Chapter 3:
"Is it marked the same?" Gibbs asked, already sure he knew the answer.
Tony nodded, removed the calendar from the bag and opened it up to reveal what was inside. The writing was eerily familiar, a clear indicator of who had left it.
"Ducky found it," Tony informed Gibbs. "He sent it up to Abby with specific instructions to look at it first."
So Ducky was aware of the situation. Judging from the fact that Tony still had his gloves on, Gibbs was willing to bet that Abby had not even gotten to look at the bag, let alone run any tests on it.
"I take it Abby hasn't seen this yet?" Gibbs questioned.
"No, I got to it before she even knew what it was that Ducky had wanted her to look at," Tony answered.
"We should get her to match it with the others before we do anything else," Gibbs decided as he reached to put the elevator back into motion. Tony grabbed him by the arm before he could do so.
Surprised by the action, Gibbs gave Tony a curious look and waited for an explanation.
"We already know what this means," Tony said with conviction. We have to get McGee and Ziva up to speed and get this guy."
Gibbs sighed. He agreed with Tony whole-heartedly, but they had to be certain before they went off chasing after something in the past. They would need the evidence to support their desire to re-open a nearly six-year-old cold case.
After telling him as much, Tony just shook his head in exasperation.
"If it isn't our guy, then it could be the beginning of a copycat! So either way we will need to let McGee and Ziva know what is going on."
Gibbs was always impressed when Tony stood his ground when he was sure about something. Most people never had the guts to confront him on something, case related or not. Gibbs knew that Tony had a point, however, Gibbs was concerned about how Tony would handle certain things being brought to light. It hadn't been an easy time working on the case the first time around, he doubted it would be any easier the second time.
"This isn't going to be easy…" Gibbs started to say.
"That's stating the obvious," Tony said with a slight grin before continuing. "I'll be fine, Boss. Besides, I trust McGee and Ziva. They aren't Starks."
Once again Gibbs was surprised. He hadn't expected Tony to say his old partner's name with such ease.
'Maybe it won't be so bad this time around, after all,' Gibbs thought to himself.
Nodding his agreement to Tony, Gibbs reached to start the elevator up again. This time, Tony didn't stop him.
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Ducky had completed his autopsy on PFC Vaughn and was not surprised by his findings. Instead of waiting for Gibbs to come down in his timely fashion to hear his report, Ducky had decided to head upstairs himself. He had a few things to discuss with Gibbs in private as well.
When the elevator doors opened to reveal Gibbs and Tony inside, Ducky knew without even seeing the evidence bag in Tony's hand that they were already aware of his discovery.
"Well, good timing as always, Jethro," Ducky said half-heartedly as he joined the two agents inside the elevator. He was slightly surprised that it was Tony who moved to stop the elevator.
The three men stood in a triangle, facing each other with grim looks on their faces.
"Cause of death, Ducky?" Gibbs asked, breaking the momentary silence that had filled the elevator.
"It's difficult to place the cause of the young man's demise on any one thing in particular," Ducky began. "There was significant blunt force trauma to the head, as well as water in his lungs suggesting that he was held underwater."
"Any other marks?" Tony asked as he digested the information that he had just received.
Ducky gave a heavy nod. "I found the same marks on Vaughn that were on previous targets."
"Can you be sure that the marks are the same? No differences whatsoever?" Tony pressed, eager for assurances of what it was that they had.
Once again Ducky nodded his head. "Of course I'm sure. I pulled up the records to compare them. They are identical."
"Sorry, Ducky," Tony apologized. "I just want to make sure that we aren't dealing with a copycat."
"Don't worry about it, Anthony. I understand," Ducky guaranteed the younger man as he gave him a pat on the back.
"Not sure which would be worse, a copycat or the original," Gibbs said darkly.
The three men stood in silent agreement to that statement, for there was a fine line between the two.
After a moment, Gibbs indicated to Tony with a nod of his head to restart the elevator. "Looks like we've got a lot of work to do."
"And McGee and Ziva?" Ducky wondered.
"That too," Gibbs said as the elevator took them all to Abby's lab.
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Beep beep beep. The mass spectrometer alerted Abby to the completion of another series of tests. Ever since Tony had run out of her lab with a certain piece of evidence, she had gone quiet, retreating into her world of evidence. She barely acknowledged that McGee and Ziva were still there with her.
Once she had learned of what Palmer had brought up, Abby had immediately understood Tony's reaction. She also had a pretty good idea of where he was going. Tony bolting to the elevator had left her to deal with a bewildered McGee and Ziva, but she knew better than to say anything. It hardly her place to do so.
