A/N: Well, I did say this would be a series, so here's another one. Just remember, if something seems like it would never work, it probably (definitely) won't. This one strikes a little closer to home for me than the last…
-Isn't the Navy Supposed to Employ Cats?-
This was completely insane. Gibbs stood openmouthed at the sight before him. This was not happening, it had to be some sort of caffeine and cold induced delusion, because Gibbs was certainly not looking at his agent in the front of the agency motorpool car with the dash taken apart and all of the wiring exposed. Was the kid completely nuts? Was he trying to provoke the absolute worst tirade that Gibbs had gone on since he was a Gunnery Sergeant? DiNozzo was so close to Gibbs making him walk the entire way home.
Something had happened to the heater on the way up to this God-forsaken frozen shithole of a little town. It had simply stopped working in the middle of the drive. It died with a whimper, and Gibbs didn't have time to look at it, even if it was the middle of winter and it was extremely dangerous to drive around having to scrape frost off the inside of the windshield. Hell, he didn't even have the time to drive it to the shop, he was far too busy figuring out what exactly had happened on a cold morning two days ago as well as dealing with the local LEOs giving him grief about the way he was running the case.
They had driven all the way out here because a Marine who had come home for Christmas was dead. Somehow, the man had managed to get leave from his unit but what should have been a happy holiday quickly turned into disaster as severe symptoms of PTSD apparently manifested themselves in the returned marine. Corporal Aaron Mayfield had reportedly threatened his wife and young son in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and his wife, Aileen Mayfield, had killed him with a butcher knife in self-defense.
Gibbs had several major problems with that story. One of which was that by all accounts the young marine hadn't been displaying any symptoms of PTSD before that night. If that were all, it wouldn't be much to go on but when you add that small detail to the much bigger ones of Cpl. Mayfield having bled out in his detached garage from the eight stab wounds his wife delivered to his chest all while the "threatened" son slept peacefully in his bed, well it all added up to murder in Gibbs' book. He felt that DiNozzo had summed it up nicely when he sketched the scene and said, "Stabbing your spouse, that's just nasty business, very personal. Out of desperation, she could get him once, maybe twice. But eight times? That's gotta be rage."
Unfortunately, for them, the local LEOs were making everything harder by stonewalling any and all attempts to talk to the wife, insisting that she was far too fragile to speak of the event. A psychologist had tried to explain this to Gibbs at the hospital when they first tried to interview her. Gibbs had seen the futility in arguing with the doctor, and stormed off before the man finished, more determined than ever to do some digging. A quick check turned up something that at the very least explained the lack of cooperation from the local officials. Aileen Mayfield just happens to be the daughter of the mayor.
With the LEOs also dragging their feet in transferring evidence back to DC and countless interviews to conduct with people that didn't have a bad word to say about either of the Mayfield's, there was simply too much work to worry about a car heater acting up. It was almost too much work for two people period. Not that ever would stop Gibbs from catching a murder, he'd just have to make sure all their focus was devoted to the case and breaking the network of defense that Aileen Mayfield had around her.
Yes, again DiNozzo was the only member of his team. They had gone through a couple of probies in the fall, but neither of them could hack it. There had been odd hours, odd cases, his normal grumpy and gruff personality, and then, of course, dealing with DiNozzo. Gibbs would swear on a stack of bibles that DiNozzo had turned up the annoying factor to eleven just to drive one of them off completely. Really though, it was fine with Gibbs. Eventually, he'd find another person that he could stand working with that would be able to put up with both the both of them, right now the partnership was working fine…well, almost.
The problem right now was focus, and the fact that DiNozzo's seemed to be more on the cold and the lack of heat in the car than finding evidence and motive for the death of the Corporal. He'd been complaining so much that Gibbs thought that he just might shoot the former homicide detective, and now there was this…this impossible sight that he was somehow still seeing.
"What the hell are you doing?"
DiNozzo looked up, "It's mice."
"What?"
"Mice. Apparently we have a mouse problem at the Naval Yard."
Gibbs was confused. It seemed as if the conversation had done a huge sideways shift and failed to drag him along with it. What the hell did a mouse problem back at the Navy Yard have to do with Tony ripping apart the inside of the car way out here in boondockville?
"We should get some cats," the younger man continued as he looked back to the mass of wires that were spewing from the engine compartment. "They'd certainly take care of the mice, but if we got too many then we'd have a cat problem. Do you know what percent of agents are allergic to cats?"
"No," Gibbs decided to go with simplicity whenever something came up he failed to understand.
"Are you saying we can't get cats? 'Cause I kinda thought that the Navy was supposed to have cats. You know, one on every ship to catch the mice that carry the plague, and all that."
Gibbs sighed, this kid was almost impossible. "No, we can't get cats, if the Navy wanted to kill mice they'd use rat poison. Simple."
"Simple, yeah, and easy to kill someone with. It's probably a bad idea to leave poison laying about where anyone could get it on a ship that is deployed for months at a time."
"There are no plague-ridden mice on ships! And what the hell do mice and cats have to do with whatever are you doing?"
DiNozzo looked up again, this time holding one of the wires for Gibbs to examine. "Mice have feasted on some of the wiring in the car, mainly the wiring that leads to the blower motor and heating system. I'm repairing it."
Gibbs looked at the wire and then to the other items strewn inside the car. Electrical tape, superglue, aluminum foil. Obviously, this kid came from a completely different world of car repair than Gibbs. "You think you can fix the heater with all this?"
"Boss, I've already repaired the lines to the blower motor, and the switch. Now, I'm going through the rest of the wires to make sure nothing else shorts out," Tony defended himself in a half mock hurt tone. "And since I'd like to not have to do this again I thought that we should get some cats for the Navy Yard. They could be like mascots for the motorpool guys!" Tony grinned.
Gibbs scowled. "And you think this is a better use of your time than, say, finding a motive for our murder?"
"Oh that's easy, the wife was having an affair with the dentist," Tony replied easily.
"The dentist."
"Yep, I was looking through the kitchen calendar in the house and noticed that there was a dental cleaning sticker on every month. Nobody has that many cleanings. nobody normal, that is. So I went to talk to the dentist, Dr. Mark Halberger by the way, and he spilled his guts about the affair. He's waiting down at the station to talk to you. I had them put him in holding, told 'em he threatened me so they wouldn't get suspicious."
Gibbs stared at Tony. Watched as the other agent went back to working on the wiring, gluing small pieces of aluminum foil to the exposed section and then wrapping the whole thing up with the electrical tape.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he managed to ask.
"You were busy with the mayor, and then the chief of police, and then Mayfield's CO, and then the wife's best friend. I just figured that it'd be like interrupting you in interrogation. Rule twenty-two?"
Gibbs sighed, "Rule twenty-two is for interrogating suspects not interviewing witnesses. When you get something on a case, you tell me. Got it?"
"Read ya loud and clear, boss," Tony said quickly. "Won't happen again."
Gibbs turned away leaving the younger agent to the wiring. He smiled as he thought of the younger man's thought processes. Making the intuitive leap that was just what they needed to put this murdering wife behind bars for life. Gibbs felt pride in the younger man start to grow. Yep, this partnership was working just fine.
