See Chapter 1 for warnings and disclosures.

CHAPTER 7

"Whatcha doin', Mr. Gibbs?" Mikey Simpson knew his neighbor was some type of police officer, but he wasn't sure what kind. He also knew that someone had fired a gun at Mr. Gibbs' house. Mikey had been in his tree house in the backyard and had heard all the noise. He wondered if he should tell Mr. Gibbs about the man he saw running away from Mrs. McNess' house after all the noise was over.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs looked up as the small voice interrupted his work. After the police had left, he'd called Ziva and McGee in to help investigate the shooting. It wasn't as if he didn't trust the Alexandria Police to do their jobs, but he wanted to find out for himself who had taken a shot at Anya. He and Ziva had just started searching the tree trunk for the bullet hole with the intentions of determining its trajectory. Recognizing his next door neighbor's six year old son, Gibbs nodded to Ziva to continue what she was doing and went to the hedge to speak with the boy.

"Hi, Mikey. Do your mom and dad know you're out here?" After what had happened, Gibbs was surprised that the boy's parents had allowed him outside to play.

"They aren't home. Jessie's here." Mikey proudly explained, naming a teenage girl from the neighborhood who often babysat him. "She said I could play in my tree house."

Gibbs nodded. He supposed any danger had passed, but he stepped through an opening in the hedge to walk Mikey back to his house. They were half-way up the walk when Mikey stopped and looked up at Gibbs.

"Are you imbestabegating the man who fired the gun at your house?" he asked.

Gibbs stopped cold in his tracks. Any amusement he would have felt over the boy's massacre of the word "investigating" was overwhelmed by the chill of fear that coursed up his spine. Had Mikey seen something that would put him in danger? He needed to talk to the boy to find out what he knew, but he didn't want to do so until the boy's parents were home. "Yes, I am," he answered in response to Mikey's question. "But, right now, I think it would be a good idea for you to play inside for a while, okay?"

"Okay," Mikey responded and took off running toward the porch. As he mounted the steps, Gibbs called after him.

"Mikey, would you ask Jessie to come out here for a minute?"

The teenage girl stepped out onto the porch just as Gibbs was climbing the steps. He wasn't all that surprised to see the cell phone she was carrying in her hand. "Jessie, when Mr. and Mrs. Simpson get home would you have them give me a call? It's extremely important that I speak to them as soon as possible."

Jessie knew who Gibbs was. Everyone in the neighborhood did. But she had never really interacted with him. The fact that he was asking her to do something slightly intimidated her. "Okay, sure."

"It's important, so don't forget," Gibbs reminded her as he turned to step off the porch and return to his own yard.

Ziva was waiting for him when he returned. "I have determined that the shooter was in that wooded area across the road," she said, pointing to a small stand of trees next to the house that sat across the street. Together, the two NCIS agents crossed the street and entered the copse of trees. Immediately, they spotted where the shooter had been standing. In the middle of an area of trampled grass lay a single bullet casing.

"He left in such a hurry he forgot to police his brass," Gibbs stated. He knelt beside the piece of brass, and using the tip of his ink pen, picked it up and put it in an evidence bag. His plan was to take it to Abby to check for fingerprints. With any luck, the shooter hadn't worn gloves when he loaded his gun, and they'd shortly know exactly who he was.

Gibbs glanced up at the sound of a car pulling into a nearby driveway. He watched as Steven and Judy Simpson got out of the vehicle and headed toward their house. Turning to Ziva, he handed her the evidence bag. "Get this to Abby. I'm going to go talk to Mikey's parents."

"You think the boy saw something?" Ziva asked as she placed the evidence bag in her pocket.

"I don't know, but Mikey seemed like he wanted to tell me something. And, that tree house of his would have given him the perfect angle to see the shooter." Gibbs started off toward the Simpson's home. "Take McGee with you and have him dig deeper into Agent Dawson's background. My gut's telling me there's more there than we're aware of." With that he started jogging across the street to try and catch Mikey's parents before they entered the house.

A few minutes later, Gibbs sat at the Simpsons' kitchen table, sipping a cup of coffee while Mikey was enjoying a glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie. "Mikey, you think you could help me with my investigation?"

"Uh huh," Mikey said around a bite of cookie. He thought that helping Mr. Gibbs sounded like fun. "Whatta I gotta do?" he asked, after he swallowed the bite that was in his mouth.

"You just have to answer some questions for me. You think you can do that?"

Mikey nodded.

"Good boy. You told me earlier that you'd been playing in your tree house."

Mikey nodded in response.

"Were you there when someone fired a gun at my house?" He glanced up and gave a slight shake of his head when he heard Judy Simpson's sound of distress.

"I was playing pirates, and I heard the loud noise. I didn't know what it was, so I looked out the window and saw a man running away from Mrs. McNess' house. It looked like he was carrying a gun, but it didn't look like my water gun. It was big and black." Mikey looked over at his parents for support. His dad smiled as he rested his arm around his son's shoulder.

"Did you see what color hair the man had?" Gibbs asked, pulling his notebook out of his pocket so he could take notes.

Mikey nodded. "It was black, like that lady at the tree."

