Almost healed wounds
McGee slams the phone on the receiver.
"What's wrong probie?" Asks Dinozzo.
"St John Newman High School's headmaster simply refuses to grant us access to the list of their students."
"Why would we look at high school lists?" ask ziva.
"Because St John HS graduation ring matches the ring our attacker was using when he decided to pummel our dead petty officer," says Buchanan.
"What was her argument to deny you access?"
"She said I had better get a warrant."
Gibbs comes down from the stairs, apparently from a visit with the director. "What've you got?" "Nothing," says Ziva with frustration in her voice. "He didn't even leave the house during the mandatory two weeks rest period after the surgery and later he went only to the supermarket. Twice. And the doctor's appointment to check if he could get the points out. And the bar on the night he was murdered."
"It seems probie and probette got something."
Gibbs look at them and notices that McGee is hovering over her shoulder, backing her up silently, and there is still a guarded expression on Buchanan's face, leftover from the earlier duel between them.
"Talk to me."
McGee hurries to put the autopsy pictures on the screen. "We found some interesting things on the body."
"Like what?"
"Based in victimology, we are not able to specify any possible links of cause and circumstance that may have led…"
"Stop!" Gibbs shouts.
Buchanan looks at him, confused.
Ziva is smirking and Tony can barely hold his laughter, and is snorting out loud.
"He doesn't like tech speech."
"Uhm"
"Give me only the bare facts."
She looks at him with a blank expression on her face.
"Any time at this millennium would be ideal."
"I'm organizing my thoughts."
"Oh, then take your time," he says with irony.
"Ok. Profiling one on one," pause "You get facts, and process them and try to foresee possible behaviors and characteristics of the unsub."
"I know what profiling is. I wanna know who our murderer is."
"Ok. Our victim was a highly trained Navy officer. Except a minor operation, he was perfectly fit. This is fact."
Gibbs nods.
"Even though he was perfectly fit, he was overcome and killed. Fact."
"He was stabbed first, then beaten to death. After he was dead, he was stabbed. Again Another fact."
Gibbs looks at her impatiently. She speeds up.
"Comparing the stab wounds angles, force needed to inflict damage and basic background we can theorize that we are looking for two distinct individuals. The first one is a male, between 35-55, with a strong build and a good knowledge of the human body. He knows how to inflict pain, and he knows how to incapacitate swiftly and without raising suspicion to himself. The choice of victim is not random, however it is too early to identify exactly what was the stress point that led him to attack our petty officer."
"He is an ordinary looking guy, no remarkable features, with a menial job that makes him basically invisible. People look at him but don't actually see him. Which explains how he approached our victim. In Phillips' mind, he represented no threat."
"Our second individual is male, under 25, with the agility and speed of youth. He also has the rage of it, as he was the one who systematically beat our petty officer. The lacerations were careful to inflict maximum pain, without necessarily resulting in death. He is a bully and enjoys causing suffering in others, but he, contrary to his accomplice, wanted to prolong the pain as much as possible. The older unsub wanted our petty officer dead. Period."
"They work with perfect synchrony and both hate our victim. Either because of a real or imaginary offense, I can't really verify it yet. However their hate is real, and that's what move their acts."
Buchanan pauses and looks the team. Ziva and Tony are staring at her, astonished, Gibbs looks faintly impressed, and McGee is almost gleeful.
"Impressive," says Gibbs. "Anything else?"
It is McGee's turn now "We also found a faint impression of a ring on the fist marks" he changes the images and the picture with the magnified image pops up. "We were able to enhance it and match it to the graduation rings of a high school in Dale City."
"So our petty officer was killed by some high school bullies"
"I never said that," says Buchanan, "they might have originally come from that region, and even attended the school, but he actually graduated and has the ring to prove it."
"Ok, go to the school and try to personally collect the lists. Maybe if they have to face a federal agent the headmaster may be more flexible." Says Gibbs and sits down on his desk.
"There is another thing," Buchanan approaches Gibbs desk. He looks up from his chair to her "This is not their first victim."
"How can you say that?" Asks Tony with a frown on his face.
"If they were artists, this would be their Mona Lisa. There were no mistakes, almost no forensic evidence and they left confusing clues that pointed to only one killer" She had their attention now. "Such a symbiotic relationship is created over time, and with careful practice."
"They've killed before." Says Gibbs.
"I'm sure of that. This is probably the only Navy personnel they killed. Probably the others were civilians."
"I would agree with Agent Buchanan's assessment, Jetro," says Ducky who silently joined the other agents in the bullpen. "The cuts were too precise. These are not first time offenders," completes Ducky.
"McGee!" shouts Gibbs.
"I will organize a search on the Metro police files to see if they have anything that matches our M.O.s."
"Tony, Ziva" he throws the car keys to Ziva "go to the high school and get me those files."
Gibbs looks to Buchanan who is frowning at the notes on her hands, and muttering under her breath. He sees Ducky watching the new agent with a guarded expression.
