Gibbs eyed the thin file that Mendez had laid on the desk in front of him. Printed on the tab was ‘DiNardo/La Grenouille’ in surprisingly neat penmanship. Gibbs smiled to himself. One of many quirks that Tony had was his signature being nearly illegible while everything else he wrote was almost textbook perfect.
Gibbs felt like head slapping himself. He should have thought to ask Tony what he had on hand. He knew Tony kept information on every case he worked.
On his first trip to Tony’s apartment, only a few months after hiring him, Gibbs had seen two tall metal filing cabinets standing guard on either side of an antique roll top desk in Tony’s living room. Given the state of disarray the rest of the place had been in, the spotless home office area had piqued Gibbs’ curiosity. Opening one of the drawers he’d seen files from cases everywhere Tony had worked. They were organized alphabetically, neatly labeled with a name, date and location.
Initially, Gibbs thought they were cases Tony hadn’t been able to close. Seeing so many, Gibbs had almost begun to doubt hiring Tony, thinking what he’d seen in him that made him offer a job might have been some kind of fluke. Opening several folders he saw notations indicated the cases were closed. In the margins were what sentence had been handed down against the perpetrator and occasionally there was a note on when they’d be available for parole. He couldn’t help wondering why Tony bothered keeping those files, but he’d never asked. It wasn’t a quirk any stranger than building a boat in a basement, so Gibbs wasn’t in any position to judge.
It made sense that Tony would have kept the file on DiNardo and La Grenoille in his desk at work. The case was not closed---at least not for them. Open cases didn’t go in Tony’s personal filing cabinets; for whatever reasons Tony only kept the closed cases at home. He always kept anything open and unsolved where he spent the most time…the office.
Gibbs opened the file. He found less than half a dozen piece of paper, and a handful of photos. Not much to go on. But the whole operation was never sanctioned and there was never a true ‘crime scene’ to be studied, so there weren’t other agent’s notes to include, no autopsy reports to refer to, no forensic information that might spark a new line of thought or questioning.
Gibbs put on his glasses and began reading the first page. He had forgotten how meticulous Tony could be when it came to his files. The lazy, carefree attitude the younger man projected hid a prudent, highly organized approach to his personal record keeping. That attention to detail rarely made it into Tony’s final reports, a fact that never failed to baffle the older man. It shouldn’t be that hard to duplicate his original efforts, but then maybe that was the problem. If NCIS regulations had simply allowed Tony to copy his original effort rather than forcing him to recreate it in the official format it would have been faster and easier. Tony, like Gibbs, saw redundant effort as wasteful and unnecessary. He didn’t want to do the work over, so he simply did it as fast as possible providing only as much as absolutely necessary. Even sending his reports back to him, over and over, didn’t make Tony any more inclined to go the extra mile. It was one area he’d stubbornly and successfully resisted Gibbs.
Typed in a concise bullet format was a listing of all the pertinent facts of DiNardo’s life. His parents’ names, their respective professions and how they died, where he grew up, where he went to school, his hobbies and interests, his teaching schedule---everything that would be needed to create a good cover for the man he was pretending to be. Scanning the information Gibbs could tell how much Tony had drawn in from his own history. It made sense he would. It was easier to remember that way, and definitely made it easier to be specific whenever he had to lie.
On the second page were listed the social security number that had been set up for DiNardo, his driver’s license number, and his date of birth. That ID information wasn’t anywhere Gibbs had ever seen. Nor would it be, he realized grimly. Shepard hadn’t made the case official. There were probably no more records than what Tony had kept...
Gibbs sighed silently. Until now, it had never even occurred to him to look into Tony’s alter ego. He hadn’t been there when the cover was created, and with La Grenouille’s disappearance Gibbs had forgotten about DiNardo until Jeanne resurfaced accusing Tony of murder.
