AN: Another week, another chapter. :) Some interesting guesses so far on possible suspects for this case. This chapter, the team has one big question staring them in the face. Can you figure out the answer before they do?
Chapter 10
McGee was just about to head for coffee when Abby stopped him. "You said Bossman said not to go anyplace along."
"You're safer in the lab than out there," he said.
She shook her head. "If you're right and it's one of the intel analysts, I'm no safer here than outside."
"You could lock the lab doors."
She just looked at McGee, hands on her hips.
"Right, last time you did that, we all knew something was up." He sighed. "If I tell you to do something, you need to do it. Gibbs will kill both of us if something happens to you."
Abby nodded and took off her lab coat, exchanging it for the lightweight cloak that hung by her CD player. "Don't worry, Timmy. We'll catch him."
McGee waited until they were outside and heading for the coffee shop before responding.
"I'm not worried about catching him. I'm worried somebody else might die first." He lowered his voice. "It takes a really sick mind to go after us by going after people who resemble us and have us investigate their deaths. And it's probably setting us up for something." He hesitated. "The submariner looks like Kate. The boxer has a background like Vance. The cryptographer went to the same school as me."
"That's it! We figure out who else might be targeted in the area bases and warn them."
McGee hated to be the one to wipe the grin off her face. "Look at it another way. The submariner looks like Kate, but doesn't have anything else in common with her. The sub story was one case eight years ago. The boxer and the cryptographer don't look anything like Vance or me. What criteria is the guy using? Pretty much every NROTC student at MIT becomes a Navy geek — do we warn all of them? Every boxer in the Corps?" He opened the coffee shop door for her.
"It can't hurt, McGee." She stepped to the cash register and they placed the order — medium roast for the director, cafe au lait with two shots for McGee and a Caf-Pow for Abby. While they waited for McGee's drink, they stepped over to the pick-up counter.
"Abbs, that's going backwards," McGee kept his voice low. "Think about it — he's hit three people on the team. There are eight of us, nine with Kate. He's more likely to go after one of the other six. And until we figure out what criteria he's using, we don't know who to warn."
Abby didn't actually have a response for that one, and McGee used the lull to scan the shop. He saw some faces he recognized — a few of the agents in Legal were eating over in the corner, and McGee realized it was lunchtime already. None of the customers there were in the shop the last time he thought he was being watched, though, so he relaxed.
"Here you go, McGee," said the barista.
"Thanks, Chris," McGee said, taking the drink in his free hand. "Come on, Abbs, back to work."
They headed out, Abby still strangely silent.
"Abbs?"
"So we just have to sit and wait to see who he kills next?" Her voice trembled.
"Have you traced his calling card yet?"
She shook her head. "The company that makes those is a Christian company that specializes in pocket charms. They sell them in bulk all the time by mail-order, so most of their purchases are large ones. I did a little hacking and I've got a list of a dozen stores between Annapolis and Little Creek that have placed large orders of the hearts in the last six weeks, and another six individual purchasers who placed bulk orders. But there are three or four dozen churches who ordered them, and some of the megachurches ordered thousands. I went to the website of one of them and they were doing an outreach program around Valentine's Day to have each member pass out hearts to people they thought could benefit from God's love. That one church ordered 60,000 of the hearts.
McGee groaned. "With that many, somebody at the church helping with the program could have siphoned off the ones he needed without anybody noticing."
"I'll send you and the others the list of the individuals who ordered, and the stores. But until we have a suspect list, there's no good way to run down all the ones that went out to the churches." Abby slurped the straw.
"Abbs, you just got that." McGee rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, the bullpen's got too many people in it for somebody to try something. Go hang out there while I brief the director. Then we'll head back to the lab."
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
At the crime scene, Ducky swallowed as he looked at the body. "My dear, you do remind me of a good friend." He started his examination, barely noticing that even Mr. Palmer was quiet. It wasn't until a glint of light at her throat caught his eye that he noticed the thin chain around her neck.
"Agent Dorneget, please document this." Ducky waited until the rookie agent was shooting pictures and shifted the lieutenant's collar slightly to reveal a silver Star of David.
"Whatcha got, Duck." Gibbs squatted next to him.
"Our young submariner might resemble Caitlin in physically, but she is not a complete match." He pointed to the necklace. "Here you have a killer who is trying to mimic a selection of people. He obviously can't select people with the same occupation, as there are only a relatively few NCIS agents. So he is instead using those over whom you have jurisdiction, ensuring you will be the ones to investigate them. Additionally, he is sending a message with these deaths. He is making sure you recognize that they are connected, and that they are imitations of your team. His first kill was the one person on the team who can most easily be duplicated — Timothy's skills are what he is known for, and those skills are valued by the Navy, so there are many people similar enough to him."
