Chapter Four – The Fall Girls
Sterling Lancaster stood in front of the old house. It hadn't sold after Rachel Simpson died, and it looked as if it barely survived the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina. Sterling curled his lip in distaste and sent his minions in.
"See if you can find anything that survived from the time Mike died." He turned sharply and walked back to his limousine. Settling in to look over reports and numbers, he spent over an hour in his car outside the home before one of the three came back carrying a box in his hands.
"Mr. Lancaster? This box had old receipts in it, sir, from 1997."
"What good does a box of old receipts do me?" Sterling asked with a glacial look.
"Well, sir, stuck to one of the receipts was a slip of paper. Looked like an old phone message? It has Jenna Davis' name on it and this other name," the man squinted at the paper, "Abby, Abby Sc-something, but the phone number is still clear."
Holding his hand out for the paper, Sterling looked it over. He sneered. It was probably nothing. What were the chances of a phone message actually having something to do with his son's death? But it wasn't like he had a host of leads to chase down, so he determined to follow every glimmer of a lead, even if it turned out to be a dead end.
"Keep looking. No one leaves until something is found." He motioned for the driver to leave and the man was left standing in the driveway, staring after his boss.
Sterling made a phone call to an investigator he frequently used. "Find out all you can on this number from 1997." Giving the man the phone number and name, he slipped the paper inside an envelope. Better to keep that safe and hidden for now.
---
"It's called romance, McGee. You should try it," Tony said, responding to the teasing he was receiving from the others over the phone call he had just received.
"I sincerely doubt romance has much to do with what you have going on with your mystery caller," McGee said, rolling his eyes in distaste.
"And what do you know of romance, McGee?" Ziva questioned. "Something alluded to in a book you read?"
"When did this become 'pick on McGee hour'? I thought Tony was the target this afternoon," he complained, hoping to turn the attention back to his coworker, who was sitting back in his chair with a smug smile on his face.
"Teasing Tony about romance is not fun," Ziva replied. "It's like teasing a tiger about his spots."
"Tigers have stripes, Zee-vah," Tony interjected.
"Exactly," she answered triumphantly. McGee laughed, gaining a glare from Tony, a satisfied smile from Ziva and a smirk from his boss.
Abby stepped off the elevator into the bullpen, the girls following closely behind her.
Tony dropped his mostly empty coffee cup, not even noticing the possible damage to his keyboard, and froze, his mouth agape. Noting his reaction, McGee turned toward the elevator; his breath hitched and then paused, as if time had temporarily stood still. Ziva and Gibbs turned to find the object of their attention. Gibbs smirked at the sight of Abby leading two very lovely girls toward his desk.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "You act like you've never seen a beautiful woman."
"Beautiful woman? That's like the stairway to heaven," Tony said. Gibbs chuckled. The girls did resemble stair steps: Abby at her towering height, the youngest girl somewhere in the middle and the very petite lady bringing up the rear.
"Behave, Tony," Abby said smartly, "we have guests." Stopping in front of Gibbs desk, she said, "Gibbs, I need to talk to you."
"I figured you were up to something," he said, eyeing each of the girls suspiciously.
Abby smiled. "Gibbs, this is Brenna and Jenna Davis. Ladies, this is Special Agent Gibbs," Abby said, motioning to the man in front of her. "This is Officer David, Special Agent DiNozzo, and Special Agent McGee," she continued, pointing in each person's direction.
Brenna met each team member's smile with one of her own, making eye contact with each, in turn. Except Agent Gibbs, of course, to whom she had turned her back to greet the others. Hearing Abby continue her explanation, she forced herself to turn back around, only to find herself looking directly into the steely blue eyes of Agent Gibbs. She smiled brightly, but received a look of curiosity and suspicion in return.
Jenna greeted each of the team members with a friendly, open expression. She quickly turned back to face Agent Gibbs, watching him secretly from the corner of her lovely brown eyes.
"Gibbs, these are two old acquaintances of mine. Brenna is a scientist who works in research and development for DAX Pharmaceuticals in San Antonio, Texas. She suspects they have a viable oral biochemical weapon ready to be produced at any time."
Gibbs raised his eyebrow at the two women and the younger of the two ducked her head. The petite woman, however, continued to meet his gaze directly and said, "You want to know why we came here and didn't go straight to the DEA? Like Abby said, we know and trust her. We thought the information would be more credible coming from an official source."
"Credible?" Gibbs asked.
"That's understandable, Boss," Tony jumped in to defend, for which he earned his boss' patented stare. "Shutting up now, boss."
"A pill?" Ziva asked. "How many will one kill?"
