Hi – apologies for the delay in updating this story, life has suddenly become VERY busy!! Many thanks to those people who have taken the time to leave positive reviews, they have been much appreciated.
This chapter may not make much sense to anyone reading it, but please bare with me, it will hopefully become much clearer in upcoming chapters.
Gibbs shook off his sports jacket and settled at his desk to again review the scant information forwarded to NCIS by the ever-friendly and co-operative FBI. Gibbs had already read and re-read the information more times than he cared to remember, yet his latest meeting with Fornell had unsettled him to the point he was purely willing new information to appear in front of him.
None of the information his team had gathered had made sense, nor did it allow the team sufficient latitude to hypothesis about why Major Michael Shields of the Marine Corps had been killed. Major Shields had an exemplary and clean service record; he was a weapons specialist who was currently on TAD at the Marine Base in Quantico having returned from Iraq five months previously. The seemingly senseless nature of the crime evoked in Gibbs a sense of foreboding that he could not shake; Major Shields had voluntarily extended his tour of the 'Sandbox' where he survived mortar attacks and bullet sprays by insurgents only to be found dead in his Washington DC home.
Preliminary autopsy finding indicated that Major Shields had died due to the severity of his injuries; Ducky had given a brief summary of the wounds Major Shields had suffered, too numerous to remember but the edited highlights included: multiple broken ribs, concussion, internal bleeding, broken fingers, a broken right leg in 3 places and multiple lacerations and bruises. In short, the Major had been tortured and there was no apparent motive.
Major Shields had signed up when he was 18 years of age, a committed Marine he had served during the first Gulf campaign, he survived injuries in Bosnia before joining a weapons development programme acting as a Marine combat Consultant. He returned from the recent Iraq campaign with an impressive list of commendations from Senior Officers for his actions which saved more than one fellow Marine and civilian alike. Major Shields had been teaching weapons training at Quantico and was heavily involved with a mentoring programme his younger sister Samantha had established. He had, until three months ago, been in a long-term relationship with a nurse named Julie from the Bethesda Naval Hospital; they had split up on seemingly good terms, remaining good friends.
Major Shields attended Church every Sunday, enjoyed social outings with family and friends, and he was well liked and respected by his colleagues and superior officers. A closer inspection of his financials' found nothing unusual or warranting further investigation, he did not live beyond his means, he had a reasonable amount of money in his savings account and all his bills were paid to date.
The team could not fathom why anyone would want to kill Major Shields, he was a law-abiding citizen who served his country with exemplary courage and honour; he did not appear to be under any undue influence. Yet the FBI had compiled an intelligence report on him; standard intel reports did not contain so much 'edited' information nor were they provided so willingly. Something had peeked the FBI's interest in Major Shields, and Gibbs was damned if he understood what it was.