MUSIC IN:
EXT. WOODED AREA - DAY
(MUSIC OVER ACTION/ HUNTER MOVES THROUGH THE BUSH CHASING A DEER)
(SFX: HUNTER CLEARS LEAVES WITH HIS HANDS)
(SFX: HATCH DOOR OPENS)
(HUNTER SHOUTS)
(MUSIC OUT)
(THEME MUSIC UP OVER OPENING TITLE/SCENES/ CREDITS AND OUT)
MUSIC IN:
INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY
GIBBS: Grab your gear.
TONY: My three favorite words.
KATE: Where to?
GIBBS: Saint Mary's River State Park. Right here.
TONY: Maryland.
GIBBS: Good guess. Think you can guess how to drive there?
TONY: I'd say the fastest way would be to take the Beltway to Highway Two Thirty Five south. Take that to Route Fifty and then... punch it into the Nav System when we get lost.
KATE: What's in the park?
GIBBS: A deer hunter stumbled onto an aircraft drop tank - Navy markings.
TONY: We're driving to Maryland to look at a drop tank?
GIBBS: It's got a body inside.
TONY: Now that's different.
GIBBS: Yeah, I thought so. You pick up Ducky. Tony, you gas the truck.
TONY: You know, Gibbs, most agencies have people who do that sort of thing.
GIBBS: Mm-hmm. So do we.
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
EXT. PARK - DAY
TROOPER LYNCH: Bow hunter was tracking a deer. Stumbled across the drop tank.
GIBBS: He the one who opened the hatch?
TROOPER LYNCH: That's right.
(CAMERA ANGLE ON CORPSE)
DUCKY: Mmm...
KATE: How did he get so...
DUCKY: I believe mummified is the adjective you were searching for. Ah, the tank must have been airtight creating a hermetic environment.
(SFX: CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
TONY: No air, no bugs, no critters.
DUCKY: And more important, no bacteria.
GIBBS: You got an estimated time of death, Duck?
DUCKY: Very amusing, Jethro.
HUNTER: I thought it was a missile or a bomb of some kind until I tapped it. It sounded hollow so I cleared some leaves away and found the hatch.
(SFX: CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
GIBBS: Curiosity got the best of you?
HUNTER: Wouldn't yours?
GIBBS: Yeah. You know what, it probably would have. Did you remove the flight bag?
HUNTER: Yeah.
GIBBS: Touch anything else?
HUNTER: Not after I saw King Tut.
GIBBS: Well, we'll need your prints...to separate them from any others we find on the tank.
(SFX: CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
KATE: Lieutenant Commander Farnsworth. Think he's our mummy?
GIBBS: I don't know. Bag it.
DUCKY: I can't do anything with this gentleman until we cut him out of here.
TONY: I know what this is, Boss.
GIBBS: Uh... external fuel tank?
TONY: A three hundred and seventy gallon external fuel tank off an F-Fourteen Tomcat. A few were converted into camera or cargo pods. This one's a cargo pod.
KATE: I'm impressed.
TONY: I didn't become an NCIS agent yesterday, Kate. As a matter of fact, tomorrow is...
GIBBS: .... it'll have been two years.
TONY: That's kind of touching, Gibbs, remembering the day you hired me.
GIBBS: Yeah, well it seemed like a good idea at the time. Duck is it okay if I touch?
DUCKY: By all means.
GIBBS: Our sailor is a Lieutenant. The flight bag's not his.
KATE: Can you see his dog tags?
GIBBS: Nope. Get a flatbed. We're going to take our Lieutenant and his pod back home with us.
KATE: Let me guess, you're going to suggest I ride back in the flatbed with the driver.
GIBBS: It wasn't a suggestion.
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
INT. NCIS GARAGE - DAY
(SFX: SKILL SAW B.G.)
GIBBS: Abby, find any prints on there besides the hunter's?
ABBY: I pulled some partials off the inside of the hatch that weren't his.
TONY: The victim's?
ABBY: I doubt it. Mummies aren't generally the self-help type.
