Chapter 10
Tony arrives at the NCIS building and goes up to the third floor. He steps off the elevator and walks to his desk. Ziva and McGee are already sitting at their own desks. They both check their watches.
"The world must be coming to an end cuz you're actually on-time for once, Tony." Ziva stated. She then looks to McGee and puts her hand out with her palm facing upward, as if she's waiting for something to be dropped into her hand. "You owe me ten bucks."
McGee stands up, takes his wallet out and walks over to Ziva's desk. As McGee approaches Ziva's desk, Tony walks over. Tony snatches the money just as McGee is handing it over to Ziva.
"When bets are about me, I get a cut." Tony stated as he puts the ten dollar bill into his pocket.
"You said a cut." Ziva said. "How much of it do I get?"
"I never said it would be a fair cut." Tony said. "No more betting about what time I'll actually get to work."
"You've been late to work for the past three weeks." McGee said.
"And your point is?" Tony wondered. "Do you really need to know?"
"Well… I mean… The thing is… With Jamie being depressed and you having to get Chioke ready for school in the morning, and the fact that you seem to always be late… Why not just wake up earlier." McGee said.
"I wake up at 05:30 every morning." Tony said.
"That's funny… I wake up at 05:30 in order to go for a run every morning. And I seem to never have a problem with getting here on-time." Ziva stated. "So what's your brilliant excuse?"
"I get up early to see a sign language tutor cuz it's the only time he has available. Then I have to go back to the apartment, take care of my depressed wife, get Chioke ready for school, and by the time we leave, I'm stuck in the morning traffic." Tony stated. "If Jamie wasn't depressed, then I wouldn't have to go back to the apartment which would make it a whole lot easier to get to work on-time. But I'm not blaming this on Jamie… I'm just saying. The only reason I'm not late is cuz the tutor cancelled our session for today."
Tony finally walks back to his desk. Ziva and McGee look at each other and both of them can only think of how much they respect Tony for wanting to be able to keep up with sign language in order to be able to communicate effectively with Chioke.
"That's nice of you, Tony." McGee said. "Taking any opportunity you can to learn more sign language for Chioke. I respect that."
"The little guy has been trying so hard to get adjusted to life in America and learning how to communicate through sign language." Tony stated. "Since he's unable to speak, the least I can do for him is to also learn sign language. Besides, I wanna be able to communicate effectively with him and the only way I can do that, is if I know what he's trying to communicate to me."
"Even though you can be quite immature at times, I must admit, your devotion to certain aspects of your life are very respectable." Ziva said.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're coming on to me." Tony grins. "It would never work between us, Ziva. I'm flattered. But I love my wife."
"I stand corrected. You're very immature." Ziva stated. "Chioke is more mature then you. And that's saying a lot since he's only six years old."
"Hey, where's Gibbs?" Tony wondered. "Is he up in MTAC again?"
"Actually, he hasn't come in yet." McGee responded. "I've been unable to reach him on his cell. I keep getting his voicemail."
"That's odd." Tony said. "Though, why would you wanna call him when we haven't found anything more yet?"
"Maybe he's in trouble." McGee stated.
"I highly doubt Gibbs is in trouble. But if we don't hear from in within the hour, then maybe we should start to worry."
"There's no point in worrying, DiNozzo." Gibbs said as he breezes into the area in order to go to his desk.
"The mystery of the missing Gibbs is solved." Tony stated. "Boss, we've…"
"…Been unable to find anything else to link Kenneth to the murder." Gibbs finished Tony's sentence. "I know. I expected you to find nothing."
Gibbs walks away as Tony, Ziva and McGee wonder what's going on. Gibbs stops and motions for them to follow him.
"I'm not sending out invitation cards." Gibbs said. "Come on."
Tony, Ziva and McGee follow Gibbs to the elevator. They go down to the Forensics Lab. They enter into the lab where Abby is already working on what Gibbs brought for her.
"You made us continue to pursue Kenny when you knew the whole time that we would find nothing. I think you got some explaining to do, Gibbs." Tony stated in a strong voice. He now notices Gibbs is glaring at him. "I mean… Not that you have to explain anything to us, or even that I want or need to know. But we think you at least owe us an explanation…" He looks to McGee. "Help me out here." Tony sees McGee look away. He looks back to Gibbs who is still glaring at him. "I guess an explanation really doesn't seem to matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. So I'm just gonna shut up now."
"That'd be a good idea, DiNozzo." Gibbs said.
There's a brief moment of silence as the team is waiting for Gibbs to explain what's going on.
"Kenneth McCloud is innocent. He didn't kill Jamar Wilkinson." Gibbs stated. "While I was holding Vanessa's wrists to keep her from dying, she talked to me. Not everything she said made sense. But she pointed me in a certain direction."
Abby holds up a locket to show the rest of the team.
