AN: Late a gain... I'm going to stop making excuses, and simply apologise.

I Thought You Were a Lady

Chapter 4

"You want me down there right away?"

"Yeah, Boss, and Ziva. We figure it'll all be happening down here, whatever 'it' is – and we think it's a lot, from what we've learned so far."

Gibbs could hear the quote marks in Tony's voice. "Ya think it's imminent? "

"Difficult to say... but it won't be long. He'll come here sooner rather than later, and when he does, there could be some very dangerous people in the picture."

"Sounds like it. Is Liz OK?"

"She's nervous, Boss –"

"Nervous, huh?" The taciturn Marine couldn't help that slipping out, it was a DiNozzo understatement of gold star standard – the list of unpleasant names their investigation had pulled up would make anyone reading it way more than nervous.

"You know Liz, though. And Min. They won't be frightened off. I'll fill you in on the details when you get here. One thing you should know – we've let the local police in on it."

"Thought you weren't gonna do that." He was pleased that Tony had taken the initiative, but surprised nonetheless.

"It's getting bigger by the minute – we'd need another team, or some TADs, and you know we don't play nicely... and they've been really helpful letting us use their men, and facilities... there could be these very nasty people loose all over their territory – and we've revised – well, McGee's revised – his opinion of them upwards. We needed somewhere to keep our prisoners, and you just wait until you meet the lovely Angelica –"

"Angelica? You said – "

"She's no angel? Think I've changed my mind on that one, Boss. Need to know more, but I got a feeling... look, just get here soon, OK?"

"On the way."

Molly the Mole scurried away as Gibbs and Ziva picked up their guns and headed for the elevator.

NCISNCISNCIS

"You've got that wrong," the determined gossip said flatly. "It can't be happening so soon."

"But Agent Gibbs asked if it was imminent," Molly said, round eyed. "He asked if he should go there. And the girl's name is Liz."

"Well, it can't be anyone here, then," the sidekick said. "There's nobody called Liz works in this building."

"Well, whoever she is, she's feeling nervous," Molly said. "And I think she knows she's having a girl, cuz Agent Gibbs said he thought 'he wasn't going to do that' – and I'm sure he was talking to Agent DiNozzo. Then he said 'Angelica', as if he didn't like it so much, so I think they've found out what sex the baby is, and they've named her."

"But why would Agent DiNozzo do that if he's not the father, and they don't know who the father is? It doesn't make sense."

The determined gossip snorted. "I still say it's too soon. I think you've got it all wrong, Molly."

"No, I haven't!"

The other girl pushed back her chair, and her friend followed suit. "In fact, I think you've made it all up. You're a terrible gossip!" In a severe case of self-righteousness, the kettle who'd just called the pot black swept out of the break room, her shadow behind her, leaving Molly with her mouth open.

NCISNCISNCIS

Simon looked at Tony accusingly."You didn't tell him you'd co-opted me."

His friend looked at him unapologetically. "Not sure that I have. You're a civilian."

"I can take care of myself. You know that."

"Never knew a civilian better able to... but one it's against our rules, and two, not nearly so important of course, what's your son – or your fiance – going to say if I break you?"

"It wasn't me who got – " Simon shut up suddenly. It wasn't that Tony didn't need reminding of the last scrape they'd shared; he simply had more urgent things to do than be arguing with someone who – he was perfectly right – didn't actually have any official place in all this. Besides, Simon thought with a sudden frisson of anxiety, there'd been something different and brittle about Tony's mood ever since he'd come back from the interview room ten minutes ago.

The senior agent was fighting a wild urge to just run out of the place, go and saddle Doris up, and head for the mountains. "Campfire," he said suddenly, and jumped up from his chair. Tim looked up from his computer and raised a questioning eyebrow, then said something quietly to Inspector Bale. The tall, amiable man with the thinning dark hair pushed his chair back as the other three men pulled theirs over to the table where he sat. "We've not all four compared notes yet," Tony went on. "And I've just got some more info back from Abby, who got it from a friend on Wall Street... I'll save it for a minute. Let's have our ducks in a row by the time Gibbs and Ziva get here, cuz then we'll be needing to decide what to do. Nick, you interviewed Prater, d'you want to start?"

The Inspector grinned. "Mr. Kevin Prater. Five aliases – that we know of – original name Kevin Pepper, of Spokane. Now resides in Jacksonville. Hired by a man he knows only as 'Clive', to intimidate Miz Gunnerson by making threatening phone-calls, and parking mysterious vehicles in her lot, doesn't know anything else. How was he paid? Money direct into his account; Tim's set up a program to find out where it came from." He raised his eyebrows, but Tim shook his head.

