Tony sat at his desk sipping on his coffee while waiting for Tim and Ellie to show. Casually he sat back and rested his feet on his desk watching the other agents, tech and analysts arrive to start their days. He looked up towards MTAC, wondering if the Director was in yet. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, Ellie's laughter carried through the bullpen. Immediately, Tony sat up and tried to look busy, making an off-handed comment about their tardiness. Tim rolled his eyes, proceeding to his desk and turned his terminal on. The three tossed back snide remarks before Gibbs blew into the area and pulled his weapon from the top drawer of his desk.
"Let's go, we've got a dead Staff Sergeant and his family at Lyman Park on Quantico." He said swiping his keys from his desk.
"Can't the Quantico office handle that?" Tony asked as he slowly reached for his bag.
"They're dealing with another crime scene." Gibbs told him in a huff, stopping for only a moment at Tony's desk.
Tim walked to Tony's desk and addressed Gibbs as he walked off to the elevator. "There's another crime scene?"
Gibbs turned back to his team, clearly annoyed with the questions and not enough action. "Yes, if looks like a Marie took out his entire team. Eight bodies in the MP Company barracks. All three of the junior agents looked at one another before hurrying to join Gibbs before the elevator doors closed.
Lieutenant Commander Lawrence read through the file Gibbs and his team had compiled on their suspect; Sgt. Eric Wenslow. Thus far by her estimation, he seemed to be your average Marine. Granted there were a few behavior problems early in his career, but nowhere did it give any indications that he was capable of the murders he was being accused of. Slowly, LCDR Lawrence sat after checking in and receiving her guest badge, smoothing her crisp white uniform skirt. She glanced back through the file again before a tech met her in the lobby to escort her to the interrogation room where the Psychological Evaluation would take place. Her heels clicked across the lobby tile, drawing attention as she followed towards the elevator. Gibbs stood outside the observation room with Ducky at his side, both offering LDCR Lawrence a hand and introduced themselves.
Sgt. Wenslow had been talking for nearly an hour; describing his childhood and life before and after joining the Marine Corps. His legal counsel sat to his side and raised an eyebrow every time LCDR. Lawrence tried to delve deeper into the man who sat before her. His grey-green eyes looked dull and jaded. Judging but his service record and the number of times he'd been on combat deployments, she wasn't surprised and could almost smell the PTSD dripping off him. Just like every other service member she'd seen in recent years who'd done more than one tour in either Iraq or Afghanistan, Wenslow was no different.
In truth, he was capable of the murders. If Wenslow did have PTSD as she suspected, it would make him a very loose cannon, unpredictable at best. She looked up from her notes and saw a darkness creep into his eyes, his face contorted to a snarl. The atmosphere in the room changed as the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It truly felt as if the devil himself entered the room. She shivered and rubbed her arms to ward off the chill. The sergeant opened his mouth and the flood gates opened.
No matter how many times his lawyer told him to stop talking, Wenslow continued. LDCR. Lawrence looked up for a brief moment to see the chasers shoot disgusted looks at one another as Wenslow graphically went into detail about the fifteen people he'd killed. Confused, she quickly looked at the file on the table noting that he was only being accused of murdering twelve people.
Ducky quickly thumbed through the reports he'd received from the other Medical Examiners who'd done the preliminary examinations of those Wenslow left in his wake. "Jethro, not a one of these Marines or the Staff Sergeant's family members were killed in this manner. What the devil is he talking about?"
As if reading Ducky's mind, LDCR. Lawrence stopped Wenslow and asked him to explain who he was talking about. She was horrified to learn he was referring to fifteen civilians; innocent men, women and children; he supposedly killed on his last deployment to Afghanistan. Wenslow's lawyer again tried to stop the evaluation until the Marine boldly admitted to killing the Marines who were depoyed with him for the simple fact that one of them, he didn't know who had reported his indiscretion to the command. Repeatedly, his legal counsel tried to silence him, but Wenslow's mouth only dug him into a deeper hole.
By the end of the evaluation, Wenslow had revealed that he'd murdered civilians for the "fun of it", as he put it on every deployment he'd been on. Immediately, Gibbs was on the phone barking orders to his team to find Marines who were deployed with him on all six of his deployments, to corroborate the story. Thoroughly disgusted and needing a shower to scour her conscience clean, LCDR. Lawrence bolted for the door and nearly bowled over Gibbs, Ducky and the JAG Lawyer for the prosecution.
Sgt. Wenslow was pulled from the interrogation room by two armed chasers, his arms restrained at his back. The Prosecutor stood smugly with his arms across his chest, knowing it would be an easy conviction since the Sergeant sang like a canary and was eager to see what else Gibbs and the team could come up with. In his mind, he counted the additional charges. As soon as Wenslow recognized him, he lashed out and went on the attack. His verbal assault would've made the most proper of women blush. When he was through flinging venom at the lawyer, he took his aim at LCDR. Lawrence.
"You fucking bitch, every fucking word was in confidence. I'll slit your throat and fillet you just like I did those fucking Iraqi bitches. Then I'm going to jiz on your guts after I fuck you in two like I did all those pretty little Afghani girls." He spat.
The mental images from Wenslow's words flashed through her mind, turning her stomach. Quickly, she excused herself and ran for the nearest ladies room. Hearing Wenslow bellowing after her calling her every obscenity in the book and some creative new ones he made up on the fly. Never in her fifteen year career, either as enlisted or after going OCS, had she ever heard anything so deplorable. Her stomach wrenched and suddenly she was thankful she hadn't had time for more than a cup of coffee before dropping the kids off at school and needing to be at the NCIS office.
LCDR. Lawrence kicked herself for not locking the ladies room door as a woman with jet black hair and knee-high Doc Martens walked in and held out a Styrofoam cup. She walked from the stall and splashed water on her face before rinsing her mouth out. The Goth-looking woman made a comment about Caff-Pow and handed her the cup, but Sgt. Wenslow's words echoed through her ears. She took the cup and sipped it, relieved that it was only soda. The woman who introduced herself as Abby grabbed a wad of paper towels, wet them and handed them to LCDR. Lawrence before rubbing her back.
"I'm fine, thank you. Between the way he described how he killed all those poor people and what he said he'd do to me, I lost it." She told Abby.
Abby shook her head. "I haven't heard the tapes yet, but Gibbs said it was pretty graphic."
"I'm going to have nightmares for a month over that sick Fuck." She said and quickly apologized for her candor.
After some encouraging words from Abby, the two emerged from the restroom and returned to Gibbs, Ducky and CDR. Roberts. Together, they walked the hall to the elevator and into the bullpen. The entire office was abuzz with activity. Tim, Tony and Ellie sat at their desks frantically looking for surviving members of Wenslow's previous deployments.
"You need to find every one you possibly can, including all of your cold cases. If he's claiming to have done this on two deployments, he's very likely done it on all if not most of them. At this point, the more evidence you have against him, the quicker he will be out of circulation and in the brig." LCDR. Lawrence said straight-faced and then turned to CDR. Roberts. "Is he in pre-trial confinement?"
He nodded. "I'm fairly certain he is, however after everything he's confessed to, he definitely will be now, I guarantee it."
The elevator below the stairs dinged, Wenslow and the chasers appeared. As soon as he saw LCDR. Lawrence and CDR. Roberts, he began bombarding them with his verbal assault. Gibbs motioned for the Marines to get him out of there as Director Vance appeared at the top of the stairs and proceeded down as Wenslow was pulled into the elevator kicking and screaming. The five talked off to one side, out of the way, while Gibbs' team shouted findings back and forth at one another every so often.