Chapter 2: Return to Annapolis
The team returned to their bullpen, considering soberly the information Dr. Mallard had given them. Gibbs made a call to the superintendent of the Naval Academy to inform him of the death of one of his cadets and that agents from NCIS would need to question anyone who knew the dead cadet.
After completing his call, Gibbs told DiNozzo and David to return to the Academy to begin interviewing Midshipman Prissy Newman's classmates and friends. McGee began a search of computer records on the murdered cadet to determine if there was any information that might lead to a perpetrator.
On their way back to Annapolis, DiNozzo and David continued to be immersed in their own thoughts.
DiNozzo glanced briefly at David and asked, "Birth control?"
"What?" she replied.
"Weren't you using birth control when you were having sex on the job?"
"It failed," she said shortly.
"Yeah," Tony said with a sigh," that's what Annette told me."
"Tony, there's no form of birth control that's 100%," Ziva answered. "I do know that. Even abstinence doesn't work if you don't use it."
"Right," he answered, and they fell silent again for the remainder of the drive.
Once on the Academy's campus, they were ushered into a small office near the infirmary. The superintendent had left instructions with the chief health officer, who had in the meantime pulled Midshipman Newman's student records for them and set up a schedule for the interviews.
The investigators found that Prissy Newman had been a good student both in high school and at the Academy, with a solid A- average. She had been a middle-distance runner while in high school, consistently finishing in the top three at every meet she participated in. Newman had also competed in three marathons, again placing high in her age group, and someone had noted that she was training for a triathlon during her next break from the Academy. She had played French horn in the school band. The essay she had written for her application to the Academy was on the politics leading up to the War of 1812, with particular emphasis on the preparations of both the British and American navies. Each of the three people who had reviewed the paper praised it for the solidity of the research the student had done and the original conclusions she had come to.
After reading the file, Tony asked Ziva when the cadet had had time to get pregnant.
Ziva grinned mischievously. "You should know, Tony."
Tony's reply was cut short by the appearance of the first of Prissy Newman's fellow students, her roommate Midshipman Alicia Kossman. She had obviously been crying.
"Is it true?" she wanted to know, after introductions were completed. "Prissy's dead?"
"Yes," Tony told her. "Go ahead and sit down." Opening his PDA, he created a file for the interview.
"I can't believe it," Kossman said, flopping ungracefully into the indicated chair with her tears starting again. "She loved being here. She was looking forward to being an officer. She had so much to live for. I don't understand."
Tony handed her a tissue. "Cadet Kossman," he addressed her. "Has anyone told you how she died?"
The cadet looked up, her eyes still brimming. "N-no," she stammered. "I guess I just assumed she…well…killed herself?"
"Why would you assume that?" Tony pressed.
"Well, she told me yesterday she had a…um…a problem."
"What kind of problem, cadet?" Tony asked quietly.
"She's pregnant." The cadet almost wailed the answer and began crying heavily again. Tony and Ziva glanced at each other and waited for Kossman to recover.
When Kossman's sobs had abated somewhat, Tony continued, "How did she feel about that?"
The cadet sniffled. "She was scared. She thought if anyone found out, she'd be kicked out of the Academy. Like I said, she loved it here." She stopped to sniffle again before asking, "So how did she die?"
"She was the victim of an amateur and botched abortion," Tony responded.
"Oh, god," Kossman whispered.
Ziva asked her, "Did you know she was planning that?"
"No. No, no. If she'd talked to me about it, I'd have helped her."
"When did you find out she was pregnant?" Ziva asked.
"Night before last," replied Kossman. "We were studying, but she seemed to be having a hard time concentrating. Finally, she said she wanted to talk, and that's when she told me."
Ziva said, "Did she tell you who the father was?"
Kossman shook her head. "She didn't say, but she's been going out with this guy, Josh. He's a sailor, just finished his training. There's a lot of places in Annapolis where you can meet Navy people, and Prissy liked to hang out at this one place, The Rack. I'm pretty sure she met him there."
Tony asked, "Do you know anything more about him, like the rest of his name?"
"Josh Wills, I think," Kossman answered. "She really liked him."
"Obviously," Tony muttered quietly to Ziva. He asked Kossman, "When was the last time you saw Seaman Wills?"
"Oh, it's been a few days. They had a date for dinner on Saturday. Prissy's top of her class so she gets weekend liberty all the time." Cadet Kossman looked a little sheepish, and it was not hard to infer that she didn't get liberty quite so often.
DiNozzo handed the cadet his business card, telling her, "If you happen to run into Seaman Wills, give me a call back."
