NCIS and Murdoch Mysteries

Back on the Case

Gibbs was already at his desk the next morning when McGee and the other agents walked into the squad room just prior to 7:00 a.m. They didn't even get the chance to hang up their coats and put their things away before Gibbs barked, "Somebody tell me something!"

The agents looked at each other for a moment. They had given updates last night just before going home at 9:30 p.m. But one does not disappoint Gibbs. Ellie spoke up, "Well, I've finished interviews with Wessex's American associates, and am waiting for responses from," as she flipped through a couple of pages in her notebook, "two of the Canadians." "Lean on them," and when Ellie only nodded, Gibbs added, "Now."

Gibbs turned to look at McGee, who sputtered to life, "Boss, we've gotten copies of case files from the Canadians, but they are so redacted as to be almost useless." Gibbs snatched a file off McGee's desk and looked through it. He shook h is head. If there were 25 words on a page that were still legible, Gibbs would have been surprised.

He looked up to the second floor in the direction of the Director's office, slapped the file against his other hand and headed up the stairs. His team waited until he was out of sight, then wilted into their chairs before sighing and just getting with their jobs.

~~~

Gibbs walked through Leon's outer office towards the closed door, not even nodding at the secretary. She jumped up and said, "Agent Gibbs, the Director is in conference. You cannot go in there right now." She knew Gibbs would ignore her warning. She was right.

He strode towards the desk, spun-tossed the file onto the desk and demanded, "We can't solve the case with this crap. There's not enough unredacted material to make a full tweet!

Leon raised an eyebrow and nearly smiled. Since when did Gibbs know what Twitter was? "And good morning to you, Agent Gibbs." He turned to his guest, Inspector Donald Lamont, who had risen from his chair and said, "Inspector Lamont, may I present Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, one of our finest people and he heads the team investigating your agent's death."

Lamont extended his hand. Gibbs warily put out his for a handshake. All three men sat down.

Gibbs retrieved the file and shoved it at Lamont. "Do you want to find out who murdered your agent or not?" Lamont looked at the file, turned several pages, tossed it back to Gibbs, saying, "You are correct, Special Agent Gibbs. That file is indeed a load of utter...rubbish."

Lamont then cleared his throat, looked at Gibbs, looked at the Director, then back at Gibbs. Gibbs and Vance looked at each other, and back at Lamont. In a tentative voice, Lamont said, "Say ... hypothetically ... someone had access to the original file, no redactions. Would that be of interest for your investigation?

The Director looked at Gibbs, "Maybe you can show Agent, sorry, Inspector Lamont some of the sights while he's here in DC," stating it deliberately and pointedly.

Gibbs nodded, stood and invited Inspector Lamont to leave the office. "Sure," Gibbs tried not to smile, "any monument or museum you'd like to see particularly, Lamont?" Lamont stood and shook hands with Vance, saying, "Thank you, Sir". Vance nodded to Lamont and responded, "I hope you have a memorable time here, Inspector." "As do I, Sir."

As Gibbs shut the Director's office door behind them, Lamont queried, "Was that an example of 'plausible deniability' in action, eh?" Gibbs answered, "Yes it was." Lamont hummed the tune to "It's a Small World" quietly. Gibbs laughed, clapped the Canadian on the shoulder and said, "It certainly is. We're going to get along just fine. Come meet my team."