a/n Hello everyone, sorry that it took me such a long time to update, but now i finally have vacation, so the update wil come sooner, i am also looking for a beta for the rest of this story.
Chapter 2
DiNozzo and McGee took the evidence to Abby, but were surprised to find when they entered the lab there was no blaring music.
Tim tried not to laugh when he saw Abby, sucking on a straw from her 4th Caff-Pow. When she came up for air she started talkingso fast neither could understand what she was trying to say.
"This is personal, he can't get away with this. MY ...silver..... …. fox!."
And so she went on and on, until Gibbs joined them, snapping her out of it. She gave him a bone-crushing-hug before telling him everything would be alright. She would work non-stop till she found the bastard who did this.
Pointing at Tony, Abby said, "You, send me copies of all the pictures you took at the crime scene." Then she pointed at McGee, "You too, and bring me a Caff-Pow every hour. I need to stay fueled."
With that she grabbed the boxes and went to work with the evidenceleaving a stunned Tony and Tim in her hyper-driven wake. When they heard Gibbs yelling from the elevator they made a sprint for the elevator, catching it just before the door closed.
When they arrived at the bullpen they saw Ziva typing furiously into her computer. The moment she saw the other team members appear she started to talk.
"I found no missing persons record matching her description so far. But, I sentevery police station over the entire country a picture of our victim. I also sent a photo to Interpol, just in case. Right now, I am reviewing cases of the past 10 years that involved a little girl with her description."
Gibbs nodded to Ziva. "Good job," he told her. "McGee, DiNozzo, help her."
Then Gibbs sat at least half an hour at his desk, just staring at the picture of the crime scene before he suddenly stood up. "I'll go talk to Ducky."When he was about to enter autopsy his phone rang. A look at the caller ID told him it was Ducky. Instead of answering he just walked in to autopsy.
"Just in time," Ducky told him. "Got an ID yet?" He asked.
"No," answered Gibbs, frustration in his voice
"Well, I think you gave your team the wrong description."
He motioned for Gibbs to come closer: "See, her hair is dyed. She's a blonde." Ducky showed Gibbs where the killer did a poor job coloring the girl's hair. " And her eyes, they're green. The killer used colored lenses, just to trick us. At least initially."
Ducky looked at his friend and told him that he had nothing on COD so far, but the coloring and lenses seemed importuned to him.
Within five minutes they had a hit. Ryanne Star, turned 8 two months ago. Ziva read off the pertinent information to the rest of the team, putting her picture up on the plasma screen. "She was the child of Ryan Star, petty officer 2nd class and his wife Sharon Engel-Star, A nurse at Bethesda.. They live in Norfolk. The girl was reported missing 6 days ago. She was playing with her friend 5 houses down the street and never returned home. Another NCIS team, specialized in kidnapping, along with many people living on base had also helped in the search. But they had found nothing, not even a trace." Ziva sighed sadly as she looked at the little girl's face. "A missing kid touches the whole community."
Gibbs went up to Vances office, he was going to claim the lead on this one. And from the look on his face, the team knew that he was not going to take no for an answer.
He was back in 3 minutes and went to the elevator calling for DiNozzo, who followed him with an "on your six boss." Ziva looked over to McGee and they had no words for a second. This was going to be a long case. Someone was holding a grudge against Gibbs, nothing strange there, but this person was going great lengths to make him suffer.
There was nothing they could do right now so Ziva decided to take a look at all of Gibbs case files and look a little bit deeper in to the history of her parents. McGee went down to see if Abby already had found something. he really liked visiting Abby at her lab.
"Got something off the evidence?" he asked her.
"You mean other than an awful lot of dirt?" She told him smiling. "Nothing, but I am running a test on the girl's hair, checking for any drugs or other toxins that might have been in her system. Maybe we can see where the killer bought the stuff or the brand of something."
McGee knew that this was just wishful thinking but he nodded anyway.
" And I am still processing all the garbage from the crime scene. You can help if you want! And please, be a little more patient. Evidence processing takes time Timmy." Abby said with a fake cheery smile on her face.
McGee smiled, he liked it when she called him Timmy, and at the lab he could go geeky all the way and she would even understand it. This was his favorite place to be in the whole building.
But Tim knew that there was no time to waist. He said goodbye to Abby and went looking for Ansley's team, who had the lead on the search for the girl. He better had something good to tell Gibbs when he came back.
He found the team working in the squad room and explained that they found the girl and his team was now lead on the case. They gave Tim the information he needed, they could see that this was not an argument. Plus, Vance had already called that they had to hand over the case.
McGee took the file and scanned trough it. Nothing special was in it. They had searched the base with dogs, but the trail went cold at the parking lot. The list of suspects was very small, the thought it might be some creepy guy that walked his doy everyday at the field behind the families house. But there was nothing to link him to the kidnap.
He called DiNozzo anyway to tell them what he found out about the girl.
" Now I am going to compare this file to everything we know about Gibbs' cases. I will call you back I find anything."
Short after the phone call Gibbs and DiNozzo arrived at the house of the girl.
"I can take the lead on this one boss," Tony suggested.
"No, I want to do this myself," Gibbs said gruffly. "I know what this family is feeling. Do you?" And with that Gibbs rang the bell.