Further down on the page was a cell phone number for DiNardo’s burn phone, where it had been purchased, when and how. Gibbs would have expected cash to be used since that was harder to trace, but there was what had to be a credit card number listed. Sixteen digits were unlikely to be anything else. Gibbs handed that piece of paper off to McGee.
“Check all of that.”
McGee nodded. “On it, Boss.”
Gibbs hid a smile. There was a time when he’d have had to tell McGee what to check for. McGee had come a long way from when he first worked with Gibbs.
McGee had been surprised to learn Tony kept any information from his undercover assignment, but then he didn’t know Tony kept information on every case he worked. As far as Gibbs knew Tony had never mentioned it, and McGee had never been to Tony’s place to see for himself the way Gibbs had.
The next page was devoted to Jeanne Benoit. Secured to it with a paperclip was a photo of her. Gibbs frowned, wondering why Tony would have kept the picture. With how badly things had ended between them, he thought it more likely Tony would have shredded anything related to her rather than risk being confronted by any reminder of who she was and what he’d lost.
Gibbs shook his head. It was part of a case. Tony would never destroy anything he considered evidence, regardless of how painful it might be for him. Gibbs absently noted how much happier, younger and carefree Jeanne looked in the photo than she had the last time he’d seen her. He was sorely tempted to shred it knowing Tony had likely made the same comparison and felt a lingering guilt about what his role in Shepard’s game had done to her. He didn’t need that. But Tony wouldn’t appreciate Gibbs destroying it---regardless of his motives---so Gibbs just set is aside.
He read through the attached paper. It was an obvious ‘case study’, and probably something Tony had summarized from a more detailed source. There was information on where she lived and worked, her friends and coworkers, places she frequented and when she would most likely be found there. There was even a brief profile on her character. It was clearly everything Tony would have needed to ‘accidentally’ meet her, and then pique her interest enough to agree to saying yes to dating DiNardo.
A second page was a detailed list of ‘arranged contact’ that had to be dates they’d been on. The progress of their relationship was chronicled in a way that made it easy for Gibbs to know exactly when and where the case had become more personal than professional for Tony. His gut tightened painfully when he realized it was after his return from Mexico. His senior agent had been floundering, going down for the third time, and he’d never noticed.
Gibbs’ fist clenched, crumpling the paper. He forced himself to smooth it out and finish reading it. There was a footnote at the bottom about Jeanne having left DC for parts unknown. Gibbs winced at that curt sentence; it held far more pain and loss than it should have been capable of.
Gibbs expected to see additional notes on her accusing Tony of murder, but there was nothing. It seemed odd until it occurred to him that incident likely represented a separate case in Tony’s mind. Any information about that and Rene Benoit’s murder was probably in another file somewhere. The team in Houston had worked that case, albeit indirectly, and Gibbs knew they’d destroyed any hard copy information in their possession. The only thing he knew had been kept was on one of those computer memory sticks that McGee seemed fond of using.
Gibbs looked up to ask Mendez if there had been any other files in Tony’s locked drawer or if the memory stick had been stored somewhere else. Mendez was deep in conversation with Carol Dewing, and Gibbs hesitated to interrupt. He wasn’t exactly on Mendez’s good side. No point in antagonizing the man further by being rude when it didn’t have to be. Gibbs made a note to ask him later.
Going back to the file in front of him, Gibbs flipped to the next page. This one had a picture of Rene Benoit attached to it. Looking at the man’s face, Gibbs couldn’t help thinking about the last picture he’d seen of him. Bodies pulled from the water never looked good. Gibbs grimaced in distaste, not liking the image that came to mind and moved the photo. There was surprising little in the way of information on Rene Benoit. Reading through it, Gibbs realized the style was different and was likely something Shepard had given Tony. It was little more than the name of the target, the crimes he was suspected of, listings of places he’d been or was suspected of being, and a photo for identification.
