Thanks to everyone who responded to this story! Now for the next chapter which explains how McGee wound up where he is in the Prologue (lots of exposition, sorry about that).
Title: Down Among the Dead
Story: NCIS
Rating: T– Gen
Genre: Supernatural/suspense
Warnings: Disturbing images and subject matter.
Set in mid Season 7
Summary: McGee disappears while working on a cold case. Can the team find him before it is too late?
Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing, yadda yadda.
Chapter 1
*15 hours earlier*
"What are you working on, McGee?"
McGee glanced up at Ziva before returning his attention to the computer screen as he answered his teammate.
"A month-old kidnapping case: Aileen Bartlett."
"I remember that case. The seven-year-old daughter of a Marine sergeant disappeared on her way home from school. She missed the bus and apparently decided to walk home, but never made it. No witnesses or evidence."
"Yeah. No ransom requests, no issues with custody, nothing suspicious in the backgrounds of the family, friends, neighbors or teachers. NCIS, FBI, and state and local police all participated in the search for her, and turned up absolutely nothing. Frustrating as Hell."
"I remember that, too. Gibbs was particularly difficult while we were actively working the case."
"Not surprising, considering the victim."
"No, I suppose not. And he will not let it go, either. What have you found?"
"I cross checked all recent cases before, but I didn't find any similar victim profiles in the last two years. So now, I went back further and turned up two cases that were slightly similar: both girls were seven years old, with long brown hair and brown eyes, but they disappeared from completely different areas and had very different family backgrounds. Neither of the cases was handled by our team. One, Anne Fleming, was from five years ago, and the other, Aurora Ford, was from three and a half years ago. I've been searching through financial records of all three girls' parents and I found one small link: all three of the girls took horseback riding lessons for a month at West Falls Stables near Hagerstown, Maryland."
"Have you expanded the search to other agencies?" asked Ziva as she gazed at the pictures of the three girls on McGee's monitor.
"I have."
"Any other similar cases?"
"More than I really want to think about," said McGee with a grimace. "There are at least two cases that I would like to research further and I've put in the request for the files. If I can find a link for all of them, we might have more to help our case. At least until the FBI figures it out and takes over."
"You believe it is a serial killer."
"Maybe. But to prove the disappearances are connected I need to get something more on the girls than looks and that they obviously loved horses."
"And all their first names start with A."
"Well, yeah, that too." McGee rose from his chair, grabbed his gun and ID from his desk drawer, and snagged his coat from the back of his chair. "I'm going to go talk to the people at the stable to see if they remember any of the other girls on the list, and if they noticed anyone paying special attention to the girls when they were there. I checked the financial records for the parents of other two, but no luck; maybe they paid cash. Still, the place should have some sort of record in their files, but I haven't had any luck finding that anywhere online. They must do things the old-fashioned way."
"Would you like me to join you?"
McGee debated her question for a moment and shook his head. "Nah, it might not amount to anything, and you have your own paperwork to deal with. I've got this one. Besides, one of us has to keep DiNozzo out of trouble." He gave her a half-grin, which she returned.
"I will do my best. Good luck. I hope it is not a snipe hunt. Or is it goose hunt?"
"Goose chase, Ziva. See you later."
Two hours later, McGee guided the sedan onto the rough gravel driveway that lead to West Falls Stables. After another half-mile, he finally reached the building and parked the car in front of what he guessed was the office, a smaller addition on the side of the main building. When he entered the office the smell of hay, linseed oil and leather hit him and he sneezed, announcing his arrival as the bell on the front door had done just a moment before.
The occupant of the office, a teenager with shaggy blond hair, looked up from the saddle he was repairing and eyed McGee with a hint of annoyance.
"Help you?"
"Yes. I'm Special Agent McGee with NCIS – Naval Criminal Investigative Service-."
"Bit far from the ocean, aren't you?" interrupted the kid, suspicion clear in his tone.
"We investigate crimes involving both Navy and Marine personnel, and their dependents. I'm looking into the disappearances of three children: Aileen Bartlett, Aurora Ford, and Anne Fleming."
"Don't know 'em."
McGee took a deep breath to contain his own annoyance at the rude young man and continued. "They all took riding lessons here for a month. I-."
"Hang on." The teen walked over to the door behind the counter, opened in and yelled. "Mandy, go get Mom. Now!"
