Everything In Time
Chapter 17
Thursday, January 25, 2007
0930 Local Time
NCIS Office
Norfolk, VA
After Ducky and Jimmy Palmer took Vivian's body back to the Navy Yard, Emma stayed behind in Norfolk to pursue the investigation of Vivian's death. Something about Detective Bonifilo rankled her. She was too smug saying "The case would solve itself." Emma visibly cringed when she first heard it.
Now she was sitting at Vivian's desk. She was looking at her notes, searching for clues detailing her life between when she left the office Friday the 19th and her death. Emma booted up Vivian's computer, going to her calendar.
She saw that the last entry was on that Friday for 1300 (Ride to Capeville, Maryland to a possible meth lab.)
Emma began to search Vivian's notebook. She found a page in Viv's notebook listing directions to Londo's Farm in Capeville. She turned to Agent Claire Keats sitting at the next desk and asked, "Hey Claire, feel like taking a ride to Maryland?"
Claire worked with Paris Summerskill and her Red Team. The team had traveled to Norfolk from Georgia at Diane's instructions to assist in the investigation of Vivian's murder.
"Sure Emms. Whatcha got in mind?"
Emma held up Viv's notebook saying, "I want to check out this farmhouse. I think this is where Viv was taken."
"Okay let's go."
When they got to Emma's car, Claire asked, "Any sign of Viv's agency car on the Lojack system?"
"No signal was returned on the scan that was initiated on Monday when she was 'no-call/no-show'. That's what's strange. There should be a signal. That leads me to believe that her kidnapper knew of the Lojack. I got a feeling we're dealing with a crooked cop."
"Anybody in mind?"
"Yeah, but I can't say for sure right now. I just got a gut feeling."
"You've been hanging out with Gibbs too much."
"Maybe, but I've been investigating since I worked with Sarah Marshall at JAG. She always told me to trust my gut. Hell, her gut's solved a case or two. She was practically clairvoyant."
Claire smiled at that and sat silently as Emma drove. When they got to the Londo farm, they got out a cautiously began to inspect the property. It was rundown and in need of repair. They tried the door and found that it was unlocked. They walked in with their guns and their flashlights drawn. As they looked around, Emma said, "Someone's been here recently. Look at the dust patterns on the floor and the footprints. Let's look in the other rooms."
"Right behind ya," Claire said following Emma.
Emma opened another door, looked into the room and saw, "Dust lots of it. No one's been in this room for a long time. I think this house is where Viv was kept before she was transported to Rico's place."
"Makes sense. But where is her car?"
"Got a feeling whoever rode here with her, drove her car away and abandoned it somewhere. It could be crushed or burned."
"So, what do we do now?"
"After we check in at the office, let's go to the Virginia Beach morgue. I'd like to know what they have on Rico. Also, let's do a title search on this property. I'd like to see if anything illegal went on here in the past. It's unusual for a house in this area to be deserted."
"Good idea. Let me call McGee at the Navy Yard. He'll have something by the time we get back to Norfolk."
With that Emma and Claire went back to their car and drove off.
1545 hours Local Time
NCIS Office
Norfolk, VA
When Emma and Claire returned to Norfolk, they had a message from Ducky waiting for them. Emma sat down to call him. When the call was connected, Emma asked, "What up Ducky?"
"Agent Gardiner, I found something interesting in the examination of Vivian's body."
"What did you find Ducky?"
"I found that Vivian was suffering from anaphylaxis as she was being tortured. There was a swelling of her throat that indicated an allergic reaction to a substance or material."
"Anaphylaxis? What was she allergic to?"
"Latex. If you are at her desk, you'll find a box of non-latex gloves in the drawers."
Emma was sitting at Vivian's desk and set to open the desk drawers. She found a box of latex-free gloves, just as Ducky predicted.
Emma got back on the phone to ask, "Where did the latex make contact with her Ducky?"
"On her back. It seems that her rapist used latex gloves as she was being killed. As we know anyone who has a severe allergy to latex will have lesions on the skin wherever the latex makes contact. Also, I found another oddity."
"What was that Ducky?"
"When I ran the rape kit, I found semen in the vaginal canal only."
"What was odd about that? She was raped, wasn't she?"
"Yes, she was. There is vaginal bruising indicating forced penetration. But the semen was only coating the walls of the vaginal canal. There was no semen in the cervix or at the entrance of the uterus. Also, the semen had no motility. I found traces of a spermicide. That would indicate that a condom was used during copulation. That is contradictory to the semen in the vagina"
"Do we know if the semen was Rico's?"
