Tim and Ziva stood in front of the big screen in the bullpen as they went over the Griswald case."Okay, so...Griswald confessed to the murder of two Petty Officers that Gibbs was investigating," McGee said. "And it says he was killed by another inmate at Baskerville Correctional, whom they've so far been unable to figure out. But the investigation into that was closed."
"But what does this have to do with who took Tony and Gibbs?" Ziva questioned. "Who would feel so strongly about figuring out who killed Griswald, to kidnap two federal officers?"
McGee's eyes darted around in thought. "Maybe it's someone who can't push the issue; someone who might've been involved in the original crime?"
"Then we need to go back to the beginning. What other suspects were there?"
"Griswald claimed to have no assistance, but that doesn't necessarily mean he didn't." He began to flip through the file on the screen and was distracted slightly by the dinging of the elevator, habitually looking back to see who was entering the floor. "What's Fornell doing here?" he asked in a hushed voice. Ziva turned as Tobias Fornell and two other FBI agents walked into the bullpen.
"Saw you put a BOLO out on Randall Ashaw," Fornell said. "He's been on our watch list. What do you have on him?"
"Kidnapping, for the moment," Ziva told him.
"We're trying to figure out who would want us to investigate into Alex Griswald's murder," McGee explained.
"But why are you investigating that?" Fornell asked. "It's not NCIS jurisdiction anymore."
"It is now," Vance said as he entered the bullpen. Fornell turned to face him. "Two of my agents are being held prisoner at an unknown location until we figure out who killed him."
"What agents?"
"Gibbs and DiNozzo," Vance replied, and Tobias stiffened.
"Ashaw's involved in this?" Fornell asked.
"He was seen driving away with Gibbs in an unmarked brown van this morning," Tim pulled the photo up on the screen.
"What about DiNozzo?" he asked as his eyes narrowed at the screen.
"We believe he was taken sometime late last night," Vance told him. "But what we need to know, is who the hell wants us to investigate this so bad."
Fornell's eyes darted in the air between them in thought. "Any known associates? Family, maybe?"
At this, Ziva's mind began turning. "The message Gibbs gave," she began. "Does Griswald have a brother?"
McGee's brow furrowed. "It wasn't indicated in the file...but..." he went to his computer and began typing. "An older brother," he said after a few moments, then brought the file up on the screen. "Harvey Ian Griswald. No serious priors. Seems clean..."
"Find out where he is," Vance told him. "I wanna know where this guy lives, what he does for a living, and every damn car he's driven in the past five years. I'm heading out to Baskerville."
"Not without us," Fornell told him, causing Vance to stop in his tracks and turn to face the agent again.
"With all due respect, Agent Fornell, this is our jurisdiction," Leon told him.
"Griswald is our jurisdiction, Director. But we'll gladly work with you on the investigation. Besides, with Gibbs and DiNutso gone, you're gonna need a little extra help."
With a smirk, Vance nodded, then looked over at McGee and Ziva, "You find anything, you call me. Don't go rushing in anywhere without backup."
As Vance resumed pace toward the elevator, Tobias turned toward Gibbs' remaining agents, "If this guy is anything like his brother, you best watch your back on. I don't know how much you read about the crimes he committed, but they were pretty gruesome." He paused a moment to look back at the screen where Gibbs' photo in the van still remained. "You find them," he told them. "I've got a feeling this isn't gonna end pretty, even if we figure this Baskerville thing out." With that, he turned and joined his agents and Vance in the elevator.
When Ziva turned to look at McGee, he was squinting in thought. "What is it, McGee?" she asked.
"Something Gibbs said...fifteen minutes since he'd had coffee. But that doesn't make sense. By the time he called, it was well over an hour he'd been gone." After another moment, his eyes seemed to clear, and he made his way back to the keyboard. "Maybe he was telling us it took fifteen minutes to get to wherever they took him," he pulled up a grid-map. "All streets leading away from that corner are thirty mile-per-hour zones. At fifteen minutes, that gives us roughly an eight-mile radius..."
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Gibbs watched over Tony as he slept curled on the floor on his side; his back facing Gibbs. His dreams were obviously disturbing, but he didn't dare wake him, in fear that it might be even worse. But he felt awful as he watched him shiver, hugging his arms around himself. Tony breathed in shaky breaths; labored as though he were running.
In the moments that seemed the darkest, Gibbs would lay a comforting hand on his back or shoulder; sometimes pet over the back of his head...anything that would draw him the tiniest bit away from the terrors.
He wasn't sure how long they'd been in there, at this point. But it'd seemed endless. He closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing the bridge of his nose, and then his temples, in attempt to ease some of the throbbing pain in his head. Silently, he prayed that his agents had gotten the messages he'd given, and interpreted them accordingly. It didn't matter what they found out in Baskerville; what they needed to do, was to find out where they were being held. In the end, they'd have to come and rescue them. There was no way around it...
