JAG (FALLS CHURCH)
Ziva David was shown the office that Christopher Jones was occupying. She sat down on the other side of the desk and waited for Christopher Jones to sit down. "What can I do for NCIS?" He asked.
"We're currently investigating a blackmail case," Ziva answered. Years of Mossad interrogation training... her eyes narrowed and she focused on the man's face as she entered human lie detector mode.
"What does that have to do with me?" Christopher asked. He had a lot of work to do. The opening statement needed a rewrite.
"We are speaking to anyone who might have something to gain from it," Ziva stepped cautiously. She knew she had to be discreet since someone's reputation was at stake.
"What would I have to gain from blackmailing someone?" Christopher asked.
Ziva expected the lawyer to be a difficult read. Lawyers had good poker faces. "You have an important case coming up. One I am sure a win will push you up the ladder, yes?" Ziva pressed on with her train of thought. "It will look good and do well for your career," she added.
"Whoa there, Agent David. I've worked damn hard to get where I am. I didn't get here by cutting corners or taking the easy way out. If you think I'll throw it all away because I don't think I can win," Christopher felt angry at having his ability challenged in such a way.
"You are angry. But, I did not question your ability," Ziva knew that his anger was genuine.
"You mentioned an upcoming case. Why else would a lawyer need to blackmail someone," Christopher pointed out. "Wait..." he choked back a chuckle. He knew it'd be dangerous to blackmail a judge. The jury had not yet been selected. "Wait," he could feel the laugh coming on. "Someone's blackmailing Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman?" He held his lips shut with his forefinger in a vain attempt to stop from smiling.
"This is not a funny matter," Ziva chastised the lawyer.
"I know... I'm sorry. Of course it's not funny," Christopher responded. He couldn't sound convincing with the laughter in his tone. "It's just... What the Hell has Coleman done that would warrant somebody blackmailing her. I get it. You can't tell me that," he continued after he settled down and was able to talk normally.
"Thank you for your time," Ziva stood up. The only thing she was certain about was that Christopher was not responsible. His defensive attitude seemed genuine and his inappropriate response was out of surprise.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Abby's Lab
"Right," Abby said in a disappointed tone. Not even Caf-Pow was perking her up. The letter was refusing to reveal its secrets to her. It was as if it didn't want to tell her. The image of the letter appeared larger than life on the plasma screen.
"You got something?" McGee sounded hopeful. Abby looked up, her magnifying goggles made her eyes look huge.
"What we have here... Is your average run of the mill every day sort of printer paper. Basically, the type of paper you get from every post office or Wal-Mart. The ink is el-cheapo. No fingerprints. This paper, straight from the ream. Clean of fingerprints except for Faith's, Gibbs and Tony's," Abby shook her head before she took a large mouthful of cad-pow. The paper and ink gave her no clues.
"How about the wording?" McGee read through the contents again thoroughly. "Why 60,336.75?" He voiced the question that was on both their minds. "I mean, why not just 60,000 or 70,000. Come on, there must be in that. Is it something to buy? A car, memorabilia?" McGee rattled off some thoughts.
"Maybe not," Abby sipped her Caf-Pow loudly. "Okay... What do we have? A really good lawyer... But I doubt that she has that money sitting around. Maybe it's not blackmail at all. Perhaps they're out to discredit her and end her career. Perhaps an old boyfriend. Tony's going to love this... We may have to dig a little deeper into Faith Coleman's love life," Abby couldn't help but smile. "Where is Tony? I bet he'd love this part," Abby removed her goggles and placed them in the drawer.
"He's with Gibbs. They're at the GSM office," McGee answered.
"You, You're kidding. Gibbs is taking Tony to Get Sexual Magazine's office? Tony must be going all giddy inside," Abby tried to imagine Tony and Gibbs traveling together to GSM. He would be driving the boss-man nuts.
"Surprised me to," McGee responded. Their boss must have had his reasons for such a judgment but McGee just couldn't figure them out.
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Tony couldn't believe his luck. He was deliberately quiet from NCIS to there and on his best behavior. Part of him felt like Gibbs would turn the car around if he became over enthusiastic. Tony adjusted his tie and put his hair in place. He wanted to look good since this was a dream come true. "You need some deodorant to?" Gibbs knew his Senior Field Agent was excited and it shone through no matter how hard Tony tried to hide it.
Tony froze on the spot. He sniffed the collar of his shirt then relaxed. Gibbs seemed to be the only one who could get under his skin so easily. "No Boss," Tony responded as they walked into the small foyer.
"Do you have an appointment? He's busy with a shoot at the moment," The secretary asked. She was happy to have her monotonous non busy day interrupted.
"Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Agent Jethro Gibbs," Tony introduced themselves and showed the ID. "We're here to speak with Dean Haley," of course he knew the names of the main people affiliated with the magazine.
"Alright... Take the elevator and I'll let Mister Haley know you're coming up. It's on the fourth floor," the secretary told them.
"Thank you, Anna," Tony smiled. She had looked familiar but it took some time to place her to a name. Gibbs and Anna stared at him with stunned expressions. "Sorry... Mistress of the Armory, 2000. Your hair's longer now. Oh and writer of the Turn Ons, Turn Offs series," Tony smiled again.
"Refreshing... Someone does read the articles," Anna laughed.
Tony followed Gibbs into the elevator. "You see Anna takes a look at places such as offices or gyms and writes about what turns people off and what turns them on inside those places. Recently she did one for War games... I think you'll find that really interesting. I've still got the issue if you want... Ow!" Tony received a shut up headslap. He rubbed the back of his head. "Or not," he corrected him self.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tony and Gibbs were lead past prop rooms until they were shown the door to one of the photography rooms. "Thanks," Tony said as they walked in. Three women dressed in bathrobes stood in front of a large green screen surrounded by fluffy teddy bears. One of the women wrapped her bathrobe around herself tighter once she noticed Tony looking in her direction.
"You two are the men from NCIS? I am Dean Haley," Dean said as he shook their hands. "What can I help you with? Take 15 girls... Help yourselves to drinks in the tea room," he took the shy woman aside. "Hey you're doing really good. But you're really camera shy. Why don't you go see Alice and tell her I sent you. Have a couple of drinks... Okay?" Dean tapped her on the shoulder. Tony turned his attention back to Gibbs and Dean. "Sorry about that," Dean said.
"First shoot?" Tony asked.
"Unless it has to do with the official reason why you're here, I am not at liberty to discuss those matters with you," Dean said flatly. It was almost a programmed response. "What brings you the GSM office?" Dean asked them.
"You're very discreet," Tony observed. "We have a person that appeared in your magazine some years ago and is now being blackmailed. We are looking at the possibility of someone who works for you being responsible," Tony explained their reasoning and got straight to the point.
"Women come here for different reasons and I run this place honestly and very tight lipped. If someone on my staff was blackmailing former model, I would deal with them before giving them to the cops," Dean responded. He took personal responsibility for the hiring and behavior of his staff.
"What about former employees getting hold of pictures?" Gibbs asked.
"After photo-shoots, we select pictures to be used, destroy the others if they don't want to keep them. We also ask them if we can keep a certain photograph in case they do a then and now shot," Dean explained. "We're very careful with those as to prevent us being responsible for blackmailing attempts. Any photographs are kept in a locked cabinet in a locked room," he added.
"Do you keep records?" Tony asked.
"Minimal," Dean answered. "Some women are able to lose their inhibitions if they know there's not a paper trail so that their past can't bite back," he told them as he lead the two NCIS agents to his office.
"Sounds like you're running an underground ring," Tony chuckled.
"How about obsessive fans?" Gibbs ignored Tony's comment. "Some sending in mail... Acting obsessive about any particular... Models?" Gibbs thought of a way to describe the women.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Of course there were angry letters from mothers and church groups as well as overly horny teenagers," Dean answered. "We seriously filter any correspondence that may occur. Last thing these women need is to be insulted or ridiculed. Any negative feedback gets shredded. Other feedback is handed over to the models and they choose whether to keep it or watch us put them through the shredder," Dean answered.
"You're very thorough," Tony said.
"Can you tell us about a former..." Gibbs looked for the right word to use.
"Models... They are models Agent Gibbs. The one who's being blackmailed?" Dean turned his computer on.
Gibbs rolled his eyes impatiently and whistled to get Tony's focus off of the pictures on the wall. "A Faith Coleman came to us for help. So if there's anything that could assist us with our investigation," Gibbs said as Dean began typing away. Gibbs went to walk around the man's desk but was held at bay with an outstretched hand.
"Faith Carla Coleman. Pictures destroyed, fan mail destroyed. No hate mail. Was insistent she'd never return," Dean explained to Gibbs.
"You oversaw the destruction of those things?" Gibbs asked.
"Not me, I was a young scrounger in Manhattan. You know... I scouted around for costumes, props and backdrops," Dean said with some pride. Good props and costumes were expensive and difficult to find. He likened it to being paid to shop.
"Oh right," Tony said. He knew about scrounges from The Great Escape and The A-Team. "You ever acquired anything fraudulently? You know, Templeton often got free things by scamming people," Tony said. Perhaps Dean Healy was blackmailing Faith Coleman into doing another photo-shoot.
