Chapter 2:
No matter what time it was, Abby was always ready to go. Caff-Pow! by her side, she bobbed her head along to the beat of her newest CD as she worked to enhance some of the footage from the security video she had received. Just as she completed her examination of one part of the video she heard the whoosh of her doors sliding open to let someone in.
Swiveling around on her chair, she smiled as she greeted McGee. "Hey! You guys weren't out very long. I only just got the security tapes about an hour ago."
"Yeah, well, there wasn't much evidence to gather, apart from the body," McGee informed her as he placed the box of evidence on the table. "Get anything useful from the tapes?"
Abby shook her head as she turned around to face her computer. "Not yet. All I can tell you so far is that the suspect drove a pick-up truck with no plates to the warehouse."
"That's what Tony got from it when he watched it," McGee said as he looked at her computer. "Its too bad the streetlights weren't closer, might have helped get a better view of the vehicle."
"Probably won't be able to give you guys much on the suspect, there just isn't enough to work with," Abby agreed.
"I wonder if our suspect scouted the area beforehand," McGee wondered.
"Makes sense," Abby said. "I doubt it could have been luck that kept that guy from being caught on camera."
"Tony pulled some prints off of a forklift in the warehouse," McGee told her as he started to shift through the evidence. "That should give us a starting point at least."
"Give them to me now," Abby said as she held out her hand. "They can be running along side the prints of our vic that I got from Ducky. You can get started on finishing with the security footage."
McGee handed them over to her and moved to take a seat beside her. Just as he started to run a computer program against the footage, Abby's computer beeped.
"That was fast," McGee remarked as he looked up to see what she had found.
"I've identified our guy in the morgue," Abby said as she reached for the phone to call Gibbs.
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Meanwhile, down in autopsy, Ducky and Palmer had just finished bagging the young marine's clothes along with another piece of evidence that they had found.
"If you would be so kind as to take these up to Abby, Mr. Palmer. Be sure to tell her to take a look at this first," Ducky instructed his assistant as he pointed to a certain evidence bag.
"Of course, Doctor," Palmer said, picking up the items and started to head for the elevator. "Is there any reason why?"
Ducky just waved him off. "Abby will understand when she sees it."
Palmer just nodded and continued on his way.
Ducky sighed and said out loud to himself, "I just hope it's not what I think it is."
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"Private First Class Lucas Vaughn, 23 years old. Joined the marines about a year after graduating high school. Never had any disciplinary problems and his current commanding officer states that he was on his way to becoming an excellent officer worthy of the Marine Core," Ziva announced as she stood up to stretch.
"Just got back from his second tour in Iraq. Looks like he grew up in a rough neighborhood," Tony added as he looked up from his computer. "Grew up around a lot of violence and drugs. Looks like he was one of the lucky ones."
"How is he lucky if he grew up in that kind of environment?" Ziva questioned him.
"He got out," Tony explained as he too stood up to stretch. "He didn't get caught up in anything that was going on around him. Vaughn made a better life for himself."
Ziva nodded her understanding, then glanced up towards the director's office. "How long do you think Gibbs is going to be?"
"Vaughn doesn't have any listed next of kin. Gibbs is going to want to make sure that he receives a proper Marine funeral," Tony said. "Come on, let's go see what Abby and McGee are up to."
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Ding!
The elevator doors slide open and Palmer nearly collided with Tony and Ziva.
"Whoa Palmer!" Tony exclaimed as he moved to the side.
"Sorry guys," Palmer apologized. "Doctor Mallard is waiting for me to get back so we can start Vaughn's autopsy."
"Do not worry about it," Ziva reassured him as she exited the elevator.
Palmer smiled his thanks, then asked, "Could you make sure Abby takes a look at the evidence that's on top of the clothes? She's pretty zoomed in on the computer with McGee. Doctor Mallard specifically requested that she examine it first."
"Really?" Tony said curiously. "Did he say why?"
"No, but I think he was worried about what it means," Palmer told the pair.
"What is it exactly?" Ziva asked. "We didn't find anything inside his pockets at the crime scene."
