Chapter 1

At NCIS headquarters, Washington, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was on his second styrofoam cup of 'crude' style black coffee when his cell phone shrilled into life. "Gibbs," he answered simply. Special Agents Kate Todd and Anthony Dinozzo ceased their friendly banter over their latest trivial attempts at one-upmanship and turned their attention to their boss and his solemn tone. Snapping his cell shut, Gibbs called his team together, threw the keys of the NCIS field truck to Tony after he had outlined their latest case. "We have a Petty Officer Nigel DeVries killed in what appears to be a car bombing out at Norfolk Naval base. Kate get Ducky. McGee?" Gibbs looked over at the empty chair belonging to the latest recruit to the team. A loud thud resonated from beneath McGee's desk followed by a slightly crumpled expression as a head rose from underneath the workstation. Gibbs didn't even bother to ask - the look he gave the trainee was enough to fluster the young agent into babbling about networking cables and routing pathways, all of which was totally lost on the senior former marine. "McGee, I want you to do a detailed background check n DeVries. I want to know what this officer did and why someone would want to blow him to smithereens. Hell, if he sneezed, I want to know about it!"

"You got it boss," McGee confirmed as he began tapping away on his keyboard.

Gibbs, Dinozzo and Todd all loaded their weapons and holstered them before dashing to the forward elevator.

The area had been cordoned off around the DeVries property. A naval security team had been dispatched and were the first on the scene. It was them who had notified NCIS of the situation. Amanda was sitting on an ambulance stretcher having her superficial wounds treated by the emergency medical team on site, a regulation red blanket draped across her shoulders.

Gibbs flashed his badge and ID as he introduced himself and his team members to the senior officer at the scene.

"What have we got, Sergeant?" he asked.

"Sir, it seems that Petty Officer DeVries was heading off to work when he triggered a bomb in his car," answered Sergeant Williams.

Gibbs looked incredulously at him and replied sarcastically, "You think!" Williams, taken aback by the special agent's outburst, stepped back and let Gibbs and his team analyse the wreckage without further comment.

"Dinozzo, you photograph the scene, Kate you measure and sketch," ordered Gibbs.

"On it, boss." Kate and Tony replied in unison.

"Ducky, what can you tell me?" his question posed to their medical examiner, who was second to none in his line of work, but did tend to 'reflect' upon his insurmountable knowledge and experience regularly.

"I'm afraid there's not much left of our petty officer," Ducky's English accent conspicuous against the NCIS agent's western American drawl. "His body has suffered extensively in the incinerated wreckage and the fire department will have washed away much of the external evidence in their efforts to quell the flames. It reminds me of a case back in London. A young woman was on her way to work, taking the car she had parked in the garage. Unfortunately for her, there was a gas leak and as she switched on the ignition - Kaaboom!" Ducky's hands imitated the effects of the explosion.

Gibbs shut his eyes and shook his head. He knew Ducky's reveries were intended to help, but invariably they were just tall tales. Normally, he would have cut the medical examiner off before the story lasted too long, or because he needed answers in a hurry, but this corpse couldn't tell them anything until it was taken back to forensics and autopsy, so he let his good friend finish as he poked around the crime scene.

"This is odd," Ducky pointed out a cylindrical fragment of metal lodged into the petty officer's left thigh. Gibbs immediately approached, curious as to what Dr Mallard had found so unusual. Tony, too, photographed the point where the metal had imbedded itself in the dead sailor.

"What do you think it is, Ducky?" asked Gibbs.

"Doesn't look like part of the vehicle, boss" Tony surmised. Tony appreciated fast cars, it was a passion of his, second only to beautiful women.

"Get it sent to Abby when you get the body back to autopsy," Gibbs instructed Ducky, who simply nodded his acknowledgement. Gibbs now wanted to talk to the wife, Amanda. "Mrs DeVries, I'm Special Agent Gibbs. I'd like to talk to you about your husband and what happened this morning, if you're up to it."

"Of c-course," she stammered, the effects of the shock evident in her voice. Amanda heaved herself off the EMT's trolley and with Gibbs at her side they walked back into the house. "Can I get you a coffee?" she asked.

Gibbs accepted.

"Strong and black, I guess, like all marines?"

Gibbs smiled, was he truly so stereotypical? "Mrs DeVries,"

"Please, call me Amanda."

"Amanda, was there anything in your husband's behaviour to suggest that someone was out to harm him?"

"No, not really… I mean, he had been receiving letters, but I didn't believe them to be life threatening."

"What letters?"

"Nigel didn't think I knew about them. He tried to hide them from me, either taking them with him or destroying them in some way. But, I guess, he missed one. I was sorting through the laundry one day and found a type written letter folded in his breast pocket."

"Do you still have the letter?"

