Chapter 5 - How Does Your Evidence Grow?
"What is this?" Tony asked, as he crouched down, studying something on the bath mat in the bathroom.
"Looks like dirt, or… garden soil?" McGee answered, as he crouched next to his older colleague. "Ziva, hand me a jar, please?" Ziva tore her attention away from the medicine cabinet long enough to reach into the bag for the requested item. Handing it to him, she turned back to her own task at hand, pulling out a swab.
"I think I may have something here, too," she said to the two men, as she took a sample, sealing it in a vial. She glanced down, finding her team mates studying the sample that McGee had just deposited in the jar. "What is that? Is that a shard of glass or something?"
Tony took the jar, scrutinizing it carefully. "Could be… Abby could tell us for sure, though. I bet that's garden soil though. It would be consistent with the origin of the toxin. If it came from someone's flower bed…"
McGee nodded at this. "I suggest we start at Mrs. Younger's place and work our way outwards?"
Tony sighed. "Agreed, Probie. I've got a feeling about that old bird, too."
"Four guts can't be wrong," Ziva noted, smiling briefly as Tony and McGee gave her an inquisitive look. "I too have a hinky feeling about her. Don't ask me to explain that. Abby never did fully define "hinky" for me." She winked as she dropped the sample into her bag. "Well boys, shall we?" she asked, leading the way out.
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your evidence grow…?" Tony said, as he stood, staring at Mrs. Younger's flower bed. "I think we have our weapon."
"Yeah," McGee agreed, crouching down and gently touching the delicate, silky petals. "But it's outside. Anyone could have access to it." He stood, not yet noticing the broken glass shards resting against the house.
Ziva stood silently, glancing around the well-kept yard. "She certainly seems a skilled gardener," she observed appreciatively. "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful flower garden. This must take a lot of time and effort."
Tony said nothing, looking around for other clues. "I think we need to get ourselves one big, fat, juicy search warrant before we do anything else. We're gonna need soil samples for comparison to what we found in Stanford's bathroom, and samples of this flower, see if it's consistent with the toxin in Stanford's system."
"Tony, is that what I think it is?" McGee stood with his flashlight trained on a glinting spot behind the flowers, as the broken glass finally decided to reveal itself.
The older agent moved over to where McGee was standing silently, staring intently at something. They were joined by Ziva as Tony nodded. "I think it is, McGee. Good eye. We need that search warrant, pronto."