"At least one person. The decomposition rate of the body and the people exposed to it would alter potential casualty numbers. It is possible one dose could kill several people," Brenna explained.
"Do you have the formula?" Tim asked and blinked when Brenna smiled at him again.
"It's in her head," Jenna finally found her voice. "She doesn't have to write things down to remember them. I have the shopping list at the grocery store, she goes off memory and I still miss things while she never does." Seeing Gibbs staring at her, she looked back down. "She doesn't need to write things down." She repeated.
"Abby, could you work up a model of how many people this could affect? I'd want numbers before I take this outside our agency."
"Sure, with Brenna's help. And Jenna's too," Abby added when she saw the look on Jenna's face. "We'll get right on it, Bossman."
Abby led the women to the elevator amidst the stares and speculative thoughts of the agents throughout the bull pen.
"Did you see that smile? Stunning. She could stop traffic with that," Tony spoke, amazed, and not even caring that they girls could still hear him. "And the other one? I just wanted to gather her in my arms and tell her everything would be okay," he added with a lecherous grin.
"And who would protect her from you, Tony?" Ziva asked.
"Enough!" Gibbs interrupted, frustrated at his team's apparent lack of focus. "While we're waiting for Abby's results, let's see what we can find out about DAX Pharmaceuticals. McGee! When you catch your breath, could you assist?" He shook his head as he turned back to the work on his own desk. He supposed he really couldn't blame them; it had taken a lot of control for him not to have a similar reaction.
---
Franklin was working the only lead he had. He was going through the phone records for Janice Simpson. The woman really led a solitary life. She went from home to work, from work to the store and from there, home again to cook a meal for one. She had a permanent pucker to her mouth as if she had been sucking on too many lemons. And she wasn't pleasant when he approached her door posing as a salesman to gain entry to the house. No bother. He'd just wait until she slept and then go in. It wasn't the first time he'd done the dirty work on his own and he knew it wouldn't be the last. Sometimes the only person you could trust to get the job done was yourself.
Waiting for the old bat to retire for the evening, Franklin busied himself fabricating a detailed paper trail that would prove Brenna Davis responsible for the all the underhanded goings-on in the lab at DAX Pharmaceuticals. He smiled evilly at the thought of the lady who was ruining all his plans going down as a result of her own meddling, and taking her sister with her. "Go ahead, Davis," he said to himself; "I'll be ready."
---
The trio was silent in the elevator. Jenna and Brenna smiled at one another conspiratorially. Abby smirked.
"All I have to say is, WOW," Jenna broke the silence as the elevator's ding announced its arrival and Abby led the way to her forensics lab.
"I know," Brenna chuckled. "I felt like a kid in a candy store. How do you get any work done?" she asked Abby, in half seriousness.
Abby smiled, "It's hard sometimes, but I'm very driven."
"Very lucky is more like it," Jenna added.
"What was up with you in there, Jenna?" Brenna asked. "It's not like you to be so passive."
"I know!" she replied, a blush creeping into her cheeks. "It's just… those eyes."
Brenna sighed, "I agree. It was all I could do to keep from staring."
"At least you could look him in the eye. They were just… the most amazing shade of blue," Jenna said dreamily.
"Blue? What are you smoking, girl? His eyes couldn't be greener," Brenna countered adamantly.
At Jenna's quizzical expression, Abby stepped in with curious look on her face. "This is easily explained as, clearly, you are talking about Gibbs and you are talking about McGee." She looked to each girl in turn.
The sisters smiled at one another. Brenna chuckled. She should have known Jenna wasn't thinking about the same man she had been drawn to; they had always exhibited slightly different tastes in men.
"Well, it really doesn't matter," Jenna responded. "Everyone I saw looked as if they could be in a magazine."
"True," Abby admitted. "NCIS is a pretty happenin' place to work."
Picking up on the hesitancy in Abby's voice, Brenna asked, "Is there something wrong?" Her eyes widened with revelation, "Which one are you sleeping with?"
"None, at the moment," Abby said cryptically. "But this team is my family," her voice took on a slightly threatening overtone.
"Relax," Brenna assured her. "We are here begging for your assistance. The last thing we're going to do is seduce your friends, get married and start making babies."
Jenna laughed Brenna's remark off, but Abby's eyes widened in horror. It was obvious to Jenna that her sister had been joking, but this didn't seem to be an area about which Abby was ready to joke. Hoping to smooth things over, she said, "Exactly. We're here for help not a hook-up." Turning to the equipment, she looked around with wide eyes. "WOW, again. You run all this stuff?"
Sidetracked by the topic of her lab, Abby showed them around and then settled in front of her computer to work up the model Gibbs asked for. Her exuberance was a bit dimmed, however, by the previous topic.