McGee coughed for the fourth time in half an hour. Once the fit was over he gave Ziva a weary look. "I think I'm allergic to this much dust."
Ziva replied with a smirk. Gibbs had ordered them to go through the files to see if Tony's theory was right. That meant going over every file of every patient at Reedville in 2002. They'd been led into a large storage room at the back of the hospital where, it seemed, no-one ever went. Cobwebs filled the corners and a layer of dust an inch deep covered every available surface. Ziva looked down at McGee as she sat on the top of a ladder, passing the boxes down.
"Would you rather be doing Tony's job?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She reached for another box and blew a cloud of dust into the air.
McGee shivered at the thought. "God no."
"Then I suggest we don't complain."
McGee took the last box off Ziva's hands and dropped it on the floor. He sat on the stone floor and opened the lid. He grabbed a handful of files and placed them on his lap.
"You think Tony's right?" he asked as he began searching the files, checking every photo against the one of Lucy West.
Ziva shrugged. "I think it is a strong possibility," she replied as she descended the ladder and joined McGee on the floor. "But Tony is not the one going through…oh, about a hundred files, is he, McGee."
"No, he's the one locked up on a ward with a load of dangerous wackos," McGee mumbled.
"My question is," Ziva began as she tossed a file in the checked stack, "why did Kevin kill Lucy?"
"He was crazy, Ziva, I don't think he needed a reason."
"Crazy people have motives too, their motives are maybe more trivial and petty but they don't kill for no reason. Kevin had no history of violent behaviour, it says so in his file."
"Maybe something in him changed, a trigger."
"Gibbs'll find out, he's talking to the psychiatrist right now."
McGee smirked. "Bet Gibbs is loving that; he hates shrinks more than lawyers and FBI agents."
Ziva sighed as she put another file on the ever growing mound. "This is like looking for a pin in a straw-sack."
"It's needle in a haystack," McGee replied inattentively as he carried on with another pile. Ziva ignored McGee's correction, she was used to people correcting her now. Without looking Ziva reached into a box and pulled out a file. She opened it up and frowned.
"McGee?" she called. He looked up. "I think I have something."
McGee's left leg clicked as he stood up from his awkward position. He stumbled over to Ziva and sat back down. She handed him the file.
"That's her, that's Lucy West," McGee spoke excitedly. Finally a breakthrough.
Ziva shook her head. "Nope, that's Jessica Guest."
Gibbs paced the large room impatiently. He hated to wait and he hated for people he had made appointments with to be late. He eyed up the room appreciatively. It seemed like it was the warmest room in the hospital. The psychiatrist's study looked like it had come straight out of an English stately home with a large stone fireplace and green leather sofa. Old books lined the bookshelves and red velvet curtains hung at the windows. He smiled at the large framed portrait of Freud that sat on the far wall. He spun round as the door opened and an older woman rushed into the room.
"So sorry, Agent Gibbs," the woman apologised, "there was an emergency on ward five."
The woman looked at least sixty and her long grey hair was pulled up into a messy bun. She clutched a file to her chest and pushed her glasses back up her nose. She held out a hand. "Dr Philips."
Gibbs took her hand and shook it.
"Have you been waiting long?"
Gibbs quickly understood why the room looked so English. He ignored her question and asked his own. "What part of England are you from?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Hertfordshire, why do you ask?"
"Our ME is English, born in Cambridgeshire, schooled in Edinburgh."
"Sounds like you're talking about dear old Ducky." It was Gibb's turn to raise an eyebrow. She smiled warmly. "I doubt there is a Doctor in this state that Ducky doesn't know."
Gibbs smiled back. "True."
Dr Philips walked round Gibbs and behind her desk. She placed the file on the top and looked back up at Gibbs. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Tell me everything you can about Kevin Wickman."
"Hmmm," she thought out loud. "You realise I wasn't here four years ago?"
"I know, not many people here were."
"Yes, staff turnover is high." Philips walked over to a filing cabinet and opened the top draw. After rummaging around she found what she was looking for and pulled it out. She flipped open the file. "Kevin Wickman, paranoid, occasionally delusional with schizophrenic tendencies. Not a nice combination; got worse, of course, over the years. The drugs help calm him but he's a lost cause. All we can really do it keep him locked up from hurting anyone else."
"He elbowed my agent in the face."
"I'm really not surprised, Agent Gibbs," she replied with a shake of her head.
"What can you tell me about his journal?"
"I wouldn't know much, he won't let me see it."
"Well he showed it to my agent."
"Really? Well that is a surprise, to my knowledge he's never shown it to anyone, becomes quite aggressive if anyone goes near it."
"How'd you think my agent got elbowed Dr Philips?"
"Oh dear."
"Quite." Gibbs sat himself down on the leather sofa. "How do you think Kevin got hold of Lucy West in the first place? Wasn't he locked up?"
"Just remember that back then he wasn't a threat. Its says here in his file that he was given town privileges."
"What's that?"
"Some of the less dangerous prisoners are given the chance to go into Reedville town centre for a couple of hours, accompanied by nurses of course. I assume that's when it happened."
"Why would he kill?"
"I haven't a clue Agent Gibbs, maybe you should ask him that?"
"Oh believe me, we're trying."