AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I need to send a very belated shout out to gaben, whose comment sparked the idea for the plot twist involving Agent Dawson. I do read your comments, and often they will trigger ideas that I hadn't even considered, so keep them coming.

CHAPTER 9

"I'm sorry to inform you, Agent Gibbs, Peter Sokolov is dead."

Gibbs studied Detective Long in stunned silence for several moments before finally asking, "when and how?" He glanced at Tony and Ziva and saw that they were now paying close attention to the conversation between himself and Detective Long.

"It happened last night about 23:00," he said, using military time. "As for the how, it was a hit and run." Detective Long also noticed the close attention the two other agents were paying to his conversation. "You sure you want to do this here?"

"I am." He nodded toward the two members of his team, "Special Agents Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David. As I said earlier, they are part of my team." Turning back to the detective, Gibbs had to force himself not to glare. "What aren't you telling me?"

"From what the witnesses have said, it looks like Sokolov walked right out into the middle of traffic and was hit by an SUV. It appears he was reading something and stepped right off the curb into the path of the vehicle. The SUV took off, and what few people were on the street at that hour rushed to Sokolov's aid." Detective Long shook his head. "Nobody thought to even attempt to get the vehicle's license plate."

"When I started investigating this case, I entered Mr. Sokolov's home and found a note on his kitchen table. The note said that if anything happened to him, I could contact you about his daughter, Anya's, whereabouts."

"Did it say anything else? Give any indication of what he might be worried about happening?"

"No, just to contact you about Anya." Detective Long considered Gibbs for a moment. He knew there was something the NCIS agent wasn't telling him. "Do you know anything, Agent Gibbs, that might be useful in my investigation? If so, I'd like to hear it, because at this point I'm leaning toward Mr. Sokolov's death being either an accident or suicide."

Gibbs sighed. "Anya Sokolov is in my protective custody. She was someplace she shouldn't have been and overheard something involving a Russian mobster by the name of Vladimir Lubivich. From what my team and I have been told and have been able to gather, Lubivich went after Anya to try and prevent her from testifying. She was subsequently put under protective custody with the FBI, but she wasn't exactly cooperative. An attempt was made on her life when she ran from the FBI's safe house. Peter Sokolov and I have been friends for a long time, and he asked me to take over Anya's protective custody. He was afraid the FBI wouldn't be able to keep her safe."

Detective Long nodded. "You think his death might have something to do with that?"

"I don't know. I've just learned that Lubivich has been dead for two weeks, but an attempt was made on Anya's life last night." Gibbs heard Ziva's and Tony's quietly spoke oaths, but ignored them. He would discuss what he had learned from Fornell with them after Detective Long had left. "Somehow, I don't think what happened to Peter is tied to what's going on with Anya." Gibbs made a split second decision to not share their suspicions about Agent Dawson and Ivan Carter. That information would only serve to cloud the issues surrounding Peter's death.

"But you do know something you aren't telling me. You are a law enforcement officer, Agent Gibbs. You know that I need all available information at my disposal if I'm going to find out what happened to Peter Lubivich," stated Detective Long, earning a hard glare from Gibbs.

Gibbs chose to ignore Detective Long's censuring comment and continued as though the man had not spoken. "When Peter came to see me to ask me to take over Anya's protective custody he confided in me that he had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was given only a few months. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he decided to commit suicide by walking out into the middle of traffic rather than succumb to the disease."

Again, Gibbs' team members expressed their surprise at this information. However, they weren't all that surprised that the information had been kept secret. Their boss wasn't one for divulging information unless it was important, and if Peter Sokolov wanted his cancer diagnosis kept secret, that was exactly what Gibbs would do unless he had no other choice.

"Does his daughter know about his cancer?" Detective Long asked.

"No, and I don't know if I'm going to tell her."

Again, Detective Long nodded. He pulled a business card out of the inside breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to Gibbs. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you to give me a call if you remember anything or find something out that could help my investigation." Before Gibbs could respond, he continued, "and I'll return the favor."

