A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and alerts! I'm glad you're all liking it so far. Enjoy chapter 8!
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any original characters. I only own who I make up.
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Later in the afternoon, after obtaining the search warrant that Marie Davis had demanded, Tony and Ziva arrived at the Davis household to investigate. Tony was very convinced that Marie had killed her husband, but unfortunately, gut instincts are not enough to obtain a conviction. He and Ziva had no idea what they may or may not find at that house. After all, if Marie had killed her husband, she had had plenty of time to dispose of any evidence left at the house. As the entered the house, Tony and Ziva just hoped that they could find something to make Marie confess.
"I'll take the downstairs," Ziva offered. Tony nodded and headed for the staircase.
Ziva began her search in the living room, as it is the room the front entrance opened into. She searched every inch of the walls and crawled on the floor to inspect the carpet. She could find nothing. Ziva looked closely at the furniture and still saw nothing suspicious or out of place. She continued her search into the dining room. The dining room was a much quicker search; there was no evidence on the walls, carpet, or table. She then made a quick inspection of the half-bathroom before finishing her search in the kitchen where she still could find nothing.
Upstairs, Tony had the same lack of luck. He searched both spare bedrooms, the full-bathroom, master bedroom, and master suite. His search was as in depth as Ziva's; inspecting the walls and carpet of every room as well as the hallway. There was nothing to be found. Tony tried to suppress the small feeling of defeat that was starting to make its appearance as he went back downstairs to rejoin Ziva.
"Find anything?" he asked hopefully as he turned the corner into the kitchen.
"No," Ziva replied shaking her head as she stood from the floor where she had been kneeling.
"Well," Tony sighed. "If anything did happen here, Marie did a great job of cleaning it up."
"There has got to be something," Ziva said. "John Davis' blood was on the sidewalk outside. He had to have been injured somewhere."
"I know," Tony agreed. It was silent for a moment while they both went over the evidence in their minds. Then, a light bulb turned on in Tony's mind. They had been assuming that Davis was injured inside and then transported to the car and dumped in the pond. Maybe they hadn't found anything inside because nothing happened inside. "Let's check outside."
"You think that Marie and her husband got into a dispute over the affair outside, and she happened to have a knife with her?" Ziva asked.
"I think that the argument may have started inside, but then John left the house, Marie grabbed a knife and followed him outside where the fight continued. Then, she slit his throat and disposed of the body," Tony explained. He saw in Ziva's eyes as she thought the explanation over, decided it was possible, and followed him back through the living room and out the front door.
"You take the left side, I'll take the right side," Tony called as he headed toward the bushes that lined the house. Ziva went the opposite way and began another search. After several minutes of searching through shrubs and plants, Ziva finally saw something suspicious.
"Tony!" she called, standing up from the ground. Tony jogged over to where his wife was standing.
"What?" he asked. Ziva pointed behind a bush near the corner of the house, and Tony knelt down, reached through the bristles, and picked up a dirty, stained plastic grocery bag. He stood back up next to Ziva and untied the knot that had tied the bag shut.
"Well look at that," he sighed. He reached his gloved hand into the bag and pulled out a blood-stained knife.
"The murder weapon," Ziva observed, breathing a sigh of relief and accomplishment.
"Probably," Tony agreed, putting it back in the bag. "Let's get it checked out to be sure." He and Ziva quickly returned to NCIS headquarters and took the evidence to Abby who gladly accepted the task of running the DNA.
While Abby was working her magic, Tony went back upstairs to fill Gibbs in on what was happening. To Tony's surprise, he found Gibbs still in the observation room he had been in when Tony and Ziva had left. McGee was no longer in the room, but Gibbs was standing near the glass, keeping an eye on Marie, and sipping his coffee.
"Boss?" Tony asked as he entered.
"Did you find anything?" Gibbs asked.
"I think we found the murder weapon," Tony replied.
"You think?" Gibbs repeated.
"Abby's running the blood to make sure," Tony replied. Gibbs nodded and sipped his coffee.
"It's been six hours," Gibbs observed.
"It took us a little longer to get the warrant than we'd expected," Tony explained. "Then it took us a long time to find anything at the house. We searched every inch of it, high and low."
"Where was it?" Gibbs asked, referring to the knife.
"In a grocery bag in the bushes outside," Tony replied. Gibbs nodded, taking another drink of coffee.
"I've been watching her," Gibbs said, motioning at the glass between them and Marie Davis. "She isn't showing any signs of guilt."
"You don't think she did it, boss?" Tony asked, slightly perplexed.
"I didn't say that," Gibbs said. "But she hasn't shown any guilt while she's been sitting there. She's been getting progressively anxious from sitting in there for so long, but there's no guilt in her eyes. It should be eating her up. So either she didn't do it, or she did it and feels absolutely no remorse for killing her husband."
"She doesn't look like a cold-blooded killer," Tony said.
"They usually don't, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, bringing the coffee to his mouth again and taking a long drink. Just then, Gibbs' cell phone began to ring.