"Not yet. I'm still waiting for results from the Virginia Beach morgues determination."
"Okay, Claire and I will go over there and see what they found."
"Very well. Let me know what you find out." At that Ducky ended the call.
Emma gathered Claire and they went out to the Virginia Beach Morgue.
When Emma and Claire arrived at the morgue they met the medical examiner, a lady in her middle forties, with dark hair shot through with gray. They showed their identifications, with Emma asking, "Dr….?
"Jenkins, Mary Jenkins. Are you here about the guy with the blue Mohawk?"
"Yes, what can you tell us about Rico?" Clair asked.
"Well, we ran a tox screen. It showed that he took a dose of Viagra and overdosed on the drugs he was alleged to be selling. That was the cause of death. Also, I found that he was restrained in some way."
"How could you tell?" Emma asked.
"There were ligature marks on his legs, ankles, and wrists."
"It was known that he was into bondage-sex. Maybe he was a real masochist," Claire surmised.
"Possibly; still I found taser marks on his neck and his groin. It looked like they were held onto him for a long time. Long enough to stun him into unconsciousness. Whoever restrained him knew how to use the taser."
"What about his semen. Did it match the samples from the rape kit Dr. Mallard ran on our agent?" Emma asked.
"Yes, it does. Just before you entered, I had just spoken with Dr. Mallard. He faxed me the DNA profile that he had. It did match our victim here. I also found samples of spermicide on his penis as well as numerous strands of blonde pubic hair mixed with his pubic hair. Is Agent Blackadder a real redhead? I didn't find any red hair on Rico's body."
Emma was greatly intrigued by this as she responded, "Yes Vivian was really redheaded. She was pretty proud of it too."
"Well, if Rico had forced intercourse with Agent Blackadder, he did so with his pants on. Both sex partners leave a trace of themselves on the other when they have intercourse."
"Is it possible that a blonde woman had intercourse with Rico using a condom and used the spent condom in some way to transfer his semen onto Agent Blackadder?"
"I guess so. Anything is possible. Did you find any used condoms at the murder scene?"
"No, we didn't. We'll have to check with Detective Bonifilo on that," Emma replied. She had another thought and asked, "Can we have some of the blonde hairs for analysis by our lab?"
"A sure I divided them into two evidence bags. I figured that I'd send one bag to the FBI to see if they matched anyone in their database."
"We'll do that. I think the one who had sex with Rico is the killer."
"Really? Do you want me to share that with Detective Bonifilo?"
"Uhm, hold off on that. I don't want to send her on a wild goose chase against a bogeyman. She thinks that Rico raped and killed our agent and then shot himself up to get high and accidentally overdosed."
"No, it wasn't accidental. There was too much heroin and fentanyl in his drug screen for it to be accidental. He was a pharmacist after all. No, I think the killer injected that shot. Don't forget the taser marks."
"Okay, doc. I'll call you about the blonde hairs."
"I'll look forward to that. Speak with you then."
"Okay see ya doc," Emma said as they left the morgue
When they got to their car, Claire asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'
"If you're thinking that Vivian's rape was staged to let us, think Rico was the killer, then yes. I want a background check on Detective Bonifilo. She doesn't strike me as being on the up-and-up. She was a bit too smug at the crime scene; especially when she said the blonde hair, I found on the bed was hers." Emma was thinking, 'I bet that blonde hair will match the blond hairs found on Rico's groin."
"Okay let me call Gibbs and McGee and get Bonifilo's background check started." While Claire drove them back to the Norfolk Office, Emma made her call.
Just as they reached the office, it was Gibbs who called them with the results of the background search.
"We dug into Bonifilo's background as you asked. Before she became a cop in Virginia, she was associated with some unsavory types; one of them being her common-law husband Vince Dolan. Dolan was arrested by the FBI in a drug bust that Vivian, as an FBI Agent, took part in. Dolan was selling products for a drug cartel. When he was arrested, the feds confiscated their product. They didn't take kindly to their product being confiscated, so they had Dolan killed in prison by their associates. They knifed him in the throat while he was out in the prison yard."
"If she was associated with Dolan and others like him, how was she able to become a cop?" Claire asked.
