Chapter 7

"Ducky, Abby said you had something for me?"

"Tony, yes, come take a look at young Mr. Jeffers. Considering that his car partially caught fire when he crashed I wasn't surprised to find burns on his body, but one like this gave me pause."

"Like what Ducky?" Tony asked with newfound patience.

"Take a look." Ducky said and moved down to point to the burns on Jeffers legs. "These burns are obviously from the car fire. They were postmortem, but did significant damage. This one however was definitely done while he was alive. You see the way the skin has turned white with charring at the edges of the burn? Someone deliberately burned this man's arm with something very hot."

"Do you think it's possible this burn was what caused Jeffers to wreck his car Ducky?"

"It's possible. It's very difficult to drive a standard shift automobile with only one arm, which in all likelihood he would have been doing. Even if the worst part of the burn was numb, he still could have been in pain from the second-degree part of the wound. I knew this one young man in…" Ducky turned to address Tony face-to-face and found him getting onto the elevator. "Stop smiling Mr. Palmer, they will walk out on you as well when you start talking about something other than their case."

Jimmy quickly hid his smile from Dr. Mallard and went back to his task of logging the scant few traces of evidence that had been collected from Georgia Davis, victim number three.

"Agent DiNozzo, I've been going through Webster's financial records and I think I've found something."

"What is it, Agent Lee?" DiNozzo asked walking to his desk.

"He was leasing a second apartment."

McGee walked back into interrogation once again in control of himself. Tony walked in behind him and watched the man look between the two of them trying to figure out what was going on. "Webster, you want to tell me who Pete Jeffers is?" McGee questioned, sitting down at the table.

Webster's face went white and beads of sweat starting forming on his forehead. "Who?"

"Ah, come on, you can tell us." Tony said from behind the nervous man. "We just want to find him."

"Find him? Why do you need to find him?"

"You gonna tell us how you know him?" McGee asked again. When Webster just sat there, McGee slapped his hand down on the table causing him to jump.

"I don't know him. I've never heard of Pete Jeffers."

"Come on, Campbell, sure you have. And you know where we can find him don't you?" Tony asked, coming to stand beside McGee. Between the two men staring at him, Webster broke.

"He took it too far and killed Anne. We were only supposed to be having fun. Then I found out that Penny knew about him and he knew her. He said we couldn't have any other people knowing what happened. He killed Penny and sent me pictures bragging about the two kills and how it made him feel. So I found his girlfriend and decided to pay back the favor."

"You killed Georgia Davis as payback?" McGee asked, really wanting to put his hands around the other man's throat. "Why didn't you just kill Jeffers instead?"

"I did!" Webster shouted then realized what he had admitted.

McGee sat there in stony silence waiting for him to continue. When nothing else was said, McGee looked at Tony. "Well, he just admitted to killing two people and knowing about two other murders. Do we really need to hear more before we let Gibbs take him down?"

Tony almost laughed at the look on Webster's face. "Might be that we could hold Gibbs off if he makes a full confession."

"I will! I will tell you everything. Just don't let that man in here." Webster pleaded.

McGee pushed over the legal pad and pen. "Start writing."

Once Webster was taken away, the whole group gathered in the bullpen.

"So, he was actually in the car when it crashed?" Agent Lee asked.

"Yep." Tony answered. "According to Abby's report on the car fire, it was arson. There were barely any marks from the taser on Jeffers and that's why Ducky didn't find them until right before we questioned Webster."

"Webster killed Ms. Davis not realizing that Jeffers had left behind a note about the meeting today, which he didn't' think we'd find out about. He had another meeting set for the same time and didn't change it. Stupid. Anyway, Webster shocked Jeffers, tied him down, and burned the tat off his arm so if found no one could connect him to the murders, thus connecting the two of them." McGee explained.

"So then he forced Jeffers at gun point to drive him out past city limits where he made him wreck the car?" Ziva asked trying to get the situation clear in her mind. "Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to kill him."

"He was hoping the car fire would be fully involved by the time the fire department arrived, but a passing motorist called it in before the car could all go up." McGee told them visibly angry at the situation still.

"Down tiger," Tony told him, patting the top of his head. "We've got him and he's not going anywhere." He took a drink of his coffee. "By the way, what did Gibbs do to make him so scared?"

Gibbs stood up from his desk and grabbed his coffee. "I'm a Marine. I don't have to do anything, DiNozzo."

McGee smiled and realized Gibbs and Tony were both drinking their coffee at the same time. "Gibbs, he's still acting a lot like you."

Both men looked disgruntled at that statement.

At the same time they announced, "Abby's got a new lab assistant."

They walked off together leaving McGee, Ziva and Agent Lee looking at each other in surprise.

The End

Calalily