"No need to yell," came the loud reply and a few seconds later a younger teenager with curly red hair stuck her head in the office. "What do you need, Michael?"
"This guy needs to know about some customers."
"So look up what he needs to know. It's not that hard."
"Don't you need a warrant or something?" he asked, returning his attention to McGee.
"I'm not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of your establishment. I'm just asking for a little bit of background information. Come on, wouldn't you like to help?"
"Nope, but Mom probably will, which is why the brat needs to go get her," he snapped, turning to the girl and giving her a full force glare.
"OK, fine. I'll be right back. Sorry my brother is being such a jerk, Mister," she apologized before disappearing into the depths of the main building.
Michael went back to his work on the saddle, completely ignoring McGee. McGee wandered around the small room, still keeping his eye on the teen while he waited for the mother to make an appearance. Ten minutes passed before a slightly out of breath middle aged woman entered the office. She had the same curly-red hair as her daughter, and bore a much more pleasant expression than her son currently wore.
"Mrs. Downing? I'm Special Agent Timothy McGee, NCIS. I just need to ask you a few questions about some of your customers. I'm not here to cause you any problems."
"Good to know. What sort of information do you need, Agent McGee?" she asked, her tone even ask she walked past the boy and lightly swatted his arm. "Go help your brother." The boy rolled his eyes and stormed off as she shook her head and addressed McGee. "Sorry about that."
"No problem, ma'am. I'm investigating several disappearances of children from the DC area, three of which were NCIS cases. These three all took riding lessons here for a month, two months before they each disappeared. I was hoping that I could look at your records to see if some of the other girls who disappeared under similar circumstances were also here at some point."
"And you think this is where their kidnapper first spotted them?"
"Possibly. I was also hoping that you might remember if anyone around paid a lot of attention to them when they were here."
"I see a lot of kids go through here, Agent McGee. I don't pay much attention to anything except keeping them from falling off the horses or getting stepped on, but I'll do what I can. What are their names, and when were they here?" She pulled out a large three ring binder and dropped it on top of the counter with a thump.
McGee pulled out his notebook. "The most recent was Aileen Bartlett. She was here four months ago. November of last year. Next is Aurora Ford, and she was here July of 2006. Then Anne Fleming, who was here in November of 2004."
Mrs. Downing sighed. "I'll need to get the older records. Mandy!"
The girl appeared moments later. "Yeah, Mom?"
"I need the box with the records for 2006 and 2004 from storage. Find them and have Mathew bring the up here, please."
"OK," she chirped and disappeared again.
Mrs. Downing sighed and opened the binder. "November…here we are. Yes, Aileen was here every Saturday afternoon for four weeks. She was supposed to sign up for more lessons the following March, when we open back up, but she never did." She paused to think. "I don't remember anyone paying attention to her. Everyone here was with their own kid. Well, except Hank, but I don't even think he was around when she was."
"Hank?"
"Henry Smith, our farrier. He comes by about every two weeks to do checkups, pretty much comes and goes without bothering anyone and I only really talk to him if there's a problem with one of the horses."
"Check ups…on?"
Mrs. Downing smiled. "The horseshoes. He's a blacksmith. You haven't spent much time around horses, have you, Agent McGee?"
"No, not really. So, there's no one else who might have had contact with the girl?"
"Just us. I hope you're not suggesting-?"
"No, ma'am, just being thorough." He was interrupted by the arrival of Mandy and a young man carrying two large boxes. McGee couldn't help but stare at the newcomer: he was easily the largest man McGee had ever seen in his life. 'Mathew' had to be over seven feet tall, having to duck to enter the room, and his broad shoulders filled the doorway when he passed through and deposited the boxes on the counter. He turned to stare at McGee and the agent was shocked to see the curious but innocent expression of a child in the giant's features. Mathew smiled shyly and bowed his head before retreating.
"I know what you're thinking, Agent McGee," said Mrs. Downing with an edge to her voice, "but Mathew would never hurt anyone. He might be mentally slow, but he is the gentlest person you will ever meet."
"I understand, ma'am." McGee gave her his sincerest smile, which she eventually returned before opening one of the boxes.
