Halloween was nice. Kelly had been invited to a Halloween party, which left just Jethro and Shannon to hand out candy. It was a rather family-oriented neighbourhood, which was why they'd bought the house to begin with, so they got lots of trick-or-treaters.
He and Shannon answered the door to hand out candy, but when they weren't doing that the couple was busy eating junk food and watching horror movies.
He'd kept his phone with him the entire evening, though, and even stayed up until Kelly had safely walked through the front door.
The next morning, his entire team was hoping to finally crack the Korby case. It felt like they weren't getting closer. They knew it had to be someone close to him, but that was still multiple suspects and the team needed a new lead if they were ever going to figure this mess out.
DiNozzo, helping himself to some of the treats that were on McGee's desk, brought up the wife yet again. The younger man wouldn't budge on his suspicions.
"The stepdaughter, Rachel, is from a previous marriage. But Sara Korby has been married three times," DiNozzo said. "All Marines, all dead. All with juicy life insurance payouts. Once is a tragedy, twice a coincidence, three times is a pattern. We're talking about a black ops widow."
"Tony," Ziva pointed out, "the first two husbands died in the line of duty. Giving you no reason to suspect she had anything to do with the third one's death."
"Well, I got..." DiNozzo started.
"Evidence?" he pressed, already knowing the answer, as he walked up to Ziva's desk to see what exactly she was working on.
DiNozzo gave him a look. "Not to speak of, Boss."
And that right there was the crux of it, in Jethro's opinion. They dealt with evidence, not unproven theories. "Then stop speaking. McGee?"
"According to base records," McGee said, "the car we're looking for is still missing from the livery. No sign of anyone checking it out." Jethro started walking over to his own desk. "Boss, I am going to find that car."
Just then, Ziva's phone started to ring.
"Korby's tour in Afghanistan," he stated, opting to ignore the ongoing phone call for the moment. Ziva would fill them in after if it was important and she wasn't one to fool around on the job. "His file, where is it?"
"Central Command hasn't declassified the after-action report yet," DiNozzo chimed in. "Unit's only been back seventy-two hours. Just waiting for the report."
"Fine," he said. "I want it immediately once it's declassified."
His Senior Field Agent dipped his head slightly. "Will do, Boss."
"Gibbs," Ziva said as the call ended, immediately getting Jethro's attention, "the squad leader just arrived at the gate."
"Alright," he said. He then gestured to Ziva. "Come on. You're with me."
Leaving DiNozzo and McGee in the squad room, he and Ziva went to escort Sergeant Barnes to the conference room, stopping to grab some coffee on the way. With any luck, the Marine sergeant would be able to shine more light on what exactly was going on with the squad.
Jethro placed a document down in front of the sergeant. "It says here you're up for a promotion, Sergeant Barnes."
The sergeant nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"So was Lance Corporal Korby," Ziva pointed out. "You did not give him a very good recommendation." She then started reading off the paper in front of her. "Korby has at times, proven to be difficult to discipline. A detriment to unit cohesion and morale."
"I also say Korby was a dedicated, courageous, hard-working Marine," the sergeant calmly said in his defence.
"Even in battle, he was a practical joker, no?" Ziva pressed.
As expected. Sergeant Barnes confirmed it. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Right," he said. "What's funny in boot camp... isn't always funny in a live-fire zone." He fully understood why the men in Korby's unit took exception to him.
"Two schools of thought in battle," the sergeant agreed. "Some Marines like to keep their focus... Head on a swivel."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Some like to keep it loose... keep from cracking."
"Half the guys loved Korby," the sergeant said. "The other half, not so much."
"What about you?" he questioned.
"As their squad leader it was my job to keep the peace between the two," the sergeant pointed out - not that he'd done a good job of it.
"Well," Ziva chimed in, "someone got mad enough at Korby to slip him a dose of paint thinner. Almost killed him."
"Korby was ill a few days," Sergeant Barnes informed then. "Thought it was a stomach virus. Never said anything about being poisoned."
"Where were you two nights ago?" he questioned.
"Finishing up debriefing paperwork," the sergeant said. "Never left the base."
"Who in the unit had the biggest problem with Korby?" he inquired.
The man seemed to hesitate slightly before answering. "No one, in particular, Sir."
"Okay," he said, standing up from where he was seated. "Then we investigate them all." He then took a few steps towards Ziva and leaned down to speak to her. "Put a hold on all promotions."
Ziva gave a little hum in response.
He grabbed his coffee and deliberately walked by the sergeant as he made his way to the door of the conference room, making eye contact. "It's gonna get ugly."
He was just opening the door when Jethro heard, "Sir."
He turned around to face the sergeant. "Private David Singer. He and Korby had a falling out. Didn't come from me."
Well, that was something.
At Quantico, he and DiNozzo quickly located Private Singer. The man claimed he was in Norfolk visiting a friend and that nobody hated him enough to kill him. The man then gave them the name of his friend to corroborate his alibi.
Back in the squad room, McGee reported that he had chatted with Afghanistan Central Command in MTAC and was able to put together a brief history of the Lance Corporal's unit. It was not good. The unit was in chaos. There were multiple transfer requests, complaints, and they were deemed not combat-ready two different times.
