Hector Valdez, the ringmaster and manager of Matlock's Magical Circus, cut an impressive figure. With his top hat firmly on his head, he topped six foot six easily and towered over both Ziva and Tony. The bright red coat, slightly open to reveal a pristine white shirt and scarlet cummerbund, only added to the overall impression of authority. Dark eyes sparkled with fire, but he smiled at them both. At his side, two clowns hovered, clearly unsure of their position. In deference to circus tradition, or perhaps by coincidence, Tony wasn't sure; one was short and chubby while the other was tall and skinny.

"What is going on?" Valdez demanded. "We called the police as soon as Antonio told us what had happened, and now you have all shown up, and you are disrupting my circus!"

"We're investigating a murder," Tony replied sharply. "I think a little disruption is the least of your problems at the moment. You have a dead Marine Sergeant here, and my boss is going to want answers."

The clowns shifted their weight about nervously and Ziva turned her attention on them. "So who are you two?"

"I'm Lofty and he's Banjo," the tall one answered. He wore makeup that had painted a wide red smile over his mouth, but his lips were down-turned and he looked deeply unhappy. His eyes were shadowed and they darted about constantly as if he was looking for an escape route.

"Your real names, idiot." Gibbs' bad mood was catching, Tony realised as he snapped at the clown.

"Oh. I'm Charlie Lock and this is George Harris." Lofty sighed heavily. "Do you know who the dead man is yet?"

"Yeah." Ziva, much to Tony's relief, said nothing else about the victim, but changed the subject. "So tell us more about Antonio."

"Antonio is one of our best trainers," Valdez said firmly. "He's been with us many years, and has never caused any trouble to anyone. I cannot imagine why the murderers chose Antonio's caravan to dump the body, but it will have nothing to do with him."

"You seem very sure of that," Tony commented dryly. "You know something you're not telling us?"

"Hardly."

Ziva and Tony exchanged disbelieving looks. "I'm sure Antonio's a rock of society," Ziva began, and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Pillar, Ziva, you can be a pillar of society, not a rock."

"Whatever. Look, the point is we're going to need to talk to him. Now." Valdez gave a long suffering sigh but led them into the Big Top without further argument. Inside the giant tent, the main stage was marked out with chalk, while there were benches stacked against the side walls, obviously waiting to be unpacked and set up. Inside the ring, a tall, lanky man stood talking to a pretty, delicate girl, dressed in a spangled leotard. The man, by contrast, was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. By their side, a pair of dogs lay panting in the heat.

"Antonio, NCIS want to speak to you!" Lofty called out and the casually dressed man looked around and nodded. Then he turned back to the girl who quite deliberately slapped him hard across the face. She turned on her heel and whistled to the dogs, who trotted away at her heels. Antonio sighed, and shook his head before turning to greet the agents. Apart from the bright red mark across one cheek, he was quite good looking, Ziva considered. Not really her type, but she could see the attraction. Long blond hair was pulled back from his face in a ponytail and sharp grey eyes gazed at them seriously.

"So who was she?" Tony's eyes had followed the girl out of the tent, but they snapped back to Antonio now. "Ex-girlfriend?"

"Christa? No, she's just a friend. Really. You're here about the dead guy huh?"

"Wow, how did you work that out?" Tony asked, arching one eyebrow. "Maybe you should be the detective not us. When did you come across the 'dead guy', who by the way was a Marine Sergeant?"

He shrugged. "When I got back to my trailer this morning. I called Hector immediately, and he called the police."

"So your first thought was to call Mr Valdez, not the police yourself?" Ziva clarified. "Why didn't you just call the cops?"

Again, he shrugged. "Dunno, it just seemed best to let Hector know. He's in charge here. I knew that he'd know what to do."

"So where were you last night? I mean, you clearly weren't in your trailer, unless you bashed his head in," Tony asked, his eyes again going to the spot where the girl had stood. "With Christa, who's just a friend?"

Antonio's grey eyes hardened. "I am not sleeping with Christa! And it's none of your business where I was last night."

"Newsflash, elephant boy, a dead body found in your trailer makes it our business."

Ziva cut in before Antonio could respond angrily to that. "What's your full name?"

"Joshua Steiner. Anthony is my middle name, and Mr Matlock said it sounded better to be foreign and mysterious sounding." Antonio winced. "I'm from Kansas City, but Mr Matlock said that a circus performer should never be local. So now I'm Antonio." He winced again. "It's a stupid name."

"It is not!"

"Tony!" Ziva elbowed him in the stomach. "Shut up. OK Mr Steiner, we'll need to talk to you more later on. Special Agent Gibbs will want to know where you were, so I suggest that you tell us now, rather than him later."

"I'll take my chances."

"I wouldn't, he's not in the best mood," Tony muttered, still obviously irritated by the stupid name comment. Antonio shrugged yet again and walked off, leaving Ziva and Tony to shrug. "His loss," Tony said, shaking his head. "He'll regret that."

"So what have we got Duck?"

"Hmm, as expected, I think this is going to be a case of blunt force trauma," Ducky said, indicating the bloodied mess that used to be the back of Sergeant Byrne's head. "Once we get the poor man back to the morgue, I might be able to tell you what sort of instrument did the damage, but for now all I can say is that it had to be something quite heavy, and wielded with a great deal of force. I'd guess that this was very personal to the murderer."

"Kinda personal for Sergeant Byrne too," Gibbs added dryly. "Is it OK to touch him?" With the ME's permission, Gibbs eased a scrap of paper out of the back pocket of the jeans the dead man was wearing. It was a paper coaster, the type found in a hundred bars, but this one proclaimed it was from the Blue Anchor. Gibbs knew that bar – it had always been a favourite with Marines just out on leave, as it was near the base and gave discounts to any serviceman or woman. On the back of the coaster there was some writing, but Byrne's blood had all but obliterated it. "I'll see what Abs can do about this."

"Well, I shall get our latest customer home." Ducky stood up and called over Palmer.

Gibbs gave a half-smiled, and moved out of the way. "Let me know when you get something."

"I always do."

Gibbs grinned properly that time and turned around to find McGee and Ziva waiting patiently outside the trailer. "Where's DiNozzo?"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Chatting up some girl in a leotard." Gibbs' eyes narrowed and she added hurriedly, "The girl was arguing with Antonio, so Tony went to find out what the story is with those two."

"What about Antonio?"

Ziva told him what little Antonio had said earlier. "I don't think he had anything to do with it, but I'm going to ask around, see if I can find out where he was last night."

"Good. What about you McGee?"

"No footprints around the trailer, but I spotted something on the outside." McGee indicated a large brown stain by the door. "I've got a sample to take back to Abby."

"Nice work." Gibbs stared critically at the outside of the trailer. "McGee, arrange for transportation for this thing back to NCIS. I want you and Abby to go over every inch of it, take samples of every damn spot you see, fingerprint every last surface. I want to know exactly who's been here, what they touched, and where they are now. Got it?"

"On it boss," McGee gulped and waited until Gibbs had walked off. "Tony was right, huh? He really is a bad mood."

"Yeah, which means we're all in for a lovely day." Ziva pulled a face and McGee laughed.

"Something funny McGee?" Gibbs yelled from across the field, making the other two jump. Ziva sighed: Gibbs really did deserve the second B some days.