Disclaimer: "NCIS" and the characters from the show are owned by CBS and whoever else was involved with the creation and production of this show. Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and others own the characters of "Sons of Thunder" and "Walker Texas Ranger". Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fanfiction intended for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of it.

Chapter 2

The team had examined the house and they believed the struggle had begun in the bedroom, since there were scratches from fingernails on the wall that lead towards the stairs and then drag marks on the carpet.

There was a broken lamp and a few other things knocked over in the living room, as well as spots of blood, but maybe from a bloody nose or a smaller wound since there was not a significant amount. DiNozzo wondered if the person had gotten away from the attacker at the top or bottom of the stairs, and then tried to fight off his or her attacker in the living room, but he couldn't be certain.

The evidence collected didn't seem promising, but they hoped that Abby would be able to determine something that could give them a viable lead, especially the location of Mrs. Carter.

After they had finished with the house, McGee and Ziva had returned to the office to try to find Mrs. Carter's whereabouts while DiNozzo and Gibbs remained to speak with the neighbor, Ms. Swanson.

In Ms. Swanson's tidy living room, DiNozzo looked at some rather artistic pencil sketches hanging on the walls. Ms. Swanson entered the room from the kitchen, carrying a tray of coffee and some chocolate chip cookies and set it on the coffee table. She handed a mug of coffee to Gibbs first, and than one to DiNozzo, allowing the two men to doctor the coffee how they like it, in which Gibbs drank it black and DiNozzo added cream and a spoonful of sugar.

"What can you tell us about the Carters? Did they get along?" DiNozzo asked, once Ms. Swanson took a seat on the love seat across from them.

Ms. Swanson took a sip of her coffee before she answered. "Well, Dana was always friendly, but not really chatty. Daniel was polite and we would talk sometimes if we were both in the yard. I never heard them fighting and he would bring her flowers every few weeks or so and would take her on weekend getaways."

"Do you know where he would take his wife?" DiNozzo asked, grabbing a cookie from the plate that Ms. Swanson had lifted in front of him.

She set the plate down, once Gibbs had politely declined. "Yes, I believe they have a cabin in West Virginia somewhere."

DiNozzo was taking notes in a little notepad while Gibbs asked a few more questions about the couple, but Ms Swanson insisted that the Carters were happily married.

"I know we asked this earlier, but have you remembered seeing any strange vehicles or people around for the past few weeks?" Gibbs asked, after taking a long sip of coffee.

Ms. Swanson took a sip of her coffee and furrowed her forehead in thought. "I thought about that, Agent Gibbs. The only vehicle I saw that wasn't usual for the neighborhood was a white van with the Mountain Electric Company name on it. Actually, it was rather unusual."

"Why?" DiNozzo asked.

"Well, I know none of my neighbors had been having issues with their electricity and I didn't happen to see any workmen on the poles or trimming any limbs or anything like that."

"Thank you, Ms. Swanson, for your help and the coffee," Gibbs said as he stood up.

"If I think of anything else, Agent Gibbs, I have your card."

DiNozzo drained the last of his coffee, thanked Ms. Swanson and followed Gibbs out the door.

"Obviously, since there was no significant amount of blood at the Carter house, we still need to find the crime scene," Ziva said.

"And Mrs. Carter is missing," DiNozzo added.

"What do you have on the Carters?" Gibbs asked.

McGee stood up and grabbed the remote, turning on the screen. "Daniel Carter joined the Marines when he was eighteen and ended his career as Gunnery Sergeant when he retired with an honorable discharge five years ago and he married Dana Shorts a year later."

"I've checked phone records and e-mails for the past six months for both of them. Nothing unusual," McGee reported somberly.

"I spoke with his former CO and according to her, he had a spotless record." Ziva added.

A picture of Mrs. Carter appeared next to the one of Mr. Carter. She was smiling and her blonde hair was down and gleaming, brushing a few inches past her shoulders.

"Wow, her DMV photo actually looks decent," DiNozzo commented admiring the woman's face and especially her vibrant blue eyes were looking right at the camera.

"Dana Carter had been married before, but her first husband, Jeffery Worthy, who died from cancer four years before she married Carter."

"She works as an independent advisor to all sorts of projects, from construction to pharmaceutical companies."

"We need to find Mrs. Carter," McGee said as he hit button and the woman's picture appeared next to one of her husband.

"She is either involved in the death of her husband or she is dead as well," said Ziva.

"We cannot make assumptions like that Ziva," Gibbs admonished.

Ziva gave one nod of her head in apology, but her face revealed that she didn't believe that Dana Carter was alive.

"Ziva and McGee, I want you to go speak to Carter's CO in person as well as the former members of his team." Gibbs glanced over at DiNozzo. "You are going to track Mrs. Carter's movements for the past week."

Ziva and McGee grabbed their to-go bags and headed to the elevator, while DiNozzo took a seat at his desk and got to work.

Gibbs exited the elevator and opened the door into Abby Sciuto's lab, blasted by the loud music that the forensic scientist enjoyed and played while she worked.

"Hello, Abby," Gibbs greeted, after Abby had turned down the volume with the remote she had grabbed from her work station.

"Hello, Gibbs," she greeted with a wide smile, her eyes on the Caf-Pow drink that Gibbs was holding in his hands.

"What do you have for me, Abby?" Gibbs asked.

"Well, with what I've discovered so far, is that where Carter was found was not where he was killed."

"Abby, I already knew that," Gibbs said as he shook the Caf-Pow slightly.

Abby turned towards Gibbs and beamed him a smile with her eyes twinkling. "I knew that you knew that, Gibbs and anyway," she said as she turned back to her workstation, "I am still working on the rest of the trace evidence from the park, but I haven't determined if there was anything out of place from the location or from Mr. Carter."

"Now, the preliminary results of the evidence collected from the house shows that the blood found in the living room was also female, so it may be Mrs. Carter's, which I will compare with the hair from the hairbrush that Tim collected."

"Thanks, Abbs," Gibbs said as he handed her the large Caf-Pow drink.

"No problem. I'm still working on the rest of the trace evidence."

"Keep me updated," Gibbs ordered as he headed to the door.

"Yes sir," Abby said as she turned to the Major Mass Spectrophotometer that she called Big Daddy, gave the machine a gentle and loving pat before she returned to her computer, analyzing the information about the victim's wounds that Ducky had sent to her.