A/N: Thanks a lot for the review!
Chapter fourteen: Finding Matthew Doyle
Jenny was only mildly surprised when she realised that Gibbs didn't go to the bull pen to get an update from his team right away as she had expected and instead followed her to her office. She nodded at her ever loyal assistant and gave the young woman a small smile as response to her curious stare. By now Cynthia Summers was used to Agent Gibbs spending much more time with Director Shepard than he ever had spent with Tom Morrow. If she had to make a guess she would say that it was because of their new director's hair colour, but she certainly wouldn't voice this opinion to either party. Instead she was silent and observant and from time to time she spent a fair amount of money on Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo's betting pool.
Gibbs closed the door softly for a change, not wanting to startle the boy who was squirming in the arms of his favourite red-head. "Cat stole your tongue Jethro?" said red-head asked with a wicked grin grazing her beautiful features and he knew he had been caught staring.
He grinned at her for the better part of the following ten seconds before he looked her dead in the eye and said "Have a seat Jen, we have to talk."
She looked at him, now it was her part to be speechless. "Excuse me Jethro, but until a few seconds ago I thought this was my office." She remarked, a dangerous glint in her eyes. He gave her his best boyish smirk. "Well, have a seat anyway." He grinned cheekily as she gasped, not sure if she should be amused or affronted, but did what he asked nevertheless.
"You have to call social services Jen, you know that. The sooner the better." She shot a look at Manolo. Never get personally involved in a case had flown out of the window the moment she had seen the boy. She was attached to him, and badly at this, whether or not it had only been twenty-four hours since they had met. She couldn't bear the thought of turning him over to social services.
"Jen?" She heard Gibbs calling her name softly. "You think they will let him stay with me?" she asked, her insecurity only visible in the depths of her eyes. "They let you keep Zach after all."
He nodded, court, brief, non-committal. Then he shrugged. "Not sure, but it's worth a try." He shot a sideways glance over to the boy, then at his lover next to him. He knew she was attached to Manolo and that she knew it, but hell he was too.
"Ask a few of your friends further up the latter, let them put in a good word for you." She nodded, her confidence returning to her slowly. She kissed his cheek lightly, letting her lips linger as she took his hand in hers. She smiled, first at Jethro, then at Manolo, before she went over to her desk and pressed a button on her intercom.
"Cynthia, get a hold of social services for me please."
After he had listened to Jenny making an appointment with Social Services for later that day, Gibbs retreated to the bull pen to check up on his team. "What have we got?" He stared at each member of his team intentionally. As always it was his senior filed agent who spoke first.
"I spoke to Doyle's aunt a second time, asked her if she knew where her nephew could be headed, but she didn't have any idea. Then I showed her photos of Shawn and Lewis and a few of his other terrorist buddies, but she didn't recognize them either. She gave me a few names of Marines who Doyle had been friends with back in the day and guess how surprised I was when Dean Morrison, our first victim, was one of them. Now I'm checking the other names, look if I can find anything."
"Good job DiNozzo. Ziva?"
"I watched our interview with Sanders again. He said that Morrison and Kapmann were only Johnston's back-up team and supposed to stay inside the surveillance van. Maybe Doyle saw Morrison who he knew was a Marine on active duty and concluded that they were about to burst his business. He decided to kill them one by one, Morrison first so we couldn't question him and he couldn't rattle on Doyle. Because of his obsessions with psychopaths he staged the bodies and let us think we look for a sick sadistic bastard of a serial killer. He blackmailed Márisa 'cause he got suspicious as she was too often too near the warehouse they operated from. I asked Ducky, he too thinks that's a likely scenario."
Gibbs nodded at her, a silent praise, and turned to McGee.
"I checked his electronic devices. It is almost as if Doyle hasn't existed for the last five years. He hasn't used his credit cards, he doesn't have a cell phone I could track, and the last address we know is six years old, he still lived on base at the time. I scanned the surveillance tapes from the area around the warehouse and checked them with the videos from the cameras near the internet cafés to find him or maybe his car, but there hasn't been anything suspicious yet. Probably they changed cars somewhere along the way. I'm checking now if Doyle is the driver of one of the cars either around the cafés or the warehouse but so far I haven't had any luck. Perhaps Abby can help me if she has nothing else to do. Either way I keep looking."
