Chapter 11

"I'm not seeing anything secret in here," Tony said, from the closet. "It's just a bunch of women's clothes. ...and no sign that she was carrying on her former profession in Hazard. Probably not a large pool for clientele here, though."

Gibbs walked back into the bedroom. He was still surprised that it hadn't burned like the rest of the place. Yes, there was fire damage, but it wasn't nearly so bad as the rest of the house. Had the people who started the fire been shocked by the room themselves? Maybe they had intentionally set the fire away from a place that was obviously a shrine. Maybe there were limits even to what a mindless mob would do.

"Are you ready to stop pretending that the fire is what we're investigating?" Gibbs asked.

Tony grinned. "Oh, sure. It's getting boring, anyway. I can't wait for the sheriff to find out. Mary Fields' house?"

Gibbs nodded.

They left the burned-out shell, knowing that the most important information was not to be found there. They had the address of Mary Fields' home, where her father still lived.

They drove over to a small but well-kept house and knocked on the front door.

"Come in!"

They walked into the house, not knowing what to expect. Martin Fields had no record. There was literally nothing about him so far beyond a date of birth. They knew that he had run the local grocery store, but that was no longer the case. He apparently hadn't graduated from high school. No unexpired driver's license. No car. Not that it really meant he hadn't ever driven. He could be driving illegally. They hadn't been able to get anything from the IRS as yet; so if he filed his taxes, they didn't know about that. Normally, they would have taken more time to search for information before coming to him, but they were here now and they could still find out more about him later.

"Mr. Fields?"

A man came out from a back room. He had a kind of quavery look to him, but his eyes were bright and inquiring.

"You're lucky you caught me," he said.

"Why?"

"Because I was about to drown my sorrows and I wouldn't have been conscious for the rest of the day. Who are you?"

"Agent Gibbs and Agent DiNozzo," Gibbs said. "We're investigating your daughter's death."

"Why bother? The sheriff said it was that McGee kid."

"We don't think so."

"Oh." He gave the due consideration. "Well...will that bring her back?"

"No."

"Then, what's the point?"

"Justice," Gibbs said.

Martin shrugged. "Justice don't mean much. Don't change anything. It's just words. Can't fix anything that's broke."

"Can we ask you some questions?"

"I suppose. I need to sit down, though."

He walked over to a chair and they both noticed how carefully he lowered himself down. He noticed their glances.

"You can ask."

"What's wrong with you?" Tony asked.

"I'm dying. Taking a lot longer than it should."

"From what?"

"Some kind of cancer. Don't remember which one. One name or another, don't really matter. They told me when I went to a doctor about five years ago. Said that it'd kill me. It's sure taking its sweet time doing it, but I think it's finally getting closer. When the pain gets too bad, I take pills that pretty much knock me out. Doc here in town prescribes them for me. That's what I was about to do."

"You only went to a doctor five years ago and that's it?" Tony asked.

Martin laughed. "When a doctor tells you that you're dying, son, what's the point of going back? All he'd be doing is charging money to tell me that I'm still dying."

"I guess. No second opinion?"

"Nope. I kept it to myself until I started having trouble. Even then, I haven't told anyone in town. I had to turn my business over to my manager. Good kid. Kinda young for it, but he's a good kid. Told him I was getting too old to deal with groceries. He gave me a good price for it and I gave him a good deal. Mary's the only one of my kids who cared enough to come back and help me out. When she first came, I thought it'd only be for a little while. How long can it take to die? Turns out that it can take a long time. I told her to go back to school once. She said she didn't want to. Who was I to make her do something she didn't want to do? She was an adult."

"So that's why she came back to Hazard?" Tony asked.

"Yep. To take care of me. My sons said I should leave here and move to the coast with them, but I'm not leaving my home until they take me out feet first. I was born here, and I'm going to die here. I lived in the city for a few years, worked hard, but it wasn't what I wanted. So we moved back here when the store came up for sale. My children didn't like it and they left as soon as they could. Never came back...except Mary."

Gibbs could see that stubbornness that would keep a man in his home. He didn't care about treatments or anything like that. All he wanted was to stay in his home until he died. He didn't even care if it messed up other people's plans. It wasn't meanness, just a kind of ongoing selfishness.

"Did you tell them about what happened?"

