"Mrs. Janson, what can you tell us about your husband?" Kate asked.
Just ten minutes earlier Mrs. Janson was informed of her husband's death. Tears still broke her sentences periodically.
"He was a good father. Taught his children right from wrong."
"We talked to Father Mulhanney at the base..."
Her eyes sharpened at that. "I don't trust that man. Max went to see him as soon as he was assigned his TAD assignment here. He thought it would take awhile so we moved the family here, expecting to move back to Hawaii in a couple months. But after a few weeks of seeing Father Mulhanney, Max starting sounding like a religious zealot."
"What was he like before he saw Father Mulhanney?"
"Normal. Normal for Max anyway."
She seemed troubled despite her answer, more than grief was showing through her eyes. Gibbs and Tony totally missed it. However, Kate's advanced training, coupled with her woman's intuition saw it immediately.
"Mrs. Janson, is there something you're not telling us?"
She looked away then raised her hand to cover her mouth. Then she looked back at them, her eyes wide and filled with even more tears now.
"Yes. Max was...seeing someone else at the base."
"Another woman?" Gibbs asked.
"Of course another woman." Mrs. Janson snapped.
Kate headed Gibbs off. This was not a conversation Mrs. Janson wanted to have with a male agent, and Kate knew it.
"How do you know?"
"A woman knows. She called here a lot, Max lied about it, and I even caught her leaving the house one night when I got home early from a day trip I took."
"Did that change after he started seeing Father Mulhanney?"
She nodded. "I never caught wind of her again after Max's transformation. I guess he cleaned up his act. At any rate, whenever he came home late, I never worried about where he was, I always assumed he was out helping out in the neighborhood. He even invited me to spend a lot more time with him in his volunteer stuff."
"So would you call it a positive or a negative change overall?" Kate pressed.
"Max was a good man. A very good man. He strayed, but he changed. I don't know how much of that had to do with Father Mulhanney, but for better or for worse I still don't trust the man. Maybe it's just a feeling, but I trust my feelings."
"Thank you Mrs. Janson."
They left her house and made for the house of Mark DeHavilland. On the way there, the car was abuzz with speculation.
"Well there's your motive, he must have killed Janson for his sin."
"When was the last time you heard of a murderous Catholic priest who killed his parishioners for sin?" Tony asked somewhat angrily.
Gibbs turned at that. "You seem mighty defensive of the good priest Tony."
He shrugged and relaxed a bit. "People shouldn't give in to what they hear on TV. The church did a lot of good where I grew up."
Kate softened up a bit at Tony's genuine heartfelt reaction. "Perhaps Tony, but what other suspects do we have at the moment? You have to admit there's at least a chance, and he's the best we have at the moment."
He said nothing however.
"Circumstantial evidence at this point," Gibbs commented. "However, Kate is right, he is the most suspicious person at this point."
Minutes later they were at the Dehavilland home. Unlike the previous home, the Dehavilland house was rather large, the biggest on the block and well kept. At the door they were met by a servant.
"Can I help you?" He said snootily.
"Agent Gibbs, NCIS. I need to speak with Mrs. DeHavilland if she is available."
The servant gave him a quick once over and didn't like what he saw. "NCIS?"
Tony jumped in and smiled. "Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Please go and tell Mrs. DeHavilland we're here to see her, thanks Jeeves."
The man glowered a bit at that, but he left the door open as he went to tell her. He returned a moment later.
"This way please."
They were shown into a fancy sitting room where Mrs. DeHavilland was waiting for them.
"Agent Gibbs? How can I help you?"
"Mrs. DeHavilland, there are Agents Todd and Dinozzo. We're here to ask you about your husband, Mark."
"Mark..." She said the name and trailed off as if searching for a memory.
"Mrs. DeHavilland, what kind of man was your husband?" Tony asked.
"A good man." She answered immediately.
They waited patiently for her to continue.
"When I heard he went missing I was very confused. He was well liked, had no enemies per se. They liked him at the base, at church, everywhere. He had his problems, and some trouble when he was younger, but that was in the past."
Her answers seemed to closely mirror those of Mrs. Janson, this was something Tony especially honed in on, only not from woman's intuition, rather this from cop intuition.
"Mrs. Janson, what was your husband's relationship with Father Mulhanney at the base church?" He asked.
She paled and froze at that but tried to hold her composure. "Father Mulhanney was his priest. He was an interesting man. Something funny about him I could never quite put my finger on, but I never spent a great deal of time with him. Still, Mark spoke highly of him. He did help Mark through several rough patches, which I will forever be thankful for. But still, there's that funny feeling."
Tony nodded and smiled, not his charming smile, but rather a sympathetic smile that went far to put Mrs. DeHavilland at ease.