"Okay, McGee you go on scanning the videos of the area around the warehouse. David, DiNozzo, you go through the videos from the internet cafés." Gibbs took his badge and his gun out of the drawer under his desk, then he grabbed his jacket. "Going for coffee."
Across the town, the dull noise of a body dropping to the ground echoed through a gloomy hallway. Two men watched as the blood of the dead woman slowly pooled on the floor around her.
"Get one or two of your friends down here to help you. You wrap the body in a bag, throw her into the Potomac river and leave no evidence behind, understood? Then you clean up here." The cold, detached voice of his boss sent a shiver down his spine. The shooter nodded, clearly intimidated, his eyes drawn to the hard, dead stare of his victim. He almost ran away from the scene, from the eyes of the woman he had just shot, knowing the would haunt him.
Doyle looked around, a sick smirk playing on his lips. He'd successfully cut all ties that lead to him, the next round of the game could begin -
Or so he thought.
Gibbs came back to the Navy Yard, a tray with three paper cups in his hand. Two full of coffee for him and the director and one with hot chocolate for the boy playing in her office.
"Agent Gibbs!" Micheal the front guard shouted. Gibbs turned around and went over to the other man's desk. The blonde woman in front of it gave him a flirtatious smile. "Elizabeth Smith, Social Services. I have an appointment with Director Jennifer Shepard."
The woman grasped his hand, shook it, and saw no need to let go of it again. Gibbs forced a gruff smile and pulled his hand back. He looked at Micheal and nodded briskly. "I wanted to go up to her office anyway, I can accompany you Mrs Smith."
She laughed, it had more of a high-pitched squeal than of an actual laugh, and grabbed his arm, dragging him with her to the elevator. Gibbs shot a look at the front guard, his stare icy.
"You owe me" Mike mouthed with a big grin and pointed at the blonde on his arm.
This time the stare was murderous.
"She in?" Gibbs asked as he stopped in front of Cynthia's desk, for the first and probably last time of his life. Cynthia nodded, her attention drawn to the blonde behind the Special Agent. He opened the door to her office forcefully, his gaze automatically on Jenny who sat with Manolo on her lap at her desk doing paperwork.
"Jen" he greeted casually.
"Jethro" she greeted back, smiling. He came towards her desk and put the tray on it, taking his coffee out of it. "Manolo sweetie" she nudged his head with her nose. "Gibbs brought hot chocolate for you." The boy grinned his toothy grin and took his cup, mimicking her motions as she sipped on hers.
"Jen, this is Ms Elizabeth Smith, she is with Social Services." he pointed at the blonde who had a sour look on her face after having observed the dynamic between Jenny, Manolo, and Gibbs.
"Ms Smith" Jenny stood up, Manolo still clinging to her, and made her way over to the other woman.
"Director Shepard." Smith acknowledged and took her extended hand. "What is the matter? I take it this is Manuel Sanchez?"
"Yes, he is, he goes by Manolo though." Jenny answered, her gaze lingering on the boy on her hip.
"Okay Manolo, do you want to come with me? We will find a nice family for you until NCIS finds your mother."
"Are Jen and Gibbs coming too?" The boy asked, his hold on Jenny's shirt tightening ever so slightly.
The social worker shook her head, but still smiled brightly at the child in front of her. "No, but there will be lots of other nice people, I'm sure."
"Then I don't wanna come. I wanna stay with Jen and Gibbs." He shrugged, putting his head on the red-head's shoulder.
"Manolo, I don't think you understand..." Smith began, but was interrupted by Jenny. "That's what I wanted to talk about. Manolo is a bit attached to me, he feels save and even more importantly is safe with me. We rescued him only yesterday, I don't think it would do him any good if he had to stay with someone else."
"Ma'am, I understand you concern, but it just isn't possible that..."
"Then make it possible." Gibbs said from behind her. "I don't think you understand who you are talking to. One call from her and she will have custody for him anyways." He pointed at Jenny.
