OOOO

See part 1 for disclaimer.

Part 3…

Harm and Mac got settled into their quarters and they sat down at the desk in Mac's room, to go over the case notes again.

"We'll have to stop by the coroner's," Harm noted to Mac, "I'm sure the coroner's report won't be ready yet, but we could pick up a copy of the crime-scene photographs. Then, we could get somebody to take us out to the shooting range.

Mac nodded.

"Do you want to get some sleep, first?" he asked her.

"No," Mac shook her head, "Not unless you do. I got some good sleep on the plane."

Mac told him nothing of the nightmares she dreaded, every time she shut her eyes to get some sleep.

OOOO

After they got a gunnery sergeant to run them by the coroner's office, they went out to the shooting range and, while flicking through the photographs, surveyed the crime scene.

"This area isn't readily visible from where the men were firing," Mac noted.

"No," Harm agreed, "Unless she was standing and waving, there was no way they could possibly have seen her. The only reason that General Donnachy did was because he had binoculars. Look, he said that when he first caught sight of her, it was because of the glint of the sun off her hair. Most likely, she was already dead and lying on the ground."

Mac looked at a picture of the victim and absently noted that, at least in the black and white photographs, the girl seemed very blond. Combined with the wind blowing her hair about, she was probably not very conspicuous, but enough so that the observant General would have seen her through his binoculars.

"Look at this, Mac," Harm snapped her out of her thoughts.

There was a white outline of something, some kind of evidence to the side of the victim's body, outlined with tape in the vegetation.

"What's that?" she asked and Harm flipped through the photographs that he held.

"A cellphone," he said, showing her one photograph, "Looks like the victim had crush injuries to her hand, where she was holding the phone…The cellphone itself, according to the records, was crushed to pieces…Do you think she tried calling for help?"

Mac nodded, "Maybe…What's that?"

She pointed to something in the vegetation, not too far away from them. They stood and went a little closer, but stopped dead and pulled back, when they realised what it was.

"Urgh!" Harm uttered.

"Vomit," Mac surmised, "Do you think it belonged to the victim or the perp?"

Harm tried to clear his thoughts, then supposed, "Could be either, really…Or another officer. How about we make that our next stop? JAG headquarters?"

Mac just nodded her assent as they continued making notes of the crime scene.

OOOO

Like back home, the Southwest JAG offices were as calm as a churchyard when they got there.

"Funny, how none of the officers here were 'suitable' to take on this investigation," Harm muttered quietly in Mac's ear, before they went to meet with the resident JAG.

Mac just smiled, wryly, nodding.

They were shown through to Admiral Carl Basingstoke's office, where they were immediately put at ease. This Admiral seemed to be all about getting things done, but with little of the formality that Cresswell expected of his officers.

"I'd like to thank you both for coming all this way to investigate…I'm sure you understand why our own officers can't take on this case…"

"Actually, Sir," Harm spoke up, careful to remain respectful, "We weren't actually told a lot of the details of the case before we left, but one detail that was missing was…um…just why the officers here were unsuitable to investigate…Not that it is my place to ask such a question. We're only here to do a job, without ruffling any feathers, but we think it may shed some important light on the investigation of we understood the circumstances…"

"No problem…" Admiral Basingstoke waved his hand, dismissively, "No problem at all…Let's see, how exactly can I explain…?"

Harm and Mac just sat in silence.

"You see, the vast majority of the officers here have… a personal involvement in the case; they knew the victim, Cassie. The one officer who didn't know her felt that he was not able to adequately remain impartial, because of a death in his family recently that bares some resemblance to the circumstances of this case. A year and a half ago, Cassie's father worked in this office. He had to resign suddenly due to health reasons. His daughter, Cassie is a…was a…favourite with many of the staff members, even though her father is no longer here. We were all very shocked and shaken by the news of her death…you saw where…it happened?"

"Yes, Sir," Harm and Mac nodded.

Now they understood. A couple of details fell into place. That must have been how Cassandra got onto the base, because she was friendly with the officers working here.

