NCIS s23e07 Episode Script

1
HANK: Okay, Jake, let's,
uh, give it a little gas.
(GRUNTS) And that was the brake.
I know, Dad, but you told
me to be careful with your car.
On the road.
We haven't even left the driveway yet.
Now, come on.
Show me what this baby can do.
- What are you doing?
- This is pointless.
I don't need to learn to drive.
What are you talking about?
How are you gonna get to school?
I'll take the bus. I like the bus.
What about after school,
meeting up with friends?
I hang out on Discord.
Where?
It's onli Look, forget it, Dad.
Listen, Jake, I know
the world is changing
and I don't always understand it,
but trust me, some things never change.
Sooner or later,
you're gonna have to drive.
(THUMP)
What the
You've got to be kidding me.
You stay here.
Hey, man. You're gonna have
to pay for any damage
- Back off.
- Whoa, man!
- Step away from the car.
- It's cool. Forget I said anything.
Wait. What are you doing?
Don't hurt my son! Or my car!
- Drive.
- (ENGINE STARTS)
Wait. What the
What are you doing?! Wait, wai-wait
Hey!
Jake! No!
Jake! Jake!
Jake!
♪
And then if you read
a little further down the page,
you can see where
the coroner notes acute trauma
to the occipital bone.
Uh, in a front-on collision,
why would there be an injury
to the back of her head?
I know, uh, seat belts weren't
exactly a thing back then,
but even that wouldn't account
for an injury such as this.
So, I hope you can understand
why I thought it was time
to show you this.
You think my mom was murdered.
This does bring up a lot of questions.
In order to get answers,
we may need to move on
to the next step.
I would need to exhume
your mother's body.
With your permission, of course.
I don't understand.
W-Well, I-I would need to see
her body in order to verify
- these injuries, and then
- No, no, Jimmy.
What I don't understand is why
we're even talking about this.
- Now I don't understand.
- I asked you
to find my mother's grave, that's it.
Not track down the death certificate
or the coroner's report, and I certainly
didn't ask you to make
a federal case out of it
and share it with the entire team.
Well, no, of course you didn't,
but I I-I just saw
all these discrepancies, and then I did
- what Dr. Mallard trained me to do
- No. No, no, no.
Don't blame Ducky for this.
I told you I was looking for closure.
This is the opposite of that.
I wanted to close an old wound,
not open a new one.
I am so sorry.
I-I did not mean to I just thought
that you would want answers.
Uh, this was your mother.
You didn't know my mother and
if you had, you'd understand.
I don't want these kind of answers.
Nothing good can come from this.
(PHONE DINGS)
All right, we've got a case.
- I'll grab my things.
- Don't bother.
We don't need you on this one.
(DOOR SLIDES CLOSED)
What the hell kind of operation
is the Navy running anyway?
You don't have enough wars
to fight overseas,
so you got to launch an invasion
on Broadview Terrace?
Mr. Larson,
I understand that you are upset,
but we need your help finding your son.
Does Jacob have a phone
that we can track?
Yeah, but I told him
to leave it in the house
during the driving lesson.
What about his car is there a GPS?
She's a '73 Mustang.
PARKER: Do you know anyone
that might have reason
to kidnap your son?
What? No.
No, this wasn't a kidnapping,
this was a carjacking.
You think this guy did all of
this just to get your Mustang?
Look at her. She's a thing of beauty.
You know how many offers
I've gotten to buy her off me?
I'd never sell her.
Charlene's like a daughter to me. Mm.
Oh, it's just a nickname.
You people name ships, right?
- Oh, yeah.
- KNIGHT: You know, how about we
- get back to your other child.
- (PHONE RINGS)
Oh
It's my wife.
Please please, find my son.
- Hello?
- Charlene, huh?
We have state police manning checkpoints
and every highway in a 20-mile radius.
Everyone's looking for a paratrooper.
PARKER: All right, well,
what do you think? Who we looking at?
I don't know, if you ask me,
someone who's watched
way too many Tom Cruise movies.
Except it's, uh, not Maverick,
it's Kingfisher.
PARKER: Paratrooper's call sign?
Ran it through our database,
real name came back.
Lieutenant Max Winger. He's a Leap Frog.
- I thought he was a Kingfisher.
