"I'm not going out there."
"Come on honey, you can't lock yourself away in here forever."
Larry Jackson hadn't left his house since finding the body of Max Janson in the woods on the camping trip with his wife. His fear, no matter how irrational, was that he would find dead bodies no matter where he went. Larry thought things were good after the first time. He'd cleaned up his act, become a better person, his life was better for it. Maybe it was even a sign from God that he could have a second chance.
Now he simply felt that death followed him everywhere. To solve this problem, he decided to hole himself up in his house, where death would have to be content to sit outside and wait for him.
"Death is out there Rose! The average person doesn't find ONE dead body in his lifetime, let alone two!"
"You can't let your life be dominated by two unfortunate incidents. Your boss told you to take a vacation, I think we should go out and enjoy it! Let's go to Paris!"
"What for? To spread the death and misery to OTHER nations?"
Rose Jackson gave her husband a wry smile. "Fine, stay here. I'm going to work now."
"Good, good, you'll be safe there."
She rolled her eyes and laughed slightly. Rose wasn't ready to start worrying about her husband. She was determined to find this little fixation of his a simple humorous quirk.
As she walked out the door, she turned to call something out to her husband, another comical jab determined to shake him out of his obsession. As she did so she saw something out of the corner of her eye in the bright sky above her. She first thought it to be a passing plane, but it was growing larger by the moment.
"Larry!" She called out.
He came to the front door quickly. "What Rose?"
"Look!" Rose shouted.
He craned his head to the sky and saw a dark shape growing larger and larger every second.
"Rose, get away from the house!" He screamed.
Larry rushed from the front door and pulled his transfixed wife away from the house just before the shadowy figure crashed into the house with a terrifying roar.
Inside Larry Jackson saw a familiar site, but it was not so familiar to Rose.
"Jesus!" She breathed.
Inside was a badly mangled body laying at angles never meant to be achieved by the human body. Rose shut her eyes and turned away, but Larry simply pulled out his phone, pressed and held in number two on his cell phone and waited for the operator at NCIS headquarters to pick up. Dialing 911 seemed to waste time these days.
It appeared death was in fact unwilling to wait for anyone.
-----
Kate raised an eyebrow when she saw Tony and McGee enter the office in rather strange clothes. McGee was not in his usual loose fitting comfortable suit, and Tony was definitely lacking his usually stylish threads. Both were carrying narrow long bags that looked to be holding something specific.
"Where've you two been?" She asked.
They looked at one another and McGee quickly grumbled, coughed, and ran off to Abby's lab.
"Tony?"
Even he could not manage to crack his usual easy smile. "So McGee and I got a little exercise. Racquetball is a perfectly good way to work out a little."
"Yeah..." She returned.
"And McGee is pretty good, you wouldn't guess it from looking at him but he's a quick little sucker."
"And..."
He could see his ploy was dissolving fast before his eyes and decided to knuckle under and offer up the truth.
"I was invited to a club by an old friend of my former boss. I thought hey, why not? Clubs always have hot girls, and in this case rich hot girls since it was an upscale club. The guy suggested I might want to bring along a guy friend."
Tony had been staring directly at his shoes but now stole a peek at a now intensely interested Kate. His gaze quickly shot away as he continued his story.
"So I checked your day planner and you were busy, and the only other guy I know is McGee."
That earned him a wry sarcastic glare from Kate, which he reveled in for a moment.
"We got there and we noticed that there were a lot of guys there. The only girls we could see actually worked at the club. These guys asked to play a game, so we said sure. We beat them, really easily, which seemed strange since McGee isn't exactly what I'd describe as the athletic type."
As Tony continued to talk, Kate finally got a good look at the racquetball uniform he was wearing. On the right pocket was a symbol which briefly triggered a memory.
"Queen Mary Hills? You and McGee went to Queen Mary Hills?" She exclaimed.
He nodded. "We didn't know about it until after we played the game, then we came straight here afterwards."
Ducky had been watching the whole thing with mild interest while sitting at a nearby desk working on paperwork. He was just about to inquire as to the nature of this club when a voice broke in.
"You took McGee to a gay athletic club?!" Abby practically shouted.
"It's a country club! How was I supposed to know they had their own clubs."
Kate was laughing pretty hard by now, loud enough to disturb and bring Gibbs out of his office into the main office. He took one look at Tony and shook his head until his eyes locked on the emblem on Tony's pocket.
"Queen Mary Hills eh Tony? I always thought all that flirting might be a little overcompensation."
"I'm not the one with three failed marriages." Tony grumbled under his breath.
