- Chapter 2 -

Crime Scene

Gibbs and his team arrive at the school within about 15 minutes of leaving NCIS headquarters. They make their way directly to the place the bodies of the marine and his son are laying on the grass in front of the school.

"Right," Gibbs barks to his team, "DiNozzo, bag and tag, David, photographs and McGee sketches."

Ducky walks up behind his long time friend and places his hand on Gibbs shoulder before looking at the body for identification. Mr Palmer walking up behind them a few minutes later struggling under the weight of the equipment he's carrying.

"What have we got Duck," Gibbs asks.

"Well, it looks like this young gentleman, took a bullet to the left shoulder and a second bullet just a few inches short of the heart, almost the exact same spots as his son. From their liver temperatures, I can put their time of death at 12:15 this afternoon, which collaborates with the witness reports."

"Thanks Duck," Gibbs says before walking over to talk to one of the witnesses.

He introduces himself to the teacher who made the call, before questioning her on what she saw.

"Mr Thompson came in to collect his son Joseph from school for a doctor's appointment. We normally take a dislike to parents taking their children to appointments during school hours, but we made an exception this time, because of Mr Thompson's high ranking position within the school governors, and his job in the military. They left my office and walked across the grass to Mr Thompson's car, the blue one parked over there," Miss Scarlett supplies pointing out the car she's talking about, "next thing I hear four gun shots and look out my office window to see both Mr Thompson and Joseph lying on the grass the way they are now."

"Do you know if any threats had been made against Mr Thompson or his son, or anything else that may indicate a reason for someone wanting to kill them?"

"Not as far as I'm aware, Mr Thompson works in the marines, as a sniper trainer, he's an outstanding person and has always had strong connections with this school, allot of his friends and colleagues children also come here thanks to his recommendations and Joseph is one of the best behaved pupils we have ever had here. Not a bad mark against him, and he's always one of the first to offer his help. I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to hurt either of them," Miss Scarlett replies struggling to hide her tears.

Gibbs's attention is momentarily distracted when a young red headed girl passes nearby, looking very similar to his late daughter Kelly. The glistening of red hair and sparkling blue-green eyes grabs his attention and it's only when Miss Scarlett begins to talk some more that he turns his attention back to the case.

"This is the first time anything like this has ever happened here, we pride ourselves on being a safe haven for kids whose parents work in the military or armed forces. Most of the kids here are the sons and daughters of police officers, marines, FBI agents or from other similar backgrounds, safety is one of our biggest concerns and with this, well I don't know what I can do to assure everyone that this isn't going to happen to them and their kids. Most of the children who have been in today have been sent home early, there are only a few whose parents or other relative guardians haven't been able to collect them yet."

"Miss Scarlett, we will do everything we can to find out who's responsible for murdering Mr Thompson and his son, and to ensure that the perpetrator gets locked up for a very long time. We appreciate your help in this matter and you seem to be doing an excellent job of keeping everybody calm. Can you tell me if any of the children may have been witness to this horrible crime?"

"As far as I'm aware, there are only the offices on this side of the building with windows that looks out over this field. So it's unlikely that any of the children will have seen anything, although you may wish to speak with a young girl known as Isabella Sheppard, she was a close friend of Joseph and his father so may be able to tell you more."

Gibbs silently ignored the memories the name bought to him, it's just a coincidence right, he tells himself. "Would this Isabella still be on site, or have you got the contact details of her family," Gibbs asks, pausing at the name to remember it.

"She's just over there," points out Miss Scarlett, pointing to the red-headed girl that Gibbs noticed earlier.

"Thank you," Gibbs thanks the teacher before walking over in the direction of the young girl who had been pointed out to him.

The girl who looked to be about 8 or 9 had shiny, red hair that fell down her back in long waves, and bright blue-green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. She's wearing a cream T-shirt and blue jeans, with an emerald green cardigan tied tightly around her petite waist.

"Excuse me," Gibbs says approaching the girl carefully so as not to frighten her, "My name is Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS," he states holding out his badge for the girl to see, "Your teacher over there said you we're good friends with Joseph and his father Mr Thompson."

"That's right," the girl says wiping the tears from her eyes, "are they, they dead?" she asks through her tears.

"I'm afraid so," Gibbs says in a soothing tone that he reserves for talking to children who have been witness to horrible crimes such as this, "can you tell me anything about them?"

"Jose hangs around with me and my friends, Sam, Tammy, Ashley and Matt at school. He's in most of my classes, and sometimes we would all go to each other's houses of a night to work on our homework together or just have fun. His dad is really nice, he even taught me and Joseph how to shoot a moving target the once. I would often stay round his of a night if Mom's working late or out of town for a few days."

"Can you think of anyone who may want to hurt them?"

"No," Isabella answers before covering her mouth with her hand, "Wait," she say's as Gibbs attempts to stand up to walk back over to his team, "I remember being at his house last week, when I heard his dad having an argument with someone on the door. Jose told me it was someone his dad worked with, Sergeant Adam's I think he said. It was something to do with work."

"Thank you Isabella, you've been very helpful" Gibbs says to her, still unable to shake the feeling that she seems somehow familiar.

"It's Izzy," she says to his retreating form, before going back to scribbling in her notepad, like she was before Gibbs approached her waiting for someone to arrive to collect her.

Gibbs returns to his team, to see what they had all found. With nothing conclusive to go on and all the evidence from the crime scene collected, they load everything into the truck and head back to the office to process it all and write up their reports.

To be continued...

Authors Notes: The scene has been set and this story is now underway, I've got a plot in mind but am still open to ideas. It may be a while before you see anymore chapters, but by making them shortish, I'm hoping it will encourage me to get them out faster. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed and/or favourited this story so far, you are the inspiration that keeps me writing. Remember reviews show me that your still interested in the way this story is progressing, and in turn will encourage me to write more. I have abandoned many stories due to lack of interest, so don't let this be one of them.