Back in the bullpen, McGee and DiNozzo were doing background checks on both Lt. Rogers and Elle Charlton.

"She's pretty hot, don't you think, Probie?" Tony asked McGee.

"Who?" McGee looked up, his eyebrows scrunched together in puzzlement.

"Lt. Roger's 'best friend'," Tony replied, looking at McGee as if he was some kind of alien from Mars.

"Oh, yeah. She is very pretty. I'm worried though—she seemed very shaken up over what happened today." McGee stared off into space, lost deep in thought.

Tony threw up his hands. "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. Wouldn't you be a little upset if your best friend was murdered and you were tied up in the closet, unconscious, while it all happened?" He paused for a minute. "Unless, of course, she was the murderer."

"What?" McGee's head snapped up suddenly. "No. I don't think she could have killed him. She doesn't look like she could have done that."

"What makes you say that, McGee?" Gibbs wanted to know, coming through the desks, followed closely by Ziva.

"Well I…um…I dunno, Boss," McGee stammered. "She seemed…genuinely upset over what happened."

"I agree with McGee," Ziva spoke up. "I do not think that young woman is capable of shooting someone brutally. She seemed very close to him, although I find it hard to understand why she would not be dating Lieutenant Rogers." She opened the folder in her hands. "He was a very handsome young man."

"Tony?" Gibbs called expectantly.

"Lieutenant Rogers service record shows an upstanding young Marine who worked with computers. He was brilliant, according to his commanding officer," Tony informed everyone. "He was friends with everyone, but apparently Elle was known as his 'best' friend. She came by his office frequently and everyone loved her."

"Boss, I did a background check on Elle Charlton. She's an English major who works at a local Barnes and Noble bookstore. Apparently, she's an aspiring novelist," McGee announced, raising his eyebrows in admiration.

"And I'll bet she's a huge fan of Deep Six," Tony muttered under his breath. Everyone seemed to enjoy the bestseller that McGee had written.

"Anything unusual show up in her records, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"Nothing besides the restraining order she filed against her ex-boyfriend," McGee replied very matter-of-factly.

"DiNozzo, what've you got on the ex?" Gibbs didn't even look up from his computer screen. He knew his team better than anyone, and even though he frequently caught them talking about personal problems, he knew they always came through for him and did their work.

"Scott Harper is a twenty-six year old college drop-out who joined the Marines at age twenty. He has a history of disorderly conduct. He was dishonorably discharged a year ago. Friends say he began dating Elle Charlton about eight months ago, but she was too good for him. She broke up with him and that's when he began stalking her. She filed the restraining order three months ago after he apparently broke into her apartment," Tony explained, putting a picture of Scott Harper up on the plasma.

"That's the guy who was at the crime scene this morning!" McGee exclaimed, observing the photo closely. "He was pestering Elle…" His voice trailed off when Gibbs gave him a sharp look. "Ms. Charlton."

"Ziva, DiNozzo, bring him in," Gibbs ordered.

While Tony and Ziva headed out to bring Harper in for questioning and McGee went to check on Elle Charlton, Gibbs headed down to Abby's lab. He had a hunch that she had something for him.

"Gibbs, you're way, way too good!" Abby exclaimed, greeting Gibbs with a warm hug. "You always know when I've got something for you."

"You wanna tell me what it is, Abs? I've got a dead Marine downstairs and a distraught young woman upstairs."

"Okay, I ran all the prints that were found at Lt. Rogers house. Most of them belonged to the Lieutenant, but there were others belonging to Elle Charlton," Abby announced.

"Lt. Rogers best friend," Gibbs finished for her. "You got anything else for me?"

Abby cocked her head at her Boss. "Don't I always?" She thought for a moment. "Nevermind. Don't answer that. Anyway, I went over the evidence from the crime scene. The duct tape that was used to bind Elle Charlton's wrists and ankles did have prints on it. And they belong to…"

"Scott Harper," Gibbs finished her sentence for her again.

"Gibbs!" Abby wailed in dismay. "How did you know?"

Gibbs smiled crookedly. "Thank you, Abby," was his only reply. He kissed her cheek lightly and handed her a large Caf-Pow as a reward.

Upstairs, McGee knocked on the interrogation room door, then cautiously went in. Elle was lying on her side on the floor, curled into the fetal position. Timothy's first instinct was that she was unconscious, but he was relieved to discover that he was wrong. She had fallen asleep that way.

When he shut the door behind him, her eyes blinked open and she sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized. " I'm probably the first person to ever fall asleep in your interrogation room." She stood up and yawned wearily.

"It's fine," McGee told her, smiling at her. Tony was right; she was very pretty. "I just came to see if you needed anything, but on second thought, why don't I move you to our lounge. It's more comfortable then this room."

Her eyes lit up. "That would be really great! I'm exhausted. I really just want to go home."

"Agent Gibbs thinks it's safer if you stay here until we get to the bottom of this," McGee explained. "And he's usually right. But, you're welcome to stay in our lounge for as long as it takes us to figure this case out."

As Elle walked out into the hallway, she stopped for a minute. "Couldn't it take you guys a while to solve the case?"

McGee shrugged a little. "Touché."