Abby and Carly were back in the lab processing the rest of the evidence collected from the scene. They were silent and the music was off. Fingers flying over the keyboard, Carly nearly gasped out loud when a pain exploded in her head. She looked over at Abby and her vision was blurry. Mentally struggling to work through the pain in her head, she clenched her teeth. Abby slowly came back into focus as the pain receded and Carly took a deep breath. Trying to act like nothing was wrong, she asked, "Has Tony seen your new outfit yet?"
Shaking her head from over the shirt she was processing, Abby said, "Not yet. I was going to last night but he wasn't patient enough."
"Wasn't patient enough for what?" Gibbs asked, walking in with a Caf-Pow and a coffee.
Abby looked up with a quick grin and quipped, "For dinner out."
With a look that said he didn't believe her, Gibbs handed her the Caf-Pow and asked, "What have you got for me?"
Abby started. "I found residue on the inside of the petty officer's skirt. Turns out it was a lubricant and I've already matched it to her..." Abby trailed off as she pointed to one of the objects bagged on the table.
Turning from Abby to Carly, he raised his eyebrows. Carly sighed. "Apparently our petty officer had an online friend who insisted she meet this 'hot, older woman' and everything I've found shows the meeting was for last night. What doesn't make sense is that for a smart woman, our petty officer agreed to let this woman come to her house instead of meeting over drinks or something."
"What makes you say she's a smart woman?" Gibbs asked.
Carly was startled. "Well, um, she graduated first in her class at the academy, her security measures on her laptop were several levels higher than your average user and well, her journal."
"Her journal?" He asked.
"She didn't mention who the woman was in the journal, only that she was meeting someone new and that she was nervous. It was her first true blind date."
Setting the coffee down beside her keyboard, Gibbs turned to walk out. "Too bad it was her last as well."
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Tony and Tim were watching as Ziva and Gibbs questioned Petty Officer Russell's friend. "I'm being honest with you. This woman approached me a week ago and asked if I knew any pretty red-heads. I said yes, I had a few friends she might be interested in. She was HOT. If she had wanted a brunette, I'd have jumped right then."
"You'd have been dead if she wanted a brunette." Ziva informed her bluntly.
The woman looked from Gibbs to Ziva. "What? Faith's dead?"
"Yes." Gibbs told her quietly.
"When? How?"
"Is this the 'hot' woman you told her about?" Ziva asked and slid a picture across the table to her.
She took one look and paled. "She's an ex-con? But she..."
"Looked so nice in the bar?" Ziva finished for her.
"What did she do?"
"She killed a woman. Her lover." Gibbs said and slid another picture across the table to her.
Sydney Poole put her hand to her mouth and shook her head. "No." She said from behind her hand.
Gibbs and Ziva stood as one and, taking the photos back, walked out. Gibbs looked in the observation room and said, "DiNozzo, McGee, see her out, follow her and sit on her location. If she moves, you move. Adrian knows she's left a witness. She'll be back."
The two men nodded and went to help Ms. Poole to her car.
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Jenny sat at her desk, staring blankly at her computer screen. Her sister's face was fresh in her mind. The image as if she had just seen her, not as if it had been nine years. Nine years, how could someone be released from prison after only nine years? Narrowing her eyes, Jenny pulled up the case file. She was going to do a little investigating of her own.
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