AN: Are you confused yet? So is the team. But I'm loving hearing theories and comments, so please keep sharing. Just don't expect me to tell you if you're right or not. ;)

Chapter 7

The coffee shop was almost empty when Gibbs walked in, just Balboa standing at the counter while a girl fumbled around behind the counter. Gibbs scowled and stalked up to the counter.

"Coffee. Large. Black." He handed over the cash, not waiting for the change. He headed for the pick-up counter, hearing the change drop into the tip jar behind him.

"Gibbs." Balboa didn't say anything else.

"Balboa. You remember the Walker case?"

The younger agent thought for a second. "You got more than a name?"

"Quantico MP, blunt-force trauma to the head."

Balboa grimaced. "Cold case, from Shepard's time. That assistant that tried to set up DiNozzo did the forensics. I always thought there had to be more if I could get Abby to look at it, but Shepard was on the warpath about agency resources around then and you were the only one who was able to tell her to go to hell and not get your ass kicked for doing it. To be honest, I'd forgotten about it until you brought it up." He cocked his head. "You catch a break on it?"

Just then one of the workers passed a cup to Gibbs. The girl behind the counter was still fumbling around with Balboa's drink, and Gibbs didn't wait. He wasn't going to ream Balboa in public.

~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~

Ziva finished reading the cold case files McGee had passed around when he returned from the lab when Gibbs walked back in, coffee in tow.

"Somebody had better have information on at least one of our cases." He set the coffee down and stowed his gun as Ziva stood.

"Gibbs, I am not sure how many cases we have." She held the file on the MP who had been shot. "This does not seem to fit with the other two MPs Abby connected. And today's case seems more important." But as soon as she said that, she wished she had not, as Gibbs glared.

"Boss, I think it's just two cases," McGee said. "The two cold cases have a shared piece of evidence, based on the lists in the files, and the MO in the Ianuskewicz case connects that one with the Walker case."

"But that still does not explain why we are more worried about three older cases, or two or one, than about today's case." Ziva walked into the bullpen. "If we are up against somebody who can place a bomb on our country's biggest naval base, is that not a big deal? Especially when the Marine who was killed can be linked back to the director?"

"It's is, Zee-vah." Tony came around and sat on the edge of his desk. "While McGoogle's been working those cases, I've been looking at today's. Security footage at Little Creek shows a much higher volume of cars, which you would expect with the golf tournament. But everybody was logged in and out, and they all had the right credentials, either DOD-issued or sponsored by somebody on base. I've been looking for connections back to Baltimore, and narrowed it down to about two dozen, and Detective Kelly just got that list to see if he recognizes any of the names."

"I do not think a gang-thumper is going to know how to arm and detonate a claymore mine." Ziva crossed her arms. "As Abby pointed out when the director was injured, it is not common knowledge. Even the style of explosive could be considered specialized knowledge."

"Hah! Now that's where you're wrong, my little ninja." Tony smirked and reached behind him to pull a book from his desk drawer. "And it's gang-banger, by the way."

"Cubicle Warfare?" Ziva leaned over to look. "You need a book for that?"

Gibbs stalked over, grabbed the book and smacked Tony's head. Ziva stifled a snicker.

"Studying how to goof off, DiNozzo?"

"Stole it from McCatapult's desk, actually." Tony grinned, and Ziva had to bite back another laugh. "But one of the toy weapons in there is a candy claymore mine, and it talks about what claymore mines are."

"Boss, Tony's got a point. Sarah mentioned the book to me because her high school physics teacher had it in his classroom as a resource for some of their projects." McGee looked around his computer. "When I went to order it off of Amazon, it was ranked pretty highly — there are a lot of these books out there. And if our killer has ever seen it, he or she wouldn't have to look far to find instructions online to build a real one."

Ziva frowned. "But that would require knowledge of the chemistry to make the explosives, would it not?"

"Sounds like we're looking for a science geek," Tony said. "That's right up your alley, McGeek."

"Any of your Baltimore names have a science background?" McGee retorted.

"Focus." Gibbs sipped his coffee. "Abby have a source on that pewter yet?"

McGee shook his head. "She was still running it through Major Mass Spec, thought it would be about an hour before she could track down the possible sources."

"And while we're waiting on her and Detective Kelly, we can look at our other cases." Tony picked up the remote. "Boss, I think we've got four cases total: The boxer, the two female MPs, the MP who was shot and our Navy geek." He put photos of each on the screen.

"Suicide."

"Is that what your gut's telling you?" Tony stepped up to face Gibbs.

