Detective Work

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"Nice digs," said Tony, glancing around the office space. "Not as good as home, but... nice."

"Try not to get used to it. It's just a field office until we find Abby." Gibbs responded from the window.

"Which, hopefully, will not take any great length of time," nodded Ziva, seated at her new desk.

McGee was staring somewhere past the machine on his desk. "I hope she's okay."

"She'd better be." Gibbs turned to face the others. "She's been missing 24 hours as of this morning. I need to know what we have. McGee!"

"Right," nodded the other, pulling himself out of whatever thoughts he was in. A few clicks, and the massive TV set in the wall flickered to life. "Well, based on ballistics and a survey of the room, the forensics team came up with a rough idea of what happened. Raburn was standing here..." McGee pointed, "...when the first shots hit him in the kneecaps. That sent him to the ground, where he fired the two or three shots that lodged in the opposite wall." Dotted lines appeared on the room facsimile. "At that point the other shoots him in the head, killing him instantly."

"Headshots are tricky." Tony mused. "Given that Abby's not a shooter..."

"There was a third person in the room." Ziva concluded.

Gibbs nodded. "What do we know about him?"

"His first shots—the ones to the kneecaps—were fired when he entered the room, here." McGee clicked a few keys and a colored figure rose up on the screen, aiming a pistol. "We estimate his height to be a little over six feet—it's hard to be exact, as we can't be sure how he was holding the weapon."

"Definitely a lot taller than Abs." Gibbs answered. "The second shots?"

"Over here." A few more clicks, and another colored figure appeared. "On the other side of the room. These were fired at a height of maybe three feet, so he must have been crouching."

"Why?" mused Ziva.

McGee shrugged. "The lab boys figure he was ducking to avoid the shots that..."

"No, why leave the door?" Ziva pointed at the screen. "If I'm firing from the door, I have the advantage of cover, I can duck back into the hallway... run back down the stairs if I have to. Why would the second shooter ENTER the room before his assailant was dead?"

"What was the second shooter doing there at all?" Tony asked. "Abs is tough, but that Raburn guy could've taken her alone."

"The second shooter is the one who DID kidnap her." Gibbs reminded them.

"So... what was Raburn doing there?"

Gibbs shrugged. "Hard to say, without knowing more about Raburn. DiNozzio!"

"Right, boss." Tony came to attention. "Got Raburn's service records without much fuss. He seems to have been a model soldier. Got awards in Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand combat, and Explosives. Two tours in Afghanistan, received a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat, then was suddenly discharged a year later."

"The divorce?"

"Same year he was discharged. Pretty much like that Stills guy told us. The court record cites, 'danger to children,' and such, but there's just the one form... Raburn didn't fight it. And he gave her everything... the house, the car, the kid... even a monthly percentage of his pension." Tony shot his boss a meaningful look. "Generally, when a guy goes along that easily, it's because he feels guilty about something."

Got Your Number--a Person of Interest/NCIS crossoverWhere stories live. Discover now