- Leap Frogs are the Navy's
performance skydiving team.
They do shows for civilians.
You know, football games, air shows.
This guy was on the ground
before 8:00 a.m.
Little early for a show.
MCGEE: I spoke with his CO. Apparently,
Leap Frogs had a practice jump
this morning out of Trapnell.
She said that Winger broke away
from his team midair,
no warning, no explanation.
KNIGHT: We don't really think
he did all of this
just to steal a car, do we?
Well, if he did, he's really bad
at stealing cars.
- Incoming. Incoming, incoming.
- PARKER: What the hell?
Stop!
PARKER: Stop! Stop!
Hey! Stop! Stop! Hey!
Federal agents!
Jake! My baby!
- Step back.
- PARKER: NCIS!
Out of the car! Hands up!
It's just me. I'm alone.
Oh, thank God.
Thank God. I was so worried.
Wait. Is that a scratch?
- What the hell happened?
- PARKER: Uh,
more importantly, where's
the guy who kidnapped you?
I-I dropped him off.
I guess he just really needed a ride.
Come here.
So, you're telling me that
this guy dropped 15,000 feet,
hijacked a car, just to get
a ride to his own house?
What, did he leave the stove on?
Not exactly. When we got
to the house, we found a body.
Navy Captain David Cruz.
He was shot three times.
We found three spent casings
and a gun at the scene.
Navy says it was issued
to our Leap Frog.
VANCE: So, you think
Lieutenant Winger was the shooter.
Looks that way, but he was long
gone by the time we showed up.
We put out a BOLO, but
Winger is a highly trained Navy SEAL.
You know, I thought
that name sounded familiar.
Wasn't Winger captured by the Taliban
during the withdrawal from Afghanistan?
That's right. PARKER: They
held him captive for over two years
Right, until the State
Department negotiated his return
last December.
This guy's a war hero.
Yeah. Now that hero
looks like a murderer.
So, what do you think
caused him to snap?
- Did Winger serve with his victim?
- No.
There's no indication
they even know each other.
Then what the hell was Cruz
doing at Winger's house?
That might be a question
for Mrs. Winger.
We found Cruz's body
in the master bedroom,
shirt untucked.
- Sheets were a mess.
- Hmm.
Maybe Mrs. Winger got lonely, and
- he finally found out.
- Might explain why
he was in such a hurry to get home.
- Oh, my.
- SARAH: You think
I'm cheating on my husband?
I wasn't even home when this happened.
I was at a PTA meeting
at my son's school.
There are dozens of witnesses.
Ms. Winger, we're not disputing
your alibi for the murder.
We're trying to figure out
why Captain Cruz was
- in your home.
- I've never seen this man before
in my life, let alone in my house.
He must have been trying
to rob us and Max stopped him.
There was no sign of forced entry.
I love my husband.
I took a sacred vow when I married him,
and I will never break it.
And Max would never kill anyone
unless they were a threat
to him or to us.
He would do anything
to protect his family.
Mrs. Winger, are you and your
husband still living together?
When we were searching your house,
we noticed that all your
husband's clothes were missing.
Like he moved out.
We've been
struggling since
he came back from Afghanistan.
You can't imagine what
he went through over there.
The Taliban starved him,
beat him, made him sleep in filth.
So, when he came back, he was
a different person.
Different husband.
We started counseling
with the Navy chaplain.
And for a while, it was working.
Max was more affectionate with me,
he was playing with Oliver.
But three weeks ago, he just left.
Said it was for the best.
Do you know where he moved to?
Yeah, an apartment in Anacostia.
Address is in my phone.
You can check my texts, emails,
whatever you want.
Thank you.
My husband is a good,
Christian man, Agent Knight.
He's a not a killer.
JIMMY: Kasie confirmed it.
Based on her ballistics report,
the bullets that killed Captain Cruz
came from Lieutenant Winger's gun.
The irony is that Captain Cruz
was already knocking on death's door.
A bullet was not the only thing
I found in his brain.
Look at this.
That is a glioblastoma.
- A tumor?
- Yeah, an aggressive one.
My guess is he probably
would have only had
about 12 months to live.
Did he know about it?
His medical file didn't
mention any cancer at all.
Maybe Parker was right.
What you don't know can't hurt you.
