Gibbs sipped his coffee, watching as Tony talked to Warren's supervisor. By 7:30, Warren should have called in sick or been at work. From the expression on Tony's face it didn't appear as though Warren had done either. It was looking more and more like their corpse downstairs in Ducky's morgue might just be Petty Officer Eli Warren.
Tony hung up. Green eyes met blue. "Warren didn't call in, and he isn't at work, Boss."
Gibbs nodded, accepting the confirmation of what he suspected. He glanced at his watch. Hopefully, Ducky would have something for him by now. Or Abby, although even Gibbs knew it was a bit early for any sort of DNA confirmation. Still, talking to them would give him something to do while he waited.
"DiNozzo, take Ziva with you and head over to Warren's home."
"Will do, Boss." Tony settled his heavy coat more comfortably on his shoulders. He'd never bothered to remove it when they'd gotten back to the office. It made Gibbs smile internally to see his senior agent anticipate and react accordingly. Checking Warren's home was the next logical step.
It could also be the original crime scene. Gibbs wanted to tell Tony to be careful. But there was no obvious threat that would make the order seem normal, natural or common place. Tony knew his job; he had good instincts and knew how to take care of himself. Gibbs forced himself not to say anything. The quick smile Tony gave him before heading for the elevator made it clear he understood what was going on inside Gibbs' head.
Watching them leave, Gibbs reminded himself that Ziva was good back up. She was definitely the sort to shoot first and ask questions later. More so than McGee, which was the main reason Gibbs sent her with Tony.
It wasn't the only reason though. Ziva was a better shot, but McGee was definitely better at the techno babble bullshit and math. Given that Warren worked in accounting and finance, McGee's skills would definitely be more useful delving into what their dead Petty Officer did while he was alive.
Gibbs tossed his empty coffee cup into the trash as he headed for the elevator and the morgue. "McGee, I want access to Warren's files and everything he's worked on in the last year when I get back."
"Ah..On it, Boss."
Gibbs smiled to himself. McGee's hesitation was so brief most people wouldn't have even notice, but Gibbs caught it. Some day the younger man might answer with the immediate conviction Tony often did. Gibbs would like for McGee to have the same level of confidence in his own ability that the former Marine had, and the computer whiz was getting closer. Time spent in the field and on the job was definitely giving him a greater level of comfort in his ability to do what Gibbs asked of him.
The automatic doors to autopsy opened smoothly for him. Gibbs hated those damn doors. They made it almost impossible to slip in unannounced. Not that he really ever needed to, Gibbs just liked knowing the option was available.
"Ah, Jethro, I was expecting you."
"That mean you have something for me Duck?"
"Indeed." Ducky smiled, nodding to the wall mounted light tables where several head X-rays were backlit. "The initial, obvious assumption that blunt force trauma as the cause of death seems to have been accurate."
Ducky pointed to various lines running from the temple. "These fractures alone weren't been enough to kill him, but they were the ultimate cause of his death."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. The damage to the skull looked severe enough to him to be fatal. "They weren't enough?"
"I'm afraid not." Ducky shook his head. "His blood alcohol level was close to twice the legal limit when he died. That much alcohol in his blood would have made the subdermal hematoma, that is the bleeding into his brain from the fractures,rather more severe, killing him with far greater speed than they otherwise might have."
Ducky looked at the corpse's battered face. "You'd have done well to practice more moderation, young man. Sober you might have been able to seek medical assistance or the very least defended yourself more effectively."
"Any chance this was accidental?"
"He could have fallen against something hard enough to do some of the damage." Ducky clucked his tongue. "But I can't imagine anything short of jumping from a plane without a parachute or forcibly being ejected from a car at 90 miles an hour that would allow for self infliction of the extensive damage his face ultimately suffered."
Gibbs eyes narrowed silently asking the older man to expound on that. Ducky cleared his throat. "Two or three of the initial blows resulted in the swelling I noticed at scene, and were likely the cause of the initial fractures. Had someone offered aid, he would likely have survived to drink himself silly again."
Ducky shook his head, expression a mixture of disappointment and remorse, before sighing heavily. "It isn't clear if anyone made an effort to render aid, but it there is definitive evidence that a blunt object was vigorously and repeatedly applied post mortum. The bludgeoning of his face is obviously deliberate." The ME grimaced. "It most likely about the same time the man's hands were removed."
