Chapter 13: Baba O'Riley
Disclaimer: I own it all!!...If you believe that, have I got a deal for you! It's this great bridge, right in the heart of Brooklyn. And if that doesn't sell it for you, I'll throw in a corral full of unicorns with pixie cowboys to ride 'em...to make it perfectly clear: No. I don't own NCIS.
Author's Note:I decided that It's time to check in on Gibbs and McGee again. This is one chapter of Gibbs and McGee's adventure, the next chapter will either be Gibbs and McGee or the Killer...that's right, I'm gonna give the Killer a whole chapter, just for them.
Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't have to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven
McGee and Gibbs shook hands with everyone then Gibbs looked around, "What are we doin' here?"
"Huh?" Owen looked at Gibbs as if he were speaking Swahili.
"If the crime scene is at wherever, why aren't we there, too?" Gibbs stated more than asked.
"Quite frankly, Special Agent Gibbs," Gary began, "There's not much to see up there."
"Not to mention that we've got interviews that will need your input of down here," Beau added an a calming tone.
"What interviews? We were not informed that there were witnesses," Gibbs said, becoming frustrated with the lack of organization and communication.
"If you can call them that," Owen scoffed.
"Shut your mouth, boy. This is important business and if'n you ain't gonna take it seriously, I reckon you'd just better head on back to wherever the hell it was you came from," Gary snapped at the younger man.
Owen's face grew red with rage, "Well, maybe I will, old man! I've been spendin' my good time trampin' through them gatdang'd woods lookin' for sumthin' that could be nothin'!"
"A Marine is dead," Gibbs cut through Owen's rant, "It's something."
Beau glared at Owen and subtly gestured for Gary to talk to him privately. Beau and Gary spoke for just a moment, then they stepped back and Gary stood in front of Owen with a commanding presence.
"Owen, I think you need to just go on home and get some rest. You're stressed and you need to have some time off," Gary said to Owen before turning to Brice, "Brice, who can we call in to take Owen's place?"
Brice pulled out a book while Owen swiped his hat off the table and stormed out of the office, cursing under his breath.
"You'll have to excuse Owen, he's barely slept since this investigation started. He just started working up here, he used to be a tour guide out at Blanchard Springs Caverns, so this is a little more stressful than he is used to handling," Gary said to McGee and Gibbs.
McGee nodded, Gibbs didn't move.
Brice pulled out a phone number and called a ranger named Sturgis Ward who said he would be at the station within the hour.
Beau showed them the crime scene photos and gave them an overview of the limited amount of evidence collected from the scene. He showed them reports from the state crime lab, but due to the limited amount of evidence in the beginning, there wasn't much to see.
"We collected several shoe prints from three different shoes, which could break the case or mean nothing," Beau said.
"It could mean that there was only one attacker," McGee offered.
"Or it could mean that one of them brought another pair of shoes," Gibbs added.
"Right, which would make sense because two of the shoe prints are roughly the same size," Beau nodded.
"You checked them against the shoes Lance Corporal Stewart was wearing?" McGee asked.
"Boy, we may look backwoods to you, but we ain't idiots. 'Course we checked the prints. One of 'em matched, which leaves us with two other shoes. We can assume that at least one pair was Justin's, the other shoe was about the same size. That could be Justin's, too-"
"Or it could be the killer's" McGee added.
"I know we don't wanna, but we can't rule out that Justin did it. I mean, that would make sense. We didn't recover any extra shoes from the scene, but if Justin killed him, he mighta changed shoes and dumped the other ones, or kept them with him. We gotta keep all of our doors open, here," Beau continued.
"What about this tire track?" Gibbs asked, pointing to a photo, "Did Lance Corporal Stewart or Justin have vehicles at the scene?"
"A Jeep Wrangler was at the scene, it was Lance Corporal Stewart's rental. The treads didn't match the Jeep. We assume that its the getaway car."
"Assume?" Gibbs growled.
"I know. I don't like it either. Our lab is swamped right now, you do realize that that's the only crime lab in the state, right?" Beau asked.