"I am more worried about Manolo" the blonde remarked, her lips a thin line.
"And we appreciate that Ms Smith, but in this case I can assure it's for the best." Jenny said. "Manolo doesn't want to leave and I'll do everything to protect him and help him till we find his mother."
Smith looked at the boy, his small frame pressed into Jenny's upper body as if his life depended on it. She sighed. "Okay then, I will see what I can do. However I want to check up on you tomorrow morning."
The red-head nodded. "Thank you. You hear that honey?" Manolo looked up at her. She smiled and dropped a kiss to the top of his head. "You're staying with us."
"Tony -"
"Yeah McProbitionous?"
"Get Gibbs down here, I think I got something!"
"Any other wishes while I'm at it ElfLord? Maybe I should get the director too? Why don't you go? Are you too much of a McScarypants?"
"Tony just for once be the Senior Field Agent you always claim you are and get them down here!"
"Are you afraid Tony? Maybe I go for you if you are too scared." Ziva added grinning from her desk.
"No need for you two add your two pennies to this conversation Ziva. I'll go." Still grumpy Tony stood up and went to the staircase.
"Why would he say that McGee? I didn't give him any money..."
"It's just a saying Ziva. You know when someone adds a comment... You know what, never mind. Gee Tony, hurry up a bit!" he heard McGee shouting below him. Now further annoyed he sent a glare to the occupants of the bull pen but took two stairs a time nevertheless. Seeing that Cynthia wasn't at her desk, he strolled through the outer office, stormed into the director's Gibbs-fashioned, and -
stopped dead in his tracks.
In the middle of the room stood his two bosses in a rather intimate position. DiNozzo couldn't help but grin. That was all the confirmation he needed to win a fairly large amount of money from his betting pool. Gibbs facing the director, his hand on her cheek, the child in-between them...
"Special Agent DiNozzo? Are you alright?" Confused he focused on the persons standing inside the office again - now with much more space between them.
"Yes ma'am. McGee thinks he might have found something and requested your presence boss." He said with a cheeky grin. "Yours too Director."
The red-head nodded, put Manolo on the ground and took his hand. "Come on honey, we'll have a look at what Tim has found."
*whack*
"Don't even think about using this for one of your stupid pools."
"Boss I would never..." Tony began, a smirk still on his face.
*whack*
"Okay, okay, so maybe I would."
"So McGee, what have you found?" Gibbs asked as he went to his desk, the director with kid next to him, a simpering Tony right behind him.
"I checked all the surveillance tapes from the area around the warehouse for cars driven by Doyle or one of the other terrorists. Then I checked the cars and the license plates and found out all of them were stolen on a Tuesday night from September to December 2005 (keep in mind it's 2006 :D). Every time the same MO was used. I assumed they stole about a car a week, but they actually used only ten of them so I thought maybe they'd sold the other ones. I called the owners of stores we know sell stolen cars and sent them the photos of members of the cell. One of them recognized two of the terrorists, unfortunately not Doyle, but he was able to give us the number of the bank account they used. I traced the money and saw that quite a bit was withdrawn recently so I expect them to try to leave the country. I put a BOLO out on them and put them on the no-fly list."
"That's good McGee but I don't understand why you needed to call me down to tell me that." He shot the agent a hard stare.
McGee gulped. "Yeah, right, here's the thing. The owner of the place to which they sold the cars told me I wasn't the first one to ask about the cars and the men who sold them to him. I wanted to know who wanted information on them before me so he sent me a few pictures from the surveillance tapes." He put the photos on the screen."Those are Morrison and Kapmann, they were there."
Gibbs nodded. "Good job McGee. I wonder whether Sanders knew about this particular involvement of theirs in his mission or if they were snooping around on their own."
"Only one way to find out Boss." Tony said cheerfully in a sing-song voice. "Ziva and I will go and bring him in for questioning." He stood up, ready to grab his badge and gun.
"That won't be necessary." Gibbs grinned. "You ready for dinner with the parents Jen?"
A/N: I hope you like the conclusion of this one. It was a bit more crime-centric than the last (is crime-centric even a word?), but I think that was necessary. Please let me know what you think!