Larry Jackson never intended to drink quite so many beers. It was after all just another night out with the guys. The Patriots had lost in a stunning upset victory for the Detroit Lions. Losing to the Lions always put Jackson in a bad mood.

He stumbled out of The Sands around one in the morning with his friends, swaggering about and slurring with false bravado to make themselves feel better about losing the game. It was a chilly night, the air was frosty and steamed out in front of him as he breathed. Larry could barely make out his car in the distance, he had no intention of driving home, but he wanted to get to his cell phone so he could call his wife for a ride. He never made it to his car.

Halfway there he stumbled and fell. He picked himself up and brushed himself off, but his hands came away bloody from his clothes. He panicked and began to brush him clothes feverishly with his hands until he discovered the blood was not his own. He looked down to the ground and discovered a small pool of partially frozen blood along with a badly charred body in front of him. Larry dropped to the ground to empty his stomach of its previous occupants then rushed hurriedly over to his car. His first call was not to his wife.

"So Tony, how was the date last night?"

Tony Dinozzo glanced up from his desk at Kate. He was wearing his usual semi casual suit and sunglasses, which seemed unusual for indoors, but Kate was sure there was a good story behind it.

"Didn't go exactly as planned."

"Oh, why not?"

"She wasn't my type."

Kate smiled and pressed the questioning. There were very few girls she thought Tony considered not his type.

"And what type is that?"

Dinozzo smiled up at her. "The sane type."

Before Kate could further question what he meant by that, Leroy Jethro Gibbs entered the office with his usual professional gait.

"Kate, Tony, let's go."

"Where to boss?" Tony was glad to have Kate deflected.

"Sands."

"The Marine bar?" Kate questioned.

Gibbs gave her a knowing nod and they headed out the door of the office. Soon they were in the parking lot of The Sands, only this time in the light of day. The local police had sealed off the area with the familiar yellow police tape, but now they were nowhere to be seen as NCIS people were swarming all over the area.

"Kate." Gibbs gestured towards the camera she carried. She immediately snapped into action and began to take photos.

"Crispy critter."

Gibbs didn't smile at Tony's comment, though Kate threw him a withering sarcastic glare.

"So who is he?"

"Lance Corporal James Rivers."

Gibbs handed Kate a small evidence bag with the Corporal's dog tags inside. Nearby Tony was speaking to the owner of The Sands.

"You're Victoria Johnson correct?"

She smiled at him coyly. "Yes that's me."

"Victoria...Vicky?"

"Vicky is fine."

Tony's expression immediately melted into an easy and inviting smile.

"Well, Vicky, do you know a Lance Corporal James Rivers?"

She shrugged. "The name doesn't sound particularly familiar. I get hundreds of Marines rolling through here on a daily basis, don't get to a first name basis with many of them. Some of the old timers that come through have some good stories, been coming through for awhile, I know 'em."

Vicky gestured back up to the bar across the parking lot. "There's probably a dozen lance corporals in there right now, can't tell ya any one of their names."

"Anything unusual happen in the bar in the last few days?"

"Depends on what you consider unusual. I run a marine bar, anything and everything can and has happened in there. There is no unusual anymore. There were a few fights over the last couple days, one particularly rough one last night, but I wasn't here for that, my bar manager was running the place."

"And his name is?"

Again a coy smile erupted onto her face. "Samantha Johnson."

"Johnson? Any relation?"

"A little one, she's my twin sister."

Tony rocked back a bit on his heels and chuckled. "Twins eh?"

"Since we were born."

"If you could tell me her address and phone number I'd greatly appreciate it ma'am."

She rattled off some numbers that Tony quickly took down in his notepad. He nodded to her and went to close his pad when she reached out and touched his arm.

"Don't you need my number too? You know, in case you have to ask me some more questions or something?"

Tony nodded, still grinning, and took down her number too. Gibbs called everyone over to him to gather the information.

"What do we know?"

Kate stepped in first. "Looks like someone dipped him in gasoline and lit him on fire. The person who found him has no connection to Lance Corporal Rivers at all, just happened to stumble across him on his way to his car at night. No obvious cause of death is apparent."

"Other than the bonfire of course." Tony interjected.

