Chapter 2: The Captain Put The Wooden Jacket On
Portuguese idiom: Vestir o paleto de madeira
Literal translation: To button up the wooden jacket.
Meaning: to die. To be put into a coffin.
Still in Georgetown
Washington DC
Thrusday 7:34 am
"Jethro, what do we have here?" says Ducky, as he approaches Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, head of the MCR team from NCIS. He was staring down at the body sprawled on the floor, with three bullet holes close to each other in the chest.
"Dead marine," he turns to his team, "DiNozzo, sketch, McGee, pictures, and check if those surveillance cameras over there were working at the time of the murder," Gibbs points to cameras turned to the backdoor of the bar, "Ziva, witness statements, check if someone in these buildings have seen or heard something."
"On it, Boss." They say, and run to obey his orders.
Ducky is checking the liver temperature, and Palmer silently approaches with a body bag and the stretcher.
"What can you tell me, Duck?"
"Well," Ducky checks the readings, "this gentleman was killed between two and five am this morning, and based on the blood on the scene and its position," he shows the blood pools and the splatter on the wall, "I would say that this is our primary crime scene. He was, indeed, killed here, and not moved from where he fell as he was shot."
McGee approaches Gibbs, and gives his report.
"Boss, the bar owner told me that they have surveillance twenty-four hours a day since they were robbed three times last semester alone. He will separate the tapes from yesterday so we can check it in NCIS."
"Good."
Ziva finishes taking the statements and approaches Gibbs, who stares at her, waiting for her to talk.
"According to the building manager, there were only six of the sixteen people currently living here. As eight are away on holidays and two out of the country.
"The ones who were in the building, any one hear or see anything?"
"He's helping me track them down the two who left for work early in the morning. Two retired couples were in the building, but they can barely hear each other, much less whatever happens outside their apartments. But, we have a small mystery here, as he told me that early this morning a woman left with suitcases, and he didn't recognize her as one of the tenants."
"He didn't?"
"Nope. And he saw her coming and going the last three days. And as far as he knows, no one moved in or out of the building."
Gibbs frowns at this information, as it's too much of a coincidence. "According to the 911 records, a woman reported the shooting, just a couple of minutes after it happened."
"Could be her."
"Yeah, try to find out what you can about her."
"On it, Gibbs."
McGee approaches with some DVDs on his hand. They are the recordings of the surveillance cameras. They return to NCIS, and McGee takes the videos to be checked by Abby.
As they watch the video, they see a man walking alone down the alley, meeting and talking to someone who stays out of the camera view. After some minutes, the conversation becomes aggressive, and the person in the shadows draws a weapon to the captain.
They see him being shot and falling to the floor.
The shooter leaves the scene, always with his face hidden and with his back to the camera.
However, their biggest surprise is when, not even five minutes after the shots rang out, a woman enters the alley, and runs to the fallen marine. She checks if he has a pulse, opens her backpack and starts dialing something on her cell phone.
They check the timestamp of the video with the actual 911 recording. The times match. They watch her stay for some minutes on the alley. She verifies that he's already dead, and leaves, before the man is found by the paramedics.
As it is a digital video, they can zoom in on her face which can clearly be seen in the moonlit night. She had never tried to avoid the camera. She probably had no idea that there were surveillance cameras in the alley anyway.
The team watches the tape several times in loop, trying to catch anything that might identify her.
"She doesn't seem to be American," says McGee.
"Of course she doesn't, look at those eyes, that hair, that skin, those boobs," Gibbs turns to stare at Tony, who continues, "she's not American, she's Latina. Which basically means we're screwed."
McGee frowns, as he doesn't get why Tony is complaining.
"Why?"
"Why? You ask me why? If she's an illegal immigrant we won't ever find her. She will disappear in whatever hole she came from."
"I don't think she's an illegal immigrant," says Ziva staring at the plasma. "McGee, zoom in her backpack."
"Her backpack?"
McGee goes to his desktop and types something, zooming the image into the requested spot. They rewind the video to see the stranger in the video opening her backpack to get the mobile phone, and in it they can clearly see a book with its shiny cover upside down. The colored strap of a top of the line digital camera can be seen as well.
"Can you zoom in again?"
McGee types a little bit more, and Ziva squints at the plasma.
"Is that what I think it is?"
McGee smiles, "Yes, it is," he stands up, and looks at the clear view of the backpack contents, "that's the Frommer's edition of 'How to Travel America' with only 40 dollars a day'."
He looks at Gibbs.
"She's a tourist," says Gibbs.
"A tourist with a very tight budget," completes Tony.
"Not really, look at the strap of her camera," she points out, "that's the strap of a Canon EOS, like the ones we have here." Ziva shakes her head, "whoever she is, she had the money to buy the camera."
"Boss, the backpack, the guide, the top of the line digital camera, all fits to the idea of her being a tourist."
"A tourist who walked into a murder, reported it and now disappeared," growls Gibbs, "Ziva!"
"I'm contacting the airports, checking if their database immigration records have someone that matches our video."
"McGee!"
"I will run her picture in the INS database. And she touched his neck to check for his pulse, maybe Ducky was able to collect a viable print."
"Tony!"
"I'll go back to the building with her picture, show it up to the landlord to see if she matches the mysterious woman who left this morning."
Tony rushes to the printer, to get the picture.
"We have to find her," Gibbs says staring at the plasma.
"Before someone else does," says Ziva, while dialing on the phone.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
"Found her!" shouts McGee, and Gibbs, Tony and Ziva look at him.
"Put it in the plasma," says Gibbs, standing up.
McGee types something, and the scanned image of a Brazilian passport appears. In it, a mocha skinned woman, in her late twenties, looks seriously at the camera. Her long dark brown hair was flowing in curls around her oval face, and deep brown almond eyes looked unblinking out of the picture. She also had a very generous mouth, with lips faintly colored in a coral lipstick that matched her bronze color. Green pendant earrings and a single pearl necklace completed the ensemble.
"Anna Julia Rodrigues, twenty eight, she entered the country through an Copa Airlines Rio-Miami flight four weeks ago, and according to her Credit Card movements she had traveled between Miami, Orlando, New York, Las Vegas, and then finally here in DC."
"What else can you tell us about her?" asks Tony.
"She informed the immigration officer that she was doing a backpacking trip with some friends, and that she would be flying home from DC."
"When?" asks Gibbs, looking at the plasma, studying his witness.
McGee frowns at the information the he's reading on the screen, "according to the immigration info I've just received, she was listed in the passenger manifest of the Copa Airlines flight that left DC five hours ago." He looks at Gibbs, "she's already out of American airspace, Boss."
Gibbs stares at the screen, "Ziva, keep looking in Captain John Davis background, I want to know everything about him, who he spoke to, who he slept with, everything."
"McGee, DiNozzo, pack your bags, you're going to Brazil."
"Boss? Wow, samba, beautiful girls, bossa nova, this is going to be great!" celebrates DiNozzo doing a little dance, and he promptly receives a headslap.
"OUCH."
"You are going there to find her, and if possible, bring her back here, not to be a tourist, DiNozzo," growls Gibbs.
"Because you can be sure of one thing," Gibbs looks at the plasma, "if we are able to find out who she is so easily, whoever killed Captain Davis will too, and we have to find her before they do."