That earned him a sharp piercing look from Gibbs.
"I mean of course I don't, I'm gay afterall!" He laughed as he quickly backed away from Gibbs and hid behind his desk.
Kate shook her head at the whole exchange then looked back down to her desk where she had a pile of work waiting for her. But she was quickly interrupted when Gibbs' phone went off. She heard some grunts and mutters from Gibbs, then the phone snapped shut and-
"We got one, let's go."
-----
At the home of Larry Jackson, the NCIS team was met with a bewildered couple, and a completely devastated house.
"You've got to be kidding, this guy again?" Tony remarked.
"You don't suppose this is just some practical joke?" Ducky offered.
"And what, they demolished their house as a joke? Yeah that's hilarious." Gibbs said, ending the speculation.
They walked past the Jacksons directly into the house. There they found an untouched body. Kate busily began snapping photos of the scene while the rest of the team took up positions around the body and began looking over the details.
"It's not often we get here before the local authorities. Most people aren't even really aware of NCIS, let alone aware enough to call us before they try the civilian police. But I must say, I rather like having a first look at our friend here." Ducky said gesturing towards the body in front of him.
"What have we got?" Gibbs prompted.
"Looks like a paratrooper," Kate started, pointing to the parachute pack on the man's back. "They were probably out on a training exercise and his chute didn't open."
"Not a paratrooper," Tony said, shaking his head. "Look at this."
He gently pushed aside one of the straps on the parachute to reveal the insignia of a Navy SEAL.
"Alright, this isn't going to get us anywhere. Pull his identification, let's get his unit and get to his base. They must have reported him missing by now, the body just fell here a few hours ago." Gibbs said.
"Yeah, a few hours. Kinda makes you wonder why they haven't been combing the area for him. SEALs aren't supposed to leave men behind are they?" Tony ventured.
"He's right." Kate said, catching herself short as if surprised by the statement. She shook it off and continued. "We should have heard from them now, or at least from the local police about searching the area for the body. It should have been radioed in as soon as the other SEALs noticed his chute failed to open."
Gibbs nodded. "Looks like we have some questions for his commanding officer then don't we?"
"Another murder?" Ducky asked.
The rest of the team slowly nodded. "Looks that way Ducky, why?" Kate returned.
"That's all we seem to get lately. And while I appreciate the chance to hone my skills as a professional, I must say I prefer the days when Naval officers were content to pillage and plunder instead of murdering all the time. Whatever happened to the good old cases of elaborate thefts and scheming plots? It's certainly more exciting and less deadly."
Kate shrugged. "Sorry to disappoint you Ducky."
"Oh well, back to the morgue."
-----
They went directly from the scene of the body to the base the SEAL team was based at. They found the SEALs just returning from the exercise, literally just getting off the plane.
"Our victim is Lieutenant James Caufield. Been with this squad for just over a year, been with the Navy for four years now. By every official report he was a competent officer and intelligent respectable man." Kate informed them as they walked over to the plane.
"Competent officers don't screw up on jumps like this." Gibbs responded.
"Let's see what our friends over there have to say about that." Tony added.
Gibbs approached them quickly.
"I'm Agent Gibbs, NCIS. Would you all follow me please?" Gibbs said in a voice that left no impression his words were a request, despite their content.
The SEALs looked at one another and line up behind Gibbs with sullen faces. Gibbs led them into a small conference room just large enough to fit them. The team consisted of twelve men.
"I'm Commander Innis, what can I do for you Agent Gibbs?" The tallest of the men said as he stepped forward.
"Well Commander, you can step back, stay out of my way, and make sure your men comply with our investigation." Gibbs said haughtily.
The Commander seemed ready to balk at that, but nodded and gestured to his men who all nodded their heads at him in turn. Gibbs in turn nodded Tony, Kate and McGee.
"The four of us will be interviewing you all separately for your stories and accounts of what just happened. We'll be asking for specific information on Lieutenant Caufield. As of this moment you are considered to be under oath, and anything you say can be used against you in a military court of law should it be found untrue." Kate announced.
With that, they NCIS team all put in ear pieces to connect them and let them listen in on each others interrogations, then divided the SEALs into groups and took them off to be interviewed. Most of the interviews were the same: Lieutenant Caufield was a great kid, smart, respectable, and an able leader. But there was a general uneasiness in the air.
"How many jumps had you taken with Lieutenant Caufield?" Tony asked Chief Willis.
"About forty." He answered nervously.
