20 Sherlock Sciuto

Abby is getting back to her usual self, having found something black to wear, her hair back up in pigtails and her eyeliner on. "I'm just about finished with the car, Gibbs. Wanna know what I found?"

"Of course."

"No fingerprints. There was a cotton-poly blend jacket found on the ground near the car. The perp probably carried it—it would have hidden the knife."

"The jacket could be DiNozzo's."

"Gibbs, please. I think I know Tony's style better than that. Anyway, the perp probably used his jacket to wipe the car for prints. He even used it to open the back door, because there's some blood on it."

"So you got nothing."

"Gibbs, when do I give you nothing? The perp was smart enough to wipe down the car but he didn't reckon with the infuriating complexity of the modern child seat." Abby opens the car door. "See, you have to reach over the seat to undo the latch. I've got nearly full print from the left hand here and the right thumb and forefinger from the latch."

"Got a match?"

"Not yet. And I'm not finished. Ziva says that Tony always leaves an NCIS hat and jacket in the car, along with some crime scene stuff. The crime scene kit is in the car, but the NCIS gear is gone."

"This guy really thinks he can pass himself off as an NCIS agent?"

"Look at the description: 20s, blond, medium build. With sunglasses on he could be Win Hancock. If he's changed his hair color he could be Bill Burns or Mark Green. He might even be tall enough to pass for Tony at a distance. And that's assuming that he's going to try and pass himself off here on base, where someone would actually know the NCIS agents."

"He could get a fake badge anywhere. And even the credentials could be copied well enough to pass a routine inspection. That might be useful."

"There's more."

"Not in the mood for guessing, Abs."

"Doesn't this seem strange to you? The perp just walks up and shivs Tony and drives off with him hanging on the car. Very cold. He makes a ransom call and leaves Ziva out there in the dark crying and screaming. Very cold. But Becks barely has a mark on her. And she came home with her backpack. Someone had to have picked up her backpack from the car and put it back on her when she was dropped off. We have a Jekyll and Hyde situation. The perp has two completely different personalities."

"No," Gibbs says. "The perp is two different people, Abs. That's good thinking."

"There's also the matter of the missing tiara."

"We're going from Jekyll and Hyde to Sherlock Holmes?"

Abby pulls up a photo on her iPad of Rebecca in her pink heels and tiara. "Ducky said she left the house wearing the tiara. He said Tony said, Take the tiara, leave the cannoli. You know how Tony loves his Godfather references."

"It could have fallen off in the car."

"It wasn't in the car. It wasn't at the scene. It wasn't where the car was found." She smiles. "I think I know where the tiara is."

"Abby…"

"I think it's in Becks's backpack. I need the backpack anyway, because I need to check that for prints too."

"You'll get it. I don't suppose they have Caf-Pow here."

"They have it at the base commissary, and I'm shocked that you waited so long to make sure I was supplied." She waves at a neat row of seven plastic cups. "I'm putting them on the office tab."

"You keep drinking, I'll pay."

The picture on Abby's iPad leads Gibbs back to Tony's office, and the frame with the rotating pictures. Tony's frame is larger and more colorful, and it shows brief movies as well as still pictures, and there's sound along with the movies.

Sarah Cosgrove joins him. "We gave that to Tony as a birthday present. He had pictures taped up all over the place and it was driving his office assistant crazy. Also," Sarah is more sheepish, "Tony was using up the inkjet cartridges really fast, printing all those pictures."

Gibbs smiles. That sounds familiar. "This is different from the ones that Ziva gave to Abby and Ducky."

"This is brand new, more like a prototype. A friend of mine came up with the idea. Digital frames have been around for ages, but this one runs gifs and HD video as well."

Gibbs is again struck with the sense that this young woman reminds him of someone, and again the name eludes him. "You really like your boss, don't you, Agent Cosgrove?"

"Yes, I do. He's a very good investigator. He's a good boss, although his sense of humor can be really hard to get used to. They're—they make a very nice family." She smiles, more impishly. "They say there's a direct and positive correlation between humor and intelligence. You have to be quick-witted to make jokes."

"I can imagine where you heard that from."

"You'd be right." Sarah gives him a wide-eyed, innocent look. "That was the question you wanted answered, wasn't it? You weren't really asking if I'm having an affair with Tony, are you? Because we've heard about what a tricky interrogator you are."

"I know you're not having an affair."

"I could be boiling the bunny out of disappointment."

"You're not boiling the bunny, either."

"Dang. It was kind of exciting to think that Agent Gibbs was considering me as a criminal mastermind. But just to clarify, I have a boyfriend in Seville. He's actually the one who came up with the idea of the frame."

"Which is why you're not interested in having coffee with McGee."

"Which is why I'm not interested in having coffee with McGee. Should we get back to business?"

"Please." He looks at the frame. "Even a casual visitor could have seen these photographs from the main office. There's even one of the Smart Car."

"True. Or anyone at the MTAC conferences. Should we widen the search to include all conference techs?"

"I hope not. What about those warrants?"

"Too early. No business gets done off base before 10am—even for you, Agent Gibbs. But I have something I think might make you decide that you don't need those warrants."

"Which is?"

"I've gotten the list of NCIS agents aboard the carrier group. And I thought this was really interesting. There are three NCIS agents aboard the Reagan. Only one is actually officially assigned as agent afloat. One of the other agents is Chad Dunham."

"Chad from Chad." And Gibbs thinks that thing in the corner of his eye has just moved in a little. "That's good work, Agent Cosgrove. I'll be at the base hospital."

"Tony wants us all there in an hour."

"For a campfire?"

"He said we'd call this a morning huddle. It's football season. Isn't it?" She frowns.

"I'll see you in an hour, Cosgrove."