A/N: Hey all. Well, here's chapter ten right after chapter nine, just like I promised. You're welcome!


Chapter Ten: Searching for Clues

Gibbs and Fornell emerged from their car and walked up the driveway to the first house they were to go to. After scanning the house, they walked up to the door and knocked. When no one answered, Gibbs knocked again, louder than the first time. Still no answer. Gibbs tried the doorknob to find it locked. As Gibbs reached into his pocket to pull out his lock picks, there was suddenly a loud scream heard from inside.

Quickly, Gibbs and Fornell drew their guns and Gibbs kicked open the door. "NCIS!" he called.

"FBI!" Fornell shouted. Both men searched the house as another scream came from the bedroom. After deeming the other rooms as clear, they headed into the bedroom where the screaming was coming from. Guns poised and ready, they burst into the room to find it empty. The screaming was coming from a TV on the dresser across from the bed. Fornell approached the TV, intent on turning it off when the scene caught his attention. "Gibbs."

Gibbs came up beside him and stared at the TV. The scene was in an alley, a woman lying on the ground, screaming as she was being beaten by a group of men, all of which were wearing dark hooded sweaters and baggy jeans. As the scene played out, one man grabbed her and turned her onto her back, another man positioning himself between her legs. Gibbs reached out and turned off the TV, pushing the eject button as he did. A tape emerged from the VCR and Gibbs pulled it out and looked at the title. "Officer Malloy." He muttered.

"They video taped it." Fornell said. He started searching the room. "Do you think they video taped all of them?"

"I don't know." Gibbs said. He hoped not. Finding out that he had been video taped would devastate Tim, that, Gibbs knew for a fact.

"Who are you?"

Gibbs and Fornell turned to see a young boy around the age of six standing in the doorway, wearing pajamas and looking like he had just woken up. Gibbs approached him and knelt in front of him. "My name is Agent Gibbs. That is my friend Agent Fornell. We're police officers." He showed the boy his badge. "What's your name?"

"Josh." The boy said, eyeing the badge. "Can I hold that?"

Gibbs nodded and handed it to him. "Just for a little while. Is anyone else here?"

The boy shook his head, his eyes never leaving the badge. "No, I'm here by myself. My cousin was supposed to watch me because I'm sick and didn't go to school today but he left. He said he was going to visit his friend Aaron and I wasn't allowed to come. He said not to tell anyone he left me alone."

"Is that so?" Gibbs asked, giving Fornell a look. "And do you know where Aaron lives?"

The boy shook his head again. "No, they never tell me anything. But he does come here when my mom and dad are at work. Peter isn't supposed to let anyone come over when my parents aren't here. But he doesn't listen. He's a bad guy."

"A bad guy?" Gibbs asked. "Why is that?"

The boy looked up at him. "I want to be a police man too. But Peter says that police men are bad people. He said that he will hurt me if I become a police man. And he talks about killing them all the time. He made me promise not to tell anyone that because then he'll kill me too. I don't like him; he scares me."

"And when was the last time you saw Peter?" Gibbs asked.

"Yesterday." Josh said. "He left last night after my bedtime."

"And when is your bedtime?" Gibbs asked.

"At eight o'clock. Mom said when I get older, I can stay up longer." Josh said.

"Where are your parents now?" Gibbs asked.

Josh looked back down at the badge. "They went away somewhere. On a trip because mom said they didn't have a money moon when they got married and then they worked a lot so they're having one now." He looked up at Gibbs. "What's a money moon? Do they go to the moon and get money? Why couldn't I go? I could help."

Gibbs shrugged as Fornell chuckled. "You should ask your parents that question." He straightened up and glanced at Fornell. "Why don't you wait right here while my friend and I talk?"

"Can I still hold your badge?" he asked hopefully.

Gibbs chuckled and nodded. "Sure." He sauntered across the room to Fornell. "What do you think?"

Fornell looked down at the notes he had taken of Gibbs' conversation with the boy. "Well, this kid has been here alone since eight o'clock last night and who knows when his parents will be back. He seems to know a lot of information about this Peter character and a bit on Stolson. We should probably bring him back with us for a bit more questioning. And someone is going to have to call his parents and let them know that their nephew is dead and he and his friends were involved in a string of murders. They might know more about this than the kid."

