Rat-a-chewy
Veterans Day November 11th. The team had been to Arlington and paid their respects to fallen comrades. Well Jethro and Duks. Ducky had persuaded Jethro to accompany him to a Club he had discovered… well been introduced too. A British Legion Club in Washington DC, the 1st of its kind outside San Francisco.
"Jethro I thought with your brief time in London, I would challenge you to a game of snooker." as he placed the red balls in the triangle. "So much more slow and sedate, than your fast paced pool. We Brits have learned to eye up the balls, and very carefully allow it to glide into the pocket," as he chalked the cue, placing it on the table and lining the white up to hit the reds, "I always remember mother," as he split the pack with the white. They, that would be the balls, dispersed. He waited for Gibbs to play, missing the pocket, the red bounced off the cushion.
"As I was saying, the last tiger in Singapore was shot dead at the Raffles Hotel. Some say it had escaped from a circus. It was however hiding under the billiard table. Mother always said it was 1932….or was it 1934…" as he aimed the cue at a red and potted. "Maybe it was too much gin. She did like a Singapore Sling too. I think…" as he now potted the black. Ducky watched as Gibbs retrieved the black and placed it back on the spot. "Some say it was just a ploy by some newspaper journalist and the Hotel, to drum up business, or it could really have been a wild tiger. I would however probably be correct in saying, we will never really know, and it has gone down in folklore." As he missed the red and watched as the white slipped into the pocket. "Bother." As he watched Gibbs take aim, and watched as he began to clear the table.
"So you have played before." Duks laughed, "They say it is also a sign of a misspent youth. But I congratulate you….." Ducky began to say as Gibbs' cell rang.
"Yep Gibbs…..gotcha Tony. We got a body Duks, a Marine Sergeant, at the Veterans fair up at Quantico. Ready when you are. Jim's with Ziva, the boys in another car, so that makes you and me." As he laid the cue down and started to make for the door.
-oOo-
"Hello, Dr Mallard." Jimmy said looking up from the floor, liver probe in hand, "I hope you won't take offence but I started without you. Agent David is very knowledgeable about dead bodies. Well….not so much….."
"It's all right Mr Palmer, there will come a time when I suppose I will have to let you take the lead more often, but now that I'm here what do you and Agent David have to tell us." Ducky now asked, of his assistant.
"We….no I would say not more than two hours. It was one lucky that one of the dogs from the dog agility, no sniffer dogs, snuffed out the body."
"Snuffed," as Tony laughed, "What?" as he looked at the others, " Well that is another name for dead, is it not? To have snuffed it?"
"It is Anthony, but I would say in rather bad taste, if I may add." Dr Mallard now added.
"Which these, peanut butter and jelly sarnies are not. Boy…. I didn't know I was hungry until I spotted them. They certainly beat a Nutter Butter any day." Tim now announced approaching the crime scene munching the sandwich.
"McGlutton, that is not what you are supposed to be doing. As Senior Field Agent, did you find anything of real substance….apart from said sandwiches?" DiNozzo now enquired.
"Oh yeah, the woman over there," pointing to a gipsy clad peasant type woman," The one Ziva is now having a conversation with. She definitely should know something."
"Why you say that?" Tony sarcastically enquired.
"Madame Chaulette, she's a fortune teller." Tim concluded licking his fingers.
Gibbs looked towards Ziva her body language was not good, her pen in hand the notebook open. He wandered over to listen.
"So, what are you saying?" she asked.
"When the moon….. is in the Seventh House. And Jupiter aligns with Mars. Then peace will guide the planets. And love will steer the stars…." As Madame Chaulette looked at Gibbs and smiled.
"Very nicely put….but we not talking Hair, and the Age of Aquarius? I would say 1968/69." Gibbs now asked looking at the woman.
"About your time then? Of puberty. Of finding your inner self." as she rose smiling. "The right hand."
"I do not understand?" Ziva replied, looking at Madame Chaulette.
"Look lady….cross my hand with silver and I will reveal." Madame Chaulette laughed, looking at Ziva.
"So you are a stripper?" Ziva now asked.
"Madame Chaulette makes out she is a fortune teller." Tony now added wandering over, "But I think…"
"Well tell..er Tony, to tell us, who murdered the Sergeant….I mean I will find the means. We need…..well, you do Jethro, find the murderer." Duks now replied, walking away to the MCRT truck.
-oOo-
"Ok Duks what you got, you called me down here…I need to know." Gibbs asked as he entered the room.
"Interesting Jethro we have a megalodon. Yessharks continually shed their teeth. But this one is prehistoric."
"Agent Gibbs, the megalodon is an extinct species of shark that lived roughly from 25 to 1.5
million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era. I really have no idea how one of its teeth ended up in the buttock of the sergeant." Jimmy added.
As Gibbs smiled, "Jimmy neither do I, but Duks you are bound to have an answer."
