Extending professional courtesies
They park the car across from the Metro precinct. Buchanan stops McGee before he gets out of the car.
"What?"
"Do you have the reception's number?"
"Yes, why?" He gives her the number.
She gets her mobile phone and dials.
"Metro Police."
"Hello, good afternoon. This is Cherry Lovelace, from Sports Update blog. Whom am I speaking to?"
"Officer Alice Smith, ma'am. Do you have a crime to report?"
"No no," Buchanan gives an airhead laugh, which brings and incredulous look to McGee's face "I'm just doing some research for a news article we are doing and I needed your help, Officer Smith, if you may."
"Of course, ma'am," says the bored police officer.
"We are doing a pool to see what types of sports are the favorite of different types of law enforcement. We already checked with the firemen, road patrol, airport security officers, and now we would like to ask you, what do the guys in your precinct like? What can make then go wild? Baseball, basketball, I don't know, maybe soccer. Do you think you can help us?"
"Ma'am, I will transfer you to someone who can help you, please hold," the receptionist puts her on hold.
"What are you doing?"
"Watch and learn, McGee," she says smiling to him "watch and learn."
Two hours, three strawberry pies, four sponge cakes and two very rare end-of-the-season tickets for the NBA later, they had the files in the car and were driving back to NCIS.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
'You guys should have seen it," says McGee between bites of his strawberry pie "she completely charmed Detective Danny Sportelli and his team."
"Of course, after I promised him my brother's end-of-the season tickets for the NBA in exchange for the case files," says Buchanan with a smile. She is looking inside one of the boxes, looking for the autopsy report.
Tony and Ziva are munching their own pieces of pie, at the same time looking inside other boxes of evidence. "And he was much more malleable after you offered to feed them with cake, of course," says Ziva with a smirk.
Buchanan grimaces a little. "I think what really convinced him was my offer to buy them an espresso machine."
"Are you really going to do that?" McGee wants to know curiously.
"Of course."
"Why?" Tony wants to know.
"Why? You ask me why? Have you ever tried the coffee in a precinct?" Tony shudders visibly, remembering his time in Baltimore "Argh, it is awful. It could almost be considered chemical waste."
"I always thought it felt more like as if a monkey peed on battery acid."
Gibbs comes from the autopsy, where he and Ducky were reviewing the file on the new agent. He looks at his agents eating pie, with several piles of paperwork surrounding their tables.
"Have you got the student body list, DiNozzo?"
"Yes, we have it with us," says DiNozzo.
"Apparently DiNozzo's charm is not dead after all," says Ziva, "It still works on middle-aged school headmistresses."
"McGee," asks Gibbs, but he is looking at Buchanan. He approaches her and she does her best to swallow the piece of pie she was chewing. She swallows, but starts coughing immediately. Her eyes start to water, and she has trouble breathing. Gibbs hits her two times in the back.
"Thanks, Boss," her voice is faint. He raises his hand and she freezes, however he simply wipes a little bit of cream she had in her face and eats it.
"Good pie." She relaxes. "I know." She smiles her first sincere smile at him, and Gibbs sees clearly the difference it makes on her face.
"What've you got?"
McGee starts his exposition "Four stabbings with aggression in the last eight months. First victim is a male, 32, was a business consultant for a German firm. They sell customized furniture for upscale clients. He was attacked on his way home with a baseball club in his head and, when incapacitated, he was stabbed six times and punched a few times. As his wallet was found missing, it was ruled as robbery followed by murder, a gang-related crime."
"Our next victim is another male, 35, bank teller," starts Buchanan, "he was attacked as he left his home to buy cough syrup for his daughter. He never made it to the drugstore; he was assaulted two blocks from it, viciously stabbed in the back and dragged to an alley, where they finally pummeled him with fists in exactly the same way as our petty officer." She clicks the remote and pictures of the victim pop up on the screen. The images are gruesome; however the pattern of the bruises is an obvious match to the dead body downstairs in the morgue. "As there were no suspects, the investigation showed he had no enemies and his family informed he was a simple family man, the trail got cold, nobody was ever convicted."
"Victims number three and number four," says DiNozzo, looking at his papers "were as unremarkable as the previous victims. Both led boring lives, no enemies no nothing. One was a librarian in the Municipal Library in his County and the other an insurance specialist."
"Both were assaulted doing menial tasks, the first went to the bathroom in a gas station and never came out alive. The other was killed when walking his dog. He and his dog were slaughtered."
"Any video surveillance, any shots from any suspects?"
"None that metro could give us. It is almost like they were killed by ghosts or something," says Tony, shuddering dramatically.
Gibbs looks at Buchanan. "What is the connection then, besides the fact they are all dead?" She signals McGee, who puts all the pictures of four civilian along with the dead petty officer on the screen. "We found the pattern of victimlogy," says Buchanan.
Gibbs looks at five bald white males, all with athletic physic and squared jaws, light eyes, varying between green and hazel. "He knows exactly what he is looking for," says Buchanan to Gibbs. "We only have to figure out where he finds them." She looks at the screen.
"And what is the link between them," says Ziva impatiently "besides their appearance, they have nothing in common. They attended different churches; they went to different bars, sometimes lived in different cities. What is the connection between all of them?" Ziva wants to know in a frustrated manner.
"Peracetic Acid and Hydrogen Peroxide," shouts Abby, running to the middle of the bullpen.
"What, Abby?" Gibbs wants to know, looking at his goth forensic analyst.
"Hi Gibbs, hi guys." She smiles at everyone but makes a face at Buchanan. She hasn't forgiven the new agent yet.
"What is this … acid… has to do with our dead people?" Tony wants to know.
"Peracetic Acid and Hydrogen Peroxide were found in trace amounts in all five victims. Specifically," she grabs the remote from Tony's hands and puts the autopsy pictures on, "in the area close to the stab wounds and the laceration made by the fists." She turns to Gibbs "both our stabber and our ring fighter either work with or in close contact with both products. I was able to match it in all the victims."
"Where would we find these chemicals?"
"They are used in various products, both of commercial and industrial use. However, they are easily found in …"
"Heavy duty cleaning products," interrupts Buchanan. She has a fierce frown in her head, her mind working overtime. "DiNozzo, you said that vic number two died on the way to the drugstore."
"Yes, on the way to buy syrup for his daughter."
"Which hospital did he take her to?"
"Which hospital?"
"He needed a prescription for the syrup. Which hospital?" He goes back to the evidence box and pulls the transcript of the interviews. He finds what he is looking for and reads the name of a hospital in the north of DC. "What about the other victims, have they visited any hospital in the weeks prior to their murders?"
Buchanan's question start a flurry of activity, as McGee, Tony and Ziva run to their own boxes of evidence and look through the papers.
McGee finds it first. "Vic three went in for a skin rash three weeks before he was murdered."
Ziva pipes up. "Vic four left the hospital after a bout of pneumonia a week before he was murdered."
Tony is frowning at the papers in his hands. Gibbs notices it first. "Tony?"
"He had terminal liver cancer, stage 4, Boss." He looks up and sees his colleagues looking at him. "Vic one had just left a session of chemo when he was murdered."
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