"Send it to ours," Gibbs said simply.
"I'll have that arranged while you're in interview," Beau said.
"And when will that be, Lieutenant Sampson?" Gibbs uttered.
"Right now," Gary said, striding back into the room with a man and woman following him, the woman was carrying a small child on her hip, behind the family was a man dressed in a Parks Service windbreaker, khaki pants and snake-proof boots with a green Parks Service cap on.
As the last man entered, he took off his hat, reveling short flaming red hair and he looked at Gibbs and McGee with sleepy green eyes. He had the look of a man that had been caught asleep and forced in to work, which was probably a good guess as to what was actually going on.
"Hey, you must be the feds here," the man said, he looked to be in his early thirties.
"NCIS," Gibbs corrected.
"I'm Sturgis Ward," the man said offering handshakes to McGee then to Gibbs.
They introduced themselves, then Gary turned to the family that he had led in.
"Special Agent Gibbs, Special Agent McGee, this is the Scott family. They were camping near where Lance Corporal Stewart and Justin were, they think they may have saw something that could help us out."
"McGee, you go with Lieutenant Sampson and arrange the transfer to Abby. I'll go talk to these people," Gibbs commanded.
"Got it, Boss," McGee replied, turning to Beau.
Gibbs followed Gary into a smaller office off the main room.
The Scott family all sat on a couch across from the two chairs that Gary and Gibbs occupied.
The father looked to be in his early thirties with caramel brown hair and amber eyes, the mother looked about the same age and had golden blond hair that curled down to her shoulders and bright green eyes. A little girl sat shyly between her parents, she looked to be about five and had white-blond hair and her father's eyes.
"Like I said earlier, I'm Gary Turner and this is Special Agent Gibbs with NCIS," Gary introduced, "Would you mind telling Special Agent Gibbs your names?"
"I'm Wyatt Scott," the man said, "And this is my wife, Grace, and our daughter, Zoe."
"You were camping near Lance Corporal Stewart?" Gibbs asked.
"Right."
"Did you ever hear any disturbance coming from their camp?" Gary asked.
"No, it was always calm, but then again, they usually left before sunrise and came back after sunset," Grace replied.
"Did you see anything suspicious?" Gibbs asked, beginning to wonder why they were even talking to the family.
"Well, not me or Grace personally," Wyatt began, "We were asleep that night and Zoe woke me up, she said she saw something."
Gibbs knelt down to Zoe's level and asked in a soothing voice, "What'd you see, Zoe?"
"A truck," she answered quietly.
"What kind of truck?"
"A big one."
"Did you see how many wheels it had?"
She held up four fingers.
"Four wheels?"
"And four wheels on the trailer."
"It was pulling a trailer?"
She nodded.
"What color was the truck?
"Blue."
"A blue truck with four wheels, pulling a trailer?"
She nodded again.
"What color was the trailer?"
"Black."
A blue truck with four wheels, pulling a black trailer with four wheels?"
She nodded.
"Is that all you saw?"
She nodded again.
Gibbs began to stand up, and Zoe tugged on his shirt, he looked down at her.
"But I heard stuff, too."
He knelt back down, "Wha'd you hear?"
"The truck was loud, that's why I woke up. I heard the truck stop so I went out of the tent to see what it was. It had it's lights on. Then I heard a man yell, "You don' desserve this!" then I heard a gun, then a man started screaming and the first man started yelling, then it got quiet and I heard a door shut, then the truck left."
"When did you go get your dad, Zoe?"
"After the truck left."
"Zoe, you have been a big help. You may have helped save someone's life," Gibbs said, standing up. Zoe smiled from ear to ear.
Gibbs looked at Gary and Gary knelt down to Zoe and said, "Zoe, Special Agent Gibbs needs to talk to your mom and dad, so why don't you go right out that door to Ranger Ward, he's got some crayons and a coloring book for you."
"Go on, Zoe," Grace urged.
Zoe hopped off the couch and Sturgis met her at the door.
