Gibbs couldn't believe he was once again standing in a police lot, looking down at a car where his wife and child had died. It seemed like a sick joke. The truck was charred and steaming, the license plate still readable, but the rest of it was a mess.
"When it cools down we'll get forensics to go over it, the witness report has your girl turning right on a red light, hitting a stationary car in the side road, fuel truck already on the intersection ploughed into the mess."
"No survivors?"
"No, the fire took care of that" The Metro Officer was reading his notes "Do you know why your wife would have been in the area?"
"She went to visit her Mother, she's in an FCC in Maryland" Gibbs stared at the truck, he knelt beside the wreck of the cab, and glared inside. "Did the fire crew smash the windows?"
"Not sure sir, why?"
"Glass in the foot well from the side window" Gibbs stalked away, he needed air, the smell of the burnt truck, the pathetic end of life, the symmetry of it all, the last thing he needed was to teach a Metro Cop to suck eggs.
"Sir?" The cop shouted after him, "We need to ask you some more questions"
"I know" Gibbs yelled behind him
"Then where…."
"Inside" Gibbs interrupted, doubling his pace.
If they'd been at NCIS, Gibbs would have put the grieving husband in the conference room, plied him with coffee, and had one of the team watch his reactions. Metro didn't have that resource, so he sat in an interrogation room staring up at the glass, while the young cop in front of him shuffled through the paperwork.
"You realise that this is just formality Sir?" The cop asked, Gibbs just nodded, and "We have little evidence, and just want to clear some things up."
"Something suspicious the way they died, Officer?" Gibbs asked, unable to keep the irritation from his voice.
"They?"
"My wife and son" Gibbs told him dead pan.
"I'm sorry Sir, there was no signs of an infant?"
"She is, was, 8 months pregnant" Gibbs rubbed his forehead.
"How long had you been married Sir?" The Officer searching for that information without success.
Gibbs looked at his watch, "2 days".
The Officer nodded "I see" he wrote this down in his notepad "How long have you been together?"
"4 years"
"And where were you this morning?"
"Left home at 7, got to the Naval Yard 30mins later, was there until you came to collect me, a little after 1."
"Do you know your wife's movements?"
"She was eating breakfast when I left, she had a special pass to see her Mother from 9, so she would have finished breakfast, got dressed and gone" He grimaced slightly realising he didn't really know.
"She didn't call you, to let you know she was OK?"
"She never does"
The door to the room opened, and red faced flustered man appeared in the doorway. He looked at the other copper "Ade? You working on the Fed in a car wreck?"
Gibbs smirked at the younger man's uncomfortable look "Yeah he is"
"Ade, you need to come to the front desk" The other man said looking between the two men.
"Go" Gibbs waved the man away, it made him think of something else for a few moments, which was a blessing.
In their hurry they left the door slightly ajar, and the whispered conversation came in fits and starts. Gibbs didn't want to listen, he heard Kim's name, heard the words "Very Pregnant" heard the word stolen, and gunshot. None of it made sense.
The door opened further "Mr Gibbs? I'm sorry to ask this, but" Gibbs stiffened expecting to be asked about any enemies, "could you follow me down the corridor?"