"Who beats up a corpse?" Palmer mused aloud, looking befuddled by the very idea. He immediately ducked his head and began working at something else when Gibbs gave him a very pointed look.
"I do remember one case where a young woman--"
"Time of death, Duck?" Gibbs asked, cutting off Ducky before he could get too far along on a tangent.
"It would appear this young man died between the hours of eight and ten last night. His body was left in the alley sometime before it began to snow."
"Anything else"
"I sent blood and tissue samples to Abby." Ducky pulled down his face shield, picking up a scalpel. "It will be up to her to determine if our John Doe is in fact Eli Warren."
Gibbs nodded and headed out. The removal of the hands and damage done to the face were evidently done to obscure the man's identity. So was their killer careless in leaving Warren's wallet behind? Or was that a deliberate act? Perhaps it had been placed not to lure them out as targets, but more to convince them that their corpse was Eli Warren for some reason. Which opened another line of investigation; just who would benefit from people believing Warren dead and if Warren was still alive where was he?
Gibbs stopped to get Abby a Caf-Pow before he went to see what information she could give him. She should have finished her first by now and be more than ready for her second. Gibbs got himself a fourth cup of coffee while he was at it. He'd finished his third, the one he'd gotten while in the car with Tony, before going to see Ducky. At this rate it was going to be a ten cup day.
Gibbs winced at the music he could hear blaring from Abby's lab. It was a damn good thing she knew sign language because he was sure some day she'd need to use it later in life. Gibbs was glad Tony wasn't prone to playing his music or movies anywhere near as loud as Abby. But then Tony's hearing was better than most and he took pains to keep it that way. It was something Gibbs had secretly approved of. Having all five senses as sharp as possible was an asset in the field.
Gibbs didn't even bother trying to get Abby's attention. He just turned off the music.
"Hey!" Abby protested, looking up from her microscope to scowl at him. She smiled brightly. "Gibbs."
"Abby." He handed her the oversized cup, wondering anew how she could relish drinking such foul tasting stuff. "What do you have for me?"
"Our dead guy was cheap."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "And this is important because?"
"Real leather doesn't hold finger prints as well as vinyl or pleather." She grinned brightly, before sucking enthusiastically at her Caf-Pow, cheeks hollowing as she gulped.
Abby deftly tapped a few buttons on her keyboard. Her computer monitor immediately revealed a split screen. One half showed an enlarged fingerprint. The other half showed a government ID photo of Eli Warren.
"Only prints on the wallet were his." Abby shook her head, pigtails wagging. "Doesn't prove it belongs to our dead guy, I know, since I can't actually get prints from him."
She tapped another series of buttons. "Blood type is a match to Warren's, but given forty percent of the population is O positive, that isn't conclusive either." She pursed her lips. "Universal donor is a misnomer, by the way. People who are O negative, B negative, and AB negative can't---"
"Abby." Gibbs held up his hand. "Focus."
"Right." She nodded. "The fibers I found on his clothing are low end carpet fiber. Nothing revealing there. Well, if you don't count the fact that it confirms he wasn't killed in the alley you found him in. Which you already knew." She scowled at her computer as if the equipment had let her down in some way. "Nothing unique or special in anyway about the clothes themselves either. Generic, off the rack stuff."
"Not everyone wears Armani."
"If they wore it as well as Tony does, they should," she declared. "He looks amazing in that dove gray suit he got last week. Yummy." She licked her lips. "And that green tie he has goes well with his eyes.'
He knew there was nothing between Abby and Tony. They interacted and teased each other like siblings; nothing truly sexual or with any real intent that Gibbs had seen. They were good friends and Abby was just stating her opinion on his appearance which she'd done any number of times before. Even knowing that, Gibbs still had to clamp down hard on his instinctive jealous reaction to her blatantly appreciative statements.
At least he knew she wasn't really interested in Tony, unlike half the women in the building. Gibbs had seen more than one of them eyeing up Tony like he was a steak dinner and they hadn't eaten in a week. He took comfort in the fact that Tony no longer eyed them back, at least, not as much as he used to.
