CHAPTER 11
Gibbs arrives at work the next day with more pep in his step than he's had in a long time. He strides off the elevator, careful to hide the smug smile on his face before the doors open fully onto the bullpen floor. Most people wouldn't notice the slight change in his stride, but his team, Tony, Ziva and Tim, know every nuance of his demeanor. Moving towards his desk he feels their eyes on him, but doesn't give them a glance until he is at his desk and seated. He takes a long sip of his coffee, and realizes they are all staring at his cup... not his usual coffee vendor's cup.
"What?!" He decides to nip their curiosity in the bud before they have a chance to start their game of twenty questions. McGee is easily intimidated into dropping his eyes as he quickly gets back to work. Tony and Ziva are braver in nature and although they keep their mouths shut, both give him a knowing smirk. Gibbs' eyes move slowly from his senior field agent to the silent Israeli, showing no expression on his face as he sets his strange cup on his desk. His eyes finally drop to his computer as it dings softly.
Looking down at the email notification, he clicks on the flag to open his newly received email. It is from DiNozzo and asks one simple question, "Coffee from the Sultry Bean in Georgetown? Near some really nice condos... if I recall." Gibbs has no doubt Tony's deductive powers have already solved the puzzle, but he hides the smile as best he can as he looks across the aisle at him. Tony pretends to be working, but casually glances up and their eyes meet in silent understanding. Gibbs gives nothing away, but raises his cup to take another sip as Tony smiles and returns to his work.
The day started out good for Gibbs, became a challenge and then got worse as his phone rings. He answers, hoping they haven't caught another case since they were still cleaning up the loose ends on the whole Hart / Bell case. "Gibbs..."
A moment later he drops his phone back in its cradle and sighs heavily as he stands up, taking the last sip of his coffee before he tosses it in the garbage can and heads towards the stairs with a last order to his team. "I want those reports from the Hart fiasco on my desk by the end of the day."
He takes the stairs up to the director's office two at a time, not even caring that three sets of eyes are on him as he goes. He knew they had a lot of questions, but he wasn't ready to give them the details of all that's been going on yet. He needed to discuss it with Vance first, and from the call he just received, Vance was pretty anxious to talk to him about it too. As he enters the office, his secretary waves him in and Gibbs doesn't even slow to knock as he pushes the door in and enters the office.
"You wanted to see me, Leon?"
"Yes... need a brief on what happened with this Hart case. Start to finish, Gibbs, I need to hear it from you."
Gibbs tenses suddenly at the no-nonsense greeting from his boss. This wasn't just any briefing on a case, something was wrong. Gibbs closes the door and goes to sit across from his boss, casually crossing his leg over his opposite knee in a relaxed pose. "Okay... but you know most of it already. What part do you want me to start at?"
"How about at the part where Ms. M. Allison Hart is claiming you lured her over to your house on the pretense of discussing a case... and then forced her to... well, let's just say she's being very vocal."
Gibbs shakes his head, finding her devious nature just as distasteful now as he always has. "Nothing to tell... never asked her to come to my house... ever."
"But she claims she was there." Vance knows Hart is grasping at straws in her attempt to save her hide right now, but he still has to go through the motions of an investigation into her allegations.
"Oh, she was there... not denying that. That bitch came to my house three times... uninvited and unknown to me until I walked in and found her in my living room. That was the first time... and I told her to get out of my house. Second time she came to the house with a bottle of wine... intent on some falsely perceived dinner... at which time she was met at the door by me... and Holly. The third time she showed up was after we'd dealt with the Reynosa family and I came home to find her there... in my house again with Mike Franks."
"So you have witnesses two of the three times that nothing happened, right?"
"Nothing happened, Leon!" Gibbs reins in his anger with effort and explains it to him as best he can. "The first time, I told her to get out. The second time we knew she was coming and Holly was there to play her part. Hart never got past the porch. The last time, I get home to find Mike non-to-happy standing by with Hart... who insisting on waiting for me. We had words and I told her to take her bug and get the hell out of my house."
"That when DiNozzo and McGee showed up?"
"Yeah, Mike called them. They took her in and I turned the bug from my living room over to McGee to process. Also told them to contact the P.I. she had posted down the street watching my place."
"That where it ended?" Vance already knew the answer to this question.
"Leon, my dad was in the hospital... shot and recovering from a heart attack. I was not thinking about Hart right then!" Gibbs gets up to pace and then makes his way over to the bar on the opposite wall to pour himself a drink.
Vance watches in silence and when Gibbs turns to him, holding up the bottle, he shakes his head to decline the offer. It was a bit too early for him, but he could tell Gibbs was upset at having his credibility questioned and needed something to settle his anger. After he's taken a long swig of the fiery liquid, Gibbs turns back to him.
