Chapter 9: VIIII

05/10/2008 14:50:00

Chapter 9: VIIII

Ziva rubbed her eyes and took a sip of no nothing, straight black, coffee. Papers were scattered all over her desk, which had one lone lamp, providing the only light. The office was silent, but she had the soft sound of jazz playing in her ears through her MP3 player. "Take Five". It was one of her personal favourites. She popped a cinnamon mint into her mouth and looked over the papers some more. Something or rather somebody was missing. She flipped over a sheet of paper and drew on the back, just as Tony walked into the office.

"Working late or up early?" Tony asked with a coffee in his hand as Ziva took her headphones out of her ears.

"Haha."

"Did you eve go home last night?"

"I had a hunch and I couldn't go home or sleep. What are you doing here at," Ziva paused to check her watch, "At 3:47 in the morning?"

"I couldn't sleep either, but probably different reasons than you. Did you find anything following your hunch?" He asked pulling a chair next to her.

"I feel like I'm missing something."

"Well, what do you got so far?"

"So I felt that somehow, U.S. Senator Conroy was involved. And remember when you tried to look up more about him, you couldn't find much?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I kept on looking and digging and hacking… sort of." Ziva said with a slight smile, knowing that she broke a few laws. "And I finally got something viable. When Conroy was younger, he had a brother or shall I say a sister."

"Conroy's brother turned into a girl?"

"Yes. And the family felt like she brought shame so they disowned her and changed her name completely."

"So that explains hatred towards the transvestites. Did you find the sister? Can we talk to her?

"Yes and no. I found the sister; her name was Karra Clynne. The—"

"The first victim of Jordan Anderson." Tony said, connecting the dots himself. "Damn it." He said hitting his hand on her desk, seeing the window to get William Conroy slip away.

"Right, and Conroy hired Anderson to be an assassin, because he was in office and it would look bad in public."

"And that's how the two connect. But how did Conroy find Anderson?" Ziva pulled up a page on her computer.

"Old classmates at a small college, out of country, in Britain. Conroy only met Anderson in college, which explains why he didn't know that the assassin he hired was a transvestite himself. Now I don't know how he found out about Anderson's past, but he did, which explains him dead."

"What about Micahel?"

"I have a feeling that Conroy was forced into silence. And while he was supposed to be hiding, he decided to close up the case, which explains him calling Conroy just a few days before his death."

"So Conroy had him shut up."

"Yes exactly. Now here is where I am stumped. I don't know who is doing the killing and covering up for Conroy now."

"Well."

"I mean I have another hunch, but this one could definitely cost me my job."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I remembered what Conroy said when we tried to interview him, something about the person is right under our nose."

"And…"

"And well, I began to think and made a list of people Conroy knows and someone who we know."

"Wait, I just want to know, how come nobody else was able to find all this information?"

"I said I hacked and I mean really hacked, beyond the point where most people, even McGee, would stop."

"Why?"

"I need to solve this case."

"For Mathew?" Ziva looked up at Tony.

"No. For me. For my piece of mind." Ziva's and Tony's faces were now inches away from each other. She could smell his cologne. He could smell the faint scent of her perfume, partly masked by cinnamon and coffee. They leaned in a little closer. Their lips touched, ever so gently, until she pulled away.

"I'm sorry," she said backing away. "Excuse me, I, uh, need to go to the bathroom."