"Boss, you sure this is ours? That's a dead clown."

"Well yeah DiNozzo I can see that." Gibbs watches as his team moves about the crime scene, true professionals. In his more pensive moments he feels a father's pride for this family of his. "What you got for me Duck?"

"Jethro," the doctor's rich tomes ring out in greeting, "this poor fellows been dead 6-8 hours."

"How?"

"Blunt force trauma to the back of the head be my guess," Ducky tilts the head to show the bloodied hole in the base of the skull "But I can't be sure 'till I get him home."

"You ever seen anything like this?" It is rare for Ducky to be asked to recount a tale of his youth but with a dead marine identified only by the dog tags that ensnare this neck, dressed in the traditional Halloween costume of a clown with his own features hidden behind a painted face that tugs at the worn strings of Ducky's memory, Jethro will need all the help he can get.