The rest of the day and into the evening was fast and furious. Abby had set her test to run but then promptly forgot about it as the boxes of evidence from the kidnapping were dropped off at her lab. She was sorting and processing all of it when Ducky stopped into her lab for a visit, bearing with him a gift of apple juice and a package of peanut butter crackers.
"Ducky!" Abby smiled.
"I have come to ensure that you take a break for a few minutes and sit, Abigail."
"But...." She gestured towards the evidence on the table.
"Doctor's orders. You won't do either of them any good if you pass out on us again. Five minutes." He gently took her by the elbow and led her to her desk chair.
With a sigh, she peeled off her gloves and took the offered snack from Ducky. "Thanks, Ducky."
Ducky leaned against the edge of the desk and asked, "So may I ask how your test results turned out?"
Abby could see the obvious glee in Ducky's face, completely giving away what he hoped the test results would be. She explained about the home test and that she had a real test running now that she was waiting for it to finish.
After he had felt that she had had an adequate break, Ducky headed back to autopsy after making her promise to call him as soon as her test was done running.
---------------
To say that Captain Gleason was frantic was an understatement and with each passing minute without any sort of a ransom demand he grew more distraught.
Mrs. Gleason and their son had been abducted from their home in the space of time it took for Captain Gleason to run to the local convenience store to buy forgotten hamburger rolls for their backyard barbecue. He had returned home to see his home in disarray and his family missing. That had been three hours ago.
The scene had been processed immediately, but Tony was making his own observations as he walked through the house. He stepped into what must have been Gleason's son's room, it was decorated with dinosaurs and there were toys everywhere. He grimaced remembering another children's bedroom months back, one full of blood and death. He shook it off and continued his walk through of the house. He pushed open another door to find the nursery. Painted a gentle pink and full of baby furniture and stuffed animals, it was just waiting for the new arrival. For just a moment as he looked at the comfortable rocking chair in the corner, Tony smiled vaguely, his mind conjuring an image of Abby in her favorite red bathrobe gently rocking their baby. He shook that image off, too, not wanting to be distracted.
Tony went into the Gleason's bedroom next, not expecting to find anything. Mrs. Gleason kept a very tidy home, lived in, but tidy. Tony's keen eyes picked up on things out of place in the bedroom. He went to the back deck where Gibbs was sitting with the Captain and asked him to accompany him back to the bedroom.
Mrs. Gleason's jewelry box had been left with the cover closed over a string of pearls that were hanging out. Captain Gleason confirmed that this was out of place, the pearls had been Mrs. Gleason's grandmother's and she would never had treated them like that.
Carefully Tony opened the lid of the jewelry box by the very edge as not to disturb any prints, and asked Gleason if if looked like anything was missing. It only took a second for him to realize what exactly was missing: the key to her safety deposit box.
Gibbs asked, "What's in the safety deposit box?"
"Rare coins that her uncle left her. We're actually putting them up for auction next week."
"How much are they worth?"
"About three-quarters of a million."
Tony was already looking for his kit to dust the jewelry box for prints.
---------------
Abby's test finished processing with ding and the printer spit out the results. She grabbed it and read quickly, then headed for her desk to call Tony.
Tony was in the Gleason's living room rummaging through his kit when his cell phone rang. He smiled, then swallowed hard at seeing Abby's name on the caller-id.
"Hey. How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay, Ducky made me take a break a little while ago."
"Good. I'm hoping to have a print for you to run in a few. We think we've found our motive."
They chatted about the case for a minute when Abby finally took a breath and said, "I got my test results."
"So... don't keep me in suspense, are we?"
---------------
tbc...
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.