She threw him a sidelong glare and turned back to Gibbs. "Other than that."

"We know the bar owner has a twin sister."

"Somehow I don't think that counts as useful information."

Tony looked hurt. "It could be."

Gibbs turned to Ducky expectantly.

"I'm afraid he's right, at least about the cause of death. I don't see anything here other than the fact that he was lit on fire as a possible cause of death. Strange though, if it were a murder, why pour gasoline on him? It's not a particularly effective form of murder, it's slow, it's painful, it doesn't even necessarily always result in death. It's a nasty, messy way to kill someone."

"Lance Corporal found burned in front of a well known Marine bar. We have a lot of unanswered questions."

Gibbs nodded towards Ducky. "Then find me some answers."

They headed back to NCIS headquarters where they set to work at once.

"We need to compile a list of all Rivers' friends, family, commanding officers and anyone else he might have spent time with before his death."

"Kind of hard to question friends and family about a murder victim before we know if it's even a murder, or what the cause is."

Tony glared at Kate. "What do we do until then? Sit around and stare at the wall waiting for Ducky to find something?"

"You could always go down and help him."

"Or I could start reading the encyclopedia now and save myself the trouble."

"So we wait, Tony."

"You know the ancient Greeks used a chemical concoction we call Greek fire to light enemy ships on fire. See, back then it was common practice to board an enemy ship, or shoot flaming arrows from afar to try and sink it. But the Greeks pumped seawater through jets filled with Greek fire and essentially turned their ships into floating flame-throwers."

Gerald gazed bleary eyed at the corpse in front of him as Ducky recounted yet another useless fact of trivia.

"It's unfortunate though, the recipe for Greek fire did not survive to..."

Gerald did notice when Ducky stopped talking, and he leaned in over the body to try and see what Ducky was staring at.

"What is it?"

"Well Gerald, it appears our fried friend here had some help on his way beyond the grave." Ducky gestured to the back of River's skull. "We can deduce several things about this body from the level if intactness. First of all, he still has fingers and toes, which usually burn off pretty fast in a fire like this."

"So he wasn't on fire for very long?"

"Precisely. Moreover, the back of his skull still has most of its hair, and there is a lot of blood mixed and baked in here. I think that if we take a look at our young friend's skull x ray, we will find our answer."

Ducky turned to the wall where the x-rays of the body had been hung by an assistant. He turned on the lamps behind them and they immediately illuminated.

"Yes, just as I suspected, a severe trauma to the base of the skull. That was the cause of death. That kind of blunt force trauma, and that many fracture points on the cranium would have caused several subdermal hematomas. Some of that would be hard to prove now, as I suspect some of the bleeding points in the brain would have boiled away."

"Then why light him on fire afterwards? We still know the cause of death, and this kind of murder doesn't usually leave behind much forensic evidence anyway. So why the fire?"

"That is the question indeed."

Ducky moved to the phone and dialed Gibbs' office quickly.

"Jethro, could you come down here please? I think we may have something."

"On my way."

Gibbs immediately moved from his office, grabbing Kate and Tony on the way down. Soon they were all gathered around the remains of Lance Corporal Rivers in the morgue.

"I must say I was rather confused as to why anyone would light this poor young man on fire at first. I was even getting ready to rule it an accidental death based on the lack of any overt trauma that might suggest offensive force against him. But as you can see here in his x-ray, he suffered a massive trauma to the base of his skull."

Tony immediately jumped in. "So someone bashed him over the head then torched him? Why torch him at all, especially if you are going to leave his dog tags on him anyway?"

"Wait a minute, where were the dog tags found?"

Tony looked up at Kate in surprise and mild confusion. "In his hand."

"Why wouldn't they be around his neck?" Kate paused for a second in thought before continuing. "Ducky, can you confirm the identity on his dog tags with dental records from base files?"

"I would love to Kate, but unfortunately whoever lit him on fire also totally smashed his jaw bone. It could take weeks to reconstruct his dental records accurately. The burning destroyed any hope of a finger print or retinal match, and there isn't much hope of a positive DNA match either. If you want to ascertain this young man's identity, I'm afraid you won't be able to get much help from me on this one."

Gibbs turned and smiled at Kate and Tony. "Don't worry Ducky, I have a crack team of investigators at my disposal."