Gibbs nodded. "We'll hold him until his parents get back and question him with them present."

"What about the other house?" Fornell asked.

Gibbs pulled out his phone and dialed. "Ziva." He said into it. "I need you to meet Fornell in front of Peter Harrison's house." Then he snapped the phone shut. "I'll take the kid back to headquarters. You and Ziva scout out Richard Gomez's house and see what you can find out."

Fornell nodded. "I'll call when I find anything."

Gibbs nodded and headed back to the kid. "Josh," he said, crouching down in front of him again. "How would you like to go with me to my work?"

Josh looked up at him excitedly. "I can?"

"Absolutely. And while we're there, you can call your parents and tell them that you got to see the inside of a policeman's work place." Gibbs said.

"Yeah!" Josh exclaimed. "I'll go change." He handed the badge back to Gibbs and ran out of the room.

"You just became the kid's hero." Fornell joked.

Gibbs rolled his eyes and continued to search the room for anything else they could use to find Aaron Stolson. After ten minutes, the boy came back into the room ready to go. "You ready?" Gibbs asked unnecessarily.

"Yep!" the boy said. Gibbs and Fornell escorted the boy out of the house as Ziva pulled up.

"Gibbs." Fornell said. "What about the phone?" he pointed to the house phone sitting on an end table next to the front door.

Gibbs turned to the boy. "Does Peter ever get phone calls?"

Josh nodded. "Yep, all the time. Mom said she might as well give him his own phone because he uses our all the time." Gibbs nodded to Fornell, who unhooked the phone and brought it out with them. "Where are you taking our phone?"

"We need to check who Peter has been talking to." Gibbs explained as Ziva approached them. "It's police stuff you'll learn when you get older."

"Gibbs." Ziva greeted with a nod. She nodded to Fornell and glanced at the boy.

"I'm taking him back to headquarters." Gibbs said. "Go with Fornell and scope out Richard Gomez's house while I'm gone."

"Hey, I know Richard." The boy said. The three adults looked down at him, making him feel uncomfortable. He glanced down at the ground.

Gibbs crouched down next to him. "So who is Richard?"

"He's one of Peter's friends." The boy said, keeping his eyes on the ground.

Gibbs lifted his head up. "What do you know about him? Is he a good guy or a bad guy?"

"He's a bad guy. He talks to Peter about killing the police men too. He's friends with Aaron too."

Gibbs nodded. "Okay, we'll talk about this more when we get to my work." He stood up and nodded to Ziva and Fornell. "I'll meet you back at headquarters."

Tony hung up the phone as Gibbs exited the elevator. "Boss, I just finished getting the names and addresses of the last six…" he trailed off as he saw the little boy behind Gibbs. "Uh, boss, did you know you're being tailed by a little person?"

"Yep." Gibbs said as he headed to his desk, the little boy right behind him.

"Oh." Tony said. Then he recovered and turned to his printer and grabbed the sheets that had come out. "Okay, well I got the names and stuff of the other guys and printed them out." He wheeled his chair out from behind his desk and up to Gibbs'.

"How come you're in one of those chairs?" the boy asked him.

"I got shot." Tony told him.

The boy's eyes widened. "You did? Did it hurt? Did you bleed? Can you still use your legs? Where did you get shot? How come you didn't die? I thought people die when they get shot. Who shot you?"

"Um…" Tony looked at his boss, who looked at him with an amused smile on his face. "Yeah, it hurt and I did bleed. I got shot in the leg and in my arm. And yes I can still use them. And most times you can die, but I was lucky. And bad guys shot me."

"Whoa, cool!"

Tony grinned at the spark in the kids eyes. "So what are you here for?"

"Mr. Gibbs brought me here. He wants to talk to me about Peter and Richard and Aaron." The boy said.

Tony looked up at Gibbs. "He's Peter's cousin." Gibbs explained. "Peter left him alone last night around eight o'clock and hasn't been back since. His parents are out of town for a while and we need to call them before we ask Josh anymore questions. Fornell is with Ziva and the two of them are on their way to scope out Richard's house." He picked up his bag and pulled out the phone, handing it to Tony. "Take that to Abby."

After Tony left, Gibbs looked up the boy's parents and was able to get the number of the hotel they were staying at in Florida. After dialing and speaking to the concierge, he spoke to the parents, explaining the situation to them before handing the phone to Josh. As Josh spoke to his parents on his desk phone, Gibbs used his cell phone to call the hospital for an update on Tim's condition.