Gibbs turned to the man, "Mr. Scott, what did you do after Zoe woke you up?"
"I went out of the tent to look around. I didn't see anything, so I went back to bed. The next day we didn't see those two guys so Grace told me I should go look over at their campsite, you know, make sure no one was hurt or anything...I walked over...made it to about the edge of their camp...then I saw him...the older guy...shot in the middle of the forehead...right there in front of me...shot while my little girl watched...I ran back to our camp as quickly as I could and told Grace what I had saw and then I ran down to a ranger station," Wyatt recounted.
Gibbs turned back to Gary, who said, "Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Scott. Your help has been greatly appreciated."
Gary and Gibbs escorted the Scotts out, then Gibbs went over to McGee and said, "McGee, tell Abby to narrow the search down to pickup trucks, but to exclude duallies."
McGee looked confused, but agreed and repeated Gibbs's words to Abby over the phone.
McGee and Beau had arranged for a scan of the tire tread to be sent to Abby's lab from the Arkansas State Crime Lab, Abby promised to run it through the system as soon as she got it in her end. At first no one wanted to send the scan, afraid that they'd get in trouble for breaking chain of evidence, but Beau had found a worked named Veronica Lee, who owed him a favor.
"Thank you so much, Veronica," Beau hung up the phone, "Its through on this end."
"Alright, Abby, bye," McGee hung up, too, "Abby's got the scan in her lab, running it."
"Special Agent Gibbs, it's about noon, it's a long ways up to the campsite and by the time we got up there the light would be fadin' fast. Why don't y'all get some lunch then head back into Russellville," Gary said, "Get some rest, you've had a lot a' travlin' goin' on. An' y'all'll want fresh eyes when we head up to the scene tomorrow mornin'. We'll meet back here at-"
"0500 tomorrow morning," Gibbs finished.
Gary looked at Brice, Beau and Sturgis, they all nodded in agreement.
"We'll be here," he said, shaking Gibbs's hand.
Gibbs and McGee got back into the SUV and drove into what could only be "downtown" Hector, not that there was much of a town anyways. They ate at a small cafe and drove, silently, back to their hotel in Russellville.
When they got there, Gibbs went out of the room, without a word. McGee didn't question him, but rather sat down on the bed nearest the window. He reached out and opened the curtains, the window looked out over the interstate, heck of a view.
With nothing else to do, McGee pulled out his phone. He knew that Abby was probably running the treads and would not be happy if he called and interrupted her, so he decided, what the hell, let's call Tony.
The phone rang for longer than McGee expected, what's taking so long?
When Tony answered, it was in more of a threatening growl than a cordial greeting, "What is it, Probie?"
Taken aback by Tony knowing it was him, McGee asked, "How'd you know it was me, Tony?"
"Caller I.D. and a personalized ringtone."
McGee was intrigued, "Personalized ringtone? Really? What is it?"
Tony paused, avoiding the question, "That doesn't matter. Whaddiya want, McGeek?"
Innocently, McGee tried to cover up the fact that he didn't have a reason, "I was just wondering how you guys were doing."
"You're spying on us, Elflord. That's not nice," Tony said, sounding annoyed, "Well, if you must know, I was trying to take a nap when you so selfishly interrupted me."
Napping? Seriously? McGee grew suspicious, "How's Ziva?"
"She's fine. Why are you asking?" Tony stated bluntly.
"Have you ever been on a trip with Gibbs?" McGee asked, hoping Tony would realize his point.
"Yeah."
"He's not much for small talk, is he?"
No, but that's no excuse to bother us, McLoser! Why didn't you just call Abby?" Tony shouted.
Us? McGee wondered how calling Tony bothered Ziva...Unless...Gibbs was right...No! Not Tony and Ziva...not for real! That's...unthinkable...wait, what was that about Abby?
"I didn't think of that," McGee mumbled.
Tony sighed loudly.
McGee continued, now digging with a purpose, "So...do you guys just have one room?"
"What are you getting at, McNugget?" Tony's voice started to get edgy again.
