fandomhigh | Criminal Justice: Wednesday

When the class entered the Danger Shop today they'll find that it had been transformed into tactical room, complete with multiple wide screen televisions, theater seating and more computers than you could shake a stick at.

"All right," Gibbs said sipping from his ever-present coffee cup. "Last week you gathered evidence. For those of you who don't have any law enforcement background, it should be pretty evident that evidence is everything. Mishandle one item of evidence and chances are some scumbag lawyer will get a guilty man off on a technicality."

"This leads me to two additional rules. Number thirteen: Never, ever involve a lawyer. Because they're a royal pain in the ass and you'll never get any work done. The other rule is number eight: never take anything for granted. That means take everything you've gathered with a grain of salt. Whatever theories or thoughts you had about the victim, her lifestyle or the situation she died should never be considered concrete until all the work is done. Evidence can't lie but it's subject to interpretation. That's why when you're done gathering the evidence and the body you hand it over to the medical examiner and a forensic specialist to find out the facts. To help us out with the evidence we're going to have some assistance here."

Gibbs then turned to the large video screen in the front of the room as some very familiar faces appeared.

"Dr. Mallard is our esteemed Medical Examiner. He'll start things off with the details regarding the victim's body. What do you have for me, Duck?" Gibbs said looking up at the monitor

Ducky	The elderly gentleman gave the classroom a warm smile as he checked his notes. "Well Jethro, as I recall this young lady was found in a mummified condition. Based on my lab results I can verify that the body was down there for approximately eighteen months.
Gibbs	"Do we have a cause of death?"
Ducky	"We do indeed. Cause of death can be attributed to non-specific asphyxiation. No obvious signs of sexual trauma however we did find some damage to the left hand. Specifically the ring finger.
Gibbs	"Someone tore off a wedding ring?" Gibbs asked.
Ducky	"And rather violently," Dr. Mallard replied. "It reminds me of a case from my earlier years. A young man was discovered by his wife with anotehr woman in a very delicate and intimate moment. The young man-"
Gibbs	Gibbs managed to switch Ducky off before turning the screen over to girl dressed in goth clothes and her hair in pig-tails. "Next we have our specialist Abby Scuito. What do you have, Abby?"
Abby	"What don’t I have, Gibbs? Clothing fibers, carpet fibers, dust, beetle parts, soiled bedding," Abby said ticking off the items of evidence on her table. "Where should we and your mini-partners start?"
Gibbs	"The wedding dress."
Abby	"As you might imagine, it’s not exactly virginal. It was made in nineteen fifty-two. She’d been wearing it for months before she died. Which while unsanitary, you have to admit that at least she got more use out of that your normal-"
Gibbs	"Fingerprints," Gibbs growled. Sometimes it was best to keep on track before she got severely off topic.
Abby	"All over the room. Thanks to our semi-mummy, I was able to get a match for our victim. We should get something them from A-FIS. There weren't any more prints in the room and I found trances of cleanser on the furniture. Whoever this guy is he was very cautious."
Gibbs	"Fibers? Furniture?" Gibbs continued.
Abby	"Pretty standard stuff. All the furniture is from the same period of the dress. The one thing that stands out is the purple thread that was found. It's silk and doesn't belong to anything else in the room."
Gibbs	"Anything else?"
Abby	"Glad you asked!" Abby said with a fist pump. "Polopinus Ingens! Commonly known as the Darkling Beetle. As with all beetles,the Darkling has two sets of wings. One set of hard front wings and a set of soft hind wings used for flying."
Gibbs	"And this is useful why?"
Abby	"Gibbs, I know you know that I need a good windup before I deliver my knock-out punch."
Gibbs	"Just hit us with it Abs."
Abby	"Okay, this particular species of Darkling is indigenous only in extreme Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida."
Gibbs	"Which begs the question... why was it found on a naval base in Virginia?"
Abby	"My guess? Somebody stepped on it. A piece of it got lodged in the shoe, and then it dislodged in Mister Sicko’s love nest. As for who? Well that's your job."
Gibbs	"You're right. Good work, Abs," Gibbs said as he switched the monitor. "And now we have Agents DiNozzo, McGee and Officer David to assist us.
Tony	However there were only two men now standing on the screen. And they seemed to be bickering like an old married couple. "You know I'm right, McFreak."
McGee	"I'm not discussing this."
Tony	"That's because you know you're wrong, Probie."
McGee	"I'm not a-"
Gibbs	"Are you two done yet?!" Gibbs shouted.
Tony & McGee	"Sorry Boss."
Gibbs	"What do we have?"
McGee	"Victim is Carolyn Figgis. Petty Officer Third Class, twenty two. Went missing eighteen months before the body was found," McGee said as he punched a few keys making a picture of the victim appear on the screen.
Tony	"The case file on Petty Officer Figgis didn't have much," Tony said looking through a few documents. "She left for work one morning and poof! Gone! No witnesses. Case went cold."
McGee	"Ducky estimates she’s been dead about a year and a half," McGee added "That means she was in the bunker for six months before she died which rules out the last tenants that were connected to the house."
Tony	"The basic pathology is obvious. He was probably abused as a child. Dad beating on mom. One or both beating on him. Who knows?
McGee	"He’s trying to create the perfect relationship."
Tony	"That’s right, McGeek. Control is the name of the game. This one didn’t live up to his expectations."
Gibbs	"So he cut off her air supply, left her in an airtight chamber to die, and moved on."
Tony	"Yeah, that’s the problem. This kind of pathology is driven. He’s not going to stop until he finds the perfect one."
Gibbs	"Which could mean he’s playing house with somebody else out there. What about the bug?"
Tony	"Our nasty little critter could have called any one of three Navy bases home; Jacksonville Naval Air Station, or Mayport Naval Station in Florida, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, in Georgia." Tony
McGee	"We have a piece of a beetle that shouldn’t be in Virginia. It doesn’t mean that the guy who did this is there now." McGee pointed out as he turned back to his computer. " I mean, he could’ve just been there on vacation. Nobody else is missing from Norfolk. Somebody is from Jacksonville. She fits the profile. NCIS Agent Jane Melankovic forwarded a missing person’s report she filed on a female Petty Officer, Barbara Swain, Petty Officer Second Class at Jacksonville. She’s been missing for almost four months." He then punched up another image of Barbara Swain next to PO Figgis.
Tony	"I don't know McNerd. She’s close in age to Carolyn Figgis, similar look," Tony commented.
McGee	"Same deal, too. Disappeared off the face of the earth. Never made it to work. No witnesses. No clues. Case went dead," McGee noted.
Gibbs	"Fits the pattern," Gibbs said. "Though it's all pretty thin." He paused for a second as he looked at the big viewscreen. "Where's Ziva?"
Tony	Tony let off a small cough. "Well, boss she... um."
McGee	"She's pissed at Tony for stuffing her desk with Jello."
Tony	"Allegedly stuffing her desk with Jello," Tony said shooting McGee a glare.
Gibbs	"Tony," Gibbs growled.
Tony	"What? It was a joke! I can't help it if MOSSAD trains their agents not to have a sense of humor."
Gibbs	Gibbs said nothing. He just stared back at Tony with a look that Tony knew very well.
Tony	Tony gave a little sigh and then slapped the back of his own head. "Sorry boss."

