Hello, my children! I still have a cold so I'm not really in the mood for a long pre-posting chat so, straight to the point:
I don't own anything, blu bli blu... whatever...
Enjoy :)
CHAPTER 9
"Look, Kirsty… I don't have much time and I need to know the truth…" Liz insisted and then, the door opened
"Liz…" Gibbs said and motioned her to get out of the room
Liz sighed and stood up. She closed the file and then placed a piece of paper on the table "This is where I'm staying and that's my cell phone number… call me or pay me a visit when you're ready to talk…" She said and left Kirsty alone
"What is it, Gibbs?" Liz asked
"We need to talk…"
"How many times have you said that in the past 36 hours?" Liz asked smiling but losing her smile noticing Gibbs' seriousness "What's wrong?"
"You are about to be tagged as an official NCIS suspect and in order for me to stop that, I need you to tell me the truth now…" Gibbs said
Minutes later, Liz was sitting on the chair that faced the two way mirror inside the interrogation room. She was alone but she knew Gibbs, Tony and probably Ziva and McGee were watching her from the other side.
"What now, boss?" McGee asked
"We need to interrogate her…" Gibbs answered
"Like any other suspect" Ziva completed earning an angered stare from Tony "Don't give me that look, Tony… you think you know her but you don't! She was in Moscow before she came here! She was in Moscow 2 days before Collins was killed"
"Shut up, Ziva" Tony said
"I will not shut up… look at this"
She handed him the pictures her friend from Mossad had sent her and his eyes widened.
"I'll do it" Tony finally said looking back at Liz at the other side of the glass
Before any of them could say anything, Tony walked out of the observation room and entered the interrogation room with the pictures in his hand.
Liz looked up from the table and wasn't a bit surprised to see Tony.
In absolute silence, he walked to the table and sat opposite to Liz.
"How did your fingerprints get on the dagger that killed Cpl. Collins?" He questioned dryly
"I don't know…"
"Tell me the truth"
"I am telling you the truth… I don't know how they got there!"
"Stop lying! For once in your life, tell the truth!" He exclaimed standing up so violently that his chair fell backwards making a deafening sound "Did you have something to do with Collins' murder?"
"No" Liz simply said without moving her eyes from in front of her
"Then what does this mean?" He threw the pictures on top of the table
"Ziva gave you these, didn't she?"
"Does it matter? What were you doing in Moscow before Collins' murder?"
"I am not authorized to talk about that" She replied with stoicism
"Oh, really?" Tony snapped back pretending to guffaw "Well, I don't give a damn if you're authorized or not! You're gonna tell me the truth and you're gonna do it now!"
"Are you trying to get back at me because of what I did to you?" Liz said standing up and facing him
Tony then walked to the door and locked it and then, just to be sure, he secured the entrance with the steel table by dragging it and pushing it against the door.
Inside the observation room, Gibbs, McGee and Ziva were completely caught off guard.
"DiNozzo, stop it!" Gibbs called, banging the glass with no avail "C'mon!" He called his other 2 agents as he rushed out of the room
"This has nothing to do with that! You betrayed NCIS; you betrayed Gibbs… you betrayed me!" Tony continued
"And that's what hurts you the most, isn't it? I have never betrayed anyone in my entire life! All I've ever done is risk my life for everyone else!"
He cornered her against the wall and she tried to push him away but he didn't let her. He was too angry to be in control of himself.
"All you've done since you arrived has been making a mess! Our case could've ended yesterday and you've made sure to complicate everything! That's why I saw you yesterday morning at the coffee shop, isn't it? You didn't come to D.C. to deliver a report… you came here to penetrate into our investigation to cover your ass!"
"You were the one who call me, don't you remember?"
"I wish I hadn't done it!" He exclaimed hitting the wall with his hand making her jump "What's the name of your Russian friend? The one you talked to yesterday… the same man that appears in these pictures"
"Liev Meier" She said calmly
He leaned forward and spoke to her ear, his voice turning into a whisper completely inaudible to Gibbs and the others "What you said… in the elevator… it was a lie, wasn't it?" She looked up to see him in the eye "You made me believe you loved me…"
Outside the interrogation room, Gibbs and the others tried to open the door.
"Tony, open the door! Open it now!" Gibbs instructed but Tony was not listening
"When the time comes, you'll realize that is not true… I just hope it is not too late" She replied as low as him with tears in her eyes
Tony felt taken aback by her answer and took a few steps away from her, not taking his eyes off her
"Tony!" Gibbs insisted from outside
Then, Tony grabbed the end of the table and pulled it away from the door. Gibbs, Ziva and McGee burst in.
"She had nothing to do with it, boss" Tony simply said and exited the room
"What was that all about?" Gibbs asked he asked Liz but she remained silent "Liz?"
"Am I under arrest?" She asked and Gibbs didn't answer right away "Am I?"