"Nothing, just Gibbs and me only have one room, so I wondered-" McGee began, trying to cover up his attempt to delve into his coworkers' personal lives.
"Yeah, just one. You gonna make some idiot comment?" Tony asked, as though reading McGee's mind.
"Well, I was."
"Then do it," Tony growled.
"You kinda ruined it."
"Just for the record, the chances of...you know...anything happening here are as slim as in your room, McDork...unless you and the boss-man have gettin'-it-ons in your plans," Tony said. Wow, way to change the subject...Classic DiNozzo.
McGee thought he was going to barf, "That's just...wrong, Tony...It's sick and wrong...even for you."
"I do my best,...I've ran out of insulting names to call you," Tony was proud of himself.
"I've never been happier," maybe he was out of nicknames for good.
"About gettin' it on with Gibbs?! Ewww!" Tony...
"No! No! Tony! I didn't say that! That's disgusting!"
"Come on, Probie, you gotta stop letting me bother you like that," Tony laughed.
"You know what? I'm just hanging up now. Got it?" this hadn't been one of McGee's better ideas.
"Whatever you say, Elflord."
"Oh, hey, Tony?" then it hit him.
"Yeah, McGeek?"
"My ringtone is White and Nerdy, isn't it?"
Tony didn't give an answer, he hung up the phone instead. McGee groaned in annoyance.
Gibbs returned back to the room and sat a map on top of the television. McGee stood up and asked him, "What are we gonna do now, Boss? We can't go up to the scene, it's too early to eat dinner, we don't have any evidence to go over-"
"We've got evidence, McGee," Gibbs said, "Have you talked to Tony and Ziva?"
"I talked to Tony-"
"What've they got?" Gibbs asked.
"...I didn't think to ask..." McGee said, ashamed.
"Didn't think to ask?!...What about Abby?"
"I haven't talked to her, Boss."
Gibbs pulled out his phone and dialed the lab.
Abby picked up the phone and squealed, "GIBBS!"
"Hey, Abs."
"I haven't talked to you in so long!"
"It was yesterday, Abby."
"That feels like forever! How are you guys doing? Is McGee okay? Did he get airsick? How are Tony and Ziva?" Abby barraged him with questions.
"Everything's fine, Abby. Now, how about those tire treads?"
"Okay, about those treads...the tires were pretty special, so it narrowed down our search a lot. The type of tires that made the treads are off a Dodge pickup truck-"
"Pickups are a dime a dozen out here, Abs."
"Wait! You didn't let me finish. It's a Dodge 1500 pickup truck, but not just any Dodge 1500. The tires are special, like I said, they only use them on the fully-loaded versions, and not just any dealership sell the version with those tires. They usually sell them as a "special version" or something like that. It's like a big package, they get to call them a "special edition" and then they stick the dealership's name all over the truck and fully-load it. This wasn't a cheap truck, Gibbs."
"Abby," Gibbs growled.
"Right, okay. So it was a Dodge 1500, last year's model and it was the fully tricked out model."
"Thanks, Abs."
"Wait! Gibbs! That's not all I've got for you! I did a search of the dealerships that sell that particular truck with those particular tires, then I worked backwards to see if they had sold that truck and those tires last year and I got a whole lot of dealerships, but one stood out a lot Gibbs."
"Why, Abs?"
"Because there was one within, like, thirty minutes of Judson Hill."
"Okay."
"So, in conclusion, you are looking for a blue 2007 Dodge 1500 Red River Edition pulling a black trailer," Abby said, proudly.
"Thanks, Abs."
"Anytime, Gibbs. Bye!"
Gibbs hung up the phone and turned to McGee and said, "McGee, get Lieutenant Sampson. We need to put out a BOLO on a blue 2007 Dodge 1500 pulling a black trailer, Abby said the truck was a "Red River Edition", whatever that means."
McGee pulled out the phone, called Beau and repeated what Gibbs had said.
Gibbs looked at his watch and nodded for McGee to follow him.