Gibbs assumed the boy was talking about Ziva, but decided it would probably be a good idea to clarify that fact. "Do you mean the lady who was helping me look at the tree earlier?"

"Uh huh."

Okay, Gibbs thought. The man was either dark-headed, which matched Lubivich's description, or he had been wearing a dark cap. "Did you see which way he was running?"

Again, Mikey nodded. "He went toward Mr. Patrick's house, and I saw him get in a white car. He left after that."

Gibbs held his hand out to Mikey, who shook it. "You've been a big help, Mikey. Thank you." He finished the rest of his coffee and stood to leave. Steven walked with him to the front of the house.

"Is Mikey in danger from what he saw?"

Gibbs turned to look Steven in the eye. "I don't think so. Whoever that man was, he was too busy trying to get away to look up in the trees on the off chance some kid might be in a tree house watching everything. But, it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on him anyway." Gibbs handed him a business card. "I know you've got my home number, but these are my cell and work numbers. If you see or hear anything that worries you, give me a call."

"What's going on?" Steven asked, accepting the card.

Gibbs knew better than to divulge too much information. "Sorry, that's classified. But, I can tell you it's nothing that you need to be worried about." Gibbs stepped out of the front door and flipped open his cell phone to call Tony to let him know what was happening. He then started in the direction of Patrick Conley's house to see the shooter had left anything else behind.

Back at NCIS:

Ziva walked into Abby's lab and was momentarily stunned when she realized the gothic forensic scientist was wearing a poodle skirt and a twin set. Abby's back hair wasn't in her customary braided pig tails, but was worn in a single pony tail that was wrapped in a filmy scarf.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Abby?" Ziva asked. Although she had not spent a great deal of time with Abby outside of work, she imagined her current attire was unusual, even for her.

Abby paused in the process of putting on her white lab coat and turned to look at Ziva. "I was on my way to the bowling alley when you called." She finished pulling the coat on. "I didn't take time to change."

"Bowling alley?" Ziva asked.

"The sisters and I were starting a bowling tournament tonight." Abby shrugged. "Sister Agatha is going to fill in for me." Seeing the evidence bag that Ziva was holding, she held out her hand.

After giving the evidence bag to Abby, Ziva returned to the bullpen where McGee was busily working away at his computer. This was the part of her job that Ziva disliked most. She was meant for action, not sitting behind a desk digging into people's lives or making telephone calls to gather information.

Ziva knew what Gibbs suspected, but as she continued to work she became more and more frustrated. Nothing she uncovered was helpful - everything indicated that Special Agent Amy Dawson was clean. She was beginning to wonder if Gibbs's infamous gut was somehow wrong.

"I think I've found something," McGee stated just as the elevator dinged and Abby came rushing out.

"I've got something, too," Abby stated as she entered the bullpen. "Let's call Gibbs and tell him." She started to reach for her cell, but Ziva was already dialing her desk phone.

"Gibbs, Gibbs," Abby called as she literally bounced over to Ziva's desk. "McGee and I both have something for you."

"Well?" came the terse reply.

McGee gestured for Abby to go first. "I ran the bullet casing for finger prints. The casing was for a 7.62 mm bullet. It's a caliber that isn't used much here in the U.S., but it's popular with the Russian military. There's been a series of shootings in the Washington D.C. area using that caliber, and the police think they're tied to the Russian mafia. Which I suppose makes sense, if you're going to shoot someone to send a message, you might as well use ammunition that can be tied to you. Otherwise, how would the person you intended to get the message to know it was from you? Although, now that I think about it, that would be dumb, too, since it would connect the shooting to you . . ."

"Abby," Gibbs stern voice interrupted.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, Gibbs." Abby paused to take a breath and rearrange her thoughts. "I was able to lift a partial print from the casing and matched it to an Ivan Carter. He's got a criminal record, mostly theft offenses, but the Metro Police want to question him in connection with a shooting that happened last week outside a Russian dinner."

McGee quickly pulled up information on his computer. "According to the FBI, Ivan Carter is a suspected member of the Russian mob and an associate of Vladimir Lubivich. It's not really known for sure, but they suspect he's either muscle or part of the chain of command." When McGee glanced up from his computer, he wore a surprised look on his face. "The FBI records indicate that he's from the same small town in southeastern Kentucky as Agent Dawson."

"That sounds kinky," Ziva stated.

"I think you mean hinky," Abby corrected, absent mindedly, earning a smirk from Ziva.

"You know how I feel about coincidences," Gibbs stated.

"There's no such thing," McGee responded. "That's not all. I hacked into Agent Dawson's bank records. She's been making substantial deposits on a regular basis. The deposits aren't her paychecks, those show up as coming from the U.S. Government, just like ours do. These have only a numbered reference and occur about once a month, sometimes twice a month for the last year."

"Have you tracked down the source of those deposits?"

"Not yet, I was about to when Abby came up here with her news."

"Track them down. Ziva, I want you to call Agent Dawson and ask her to come by in the morning. Tell her we found some information about Lubivich we want to share with her. We want her to come in voluntarily, so we don't tip him off."

TBC