Gibbs gave a little smirk at the camera and turned off the monitor. "All right. Looks like we have no suspects and a few questions answered. Tell me your thoughts on the evidence at hand and what our next steps should be?"

After that discussion was over, Gibbs started handing out evidence bags to each student. "Now to impress upon you the need for secure evidence, we're going to do a little exercise. Each of you is going to take an evidence bag with you as you leave with a piece of evidence from this case. Every time you see one of your classmates? You exchange evidence and sign the custody sheet on the bag. If any of you lose one of your bags? You're fired. If you come back with an unsigned bag? You're fired. If you try and fake it? I'll know it."

And the evidence bags go to:
K-Mart - A smooshed bug
George Cooper - A wedding dress
Gabrielle - An old copy of Redbook Magazine
Diana Hansen - A purple fiber
Jack Priest - A wedding dress
Sam Winchester - A wedding dress
Jean Grey - A small throw rug

[OCD is finally up!]

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Well, he did listen to Sebastien once in a while.

Jack nodded gratefully. "How long do you think the list will be, once it's been through the computer thing?"

"Couple of hundred or so," Gibbs said with a shrug. "However then we can start looking through who had a relationship with both Figgis and Swain and narrow it down even further."

"All right, sir, but how do you know they had a relationship with the women?" Jack wondered. "One we'd know about, I mean. Obviously he had one."

"Well that part may take a bit of leg work," Gibbs admitted.

Criminal Justice: Wednesday

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