Our Life, Our Family

Chapter 2

Two weeks later, Tony sat at his desk, filling out more case reports. Gibbs came in the room and announced, "Gear up. We have a dead Marine downtown."

The team rose and followed Gibbs. They soon arrived at the crime scene in about twenty minutes. The team stepped out of the car and started to process the scene and snap pictures. Tony walked over to take a look at the body, he didn't touch it since Duckie hadn't arrived to clear the body yet.

The body was a woman and she had obviously been posed. Her arm thrown over her forehead and eyes closed as if she had simply fainted. Her knees were bent and slightly curled toward her middle. Her hair was long and red, her skin very pale and freckled. Tony had been staring at the body, almost in a trance.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs said gruffly as he came to stand beside Tony.

Tony shook his head as if to clear it. "Sorry boss." He said. "Something about this just really seems familiar."

Before Tony could say anymore Duckie and Palmer arrived. Soon the body was being transported back to the morgue. The team finished processing the scene and headed back to the navy yard. They gave Abby their evidence to be examined and then headed back to their desks.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs called.

"Yeah, boss?"

"I want you to come with me to autopsy. Maybe you can figure out why that body looked familiar." Gibbs told him.

"Right boss." Tony said and followed Gibbs to the morgue.

When they arrived Duckie and Palmer had just started their examination. "Ah, Jethro, Anthony." Duckie said when the two of them arrived in the room.

"What have you found Duck?" Gibbs inquired.

"It appears our young woman died of positional asphyxia. Someone or something sat on her chest and suffocated her to death." Duckie answered.

"Did you find anything unusal about the body?" Tony inquired. "Any markings on the body?"

"Well, actually, yes." Duckie answered. He then had Palmer help him roll the young woman over so that everyone could see her back. "Our killer carved this into her back postmortem."

On the woman's back was carved an arrow, pointing up. The arrow was about two inches long. "There's no way." Tony breathed. Then he walked out of the room and headed to his desk.

Tony picked up his phone and made a few phone calls. Gibbs walked in just as Tony hung up the phone. "DiNozzo, are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Yeah, sorry boss. I had to confirm a few things before I told you what was going on." Tony answered.

Gibbs stood there and looked at Tony. "Sometime today, DiNozzo."

"Right." Tony began. "When I was in Baltimore, I worked lead on a big serial killing case. The vistims were always women killed by positional asphyxia and that arrow was carved pointing up on their backs."

"Did you ever find the killer?" Gibbs inquired.

"Yeah, he had killed fifteen women. His name is Jason Wilkins. I made the arrest, he was tried and convicted. He was given a life sentence."

"You think you got the wrong guy?"

"No, I just made a phone call. He escaped prison." Tony answered.