Chapter Thirty-Seven
Gibbs entered the bullpen later than usual because of staying behind at the hospital with Tony so that he could be there for his appointment with Dr. Clark. He was pleased with how it had gone, the man had seemed to connect with Tony and he was sure that the future appointments would go fine without him being present. Either way, he had work to do so that he could gather enough evidence to prosecute Kamisnski for his role in Tony’s rape.
Ziva and McGee were both already in and working their way through the information they had gathered already on Kamisnski looking for anything they could use against him.
“Got anything?” Gibbs asked them.
“Nothing so far, boss,” McGee replied.
“I may have something,” Ziva said, looking up from the paperwork she was going through.
“And?” Gibbs asked, impatiently.
“It seems that Kamisnski hired Woodman to work in his warehouses two years ago, but fired him when he started to use the product,” Ziva said.
“What was the product?” Gibbs asked.
“Heroin, maybe that is how Woodman got his addiction started,” Ziva told them.
“We’d need to confirm it with Woodman, is he still on the premises?” Gibbs said, speaking to no one in particular.
“No, they took him to central holding about three hours ago,” McGee replied, checking on his computer. “You could talk to him there, they usually are pretty co-operative with the arresting agents.”
“Right, I’m going to go and talk to Woodman, you keep working on solidifying that connection. I want Kamisnski to go down, and I don’t want to give him time to get away with it by putting someone else on the block,” Gibbs told them, heading out the way he came before he even had the chance to take his jacket off.
Central Holding was still in D.C but about a thirty minute drive from the Navy Yard, so Gibbs set out, collecting a cup of coffee from his usual shop first. He thought about phoning Tony to inform him they may have something, but decided against it. He didn’t want to raise Tony’s hopes when it could turn out to be nothing.
The drive took longer than expected because of the midday traffic, which made Gibbs more frustrated than usual and by the time he arrived at Central Holding, he was in desperate need of a good cup of coffee to calm him down. He did not like being stuck in traffic, especially when he had a case going on like the one he was working on at that moment.
He found a coffee shop before going into the Central Holding building, and was sipping that as he arrived at the reception desk. He showed his ID and asked to speak with Petty Officer Woodman who was being held there in seclusion awaiting a trial date.
“I’ll just get the officer in charge of him for you,” the receptionist said, motioning for Gibbs to take a seat. He ignored her and stayed standing at the desk not wishing to be forgotten about. It was imperative that he spoke with Woodman - today - before he lost his nerve and decided not to testify against Kamisnski.
She spoke to someone and kept looking at Gibbs, but said nothing directly to him or about him. She put down the phone and met his eyes. “Officer Carter will be out in a moment, please take a seat,” she said, sternly.
This time, Gibbs didn’t ignore her; he took a seat but planned to get back on her case if the officer in question did not arrive within five minutes. Gibbs was not a patient man. He never had been and when one of his team was hurt, his patience for anything other than finding the persons responsible and hurting them in the same way went out the window. Part of him knew that if they could not get Kamisnski the legal way that he would find a way to make him pay whether it was legal or not - his career be damned. No one hurt his team, his family and got away with it. He also had to work out who was betraying them because someone had tipped Kamisnski off, or his lawyer, as to Tony’s condition following the rape and that person would be made to pay too, once he was sure they could no longer pass on information by firing them.
He sighed as he thought, he would have to contact the Director and bring her up to date on the case some time soon. Now that Tony was out of danger, she would want to know how long his recovery would take and whether or not they needed to bring in a temporary replacement to help on Gibbs’ team. He didn’t like the thought of someone - even temporarily - replacing Tony, but he knew that although he would have a say in it, it was ultimately up to the Director. He just hoped she wouldn’t use his new conditions against him because as Ducky had said, the NCIS medical guidelines had no problem with Tony working as a full time Field Agent, so why should she?
He checked his watch, it had been four and a half minutes since the receptionist had called Officer Carter and he had yet to appear, just as Gibbs was about to get up and ask the receptionist to call him again, a man came through the locked security door and looked around.
“Agent Gibbs?” he called out, looking around the pretty empty room.
“That’s me,” Gibbs said, standing up and walking towards the officer.
“I’m Officer Carter, I’ll take you to an interview room where Petty Officer Woodman is waiting to speak with you,” the officer explained. He checked Gibbs’ ID again and then nodded and led the way out of the waiting area and through the security door.
He was led down a series of corridors before the officer stopped in front of a door labeled “Interview Rooms - Public Access”.
