I watched as Edward walked out toward the woods. Something was going on here. He walks through the woods to get here, but he knows that it was almost always raining in this gloomy, old town.
"Is that weird?" McGee asked.
"That is quite odd," Ziva replied. "Who walks through the woods and not think about the possibility of rain?"
"Let's move out," I say. "We have all that we need from here." As the team starts packing up, I turn to Charlie. "Is walking through the woods normal for him?"
"He usually brings his car, but his family does go camping a lot. I really can't say."
"We'll probably talk to him tomorrow for some follow up questions. Hopefully, we can keep the situation out of people's minds so there won't be any gossip. You know how the town can be."
"I don't see how you're hoping to achieve that. Half the town probably already knows. I should probably call Renee before someone else does."
With our conversation over, the team had everything together and stored and ready to leave. Walking out of the house, it started sprinkling, a sure sign that rain was again on the way. Getting in the car and starting it up, the car was silent after the purr that the car gave off was over. We were all thinking of ways to find Bella and Ari. He would probably be out of town but not out of Washington. If he was waiting for me the way I thought he was, he would stay in the state and wait for me to hunt him down. Since Ari had at least a seven-hour head start, he couldn't be that far away and have a place to hide that would fit his liking.
I soon pulled up to the only motel in Forks. Parking in the abundance of spaces, we got out of the car and took our luggage with us inside. The inside had old furniture that looked like it would break if you leaned against it and peeling paint. It almost reminded me of the high school's main office, if not for the different colors, if no one changed anything about the school. There was a bell on the desk that Tony rang. Soon, an elderly woman came up to the desk.
"How may I help you, Sonny?" the woman asked.
"We'd like some rooms," Tony replied, replied by the nickname while the other two snickered behind him.
"How many rooms?" the woman asked.
"Two," I answered before this could go on for a while.
"What type of room would you like?" she asked.
"Just give us keys to two rooms, please," Ziva told the woman, becoming annoyed. "Any type of room you have will be fine."
The lady then gave us the room keys after doing the routine 'that will be thirty dollars a day per room,' as unkindly she could get. However, she didn't give up the old, sweet grandmother routine I'd seen thousands of times before. Since it took a long time to sign whatever papers needed to be taken care of, I decided to take my hat off, seeing as it wasn't needed anymore; it turned out to be a bad idea.
"Do I know you?" the woman asked, starting her questioning tangent again.
"I'm sure you don't," I replied even though there was a huge possibility that she did.
"Are you sure? You look a lot like a young man that left a long time ago for the military. What was his name?"
"Can you hurry this up?" Tim asked, finally getting annoyed with the lady.
"His name was Leroy. Or was it Jethro? I'll think of it later. Here are your keys, and if you need anything, my name is Sarah Deans."
"Finally," I hear Tony mutter under his breath.
To get to our rooms, we turned down the hall. Taking the keys out, we unlocked our rooms; they were right next to each other, and both were doubles. Ziva and Tim put their stuff in one place while Tony and I put ours in another. Although we would get things done faster alone in DC since we were in a new territory, we decided to would be best to work together. We made Tony and my room into 'headquarters' after putting stuff away. Minutes later, Ziva and Tim knocked on the door. Tony opened it and let both of them in.
"Did you know that woman, Boss?" Tim asked.
"She was one of the teachers down at the high school. Unfortunately, she likes to gossip. In a couple of hours, the whole town will know if she has any say in it."
Tim's laptop beeped as it finished turning on. He hit some keys and soon was in the NCIS database.
"Ziva," Tony started asking, "where would Ari most likely be? In a house, apartment, storage unit?"
"He would most likely be somewhere where someone might not look for someone else."
"But doesn't he want Gibbs' to find him, though?" McGee asked.
"Even taking in that information, Ari would send Gibbs some type of message to show where he is."
As if on cue, my phone rang. I looked that the caller ID, which came up as restricted. Knowing in my gut that it was Ari, I put the phone on speaker.
"Hello, Ari," I start.
