With a vengeance: Chapter 4
So, I hope you're still with me.
The plot thickens and I can only hope that in the end everything will make as much sense to you as it does in my head.
Chapter 4: Tears
He stepped completely out of the shower and turned so he trapped Ziva between the glass of the shower stall and his body. Staring down into her eyes he tried to read her. For a second she looked scared and sad. Then her training kicked in and her eyes were devoid of all expression. Calmly she looked back at him and held his gaze.
"What do you know, Ziva?" he asked her, still staring her down. He got no reaction from her, not even a flicker in her eyes.
"What are you talking about, Gibbs?" she asked back.
"Don't lie to me Ziva!" he said and grabbed her by the shoulders, stepping even closer. "What did you see that day when you saw Kort? What did you see at the second crime scene? And what is this?" he hissed and pointed with an outstretched arm to the message in blood.
Ziva held his gaze a moment longer, then lowered her eyes and sighed deeply. She looked torn and unsure, he noticed.
"I... I don't know..." she started and he realized that she had tried lying to him, but couldn't go through with it.
"Ziva, what is going on here?" he asked another question, a desperate undertone in his voice now and the anger gone.
"I am not sure," she said slowly and looked him in the eyes again. "However I know the set up. I know the poison, I understand why the first two were killed with poison and these three with a shot to the head," she admitted. "It's the way we did it all the time. You want information you torture them and then kill them. You want to make a hit or get revenge you kill them without that they even see you. Especially when you are outnumbered," she explained like she was telling him a secret.
"You think that the Mossad is involved in this?" he wanted to know. He believed her.
"Or someone trained by Mossad, yes," she confirmed his suspicion.
"Do you know who is responsible?"
"My father," she said and he knew that she was aware that ultimately her father was always responsible.
"If this had been your op and you had done it this way. What would you have been after?" he asked her the question that was bothering him the most. He just couldn't find a motive.
"Information, maybe revenge," she shrugged and he finally stepped back and gave her her private space back.
"On what? And for what?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.
"I will try to get some information when we're back at NCIS," she replied, not having an answer to his question. He knew that she was still holding something back, but he was sure as well, that she wouldn't tell him at this point.
"I just hope you know who you can trust," he told her and reminded her of her past failures.
"Believe me, Gibbs, I know," she replied and this time she spoke the truth.
A day later at NCIS and after another sleepless night spend with bourbon and his boat, he and the other team members were standing in front of the plasma screen, looking at the pictures of the three dead men.
"The first is called Jordan Amos, has been in and out of prison his whole life. Spent the last eight working as a hit man. Second is Igor Novitzka, originates from Poland and has been suspected to work for different Russian mafia operations. He was their go-to guy whenever they needed someone eliminated. Third is Thomas Jennis, nickname Teej. He and Amos met in prison and it seems he started working for him once they were both out," Tony summed up what he and Ziva had found.
"Anything that links them Kort or the Black Rose?" he asked.
"No, nothing. But because everything seems to be coming back to Jenny I dug a bit deeper, while Ziva was calling home, and found a connection to Viggo Drantyev. He and Novitzka used to work together in Russia," the senior field agent added with a disapproving glance in direction of Ziva's desk.
"Drantyev is one of the hit men who killed Jenny," he knew, remembering the name.
"It is possible that these three were somehow involved in the hit on Jenny. The timeline always suggested that there were more people involved and that others killed Sasha, Decker's girlfriend, back then." Tony remembered the facts of the buried case.
"Someone sure did their homework if they were able to make the connection," he muttered, nearly impressed with the work of the killer. "Where's Ziva?" he asked then and looked around, noticing only then that she still hadn't shown up.
"Last time I saw her she was talking to her aunt Netti," Tony ratted her out.
"Her aunt?" he asked surprised. He sure had thought Ziva had other sources than her eighty year old great-aunt. Her felt his temper flaring and looked over to his third agent, who was typing away at his keyboard. "McGee? What about those files?" he asked him impatiently.
"I'm trying boss, but still nothing," the agent admitted and rolled back with his chair when he suddenly stuck his head in front of his screen and was so close that he could feel his breath on his face.
"Find me those files!" he ordered and walked off, hearing McGee's breath of relief while he walked away.
In Abby's lab he found her standing in front of her machines as usual, the noise she called music blaring and making his ears ring. With swift strides he walked to her stereo and switched it off what made her turn around, a scowl on her face.
