Major MassSpec emitted a beep as the printer spat out his results. Marty collected the paper and looked it over. Frowning, he looked back at the mass spectrometer and shook his head. Carol found a peculiar substance within one of the fingerprints Ziva brought in and asked him to analyze it. Unfortunately, the results made absolutely no sense.
"Uh Carol," he said. "Does this make sense?"
"What's that handsome?"
"Major MassSpec says that the substance you found is cocaine."
"Cocaine huh?"
"Yeah, And not just street level stuff either. This is pure."
"What?"
"Yeah," Marty said. "No acids found."
"Marty, that grade of cocaine isn't found just anywhere. By the time Cocaine gets this far north, it's usually been cut to around maybe ten percent."
"Which means someone was recently in a cocaine producing area or they came in contact with a batch of the pure stuff here. Whose sample did this come from?"
Carol checked the file and brought up the sample on the big screen. "Father Miguel Perez," she said. "I'm running his prints now." As they waited for the results of his background check, Carol and Marty moved on to the tissue sample Ducky sent up.
"Ok," Carol said. "I'll do poisons and venoms, you do toxins and microbes."
"Right," Marty said taking three ampules of blood and half of the skin tissue Ducky sent up. "Why did he want us to look specifically for snake venom?"
"Not sure," Carol answered. "But I have a list of the deadliest venoms by LD50. I think maybe we can rule out the sea snakes."
"I wouldn't," Marty said. "Just because they rarely bite doesn't mean they couldn't be milked for their venom."
"You got a point stud." Carol said as she dropped some blood into a test tube and added a couple of drops of chloroform that would help her determine the presence of foreign proteins in the sample. When she placed the sample in Major MassSpec, she moved to repeat the process with a number of different reagents. Before long, she would know if there was any venom or poison in the blood samples as well as the specific type.
_.-~=]})*({[=~-._
Abby succeeded in convincing the diocese to send over the records for each nun and priest involved with St. Michael's Convent. Abby decided to look through the records of the nuns whom had died first to see if they shared any commonalities. She then read the records of the two priests and found nothing of interest until she came to Father Miguel's history. It caught her attention that he came to St. Michael's from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in 2009, but it floored her to learn that he was in El Salvador from 2004 through 2008. She grabbed Sister Theresa's file and checked again to be sure. Yes, there it was. Sister Theresa served with the same mission as Father Thomas from 2004 through 2012. There was a link. Abby jumped up and put the files in the lock box she kept in her closet. She left the convent three minutes later and headed down the block, dialing Ziva's number as she went.
"Ziva," she said when her friend picked up. "I found something. I mean I found a lot of somethings and some of those somethings are on their way to the lab now, but I just found a big something."
"Abby, calm down," Ziva said. "What did you find?"
"Sister Theresa, the first victim served at a mission in El Salvador from 2004 through 2012 when she came to D.C. last August. Guess who she served at the mission with."
"Father Miguel," Ziva said.
"Yes," Abby said slightly deflate. "Did you just have a Gibbs moment or did you guess based on his name?"
"He is a citizen of El Salvador," Ziva explained. "And he is the cousin to Salazar Perez, a major cocaine farmer from there."
"Cocaine?" Abby said. "That's why she was killed."
"We don't know that Abby," Ziva said. "We need to get him here to find out."
"Ok," Abby said stopping and turning around. "I'll wait for you at the convent."
"Abby do not approach him until I get there."
"Ziva," Abby said. "I'm not going to do anything unless he tries to hurt one of the sisters."
_.-~=]})*({[=~-._
Ziva did not have time to change back into her habit before returning and as she entered the convent and looked around, she didn't really care. She knew the children were all in school but she had no idea what the other nuns or the priests for that matter did during the day. It occurred to her that Father Thomas would probably be performing some of his duties to the church next door, so she headed for the exit closest to the rectory. Luck was with her. As she stepped out the door, she saw Father Miguel heading into the rectory carrying an armload of books. She hurried over to the rectory and slipped through the door before it could close. She saw his shadow cross the light coming from a door a few yards away and drew her pistol.
She crept closer to the door listening intently for sounds of anyone else in the room. When she was right beside the door, she listened for movement and heard only the sounds of opening books. She spun into the room with her gun leveled, allowing it to move with her gaze until both locked onto her target.
"Miguel Perez," she said grabbing his attention.
"Sister Zelda," he said. "What are you doing?"
"You are under arrest," Ziva said. Father Miguel raised his hands and stood.
"I assure you," he said. "You have the wrong person, no matter who you're looking for."
Ziva inched closer to him, keeping her gun leveled at him as she reached for her handcuffs. Just as she had the cuffs clear, Miguel grabbed some of the books and threw them at her. Before she could react, he jumped over the desk and plowed into her knocking both her gun and the handcuffs out of her hands. She rolled onto her stomach quickly and reached her cuffs first. As she scrambled for the gun, she heard the outside door slam. She was on her feet and barreling down the hallway. She hit the door full force and was on the ground while Miguel was still fidgeting with his keys.
"Make one move and I'll shoot you!" she called.
Father Miguel dropped his arms in defeat. Ziva didn't bother being careful this time. She moved to him quickly and slammed him into the car cinching one of the bracelets around his right wrist in less than a second she had both of his wrists restrained without ever lowering her weapon. She hurried him back to the front of the convent and had him in her car before anyone came out of the buildings.
"You work with Sis- with the girl from Rosita's bowling league," Miguel surmised.