"A pocket calendar," Palmer said. "It was in the waistband of his pants."
"What's so bad about a pocket calendar?" Ziva wondered as she turned to look at Tony, who had a look of shock on his face. "Tony, are you alright?"
"You said it was on top of the evidence pile, right Palmer?" Tony asked, ignoring Ziva's concern.
"Yeah," Palmer confirmed and then Tony was turning around, heading into the lab. "Uh, ok. I guess I'll see you later." Then he stepped into the elevator and headed back to autopsy.
Ziva nodded her head to Palmer before moving to follow Tony, anxious as to why he had reacted in such a way to a pocket calendar.
Tony had gone right to the evidence bag and picked it up and carried it over to a table. Grabbing a pair of gloves, he quickly put them on before opening the bag and carefully pulling out the calendar.
"Tony! What are you doing?" Ziva asked him, completely baffled by his actions.
Up until then Abby and McGee had had their backs to them, studying the picture on the computer. Both simultaneously turning around at Ziva's questioning, they saw Tony leaf through the calendar, obviously looking for something.
"Hey, that's my evidence!" Abby said as she stood up and moved towards Tony.
Before she had even taken two steps, Tony had replaced the calendar back into its bag and practically sprinted out of the lab and back to the elevator. As luck would have it, he didn't have to wait for it and was gone before anyone had the thought to try and stop him.
"Uh, what was that all about?" McGee asked, breaking the stunned silence.
"I have no idea," Abby said. "What was he looking at anyway?"
"Ducky found a pocket calendar while he was removing the clothes," Ziva answered. "He told Palmer to make sure it was the first thing you looked at."
Abby's eyes widened at the mention of a calendar. "A calendar? Are you sure?"
Ziva rolled her eyes. "Yes! Why is everyone suddenly looking like death walked through the door?"
McGee shrugged in answer and they both turned to Abby, who was uncharacteristically quiet.
"If that calendar means what I think it might, then death just might as well have," Abby said as she stared at the doors that Tony had exited so quickly.
Ziva and McGee glanced at each other for some sort of clue as to what was going on, but neither of them knew. They looked back to Abby for further explanation, but she just shook her head and started to go through the marine's clothes.
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Tony's mind was a whirlwind of chaos. The moment that Palmer had said 'pocket calendar' his heart had skipped a beat. It wasn't possible, was it? Tony wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
After a quick but careful examination of the calendar, his gut instinct told him that it was possible. Tony wanted to be wrong, but even without Abby running her tests he knew that it was highly unlikely. There was really only one sort of confirmation that he needed, and the source was upstairs.
He practically flew to the elevator, evidence in hand and gloves still on. One part of his mind told him he would need the gloves to keep his prints off of it while he showed Gibbs. Tony hoped that he was done with the director; this couldn't wait.
As luck would have it, when the elevator came to a stop the doors opened to reveal Gibbs standing there waiting.
Gibbs took one look at him and immediately knew that something was wrong. The look on Tony's face told him that whatever was going on, it was seriously bothering him. Tony had been an investigator for a while, gruesome crime scenes was not something that would shake him to the core and having him look like he had just lost a few shades of color in his face.
Then of course there was the fact that he was currently clutching an evidence bag while still wearing gloves.
Gibbs stepped into the elevator without hesitation. He waited for the elevator to start moving and was not surprised when Tony reached over to stop the elevator.
He said nothing. Instead, Tony turned to face Gibbs as he revealed what was in the evidence bag, a pocket calendar. Gibbs took one look at it and felt like he had been sucker-punched. Looking back to Tony, their expressions identical.
"Yeah," Tony spoke with dread in his voice. "That's what I thought."
Tony had gotten his confirmation.
Chapter End Notes:
And on that note, there is chapter 2! I love writing cliffhangers, if you didn't know that from Rapids lol. I'm really, really sorry that I do it. I know it's an evil thing to do, but I can't help it. It's just how I write. Anyhoo, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter as much as the first one. I just LOVED hearing from all of you. The feedback is awesome! Thanks again for being such dedicated readers. I hope I am earning my way here!