GIBBS: Run the prints through the military data base.
ABBY: Got it. And there's a serial number on the underside of the tank. The paint's kind of warn off, but I can bring it up.
GIBBS: Good. If that tank came off a Tomcat, somebody filed a T-F-O-A report.
KATE: T-F-O-A?
TONY: Things falling off aircraft.
KATE: You're kidding.
GIBBS: No, that's what they're called. Squadrons kept files on those going to back to biplanes.
ABBY: All right.
GIBBS: Okay, on three. One, two, and three.
ABBY: Oh. Sailor on a half shell!
DUCKY: Oh, Abby, please!
ABBY: Sorry.
(SFX: CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
DUCKY: It's not unlike the Egyptians, however. Their mummified dead were buried along with personal treasures to accompany them on their journey to the afterlife.
TONY: Where he could squeeze in eighteen now and then.
KATE: He's not wearing shoes.
TONY: I kick mine off when I fly.
GIBBS: We've got an I.D.
ABBY: Lieutenant Mark Schilz.
KATE: He's not our golfer. This bag belongs to Lieutenant Lynch.
DUCKY: Gold wedding band. Looks like Lieutenant Schilz left someone behind.
GIBBS: Okay, I've got a name. I've got a serial number. T-F-O-A will find the plane and squadron.
ABBY: And we'll crack the secret of the mummy's curse in no time.
DUCKY: Abby!
ABBY: What?
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY
KATE: Lieutenant Schilz's service record. He was reported missing at sea off the Eisenhower.
GIBBS: Amend it. He's no longer missing.
KATE: The carrier was a day out of Norfolk at the end of a six month deployment in the Med.
GIBBS: When?
KATE: Uh, March four, nineteen ninety four. He was declared a deserter thirty days later and he received a dishonorable discharge.
GIBBS: Dishonorable?
KATE: Lieutenant Schilz was charged in absentia with theft of government property.
GIBBS: Ah...the cargo pod?
KATE: One point two million dollars out of the Eisenhower's safe. He was their Disbursing Officer.
TONY: I just spent three riveting hours sorting through squadron records at the Safety Center. Found the aircraft that dropped the pod. An F-Fourteen Tomcat.
GIBBS: From a squadron on the Eisenhower?
TONY: Yeah. Vilma-F Two Twelve. The Red Wolves.
KATE: Coming home from a deployment?
TONY: After six months in the Med. Want to give me the names of the Tomcat crew?
GIBBS: Well, it's safe to assume one of them wasn't Lieutenant Schilz.
KATE: Why ride in a pod if you've got a seat in the cockpit?
TONY: The pilot was Lieutenant Commander Farnsworth.
KATE: Good news, Commander. It took ten years but we located your luggage.
TONY: The golf clubs belonged to his RIO, Lieutenant Lynch.
KATE: RIO?
TONY: Radar Intercept Officer. Also called a GIBs. One B. Short for "guy in back."
KATE: Why do you need two B's?
GIBBS: Second one's for b*st*rd. What else, Tony?
TONY: V-F Two Twelve flew off the Eisenhower for Pax River the day before she docked at Norfolk.
KATE: She? Tony, it's named after Dwight David Eisenhower, for God's sake!
TONY: Maybe she was named for Mamie.
GIBBS: Her flight path took them over lower Maryland.
TONY: Where the Tomcat lost an external cargo pod. No one on the ground reported being whacked on the head, so the Navy conducted a cursory search and wrote it off.
GIBBS: This was in the spring of Ninety four?
TONY: Na-ha! Abby estimated how long the pod's been in the ground, right?
GIBBS: Nope.
TONY: Ducky calculated the time it took Lieutenant Schilz to mummify?
GIBBS: Uh-uh.
TONY: Okay. How do you know the date?
KATE: I pulled Lieutenant Schilz's service record.
TONY: Oh. You took the easy way.
GIBBS: Not so easy. Our mummified Lieutenant went U-A with one point two million.
KATE: He was the Disbursing Officer on the Eisenhower.