They went down to the SUV and began to drive. They drove all over the city, all over the campus of Arkansas Tech, they drove down to the Arkansas River and they drove as close as you could to the nuclear power plant, before Gibbs decided that it was late enough to eat dinner.
They ate Feltner's What-A-Burger, a small restaurant across the street from the college campus.
After they finished, they went back to the hotel room, and McGee turned on the TV to the local news.
"-Arkansas State Police continue their investigation into the murder of Lance Corporal Daniel Stewart, found shot in north of Atkins in the Ozark National Forest. Sources close to the investigation tell us that federal agents from the Navy Criminal Investigative Services have been brought in to aid in the investigation. In addition to Lance Corporal Stewart's murder, an 18 year-old-boy is missing from the crime scene. Justin Spencer, shown here, has not been seen since the day before Lance Corporal Stewart's murder. If you have any information on Spencer's whereabouts or Lance Corporal Stewart's murder, you are urged to call the Arkansas State Police at the number on the screen. As always, Today's THV will keep you up to date on this case as the news breaks. Now out to Ed in the Weather Garden. Ed, it looks like Joey the Garden Cat is having a late supper."
"Yeah, Liz, Craig, Joey's enjoying this nice Spring weather pattern we've got going on. Can you blame him? But it looks like thing's are gonna get more interesting as the week goes on-"
"McGee, shut that damn thing off," Gibbs said, laying down in his bed and shutting off his light.
McGee did as he was told, and followed suit.
Author's Note: The song is Baba O'Riley by The Who, it's often miscredited as Teenage Wasteland, because that's a part of the song that a lot of people know...or you may know it as the CSI: New York theme song, that's where I was first introduced to it. Now it's one of my favorite songs.
I decided that I didn't like Owen, that's right, I decided I didn't like him before he had even said a word. I like Sturgis a lot better, don't you?
Oh! And guess who Veronica Lee is! I'll give you a hint, she's not related to Agent Lee from NCIS. If you guess right, I'll give you a hypothetical cookie!
Oh, and yeah, downtown Hector. Been there, done that. Quiz bowl! Whut?!
I like the phone conversation, it reminded me how much I had neglected Gibbs and McGee, cause in the Tony/Ziva storyline that was, like, two chapters back.
Oh, and McGee's getting' suspicious, isn't he?
The truck, about the truck. The truck is my grandpa's truck. He bought it used from a relative and it fit the type of truck I was goin' for, so I changed the color and the year model and made it my "mystery truck". ...But I don't know much about trucks so to write that I had to consult a "professional", enter Zach, my 12-year-old brother.
Me: Zach! What's Papa's truck?
Zach:...A Dodge...
Me: What kind of Dodge?
Zach: I dunno...like a 1500 or sumthin'...
Blame Zach if I got it wrong.
Hey look, those three paragraphs all started with "Oh", anywho, Feltner's What-A-Burger is tasty, tasty. It's not the Whattaburger chain, it's an independent restaurant and I love it! We go there on, like, every school trip through Russellville. But Walker always makes us go to Subway afterward because he won't eat at What-A-Burger. I asked him if he didn't like it and he said, "No, I love it...but I like foot-long roast beef sandwiches better."...sigh...
The news people are all real people...except Joey the Garden Cat, he's a real cat. Hey, and what was that there at the end? That thing that Ed said about getting more interesting later in the week. Is that just about the weather? Or is Ed Buckner the psychic meteorologist? (Oh, and a bonus hypothetical cookie to anyone who can tell me where else in this fic Ed's been mentioned)
So, this time, Pete Townsend, Liz Massey, Craig O'Neill, Ed Buckner and Joey the Garden Cat all want you to review...don't make Ed Buckner send a tornado to distroy my house!
Hey, and if you guys don't mind throw up a little love, prayer, thought, etc. for yours truly; I'm taking the ACT this Saturday and I really hope that I do good, we don't have the money to pay for me to go to college without scholarships. (Bonus hypothetical cookie if you're taking the ACT soon!)