AN: Don't shoot. I really didn't mean to abandon this for so long - novel revisions and work have been giving me fits. But I promised it would be done by Halloween, and that's just 10 days away, so this moved back to the top of my priority list. Hope some of you are still willing to read after the long hiatus.
Chapter 18
McGee looked at the long list of names on the plasma, red Xs over a third of the photos.
"Just two more victims, Tony, then I can help you start tracking down where these people are," McGee said as he bent over his computer again.
"Not so fast, Agent McGee."
McGee turned to see Vance standing on the landing behind the bullpen. "Director?" he asked.
"Little Creek just called. Dead gunny. Former DI." Vance's face was blank, except for a tightness around his lips.
"And he had those pewter hearts, right?" Tony asked. He rubbed his hand across his face. "Director, if they're picking us off, Ducky and Jimmy are two of the three they haven't targeted."
"Agreed." Vance put his hands on the railing, leaned forward. "I've already asked the Norfolk agents to document the crime scene, and contacted the local police to have their coroner examine the body on site before sending it up here."
"Ducky's not going to like that." McGee frowned. "He's going to worry about losing evidence."
"I'm more concerned about losing time and more people," Vance said. "This son of a bitch is speeding up and Gibbs doesn't have four hours to drive to Little Creek before we can even get a look at the body. At the rate we're going, we'll have another body by then. And if I send Dr. Mallard and Mr. Palmer, it could very well be one of them."
McGee nodded, and went back to his computer, determined to finish his review of the records. As he accessed the final victim's file, he heard Tony continue the conversation.
"Director, how was he killed?" Tony asked.
"Picked off by a rifle. Head shot. Probably from somebody off base, given the gunny's location, but we'll need Abby to reconstruct the trajectory to be certain." Vance frowned. "DiNozzo, where is Gibbs?"
"In the lab, with the rest of the team."
"Good. When he comes up, you send him to me. Until then, we don't tell him about this body."
McGee focused on his computer, even as he waited for Tony to object to Vance's comment. But he didn't hear anything. When he looked over a minute later, the director was gone and Tony was stabbing his keyboard like it was their killer.
"Tony, why didn't you argue with him?" McGee kept his voice low.
Tony didn't spare a glance for him. "And have to deal with him and Gibbs arguing over whether we go to Little Creek or not? Vance is right — we need the time more than we need to see the crime scene. This bastard's been careful. He's not going to slip up now. And the more time, the more bodies. If he's making sure he gets a stand-in for each of us before he moves on to us, we're running out of time."
McGee couldn't argue with that, much as he wanted to. Instead, he focused on finding information that would help them, so they could stop spinning their wheels and catch whoever it was playing games with them.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Vance headed for his office and logged into the system. The killer had training, and Vance wanted to be sure the Navy hadn't been the one to provide it. He pulled up all the records he had on sailors and Marines with sniper training, then started narrowing the list. As he checked the inactives, one name jumped out, a sniper who had overlapped with Gibbs on his tour in Kuwait and had been stationed at the Navy Yard a few years ago. Vance pulled up the file, but stopped when he saw the man was listed as dead.
He opened the record, just to be sure. The sniper had died around the same time Vance had been here as acting director, when the FBI was investigating Jenny Shepard. He had been stationed on the Yard at the time, but died at home one evening. Heart attack, though the man was only 40 at the time. Vance smoothed down his tie, reminded himself to eat the salad Jackie had packed him instead of going to the vending machines for something with more taste.