Yeah, I, uh, heard you talked
to Parker about his mom.
I messed up, Tim.
He didn't take it well.
Yeah, I heard heard that, too.
Listen, don't
don't beat yourself up, okay?
You-you thought that
you were doing the right thing,
you thought you were helping him.
I did the exact opposite. I hurt him.
Parker said that I reopened
an old wound.
Well, I'm sorry, Jimmy.
We should have been there
to back you up.
Uh, no, you guys warned me that
was a risky road to go down.
I just kept walking.
(SCOFFS) Please.
You're a medical examiner.
It's what you do. Far as I'm concerned,
you got nothing to be sorry about.
But I'm still glad
it wasn't me that he yelled at.
- MCGEE: Uh, you got something, Kase?
- Oh, yes.
I think I found a connection
between Winger and our victim.
Using cell phone records,
I retraced both
Winger and Cruz's locations
over the past week.
I discovered they coincided
at one place and one time.
Two days ago, at the Navy Yard chapel.
So, maybe the chaplain knows something.
- All right, thanks, Kase. Jimmy?
- Hmm?
- It'll be okay.
- Yeah.
Oh, yeah. I'm getting flashbacks
- to all the base chapels
- (PHONE BEEPING)
my dad used to drag me to as a kid.
Uh, Torres and Knight just checked out
Winger's apartment.
No sign of him there.
Sorry, gentlemen.
You just missed
the pre-deployment blessing.
NCIS. We'd like a word
with the chaplain.
Of course. Uh, he's currently
taking confession
in the chapel right now,
but he should be out shortly.
But I'm afraid there are
no weapons allowed inside the chapel.
You are the chaplain's assistant?
Seaman Morris, religious
programming specialist.
Do you recognize these men?
Yes, I do. Uh, why? Is everything okay?
We think they were both here
two days ago.
Do you have any idea why?
No, I don't, but, um
Well, you can ask him yourself.
He's here right now.
Lieutenant Winger
is here in the chapel now?
With the chaplain. Yes, sir.
MCGEE: NCIS.
PARKER: Chaplain?
I'm Special Agent Parker.
Are you all right?
Oh, I'm fine.
But if, uh, you're looking
for Lieutenant Winger,
he isn't here anymore.
He gave confession,
then left out the back.
All right, I'm on it.
What did Winger say?
Did he say where he was going?
Oh, I'm afraid I can't tell you that.
- Excuse me?
- Everything Lieutenant Winger told me,
including his whereabouts,
is confidential.
It's protected
by the seal of confession.
With all due respect, Chaplain, uh,
Lieutenant Winger
murdered someone this morning,
so if you know where he's going,
you need to tell me.
Well, then it looks like we have
a problem, Agent Parker,
because the way I see it, I
don't have to tell you anything.
I answer to a higher authority.
Well, you don't see that every day.
Am I missing something?
I mean, are we even allowed
to interrogate him?
Technically, no.
- Then why is he here, McGee?
- Because by the time
I got back to the chapel,
Parker already had him cuffed.
- He handcuffed a chaplain?
- Mm-hmm.
Oh, man, we're getting
struck by lightning.
Or fired, but, um,
that seems to be a risk
Parker is willing to take.
TORRES: Mm.
Commander Charles Gage.
Charlie the Chaplain.
Yeah, I've heard that before.
I'm more of a Buster Keaton fan,
if I'm being honest.
- Fits you, though.
- Why's that?
'Cause you're not talking.
(CHUCKLES) That's very funny.
No, uh, we've been over this,
Agent Parker.
SECNAV instruction 1730.11
protects private communication
between clergy
and those seeking counsel.
Tell that to Captain David Cruz.
Nothing protected him.
He was murdered this morning
by this man.
Lieutenant Max Winger,
who was last seen talking to you.
Not talking. Confessing.
Yeah. Yeah, I bet.
Uh, murder, kidnapping,
grand theft auto.
How many Our Fathers
and Hail Marys was that?
Are you a man of faith, Agent Parker?
- We're not talking about me.
- Except I need you to understand.
We're not just dealing with
the laws of man here.
The seal of confession
is inviolable. It extends
- even into the hereafter.
- And I'm talking
about the here and now.
This man is a trained killer.
What else is there to understand?
You like war movies?
