Author's Note: Well thanks to djmichealsfics it was pointed out to me that it was Marine Corps, not core, I went with the phoenitic, so now that I know the difference I'll make sure that I keep it right from now on. Thank you!
Ps: So this will involve some gritty parts, some mildly disturbing imagery. Just a tiny warning. And this chapter won't go overly into detail on the crimes though.
Chapter 10
Abby Sciuto was the famed forensic scientist of NCIS, one of their many wizards of tech, someone people might call her a miracle worker. She was rarely bewildered or perplexed by the constantly evolving realm of cyber space and technology. Her skills progressed alongside the developments in technology, staying at the head of the game alongside with the devious criminals she assisted in capturing. Sometimes though she faced a case where she found herself wishing for a miracle, something to rip the case wide open. She was scowling at her computer hoping for one of those miracles.
Right then she would have given anything for a miracle, but she really wanted two. One for the case, and the other for a personal case, for a missing agent.
Tony Dinozzo had been missing for over a year and a half now. Most of the other agents had grown used to the quitter atmosphere in the main area of NCIS. She didn't. There were presents waiting for him in the corner, two years worth of Christmas and birthday presents. No one had said anything when she had included him by buying him presents in the Christmas gathering the past holiday season, no one had the heart to; everyone else had also bought him something. They all missed him just the same.
They were a distraction, a persistent presence looming over her, pointing out that he was still elsewhere, somewhere, no one knew; no one had found him yet. She hadn't found him yet.
She had tried at first hiding the presents, forcing him out of her mind, working harder than ever on the cases, even pulling a few cold cases out. Nothing helped. She found herself holding a present, and reflecting over old times and crazy memories whenever she had one of her infrequent spots of downtime. So the presents stayed out, as a constant reminder that Tony was coming back; he had to, if only because there were Christmas and birthday presents waiting for him.
Today though she didn't have the time to muse over him.
Eric Beal from the NCIS office in Los Angeles had sent her a file containing classified information on an ongoing investigation they were struggling to solve. The file was small as their information was limited. The killer was making few mistakes, nothing consequential enough to lead to an arrest. Someone in the Los Angeles area was targeting young boys, the sons of Navy officers and a few Marine Corps officers too. The boys were found in their school parking lot inside their own cars, raped and murdered. Cuts covered the young bodies, crisscrossing over young skin, dried rivers of red running over the marred skin. The case was delivered to her that morning after the team in Los Angeles kept running up with nothing, they had sent it to her in a desperate hope that she could crack it open or at the least figure out what happened and why, and more importantly who was doing this or maybe narrow down their search.
This time though the killer taunted the team, sending a photograph of a group of boys running outside on a track at a high school in Los Angeles, challenging the investigators. Facial recognition software had been run on all of the boys and it turned out that seven of them were sons of Navy officers.
In the photograph the boys were talking together, joking around, playing, some of them had the utmost concentration of keeping, acting like a group of high schoolers. This could have passed for something from a school's newspaper. None of them were looking directly at the camera. Either they didn't notice the camera, it could have been that the person taking the picture was someone familiar and they were used to that person snapping pictures of them. None of this helped though. Not one single boy was the focus of the shot, if anything the killer was only highlighting the potential location for his next victim.
"Abby. Have you finished the ballistics on the Smith case? We need to know if Wesson's gun fired the shot." Tim walked into her lab with Ziva and stood behind the scientist.
"Not yet McGee," She turned to him, "Beal just sent me information on the serial murders in Los Angeles."
"Is that the one about the young boys?" Ziva piped up, glancing between the two tech geeks. Her assassin skills put to good use. If anyone could spot the target of the photograph she could.
"Yeah, well the killer is getting cocky. He sent it in this morning to NCIS." She nodded up to the picture on the computer monitor. "Seven of these boys are children of a Navy officer and none of them are missing right now. And the last I heard they are all being watched."
"This is a high school right?" McGee asked, seeing HS on the boys and the rather large building in the background along with a parking lot sparsely populated by some cars and trucks, the closest vehicle was an old powder blue ford, and she couldn't see the license plate. Right behind it though was a classic Harley that certainly had her mildly impressed. Abby nodded.
"Well has anyone thought of asking the coach if he had seen anything weird lately?" McGee asked, referencing the only adult in the picture.
"Well Beal told me that Kensi was going to go undercover there. But they…" Abby trailed off, her eyes gazing over the face. The face of the only adult, an adult male who was possibly in his mid 30's pushing and maybe early 40's. He had light brown hair and a goatee and mustache there was something there though. It felt like one of those moments when she recognized someone and their name was on tip of her tongue but she could not remember it. The man in this picture was familiar, somehow. She knew him from somewhere.
"Abby what's –" He started to ask only Abby shushed him. It didn't take much to figure out what drew her attention, she was staring at the man on the screen. Ziva took a step closer, eyeing him as well.
There was definitely something there. The three of them standing motionless and quiet, looking at him, trying to recall him, feeling as though his identity was on the tip of their tongues, one more hint, one clue and they would know.
Abby zoomed in on the man's face, considering if he was a friend or a foe. She made a move to reach over for a caf pow and sipped through the straw belatedly realizing when nothing was pouring through that she had finished it going through the other evidence. Where was her caffeine supplier when she needed him.
Of course she did have someone who could fetch him right now while she started the facial recognition software.
"Get Gibbs"
"What?"
"Huh?"
The two agents surprised at the sudden sound.
"Get Gibbs!" Abby yelled at Tim without looking back to see if he would follow her orders. Her hands began to dance across the keyboard and working the mouse to pull up the facial recognition software. She narrowed the parameters of the search, limiting it to NCIS agents, including past agents, specifically watching for one name.
Tim left in a rush, taking the stairs two at a time, scared, knowing the forensic scientist could kill her without leaving any evidence.
The agent stared at her in confusion, following her movements on the large television screen set up in the front of the lab.
"Why am I needed?" Gibbs strutted into the lab, the desperately needed concentrated power of the caf-pow in hand. Three others followed in behind him, Ducky, Tim, and Director Vance, none of them knew what was going on or why their mad, only in the good way, forensic scientist was making demands.
The computer dinged. A hush fell over the room, everyone watching with baited breath and unanimous hope. The lines springing from one side of the computer screen to the other moving slower than ever it seemed like, but it matched the face beyond any doubt to one Anthony Dinozzo, former NCIS Special Agent.
A hairpin could have been dropped in that room and it would sound like a megaphone. An explosion could have happened and it would not have shattered the moment. The missing agent had been found. Finally.
"Well it's about time." Director Vance broke the silence, shattering the momentary pause that had taken hold of each of them.
Everyone in the room glanced back to him. What could he do to stop them from finding their missing friend and partner. If he could he would join in on the search as well. They knew where Agent Dinozzo was now, there was nothing stopping them, nothing but him, the director. If he didn't do something then four, maybe five of his best would call for personal vacations tomorrow and maybe the week after.
"I've assigned your team to a case of Serial rapes and murders in the Los Angeles area. You will assist in the search and arrest and capture of the suspect," Smiles lit up on everyone's faces, Abby mildly concerned. "Ms. Sciuto, you will stay here along with Dr. Mallard, you're needed for other cases."
He took one look at the myriad of faces facing him in an array of emotions from excited disappointment from Abby to stubborn as earth, the second b stands for bastard look from Gibbs. "Solve the case first."
Author: Do you see the little box under this that reads 'type your review for this chapter here'? Well type a review (questions, comments) then press the little blue button that says 'Post Review' and you will have left a review for this chapter. That would be super. And a free cookie for all those reviewers.
