Disclaimer: If I owned NCIS the Director would die.
AN: Wowzerz. I didn't expect a single review, but now I have ! That's unexpected. In case any of you where wondering, I don't know how long this will be. I haven't even thought it completely through. I do know who the killer is, and I have a motive, though not the best one… This is going to be a long chapter though! Oh, by the way I'll put this in bold so everyone will see it, the rest of the chapters are narrated by Ziva, and for any confusion on the time frame, it's over the summer, but Gibbs never left, because him leaving was just evil…
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It was an hour since Gibbs and McGee left, making me think they had found something. It also left me wondering why Gibbs hadn't called Tony and Me to come, yet. My thoughts where answered shortly by Gibbs' call though.
"Special agent DiNozzo." Tony answered his ringing cell phone.
"…"
"R- right Boss… Is the director dead?" That's what really caught my attention. I looked up from my computer, where I had been searching all the people the Director came in contact with in the last six months. It was practically useless, but without anything to send down to Abby, there wasn't much we could do.
"…"
"Boss… wow. I'm so-" DiNozzo stopped talking mid sentence. I had the feeling Gibbs was reminding him never to say your sorry. Tony flipped his phone closed. "Let's go Ziva."
"I should call Ducky shouldn't I?" I said as he started walking towards the elevator.
"Yeah. You should."
Fifteen minutes later we where on the road, Tony insisted on driving, I don't know why, I drive much faster. Sure, I've been in a few accidents since coming to America. Maybe I shouldn't have told Tony how many. Actually I lied a bit when I told him. The second accident was my fault, but only partially!
As we arrived at the crime scene, Gibbs was coming out the front door. Fornell was walking in front of him. I got out of the car, followed by Tony and yelled across her front yard to Gibbs, "Where's McGee?"
"Ambulance." Gibbs yelled back. One of us must've had a look on our face because Gibbs added, "He's fine the medics say it's just a concussion."
I nodded; Gibbs was now standing in front of Tony and Me. I was looking around. Director Sheppard owned a huge amount of property. It was gorgeous to, the house was old, but not run down. The land had one of those old fences surrounding it, the ones that don't use nails. The forest around it had been cleared, but lush, green trees still dotted the landscape.
"She inherited it." Gibbs commented.
Tony said, "You'd think she'd live in a less secluded area."
"It's not secluded, didn't you notice the other houses behind the trees while you where driving Tony? It's private, not secluded. There where houses everywhere if you would have looked hard enough" I corrected.
Gibbs nodded and said, "Are you guys going in? It's still a crime scene."
"On it, Boss." Tony said.
I walked up to the porch, as Tony swung the door open and said, "Ladies first." I smiled and walked in. The walls had on a Victorian style wallpaper, cream background with rose buds. A single table sat in the hall with a fake rose in a jar. I peered into the living room, just out of curiosity. It like the hallway, looked very Victorian, but a plasma T.V threw off the entire balance. The living room connected to a large dining room, and what looked like a kitchen behind that. "Nice. Director Sheppard didn't strike me as a T.V lady though." Tony commented. I hadn't even noticed him standing next to me.
"Yes well I wouldn't strike you as the type of person to know every word to 'I love rock and Roll'." I replied with a smile, and walked off towards the upstairs. DiNozzo stood there for a second before following me.
I looked back and forth in this hallway, it, like the entrance hallway, followed a Victorian theme. To my right I guessed was the bathroom, in front of me a guest bedroom, because it was small, and a house this big probably had a larger master bedroom. I found I was right when I saw a room painted in a modern deep red color. The director's entire bedroom was a deep red color, and not only did it not follow the Victorian theme, it looked like the bedroom of someone Tony might date, except there was no Tony in there.
The last room was where I assumed the Directors' body was because it wasn't in any of the other rooms. "You, okay Ziva?" Tony asked. He sounded genuinely concerned.
"Yes Tony, why wouldn't I be?" I sighed, "It's not like I particularly liked the woman. People much closer to me than her have died before." I know I was pushing his curiosity with that last line, but I like seeing him struggle to figure me out. Besides, it was true.