"You sure you don't have any clue as to why everyone is suddenly acting so…" Ziva started to ask McGee again in a lowered voice.
"No," he interrupted her before she could complete her question. "For the last time, I have no idea why a pocket calendar is freaking everyone out."
"You have been here longer than I have," Ziva argued.
"And you are the spy," McGee retorted. "Why not try asking a secret source to tell you?"
Ziva huffed in annoyance. "There's no need to get snappy."
Glaring at her, McGee replied, "Yeah, I'll try to work on that."
Realizing McGee's point, Ziva decided to change the tone of their conversation. "So where do you think Tony went?"
"Upstairs to find Gibbs," McGee whispered as he watched Abby work with her back turned to them. "If Ducky and Abby know something, then Gibbs definitely does. I'm thinking it might be from a previous case before I joined the team."
Ziva nodded in agreement. "Seems to be the most likely possibility."
McGee let out a dry chuckle. "Right now, it's the only possibility. We don't exactly have much to go on."
"True," Ziva said as she began to wonder something else. "So, possibly a cold case then. Wonder how long ago it has been since they have worked on it?"
McGee turned to look at her. "Please don't tell me you are going to start repeating that question now."
"We are investigators, McGee," Ziva pointed out. "It's our job to question and find out what is going on."
"Oh, enough already!" Abby suddenly cried out, making both agents jump at her outburst. "You will find out what's going on when everyone is good and ready to tell you, and not before! Did you ever stop to think about what reasons I might have for not telling you yet? Huh?"
Both McGee and Ziva just shrugged their shoulders, not wanting to say anything to provoke Abby any further. Plus, they knew her well enough that she wasn't finished, not by a long shot.
"Well I do. It isn't my place to tell you about all of it," Abby continued to rant. "You're right about Tony going to Gibbs because Gibbs does know what is going on! They will be the ones to tell you anything if there is anything worth telling! Got it?"
They both nodded and before either one of them could formulate a response, the doors opened to allow Gibbs, Tony and Ducky to enter the lab.
Tony passed over the evidence bag containing the calendar to Abby, whose eyes went wide as she looked at it and then looked at each of their faces in turn.
"So…" she questioned the three of them.
They nodded their heads simultaneously. She took a few minutes to set up some tests to run on the calendar while she told them that neither she nor McGee could get very much from the security tapes.
"I would have been surprised if there was anything," Tony said quietly. Abby understood his meaning, but McGee gave him a questioning look. "This guy knows his stuff, McGee. Nothing against you, but he doesn't dump a body if he's not sure he can get away with it."
While still not fully understanding what was going on, McGee accepted the explanation.
"Who is he, exactly?" Ziva asked, unable to contain her curiosity much longer.
"Mitch Morris," Gibbs answered. "Part of a three-man team of hired killers. Worked for anyone for the right price."
"Course, you had to know the right people to get in touch with them in the first place," Tony picked up where Gibbs left off. "They are what you could call the high roller assassins. They don't deal with anyone just off the street, either. They ran a complicated system."
McGee noticed the use of past tense in Tony's explanation. "As in, they don't anymore?"
"Tony and I managed to get two of them, Morris was the only one left from the team," Gibbs told them.
"It was not easy to get the two that you did," Ducky stated.
"For real," Abby agreed. "It's just a good thing you guys teamed up when you did."
"Wait, what? This wasn't a NCIS case?" Ziva asked as both she and McGee looked expectantly from the rest of the group.
"Well, not at first," Tony began.
"It was Baltimore PD's case until a Naval Officer was killed," Gibbs finished.
Now it was McGee and Ziva's turn for their eyes to widen in shock.
"So what you're saying is…" McGee started to say.
"Yup," Abby jumped in. "This is the case where Gibbs, Ducky and I first met Tony."
Chapter End Notes:
Author's note: And that's it! I know, everyone is wondering what in the world is the obsession with the calendar! I'm sorry that not a lot was revealed in this chapter, but I promise things will start to make more sense next chapter. Be prepared to read some flash back scenes. It is going to be my first attempt at writing with flashback scenes being used like this, so please tell me if I am doing it right! Thanks to Teri for the corrections! Much appreciated! Now I just have to figure out how to go back and fix it. If you notice a re-post of chapter 2, its just a spelling error and military rank correction. Love all the reviews and encouragement. Hope you are still enjoying the story!