𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ━━ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐳𝐳𝐨

NINE | village people

"Well, I just finished talking to the teens." I step into the Marine recruitment office, the one that just so happens to be our crime scene. "They are a lot taller and hairier than they were when I was their age."

"When was that, six months ago?" Tony taunts.

"E, what's rule twelve?" Kate questions abruptly.

Without missing a beat, I answer, "Never date a coworker."

"You've been here two years, and the two newbies still know the rules better than you?" Gibbs reprimands Tony.

"It's not his fault, Gibbs." Tony smiles when I come to his defense. "He has to remember all of those girls' numbers, you know. Poor guy just can't keep track of it all." Didn't see that one coming.

"What do you got, Eva?" Gibbs directs his attention to me.

"Other than the fact that those two are stunned? Not much." I move over to the victim's body. "All they know is where he was sitting when he got shot."

"Kate?"

"Several people reported hearing a gunshot around 1300, but no eyewitnesses."

"I bet you had no problem getting dates wearing one of these, Gibbs." Tony looks through a recruitment pamphlet.

"Dating wasn't exactly my problem in the corps, DiNozzo." Gibbs shoots back. "What'd the LEOs say?"

Kate lowers her voice. "It might be gang-related. Apparently, Alvarez had a couple run-ins with the locals. Last month, they threw a cinder block through the window here."

"Well, if it was gang-banger," Tony moves aside a cardboard box, "they're packing serious heat. It went straight through the sheet rock into what looks like. . .some kind of toy warehouse."

"Eva, go with him. Neither of you come back without my bullet." Gibbs leaves with Kate trailing behind him.

"There is something definitely going on between those two." I observe the way the two walk alongside each other.

"Think he'll let me borrow his uniform for the weekend?"

"I don't know, but remind me to bring a camera the day you ask."

We travel to the room behind the office, and Tony's right. It's a toy warehouse.

The assistant warehouse manager, Carl, annoys the crap out of both of us since he watches Forensic Files and is automatically an expert.

"The bullet couldn't have just disappeared into thin air. . .can it?" I follow the piece of string as it continues through an open space.

"I'm going to need you on your knees over here, Eva. It's time to get dirty."

"What did you just say to me?"

"We have to sweep the floor for marks. It may have lost velocity and dropped."

"Oh. Right. I. . .yeah."

Carl lets us know that there was a box of dolls sitting in that exact spot, so we reroute the delivery right to NCIS headquarters.

Waiting in Abby's lab, Tony and I watch her take all of the dolls' clothes off before proceeding to pull off their heads.

"How were you not freaked out by that?" I follow Tony out the sliding doors.

"Oh, believe me." He holds open the elevator door. "I was terrified."

Abby provides us with a digitized version of the bullet's trajectory, showing that the shooter was long-range.