"Tony. The body's on the floor, not on my ass."
Tony grinned, showing two rows of pointy teeth. "Not from where I'm standing." Tony's scene-of-crime camera flashed. Kate swatted at him halfheartedly with an evidence bag, feeling secretly pleased.
The dead man was Caucasian, but tanned. He looked like the sort who could walk through a patch of sunlight and wind up brown as a nut, Kate mused. Those people really got to her. They were like the ones who could eat and eat and eat and never gain an ounce. The man propped up against the wall looked like one of those as well. Considering his age –sixty or so- he was remarkably trim. Possibly excepting the fact that he had a hole in the side of his forehead so big his brains just wanted to come oozing out.
They were in the guest quarters of Quantico Naval Base, in a corridor just near the bar.
Tony had crouched down beside the man and was flashing pictures of the glorious head wound poking out from under his receding grey-black hairline.
"Have you got me a name?" Gibbs swept up behind them.
Tony stood up.
"Rear-Admiral Dr Fryderik Chelmonski. Royal Navy. And a good morning, Boss."
"Royal British Navy?"
"That's right, Boss."
"He developed an electrode which could alleviate pain, bypassing the nerves," said Kate, slipping a cheap mobile phone she had found beside the body into an evidence bag.
"What was he doing here?" Gibbs squatted down on the chevron patterned maroon carpet and stared into one half-closed, glassy, bright blue eye.
"Having talks, apparently. With his US counterparts."
"About?"
"Electrodes? I dunno," said Tony, and earned himself a Gibbs Stare. "But I Shall Find Out."
"Was he here alone?"
Kate shook her head. "His wife and younger daughter are here with him. Tony sent McGee up to question them."
Gibbs fuelled himself up with a deep gulp of coffee. "With me," he said, already starting to walk down the corridor. Tony and Kate frowned. It was unlike Gibbs to leave the scene of crime unsupervised by an NCIS agent. He turned a corner, disappearing from view.
"You stay."
"I'm the senior field agent."
"And therefore responsible for keeping the crime scene secure."
"The Probies can keep it secure."
"I'd love to see you explaining that theory to Gibbs."
The situation having reached a stalemate, Tony and Kate both went for the Stare 'Em Down Tactic.
A voice drifted down the corridor.
"I'm most dreadfully sorry, Jethro!" came the inimitable Ducky. "Only a certain assistant of mine forgot the gurney and we had to drive all the way back to get it."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I swear I put it in there last night," said a haggard looking Jimmy Palmer as the ME and Assistant emerged into the corridor.
"Yes, well, clearly one of your many delusions." Short answers weren't typical of Ducky, but everyone was vaguely touchy after being called in at three AM. "Ah. What have we here… Observe, Mr Palmer, the bloody mark on the wall matches the blood pattern on our victim's forearms…"
Gibbs' head appeared round the corner again. "Which part of 'with me' did you two not understand?"
Tony and Kate stared. "How the hell did he know?"
"It's Gibbs," said Tony resignedly. "He just knows."
McGee opened the door to room 203 one or two seconds after Tony knocked, and stared at the rest of his team through slightly unfocused eyes.
"Boss," he said. "They didn't know."