"No" Gibbs replied and it took Liz less than 2 seconds to exit the room but Gibbs followed her "Elizabeth!"
"I am not under arrest, Gibbs. You've just said it" She said without stopping
"Yes, but if you don't stop and listen to me I will make sure you spend the night in a cell" He warned her and she stopped "What the hell did just happen?"
"Tony just proved his interrogation skills" She answered with irony
"This is not a game, Liz"
"Don't you think I know that?"
"I don't know what you're thinking, Liz! You don't seem to trust us… any of us!"
"I believe the feeling is mutual, Gibbs…" She said and looked at him with sadness "I will remove myself from the investigation…" She continued walking but then stopped and looked back at Gibbs "And tell Tony I will not impose my presence on him ever again"
And then she was gone.
Gibbs didn't return to the interrogation room. He went straight to the bullpen, looking for Tony but he couldn't find him anywhere.
Meanwhile, McGee and Ziva decided to go and check on Kirsty.
"Do you think agent Hadley's been lying to us?" McGee asked
"If she hasn't been lying she hasn't been telling the whole truth either" Ziva replied and opened the conference room door "Miss Randall… are you…? Where is she?" She asked noticing Kirsty's absence
"Gibbs is going to be so mad at us…" McGee said while Ziva called security
"I need a full search inside the building. The subject: Kirsty Randall" She said as they rushed to the bullpen
"Boss! Kirsty's gone" McGee said
"What?" Gibbs asked
"She's gone. She must've left when… when Tony was interrogating Liz" Ziva said
"Or maybe someone took her away" McGee said
"Kidnap? Inside the building?" Ziva asked "That would be impossible"
"I want a team looking for her inside and outside the Yard" Gibbs instructed as Tony walked into the bullpen "Where were you?"
"I went to see Abby... to make sure she hadn't made a mistake with Liz…"
"And?"
"Nothing on that yet… but she gave me this…" He handed Gibbs a piece for paper "The results of the last set of unidentified fingerprints inside Kirsty's house…"
Gibbs read the report and gave it back to Tony, rushing towards Abby's lab.
"Natalya Tereshchenko?" McGee asked reading the paper "Who's that?"
"Abs!" Gibbs shouted as soon as he walked out of the elevator "Who is Natalya Tereshchenko?"
"I can't tell you, Gibbs"
"You can tell me and you will"
"Gibbs, Liz asked me not to tell anyone, not even you"
"What does Liz have to do with this?" Abby bit her lower lip and shook her head "Abby, if you don't tell me what you know, Liz's career could be in danger"
"What? What do you mean?"
After assessing Gibbs' concerned look she decided to tell him everything.
"Yesterday, when Liz came to see me, she asked me to run a search on a woman named Natalya Tereshchenko. She was born in a town near St. Petersburg. Her parents died when she was 15 years old and after that, her brother got into a lot of trouble. He met a man called Luka Volkov who, I discovered runs one of the biggest arm dealing cells in Russia" Abby explained
"And the fingerprints in Kirsty's house belong to this Natalya?" Gibbs asked starting to get confused
"Yes! You should've seen my surprise when I saw the name and realized it was all related" Abby continued "But that wasn't what shocked me the most… After her brother died, 6 years ago, Natalya Tereshchenko and all trace of her disappeared. It was as if she had vanished from the face of the Earth"
"What was the name of her brother?" Gibbs asked
"Uhmm… Nikolai… Nikolai Tereshchenko"
Gibbs didn't say anything else and rushed out of the lab.
"DiNozzo, get the car. We need to talk to Liz. What hotel she's staying at?"
"The Hilton Washington, boss"
"Try to contact her while we get there…" He said and while he and Tony rushed to the elevator, he dialled Kirsty's cell phone number "C'mon… pick up… answer the phone, Kirsty…"
Sitting on the passenger's seat of a brand new silver Mercedes Benz, Kirsty watched the name 'Gibbs' lighting up the screen of her cell phone.
"Who was that?" The driver asked
"Agent Gibbs" She replied and looked at the man
"Небеспокойтесь, мыпозаботимсяоегоивсюкоманду, включаяагентовХэдли(Don't worry, we'll take care of him and the rest of his team)" Dmitri Vasiliev reassured her taking her hand and kissing it tenderly. She smiled at him and then he looked out the window "Получитьее(Get her)" He instructed through a walkie-talkie
The Mercedes Benz was parked at Connecticut Ave., outside the Hilton Washington Hotel.
Kirsty saw when agent Hadley got out of a cab and walked into the hotel.
"Онаскорокончится, любовьмоя(It will soon be over, my love)" Dmitri said sweetly while Kirsty looked at Liz from afar
Uuuuu, creepy people blu bli blu... I'm absolutely doped on flu medicine so... just read enjoy and do whatever you do after you do all the things I just mentioned.
The end is coming... *_*
Koo Koo Kah Choo! xoxo