The three NCIS agents watched as he turned and walked toward the elevator. Ziva was the first to speak. "Poor Anya, to lose her father that way." She turned to look at Gibbs. "Do you think he really could have committed suicide?"

Gibbs shrugged. His mind was telling him that suicide didn't fit with the man he thought he knew, but his gut was telling him something else. "I don't know, Ziva."

Without looking at his agents, Gibbs began walking toward the elevator. "Get McGee back up here. Tell him to leave Anya with Abby."

"Where are you going, boss?" Tony asked.

"I'm going to talk to Ducky. While I'm gone, I want you to track down every connection you can find between Lubivich, Dawson, and Carter." Gibbs paused. He really didn't want to consider the possibility of his next thought, but it was there. "And find out if there is anything that connects Peter Sokolov to those three or the Russian mob."

"Gibbs, you really don't think Peter was involved in all of this do you?" Ziva was the first to respond. She was no stranger to secrets and betrayal, but was still somewhat naïve when it came to those actions in others.

"I don't know," Gibbs responded as the elevator doors closed.

"Jethro, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard stated when Gibbs stepped into Autopsy. "As far as I know, I'm not working on anything you are investigating."

"Need some advice, Duck," Gibbs stated as he moved to lean against one of the empty autopsy tables.

"Would this have anything to do with your young charge?"

"It does," Gibbs stated and proceed to fill Ducky in on what was going on.

"That poor girl," Ducky shook his head in sympathy. "I agree that she needs to be told of her father's death right away. But, the question is does she need to know about his cancer and your suspicions?" The medical examiner looked closely at his friend. "What are your instincts telling you?"

"That's just it. My gut is telling me there's more going on here than Peter committing suicide rather than succumb to cancer. I don't know if Anya needs to hear my suspicions, especially since I don't have anything to back them up."

Ducky moved to stand beside Gibbs and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Tell her what you know. If your suspicions prove true, then you can tell her if you think she needs to know. But for now, she will have enough to deal with without adding to the burden."

Gibbs sighed. The medical examiner had just confirmed what his paternal instincts had been telling him. "Thanks, Duck."

A few minutes later, Gibbs stepped into the forensics lab and immediately spotted Anya sitting on a high stool chatting with Abby while the scientist performed some kind of testing. He stood in the door and watched them for a moment.

Abby was the first to spot him. "Gibbs, what are you doing down here?"

"I need to talk to you about something, Anya," Gibbs said, coming further into the room.

At the sound of her name, Anya turned to look at Gibbs. She wasn't sure what the expression on his face meant, but she was sure she wasn't going to like it. "What's wrong?" she asked, coming to her feet.

"Let's go sit down in Abby's office," Gibbs directed, taking Anya by the arm and helping her off the stool. He led her into Abby's office, where he motioned for her to sit in the desk chair. Gibbs then pulled the visitor's chair around and sat in front of her, their knees nearly touching.

Abby followed and stood in the doorway. There was no way she was going to continue working. She could tell from Gibbs's demeanor that something was seriously wrong.

Gibbs took a deep breath. There was no easy way to say what he had to say, so he plunged right in. "Anya, a Metro Police detective came by to see me this morning."

"About what?" Anya knew she hadn't done anything in a while that would have drawn the attention of the Metro Police. She had been so careful to stay out of trouble that she'd been surprised when the FBI had approached her about Lubivich.

"Anya, your father was killed in a hit and run accident late last night," Gibbs stated and watched Anya's face as the meaning of what he had just said sank in.

"No," she cried, shaking her head. "That can't be. They made a mistake. It was somebody who just looked like my father, or somebody with the same name. It can't be him." At first she tried to pull away as Gibbs leaned forward and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Anya, but there's no mistake." He held Anya tight as she cried on his shoulder. Gibbs felt a bit awkward. He had never been any good with crying females, and grieving ones were even harder to deal with. But, he continued to do what felt natural and rubbed Anya's back in what he hoped was a soothing gesture.

A noise in the doorway caught his attention, and he looked over his shoulder just as Abby was closing the sliding glass door. Gibbs knew that she had been listening and assumed she was now giving them some privacy.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity to Gibbs, Anya pulled back out of his embrace and ran a hand over her wet cheeks. "What happened?"