Gibbs was pulled from his thoughts when he heard movement on the other side of the door. He pushed himself up to stand in defense as five masked men entered, weapons drawn. Two of them headed for Tony and Gibbs tried to hold them off, but he was immediately pulled back by two others, and a gun was pointed at him.
"It's time, Agent Gibbs," one of them said as Tony was thrust from his sleep by the men pulling him up.
"You let him be!" Gibbs told them as Tony met his eyes. But the men ignored him and dragged Tony toward the box.
That's when Tony began to struggle wildly against them. "No..." his voice cracked. "No, don't put me back in there!" The men picked him up off the ground completely as he flailed his limbs in attempt to fight them off.
"Let him go!" Gibbs struggled against the men that held him. But he couldn't free himself; he couldn't get to his distraught senior agent who seemed more terrified than he'd ever seen him before.
"Ple-he-hease!" Tony cried out as the shoved him down into the box, cruelly. "Boss, please! Help me!"
"It'll be okay, Tony," Gibbs' voice cracked. "I promise you!" The lid was slammed shut against Tony's sobs of fear, and the men dragged Gibbs out of the room before clothing the cell in darkness once more...
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"You were the only guard on duty in that sector the night Griswald was murdered," Fornell said to the Baskerville guard in the make-shift interrogation room. "I can't help but to wonder why that is..."
"Supposed to be two guards per sector at night," Vance added.
"Davidson called in sick," the guard told them. "Didn't have time to call anyone else in. Didn't seem like such a big deal at the time."
"We talked to Davidson," Fornell said. "He says you gave him the night off; sent him home early."
The guard swiped a hand down his face, taking a nervous breath. "I dunno what the big deal is, guys," he said. "So some sick fuck got knocked off. The way I see it, they did the world a favor."
"Maybe so," Fornell said. "But that doesn't excuse murder."
"I dunno why you're talkin' to me about it," the guard said. "You saw the video; I did my rounds and I came back into the office and watched TV for an hour. Then I went for rounds again and found him dead in his cell."
"Pretty convenient," Vance said. "All the cells were locked, and no murder weapon found on the scene. You may not have killed Griswald, but you sure as hell had something to do with it."
"You have no proof of that," the guard smirked as he shook his head.
"I've got two agents searching your home right now," Fornell told him. "You sure there's nothing you wanna tell us?" The guards eyes darted around for a moment, nervously.
"Things aren't lookin' too good for you, right now," Vance said. "Lying to us about Davidson; withholding evidence..."
"Look," the guard leaned forward in his chair. "If I give you a name, do I get some kinda deal?"
Fornell's lips turned up on each side, "We've already got a name. He told us you set the whole thing up. Arranged for his and Griswald's cells to be unlocked, everything he needed to do the job, and the evidence to all be removed so there was no way it could lead back to him."
The guard swallowed, audibly, and slowly sank back in his chair. Vance approached him, "Again, we have to ask, are you sure there's nothin' you wanna tell us?"
The guard crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "I want a lawyer..."
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"I narrowed down the search criteria according to the direction the van took off in," Abby told Ziva and McGee as they looked at her computer screen. "Which narrowed down the number of security footage I need to look through. If we split it up between the three of us, we could be through it within the hour."
"Gibbs specifically said for you to stop looking for this car, no?" Ziva mentioned.
"I don't think that's what he meant, Ziva," Abby told her. "He said there was nothing there. That could mean there were no tags. No way to find who it belonged to, which makes sense because Ashaw didn't have any vehicles registered in his name."
"It could also mean that it's no longer out in the open," McGee added in his thoughtful state. "That we can't track it via ID. Maybe he was pointing us in this direction; telling us that we needed to follow the video feed and find where it stopped."
"Which would mean it was inside," Abby said.
"Like a garage," Ziva guessed.
"Yeah, but most likely not a house. They planned all of this out. They'll be somewhere they can't be seen or heard. No windows; possibly underground," Abby said as she typed.
"I'll take the computer in your office," Ziva said, "If you will send over the third of the footage there."
"Okay. Timmy, you can take this one," Abby said as she reached over to the mouse on the second computer beside hers and closed the unused programs before sending over the footage. She sent a quick glance his way as Ziva entered the office space, and noticed he was preoccupied in thought. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
His eyes focused on hers, "The Griswald case we went over today...the way he was killed was a similar fashion in which he killed his victims. I can't help but to think his brother was part of it. The way he had all of this organized, it seems like he's got plenty of experience." He took a few breaths before continuing. "What if..." he began, but couldn't even let the thought continue. He didn't want to worry Abby further. "Do you think they're gonna be okay?" he decided on, and said softly.