Ziva was surprised when Gibbs declined to agree with Tony.

"Ducky has said it was a suicide," she said. "Are you saying Ducky is wrong?"

"I'm saying it doesn't add up," Tony said. "And that means we have four cases."

"Tony, Ziva's right. We don't have any reason to think that wasn't a suicide." McGee reached over and grabbed the remote, deleting the picture of the dead cryptographer. "But that leaves us with two cases, not three." He pulled up evidence lists. "Abby connected the two female MPs by their cause of death and the murder weapon. The first MP killed, Walker, had a Polaroid photo in the breast pocket of her BDUs when she was found. The one shot six months later had a Polaroid in his back pocket of his jeans, the one that hadn't held his wallet."

"So?" Tony said.

"Tony, even five years ago, Polaroids were less common. The company went bankrupt in 2001 and was sold in 2005 before announcing in 2008, they were taking the the film off the market completely." McGee zoomed in on another item on the list. "Both of our MPs had digital cameras, so why would they use a Polaroid?"

"Perhaps it was an older photo," Ziva said.

McGee shook his head. "The report on the MP who was shot said the photo was too crisp to have been in the guy's back pocket for long. They tried to trace it, thinking he had gotten it at wherever he'd been — it was a photo of a heart and the guy was known as a womanizer — but they didn't have any luck."

"Well, no, McInnocent, that was the point of Polaroids. If you wanted to take the kind of naughty photos you didn't want your local drugstore clerk developing, you'd use a Polaroid." Tony wiggled his eyebrows.

"You are speaking from experience?" Ziva could not resist asking. Tony's cheeks turned a bit pink, and Ziva smirked. "You are speaking from experience."

"What was the photo in Walker's pocket?' Gibbs looked at McGee.

"Not sure, Boss. That wasn't listed in the report, and I haven't had time to pull the old evidence files from the archives."

"Then we do not know if the three MPs make two cases or one," Ziva said. "Gibbs, I do not think they are connected. It was a different cause of death, and the two that we can link are both women. It does not seem likely that a man killed by a different method, even if he did have a photo, would be linked. And Tony has given us a reason for the photo's presence." She walked over and pointed at the plasma. "We have two bodies, six years apart, that are likely a single case. We have two other cases. And we have a body Ducky has ruled suicide. That means we have three open cases, not two and not four."

"I don't want a single open case." Gibbs snarled. "David, help DiNozzo on today's case. McGee, get somebody to dig out that evidence and take it to Abby — not you — then figure out who the hell blew up that Marine."

~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~

Vance sat at his desk, the copy of the personnel file on the young Marine who had died today spread before him. Its contents were familiar, much the same as anybody would have seen had they looked at Leon Vance's file before the medical discharge that changed his life.

Ever since Quincy had called, he'd been looking over the file, looking for a reason. When Gibbs had relayed the news about the style of explosive and Ziva's suggestion this was mimicking the blast that had almost killed him, he began looking more closely. Still, he couldn't find a link. Not a credible one. Any other team, and he would have dismissed the idea. But Gibbs thought it was important enough to share, and Gibbs didn't do that on a whim.

Vance pulled out his cell phone and hit the first number on speed dial.

"Leon?"

"Hi, honey." Vance hesitated for a moment. "Everything all right there?"

"It is. Leon, what aren't you telling me?"

"It's probably nothing." The fingers of his free hand tapped the folder on his desk. "Just an odd coincidence."

"Leon."

"Just... be careful. If anything seems unusual, let me know, and keep the kids close by after school."

"Leon Vance, you know something."

"Jackie, sweetheart, I don't. It's just... a feeling. Humor me, OK?"

"Tonight after dinner, we are going to talk. You hear me?"

Vance agreed, and managed to end the call. Gibbs' team was good. Hopefully by then, he would have the answers he didn't have now.

~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~

Director Leon Vance is a difficult man to read, and a difficult one to follow. The security around him is greater, and the space separating his home from the street and other yards is larger. Only after that assassin managed to get into his home did I learn the best routes to observe covertly. Before then, I was limited to what I could learn while he was on the Navy Yard or out in the city. My first kill because of him was blunt, a giant arrow pointing the way. This next one will be more refined. More pointed. But this one, they will notice. My most recent kill caught their attention. I gave them just enough information that they will begin to learn just how many steps behind me they are. They will be watching when I make my next kill. They just won't be watching the right places. The one after that, same thing. It will be three more dead after that before they begin to understand what they're dealing with. Before they start to realize just how far ahead of them I am.