Chapter 1
The stroboscopic effect from the NCIS investigation truck illuminated not only Special Agent Gibbs' house, but half of his neighbourhood too.
"For once Mr Palmer, you didn't manage to get us lost!" the medical examiner sarcastically congratulated his assistant.
Dr Donald 'Ducky' Mallard was positioned over the corpse, carefully examining it to determine his preliminary cause of death. His assistant, Jimmy Palmer, was on hand to help with the body's removal.
Gibbs stood alone, watching his team sketch and photograph the scene, a fresh carton of Starbucks coffee in his blood streaked hands. His cell phone rang pulling him from the no-mans-land his consciousness had taken him to. It was the director again, only this time she wasn't ringing to argue over his tardiness.
"Jethro, are you ok?" She didn't wait for a response, just kept going with her one sided conversation. "Do you have any idea who this man is, and why would he come to you, especially at your home? You were extremely fortunate that its not you that your team are scraping off your front step!"
Gibbs knew she cared. They had once been more that just partners and, although nothing had ever come of it, he sometimes wondered – what if…
Ducky and Mr Palmer loaded the victim into the back of their coroners vehicle, ready for transport back to the NCIS morgue where upon Ducky would perform the autopsy.
Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo approached his boss just as the call ended. "Are you okay boss?" he asked sympathetically. Gibbs looked at him as if to say 'what do you think?' There was a silent conversation that passed between both men where each knew exactly what was said.
"What have we got, Tony?" Gibbs asked.
"The victim doesn't appear to have any ID on him, but the uniform suggests that he's a lieutenant and, judging by the wings, a naval aviator."
"Check all missing persons; what navy ships are currently docked in the area that have a flight crew – one of their pilots is missing, someone should notice!"
"On it boss."
"MCGEE!" Gibbs yelled.
The youngest agent on the team came straight away. "Boss?"
"I want a full reconstruction of tonight's events. How was he shot; how long had he been roaming the streets before he got here; did he drive, take a cab, was he shot and dumped, or was he shot around this area? However it happened I want to know."
"On it boss."
"Ziva!" Gibbs called out to the remaining member of his team only to notice that she was stood beside him. Gibbs admired her skills as a former Mossad agent, especially as now that she worked under his supervision. "I need you to collect the clothes that I'm wearing." Ziva looked at him somewhat dubiously. "They need to go to Abby. She may be able to lift some trace evidence off of my clothes. But first, I have to get back into my house to get some fresh clothes."
"We have finished out initial investigation and I'm sure that you removing your clothes will not affect the case."
Gibbs stared at her. They both knew what she meant, but Ziva's English still had a few rough edges that meant she'd say things incorrectly or phrase them in such a way that they could have a completely different meaning.
The two agents entered Gibbs' house mindful to step around the area where the victim had lain. Upstairs, Ziva snapped on a fresh pair of latex gloves and placed Gibbs' vest, shirt, pants and shoes carefully into separate evidence bags whilst Gibbs adjusted his attire into something that more suited his marine background.
"Do you have any idea what this man wanted?" Ziva asked, curious to hear Gibbs' response.
Gibbs stopped what he was doing and stared at her incredulously wearing only a pair of boxers.
"I guess not," she concluded.
"Y'think!"
Ziva hastily finished bagging Gibbs' tuxedo and left the room.
The NCIS offices were running on a skeleton crew of graveyard personnel when Gibbs arrived. He was holding another fresh carton of coffee in his hand along with three similar cartons all balanced precariously in a reconstituted cardboard 'tray'.
"Okay, what have we got?" he asked as he entered the bull pen.
"Our victim's name is Lieutenant William Thorpe, a naval aviator aboard the USS Henry S Truman. Joined the navy in '98; married with two children." Tony began as he displayed Thorpe's personnel record upon the large plasma screen in the middle of the office.
McGee continued the report by showing a piece of video footage shot from a nearby CCTV camera.
"This was taken from the security camera outside The First National Bank's ATM two blocks away. There's Thorpe," McGee pointed to the decedent. He was running along the street looking back over his shoulder regularly. "He's running from someone," Ziva observed.
"But who and why?" Gibbs wondered.
Seconds later, a dark coloured Toyota cruised into view. The occupants' faces were not clearly visible, it would take Abby and McGee to digitally enhance the image before any of the occupants could be identified.
Autopsy was quiet, save for Ducky's musings. His enthusiastic assistant Jimmy Palmer stood opposite his mentor collecting and labelling samples as they were taken during the post-mortem. Gibbs entered autopsy through the automatic doors nearest the elevator.
