Chapter One
His eyes were sharp as he looked at the body below him, sprawled out in what must have been an uncomfortable position had they been alive. Detective Anthony DiNozzo hated crime scenes, the horrors he'd seen in his career were all just about topped by this latest one. The woman must have been about twenty years old, her bright red hair was spread around her on the ground. Even in death she looked in pain.
Her arms had been twisted around her back as she was tied to the pole behind her, luckily she was still clothed but Tony knew from experience that didn't mean she hadn't faced worse things before she died. Her legs were left untied but her feet had been sawed off. There was no way she could have escaped.
Tony was glad that he hadn't eaten anything because he was pretty sure that it would have come back up. He hated these sorts of crime, why would someone inflict such pain on another human being, an innocent one at that. Her ID identified her as one Samantha Donovan, she was a student at the nearby university studying English. She probably had dreams to write, Tony thought with a sad smile as he continued sketching the immediate area.
Tonys dreams were completely different of course, he'd always known that he wanted to be a policeman as soon as his mother died and he found out what his father did for a living. He snapped out of his daydream as his partner, William Stone nudged his shoulder. Giving him a smile which was extremely forced he went back to his work. It didn't take long for him to finish and he stood by as the body was loaded into a van to be taken to the morgue and examined. His face was blank as he grabbed his sketches and photos that he'd finished earlier and followed Will into their designated car.
"We're headed back to the station, we have a lot of work to do." Will sighed. Being the eldest of the two made him feel like there was more pressure on him, even though DiNozzo was always the one that managed to piece together bits of the puzzle which usually left Will in awe at how intelligent the man was because it was never in a normal conversation that he displayed how bright he was.
They made small talk on the way back, Tony was not very close to his partner, although they got along alright there was never anything that they bonded over. Tony liked sports, food and movies whereas Will liked his family, talking about his daughter and the games they'd played the night before. It made Tony sad because he didn't feel like he'd ever experience what Will had. He didn't know that Will was jealous of him as well, he could do anything he wanted but he just stayed put.
"DiNozzo, go check out the girls id some more, there has to be something that made someone want to kill her." Will directed, he knew Tony would have done it anyway but it made himself feel better knowing that his younger partner listened to what he said and wasn't going off on another one of his leads with no back up. It was obviously too soon for him to even have a lead but with DiNozzo you never know.
Tony nodded at the command and settled down at his ancient computer, smacking it slightly in impatience when it took several minutes to turn on. He could have solved the case in that time. He narrowed his eyes as slowly it flickered to life, leaning forwards slightly because the writing was so small he typed in, ever so slowly, his badge number and password. Opening up one of his preferred databases he set to work.
An hour later he wanted to hit the computer for several reasons, although he'd found out more information about the victim there was absolutely nothing to suggest that she'd ever done anything wrong, there was no reason that someone would want to kill her. Unless...
Tony spun on his chair and went back to the photos and sketches from earlier, he held them up to his computer thinking quickly. If someone had killed her for no reason that meant there was a psychopath on their hands, seeing as there was no connection to the victim to any previous known criminals or anything bad at all really. The only thing Tony noted as important was the fact she lived in university accommodation.
It was time to check that out.
"Stone." Will's head snapped up from where he had been looking through previous case files to see if anything was similar.
"Yeah?"
"Coming to check out her room with me?" Both men stood up, this was usually the extent of their conversations. Tony was known throughout the precinct as a joker, someone who liked the play practical jokes but he had enough respect for the man in front of him to remain serious when he was on a case. Will had found out in a painful way that as soon as the case was over he was fair game just like everyone else. At one point he'd tried to escape early but that just made the prank worse, he had been tied to that fan for the majority of the day.
Getting back in the car, Tony's stomach growled something fierce reminding him that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now almost dinner. He made a mental note to pick up a pizza on the way back. The lab techs would probably appreciate a little something as well. He opened up the glove compartment and smiled in delight when he grabbed the chocolate that he'd shoved in there the other day, offering one to Stone who nodded Tony shoved it in his mouth making him choke slightly before glaring at the younger detective.
Tony looked at him innocently before eating his own.
Once they arrived at the university it was about seven o'clock. Tony figured that this meant most of the students were in, which would either make it easier or a lot harder. Making their way through to the reception which was surprisingly still open, they got the room number easily. Getting there was a bit harder, the accommodation turned out to be off campus and Tony and Will had never been there before. After going the wrong way for a third time, Tony rolled his eyes before grabbing the arm of a passing pedestrian.
"Hey which way to Sutton Place Apartments." After being the correct directions they made it there a lot easier. Parking on the curb Tony was the first one to get out and start walking towards the building which looked like it had seen better days. It was actually quite a nice building but there was a feel to it which made it seem not as nice as it could be. Opening the front door they walked through straight to the elevator that opened straight away, the victim had been on the fifth floor and it wasn't long before the door opened once more.
Quickly spotting the correct door they knocked, they waited a few seconds before someone opened the door. It was a blonde girl, with huge glasses that made her brown eyes look a million times bigger than they actually were, she had a few freckles dotted about and as she blinked up at them Tony noted that she had a dimple on her cheek.
"Hi." He smiled. "I'm Detective Anthony DiNozzo and this is my partner Detective William Stone, we're here about your roommate, Samantha Donovan?" The girl nodded and let them in. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that her body was found earlier today." He said this as delicately as possible but it wasn't enough as the girl burst into tears.
