CHAPTER III: Number 1
DiNozzo paused to digest the new information
"Navy?"
"No," Delbart replied. "A homeless guy. No connection to any of the services that we've been able to discover."
"And he was found holding onto a page from a Bible?"
"Yup," Delbart continued. "His name is Homer Algawid, age 69. He slept in an old refrigerator carton in an alley behind the Carter Hotel. During the day he hung out at a soup kitchen a couple of blocks away, helped out by mopping floors and cleaning toilets, stuff like that. He didn't show up yesterday morning for breakfast at seven, so the director sent someone over to look for him. He was found in his hooch with his throat cut literally from ear to ear."
"Any known connection besides the Bible pages between him and this victim?"
"No."
"We definitely need to talk about both cases," DiNozzo told him. "But right now I'd like to collect the evidence here and see what we've got. Then we'll get together later, see what other similarities there might be and so forth. Okay?"
"Okay," Delbart agreed. "Me and my boys'll hang around for a while. If you need any help, just yell."
"Can you send me a fax of everything you got on…what's his name…Homer?"
"Will do."
By now McGee was well along in checking a number of surfaces for prints. After one more intense look at the corpse and a deep sigh, DiNozzo began taking photos of everything in the room and sketching the various furnishings and objects in relation to each other. He noted that there was little blood, indicating the bullet had lodged either in the victim's skull, in the pillow under her head, or in the mattress. He commented on this to McGee, who knelt down next to the bed to peer under it with a flashlight.
"I don't see any sign of an exit here," McGee told him.
"All right. I guess we'll have to wait for the autopsy or for Abs to check the pillow and the mattress."
At that moment, Dr. Mallard, the medical examiner, followed closely by his assistant, Jimmy Palmer, entered.
"I'm so sorry we're so tardy, Anthony," Ducky apologized. "Traffic was most congested, and, as usual, Jimmy's directional disability was unfortunately in evidence." Jimmy grimaced.
Ducky turned to look at the victim's body. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "She looks like…."
"Yeah, Ducky, we know," DiNozzo interrupted, not wanting to follow that conversational path.
Casting a sympathetic glance at DiNozzo, Ducky approached the bed and gently lifted Jane Adamovsky's head from the pillow, which, he discovered, was well soaked with blood and bits of brain tissue. Her long, flowing hair had hidden the mess.
"Poor dear," he said in a gentle voice." "Jimmy, pull the pillow and bag it. I'm sure Abigail will want to examine it thoroughly.
Jimmy pulled out a plastic bag, into which he placed the pillow. Before letting the victim's head down, DiNozzo and Ducky noticed the hole in the mattress, along with smears of blood, although not so much as on the pillow.
"We're going to have to take the mattress, too," Ducky said to DiNozzo.
"Don't do anything with it just yet. I need to find the building super and ask who it belongs to."
While Ducky began his preliminary examination of the body, DiNozzo went outside.
"What's up?" Detective Delbart asked him.
DiNozzo replied, "I need a word with the super."
Delbart spoke briefly with one of his men, who walked over to the super to bring him over.
"You're the super?" asked DiNozzo.
"Yeah," the man answered. "George Gund."
DiNozzo wrote Gund's name in his notebook and looked up. "Is that apartment rented furnished, or do the tenants have to bring in their own furniture?"
"All these apartments are rented unfurnished," the super told him.
"Good," DiNozzo said. "It appears the bullet that killed Ms. Adamovsky is lodged in her mattress. We're going to have to take it with us as part of the evidence. I'll write a receipt for it and the pillow and leave it with you to give to her roommate."
DiNozzo consulted his notes again. "I'm going to ask the Metro police to arrange for you and Ms.
Jordan to provide your fingerprints and samples for DNA testing. So we'll be able to distinguish your signs from those of anybody else."
"Sure," the super said, and Delbart confirmed that he and his men would make the appropriate arrangements.