"Gibbs, where's my caf-pow?" she asked and only then did he realize that he hadn't brought her her favorite bribe in a while. Not since this case had started.
"Maybe later if you have something for me now," he said, making her pout. She snapped out of it a second later, remembering that she indeed had something for him.
"I do!" she exclaimed and pushed some buttons, showing him the rundown of some chemical stuff he didn't understand. "This is the analysis of the spot you found in the shower over the blood." she said, pointing her screen.
"What it is?" he was annoyed that he even needed to ask the question again. His mood was not the best since it was clear that there was someone out there killing with a connection to Jenny.
"It's L'Occitane Rice Ultra-Matte Face Fluid," she told him and held up a white bottle of said fluid. "Pretty expensive stuff."
"How did it get on the shower stall?" he asked his next question.
"I thought about it and by the look of the spot and the lines that were visible on the high resolution pictures McGee took, I can show you," Abby grinned and opened the lotion. Quickly she smeared some on her face and then went over to the glass doors that separated her lab from her office. He followed when she waved him over. "What must have happened is this: She dropped the perfume in the shower, then cut herself when she wanted to pick up the shards. Judging by the amount of blood, I'd say nothing too severe. She must have been in the shower when it happened and what she did then is strange. She leans forward, resting her forehead against the glass of the shower stall. And she cries. The glass was covered with tears. Next she uses her bloody finger to write the message on the wall, her blood mixing with her own tears. That's how the spot got on the glass."
"Good work Abs," he complimented. He tried picturing the scene but came up blank. What stood out to him however was that the killer sure seemed to cry a lot.
"But, Gibbs, I'm not done!" Abby protested when he wanted to leave already.
"Her tears were also on the book you found in the bedroom, and on the pillows. We also found hair on the sheets and the same fluid, meaning she slept in Jenny's bed." That information really creeped him out. The only one who should sleep in Jenny's bed was Jenny...his gut stirred again.
"Thanks Abs," he said, deep in thought already.
"I'm still not done!" Abby cried. "Why are you in such hurry to get out of my lab? Do I stink?" she wondered and sniffed her armpits. That actually made him smile a bit.
"You don't stink Abby," he replied truthfully.
"Because she was leaning against the glass and because I can tell where she was standing in the shower I can also tell that she's 5'5. Same height as Jenny, by the way," Abby told him with a smile and he was sure he knew what Abby's mind had made up. Problem was his seemed to think in the same direction.
There was only one man who could help him now and so he went to the autopsy room. The M.E. and his assistant were working on one of the hit men they had found. His friend turned around and read the look of his face.
"Mr. Palmer, could you give us a minute?" he requested and the younger man only nodded and left without a word of protest. "Jethro, how can I help you?" he asked then.
"These three here might have been involved in Jenny's death. Abby found proof that the killer is a woman, 5'5, slept in Jenny's bed and used her shower. I know that she also renovated Jenny's kitchen," he summed up what he had learned.
"That is most fascinating. Do you want me to created a psychological profile?" his friend asked him and seemed to analyze this in his head already.
"What I want to know, Ducky, is: Is Jenny really dead?" he asked and tried to keep himself from hoping that, maybe, she was still alive and shooting her way out of her deep cover now.
"I'm afraid she really is, Jethro. I autopsied her myself and I can assure you that I am not involved in any ploy to have her go undercover. Jennifer Sheppard is dead, as sad as that is and as much as I still miss her." The answer and the truth in Ducky's eyes destroyed all hope he had had for just a second.
"Me, too, Duck," he admitted and then left, before his friend would try to console him.
He went to get a coffee before he walked back to the bullpen and took a large sip before he faced his agents again. Ziva was still gone.
"Boss, I think we've got a problem," McGee called as soon as he saw him.
"What?" he barked. He was so fed up with all the dead ends and the evidence that just kept piling up but led them nowhere.
"I can't find anything," his agent told him helplessly.
"What do you mean you can't find anything?" he was outraged. Did he have to do everyone's job?
"All files on Director Sheppard have been deleted. Officially she never existed," McGee explained and he could only stare at him. "I tracked every access to the database and could at least find out from what account it was done," McGee hurried to explain.
"And?" DiNozzo asked this time, sounding just as pissed as he felt.
"It was Director Sheppard herself. She logged on in LA from her hotel, after she left Decker's funeral and destroyed all proof of her own existence." The computer geek went in for the kill and he really had to sit down. How many more secrets had Jenny kept from him and taken to her grave?
TBC
Thanks for reading.
Tell me about your theories!