TONY: Our mummy's a crook.
KATE: Who tried to make his getaway in a cargo pod.
GIBBS: I doubt it. Air's cold and thin at thirty thousand feet. He'd know that. Where's the money? It's not in the pod or Abby would be up here screaming Lotto.
KATE: According to his service record it was never found.
GIBBS: Tony, pull our files on the investigation since you're such an expert at looking up names.
TONY: I wouldn't say I'm an expert.
GIBBS: If he's still working for us, I want to talk to the onboard NCIS Special Agent in Ninety four.
TONY: What if he's not with us?
GIBBS: I want to talk to the onboard NCIS Special Agent in ninety four...
TONY: (OVERLAP) Onboard NCIS Special Agent in Ninety four.
GIBBS: The mummy had a wedding ring.
KATE: And a wife to go with it.
GIBBS: Got her current address?
KATE: Not yet.
DUCKY: (V.O.) The deceased was a Caucasian...
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
INT. NCIS AUTOPSY ROOM
DUCKY: ...male, twenty to twenty five, approximately five foot seven. The facial bone structure indicates Nordic descent.
GIBBS: Matches Lieutenant Schilz's description. Commissioned before the DNA database was initiated.
DUCKY: Oh. Well young man, we'll have to match your smile. The Lieutenant was in remarkable condition, given the precipitous fall. The jaw was broken - fractured, post-mortem, no sign of bleeding. The injury is consistent with a nine-iron or possibly a sand-wedge. Definitely one of the lofted clubs he flew with.
GIBBS: Ducky, I'm not interested in what happened to him after he died.
DUCKY: I'm surprised to hear you say that, Gibbs. You know post mortem details could be extremely revealing. Remember that case four years ago, where the young Marine was buried in an ant hill up to his neck?
GIBBS: Duck, eight years ago. How did he die?
DUCKY: Oh, it can't be eight years. No, I know it wasn't. Four years ago your third wife hit you over the head with a baseball bat. I distinctly remember the ant-eaten Marine on the table there when I stitched you up.
GIBBS: Ducky, how did our young Lieutenant die?
DUCKY: I think the poor fellow bled out. I made a minimal incision in the chest cavity and I came across evidence of massive internal hemorrhaging.
GIBBS: From?
DUCKY: I don't know yet. But something quite small must have punctured the chest cavity. Yes, I'll need to send the poor boy for a catscan to get a proper look.
GIBBS: It couldn't have happened when he augured in on the pod?
DUCKY: No! As I told you, the fracture to the jaw was postmortem, obviously inflicted by the crash. This amount of bleeding could only occur when he was alive.
GIBBS: Which means that Lieutenant Schilz was murdered and then stuffed in the pod.
DUCKY: Yes. Yes, I suppose it does.
(MUSIC UP AND OUT)
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY
KATE: Gotta be decaf.
GIBBS: What?
KATE: All that coffee you drink.
GIBBS: Hi-test.
KATE: Don't you twitch?
GIBBS: Nope. How's it coming?
KATE: Uh... still no address.
GIBBS: You know, if Lieutenant Schilz stole the money, he didn't do it alone.
KATE: Why do you say that?
GIBBS: Someone murdered him and stuffed him in the pod. Maybe an accomplice that didn't want to share the million two.
KATE: Could he have surprised the thief in the Disbursing Office and been murdered?
GIBBS: Well no, then someone would have to carry the body from there to the cargo pod without being seen - no easy thing to do on a ship with six thousand souls.
KATE: Oh, I found Lieutenant Schilz's widow. She's remarried and living in Arlington.
GIBBS: Go get her.
(KATE RUSHES O.S.)
TONY: Was it something I said?
GIBBS: Not yet.
TONY: Well, it looks like we're going to have to go to Hawaii, boss.
GIBBS: Now it's what you said.
TONY: NCIS Special Agent Afloat, Richard Owens, investigated the robbery in Ninety four. He's currently assigned to NCIS, Pearl Harbor. Or we could always use video conferencing. You know Owens?
