Detritus

Before Tony, Gibbs, or Bishop could say anything further, Tony’s phone rang with a call from dispatch. Tony listened to the call, let dispatch know that he’d contact Gibbs and called McGee, Ducky, and Jimmy with the location of the crime scene. Bishop grabbed her go bag and Tony’s as well and the three of them headed for their respective cars.

Tony asked McGee to swing by HQ and pick up the evidence van. Once Tony rattled off the location, Gibbs jumped into his personal vehicle and headed for the crime scene. Bishop and Tony both climbed into his. There was no point in separate vehicles when everyone knew they were married now. After their initial sweep of the crime scene for evidence, both Tony and Bishop volunteered to stay with the crime scene and wait for Tim while the other two interviewed witnesses.

Gibbs looked at them both oddly, before ordering, “DiNozzo with me.”

Tony shot Bishop an apologetic look. Bishop just shook her head. She hoped those two would do some talking and figure out their feelings, but doubted that it would happen at a crime scene.

She’d have to get more devious to get the two of them together. Normally, she’d ask Abby for help, but with the marriage public knowledge that would only bring up unwanted questions that she wasn’t willing to answer for Abby. Still she was sure that she could figure out something before Tony’s inheritance was finalized.

For now, though, she set to work on the crime scene. Most of the evidence was bagged and they were waiting for Ducky to look at the body before they moved it. In the meantime, she did the photos and sketches while she waited for McGee and the rest of the gang to arrive.

Once McGee, Ducky, and Jimmy arrived, they were able to quickly finish up with the crime scene and loaded the body and the evidence up to take back to NCIS. The only remaining parts of the crime scene were the normal detritus that mother nature generated.

Bishop called Tony to let him know that he’d have to catch a ride with Gibbs as the rest of them were heading back to NCIS headquarters. Tony agreed as he and Gibbs continued to canvas the neighbors to see if they knew anything. So far they hadn’t found anything, but Tony was still hopeful.

He groaned when his phone rang and it was the lawyers.

“Go ahead.” Gibbs nodded to Tony’s phone.

Tony answered, “DiNozzo.”

“Anthony DiNozzo?”

“Speaking.”

“I’m afraid something has gone wrong at your house and we need to check it out. When can we come over?”

“We’re in the middle of a case. I don’t know when we’ll be back. If you’re lucky, tomorrow. Bishop or I will give you a call when we know when we’ll be available.”

Gibbs eyed Tony with a slight softening of his expression, “Do you need to deal with it?”

“Nah. They just noticed Bishop’s meddling. It shouldn’t be an issue. We still have a case to solve.”

Gibbs nodded and they continued on to the final house. Of course, the last house was the house with all the information. Apparently an elderly lady lived there and she liked looking out her window and gossiping about everything going on.

According to her, she’d seen everything while talking on the phone with Mary Lou. “Your petty officer happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m not sure what he was doing in the area as I’ve never seen him before, but he seemed to be taking a great interest in our detritus, which is strange. Who cares about pieces of branch fallen on the road or various small rocks separated from the rocks on top of the cliff? Anyway, while he was poking around the detritus, a gang fight started a couple houses down. “

“A gang fight? How do you know it was a gang?”

“Well one set of them all had anchors sewn into their sleeves and the other ones had bulldogs sewn into their sleeves. Plus, the news said gang violence was getting worse in the area, so I just assumed they were gangs.”

Tony nodded, “So how did the petty officer get involved?”

“Well the fighting drew his attention. They started out just using hand to hand combat, but it quickly progressed to knives and guns. The petty officer called out for them to stop and tried to interrupt them. Both gangs turned on the petty officer and next thing I knew he was lying down on the ground. I called 911 immediately, but it was too late.”

“Thank you for your time.” Tony smiled at her.

“Of course, dearie. Come back, anytime.”

Tony handed her his card. “If you think of anything else,” Tony murmured.

The two of them headed back to NCIS. “So what do you think? Is she telling the truth?” Tony wondered.

Gibbs grunted.

“Yeah. We won’t know until we investigate.”