"Jethro…..if I didn't know better I would say that the poor fellow, fell head over heels for the creature." Ducky now replied laughing.
"You mean he fell head over heels into the creature. Or someone pushed him?" Gibbs smiled.
"Jethro I really couldn't begin to envisage that…." Ducky replied.
"But I could." Jimmy answered, grinning at the two men.
Gibbs, he just half smiled, turned to walk out the door.
"Done it now Mr Palmer, you realise he will have his team measured up for size." Ducky answered.
"Well I hope someone takes a snap then…. Dr Mallard a snap. A snap, get it?" as Jimmy laughed.
"Quite Mr Palmer….quite." as Ducky smiled, a rather sly smile.
-oOo-
"Ok team back to the scene of the crime. I want to search that hall, and the surrounding area. I want to know every inch I want….."
"Gibbs what are we looking for?" Ziva enquired looking puzzled.
"A megladon…..or the remains of one." As Gibbs turned and walked to the elevator.
-oOo-
They arrived at the hall, one of the gym halls within Quantico. They needed to split up, but surprise, surprise, Fornell was waiting for them at the door.
"Hear you got a dead body?" Fornell questioned.
"Yep, and you ain't getting the corpse. It was found in one of the gym halls on my pitch." Gibbs snarled.
"Heard it was bitten by a shark?" Fornell laughed.
"Bad news travels fast. Know of any sharks apart from our ex-wife?" Gibbs now asked.
"Could try… the old hunting lodge out of town. Hear they have a mezzanine full of old stuff. Antiques, and fossils. Probably even a shark or two." As Tobias turned and walked back towards the FBI College.
"He know something we don't?" Tony asked, staring at the back of Fornell's head.
"Well what we waiting for…." Gibbs replied, heading for one of the cars.
-oOo-
"Where we start Boss?" Tony enquired looking at the house.
"Well let's just say…Ziva basement, Tim mezzanine, I'll take the ground floor and first, and you can have the attic. That sound a good deal?" Gibbs said looking at the team.
"Fine. I like a basement. It is usually where things are hidden and forgotten." Ziva replied, turning and heading for the door she spied in the corner of the house.
"You two," as Gibbs indicated, with his finger. They approached the door and waited.
"Will Ziva break in?" Tim asked.
"Nope, I think she saw the handyman." as the door opened, "Agent Gibbs, NCIS." He said to the woman who was now standing in the door frame.
She smiled and opened the door further, "Please come in. I take it you are here because of the body?"
"And you are?" Gibbs questioned, as he entered the house and followed the woman into a large drawingroom.
"Mrs Carruthers,…worldwide traveller and writer of unusual artefacts and hoarder. Yes I tend to hoard things in the attic and basement….but please, no pray tell me what exactly you are looking for?" she replied.
"You said when I came in, that you thought I was here about the body. How did you know?" Gibbs asked as he wrote notes on his pad.
"I was there…I was giving a talk on my latest travels and finds. Just back from South America, lovely place, Venezuela and Angel Falls. Dropped by Machu Picchu, via Lake Titicaca."
"So what were you lecturing about?" Gibbs asked.
"Oh you know this and that…that and this. In my experience the younger generation have so much to learn. They think they know it all, but they don't." Mrs Carruthers replied.
"Is there a Mr Carrutthers?" Tim asked.
"Dead…..these past 5years. He was an adrenalin junkie but at 70 he was just a tad too old for bungie jumping and white water rafting…but he still did."
"What did he die of?" Tony now asked, thinking murder, as usual.
"Oh a piranha got him. He choked on a fishbone." Mrs Carruthers laughed, "And no, no-one could save him…..he was up the Amazon. They found his body lying next to a small inlet, his two way radio still sending out a signal."
"If I said Megalodon, what would you say." Gibbs now asked, looking at the woman.
"A Megalodon… closest living relative is the Great White Shark, also known as Carcharodon carcharias, meaning it belongs to the same genus as said Megalodon. However, not all paleontologists agree with this identification, claiming that Megalodon and the Great White arrived at their striking similarities via the process of convergent evolution," Mrs Carruthers replied.
"Do you have such a creature, or should I say skeleton?" Gibbs now asked getting slightly agitated.
"I did…somewhere…..oh yes the basement. But most of my husbands' paleontology stuff is in the attic. I really should have a clear out and give to museums and the like." She added.
Ziva appeared from the hall, following a man.
"Aaah, Stevens who is this?" Mrs Carruthers asked, "Another sneak thief, or trespasser. I really should shoot them on sight, but it is so unsporting the law won't allow. Agent Gibbs, do you not think we would solve our prison intake if we let them escape and then we could shoot them. So much more fun, and less on our taxes." as she smiled at Gibbs.
"Mrs Carruthers, you said another sneak thief, and may I introduce Agent David, she is with my team," Gibbs now replied, "but have you had a lot of break-ins recently?"
