Elizabeth sighed as she pulled into the driveway of her home. Beside her, her husband snored loudly, almost like a chainsaw, she noted. His head was thrown against the headrest as his mouth hung open. The pungent smell of alcohol made her stomach turn and nausea threatened to follow as she opened the car door.
The moment her car door opened, so did the house door. Cara, a short and stumpy woman with gray hair and a frown line covering her face, came trotting out the door and began the trek to meet them. Cara, was dressed in her usual maid attire, the standard black dress with the white apron; Elizabeth remembered begging her husband to change the uniform requirements to help their workers adjust to changing temperatures, but the idea was shot down with a not so lovely comment about how if they couldn't handle it, then they could go to the unemployment line.
Nonetheless, the uniform did not protect her from the biting wind as she grew closer. Once she was close enough, she held out her hands.
"I can take that from you, ma'am," the woman said as she grabbed Elizabeth's purse from her hands.
"Thank you, Cara. Can you ask Jeffries to come and take Mr. DiNozzo to his room, and set out some aspirin and water?" Her voice sounded exhausted to the elderly woman as she came closer.
"Of course."
Cara helped Elizabeth out of the car before going back in and returning with a man in tow. Without a word, the man lifted Anthony and carried him inside without a word. The woman followed the two men inside and Elizabeth watched as the man, Jeffies, carried her husband up the stairs. With a shake of her head, she walked to the living room before settling down on the sofa. Cara appeared seconds later. "Is there anything you need ma'am? Perhaps some food, to settle you?"
"No thank you, I just want to sleep," Elizabeth sighed.
"Of course, ma'am." Cara said, already watching the woman's eyes slip shut.
At NCIS, McRoe glared at the screen ahead of him. The photo of Lt. Mann was on display while his team gathered around him.
"What do we got?" he asked no one in particular.
Agent Reed stepped forward, lifting her voice so her teammates could hear. "Lieutenant Jacklynn Mann, age twenty. Born in New York, joined the navy at the age of eighteen. From there is was a fast track to her current rank. From what I can gather from talking to her friends, she was very well liked and they can't believe anyone would do this to her. She was a loveable person, has a dog named Scruffy. She leaves behind a mother and a younger brother."
McRoe sent a glare her way. "Reed, I asked for information, not a damn eulogy." Agent Reed flushed as she backed away, much to McRoe's annoyance. Agent Fredericks, who decided to take sympathy on his partner, spoke up. "I spoke to some of her crew and from what I could gather, she loved to party, much like any young person her age. I looked through her file from work and found she had several reprimands, and disciplinary demerits against her."
"For what?"
Fredericks opened the millina folder he held in his hands and began reading. "Showing up to work drunk, being involved in fights in the bars, skipping out on paying bar tabs, using her rank in the navy to get out of them."
"So she has a drinking problem?"
Fredericks nodded but motioned for his senior agent to wait. "I found this towards the back of the file. Just two months ago, Lt. Mann filed an order of protection against Gunnery Sergeant Tobias Reynolds. From what I gather, the complaint didn't initially go anywhere until she filed another one which accompanied an order of protection. Not long after Reynolds was sent in front of the board where he was stripped of his rank."
"Did it say what the complaint was for?" Fredericks shook his head. "Well, find out and then I want to talk to this Reynolds."
"Yes sir."
"That," McRoe said turning to his probie, "is how you give a report." Without another word, McRoe walked off towards the elevator.
"Where are you going boss?" Fredericks called out.
"Autopsy."
Doctor Donald "Ducky" Mallard has always been considered weird to most and amazing to others. He was decent at reading people as well, but there was one person he was having a hard time reading and that was NCIS Special Agent Danny McRoe. The man was as tight-lipped and gruff as he's ever met. Reading him was like trying to read hieroglyphics without a guide.
"He means well," Ducky said out loud as he stood over Lt. Mann's body. "You know, sometimes when I think I can get a read on him, he changes, like that." Ducky said with a snap of his fingers.
"Not like you, my girl. You unfortunately are too easy to read."
"And what's she saying," a voice asked, causing the young medical examiner to turn in the direction of the voice. Agent McRoe walked into the room, his sole attention was on the body.
"Ah Daniel, we were just talking about you," Ducky crowed with a smile.
"Yeah, was she answering back?"
"Oh heavens no, that would cause a startle indeed."
"So?"
"We were discussing my inability to read and understand you. You see I have a pretty good idea-"
"I meant the body, doctor."
Ducky paused in his monologue for a second as realization dawned on him. "Ah, yes." Stepping closer to the body, Ducky launched into his findings. "Now, we've only been acquainted for a few hours, but in that time she's told me a lot. Strangulation was indeed the cause of death. Whatever was used to strangle her was powerful enough to sever her windpipe in the process. After cleaning off most of the blood, I was able to discover defensive wounds on her body. She fought against her attacker, a poor girl. The most interesting find; however, was this incision on her abdomen."
"What's so interesting about that?" McRoe asked leaning in to take a closer look.
"See how the lines are jagged and not clean cut? Someone sliced this poor girl open before sewing her back together, that's where all the blood came from."
"For what purpose?"
Ducky lifted his shoulders to his ears before allowing them to drop. "No idea, I haven't gotten that far in my assessments yet. I did however send some blood samples to Gregory."
"Thanks doc."
Without another word, McRoe left the room in a flash. Ducky stared after him before leaning down to speak into Lt. Mann's ears. "Now where were we?"