Her eyes darted around as she chewed her bottom lip. "You didn't find much of a sign of struggle at Tony's apartment," she reminded him. "And the footage of Gibbs, well it seems like he went willingly. They didn't fight him. So, they're probably fine..." she turned back to her monitor.
But McGee knew better. He saw the fear in her eyes, and knew the self-convincing tone she'd said those words in. "Abby...we're gonna find them," he assured her. She nodded without looking away from the monitor. Then the computer in front of him beeped, indicating the file transfer was complete, and he turned to it to get to work.
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Vance drove much faster than the allotted speed limit; Fornell's car tagging close behind. His cell began to ring, as he'd expected, and he put it on speaker. "Vance."
"Figure it out, Leon?" Gibbs' voice sounded over the speaker, raspy and clearly pissed.
"One of the guards set it up, but it was an inmate who killed him," he was sure to be vague. "How're you two holding up over there?"
"He wants names," Gibbs told him. "We're not getting outta here without them."
"The moment I give you the names, is the moment we lose negotiability. What's keepin' him from killin' the both of you if he gets what he wants?"
"The longer he waits, the closer to death DiNozzo gets," his tone was pained.
"Even if I gave you the name, the guy's been locked up until the trial. He's protected, Gibbs, and there's no way he's gonna get to him. If it were up to me, I'd have delivered both of them, myself. But it's not."
"All he wants are names, Leon. What happens from there doesn't matter."
"I'll talk to Fornell," he told him. "And you tell him to call me back when we can make the arrangements to make a trade. I'm not doin' a damn thing until I know we'll get you both out of there alive."
There was a long moment of silence on the other line; unexplained noises in the background. Then a different voice sounded from the speaker, obviously masked with some kind of voice encryption. "Just remember, Director Vance...the longer you wait, the more likely you won't be seeing you agents alive again. I'll contact you in an hour." The line went dead. Vance cursed aloud, banging his hand against the steering wheel...
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"Why won't you let me go to my agent?" Gibbs said as he struggled against his restraints in the chair. "You've got the upper-hand and we're not goin' anywhere. Why the hell do you need to make him suffer?"
"Because I can," he said flatly. "And I want to. I like watching you squirm. It makes me...feel a little better."
"If you like watchin' me squirm, then do somethin' to me! Leave him outta this. Let him go."
Griswald grinned widely, "See? It's working perfectly." He turned to leave, but Gibbs called out.
"Answer me somethin', before you leave me here," he said and watched Griswald halt in his steps, but not turn to face him. "Your brother took one for the team; basically helped keep your cover. Doing this, though, you've given yourself away. They know now that Alex wasn't the right man, and now they'll be lookin' for someone they didn't even know was still out there. Why'd you do it? Why'd you give up your position?"
Griswald didn't turn around, but Gibbs could see as the man's head dropped forward a bit. "He was the right man, Agent Gibbs," he told him. "Alex was the heart of this business. He's the one who found the clients; made sure we were always well funded for what we were hired to do. I'm just the breaker. I finished the jobs...and I took great satisfaction in doing so. But without him, business is slow..."
Even through the apathetic words being spoken, Gibbs could tell there was something more to what the man was saying. "You feel guilty about what happened to him," Gibbs chanced, calmly, and was surprised when the man still did not turn around. "He died by the same sick ritual that brings you some kinda pleasure. So you feel responsible...unless...you feel regretful?" This caused Griswald to visibly straighten where he stood. "You regret that it wasn't you who did it."
"You think I wanted to kill my brother?" his voice was quiet.
"I think you didn't know you wanted to, till someone else did. Because you're sick, Griswald. You obviously cared about him, but you're pissed off." Gibbs suddenly dawned with a realization, "You're mad at yourself for wanting to be the one to kill him, and now you don't know how to deal with that. And you think you'll be able to fix all that by avenging his death. In a way, you're killing yourself."
Griswald's eyes shone with the rough assessment he was given. He had honestly thought that no one would've understood that. He'd barely understood those feelings, himself. "You're a very good investigator, Agent Gibbs," he said softly; his back still facing the agent. "I do hope your director thinks as highly of you. It would be a shame if..." his thoughts drifted off and he walked away without finishing them.
Gibbs was beyond frustrated as he watched the man disappear out of the room. He wanted to go to Tony; wanted to somehow talk Griswald into allowing him to do so. But now there seemed to be no chance of that. As his eyes scanned over the room, he saw the few scattered masked-men standing guard. Glancing in the direction of their cell, where Tony was still shut in, he felt his heart sink in his chest. He closed his eyes, hoping; praying that Tony would get out of this somehow...
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tbc...