"You want to know what was going on in my house... ask the P.I. He's been watching my place for days and had that bug in my living room from day one."
"We have... he's sticking to his client confidentiality line... so far." Vance knows they also haven't leaned on the private investigator very hard. Nor have they told him he was spying on a federal agent's home. Given a chance to interrogate him, he knew Gibbs would have him singing a different tune within minutes.
"So far... what the hell's that supposed to mean?" Gibbs gives his boss a suspicious glare, wondering what he isn't telling him.
"Wanted to talk to you first... before I let you in the room with him. We both know he'll change his stance as soon as he realizes who he's been watching all this time."
"They didn't tell him who Hart hired him to watch?" Gibbs is interested now and downs the last of his drink before coming back to stand in front of Vance's desk. "I wanna talk to him."
"You will, Gibbs... you will. But first, we need to put an end to Hart's allegations that you forced yourself on her. Sounds like the second and third times are covered by your witnesses, but what about that first time?"
"No witnesses there that day." Gibbs' eyes narrow as he debates letting his boss know about the high-tech security surveillance system McGee installed for him a while back. "But would having the whole thing on tape be good enough?"
Vance's head snaps up at this information. "That was before she hired the P.I. to bug your house, right?"
"Yeah... but I got my own surveillance. You mind?" Gibbs moves around the desk, pointing to Vance's computer screen.
Vance shoves his chair back out of the way and Gibbs quickly types in the commands to bring up his personal surveillance account. He scrolls through the time-stamped video files and pulls up the one he needs. He hits the play button and then steps back to allow Vance to view the video.
"Hello, Mr. Gibbs."
"What are you doing here?"
"The door was unlocked. I came in to wait."
"Well, that's gonna change." He takes a couple of steps closer, stopping in the arch between the front hall and the living room.
"We need to talk."
"So, call me at work, Ms. Hart. I'm sure your afterhours fees are double."
"You've been avoiding me. I had to do something."
"YOU'RE... IN... MY... HOUSE!"
"And... we're finally talking." turning it back on him.
"You want to talk? Let's talk about your pro-bono clients. I'd bet it was Bell, and his money that bought you those five hundred dollar shoes."
Vance chuckles as the conversation goes on until Hart finally leaves. It is obvious nothing occurred except a heated discussion and Gibbs was obviously not aware she was there... nor wanted her there. Vance waits until the video clip ends when Gibbs finally goes to shut off the remote surveillance on a hidden key pad in his home.
He sits back and watches as Gibbs now stares pensively out the window, trying again to control his anger at what this woman had tried and was still trying to do to him. "I want her buried, Leon... no one comes after me... in my home like that."
"Understood, Gibbs. Believe me, I share your sentiments, but you know with an attorney as savvy as she is, we need to make sure every loophole is sewn shut."
"What more do we need?!" Gibbs turns to face his boss and is surprised to see him holding out a folder to him. He takes it and quickly scans through the files inside. "Holly brought you this?"
"She did. That is one smart woman, keeping that money and the envelope untouched in her safe all this time... until she needed it. And make no mistake, Gibbs... she needed it only to help you. Ms. Snow came to me right after you left for Mexico... knew there was something wrong and she gave me the pieces to pull this whole thing together. She may not have known about all the parts of this puzzle, but she knew you were in trouble down there."
"She got Mike Franks and his girls out of Mexico safely." Gibbs glances through the file once again, slower and more thorough this time.
"I knew nothing about that... until after it was done. You know I would never have sanctioned it... even if I could have. She went way above my head and pulled some strings to make that happen."
"Got to my dad... barely in time to save his ass, too."
"How is your dad's ass, by the way? I heard he took one in the butt when all hell broke out up there at his store."
"He's fine. Hurt his pride more than anything. The heart attack is what scared me... but he's fine now. Whoever those guys were that got him out of there saved his life."
"Again... at the request of Ms. Snow... and all done with the ease of a phone call." Vance stands up and spends a moment looking out over the Navy Yard as he tries to decide how to ask his next question.
"Just spit it out before it chokes you, Leon."
"Okay... you and I both know about Ms. Snow's past... her connections, which apparently are still quite strong."
"Yeah, so...?"
"So, my question is... what could you possibly have on her to get that woman to pull such powerful strings like that?" Vance turns to glare directly into Gibbs' eyes, wanting him to know he won't tolerate any underhanded dealings with a woman as dangerous to them all as she was.
"Hell, Leon... just teachin' her how to refinish furniture, that's all."
