Hold on to your hats, everyone - the forecast for this chapter calls for a Category 5 Plot Twist.
Chapter Ten: Taylor Made
NCIS Headquarters
The Morgan crawled its way through the downtown traffic as it made its way back to the Navy Yard.
Ducky turned into the long driveway and joined the line of cars waiting at the gate.
When Ducky and Maggie pulled up to the booth, one of the uniformed personnel working the gate got out of the booth and walked around to Ducky's side of the car. "Dr. Mallard, when are you ever going to get a normal car?" he joked as he checked Ducky's ID.
"And what would you define as a normal car, Corporal Blauvelt?" Ducky asked with mock indignation.
"One that's got the steering wheel on the left side! Don't they know how to build cars in England?"
"You watch your tone, young man. Besides, aren't you always complaining about being trapped in that booth all day?"
"You got me there, doc. Have a good day," Corporal Blauvelt said, waving for the other gate officer to raise the arm.
As they drove through, Maggie looked around at the buildings and the different personnel – some in military uniforms and some in civilian clothes – going this way and that, and she craned her neck to get a better look at the Navy ship anchored in the Potomac.
Ducky pulled around to the designated parking area for NCIS staff and pulled into his spot next to Gibbs's car. "Welcome to the Navy Yard. Also known as home sweet home for NCIS," he said, switching off the engine.
They got out of the car and started walking across the grounds to the main entrance, and a few people hailed Ducky as they went.
On their way up the front walk, they passed the memorial for the May 2012 bombing.
"Did you know any of them well?" Maggie asked, pointing to the bronze plaque with the victims' names.
"Some of them, yes, and some I knew only in passing. It was one of those moments in time that defied all reason, all logic," Ducky said somberly.
Inside the main lobby, Ducky got Maggie signed in at the front desk. The clerk handed her a laminated visitor's badge, which Maggie clipped to her coat as she followed Ducky into the elevator.
"We might as well start on the ground floor and work up." Ducky pressed the button for the autopsy suite.
"Is it true what you said, about Gibbs using the lifts as a conference room?" Maggie asked.
"Oh, yes, I wasn't joking about that." Ducky chuckled. "It's a miracle he hasn't gotten an angry phone call from the maintenance staff yet."
The elevator dinged as the doors whooshed open onto the autopsy corridor. "And here we are at the Mallard Inn. The departure lounge for Charon's ferry. Don't worry, we don't have any guests on the table at the moment."
The double doors to the autopsy suite hissed open as they approached.
"So this is where you work, Donnie," Maggie said quietly as she took in the cavernous white-walled space with its three stainless steel examining tables, the two rows of refrigerated lockers on the far wall, and the rolling table with the large-size computer monitors.
She suddenly started laughing.
"What is it?" Ducky asked as he logged back into his computer.
"I'm just remembering, what you said at your going-away party. Why you said you wanted to go into obstetrics instead of heart surgery."
"Oh, yes!" Ducky started laughing as well. "I did say that if I never saw another dead body again it would be too soon. And instead of tending to patients as they come into this world, I'm tending to them as they leave it."
He turned back to the computer, clicked through his email and the file folders and frowned. "That's odd. Where could those photos have gotten to?"
He opened the desk drawer, took out a small digital camera and clicked it on – and shook his head in dismay when the prompt said "Card empty."
"Oh, well, I guess I'll have to take another picture of Yorick." He started toward the locker, unlocked it and started to open it, and then paused. "Maggie, if you'd rather not see this…"
Maggie looked indecisive for a second – thinking of the moment she'd been called in to identify Angus's body – and then walked over. Ducky slowly pulled open the locker to reveal the Vienna skeleton, and the reconstructed skull.
"Oh my God," Maggie said softly at the sight of the dirt-streaked bones.
"I know, it's a gruesome sight. I don't remember when I finally stopped being unnerved at the sight of a dead body," Ducky agreed.
Maggie shook her head. "It's different from seeing all the skeletons and the mummies in the British Museum. They always seem like museum pieces. But this…this was a person once."
