Chapter 3

The team arrives at the construction site. Near the entrance to the construction site, the foreman is waving them down. Gibbs parks the car and Tony parks the truck. All of the team exits from the vehicles. The foreman approaches.

"Where's the body?" Gibbs asked as he flashes his badge.

"I can see you don't waste time." The foreman said.

"Work doesn't get done by wasting time." Gibbs said.

"Agreed… Unfortunately we have no choice but to waste time with the current situation. And we're the ones on a deadline." The foreman stated. "I'm not going to say to rush through your investigation. I respect what you do, Agent Gibbs. I used to be in the service for five years as a Marine. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the Navy and Marines." He motions of them all to follow him to a table. He continues talking to Gibbs. "As soon as I knew what we were dealing with, I called you guys. I sectioned off the area. I've given you a large enough perimeter. If you need more, take it. If you want the entire construction site for the day, you got it. All of the workers are standing over there." He points to the area. "I have them standing far enough apart that they can't talk to each other. And the supervisors are making sure of it. They've all agreed to allow you to take elimination samples…"

"McGee…" Gibbs tries to get his attention. McGee looks to him. "I want fingerprints, DNA, shoeprints and question them." He points to the area where the workers are standing.

"On it Boss." McGee runs off in the direction of the workers.

They approach a table with hard hats on it.

"Please take a hard hat before continuing any further." The foreman stated. "I don't need you getting injured because I didn't take the proper precautions. With today, we have enough trouble here as it is."

All of them take a hard hat. They each put it on their heads. Once everyone has a hard hat, they continue walking toward the area where the dead body is.

"Curiosity got the better of my workers." The foreman points to a couple stacks of cement blocks and the thick pieces of sheet metal. "They unfortunately moved those stacks of cement blocks and pieces of sheet metal which were covering the woman lying in the ditch. It was hard to see if the woman, so they couldn't tell if she was truly dead or not. When they moved the objects and realized the woman was dead, is when I finally arrived. I would've preferred them to not move anything, but I wasn't here at the time. When I saw the uniform, I called you guys and closed off the area." He now points to the forklift. "The forklift isn't in the exact same spot it was in yesterday when we left; it's a couple inches out of place."

"How on earth can you possibly remember the exact positioning after a long hard day at work?" Tony wondered. "I mean…"

"The forklift operator… My nephew Conrad, has mild obsessive compulsive disorder, so if that forklift is even an inch out of place, he'd know." "The foreman stated. "A key was left in the ignition. When my nephew saw it, he freaked out because he lost a key a couple of weeks ago so he's using the spare key. He thinks one of the workers is playing a prank on him with the key being in the ignition. All the workers love him because he's funny and enjoyable to be around. So I highly doubt the key being in the ignition has anything to do with a prank on Conrad." They finally approach the closed off area. The foreman looks to Gibbs. "If there's anything else you, I'll be in my trailer."

Gibbs cracks a slight smile and steps over the tape the foreman has step-up which seals off the area. Gibbs walks toward the ditch. The foreman looks to Tony.

"He doesn't talk much, does he?" The foreman wondered.

"No…" Tony answered. "That slight crack of a smile means you did a good job. He just has a lot on his mind lately."

"Oh…?"

"Not sure what… But I'm married to his daughter. So it's most likely it's about me." Tony joked.

"I forgot one thing. Tell your boss the woman's jaw is nowhere to be found."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked.

"Coming Boss." Tony said. He steps over the tape and runs to catch up with the team.

The team stands near the ditch. They look into it at the dead, jawless body. Ducky makes his way into the ditch. He immediately starts examining the body.

"Where's her jaw?" Ziva wondered.

"The foreman said they didn't find the jaw." Tony stated. He finally takes a good long look at the body. "For a jawless woman she's kind of cute."

Gibbs smacks Tony on the back of the head.

"Work on the forklift first. Ziva, pictures… Tony, bag and tag." Gibbs gives them their assignments. Ziva and Tony walk away. Gibbs remains near the ditch. He begins sketching. "T.O.D., Ducky?"

"I've noticed you've been a little distracted since yesterday, Jethro… But apparently not distracted enough to forget about asking me for something you know I don't have quite yet." Ducky chuckled. Seconds later, he takes the liver probe out. "I estimate the time of death to be around 02:00 this morning." He looks up at Gibbs. "I'm sure you don't want to talk about it…"

"You're right, Duck. I don't want to talk about it." Gibbs said as he knew what Ducky was about to ask.

"I thought not." Ducky goes back to examining the body.

With Ducky distracted by examining the body, Gibbs glances over at Ziva who is taking pictures of the forklift. Tony is also at the forklift.

"The person who did this is an idiot." Tony stated.

"For leaving the keys in the ignition… I'd have to agree." Ziva agreed. "Though… If the suspect wore gloves than mostly likely Abby won't get usable prints from it."

"Let's just hope the suspect is dumber than you assume."

"I think someone broke into my apartment this morning while I was out jogging." Ziva stated.

"If you're thinking I broke into your apartment to steal those videos of me competing in the Last Vader Standing competition…" Tony begins to say.

"I already posted those on YouTube."

Tony's head perks upward. He sighs slightly as he really didn't want those videos being public, especially for the chance that a friend may possibly see them.

"Nothing was stolen at all. It doesn't appear anything was moved." Ziva continued. "When I returned, I just got this feeling that someone was there while I was gone."

"You're going a feeling…? You sure it's not just PMS?"

"Nah…" Ziva shakes her head. "That's next week."

"Mental note to self…" Tony begins to say. "…Stay away from Ziva all of next week."

"You know Tony… Over the weekend, you looked kind of sexy in that Darth Vader costume." Ziva stated.

"Oh really…?" Tony grins.

"Yeah… But then you took the helmet off which just ruined it." Ziva grins back.

"Funny…" Tony gives her a dirty look. Ziva snaps of picture of him.

Ziva and Tony continue working near the forklift. McGee continues taking samples and questioning the workers. Ducky continues examining the body. And Gibbs continues sketching while keeping an eye on Ziva and wondering what she's hiding.