DiNozzo thanked Kossman for her cooperation, advising her that he and his partner would be inspecting her and Midshipman Newman's quarters once the interviews were completed and that, in the meantime, she should remain available in case there might be other questions they needed to ask her.
When Kossman had left, he took out his cell phone and dialed Abby's number. "Hey, Abs, look up a sailor named Josh Wills for us, would you?" He paused, listening. "Yeah, the cadet's roommate told us he was her boyfriend. According to the roomie, he just finished basic." He listened some more before asking, "You got any test results we can use?" Pause. "Okay, we'll see you when we get back."
As he hung up, the next interviewee entered the office, but that person had no new information to add. In all DiNozzo and David talked to six cadets and two instructors, including the track coach, who had known Cadet Prissy Newman, but all of these interviews were non-productive, except that each of them confirmed that Prissy was an excellent student, an ardent athlete, and an all-around good person, someone fun to be with but never wild. One or two of the cadets were aware of the presence of Seaman Wills in Prissy's life, but she had never confided where he lived or where he was stationed.
As the last cadet left, Abby called back. "Got the file on Seaman Wills for you," she told Tony. "You want me to send it to you?"
When Abby rang off, Tony suggested to Ziva that she contact the health office to see if Cadet Newman had gone there for her pregnancy test. As they discussed the various cadets to whom they had just talked, Tony's PDA reported it had received Wills' file. While Ziva wandered off to the health office, Tony reviewed the file. When Ziva returned, he told her they had an address for the young seaman.
"He's just 19, two years younger than the cadet. He has a local address. I called Gibbs to suggest we go pay him a visit on our way back to the office."
"Good," Ziva replied. "The health office doesn't have a record of Newman coming in for anything except a flu shot last fall. She probably took a home pregnancy test."
Before leaving to visit Seaman Wills, the investigators found their way to Cadet Newman's quarters. Cadet Kossman was there with several other cadets, a couple of whom were as teary-eyed as Kossman. After introductions, DiNozzo asked for and received Kossman's permission to search the premises. The cadets watched in awed silence as DiNozzo and David pulled on gloves and began an inspection that rivaled in its thoroughness those performed by their superior officers. The search, however, revealed nothing that appeared to be relevant to Cadet Newman's death.
DiNozzo spoke to Kossman again, asking if she knew how Newman had found out she was pregnant.
"She said she took a home pregnancy test."
"Is the test still around?" he queried.
"Oh, no," Kossman replied. "She did it weeks ago. She just wanted to keep it a secret for a while, until she decided what she was going to do about it."
Seaman Josh Wills, it turned out, lived with his father. As the two NCIS officers pulled up in front of the house, they saw a man mowing the front yard. He was middle height, running to lard, with grizzled, messy hair. He was wearing nothing but running shoes and baggy shorts that were riding down his torso, displaying more of it than was prudent considering it was not very attractive.
Upon seeing the investigators approach, he shut down the lawnmower, taking a large, soiled handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe the sweat from his face.
Showing their identification, DiNozzo asked to speak to Seaman Josh Wills.
"I'm Joe Wills, Josh's dad. U.S. Navy, retired. What kind of trouble is he in?"
"We don't know if he's in trouble," Ziva told him, "but a young woman is dead in suspicious circumstances, and several people have identified him as her boy friend."
"Whoa," the elder Wills puffed. "He ain't here right now, and I don't know where he is."
"Does he have a post basic training assignment yet?" Tony asked.
"No," Wills answered. "He's s'posed to get it by the end of the week, ‘n' ‘till then he's just been kinda hanging out."
Ziva asked, "Where does he usually hang out?"
"Don't know that, neither."
"When was the last time you saw him?"
The elder Wills screwed his face up, rubbing his chin with one hand. "Geez, it's been a coupla days, I think."
Tony handed Wills a business card. "When he shows up here, or if he calls, have him give me a call."
"What about this dead woman?" Wills asked, taking the card.
Tony and Ziva exchanged glances. "Do you know a Cadet Prissy Newman?" he asked.
"Prissy? A cadet, you say? Noooo, can't say I ever heard of her. If she's s'posed to be Josh's girl friend, it's news to me."
Thanking Wills for his cooperation, DiNozzo and Ziva returned to their car. Before turning the key in the ignition, Tony sat watching Mr. Wills, who had started his lawn mower again. Tony turned to Ziva to ask, "Shall we go check out that bar where Kossman told us Newman and Wills supposedly met? Maybe somebody there will know something."
Getting David's consent, he set off. Along the way, he muttered, "I wish you were Kate."
"Excuse me?" Ziva replied, startled.
Tony glanced at her. "Kate was a profiler," he explained. "I got the feeling the guy was lying about not knowing Cadet Newman. If Kate was here, she'd probably be able to confirm that."
