AN: After a smushy T2 diversion yesterday with Oblivious, I'm back to Patience with the newest development in the Creepy Killer case. It's about to go from bad to worse for our team...
Chapter 13
Ziva yawned as she closed another file, marking it off the master list. No pewter hearts. "This is like that time we were sorting fingerprints, yes?" She looked around at the team, sitting throughout the lab.
"Don't remind me." McGee groaned. He waved one gloved hand, his solution to avoiding paper cuts. "We're missing something to narrow down this search."
"Well, yeah, Mc-"
But Gibbs' phone ring cut Tony off and they all turned to look at the team leader.
"Yeah, Gibbs." He listened, then disconnected. "Sonofabitch."
"Boss?" Tony was the first to ask.
"Dead SEAL, on the Yard."
"Wait, somebody killed a SEAL?" McGee's eyes widened.
"Name was Ari Rosenbaum." Gibbs stood. "Ziva, you're the one staying with Abby this time. Rest of you, gear up."
Ziva cursed in Hebrew, but could not argue with Gibbs.
"Boss, this guy's changing things up again. Why get Jewish and special ops right but not- Never mind." McGee smacked himself on the back of the head.
"Huh?" Dorneget asked.
"In the U.S., women are not allowed to serve as special operations forces," Ziva said. "Despite having served as Kidon when I was with Mossad, I would not be allowed to train as a SEAL now that I am an American."
"Boss, is this guy active duty?" Tony asked.
"Team Six. MPs think he was here at a game." Gibbs turned and started to walk out.
"Hell. On your six, Boss." Tony followed, McGee and Dorneget not far behind.
Ziva turned to Abby. "Seal Team Six-"
Abby nodded. "The ones that killed bin Laden. When word gets out that somebody killed one of those guys while he was on liberty, the Navy Yard's going to be flooded with reporters."
"And we know how much Gibbs likes dealing with reporters." She looked at the clock. 2147. "Abby, we must find this connection before they return. We are rapidly running out of time."
"Yeah, I know. But this guy has me stumped. I mean, yeah, now thinking to look for special ops troops to represent you makes sense, but I still don't know who you'd pick for Tony. And Gibbs? I mean, he was a sniper and a gunny and a DI and plain old infantry and when you put all that together, you get a lot of Marines. I mean, a whole lot of Marines." Abby twisted her hands together.
"Wait." Ziva thought for a second. "This person, he killed somebody who reminded us of Kate, yes?"
Abby nodded, her pigtails bouncing.
"And now he has killed somebody designed to resemble me, yes?"
Abby nodded again.
Ziva picked her words carefully. "We have had a number of female agents die over the years, such as Agent Lee. Perhaps if we start by looking at the female deaths, we can find some similarities that would let us narrow things down. Perhaps a JAG for Lee, as an example."
Abby jumped up. "And that I can do by computer so we can do it fast — come on!"
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Tony followed Gibbs as they walked to the scene, while McGee and Dorneget drove the truck two parkings lots over to where the SEAL had died. The MPs had cordoned off the scene.
"Fill me in, Sergeant," Gibbs said.
"Yes, sir." The MP straightened up even more. "We saw him while making our rounds. We knew right away he was dead, so we called over to your office right away. His ID was laying on top of his body, so we passed along that information."
Tony looked past the MP to see the white military ID laying in the center of the man's chest. He saw something glinting in the light. "Boss, I think I see the signature." He moved past the MP and crouched next to the body, where a few metal hearts reflected the streetlights.
As Gibbs continued to question the MP, Tony snapped photos of the scene, then examined the body. No bullet holes that he could see. Some light bruising on his face, barely enough to see. His cause of death wasn't readily visible, but the bruising probably meant he'd fought his attacker. Anybody who could take on a SEAL and win...
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Abby jumped as her computer beeped. "Ziva, I've got a list." She sent the casefiles to the plasma on the wall, then joined Ziva in front of it.
"There are several," Ziva said, looking at the overlapping files. "Are any of them JAG?"
Abby moved back to her keyboard and tapped a few keys. The files vanished from the screen. "None."
"Asian?"
Abby tweaked the search parameters. "No." She popped the entire set of files back up. "What are some other uncommon elements we can use to narrow this down?"
"What about that one, Miss Scuito?" Vance's voice came from behind them.
"Director?" Abby turned her head so fast she smacked her own face with a pigtail.