GIBBS: Nope.
TONY: I didn't think you would. He's considerably younger than you are.
GIBBS: What would you consider, considerably?
TONY: The guy was young, Gibbs. Only twenty eight. That makes him thirty seven now.
GIBBS: Then considerably would not be an accurate description.
TONY: I didn't realize, boss. How old are you?
GIBBS: It doesn't matter how old I am.
TONY: Well, it does actually because it gives me a reference point for the word that you....
GIBBS: (OVERLAP) May I see the file?
TONY: You know, after forty everybody's eyes...
GIBBS: The night of the robbery... there was a report of a man overboard. A-Aft watch spotted a life vest beacon in the carrier wake.
TONY: You're embarrassed to tell me how old you are.
GIBBS: Not at all. (READS) Schilz's shoes were found in the hold full of scrap life vests.
TONY: Yeah, the Navy presumed that he robbed the Disbursing Office, faked falling overboard and sat tight with the cash until the carrier put into Norfolk.
GIBBS: They based all this on finding his shoes in the hold?
TONY: Well, maybe the Navy read Agent Owens' notes. They are attached to the back of the file.
GIBBS: (READS) "Lieutenant Schilz must have eluded the night watch and slipped over the side without his shoes to swim ashore."
TONY: Eye strain.
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
INT. MARY'S LIVING ROOM - DAY
MARY: Losing Mark at sea was bad enough, but to have him accused of stealing money.
KATE: I'm sorry. I realize this is opening old wounds.
MARY: At least finding his body will end the vicious gossip. There was a rumor that he started a new life with the money and a new woman. Here you go.
KATE: Thank you. Was there any basis for it?
MARY: We'd only been married a year. Six months of that he was at sea, Agent Todd.
KATE: Doesn't sound likely, does it?
MARY: No. No more likely than his being a thief. Mark was a good man. He loved the Navy, even if it didn't love him back. But that'll change now, won't it? He'll be exonerated.
KATE: Um... we have reopened the investigation.
MARY: But it... it seems so obvious - whoever took the money murdered Bart.
KATE: That's a very real possibility.
MARY: He wouldn't have even been in that tank unless someone put him there.
KATE: So...you are remarried?
MARY: Yeah. After six years I had Mark declared dead. Randy helped me move on. The Navy didn't even send a flag for his memorial service.
KATE: That seems rather harsh.
MARY: I could have done without the flag, but not to receive death benefits or child support, that...that was harsh.
KATE: You haven't gotten anything?
MARY: Flags and benefits are only for the honorably discharged. You haven't been in the Navy very long, have you?
KATE: I'm still not. As I told you, I'm an NCIS Special Agent and that's only been for a month.
MARY: I don't... care for myself. Randy and I get by but... if you clear Mark's name, Alicia will benefit. She'll have a better life. Money for college.
KATE: She's beautiful.
MARY: Mark never saw her. He called though, the morning she was born. I held the phone to her ear so she could hear her daddy's voice.
HARM: He called her from the carrier?
MARY: Yeah, I know it wasn't easy then. I don't know how he did it but somehow Mark got a call to me at Bethesda early in the morning. That was the last time I ever heard his voice.
KATE: The day your daughter was born?
MARY: Yeah. And the day Mark disappeared.
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
INT. MTAC ROOM - DAY
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) I would have never guessed he flew off the ship!
GIBBS: I don't think it was his idea.
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) I was sure he'd swum ashore with the cash. That damn case has been the only blotch on my record for twelve years.
GIBBS: Didn't do much for Lieutenant Schilz's record either.
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) He stole the money. I'll stand by that.
GIBBS: Well, if he stole it, Agent Owns, where is it?
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) Beats me but it's not on that ship. We searched every inch of it for him and the cash.
GIBBS: The Eisenhower docked the next day. How long did you search?
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) I don't remember.
TONY: Two days.
GIBBS: Who searched?
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) Hell, the entire crew.
GIBBS: Finders keepers? Treasure hunt?
