"Gear up." Gibbs announced walking into the bull pen, his coffee in hand. Tony and Kate jumped at Gibbs voice immediately packing their belongings and getting ready to go.
"What have we got?" Tony asked slinging his back pack around his shoulder.
"Dead Marine, in his home" Gibbs said stepping into the elevator, Kate and Tony following.
"in his home?" Kate questioned.
They got into Gibbs car and road to the scene in silence. The victims home was in ritzy suburb, full big houses with tall white washed wooden fences. The houses in the suburb all had the same basic structure, only having a few subtle differences among them. They came across their crime scene a few blocks into the suburb. Cop cars were parked outside the home and the yard was quarantined off the yellow tape that read "crime scene."
"Wow, spare no expense" Tony commented looking up at the large bricked home as they got their gear out of the trunk of Gibbs car.
They entered the house to find a group of officers waiting for them. One of the officers approached the team and directed them to go upstairs to the third bedroom, the door on the left.
"You go, Tony pictures, Kate bag and tag" Gibbs ordered and turned his attention elsewhere. Kate and Tony followed his direction and ran up the stairs to where the body was found.
Gibbs heard yelling from the next room over and went to find what the problems was.
"Tell us what happened!" The voice was shouting, "it's hopeless she obviously doesn't understand what I'm saying" Gibbs rounded the corner into the living room to find a rather large police officer shouting at a young girl, while the girl was crying and desperately trying to sign something to the officer.
Gibbs watched her for a minutes before turning to the officer.
"She's trying to tell you that she can hear you, but she can't talk. Do you always yell at little girls Sheriff?" Gibbs said in his usual annoyed tone. Gibbs caught the girls attention she looked at him and signed "Thank you". The sheriff made a few stuttering sounds before moving on.
"Who are you?" The sheriff asked his face turning red from a combination of embarrassment and frustration.
"Special Agent Gibbs, the rest of my team is already upstairs analyzing the body." Gibbs said monotonously flashing his badge.
"Well the girl called and there was shouting and gunshots, we got here as fast as we could, but the man was already dead, girl hasn't done anything but cry." The officer said keeping the same annoyed tone as before.
"well that's all we need you and your men can head out now." Jethro dismissed hoping to get the man gone.
"If you need anything give us a call," With that him and all the men, walking by Gibbs without saying another word, the rest of the officers fallowing behind.
Gibbs turned to the teary eyed girl and signed to her "Are you okay? I am sorry about him."
She stared at him for a minute, before a small look of relief crossed her face. "He scared me, I tried to make him understand. Thank you" She signed to him, wiping her red eyes as dry as she could. "I am Nicolette, the man shot was my father" She explained sniffling a couple times.
Gibbs nodded showing her he understood, and signed back, "Now you can hear, but can't speak, why is that?"
"I had a tumor in my throat and when they removed it, I lost my ability to talk, your signing is very good." She complimented him, and rubbed her eyes again.
"I need you to tell me what happened, exactly as you remember it. I am going to catch the person that did this to your father" Gibbs signed to her seriously. He hated when children had to feel the repercussions of someone else's decisions, especially in the case of murder.
She began signing her story, "Well it started around four this morning, someone had gotten into our home. I woke up when I heard banging in my father's room, it's right next to mine so it was really loud. I don't think the man knew I was there, but I dialed 911 on my cell phone. I didn't have access to the house phone which is my web phone. I couldn't speak but there was shouting and banging then the gunfire, I think that alerted them to call the cops. Gibbs I think I'm next"