"Forty perfect jumps, and all of a sudden he makes a mistake and his chute doesn't open? Does that sound like the Lieutenant Caufield you knew?" Tony pressed.
"No, I'm positive Lieutenant Caufield had his chute perfectly packed. He never made mistakes, and we all looked up to him."
"Then why did his chute malfunction?"
"Things happen." He shrugged as casually as possible.
Across the hall Kate was meeting with Lieutenant Commander Holmes.
"Commander Holmes, what was your relationship with Lieutenant Caufield?" She asked.
He snorted. "Cocky little brat. But he really did know what he was doing. The men looked up to him, always liked his sense of honor." Holmes scoffed.
One room over from the two of them, McGee was interviewing the newest member of the SEAL team, eighteen year old Ensign Bardok.
"That's a statement I'd really like backed up with factual evidence." McGee said sternly.
"I'd think it's rather obvious, it speaks for itself." The young Ensign challenged.
"There is no way the Flash could beat Superman at a footrace."
"Sure he could, Superman was only fast when he was airborne, but the Flash clearly had the advantage on a pure foot race."
"Well," McGee started, ready to refute. "Maybe if he his some kryptonite in Superman's boot, otherwise I really don't see how-"
"MCGEE!" Kate and Gibbs yelled over the ear piece connection. It was so loud McGee ripped the piece out of his ear.
"Yow!" He yelped.
"Something wrong sir?" Bardok asked him.
"No," McGee answered, putting the ear piece back in. "Let's get back to the questions."
The young Ensign nodded nervously.
"What can you tell me about the unit itself? Has anything strange been going on lately?"
"Not since...I mean, no. This is a top notch unit. I'm glad I was placed here. It's hard to get into Commander Innis' team."
"No problems between you or anyone else and Lieutenant Caufield?"
He shook his head. "None. Everyone liked him. The guy really helped out new men like me who felt sorta daunted by being a SEAL. He was a brother in more than just arms."
McGee nodded.
All the interviews were going the same way. No indications of any problems or tensions in the group. The news that came from Abby at her lab was just as disconcerting. Gibbs' phone range just as the NCIS team was gathering back together.
"Hey Gibbs. I went over the parachute pack you guys brought back. I opened it up under a black light and went over it, at first nothing looked wrong. Some of the fabric was ripped from the crash landing, including the deployment cords that are supposed to snap off to deploy the nylon canopy."
"Does it look like anyone sabotaged it? Or is it the Lieutenant's fault?"
"I wondered about that, so I repacked it myself and tested it. It wasn't a problem with the packing. I looked at the cords under a microscope, and while some of them were force snapped, meaning they were ripped in the crash, one of them has saw tooth marks, meaning someone spent some time sawing it off. Even that though doesn't mean foul play, plenty of parachutists saw off parts to make the pack more comfortable. But here's one thing that shouldn't be. The primary and secondary rip cords to deploy the chute were corroded with some sort of chemical. Whoever did it really knew what they were doing too, these cords are specially treated to be anti corrosive. Normal acids wouldn't work, you'd need a special mixture of highly noxious corrosive materials to make this happen."
"So you think it was sabotage?" Gibbs pressed.
"I do now. It looks like it was probably applied just before it was packed. Since the cords are all anti corrosive, it took a lot longer to eat through the cords, and by the time they were pulled, they snapped. Whoever did it really knows their way around parachutes and chemicals."
"Thanks Abs."
He hung up and turned to his team.
"Sabotage." He announced.
"Well you won't get any help from me on who might have done it. Everyone I interviewed loved the guy. Thought he was some cross between a brother and a saint." Tony said.
"Same here. These people would have given Caufield their first born child if he asked for it." Kate agreed.
"McGee?" Gibbs prompted.
"The newest member of their team seemed a little more nervous than I would have thought normal. When I asked him if the unit had had any problems recently, it looked like he had something to say but then thought better of it. Other than that, they all revered Caufield." McGee answered.
"The same all around. Everyone so full of love and understanding." Tony mused.
"Not exactly all around. Commander Holmes seemed to not be Caufield's biggest fan. It sounds like he had some grudging respect, but other than that didn't like him at all." Kate corrected.
"Now that I think of it, something Chief Willis said seemed a little funny. He said that Caufield was a great jumper, they'd made forty jumps with no incidents. Then he said that he was positive that Caufield packed his chute right, and could whatever happened was for another reason."
"What reason is that?" Gibbs asked Tony.
"He said 'things happen'."
"Something is certainly going on here. We need to search Caufield's room. Better search the rooms of the other three you had questions about too."
They all nodded and went off to search the rooms.