"What aren't you telling us Mrs. DeHavilland?" He said softly.
She was neither shocked nor angry at the abruptness of his question. Gibbs focused in on her reaction, knowing Tony was on to something.
"Mark..."
The room was quiet enough to hear a feather falling to the ground.
"Shortly before he disappeared, he told me he was gay."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow at that, as did the rest of the NCIS team.
"Did he tell Father Mulhanney?" Gibbs asked quietly.
She nodded. "Yes, before he told me. I think Father Mulhanney was the one who convinced him to tell me."
After another prolonged silence, Mrs. DeHavilland finally asked the question they had been waiting for.
"Why are you here about Mark anyway? Have you found him? Is he okay?"
Kate stepped in to handle this one. "I'm sorry to tell you Mrs. DeHavilland, but Mark was murdered two months ago. We just recently positively identified him using dental records from the base. The police station that found his body can forward his remains to you, so you can have a proper burial."
Her reaction was muted.
"I knew. Or rather, I suspected. A man like Mark, he was faithful, and deeply devoted to his family, which is why I suspect he kept his true feelings a secret for so long, he would never just leave his. I knew deep down that only death would take him from us."
"I'm sorry for your loss ma'am." Tony offered.
"Thank you. Please, if I can do anything else to help you, do not hesitate to call or come back. My door is always open."
The team got up and made their way to the front door. The servant was at the door scowling at them as they left. Tony put his sunglasses on and nodded to him.
"Thanks Jeeves." He said as he smiled.
-----
Back at the NCIS office, they met to discuss the current case.
"Well, at least we have a pattern established. Naval aviators with known sins are killed. Both are known to be close to Father Mulhanney." Kate summarized.
"That's not all. There's no proof Mulhanney had any cause to murder them. You heard both wives say that Mulhanney was a positive influence on their husbands before their deaths. Why bother turning them around if he was planning on murdering them?" Tony shot back.
Gibbs cut off Kate's reply. "He's right, that doesn't make sense. But then, Kate's right, he does seem suspicious, from our interview with him and from what the wives said, something is wrong."
He shook his head and directed their attention to the file sitting in front of him.
"Ducky established the cause of death on Janson's murder as poisoning. That would surprise me, but then, nothing about this case has been normal so far."
"You can say that again Boss." Tony agreed.
"We need to develop a new lead. The Director is getting impatient, and has other cases for us to be working on."
"No leads means no leads Boss. Even at the BPD sometimes we just had to leave a case alone for a week. A random thought will come to you in the middle of a day when you aren't thinking about it and it will crack the case wide open. But you have to not be thinking about it for it to happen."
Kate rolled her eyes at that but something sparked in Gibbs' eyes. "Fine, let's give it a try. It'll make the Director happy, and it just might work."
"Thanks Boss."
"One week Tony. If nothing happens, something will happen to you."
Tony's smile dampened for a moment, but perked back up when Kate smirked at him. A week would tell.
-----
Four days of waiting did not sit well with Kate or Gibbs. They were restless and anxious to solve the case. Fortunately they wouldn't have to wait much longer. Entering the office on the fifth day, Gibbs was informed of another murder.
Tony and Kate were just walking in behind him.
"Let's go."
The usual excitement that came before visiting the site of a murder was muted.
"Tell Abby to come too, have her bring her digital camera."
They made better time to this site. It was just off Norfolk Naval Base, not out in the woods this time. They arrived to the same scene of gore they were now familiar with.
"Anything different?" Gibbs said upon coming on the scene.
"The hieroglyphics." Both Abby and Ducky said at once.
"The murder itself is pretty much identical, as far as the precision of mutilation and intactness of the body. And the two hieroglyphics that represent Osiris and Abydos are here, but the other three are different." Ducky explained.
"Did you have any luck decoding the first two crime scenes Abs?" Tony asked.
"Lieutenant Janson's yes. Roughly translated they stood for flier, adulterer, and oath breaker. Oath breaker could also stand for sinner, the Egyptian language doesn't translate precisely to present day English."
The three lead investigator's took a sharp intake of breath when they heard that.
"Anything similar about the symbols in the other two cases?"
"In the first case, Lieutenant DeHavilland, flier and oath breaker. We haven't gotten the third yet. For this one..."
She wandered over to rocks set around the body, where the symbols were inscribed.
"Abydos, Osiris, oath breaker. I don't recognize the other two."
She snapped photos of them, which she would later put in her computer to try and translate.
"Ducky, first thing I want is cause of death. If it's poison again I want to know." Gibbs gave the site a hard stare, searching for differences from the last two cases, but everything was the same.
"Hey Boss?"
Gibbs turned to Tony, expecting some sarcastic remark, but instead saw him kneeling next to one of the rocks with a piece of flimsy paper in his hand.