"If it's any help," Ziva stated, "I thought he was lying, too."
Tony looked quickly at Ziva. "GMTA," he told her.
"GMTA? What does that mean?"
"'Great Minds Think Alike,'" he said with a smile.
The Rack turned out to be a large place with trendy, modern décor and loud music pulsing through a sound system pushed to full volume and then some. Even in the early afternoon, it was full of young people, drinking, dancing, and making connections. Tony led Ziva to the huge bar in the center of the room, where he ordered soft drinks for the two of them. As the bartender set their drinks down, Tony pulled up Josh Wills's picture on his laptop.
"Uh, say…Jamie," Tony said, reading the bartender's name tag, "ever see this guy before?"
Squinting, the bartender examined the picture. "Yeah," he said, "that looks like Josh."
"Last name?" queried Ziva.
The bartender gave a rather harsh laugh. "This isn't the kind of place where people share last names."
"Doesn't look like a dive to me," Tony told him.
"People here are just looking for a good time, not a commitment. Hook-ups, y'know?"
Tony's eyebrow lifted as he pulled up Cadet Prissy Newman's photo on the PDA.
"Ever see her?"
Once again Jamie peered at the photo. "She looks sorta familiar, but I couldn't place her."
"Ever see the two of them together?"
"Why are you asking?" the bartender asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
Tony pulled out his ID. "We're investigating a murder. We have eyewitness accounts that these two people were in a relationship and that they might have met here."
"Man, I know Josh comes here, but I don't remember ever seeing him with this girl."
Tony closed the laptop. "Is Josh friends with any of your other customers?"
"Well, I don't know as you'd call ‘em friends, but there are some guys he talks to when he's here."
"Are you aware," Tony continued, "that Josh is only 19 years old?"
"The door people are the ones that're supposed to screen customers. If someone makes it through the door, I assume he's legal."
Tony turned to speak to Ziva. "Make a note of that," he ordered.
"Of what?" she asked with puzzlement.
"That this place may be serving alcohol to minors."
"Oh," she replied and pulled out her PDA.
By now, Jamie was squirming slightly. "Man, like I said…."
"Is Josh here right now?" Tony interrupted.
"No."
Tony gave Jamie his card. "The next time you see Josh in here, give me a call."
"Yeah, sure," the barman, looking from the card to Tony, who smiled his patented "we're all friends here" smile. Tony was pretty certain Jamie would call if Josh Wills showed up if only to cooperate with someone who, with one call, could shut the place down for serving to minors.
Finishing their drinks, the investigators set off again.
"Are we going to go by the motel and show Josh's photo to Mr. Woodley?" Ziva asked Tony.
Tony grinned. "GMTA."
*******
At the motel Pete Woodley confirmed immediately that the sailor he'd rented Room 112 to was indeed Josh Wills.
Back in the office, Tony asked Tim to pull up the records on Joe Wills, USN (ret.). It took just a very few seconds. Just as McGee was putting Wills' record up on the plasma screen, Gibbs walked in.
"You get anything useful?" he asked.
"Just looking at part of it," Tony responded, turning to the screen. "Joe Wills, father of Josh Wills, boy friend to Prissy Newman, and presumed sire of her pregnancy."
The group silently read through the file.
"Well, well, well, isn't that interesting?" Tony commented. "Chief Petty Officer Wills spent 20 years in the Navy as a hospital corpsman. Fifteen years on various ships, and five years at Bethesda."
"Could he have tried to perform the abortion?" Ziva queried.
Gibbs replied, "Wouldn't surprise me."
"Look at this," McGee pointed out. "He's had at least three reprimands for insubordination, specifically for trying to perform procedures outside the scope of his training and experience."
"Sounds like we have a suspect," Gibbs said.
"Should we bring him in?" DiNozzo asked Gibbs.
"Let's get the son in first," Gibbs decided. "If Joe was the cutter, he was probably recruited by his son to do the job."
"Slight problem there," Tony reported. "Nobody we talked to, including his dad, knows where Josh is right now. But we know a couple of places he's likely to be."
"If he goes home," Ziva pointed out, "his dad will tell him we've been around investigating his girl friend's death. He may do a hop on us."
"Skip, Ziva," DiNozzo corrected her. "He may do a skip. In any case, the bartender at The Rack might see him first. Especially if he's staying in touch with his friends."
Gibbs asked DiNozzo and David to report on the rest of their investigations, including the questioning of Cadet Newman's associates at the Academy, after which he led them to Abby's lab. She greeted them with enthusiasm.
"Gibbs! DiNozzo! David! McGee! My slavish dedication to my work has yielded results. I have names attached to fingerprints."