"Nope. Don't remember their numbers and they haven't cared enough to call. Not once in three years, and my number hasn't changed. If they wanted to know what was happening here, they'd ask. If they want to move on with their lives, that's fine with me."

"Did you know anything about your daughter's friendship with Tim McGee?"

"Nope. She didn't tell me anything about it. I didn't know they even knew each other until the sheriff told me. None of my business. That's the way things were for us. She did her thing and I did mine...except when I needed her help."

"Did you know that someone burned the McGee house?"

"Nope. Not surprised, though. There are people who've just been waiting for an excuse."

"Including you?"

"I haven't given Tim McGee one thought since I started dying. Who cares about some weird kid who keeps to himself? He might be crazy, but he's not loud about it. Better than some people in this town, I can tell you that. Bunch of busybodies. If he was bugging me here, I would have said something. As long as he stayed away, he might as well have been on the Moon. And he did."

"So you never noticed that your daughter was worried about anything?"

"Well, she didn't seem to like the sheriff much, but that could be because she didn't like his son. Never did. He was always a bully in school, and he tried to pretend he'd changed, but he hadn't. Bad blood, really. You can't change that. He's bad all the way through, if you ask me. I had to kick him out of my store more than once. Would have given him a real kick if I thought I could have got away with it. If anything else bothered her, that wasn't my business unless she told me. And she didn't."

This sounded like a reason to not enjoy her time back. Her father was dying, but taking a long time to do so. He didn't seem to have much thought for his daughter unless she was right there. He cared about himself and his impending death. It might make sense, but it wouldn't make life easier.

"You got any more questions, son?" Martin asked. "Because I'm hurting and I'm ready to take my pills."

"No. That's it. Thank you."

"You can see yourselves out."

Martin got to his feet and shuffled out of the room without a backward glance. Tony looked at Gibbs and then they left the house. They didn't say anything until they were back in the car and driving away.

"Man, that's a guy who puts my dad to shame," Tony said. "My dad doesn't care much about showing up, but he does care...in his own way. She put her whole life on hold for him, and he doesn't even care about finding who killed her. All he cares about is whether or not he's dead."

"Some people are like that. Can't care about more than one thing at a time. Pain is pretty distracting."

"Yeah, but it's his daughter and she was murdered. You'd think there could be something more that he could say."

"Apparently not."

Tony shrugged. "Well, I took good notes, but I think Kate will still be disappointed."

Gibbs smiled a little. "She'll be a lot more disappointed about the facts than about what you recorded."

"Yeah. I'm disappointed. She'll be livid."

"Let's exchange notes, then."

"And maybe Ducky has a copy of the autopsy report. We can get a good sense of that part of it without bugging Stan for it."

Gibbs nodded and they headed back to Ducky's house. When they got there, they went to the front door and knocked. It took a moment, but Ducky opened the door and let them in.

Kate was sitting beside Tim on the couch and she looked almost disappointed to see them. She glanced at Tim and then at them.

"Hey, Gibbs."

She stood up and set a piece of paper down on the coffee table.

"Dr. Mallard, do you have a copy of the autopsy report on Mary Fields?" Gibbs asked, keeping his voice low so as not to alert Tim to the question.

"Yes, of course. I keep copies of every autopsy I perform."

"In your office?"

"Yes, although I don't want to leave Timothy alone here."

"You can get it from here," Tim said.

Ducky turned.

"What do you mean, Timothy?"

"That...report." Tim didn't look happy about the subject matter. "You don't have to go there to get it if you don't want to. I set it up so that you can access the files on your computer there on your computer here. I told you about it before, Ducky."

"I must not have understood."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow about Tim's obvious eavesdropping.

"You weren't talking that softly," Tim said without apology. "It wasn't hard to hear. You could go. I know how to be alone. ...but if you want to stay, you can get to the report from your computer here. You always leave your computer at the morgue on. If you didn't do that, this wouldn't work."

"Can you show us, then, Timothy?"

Tim nodded. He got up and led them all to the study where Ducky kept his computer. He sat at the desk and booted it up. Then, he walked them through what he was doing, step by step, showing them how he had created a VPN for Ducky's computers and how to access Ducky's work computer. Then, he did it and got up.

"I don't want to see that," he said. "Are you done with me?"

"For now, yes."

"Okay."

