Chapter 4
Gibbs and Jackson woke up the next morning to the delicious smell of baking and the cheerful noise of someone laughing and a dog barking.
As the two men ambled in to the kitchen, they discovered fresh coffee going and scones in the oven, with some on a plate already, cooling off. Gibbs stuck his head outside in time to see his daughter playing Tug-of-War with Gibor, who was giving it all he had. His short little stubby tail was wagging like crazy despite the growling that Dabi couldn't hear.
"Hey Dad, good timing. The last batch of scones should be just about ready," Dabi said, seeing him out of the corner of her eye. "When the timer goes off, pull 'em out if I'm not back in the kitchen please?"
Gibbs signed an acknowledgement and smiled. He was glad to see Dabi playing with a dog again; Gibor needed a little training, true, but it would help keep Dabi's mind off Azan.
Deciding Gibor needed some training on the streets, Dabi decided to take her new companion to the butcher and a few other stores. He needed to learn some basic commands, as well as how to handle himself in public.
On her way out of the butchers, Dabi was confronted by a girl who would have been pretty, had she not had so much make-up on.
"Hey, bitch! You hit my man!" the girl yelled, obviously ready for a fight.
"You mean Tommy Tucker?" Dabi asked.
"You know who I mean, bitch!"
"Your man, if you want to call him that, made a very crude joke at my expense and I flattened him," Dabi said. She felt a tugging on the leash and looked down to see Gibor growling at the girl.
"What's with the mutt?" the girl demanded.
Dabi smiled. "He's my hero and he doesn't seem to like you. Only problem is, I'm still training him, so I wouldn't count on him listening to me too much." The girl backed off a bit. "Listen, I'm on vacation. Your man was being a jackass. I've got a guy myself; I would defend him too, if someone punched him. But you're a blonde and I'm sure you really don't care for all the dumb blonde jokes."
"Well, no," the girl admitted.
"Your man made a rather gross joke about redheads, which I am, and I flattened him. He claimed he was trying to get my attention."
"That wasn't what he said! He said you came on to him!"
Dabi scoffed. "Do you know Jackson Gibbs?"
"The old guy who has a small store, so?"
"He's my grandfather. He was there when Tommy made that joke. You are more than welcome to talk to him about it."
The girl glared at her, but backed down a bit more. Dabi continued.
"I'm not interested in a fight. If your man isn't man enough to show a girl he doesn't even know some respect by not making a sexist joke, then he's not man enough to be around a girl, period." The girl bit her lip as she thought about that. "Dad's going to take me down to the river later today, so I need to grab some stuff beforehand. Are we done?" When the girl didn't answer, Dabi turned to walk away. Before she got too far, there was a tap on her shoulder. It was the girl.
"I know a place on the river that's pretty good," she admitted. "I don't know if your dad knows about it, but it's a good place to have fun. I could draw it on a map for you."
"That would be appreciated."
Dabi and the girl, who gave her name as Pam Matkin, stopped at a local outdoor cafe and ordered something cool to drink while Pam drew the map.
As she did, Dabi noticed two elderly gentlemen talking, in what looked like low voices, nearby.
"We've got to move him," said the first gentleman. He was leaning heavily on his wooden cane.
"How? We put him pretty deep down. That old mine ain't that stable," said the second man, lifting his fedora up enough to scratch his head.
"I know, but that area's being looked at again as a possible new coal line and I don't trust them fancy new techie stuff they got out these days."
"What about that dumbass grandson of yours?"
"Kid got the short end of the stick in brains. He won't be much help, especially with keeping his mouth shut." He sighed heavily. "We could always rig another explosion but there's a risk. Besides, I hate leaving Jimbo there; he shoulda been buried right proper."
"I know, but that would've raised too many questions we couldn't answer."
"I know, dang it, I know. God rest her soul, sweet Carolina."
As the two men moved off, Dabi swallowed hard. The two men had been talking about moving a body from the mines and that usually meant murder.
"You okay?" Pam asked, seeing Dabi's face go pale.
