Rigged ::: Chapter 5
“Her husband had Syphilis.” Abby said to Gibbs with a huge smile on her face. It was the next afternoon and everybody had been working nonstop to try and solve the case of the dead Petty Officer's wife.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow, “Okay...”
Abby sighed in exasperation. “Gibbs...that's why she was looking up STD's online the day she died.”
“It was also how her husband died as well.” Ducky said as he walked into the lab with a file folder in his hands. “Looking at the autopsy for Petty Officer Pratt that was done it shows that his true cause of death was an untreated Syphilis. By the damage that was done to the nervous system and the heart I would say he probably contracted the disease about ten years ago.”
“How was he able to get into the Navy?” Gibbs asked curiously. “I remember the amount of testing we had to do when I was in the Core. I doubt the Navy is much different.”
Ducky sighed, “Jethro these kinds of tests are often easy to work around, especially if he had friends in the testing area.”
“Okay so he had this STD, what does that mean for our case?” Gibbs asked going back into his no-nonsense attitude.
“Well I can tell you that Mrs. Pratt was not infected, which is rather spectacular with the level of the disease in her husband's system.” Ducky said as he looked at the file he was holding.
“Sometimes condoms do actually work,” Abby said with a slight glare on her face.
It was obvious to Gibbs that Abby had personal experience with condoms NOT working and made a face himself. He didn't exactly like thinking about his teammates having sex and for some reason the idea of Abby having sex with McGee gave him the heeby Jeebies even more then anybody else. “That's fine...they used condoms, but something tells me this is still connected to our case. Why would Amanda Pratt be looking up information on the infection the day she died other wise?”
“I suggest talking with that friend of hers she was going out with that morning. Maybe she's got more information.” Ducky suggested with a smile before turning to head back to autopsy.
Gibbs gave Abby a kiss on the cheek before heading back upstairs to the squad room. “I need somebody to bring in Maggy Holland for questioning.”
Ziva automatically stood up. “I'll do it...but why? We already questioned her yesterday.”
“There has been a new discovery. It appears that Petty Officer Pratt had Syphilis and that was actually his cause of death.” Gibbs explained.
Tony made a face, “Geeze that had to have sucked.”
“I'll go get her,” Ziva said as she headed to the elevator.
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Two hours later Gibbs was sitting across from Maggy Holland in the interrogation room questioning her about how much information Amanda Pratt had on her husband's illness.
“It's come to our attention that Petty Officer Pratt didn't die in Iraq because of a war related injury but because of untreated syphilis.” Gibbs said not one to sugar coat things.
Maggy made a face when Gibbs said this, but it was rather obvious in her facial expression that she knew about the reason behind the Petty Officer's death. “It wasn't exactly a secret, at least not outside of military circles.”
“Meaning?” Gibbs asked hoping to get her to open up a bit more.
“Meaning Amanda knew her husband had the STD since they got married. He told her he didn't want to treat it because he would be unable to stay in the military. He actually contracted the disease overseas in Desert Storm years ago because of fooling around with local women. It was never found out and he didn't want anybody to know because it would give him a less then dishonorable discharge.” Maggy explained like it really didn't mean anything.
Gibbs closed his eyes as if trying to get rid of a headache. It always irked him the way some people looked at he military in such a negative manner. “Do you have any idea who would want Mrs. Pratt murdered?”
Maggy looked frustrated, “I already told you people yesterday that I have no idea. Everybody loved Amanda and would have no reason to want her dead.”
“I think she's telling the truth,” Tony said to McGee from where they were watching on the other side of the two way mirror. “She honestly believes her friend had nobody who would want her dead.
McGee nodded having to agree with Tony.
“Do you know if Amanda was dating anybody?” Gibbs asked after glancing down at the file, realizing they didn't know this piece of information.
Maggy shook her head, “Not currently. She went out on a few dates a few weeks ago with a guy named Franklin Cummins but she told me they just didn't hit it off and ended it.”
Gibbs made note of the man's name and nodded. “Okay, thank you.” He then got up and headed out of the room. He met with Tony and McGee in the hallway. “Find this Franklin Cummins and bring him in.”
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Gibbs walked down to autopsy to find Ducky standing over Amanda Pratt's body talking to her. “Find anything else, Duck?”
Ducky stood up to his full hight and turned to Gibbs, “It appears this young woman had been pregnant two weeks ago.”
“You're just now figuring this out?” Gibbs asked shocked and then got a confused look on his face. “You say 'Had been'.”
“That's right, Amanda Pratt had a miscarriage two weeks ago and I can't be for sure, but I have a good idea that her husband would not have been the father.” Ducky said. “I've been trying to talk with her the last few minutes to see if she could give me any more information, maybe tell us who the father was.”