"Thanks boss," Tony smiled.

Gibbs turned to leave and let Tony and Kate do some brainstorming, but as he left he turned one last time to Tony.

"Dinozzo, take off those sunglasses. Last I checked we were indoors."

"Sure thing boss."

Tony slowly removed his sunglasses to reveal a rather large black eye all over the left side of his face.

Kate smirked at him. "Gosh Tony, what happened to you? Lost a fight?"

He gave her a halfhearted smile back. "You could say that."

"By the looks of it I'd say it happened last night," Ducky ventured.

Tony turned to glare at Ducky for his interjection.

"Last night? Your date beat you up?"

"I told you she wasn't sane."

Kate smiled broadly and they made their way out of the morgue.

"Ducky, could you send your information up to Abby, maybe she can reconstruct the way the accident happened?"

"Sure Kate, and I hope she can answer one question that has indeed been troubling me."

"What's that?"

"The dog tags. They seem to have been placed there after he was killed, and there is some sort of accelerant on them, so they went through the fire, but they look undamaged."

"You think they are someone else's dog tags planted there?" Tony ventured.

"It certainly looks that way on the outside. Either way it is a mystery. If they were meant to be in the fire, they wouldn't have necessarily burned, as the strength of stainless steel should be able to withstand a fire, but they shouldn't be in such fine condition." Ducky mulled it over for a moment. "Either way they shouldn't be in his hand like that."

"Anything else?"

"I have a test of two I think I may try and run to try and be as helpful as I can." He paused before continuing. "You know the first dog tags in America were used after the Civil War. Half of the bodies buried in the south were marked unidentified, and most soldiers had to fashion their own makeshift tags to identify them, or risk never having their remains returned to their families."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Fascinating Ducky, really."

Kate however seemed sobered by it. "We'd better make sure we find out who this really is then. There's a family out there that deserves to know their son is dead, and they deserve a burial service."

"Right."

With Abby and Ducky both working in the lab, and possibly days away from coming up with any real fact to help them out, Gibbs decided they should visit the base Rivers was stationed at to see if they could determine if he had any possible enemies.

Their first stop was Rivers' bunk.

"It's rather tidy in here."

Gibbs glared over at Tony. "He was a Marine."

"Well, that explains it then."

After searching for twenty minutes and coming up with nothing unusual, they made ready to leave.

"Too bad he died before he had a chance to spend his little nest egg."

Tony gestured to a medium sized stack of ten dollar bills piled in his footlocker.

"Wonder what he was saving it for," Kate said.

"I'm more interested in finding who stopped him from being able to spend it." Gibbs shot back as he walked out of the room.

Next they went to the office of the base commander, General Jack Owens.

"Lance Corporal Rivers hasn't reported for duty in the past two days. We sent a picture of him to the local police department and questioned his barrack mates but nothing turned up. Sad to see the kid go too, he was a hard worker. Never complained, always on time, friendly, tough, a real Marine."

"What were Lance Corporal Rivers' duties on the base?"

"Menial labor in the print office. Printed out work orders, official documents and the like."

"Did he have any problems with other Marines in the print office or his barracks?"

General Owens thought it over for a moment. "None that come to mind. I checked his record before you got here; he's never had an administrative reprimand of any sort. Impeccable record by all accounts."

Gibbs gave Kate and Tony a look that invited them to ask any questions they had on their minds.

"What about close friends? Is there anyone he was especially close to?" Kate asked.

"Not sure. You'd have to ask the Marines in the print office and his barracks for that."

They were about to leave when Gibbs ventured one last question.

"Has anyone else been reported missing from the base in the last couple days?"

"Funny you should ask, but yes. Corporal Frank Summerville was reported missing this morning. We checked with the local police, who said they found his car in a bad part of a local town, stripped for parts and gutted. No idea where he is, but the search is still in its infancy."

Gibbs thanked the General and they left his office. They immediately made their way to the print office, talking as they went.

"This doesn't sound like the sort of kid that has a lot of enemies who would murder him."

Gibbs agreed with Kate. "No it doesn't. Something doesn't add up here."

"You think Corporal Summerville has something to do with it don't you?" Tony asked.

