The team descended the stairs into the basement of the athletic shed. The body of a rather tall and muscular man lay belly up at the bottom of the stairs, head tilted to the side, eyes open, yet unseeing. Around him buzzed a trio of local police officers, though all of them stopped the moment Gibbs reached the bottom. "Agent Gibbs, NCIS," he told them. "Agents DiNozzo and McGee and Officer David," he added, gesturing to the crew that followed behind him.

The officer that seemed to be in charge stepped forward offering his hand. "Captain Rocco," the man said gruffly. "We came as soon as it was called in. When we found out he was a Marine, though, we contacted you guys."

Gibbs turned to the team and began barking out orders. "DiNozzo, sketches! McGee, photos! David, fingerprints." The three scurried about to carry out his orders as Gibbs turned back to Captain Rocco, notepad open and pen poised. "Who called it in?"

"Groundskeeper called it in at about 7:00 this morning. His name is Mark Bartlett. Claims he came in because they keep the fertilizer in one of the closets – his storage shed caught on fire two months ago when some of the students were smoking behind it – and he saw your Marine lying there. He ran down to check for a pulse and then called us. We've already taken his prints to match against any found down here."

"What about the Head Mistress?"

"Took hers too, Gibbs."

"Did you find out where she was this morning when Mr. Bartlett was calling you?"

The man shrugged. "Claims she left at 6:00am to run some errands. She didn't get back until almost noon"

"Who else was here last night and this morning?"

"According to Ms. Morrison, only she and Bartlett were here. The kids are all gone on account of it being summer vacation and all. Morrison, though, lives here and Bartlett comes in at the crack of dawn to get his work done."

"Why was Lt. Howard here?"

"Not quite sure about that one, Agent Gibbs. We figured you'd want your ME to handle the body, so we can't give you a TOD."

"Have you got anything else?"

"Nah. We've just been waiting for you guys to get here." Rocco whistled for his men's attention and pointed to the stairs. "NCIS is handling this, so you guys go pack up."

"Any suspects or persons of interest?" Gibbs asked.

Rocco laughed. "Like I said, we've just been waiting for you. Figured you'd want to go through all of that."

Gibbs waved the man off. "Thanks, Captain."

As the man walked up the stairs, Ducky and Jimmy appeared at the top of the stairs. "Sorry for our delay, Jethro," Ducky said, giving Jimmy a very stern look. "Do we know anything yet?"

"Waiting for you, Duck. The local police were kind enough to leave the body for you."

The doctor placed his bag on the floor and knelt beside the body. "Well, there look to be no outer wounds. He wasn't shot or stabbed or strangled. If I were to venture a guess," Ducky said, gently taking the man's head and turning it upward, "I'd say his neck was broken."

"Due to a fall or at the hands of someone else?"

"Impossible to say right now, Jethro. The liver probe, Mr. Palmer." Jimmy fished the probe out of the bag and handed it to Ducky, kneeling beside the doctor.

"McGee!"

Tim looked up from the camera as he snapped a picture. "Yeah, boss?"

"When you're finished with those photos, I want you to talk to that Head Mistress and get a list of students from her who live within an hour of the school. Then, go interview them."

Tim gulped as he thought about the woman who had eyed him so ravenously only minutes before. "Uh, are you sure that, uh, Tony wouldn't be better with that sort of thing?" A look from Gibbs shut him up quickly. "Yes, boss."

Tony leaned in to Tim and whispered, "Is the little pig afraid of the big, bad wolf?" He laughed softly to himself, adding, "Careful, Probie. She may huff and puff and blow your house down."


Tim hesitated slightly before knocking on the door to Ms. Morrison's office. After rapping his knuckles against the glass he heard her bark, "Enter," from within. With a shaky hand, he turned the knob and pushed the door open, reminding himself that he'd encountered people who were far scarier than she was and had come away unscathed.

"Uh, Ms. Morrison?" he asked tentatively.

Lynn Morrison looked up from the papers she held. Tim noticed that she now wore wire-framed glasses that were perched on the tip of her nose and that she'd let her hair down to fall around her shoulders. When she saw him, Lynn grinned smugly and slowly removed the glasses. "Yes, Agent McGee?" she purred.

"I, uh…I…um," he stammered as he awkwardly stood in the doorway. He didn't want to enter the room for fear that she would actually pounce upon him. "I need to talk to you," he finally managed to get out.

