"5,000$"

Chapter Nine: Boxed In
15x6: Trapped

*Trigger warning*

Isana was enjoying life, she had just finished hanging out with Dean, they were like two peas in a pod. The two were completely different. Isana was bubbly, quiet, kept to herself, while Dean was funny and outgoing. Isana loved their differences, she didn't mind watching him mingle with his friends when they went out and he didn't mind staying inside watching movies.

The two had been dating for close to three months which made her extremely happy.  Because she never really dated for long periods of time. Not really at least, she dated a few times while undercover sure, but those weren't real, sure they felt real but they weren't, it was a mask, a fake person she was pretending to be.

Isana and Dean were the perfect match at least she thought so she was enjoying his company, lucky for her she could enjoy it longer now that he moved to working on the ground, his ship wouldn't take sail for another year, they were doing training on the ship to ready all the other sailors for when they actually set sail. Isana got to see him any free chance she got and she had yet to introduce him to the team.

Its not that she didnt want to, it was more so of how protective they were of her, could you blame them, she did get kidnapped my terrorist for two whole months. Where they treated her like the last piece of meat on earth. It was nice to know they had her back but it was becoming a bit much even Bishop was protective of her. Nonetheless she was going to tell them about Dean soon, if only she knew that soon was coming quicker than she thought.

Isana was taking photos of the crime scene with Mcgee when Gibbs and Torres finally showed up.

"Hey. What do we have?"

" Our victim is Navy Petty Officer Second Class Jake Miller. Stationed here in Quantico." Timothy explains.

"He, uh, died playing golf?"

" He was working. He was a part-time groundskeeper here to supplement his Navy income." Isana explains as the group walk over to the body.

"Ooh. Death by lawn mower. No thank you." Nick whistles.

"Palmer. What do we have?"

" I don't think the lawn mower killed him." Palmer was kneeled down in front of the body.

"Why?"

" There's not enough blood. I think he was already dead when the mower ran him over."

"Who ran him over?" Nick asks. Isana just watches as Bishop deals with the two old golfers before going back to taking photos. She tunes everyone out focusing on the scene before going into the sand she takes a photo of a bloody rake, a ring missing off the top.

"Hey, boss?"

" What'd you find, Iz?"

" We're gonna need an evidence box." She holds up the rake with a napkin around where her hand is.

"Hey! You messed up my bunker. This is a golf course, you know." The manager was yelling at her as Torres was holding him back.

"Well, right now it's a crime scene." Isana was being sassy with a guy who was way 4 inches taller than her and she didn't care one bit.

"But what should I tell all my golfers?" The guys as Isana rolls her eyes.

" Tell them that for today, it's a 17-hole course."She sasses as Gibbs just chuckles, sticking his hands in his pocket. Before giving isana a look. "What?" she replies as he chuckles more.

//

Isana was standing at the printer waiting for the document she sent to print a coffee in her hand, the printer was whirling and before long it spits out a piece of paper only it wasn't her document.

"Hey. Oh, thank you." Nick comes and takes the photos from her hands.

"Motorcycle photos."

"It's a Supermoto. It's a dirt bike with street tires." Nick seemed very happy about that.

"Is it yours?"

" It will be. I'm getting a good deal on it."

"Hmm." Isana nods before leaning forward and pressing stop on his printer job.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey. I guess I can do that later."

Her document finally prints just in time for Gibbs to reenter the bullpen. "Hey, you get anything?"

"Miller's cell phone records. Six of his last incoming calls were from a company called Southeast Sand and Turf."

"About what?" Gibbs asks as they walk over to the plasma with the others.

" Well, they supply landscaping products to golf courses. Could just be work calls."

"Surveillance video from the golf course parking lot." Mcgee pulls the surveillance footage."Now, between 3:30 and 7:00 this morning, nine vehicles entered, but only one left.4:21 a.m. It's a red 1995 Ford Aspire.Now, we can't see the driver's face, but we enhanced the plate.Belongs to an 86-year-old woman, who reported it stolen yesterday.

