The next two days, Tony was as good as his word. He only left Kira's side to shower when Gibbs pointed out to him that Kira wouldn't like to have a smelly man greet her when she woke. Gibbs, McGee, Ziva and Abby worked tirelessly and surprisingly well with the Baltimore police to help find Kira's shooter.

The three agents questioned the witnesses again with Detective Ramirez's assistance. All the accounts were the same except for one. There was a witness that had been filming a family video when the shooting broke out. Only when Ziva talked to them a second time did they remember to show the tape to the investigators. Once they pulled the tape up to the time stamp that Kira was shot, they noticed a blurry figure several blocks down the road. Unfortunately, they couldn't get a clear enough picture of the person to ID him/her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Abby and Robbie nearly lived in the lab the entire time. They were about at their ropes end trying to discover why the bullet penetrated the vest when it was supposed to be a level IV vest, non-penetrable by the .30-06. Frustrated beyond the norm at being let down by her science, Abby requested some of the other officer's vests be brought in for testing. They were all purchased at the same time from the same manufacturer. Abby and Robbie ran a little experiment. All the vests were set away from the line of fire the estimated distance the shooter had been from Kira. Every vest they tested proved to be faulty. They would hold up through one shot, sometimes even two but the next bullet would penetrate.

Finally knowing what had caused the vest to fail, Abby and Robbie turned heads throughout the department as they raced to Captain Marsden's office. Gibbs was in the middle of speaking when he saw the look on Abby's face.

"What have you found Abby?" He asked.

"Robbie and I have been beating our heads against the wall trying to figure out why the vest failed. We tested several of the other vests," Abby told them and turned to the Captain, "and you won't like the results."

"Just tell us what you found Abby." Gibbs repeated.

"They are all faulty. All seven other vests failed after the first or second shot." Abby said in a rush then pressed her lips together to watch their reactions.

"You mean all my officers could be in danger from this?" the Captain asked.

Nodding, Robbie told him, "Yes. And that is what makes Kira's shooting harder to solve. We don't know if someone wanted to kill her or just shoot a cop."

Gibbs stood. "That's what we'll find out." Walking out the door to get Ziva and Tim, he signed to Abby ‘good work'.

Smiling, Abby turned and watched Gibbs walk away.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Canvassing the neighboring houses three blocks from where the shoot-out took place, Gibbs, Ziva and McGee found themselves facing people unwilling to open their doors even for Federal Agents. Angered at the lack of co-operation, Ziva pounded on the last door, demanding they open up or she would come in anyway. A small, elderly lady answered the door and looked at Ziva through her glasses.

"Missy, if you want to talk to me, you'll have to find your manners real quick!" was the sharp retort that met Ziva's surprised look.

Flustered for a moment, Ziva quickly composed herself and apologized.

With a short nod, the woman looked her up and down again. "That's better. Now, what can I help you with today?"

Explaining what she was there for, Ziva showed the woman pictures of both Kira and the grainy gunman from the video.

"Well, I don't know about her," the lady said pointing at Kira's picture, "but this one was right outside my house two days ago. Said he was the police, backing up his fellow officers."

"Could you describe him for me?" Ziva asked nicely.

"Sure can. He was tall, like my dear husband was, so about 6'4", I'd say. He was middle-aged, probably in his forties or so. Sandy hair about like your friend's over there. Fit, not overweight, and he handled that .30-06 like he knew what he was doing."

Nodding, Ziva took down the description and before she could ask, the woman told her, "Yes, if I saw him again, I could identify him. I'm old, not blind."

Gibbs turned away to fight his smile and Ziva politely thanked the women and they left to talk with Tony.