"Vanessa made me aware that she gave Jamar a locket. This locket…" Gibbs said as he points to the locket. "I found out that there's not one minute when Jamar wasn't wearing the locket around his neck. All anybody ever sees is the chain part of it cuz the actual locket, which he kept hidden under his shirt at all times, has a photo of him and Vanessa together. Jamar and Vanessa were lovers."
"How does this explain why you mislead us?" Tony wondered.
"Did we find the necklace at the crime-scene, DiNozzo? We searched the perimeter of where the murder occurred, where the attack originated and the road in-between. No locket was ever found." Gibbs said. "With knowing Jamar always wore something that we couldn't find, either the person who attacked him stole it, or Jamar somehow struggled with the person and stuffed it into the person's jacket."
"I found a fiber stuck in the chain." Abby stated. "I'm running a test on it, but it looks to be a jacket fiber. I also found blood on the chain, which most likely belongs to Jamar. I just started the DNA test, so it'll take some time to confirm."
"With knowing Kenneth is innocent, I had to figure out who would want to frame him…" Gibbs begins to say.
"But we could've helped if…" Tony begins to say.
"You did help." Gibbs interrupted. "You see… It's your effort that flushed out our killer."
"Huh…" Tony is confused.
"We already searched Kenneth's truck and the McCloud house. So planting evidence, the locket, would be very obvious if it was stashed in a place we already searched. By continuing to pursue Kenneth, it looked as if we needed more evidence against him." Gibbs continued. "There was only a slim chance that the real killer would actually fall for the trap I set-up. But with Kenneth being innocent, I had to take the chance that our killer might make a fatal mistake by trying to plant more evidence… The locket." He continued. "Kenneth works at a factory. The only other place where anybody could possibly plant evidence against him would be in his locker at the factory. I searched the locker, no locket. I spoke with the factory supervisor who allowed me to have Abby set-up surveillance in the locker area. The person who broke into the factory last night, is the person who killed Jamar. He stole a couple things to make it look like a robbery, but he also planted the locket in Kenneth's locker. We have our killer on tape." Gibbs stated. He looks to Abby. "Show them what you found yesterday. The thing I told you to not tell them."
Abby begins typing on the keyboard in order to get the evidence up on the screen.
"You could've just told us this from the beginning. We would've played along by making it look like we're still pursuing Kenny." Tony said.
"Think of it as sharpening your investigative skills." Gibbs stated.
"Here it is." Abby said.
The team, except for Gibbs, looks at the screen.
"Vanessa was pregnant." McGee stated in amazement.
"Woo…" Tony is surprised at the results.
"I told Abby to keep the pregnancy results from you cuz I didn't want it to possibly interfere with my plan of flushing out the killer." Gibbs stated. "In light of the new evidence with the locket, we're not gonna bring him in yet."
"Why not?" Ziva wondered.
"Vanessa had a laptop. Right before she died, she was trying to tell me what's on it and where it's located." Gibbs said. "I made her a promise. I aim to keep that promise. But in order to do so, I need to find that laptop cuz it has crucial information on it that's vital to this entire investigation."
"What can we do to help?" McGee wondered.
"I need you to buy me a little more time." Gibbs stated.
"We'll keep pursuing Kenneth." Ziva said. "Besides, we haven't searched his locker yet. So until we do, we don't know about the locket."
"And the killer will remain in the town cuz he doesn't know that we already know." McGee said. "He'll just figure we'll eventually search the locker today."
"Just buy me the time. That's all." Gibbs said.
"We can spend the entire day before pretending to search his locker." Tony grins.
"Good… Do it." Gibbs said. He now looks to McGee. He tosses his cell-phone to McGee. "The battery died. Make it work."
"I'll get you a new battery, Boss." McGee said.
Tony, Ziva and McGee begin to walk away in order to leave the lab.
"DiNozzo…" Gibbs tries to get his attention.
"Yeah Boss?" Tony wondered.
Ziva and McGee get on the elevator as Gibbs approaches Tony. Gibbs and Tony are left alone to talk.
"How's the sign language tutor working out?" Gibbs asked.
"It's going great." Tony replied. "I'm able to better understand the words Chioke is trying to communicate to me, especially since he's learning a lot in school. With the tutor, I'm at least able to keep up more."
"Just stick with the tutor and don't worry about coming late to work cuz I know you're tutoring sessions are in the morning." Gibbs said. "I know the man is busy and it's his only free time."
"At the moment, I only have Abby teaching me when she's able to. And once Jamie is out of her depressed stage, which I hope will be soon cuz I hate seeing her like this, I'll also have her teaching me again. So for the time being, the tutor really helps since it's a set time every day." Tony stated. "Thanks for giving me the tutor's number."
"You're welcome." Gibbs said. "I know how much it means to you with being able to communicate effectively with Chioke."
"Well… I guess I should go pretend to pursue Kenny." Tony laughed slightly.
"And I have a laptop to find."
Gibbs and Tony go to the elevator in order to go back to the third floor to get their gear in order to leave.