"Yeah, Gibbs," he answered. "All right, thanks Abbs."
"Well?" Tony asked hopefully.
"Blood matches Davis," Gibbs replied. "But there's no fingerprints on the weapon."
"Damn gloves," Tony sighed. He was shocked by a head-slap from his boss.
"You found the weapon with his blood. That on top of everything else you have against her will force her to confess if she really did it," Gibbs said. "She's not going to think of the fingerprints."
"Right. Sorry, boss. It's been a long day," Tony apologized.
"Well, then, get in there and end it," Gibbs ordered. Tony nodded and headed toward the door. Ziva and McGee reentered as Tony left. Marie jumped when Tony opened the door of the interrogation room.
"Jumpy?" Tony asked with a smile.
"I wasn't expecting you to come back," Marie replied. "I've been sitting here for hours."
"I know," Tony said. "I've been out searching your house, and I've gotta tell you, you did an excellent job of cleaning up the place."
"There was nothing to clean up," Marie said firmly.
"Oh, so it happened outside?" Tony asked, sitting across from her.
"What?" Marie asked confused. "You said you found nothing. I'd like to leave now."
"I didn't say that, and we're not done here," Tony said.
"What else would you like to try and force me to confess to?" Marie sighed, exasperated.
"Still just the murder of your husband," Tony replied. "Come on, Marie, I know you did it."
"You're wrong," Marie insisted again.
"We have the murder weapon," Tony said. Marie's eyes widened and the color drained from her face.
"You have the weapon that killed my husband?" she asked.
"Yes, we have the weapon that you used to kill your husband," Tony replied. "Found it in a grocery bag in the bushes."
"And you probably assume I put it there," Marie said.
"Well, it's definitely not looking good for you," Tony replied. "We have plenty of evidence against you."
"You have nothing that puts me at the crime scene," Marie exclaimed. "My DNA's not there! And if your theory were true and I killed him at home, how did I get him to the pond where you told me he was found?"
"You have the motive," Tony said sternly. "Your husband was cheating on you! We have the phone records of you harassing Crystal Klein about the affair, and most importantly, the knife that was covered in your husband's blood was found outside your house! That's good enough evidence to make it to court."
"No!" Marie cried as tears began to fall from her eyes. "I didn't do it." Tony sat silently for a moment while Marie began to sob.
"It's time for you to just confess," he finally said calmly.
"I won't confess to murder when I didn't do it," Marie said.
"If you didn't do it, then who do you think did?" Tony asked.
"What?" Marie asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, if you're so adamant that you didn't kill your husband, why should I believe you? Who would have done it?" Tony repeated. Marie's eyes darted around the room again as her mind raced with thoughts.
"Well, John had a disagreement with our next door neighbor a few days ago," she replied.
"And you think it could have led to the death of your husband?" Tony sighed, wishing he could have just extracted a confession and ended the case, and seriously doubting this neighbor killed John Davis.
"It's possible," Marie replied. "Anyone is more likely to have killed him than I am." Tony sighed and stood from the table to leave the room.
"We've got a stubborn one," Tony said as he entered observation and joined the team.
"She's got some good points though," Gibbs said. "Her DNA isn't at the crime scene."
"Are you starting to believe her?" Tony asked in disbelief.
"I believe what I see, DiNozzo," Gibbs replied. "And I'm seeing you wanting her to be guilty."
"Boss, she is," Tony insisted. "Did you see how pale she got? How defensive she got? And how she suddenly remembered an argument between her husband and a neighbor?"
"Well if that in there was acting, she deserves an Oscar," Gibbs replied. "People can't fake that. I've seen a lot of people fake emotions, and that wasn't faked." Tony shook his head in disbelief and sighed in annoyance.
"What are we going to do now, then?" he asked.
"We're going to let her go," Gibbs replied.
"What?" Tony protested.
"DiNozzo, it's time to let it go," Gibbs said. "We can't charge her with anything; we have to let her go."
"Fine," Tony said shortly.
"McGee and I are going to go have a talk with the neighbor, and you and Ziva are going home," Gibbs concluded.
"Home?" Tony repeated, looking at his watch and seeing it was only 3:00.
"Yeah," Gibbs repeated sternly. "Take a break from the case, and lose your attitude. Come back tomorrow." Tony wanted to protest further, but he knew it was in his best interest to just obey what Gibbs told him to do.
"Okay," he relented. Gibbs nodded and left the room with McGee.
"We will solve it," Ziva said reassuringly. Tony sighed and ran his right hand through his hair. He had never disagreed so strongly with Gibbs. Could it really be that Tony was focusing too much on proving that Marie was guilty, that he was overlooking the fact that she may in fact be innocent? Could he be missing something that Gibbs was seeing? Or, could it be that this time Gibbs' gut feeling about the case was wrong?
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A/N: I hope you enjoyed chapter 8! Any guesses on what is going to happen? I'd be interested to hear your theories! Please remember to review and let me know what you think so far!