Tony put down the phone and grinned manically at Kate. She didn't look up immediately and simply said, "What is it Tony?"
"I found him!" He announced in a voice loud enough to be heard in California.
"Well, isn't that what you get paid to do?" Tim asked from his desk. Tony looked oer at him with the look he always reserved for the probie.
"Where have you been, Probie?"
"Helping Abby."
"Of course you have." Tony was stopped in his rant as Gibbs walked in. He had a habit of coming in in the middle of one of Tony's rants, but he was early today. Lucky for Tony in any case.
"Boss, he stayed at the Gold Stallion motel just outside of DC, checked in two days ago at 1400 and didn't leave his room. Someone else apparently came to see him at around 1800 and didn't leave until yesterday morning. Lidren checked out an hour or so after him, paid and left. The man who visited him matched the description of the John Doe in Autopsy." Tony finished, leaving Kate to stutter that she didn't have anything to add.
"That's good work Tony." Gibbs praised. Gibbs picked up his keys and made his way to the sedan calling behind him,
"DiNozzo with me. Kate, find out who the John Doe is." And then both Tony and Gibbs had vanished in the lift. But not before Tony had given Kate a little wave and a wink that made her want to shoot him.
Kate mumbled to herself as Tim walked in, sitting down at his desk. He'd just rewired a short in Abby's computer and wasn't really up to speed.
"What's wrong, Kate?" He asked, seeing the annoyed look on the other agents face.
"DiNozzo's being an ass." Tim smiled.
"Tell me something I don't know."
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The Gold Stallion motel wasn't exactly a run down place. There was nothing remotely wrong with it at all. It had a steady stream of clientele who came and went without question. It wasn't exactly rolling in money, but it keps up its shares and anything that needed to be fixed was. All in all, it was just a regular motel outside the city for travellers to stay in before making their way into DC for whatever business they had there.
The black sedan pulled up in the parking lot, beside a beat up old jeep and a dusty red truck. Both agents stepped out of the can and walked into the small office where the front desk clerk looked up and smiled. Tony grinned back at her, even smiling inside as she visibly blushed. Gibbs cut through the unspoken flirting.
"Special Agent Gibbs and DiNozzo, NCIS." He introduced them, curtly. Showing the badge. Tony did the same, twisting so the NCIS shield was visible.
"And what can I do for NCIS today."
"A man checked in two days ago." Tony pulled out the photograph of the John Doe and showed it to the clerk. She nodded, catching Tony's eye. She flicked through the large ledger which held all the clientele and stopped three pages back, running a long, painted fingernail down the names and dates. She tapped the nail on one name.
"Tyler Plearn-Sorefult." She said, beaming up at Tony, not even noticing Gibbs. "Checked out yesterday at half past ten." She concluded just as Gibbs turned to leave. She caught Tony's jacket sleeve.
"I get off at seven." She muttered in a voice choked with seductivity. Tony smiled but was saved from answering by Gibbs yell of "DiNozzo!"
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Kate's phone rang and she picked it up on the second ring.
"Todd."
"Kate, find out whatever you can on a Tyler Plearn-Sorefult." Tony's voice said over the connection. His voice was slightly quieter than usual. Gibbs must be driving in an...interesting fashion.
"Right." She replied with a hint of smuggness. Tony hung up and Kate starting typing on her computer.
Tim looked up at her, as she called him.
"Tyler Plearn-Sorefult. Aparently he's our John Doe." Tim nodded and started opening up databases and checking files. He also called down to Abby to see if she could match him to anything. It wasn't exactly her job, but he knew for a fact she'd been trying to create a lifesized model of a hippo out of her Caf-Pows and rubber gloves.
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Tony and Gibbs arrived back three quarters of an hour after the phone-call. Gibbs seated himself at his desk, but Tony had to stop in front of it.
"What are you doing?" He asked Madisyn, who had her feet up on the table.
"Well, I had nothing to do, since i'm only 'observing' and so I decided I wasn't going to risk sitting at Gibbs desk." She replied with a smile. She took her feet off the desk but didn't get up. Instead she pulled the chair from behind Tony's desk and let him get behind it, but didn't give him back his chair. This earnt a smile from Kate and a stiffled laugh from Tim. Tony glowered at them both but, for once, decided to take the higher ground. He knelt and started typing on his computer.
Once Kate and Tim had finished silently laughing, they both reported what they had learnt of Tyler Plearn-Sorefult. Which wasn't much.
"46, no living reletives, worked as an till worker at Lidren's shop and put in his resignation the day Lidren was fired. Otherwise nothing."
"Nothing about why Lidren slit his throat and dumped him in a bush before trying to snipe us down?" Tony asked.
"Maybe he was bored." Madisyn supplied. Gibbs looked up at her and she apologized, yet didn't break his eye-contact. She hadn't quite got to the stage of quailing under the glare yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Abby came bounding out of the elevator, her pig-tails bouncing up and down. Ducky left the elevator after her, slower and more collected.
"Hey Madisyn!" She chirruped, stopping in the middle of the bullpen.
"Hey Abby!" Madisyn returned in a similarly high and sprightly voice.
"Tony? Why are you kneeling on the floor?" She asked, before turning to Gibbs. Tony glared at Madisyn who simply grinned back.
"The DNA from Johnny Doe-"
"Tyler Plearn-Sor-"
"McGee!" Abby interupted him back. "I was talking. The DNA from Johnny Doe down in Autopsy has a seventy three per cent match to Lidren!" She finished excitedly.
Even Gibbs looked up. Ducky picked up the silence.
"And, the knife found in one of the slashed tires was also the one that took the life of our John Doe.
"So who would want to slash the tires of a car and kill their own brother just to bring NCIS to the scene?" Madisyn pondered out loud, sitting up and uncrossing her legs.
"Someone with a grudge against NCIS." Tim joined in.
"Oooooh!" Abby chipped. "And someone with the oppertunity to spike the coffees!" She finished. Everyone looked at her except Gibbs. That was, everyone who had tried some of the mystery coffee looked at her. And then they all heard the sirens from outside the buildings. The bullpen had gone deathly quiet.
Author's Chapter Notes:
"A-hah! It's not just to make us suffer. We actually do paperwork for a reason!...Yes I was bein sarcastic, little slow today, are you?"
Chapter End Notes:
((Thanks coral!))