Disclaimer: Tortured is written for personal motivation, no infringement on characters or situations is done so intentionally.
All hail insomnia!! Can't sleep, so decided to upload the next part of the fic!!
Gibbs deposited his caffeine bribe in the forensics lab much to Abby's relief and returned to the elevator after telling her to leave as he had already sent Tony and McGee home. As Gibbs was walking to the elevator, he heard Abby banging the partition between her lab and office; when he turned he saw her signing "chin-up boss man" before she resumed packing up her belongings.
Gibbs entered the bullpen and caught the glare of a desk lamp in his direct line of sight; knowing it was highly unlikely his male agents would willingly return to the building before they had to, Gibbs knew it had to be Kate. When he rounded the dividers separating his team for the rest of the operational teams, Gibbs found himself grinning from ear to ear expecting to catch Kate unaware, hoping to fluster and embarrass her as become their routine; instead their section of the bullpen was empty. Gibbs stood in front of Kate's desk, taking in the scene before him; her coat and bag were behind her chair, her kit bag was shoved into the corner of her cubicle and a half eaten cereal bar and open carton of fruit juice sat on top of the copy of Major Shield's file Gibbs knew had been on his desk before he left for his coffee run.
Gibbs shook himself out of his stupor when he heard Kate returning to their bullpen humming to herself; seemingly she had been to the stationary cupboard as he saw she was carrying a new box of pens. "Kate, what are you doing here at this time of the night? Everybody's left for the day, if you hurry you'll probably catch Abby heading out, we're meeting back her at 7am; I tried to ring you earlier."
"Hey Gibbs, thought I'd get a head start on the case! I got a garbled voice-mail from Tony saying you had sent him and Tim home early, so reckoning I'd get more peace now than tomorrow morning I decided to start the preliminary phases of my profiling report. Damn pen ran out, I thought I had more in my drawer but obviously not hence the new carton; when I walked past Tony's desk I saw my missing pens dismantled with bits of slimy paper in them."
Gibbs smirked at this, "Yea, Dinozzo's been using them as pea-shooters for the past few days and McGee for target practice; it is an unusual but strangely effective method, his aim at the shooting range has had a marked improvement." Gibbs flashed back to before their current case had started; he had been returning to the bullpen and saw Tony chewing up small strips of paper before spitting them at McGee through the pen's barrel; Gibbs did recognise that his agents did need to relieve stress every so often, but so did he – thwack, Tony's head snapped back whilst he uttered "sorry boss".
"I'm going to kill him, only I won't be using mushy paper to shoot him with!! Anyway, I've gone through the information you guys have and it makes very light reading; and what's with the FBI's supposed intelligence report, it's more omissions in it that Tony has numbers in his palm pilot." Kate began shuffling the papers and reports on her desk before reviewing the crime scene photographs while her face expressed the concentration with which she was studying them.
"You've got what we've got; FBI took an interest in Shield's but won't tell us why, there is no forensic evidence of importance and Ducky reports the Major was tortured based on the extent and nature of the injuries inflicted. Ducky has found cause of death to be a cut throat, but it would have been a close call given the nature of his other injuries. Nobody in Shields' family, work and social network stand out as possible suspects; everybody has rock solid alibis."
"This wasn't a crime of opportunity, it was well planned and methodical in its execution" Kate looked at two particular photographs, scrutinising and comparing both under the desk lamp, "what did Ducky make of this pattern of bruising to his lower abdomen, it's very distinctive? It almost looks like a picture of some kind – a symbol? Whatever the killer or killers wanted from Major Shield's most likely information due to the prolonged period of time it took to them to kill him, they were prepared to invest the time and effort in the torture, without fear of being caught or disturbed, to extract it."
Gibbs looked to the two photographs Kate held up in front of her, imagining the pain and agony Shields must have endured during his ordeal. Did he give up the information the person or persons wanted? What information did the Major know, or did they think he knew? Just how was the FBI involved? "We need to talk to Fornell, alone this time with none of his lackeys in tow."
30 minutes later a bedraggled looking Fornell entered the bullpen and walked to the front of Gibbs' desk without acknowledging Kate's presence, "Jethro, I meant what I said earlier I can't help you, my hands are tied"
"Funny you should sat that Tobias, Major Shields' hands were tied while he was being tortured. I really don't give a damn about FBI's need to assert their own omnipotence, the man was a damn good Marine who didn't deserve to die in his own home suffering the way he did. You will tell me what I want to know Fornell or the consequences to your inaction's will be disastrous; the FBI has screwed up enough, it's time to hand the case notes over to professionals"
Kate, having observed Fornell throughout his short interaction with Gibbs decided to interject and adopt a more conciliatory approach and walked to the two male agent currently squaring off at each other. "Agent Fornell, is there or was there a personal or professional connection between yourself and Major Shields? There are significant omissions from your intelligence report, particularly if it is as you claim a standard file your agency has compiled? We all know the FBI doesn't do anything without at least three aims and objectives having been identified beforehand; was an agent involved in the Major's death, or do they have information about the killing you're reluctant to share?"
"Agent Todd" Fornell turned to acknowledge her for the first time since he entered their bullpen "I should have guessed you'd be involved in this late night rendezvous; for a junior agent you do ask mighty big questions. Going straight for the jugular, Gibbs has taught you well. I haven't been involved in this case from the beginning, I just got assigned to clear up the mess and ensure the integrity of the agency is maintained. Gibbs, your basement in 2 hours; I have a meeting to attend in 20 minutes time, after that we'll compare notes. Bring Todd if you must." Fornell turned to walk towards the elevator, and shouted over his back "2 hours Gibbs"
"One hour, fifty nine minutes and counting"