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) What are you implying, Gibbs?
GIBBS: Nothing. I'm just wondering how you managed to search every inch of a ninety five thousand ton, twenty four story tall, one thousand forty nine foot long aircraft carrier in two days.
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) We couldn't keep the crew any long than that. They'd been deployed for six months. Their families were waiting dockside.
GIBBS: Which means you didn't search every inch. So as far as you know, that money could still be on board.
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) It could be, but it isn't.
GIBBS: Another assumption, Special Agent Owens? Or do you know this is fact?
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) I don't like the tone of this. You've got my report. I have nothing more to tell you.
GIBBS: Okay. We'll see. The Eisenhower is currently doing quals in the Atlantic. She'll be back in Norfolk for weekend liberty. Be there. Oh seven hundred. Saturday.
AGENT OWENS: (ON SCREEN) You cannot order me back to that... that...
(MONITOR CLICKS OFF)
TONY: Where'd you get those statistics?
GIBBS: Read 'em.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. GARAGE - DAY
TONY: You put it back together.(SFX: WELDING B.G.)
ABBY: Yeah, I had to study the fiberglass sarcophagus in one piece.
GIBBS: What'd you find?
ABBY: Something hinky. Okay, the pod is attached to the Tomcat by an M-X-U rack with two hooks.
TONY: It's here and here. (BEAT) Wasn't sure you could see 'em, boss.
GIBBS: Go on.
ABBY: The hooks fit in these holes. Now, when the pilot wants to eject the pod, he flips a switch and the hooks disengage.
TONY: The pod drops away.
ABBY: Well, actually it's kicked away. The forward and aft ejectors fire and kick it off the wing.
TONY: T-F-O-A report said the pilot didn't touch the pod ejector switch. The pod just fell away. Is he lying?
ABBY: No. If he had popped it, the ejectors would have made dents in the pod.
GIBBS: No. No dents.
ABBY: No dents. Just damage from plowing into Mother Earth.
TONY: You know, when you think about it...
[SCENE_BREAK]
EXT. JET - FLASHBACK
TONY: (V.O.) If the Lieutenant was alive that would have been one hell of a ride.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. GARAGE - DAY
(SFX: TONY MAKES AUDIO EFFECTS)
TONY: (BEAT) Well, it would.
ABBY: (SIGNS) Tony's weird.
GIBBS: (SIGNS) Oh, just figuring that out now?
TONY: You know, it's not polite to talk with your hands.
ABBY: Gibbs, come look at these holes.
GIBBS: Yeah, top of the hole's damaged. This one, too.
ABBY: To remove a pod on deck, you insert a key in the M-X-U rack and turn it. That withdraws the hooks. Now, if you turn the key only until the tips of the hooks are holding onto the pod then...
GIBBS: It should tear loose on the cat shot and leave marks like these on the holes.
ABBY: Except the mummy's curse was working so the tips held onto the pod until it was over Maryland.
TONY: Abby, there was no mummy ten years ago so how could there be a curse?
ABBY: It's like a chicken and egg thing, Tony.
(DOORS SLIDE OPEN)
KATE: I interviewed Lieutenant Schilz's widow. They had a child, Alicia. Nine years old and she's as pretty as her mom.
TONY: I knew I should have taken that interview.
KATE: She's remarried, Tony.
TONY: Yeah?
KATE: He does this just to screw with me. Don't you?
GIBBS: Do you have a report to make, Agent Todd?
KATE: Mary got a phone call from her first husband the day he disappeared. She'd just given birth at the Bethesda Naval Hospital - he called her from the carrier.
ABBY: So?
GIBBS: So it's a big deal to call home from a ship in Ninety four.
KATE: The signal was bounced off a satellite and routed to the Comm office in Norfolk.
GIBBS: Did you trace the time of the call?
KATE: Navy doesn't get rid of anything. Comm office records show that a Lieutenant Schilz called Bethesda Naval Hospital from C-V-N Sixty nine, that's the Eisenhower... at zero five thirty three on the Fourth of March, nineteen ninety four and the call lasted twelve minutes.