"Yes. I don't know why I kept it. I know it's silly, but I was hoping that Nigel would talk to me…"

Amanda moved to the bookcase and removed a book called 'Private Liaisons'. "It seems silly now, but at the time, I wondered if Nigel was having an affair. I know now that he wouldn't."

"What makes you so sure he wasn't?" Gibbs asked, curious to Amanda's resoluteness of her husband's fidelity.

"I know my husband, Agent Gibbs. When he wasn't at work, he would spend every minute with me. It was as if we were still on our honeymoon. He loved me…" Tears began to creep down her face. She brushed them away, but more came in their place thicker and faster.

Gibbs offered her his freshly pressed white handkerchief, which she accepted gratefully. Not wanting to distress Amanda any further, he decided to wind up the interview there and then. "If you think of anything else, don't hesitate to call me - anytime. One more thing," Gibbs turned back to Amanda before leaving. "Do you know if your husband received a letter this morning?"

"I don't know, but he was acting a bit strange when I first came downstairs," she sniffed remembering the way Nigel was as she had entered the kitchen that morning. "He had said it was work, but…" Amanda's eyes remained unfocused as she recalled the morning's events. Without a word, she moved to the trash. Resting on top of the normal household waste was a ripped up sheet of paper and corresponding envelope.

"Don't touch it!" instructed Gibbs as he snapped on a pair of white latex gloves. Carefully he retrieved the items and placed them into a transparent evidence bag, sealed the top and signed across it.

"Do you think that's from the same person who killed Nigel?" Amanda asked with some trepidation.

"We'll get it checked by our forensics, that's all I can say at the moment, but it's possible."

Kate, Tony and Gibbs joined Ducky in the autopsy room back at NCIS headquarters. "Ahh Gibbs," Ducky welcomed showing the team of investigators the x-rays highlighted against the bluish tinged back lighting. "Our victim received a tremendous force from beneath his seat. I'd say the explosive was positioned directly beneath the driver's seat deliberately to inflict the maximum impact. The force of the explosion shattered both femurs and his pelvis. If he had survived the intensity of the blast, he would never have walked again!"

"Thanks Ducky. Let me know if you find anything else." Gibbs spun on his heel and, with his entourage in tow, pressed the 'up' button on the elevator.

Abby's lab had loud music blaring. It amazed Gibbs how this talented young scientist could work under such conditions, but to Abby it was all but perfect. If she could have had her lab in a dungeon then she would have been in her element, but for a 'Goth', this was close enough.

McGee was waiting in the lab too, ready to convey all that he had learned about Nigel DeVries, his wife Amanda and the work he was involved in.

Whilst he was waiting for Gibbs, he and Abby had been bantering over an encryption programme that could possibly identify the make and model of the printer used to produce the mysterious notes sent to the dead petty officer.

"How's it going, proby?" asked Tony as he noticed McGee and Abby in a tight huddle over a laptop. "Hope we're not keeping you from anything with this case?" his voice emphasising his less than subtle innuendo.

"Actually Tony, you are!"

Tony could never quite tell when Abby was pulling his leg or not, but he hazarded a guess, that on this occasion, she was.

"McGee?" Gibbs boomed in an increasingly impatient manner.

"I was able to determine that the ink used on the paper came form a Hewlett Packard deskjet printer. We're still trying to ascertain the model, but are fairly sure it's an 840C. He transmitted a picture of the reconstructed note upon the large plasma screen in the lab.

Abby took over the report by highlighting a specific area. "There's a small mark in the top right corner that is repeated a number of times down the page."

"What is that?" asked Gibbs.

"That, my lovely, is a mark from the roller in the printer. As the paper feeds through the rollers, it has picked up some of the ink and voila! It's like a fingerprint…Gibbs, this printer is unique!"
"Petty Officer DeVries had a computer in his study," Kate offered. "But the printer was an Epson."

"And according to his office," McGee continued, "they only use Cannon."

"So, whoever printed these notes couldn't have done it at either location." Tony surmised.

"Good work Abby, you too McGee!" Gibbs congratulated as he exited the lab.

Tony and Kate looked at each other and then at the smug looking duo before following Gibbs back up to their office, with McGee bringing up the rear.

"Boss," McGee called his mentor. "Nigel DeVries had served seven years as an engineer in the vehicle maintenance corps. His service record reads like a boy scout's - no cautions or disciplinary warnings. He's been stationed at Norfolk for two years. Prior to that he served at West Point, Virginia under his C.O. Colonel Steve Voight. He's been married to Amanda for four and a half years."

"There's nothing in his background to signify this sort of retribution." Kate profiled.

"Nope!" Gibbs agreed.

"Maybe, boss, this guy has been playing away and the affair led to his death, either by his spurned lover or a wife that found out he was playing away from home," suggested Tony.

"Judging by the content of the last note, I'd say that Tony has got a point," Kate agreed.

McGee didn't. "There's nothing in his background to suggest he was having an affair."