(CHUCKLES) Okay. This
- Stop changing the subject.
- No, I'm not.
When I was growing up,
I loved war movies. Uh, Patton,
Platoon, The Dirty Dozen.
I saw 'em all.
Then I saw the real thing.
Iraq, 2007. The surge.
Lost a lot of good men.
But they taught me something
no movie ever could.
In battle, you put your faith
in the men serving alongside you.
You trust them with your life.
So, when a service member
walks into my chapel
and tells me his deepest secrets,
he's trusting me with their life.
If I betray that trust,
I put him in danger.
I put the entire unit in danger.
We're not just talking about
protecting Lieutenant Winger.
We're talking about protecting all
of the men and women who serve.
Nice sermon.
My dad would have approved.
He liked war movies, too.
But this isn't Iraq, Chaplain,
and Lieutenant Winger
is not at war, but still,
people are dying.
Chaplain Gage,
I am NCIS Director Leon Vance.
I'm sorry you've been detained.
Please accept my apology
for this inconvenience.
Seems that there's been
a misunderstanding.
I agree, Director.
You're free to go.
And I assure you that
Agent Parker will get
a refresher on Navy regulations.
No harm done.
Agent Parker was just trying
to do the right thing. As am I.
Agent Paulson will see you out.
- The hell were you thinking?
- I was thinking
that the last time
a priest held out on me,
it turns out he was
an international drug lord.
He's a base chaplain, not El Padre.
You should have cleared this
- with me.
- Why?
I know what you would have said.
Same thing you've been
saying for months.
"Tread lightly, keep it low-key,
we don't need bad press."
- We don't.
- Well,
imagine how bad it's gonna be
if Winger kills again.
Do you ever consider
that I have a good reason
- to say those things?
- Well, if you're
ready to share, Leon,
I'm ready to listen.
(DOOR CLOSES)
- Wow.
- Yeah. It was Biblical.
And it wasn't just the chaplain.
It was Vance, too.
Mm, Parker's on a tear today.
He could have gotten into a lot of
trouble for arresting the chaplain.
TORRES: Maybe it wasn't
about the chaplain.
Maybe it was about the chaplain's boss.
You think Parker's got a beef with God?
After the year he's had, wouldn't you?
Where are we at with Winger?
We have agents outside
his apartment and his house.
His wife and son
have a full security detail.
What about bank accounts?
He can't get far without cash.
Well, uh, no recent transactions,
but there's not a lot to draw from.
The Wingers are living
paycheck to paycheck.
- Phone records?
- That's where it gets interesting.
Winger preferred to use
an encrypted messaging app.
Turns out he received a voice
message just minutes before
his Leap Frog jump this morning.
Well, now we're talking. Play it.
Well, we-we don't have
the actual message.
The company is citing customer privacy
and demanding a court order, so
And I'm gonna get a court order.
Winger's psych eval. Go.
Uh, conducted by a Navy psychologist
after Winger's release
from Taliban custody.
They diagnosed him
with post-traumatic stress,
but found him remarkably stable
given the trauma that he'd been through.
Yeah, I bet they'd like
to revise that assessment now.
Especially since I found more trauma.
This is Lieutenant Junior Grade
Liam O'Brien.
He's a Leap Frog, just like Winger.
He fell to his death three months ago.
Parachute malfunction.
KNIGHT: According to the
Leap Frogs that we spoke to,
Liam and Winger
were really close friends.
And losing a buddy that soon
after being a Taliban prisoner,
that's a lot, even for a Navy SEAL.
Sure, but, uh, parachute malfunctions
- don't happen every day.
- Are you thinking foul play?
I think that, in light of what
we now know about Winger,
we can't rule anything out.
Keep digging.
Watch out, Katy Perry.
Jessica Knight is ready for blast-off.
Mm-hmm. Funny, but, uh, no, not quite.
This is NCIS: ELITE's new jumpsuit.
It's been five months. Do you
even know what you're training for?
Well, on some days, it is
hostile extractions, other days,
it is CBRN response, but, uh, really,
I'm still just an astronaut
waiting to go to space.
Well, it's better than
plunging back to the earth.
- Just ask Liam O'Brien.
- Oh, Winger's friend.
- These were his parachute rigs?
- Yup.
- So what caused the malfunction?