To all appearances, it all started after Lance Corporal Korby was poisoned. Before that, there were only exemplary remarks about the unit; citations, promotions, they were on their third tour. They were a well-oiled machine.
"What would make a Marine unit fall apart?" DiNozzo questioned.
"Lack of discipline?" McGee suggested.
"Yep," Jethro agreed. "Or too much." If a unit was disciplined too much because of one man, resentment would build. The job was high stress enough as it was.
With that, he quickly headed down to autopsy to see if he could confirm his suspicions of what was going on. It sounded like the lance corporal had been subjected to a Code Red and everything then spiralled out of control.
"Ah, Jethro!" Ducky said by way of greeting. The medical examiner turned to Palmer. "Take those up to Abby, would you please?"
"Yes, Doctor." The young medical assistant immediately moved to do as asked.
"I'm glad you're here," Ducky said without preamble.
He glanced over the body. "Body was beaten, doc."
"I found evidence of multiple contusions and abrasions," Ducky said, walking over to the x-rays he had up. "Usually, I do my autopsies from the outside in, but, due to the frosty circumstances here, I was forced to reverse the process."
"When?" he questioned, walking over to where Ducky was.
"Well, based on the healing of this rib fracture here," Ducky said, pointing to one of the x-rays while he discussed his recent findings with him, "I'd say that those injuries were probably sustained before he was poisoned the first time.
"Afghanistan," he stated. "Attackers avoided vital organs."
"Correct," the medical examiner said. "There were no blows on the kidneys or spleen."
"Tried to teach him a lesson," he said. "Tried to hurt him without really hurting him?"
The last comment of his definitely got the medical examiner's attention. The man eyed him. "You've seen this before, I presume?"
"Yeah," he confirmed with a sigh. "Code red." Jethro then started walking back over to the body. "Somebody gave Korby a beat down before moving on to poison."
"Someone?" Ducky said with a rather sardonic laugh. "There are traces of bruising on his wrists and ankles. Additionally, subdural contusions suggest that at least four assailants delivered a myriad of blows. These patterns tell me that this was more than just someone."
He gave Ducky a pointed look. "Whole squad wanted this guy gone, Duck."
Jethro wasted no time in confronting Korby's squad leader.
The man rather quickly admitted that he approved a code red because he wanted Korby to shape up. People had problems with Korby and he wanted to teach him a lesson.
Furthermore, the squad leader himself was the one who poisoned Korby with a drop of paint thinner. The sergeant tried to justify it by saying that he wanted Korby shipped home on medical leave "for his own good." He did, however, deny any knowledge of what happened to Korby back in the States.
After that conversation, things happened quickly. Jethro definitely had to agree with DiNozzo that Private Singer, who belonged to Korby's unit, was having an affair with Korby's wife, Sara.
When brought in, Sara confessed that she was about to seal the deal with Singer and that she was coming home to confess to Korby around the time of the crime.
As DiNozzo noted, she admitted to being at the crime scene around the time of the crime. Still, she maintained that she had no idea how he died.
Just as DiNozzo was about to cuff Sara, Jethro realized Sara was telling the truth and had nothing to do with Korby's death, despite the affair. There was someone else with even more motive.
"No," he said, stopping his Senior Field Agent.
"No you're not," DiNozzo said, clearly confused.
Jethro walked to the door. "DiNozzo. Evidence garage. Now."
Walking into the squad room with purpose, he quickly got his long-time probationary agent's attention. "Hey, McGee."
McGee immediately looked up from his computer. "Yeah, Boss?"
"Footage of the Marine car," he demanded.
"Let me pull it up," the younger agent said.
A short moment later it was up on the computer screen.
"Rewind it." It wasn't nearly as clear as he would like, but he was hoping they could still use it. "There, freeze it." He glanced at McGee. "Can you clean that up?"
"Let's see," McGee said, fooling around with the footage for a moment. "It's a car parked on the street." He glanced up at Jethro. "Boss, that's Korby's car."
He patted the younger agent on the shoulder. "Nice."
With that, he rushed down to the evidence garage where both DiNozzo and Ziva were already waiting for him.
"DiNozzo," Jethro said as he walked into the garage, "driver's side." He made a gesture with his hand. "Come on."
DiNozzo followed him over to the right side of the car.
Jethro opened the car door. "Get in."
"Okeydokey," his Senior Field Agent said.
DiNozzo did as asked but instantly fell back in the chair.
Getting out of the car, his Senior Field Agent spoke. "The seat is too far forward."
"Exactly," he said.
"The seat has been in that position since the murder," Ziva pointed out.
"Car was parked in the street when the footage of the Marine car was captured by those kids," he fired back.
"But when Korby was found dead in the car -" DiNozzo had finally caught on to what it was that Jethro was getting at.
Ziva had evidently caught on as well. "- The car was parked in his driveway."
He started making his way back over to the elevator. "Pull all financial records from the death of Sara's second husband."
Rachel, Lance Corporal Korby and Sara's teenage stepdaughter was about to cash in on a hefty trust fund and inheritance if she were able to kill her stepfather and frame her stepmother.
When confronted, it didn't take long Rachel confessed, the spoilt party girl merely wanting to know what was going to happen to her money now.
Deciding that the reports could wait until the next day, he booked Sara for the murder of her stepfather and sent his entire team home.
After everything, Jethro just wanted to go home and hold his own daughter.