Dean gave him a confused look. He had never heard of the Templeton thing. "No, never fraudulently," Dean answered. "Price haggling. Bargain hunting. Even getting cheap things and getting my mother to do alterations. It was always to do with the budget I was given. If I ever went under budget, that gave me an opportunity to add a little extra. I have never dealt underhandedly or pocketed any of the money I was assigned," Dean said as he leaned forward.
"A little defensive aren't you?" Tony raised and eyebrow and looked sideways at him.
"You would be to if someone accused you of being shady," Dean responded. He checked his watch. "Unless you have any more accusations, I really have to get back to work," he stood up. Tony and Gibbs went to leave. "Have you ever thought about doing some modeling for us?" Dean asked.
"I thought it was a man's magazine," Tony answered.
"We're looking to branch out. Draw in a wider audience. I think you'll be a great male model," Dean said to them.
"Why, thank you. But I don't think...," Tony began to say. But the thought of it was enticing.
"I was talking about him," Dean pointed to Gibbs. "You know, you have a certain rebellious authority figure look about you," Dean smirked. He had a flair for seeing the photographic potential of people. Tony huffed as he exited the office. Gibbs followed close behind with a hint of a smile.
Xxxxxxxxxx
NCIS BULLPEN
Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, McGee, Abby and Faith all met up in the bullpen. They were ready to pool what information they had gathered. It didn't matter how little and insignificant it seemed. "What have we got?" Gibbs said as he stood behind his desk. It was getting late and his impatience grew with each passing hour.
Abby was the first to speak. "Timmy and I gave the letter the full going over. We analyzed the paper, the ink and the actual wording," she said as McGee nodded in some parts. "The author has put a lot of thought into this... And planning. The ink is the type that's sold in bulk. Usually brought by Internet Cafes. Paper is from cheap reams sold at post offices and Wal-Marts. It's traceable to the point that every Tom, Dick and Harry of all ages can buy," Abby completed her explanation.
"The wording isn't straight to the point. It's more than likely the one who wrote this knows Commander Coleman personally. So we... Abby and I have thought that maybe we should start speaking to her ex-boyfriends," McGee said.
Faith looked up from her take away box. It felt awkward that they were talking about her as if she was out of the room. She wondered if this was how they normally ran things. The mention of her exes grabbed her attention. "How many of them?" She asked. Faith wiped her mouth with a napkin as soon as she realized what she said. They all looked in her direction.
"How many of them?? How many have you had?" Tony asked.
"David," Gibbs moved the conversation along. The last thing they needed was to get hooked onto one topic.
"Christopher Jones was very upfront. I do not believe he has anything to do with the blackmail. He showed genuine surprise that Commander Coleman was being blackmailed. Also, I believe that he truly believes that he'd lose more than he could possibly gain from such an act. I also talked with a few other JAG employees and none of them had anything to do with the letter," Ziva gave her conclusions of her part of the investigation.
"They're very security tight at the GSM... Very secure," Tony continued as soon as Ziva had finished. "What we have is there must be somebody who accidentally came across the the issue with Faith in it," he sighed out of frustration and began tapping the pencil against his desk subconsciously. This seemed to kick his mind into gear.
"Do you mind?" McGee asked in an annoyed tone.
"I'm getting some water," Tony stood up suddenly. His mind was working overtime and maybe a slight break would quieten it down. A plan was forming in his mind but he couldn't vocalize it with his mind spinning. "Faith... Let me show you where the cooler is. You're looking thirsty," Tony said as he left the bullpen.
"What? I know...," Faith began to say.
"On my six....," he said. Tony didn't look back to see if she had obeyed his commanding tone. He filled a cup with water and smiled when Faith did the same.
"Bet you're having a good laugh," Faith said as she drunk her water. She knew that their options were dwindling.
"No, I'm not," Tony responded. "You know... There's a strong possibility that we won't find the blackmailer in time," of course it sounded pessimistic but certain facts had to be faced.
"Perhaps I can sell up," Faith sighed. That was a depressing thought.
"It's apparent that the blackmailer found that issue by chance. That this could happen all over again. You may be well off Commander Coleman but you're not that well off," Tony refilled his cup.
Faith nodded and swiped hair away from her eyes. "Guess I can kiss my career and reputation goodbye," she sighed sadly.
"Come on... There is one course of action left open to you," Tony had taken time to organize the plan in his mind. Now it made sense. It was time to suggest his far fetched plan. "You've heard of launching a preemptive strike right?" Tony said and waited for a response. He wondered how on Earth he could talk Faith into doing what he had thought of.