- Uh, for starters,
the main chute experienced
some broken suspension lines.
They snapped clean,
sent Liam into a spin.
Don't Leap Frogs train for that?
They sure do, and Liam knew the drill.
He cut his main away,
pulled his reserve,
it didn't deploy because of this pin.
It dislodged and caused
a horseshoe malfunction.
That's where the chute
won't leave the bag.
Leap Frogs train to clear those also,
but at that point,
Liam was under 400 feet
and dropping fast.
Just didn't have enough time.
- So was it an accident?
- The preliminary
investigation found
no evidence of sabotage,
- but
- You did your thing.
I did my thing. Swabbed for touch DNA,
dusted for prints.
Only found Liam's DNA and prints,
except on this pin,
where I also found Winger's.
Damn, Kasie.
Maybe you should be in ELITE.
Oh, count me in.
You know I love a good costume.
Mm-hmm.
I agree, Jess, a little touch DNA
doesn't mean that
Winger killed his friend.
But if he did, it means
whatever was going on with him
happened long before
he stole that car this morning.
You got to wonder what he's been hiding.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
(KNOCKING)
Look, I got to go.
I'll see you in the morning.
Okay.
Hope you don't mind the intrusion.
That depends. You here to confess?
In a manner of speaking.
Come in.
Impressive.
You're like Bruce Dern
in Silent Running.
If you mean the guy whose garden
becomes a crime scene?
Well, you're closer
than you think, Padre.
Of course. That's actually why I'm here.
I owe you an apology.
I didn't realize it at first,
but I know you, Agent Parker.
I helped arrange
your father's burial at sea.
I even met your sister,
the vice admiral.
She talked at great length
about your father and you.
So that's it? You just came here to
apologize?
- Well, apology accepted.
- Agent Parker,
are you familiar with Hillel the Elder?
Uh, Jewish scholar.
There's a proverb of his
that I find myself returning to.
"If I am not for myself,
then who will be for me?"
- Meaning?
- Help yourself
so that you can better help others.
Your, uh, pulpit is showing, preacher.
Losing a father is hard,
at any age, and especially
the way you lost yours.
I was wondering if perhaps
you talked to anyone about it?
Your sister found
comfort in faith, in prayer.
I thought it might help you, too.
My father prayed.
Every night.
Read his Bible, too.
This one.
Oh, yeah.
"The Lord shall fight for you
and ye shall hold your peace."
He was a man of faith.
PARKER: Yes, he was.
What good did it do?
Because he was murdered right here
in that chair.
So, thank you, Chaplain.
I don't need your thoughts and prayers.
I need your help in finding a killer.
Anything else is a waste of time.
I'll say good night now.
(DOOR OPENS)
(DOOR CLOSES)
All right, we are casting
a wider net for Winger.
Border patrol is doing searches
at every crossing.
I still don't buy that he's on the run.
Doesn't fit his psych profile.
Guy was held prisoner
by the Taliban for two years.
I mean, who knows
what's going through his head.
So, post-traumatic stress?
That's not really much of a theory.
Unfortunately, it's the only one
we have right now.
Except PTS doesn't make somebody
violent. It has to be combined
- with other risk factors.
- Sure.
Anger issues, alcohol, drug use, yeah.
And we have no evidence that Winger
has a history of any of those things.
(PHONE RINGS)
Special Agent McGee.
Oh, Chaplain. How can I help you?
Uh, no, I think we would have found it.
Yeah. No, we, uh, we will let you know.
Let me guess, the chaplain's
looking for Parker's lost soul?
Funny. No, uh,
Chaplain's actually
looking for his lost ID.
Thinks he left it here
accidentally when he was
"visiting" for his interrogation.
- Or someone took it.
- What makes you say that?
We weren't the only visit
the chaplain had yesterday.
Winger?
All right, let me pull up
the chaplain's ID logs.
Okay, last time his ID was used
was yesterday evening
at the Navy munitions depot.
Security cameras?
Uh, yeah, trying to access them now.
Parker was right. Winger
was hiding more than we thought.
I found a loose floorboard
in Winger's apartment,
and these were hidden underneath.
- KNIGHT: A Quran?
- Yeah, and a prayer rug.
But Winger's Catholic.
Yeah, but he was also a
Taliban prisoner for two years.
Are you saying he converted?
