Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money

"Good Morning, Tony." Diva David said as she walked by Tony's desk. "Long night?" she inquired as she got a good look at his appearance.

Tony DiNozzo was not in the mood for Ziva's wit this morning. He had, in fact, had a very long night and the morning was not starting off well. He hadn't had time to shave this morning and his clothes, though clean, were just not up to his usual standards.

Ziva made it to her desk before she realized Tony hadn't answered her. Her concern jumped up a notch.

She walked back over to stand in front of his desk and took in his appearance. He looked ragged and tired, more than just a late night would account for.

"Tony, are you alright?" she couldn't quite hide all the concern in her voice.

Tony looked from the computer screen, where he'd been pretending to work, to Ziva and forced his trademark grin. "Couldn't be better. Like you said, late night." He wiggled his eyebrows for effect.

Ziva didn't believe him, something was going on. She was about to question him further when the elevator dinged and Gibbs walked out.

"Morning, boss." Tony called as he walked by.

Gibbs didn't answer. He sat his coffee down on his desk and started to open the drawer where he kept his gun.

"Gear up." he said as he checked his clip and holstered his weapon. "We got a dead petty officer in an abandoned warehouse in Norfolk."

Ziva and Tony both hurried to get their gear.

"Where's McGee?" Gibbs barked.

"Not here." Ziva said.

"Well, find him." Gibbs almost yelled.

McGee picked that moment to get off the elevator.

"Nice of you to join us, McGee. Let's go. You're driving." Gibbs said as he threw a surprised and confused Timothy McGee the keys to the van.

Gibbs grabbed his coffee and headed for the elevator leaving his three agents scrambling to catch up.

"Where are we going?" McGee whispered to Ziva as they raced to the elevator.

"Dead petty officer at Norfolk." Ziva answered.

The scene was very similar to what they had seen before. There were local police and emergency vehicles everywhere. The yellow crime scene tape was up and there were onlookers standing around waiting for a glimpse of something, anything so they could go tell everyone what they saw.

The warehouse itself, though large, was unimpressive. It was old and in bad need of repair. At one time it has been used as a storage warehouse for an electronics company. But, the company went bankrupt and the warehouse was abandoned.

Gibbs walked up to the first uniformed cop he saw and flipped open his ID. "What do we have?" he demanded.

The officer on the scene answered immediately. "A couple of homeless guys found her in building this morning. They said they were just going in for shelter, but they both had a couple bottles of liquor."

"How do you know she's one of ours?" Gibbs asked.

"One of the homeless guys found her purse. Said they didn't touch the body and the purse was laying a few feet from her. They claim they were just trying to find her ID. More than likely they just wanted to see if there was any money."

"Where are these guys now?"

The office pointed about 20 yards to the south. "Two officers are taking their statements."

"Ziva! The homeless guys."

Ziva nodded and started to walk towards the men.

Gibbs looked at McGee and Tony. "McGee, DiNozzo, you're with me."

The office led them inside the warehouse.

The body was only a few feet inside the door.

McGee immediately started to taking pictures as Gibbs kneeled and got a closer look at the body. Tony began searching the immediate area looking for any evidence.

She had been identified as Petty Officer Amelia Rhodes, age 23, stationed at Norfolk.

Gibbs studied her features. She had been a beautiful woman with blonde hair and green eyes. Those once beautiful eyes now started back at him, lifeless, and her blonde hair was matted with blood.

Gibbs heard movement behind him and turned to find Ducky behind him.

"What do we have, Jethro?" Ducky asked.

"Petty Officer Amelia Rhodes. Call came in early this morning. Looks like someone slashed her throat."

"Well, my dear." Ducky cooed as he inserted the liver probe. "Looks like someone definitely did a number on you."

Ducky looked at the probe and then up at Gibbs. "I'd place time of death between 5 and 5:30 this morning. I won't know a definite cause of death until I complete the autopsy, but her throat has definitely been slashed as you observed but there is something odd about it. It reminds me of when I was in medical school…"

"Not now, Ducky." Gibbs cut off the story before Ducky could get started. "Get her back. I want to know how she died."