"Would two of them be Wills, Joe and Josh?" Tony asked her.
The expression on Abby's face went from elation to pouty disappointment. "How did you know?" she asked, flouncing her ponytails.
Gibbs soothed her. "You did good, Abs. You have confirmed that a couple of persons of interest should be considered suspects."
Briefly Abby reported on the rest of her findings. As expected, the only blood present in the motel room had been that of Prissy Newman. Ducky had provided her with samples of both maternal and fetal blood to set up a DNA test, but she needed to get a sample from the putative father before running it. Gibbs informed her that it would be a while before the team could provide it.
The team headed down to the morgue to see what else Dr. Mallard had found.
"Ah, yes," Ducky greeted them as they entered. "Ready for show and tell?"
With a gesture of his hand, he indicated the cadet's body. "Miss Newman was in excellent health, excellent condition. Of course, all cadets at the Academy are required to participate in competitive sports, and I gather from her file that she was a runner of some talent.
He moved to the sink, which contained two stainless steel pans that he put on the counter so the team could examine their contents. One held a mass of tissue.
"I removed Ms. Newman's uterus," he told them, "and as I suspected it, it has a rather large perforation on the right side." As he held the tissue up from the pan, he inserted one gloved finger into the uterine muscle to demonstrate the hole there. "Whatever the instrument was that was being used, probably a curette, as you can see, the perforation is quite large and goes through both the inner and outer walls of the uterus. It went through several blood vessels and further perforated the large intestine. Without proper equipment to repair the perforation, Ms. Newman would have bled out in very short order, and without a sufficient supply of blood to pump, the heart would have eventually failed. Essentially, she died of heart failure due to sudden, severe exsanguination."
He paused to replace the tattered uterus in its pan. "And even if the bleeding had been stopped in time and she survived, she would have been subject to severe infection because the interior of the uterus was exposed to the abdominal cavity, especially the large intestine."
He picked up the second pan, which contained a very small but recognizably human body.
"Ms. Newman's fetus. Very healthy at this point in her pregnancy, but you can see a couple of bruises, as if it had been poked with something."
The others gazed with fascinated reverence at the tiny thing.
"Was that how it died?" Ziva asked. "Being poked?"
"No," Ducky explained. "When the perforation occurred, Ms. Newman began to exsanguinate rather rapidly. Without blood to carry oxygen through the umbilical cord, the fetus would have died of suffocation."
Gibbs asked, "Is that what happens in a legal abortion? The fetus dies from lack of oxygen?"
"More or less," replied Ducky. "When the abortion is done in the first trimester, the fetus is suctioned out of the uterus using a vacuum apparatus. The umbilical cord is removed also, and of course when it is severed, it can no longer carry oxygen from the mother's blood to the infant's."
At this point McGee suddenly turned around and bolted out of the room.
"Oh, dear," Ducky commented. "It appears Mr. McGee may have issues."
DiNozzo, who was himself looking a little pale, offered to go after McGee and make sure he was all right.
Ducky turned back to Gibbs and David. "Not everyone is comfortable with the sight of blood, let alone the removal of various body parts, even for therapeutic purposes," he explained. "And in the case of abortion…well, it's a very emotional thing."
Ziva was thinking privately that emotion was not always a good thing. "Ducky, you mentioned that the fetus is bruised. Can you tell what kind of instrument might have made those bruises? Would the person doing this abortion have had access to vacuum suction in a motel room?"
Dr. Mallard looked over the top of his glasses at her. "Very good questions, my dear," he said. The suction apparatus isn't terribly large, but it's unlikely that the perpetrator would have been able to go to the nearest Rent-All to get one. No, I think more likely that he or she had some surgical instruments such as forceps and curettes of various kinds. While he or she was manipulating the instrument inside the uterus, more pressure than was really necessary was applied, and that's when the perforation occurred."
DiNozzo and McGee returned at that moment. "You okay?" asked Gibbs.
Both younger men nodded and muttered, "Yeah."
DiNozzo's cell went off. After answering, he was silent while listening to the caller.
As he closed the cell, he said, "That was Jamie, the bartender at The Rack. Josh Wills just came in."
"Well, what're you waiting for?" Gibbs asked.
Tony sighed and turned to leave, feeling a great deal less enthusiastic about a third trip to Annapolis in one day than he had earlier in the morning about the first.
Gibbs stopped him. "Take McGee with you this time. Ziva still needs to finish calling the other motel guests."
Chapter End Notes:
!!!WARNING!!! The subject of this story is very controversial, and some readers may be uncomfortable with it. Remember--I'm not forcing you to read it.