AN: Done! I am going to be a bit mean, though. The final chapter isn't going up here until tomorrow. Mostly because it would ruin the effect of the ending of this chapter to put them up back to back. But I'll post it first thing.
Chapter 29
McGee waited until Ziva and Aaron were settled in one of the interrogation rooms before heading over to observation for the room where Gibbs and Tony would be bringing Melissa, coffee tray in hand. Inside, Dorney was standing there watching Abby bounce in place.
"Abs, what's going on?" McGee asked.
"McGee, this is bad." She shoved a piece of paper at him. "I checked, and it looks like she was on the bases where the deaths happened on the right days. Or wrong days. Because I don't think the victims would think they were the right-"
"Abby." McGee set the tray down and reached over to grab her upper arms, steadying her in place. "What about the Caf-Pow?"
She shook her head. "Negative."
"Good." McGee nodded. "Dorney, Ziva's in room 2 with Aaron. Why don't you go in with her, and you two see how much information about his sister you two can get out of him, especially if he knows anything about her obsession with Boone."
Dorney nodded and headed out.
"Abs, you'd better head to the lab before she gets here. If she thinks we're bringing her in for the murders, not the assault, she might make one last attempt at whatever plan this is, and you're the most likely target — it would hurt Gibbs and you're not armed."
"Can I go get a real Caf-Pow, since I had to toss the other one?" she asked.
McGee shook his head. "Do you want Gibbs to kill you? Wait until we're sure we've got her locked away. But you can at least walk around without an escort."
And at that, Abby was gone.
It was only another few minutes before Tony and Gibbs led Melissa into interrogation, then Tony left and joined McGee in observation.
"You guys get Aaron in safely?" Tony reached for his coffee and dumped in the sugar. "Think I should bring the Boss his coffee?"
"Did you just ask if you should interrupt Gibbs in interrogation?" McGee stared at him.
"He's not-" Tony broke off as Gibbs stood and leaned across the table, blocking their view of Melissa. "OK, the Boss has started. Forget I said anything."
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Ziva motioned for Aaron to sit as McGee left the room. She understood why they were bringing him down here. It would be much easier to observe both him and his sister so McGee and Tony could bring information to Gibbs that she was able to coax out of Aaron. Still, this was not an inviting setting.
"Am I in trouble?" Aaron asked as he sat, folding his hands and resting them on the table.
"No, you are not," Ziva said. "But if we are to make sure your sister does not hurt you again, we need all the information we can get to put her away."
He nodded, and looked down at his hands. "It started when I was little," he said. "My mom was Navy, so she was deployed a lot, and we were at home with my father. She's a lot older than me, and she hated having me around. She always told me to leave, not to bother her." He rubbed one thumb across the knuckles of his other hand. "She always used words, then, and I'd hit her, you know the way kids do when they're frustrated." He looked up her. "My father always told me that I should never hit a woman, so I was the one who got in trouble."
Ziva nodded, even as she heard the door open. But she saw Dorney walk into a corner, out of the way, so she focused on Aaron. "When did she start hitting you?"
"She followed Mom into the Navy, and she was gone a lot, just like Mom. By the time she came back, our father was dead, and I was in high school. She hit me in the arm one time, and I wanted to hit her back, but I could hear my father telling me no. After that, she started hitting me more." Aaron looked down again, and kept his gaze on his hands. "But nobody ever thinks she would do something like that."
"We will make sure she does not do it again," Ziva said. She looked over at Dorneget, who nodded and said something. It took Ziva a second to figure out what he was saying, but then she nodded. "Aaron, do you remember one of your sister's classmates, a Sarah McCray?"
He nodded, and his fingers tightened, the knuckles whitening from the pressure. "She and Melissa used to be friends, and Sarah didn't like having me around either."
Ziva didn't look away, not wanting to be distracted by Dorneget's reaction. "Do you remember when Sarah died?"
Aaron didn't say anything for a minute, then he slowly nodded his head. "That was the week things changed."
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Leon Vance finished seeing Dr. Cranston off, after she let him know that she thought the team needed sleep more than anything she could provide. He thought she might end up stopping by Gibbs' basement once this was over, but that was a thought he'd keep to himself. If anybody could help him, it would be her.
He headed instead for interrogation, after confirming that Dr. Pitt was in Autopsy, still helping Palmer and Dr. Mallard. He wanted to make sure this woman was put away for good after what she had done.
Vance first looked in Observation Room 1, where Tony and McGee were watching Gibbs. The interrogation room was silent, so he must be trying to break her with his glare. Vance left the younger agents alone and headed for Observation 2. He opened the door, surprised to see Scuito there. She was watching the scene play out in the interrogation room, and didn't even look over when he walked in and shut the door.