"Nothing yet."

Nick Bale went on, "What did Clive look like? Never met him, he always phones. Didn't believe he was serious until a payment in advance appeared in his bank account; he was a bit intimidated himself that Clive could get his hands on the details. I asked him if he'd have gone further with the frightening if he'd been told to; he said you bet, he'd have been too scared not to. I asked him how they'd taken up with Cardoza's daughter, he said 'who's Cardoza'. He claimed he didn't know who Liz Gunnerson was or why he had to scare her, and that the kid had asked them if they were going towards DC."

Tony nodded. "Not true. Tell you in a minute. Sorry, go on... I know you did some hunting after that, but let's talk about his pal next."

He looked over at Tim, who nodded thoughtfully. "Did he tell you they've been here twice today? He was the guy who set the incendiary device. His name's Davey Wentzler, and he was told to pick the device up from a locker at the bus station in Culpepper. Clive again. Apparently all the time Kevin was 'bitching about having a freaking fire-starter in the trunk of his car' – and at one point he had to brake hard and they were nearly laying eggs, but the thing didn't go off... The oddest instruction was not to hit the chef too hard – Clive knew what time he'd be there – and only to turn one gas tap on. Seems it wasn't a serious attempt to burn the place, just some more intimidation."

"That's one of the things I just heard from Abby," Tony told him. "The device was faulty. As in, it had been built that way. You're right. Just another threat."

"I also asked him about Angelica Cardoza, he said she was just a hitch-hiker. We really expected not to get much of use from those two," Tim added, "but a search for their known associates has brought up a few names that tie in with the list of Cardoza's, up to the last information we have on him. And remember the gas station he allegedly drove away from without paying? The camera didn't show him clearly enough, but it did get a shot of his passenger. I got the tape sent to Abby, and she came up with a facial recognition hit."

He turned his laptop towards the other three men. First the screen showed a car standing at a gas pump; a man got out of the passenger door and walked away towards another vehicle, and the first one drove away. Then it showed Abby's program running, and finally a mugshot. "Mace Croft, minor fixer... works for Jack Burns."

"Woo," from Nick Bale. "Who?" from Simon. Tony just frowned.

"Not anyone you'd want to mix with," the Inspector said. "Teflon coated, you know? Nothing sticks, but there's plenty there. Big businessman, property, stock market, very above board... uses blackmail, torture, threats, kidnap, murder... we know he does, totally cold blooded, loves to have power over others... and nobody who's ever been in his power and lived to tell the tale will ever say a word against him."

Tony frowned again. "Si, get that crusading light of battle out of your eyes... he is not your next target. You try to investigate him, your offices will be toast by next morning. Every agency and force on the Eastern Seaboard is after him, and we'll get him in the end, but not until it's foolproof. Abby's Wall Street contact reports there's lots of rumour going on about some deal he's hoping to pull off, but nobody can find out what it is." He leaned back in his chair. "And guess what." He was clearly about to deliver a doozy, but his tone was hard and flat, not gleeful, as Tim would have expected. "That child in there," he jerked a thumb towards the holding cells, "her mother, Marguerite Bresson, is Jack Burns Personal Assistant."

After a moment of rather stunned silence, Tim said sharply, "When were you going to tell us that?" He regretted it right away; his SFA looked somehow intense, and rattled.

Tony sighed. "I just did, Tim," he said mildly. "I didn't want to say it until we'd talked about everything else, because now we're not going to think of anything else." He paused. "I was so not looking forward to interviewing her," he said quietly. "I wondered how I could make one of you take her on instead, but I'm not that sneaky. Maybe it was a good thing I did it... I thought I was going to get a young wannabee criminal, who knew nothing, but wanted to show how mature, and streetwise and tough she was by the size of her mouth. It's not what I got."

NCISNCISNCIS

"So... Angelica... why's your father a bastard, and why are you looking for him?"

She glared at him. "You got any cigarettes? They took my bag. I want a damn smoke."

"No, no cigarettes." He studied her, and she studied him back just as blatantly. She was scruffily well dressed; he wondered what she'd done to afford her F.A.M. Jeans, and the off-one-shoulder grey Dolce & Gabbana top. The white vampire streak in her well cut dark hair had been put there by an expert, her thong sandals were tiny wisps of Spanish leather, and the shoulder bag she'd hit him with was Louis Vuiton.

"Want a photo?" she asked acidly.

"We've already done that. And the prints. You're under arrest for assault on a Federal Agent; that'll do for now. We're looking into your background, seeing if you've got a record, that sort of thing -" she snorted, which was an interesting reaction, but said nothing - "That means you haven't , I take it... so I'm kinda interested in why you're in a car with two known offenders, intimidating an innocent woman who's nothing to you and never hurt you. Not charged you with that, yet. What were you doing?"