"We were told that there had been a Colonel Drake in this office, Sir. But we weren't sure if there was a connection with the victim in this case," Harm told the man, "We're sorry but we'll have to conduct some interviews with your staff, with your permission. We'll try to keep from poking at any wounds."

"That's okay," the Admiral told them, "Please, do your best to get to the bottom of this quickly…Cassie and Jimmy deserve that much…This is a real tragedy. After all that has happened, now this…"

They didn't get much more instruction from Admiral Basingstoke, so they went to conduct interviews with the staff. Once those were done, they interviewed some of the officers who had been on the firing range when the victim was discovered. Three of these had been in close proximity to the body, having accompanied General Donnachy when he went to check on the victim's status.

"What did you notice about the victim, when you and the other officers accompanied your CO to the crime scene, Private?" Harm asked one of the young men.

"Just that the victim seemed to be bleeding, Sir," the young man replied, "he went to check for a pulse, the General that is, but it was obviously too late…I could tell by her eyes…They were open, staring…She wasn't there, anymore."

"Were you acquainted with Cassandra Drake, Private?" Mac asked him.

"Not exactly, Ma'am," he hesitated, "Let me see…I just don't know…I knew of Miss Drake…She did come onto the base, frequently, when her Father was still here. That was a while ago, now. I was more familiar with her Father."

"To your knowledge, were any of your fellow officers acquainted with her?"

"Not most of them…" the man shook his head, "Wait! Yes, I'm sure that Johnny was. He used to play in the band…That is, the military band. He knew Miss Drake from that. They got her in to perform as mascot for them, one time."

"How well did he know her?"

"Not very well, Sir."

OOOO

They learned as much from 'Johnny,' private John Kruger. He was a skinny young man with blond hair cut short and high, and looked like he was barely out of his teens himself.

"Yes, Ma'am," he answered Mac's questions without reservation, "I did know Cassie some…Her father used to be a JAG. And last year, she was mascot in the July 4th parade. Our regular fell sick suddenly and she filled in. She did a few times, as I recall."

"Were the two of you particularly friendly?"

"I wouldn't say so, Sir. Hell, Cassie was a very friendly girl, no doubt about that, but I only met her a couple of times and never outside the band. She was around JAG headquarters quite a bit. When her Daddy fell ill, she'd bring things back and forth from the office for him. Got his driver to run her. Maybe the officers at JAG would be able to tell you more, Ma'am."

Both Harm and Mac ignored the last comment, they'd already talked to the JAG officers, but hadn't got much out of them, most of them seemed to be quite emotionally raw. Maybe they'd try again when all of the emotions had had time to settle down.

"How about when you, the other officers and General Donnachy approached the crime scene? Did you notice anything?"

"Like what, Ma'am?"

"The position Cassandra's body was lying in, any evidence around her body, anything like that…"

"Well…I guess I noticed that she was on her stomach…there was a bullet hole in her back…she was bleeding from the wound, or had been bleeding, I guess…her head was turned to the side and her eyes were just staring up at me. I can't get her eyes out of my head..."

The private shook his head, seemingly to try to get back to more relevant details.

"Um…there was something in her hand. And her hand was all black and blue. Did somebody do something to her hand, Ma'am?"

"Yes, but we haven't established just what, yet. The post-mortem should be occurring as we speak. Did any of you move the body, corporal?"

"No, Ma'am. The General checked to see if she still had a pulse, but told us it was no use. I could already tell, the way her eyes were open and glazed over. But none of us touched Cassie except for the General."

"And did the situation…get the best of any of you?" Harm asked.

At first, the man didn't understand.

"Sir?"

"I mean…did the sight of Miss Drake's body get to any of you? Something like that is enough to turn anybody's stomach."

"Oh," the private exclaimed, understanding, "No, not to my memory, Sir. I was pretty close to it, but I didn't toss my cookies. And neither did anyone else, Sir."

Mac had to bite her cheek at the term the corporal used. Trust the young'uns to come up with something like that! She'd heard some good ones, in her time around Chloe.

They concluded the interview at that, conceding that they still didn't know who the vomit at the crime scene belonged to. They were sure that the original investigating officer must have gotten a sample of it and sent it for analysis. They'd get their hands on that evidence tomorrow, when they went to the coroner's to pick up the autopsy report.