I'm saying that maybe he had no choice.
And it might have been more than
a religious conversion.
Take a look at this.
Six minutes after
the chaplain's ID was used
to scan into the depot,
Winger came out of a side exit.
KNIGHT: And he wasn't empty-handed.
- What exactly is in that building?
- Well, it's climate-controlled.
Typically, that means chemicals or
Explosives.
Winger's wife said he came back
a different man.
We are not just
looking for a killer anymore.
We may be looking for
a terrorist sleeper agent.
And we'll need to start
decorating for Christmas soon.
I'll show you where we keep the boxes.
You lied to me.
Give us a moment.
Agent Parker, even you must know
that bearing false witness is a sin.
One of the Ten Commandments,
if I'm not mistaken.
You told me Winger gave confession.
- He did.
- Except
Muslims don't give Confession.
We found this hidden
in Winger's apartment,
- along with a prayer rug.
- You know I can't speak
about the lieutenant's
personal and private beliefs,
but he did request
the sacrament of confession.
Well, then he was just using you
to steal your ID.
Or did you give it to him?
Took you long enough
to report it missing.
Agent Parker, I'd misplace my
shadow if it weren't attached.
Winger used your ID to steal something
from a munitions depot.
- Possibly a bomb.
- Wait.
You think he's a terrorist?
Last night, you said something to me.
"If I'm not for myself,
who will be for me?"
But there's more to that quote,
isn't there?
"If I am only for myself, what am I?"
Are you just someone
that listens to people
or do you want to help them, too?
What kind of man are you, Chaplain?
I'm a man of my word, Agent Parker.
Then whatever happens next is on you.
Agent Parker, I-I heard
what you said to the chaplain.
The thing is,
um, I'm also bound
by confidentiality, but
I-I don't want blood on my hands.
Look, Morris, if you know something
Yesterday, when
you asked if I had seen
Winger and Cruz, I did.
I overheard them talking
in the chapel. Um
It-It's gonna sound weird,
but they were arguing
about something called the O.K. Corral.
What, like gunfight
at the O.K. Corral?
I don't know what it means,
but Winger also said
there was gonna be a high body count.
Oshanbad-Kundarak Air Base.
Aka
The O.K. Corral.
Just got the file from the DoD.
It was a top secret base
located in northern Afghanistan.
- Winger served there?
- Yes,
along with our victim, Cruz,
and the dead Leap Frog, Liam O'Brien.
Why wasn't any of this in their file?
Because the O.K. Corral was the
launch pad for covert missions
to eliminate high value
Taliban terrorists.
Looks like they were successful.
Until Lieutenant Winger was
captured on one of those missions.
So, Winger and his buddies
kill a bunch of Taliban.
The Taliban captures Winger,
and now it looks like
Winger's killing his buddies.
You think the Taliban are using Winger
to get revenge on the people
that targeted them?
I think we need to find
and secure anyone else
who served in Winger's unit
because he could be
going after them next.
- I'll get the names.
- (KNOCKING)
- VANCE: Yes, come in.
- Sorry to interrupt.
- You got something?
- Remember the encrypted
voice message Winger received
before his jump yesterday?
- We just got access.
- Does it explain why he killed Cruz?
Let's just say if I heard this message,
I'd jump out of a plane
and get home as fast as I could.
SARAH: Max, it's me, it's Sarah.
There are some men in the house.
They have guns,
and they're threatening
to hurt me and Oliver.
You need to come home.
You need to come home or else
(SCREAMS)
MAN: Or else we
kill your wife and son.
No cops.
I hear a siren, they're dead.
Just you, Max. Better hurry.
Sarah, why didn't you mention this
when you spoke to us yesterday?
Because I didn't leave that message.
- Sounds like your voice.
- Well, it's not.
And I think I would remember
if I was held hostage.
If someone is still
threatening you, we can help.
We can help protect you and Oliver.
It didn't happen.
You have to believe me.
(KNOCKING)
Agent Parker.
- Why are you here?
- James 2:14.
What good is faith without deeds?
Great, more proverbs.
I thought about what you said
this morning. I'm here to help.
- You'll tell me what Winger said?
- No.
I'll let him tell you.
I reached out to the lieutenant,
and he agreed
to meet with you,
only you, Agent Parker.