"Ah, here we go. Yep, same thing for Aurora. She was here for a month, and was supposed to sign up for more lessons after the school year started. She was here on Wednesday mornings." She opened the other box and searched through the files before pulling out another folder. "And here is Anne…Annie, I remember her father called her Annie. Huh, amazing the little things we remember, isn't it? Anyway, she was just like Aileen, except she was here on Friday evenings. Anyone else?"
"Well, I have two more cases that might be connected, but I don't know for certain." He gave her a slightly embarrassed smile. "I guess you'll have to pull more records."
"No problem. Any idea when they might have been here?"
"Well, if it was the same as the others…Alyssa Crawford disappeared at the end of June of 2005, so March of that year? And Andrea Harris disappeared in August of 2008, so check in May of that year."
"Mandy-."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Be right back," the girl responded from the other room. A few minutes later she reappeared with Mathew in tow. He gave McGee a longer look this time before backing away, but he did not leave.
McGee gave the man a hesitant smile and received a bright and happy grin in return.
"Hi," said Mathew, apparently having overcome his shyness. "Who are you?"
"Mathew, don't bother Agent McGee."
"Agent?"
"He's like a police officer," explained Mandy, ignoring the glare from her mother. "He's looking for missing girls who were here to ride the horses."
"Oh. Which…which ones?"
After receiving a nod from Mrs. Downing, McGee showed Mathew the pictures of the girls. He looked them over carefully and pointed to Aileen's picture.
"She rode Blackjack." He then pointed to Aurora. "Diamond Jim. Maybelle… Maverick… and Hazel." He said, after pointing at each of the other girls. He smiled slightly. "Michael always gets that one wrong. He calls her 'Hazmat'."
"Mathew always remembers who everyone rides. He had a really good memory for that sort of thing," added Mandy.
"And he's right. Alyssa was here in March of 2005, four weeks, here on Tuesday evenings. Andrea was here in May of 2008, also for four weeks, on Monday evenings. Looks like you were right, too, Agent McGee.
McGee smiled and nodded, wondering how he would be able to politely end the interview so he could get back and start checking into the other cases. Then he noticed the puzzled look on Mathew's face as he looked at the pictures again.
"They're with the angels," Mathew said softly.
"The angels?"
"I think that means he thinks they're…d-e-a-d," said Mandy, obviously trying not to upset her brother. "He thinks if cops show a picture of someone, then…"
"I understand. Thank you, Mathew. You've been very helpful." He gave the younger man a sincere smile and received another in return before turning back to Mrs. Downing. He was relieved to see that she was no longer glaring but instead was giving him a grateful look. "Is there anything else that you remember about them, ma'am?"
"I'm afraid not. I hope this helps you, Agent McGee."
"I hope so as well. If you do think of anything else, don't hesitate to call." He handed her his card and left the office, going over what he would follow up with after he got back to the office as he opened the door to the sedan and got inside.
The sun was sinking below the tree line as he headed back down the rough driveway and turned back onto the main road. After he had gone a few hundred yards he noticed a flash of white in the trees and slowed, staring into the forest. He saw a faded sign hanging crookedly from a post and stopped to verify what he thought he had initially seen:
Our Lady of the Angels
I wonder…
Beyond the sign were an old iron fence and a path that led further into the trees. Near the end of the path, barely visible from the road was a pair of statures: life-sized angels, their heads bowed as if in prayer.
Don't blink, McGee though to himself with a slight smirk before climbing out of his car for a closer look. His thoughts turned serious again as he remembered what Mathew had said.
'They're with the angels'…maybe he saw something after all, something he couldn't understand. Wouldn't hurt to check…
McGee pushed the gate open and walked down the path. When he reached the statues, he saw, further back in the woods, the remains of a building and several tombstones.
Must be an old church.
He caught another flash of white out of the corner of his eye and turned. Nothing moved, but he could see more tombstones and what looked like the flat stone cover of a crypt. Curious, he moved deeper into the old burial ground. He reached the stone and saw that it was just a large, flat grave marker. He looked around, noticed that the light was really starting to fade, and tuned to head back.
Should probably bring the team out here, just in case…
A twig snapped behind him and before he could turn, something slammed into the back of his head and he fell away into the darkness.
A/N: Why, yes, that was a Doctor Who reference you saw (from the episode Blink). I just couldn't help myself, as usual.
Please let me know what you think. Reviews are always appreciated (and answered if you don't post anonymously!)
