If you're confused by the use of Latin, it's there because this has been entered for a challenge on NFA where Latin has to be included!
My grateful thanks to VFSNAKE for sowing the seed that grew into a plot!
Dura Lex, Sed Lex
The law is harsh, but it is the law
It started with a whisper, soft as breath and laced with pain, a single word.
"Boss..."
Then, there was silence…numbing, terrifying silence. Gibbs waited a heartbeat or two, before he yelled into his phone.
"McGee! Tim, where are you?" More silence; then all was noise and motion. "Tony, get the car; Ziva, have Abby trace Tim's phone – now!"
Locus Delicti
Scene of the Crime
What followed would remain forever in Tony's mind as a crazy movie montage on fast forward, but with key moments framed as a never to be forgotten still; holding one single image frozen in time, always engraved on his mind.
The opening scene found them racing through the rain-swept streets, the rhythmic beat of the windshield wipers as they fought to clear the torrential rain from the glass acting as the soundtrack to Abby's calls as she pin-pointed Tim's exact location. Gibbs drove as fast as road conditions and other road users would allow, the three of them felt some small comfort in the knowledge that an ambulance had already been despatched and would meet them as soon as their destination was confirmed.
Gibbs took the last corner at breakneck speed, and they were in the alley behind 24th Place NE; this is where Abby had told them to go, but there was no one here…and for one hopeful second Tony thought Abby had given them the wrong location, then he saw Tim; and the world stopped…like a black and white movie frame where all the colours had been washed out by the rain, all except one…the dark red that stained Tim's chest. He was lying motionless; eyes closed, his arm outstretched, and his phone lying on the ground by his seemingly lifeless fingers, the rain dripping down his face, and blood…there was blood running like a red river as it merged with the rain and ran down the gutter…
Tony was opening the car door before Gibbs had even applied the brake. He raced to the prone body and knelt on the soaking wet ground.
"Tim! Oh man..."
He gasped as he knelt beside Tim and saw the dark red stain spreading ever wider on his chest. Tony quickly felt for a pulse, and was almost amazed to find one, there was so much blood, how could Tim still be alive? He held his bare hands against the wound, trying to stem the flow.
"Harder Tony, you have to stop the bleeding."
Ziva was kneeling beside him, oblivious as he was to the wet ground beneath them. He increased the pressure, still Tim didn't move, didn't even make a sound as Tony pressed harder on his chest, and Tony noticed for the first time the bruise on Tim's temple. He tried to put that from his mind, and concentrated on stopping the blood that was still seeping through his fingers and waiting for the slight rise and fall of Tim's chest, you can do this Tim…hold on. At the edge of his consciousness he could hear Ziva's voice.
"Tony, the EMTs are here…Tony!"
Reluctantly Tony let the paramedics take his place…their calm professionalism failed to reassure him…He had seen the worried glances that passed between then as they prepared Tim for his transfer to the hospital, and as he watched them lift his friend into the ambulance, he had a sickening moment of fear that this would be the last time he would see Tim alive. He jumped a little as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"He's in safe hands Tony; let's get to work, this is a crime scene."
"Boss…he…"
"I know Tony; we've done what we can for him; now let's concentrate on finding out who did this."
Their years of training kept them just the right side of control and calm, as they tried to divorce what they were seeing from its connection to one of their own. They took photographs of the blood, Tim's phone, the alley...they bagged and tagged the phone, and searched every inch of ground for anything that could tell them what had happened here, but the rain had cleansed the scene. It was still pouring; the three of them were rapidly getting soaked to the skin, but they weren't even aware of the fact. They had a job to do, and nothing was going to distract them.
"We're done here...let's go find Tim's car, and start canvassing the area."
They soon found the NCIS sedan that Tim had signed out earlier that morning in the parking lot of the Moonlight Club. Ziva opened the trunk and she gave a small smile as she saw the DVDs all bagged and tagged, labelled and boxed ready for transport to NCIS. It was so like McGee; everything in its place, neat, tidy, correct.
"We should get these to Abby, do you want me to drive the car back Gibbs?"
He shook his head.
"No, I'll call and get it collected...doesn't look as if anything happened here, but I want to be sure we don't corrupt any evidence."
