"That's not a good idea James. If these men are out there looking for you then a road trip to New York would only endanger you needlessly." Gibbs quipped at his witness. James was the only surviving witness in a homicide involving a Naval officer and his family and Gibbs wasn't about to let him jeopardize his life as well as this investigation simply because he wanted to reconnect. "It's safer for you to stay here in Washington."

"But Agent Gibbs..." James pleaded.

"James, you knew the sacrifices that needed to be made when you agreed to go into protective custody. If we let you go to New York and something happens to you there'd be a lot of problems." Tim added.

"Look, I know how bad it would be if something happened to me. I get that. I just need you to understand I HAVE to get New York. My friend's in a lot of trouble and he needs my help." James continued.

"Mr. Schwepper. I understand your concern for your friend, but you need to worry more about yourself right now. I promise you as soon as this investigation is over and you've testified in court, I'll see to it you're on the first bus to New York myself. Ok?" Gibbs put his hand on James's shoulder reassuringly hoping the young man would see the dangers of going to New York and stay put. Finally James nodded his head in defeat.

"Ok, I'll stick it out..."

2:35pm – New York Crime Lab, Morgue

"So what can you tell me about Mr. Quinlan here?" Mac inquired, looking over the corpse of Mark Quinlan lying on the cold table.

"Well, I can tell you the obvious. He's missing his skull." Sid replied pointing to the lack of a skull in Marks head.

"Can you tell me how that happened?"

"Well, whoever did this did so AFTER they bled him out through the carotid artery in his neck here." Sid turned the head slightly revealing the puncture wound on the left side of Mark's neck. "After he finished, he took a blade and cut open the back of his head then severed the skull from the spinal column giving him the room he needed to peel back his face and take his skull."

"Do we know what he used to severe his spine?"

"From the looks of things I'd say he used bone saw of sorts. Most likely a Gigli saw..."

"And what about the blade he used to cut open the back of his head?"

"A small thin blade, probably a pocket knife or something similar to it." Sid backed up from a the table a bit and looked over Mark's body. "You know, I've always wondered what people like this do with the pieces they take away with them. Sorta makes you wonder what they were thinking before they did it..." Sid stopped when he realized Mac was giving him that look again.

"I guess that's what Hawke's calls the Creepy Place?" Sid was awkwardly silent as Mac chuckled and walked away. "Thanks Sid."

"Yeah no problem Mac..."

"So what did Sid have to say about our guy?" Danny asked as soon as Mac walked in the room.

"Apparently whoever did this to him used a Gigli saw to cut out his skull right after he bled him out through the left carotid artery in his neck." Mac replied with a grave look on his face.

"Man that's sick. Who the hell cuts out a man's skull and takes it with him?"

"I'll tell yea who." Don said as he walked through the door of the staff room. "A skeleton."

"A skeleton?" Danny repeated almost positive he'd misheard his friend.

"Yeah, that's our house keepers' big story. A skeleton did it."

"So you found the house keeper?" Mac asked.

"Yeah. A couple of my guys found her hiding out in her apartment not far from the hotel. She's been goin on and on about this guy with a skeleton face in a black hood since we brought her in." Flack huffed, clearly tired of the house keepers story.

"I'd like to talk to her, is she still in custody?"

"She's waitin in the interrogation room for you as we speak Mac."

"Great. Danny, I want you to find out how Adam's doing with the surveillance footage from the hotel. Call me as soon as you find something."

"You got it." Danny replied as he waltzed off down the hall to Adam's workstation. "Adam, tell me you got something for me buddy."

"You know, I JUST might." Adam replied without taking his eyes off the big screen. "Take a look at this Danny. This is the footage from just outside Mark's room at the hotel." Danny shifted his weight and crossed his arms while Adam played the footage from the scene.

"Hey guys, what did I miss?" Danny turned his head to see Lindsay walk in the room.

"Aww nothing yet. Adam and I were just getting to the good part right Adam?" Danny replied looking back to the screen.

"You bet." Adam replied.

"Is this the footage from the hotel?" Lindsay asked.

"Yeah. We were lucky to find a camera just outside the vics room so we got a clear shot of the killer as he came and went." Danny pointed to the hooded figure as he shoved the house keeper to the side and closed Mark's door behind him. "Hey, skip forward to when he leaves the room."

"Alright gimme a sec..." Adam quickly sped through the time that past as the killer dealt with Mark in the room, stopping just as the figure opened the door again and glanced around the hall with an eerie slowness.

"There's our guy." Lindsay said with a hint of disgust.

"Lets hope he gives us a face to work with..." Danny added with the same tone of voice. As if the man on the screen heard Danny words he slowly turned his face to the camera and removed his hood revealing the grotesque mask beneath the black fabric. "Whoa... What the hell?"

"You better get on the phone with Mac Danny. He's gonna want to see this..."

4:02pm – New York City Police Department 13th Precinct, Interrogation Room

"I'm telling you, the man had a skeleton face. I swear to you I'm telling the truth!" The woman screamed.

"Ok, ok calm down ms..." Mac paused as the woman spoke again.

"Hay. Catherine Hay." Catherine leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed quite frustrated with the detectives.

"Ms. Hay." Mac sighed and sat himself down at the table. "Look Ms. Hay. I know you say you're convinced of what you saw. But is it possible you were just frightened b-..." Catherine cut Mac off before he could finish.

"Yes I was frightened. I was TERRIFIED for my life, but I know what I saw detective."

"Ok..." Just as Mac was about to continue his phone began to ring. Quietly he reached into his pocket and pulled it out looking at the screen to see who was calling before answering it. "Taylor."

"Mac." Danny's voiced carried over the line. "You gotta get back here Mac. There's something you gotta see."

"Alright I'm on my way." Mac hung up and stood up from the table. "Look Ms. Hay. I'm going to need you to stay here at least until I get back."

"Whatever..." Catherine sneered angrily and sat back in her seat. Mac motioned to Don and the two left the room and headed back to the crime lab.

4:26pm - Washington D.C, N.C.I.S Safe House

"Come on Matt come on..." James muttered as he anxiously listed to the dial tone of his phone.

"Hi you've reached Matt, I'm not able to take your call right now but leave a message and I'll get back to you." The voicemail echoed over the phone.

"God damn it~!" James yelled and threw his phone down beside him on the bed. "Where the hell are you Matt?" James nervously bit the skin around his thumbnail at the thought that something might have happened to his childhood friend. "There has to be a way I can get to him without ruining things for Gibbs and his team..." He looked around the room for ideas but found nothing which only fuelled his frustration. That is, until an agent walked through the door.

"Everything alright in here Mr. Schwepper?" The man asked. Now James had an idea. It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but it made him feel a little better about the situation.

"Not really, actually." He replied. "I need you to come with me to New York Ty..." Ty, the N.C.I.S agent responsible for keeping track of James, looked around a little confused by James request.

"Excuse me?"

"I need you to come with me to New York."

"Mr. Schwepper, you know I can't do that."

"Sure you can. You take me to New York for a few hours and Agent Gibbs won't have to know about your little break yesterday. Deal?"

"That's not fair James. You can't blackmail me into taking you to New York."

"Well then I guess I'll just have to give Agent Gibbs a call..." James turned around and waltzed back to his phone lying on the bed.

"Wait wait wait wait." Ty grabbed James' arm and turned him around. "I do this, you make sure Gibbs doesn't find out about yesterday?"

"I promise, I'll take full responsibility for it. Just pretend like I knocked you out or something."

"Ha, yeah right."

"So shall we get going? It's only a 4 to 5 hour drive dependant on traffic, right?"