A/N: Here's the second chapter... R&R, please!!!

Tony knocked on the big brown door of the house. It was a very pretty house, Queen-Anne style, in the middle of a suburban area slightly outside of the city. He felt uneasy thinking that he was about to enter the place where Kate had grown up, almost like he was invading her privacy.

A woman in her late fifties opened the door and gave him a weak smile. Tony noticed the uncanny similarity with Kate and his gaze dropped to the floor, almost as to stop the many memories that started filling his mind.

The woman shook his hand inviting him in.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Todd."

The woman nodded slightly.

"Call me Laura."

Even thought a smiled played her features, her tone was flat, like she was drained from anything that she felt. Tony couldn't blame her; she had lost a daughter, after all.

As Tony dragged his small suitcase across the living room, she took a moment to study his actions. She was no profiler, but she noticed how cautious he was with every movement he made. He looked like he was walking in a temple; discreetly and almost afraid of spoiling something perfect and untouchable.

"I set up a bed for you in Caitlyn's old room."

Tony felt uncomfortable at the thought of having to sleep in Kate's old room, but he nodded at Laura and followed her into the room, up the stairs.

As he walked into the bedroom, he shivered. He knew he was probably imagining things, but he felt like he could still breathe Kate's scent.

Laura Todd left the tape she had received the same morning on the desk near the door before showing Tony where the restroom was. She then walked out of the room wishing Tony a goodnight.

As she left, Tony took his time to examine the surroundings. He saw a few old pictures of Kate. In one she was probably about 8, holding a trophy while fiercely posing between two other girls after what obviously was a figure ice skating competition that she had won, in another one she was posing with her prom date, in front of a white limo. Other pictures portraying her with various members of her family and various guys, who Tony assumed had been her various boyfriends during her high school and college years, were framed all around the room. He grinned noticing that in all the pictures until her late teen years, Kate didn't have the usual chestnut brown hair he had always seen her with, but a rather light hazelnut blond. Kate Todd was a blond!

There were also a few posters hanging on the walls. He smiled as he spotted the poster of "From dusk till dawn" and another one of "Reservoir Dogs".

After taking a quick shower, he decided to take a look at the tape that had been sent to Laura Todd. He took a deep breath and he inserted it into the VHS player, turning on the TV. The images were blurry at the beginning. It was in black and white. Very noir of them, he thought.

As Laura Todd told him, at the margin of the video there was a date indicating that the video had been shot just a few days before.

A guy wearing a balaclava appeared from behind the camera, holding a gun and walking towards the hostage that was situated a few feet behind. As the focus got on the hostage Tony's eyes widened. The woman could have easily passed as Kate's twin. She was tied up to a chair, a big piece of duct tape covering her mouth, rage in her eyes.

"I have Caitlyn Leigh Todd here as hostage. If I won't get $500,000 by the end of the week I'll proceed to kill her. I am not joking. You can see she's still alive right now, but if the money won't be wired in the account I set up overseas she's dead. Try to alert the authorities and she's dead as well. Get it?"

The guy spoke with a slightly unsure tone that made him sound very nervous. He didn't even made the effort to buy himself a voice disguising software, which made Tony believe he was just an amateur or just very stupid.

"Tell them, Caitlyn."

He took the tape off her mouth with a violent snatch. She tried to free her hands and yelled at the man who looked honestly scared.

"You better enjoy this moment, you bastard, because you will be the one tied up in this chair soon!"

The man took another piece of duct tape and proceeded to put it on her mouth once again, not before being bitten quite a few times by a very angry hostage. Tony smiled at her reaction; really in Kate's style. But that wasn't Kate. That thought made him lose the smile.

The video went black. Tony switched the TV off and took a closer look at the tape first, and then he focused on the envelope it had been shipped in. The postage stamps indicated that it had been shipped from Trenton, New Jersey. There was a piece of paper inside. He put on a pair of gloves and carefully unfolded it. He examined it. The coordinates of an account situated in Switzerland were written with green ink. He didn't know much about computers, but he was sure that if really worked on it, he could have traced the owner of the account through the NCIS database.

He sat down on the bed and almost unconsciously took one of the pillows in his hands, brought it to his face and breathed deeply, as wanting to inhale all the was left of Kate's perfume. It was a silly act, but his vivid imagination could almost picture a young Kate contently sleeping on that very bed, unaware of what her future held dreaming hopeful and maybe naïve dreams.

He feel asleep smiling and allowing his mind for the first time in a long time to drift towards those memories that for so long he had repressed somewhere deep inside his head.

R&R!