Author's Notes:
Welcome back, guys! Hope you like this installment. Things are picking up again as the team starts finding out new things about the case and inadvertently new things about Amity Park as well. Enjoy!

Ghostly Clues

File 5:

"The last time I saw Ms. McColan was after school the night she went missing. She came to me after classes. She seemed nervous. She asked me what would happen if it was discovered that a student was connected to ghosts. It was an odd question to me. Seeing as how I could see student's hunting ghosts but being in cahoots with one… now that is hard to imagine. I asked her if she was working with ghosts. She shook her head and was very adamant about the fact that she had never seen one up close." Lancer took a deep breath. "Then that's when I remembered the students all have an infatuation with Phantom. It wouldn't be hard to see her finding interest in the ghost or finding that another student may have even tried to get close to the spirit. So I asked her if she thought someone was working with a ghost. She hesitated. I asked if it was Phantom. Slowly she nodded then shook her head."

Lancer rubbed his bald head. "I'm not sure if I handled it appropriately. I mean, it's unheard of- how do you handle a situation like that?" Lancer asked looking lost. Slowly he shook his head.

"What did you tell her?"

Lancer took a deep breath resettling in his chair. "Well… I told her. If she felt that another student was in danger that telling faculty was the right thing to do. If she was worried about them getting into trouble for working with Phantom, I couldn't promise the student's safety. There is a lot of the faculty who believe that Phantom brings the ghost here on purpose like he thinks the school is some kind of playground."

"So you told her that if a student was found to be working with Phantom that they may get into trouble."

"Essentially, yes, mostly for her own benefit. If it was her who was helping him… I wanted her to understand. She seemed to… and she looked… scared. I half expected her to tell me what was really bothering her. However, that isn't what she said at all."

"What did she say?"

"She said. 'I need to stop them then.' And she looked very serious when she did."

There was a heavy silence. "What then?" Ziva asked.

"She turned and stalked away. I called asking her to explain but she left… and I never saw her again… you don't think she confronted the ghost or student messing with ghosts do you?" Lancer looked stricken. He felt that if he had somehow said the right thing that night Merry would be alive. "I have yet to hear of a ghost killing someone… but I believe that's in large part due to Phantom's efforts…"

Ziva and McGee shared glances. Tim was fully skeptical about the ghost, but it was clear that those in the town, even the most respectable of adults, believed there was at least something going on. Ziva was hesitant to believe something looked on with so much doubt was so widely accepted."Was there anything else?" McGee asked looking back to the teacher.

"No." The educator sighed. "I only wish I could be of more help."

After wrapping things up at the school the two agents met back up with Tony and Gibbs at the hotel… "Time to compare notes." Tony said spinning in the desk chair.

"Well…" McGee glanced at Ziva. "Apparently Merry had an argument with someone at the school a few weeks before her disappearance… but we're not sure who yet."

"Mr. Lancer thinks that Merry may have been trying to confront another student about their involvement with ghosts." Ziva supplied.

After a pause in the conversation, Gibbs nodded. "The video that you acquired from the bowling alley provided some interesting feed."

"Seem's our ghost gal is real." Tony said.

Tim blinked surprised but didn't say anything. "How are you coming along with the ghost research?" Gibbs asked. "Have you been able to meet up with the Fenton's yet?"

"No Sr." McGee said glancing at Tony trying to hide his surprise. "I talked to them on the phone. They said that they were willing to give a crash course… but we had to interview the student's today and it was late in the day when I talked to them so we set up the meeting for this Saturday. Or- ur- the day after tomorrow."

"Good. Tomorrow, Ziva you and I are going to finish with the interviews." Gibbs looked to Tony and McGee. "The truck Merry was found in made a stop at a shipping yard here in Amity Park before making its final stop in Washington. I want you two to investigate the yard. See if anyone noticed anything odd."

The next day McGee and DiNozzo found themselves at a small shipping company on the edge of the lake where the truck had made a stop on its rout. It made the body making it to the vehicle just that more logical… but why it happened and who did it was still a mystery.

Tony stood just outside the office as McGee finished talking to the owner. "Ug…" The tech-savvy man sighed. "It seems that their security system has been down for nearly 3 months. It apparently was only repaired 5 days ago… there's no visual data to find here."

DiNozzo's eyes narrowed as he looked around only half listening. "There's got to be more here."

"What are you thinking?"

"Carter gave us full run of the place." Tony said. "I say we give this place a full shakedown."

Tim hesitated. "Right."

With that, the two officials headed into the loading bay looking for anything unusual.

"Do you really think we'll find anything?" McGee asked. "It's been what… a month sense Marry vanished."

DiNozzo grunted as he stood from looking under a flatbed. "Well we won't know until we look now will we?"

There was suddenly a scream and the two men looked up to see a shape falling from the sky. A small bang sounded as the object- no- as the body- collided with a shipment container. "McGee! Call 911!" Tony cried rushing to the shipping unit. There was a groan and DiNozzo skid to a stop as a figure stood McGee froze with the phone his finger over the last one. The being shook their head white hair floating out of their face. It was clearly a boy- but not like any boy either of the two men had ever seen. Neon green eyes looked up from where he fell and Tony tore his shocked eyes from the kid to follow his gaze.

At first, he didn't see anything. Then there was a shimmer. "What the hell are you two doing!?" The owner Carter hollered. "That's The Hunter Ghost! Things get dicey when he and Phantom throw down!"