Not gonna happen. If he wants to
meet, he has to turn himself in.
No. I vouched for you.
I told him you're a good man
who just wants to help.
Was that a lie?
Lieutenant Winger.
I'm Special Agent Alden Parker. NCIS.
I've got agents at every exit.
A bomb squad is on site, too.
I'm unarmed. I'm just here to talk.
And I'm willing to listen,
but if you try anything,
story time is over.
(CHUCKLES)
Something funny?
Story time.
That's what my son calls bedtime.
But I let Sarah tell the stories.
I'm too afraid mine'll
give him nightmares.
I'm not a terrorist, Agent Parker.
I'm a good, Christian man.
So the, uh
Quran and the prayer rug
we found hidden in your
apartment, those weren't yours?
Are you a man of faith, Agent Parker?
People keep asking me that.
Well, I am.
Or was.
I don't really know anymore.
Something happened to me
in Afghanistan, and
I lost God.
So, when I got back,
I tried to find Him again.
Tried the old ways, church
and prayer and good works.
And when that didn't work,
I tried other ways.
The prayer rug and Quran,
that was one of them.
But no matter what I try,
God doesn't seem
to be listening anymore.
And, boy, I tell you, I could really use
His help now that
I'm being framed for murder.
I don't expect you to believe me.
I do, Lieutenant.
You received a message from your wife
just before you jumped.
- That's right.
- It wasn't her.
It was a deepfake. AI-generated.
Pretty good one, too.
Almost fooled our best scientist.
It sure fooled me.
I got that message
and got home fast as I could.
Cruz was already dead when I got there,
and my service weapon
was lying near the body.
That's when I knew I was being set up.
Why did you run?
You had to know that would
make you look guilty.
Because it was the only way
to prove my innocence.
That's why I stole this.
Slowly.
It's okay. It's not what you think.
I haven't killed anyone, Agent Parker.
This dirt is what's killing everyone.
And it's killing me, too.
So Winger didn't steal explosives,
he stole soil samples?
From the O.K. Corral base
in Afghanistan.
Before the Americans
had the O.K. Corral,
it belonged to the Soviets.
I'm guessing they left us a mess.
Yeah, Kasie analyzed it.
That dirt is a cocktail of jet fuel,
asbestos, and depleted uranium.
Winger thinks it made him sick,
really sick.
Few weeks ago, he was diagnosed
with stage four malignant melanoma.
- What's his prognosis?
- Not good.
Doctors don't think he has long to live.
How can he be certain
that the base is to blame?
Because he wasn't the only one
to get sick.
Captain David Cruz.
Served at O.K. Corral for over a year.
Our M.E. found a brain tumor
while performing his autopsy.
- He never said anything to me.
- We don't think he knew.
But your friend Liam
He knew.
Eight days before he fell to his death
in a parachute malfunction,
he was given
a terminal cancer diagnosis.
It wasn't a malfunction.
Liam didn't want to die slowly,
so he took a quicker way out.
You're saying he sabotaged
his own parachute?
I tried to stop him, tried
to fix his reserve chute, but
he must have double-checked
and dislodged the pin.
And you kept the truth secret
so his family could
receive full benefits.
That's what it all
comes down to, right? Money.
It's the reason
I needed to clear my name.
And a murder charge
would have voided your pension.
And if I lose that, I've got nothing
to leave my family when I'm gone.
Three people sick, but that's
just a drop in the bucket.
There were almost
a thousand service members
deployed to that base during the war.
McGee's running them down.
This is a massive health crisis,
and it's flown
completely under the radar.
How's that possible?
WINGER: After I was diagnosed,
Cruz and I began to suspect it
was related to the O.K. Corral.
So, Cruz began making waves
at the Pentagon,
trying to open
an official investigation.
Next thing I knew, Cruz was dead
and I was being framed.
Someone is trying to silence us.
That's quite a theory.
Pentagon murders a whistleblower
and then, uh, frames a war hero
to cover up a health crisis.
Uh, talk about bad press.
I don't give a damn about the press.
Just follow the evidence where it leads.
- (DOOR OPENS)
- (PHONE RINGS)
Yeah?
What do you got, Kase?
Lieutenant Winger is wrong.
About the O.K. Corral?
No, that place is toxic as hell.
