Chapter 2: Lucky?

A couple days later…

Tim walked into work refreshed after the weekend off. He sat down at his computer and browsed through his email. Ziva and Tony walked in soon after, followed by Gibbs who announced they had a new case. The team grabbed their gear and headed out.

Tim was surprised when they drove up the street to the ATM he had visited the previous Friday. A man lay slumped at the base of the machine with stab wounds in his chest and stomach.

"Petty Officer Curtis Reeves," read Tony off of the ID badge he found in the man's pocket. "Looks like he was mugged for whatever cash he took out of this machine and fought back."

Tim snapped pictures and looked at the scene thoughtfully. Ziva was scanning the street up and down.

"What are you looking for Ziva?" asked Tony.

"A street camera or something. This street used to be known for drag racing so they put in traffic cameras to catch speeders." She looked across the street. "There." A small camera was pointed in their general direction. "Think it caught the murder?"

"Possibly," said Gibbs. "McGee, go check it out."

"On it boss." Tim passed the camera to Ziva and headed to the van. He opened his laptop and accessed the traffic camera footage. After rewinding for less than a minute he found it. Two men in dark coats grabbed the petty officer after he withdrew some cash. They struggled until one pulled out a knife and stabbed the petty officer. Tim paused the video when he had a decent shot of the men's faces. His heart skipped a beat as he studied the slightly blurry image.

"What have you got McGee?" Gibbs looked at Tim and noticed his pale face. "McGee?"

"Oh, um, I got them." He turned the computer towards Gibbs. "Boss…"

"What's wrong McGee?"

"I… I think I can identify these two."

Gibbs looked Tim in the eye. "How?"

"I used this ATM last Friday night, late, and those guys were there. They were… watching me withdraw some cash."

"What did they do?"

"Well, at first they just stared, then they started to approach, but something scared them off."

"What?"

"I don't know. I was watching them in the little review mirror on the ATM and they pointed at something to my left, but when I looked nothing was there."

"Can you show me?"

"Sure." Tim leaned back down and typed some numbers. The video quickly re-winded to Friday night. Tim and Gibbs watched Tim as he used the ATM. The two suspects crept into the shot. They paused, pointed at something next to Tim, then left. The camera angle cut off the very left edge of Tim's body, so they couldn't see whatever had scared the pair away.

Gibbs whistled. "Whatever it was McGee, you can count yourself lucky. Looks like they've been targeting this ATM for a while."

Tim swallowed and took a deep breath. "Yeah, guess I was lucky."

"Start a search on these guys. See if you can find them."

"Yes boss."

Gibbs walked back towards the scene of the crime. Tim watched himself look up and down the street in the video then drive away. "Lucky…"