Nov 9
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)
Abby Scuito took an extra-long sip of her new Caf-Pow!, deciding against informing Gibbs this was her fifth of the morning. He was liable to withhold caffeine goodness if she admitted the truth. Taking a long breath, she began her explanation.
"So, your witness said Major Mellado was shot at pretty much point blank range. My ballistics say it couldn't have happened. Well, my ballistics and my blood spatter analysis. The spatter pattern indicates high velocity impact, which is consistent with a gunshot wound and the bullet Ducky pulled out of the guy. But the pattern's all wrong for a close-up shooting, see?"
She indicated a crime scene photograph on her screen.
"The gunshot residue is all wrong too," she continued happily. "The pattern it leaves behind can give me a rough idea of where someone was standing. I wish I could be exact, but I can't, but I can definitely say that the shooter had to be at least two meters away when he pulled the trigger, which is not the same as point blank."
She nodded to herself.
"And then back to the ballistics. Point-blank shooting is a little hard to tell, but I can identify it. No way this happened here. The position of the bullet and the damage it caused would be different. Do you know how I worked that out? I identified the bullet and the most likely gun it was fired from –"
The Goth turned round and watched Gibbs leave. "Thanks for the Caf-Pow!" she called after him.
