Deep Lacerations: Chapter 5
Forensic specialist Abby Sciuto bobbed her head in time to the music, turning as she heard the doors to her lab opening. "Tony!" she exclaimed, giving the NCIS senior field agent a large hug. "Ziva!" she said, repeating the process. She got to the third agent and frowned. "Who are you?"
Special Agent Sonja Gracy sighed. "That seems to be the question of the day," she said dryly. "Sonja Gracy. I'm filling in for Agent McGee while he's on medical profile." She nodded toward the evidence slips on Abby's desk. "I believe my name is on some of those."
"Oh!" Abby exclaimed, "that's what it said! I couldn't read your handwriting."
"I hear that a lot. Agent DiNozzo said you have something?"
"Wow," Abby said, her eyebrows raised. "That sounded just like something Gibbs would have said. He doesn't mince words much. 'Get to the point, Abs,'" she said, imitating the supervisory agent. "That's what Gibbs would have said."
"Abby," Special Agent Gibbs said from the lab door. He placed a Caff-Pow in front of her. "Get to the point."
"Right," she said with a grin. "We got an ID on the victim. It actually wasn't hard, once Jimmy got me the print card."
"He's in the system?" DiNozzo asked.
"Yes, but not the system system," Abby replied. "And not the military system, either." She clicked on the display of her plasma screen, revealing what appeared to be a service record. "He's a cop. Ann Arundel County Police Department, to be exact. That's the county Annapolis is in. He works—"
"Abby," Gibbs interrupted. "The name?"
"Oh, sorry, Gibbs. Justin Chase. And—"
"Anything on the tox report?"
"Gibbs," she said, exasperated. "You need to let me finish. Anyway, his tox screen was completely clean. I even checked for things we don't usually check for, and nothing came up. Major Mass Spec took a gander at it, too, and there was nothing. He's clean."
"So how did he die?"
Abby shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, Gibbs," she said apologetically.
"What about electricity?" Gracy asked, seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone turned to face her. "I know, that's usually the medical examiner's call—"
"Why electricity?" Gibbs interrupted.
"He had taser burns on his jacket," Gracy explained. "Well, I guess I should say, he has burns consistent with a taser. The probes didn't penetrate the lining of the jacket, but if he was tased once, someone could have tried again."
"I thought about that, too, when I saw the burns," Abby admitted. "So I checked the rest of his clothes, and there wasn't anything consistent with tasers or stun guns anywhere else on his clothing, so I just discounted it."
Gibbs took a sip of his coffee, not commenting. "How did Chase get on base?" he finally asked. The three investigators turned to each other.
"Every military ID going through the gates gets scanned," Gracy pointed out.
"Chase did not have a military ID," David countered.
"Which means he would have needed a visitor's pass. Those should be logged, if the gate contractors did their jobs."
"Get on it," Gibbs ordered. "If he was going through the gate at the same time as someone, I want to know who." The three nodded and murmured their assent as they headed for the elevator.
Abby watched Gibbs watch the agents walk away. "So, what's with the new member of Team Gibbs?"
He took another sip of coffee before turning to his forensic scientist. "I haven't decided yet."
"Thank you, sir," Special Agent Sonja Gracy said as she hung up the phone. She turned to the other two investigators. "Officer Justin Chase was issued a visitor's pass at the Visitor Access Center at 1630 yesterday afternoon. He arrived in the vehicle of one Midshipman First Class Kerry Peete. Unfortunately, military bases don't make a habit of recording people leaving, so nobody noticed when he stayed beyond the visiting hours, ending at 1700 last night."
"So we need to talk to Midshipman Peete," Officer Ziva David commented.
"She's on her way," Gracy said with a nod. "That was the superintendant of the Academy. He's sending her in, in MP custody."
"You ordered a midshipman to NCIS for questioning without telling Gibbs first?" DiNozzo asked, his eyes wide. Gracy frowned.
"Actually, the superintendant of the Naval Academy ordered the midshipman to NCIS for questioning," she told him. "I didn't say anything. The contracting company that guards the base wouldn't give out information on student movement without the permission of the superintendant, despite the fact that they know about the dead body found there this morning. Anyway, the superintendant wants to do whatever he can to help NCIS' investigation, including ordering his midshipman to report for questioning."
"What've you got?" Gibbs asked as he suddenly appeared by his desk. Gracy, caught off-guard by the sudden entry, opened her mouth to speak, but DiNozzo was faster.
"Officer Chase got on base with a Midshipman Kerry Peete yesterday afternoon," he reported.
"So get her here," Gibbs replied.
"She's on her way," Gracy said quickly, before DiNozzo could speak. "The superintendent of the Naval Academy is having her brought here under MP escort."
Gibbs nodded. "Let me know when she arrives," he ordered, already walking away. "Good work…Agent Gracy." Ziva laughed at the offended look on DiNozzo's face.