"Who are those old guys?" she asked, pointing towards the receding men.
"That looks like Mr. Peabody and Mr. Carter. I think my mom said they were war veterans or something. Why?"
Dabi shrugged. "I'm deaf but I lip-read pretty good and I thought I saw them say something. I was just wondering who they were." And who the heck Jimbo is and why he's in a mine, she thought. Dad is going to love me.
As soon as she could, Dabi hustled back to the store and booted up her computer. Thanks to Abby and Tim, she had learned a thing or two about how to do internet searches.
"What's going on, sweetheart?" Gibbs asked, watching as his daughter scrolled through the Stillwater Tribune news files.
"I think someone named Jimbo went missing years ago and I think Mr. Peabody and Mr. Carter had something to do with it, and it has something to do with someone named Caroline," Dabi said.
"Okay," said Gibbs, sitting down next to her. "I'm listening."
She repeated what she had seen and then suddenly yelped excitedly. "Found him!" She spun her laptop around so her father could see the screen. "Jim 'Jimbo' Seymore, a Marine during the Vietnam War, vanished shortly after returning home from the war in 1973. His two best friends were Michael Carter and Brian Peabody, and they stated they were very worried about him. Worried about him, my ass."
"Are you sure about this?"
Dabi nodded and turned her laptop back towards herself. Fingers flying over the keyboard again, she found another news article. "The Barrick Mine Corporation is doing some investigations into some of the old coal mines that were shut down before 1972, possibly reopening them again. That's got to be the mines those guys were talking about."
"If those mines can get reopened, it could mean big money for a lotta fellows around here," said Jackson, joining them.
"What do you know about Michael Carter and Brian Peabody, and maybe someone named Caroline, Dad?" Gibbs asked.
"Carter and Peabody? Good guys, never any problems. Caroline was Brian's wife, but the funny thing was, she was engaged to their buddy, Jimbo Seymore, before he went off to Vietnam," Jackson said.
"What happened after the war?" Dabi asked.
"That's the funny thing. Shortly after he came back, Jimbo disappeared. Nobody could find him," Jackson said.
"And Caroline?" Gibbs asked.
"Up and married Brian. They never had any children, but she was married to him for over twenty years before she died of pneumonia complications a few years back."
"What about Michael? I think he has a grandson," Dabi said.
"That he does, and the sorriest excuse of a grandson I've ever met. Kid's a lazy bum, always looking for a fast buck, even if it's at someone else's expense." He looked at his son and grandson and said, "What's going on?"
Dabi repeated what she had seen and Jackson sighed heavily. "Well, that would certainly explain a few things. Around the same time Jimbo disappeared, so did Caroline's dad, but no one really missed him."
"Trouble?" Gibbs asked.
"Oh, he was a mean cuss. Always had a beer in one hand and a foul word coming out of his mouth. Rumor had it he had beaten Caroline's mother to death, or at the very least, she took off. No one knows."
"Should we go to the sheriff or should we try and follow them, maybe find the body?" Dabi asked. "Jimbo was a Marine, so that technically makes it an NCIS case."
Gibbs stared at his daughter. "You know the sheriff doesn't like me, right?"
"Why? Because the last time you were here, some Mexican broad shot up Grandpa Jack's window and tried to shoot him, just because she was pissed at you? Or would it have anything to do with that murder investigation of Corporal LaCombe? Abby told me about that one." She looked at her father pleadingly. "Look, even if we don't tell the sheriff, you know darn well I'm going to try and find this guy, which is really going to piss off the sheriff anyway, so if we at least tell him, then when the crapola does hit the fan, at least it won't stink so bad."
"It already does," Gibbs said, his mind already sliding into investigative mode. He had a fleeting wish for his gun but then remembered Jackson's Winchester rifle.
"I'll make the call," said Jackson, seeing the look on his son's face. "Like father, like daughter. Neither of you know how to stay out of trouble," he said as he reached for the phone.
"Ain't that the fun part?" Dabi teased, grinning.