"Certainly makes me wonder."

When they got to the print office, they were sent to see Sergeant Maria Rivaro.

"What can I do for you Agent Gibbs?"

"You can tell me about Lance Corporal James Rivers."

Her expression changed from one of dull formality to genuine brightness.

"Good kid. Never late, never sick, never complains. He always goes the extra mile, always helps out when we need him, and everyone likes him, including myself. I even recommended him for a promotion on his last fit rep. Everyone has been worried about him since we heard he went missing."

Gibbs nodded. "Sergeant, we found a burned body in the parking lot of The Sands with Lance Corporal Rivers' dog tags on it. Do you know why anyone might want to kill Lance Corporal Rivers?"

Sergeant Rivaro rocked back in her seat in shock.

"Rivers is dead?"

"It looks that way. Did Rivers have any problems with other Marines here in the print office? Or any friends he was closer to than others?"

Rivaro was visibly shaken by the news Gibbs had given her, but she composed herself like a Marine and went on.

"Enemies? No, Rivers was well liked by everyone, and never caused problems here or anywhere else on the base."

"And friends?" Gibbs pushed further.

"No one in the print office as far as I know. He worked primarily with Corporal Jaynes. One moment."

Rivaro punched her phone to turn on the intercom system and asked for Corporal Jaynes to report to her office at once. Within moments a twenty something young man entered the room.

"Corporal Jaynes reporting as ordered ma'am."

"Corporal, this is Agent Gibbs from NCIS. He needs to ask you some questions about Lance Corporal Rivers."

"Yes ma'am, I will answer to the best of my abilities."

Rivaro gestured to Gibbs, as if telling him to go ahead. He nodded back to her to acknowledge that.

"Corporal, do you know if Rivers had any friends that he spent more time with than others?"

"Sure. James is always hanging out with Frank over in the motor pool."

Kate leaned in with an inquisitive look. "Frank...?"

"Oh, sorry, I mean Corporal Frank Summerville. He fixes Jeeps in the motor pool, he's a mechanic. If you really wanted to know anything private about James I'd ask him."

None of the NCIS agents let anything out about how this news affected them. Gibbs calmly took over back control of the questioning.

"Did he have any enemies? Was anyone particularly annoyed with him?"

"Nope. Everyone loves James." Corporal Jaynes fell slightly out of his parade rest stance and turned to face Gibbs.

"If I may ask sir, what exactly is going on?"

"Lance Corporal River's body was found burned in the parking lot of The Sands."

Jaynes, like Rivaro, was too shaken to say anything at first.

"If either of you remember anything important, or hear anything, you can reach me here."

Gibbs handed Rivaro his card then left with Tony and Kate in tow.

Back at the NCIS office, Gibbs, Kate and Tony met to brainstorm ideas and try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

"So we have two missing Marines, best friends, one turns up dead in the parking lot of a Marine bar. The other is missing, but hasn't been missing for as long as the dead one. Dead one has been murdered, and has also been made unidentifiable but has perfectly good dog tags in his hand. Coincidence?" Kate thought aloud.

Tony snorted at that. "Don't think so. Too much doesn't add up, and there's no way the two of them could have gone missing together like that without it being connected." Tony stopped talking for a moment and appeared to be mulling an idea over in his head. "I think we need to find out where they both were the night before River's body was found."

"And how do we do that?"

Tony smiled and held up a piece of paper with some numbers on it. "Well we have a bar owner and bar manager who are always at The Sands, couldn't hurt to ask them if they remember something on that particular date."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll go check on it then."

Tony immediately scrunched up his face in a mock wounded expression aimed towards Gibbs.

"Come on boss. I had a connection with her, I can get her to talk a lot easier than Kate could."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Alright Dinozzo, talk to them and see what you can get out of them. But remember, you're on duty."

Tony grinned broadly and began to walk away. "Right boss."

"And Dinozzo, you might want to bring a helmet. Wouldn't want you getting hurt again."

Kate beamed triumphantly as Tony walked away in a scowl.

"Kate, go talk to Abby and see what she has on this. When Tony gets back we can all compare notes."

"Right. Where will you be?"

He gave her a look that said to leave him alone. "Investigating."

"Right."