“You’ll have as long as you need, but when you have finished talking with the Petty Officer, press the button on the wall and one of us will come and escort you out. There’s an officer on his side of the room in case he gets violent, so you don’t need to worry. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for your weapon, we don’t allow them in interview rooms,” Officer Carter said.
“Fine,” Gibbs replied, handing over both his weapons, “I’d like the interviewed taped with both audio and picture, if possible. I’ll need it for prosecuting in court.”
“We do that anyway as standard.”
“Good, can I sign for a copy when I leave?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.”
Gibbs nodded and entered the room, leaving Officer Carter outside. Woodman was sat down on one side of the room, with a table in the middle. Across the top of the table and down the sides was what appeared to be bullet proof glass, or bullet resistant. There were holes in the glass, small enough so that you could hear what the other was saying, but not big enough to pass anything through. Gibbs guess that was to stop anyone smuggling drugs in without it going through the regular checks.
“Agent Gibbs, is there a problem?” Woodman asked.
“No, not with your testimony or anything. The information you’ve given us has proven to be correct so I’ll be sticking to my side of the agreement and put in a good word with the Judge and make sure you get into a good drugs rehabilitation program. The problem is Kamisnski. We can’t find anything that connects the two of you and your statement alone is not enough to prosecute him,” Gibbs explained, taking a seat on his side of the glass.
“How is that my problem?” Woodman asked, looking smug.
“If you can’t provide us with anything but your testimony, the deal is off. You’ll be prosecuted to our full extent. No seclusion, no drug rehabilitation, nothing. You’ll be in the main population of the prison and Kamisnski knows it was you who tipped us off about him so just think about how long you’ll last like that.”
“But…you promised!”
“I can rescind that promise anytime I see fit. Now, tell me about any connections you had with Kamisnski. He must have known you before to know that you were the kind of guy who’d raped an innocent man to get $10,000 worth of heroin. How did he know? He couldn’t have just approached you?”
“He did, he just approached me!”
“You’re lying and I hate liars. If that’s all you have to tell me then I guess it’s time you were taken out of seclusion and put in with the rest of the prison’s population.” Gibbs hand hovered over the button that would signal the end of the interview. He was playing a dangerous game because if he finished the interview now, he had nothing, but if Woodman was as much of a coward as he thought he was then he wouldn’t let Gibbs walk out of here if it meant going into the general prison population.
“No! Wait! I’ll tell you,” Woodman shouted. Gibbs moved his hands so that they were back on the table and raised his eyebrows, waiting for him to continue. “He approached me out of the blue a couple of years ago and asked if I’d like to make some extra money, I agreed and he set me up working on packaging heroin for his dealers. I worked there for about six months and the money was good on top of my Navy wage, but he fired me when I got a taste for the white stuff. He knew I was still trying to hide my addiction from the Navy so when he needed to set something up for your Agent, he contacted me again and said what would I do for $10,000 worth of pure heroin, I said pretty much anything since my wage wasn’t covering my growing habit and it was starting to show in my work. I love the Navy, I don’t want to leave, I guess I have no choice now, but you have to believe I only did it so that I could keep working and support my habit by other means. He said all I had to do was follow the route your Agent normally took for his evening runs and I did for ages after he’d told me the Agent was off sick with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. So I walked the route several times during those weeks, and then I got lucky and caught him off-guard one night and you know the rest.”
“Can you prove you worked there?”
“I still have the wage slips he provided, they have his signature on them.”
“Where are they?”
“Hidden in my room at Norfolk. Open the stereo speakers and you’ll find everything you need.”
“This will prove you had a link to him before the attack was arranged?”
“Yes, I swear, just don’t put me in with the general population.”
“No, I won’t. Our deal still stands. We’ll pick up the wage slips today and if everything works out, you’ll only have to testify about this in court, your testimony should be the final nail in his coffin.”
Gibbs pressed the button that signified the interview was over and while he waited for Officer Carter to get the tapes of the interview for him to take back to NCIS, he called McGee and told him what to do in order to get the evidence they needed to prove Kamisnski had a connection to Woodman - that with the transfer for the heroin in his bank records should be enough to convict him for the hit he arranged on Tony. At least Gibbs hoped it would be.
It took only ten minutes to get what he needed from Central Holding and soon he was back on the road to the Navy Yard. He decided that he could risk a stop at Bethesda to give Tony the good news - that would put a smile on his face.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Who will catch DiNozzo when he falls?