Kate was met by a loud blast of music when she entered Abby's lab.
"Abby!"
She moved around the corner of a table filled with vials and beakers and saw Abby bobbing her head to the blaring rock music.
"Abby!" Kate yelled again.
Finally Abby turned to the sound of Kate's voice and she smiled with embarrassment. Abby picked up a remote off the counter and clicked off the stereo.
"Sorry, it helps me work."
Kate offered her a thin lipped sympathetic smile. "It's alright Abby, do you have anything on the Rivers case yet?"
"Well, Ducky was right about the problems in identification. I did a three dimensional scan on all the jaw fragments and tried to reconstruct it in the computer, but the degree of fracture was just too high, I couldn't get anything out of it."
"So we have no way to identify the body?"
"It looks that way. The retinas were burned off, the fingerprints as well. The blood in the body is there, but the DNA in it is damaged from the fire."
"What about the cause of death?"
"I ran some tests on chemicals in what was left of the tissue. The fire must have taken place before rigor mortis set in on the body. Rigor mortis usually sets in as early as ten minutes after the person dies. This fire was set on someone who was still alive. The chemicals aren't balanced right for someone who was set on fire after rigor mortis had set in."
"So he was still alive when he was burned?"
"Yes, though I can't tell you how well he was doing at the time." She paused while bringing up a computer model on her screen.
"I can however tell you that the person who caused the trauma to his skull was probably shorter than him. I modeled it on the computer, the angle of attack would have to be beneath the base of the skull, which means someone shorter than him swinging in an upward motion."
Kate wrote that on her notepad then turned to leave, but stopped to recheck a question.
"So there's no way at all to determine the identity?"
"Not right now. I have some DNA reconstruction models working, but they are weeks off."
Kate looked crestfallen at the news, but Abby still looked upbeat.
"Is there something else then?"
Abby beamed with the usual bright smile she has when she makes a grand discovery.
"Yes. Ducky didn't have much else to give me that I could even run a test on, but he kept reiterating how confused he was over the dog tags. So I checked them out."
Kate seemed confused. "What could you possibly get from a pair of dog tags?"
"You'd be surprised. First I checked to see what kind of steel they were made from. Most dog tags are made from 310 grade stainless steel, which has a really high point of malleability."
Kate looked totally lost now. "Abby."
"Sorry, basically it's a high grade steel that shouldn't melt from a gasoline fire. Here's where it gets really confusing though. The steel in this dog tag is actually 409 grade stainless steel. 409 is the cheapest grade, it should have melted under the stress from the fire, even if it didn't last very long as Ducky suspects."
"Why is it a lower grade? And why wasn't it affected then?"
"The lower grade must have been a manufacturing issue, I don't know about that. But the real problem was why it didn't melt when it should have."
"And?"
"I ran a chromatographic analysis on the dog tags to search for other accelerants on it. It turns out there's a large amount of alcohol on it, it coated it below the gasoline."
"Why does that matter?"
Abby's smile turned predatory as she closed in for the kill.
"Because alcohol burns at a lower temperature than gasoline. It insulated the dog tags from the heat produced by the burning gasoline. I still don't know if they are really his dog tags or not, and it'll take weeks before I get any results from the DNA reconstruction or jaw reconstruction. Sorry."
Kate smiled at her reassuringly.
"Thanks Abby, I'm sure this will help us out."
Abby clicked her remote to turn the stereo back on and Kate quickly removed herself from the lab just as blasts of rock music began to assault her.
---
"I'm really glad you called me Agent Dinozzo. A murder outside my own bar, it's hard to believe."
Tony smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry Vicky, these kinds of things just happen sometimes. And call me Tony."
"Okay, Tony." She smiled back at him.
They had just sat down in a private booth at The Sands. Tony thought it would be easiest to eat there, and at the same time question Vicky's sister, Sam who was working up at the bar. Before they could get into a conversation, Sam arrived at their table.
"Hello Agent Dinozzo, Vicky tells me you have some questions about the body found in the parking lot?"
"Sure, and call me Tony."
He turned on his charming smile and looked at her expectantly.
"Ms. Johnson will do."
"But Sam is such a pretty name."