Lynn gestured to one of the chairs that were situated across from her desk. "I do hope, Agent McGee, that you will be able to control your speaking while we talk. Otherwise, it may take us all day…and night…"

"I, uh, will, ma'am."

Lynn wagged her finger at him, clicking her tongue as she did so. "I already told you 'ma'am' makes me feel so old. Just call me Lynn."

"Well, uh, Lynn. How well did you know Lt. Howard?"

"He was the moderator of the JROTC. By the time he volunteered, I was Head Mistress. We talked and met with each other to discuss any funding needs or what have you, but that's where our relationship ended."

"Do you know why he may have been in the athletic shed recently?"

"Our boys' basketball coach broke his leg and Emanuel volunteered to take his place until he was ready to get back to it. He was probably checking the basketball equipment to let me know what we would need when school started. I'd asked all extra curricular activity moderators and coaches to let me know by next week so proper funds could be distributed."

"Had Lt. Howard been having trouble with anyone? Any students who held a grudge?"

"Not that I know of. I know he was a hard ass on his unit, but they expect it." Lynn leaned her chair back. "I've already told your boss that this was an accident. We don't have murders here."

"Well, with all due respect, ma'am…er, I meant, uh, Lynn…we just have to investigate everything to make sure."

Lynn still looked miffed by the presence of federal agents at her school, but she simply shrugged. "If you guys want to waste your time, that's your business. Just remember that I have a school to run and I do not need any of you to get in my way."

"We won't," he promised. "If I could just have a list of all students who live within an hour of the school, I'll be out of your hair."

Lynn pouted. "Maybe I don't want you out of my hair." She smirked when Tim looked down uncomfortably. "You get to ask me questions, why shouldn't I be allowed to ask you some?"

"I…uh…sure?" Tim answered uncertainly. He knew Gibbs would have a fit if he found Tim sitting here playing "Getting to Know You" with some scary Head Mistress instead of interviewing the students has he had been ordered to, and Tim had to admit he wanted to get out of that office as quickly as he possibly could. However, he couldn't bring himself to tell her no. He had a feeling she wasn't the type who heard that word often.

Lynn leaned in, her lips twisted into an impish smile and Tim could see she was taking great pleasure in all of this. "How old are you?"

"Uh, thirty."

"Really? You don't look old enough. In fact, you don't look old enough to be a fed. What college did you go to?"

"MIT and Johns Hopkins."

Lynn raised her eyebrows and Tim could see that she was truly impressed to hear that. "I'm guessing you didn't study law enforcement there?"

"No, computer forensics and biomedical engineering. I went to FLETC after that. Uh, that's, uh Federal Law Enforcement–"

"I know what it means, darling. That's quite a lot to get done all before you're thirty."

"I kind of had an early start," Tim told her modestly. "I was two grades ahead, so by the time I went to MIT I was only sixteen."

"Well, you just get more and more intriguing, Agent McGee," Lynn commented, giving the young agent a smile more genuine than the ones she had given him before. "How does an intelligent young man like you end up working as a glorified cop? Is that really intellectually stimulating enough for you?"

"It's not all shooting guns and interrogating criminals. It takes much more brains than you think."

Lynn gave a small laugh that indicated her opinion was not yet swayed, but she didn't push the subject further. From her desk she pulled a rather large list of students. She went through the list, highlighting certain names. After she'd gone through and marked the ones who lived within an hour, she looked up with a smile and handed it to Tim. "Their addresses are listed, along with their phone numbers."

Tim looked warily at the list of highlighted names, his stomach sinking at the thought of the daunting task of interviewing all of these students. "Thank you," he mumbled as he took the list. Lynn's intentional brush of her fingers against his hand did not go unnoticed.

He turned to go, but was stopped by her voice behind him. "One more question before you go." He glanced over his shoulder to see her standing at her desk, leaning toward him. "What does a girl have to do to get an intelligent and attractive federal agent like you to bed her?"

Tim's eyes widened and he wasn't sure how to even being answering her question. His mouth opened and closed for several seconds, though no sound actually came out. Lynn cocked her head to the side, innocently adding, "It's only a hypothetical question, Agent McGee. I'm asking for future reference."

Tim turned away, not wanting to look her in the eye any longer. "I…I have to go…" he muttered.