"The police are still investigating, but it looks like he was distracted and stepped out into traffic. He was hit by a vehicle, which took off." Gibbs thought it best not to mention the note Detective Long had found in Peter's house. The very presence of the note indicated to him that Peter had either been expecting trouble or had been planning on doing something.

"Are they sure it was him? There's no mistake?"

"They're sure. A neighbor saw the whole thing and identified your father to the EMT who arrived on the scene."

Anya nodded. "I want to see him."

Gibbs understood her need and squeezed Anya's hand. "I'll get in touch with Detective Long and make arrangements. In the meantime, do you want me to find someplace for you to lie down?"

Anya shook her head and glanced over at Abby, who was unsuccessfully trying to look as if she was working. "No. I'll do better if I keep busy. Maybe there's something I can do to help Abby other than just keep her company."

Gibbs nodded. "Let's go see."

Leaving Anya with Abby, Gibbs left the NCIS building to go for a cup of coffee. The coffee run was as much about gathering his thoughts as it was about the caffeine hit.

A few minutes later, his head clearer and half of the large cup of coffee gone, Gibbs stepped into the bullpen. He was surprised to see that the only other person there was Tim McGee. "Report."

McGee jumped slightly at the sound of Gibbs's voice. He had been concentrating so hard on what he was reading that he hadn't heard his boss enter the bullpen. "Um, we located Dawson and Carter. Interestingly, they were together. Tony and Ziva took some back up and went to go pick them up. They should be back shortly. In the meantime, I've been going through their phone records and e-mail accounts. There's no doubt they've been working together."

At Gibbs's questioning look, McGee rose from his desk and handed him a stack of paper. "I pulled these emails from Carter's e-mail account. I have identified the sender as Agent Dawson. I'm in the process of going through her account now, but it looks like she deleted the messages." Gibbs looked up at him expectantly. "Of course, despite what most people think, deleting a message doesn't really erase it. It's still out there. It's just not visible. I may need to access her computer's hard drive to trace the e-mails directly to her, though."

"Request a warrant," instructed Gibbs.

"Already done. I'm hoping it will come through before Tony and Ziva head back. That is if Dawson uses a laptop and has it with her. If she uses a desk top, we'll have to retrieve it from her apartment."

"Do whatever you need to do to get that information, McGee. I don't need to know how you do it, I just want results."

"Yes, boss." McGee hesitated. "There's one more thing. Actually, there's two more things. I'm finding e-mails from a third party that I haven't yet been able to trace. That third party may be who is pulling the strings now that Lubivich is dead." Tony had filled McGee in on what they had learned from Fornell.

Gibbs stared hard at McGee. "Well, why are you talking about it rather than trying to identify this mysterious third party?"

McGee nodded and hurried back to his desk. "I'm just going to get back to work."

"Wait a minute," Gibbs interrupted. "You said there were two things. What's the other one?"

"Oh, yeah. There was package delivered to you by special currier. I put it on your desk." McGee started to turn back to his computer. "Boss?"

"What is it, McGee?" Gibbs asked somewhat impatiently as he moved to pick up the envelope McGee had indicated.

"I assume you've told Anya about her father."

"Yeah, so?"

"Is she okay?" The concern was evident in McGee's voice.

Gibbs's demeanor softened slightly. His computer expert was genuinely concerned about the young woman, and Gibbs could in no way fault him for that. "She's doing as well as can be expected. I left her helping Abby in the lab. She wanted something to keep her mind busy."

McGee nodded, understanding the need for that. After all, in the days and weeks that followed Caitlyn Todd's death in the line of duty, unless he kept busy his mind wondered to places he'd rather not have been. He supposed it was the same for Anya. "If there's anything I can do to help, just say the word." He turned back to his computer and resumed trying to unearth information on the mysterious third party.

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks, McGee."

Lifting the envelope from his desk, Gibbs looked at the return address and his blood ran cold. Written in Cyrillic were the words "the truth lies within."

TBC