Ziva heard the elevator ding out in the hallway, followed by a muffled curse.
"Are you alright out there Tony?" Ziva called from the apartment living room. She'd already informed Gibbs about the skeleton and he was on his way with the rest of the team.
Tony managed to shout back that yeah, he was fine. A moment later he appeared in the doorway of apartment 42 clutching his right side.
"What happened? Did we get our buyer?" Tony asked.
"It appears our buyer was never here. Although someone has been here recently. There's a headless skeleton in the bedroom. Gibbs is already on his way." Ziva took in Tony's pained expression. "Tony, what happened to you?"
"Got knocked down the stairs by our suspect, he was racing to get out of here. I lost him once he got out onto the street." He shifted his weight to the other foot and gave a small groan. "It's nothing, really."
Sure, thought Ziva to herself. Aloud she said, "now that you're here I'm going down to the car to get the camera.
Tony nodded his assent and once she was out the door, sank gratefully onto the floor. The skeleton could wait, his ribs hurt.
--
It had been a relatively quiet day for Abby Sciuto. There had been a few 9mm rounds to match, some biological material to identify and hidden partitions to find on a suspect's laptop. The sun was at just the right angle to shine through the lab's ground level window and Abby was lying on the floor with Bert in the shadows next to her mass spectometer. The hum of her equipment was soothing to Abby, and right now soothing was what she needed. There was a funny feeling in her stomach that she had learned to pay attention to over the years. It was a feeling that frequently meant something horrible was going to happen. She hugged Bert, who gave a loud fart.
"Don't worry Bert, I called Gibbs, he'll be down soon." Abby whispered to him.
The light receded and shadows lengthened as the sun's path moved it from the window, still Abby lay on the floor. As she lay there she mentally ran through all known manufacturers of shampoos to keep her mind occupied. Something must have broken in a case because Gibbs still hadn't arrived in the lab. It was the only thing that would keep Gibbs away when she called for him.
--
Gibbs arrived with McGee, Ducky and Jimmy in tow. They Ziva already taking photos and Tony sketching the scene.
McGee pulled out his fingerprinting power and began dusting. Ducky and Jimmy immediately made their way to the bed. Gibbs could hear snatches of conversation, "female", "late twenties, early thirties" and couldn't help but smile to himself. They were gelling into a well oiled machine.
"Jethro." Ducky called him over. "It appears that the bones had been wired together so as to hold the shape of the body. I recall a half dozen cases from Wales in 1967 where a similar method was used in serial murders."
"What would be the point of wiring it together if it's not complete, Duck?"
"The 1967 killer kept some part of the body as a trophy, a femur from one, an ulna from another. He was eventually caught when a neighbour's springer spaniel dug the femur from his backyard and took it home to it's master, who just happened to be a member of the local law enforcement. " Ducky paused. "Or it could simply be that the skull has been damaged in a way that would lead back to the killer, and he's covering his tracks."
Gibbs took a moment to process this. "I don't suppose you can tell me how long she's been here?"
"Always the impatient one. Once I get her back to autopsy I'll have access to the proper equipment. I could approximate maybe 12-20 hours, judging by the freshness of the handful of rose petals under the skeleton. Time of death remains a mystery."
Ducky turned to Jimmy and began discussing how best to transport the remains back to Headquarters.
"David, once you're done, start canvassing the building for anyone who might have seen someone entering or leaving this apartment."
"And me Boss?" Tony looked at Gibbs expectantly.
Gibbs saw the way Tony kept his free hand on his ribs. "DiNozzo, you go get yourself looked at by Ducky. I can't have my senior field agent running after criminals with only one hand."
