CHAPTER 5
Gibbs walked into the room, every set of eyes on him, their gazes expectant.
"You all have to leave" Gibbs met the eyes of person in the room.
The denials all came at once.
Gibbs held up his hand for silence, and gradually the noise subsided.
"I will not let Vance bring any of you down with me. You want to help? You find the link"
"What link?" Fornell was confused
"There has to be one, and if this is as personal as we think it is, the link has to be Gibbs" McGee's mind was already racing through different search strings.
"Go deep McGee, deeper than you've ever gone before"
"Need me to do anything?" Fornell asked
"Maybe, I'll let you know" McGee nodded to Gibbs and left the room.
Ziva and Tony followed looking less than pleased.
"You too Abs"
"How come he gets to stay and I don't?" she pouted, indicating Fornell.
"He doesn't, he'll be leaving right behind you"
Suppressing a growl of frustration, Abby left.
Fornell walked to the door "Director can't stop me stopping by"
"Counting on Fornell"
Abby had made Tony wait just so she could be sure Fornell was actually leaving.
When she saw him drive off, she allowed to Tony to start the car and then immediately kicked off at him. Tony focused on the road and let Abby vent her fear and frustration.
When they got back to the Navy Yard, Tony caught Abby in a huge hug. "I promise, we'll get him back"
"I miss him Tony"
"I know"
"What do we do?"
"What we do best, find the bad guy"
In the squad room McGee immediately set to work, kicking off several searches.
"McGee, what exactly are you doing, and please, speak English"
"I'm cross referencing all the victims with Gibbs name and ID number"
"How long will it take?"
"I don't know, a while, I didn't restrict the timeframe or the database, I'm just fishing really"
"All right, everyone go home, we need some sleep" Everyone was exhausted so none of them argued.
The next morning everyone was in early, hovering around McGee's desk, hoping his searches would give them some lead to focus on.
"Still running guys" McGee was disappointed but not really surprised.
Tony called everyone together down in Autopsy. He had realised over night that they all had to start being pro active, not just wait on the killer to make his next move.
"Abby, get all the evidence from all the victims, go over everything again. Re-run tests, do new tests, check for things you would never normally consider. Ducky, Palmer, go over all your notes and any bodies we still have access to, same thing, check everything then check it again"
Abby, Ducky and Palmer nodded.
"McGee, keep on with your searches, you find anything you throw it over to Ziva and me to run down, until then we'll go through the file and crime scene photos"
Looking at them all intently he added "We work this case like we've never worked a case before, and we have to do it without the boss"