The others turn toward me. I'm surprised as well with Ari calling so early in the investigation. I see Tim tap more keys on his computer and notice that he is trying to find the location using the area's cell towers. If there were fewer clouds, he would probably get a more accurate reading, but there was no way that was happening.
"Well, hello Gibbs, I would have thought you would have happy to hear from me. I see I was wrong."
"The last thing I wanted to hear, or see should I say, was your name again."
"Oh, I see you got my messages. And, hello DiNozzo, McGee, and you too, little sister. I know the three of you are there as well."
"How about we stop this, and you tell me what I want to know."
"Oh, but that would make my game a little too easy. What's the fun in playing cat and mouse when the cat knows exactly where the mouse is?"
"Okay. Your game, your rules. Tell me how this is going to happen."
"First, I'm going to tell you these messages, and you have to find them. By the way, here's the first message. I hope you have a pen and paper out."
With those words, Tony pulled out the paper pad set in the room and the pen that came with it.
"Here it is: 'Known as the city of rain, surrounded by water, roadways go past, but silent as the breaking of dawn, surrounded by people but yet there are no people at all, used to be filled with lights but yet the Northern Lights don't shine here.'" There was the dull sound soon on the other, and we knew he had hung up, but before that, I heard a quiet moan sound as if in pain. That was out proof that he had Bella.
"Did you get all of that, DiNozzo?" I asked Tony.
"Yes, Boss," he replied. "That moaning sound in the background, that was Bella, wasn't it?"
I nodded my head in response. I look toward McGee, hoping he got anything from the call.
"Sorry, Boss. I could only narrow it down to Seattle. That has to be something, right. At least we know what the 'city of rain' is."
"But what about the rest of it!" Ziva shouted out. "How are we supposed to know what water he's talking about, or the roads, or the special lights? What are the Northern Lights anyway?
Tony decided to answer her question this time. "The Northern Lights is an electrical phenomenon that takes place in either Alaska or Canada. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful things that you could see, right up there with the Mona Lisa or the pyramids of Egypt. There's another name for them, but I don't remember what it was."
The three bounce possible ideas off of one another for the next couple of hours, getting nowhere. When I looked up, I noticed it was midnight. Considering the three hour time difference, to us, it was three in the morning. Also, add the number of times that we had yawn in the last couple of minutes, I safely concluded that it was time to get some shut-eye. I told the team this, which they willingly went along with, got ready for where we would be in Seattle after talking to the Cullens, figuring out the message Ari had given us. This was one step closer to us finding my niece.
I woke up to the sound of rain the next morning. Surprisingly, Tony was not awake due to the sound. I took a quick shower and put on an old T-shirt and jeans. I then left the room after setting the alarm to go off in ten minutes. After walking down the hall, I noticed that people were talking in the lobby. I got closer and heard the voices of Susan and an unknown person.
"I swear it's him," Susan said. "Lily, it has to be. He was one of my students."
"Susan, calm down," Lily started. "I'm sure we'll figure this out. Is that the man you're talking about, coming down the hall?"
I continued walking while the women stayed standing at the front desk. I walked from the arch to the main lobby; the two looked toward me, looking up and down. I quickly got a cup of coffee, not wanting to be in the same area as the women. I walked outside to the car, leaning against it, drinking my coffee. When we got to Seattle, I knew that we would have to work fast, especially if Ari was lying about his location. I looked at the dash, noticed that twenty minutes had gone by. I walked back inside and saw that Lily and Susan were still talking. I walked back down the hall and into the room. I saw Tony dressed and putting his firearm in his belt, along with his knife. The kid learns the rules well. I grabbed the pad of paper that contained the riddle.
"I'm ready to go, boss," Tony said.
"Let's go then," I replied.
We walked out of the room, about to knock on Ziva's and Tim's toom when the two of them walked out with their gear, ready to go. Walking toward the lobby, Lily and Susan were no longer there. We walked to the car and got ready to leave. I called Charlie and asked for directions for the Cullen house, looking at the riddle one last time before pulling out of the parking lot.