Chapter 1

Black velvet hooded cloak with frog closures and gathered wrist cuffs, black flats with red dragons on them, and a black canvas tote bag with Nene Thomas's Moon Fairy on it. Six hoops along the shell of one ear, a really cool rose and bramble ear hugger on the other ear, the girl caught Abby's attention, especially with her wavy red hair held back by a black ribbon. But what really caught Abby Sciuto's attention was the Golden Retriever siting patiently beside the girl. He was wearing a bright orange jacket with the words "Hearing Dog" in black on it. A bright orange leash went from his collar to the girl's hand. Abby started grinning; even though the dog was working, he still wore colorful doggie leg warmers and a bright scarf around his neck.

Both the girl and the dog were studying a window with tattoo designs in it. Deciding to try and make friends, Abby went up to the girl and waved, smiling brightly.

"Are you going to get a tattoo?" she asked, signing.

The girl, a teenager of maybe sixteen or seventeen with beautiful grey eyes, looked at Abby and her eyes went wide.

"I wish I could," she replied, talking and signing at the same time. "But I'm not eighteen yet. I really want one though and I hope to get one for my birthday. The one on your neck is cool!"

"Thanks! I'm Abby," Abby replied, taking her hint from the teen about talking and signing.

"Dabi, and this is my dog, Azan."

"That's a cool name," Abby said, letting the dog sniff her fingers.

"It means to listen or to hear in Hebrew," Dabi said.

"Because he's a hearing dog?" Abby asked.

"Yup, and he's going to sulk if you don't shake his paw." Azan had one foot up and was whining.

Giggling, Abby knelt down and shook the dog's paw. "Hi Azan. Nice to meet you." She stood up. "I know a really good coffee shop nearby."

"Is it the one that sells those apple fritters that look like they just came out of the oven?"

"You know it?"

"My grandparents own a bakery and the coffee shop is one of our clients. After school I help at the bakery and even help do deliveries and errands during the holidays and weekends."

As they started walking, Abby groaned. "That would be so hard on my tummy, being tempted by all the fresh baked goodies."

Dabi shrugged. "I've been living at the bakery most of my life; I'm used to it."

Dabi Moore was an easy-going girl of seventeen. Despite being deaf, she was in her final year of public high school and already looking at colleges, with an eye on business degrees and plans to one day take over her grandparents' bakery. She loved her dog, Azan, who had been with her since she was twelve, and as a Hearing Dog, he went everywhere with her.

As far as Abby was concerned, she had just made another friend. She even began to make arrangements for a special surprise for Dabi's eighteenth birthday, which was in three months.

Dabi was happy to make friends with Abby, as being deaf, tall, and flat-chested hadn't rendered her very many friends in school. Plus, working at the bakery didn't leave her much time for a social life, and she was a bit shy around boys.

Three weeks later, spring break started. Dabi and Abby had been exchanging regular texts and e-mails and had even made serious plans to raid the mall in the near future.

Today, however, Dabi and Azan were running errands for the bakery. Earlier, she'd helped unload a large delivery of bakery supplies, like sugar, flour, and shortening, so she was in jeans and steel toe shoes.

Standing at five feet ten inches, with her body not done growing, Dabi was quite content to raid the men's clothing department for shoes and shirts when the need arose, like the steel toe shoes she wore when unloading or doing deliveries. There had been one too many incidents of busted toes for her liking.

Deciding to take a short-cut through an alley on her way back to the bakery, it was then that Dabi spotted something.

Someone with a weapon was viciously beating a man in a Navy officer uniform.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Stop that!"

Azan, sensing something wasn't quite right, started barking, straining at his leash.

The attacker looked up and stared straight at her.

"Leave him alone! The cops are on their way!" she lied, praying the man wouldn't go after her.

Instead, the man ran away, and Dabi ran to the officer.

"Help me," the dark-skinned man gurgled. He was in bad shape and there was blood everywhere. He made a frantic grab for Azan, who yelped.

Grabbing the officer, Dabi struggled to get him to his feet, but the officer was mostly dead-weight. Knowing she wasn't going to get very far trying to carry him, she moved him out of the middle of the alley to the side, where he was less likely to get hit, and did the only thing she could think of; ran out of the alley and in to a nearby bank.

"Call 9-1-1!" she shouted at the bank security guard, Azan barking frantically. "There's a man in the alley and he's badly hurt!" She didn't look back to see if the guard was following her as she ran back, but he was, yelling on his radio.

By the time they got back to the officer, it was too late. The only thing anyone could do for him now was call the cops and report a murder.

Before the guard could talk to Dabi, she and Azan were already gone. The officer was dead, the killer had seen her and her dog, and that meant she was in big, big trouble. That meant it wasn't safe for her to go back to the bakery.

Ducking behind a large garbage bin well away from the alley, Dabi pulled out her iPhone from her Hello Kitty messenger bag and quickly sent her new friend, Abby, a message.

"URGENT! 911! HELP! I'm in way BIG trouble and I don't know what to do! I saw some guy beat this Navy guy to death and he saw me! HELP!"

Thankfully, after several nerve-wracking moments, Abby replied.

"Where are you? I'll come and get you and get you some place safe."

Dabi texted her location and a moment later, Abby told her to stay put, that she was on her way.

NCIS:

"Gibbs!" Abby yelled, tearing through the building. He wasn't at his desk. "Where is Gibbs!?" she demanded to Timothy McGee, who was closest.

"Upstairs with Vance. What's wrong, Abby?"

Abby didn't reply, just took off for the director's office. Ignoring Vance's secretary, she charged in to the office, yelling for Gibbs.

"Abby! What's wrong?" Gibbs asked. He'd only seen Abby this frantic on a few rare occasions, and when she was, it was usually for a good reason. He had never seen her burst in to Director Vance's office like this before though.

"Dabi, my friend, she said she just saw some guy beat some Navy guy to death and the killer saw her!" Abby said frantically. "We got to get to her before this killer gets to her and her dog!"

"Where?" Gibbs demanded, not even bothering to question Abby about the validity of the message. If she said it, he believed it.

Abby showed him the message and, not even glancing at Vance, he grabbed Abby and hustled out of the office.

"Keep me posted, Gibbs!" Vance yelled. Gibbs didn't bother replying. Vance knew he would know when Gibbs knew, if he knew anything.