Chapter One - Another One Bites The Dust

Detective Anthony DiNozzo didn't know if the man in front of him was just plain stupid, or deliberately being annoying. He decided it was a bit of both.

"If you don't move out of my right now, I'm going to arrest you" Tony said calmly. When the man didn't move, he pulled out his handcuffs and this was when the perp decided to run.

Tony immediately went into action, using his long legs to sprint after him. "I have a degree in Physical Education, this will not end well for you!" He shouted as he gained ground. He extended his legs as fast as he could, and as he got close enough tackled the suspect. Rolling him onto his stomach, Tony got his handcuffs out once more before slapping them around his wrists.

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you do say..." Reading the rest of the Miranda rights, Tony walked his newly arrested friend back to the squad car that had just pulled up. "Thanks for the help" His partner, one Danny Pierce had remained sitting in the drivers seat of the car while Tony chased the perp.

Danny shrugged "I knew you had it, you're the one always bragging about your degree in PE" Tony grinned and opened the back door, helping his criminal into the car.

"Don't forget the tube socks"

"Oh, how on earth could I forget about the tube sock with the constant talking about them, you're like a walking, talking, tube sock advert"

"Well if the sock fits" Danny gave Tony a look. "What? It wasn't that bad" Danny said nothing, watching as Tony walked around the front of the car to get into the passenger seat. "Okay" He spoke as he opened the door and strapped himself in "It may have been a little cheesy but it deserved a laugh" Danny tried to keep his unamused facade up, but failed when Tony gave one of his infamous grins.

"You're such an idiot" Danny ruffeled Tony's hair affectionately.

"Hey, don't touch the hair"

It took a few minutes to drive back to the house, Tony elected to search it while Danny stayed with the runner. He left with a "be careful" aimed at his back, he waved off these concerns before pulling his gun out of it's holster as he nudged the door open.

The house looked relatively clean and modest, there didn't seem to be anything amiss. But Anthony DiNozzo knew that appearances could be deceiving so he pushed onwards, through the kitchen where nothing strange was lurking and past the bedrooms that also looked clean.

He walked back into the hallway and on a particular floorboard he elicted a squeak. He stopped and looked down.

"A squeaker" He muttered, crouching down to see if he could pull it up. It gave way at the touch of his fingers, easily being pulled up which showed that this was a motion frequently used. He moved it out of the way and reached down into the hole pulling out a box. In the box was a key.

Tony stood back up, after replacing the floorboard, and looked around for what the key could fit into. He moved over to a big painting of a ship on it. "How many movies have I seen where there was a safe behind a painting" He moved the painting, leaning it up on the wall, and smiled when there was a safe, clear as day staring back at him.

Inserting the key, the safe clicked open and Tony was horrified when he saw what was in it. He gulped before closing the safe once more.

This was worse than he realised.

After making a call to the station the house was soon crawling with cops. The guy who owned this house had been identified as one Robert Hunter, and he had been taken down to the station to await Danny and Tony's return.

Tony was currently taking pictures of what he'd found in the safe, several pairs of eyes stared back at him all from their rotting heads. Fingers in jars were to his left and he snapped a picture of those as well.

He sighed, they were going to have to match the heads to bodies and inform the relatives of these seven men. The smell coming from the safe was horrid, Tony breathed as little and as shallow as possible but soon had to leave to get some fresh air. He knew it was going to be a bad day as soon as he woke up that morning, but he never imagined it would be this bad.

He was happy however, that this guy was off the streets. No one else would be hurt by him, thanks to Tony. He shuddered to think who else could have died if they hadn't caught this man. Tony shook his head, pushing the depressing thoughts out of his mind and focusing on the task at hand. He walked back to the crime scene approaching Danny.

"Hey, Tony, do you think this is the work of the Baltimore Slayer?"

Tony nodded "Once we've matched the DNA to the bodies we found then we can confirm it"

/

One everything had been bagged and tagged, and the safe taken out of the wall, they finally made their way to the station. "Our suspect in interrogation?" Tony asked the officer at reception.

"Yeah, room 2" Tony and Danny walked into interrogation, Danny took the chair while Tony stood in the corner. Danny pulled out a file, filled with pictures of the contents of the safe, and placed in on the desk. He pointed at the first picture.

"We found your little safe" Hunter didn't give anything away, except for the fact that his eyes narrowed a tiny bit. You wouldn't have seen it if you weren't looking for it, but Anthony DiNozzo was.

After it was clear he wasn't going to say anything Danny continued "There's only one way your getting out of this station and that's in handcuffs. We got you man, we got your prints, we matched your heads to the bodies. You're the Baltimore Slayer. I just want to know, why'd you do it?"

Hunter resolutely stared at the table, so Tony came around from behind him and whispered into his ear "I think it's cause they wouldn't let him join thier little club"

They exchanged looks at Hunter's head turned to look at Tony "Yeah, we know all about your little attempt to join. Didn't work out so well did it. So did you do it cause you were angry? Were you embarressed?" Tony lowered his voice "Was your pride hurt?" The disgust radiated from his voice. "You know what? We don't need a confession, we already got you" He walked over and knocked on the glass "Bring 'em in"

/

"Another?" Tony looked up to the bartender and nodded.

Danny gave him a grin "Hey, this is supposed to be a celebration! One less dirtbag on the street" Tony gave him a grin, and they toasted.

"One less dirtbag" Tony muttered.

"You know what we need? Shots" Danny motioned the bartender over.

"I can't man, I'm driving"

Danny scoffed "I'm not" He downed his shot.

Tony grinned, hoping that tomorrow something other than serial killers would come to his attention.

You know what they say, be careful what you wish for.