Chapter 2
The images, although not entirely clear, depicted three men engaged in a heated discussion that was evidently escalating out of control. A weapon was drawn and then fired causing one of the group to fall to the ground – dead.
"Wow, no wonder someone was after our lieutenant!" declared McGee.
"Y'think! Abby, can you get a better look at their faces?"
Abby returned to her computer controls and centred in, firstly on the victim.
"I know that face… It's Gunnery Sergeant Greg Kovak! He and I served in Desert Storm together."
Abby and McGee exchanged glances. Gibbs never spoke of his time as a US marine in Kuwait.
"What about those two?" Gibbs asked pointing to Kovak's aggressors.
Abby, once again, focused upon the facial areas of the digital pictures and enhanced the image.
"Find me everything you can about those bastards. That's no way for a marine to die!"
Gibbs strode out of the lab leaving Abby and McGee somewhat dumbfounded by his reaction.
You'd barely know anything untoward had happened there, in the street. Only the bright yellow crime scene tape and the lone police vehicle gave any hint to last night's commotion. Ziva and Tony crossed over the fluttering tape barrier.
"This will be like looking for a pin in a haystack!" Ziva sighed.
"A needle," Tony corrected.
"Oh sorry, this will be like looking for a pin in a needle."
Tony looked exasperated but let Ziva's incomprehension of English idioms slide as he took out the manikin from the back seat of their car. Ducky had identified the trajectory and position of the bullet and Tony had fitted the 6"1' dummy with a laser probe. Tony stood where Gibbs had been standing and held the dummy in Thorpe's last known position. Ziva tracked the bullet's path downward. It passed within a fraction of an inch of where Gibbs had been standing. A thought occurred to both agents – had the final bullet been meant for Gibbs?
Ziva found the bullet hole. The bullet had ricocheted off the wall and passed through the window into Gibbs' basement. Ziva and Tony peered through the pane and could see the distinct outline of a boat hull.
"I'll tell you what," Tony began. "You go get the bullet and I'll find the shooter's nest."
"Why do I get to do the retrieval?"
"Because I am the senior field agent!"
Ziva grumbled something in Israeli that Tony knew was uncomplimentary even though he could not speak the language.
The basement was cool and eerily silent. Only the fragrant aroma of wood made it more inviting. Ziva shone her torch around the room. She identified the single pane of glass that had been shattered by the projectile she was now seeking. Scanning her torch across the ribs of the boats' hull she found what she was looking for. Lodged in the wooden strut was the missing bullet. Ziva reached into her pocket and pulled out her knife. As she did so her mind silently recited rule number nine – 'Never go anywhere without a knife.' Gibbs had a series of rules he trained his team by, each of them important when investigating a crime.
Ziva cut around the point of entry until the bullet could be plucked from its final resting place.
Meanwhile, Tony was scouting around the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. He found what he was looking for, a scuffed boot impression on the gravel roof one house over. A feint outline existed where a sniper had lain in wait for his victim to emerge. A single brass shell stood alone upon a piece of paper marked 'GIBBS R.I.P.' in thick marker pen.
Tony pulled out his cell and rang Ziva.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"Oh yes! You'd better bring the camera; we are going to need to photograph this…"
"If the shooter was lying in wait, he couldn't have known that Thorpe was going to show up here…" Ziva surmised. "Thorpe wasn't the target…"
"Nope. He was after Gibbs!" Tony agreed.