"Well?" Gibbs said impatiently.
"It says 'The sins of the city shall be covered in ice, and be made to suffer as I have.'"
Gibbs' face was one of total confusion, a look that was mirrored on Tony's face.
"Kate? Ducky? Abby?" Gibbs asked.
Ducky and Abby both shook their heads but Kate spoke up. "I think it's a Bible passage."
Tony rolled his eyes at that. "That isn't a Bible passage."
Gibbs broke in before they could start arguing.
"It sounds fairly Biblical to me, and we don't have anything else at the moment. Abby, when you get back to the office your first job is to find out where that line is from. Then get working on the rest of these symbols."
"Ducky, get me an identity. We've got the game plan down for that now."
"I'm on the case Jethro." Ducky replied enthusiastically.
"Kate, go to the last crime scene and look for a note like this one. Serial killers don't just start leaving cryptic messages in the middle of their spree. Dinozzo, head to the first site."
"It's a long shot Boss, that site is more than two months cold."
Gibbs gave Tony his patented 'Gibbs: Don't Give Me Any Crap' look and Tony left without another word.
-----
They didn't meet again until the next day. Gibbs wanted fresh minds to attack the new information that would hopefully pour in when they got to the office. He got what he wanted.
"Alright people. Tell me what we've got here?"
Kate moved to speak first but was interrupted by McGee entering the room none too softly.
"Sorry." He said sheepishly.
She continued as if nothing happened. "I went over the last crime scene and didn't see anything until I went to leave. I found this about ten meters away from the site. I'm guessing it blew away."
A sheet of paper appeared then in her hand and she placed it on the table.
"It's another quote, or it looks like it anyway. 'Loose your arrows and hear devil fire scream, beware you thee sinner!"
"Anyone?" Gibbs asked.
"Opherion. Ancient Greek writer. It's a text that is usually left alone by American philosophers and literary giants. But he was widely regarded as a powerful religious figure in the early days of the combined Greek kingdom." Ducky answered.
"Tony?" Gibbs prompted.
"It took me three and a half hours, but I found a note nearly buried in dirt and leave at the first murder site." Tony pulled the note out and read it, somewhat haltingly as the words were marred and smeared by the effects of nature.
"'The time is upon us, cry havoc to you all, and let slip the dogs of war!' Even I know that one though, that's Shakespeare."
"Shakespeare, an ancient Greek religious figure, and what? Abby, did you get confirmation on the quote we found yesterday as a Biblical quote?"
"Sorry Gibbs. I got a lot of hits on words in the phrase, but no exact quote. It didn't hit on any Bible site I visited though."
"What's the quote?" McGee asked.
"' The sins of the city shall be covered in ice, and be made to suffer as I have'" Abby answered.
McGee chuckled about with his goofy uber dork laugh. "That's a Batman quote."
"What?" The rest of the room seemed to ask in unison.
"Sure, episode four hundred twenty, "Wasteland" pitted Batman against Victor Fries, more commonly known as Mr. Freeze to most everyone outside the comic..."
"Get to the point McGee." Gibbs growled impatiently.
"Mr. Freeze said that, mostly to himself after his wife Nora left him upon being cured of a life threatening illness. When she saw what he had become, she couldn't spend the rest of her life with him, despite the fact that he became that way specifically to save her life. He really is the most tortured and tragic character in..."
"McGee!"
"Sorry." He again said sheepishly.
Abby however was smiling proudly in his direction. He smiled back at her and scratched the back of his head.
"So we have these notes he's left at the crime scenes. Ducky, cause of death?"
"Poisoning again."
"Abs, did you get the translation on those other symbols?"
"The last symbol for Lieutenant DeHavilland was something along the lines of dualist, but not the kind that fights with swords, more like someone who leads two lives. For our third victim, Abydos and Osiris again, as well as oath breaker. The other two are 'thief' and roughly, very roughly, translated 'fixer.'"
"Is this guy just trying to confuse the hell out of is? This is more complicated than almost any murder case that comes to mind." Tony said in exasperation.
"There are a lot of superfluous facts here. I don't understand the point of these notes, and we are spending a rather large amount of time decoding them, figuring out the identity of the victims."
"Ducky's right. He's probably staying one step ahead of us each time while we spend days just trying to figure out the basics from the last job. He's smart. Crazy, but smart." Tony said.
"This all seems to be coming back to sin and religion though. The priest is still our best suspect." Kate insisted.
Silence followed. Gibbs could sense that Tony wanted to rebut her claim, but held his tongue instead. Much to Gibbs' enjoyment.
"She's right. This does keep coming back to sin and religion. I think it's time we pay another visit to the church, and Father Mulhanney."
Everyone nodded, even Tony, and again they were on their way back to the base church.