As DiNozzo returned to the apartment to finish taking photos and making sketches of the rest of it, Ducky and Jimmy were putting the victim's body into a bag and soon had it loaded on their van, along with the mattress and the pillow.
"Any preliminary findings, Ducky?" DiNozzo asked the ME.
"Initially it appears death was instantaneous, resulting from a gunshot to the head. Based on gross examination—body temperature, rigidity, lividity, that sort of thing—it appears that death occurred roughly"--he glanced at his watch—"two to three hours ago. Of course, I'll know more later."
After Ducky and Jimmy drove off, DiNozzo, David, and McGee continued to work on gathering evidence for another hour or so. Finally DiNozzo called for a brief conference.
"Are you guys just about done?" he asked them. They indicated they were.
"Officer David, did you learn anything from any of the witnesses or the bystanders?"
"No," she said. "No one saw anything; no one heard anything, not even the next-door neighbors. I did pass out a lot of business cards in case any of them remembers something later."
"Good," he told her. "Let's finish up here and get back to the office so we can start processing."
Outside, DiNozzo approached Delbart again. "We're going to pick up our stuff and go home," he said. "How about you come over to our place about 2 o'clock this afternoon and we can sit down and talk about this. And I'll give you the 50 cent tour of NCIS, too," he finished with a grin.
The detective agreed to the plan, stating he would leave a couple of his officers on guard at the crime site.
The team drove back to the office in silence. Once the physical evidence they'd collected had been delivered to Abby, they returned to the bullpen, David and McGee began working on their reports. DiNozzo found that Delbart had been as good as his word; the case file from Metro on Homer Algawid's murder had already been faxed over and was on top of his desk.
As Delbart had told him, Alga wad's body had been found in his refrigerator carton at about 7:30 a.m. the preceding morning The Metro medical examiner had determined that death had occurred at about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. The slash through his throat had nearly beheaded him, even slightly nicking a vertebra, which indicated both a very sharp knife and a forceful blow from a strong arm. As might be expected, although Homer may have lived for a few more moments, he bled out very rapidly, and, indeed, there was a substantial pool of blood on the ground beneath his body. Metro CSI had found some metal particles on the edges of the cut that enabled them to conclude the fatal blade was high-quality stainless steel, but the weapon had not been found. They were still analyzing the particles to determine the exact composition of the steel, which might enable them to locate the manufacturer and thereby trace it back to a purchaser.
When DiNozzo fired up his computer, he pulled up a map of Washington and marked the locations of the two murders. Leaning back in his chair with his legs propped up on the desk and his hands behind his head, he contemplated the map through narrowed eyes, as if it could give him the answers he wanted.
When it didn't, he left McGee and David at their desks while he trotted up the stairs. Outside the director's office, he got a nod from Cynthia, the secretary, indicating he could go right in. The director looked up from her desk as he knocked and walked in.
"Just get back?" Shepard asked.
"A few minutes ago."
"Metro police were there?"
"Yeah, a detective named Delbart. He left a detail to protect the scene. "
Shepard shook her head. "I don't think I know him," she stated.
"He seems like a competent guy. I think we're going to be working with him a little more than we anticipated."
The director raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Metro had another murder yesterday. An older guy whose only home was a cardboard refrigerator box. Slit throat. The only apparent connection between their murder and ours is that both victims were clutching a leaf from a Bible. Abby's examining them now. McGee and David are checking the databases to see if there might be any other connection between them, but so far that's the only one."
"You want me to set up a formal liaison with Metro police?"
"Yeah, if you would, please," DiNozzo replied. "Detective Delbart's coming over this afternoon to discuss what we have so far." DiNozzo flashed his most disarming grin at her. "I promised him the grand tour. He'll want to meet you, too."
"Of course," Shepard said coolly to let him know that his charm wouldn't work on her. "Keep me posted on any developments."
"Of course," DiNozzo said in his most professional voice but with the grin flashing even wider, letting Jen Shepard know that he knew that, not only could he, if he wanted, charm the birds out of the trees, but her as well, in spite of her seeming not to like him very muchl.
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