Influence
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything
Summary: Kate is dating and starts to change. When she takes a drastic step, the rest of the team starts to wonder. A series of murder turns up and they find themselves in the middle of a nightmare…
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3- The letter
At 8 am sharp, Gibbs walked into the bullpen and looked around. "Where´s Kate?" He asked Dinozzo, who seemed busy disecting his breakfast burrito.
"No idea, boss. Haven´t seen her yet." Tony replied and started to chew on a string of bacon. He watched his boss walking to his desk. "What´s that?" He asked and pointed to something that was taped to Gibbs´ computer monitor.
"What does it look like, Dinozzo?" Gibbs barked at him and opened the letter. His eyes moved quickly as he read it, slamming his fist onto the desk all the sudden, which sent a pen to the floor. The sound startled McGee, who almost spilled his coffee on a file. "Damn!"
Both younger agents looked at each other with rather startled looks on their faces. "What´s wrong? Another ex-wife you didn´t know existed?" Dinozzo joked and ducked as he saw the look in Gibbs´ eyes. Something was really wrong here, because that look could really kill anyone.
"If you don´t want to clean out the morgue for the next 10 years, you better shut up." Gibbs picked up his phone and dialed a number. He listened for a moment and hung up again. "Just so you know it, Kate just resigned. Now, get a lead on that killed woman -we´ve been on that for almost a month now. I need coffee." The last words were muttered under his breath, but both agents knew what it meant.
Tony felt his jaw drop after Gibbs had walked out again. "Kate resigned? Hey, that must be the earliest prank for April fool´s day. What do you think, probie?" He asked Tim, who had snuck up to the largest desk where the letter still lay open for everyone to see.
"Don´t think so, Tony. That sure is Kate´s handwriting and it´s her signature for sure." McGee said. "Says personal reasons there. Did she tell you anything?" He asked and returned to his own desk before Gibbs had a chance to come back and catch him looking at the letter.
"Nope, nothing. Wow...that´s not like Kate. I mean, she´s been weird sometimes before, but since she´s dating that Rick-guy, she has changed big ways." Tony replied and tried to call Kate on her cell, but only got her voice mail. He didn´t bother to leave her a message, she would see that he called and hopefully return the call. "Hey, about that girl that was found near Ocean View down in Norfolk last month? I ran a check with the police and they had more such cases in the last year. Always around that area. I reckon Gibbs will like that."
"What will I like, Dinozzo?" A voice came from the elevator and their boss came walking back with a large cup of coffee in his hand. "Better be good."
"That PO they found last month, she´s not a single victim. There were others found in that area over the last year, only none was a navy employee so far. Always the same principle -drugged, beaten and finally cut across the throat, leaving them to bleed to death. Couldn´t find any other things they had in common though. That´s probably why those cases were never linked up before." Dinozzo said and noted that Gibbs looked a bit pleased, which was a good thing.
"Abby found some DNA under the victim´s nails. She ran a search for it and it actually turned up a result." He opened a file on the large plasma and waited until the other two men looked at it. "Richard David Cuttling, working in administration at Norfolk base. Has been charged with inappropriate behavior in public, promoting some kind of sect. The group is called Spiritual Guidance and is referred to as highly questionable." McGee reported and smiled satisfied.
Gibbs crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And?" He inquired, wondering if there was more to it. He had a hard time keeping his mind on track. Seeing Kate resigning from NCIS had really shaken him.
"Well, I ran a background on that group and it turned up a website. I hacked into their server and got a member list. All 11 victims were on it. All were between 24 and 26 years old. That´s a bit odd, isn´t it?" Tony said and nodded at McGee to go on. They had worked this out rather well and displayed good teamwork here.
Gibbs still stared at the picture and wondered where he had seen that face before. "I want more on those previous cases. Get the autopsy reports, family interviews and so on. Results at 5 pm on my desk." He said and watched them go to work. Kate would have been a great help on this as she was their best profiler, but they would have to do this without her. He noted that there was something missing without her around, but of course, he would never admit that to anyone.