"Let me know when you've got the DNA results," Gibbs said as he left Abby's lab. Maybe McGee had something more substantial for him to look at.
Leaving the elevator, Gibbs overheard another team discussing a recently closed case. He stopped when he heard Tony's name mentioned, moving to where he could see who was speaking without being seen himself.
"DiNozzo pulled all that together, Vizoric. We can't really take credit for making a connection there."
The speaker was a leggy, attractive blonde Gibbs recognized; Agent Stoddard. She'd been with NCIS about as long as McGee had. Gibbs thought she had potential, but not enough to warrant a spot on his team.
"Hey, it wasn't just him, you know?" Vizoric countered, sounding put out. "We were the ones who did all the leg work."
"We wouldn't have even known where to look if DiNozzo hadn't suggested it." Stoddard snorted. "Glad it only cost us dinner to get his input."
"I'm glad it was Wednesday, otherwise Tony would have left long before we thought to invite him to our little pow-wow."
"Campfire," Stoddard laughed softly, "not pow-wow."
"Whatever." Vizoric rolled his eyes. "You think the rumor is true?"
"Oh yeah, he's definitely seeing someone. I'm betting it's more serious than casual too."
Gibbs blinked, surprised by her confident assertion. He knew Ziva and McGee thought Tony was involved with someone, but he hadn't realized other agents in the building might have also noticed anything. Tony thought they might have, and from the sounds of it, he was right.
Vizoric asked, "What makes you so sure?
Stoddard gave him a look Gibbs recognized as one he got a lot from his second ex-wife. It always managed to imply he was an idiot for not seeing the obvious. "He hasn't looked down my shirt once in the last six months."
Vizoric cocked his head to one side. "But he was flirting with you last night."
"There is flirting and then there is flirting." Stoddard shook her head. "What he was doing last night was tame. He wasn't going anywhere with it."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. He hadn't realized women in the building perceived a change in Tony's flirting. It was more lighthearted, playful and lacking any clear intent. From the look on Vizoric's face he hadn't made the same connection Stoddard had.
"Shame, really." Stoddard sighed heavily. "I wouldn't have objected to giving him a go."
Vizoric stared at her. "You told me you didn't date coworkers!"
"I didn't say that." She laughed. "I said I don't date teammates. He's not on our team."
"Seems like a fine line there."
"It's my line, Marcus, I can draw it anyway I want." She shrugged. "It's all moot anyway at this point."
"Might not be serious," Vizoric offered. "Tony doesn't seem the sort to be faithful for long."
"Six months is a lifetime for a guy like him," Stoddard said. "If he's made it that long, DiNozzo is in for the long haul. Trust me. He's in hook, line and sinker."
Gibbs knew it was stupid to find her conviction so reassuring, but he did anyway. Not that he had any doubts about Tony's commitment. No. He was sure the younger man was as invested in their relationship as he was. Still, it was nice to hear someone else read Tony the same way.
"The one who needs to get laid more is Gibbs. Dear God but that man is wrapped tight."
Gibbs was torn between being amused and angry. On one hand, he agreed with her. He wouldn't mind have sex with Tony every night, but to do that he needed for them to be together every night. And on the other hand, he was pissed that a woman who could make such an insightful comment about Tony could read him so wrong. He wasn't wrapped tight, he was dedicated to his job, and damn good at it. If she were equally dedicated, their team wouldn't have needed Tony's input or kept his lover up all night when he should have been getting some sleep.
"You're still pissed at him for not giving you Todd's place on the team."
"I am not!" Stoddard protested. "Besides, it was the Director's decision to put David on Gibbs' team."
Now Vizoric was giving her the 'you're an idiot' look. "You really think Gibbs would have kept her on his team if she wasn't up to snuff?"
"That's not the point."
"And what is?"
"If the Director hadn't placed David there, I might have had a chance."
Same chance as a snowball in hell, Gibbs thought as he walked away. This was why he didn't pay much attention to office gossip. Not only was it a huge waste of time, most of it was just crap. He had a case to solve, then he could work on finding a way to have Tony in his bed every night.
Author's Chapter Notes:
More of the case the team is working on. Gibbs overhears a little gossip too.