Following that was clearly a list of things Tony had learned from Jeanne about her father. Some were leads Tony had obviously looked into, like various houses Jeanne had mentioned them residing in and where they’d gone for vacation and when. There were notations in the margins about correlations between arms deals that had gone down at the same times, in the same area that could be linked to La Grenouille. It wasn’t anything concrete but it was a good effort at establishing a pattern.
There was a photo of Trent Kort Gibbs recognized. It was the same photo that had gone up on the plasma screen when they’d found out he was a CIA agent and Gibbs got his first clue as to what Tony had been involved in. He hadn’t found out until much later Tony had actually taken the picture while keeping Rene Benoit under surveillance. The only information with the photo identified Kort as Benoit’s right hand man. CIA was written in block letters.
There was also a photo of Kort’s girlfriend. The only comment on her was that she appeared to be Rene Benoit’s personal assistant. With nothing else to go on, Gibbs assumed Tony had never gotten her name. She’d never been arrested so there were no mug shots available to run facial recognition on, and Gibbs doubted Tony had ever gotten close enough to get her fingerprints.
“Boss?”
“Yeah, McGee?”
“I’ve got something you should see.” McGee gestured toward his computer monitor.
Gibbs got up and studied the screen. “What am I looking at?”
“This is the activity in the checking accounts that Tony had as Tony DiNardo.” McGee tapped a button and the image scrolled down. “According to this the account was opened a week after you…well, after you…” McGee cleared his throat, “after you went on extended leave.”
Gibbs mentally snorted. Extended leave? More like I lost my mind, Gibbs thought, but he could appreciate the younger man’s effort to be tactful. Shepard certainly hadn’t wasted any time getting things in place. Had his leaving been all she was waiting for? Or was it just bad timing on Gibbs’ part?
“Regular monthly automatic withdraws were set up for rent and utilities the two weeks later.”
Studying the date, Gibbs reached for the time line Tony had made of his relationship with Jeanne. He hadn’t even met her until nearly three months later. Shepard had clearly been laying the ground work. Had she asked Tony that much in advance to take the case?
Gibbs pulled out the paper with DiNardo’s history. Tony had dated it, in black ink, neatly in the upper right corner. He wrote it, at least this final version, only two days before meeting Jeanne. Knowing how Tony worked, he wouldn’t have written the history more than a week prior to initiating contact. Once he’d created his alter ego, memorized the details and decided on the mannerisms, he’d want to almost immediately act on it to cement the character in place.
Gibbs frowned. Shepard had set up the account before Tony agreed to the job. It wasn’t a dummy account, something they’d created in house to work long enough to make it seem like DiNardo was real. No, she hadn’t faked it. This was a genuine account, with a bonifide bank. They might never have known to even look for it if Tony hadn’t his kept notes.
Gibbs frowned. To set it up, someone had to either hack into the bank’s system to create it because Shepard hadn’t secured a warrant to be able to force cooperation or someone had to physically open it. To do the latter, proof of ID was required. But the timing suggested it was set up before Tony DiNozzo agreed to become Tony DiNardo.
Had Shepard sent someone else in posing as DiNardo with forged documentation to open the account? Had she planned to use someone other than Tony originally, and something fell through at the last minute? Or was it just convenient to use him once Gibbs was out of the picture? Gibbs’ thoughts were interrupted as McGee began speaking again.
“You can see where a paycheck was regularly deposited. Every two weeks.” McGee pointed to a line on the screen. “Not quite sure how they managed to make it look like the money was coming from the university, but according to the ledger, that’s where the funds originated.”
That was probably the result of a good hack job. Gibbs wondered who Shepard had used to do it. Could be the same person set up the account in the first place.
“After the case was…well, not closed exactly, but shut down or whatever,” McGee shrugged, scrolling up the screen “the auto draft payments and deposits continued for several months. I’m not sure why they would. Not like Tony was staying at that apartment or even pretending to be DiNardo any more.”
Had it simply been overlooked? It was possible. With Rene Benoit dead, Shepard might not have thought to shut everything down. Attention to detail clearly hadn’t been a high priority for her. Or she might have kept it open deliberately, planning to use it later.
