Chapter 4

As Tony showed Mr and Mrs Sheppard out he remembered the payments that McGee had mentioned earlier and as they were walking to the elevator he brought this up. "One last thing, there were substantial payments into Helen's bank accounts from you over the past 10 months, would you care to explain why?"

"Helen had been struggling to make ends meet ever since James had died, so we would send her some money to help cover things and to have some for Grace to help with her day care and school. Helen had always insisted that Grace would have the best upbringing she could provide, the money that James left was always meant for her college and Helen hasn't touched it. I suppose that will be Graces now to do with what she pleases?" Replied John.

"I suppose so, I am not a banker and so don't know. Thank you for your time."

Gibbs and McGee came out of the elevator as Mr and Mrs Sheppard were leaving. With a solemn 'I'm sorry for your loss' he gave the evidence to McGee to take to Abby and walked into the bullpen.

"What did you find out?"

"Not a lot boss, the payments were to help cover day care and school, nothing suspicious. Anything at the house?"

"Nope, got the laptop and phone, Abby should have them now."

"Hey Abby." McGee said as he wandered into her lab, laptop and phone in hand. "Got Helens Laptop and Phone here, Gibbs wants to know if you can pull anything off them."

"Any news on Grace?" Abby asked, setting her priorities straight.

"No not yet Abby, We're still looking."

"Oh ok" She took the laptop and phone from McGee's hands and plugged them into her computer, copied the contents and placed them back in the bags in McGee's hands for him to take down to lockup.

"Let's see what we got. She'd been getting texts from a number not in her contacts for the past 2 weeks. Whoa!"

"I don't like the sound of that 'Whoa'" Said Gibbs as he stepped out of the elevator.

"The latest text said 'I know about James! Come to the park at 3pm' That was sent the morning of her death"

"Anything else abs?"

"No not yet I'm afraid, I'll have a look on her computer and let you know"

"McGee, help Abs. We gotta find Grace. The window's closing."

"Sure thing boss!"

Upstairs Tony had found himself sidetracked from work again. Ziva was cricking her neck and the sound she was emitting was very distracting. He was pulled away from his dirty mind when his phone rang. "Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. How may I help you?"

Ziva looked up at the sound of his voice, knowing little about the thoughts that had occupied in his mid mere seconds previously, and as she was shaking her thoughts from her head she prayed Tony hadn't noticed anything.

She only heard half the conversation Tony was having and looked surprised when he said 'thanks' and jumped up. "What is it?"

"Its Grace, She's been spotted in a Play park close to Rock Creek. Call Gibbs let him know we're going to find her."

Ziva grabbed her phone as she followed Tony to the elevator; she held it to her ear as she stepped in after Tony.

"Gibbs! Tony and I got a call, Grace has been spotted, and we're on our way to find her."

Ziva drove to the park so they were in the lot in half the time it would normally take, Tony would've complained but given the urgency and his knowledge of Ziva and how she focused when young children were involved, he let it slide.

Staggering out of the car he looked around for any sign of Grace. The caller had said she was wearing a pink windbreaker and had grey jeans on. Before he knew what was happening Ziva was running off in the direction of a small dolls house in one corner of the park, When Tony looked up he caught a glimpse of a violent shade of pink in the corner of his eye. Following Ziva's lead he headed for the house where he met a crouching Ziva in the doorway. He knelt down beside her and spoke.

"Grace, my name is Tony and this is Ziva, we're NCIS Special Agents, we're here to help you."

"Did you find my mommy?"

"Yes Grace we did, we need your help to find out who did this, do you think you can be brave enough?" Ziva said this in such a caring voice; Tony had never heard her utter before, it sounded so motherly and gentle.

Grace slowly nodded. Ziva held out her hand and Grace edged towards her before gingerly taking it and pulling herself up.

Back in the car, Ziva had sat in the back with Grace, while Tony stole glances at her in his rear-view mirror. He had never seen this side of her before. He didn't know what to think, he just knew that he didn't want this to be the last he saw of it.

Ok I know it's been a while since I last updated and I'm thankful if you're reading this as it means you've stuck around :D

Please R&R

Consider it my Christmas present ;) I hope you've all had a great day :D

Will try and update soon