"Get a BOLO out."

"BOLO. Already got it." Tim nods as does Gibbs.

"I spoke to his C.O. Said Miller was a 4-0 sailor. Kept to himself, few friends, clean record.

That matches what the golf course superintendent told us."

"Isana, Torres, check out Miller's apartment."

"Reeves?" Gibbs turns to the man he stand abruptly.

"Nothing!"

" What are you doing?"

" Just checking on my mates." He straightens up.

"Go with Bishop and Mcgee.Landscaping company. they'll fill you in." everyone gathers their gear leaving.

The two partners find themselves at the apartment they step inside seeing bare walls.

"Wow, just the basics. I like this guy.' Torres continues into the apartment.

"He worked two jobs. Wonder what he spent his money on." Isana closes the door.

"Uh, Ana?" Isana follows where his voice is. "Miller was into something weird." They walk into his bedroom seeing alot of equipment.

"This is not weird. This is a ham shack." Isana was basically nerding out and Nick found it oddly attractive.

"Huh? What is that, code for something?"

" No.nNo. Ham radio. Social media before there was social media. One-to-one conversations to hams all over the world." Isana explains and Nick was obviously still confused,

"Huh. I take it you do this?"

Isana looks at the equipment in awe." I used to. When I was a kid. Yeah.My, uh, my dad taught me. I used to have a friend named Mark in Copenhagen. Know what his handle was? Hmm? Dane Mark." Isana laughs a bit as Nick just nods still confused.

"Oh."

"Yeah. We used to talk for hours."

"When I was a kid, my dad used to sneak me into cockfights." Isana smiled, liking the fact that  Torres was opening up to her.

"Well okay." she nods. She looks around seeing a paper on his desk. "Oh. What do we got here? Miller's call log. List of all his regular contacts.Some of them might know something." Isana reads the Paper as the door is heard opening, she's quick to draw her gun and run out into the living room Torres on her trail.

"Federal agents."

"Ah!" a woman with dogs is standing in the doorway hands up in the air.

" Who are you?"

" I'm-I'm just the dog walker. Please, please don't shoot."

"NCIS special agents Torres and Pacheleki."

One of the dogs is barking rapidly lunging at Isana. "Sorry, they're just scared. You came at us with guns. You could kill someone like that."

She clears her throat. "Um, excuse me." she nods to the dog who is growling at her.

"Uh, Benji? Down." Benji is staring at her now. Benji. That's enough. Benji lays down. I don't know what's gotten into him. He's usually not like that. I'm sorry, I'll just, uh, put Spinks back and then I'll go."

"Wait, hold on. What's your name?"

" Rhonda. Uh, Rhonda Collins.

"Rhonda.Rhonda Collins. She's Rhonda Collins." Nick smirks and points at the woman as Isana nods and rolls her eyes.

"Rhonda, you think you could look after Spinks for a few days?"

" Sure. Um, is Jake all right?"

//

Isana heads back to the naval yard with Torres, they bring all of Miller's equipment and mcgee geeks out with it too, he starts talking on the Ham radio to someone from Miller's call logs and they explain how they knew Miller was dead, how Miller said he had gotten himself into something shady.

Isana finds herself at home having had the longest day of her live. After plopping down on her bed face first she hears the sound of her front door opening, she is quick on her feet, already having her gun aimed at the door.

"Easy there Dajingo, it's just me." Dean jokes Isana sighs putting her gun down on the table.

"You know just cause you work a 9 to 5 doesnt mean I want to see you everyday."

"Ooh wow and here I was about to make you a nice meal, I even bought you a nice white wine." Dean takes off his coat as he walks towards Isana, the two swaying into each other's arms.

"White wine for me you shouldn't have?"  they laugh as he pours her some.

