randomness, part six
They lack the time, once all is said and done, to go after Lieutenant Vickers that evening - which is not to say that Gibbs does not try to send Tony and Ziva out anyway. Ziva suspects they are lucky Gibbs didn’t try to take away their dinner, this time.
Tony is halfway through pointing out that there would be little use in starting such an involved interrogation process at this time of night when McGee comes over, with Lieutenant Vickers in tug. “He decided to come back to us, boss,” he says. “Found out when I went to trace his cell phone and the signal led me to our parking lot.”
Gibbs nods. “Good. Tony, Ziva, take him downstairs.”
Ziva opts not to ask what to do about dinner; if she lets the matter be for now, the meal will hopefully still be there when she is finished. Instead, she nods to Tony and starts toward the interrogation rooms.
“So,” she says, once all three of them are settled - and Gibbs, as well as whoever else has decided to listen in, have had time to take up their posts on the other side of the two-way mirror. “Why did you hold out on us?”
Lieutenant Vickers sighs. “I don’t know. It got stupider and stupider, the more I thought about it. I think because you were looking for the perpetrator, and I thought the evidence would lead you there. That and - well, what government agency in its right mind is going to pursue a death through magical means?”
“Department of Magic springs to mind,” Tony says. “And we could nail you for obstruction of justice, for not mentioning this sooner, but since you came back on your own we probably won’t. So. What actually happened?”
“I was, as you’ve probably double-checked by now, at home all night. Except for the five minutes after Elizabeth called me. She didn’t keep in touch with many wizards, after she got married, so as soon as she thought she’d been poisoned, she called. I did the best I could for her, on the fly like that.”
Ziva raises an eyebrow. “And it seems your best was quite good, on a technical level. But why did you leave her on her own?”
“She sent me away. And she’d recovered enough that I took her word for it. She said not to leave her with any extra antidote - her husband’s always been a little dubious about magic, and she didn’t want him thinking anything was wrong.”
“Well, I’d say that backfired beautifully.” Tony makes a show of brushing some lint off his sleeve - lint that is likely not really there, knowing him.
“I know, I know.” Vickers sighs again. “If I’d realised how bad she actually was, I would have stayed. As it was, I did what I could for her, and tried to find a way to trace back to the person responsible.”
“And how’d you do that?”
“It’s a tricky formula, but there’s a way to get that potion to lead back to the person who made its use necessary, if you use the right countercharms on it.”
Ziva frowns, and looks from Vickers to Tony. “So we were on the right trail the whole time, after a fashion.”
Tony glances at the mirror. “So I guess the question now is, how did Petty Officer Conrad get her hands on a magical poison if she couldn’t make it herself?”
“Supply chain, probably,” Vickers says. “There’s almost always someone around who can whip up something, and there are more people than there should be who won’t ask why you want something done. Do you need anything else from me, or is that all?”
“I... think that might be it.”
“Unless,” Ziva says, “you think Petty Officer Conrad will have taken the opportunity to go somewhere else.”
Vickers considers that for a few moments. “I don’t think so, no,” he finally says. “If she were that worried, I think she would have skipped town the next day. You’re sure it was her?”
“Two different countercharms did what you said it should do. That was before someone pointed out we were dealing with a potion. We are sure enough to question her again, at least.”
“When you do talk to her... ask her why? Elizabeth never mentioned anything that would suggest all of this.”
Tony nods. “Standard operating procedure, lieutenant. Can’t guarantee we’ll be able to get back to you, but... if you’ll excuse me for a moment?”
He steps out into the hallway, and Ziva eyes Lieutenant Vickers for a moment. “You and Mrs. Williams were not... intimate, were you?”
“No, not at all. We bonded over the magic in college, but there was never any spark for anything else.”
Tony sticks his head back in the door, and says, “Gibbs says he’s good to go, Ziva. Let’s get him on his way and have some dinner.”
“Do you really think he will let us eat rather than go after Petty Officer Conrad?”
“Even he’s hungry, and there’s not much point in chasing after someone on an empty stomach.”
Ziva smiles. “True, I suppose. We will escort you to the door, Lieutenant?”