"You are in for a treat," Agent DiNozzo commented to Agent Gracy as they stood in the interrogation room observation bay. She frowned slightly at his words.
"How so?" she asked when he didn't elaborate.
"You haven't seen an interrogation until you've seen Gibbs do one. It's inhuman, really. Like I told the recruit awhile back, bad guys would rather confess than face Gibbs in interrogation."
"I'm not so sure Midshipman Peete is the bad guy," Gracy mused thoughtfully, studying the petite blond sitting nervously in the interrogation room.
"What are you talking about?" DiNozzo asked with a frown. "She looks terrified. She clearly has something to hide."
"Oh, I'm not saying she's completely innocent," Gracy replied, turning to face him. "She brought a guy back to campus for a sleep-over. That's a major offense. Getting caught could mean the end of her Academy career."
"Harsh," DiNozzo muttered. "I knew there was a reason I didn't go to one of the academies."
"You mean aside from the fact that you could not get in?" Ziva commented.
"Hey!" he protested. "I'll have you know, the application process for Ohio State is very rigorous—"
"They made you count the number of foul balls?"
"Foul shots, Ziva," he shot back. "And you know, the life of a Division I varsity college athlete is very difficult."
"It just requires good time management skills," Gracy commented off-handedly. She had a slight glint to her eye as she said, "But I'm guessing that was the difficult part for you?" Ziva chuckled at her partner's expense. All three went silent as Gibbs entered the interrogation room.
Midshipman Kerry Peete jumped slightly at the sound of the door opening. "Midshipman," Agent Gibbs said with a nod of his head.
"Is it true?" Peete blurted out. "The dead body? Is it really Justin?"
Gibbs arched an eyebrow. "What do you think, Midshipman?"
The young woman's blue eyes filled with tears. "Oh, God," she murmured. "When he didn't answer his phone, I hoped he just turned it on silent and didn't hear it…"
"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Gibbs suggested. Peete nodded.
"Justin and I arrived on campus around 1630 yesterday," she said. "The guards reminded us that visiting hours end at 1700, as if I didn't know that after three and a half years in that hell—"
"Then why check in so late?" Gibbs interrupted. The midshipman looked up at him, a guilty expression on her face.
"My roommate's on the basketball team," she admitted. "They have an away game tonight that they left for yesterday, so I had the room to myself."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow again. "And here I thought having overnight guests at USNA was against regulation?"
Peete's eyes filled with tears again. "Oh, God," she muttered. "It was stupid, I knew it was stupid. We don't usually do anything like that—"
"He's a little old for you, isn't he?" Gibbs asked out of the blue. He picked up a folder. "According to his service record, he would have been twenty-eight next month."
Peete nodded. "And I'm barely twenty-two," she finished. "I know. Justin was my brother's best friend. They enlisted in the Marines together after high school and were shipped off to Iraq together. Justin was there when Kevin died. He told him to watch over me." She shook her head. "Stupid," she murmured. "I don't need anyone to take care of me. I was at the Academy already when Justin left the Marines. He applied to a bunch of police departments around Annapolis, even though his parents still live in Nebraska, where we grew up." She shrugged. "We've been dating since."
"Any problems?"
"Other than Annapolis' ridiculous dating rules? No. We've been talking about what we're going to do after I graduate, if he's going to follow me to flight school…Oh, God," she murmured again, her voice growing thick. "I guess we don't have to worry about that now. First Kevin, then Justin…"
"Anyone disapprove?"
Peete shook her head. "No. My family has always loved Justin, treated him like another kid when we were growing up."
"What about at Annapolis?"
She started to shake her head, then stopped. "I don't know," she said slowly. "I mean, my friends knew him, but with his job and the Academy rules, we didn't spend a lot of time together with a bunch of other midshipmen. Last night, though…"
"Last night?" Gibbs prompted as Peete's voice trailed off. She sighed heavily.
"My chemistry lab tutor, Tom Brenner, stopped by my room last night to ask if I needed help with lab report. He saw Justin and acted a little…weird."
"Weird how?"
"Weird like, disapproving, I guess. Or maybe…disappointed. I don't really know. He was only in the room for like, two minutes before he left, said something about just remembering that he had to get something in for his med school application." Her eyes went wide. "Do you think Tom could have had something to do with this?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I don't know," she said, her voice soft. "I mean, I hardly know him, but there have been times I've looked up in lab and seen him staring at me with this really creepy look on his face." She shrugged a shoulder. "I didn't really think much of it. I mean, the school is about eighty-five percent male, I'm kinda used to some creepy looks from the guys. All of the girls are." She paused. "Tom was a corpsman before coming to Annapolis and now he's pre-med. I guess he would know how to—." She stopped abruptly, shaking her head.
In the observation bay, Special Agent Gracy's eyes widened slightly. "That's how he did it," she muttered to herself. Without a word of explanation to her new partners, she left the room.