He gets to work cooking a nice ravioli and pesto sauce before they eat and end up on the couch, watching a movie. Well Dean was Isana was falling asleep, her head bobbing up and down to stop her from sleeping. She was so tired, barely slept anymore due to the fact that she still had nightmares, she was still in Paraguay, fighting to survive trying to make sure she didn't fall asleep in case someone came and got her.

Dean just admires her, he kisses her head startling her and she stirs a bit, he decided not to wake her delicately picking her up and carrying her to her bed, where she sleeps for the rest of the night. She needed that sleep so much so she slept in and missed almost half of work

She walks into the bullpen just as Nick is yelling at his phone. She stares at him strangely.

"Representative....Rep-re-sen-ta-tive!..... Ugh!" he tossed his phone and it landed on Bishop's desk.

"Can I help you?"

" Yeah, the bagel place denied my credit card for $1.75." He explains taking his phone back from Bishop Isana was pinning her badge to her pants.

"Why?" Bishop asks as Isana closes the drawer to her desk, she walks over to Bishop's desk joining the conversation.

" I don't know. I can't seem to get ahold of my credit card company."

Isana furrows her brows. "You don't carry at least $2.00 in cash?"

" Let's just focus on the problem here-- I don't have a bagel. Also why are you late?" He asks as Isana yawns.

"I overslept past my alarm," she yawns again.

"Stop, dont start cause if you do then I do." Bishop says yawning as well.

"So, here's something. I just found out Special Agent Sloane used to be in the army." Clayton comes around the corner, he was referring to the new forensic physiologist that got added to  the team.

"Really?"

You're checking up on her?" Bishop quirks a brow at Clayton who scoffs/

" No.Yes. Not just the army. PsyOps. Psychological Operations. They conduct psychological warfare." Clayton says as everyone just stares at him.

"We know what it is, Clay." Isana yawns again as Bishop sends her a look.

"You don't think that's weird?"

" That you're secretly investigating her? Yeah, it is." Bishop says as Isana nods.

"I have questions."

"You have questions, Nick?"

" I do. I wonder who she roots for in the Army-Navy game" Nick replies with a  smirk as Clayton kisses his teeth walking away Isana just laughs along with Bishop.

Isana went to file some paperwork at her desk Nick was sitting next to her at his she laughed at her phone and he peeks his head over, he watches her before sneaking up behind her and seeing who was texting, she turns in her chair and he acts like he wasn't looking, before heading back to his own computer.

The two work quietly at their computers. Bishop went to check on something.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no." Isana looks at Nick who sighs. "My credit card's over the limit." She scoots her chair over to his desk just as Bishop walks up.

"Ooh. Motorcycle?"

" No, I didn't even buy it yet." He says as the trio are now looking at his credit card statement.

"Huh. Scroll down. Uh, well, there's your problem. A $5,000 charge to Inclusion Town?"

" Wow." Isana nods impressed.

"That's Jimmy's charity, but that's not right, 'cause I only gave 50 bucks."

"Did you remember the decimal point?" Clayton pops up out of nowhere.

"The what?"

" Did you type in 50-point-zero-zero, or five-zero-zero-zero?" he explains further as Torres's eyes go wide.

" Oh, my God. Are you telling me I donated five grand to Jimmy's charity?"

" Ha, what a guy, Torres. Update." Gibbs walks in and Isana rises from her seat quickly.

"Well, Miller and cocaine don't connect. By all accounts, he was a Boy Scout."

" And I checked with his bank.He had less than $2,000 in savings."  Isana continues.

"And why work two jobs if you're a drug dealer?"

" It's a good cover." Gibbs says.

"Criminal mastermind selling coke on the radio?"

" Mm, too risky. Frequencies are open lines. Anyone can listen in." Bishop says as Isana nods.

"I went back to his apartment. No drugs, no paraphernalia, but what I did find was Agent Sloane snooping around. Bagging evidence." Clayton sasses the last part as Bishop and isana just roll their eyes at him.

"The sketch of our suspect from the vet?"

