"You been here all night?" LaSalle asked when he entered the office and saw Patton beavering away.
"Almost. But it's been worth it. I am so close. Any minute now." Patton said never taking his eyes from his screen. "Plus we got Brody's phone."
"You did? Where? When?"
"Five hours ago. Found in a trashcan. Sebastian is doing his thing with it now."
"Nice work." LaSalle said. "Pride around?"
"Interrogation."
"Interrogating who? There's a suspect?" Chris asked confused.
"No. Not exactly. He's with Brody's father."
"What?" Chris questioned getting more and more confused.
"Long story but on a kind of positive note CCTV footage came back and confirms her father's story about his car being rigged and then stolen whilst he was posting the disk. It would make a great commercial for why crime doesn't pay."
"Says the hacker." Chris pointed out.
"Christopher, you're here." Pride greeted walking into the office. "How's Brody?"
"Hard to tell. But asleep when I left. Cade's staying with her today. That combined with the two officers outside should keep her safe. What's happening here?"
"You remember how Brody alluded to her parents having a rocky relationship?" Pride asked.
"Yeah."
"Rocky doesn't start to describe it. I had to separate them in order to stop them fighting. Father is in interrogation. Mother in the office. Take your pick."
"For what?"
"Questioning. They both know more than they've told us. I want the full story."
"I'm in!" Patton suddenly exclaimed.
"What's on it?" Pride asked.
"Files. Forty seven text files."
"Well what do they say?" Pride asked.
"Not sure. It is either in code or gibberish." Patton said. Putting an example file on the big screen for Pride and LaSalle to look at. "However, you probably wouldn't encrypt gibberish so it is likely to be code."
"If Brody's father was telling the truth this has something to do with smuggling and selling weapons." Pride said. "Any numbers correspond to serial numbers?"
"Give me a minute." Patton said typing away. "Not seeing anything like that, but it will take a couple of hours to rule out completely."
"So back to square one?" LaSalle asked. "We could show the files to the Brody's folks."
"No. They are hiding something. Until we know what I don't want to give them any information. But let's see if we can get them to tell us what they think is on the disk." Pride said before looking at Patton and asking. "Can you send those files to me? Send them to Sebastian too and ask him to work on them."
"Sure thing Pride."
-00-
"Can I go yet?" Brody's father asked as Pride walked into the interrogation room.
"Not yet. I have some more questions. I am sure you want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible for your daughter's sake."
"I can't tell you what I don't know. And there is no need to treat me as prisoner. I have done nothing wrong."
"Apart from fake your death, withhold evidence and endanger your daughter." Pride said.
"I get the feeling you don't like me Agent Pride."
"I don't know you." Pride said sitting down. "But as a rule I don't like anyone who hurts my people."
"I never wanted Merri to get hurt. I didn't think they would go after her."
"I don't buy that." Pride said. "You say you have a naval officer come to you with a story about illegal arms sales and smuggling, yet you don't tell your own daughter, a NCIS agent. But you do tell your wife, a journalist. When you finally get the evidence you could have sent the disk to your wife, but you didn't. Instead you sent it to someone who had no knowledge of what was happening. So why didn't you send it to your wife?"
"Up until the Commander was killed I thought he was just being paranoid. But after he was murdered I guessed he had been telling the truth. If that was the case his stories about him being watched and me being watched seemed a little less far-fetched. I sent the disk to Merri because she didn't know anything. I hadn't even spoken to her in the last three months. There was no reason to connect anything to her. If I had thought for a second they would go after her I would never have sent the damn thing."
"That's the problem isn't it? You didn't think."
-00-
"So take me through this. Your husband tells you a Navy Commander has come to him with a credible conspiracy theory and you think to yourself this is great for my career?" Chris asked Brody's mother. "What really gets me though is your husband apparently dies and your daughter is beaten, but never once did you tell anyone there may be a connection."
"I didn't think there was a connection." Brody's mother said. "Why would I? I had no idea he had sent the disk to her. Never did I think he would do something so stupid."
"Stupid because it endangered your daughter or stupid because it cost you a story?" LaSalle asked.
"What story? A Navy Commander on sick leave for stress, who has a history of paranoia tells my husband a story so incredible it is obviously fake. However, my husband is drawn in hook, line and sinker. He asked me to check into the story, which I did. The Commander's record is far from exemplary and the man clearly needed help. The names he gave came back clean and there were no records of service weapons being used on the street. There was no story, except perhaps the fact that this country does not do enough to help veterans cope with stress and mental illness."