He's wrong about why
Captain Cruz was killed.
It wasn't a cover-up.
Cruz was being blackmailed.
After tracing some reoccurring
bank transactions
to Cruz's crypto wallet,
I found some encrypted messages
between Cruz and a blackmailer.
- Who is it?
- Oh, the messages don't say that,
but they do say what this is all about.
Meet Ensign Riley Presenza.
She's a subordinate
under his command.
The blackmailer found out Cruz
- was sleeping with her.
- Well, if that got out,
that would have been
the end of Cruz's career.
So, naturally, Cruz was paying
the blackmail payments,
until two days ago,
when he wrote the blackmailer,
said he was stopping the payments
and reporting it to his superiors.
I bet that didn't go over well.
Oh, the blackmailer
threatened to kill Cruz,
and the next morning, Cruz was dead.
So his murder had nothing to do
with the O.K. Corral?
Doesn't look like it.
Except how did the killer know
to frame Winger for murder?
NCIS didn't even know
about his connection to Cruz.
Yeah, it seems like the killer
knew a lot of peoples' secrets.
Almost like they confessed them.
GAGE: So,
this part here is hanging a little low,
- if you want to pull that taut. Yeah.
- MORRIS: How's that?
PARKER: Little early for
Christmas decorations, isn't it?
GAGE Seem to go up earlier every year.
I take it you're not here to help me
arrange the nativity scene?
No, I don't come bearing gifts,
only bad news.
It turns out your
confidential conversations
- (RF DETECTOR BEEPING STEADILY)
- haven't been so confidential.
We isolated a large data packet
coming from the chapel whenever
you were taking confessions.
I'm afraid I don't speak tech,
Agent Parker.
(DEVICE BEEPING RAPIDLY)
Your chapel's been bugged.
And we have proof that
these recordings were used
to blackmail service members.
I-I'm sorry, Agent Parker,
are you accusing me
of blackmailing people
I'm supposed to help?
No. I'm accusing him.
Morris?
It's not true, Commander. Uh
MCGEE: Oh, it is.
We traced the recordings to your phone
and the crypto to your bank account.
You tried to point us
in the wrong direction,
but it was never about the O.K. Corral.
You murdered Captain Cruz
after he stopped paying
and set up a dying man to take the fall.
MCGEE: Even framed him with his own gun.
Not hard, considering
he had to remove his weapon
before entering the chapel.
(SCOFFS) That's right.
No guns allowed.
- Stay back or I'll shoot him.
- Drop your weapon!
You hear that, Agent Parker?
(SCREAMS)
(GRUNTING)
GAGE: "The path of the
righteous man is beset on all sides
by the inequities of the selfish."
Ezekiel?
Tarantino.
I can't thank you enough
for what you've done for me.
Oh, it's us that should be thanking you.
I mean, after what you started,
the Pentagon now knows
that military personnel
at the O.K. Corral
were exposed to contaminants.
V.A. plans to extend benefits
to the veterans who, uh, served there.
I know, in your case, must be, uh
- small consolation.
- No, no. Not at all.
I'm proud of my country for doing right
by its service members.
And thanks to you,
I have my family again.
I'm blessed, Agent Parker.
OLIVER: Daddy!
♪
I don't get it.
Winger served his country.
He sacrificed everything to
make the world a safer place.
He was put through hell
trying to get back home, and
(CHUCKLES)
And then, when he did
how does God reward him?
By killing him.
Painfully and slowly,
in front of his family.
(SIGHS)
How does he still think he's blessed?
I mean, what
what good can come
from all of this pain?
What, no proverb?
I thought at the very least
you'd have an answer for that.
I'm afraid the answer you're looking for
only God can provide.
Well, that's great.
'Cause I've been asking.
But the man upstairs refuses to talk.
Can I offer a suggestion?
Perhaps the man upstairs is talking,
but it's you who refuses to listen.
Answers rarely come from a
burning bush or a booming voice.
Most of the time,
they come from the people closest to us.
If you're truly looking
for answers, Agent Parker
then you have to be prepared
to not like what you find.
Oh, my God. Agent Parker.
I am so sorry. I meant to put that away.
Believe me, message received,
loud and clear.
Not yet, Jimmy.
I'm gonna need you on this one.
(DOOR CLOSES)