OOOO

Mac didn't sleep well that night. She had the dream again and this time, the details were clearer, but she was still confused. Because she was away on investigation, her notebook was lying out on the bedside table and she was able to get a lot of the details written down before they began to blur. Reading it all back, it now made more sense. She, at first, seemed to be on her own in the dream again, but she wasn't herself. She was somebody else, but she didn't know who. And the surroundings in the dream didn't seem at all familiar, at least not so in the darkness. Night surrounded 'her' in the dream and although she had thought at first that she was alone, she now realised that she was not. Somebody was behind her, not far away. It now seemed as if she was being chased. That would explain the panic that she felt, why she could not properly draw breath. The next second, she was aware of being pushed down on the ground, her face pushed down and a weight of something on her back. Mac's last recollections of the dream, before she had woken up, were of trying to scream, but no sound had come out. It was as if there was something either on or inside her mouth. Dirt? A cloth? A hand? Mac couldn't say for sure. Her arms and legs were clawing at the ground, in a desperate bid to get to her feet, get away, but it was no good. Before she woke up, a thought had sprung into Mac's mind; 'Help me.'

It was in the voice that she had heard over the phone, several nights before.

All of this bore remarkable resemblance to the psychic-incident that she had experienced when investigating a case with Sturgis, not long after he was moved to JAG. Mac knew in this instance that she was not merely dreaming. She was seeing this girl's attack and possibly even her death, through her own eyes.

OOOO

"My, aren't we cranky, this morning!" Harm exclaimed at the mess hall the next morning.

He had been preaching to her about the benefits of a meat-free life, seeing her devour bacon and she had lost her temper.

"I'm sorry, Harm," she apologised to him, "but you know better to try and dissuade a marine from her meat."

"Won't make that mistake again," he just smiled, "So, did you get a good sleep, last night?"

"Not really," she replied, but didn't go into it any more than that. She wanted to get these thoughts out of her head and into a working frame of mind. She and Harm had a job to do and she could not afford to have her attention elsewhere.

"C'mon, let's get to work," she suggested as she finished her breakfast and went to stand.

Harm nodded and followed her lead.

OOOO

That morning, before they went to pick up the autopsy report, they went to check in with Admiral Basingstoke again.

"Good morning…this came for the two of you, last night. It's the phone records for Cassandra's cellphone. One of my officers managed to get a court-order for it, yesterday morning, then the cellphone company processed it in the afternoon. Figured you'd probably want to look at it, see what calls she was getting."

"Thank you," Harm and Mac could only stutter. They hadn't figured that they'd be getting much help on the case, being the 'outsiders' and all. Maybe the people in this office had been very close to Cassandra.

"Uh, Admiral, Sir?" Mac asked the man, "If we could, we'd like to get a bit more information from you."

"Proceed…" he authorised and Harm and Mac both began to ask him questions, trying to fill in the holes in their knowledge of the case.

"Where do Miss Drake's parents reside, Sir? If we could, we'd like to talk to them."

"Only Cassandra's Father is still around. Her Mother died when Cassie was two. Just her, her father and his carer, living over on Brookfield Drive."

"Carer?" Mac asked.

"Yeah, he's in the late stages of MS. I'm not sure how much he'll be able to help you, but I'm sure Timothy will help you as much as he can. That's the carer."

"Okay," Harm nodded, "And where is Miss Drake's school? We'd like to talk to her friends, too."

"If possible, could you leave it another day?" the Admiral requested, "They were only been informed of Cassie's death yesterday. They'll probably all still be in shock. Cassie was well-liked by everyone at the school."

"Aye, Sir," Harm acquiesced, "And her school's name, Sir?"

"Brookfield High," the Admiral told them and added, off-hand, "She and my daughter were meant to be graduating, later this spring…"

At Mac's curious look, he nodded, "Yeah, she would have just been sixteen…she was ahead of her years, a very smart kid. On the honour role, the gymnastics team, cheerleading squad, top of her year and involved in social service…a really special kid…"

Harm and Mac left the Admiral to his musings, staring out of a window and headed to the coroner's.

OOOO