Bodies dived in every direction. Taking cover wasn't exactly easy when they, (1) didn't know where the shot was coming from (2) were out in the open. Kate and Tim ducked into the trees, the other side of the bullet. Both pulled out their weapons, keeping down towards the ground, just incase the sniper took another pot shot. Gibbs had taken to ground in the ditch just beside his position. Trust him to notice something like that. His own weapon was out even quicker than the other two. He scouted the area, looking for anywhere where a gun man could hide. Madisyn had thrown herself behind the car, just as Tony had. Ducky and Palmer seemed to have scrambled for cover behind the bonet of the sleek silver car. Madisyn heard the thud of another bullet as it screwed its way into the side of the car. A decor. A trap.
From under the wheel of the car she could see the unmistakeable flicker of light hitting the gleam of glass. Must be a quite old weapon, to have something so easy to identify itself by. She nudged Tony just as another shot bounced off the wheel and took off in another direction. Tony looked under just as a the weak light from what remained of the sun flashed off the glass again. He nodded and leant down. It probably wasn't the safest course of action and he'd probably get a hard slap around the back of the head for even suggesting it to Gibbs. But Gibbs was somewhere behind him. Neither had been listening to the shouts from Gibbs or Kate, but they couldn't see them.
Madisyn tuned in just as Gibbs yelled.
"DiNozzo, if you don't answer me now you will not have a job." Madisyn rolled her eyes.
"He's alright, Gibbs, concentrating!" She called back. She didn't catch his reply as Tony fired. The glint caught in the sun once more before there was a yell and a thud. The revolver clattered on the road, beside the ditch on the other side where the shooter had been.
Tony moved over and picked up the revolver. Madisyn joined him, looking down at the body which they had made sure wasn't going to move again. It was a man in his late thirties with thinning mouse brown hair and a large hole in his forehead.
"Nice shot." Madisyn commented as Gibbs stormed up. Then the shouting started. Ducky and Palmer got back to the bodies, Kate to the photographs and Tim to sketching and shooting.
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One of the bodies of the Naval Officers and the mysterious John Doe lay on the slabs in Autopsy. The first two had already gone into one of the large freezers. The second John Doe was just being unzipped by Palmer as Ducky looked over the other two bodies.
It wasn't exactly a pretty sight. The Petty Officer, Petty Officer Jack Hinstern's skull had been smashed in from the impact, his arm was evidently broken and his had at least four, purhaps more, broken ribs. He wasn't quite as bad as the Captain, Captain John Tawmorsh who had come out with a head like a pancake. The second Petty Officer, Petty Officer George Witther had sustained a broken neck and the rest of the injuries were post mortum.
The first John Doe had a slit throat and nothing to identify him. He'd been dressed after he died, as his clothes didn't have a spec of blood on them. He was impeccably dressed in an expensive suit and trousers, crisp white shirt and very expensive leather shoes. Tony had made some comment about them, earning a head slap from Gibbs and a stern look from Ducky.
The second John Doe, the shooter, had been betrayed by his finger prints to be a Joseph Lidren, a petty criminal busted four years ago for assalt and battery on a neighbour of his. He fell off the radar six months ago and came back on about four hours ago. He had sustained a single gunshot to the head, carefully aimed and delt by Anthony DiNozzo.
Ducky had been examining each body with care, aided by his able assisstant, for the past two hours. He'd found nothing that noted that the deaths might not have been caused by the crash. All injuries had obviously been sustained on impact and easily were natable as coming from a car accident. It was just the John Doe that was interesting. One single slice from behind with a sharp blade. Cut through the windpipe and nearly severed the entire neck. Not something to look at on an empty stomach. The time of death had been at least three hours before the deaths of the Captain or the Petty Officers. Mystery if ever there was one.
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Kate and Tony had been flicking through the files on Captain John Tawmorsh, Petty Officer George Witther and Petty Officer Jack Hinstern when Gibbs came in. He didn't need to ask his agent to give him a report of their findings, as they got up to do so just as he entered. Kate picked up the remote to control the plasma and started talking.
"Petty Officers Jack Hinstern and George Witther and Jack Hinstern both served under Captain John Tawmorsh. Neither of them ever deployed and had only been in the Navy for eleven months. Tawmorsh had been back from Iraq for six months according to his wife."
Tony took up the chain: "Witther was married to Petty Officer Juliet Garben, killed in Iraq under Tawmorsh seven months ago. Hinstern never married, no living family listed or found."
He flicked over another page in the file whilst Kate brought up a picture of the shooter.
"Joseph Lidren, 34, arrested at the age of thirty when he assilted his next door neighbour in the middle of the night when she asked for the spare key."
Tony joined in again: "Prisioned for two years, got out in one and a half and was forgotten by the police. We found him, he worked in a local shop in California. Called his boss at the time and found out they fired him when he started turning up for work late and when they confronted him he replied that he was at the clay pidgion shooting range."
Gibbs looked at the two agents, expecting more.
"He was fired two days ago and we lost him until this morning." Kate finished, sitting down at her desk.
"Find out where he's been for the last two days and why he's trying to kill NCIS agents." Gibbs left the bullpen, heading for the elevator.
"Like we haven't been trying." Tony muttered, going through the list of motels and anywhere Lidren could have been staying on his way from California to DC.
"Kate, why is it always us?" Kate looked up from her desk, eyebrows raised.
"I mean, what have we done so wrong in life to make us the target of every known sniper in a hundred mile radius?"
"Maybe they married one of your 'girlfriends'."
Author's Chapter Notes:
"Its always been a little strange that they're always such...well such bad shots. They need a good bit of sniper training."