He tucked his hands in his pockets and wished for a toothpick.
Dorneget was standing against the wall, a peculiar expression on his face. Vance wasn't as familiar with the rookie agent as he was with the rest of the team. Dorneget was easier to read — he didn't have as much experience hiding his thoughts. Unlike DiNozzo, who had raised it to an art form. But Vance also wasn't as familiar with the nuances of Dorneget's expressions.
"Agent Dorneget?" He turned to Scuito, who was still focused on the conversation.
"Huh?" Abby looked over. "Are you asking how he's doing, Leon?" She wrinkled her forehead. "He's doing good, really good. He had a friend who was in Aaron's position, not by his sister, because that's really weird. I mean, I used to give Luka a hard time all the time but I never beat on him, even if I did Superglue his head to things a couple of times, but his friend's boyfriend was abusive and I kind of wonder if maybe Dorney has dated a guy or two who leaned that way because he said something once, and I didn't follow up on it, but he said something about how it was almost too easy to fall into a relationship that wasn't healthy and stopping things after a few dates when the guy was really intent on getting you in and trapped was hard because all you could really rely on was a gut feeling and that's hard to explain when somebody asks you why you broke up with a guy that everybody thinks is a good catch, and-"
"Scuito." Vance cut her off before his head could start spinning, once it was clear she wouldn't run out of breath anytime soon. "Has he given us anything to help us nail his sister?"
"Sorry, Leon." Scuito shook her head. "He said she was friends with one of Boone's victims, and the woman's death caused enough of a change in her that he still remembers it, even though he must have only been eight or nine at the time. But we can't take that to court."
He nodded. "Nothing we can use to link her to any of the murders?"
Scuito started to shake her head, then stopped. "I'll be right back." She scrambled past him and out of the room. Vance stared after her, then went back to watching the interview.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Tony watched as Gibbs stared at Melissa. She stared back, not intimidated. And stared. Finally, she dropped her eyes, briefly, then raised them again.
"You still haven't told me why I'm here," she said.
"Assault." Gibbs opened a folder. "On your brother."
"Aaron?" She shook her head. "Except for the occasional cup of coffee when he's working at Quantico or the Navy Yard and I stop in, the only time I've seen Aaron in the last few months was a couple of weekends ago. He came by the base to drop something off for our mother. We don't talk much." She folded her hands on the desk, and Tony had a hard time believing those hands had wielded all those weapons against all the victims. She obviously pampered them with lotion and regular attention.
"Yeah, because you beat on him." Tony frowned. "Why do they lie, McGee? Do they really think Gibbs won't be able to tell?"
"I don't know, Tony. But if she's the one who's been killing for all these years and she managed to pass her Navy psych evals, that's kind of scary." McGee made a face. "Maybe she can beat Gibbs."
Tony shook his head, then swallowed to get rid of the dry feeling in his mouth. Too much coffee this week. "No way. She made it personal. Gibbs doesn't let those cases go." He listened as Gibbs changed his line of questioning.
"Sarah McCray."
"Sarah?" Melissa sounded confused. "What does she have to do with this ridiculous accusation?"
"Kyle Boone."
"He's a sick bastard, but you know that. You caught him. I hope he's rotting in jail." Her face twisted in disgust.
Tony started to ask McGee a question, but the words got stuck. He cleared his throat and tried again. "She knows he's dead."
McGee shook his head. "She doesn't sound like it."
"McGee, she's stalked us enough to know about Nikki Jardine's connection to the team on a single case. She had to know. It was all over the news." He slid a finger around the collar of his shirt, loosening it.
"Tony?" McGee looked over. "Are you feeling OK?"
Tony tried to reply, but he was having trouble getting the words out.
"Crap!" McGee grabbed Tony's coffee cup. "The sugar." He pulled out his cell, and hit a button. He could hear Abby's ringtone as the door opened. Tony wanted to ask, but he was having trouble getting enough breath. He leaned on the edge of the tech's desk.
"I'm right here, McGee." She walked in, Brad and Ducky behind her.
"The sugar was poisoned." He thrust the coffee cup at her. "Something that's affecting Tony's breathing." He pushed past them into the hallway, as dark spots started to swim in front of Tony.
Tony's last thought before everything went black was that Gibbs was going to kill McGee for bursting into interrogation.
"Boss, we've got it backward."
Was that what you were expecting? And have you spent enough time inside the killer's head to understand the why? If not, McGee will explain it next chapter.