"I'm afraid he's still unconscious, Agent Gibbs." Dr. Hitsugaya said. "His fever hasn't broken yet. We've tried everything, but we just can't get it down. Only time will tell."

"Alright, thanks." Gibbs said. He hung up the phone and turned to Josh as he was finishing up talking to his parents. After Gibbs finished speaking to the boy's parents, he hung up the phone and stood up. "You're parents said they were going to be here by tomorrow."

"So, where am I going to go until they get back? I'm not supposed to be home by myself." He said.

"You can stay with me until they get back." Gibbs offered.

"Yeah!" Josh said.

Fornell and Ziva leaped out of the car, guns drawn, as a second crash rang out in the house. They ran up the driveway and Fornell counted to three on his fingers to Ziva before kicking the door open. He and Ziva burst through the door and into the house, following the crashing noises coming from a back room.

"FBI!" shouted Fornell.

"NCIS!" shouted Ziva.

"Come out, now!" Fornell shouted to the room.

There was a brief moment of silence, and then a man emerged from the room, hands held high. "Don't shoot." He said. "I'm unarmed."

Neither of them lowered their weapons. "Who are you?" Fornell demanded.

Ziva went up behind the man and pushed him up against the wall, searching him for any concealed weapons. "He's clean." She said.

"My name is Eric. Eric Sanders." The man said.

"What are you doing here, Eric Sanders?" Fornell asked.

"One of my friends owes my money. He's been dodging me for months now." The man explained. "I came to demand my money but he's never home so I came in to see if I could find it."

"Breaking and entering is a crime." Ziva said, tapping his shoulder with the barrel of her gun.

"I know. But I wasn't going to take anything except my money. I like his parents; I wouldn't take anything from them." He shrugged. "I wasn't even planning on breaking any of his stuff until I found a video of my girlfriend's uncle in his room. He killed him. Him and his friends raped and killed him. That's sick."

"I take it you're not part of them." Fornell said.

The guy shook his head. "No way. Those guys are crazy. He wasn't so bad until he started hanging with that psycho, Aaron. The guy's twisted. Did you know there's a rumor going around that he's wanted by the cops? They say he raped and killed his aunt. The guy's sick. I tried to tell Richie to stay away from him but he wouldn't listen."

"We're going to need to take you in for questioning." Ziva said. "You seem to know quite a bit of information that we need."

"If I go willingly, can you not tell his parents that I was here? It's not them I'm worried about; it's the possibility of them telling Richard." Eric shook his head. "If he finds out that I broke into his house to get my money back, he'd kill me for sure. Either him or one of his friends. And I don't want to be one of their victims on the tapes."

"What tapes?" Fornell asked.

"The tapes they make of the killings they do. It's one thing to kill people, it's another thing entirely too video tape it." Eric shuddered. "I don't want to be one of them."

"You won't be." Ziva said. "He's dead."

Eric's head snapped around to her, his eyes widened in shock. "Who's dead? Not Richie? No way, he can't be. Yeah, he's gone off the deep end a bit, but he doesn't deserve to die."

"He and his friend Peter Harrison tried to kill a federal agent last night." Fornell said.

"Two federal agents." Ziva corrected. "And one of them is currently in the hospital, fighting for his life."

"I swear I didn't know." Eric said. "I don't go anywhere near Richie when he's with Aaron."

"Well, we're going to have to take you back with us for questioning." Ziva repeated.

"Sure." Eric said. He shook his head sadly as Ziva lead him out of the house and Fornell headed into the room Eric had been in. "It sucks that Richie is dead, but I guess I can't be too surprised. I knew something bad would happen to him if he continued to hang with that lunatic, Aaron. I tried to warn him that that guy was bad news."

"You can't convince the stubborn." Ziva said. "If he didn't want to listen, then there was nothing you could have done." Fornell emerged from the house, carrying a laptop, a VCR tape and the house phone. "Ready?" she asked as they got in the car.

"Yeah, let's go." Said Fornell.

A/N: So what did you think? Enough details for you? This one was nice and long, so hope you guys had your fill. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I finish the next chapter for my other story. Please be patient. And don't forget to review.