Damn him, damn him.' It was a litany in her brain throughout her entire drive home. Five years! I manage to go five whole years without running into him and now this! Who the hell did I piss off? she shouted into the empty air as she cruised through the streets of her neighborhood. She parked in her driveway and as she walked up the concrete path to her door she muttered every derogatory adjective that she could think of to describe one Jethro Gibbs.

Just before she put her hand on the doorknob, something wrong skittered down her awareness. She pulled back and reached for her sidearm, standing stock still for a moment, assessing. After a full minute had passed, Leah made her way back to her car and pulled out Kate's card and called her new friend and teammate from her cell.

a masculine voice answered.

Oh! Hello, Tony? Uh... it's Leah.

Hey, Leah, is everything okay? Did you want to talk to Kate?Um, actually, I think I need some help I can trust. Right now, you two are it.

Tony heard the lowered tone, as if she were afraid to ask for their help. Whatever you need. What can we do?I think someone's been in my house. I was just about to go in and something felt wrong, as if something had been tampered with and put back almost right. After the bug in my office today, I just want someone else with me. If someone has been here, I want another pair of eyes for verification. She realized how paranoid she sounded, but there were too many odd occurrences lately.

Tony's words echoed her thoughts, Better safe than sorry. We'll be right over; what's your address? Once she gave him the information, he asked, Where are you now?In my car. As soon as I realized something wasn't right, I backed off the porch and got to the car to call for backup.Stay there, we won't be long. Tony hung up and Leah felt absurdly grateful to have someone on the way.

Fifteen minutes later, Tony's car pulled in behind Leah's. Kate and Tony climbed out and Leah exited her own car to greet them.

Sorry to drag you out here like this, but I have a bad feeling about this, Leah apologized to the couple.

Don't worry about it, Kate reassured her. Walk us through what happened when you got home.I was preoccupied. It wasn't until I was about to touch the doorknob that I realized something was wrong. Leah led them up the path to her door. She pointed in the small window to the side of the door. See the picture hanging on the wall? There's a reflection of my alarm system in the glass on it. Look. She stepped back so the other two could see what she'd picked up unconsciously on her first trip to her door.

It's been jumpered? Tony looked back at the redhead.

That's what it looked like to me. And that's not an easy system to bypass either. Somebody really had to know what they were doing to get in here. Leah's words spurred Kate and Tony to put on gloves before going any further. Then they moved aside so Leah could unlock the door.

Who else has a key to your house? Tony asked.

No one. I've had some problems in the past. She stuffed her key ring into her jacket pocket and started to move forward, but Tony held out his arm.

Let Kate and I do this. He looked at his partner and gave a brief nod.

Leah's protest got no further as she received a hard look from him.

Wait here. Just to be safe. His tone was serious and he stared her down until she nodded reluctant agreement.

Tony stepped forward and he and Kate moved together easily, familiar with each other, as they cleared the rooms. They made silent note of the hunting knife embedded in the living room wall, pinning what appeared to be a couple of photographs by the corner.

Slipping through the empty dining room, they reached the dimly lit kitchen, noting the dark mess on the floor. Tony nodded toward a pair of louvered doors and carefully slid one open as Kate swung her pistol inside, finding only major appliances.

They retreated slowly, cautiously, and stepped down the hallway, clearing two small bedrooms on either side of the hall. Reaching the bathroom, Kate covered Tony as he stepped in, noting the half-closed shower curtain. He checked behind it, but failed to look down in the darkness of the room.

Finally they approached the master bedroom, fanning out to check the large space and the closets. Satisfied that there was no one in the house, they holstered their weapons and headed toward the front door, only to catch sight of the message on the mirror, unreadable in the moonlight.

Let's get Leah and see what she makes of all this, Kate suggested, and Tony nodded in agreement.

Leah paced on the porch, agitated. After several minutes Kate and Tony returned. Looks like your suspicions were correct. We found a few disturbances. Want to take a look and see if any of it means anything to you? Kate extended a pair of gloves.

She gave a jerky nod and pulled on the gloves then moved past the two and flipped on a light switch, bathing the living room in a soft glow and making the knife in her wall look even more sinister. She sucked in a breath and walked over to the photos, tilting her head to look at them straight on. Carefully she reached out and flipped through the stack, making sure not to dislodge the knife. When she'd seen them all she pressed her lips together and stepped back.

Tony had been watching her reaction carefully while Kate retrieved the camera from the car. Now he stepped forward with his partner and carefully leafed through the photos as Leah had done. These are from today, he explained to Kate. There were four of them, two of Leah and Tony heading into the building to talk to Curtis and two coming out, Leah's hand on his elbow, looking over her shoulder. Kate snapped her own photos of the intruder's artwork.

Leah turned and headed down the hall to her bedroom, Tony and Kate close on her heels. Once again, she snapped on the light and this time she let out an angry hiss as the room was illuminated.

What, Leah? Tony's voice was perfectly neutral; impartiality was essential right now.

A threatening note. And the bastard had to violate my favorite lipstick to do it. I should shoot him just for that! Kate gave Leah an odd look. Please, just take the pictures. You have no idea how upset I am right now.

Kate took a look at the mirror. There was something twice as evil in seeing the words written in the cinnamon color. She began snapping pictures as Tony came all the way into the bedroom.

Drop the whole thing, Leah baby, or they start dropping one by one. It's 10:00, do you know where your friends are? As he read the threat aloud, he noticed Leah begin to tremble. Hey, are you okay?Bad memories. She walked quickly out of the room and before Tony could catch up with her, he heard a stifled yelp.

Tony found her backing out of the bathroom with a horrified look on her face. What is it? He looked in the now-lit room to see a leg in the bathtub. Walking in, he moved the shower curtain aside.

She sucked in a breath and tried to steady herself. It's Ritchey. He's dead.

Kate stuck her head around the doorway at Leah's statement. Her eyes met Tony's and without words they knew they had to consider their new friend a potential suspect.

Tony maneuvered Leah out of the house and onto the front porch. Then he pulled out his cell phone and made a call.