Revenge Is Sweet
- Chapter 4: Cracking the Code -
Gibbs takes a long draught from his coffee cup and listens to the conversation Tony and Ziva are having with McGee, 'Stick people, who draws stick people when they're being attacked?' Tony asks, Gibbs imagines the face he is probably pulling as he speaks and smiles at McGee's quick response. 'Plenty of people try to leave a message if they are being attacked, obviously it must mean something to someone,' 'Er, yeah, like the boss, McGeek, I still wanna know how he knew she was in an airfield when that drug dealer kidnapped her,' he waits a few seconds debating whether to interrupt or not and decides to wait a few seconds.
'Maybe they were, you know, woo hoo,' Gibbs watches Tony thrust his hips backwards and forwards with a grin on his face as he speaks, 'in a plane and she forgot her coat,' he walks up behind Tony and slaps him around the back of the head. 'Sorry boss,' Tony runs sheepishly to the other side of Ziva grabbing the clicker. 'Whatta we got?' Gibbs asks draining the last of his coffee, he throws the cup in the bin and looks over at Tony, 'I'm not gonna say please,' Tony jumps and brings security footage from the hotel lobby onto the big screen. 'Security footage shows the Director entered the lobby at 19.15 and was joined by, this guy,' a man walked towards Jenny on the screen and placed his arm around her, 'they exchanged, erm, greetings,' Gibbs frowned at the screen as the stranger kissed Jenny and stroked her back, he was well aware the rest of his team were watching his reactions.
'They headed to the dining room at 19.19,' the camera angle changed showing a corridor from the lobby, 'and were seated at 19.25, the ordered drinks and talked, is she blushing?' Tony dives narrowly missing Gibbs swing, 'they leave at 19.45 without eating, and head towards the main lobby, they pick up a key and go to the elevator, 19.55 they enter suite 337, all the cameras show the hall is clear until 22.38, when these three appear, they knock on the door, enter quickly, at 22.49 they leave with,' he stops letting the footage do the talking.
Two men hurry from the room forcing a third forwards, something is jammed against his back, behind them Jenny is walking beside a third man, his arm around her and her face contorted with disgust. She wasn't wearing the dress but appeared to be in her underwear and a men's shirt. 'They must have threatened her, she wouldn't go like that unless they had threatened to hurt someone,' Ziva nodded, 'probably the man she was with, I'd guess they have a knife against his back, if she doesn't cooperate he gets hurt,' Gibbs glared at Tony and McGee grinned, 'let me do the honours,' he mouths and whacks Tony round the back of the head as he stares at the half dressed form of his director. 'Hey! Nobody hits DiNozzo,' he catches Gibbs eye as he preens his hair, 'except you boss of course.'
McGee takes the clicker and turns to Gibbs, 'they don't leave via the main entrance, they are picked up on several cameras in the staff areas, they leave the staff exit at 22.53 and disappear from the cameras, however a street camera on 32nd shows the SUV heading south, plates match those of the car seen outside the directors house,' Gibbs nods, 'owner?' 'SUV is owned by a Rachel Welnner, reported the car stolen three weeks ago,' Gibbs nods, 'Tony, Ziva, go talk to her,' he turns to McGee, 'the papers missing from the study, you find anything useful?' McGee types into his computer, 'I checked her bank records and for the last three years every 1st July 35,000 goes to an account in the name of Sean Taylor, every 27th July 700 goes to the same account,' 'you trace what happens to the money then?' 'The bank won't give me access to the account details without a warrant, and that's taking time,' Gibbs stares at the screen, figures, legal dragging their feet as usual.
His phone began to ring and he answered it quickly, 'Gibbs,' 'I got the face of the guy the director was with,' he clicks his phone shut and motions for McGee to follow him. They find Abby grinning like a Cheshire cat, 'I cleaned up the footage and zoomed in 250x the image was pixelated so I used my wonderful programme to interpret the dark and white spaces and came up with this,' a face popped up on screen, 'I'm running it through all the databases I could think of,' a ding makes Abby grin, if possible, even more, 'I love it when it does that,' 'Abby,' Gibbs uses his warning tone, she looks at the screen and brings up the drivers license. 'His name is Daniel Carson, 49 from West Virginia, ex-military sniper, no previous convictions, not even a parking ticket, he's cleaner than clean, whiter than white, purer than…' 'We get it Abby, he's clean,' Gibbs frowns at the blue eyes, oval face, and thin straight nose of the man in the photograph, obviously looking for a replacement Jethro he thought.
His phone begins to ring again and he pulls it from his pocket, 'Gibbs,' he growls, tired and frustrated, 'Hey Boss, Rachel Welnner says the last time she saw her car was the day she split up with her ex after catching him cheating on her with, I quote, a posh red head with a town house, ex's name is…' 'Daniel Carson,' 'yeah, how'd you…' 'he was with the director last night,' 'I wonder if the director knew he was two timing her,' 'DiNozzo,' 'sorry boss, we're on our way back.'
'Boss, still no sign of a warrant for the bank records but, I've found that there is no other trace of Sean Taylor, just this bank account,' Gibbs rolls his eyes, 'there won't be, her mother died in '98, she's using it to hide something,' Gibbs leaves the lab and heads back to the bullpen, he sits at his desk and pulls out the file of crime scene photographs. He lays them on the table and moves them around so he can see the words and picture Jenny drew in her own blood. He traces the stick people with his finger and stares into space thinking about the pictures Kelly drew when she was in kindergarten, 'mommy, daddy and me', they would say across the bottom underneath the pink and blue lines and bright red smiles.
He pictured her huge smile as she ran to him holding all the pictures she had drawn while he was away, he would hug her and sit her on his lap watching intently as she pointed herself out and Shannon in the pictures, always with sad faces, 'we were sad because you weren't here,' she would tell him. Then she would drawn him a brand new picture, all three of them with huge smiling faces, she would draw a ring around Shannon as she talked about what they had been doing, she didn't even know she was doing it.
A ring, he looked closely at the drawing, the ring was around the child, the name Sean Taylor, her mother, what was significant about her mother, mother, what about her mother, why her mothers' bank account, why the money leaving each summer, why Sean Taylor, Sean Taylor, mother, daughter, Jenny Shepard, drawing of mother and daughter, what was the link. Then it hit him.
McGee runs into the bullpen followed by Abby, both look excited, 'Boss, the warrant came through,' 'what are you waiting for?' McGee quickly begins typing. Abby leans down beside Gibbs and hugs him gently, 'we'll find her Gibbs.' 'Er boss, you might wanna take a look at this,' Gibbs turns to look at the screen McGee is staring at, 'what?' 'I've found where that 35,000 goes every year,' 'where?' He flicks the details onto the main screen, Abby's jaw drops as Gibbs stares at the screen, he was right, he had cracked the code.