"And you work for your cousin's drug cartel," Ziva retorted. She jerked the wheel to pass a couple of cars before turning the corner.
Within fifteen minutes, she was driving through the gates to the Navy Yard and heading for the NCIS building.
"NCIS?" Miguel said reading the sign. "What's that?"
"Naval Criminal Investigation Service," Ziva answered as she got out of the car. She came around to the passenger side and opened the door.
"So what does the Navy want from our convent?" Miguel asked as she helped him to his feet.
"Come on," Ziva answered leading him into the building.
_.-~=]})*({[=~-._
When the elevator doors opened, Ziva brought Father Miguel to her desk where she removed her weapon from her waist and placed it in her desk drawer. She caught the eye of a passing agent and waved him over.
"Where's Dorneget?" she asked the agent.
"He's uh, well, he's off for a while," the agent said.
"Can you take this man to interrogation, please?" Ziva asked, brushing off Dorneget's latest personal crisis. As the agent led the priest away, Ziva sat at her desk and brought Father Miguel's file on her monitor. Just as she sent the command to print the file, she heard the lead agent from the replacement team from across the divider.
"Harmon," he said, answering his phone. After a moment, he continued, "That's my investigation Jethro." Ziva's ears perked up and she listened more.
"That would have been either Lopez or Dukes then," Harmon said after hearing Gibbs's response. He shuffled through some papers as he listened. "Yeah, PFC Sandra Dukes. She's one of only two female Marine that was assigned to the embassy. We're on our way to pick her up." As the team hustled to grab their gear, Ziva too grabbed her pistol.
"Harmon," she called as she ran to catch up. "Is Gibbs in trouble?"
"No, one of the Marines from Riyadh may be the target of an assassin."
"I'm coming with you," She said.
"We got this David," Harmon said as his team stepped into the elevator.
"It was not a request," Ziva said following them.
"Agent David," Vance called from the stairs. Ziva looked up at him as he beckoned her with his finger.
"Request denied," Harmon said as Ziva stepped off the elevator. Ziva did not see his smile as he pushed the button for the ground floor.
Vance met Ziva halfway down the stairs. "For someone who is allegedly on vacation, you are spending a great deal of time at work."
"I am sorry Director," Ziva said. "I was just finishing up some work and heard that Agent Harmon and his team were running out to help Gibbs, and I offered to tag along."
"Agent David, you do understand why we intentionally left you off of this assignment do you not?"
"Of course," she said. "I just thought that if they needed extra help, I could bend a hand."
Vance looked at her and stopped himself from automatically correcting her. "I'm starting to think you do that on purpose,"
"Do what?"
"Never mind," he said. "I trust you have your work caught up?"
"Nearly," she said. "I just have to… consult with someone and you will not see me again until Sunday."
"Get it done," he said, turning to return to his office.
_.-~=]})*({[=~-._
"Father Miguel Perez," Ziva said as she sat in the chair across from the priest. "You are a citizen of El Salvador. You joined the priesthood at nineteen, and you have served in El Salvador, Louisiana and here. You are the cousin of Salazar Perez, a major cocaine supplier from the region."
"What does my cousin's business have to do with me?" the priest asked.
"This morning, I took a fingerprint sample from you. Our lab found some residue within the print and we analyzed it."
"And?" he asked.
"It is pure cocaine."
Father Miguel swallowed audibly. "You must be mistaken," he said. "I do not partake in illicit drugs."
"No," Ziva said. "But you do traffic them."
"Officer, I am a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. We do not traffic drugs."
"Five months ago, Sister Theresa Morales transferred here from El Salvador. You recognized her when she came, since you worked together previously. More importantly, she recognized you. She knew you used the church to assist your cousin with drug distribution and you killed her."
"No," he said half relieved. "I did not kill Theresa."
"But you do transport cocaine," Ziva said calmly. "If you didn't kill Sister Theresa, then you had someone do it."
"No," he repeated. "I thought it was an accident until recently." Ziva did her best Gibbs imitation by staring at him and waiting. "Look, I agree that Theresa was probably killed, but I had nothing to do with it. I think whoever did it also killed the other nuns."
"And you believe that whoever did it is related to your outside business," she surmised.
"No," Miguel said. "Look, I'm burned. My route is useless and Salazar will have me killed within a couple of days, regardless of any attempts your government takes to protect me. In spite of that, you have to understand that nothing related to what I did outside of the church caused the killings."
"Killings?"
"I think that the deaths of the five nuns are related," he said. "Someone is killing those women. I do not know why. I wanted to find out before the police became suspicious so they would have no reason to come around investigating everyone."
"Especially you," Ziva said.
Miguel nodded and answered, "Yes. I could not afford to let them find out what I was doing."
"So, you began an investigation," Ziva said. "What did you learn?"
"Nothing," he said. "I only started yesterday. I was going to check into everyone today. That's what I was doing when you arrested me."
"So you had files on all of the nuns at the convent?"
"And Father Miguel, as well as the support staff. I was going to look into Jeff and Henry, the janitors, our deacons, the abbess, and the other teachers."
"And you had all of those files?"
"Yes," he said. "I wanted to make sure to eliminate anyone within the church first."
Ziva stared at the priest for a moment before getting up to leave. Once she was outside of the door, dialed Abby's number. "Abby," she said. "I'm on my way back. Perez left files on everyone associated with the church. They may be helpful." One her way to Abby's lab, she called a friend at the DEA to hand over Father Miguel. Fortunately, Marty was out of the lab when she got there and after checking the office, she closed the door to change into her habit.
_.-~=]})*({[=~-._