The family was shocked about the news the agents brought. Gibbs asked standard questions but they couldn't help with that. Gibbs reassured the woman that he would do everything to catch the man who did this. And now for the hardest part, Tony thought as he listened to Gibbs asked quietly, "We need you to identify the remains as your daughter."
"Of course,", Ryan Star answered. "I'll go with you now. I don't think my wife should have to see this."
Gibbs agreed. "We will let the security know that you are coming." Both Tony and Gibbs offered the family their condolences and left.
Ziva had found nothing in some of Gibbs' old case files, and there was nothing suspect about the parents, but something was bothering her about the crime scene. She put a note on Gibbs' desk and left to take another look at the crime scene.
When she got there, the area was already cleared and she saw nothing but some runners and a few college kids, skipping classes. The location was off, she thought. A lot of people pass this place, and he could have easy been caught.
And then she saw something blinking in the corner of her eye, a security camera. She flipped her phone open and dialed a number. "McGee, listen to me. I'm at the parking lot where we found the girl. There are security cameras! Have you checked the tapes yet?" She listened to McGee saying something and hung up. Feeling that she had accomplished something she drove back to headquarters.
When she arrived back at NCIS, she down to the lab to see if McGee had found something.
"Sorry Ziva," he told her, "the camera's didn't work that night. There was some problem with the local energy company." McGee turned his back and went to work. There was still an awful lot of files to go trough.
Ziva wondered for a quick moment why he was working in the lab but she decided not to question it.
Ziva took the elevator back upstairs and at ground floor Gibbs and Tony entered the elevator as well. Ziva told them about her trip and the results. Gibbs flippped the elevator emergency switch. He looked at Ziva and whispered. "If you want to leave headquarters, clear it with me first. Not just some note." As if nothing happened he flipped the switch back and walked out of the elevator when they arrived at the bullpen.
Tony shot Ziva a look and they followed their boss to their desks. Before Gibbs could sit down his phone rang. "Gibbs." he answered, listened to the caller and hung up. "Ducky" he said, dropping his gun and badge in his desk drawer and turned back to the elevator, waving his team to come with him.
The 'ding' of the elevator told Ducky that Jethro and his team had arrived.
"What have you got Duck?" Gibbs asked..
"Well our girl died around 1 am this morning. So my estimated TOD was right." "If you look closely, you see all these small puncture wounds?" He asked pointing at the girl's legs. "Snake bites. What I can tell from the autopsy, it was a poisons snakebite. I hope that death was quick for the girl because it must have hurt a lot. I gave Abby some samples to test for the source of the venom."
Gibbs decided to pay Abby a visit to see what she could tell him. He was surprised to only find McGee at the lab. He pointed to all the Caff-Pows and said simply "Bathroom."
One of her machines started beeping but before McGee could look at the results Abby came running back in to push him away from his machine
"Back-off Timmy" She yelled at him before turning to Gibbs. "Ducky was right. She died from a poisonous bite from a lowland copperhead. The concentration as so high she must have died very quickly. Which is good, since it would have been really painful."
McGee's face frowned. "Lowland copperheads? They live in Australia or something. How did the killer find one?"
"Well, McBoyscout, let's find out." Tony answered. "I will call all the local petstores" Tony said.
"I will stay here and go trough the rest of the files," McGee answered answered pointed at a giant stack of files. And with that everyone went back to work.
Ziva thought for a moment and talked to Gibbs: "I will find out how the snakes get in this country. Maybe they are illegal or something. I will call in some favors."
Back at the bullpen the young LEO from the crime scene. Officer G. Commers was waiting. "Special Agent Gibbs," he started. This time he didn't hesitate. "I did some research of my own and I found out that this murder was almost an exact copy of another crime scene. Similar crime, same spot."
Now the guy had everyone's attention. "11 years ago, we found a dead sailor at that same parking lot. Red hair and blue eyes. His name was Kevin Vels. The man died of snake bites." He looked down at the file, "Lowland copperhead," he said.
"Good job," Gibbs told the agent, surprised and pleased with the information.
"George" The agent introduced himself. "We handed the case of to an agent Johnson?"
"What are you waiting for?" Gibbs barked looking at Dinozzo. "Get me the damn file!"
DiNozzo couldn't find the file in the system. Case files from files older than 10 years were at the large storage locker across the street. Ziva decided to order everybody some pizza.
Chewing at a pizza sliceTony told them: "The victim was Petty Officer 3rd class Kevin Vels. They suspected that there were drugs involved. But they found nothing. Case went cold after 2 months." He swallowed and took another bite.
Ziva sighed."First eat, than talk. Please!"
Tony swallowed and continued. "Prime suspect was Theo Vonk. Some low level drug runner." McGee was typing into his computer, pulling up a picture of Vonk.
"Damnit!" Gibbs yelled. "I know that guy. I put him away for robbing a marine."
McGee typed something more in his computer. "Released 3 weeks ago, Last known address is here in Washington." Gibbs wrote down the address.
"McGee, you're with me!" Leaving the other agents behind Gibbs gave them a task. "Find me a damn connection!"
"Is it me, or is Gibbs getting nicer every day?" Tony asked, earning himself a head slap from Ziva.
They all started to work but they found no connection at all. His prison time ended early because of good behavior. After that, there was nothing, not even a speeding ticket. And that was scary, because they would have nothing to tell to Gibbs.