"Well, she was clever enough not to ever get arrested. We only knew she was living "common-law" with Dolan because they filed their income tax returns jointly. All criminals, even the Sopranos, remember that Al Capone got caught because he didn't file any taxes. It was only after we saw that she knew Dolan, that we started digging into his past associates. Also, the title search you wanted on the farmhouse you investigated looking for signs of Vivian being there, is also the house where he was arrested. It belonged to the Longo family. The Longo family is from the maternal or mother's side of Dolan's family"
"Interesting, is there anything else we need to know of Dolan or Bonifilo?" Emma asked.
"Yes, one of the people she knew back then was Jennifer Coates, now Rabb."
"Really? She may be able to shed some more light on Bonifilo. We'll drive back to DC tonight and speak with her tomorrow."
"Do you want us to speak with her today?" Gibbs asked.
"No, she's practically family to me and she'll be more receptive to our conversation. If you speak with her Gibbs, she'll really get her back up."
"Okay, I'll let you handle that. Keep me in the loop, okay?"
"Okay, Gibbs."
Friday, January 26, 2007
1000 Local Time
National Naval Medical Center, Doctor's Lounge
Bethesda, MD
Emma went into the hospital and up to the Psychology Offices. She saw the department receptionist, a Petty Officer with whose nametag read "Acevedo" and showed her credentials and said, "Ensign Jennifer Rabb and I have an appointment."
"Yes, Agent Gardiner; she's expecting you. Please follow me to her office."
Acevedo led Emma down the hall to a door with Jen's name and rank printed on the plague protruding from the door frame. She knocked and entered at Jen's call of "Come in". When Emma entered the small office Jen got up from behind her desk to greet her. They exchanged a tight hug and touched cheek to cheek.
"So, Emma, what brings you to me?"
"Jen, do you remember Pia Bonifilo?"
"Yeah, she's a totally evil bitch. She was sort of the ringleader of our merry band of miscreants. She wanted to control everything. I was totally afraid of her."
"Did you know Vince Dolan?"
"Yeah, he was her common law husband. I heard he was killed in prison. But I have to ask, what do they have to do with me? I left that life behind me when I went into the Navy."
"Well in case you didn't hear it, one of our agents, Vivian Blackadder was murdered in Virginia Beach. It was made to look like a drug dealer she was investigating did the deed. Pia Bonifilo was the VBPD detective to catch the case."
"She's a detective? How the fuck did that happen?"
"She kept her nose clean. She was never arrested for anything and apparently her background check was shoddy as the VBPD didn't do a deep enough dive into her background and her associates; so, she slipped by."
"So why come to me?"
"We think that Vivian was killed for revenge as she was one of the FBI agents to arrest Vince Dolan on a drug sting in January 1998…"
"I was there. I knew something was off as Vince and I went inside. Before we went to that meet, he told me that they were trying to buy auto parts from stolen and stripped cars for the cars he was rebuilding in his yard. When I saw that drugs were involved, I left the house and went to the car to drive away. Just as I was pulling onto the road, I saw the police lights and kept going. It was after that that I tried to float some bad checks to raise traveling money to get away from her. That's when I got arrested and sent into the Navy."
"Well, it seems someone wasn't happy that Dolan was busted and then murdered in prison. I think it's Bonifilo."
"So, what do you want from me?"
"I needed a little background on Bonifilo to give me probable cause to investigate her. Also, you need to keep an eye out for her. She doesn't have cause to investigate you for Vivian's murder as you didn't know her…."
"That's right."
"So, if Bonifilo shows up asking questions, you need to call me or Diane Rabb ASAP." Emma gave Jen her business card.
"I'll keep that in mind. I have her number and Harm's number on speed dial on my cellphone. Do I have to worry about my family? I got a feeling we're going to have to dive into the family protocols, again."
"You might have to. Tell Sergei everything we discussed. And let your Security department here know what's going on. If Bonifilo is bold enough to use her PD authority to come here to speak with you, they'll be a buffer between you and her. I'll also have Director Rabb call them. I'll let John and Sarah know what's going on as well. In the meantime, I'll let you get back to work."
"Okay see you again."
They shared a quick hug and kiss goodbye before Emma walked out.
As she drove out of the medical center parking lot, Emma spotted a plain black Crown Victoria with the usual plain hubcaps that practically screamed 'cop-car' parked across from the entrance. What really upset her was the female she saw. She was skilled enough to not show a reaction and drove away as if she didn't see the car.
"So Bonifilo came here after all," Emma said out loud as she drove on.