McGee pointed to another line on the screen. “From here, the auto drafts stop, and so do the fake paychecks. But other transactions start happening. For a lot more money.”
Gibbs could see where money was wired to and from the account. The amounts were always a thousand dollars or more under federal mandated reporting requirements, and were regular enough to likely seem ‘normal’ to anyone giving the account a cursory look. There was nothing overtly suspicious to a casual observer.
Doing a quick mental tally, Gibbs whistled silently at the number that came up. One hundred and seventy five thousand dollars over the course of several months had shuttled in and out of the account. While not a huge amount of money, for say embezzlement or terrorist activity, it was still a sizeable chunk of change.
“Where did the money come from? And better yet, where did it go?”
“I’m still working on that.” McGee grimaced. “It bounced through several other accounts and whoever set it up did a good job of hiding the origin and final destination. But I did find that the credit card number Tony had was actually a debt card attached to this account.” McGee tapped a button, highlighting a transaction. “It was used to purchase a prepaid cell phone just a few months ago from the same place where DiNardo bought his.”
McGee looked at Gibbs. “We’d have to ask Tony to confirm it, but I’m sure he turned in anything related to DiNardo that he’d used undercover.”
Tony always made sure to return anything used while working a case. He was positively anal about it, which Gibbs knew had annoyed the hell out of McGee until he’d realized even the equipment they used could be considered evidence. Failure to return things might make an attorney question why an item used during an investigation couldn’t be produced. If the equipment couldn’t be tested, how could they confirm it functioned properly? If the agent wasn’t responsible enough to return things, or had so little integrity as to stoop to stealing then their whole testimony could, in theory, be made suspect.
“If he didn’t return it, he might have reported it as destroyed when his car blew up. He had to do that for his badge.” McGee said quietly. “Either way, he’s been in Houston long enough that he couldn’t have used that card to buy anything in DC.”
“Get security footage from the store.” Maybe they could see who actually used the card.
“They might not have it.” McGee shook his head. “Transaction took place awhile ago, and most places reuse their video tapes.”
McGee was probably right, but Gibbs wasn’t going to assume it was a dead end until that had been confirmed. “Call and ask anyway.”
“On it, Boss.”
“Tell them it’s fraud related. Identity theft.” Those sorts of inquiries would be fairly common. And Gibbs was hoping it would keep their interest low key enough not to cause anything to show up on Shepard’s radar.
Before Gibbs could say anything else Dewing approached them. She nodded to McGee, but her attention was on Gibbs.
“We’re know where Nunes is. We’re leaving in five to get him.”
Gibbs’ hand automatically moved to check his gun and badge. “I’ll"“
“Stay right here and keep working,” she said mildly.
“Excuse me?”
She met Gibbs’ glare without flinching. “Nunes is ours.”
McGee stood up. “Wait a minute, you can’t shut us out. This is a federal case---“
“The issue of who is in charge as already been settled, Special Agent McGee.” She kept her tone level, not raising her voice.
“You can’t shut us out"“
“I can and will if need be.” She stated with a quiet conviction that made it clear she wasn’t making a threat, she was stating a fact. The look she gave McGee Gibbs was sure could have frozen water. To his credit, McGee didn’t flinch, but he came close. “And for the record you aren’t being shut out. You never were. You simply aren’t being included in this aspect of the operation.”
“That’s a fine hair you’re splitting.” Gibbs growled.
“It was our people who were hurt. It is our turf. And it will be Houston PD who nails his ass, not you.”
In her position, Gibbs had to admit he wouldn’t let an outsider in either. And when they’d met for a ‘campfire’ earlier, he’d agreed it was better to let Houston handle tracking down Nunes because they were likely to be more successful. Since they’d located him, it had obviously been the right call. He still didn’t like the idea of being left out.