"What have you got for me, Duck?"
"Ahh, a very interesting case, my dear Jethro. Our deceased was shot three times." Ducky flicked on the light boxes which in turn illuminated a series of x-rays. He highlighted two bright white uneven globular specks in the victim's upper torso and identified them as bullets.
"There are only two bullets; you said he was shot three times." Gibbs corrected.
"He was!" Ducky confirmed as he returned to the body. "Excuse me, Mr Palmer," Ducky moved between his assistant and the corpse to show Gibbs the wounds. "The first bullet penetrated here," he pointed to a hole in the middle and slightly to the left of Thorpe's spine. "It struck his ribs as it entered. I found fragments of bone where the bullet splintered this poor chaps' ribs. The second, and I believe fatal bullet, entered here," Ducky pointed to a second hole. "The bullet clipped his left scapular and then pierced his heart. There was a small knick just above the aorta valve. The rupture caused massive blood loss and internal haemorrhaging, exsanguination and death. I have sent both bullets to Abby for ballistics check. The last time I saw a case such as this was…"
"What about the third bullet?" Gibbs was trying to be patient, but patience was not one of Gibbs' most well known qualities.
"Oh yes, the third bullet… A bit of a mystery there," Gibbs frowned as Ducky continued his monologue. "It was a through and through and, judging from the lack of blood pooling around the entry and exit sites, I'd have to say that they were post mortem. He was dead before the bullet penetrated his chest!"
"There was a shot fired when I opened my door – so whoever it was had to be waiting. You know what this means Duck? The shooter is a sniper!" Gibbs concluded. "And, the bullet is still out there…"
The forensics lab was, as usual, reverberating to the sound of gothic rock music. Abby was bent over her electron microscope analysing the trace evidence collected from this case when Gibbs entered.
"How y'doing Abs?" Gibbs asked.
"I think I must have slept awkwardly last night because the muscles in my shoulders are really tight..."
Gibbs looked at her and she changed the subject immediately. "The bullets retrieved from our dead Lieutenant are consistent with a 9mm Browning semi-automatic. The striations indicate that both bullets were fired by the same weapon."
Gibbs smiled at the young forensics tech gently and massaged her shoulders. Abby smiled gratefully.
Tony lay back in his chair with his feet resting upon his desk. Ziva and McGee exchanged glances as they overheard his conversation.
"Just remember, that the blue one suits you best, but I'm certain that you'd look fantastic in anything…I can't wait…of course I'll be there…"
"Are you baby-sitting tonight, Tony?" Ziva asked sarcastically.
"No! I was talking to…never mind," Tony retorted.
"It's a little late to shut the stable door once the pony has left, no?"
"That's horse and it's bolted!" Tony corrected. "And I don't think so!"
Gibbs swung in from around the corner of the bull pen. "That's right Dinozzo, you don't think!"
Ziva smiled at Tony's crest fallen expression as she returned to her desk.
"Dinozzo, Ziva, I want you out at the crime scene."
"We've checked out the area boss and…"
Tony's words were severed by Gibbs'. "I want you to check it out again!"
"What are we looking for boss?" Tony asked.
"Ducky found three bullet holes, but only two bullets. There's another piece of evidence out there relevant to this case."
Ziva and Tony armed themselves with their side arms and made their way to the elevator. As they left, Gibbs' phone rang.
"Gibbs."
"I think I have something that will rock your world!" Abby declared.
"I'm on my way." Gibbs hung up his phone. "McGee, you're with me, Abby's got something!"
Downstairs, Abby was waiting for them. Gibbs' tuxedo was carefully laid out over one of her examination tables.
"Abs?"
"What, no drum roll?"
"Do I look like Ringo Starr?"
"More like…"
"Abs!!!"
"Okay. I was going over your tux, very nice by the way. I'm sure the director would have loved you in this… Anyway, I found this in the breast pocket." Abby showed them a small rectangular computer chip.
"It's a memory card from a digital camera!" McGee interrupted.
"Correct!" Abby acknowledged.
McGee snatched the memory card out of Abby's hand and placed it in the card reader.
Gibbs and Abby walked around to the large plasma screen whilst McGee tapped away on the computer keyboard to display the card's contents. A series of photographs flashed upon the screen frame by frame. Initially, the photos contained family shots of a woman and two children on a family day out. Then the images underwent a dramatic transformation. Gibbs now understood why someone had wanted Lieutenant William Thorpe dead.