We turned into the room. It to followed the Victorian theme, but a dell, flat screen computer and a wireless telephone where set up on the antique looking desk. Director Sheppard's body lay limp on the ground. Her eyes where shut, I had the feeling Gibbs shut them. The deep gash on her right cheek went from just above the eye to the end of her face. The gash wasn't the fatal wound though, the gunshot was, and it looked like it had just missed her heart. I snapped some pictures as Tony took measurements to sketch out the crime scene. That's when Ducky walked into the room.
"Oh, my." Ducky said. It wasn't the worst case he'd ever seen, I knew that, but he seemed surprised, "I was expecting just a bullet wound." Ducky said, Palmer looked a little off.
"How can someone kill the director of NCIS and get away with it?" he whispered, "That's scary, ya' know. I mean, that someone could just walk into the house of a leader of a government branch and shoot them."
"Would you like you know what's scarier Palmer?" Tony looked at him with an eyebrow raised, "She trusted whoever shot her." Palmer's face dropped with shock.
"How did you know?" He stuttered.
"By the blood spatter. She was looking at whoever it was, which means they didn't completely sneak up on her." Tony started explaining.
I added, "By the angle of the splatter we can assume they where up close to her. Which means she let them get close."
"Than what about the cut?" Palmer asked.
"That, Mr. Palmer, we will have to investigate. We need to find out whether the gash was given to her after she was shot, or before. My theory though, is after." Ducky said, getting up, "Now I'm going to go find Jethro and find out some more things. I believe, she may have been alive when he and McGee got here." Tony and I locked eyes for a second. We both knew, that if what ducky said was true, than things would be bad.
I knew we still had to dust for prints and explore other aspects of the scene, but curiosity got the best of me. I tried telling my self the American saying, 'Curiosity killed the rat' it was a useless effort though. I found myself thinking, Poor Gibbs. What if she died the minute he walked in? That would be horrible. I had been so engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn't even noticed I'd followed Ducky all the way through the house and back outside, all the while Tony was tailing behind me.
Gibbs was leaning against the van he and McGee used to drive out here. Ducky approached Gibbs and Tony and I hung back, but stayed close enough to hear what they where both saying.
"Jethro?" Ducky started, "Are you alright?"
Gibbs grunted something that sounded like yes.
"I don't believe that Jethro." Ducky slanted his eyes and used a firm voice. I bet Ducky would've been great at interrogation when he was younger. I found myself thinking.
"She died in my arms, Ducky. She thought I was a fool for thinking she wouldn't die."
"I'm sorry Jethro, but I-"
"You where looking for time of death?" Gibbs sighed, "About 3:30, an hour before you got here."
"Thank you, Jethro."
"Anytime, Ducky."
Ducky walked back and signaled for some people to put the Director's body in a body bag. "I can't believe this happened, Ziva." Tony said, "Someone killed Director Sheppard.
"Yeah… Wait, didn't Gibbs say the director was kidnapped, not killed." I said, remembering when he came back after his phone call.
"Yeah, he did. I wonder if they just wanted us to come soon." Tony said.
"What if they wanted Gibbs to come not all of us, that's why they called him?" I half stated half asked.
"It's a possibility. We'd better finish with the crime scene. Gibbs is going to put us through hell trying to figure out who did this. The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can solve this case," Tony said and started to walk back towards the house, I could've sworn I heard him mumble under his breathe, "if that bastard Fornell doesn't steal the case."
As I walked back into Director Sheppard's computer room, I thought of something. I pulled the door shut a little. A small, thin line of blood was on the wall; it was barely noticeable, "Tony look. I don't think it's Director Sheppard's blood."
"Hmm. That's odd. So you think the Director fought back or something?" Tony pondered.
"Yeah, take a sample of that blood. I'll get finger prints off the inside of the doorknob." I mumbled. I had a theory that may play into Ducky's theory.
"Ziva, look at the cut in the rug." Tony said. I walked over. It was right next to where Tony put the case down that carried the evidence bags and things.
"What do you think it's from?"
"Whatever slashed the Director."
"I'd bet my life's saving on that. Look there's blood on that little part of the rug." I said, and grabbed scissors from the case. I cut away the piece of rug that had the blood on it and stuffed it in an evidence bag. It wasn't even a 1-inch X 1-inch piece of rug, but it carried vital information. Sometimes things like that amazed me, but only sometimes.