"You don't think it was the slashed throat?" Ducky asked.

Gibbs gave him a look. "You and I both know there isn't enough blood here for that. So either her throat was slashed after she died or this is a body dump. I want to know which."

Ducky's assistant, Jimmy Palmer, chose that moment to arrive with gurney and he and Ducky set to work preparing the body for transport.

"Hey, boss." Tony called from the other end of the room. "I think I've got something."

Gibbs was at Tony's side in seconds.

"There's blood trail." Tony said, pointing to the small drops of blood on the dusty floor. "From what I can see it goes through that door toward the back of the building."

Gibbs looked and saw several small puddles of blood.

Gibbs wasn't sure what was setting his alarm bells off, but they were screaming at him. He pulled his weapon and cautiously began to make his way toward the door, being careful not to step in the blood.

Tony didn't understand why Gibbs had pulled his weapon, but he knew better than to question Gibbs' gut. It had been right too many times. So, without any words, he too pulled his weapon and followed his boss, watching his back.

They slowly made their way through the doorway to what was probably office space. There were still several desks and filing cabinets in the large room.

Another door towards the rear of the room probably led to the back part of the warehouse. That was where the blood trail was leading them.

As they made their way through the office, they made note of several filing cabinets that have been turned over and desks that are askew with the marks on the tops of desks where the dust has been disturbed.

The back room of the warehouse is much smaller than the front, only about 40 ft by 40 ft. and unlike the front where most everything had been cleared out, this room was cluttered with boxes and equipment.

Nothing was immediately out of place, but Gibbs did not lower his gun.

He motioned to Tony to take the left side of the room and he took the right. He was so intent on looking for a threat, he almost missed the hand that was sticking out from underneath several layers of debris.

"DiNozzo!"

Tony rushed over and followed Gibbs' gaze. He still had his camera hanging from a strap around his neck. He holstered his gun and snapped a few quick photos.

Then, he and Gibbs started moving the debris covering the rest of the body. It was another blonde, female body.

They got the body uncovered and Tony snapped a few more pictures as Gibbs pulled out his phone.

"Ducky. We've got another body in the back room." he said and snapped his phone shut.

"Tony, get a picture of that blood drop on her left shoulder."

"Why, boss? There's blood all over her."

"Because that's my blood." Gibbs answered and held his hand out for Tony to see the cut across his palm. "I cut my hand on a piece of sheet metal."

Tony nodded and snapped the picture.

Jethro studied this body. She had multiple bruises on her face and body and probably broken bones, but her throat had not been slashed like the petty officer. She looked somehow familiar to him, but he was sure he'd never met her.

Gibbs leaned a little closer to study a mark on her neck.

Gibbs pulled out his phone and barked into it. "I need paramedics, NOW!"

Tony looked at the blonde and saw her fingers move slightly. "Oh my God, she's alive."

"And we're going to keep her that way." Gibbs said as he began to clear more of the debris away from her so the paramedics could get to her and administer aid.

It only took a couple of minutes to get paramedics to the site. There was a very weak pulse, but it was there and she was barely breathing. They quickly prepared her for transport to the hospital.

"I want this entire warehouse searched and everything taken back to Abby." Gibbs ordered.

Ziva met Gibbs just outside the warehouse.

"What do you have?" he demanded.

"They gave me the same story as they gave the police. Admitted they were looking for somewhere to drink. Arrived around 6 this morning after a police officer ran them out of the alley they were sleeping in a few blocks away. I'm trying to track him down now to confirm. One of the guys is ex-Navy and when he saw the Petty Officer's ID, decided to call it in instead of just leaving her. Swear they didn't see or hear anything."

"Did they go anywhere else in the building?"

"They say no. They found her, ransacked her purse and called the police. I believe they are telling the truth."

Gibbs nodded. He trusted Ziva's opinion. She had a knack for knowing if someone was telling the truth.

"I want you at the hospital. As soon as this woman wakes up, I want to know."

"Is she a victim or a suspect?" Ziva asked.

