Chapter 4- Investigation:
Third Person:
"Where to, boss," McGee asked.
"Alley, near bar next to the apartment complexes. Naval officer was torn to shreds."
"Animal?"
"No claws, no tracks. Human."
Tony gulped and so did McGee. Ziva tried to not act effected, though the thought of a human tearing another human to shreds was unnerving. Gibbs scoffed, yeah it was bad, but it could've been worse. What's the worst thing is that some poor kid was dragged into it.
Tony felt nauseas from Ziva's driving to the site. Ziva scoffed.
"I do not drive that bad."
Tony and McGee shared a look, uh yeah you do. When they all entered the alley- Ducky included- they were shocked. Just by now, they could tell this was one of their most serious cases. There was a body of a naval officer, his neck twisted and bloody. There was another body, a teenager African American boy about fifteen. His neck was twisted, facing up while the rest of his body was on his stomach. His back had been burned and the muscles and spine were visible. His eyes were closed. There was blood everywhere and a message was written in blood.
'The ring is the only thing left of her, now they're all dead…and you're next…."
"McGee, DiNozzo, David, photos," Gibbs barked.
They all shuffled. Ducky, of course, went straight to the bodies.
"So, what we got, Duck?"
Ducky was knelt down beside both bodies as they were close together.
"Well, Jethro, there is an obvious cause of death, but it seems the burns came before their necks broke."
Tony flinched as he took pictures of everything, including the message on the wall.
"Ziva, who do you think the message is for?"
Ziva took a picture of some footprints that were bloody.
"Apparently whoever was here and didn't die…"
"Gibbs," McGee said, "I think I found the ring that the message was talking about."
He held up a plastic baggy that had a ring inside. It was a simple gold band with a green gem that had the word 'Wes' engraved on the inside. It hung from a silver chain as if it was worn as a necklace instead of a ring. Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Wes," he muttered, "geesh…"
Gibbs narrowed his eyes.
"Good work, McGee."
"Found the footprints that may belong to the murderer or possibly witness, Gibbs," Ziva reported.
"Good work, pack it up, let's let Abby do her thing."
***
"Well, Gibbs," Abby said as she took a sip of her Co-Pow, "either the murderer walked away in size 9 shoes, or our witness isn't a full grown man and he did."
"Abby?"
"I'm saying, Gibbs, that the shoe size is too small for a grown man who is most likely our murderer, if that's the case…"
"Then our witness is a teenager boy. What else you got, Abbs?"
"Well, the ring had nothing on it, but the engraving- 'Wes'," she took another sip of her drink, "and the message is written in the blood of the victims."
"Thanks, Abby. Let me know when you get something more."
"You got it, Gibbs."
***
"Ducky," Gibbs called as he walked into the morgue.
"Gibbs," Ducky greeted over the body of the teenager boy, "The time of deaths are not that far apart, though the boy died first, perhaps a full ten minutes before the officer died."
"And what does that tell us, Duck?"
"It tells us, Jethro, that our Navy officer just may have been a passer-by, a witness who saw too much."
Gibbs' expression hardened.
"Which means that message isn't for anyone in the navy, it's for the teen witness that got away and the true targets were the teens."
"Ah, speaking of, this here," Ducky said as he motioned to the body, "is a Tucker Lee Foley, reported missing a few weeks from a small town called Amity Park in Illinois. The Naval Officer is Officer John Caleb Gordon."
Gibbs nodded, but didn't like any of it. It was odd, to say the least, but he knew that they are going to catch that murderer- it didn't help that whoever the sicko was, he was killing innocent teenagers not more than fifteen. The information about the teen could help them though.
"Tony," McGee said, "stop."
Tony stuck out his tongue.
"No can do, McDork."
He threw another mint at McGee. Ziva was just happy he wasn't throwing things at her again. McGee, however, was getting very tired of the childish acts.
"We're supposed to be doing work and looking up that town," McGee pointed out.
"You're right, McGee," Gibbs said as he came into the bullpen. Tony jumped, someone needs to put a bell on him. Gibbs continued, "what you got?"
Tony stepped forward, putting his information up on the screen.
"Tucker Lee Foley, fifteen years old, reported missing in Amity Park, Illinois, around the same time Daniel Fenton and Samantha Manson were also reported missing. All three disappeared around the time of their families' death."
He brought up multiple pictures. Two showed two people dead with their backs burned along with a young girl with bright red hair dead. One showed what looked like a family (a mother, a father, and a grandmother) dead with the backs burned to show their spines. The last picture showed an African American couple dead with the backs burned to show the spine.
"The police suspected a serial killer as each family had the same ways of deaths. The Fenton's were the first dead, making Daniel Fenton the first to disappear, that was almost a month ago. The same time Daniel disappeared, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley did too. Then, a few weeks ago, the Manson's and Foleys' were found dead."
"It appears," Ziva put in, "that the kids left together. The Manson's were rich and two apartments here in D.C. were under their name- along with the names Daniel and Tuck but no last name given- a few weeks ago. It appears that the missing teens started to live here in D.C. after the Fenton's deaths, but that the others' families were murdered when they were gone. All the money in the account of the Manson's is left to Samantha."
"If that's the case," McGee said feeling left out, "then the murderer must have followed them, Foley and the Naval Officer followed the M.O. of the murders from Amity."
Tony shivered.
"Amityville Horror material."
Gibbs was deep in thought. There was something they were missing.
"McGee, get all you can on the disappearances and the murders in Amity and anything on our Naval Officer. Ziva, DiNozzo, with me."
"Where we going, boss," Tony asked.
"The apartments."