Gibbs was absolutely amazed with his new agent. Tony had proven to be very adept at whatever Gibbs threw at him in the NCIS gym- except boxing. He had shown that he could do paperwork well, with barely any guidance or mistakes. He had even shown Gibbs that he was smart with computers- something that Gibbs had not seen until two days earlier. And Tony was the most pleasant person to work with. There were no longer arguments coming from the bullpen like there had been with Stan. All was quiet, and Gibbs seemed to be a little more pleasant now that Tony was around.
"Gibbs? You should check this out," said Tony as he stood up and brought a file over to where Gibbs was sitting at his own desk.
"What is it, Tony?" Gibbs asked.
"This cold case could have probably been solved years ago if the original investigators had done their jobs. It looks like they skipped over the most important detail in the file." Tony handed the file to Gibbs and pointed to a letter that he had just read. "It's from the victim's fiancee. I'll just tell you what it says- the fiancee admitted to stealing the victim's money and identity for her lover. At the end of the note, she wrote that she would do anything to be with her lover, including killing the victim. Maybe she didn't do it, but that seems like a pretty good motive for his death. It was never looked into, and the fiancee wasn't even interviewed."
Gibbs nodded, easily seeing what Tony had spotted. He knew that Tony was right- something about the case was fishy. It was a couple of years old now, but hopefully they would be able to solve it. "Tony, call the fiancee and get her into an interrogation room. I want to talk to her."
"On it, boss!" Tony took the file back and returned to his desk.
Morrow smiled. He had been keeping an eye on Tony to determine whether putting him onto Gibbs' team was the right decision, and now he had all the answers he needed. Tony and Gibbs worked very well together, bouncing ideas off of each other and backing one another up. In the four days that Tony had been at NCIS, Gibbs and Tony had managed to close a ten year old cold case that had the most seasoned investigators stumped. When Morrow had gone to congratulate Gibbs on a job well done, Gibbs had simply said that it was all Tony's doing, that Tony had found the needle in the haystack that broke the case wide open and led them to the killer. Tony had just shrugged and blamed it on beginners' luck, but Morrow knew it was more than that- Tony was smart and excellent at his job. He was just too modest to let anyone congratulate him.
As he watched, Morrow saw Tony had a file to Gibbs and say something. He watched Gibbs nod along and reply to Tony, the saw Tony return to his desk and pick up his phone. Morrow felt his interest peak, and he decided to go down to the bullpen to find out what his agents were working on.
Tony was just about to pick up his desk phone a second time to call the victim's fiancee when a shadow entered his field of vision. He looked up in surprise to find that the director was walking over to the bullpen.
"Hi, Tony," said Morrow. "Gibbs."
"Sir," said Tony politely. "Is there a problem?"
"No. I wanted to see what the two of you are working on, actually."
"Uh... We were going over cold cases. I found an inconsistency in this case," said Tony as he indicated the file on his desk. "Gibbs agrees that it's strange."
"What's strange?"
Seeing that Tony was a little shy right then, Gibbs answered before Tony could. "The original agents that investigated that case found a letter from the victim's fiancee. They never looked into it, but when Tony read it, he brought up a good question- why didn't they ever speak with the fiancee if she admitted in that letter that she would kill him to keep her lover?"
"Who were the agents?"
"Tony? Does it have the names of the investigating agents in the file?"
Tony nodded. "Err... Agents Donaldson and Rivera."
"Okay. I'll look into the agents and see if I can get them to come and discuss the case with you. In the meantime, get the fiancee in here and interrogate her," said Morrow as he took the sticky note that Tony had written the names on. "Good find, Tony."
Tony smiled and shook his head. "It was nothing, Director. A set of fresh eyes, really."
"Don't be so modest all the time. When you deserve the credit, you deserve it. I don't tend to give out praise unless it's deserved."
"Thank you, sir."
Morrow nodded, then walked away, satisfied that he had definitely made the correct decision about Tony and the agency.