" Done. Torres has it.'' Everyone looks back at Torres.

"Uh, yeah, right here." He holds up the sketch as Gibbs pushes his chair out from under his desk and walks over to him, taking the sketch from his hands. " No ID on the guy, but Abby's running facial recognition."

"Who is that, Ricochet?"

" Uh don't know yet, McGee's still looking for him." Isana explains.

Mcgee figured out who ricochet was and after meeting up with him and finding out that he had the same dog walker as Miller, they started piecing together why Benji was so agitated with Isana. He did the same to Miller a few times. Benji was a canine drug dog and Miller was found with a whole lot of cocaine on him in the same pit where Isana was standing the day of the crime scene.

//

"So, this sediment was taken directly from the bunker. Looks like just plain old sand, right? Wrong. Mixed in is pure-grade cocaine. And you're gonna help me separate it out." The group was in Abby's lab.

"Hmm. With colanders?"

" Actually, it's a sieve

"Colanders drain, and sieves strain". Torres says with a smile. It drops once he sees the looks everyone was giving him. " HGTV."

Abby clears her throat. " Okay. Well, Martha Stewart, you're gonna end up with the final product.

All we have to do is progressively strain out finer and finer particles."

"It's basic separation science." Isana nods.

"Well, I don't know. Turning sand into cocaine seems more like magic to me."

"I mean, there's more sophisticated ways to separate out cocaine, but this will do the job. All right, Bishop. Shake your money maker." Abby jokes as Bishop shakes her sieve.

"I have seen Abby extract trace amounts of mercury from nanometer-sized cerium oxide particles, so this should be easy."

"I'll bet Delilah can't keep her hands off you when she hears you talk like that." Nick jokes.

"Actually...."

"Oh, come on." Nick grimaces as Isana laughs.

"Mm, it's like I'm prospecting for gold." Isana shakes her sieve handing it to Nick.

"Yeah. White gold."

"Enough to kill for. We got our motive." Mcgee speaks up.

Abby's computer beeps. "And we've got our suspect. I ran facial recognition on all the employees for the golf club's landscaping company.  That's our match."

//

The group heads upstairs to get more information and tell Gibbs.

"His name is Ramon Moncada. He's a delivery guy at the Southeast Sand and Turf. Same place that kept calling Miller the day before he died."

"Pick him up." Gibbs orders.

"McGee and Torres are out looking for him now. Next cell call he makes, they got him."

"Where's he get his coke?" Gibbs asks.

" Well, we think it's being smuggled in from Mexico. Southeast Sand and Turf get their sand from a quarry outside of Nogales, so it's not hard to imagine someone lacing the sand with coke, shipping it across the border to Southeast's warehouse, where it's separated and sold." Isana explains.

"Oh. But somebody screwed up."

"Yeah. Seems a bag of coke sand ended up on Miller's golf course instead of the street. Which is probably why Moncada kept calling Miller."

"He needed his drugs back." Gibbs continues as Isana nods.

"But then, Ricochet's drug-sniffing dog clued Miller in to what was going on."

"That dog did the same thing to Izzie."

"Miller became The Man Who Knew Too Much and Moncada took him out." Bishop pulls up images on the screen. Just as Gibbs's phone rings.

"Yeah, Torres? Bring him in." he sticks his phone back into his pocket. "We got our guy.He's at a bus station, with a one-way ticket to Toronto."

"Hmm. Headed far away from Mexico." Bishop comments as Isana nods.

Mcgee and Torres  bring Moncada in for questioning where he explains that the owner of the company takes orders from someone named El Gato in Mexico and that he was just doing what he was told. He goes on to say that El Gato is dangerous, in the end Nick impersonates a thug to get El Gato's number and he even gets stuck with helping with the park for the kids.

Isana got to go On a date with Dean, she was beginning to like Dean alot and Dean, well lets just say he had plans, so many plans and Isana was in a for a real ride.

Word count: 3300