it again.

"What is it, Probie?"

Tim stood up and looked excitedly at Tony. "All of them fit, except Rivens'."

"Yeah, you said that already."

"Don't you see, Tony? Ducky said that Rivens was killed by someone else. These other guys were all killed by the same man. And doesn't this last guy look familiar?"

Tony looked carefully at the last sketch. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, McGee. He doesn't to me."

"I've seen him somewhere before. Recently." Tim started pacing. "Where?"

"Part of the case or some sort of ships passing in the night, like Ziva?"

"Part of the case, but I can't remember."

"Okay, let's get all the interviews and ID them all. If he's part of the case, we'll find him."

"We?"

"You think I'm going to leave you here alone, Probie? You'd probably break something." Tony acted light-hearted about it, but underneath he was still worried about Tim. He didn't look as pale, but that was because of the forced hospital visit. Tim looked positively exhausted.

"Okay."

Together, they searched through the interviews over the next two hours. Both of them yawned a great deal, but although Tim drooped a few times, it never lasted more than a minute or two and Tony noticed that his eyes were wild for a second when he woke up. Then, at 6:30, Tony held up the first interview ID.

"This who you were looking for, McGee? McGee?" He looked over and saw Tim out like a light, sprawled across his desk. Tony stood up and went to stand over his teammate. "McGee, you can't sleep here. Gibbs will kill you."

Tim came awake, stood up and backed away before he really grasped what was going on.

"Whoa, McGee. Sit down. It's not that exciting."

Sanity reasserted itself in Tim's eyes and he focused on Tony. "Sorry, Tony. I must have dozed off."

"Yeah. Recognize him?"

"That's him!"

"I thought you might. You were right. The first interview. The guy who called in the body."

Tim's mind slipped into overdrive. "He's the owner of the property. His father lived there before, but he had died recently. I remember he told me that the place was still empty because he hadn't decided if he wanted to keep it himself or not. Do we have a picture of his father?"

"I see where you're going with this, McGee, but that's a heck of a way for a son to emulate his father."

"I know, but it might be true." Tim sat down at the computer and got an old DMV photo. "Look at this picture."

"It's not an exact match."

"No, but as you say, it was over the course of twenty years. Details blur."

"Okay."

"We could get a search warrant based on this, couldn't we?"

"Well, for Rivens' murder we could. I don't know about the others."

"That's all we really need though."

The main lights came on. A new day was starting, and Gibbs would be walking in any second. They both looked up.

"You're going to be in big trouble, McGee," Tony warned.

"I don't care." Tim's phone started ringing. He picked it up quickly. Tony listened idly as he started talking. "Sarah, calm down. No, I... Sarah, listen..."

People started filtering into the office. Ziva came in and saw Tim sitting at his desk and threw Tony a look. He shrugged. Then, Gibbs came in and stopped to listen to Tim who was still trying to placate his sister.

"No, Sarah. You needed the sleep. You said you had an exam. I will. No. Not now. Stop it. That's not true and you know it. No, this has nothing to do with Andrew or with Mom." Tim suddenly looked up and saw Gibbs looming over him as well as Tony and Ziva staring at him from their desks. "Look, I'll talk to you later. Good luck on your exam. Bye."

"Good morning, McGee. I thought you weren't going to be here today."

"I-I wasn't, Boss."

"And?"

Tony, strangely, felt compelled to intervene. "Boss, we got a break, I think."

"How?"

He jerked his head toward Tim. "Mostly because McGee is an insufferable know-it-all."

"Thanks, Tony."

Gibbs glared at Tim, but he didn't say anything.

"Well?"

"Well, what, Boss?"

"Are you going to tell me what you found or are you waiting for me to guess?"

"Absolutely not, Boss," Tony said. He gestured to Tim to bring up the photos they'd found.

Tony quickly brought him up to speed and Gibbs requested a search warrant for their new suspect. When they got it, Gibbs made Tim stay behind while the rest of them searched the home of Walter Joseph Gneiting, Jr. They were back in under three hours, leading the suspect in handcuffs.