"And the boxer?"
"Again, a fairly superficial resemblance, and one that is more common than not. I wager that if you check the Marine boxing rosters at the various bases, you will find a large portion of those Marines have inner-city backgrounds. The Sweet Science is not often taught in suburban and rural areas these days. It is the province of cities, and of the rough neighborhoods in those cities at that."
"What's your point, Duck?" Gibbs frowned.
"This third body is quite different. I could speculate that our killer saw the physical resemblance and decided that was the correct message to send, one we could not overlook. But as Anthony pointed out when he briefed me, our young lieutenant's occupation has a connection with Caitlin as well, and one too unusual to be a coincidence."
"You saying she's involved in this, Duck?" Gibbs straightened up, his knee popping.
Ducky stood as well. "Quite the contrary, Jethro. I believe her appearance and her occupation are indeed a coincidence. But the fact that our killer noticed and acted upon it is not. He did not kill a woman who resembles Caitlin, and get lucky that her occupation was such to remind us of her. He specifically targeted her because he knew the combination of the two would send a message, a powerful one." Ducky paused to make sure Gibbs was listening. "If you and your team can determine how he selected our young lieutenant, you will be much closer to finding him and to figuring out what selection process he is using."
"Thanks, Duck."
As he and young Mr. Palmer packed the body to transport to the Yard, he saw Gibbs herding his team, Dorneget and the evidence into the truck.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Vance had a pile of personnel files on the conference table when McGee entered, coffee in hand.
"What have you and Scuito learned?" He listened as McGee briefed him.
"Director, this doesn't make any sense. The order of the bodies is all wrong, and the timing is weird."
Vance motioned for him to sit. "Explain."
"So far he's killed three people. The first one resembles me. That makes some sense — out of everybody, only Ziva joined the team after I did. The second person was you. If you go by when you took the director's chair, you're even newer to the team than I am. If you go by when you first met Gibbs, you probably predate everybody, except maybe Ducky."
Vance nodded, curious to see where McGee was going with this.
"But this latest body breaks the pattern. Kate joined the team not long before I did. So you could argue he's working backward and Tony is next. But then we should have had a Ziva lookalike before me, and we should have had a Jimmy lookalike before today's body."
Vance thought for a second. "He might not consider Mr. Palmer part of the team."
"But Ziva definitely is. And if he's watching us closely enough to know about Kate and the sub trip, he has to know Ziva's NCIS, not Mossad."
"Point taken, Agent McGee." Vance thought about that. "And your question about the timing?"
"Why now?" McGee hesitated. "Three bodies right in succession should mean this guy is just getting started. But Tony was right this morning — that story about Kate and the sub is an old one. If this guy has been watching us long enough to have heard that when the story was making the rounds, why wait until now to start?"
"Unless he's escalating." Vance stilled. "Could he have been killing people for the past eight years without anybody noticing?"
"Abby would remember if these hearts had been on any other bodies, I think." McGee didn't wait for a response, he punched a number on his phone.
"Abbs, have you seen those hearts on any other case in the past? As far back as when Kate joined the team." He paused. "Thanks. Be down in a minute." McGee tucked his phone away. "Abby said she doesn't remember, but she's going to run a check through the evidence logs just in case."
Vance nodded. "I'm going to put out a general alert to the commanders of area bases and the security forces to let them know we have a killer on the loose targeting Navy and Marines to they can tighten up on security. I know your team won't go home until this one's solved, but no sleeping in the bullpen. I'm going to increase the security around the lab, since Miss Scuito is the one who most often works alone, and I'll get some cots and blankets sent down there. Until this is solved, you and your team stay together. If Gibbs hasn't killed or scared Dorneget, he's on TAD with your team so you can split into four pairs if needed."
McGee nodded. "I'll let Abby and Gibbs know." He got up to leave.
"McGee, be careful. If he decides to switch to the team instead of stand-ins, and if he follows the same order-"
"I'm first on the list. Yes, sir." McGee gave a brief nod and left.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
I have the next installment in my plan ready, and I will execute it tonight. Execute him tonight. I have been watching and preparing for him for many months. Today's kill showed them just how well I know them. They will not know who to trust because of this. Tonight's kill will show them my power. The one after that, my skill. The next, my reach. And then it begins. While they are distracted by my first hit on their team, I will act swiftly. In two weeks, I will have done what my hero could not. The few left alive will never forget my name. Especially not the great Leroy Jethro Gibbs.