"So I'm told. Do you have any questions for me or not Agent Dinozzo?"
Tony had a look of feigned pain on his face, but he quickly moved past Sam's apparent disinterest in him.
"Why don't we get a drink first? Then yeah, I have a few questions for you."
Sam called a waitress over and they ordered. Soon three drinks arrived at their table.
"So Sam, you were working two nights ago, when Larry Jackson found the body, correct?"
"Yes." Sam replied, seemingly annoyed at the tediousness of the conversation.
"Do you remember anything peculiar about the night?"
She sighed in exasperation.
"Peculiar? What do you consider peculiar Agent Dinozzo? There were a couple of fights that night, a rather rousing rendition of the Marine hymn, and I believe a wrestling match in the back corner. I was in the back for half the night doing paperwork anyway. This really is rather a waste of time."
Vicky glared at Sam. "Answer Tony's questions and you'll be out of here soon."
"Of course."
Tony held out a picture of Lance Corporal Rivers taken from his bunkroom.
"Does this kid look familiar at all?"
Sam looked at the picture. "Not particularly. Maybe a little bit, but he's not one of the regulars."
"Do you remember seeing him here two nights ago?"
"Not really. But like I already told you, I was in the back a lot."
Tony could see he was getting nowhere with this and he decided there was no point in continuing it now.
"Alright Ms. Johnson, you can go."
Sam went back up to the bar and disappeared into the back. Tony continued his dinner with Vicky for a couple hours until eventually making a move to leave.
"Leaving already?"
"Have to get back to the investigation."
She nodded sorrowfully. "Well, dinner is on me, my bar, my treat."
"What? I can't have that. I insist you let me pay for dinner."
She giggled a bit and nodded her assent. Tony laid some bills down on the table and their waitress brought him back the change.
"Call me."
Tony smiled at her one last time then got up and headed towards the door. Just as he was about to step outside, his waitress appeared before him and put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Is there something wrong with the bill?"
"No."
He looked at her curiously.
"I overheard part of your conversation with Sam and Vicky as I was getting your drinks and coming back. I do remember a fairly out of the ordinary fight the other night between one of our regulars and a kid that only comes in every once and awhile."
Tony reached into his pocket and pulled on the photo of Rivers.
"Was this the kid?"
She peered at the photo.
"Yeah that's him alright."
Tony smiled triumphantly.
"Can you tell me about the fight?"
"I don't know what it was about, but it got pretty vicious. Frank knocked the kid really hard and he fell into the pool table. He was bleeding really bad and fumbling around on the ground, looked like he was trying to find something. Then Frank dragged him out the front door and that was it."
Tony perked up immediately, the smile gone from his face as he quickly changed gears.
"The other guy's name is Frank? Corporal Frank Summerville?"
"Yeah that's him, how did you know?"
"He's been missing for days."
The waitress seemed really concerned now.
"I hope he's alright. He was one of the nicer regulars. Always respectful to the bartenders and waitresses, and he was always tipping really well."
Tony nodded. "I really have to go now, can I get in touch with you through the bar if we need to ask more questions?"
"Sure, just ask for Tammy."
"Thanks."
Tony walked quickly to his car where he called Gibbs immediately.
"Gibbs."
"Hey boss, I got something here."
"Spill it."
Tony turned on his car as he was talking.
"Vicky and Sam don't know anything relevant. Sam seemed a little overly hostile, but other than that they both seem a little shook up by the murder."
"Didn't get another black eye did you?"
"Funny. When I was leaving, a waitress stopped me and told me she remembers a bad fight the night Larry Jackson found Rivers' body. I showed her Rivers' picture and she said he was getting the crap beat out of him by a regular, Frank."
Gibbs' tone changed noticeably.
"As in our missing Corporal Frank?"
"I asked. The very same. She said they got into a bad fight, then Summerville practically dragged Rivers out of the bar, and she hasn't seen either since."
"Good work Dinozzo. We're meeting early in the morning to brainstorm."
"See ya boss."
Tony hung up the phone and drove home for the night, not knowing what the others had found out.
---
The next morning they met, practically bursting to tell each other what they had found out the previous day. Gibbs took control of the meeting fast and got it rolling.