He opened the autopsy, just to be sure, and saw it had been done at Bethesda. The doctor hadn't found any reason for the heart attack, but had declared it natural causes. Vance pulled up the photos and wondered if there was a way to ask Dr. Mallard for a second opinion without letting Gibbs know. The first photo, of the man before he had been sliced open, stopped him. Over the man's heart was a tattoo of a heart. Vance reopened the summary of the case, and skimmed until he found the details — a henna tattoo, not a real one. Vance checked the rest of the file. No other tattoos. No record of a wife or a girlfriend in the man's record. A boyfriend wouldn't show up, as this was well before DADT's repeal, but Gibbs might know the man, know if he was inclined to swing that way. That would explain a henna heart instead of a permanent tattoo. Normally Vance hated these reminders of sailors and Marines forced to hide themselves or lose their chance to serve, but since the other option in this case was another serial killer victim, he hoped Gibbs would be able to say the man had been in the closet.
He didn't think they were going to get that lucky. Not this week.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Tony hung up the phone after yet another call to check out an ex of Boone's victims and resisted slamming it down — barely. "McGee, there's got to be a faster way."
"How, Tony?" McGee put down the receiver he'd just picked up. "Whoever this guy is, he's slipped below our radar for several years already. If we use the computers to narrow it down any more, we're probably going to exclude him. If it was obvious, we'd have caught him three or four bodies ago."
"I hate it when you're right." Tony sighed. "And I hate these revenge cases. At least this one's not likely to land me with the plague."
McGee stopped, his hand picking up the phone stopping in mid-air. "With all the people we've been warning, did anybody warn Brad? Since he's still your doctor, he's probably at least honorary Team Gibbs, and we know this guy was watching us when Ari killed Kate. He was probably watching two weeks before that, too."
"Way to be a downer, McLogical." Tony sighed and pulled out his cell. "I'll call him. You keep talking to guys who can't figure out why we're calling about an ex-girlfriend who died almost 20 years ago."
Tony called Brad's work line, but he didn't pick up. Frowning, Tony called the doctor's personal cell phone.
"It's not football season, Buckeye," came the greeting on the other end.
"No, it's homicidal psycho time." Tony filled his friend in. "Any doctors at Bethesda died under suspicious circumstances since you met us?"
"I can ask around," Brad said. "Nobody comes to mind, though."
"Ask, please. And don't do anything stupid — this guy's got skills and brains, even if he is twisted and sick. I appreciate the life-saving, but that doesn't mean we want to have to return the favor."
"You've got it."
After he hung up, Tony couldn't help thinking. "Hey, McGee."
The younger agent held up a finger as he finished a phone call. He hung up and typed a few keys. "That's another one off the list. Richard Baker lives in Nevada and works on the local TV news. He's sending us clips of the shows he's anchored this week to prove he hasn't left Nevada."
"That's cooperative of him." Tony frowned. "Since when do reporters cooperate with us?"
McGee shrugged. "He said his fight with his ex-girlfriend wasn't serious — they had fights like that every few weeks and would 'break up' for a couple of days before getting back together. He blames Boone for not giving him the chance to make it up to her, and said he was happy to see him get the death penalty. The idea of somebody copycatting him as an homage to Boone really bothered him."
"Maybe some journalists are humans after all." Tony twisted in his chair and cracked his back. "I was just thinking. Has anybody warned Stan Burley about this sicko?"
"Burley?" McGee frowned. "But he was way before Kate. Before you, even."
"Yeah, but we know this guy's a nut and he's focused on Gibbs. Burley was before all of us, but he was after Boone." Tony started looking through the NCIS directory online to find out where Burley was posted now. "Burley's the one besides us who stuck it out with Gibbs. If we're thinking Jardine and Dorney and Brad are in danger, Burley has to be, too."
"But he's not here, Tony."
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't warn him." Tony found Burley's posting. "He's in Naples. We'll have to use MTAC."
"That means clearing it with the director," McGee said.
"Clearing what with me, McGee?"
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
This latest body required me to travel to a place I hadn't been, but it was worth it. Another one down, and this one will distract their attention from any leads they have been working to consider if they are indeed on the right track. That distraction will give me just the opportunity I need — to hit the first of them. As the sun sets on this day, they will be mourning the way I mourned the capture of my savior. And then the game will begin in earnest