-CHAPTER 7-

"You're certain?" Gibbs asked.

"Palmer clearly remembered a second car that ran them off the road." Ziva reported.

"Get a description?"

"No. Jimmy was very… distraught." Ziva said, adding contritely. "Ducky had to give him a sedative."

"Stay with him. This killer went through an awful lot of effort to take out the Lt., if our killer knows there's a witness…" Gibbs let the statement hang.

"I will keep him safe, Gibbs." Ziva promised before hanging up the phone.

***ncis*****ncis*****ncis*****ncis***

"It doesn't make sense, all the sabotage to the car." McGee commented, as he and Tony began their search of the Lt.'s apartment, "the killer would have to know it would be discovered during an investigation."

"Unless the killer figured it would just be ruled an accident and there wouldn't be an investigation." Tony said as he skimmed through the unopened mail, "Not everyone is a criminal mastermind."

"But still, the killer couldn't be sure that the sabotage wouldn't be discovered…all accidents are investigated." McGee pressed as he moved into the bedroom area.

"No, but most accidents are only given a cursory investigation if there is no outward sign of foul play." Tony informed his teammate as he began looking through the desk drawers, pulling out a large clasp envelope, "This one might have been the same…there were no skid marks, no 911 calls; if Palmer hadn't been in the car..."

"Then it would have been ruled accidental; except for Gibbs gut," McGee finished, as he came back into the living room and headed to the laptop on the desk while Tony pulled what appeared to be cards and letters from the envelope.

"The fact that someone tried to take out one of our own," Tony said tightly as he flipped through the contents of the envelope, "And it's Palmer, he wouldn't hurt a fly…"

"If you're planning on running a car off the road anyway…cause it to crash, why so much overkill?" McGee mused aloud as he booted up the laptop.

"Just running the car off the road doesn't guarantee your victim dies, with a functioning seatbelt and airbag you could walk away from a crash…the sabotage guarantees that the victim doesn't walk away." Tony said, as he unfolded an official looking piece of paper and scanned it.

"So then why run the car off the road when all the sabotage would guarantee a crash, eventually." McGee pressed, looking up at Tony, "It just seems like so much overkill."

"Because someone really, really had it in for the Lt." Tony commented grimly, handing Tim the paper.

"It's a police report...alleging our Lt. might have had a stalker..." McGee said.

"I'm starting to think this was definitely personal," Tony said.

TBC-