"Trust me McGee," Kate argued. "I've had profile training and I'd say this marine was having a secret affair."

At that moment, Gibbs' phone rang. He snatched the receiver out of its cradle and spoke harshly into the mouthpiece. "Gibbs." He listened in silence to whoever it was on the line before hanging up without uttering another word. His team gathered around his desk during the one-sided conversation curious as to what latest developments had arisen. "Ducky wants us in autopsy, now."

All four moved to the elevator, keen to find out what the medical examiner had discovered from the charred remains of Petty Officer DeVries.

"Ahh Jethro," greeted Ducky in his usual pleasant English demeanour that ironically contrasted the grisly surroundings of the autopsy room. "A fascinating case you've got here. As I explained earlier, our Petty Officer received an enormous explosive trauma to his lower pelvic area. The force of the detonation would have killed him instantly. Jethro, this was no accident, he was murdered!"

"Any ideas as to what caused the explosion, Duck?" Gibbs asked.

"I've sent fragments and samples down to Abby for testing. It reminds me of a case I had back in my early days as a medical examiner. A college graduate had the unfortunate misfortune to…" Ducky's reverie was lost on the NCIS team, as Gibbs and his followers had already made it back to the elevator to find out what Abby had discovered from Ducky's samples.

Abby wasn't in her lab when they arrived. All the computers were whirring and buzzing as usual. The only evidence that Abby Sciuto was about were a pair of black over the knee socks rising to a pair of red NCIS overalls beneath the chassis of the burnt out Camero. Considering the situation so was grave, the picture before them appeared quite comical.

"Abby…" blared Gibbs.

"You bellowed!" retorted the lab technician.

"What have you got?" Gibbs' attitude mellowing considerably.

"Well, my silver haired fox, I have analysed the metal fragments that Ducky retrieved from the body…" Abby moved to her central computer and clicked on a graph taken from the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer and displayed it upon the large plasma screen in her lab. The graph showed several peeks and troughs with one significantly higher than the rest. "Our bomb was mad using ammonia. The intensity of the blast was fuelled by the gas in the tank."

"Abby, do we know what the bomb was made from?" asked Tony.

"I was coming to that. I have reconstructed the metal fragments," she paused her explanation briefly as she wheeled her computer chair over to one of her workbenches, where she had all the components laid out.

"A pipe bomb?" Gibbs queried.

"Looks like it," Abby confirmed. "I also managed to lift some prints from the letters. So far, I have matched one set to Nigel DeVries from his service record and another to Amanda, his wife. There was a third partial print, but it's going to take time to match it. I've now got it running through AFIS to see if we can get a match."

"I think we need to have another word with Mrs DeVries. Tony, you and Kate head over to Norfolk and bring her in for questioning."

"On it, boss," Tony acknowledged.

"McGee, I want you to dig into his past. Someone out there had a grudge against our petty officer and I want to know who…"

"Yes boss," McGee turned tail and headed straight for the office, following Kate and Tony's departure.

"Abby," Gibbs turned to look at the eager lab tech. She looked up from the microscope where she continued with her work. "Good work," he congratulated with a cheeky smile and handed her a large 'Caf-Pow!' - her favourite!

The stark dimly lit interrogation room achieved its objective by heightening Amanda DeVries anxiety. She had been in there, alone, for nearly forty minutes. Kate and Tony were watching her through a one-way glass panel, a video recorder at the ready next to them to record the interview conducted by their superior.

Finally, Gibbs strolled in five minutes later, his demeanour businesslike and professional. Amanda stiffened; her hands frantically knitting with each other as her nervousness escalated.

"Mrs DeVries, do you know who has been sending these letters to your husband?"

"No," she insisted.

"We have taken your fingerprints from the letter we found in the trash…" Gibbs placed a copy of the reconstructed letter in front of Amanda.

"I-I don't," she stammered. Tears began to well in her eyes again and her throat tightened suffocating her words.

"How do you explain your prints on this note, then?"

"I…I knew something was up with Nigel," she sobbed. "I thought we were having financial problems and that he wasn't sharing them with me. He was the one who managed all of our money, paid the bills. I was never any good at numbers, even at school, so I just let him… When I looked in the trash this morning, there was this screwed up piece of paper resting on the top. I thought it was a threatening letter from someone demanding that his or her bill be paid; I never dreamed it would be anything like that. I saw red and ripped it up whilst Nigel was getting himself ready for work. He didn't know I knew…" her voice trailed off once more.

Gibbs stood, satisfied that Amanda was telling the truth, and returned to the observation suite.

"I believe her," stated Kate earnestly.

Just then, the door swung open and McGee burst in.

"Steady on, proby," Tony chastised.

Gibbs looked from McGee to Dinozzo and back again. "Well, what's so important that the door has to come of its hinges?"

"Sorry, boss but it's happened before!"