Gibbs smirks at his boss and taps the folder in his hand before turning to leave the office and his boss in a stunned silence. Vance watches him go, wondering if he heard him right, then chuckles as he returns to his desk realizing he really didn't want to know.
By the time Gibbs makes it back to the bullpen, he is on a mission to put an end to M. Allison Hart once and for all. Barking out orders to his team as he breezes by them to his desk. "DiNozzo, I want that P.I. in interrogation room one... now!"
"On it, boss!" DiNozzo jumps to his feet and grabs his holster, slipping it into his belt. "But he already lawyered up..." Gibbs glares at him and he simply nods and hurries towards the elevators, "Right... grabbing the private investigator, boss."
"McGee, I want Hart's financials tied up with a bow... every penny she's earned, spent or given away in the past two years." He gives the young agent a long stare and then lowered his voice as he adds, "... and I mean every penny, Tim." McGee nods in understanding as his fingers begin to fly over his keyboard.
"Ziva... get down to the detention center and get Hart back up here. We're gonna have another talk... just as soon as I'm done with that sleazy P.I." She merely nods and turns to head towards the elevators as well.
Gibbs sits at his desk, wanting to review all the facts of the case before they returned with his two suspects. He especially wanted to go through the file Vance gave him on Holly's intel on Bell and Dean... not to mention the connection to Allison Hart through the bribe they gave her five years ago. Once he is done reading the file in detail, he sits back and realizes how much Holly has done for him on this case. He had no idea until now and it made his outburst at the hospital seem all the more wrong. He knows when this is over, he needed to have a long talk with Holly about this.
By the time he watched the men, put her in the back of their car and drive away, he already had his mobile office closed down. He'd closed out his computer, shut down the recording devices and shoved all the detritus of his stake-out onto the passenger side floorboards. He wasn't going to stick around after he heard the guy inside the house yank out his bug and confront Hart with it. Obviously something had gone wrong with her plan and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be receiving any further payments from her.
Bertrand Snarkovsky considered himself a pretty street smart man, able to move through society unnoticed as he dug up the dirt on those people he was paid to spy on. That's why he was so shocked when he'd started his car only to find one of those same cops standing outside his driver's door pointing a gun at him and ordering him to shut the car off. He had complied, realizing they had doubled back on him and cursing his lapse in attention.
They had cuffed him and had a DC Metro unit transport him to the Navy Yard, which caused Bert's ulcers to kick into high gear. What were the Navy Cops doing involved in all this? If the Feds had taken Hart into custody, he was sure he was in some serious trouble for being associated with whatever she was into. Luckily for him, he could always say he had no knowledge of what she was up to... which was true. She had hired him to watch a house... that was all. How bad could they punish him? Really, if he just kept to that story line and rambled off his normal 'client confidentiality line', he'd be fine.
The first federal agent, Timothy McGee, seemed to accept his story about having just been hired by Hart to sit on that house. When he threw out his client confidentiality line, the guy backed off and didn't seem to know what else to ask him. Bert's confidence was more set after that... they could hold him for forty-eight hours, bluster about all kinds of charges, but they had nothing on him. That's what Bert Snarkovsky thought... until he was hauled out of his cell and dragged back to NCIS early the next morning by Agent DiNozzo.
Now, here he sat once again in the dimly lit interrogation room. He had no idea what to expect and he was preparing himself mentally to once again put one over on the young federal agent who had questioned him yesterday. When the door opened and another man walked in, Bert felt his gut flip-flop as he recognized him. There was no mistaking that silver hair or the way he carried himself... this was the man he had been hired to watch. His eyes dart quickly from him to the door, expecting to see the federal agent escorting this man. Instead, he watches the man slowly close the door and come to stand on the opposite side of the table from him.
Gibbs had been watching Mr. Snarkovsky ever since Tony had deposited him in the interrogation room. He watched the play of emotions across his face and knew he felt confident that he would soon be released. He wanted to wait until the man had that confidence before he stepped in the room and shattered it without even saying a word. From the look on the man's face, it was just about to happen. Gibbs lays his file on the table and then moves both hands to his hips, pulling his jacket back in the process.
He watches the man's eyes dart down to the shiny gold badge on his belt, then over to the gun strapped to his opposite hip. When the man's eyes finally make the slow, guilty trek up to meet his own, Gibbs hears the sharp snap as the man's confident control shatters in a million pieces. He holds his gaze for a long moment, then sighs and narrows his eyes in his most threatening glare before he finally speaks.
"You wanna tell me why you broke into the house of a federal agent... into my house... and planted an illegal listening device in there, Mr. Snarkovsky?"