“We stand a better chance of convicting him for murder than you have of convicting him of conspiracy or even getting nailing his ass for acts of terrorism. You don’t have any hard evidence yet that Nunes and Shepard were working together and we can’t prove he wanted the weapons to attack any branch of the government or even the law abiding citizens of this country.”
“We’ll get proof.” Gibbs declared.
“I’m sure you will. But right now, we have proof Nunes was a drug dealer who killed Trent Kort while trying to buy illegal weapons. That’s enough to arrest and hold him on. So until you have something definitive, that will hold up in a court of law, it is worth remembering Texas not only has the death penalty, the state has a tendency to use it.” She smiled coldly. “And a few of Nunes’ rivals have people already in prison. That could make being held in the general population more than a little uncomfortable, maybe even fatal, for him.”
Gibbs nodded, immediately seeing where she was going with her reasoning. “You want leverage to force Nunes to roll on Shepard. If federal agents are in on the bust he might expect to end up as a federal prisoner, not state. He would know you aren’t going to decide his fate so he won’t cooperate.”
“Exactly.” She smirked. “Tony said you were no fool. I’ll have to tell him he was right.”
Gibbs smiled, amused in spite of himself at the not quite compliment. “It’ll just go to his head.”
“So?” She turned to leave, and then looked back over her shoulder. “Once we have Nunes in custody you are welcome to watch the interrogation.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She saluted with two fingers and walked away.
“I don’t understand these people,” McGee muttered. “She could have just told us that from the start.”
Gibbs suspected she would have---if they’d given her a chance to. Their knee jerk reaction had her responding accordingly. He wasn’t used to dealing with people who could and would hold their ground. They didn’t tolerate having their authority or actions questioned any more than Gibbs did.
“Follow the money, McGee. Let me know if you get any video footage from the store where the phones were bought.” Gibbs grabbed his coffee cup. “I’m getting more coffee and then I’ll check in with Ziva to see how she’s faring on her end.”
They still hadn’t found out where the ordinance came from. It was one more piece of the puzzle Gibbs wanted to be able to put into place. Going after the director of a federal agency wasn’t exactly a cake walk. They needed to have as much information and evidence as possible.
“I’ll stop by the forensics lab and see if Hartung has any more she can tell us.” She might have the little memory stick thing they’d put information on Rene Benoit’s murder, or if she didn’t have it she might know where it was.
McGee nodded, looking vaguely puzzled. Gibbs knew the younger man’s expression was because he’d bothered to explain himself. He’d made a concerted effort to do a better job of communicating lately, but his team still wasn’t entirely used to it. They still tended to be wary or confused when he did more than issue orders.
He could admit, at least to himself, his recent efforts were a byproduct of the regular conversations he had with Tony. Talking with Tony had given him practice verbal communication. And he’d come to see the value of verbalizing his thoughts.
“Will you talk to Abby too?”
“Yeah.”
Abby had insisted on staying at the hospital with Ducky. She had her laptop and could work from anywhere. She wanted to be there the next time Tony woke, refusing to leave until she had a chance to speak to him and see for herself that he was going to be okay. Gibbs could understand her position. He hadn’t really wanted to leave without being able to tell Tony he’d be back and he’d been heard.
“I’ll let you know what she has to tell me.” Gibbs said, seeing the next question in McGee’s eyes and answering it before he could ask. “About the Shepard’s illness and Tony.”
McGee nodded, looking relieved. Gibbs knew he wasn’t the only one worried about Tony, but he did occasionally lose sight of that fact.
McGee sat down and focused on his computer. “I’m on it, Boss.”
“Keep up the good work, Tim.” Gibbs said sincerely before he left. He still didn’t hand out compliments very often, but he was trying to do better. No one ever accused Gibbs of not learning from his mistakes---expect for when it came to his ex-wives.
Coffee. He needed coffee. Hopefully, by the time he got recaffinated Ziva and Abby would have good news for him.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tony's note provide a crucial key.