"Oh yes, when I am away, I usually have a few unwanted visitors, and I did have to sack my house-keeper. A few antiquities disappeared, later found in antique shops in Washington. Turned out, some of the boys from the Base. Not just Marines but some of the FBI students too. All needing a bit of cash." Mrs. Carruthers now added.
"Agent Gibbs, I found a jaw of a Megalodon. And yes it does have a few teeth missing. I also found a few dead…." Ziva replied, as she heard Gibbs cell ring.
"Excuse me Ma'am," Gibbs said as he saw the caller was Dr Mallard, "May I take this call outside?"
"By all means Agent Gibbs, I will make some tea. I think we could all do with some and I have a delightful tea loaf." As Mrs Carruthers turned and walked away.
-oOo-
Gibbs stood in the garden, "Talk to me Duks, what have you got."
"An aneurysm. You know, intracranial bleeding, it occurs when a blood vessel within the skull is ruptured or leaks. It can result from physical trauma, a bang on the head or nontraumatic causes such as a ruptured aneurysm. A recent study found that that people who took warfarin and suffered a brain hemorrhage had about twice as much initial bleeding as those not taking warfarin."
"You say he was taking it as an anticoagulant?" Gibbs now questioned.
"No…..although it can, heighten the risk of an intracranial hemorrhage. What I'm saying is that warfarin helped kill your sergeant, and Abigail has confirmed the tooth did have warfarin on it." Dr Mallard concluded.
"Thank you Duks." As he shut his cell and turned and walked back to the house.
-oOo-
"What did you find in the basement," Tony now questioned Ziva.
"Old stuff, yes the Megalodon jaw and yes it was missing a couple of teeth. I also found an orrery, but unfortunately it needs some restoration, the planet Mars is missing, and I found a few dead creatures….."
"Dead creatures as in…" Tim now asked.
"Rats…" Gibbs answered entering the room.
"Meaning Boss?" DiNozzo asked, "Dukman not get enough out the body."
"No DiNozzo, rats as in vermin, rodents, as in warfarin, as in rat poison as in …"
"Dead Sergeant." Tim concluded.
Mrs Carruthers returned with the tea trolley. "I do hope you will stay for some tea?"
"Of course, I would love to, and I still have a few questions I would like to ask you. But my team need to get back to Quantico."
"Why? Gibbs." Tony asked looking at the cakes and the tea set.
"Mrs Carruthers, do you, or your handyman, or gardeners use rat poison?" he now asked.
"I do, the basement is, or has been overrun with them. Why?" she now asked.
"That was my ME on the phone. He discovered that our Marine Sergeant actually died of an aneurysm, bought on by warfarin. So it looks like he could have been one of your burglars. If you could give my team an inventory of your antiques or should I say most precious items, we can look and see if they are still here. We would still like to take some fingerprints from your objects in the basement." Gibbs now answered.
"But of course Agent Gibbs, but first tea, as the old song goes,"But no matter what the score, when the clock strikes four everything stops for tea."
As Tony accepted a china cup he replied, "From the 1935 comedy film, "Come out of the Pantry" now smiling.
"But of course, you really are very well up on your films." As Mrs Carruthers now offered DiNozzo a slab of her tea loaf.
Gibbs just smiled and shook his head slightly, Ziva and Tim glared.
-oOo-
The team, that would be Tony and Tim talked small talk, Mrs Carruthers was in her element, talking about all the stuff she had hoarded over the years. She had an old reel to reel projector, and some old films if Tony would care to look and also she thought, in the attic, there was an original play-station and games, if Tim was interested. The boys nodded their heads like children, "oh yes please" as they looked at Gibbs who smiled. Ziva looked bored.
"More tea, dear?" Mrs Carruthers now asked her.
"No…..no thank you." As Ziva now looked pleadingly at Gibbs.
"Mrs Carruthers" as he handed back his cup and saucer, "Agent David and I have to go. We still need to find out who collaborated with our dead marine. Are you sure you trust your gardener and handyman?"
"Yes." She replied.
"Good in that case I will leave Agents DiNozzo and McGee, they will see if they can find any prints, which might come in useful. I need to liaise with my colleague at the FBI." As Gibbs rose and said his goodbyes. He could just see Tony smile and Tim mouth "Yessss" as they, that would be Ziva and himself left the room.
As Ziva and Gibbs stood outside the house Ziva asked of Gibbs, "What now?"
"We tell Fornell. We wait until we see if the boys come up with anything, but in the meantime Fornell needs to be informed so he can find collaborators, partners in crime from his side, who will match up with ours. So we need to find our Sergeants friends, and associates. We have work to do." As Gibbs walked towards one of the cars, they didn't see the rats, whiskers twitching and their beady eyes twinkling from behind a basement window.
The End.