"So here's what we know so far. A body that for the moment we are assuming is Lance Corporal Rivers was found in the parking lot in front of the Sands. We can't for sure identify the body but dog tags were found clenched in the hand of the body."
Kate jumped in with what she had learned from Abby the previous day.
"Abby ran tests on the dog tags, turns out they were drenched in alcohol before they were set on fire. The alcohol insulated them from being melted or damaged by the gasoline fire."
"How did they get drenched in alcohol?" Tony asked.
Kate shrugged. "Don't know, but they had to of left his neck for that to happen."
Gibbs seemed skeptical. "Seems a little farfetched for Summerville to have ripped the dog tags off his neck, dipped them in a beer mug then stuff them in his hand. Why not just put them back around his neck? We never would have questioned that."
"The waitress last night, Tammy, said that when Rivers was on the ground he was fumbling around as if searching for something. What if his dog tags got ripped off during the fight and he was looking for them?"
Gibbs and Kate considered Tony's theory for a moment.
"Well," Kate started. "That would explain how they got where they were. He must have been clutching them when Summerville dragged him out of the bar. Maybe Summerville didn't know they were there."
"That makes the most sense, but it's still guesswork. Even assuming it's true, Summerville murdered Rivers and dragged his body out to the parking lot. He torched him and broke his jaw to make him unidentifiable, but didn't know about the tags or assumed they would be ruined in the fire. Why kill him? Where's the motive?"
"It was a drunken bar fight, who knows what the motive was."
Kate turned a withering glare on Tony for his comment.
"Drunk or not, best friends don't kill each other over a bar fight."
"She's right, we're missing something."
They seemed to be at an impasse, but that didn't stop Tony from making a wild guess.
"Well what are the usual motives for murder? Love, money, jealousy. It could be anything."
Gibbs seemed to pick up on something in what Tony said though.
"Money."
"What?" Kate and Tony both said in unison.
"Money, remember that stack of tens we found in Rivers bunk? Who collects ten dollar bills like that?"
"You think Rivers and Summerville were stealing money from the base?" Kate ventured.
"Better than that, think about where Rivers worked."
Tony got it first. "You mean the print office?"
"Bingo."
Kate caught on a second later. "You think they are making counterfeit tens?"
"I think Rivers was, and Summerville was in charge of distributing the money for a profit. They argue over something, maybe Summerville decides he wants more of the take, or Rivers has an attack of consciences and doesn't want to be a part of the deal anymore. Either way, a fight breaks out, and one of them kills the other."
Tony seemed skeptical though. "But how do we prove that?"
"First things first, we search Summerville's room on the base. Check for proof, check for money."
Gibbs nodded in agreement with Kate. "And we have Abby check the money we got from Rivers' room to see if it really is fake or not. If it is, we have ourselves a motive."
They set out for the barracks immediately, pausing only to pick up McGee, who Gibbs had ordered be ready as soon as they left NCIS headquarters. With McGee in tow, they entered the barracks of Corporal Frank Summerville.
"Spread out and search everywhere. If you find the money don't be shy about it. If you see anything else worthwhile let me know immediately."
The team did as Gibbs ordered and spread out around the room. A half hour later, the room in shambles, they met back at the door, empty handed.
"Looks like we might have jumped to conclusions." Tony said.
But Gibbs shook his head. "No, we didn't. There's something around here, we just aren't looking in the right place."
"Where did Rivers hide his computer program that allows him to use the base printers to make the money? That's certainly good proof right there that at least one of them is involved."
Kate turned to answer McGee's question.
"Well we didn't find any computer disks in his room, or a computer for that matter. If there is a program, he'd have needed to bury it on the base computer in the printing office."
Gibbs nodded to McGee. "Then that's where you go."
"Yep." McGee nodded back.
They all stood there for a moment longer and finally Gibbs rolled his eyes and got an impatient look on his face.
"McGee, now."
"Oh!"
McGee rushed out of the room in embarrassment and the rest of them turned to leave as well.
"So where to now then?" Tony asked.
"The only other place on base Summerville was known to frequent."
They soon arrived at the motor pool to find dozens of Marines working on tanks and jeeps in various states of disrepair.