Hidden Enemy
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything
Summary: Someone attacks Kate, almost killing her. Why is her blood found on Gibbs´ shirt and just why is his DNA under her nails?
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6- Abby´s Day
Tony awoke from the sound of someone calling his name. He moaned and tried to ignore it, but then someone started to shake him. "Tony, get up, lazy bones. You have to see this!" It was Abby, looking excited. She had dark circles under her eyes as she had barely slept 3 hours last night, but it didn´t matter.
"Whadde... oh, hi Abby. What you got?" He got up and stretched. McGee was getting up as well, looking crumbled and stiff.
She pulled the chemical analysis up on the big plasma behind Gibbs´ desk. "The stuff on there is chemical and highly volatile, but I got enough to match it with a sample from the database." She said and he noted that she sounded almost too cheerful. It was always like this when she was on the right track.
"So, what it is?" He asked and stared on the screen that now presented small chemical structure. "Inorganic substance?" For a moment he tried to remember his chemistry class in high school, but that had been a long time ago.
"First I thought it was spot remover fluid, but then I noticed that there was an ionic bond instead of a hydrogen bond down here. I ran it on my spectro and remembered seeing it elsewhere today!" She typed on the computer and another graph came up on top of the structure. "It´s the same stuff that´s in Gibbs´ blood. It´s pretty volatile and started to dissolve already, but it´s definitely the same. Trichlormethane, Tony, that´s chloroform. Someone drugged him." Abby said and squealed in surprise when he hugged her.
"You´re a genius, Abby. We need more like that to get him out though, but it´s a start. Anything on the dirt tracks?" He asked and scribbled down more notes on what she had told him. "I need a print of those results for the file though."
"Sure thing. Oh, I ran those dirt samples from the sedan. Nothing unusual. There was something in it that looks like titan alloy and there´s a construction site between here and his house where they use it for something on the gas pipes. Nothing besides that. I think those guys at the police station are even worse than we thought. I found this under the driver seat." She held out a bag with brownish crumbles out to him. "It´s tobacco." She added and he raised an eyebrow.
"Gibbs doesn´t smoke -let alone allow anyone to smoke in his car. His addiction is caffein -everyone knows. How does that help us?" He asked while he took a sip from his cup, pulling a face as he tasted the stale, cold coffee from the day before.
"It was not just a bit of tobacco like as much as you could have stuck under your shoes, there was a whole lot. Like someone dropped it or it got spilled accidentally. I didn´t notice when I checked for the first time as it was under the mat, but when I went over it again, it just jumped at me." She told him and grinned widely. This was her day somehow. Everything seemed to go well all of the sudden, but she also knew that they would need some major evidence in his favor to get their boss cleared.
"Any match on the brand or something that´s odd about it?" Tony asked and handed the sample bag back to her. Things seemed to go better this morning and he hoped it would stay like this.
"I checked the database, nothing comparable within the US. I checked Mexico and Canada as well -nothing there either. I´m running international right now, but nothing so far. And I´m still on that shirt as well -ran 20 samples so far, but all matching Kate." She disappeared into the elevator again, bouncing slightly. Her mood seemed good and considering the results she had gotten, it was understandable.
Tony wrote it down in his notes and glanced at the paper. "I really need to get this sorted out... We have millions of pieces, but I can´t see the picture yet. That´s why I always hated jigsaw puzzles." He muttered and looked up when McGee put a large cup of coffee on his desk. "Thanks, that´s just what I need."
"I´ve been thinking about that cloth. Let´s just say someone really drugged Gibbs and took his car to attack Kate -where would he have left our boss? I mean, the blood was on his clothes, so he would have to be somewhere close when it happened, right?" McGee said as he took a large sip from his coffee. Normally, he couldn´t stand the extra strong blend, but today it didn´t taste so bad and was still too weak to fully wake him up.
Trying to sort through his notes, Tony had only half listened to his younger co-worker, but looked at him anyway. "Yeah, that´s odd. Did you ask Abby if she checked the trunk and other seats for anything? I´m going to go through those notes for a while, so why don´t you go and ask her?" Dinozzo offered and continued to write something on a new sheet. He remembered a case during his time in Baltimore that had been similar in complexity. It had taken them 3 full weeks to trace down the truedelinquent and that was with as much as10 people working on the case 24/7. On this one they were only three people, four if one counted Ducky in. There had to be something they were missing, something so vital that it could pull all those pieces into place at once, but this key remained hidden for the time being.
Abby returned to her lab, her mood having improved big times now. It felt good to finally see some bits of evidence that suggested that he had not done it. She had known that he was innocent from the start. For some reason, she dreaded the thought that she could have been at his house that night. She had decided to sleep at McGee´s place that night after the party and wondered what would have been different if she had been with Gibbs instead. Putting those thoughts off, she started another analysis on the shirt, slowly cutting it up inch by inch. Normally, nobody would be so thorough on a shirt in a case that looked as clear as this one, but she didn´t mind to work through the night again. The day was slowly drawing to an end, but Abby knew that she would have another sleepover at the office tonight.