"Of course; I will call...oh Gibbs, we should call Abby."
"I'll do it, you and Tony go start interviews, I'll meet you later."
Ziva and Tony headed off to the Moonlight Club.
"That's one phone call I wouldn't want to make."
"Nor I Tony..."
Gibbs had been surprised at the apparent calm with which Abby had taken the news of Tim's condition, but she'd had some time to prepare herself, and she'd been trying frantically to get Tim to answer his phone all the while they had been driving over here. She must have already known that he had to be badly hurt, and she was probably imagining him worse than hurt…so anything would be better than thinking he was dead.
Ducky had been in the lab with her, and he'd been able to take over the conversation when Abby realised she was needed at NCIS to go over the scant evidence they had so far. She wouldn't be able to go to the hospital right away…that was when she started to cry, but Ducky assured her he would go right away, and be with Tim when he came round.
"The Director has put Goodall's team on the Renton case. He wants you to concentrate on this….Jethro, you find the bastards who did this to Timothy."
"On it, Duck."
He severed the connection, and turned to follow Ziva and Tony. He'd completely forgotten Petty Officer Renton, and she was the reason Tim was out here.
The female Petty Officer had gone missing yesterday, the last sighting of her had been when she kept an appointment at Consolidated Health Care on Queen's Chapel Road NE; but she hadn't been seen since. Tim suggested the businesses in the area may have security camera footage that could have some images to help pinpoint her movements more accurately. So he'd some up here to collect whatever security footage he could get.
The Petty Officer's roommate had reported her missing last night, and the Chief of Naval Operations was talking a personal interest in the case. Jill Renton had been seconded to his office and he wanted to know where she was, and he wanted to know right now. Gibbs, Ziva and Tony had been spent the morning interviewing the people who worked with the Petty Officer, and Tim...he'd gone to look for evidence, and ended up in a pool of blood in a rain swept alley.
Gibbs squared his shoulders, and joined the others as they spent fruitless, wasted minutes interviewing the staff in the clubs that Tim had already visited. But they had nothing to tell them; Tim had been there, they'd given him the security DVDs and he'd moved on. Gibbs pushed open the door of the 24 Club.
"Hey! We're closed."
The entrance was blocked by a tall man, with skin the colour of mahogany; he held out his arms to bar their way. Gibbs went for his badge and stared at the man.
"This is not a good day to get in my way...we need to see the manager."
"Another Fed? We already had one here today; we gave him the DVDs. What do you want?"
Tony took a long stride forward and pushed the security guard in the chest.
"We want to know why our team mate...our friend, was lying in the alley back there; bleeding out...that's what we want. You got a problem with that?"
"What? No way...he was...you should speak to Mr Rudge."
"If he's the manager, then yes we should."
Five minutes later Alan Rudge was leading them across the dance floor, toward the back of the club.
"Agent McGee wanted to check out the cameras in the alley. I told him they'd been vandalised months ago."
"And you never thought to get them fixed?"
"Not really, none of us have parking lots out back…deliveries are at the front…no reason to care what happens out there…"
"We care." Ziva whispered.
"Sorry, I didn't mean..."
Gibbs stood at the door.
"We can take it from here."
Rudge knew a dismissal when he heard it, so he left them. Gibbs opened the door carefully, and immediately noticed the smudge of blood on the metal door frame. Tony noticed it too, and took out his camera, as soon as he had photographed it; Ziva took a swab of the blood and placed it carefully in an evidence bag.
Gibbs had stepped out into the alley again, and he was shocked to see that there was nothing to show that Tim had ever been here, nothing left to show that a man had come close to death on that very spot. The rain had washed away the blood, there was no more physical evidence, just that single smudge on the door frame, and they didn't even know whether that belonged to Tim.
"Let's go, we don't have much, but let's get it back to Abby before she decides to head for the hospital."
They trudged back to the car, Tony threw his back pack in the trunk, and took one last look at the alley, Tim had been out here alone because this was geek stuff, just collect the electronic evidence, then back to NCIS. No-one got hurt doing the geek work…so why was Tim in the hospital? Why had he been lying with a stab wound to his chest, bleeding, unconscious…why?
"What the hell happened here Boss?"
"We'll have to wait for Tim to wake up; then he can tell us."