"What's he talking about?" McGee stage-whispered to Tony. The agent shrugged, just as the shipping unit exploded seconds after the boy shot back into the air as if pulled by some sort of invisible harness. DiNozzo instinctively hit the deck and McGee threw up an arm to block flying shrapnel from hitting his face as he ducked and cursed.

"In here!" Carter called motioning for the two into the building. Neither needed a second invitation as they rushed into the office. "What the hell is going on?"

"Phantom's fighting off The Hunter Ghost." The man said breathlessly, his stout form bent over slightly as he leaned against a filing cabinet. His eyes were on a window just behind Tony. "We don't know why but he and Phantom are nearly alway's fighting- damn it!" The man cursed as there was a sharp "Zap! POW!" From outside.

"What?" DiNozzo cried in alarm. "What is it?"

"They just blew up one of my new cameras! Shit!"

"Hunter ghost?" Tim asked peering out the window. "How can you tell what ghost he's fighting?"

"You start to recognize them over time." The man said. "The armored suit sure is a big giveaway."

Tony and Tim shared a look. "Armored suit?" DiNozzo mouthed.

"I only see the kid." McGee said.

"Phantom."

"Right…"

The man gave the two a strange look. "You can't see the ghost?"

"Well, I see a flying kid fighting a slightly shimmering light in the sky." Tony said.

McGee nodded. "Is that not what you see?"

"I see two ghosts battling it out." The man frowned.

Suddenly the back door flew open as another man rushed in stumbling over a box as a small explosion happened behind him. He turned to look out the door his hiked shoulders dropping with an "Aw Man. That was my house guys!"

Tony felt a small smirk fall on his lips. It seemed not all was lost. "Who's that?" He whispered to the man next to him.

"Just a squatter." The manager said a disapproving frown on his face.

The squatter turned at the sound of their voices his slightly guarded face shifting to one of happy greeting. "Yo, what's happening here?"

"Just…" Tony glanced out the window as the black and white suited kid zoomed by his flight followed by a trail of popping explosions. "Waiting out the storm."

"Heh, good one."

"This isn't a joke Tommy." Carter growled wiping the smirk off of the homeless man now known as Tommy's face.

The homeless man held up his hands. "Hey, we're all friends here."

"Yeah, and friends tell friends things." Tony said holding up his badge. "NCIS. I have some questions for you."

McGee was staring wide-eyed out the window as the strange fight continued. "Is this normal?" He asked as he watched the ghost boy pull out a cylindrical object. "I mean, it's like a war out there? Shouldn't we call someone?"

"NCIS?" Tommy squinted at Tony's badge, ignoring McGee. "Never heard of ya."

DiNozzo sighed exasperatedly as Carter shook his head looking at Tim with sympathetic eyes. "You could call the GIW, but I would never do that to Phantom- kid already has enough to deal with fighting off the renegade ghost."

"The one thing we agree on." Tommy snapped making Carter grunt. Then he crossed his arms facing the NCIS agents. "So you guys are fed?"

"Sort of." McGee said.

"No." Tony said at the same time. The two agents shared a look. DiNozzo rolled his eyes. "All that matters is that we're trying to find out what happened to Merry McColan."

"Oh." Tommy said. "That was sad hearing that she went missing…"

"Yeah. Well, we found her body in a truck that made it's last stop at the shipping yard here. It would have been late on the 13 of last month."

Tommy hissed through his teeth in distaste. "Oh, unlucky 13…" The manager scoffed as the homeless man took a moment to think. "I remember that night… it was clear. A nice night with a full moon and everything… but no… I don't remember anything weird… There were several trucks that night too…"

"He's right. There weren't even any ghost attacks that night. It was quiet." The manager said. "A night the ghost boy probably really appreciated."

"Till he found a girl went missing I bet. He was seen near almost every search party they had the moment it was announced she was missing. He was clearly worried. Maybe even thought a ghost got to her."

"Could a ghost have taken her?" McGee asked almost feeling detached at how unbelievable the situation of him asking that question- let alone seriously- felt.

"Oh yeah. It wouldn't be the first time someone was taken by ghost. Phantom's always saved the people taken though."

McGee looked to Tony who was also giving him a look that seemed to say, 'Gibbs isn't going to like this.'

"Right…" McGee said realizing that it was quiet outside. "Looks like the ghosts are gone…" He and Tony took a moment to look at the clear sky's. Both slowly processing what just happened to them. "Uh... Thank you." McGee stuttered shaking himself. "We should probably head out..."

DiNozzo blinked shaking his head. "Right." He looked to the other two in the room and smiled. "Yeah. You guys really helped us out. We'll see you around." With that, the two agents headed out to meet back up with their team.

Author's Notes:
So awhile back a reviewer said they wanted to see how the team would react to seeing Skulker and Danny fighting... it's not the whole team but I did manage to put on a battle. Even though I do find it a bit cliche I like the fact that this allowed me to kind of share some more of my endless theories about how ghosts could work in Amity Park. I'll try to go into more detail about this theory later.

I feel like the details in this chapter are a little lacking but hopefully, with some more practice, the chapters will get better. Clues are starting to gather but I don't think the investigation is rolling quite yet. I finally decided where I want this story to go. I have a pretty good idea of who the bad guy is... though I'm still working out some of the details. I'm actually having fun with this. I apologize again though, if the clues don't match up or if it doesn't make sense or feel like a crime story... It's my first time writing anything like this...