“I'm going to guess it was a man by the named of Franklin Cummins. Maggy Holland told us she was dating this man a few weeks ago.” Gibbs said as he glanced down at the body of the young woman. “Do you have a way to find out why she miscarried?”
“Her hormone levels were fine, just a bit elevated because of the fact she had been recently pregnant so we can completely rule out any STD's if that's what you're asking, even though you already knew that because I told you.” Ducky said with a pointed look.
Gibbs nodded his head, “I know that Duck but I'm still investigating this woman's murder and need all the information I can get.” With that he headed towards the door but stopped when Ducky called his name.
“Jethro is there anything you need to talk about?” Ducky asked having noticed his friend had been acting strangely the past few days.
Gibbs shook his head in the negative, “Everything is fine Duck...except for the fact there is a dead woman on your table and I don't know who did it.”
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Meanwhile Tony and McGee were outside of Franklin Cummins apartment. When they went to knock on the door it actually opened a little. Tony gave McGee a raised eyebrow look before he slowly opened the door. With McGee on his six they both walked into the eerily quiet apartment. “You check the bedroom and bathroom, I'll get the main areas.” Tony said to McGee before going to do just that.
McGee headed down the hallway towards the bedrooms with his gun drawn and actively alert just in case something happened. As he opened the bedroom door he sighed. “Tony I found him!” he called to his friend and teammate.
Tony headed down the hall and stood in the doorway with McGee. “Well I guess we're not talking to him.” he said as he took in the dead body of the middle aged man.
“There's a note next to him,” McGee said as he put on gloves and picked up the note. “It's definitely a suicide note...”
When this note is found, I know I'm already dead. I've done something that is unfathomable and I know there is nothing I can do about it now. It's either spend my life in jail or die now. As you can probably tell I picked to die now. I hope I will see mine and Amanda's baby where I'm going, but I doubt it. I bet unborn babies go to Heaven not Hell where I am sure to go. I wanted nothing more then to be a father, but she took that away from me. She killed our baby and because of that she had to die.
Goodbye,
Franklin
Tony made a face as McGee read the note. “Sick bastard...killing a woman because of that.”
“What does he mean by her killing the baby though? Ducky didn't mention any signs of an abortion or anything like that.” McGee pointed out as he bagged the note and then picked up his cell phone to call Gibbs to come down with Ducky to get the body.
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“So what you're saying is she forced herself to miscarry.” Ziva said as the whole team was sitting in the squad room discussing the case they had just closed.
“It looks that way,” Gibbs said with a nod. “Ducky looked closely at Amanda Pratts medical documents the hospital preformed after the miscarriage and they failed to notice that there were high levels of over the counter pain medications. Not enough to be considered an overdose or harmful to her, but definitely harmful enough to cause her to lose the baby.”
“Why in the world did she not just get an abortion like a normal person.” Tony said shaking his head. When he got some nasty looks he added. “Not that I think getting an abortion is a good thing, I just meant isn't it easier then what she went through?”
“It was obviously harder for people to detect so it worked well for her.” McGee said as he subconsciously rubbed at Abby's stomach from where she was sitting on his lap.
Abby laughed, “Yeah worked until the boyfriend found out, got all pissed and then decided to kill her.”
“Then kill himself,” Gibbs added as he took a drink of his coffee and tossed it in the trash when he found it was finished. “Well team it seems we're done for the day why don't we actually get home at a normal time?”
“Sounds good to me, I'm beat.” Abby said with a yawn which was actually something different for her. She had stopped drinking any type of caffeine when she found out she was pregnant so this was a big lifestyle change for her.
McGee smiled as he took Abby's hand. “Lets go get your stuff and head home, babe.” he said leading her to the elevator.
“Sometimes those two make me sick,” Tony said making a face as he sat at his desk not making any move to leave yet.
“Oh I think it is sweet,” Ziva said smiling. “Abby is a very lucky woman to have a man like Tim. He really cares for her, it is obvious.”
Tony knew Ziva was right, but it often hurt to know that his friend was so happy when he himself wasn't. The person he wanted to be with would never want to be with him.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Thanks again for reading and sending feedback! You guys are awesome! It normally works that the more feedback I get the faster I send out chapters. I'm not the type to beg though so I'm simply just stating a fact *giggling* Thanks again!!!!
Rigged by Gibbs_Teff
Chapter End Notes:
THIS CHAPTER IS KIND OF A FILLER, BUT I STILL FEEL IT'S A GOOD CHAPTER. PLUS I NEEDED TO FINISH OFF THEIR CURRENT CASE AND WANTED TO SHOW MORE OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL LIVES WITH EACH OTHER :)