Chapter 9

Kate and Tony had arrived some time ago at the remote cabin in Vermont belonging to Matthews, they had arrived to find the local Leo's in attendance, running all round the area trying to find any trace of the missing retired agent. Tony and Kate had been furious that the cabin had not been searched and the area was being trampled, destroying any possible forensics should it turn out to be the worst.

And that was just what it was, some three hours after arriving and organising the search themselves, they found Matthews, shot through the back of the head, his fishing rod lying beside him. He had never scene where the bullet came from, just as the note had said.

"No, you want to be lead agent, then you can call Gibbs" Kate told Tony with a smirk on her face, "perk of the job" she tacked on. Tony shook his head and grinned at her, his face wolfish

"Nope, perk of the job is delegation, and I'm delegating the task of informing Gibbs to you!" he crowed back. Kate shook her head and began to retort just as DiNozzo's satellite phone rang. He glared at Kate, who grinned back, they both knew who was calling them. Tony sighed looked heavenward and pulled his phone out of his pocket

"DiNozzo" he answered shortly, he listened for a moment, "yeah boss I was just about to phone you, we found Matthews a few minutes ago, he was shot from behind, died instantly" He paused listening again "yeah Boss" he sighed hanging up the phone. He looked over at Kate, how had stopped grinning at Tony's expression "he wants us to arrange for the body to be shipped to Ducky ASAP" Tony ran his gloved hand through his hair and turned to stare at the body lying at his feet.

"How was Gibbs?" Kate asked quietly, Tony shook his head

"Angry, but what's new" he murmured, "but I think this is getting to him" he added on thoughtfully, the carefree, foolish juvenile Tony showing his true colours for once. Kate nodded and turned to her rucksack on the ground

"Yeah, lets get this done and get home quickly," she said as she started to process the scene, Tony watched her for a moment before moving forward. Yeah he silently agreed, he wasn't comfortable this far away form the rest of the team at the moment. Home sounded really good about now.

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Abby bent over the envelope on her desk and slowly began to unpeel it, she had come up empty on every test she had done so far, oh she could tell Gibbs, where the paper was from, what ink had been used but none of that would make a difference to finding out who did it, and she was beginning to despair that she would find anything. She slowly pulled back the last flap of the envelope and spread it out, but her hands stilled in mid motion and she sat frozen, hardly daring to believe. She paused, holding her breath and lent closer to the paper that was once an envelope, she slowly grabbed her tweezers and a microscope slide and carefully picked up the tiny black eyelash that had been caught in the inner fold of the envelope. When she had finally and safely secured it on the slide she let out a slow breath that turned into a scream as she spun her chair around and around. They had him, they finally had something on the creep, and as quickly as her mind formulated the thought her hand reached for her phone.

Gibbs sat in front of his desk, his mind on what Tony had told him moments ago, he had known that they would find Matthews dead but it had been so much harder to hear DiNozzo saying it so calmly. Part of him had been furious at the way DiNozzo had said it, but what could he expect, DiNozzo had never known Matthews, to DiNozzo it was just another case Gibbs thought bitterly. Gibbs picked his phone up just seconds before it began to ring and he nearly dropped it in surprise.

"Gibbs" he answered shortly, he listened intently then without another word he hung up and rushed out of the room.

McGee had looked up when Gibbs's phone rang and he sat stunned for a moment when Gibbs all but ran from the bullpen. He paused for a moment not sure whether to follow or not, but he decided that Gibbs would tell him if he wanted company. He turned back to his screen and the narrowed down list of suspects. It had been hard work but he had narrowed it down to 4 possible suspects. He had been about to brief Gibbs when he had suddenly left, so McGee decided to carry out the last few checks to try and narrow it down further whilst he waited for Gibbs to return. But just as he settled down to work the phone on Gibbs's desk started to ring and with a sigh McGee rose to answer it.

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Ducky was sitting at the small desk that was positioned on one wall of the morgue when his phone rang, he looked around for Jimmy intending to ask him to deal with it whilst he finished the report he was working on, but Jimmy was no where around, so with a sigh he carefully put his pen down and picked up the extension on his desk.

"Good afternoon, Dr Mallard speaking" he said politely into the mouthpiece, resenting the interruption, he sighed as he heard the caller on the other end.

"No Mother, I cannot come home right now" he said with gentle force to the speaker on the other end, his elderly mother, who lived with him was slightly demented and demanded a great deal of attention and care "Mother, where is Grace?" he asked referring to her new carer, he paused as he listened to his mother speaking.

"No I Don't think she is dead mother, I am sure she has just popped out for a moment, and will be back shortly." He listened again "No mother, there isn't a manic on the those in the neighbourhood" he sighed as he said it, rubbing his temples slightly at the pain growing there, "Mother…" he started to say, only to be cut off by his mothers scream.