Lethal Fractures: Chapter 16

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short. It was originally part of the next chapter, but that made it too long, and I thought this was more suspenseful. Yes, I am that mean :)

"Give me some good news, Abs," Gibbs ordered as he strode into the forensics lab at NCIS on Friday morning. He placed a Caf-Pow on the lab bench to punctuate his words.

"There were no American deaths in Afghanistan this week," Abby Sciuto replied promptly. "I was watching ZNN this morning while eating my Wheaties."

"You have Wheaties for breakfast?"

"It's the breakfast of champions, Gibbs. Actually, I usually have Coco Puffs, but I realized this morning that the box was empty and I didn't want to make an early morning trip to the convenience store to get some more. The guy who works there from midnight to eight is really creepy. I guess that's a good thing, because I would think that creepy guys are less likely to get robbed, but he's a little bit too creepy."

He didn't want to contemplate what the Goth scientist would consider 'too creepy', so he just let it go. "I meant with the case."

"I figured that, Gibbs, but I don't have any good news on the case, so I gave you the next best thing."

He stifled a sigh. "Well, what do you have?"

"About eighty fingerprints left to run. It's really slow going. Some of them are just smudges, which I can't do anything with, but others are just kinda smudged, so I've been trying to clean them up just in case one of them might be our killer. Really, you only need one point of reference on a fingerprint for it to stand up in court, but before we can even think about going to court, we need to identify some of these fingerprints, which you need quite a few more points than one to do. Did you know that a two-point match is only--"

"Abby."

"Right, Gibbs. So far, I've only found guys with construction permits. It seems our building manager is only hiring actual registered construction workers, which is what he's supposed to do but is somewhat unusual because hardly anyone follows those rules. It's a lot cheaper to hire workers without permits and pay them less, so that's what most building managers do. But I guess since he's building an office complex in Chevy Chase, money is not really the object. How much do you think he's getting paid for that building, Gibbs? A couple million?"

"I really don't know, Abs."

"Of course not. Sorry, Gibbs. Anyway, even though they're all registered construction workers and union members, there are a few unsavory ones in the bunch. One guy had been arrested for armed robbery, and they still hired him. There were a few other smaller charges, like marijuana possession and disturbing the peace and stuff like that."

"Any with military service?"

"Yes," she declared confidently. "Two. Twin brothers, actually, who are part of the electrician's union. They served four-year tours in the Navy together and got out last year."

He felt his hopes fall again. "Not our guys, then."

"Definitely not. They were on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific in December 2007, when Lt. Olafsen was killed."

"Well, keep at it, Abby. Let me know if you find something." He half-expected her to interrupt his walk away with news that she found something, but he made it to the elevator without another word from her.

He made his way back up to the bullpen to find all three of his agents simultaneously talking on their phones and checking computers. He waited until McGee had put down his phone before asking for an update.

"Our search of former soldiers who were recently released from prison yielded forty-two names," he began.

"That seems like a lot."

"Well, not really, when you consider that that was a nation-wide search and included anybody with any Army service. Some of those are older guys, we're talking Panama and Desert Storm era--" He cut himself off to see Gibbs looking back at him with eyebrows raised. "Not that Desert Storm veterans are old, Boss, I just meant that..." He realized that he wasn't going to dig himself out of that hole, so he just moved on. "There are a few Vietnam-era soldiers, too." He grimaced and tried to move past talking about soldiers' ages. "Most of the forty-two we found don't have any connection to the DC area, but we're running the service records and last known whereabouts of all of them, just to be safe."

"Anyone look promising?"

The junior agent shook his head. "Nothing yet, Boss, but we'll keep you posted."

"I might have something," DiNozzo announced as he hung up his phone. The other three turned to him in interest. "Former Sergeant First Class Thomas Emerson, Jr. He was an infantry sergeant with the 10th Mountain Division, received an honorable discharge in April 2004 after twenty years service."

"Right between the first two murders," Ziva pointed out. DiNozzo nodded, then continued.

"His last assignment before he separated was at the Pentagon and he stayed in the DC area—just outside of Fairfax, VA—since he left the Army. He was arrested fifteen months ago for assault in a domestic dispute and just got out last month. His ex-wife hasn't seen or heard from him since he went in, and it sounds like she has no desire to. No small wonder there, Boss—he broke her jaw and three of her ribs with the butt of his rifle." Gibbs saw McGee wince at the words. "It gets even more interesting than that. His wife was also in the Army, an orthopedics tech at Walter Reed who made Staff Sergeant before she separated. Apparently, while he was beating her, Emerson said, 'You're the reason why they don't let women in the infantry, you bitch.' That was a direct quote from the wife."

"Good work, DiNozzo," Gibbs said with a nod. "Track him down and bring him in. I'll let Wang know."

"That's not all, Boss. The former Mrs. Emerson knew Captain Macintosh. The nurse told the ex-wife that she should leave her husband back in 2003. That was six weeks before Macintosh was killed."