Authors Note: This story is a crossover between the shows CSI: New York and the original N.C.I.S~! This first "Chapter" here is a preview of future events, the next page is the actual FIRST chapter~!

New York City, 7:43am

'SPLASH'

The sound of his body hitting the water as he dove in echoed through the empty space like thunder over an open field. It wasn't uncommon for the pool to be empty at this time of day and Mac wasn't about to let this solitude go to waste. He quickly and effortlessly glided under the water's surface before breaking the glassy top and swimming to the other side, pulling himself to the edge of the pool and resting his head on his forearms. The quite sounds of the rec. center were a welcome calm compared to the sounds he'd been hearing all week.

The thought of his latest case made his mind wander and he closed his eyes as he retraced the evidence in his head. He started with the initial crime scenes, then the victims and finally to the suspects and the DVDs being sent directly to his lab.

"There has to be something I'm missing..." He muttered to himself. Before he could come to any conclusions, Mac's train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of a couple entering the pool. "So much for solitude." Just as he was about to push off the wall the all too familiar sound of his ringtone made him turn his head towards his cell phone laying on the bench just under the windows to his left. Quickly and without hesitation Mac pulled himself out of the water and waltzed over to his belongs, grabbing his towel to wipe his hands off before answering his phone. "Taylor."

"Mac, it's Don. Gotta minute?" It was Detective Flack. Shifting his weight Mac threw his towel over his shoulder before replying.

"Sure, what do you need Don?"

"Gotta homicide in Midtown. Looks like our bone guy struck again..."

"Where in Midtown?"

"The Helmsley Hotel, I'll have one of my guys waiting outside to escort you up."

"Alright, I'm on way." That said, Mac hung up, grabbed his things and left for the scene.

By the time he got to The Helmsley the hotel was already sectioned off with yellow crime scene tape and a rather large crowd had gathered out of curiosity at the growing number of officers standing about the entrance and lobby.

"Detective Taylor." One of the officers near the door motioned to Mac who immediately recognized the officer as one of Detective Flacks men. He nodded and followed the officer up to the suite where the scene was waiting to be processed, thanking the man as he walked into the room.

"What did I miss?" Flack turned around to the sound of Mac's voice behind him with a frustrated expression on his face.

"A lota nonsense. A whole floor full of people and not one of them heard anything. Not last night and not this morning. In fact they say they haven't heard anything from this room the whole time our vic's been checked in here which is bogus if you ask me..." Flack said flipping through his note pad.

"Who's our vic?" Mac asked setting his kit down and pulling out his latex gloves to start his walk through.

"His name's James Schwepper, 27 year old male, Caucasian. Apparently he was down here from Washington D.C to visit a friend."

"Do we know where the friend is?"

"Nah, gotta lead though. Neighbour says they saw a guy here with the vic two nights ago, I'm having my guys pull the surveillance footage. Should have it at the lab in a little while."

"Thanks Don."

"No problem Mac." As the conversation came to a close, Don walked out of the room to leave Mac to his work. Today was going to be a long day...

Washington D.C., 7:56am – N.C.I.S Headquarters

"I still don't get it, nor do I think I want to get it..." Ziva said with a rather displeased look on her face. Tony merely leaned back in his chair with a smug look.

"It's a guy thing Ziva, I wouldn't expect you to understand it..." He grinned at her from his desk as he kicked his feet upon the top, which only seemed to annoy Ziva even more.

"I hope that grin means you've got something for me DiNozzo." Gibbs quipped as he strolled past Tony's desk to his own. DiNozzo quickly threw his feet off his desk and sat up straight.

"Uhh not yet boss. Still can't get a hold of our witness, I'm working on the other leads." He replied.

"Well, get going. We have 24 hours to find him. Let's just hope we find him in one piece." Gibbs replied seating himself at his desk before looking to Tim. "McGee, phone records?"

"According to our witnesses phone records he made a call to New York three days prior to his disappearance and again approximately 12 hours prior to his disappearance." Tim was quick to reply.

"Where was the last call made?"

"Uhh, let me see..." Tim was quiet for a moment. "Oh..."

"Oh what?"

"The last call he made to New York was FROM New York..."

"Looks like he went anyway..." Tony commented. "What d'you want to do boss?"

"DiNozzo, get on the phone with NYPD and see if they know anything, McGee, trace his last call I want an exact location. Ziva, check his list of contacts and see if any of the numbers match the last call made from his phone. If he's in New York, we need to find him before anyone else does."

The Helmsley Hotel, 9:28am – New York City

"So you think this is our Skeleton Killer again?" Danny more stated then asked as he bagged the victims' hands tightly.

"It's too early to say. But the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction..." Mac replied from the other side of the room as he bagged another fibre. "So far I'm not seeing a connection between our latest victim and the first three. If this is our guy, then why would he suddenly shift his course and go back to an old habit?"

"This guy does like to keep us guessing. Maybe he's trying to throw us off."

"Or maybe he's trying to tell us something..." Before Mac could finish his phone started to ring. He reached in his pocket and pulled it out looking at the number to see who it was. "That's odd..."

"What's up?"

"Why is a private number from Washington D.C calling me?"

"A private number, from Washington? Maybe it's connected to the case? I mean, the vic IS from Washington." Danny shrugged and stopped what he was doing for a moment as Mac answered the call.

"Detective Taylor."

"Detective Taylor, hi. This is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo I'm with N.C.I.S. Do you have a minute?" DiNozzo asked.

"Not at the moment, I'm in the middle of processing a crime scene. What does N.C.I.S need with the NYPD?" Mac replied a little put off.

"We have a witness under protective custody that was last seen in New York at approximately 5:43am and we were hoping that the NYPD might know something about his whereabouts."

"Have you tried contacting him or any agents that may have been escorting him?"

"That's the problem Detective. We've been trying to contact him and the agents with him for the past 72 hours with no luck. We're running out of time." Mac was silent for a moment trying to assess the new situation. He looked to the floor momentarily, and then his eyes slowly trailed over to Danny and finally the victim, James Schwepper, on the floor. "Detective Taylor?"

"Can you give me a description of your witness?"

"Uhh, sure. He's about 5'8", Caucasian, slim build, brown eyes, wavy dark brown hair." Mac moved his phone away from his mouth and motioned to Danny to get his attention.

"What colour are the victims eyes?"

"Uhh, lemme see here." Danny got up and paced around the vic to get a good look at his eyes. "Looks like brown to me boss. Why?"

"I'll tell you in a moment. Agent DiNozzo, could you tell me the name of your witness?" Mac asked.

"I'm not really at liberty to say."

"Is his name James Schwepper per chance?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Agent DiNozzo?"

"Yes. How did you..?" DiNozzo was cut off before he could finish.

"I think I know where your witness is."

"Great! So uhh, could you tell me where he is?"

"He's laying face down in a pool of his own blood in a suite at the Helmsley Hotel here in New York..."