"Buchanan" she doesn't hear him and raises her eyes up to the screen with a frown on her face.
"Buchanan" she starts and looks at him.
"Yes, Sir" she says automatically. He lets it pass.
"Good work." She nods and moves to her desk, still looking at the paper in her hands.
"My dear, I took the liberty of doing a bit of research about you," says Ducky with a tense smile "and I have to say I am impressed."
"Thanks," she says distractedly.
"You never mentioned you were trained by Jason Gideon." She doesn't answer back.
"Who is Jason Gideon?" Tony asks, at the same time that he gets his backpack to leave with Ziva. However, his curiosity won. He wants to know.
"Jason Gideon was almost a legend in the profiling world," says Ducky,walking to Tony and Ziva, in his best storytelling voice "he trained the best of the best and was responsible for solving the most horrific cases ever to be presented in the FBI"
"is" Buchanan corrects him softly.
"I beg your pardon."
"He still is. He is not dead. He's alive."
"And where is he now? Is he still working with BAU?"
Buchanan fidgets with the papers in her hands, looking at them but not reading them. "No, he's gone."
"You just said he is not dead, how can he be now gone?" asks Ziva, confused.
"He's not dead, he is simply gone. He left. Everything. Everyone. Nobody knows where he is."
"How do you know he is not dead?" asks Tony. She smiles thinly.
"Bad news travel fast. If he were dead, believe me, we would know."
"And do you know why he left?" Asks Ducky.
"He had his reasons." Pause. "And I respect them." Says Buchanan with sadness in her voice.
"Talking about dead, and dying" Ducky takes a deep breath and asks what was his intention all along since he came upstairs "You were transferred from LA office."
"That's correct."
"And before that you were working in the Los Angeles BAU from the Bureau." He probes her again.
She looks at him with a guarded expression in his eyes. She knows that he knows.
"I was under the impression the whole LA BAU team was murdered. Killed by the hands of a lunatic." Ducky asks. Tony and Ziva are frozen in place, and McGee looks at her and clearly sees all her walls going up at the speed of light. There is absolutely no expression in her eyes when she answers.
"Yes, they were." Her voice is dead.
"Yet, here you are."
"The whole on duty team was murdered, Dr. Mallard. The keywords here are on duty." There is ice dripping from each word.
"My dear, what a terrible experience it must have been, to suddenly have your whole team ripped from you. It must have been a heartbreaking experience" Ducky is really concerned about the mental state of the new agent.
"Dr. Mallard" She interrupts him. She is like a block of ice before him. "I believe you are needed in autopsy." He sighs.
"Sure my dear. But if you ever need someone to talk..." He leaves his offer hanging in the air.
"I will endeavor to remember that." She answers with a thin smile.
"Now, if you excuse me, I have…" he leaves muttering under his breath. Silence reigns in the squad room, all the team looking at her face trying to see any reaction. She is breathing very slowly; she closes her eyes and they can see she visibly relaxes her tense shoulders and wipes out any hint of emotion on her face, leaving only an unreadable mask.
McGee's computer pings. She opens her eyes and looks at him.
"I'll be dammed." He says and looks at her.
Gibbs gets curious. "What have you got?"
"There are four other stabbings that match ours in the Grand Metro area. All unsolved and were attributed to random violence."
Buchanan gets her backpack and her coat and gets ready to leave. "Grab the addresses, we are going on a roadtrip."
"Ok," he pauses but frowns when he reads something in the screen "there might be a little problem."
"What?"
"Remember that case of the dead blogger?" He asks Gibbs.
"The one thrown over the bridge? Mr. Burns?"
"That one." He pauses "three out of the four cases are allocated to the Metro precinct of that Homicide Detective that hated you, Boss."
"Why that would be a problem?" Buchanan asks curious.
"Are you kidding?" asks Tony "They accused us of covering up a murder. Of messing up with an investigation."
"Then it is time to start a new policy of cooperation between agencies" says Buchanan.
She leaves the room with McGee right beside her. Tony and Ziva are left standing on their wake.
"That young lady has been through very deep pain, Jetro." says Ducky, who had silently waited out of sight to speak with his friend. "She covers it well, but it still shows."
"What have you found out?" Asks Tony, dying with curiosity. Ziva approaches the two other men, also willing to hear the details of the mysterious coworker.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" asks Gibbs angrily.
"But Boss, I want to hear…" stammers DiNozzo.
"GO" barks Gibbs. Ziva catches Tony's forearm and drags him to the elevators, while he has a betrayed expression on his face. He also wanted to hear the story.
Gibbs sits down with a sigh and looks at Ducky, silently asking for him to continue.
Ducky goes into story mode. "Apparently, the LA BAU was one of the most successful investigation teams on the West Coast. One of the most requested too. They would handle three or four cases at the same time, alternating the profilers to ensure that they could cover the demand."
Gibbs nods. Ducky continues. "They were called in to investigate a series of kidnappings and then suffered a terrible blow." Ducky makes a dramatic pause "two of their own were taken as well."
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