He walked over to the computer and removed all but one of the files. "She's a redheaded MP who died in a fire."
"But Director Shepard was shot in a diner," Abby said.
"But nobody knows that except for us." Ziva pointed to the file. "Remember? Gibbs and Mike burned her house to cover up what really happened."
Abby bit her lip. "But we didn't find any hearts there."
"Could they have been destroyed in the fire?" Ziva asked.
Abby thought for a second. "Pewter has a fairly low melting point, between 338 and 446 degrees, depending on the composition of the metals it's combined with." She moved over to Major Mass Spec's computer. "Based on the ones we've found, the hearts would melt at about 412 degrees. Fires usually burn several times hotter than that, so it would be enough to melt the hearts."
"So this body could be part of our killer's string and we didn't realize it." Ziva said. "But that means-"
"That the other two MPs we linked it to are also part of this." Abby frowned. "But they didn't have the hearts. Is he changing his signature?"
"Unlikely, Miss Scuito." Vance pulled out a toothpick and stuck it in his mouth. "Walk me through how you linked the three bodies again."
Abby nodded. "The first one, well the second one that we discovered, but the first one chronologically, was another MP killed with a shovel to the head. The sharpshooter, remember? That's how we linked them, through the MO."
"Abby, who does the first one represent, if the one from last week is Jenny?" Ziva frowned as she looked at the screen where the three cases were on display.
Abby looked at the case file and tried to remember. "Well, we haven't had any blonde agents assigned to the team permanently." She thought for a second. "Agent Macy was blonde, and she's an MP. But she never served with us, and if this killer managed to connect her to us, he knows a lot more than we think he does. Like a whole lot more, because that means he knows-" She realized she was about to say too much. "Um, yeah, he knows more than he should."
"Who was on the team before Kate?" Ziva asked. "Was it another woman?"
Abby nodded. "Viv." She made a face. "She wasn't very good. And she wasn't a blonde."
"Agent Cassidy." Ziva turned and looked at Abby. "She had hair like this, blonde and curly."
"Agent Cassidy was never a member of Gibbs' team." Vance crossed his arms.
Abby shook her head. "She spent a week TAD with us after Kate died before Ziva joined the team. She almost got her head bashed in by a psycho."
"Bashed in with what, Abby?" Ziva asked.
Abby's eyes widened. "With a shovel."
Vance's toothpick snapped in half. He tossed both ends in the trash. "Agent Cassidy and Director Shepard were both field agents for their career." He looked at the two case files. "This sonofabitch killed MPs to represent them."
"Tony!" Abby fumbled for the keyboard. "The third MP dead, the one we thought was connected. The womanizing MP."
"That is Tony, indeed," Ziva said.
"Let me get this straight. We now have a string of eight bodies we can link to this killer. The represent Agents Cassidy, DiNozzo, McGee, Todd and David, plus myself and Director Shepard." Vance fell silent.
"And a second one for Timmy," Abby said. "McGee's been hit twice."
"Gibbs, Dr. Mallard and Mr. Palmer have not been hit at all." Vance stared at the screen. "Miss Scuito, who else has served on the team?"
"Just Michelle Lee and Keating. That's it," she said. "No, wait. You had Dwayne Wilson TAD for the Quantico case. And Nikki Jardine worked a few cases with us the last year Director Shepard was in charge."
Vance nodded. "I'm going to alert those three agents, Keating, Wilson and Jardine, to be on alert. Until we know what we're dealing with, they're all targets. Miss Scuito, you and the other team members who haven't been hit yet also should be on high alert." He paused. "Run a search for all MPs who fit the description of any of the agents in question. Also gunnery sergeants who fit Gibbs' description and naval medical personnel who could be considered standins for either Dr. Mallard or Mr. Palmer."
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Ducky Mallard. He has become much easier to track since he moved a few months ago. No more of those damned dogs. He is the only one, now that Agent McGee has rid himself of that beast, to have an animal. Like Director Vance, he used to have lots of space around his home. Watching him was the most difficult of all, and I am ashamed to say I put it off far longer than I should have. Once I did move, though, I was able to actually enter his home, get his mother to show me around. A few times, I heard her mentioning my visits to Ducky, but he always thought they were her mind going, like so many of her stories. I have a special death planned for him, one that he himself provided the resources for. One that will be a fitting end to my revenge. One that will haunt the arrogant Leroy Jethro Gibbs until his own death.