Tim left the room quickly. Ducky watched him go and then shook his head.

"He was extremely reluctant to go into the morgue the first time I asked for his help upgrading my computers, and he wouldn't go near any of the other rooms beyond my office there. For all that he's drawn images of it, I think death is very troubling to him. He doesn't know how to deal with it."

"He just did all this without you asking for it?" Kate asked.

"I guess he did. I wouldn't have known it was possible. So I couldn't have asked for it myself. I told you. Timothy is quite smart. If he did this, he would have had to figure it out all on his own. He hasn't had any official training beyond high school, and even then, I'm sure the training was as little as the teacher could get away with."

"The autopsy?"

"Oh, yes." Ducky brought it up. "Death was due to strangulation. There was no water in the lungs. The body was waterlogged and that interfered with the determination of the time of death. The water will cool the body down more quickly than air, but at the same time, can keep it from cooling as much as it might do in the air. The instrument causing death was likely the scarf found wound around her neck."

"Photos?"

"I'm afraid not. Those are in the possession of the police. You'll have to get them from that office. However, the scarf was positively identified as one belonging to Timothy. It was one he had worn almost constantly from a young age. The scarf is also in the sheriff's office."

"Of course, it is," Tony said, grimacing.

"Yes, quite. You're not likely to get a hold of it, I'm sorry to say."

"Anything else?" Gibbs asked.

"There was no sign of bruising on her arms or legs. Not her face, either. Either she knew her attacker or he was strong enough to restrain her, using only the scarf. If she caused any damage to her killer, that was lost during her time in the river. Her body was lodged in the eddies near the bridge. It took a full day to find her."

"How did they know she was missing?"

"Her father called the police when she didn't come home. They started searching for her."

"And then, arrested Tim the next morning," Kate said.

"Yes."

Ducky printed off the autopsy report.

"I shouldn't give this to you, but I am, if only because I know that Sheriff Drake would rather spit in your face than help you find proof of Timothy's innocence. Whether or not this will help, I can't say, but it's something."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Not at the moment."

They left the study. Tim was sitting on the couch in the living room, staring at a piece of paper. Gibbs raised an eyebrow at Kate. She smiled a little and walked over.

"I'm sorry it's not quite finished, Tim," she said.

He looked up and his expression was troubled.

"This isn't me."

"Yes, it is," Kate said. "I draw better when I can see the person I'm drawing. I can draw from memory, too, but I like to see the person. You were right there and you're who I drew."

"I don't look like this," Tim said.

"You did while you were watching me."

Tim looked at the paper again. Then, he thrust it at her.

"I don't want it."

Kate took it from him.

"All right. I'm sorry if you don't like it."

Tim shook his head and left the room.

"What was that?" Ducky asked.

"I'm not sure," Kate admitted. "He asked me to draw someone. He wanted to see how I did it. While he was watching, he had the most interesting expression on his face. So I drew him."

She held up the piece of paper. Gibbs was surprised. It was Tim, but it was a different version of him. He looked intent, focused, not disturbed.

"Gibbs, I asked him about meeting with Rachel. He didn't say no. I really think he should. Sooner rather than later."

"Who?" Ducky asked.

"My sister. She's a psychiatrist, and Tim needs one. He is one person who desperately needs that kind of help. It wouldn't help all at once, but it would be a start."

"Would she come here?"

"I think so. Do you think Tim wouldn't be willing to go with us?"

"It's so hard to tell with him, but he has shown a remarkable reluctance to leave Hazard, even when it would make sense to do so, even though he hates the town and everything about it."

"He said his mother brought him here to hide him," Kate said. "Maybe that's why."

"Perhaps. I couldn't say for certain."

Gibbs looked around the room. There really wasn't much security in this place, and if the people in town lost their heads, it could be serious. He pulled out one of his cards and wrote everyone's numbers on it.

"Look, Dr. Mallard, if there's a problem, I want you to call one of us. If you don't get me, try the other numbers. I don't want you two getting stuck without help."

Ducky took the card.

"I do hope that this won't be necessary, but I thank you for your concern, Agent Gibbs. With the obvious exception of Sheriff Drake, I trust the officers in this town to watch out for me, as well."

"We'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Very well. Thank you for your efforts. I know they've been sincere."

They shook his hand and left the house, hoping that the precautions wouldn't be needed.