They both waited patiently for the girl to stop crying which she did a few moments later. "She's really dead?" She sniffled.
Tony nodded, eyes scrutinizing every movement. "She is. Would you mind if we asked you a few questions?"
She nodded quickly, eyes still shining with tears.
"What's your name?"
"Jessica Smith."
"How well did you know Samantha?"
She sniffled. "We were real close, she was the first person I met here. You know? She was always so nice to me, I don't have that many friends, people think I'm weird." She sniffled again. "Whenever she was going out she'd always invite me but I always said no, cause I didn't want to make her look bad. She was real popular, you know? How would it look if she was with me? Her stupid roommate." Jessica spat the last sentence out bitterly. "But Sam? She wasn't like that, she didn't care. Every night she'd make sure we did something together. When she didn't come home yesterday that's when I knew something was wrong, it was movie night. She never missed movie night." She burst out into tears again.
Tony and Will looked at one another. There was way too much emotion in her voice for her to be the killer, seemed like she idolized the other girl. No, Tony thought, she wasn't faking this.
"And Jessica, do you know where Samantha was the last time she went out?"
The tears were subsiding. "No. She told me she was working on a project with her group, but I don't know who was in it." She frowned, her bottom lip quivering. "I think they went to see the professor though, Samantha was an English student."
"Okay, last question. Do you know anyone who might want to hurt her?"
"No. She was so loved, I don't know anyone who didn't like her. She was one of those people, you know?"
This concluded their questions and they went to check out Samantha's room. Walking inside they saw that it was a typical girl room, it was bright and airy, pink wallpaper on one wall while the others remained blank. There were pictures dotted about all over the room, she had so many that she managed to stick them all over her huge wardrobe. Looking closer at one, Tony noted that she seemed especially close with one of her male friends, making a mental note to find out who he was, he took the picture and put it in his jacket pocket. Looking around he noticed that he bed was still made, clearly she hadn't slept in it for a while which matched what Jessica said.
He looked through the drawers, seeing Will peek into the wardrobe. There was nothing of interest in there, so he resorted to the laptop that was set on the desk. He hated technology. Opening the lid, he pushed the power button and was pleasantly surprised when it powered up straight away, maybe this was what he needed? An expensive laptop to cure his technological faults. He sighed when he realised that it was password protected. Gathering it up he shoved it into a giant plastic bag that he had folded inside his jacket pocket and zipped it up. Looks like he was going to have to make a visit down to the odd squad in the labs.
"Find anything?" Tony's head snapped up to meet his partners eyes.
"Just this." He showed Will the picture and the laptop. Will nodded and swept his eyes over the room once more, looking for any clue that they could have missed.
"Right, let's get back to the station then." With a goodbye to Jessica and an order to call them if she remembered anything relevant or saw anyone suspicious they were off. When they drove towards the station Tony turned on Will with puppy dog eyes.
Will rolled his eyes. "No, not again. How many takeaways have you had this week?" He demanded.
Tony snorted. "Only three, come on Will. You know you want pizza as much as I do."
Will sighed before driving towards the nearest pizza place, Tony hopped out with a grin and ordered their usual, along with a little something for the lab geeks. He had to keep them sweet to keep all of his cases moving along. It wasn't long before Tony was munching on his favourite, extra cheese, sausage and pepperoni. Will had his own pizza, which he couldn't eat yet because he was driving and the smell was becoming too much for him, he hoped Tony didn't notice when he slyly pushed down on the accelerator.
In record time they reached the station, Will took his pizza and immediately wolfed down a slice. Tony took his own and what he'd ordered for the lab techs and made his way downstairs to the lab. Immediately he was assaulted by the smell of different chemicals, he knew that you weren't really supposed to have food in the lab but he and the lab rats had reached an understanding, he brought them food, they gave him his results faster than everyone else.
"Hi Tony!" An overenthusiastic greeting reached his ears and he smiled when Jack, a thin wiry looking man with thick black glasses came towards him, reaching for his food. He literally stuck his head into the box and grabbed a few chips with his mouth, smiling while chewing as he looked at the slightly older man.
"Hey Jack, how's it going down here?" Another man popped up out of nowhere and snatched the hot wings out of Tony's hands, breathing in the delicious smell before digging in. "Lovely to see you again Peter, as always." Peter ignored him until he finished the first wing, then he gave Tony a smile with sauce all around his lips. "Where's Lisa?"
"Right here." She grabbed the pizza box, luckily not his, she'd come to learn that his pizza was always at the top, she'd learn this the hard way both had done a tug of war until both pizzas had slipped out of their hands, somehow gotten out of the box and died a sad death on the floor. Both of them went to get themselves another.
"What have you got for us?" Jack asked, chewing on his fries happily and looking at the bag with the laptop in.
"This." Tony placed the bag on the table in front of him, avoiding everyone's food. "It's password protected, I need to know where she was last night. I also have this." He gave them the picture he'd retrieved from her room. "Can you find out who that boy is for me?"
Lisa snorted. "Give us a challenge." She took the picture and scanned it into her computer, her's was only slightly newer than Tony's and he knew that he would be waiting a long time for the results he was looking for. Peter took the laptop out of the bag and immediately began clicking away.
Tony ate the rest of his pizza in a happy, comfortable silence as he waited. Jack had finished his food and moved onto the evidence from the crime scene earlier, Tony gathered up all of their rubbish when everyone was finished and took it back upstairs to get rid of the evidence that they were eating in the lab, yeah he and the odd squad had an understanding alright.