Thanks to my beta Kristen! I hate writer's block. I really really hate it. I thought I was over it, but it came back to clobber me over the head again...
Chapter 10: Mail Order
Lily did not bother to hide her search of Jenny's mail the next morning. She chose to do it in full view of LJ's team by picking their boss' desk to sit at. Piles of paper were everywhere when he returned from a coffee run.
She did not have to look to know he was glaring at her, instead continuing to go through the envelopes. Some were clearly official, so she ignored them. There was no point in giving herself extra paperwork when it was really Jenny's job. Carefully tossing them into one pile, she flicked through the pile again.
Internal mail went next. Anything placed on Cynthia's desk from within NCIS was placed in a new pile. There were case files, transfer forms, intelligence reports, personnel files… huge quantities of paper were removed from her search. Part of her wanted to poke through them in order to see how far behind the times her sister's agency was, but it would cost her too much time.
LJ finally reappeared with a chair and sat down opposite her. He cast one distasteful glance over her two piles on the desk, and turned his attention to the remaining collection in her hands.
Now she took her time. The letter she was expecting would not be obvious. It usually hid in amongst everything else. She had not bothered to locate any latex gloves, knowing from experience that the mail was passed through many hands before it reached its destination, and she would not find any useful prints. Whichever one of their two suspects he was, he knew how to avoid detection. The people she had asked to examine the letter had gotten nowhere before now.
She would deal with them later, when this was all over.
She decided to play her current favorite game: Guess the Envelope. Without opening any of them, she tried to work out which envelope was the one she was searching for. The first few did not set off any alarm bells, so she placed them in a new pile to double check later if she ended up guessing wrong. A small cluster caught her attention, leading her to place the rest of the pile down and close her eyes briefly.
"Get on with it," LJ ordered.
She opened her eyes to glare at him. "This is an art," she retorted.
"Give them to me," he demanded, reaching out for them.
She slapped his hand away with practiced ease. He gave a small whimper, which warmed the cockles of her heart. The joys of annoying LJ… She took a deep breath and went back to her final three envelopes.
It was one of these; she was sure of it.
Running her fingers gently across the front of each of them, she listened to her judgment. It was not the first one. The second one seemed okay. And the third…
"This one," she announced, handing it over to LJ.
"Positive?" he checked.
"If it is not that one," she declared, "I will run naked around the squad room on your birthday."
"Jenny will kill you," he warned, before heading in the direction of Abby's lab.
Lily leant back in his chair. Still alive, and so was Jenny. So far, her day was going very well.
Abby continued to let the jazz fill her lab. Lily might be alive, but she wasn't going to jinx it. If she played it for a few more days, it would not break the magic.
Anyway, Jenny had said that Lily would like it, and there was always the off chance Lily might appear in the lab. She might have some important forensic work she needed doing, or a spare Caf-Pow to give away, or a few minutes to kill before she blew something up.
You could never tell with Lily.
She bounced towards her work, excited at her tasks for today. First stop, a hair analysis. She stared down her microscope for a few moments before bringing the image up on the main screen for easier viewing. Obviously a bat, what with all the pretty spikes on the hair. She decided to see if she could narrow it down to a species, so headed into her office for her reference guide.
But it wasn't there. She began to search high and low, under files and under Bert. It had to be here somewhere… She had last used it the previous week, during the Spencer case. Agent Wofford had found something in the boot of the suspect's car, and the Goth had been able to prove it was bat hair from a local cave. And here was another bat hair…
She wondered if the two hairs were connected before resuming her search. Tony had been in her office since then. Might he have removed it to play with her mind? It was very Tony-esque, but why would he pick this book? She rarely had to resort to it; only McGee would know that. And he wouldn't dare to steal it…
The only other option was that Agent Wofford had borrowed it without asking permission. Feeling a surge of anger well up, Abby returned to the comfort of her lab and began to dial. No one took her belongings and got away with it!
The elevator dinged and she hung up immediately. This could be Agent Wofford now, and she had no problem with giving someone a piece of her mind to their face.
"Hey, Abs," Gibbs greeted her as he appeared. "Got something for you."
She beamed at the sight of the envelope in his hand. "Which case?" she asked, reaching for the nitrile gloves.
He stared at her.
"Oh, that case." Her face fell and she was glad the jazz was still playing. "You should be wearing gloves."
"Lots of people have handling the envelope before it arrived here," he pointed out, placing a large Caf-Pow on her desk. "But no one has touched the letter inside."
"How can you be sure it's the right envelope then?" she mused. "Or is it your famous gut speaking?"
"Lily's gut," he corrected. "She seems certain it's this one."
With her gloved fingers, the Goth carefully extracted the letter from the envelope. It only took a glance to be sure it was the right letter. The same disturbing rantings filled the single page, this time claiming responsibility for Lily's 'death'.
"That's one problem out of the way," she heard Gibbs mutter.
"Which problem?" she inquired.
"The stalker and the bomber are the same person," he concluded. "How long until you have something?"
"A while," she decided. "It would be quicker if I had something to match it to, like a sample of handwriting."
Gibbs considered this for a moment. "I'll see what I can do," he promised, before kissing her cheek and leaving.
Abby smiled to herself. More evidence was good.
Gibbs entered the squad room in a hurry. He didn't trust Lily at his desk, and he also did not want to run to risk of Jenny figuring out that her mail had been searched.
Fortunately, Lily and the piles of envelopes were nowhere to be seen. With a bit of luck, she had taken the pile upstairs and dumped it on Cynthia's desk, before disappearing into Jenny's office to keep her sister calm. The letter would almost certainly not be mentioned by either party.
He turned his attention to his team instead. Tony was busy tapping away at his keyboard, Ziva seemed to be on hold, and McGee was typing so fast that it hurt Gibbs' fingers just to watch.
How could anyone type so quickly and yet so accurately?
His team constantly surprised him, although he kept it well-hidden. Ziva was able to surprise anyone, even Lily from time to time. McGee could be very nervous and timid one minute, and an exceptional field agent in the next. Tony came up with intuitive leaps just when they were needed. They might spend their spare time squabbling like children, or occasionally like him and Lily, but they worked well together. He could not see a way to improve his team.
"Report," he demanded, taking his chair back before Lily could reappear and sit on it again.
Tony stood up first. "Paul Inkman, born 1961, attended the same college as the sisters. Other than that, I'm having problems linking them or locating him now."
"He was studying politic science, as was Jenny," Ziva interrupted. "They were in different years but their paths crossed. My source says that they dated for a few months but it did not work out."
"Trouble in paradise?" Tony quipped.
"Ask Jenny," Ziva shrugged.
"Could give us motive," Tony pointed out.
"He died three years ago in a motorcycle accident," Ziva finished, smirking at her partner.
"Leaves us with Mick Higgs," Gibbs concluded. "Anyone found him yet?"
"I've managed to trace him up to 1994, boss," McGee called, his eyes not leaving his computer screen.
"How is he connected to Jenny?" Tony queried.
"Find out," Gibbs ordered, leaving for more coffee. He had a feeling he was going to need it.