"There's evidence of fight between several people and, so far, we haven't found a knife. She was beaten pretty badly and there were no marks on the petty officer's hands to indicate she'd been in fight. Right now, she's a victim."

Ziva nodded and rushed to catch the ambulance before they left with the woman.

Chapter 2

Several hours later the team gathered at headquarters.

"What do we know?" Gibbs questioned no one in particular.

"Petty Officer Rhodes has an impeccable service record." McGee answered. "She's been a perfect soldier and her commanding officer always gave her good reviews. She lived in an apartment on Stolmyer. No roommate, no boyfriend, no enemies that anyone knows about."

"What about previous boyfriends?" Tony asked.

McGee shook his head. "She hasn't dated anyone for at least year. The last guy was enlisted and they broke it off before he went to Iraq. He died over there several months ago."

Tony took over. "She was last seen yesterday afternoon at work. Told her co-workers she had to meet someone last night, but she didn't give a name or where they were supposed to meet. Left work around 6."

"Ziva?"

"The woman hasn't regained consciousness yet and there was no ID on her so she's still a Jane Doe. She has a severe concussion, more bruises than I care to count and three broken ribs. The doctors are optimistic about her recovery, if she will wake up."

"Abby is processing the evidence collected at the scene." Gibbs said. "She'll run the woman's DNA through the system and try to get a name."

Gibbs' phone rang. "Yeah." he said and listened for a moment before flipping the phone shut.

"Ducky's got something."

The team made their way to autopsy where Palmer was just finishing sewing the Y-incision.

"What is it, Duck?"

"You were right, Jethro. Our petty officer was not killed by slitting her throat. She died of exsanguination, but not from the throat wound. See the skin, here." he said as he pointed to the left side of the neck. "This wound did not bleed. She was already dead. She lost the blood some other way."

"Any other wounds?" Ziva asked.

"Nothing that would cause her massive blood loss." Ducky answered. "She has several bruises on her torso and arms. There are two bruises on her arms that suggest she was forcible held from behind by someone." He picked up her arm and pointed out the finger shaped bruises around the upper arm. "There are similar bruises on her other arm."

"Anything else." Gibbs demanded.

"Actually, yes. There is an abnormality with the cut on her throat, on the right side of her neck. I've never seen anything like it. It appears the cut is covering up another wound to the throat."

"What does that mean?" Tony asked.

"It means, whatever caused that wound is probably what caused her bleed out and caused her death, but while I can tell there was some kind of puncture wound there, I can not determine what caused it. Most likely, the post-mortem cut was to cover up the actual fatal wound."

"But why?" Ziva mused out loud. "Why bother covering up the fatal wound with something else?"

"Some kind of signature wound, perhaps." Ducky answered. "Certain serial killers have very specific ways they kill their victims. Perhaps this is someone's way of covering that up to reduce the risk of having other victims tied to him or giving the authorities a lead on his identity."

"Was the body moved?" Gibbs asked.

"Lividity seems to indicate she was not moved after death, but if that's the case, where's the blood. There was most definitely not enough blood at the scene for that to be the location where she bled out."

"Anything to give us any idea where she was right before she died?"

"It appears she ate a few hours before her death. I've sent stomach contents to Abby and blood for a tox screen, but I don't see any indication of drug use."

"Thanks, Ducky." Jethro said as she left.

As they stepped in the elevator, Ziva's phone rang. She listened and then turned to Gibbs. "The woman is awake."

"Get to the hospital. Take Tony with you. McGee, you're with me. We're going to check out the petty officer's apartment."

Petty Officer Amelia Rhodes lived in a small, one bedroom apartment in a decent neighborhood. Her apartment was neat with little touches that made it a home. Gibbs and McGee went through the apartment carefully, looking for anything that may give them a clue, but they didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

McGee found her laptop and bagged it to take back to Abby. Hopefully, they would find an appointment book or calendar or email correspondence that would tell them who she was meeting.

They were just finishing up with the apartment when Gibbs' phone rang. "Yeah, Abby. What you have."