"Yet someone kills the Commander, tries to kill your husband and tortures your daughter." LaSalle pointed out.
"Agent LaSalle, I have worked in journalism too long to believe in coincidences. However, I am certain that what Willis believed was make believe. If this is connected to Willis he accidentally stumbled on something he shouldn't."
-00-
"You believe her?" Pride asked as he and Chris drove through the city streets.
"I don't know. I want to." Chris admitted. "And she is right there is no evidence of an illegal arms trade and weapons getting onto US streets. Nothing about Wallis's story checks out. Of course they could have made up the original story to throw us off."
"Let's say they didn't and she is right about Wallis stumbling across something, whatever it is, it must be big." Pride said. "So it has to be arms, drugs or money."
"If we can figure out where the disk and the files came from perhaps we'll get our answer." Chris suggested.
"Patton thought he maybe able to do something, in the mean time I have asked Washington to forward all information relating to Wallis's death." Pride said.
"We could get Brody to talk to her parents. She may have a better feel for if they're telling the truth or still hiding something." Chris suggested.
"We could, but I don't want to put her in that situation. Besides she needs to rest." Pride said parking the car out side LaSalle's place and getting out.
"True, but this is Brody we're talking about." Chris pointed out walking to his front door. "She isn't likely to stand aside whilst we do the work."
"Fortunately for her she has us to make sure she does." Pride pointed out as he stopped at the front the door waiting for LaSalle to open it.
"Cade? Brody?" LaSalle called as he entered his house, Pride a few steps behind.
"Kitchen." Cade called back.
"Everything okay?" LaSalle asked entering the small kitchen where Brody was hunched over the side. Seeing Cade shrug in response Pride asked.
"What's going on?" Getting no immediate response he pressed. "Brody?" As he walked over to the agent. Noticing she was no longer wearing her sling he asked. "Where's the sling?"
"Floor." Cade said pointing to an area by Brody's feet.
"Why?" Pride asked pinning Cade with a stare.
"She took it off." Cade eventually answered.
"Brody?" Pride asked again, frustrated about the lack of information being transferred.
"Just a minute." She said as he continued to scribble something on the sheet of paper in front of her.
"Told you she is one odd bird." LaSalle shrugged.
"There." Brody finally said handing the paper to Pride. Looking over his shoulder LaSalle asked.
"This part of your therapy?"
"It's a tattoo." Brody said.
"Why are you drawing tattoos?" Chris followed up.
"The guy who tried drowning me, as he held me under his sleeve lifted up revealing that tattoo on his right wrist." Brody explained.
"You sure it was this design?" Pride asked.
"Absolutely, why do you recognise it?" Brody asked.
"I do." Pride said before looking at LaSalle.
"Christopher, take Brody through the contents of the drive. I need to go check on something."
"You need back up?" Chris asked.
"Not yet. I am just visiting an old friend." Pride said cryptically before leaving.
Having watched Pride leave he turned to see Brody and Cade look on confused.
"Don't ask me." He shrugged. "But from the way he left he has history with that tattoo." Seeing the concern in Brody's eyes he added. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He'd ask for help if he thought he needed it."
"So you found something on the disk?" Brody asked, not convinced that Pride wasn't walking into danger.
"Kind of. There were some files with random assortments of letters and numbers. We were hoping you can do your thing."
"Thing?" Cade asked.
"She has one freaky memory." LaSalle smiled, causing Brody to roll her eyes before asking.
"So where are the files?"
"I'll give them to you in a second. Firstly, I need to discuss something with you."
"That'll be my cue." Cade said. "I'll go pick up some food for tonight. Catch you later."
"What have they done?" Brody asked when Cade had left.
"Who?" LaSalle asked confused, leading Brody to the lounge.
"My parents. Isn't that what you want to discuss?"
"No. Something else." He said watching her sit down. "When I was going through your place looking for evidence I came across something that had been damaged. It was a photo of you and Emily. The frame had been destroyed. Seeing how it was the only picture I came across I assumed it was important."
"Yeah it was taken on a trip to Boston. It was the last time I saw Emily before the accident." She said sadly.
"As I said, I figured it meant something to you so I got a new frame for it." Chris said pulling the framed picture from his bag. "If you don't like it you can change it but-"
"It's perfect." Brody said, touched by his thoughtfulness. "Thank you." She added, her eyes betraying hints of tears.
"You are more than welcome. While you are hear you are welcome to display it anywhere you want." He smiled. Seeing that Brody was struggling to maintain her composure he quickly changed subjects and asked. "So you ready to see those files?"
TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Next chapter up tomorrow.