Cogent

“Abby, Abby, Slow down. “ Tony grabbed her arms to prevent them from pinwheeling all over the place. “Deep breaths now. I know you’re excited, but I need cogent thought from you to understand.”

“But, but, but I know who did it.” Abby bounced about excitedly.

“That’s great Abs. Just tell it to me slowly and such that I can understand or we won’t be able to present it to Gibbs.” Tony responded soothingly trying to calm her down before she turned into a whirling dervish.

“Well at first I thought it was the petty officer roommate since his blood was all over the scene.” Abby continued trying to sort her thoughts out so that they’d make sense to someone else.

“Yeah?” Tony asked softly and encouragingly.

“But that was a misdirect designed to mislead us. Underneath the petty officer roommate’s blood I found a trace of someone else’s blood. I think he figured out that there had been too much of his blood released in the struggle and tried to cover it up with someone else’s blood.” Abby pontificated.

“Good. What else? Did you match the second person’s blood?” Tony questioned.

“Of course, I did. What do you take me for? Would I call you down here for nothing?” Abby replied mock insulted.

“Of course not. So who is it?” Tony asked again hoping that she’d answer this time.

“Tony, you have to wait. We need the drum roll first.” Abby demanded.

Obliging her, Tony did a drum roll with his hands on her table. “Ok, Abs. Who is it?”

“It’s his boyfriend. Also with the amount of the petty officer roommate’s blood that was all over the floor, you may want to be looking for a second body somewhere.” Abby shared revealing extra details that she knew would help.

Tony nodded thoughtfully and then paused and asked the pertinent question. “Wait which boyfriend the roommate or our dead petty officer?”

“The dead petty officer’s boyfriend. Or the roommate’s boyfriend. It’s hard to say. Definitely the dead petty officer’s boyfriend since you questioned him once already and he admitted it, but there are signs that he may have been the roommate’s boyfriend as well.” Abby explained breathlessly.

“Thanks Abs. We’ll check it out. I’ll make sure Gibbs gets you extra caff-pow for breaking this case wide open.” Tony smiled softly at her as he headed to the elevator.