She shrugged. "I didn't know what they were doing there. Wanted to find my father. They said they knew where he was."

"How did they know? And how did you know them?"

"They didn't say. And I didn't. Kev came up to me outside college and said he knew I was looking for my father and he knew how to find him."

"And you got into a car with two guys you didn't know, to go you didn't know where..."

"I can take care of myself."

Tony rubbed the top of his arm theatrically. "Yeah."

"I didn't know you were a Fed." She was indignant, and accusing. How dare he be a fed and not have it written all over him. Actually, he'd always thought he did – except when he didn't want it to show, of course.

He leaned across the table and got in her face. "You didn't ask," he said sweetly. He drew back again, as a flicker of uncertainty crossed her face.

"Screw that," she said, "You could have been freaking anybody." She added a few more adjectives, watching for a reaction. Neither Tony nor the female officer sitting silently at the end of the table looked anything different.

"Yeah, sure," he said after a while. "OK, so they said they knew where your father was. Why d'you want to find him, if he's a bastard?" It was the sort of question he'd asked himself many times over the years... why d'you still bother with him when you're so far down the list of his priorities? Stop it.

She looked at him oddly, and he mentally berated himself for letting his guard down. "I'm a bastard too," she said in the end, and to Tony, it didn't sound as inconsequential as she intended.

"Literally or figuratively?"

"Literally. He and my Mom never got married. Could never figure out why she went ahead and had me. Like I said, I'm a bastard. Hey, maybe you are, too."

"Maybe... figuratively. What about your father?"

She laughed. "You don't bloody give up, do you. You don't know a damn thing."

"Well, no," Tony said blandly. "That's why I'm asking."

Her defensiveness wavered for a moment, and she gave a tiny laugh."Well... why are you interested in my Dad?" Tony registered the change from father to dad, and wondered just how many layers there were to peel back here. He thought of his own father. Did he have the right to go digging at this kid who wasn't as in command as she wanted him to think? Well, it was necessary, but he could only do it if he was up front with her.

"OK, I'll tell you. The you tell me. Deal?"

"Maybe."

So he explained, and her eyes grew wide. "So that woman... who recognised me... she's my Dad's wife?"

"Yes."

"And she hasn't seen him for sixteen years?"

"That's right."

"I saw him a week ago," Angelica said. "He sees me when he can... he likes to see me, which is more than can be said for Mom... he called my cell phone – he never calls on the house phone, Mom'd go apeshit. He said he was in trouble... needed my help... so I met him. In a diner. I took him some money... Mom never checks how I spend my allowance...he told me some bad guys were after him, and I told him to be careful. I needed to go to the ladies room...and when I came back he'd gone. I'd given him money, but he still took my amethyst key fob... the bastard – he wrenched it right off its chain! It wasn't worth much, but it was important. I gave him money, but he still took it... I don't care about him any more, but I want my amethyst back."

She ended on a wail that was very unlike the girl she'd been when they'd started; he'd put her at nineteen or twenty even, but now he felt he was out by two or three years. Seventeen, he thought. He fished in his pocket to see if he could find a handkerchief in case it turned into full scale tears, but she sat up straight and shrugged, and waited for him to say something.

"So... why was the key fob important, Angelica?"

Her chin reared up."None of your business." There were a couple of epithets in there too. Tony didn't react.

"No... I guess not. OK, neither's this. Why doesn't your Mom like to see you?" He braced himself.

Angelica sighed. "It was a gift. An unexpected gift from a boy I like... he gave it me on the spur of the moment... I think he'd like to date me, but I've got much more money than he has, and he thinks it matters. It would to Mom... I didn't mean she doesn't like me... she doesn't hate me or anything! I've got everything I could need... college fees paid... clothes... car... but she doesn't see me! Her job's much more important to her. She's PA to a big businessman. I mean, really big. If it's a choice between doing something for me or something for Jack, there's no contest."

"Ah." Tony mentally kicked himself for that one word, because now Angelica wasn't the only one revealing more than she intended. She looked at him searchingly, with a slight frown gathering above her nose. "Hey... I've been there," he said shortly. "No problem. This isn't about me."

"Takes one to know one," she said sadly. She paused. "I didn't tell you," she said after a while, "I didn't tell my Dad either – I knew why the bad guys were after him. I was going to say something when I came back from the rest room. Never got the chance."

Tony hunched his shoulders and shook his head. "Then she told me the most unbelievable story. And I believe it's true."

TBC

AN: A bit shorter than usual, but it seemed like a good place to stop. More Doris next chapter.