Ducky nodded in agreement, centered the camera and took several photos of the skull from different angles. "Done. Now let's let Mr. Doe sleep for a while. I know Abby's anxious for these photos."
xNCISx
Even with the door to Abby's lab shut, Maggie and Ducky could hear Abby's favorite variety of ear-blasting rock music the minute they stepped off the elevator.
Abby and McGee were standing around Abby's computer – heaven only knew how they could hear each other – shaking their heads in consternation.
"I don't get it, either!" McGee tapped several keys. "The emails should still be on the server."
"That's what I keep telling you! There's something wacky going on, and Mercury's not even in retrograde!" Abby said.
"Fear not, my friends, for I have that which you seek!" Ducky waved the camera over his head as he and Maggie walked in.
"Ducky! My hero!" Abby bolted over and almost knocked Ducky over as she wrapped him in a hug nearly tight enough to choke him. Maggie stood a few paces behind, watching the scene with amusement.
"Ooof! You're quite welcome, Abigail," Ducky said, his voice muffled by Abby's shoulder. "I brought a visitor," he said as he pulled away. "I'd like to introduce…"
"Wait a minute," Abby interrupted. "You're Maggie Clarke, aren't you?"
"The same," Maggie smiled.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so glad to meet you at last – Ducky's told us so much about you!" Abby gave Maggie a hug, though not as rib-cracking as Ducky's. "I'm Abby Sciuto – I'm the forensic analyst. McGee! Come say hello!"
"Are you Timothy? The novelist?" Maggie asked as McGee came over and shook her hand.
"That's right, Thom E. Gemcity," McGee said. "But this latest book's more trouble than it's worth – Tony's been ready to kill me."
Abby took the memory card out of the camera and plugged it into a card reader.
"Sorry you had to do this again, Ducky, but we couldn't find the emails you sent," McGee said.
"Now that's peculiar," Ducky said, "because when I went to resend the photos, I couldn't find them on my computer."
"Not on the hard drive? Or in your email?" McGee frowned.
"Neither place, and they'd already been deleted from the camera," Ducky shrugged. "So I had to take new photos."
"That's definitely weird. How long are you in the city for, Maggie?" McGee asked.
"Oh, not long, only a few days of doing this and that, catching up with Donnie," Maggie said.
"Okay, boys and girls, gather round," Abby said as she downloaded the photos and started up the facial overlay software. Ducky, Maggie and McGee crowded in around her for a closer look. "So here's our dead guy from the construction site – nice photos there, Duckman," she said as the skull photos came up on the screen. "And photo of Taylor coming up in three…two…one..."
Taylor's service record headshot, showing him in his naval dress uniform, popped up on the screen.
Something stirred in the back of Maggie's mind.
A grim, square-jawed man with close-cropped hair and a small scar on his forehead…
"Okay, so we just adjust the size of the photos," Abby said, tapping a few more keys.
That stirring in Maggie's mind got uncomfortably louder.
Abby was now saying something about forensic anthropology, plasticine and head casts, Czar Nicholas II and the Romanovs, but none of it was registering with Maggie.
Why did Taylor look so familiar?
She'd seen him before. She was certain of it. But where?
A walking stick, Irish blackthorn with a bulbous silver top, tapping against the floor impatiently…
And then she remembered, and she felt a chill running down her spine.
"I do apologize," the man had said to her. "I'm originally from the D.C. area."
Ducky suddenly paused in the middle of asking Abby a question and turned to look at Maggie, a look of deep concern on his face. "Maggie, are you all right?"
"Yeah – Maggie, you look like you've seen a ghost," Abby said.
"I think I have," Maggie said quietly.
"What do you mean?" McGee asked, puzzled.
Maggie took a deep breath and pointed at the screen. "That man, Taylor. I've seen him before." She looked squarely at Ducky, Abby and McGee, all of whom stared incredulously back at her. "He was sitting next to me on the train down from New York."
xNCISx
Need I say...stay tuned?