GIBBS: Tony. What time does the shmuck's report say the disbursing office was robbed?
KATE: What schmuck?
GIBBS: Our schmuck, unfortunately.
TONY: Between twenty one hundred hours, March third when the office was secured and zero seven hundred on the fourth when it was opened by the Assistant Disbursing Officer.
KATE: It doesn't let him off the hook.
TONY: Ensign Wiles.
KATE: Wiles? Randy Wiles?
TONY: Ah, no. You're not getting me to bite, again. You read this report.... No! Mrs. Schilz told you!
KATE: Actually, she did.
TONY: I knew it.
KATE: Only she didn't tell me that Randy Wiles was the Assistant Disbursing Officer. She said he was her husband!
(FADE OUT)
MUSIC IN:
INT. USS EISENHOWER - DAY
AGENT OWENS: This is why I jumped at being stationed at Pearl. It's only November and I'm freezing. I hate Norfolk.
TONY: Could be Bremerton.
AGENT OWENS: Where the hell is he? I didn't fly standby and sit next to a toilet for twelve hours to freeze my ass off waiting.
TONY: First Class toilet? (BEAT) Sorry.
AGENT OWENS: He's talking to me like I'm some kind of newbie. Who the hell does this Gibbs think he is anyway? Ten years and this case is still haunting me. It's like I'm cursed.
(TONY CHUCKLES)
AGENT OWENS: What was funny?
TONY: Our lab tech believes there's a curse. But she's a Goth, you know. The chains and the tats and the piercings. You're so... how old do you think Gibbs is?
[SCENE_BREAK]
EXT. FIRING RANGE - DAY
(SFX: SHOTGUN BLASTS B.G.)
(SFX: CLAY PIGEONS EXPLODE)
GIBBS: Very nice. Very nice.
RANDY: Thanks. You here to shoot?
GIBBS: I hope not. I'm Special Agent Gibbs, this is Special Agent Todd. NCIS. The lady inside said you're the manager. Randy Wiles.
KATE: Formerly Ensign Randy Wiles.
RANDY: I saw the news. If you're here to talk about Mark, I told you guys all I know years ago.
GIBBS: You didn't say you're going to marry his wife.
RANDY: You talked to Mary?
KATE: I did. And funny thing, she never once mentioned marrying her husband's shipmate.
RANDY: She doesn't know that Mark and I served together.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. PRO SHOP - DAY
GIBBS: How could she not know?
RANDY: We met at Mark's memorial service.
GIBBS: What'd you say? I was passing by, dug the music and decided to drop in?
RANDY: Something pretty close to that. I was afraid that if I told her I knew Mark, she'd ask a lot of questions. I didn't think I'd fall in love with her. And then when I did... it was too late.
KATE: Bounce.
RANDY: Yeah.
GIBBS: Bounce?
KATE: It's a film. Ben Affleck gives up his seat on this flight for a guy who needs to get home. Plane crashes. Guy dies. He looks up the widow, Gwyneth Paltrow. He means to tell her the story, but by the time they come around to it, they've fallen in love and he's afraid if he tells her it'll ruin it.
RANDY: That's what happened to me.
KATE: I believe him.
GIBBS: Of course you believe him. It's a chick flick. In a guy flick, you steal the money, you set Lieutenant Schilz up to take the fall, you murder him and you marry his wife.
RANDY: That is sick.
KATE: It sure is.
GIBBS: Agent Todd, you will realize after being here more than a month that there are a lot of sick people in the world. Are you one of those, Randy?
RANDY: This is my day job. At night I do freelance accounting. Mary and I rent a house, Alicia goes to public school. I drive a six year old Saturn. Now do you think I'd live like that if I had a million bucks?
GIBBS: Yeah, you're right. You were doing better staying in the Navy.
RANDY: Navy cleared me, doesn't mean they trusted me.
GIBBS: Your disbursing clerk, Petty Officer Toner. She left the Navy, too. They pass her over?
RANDY: Erin enlisted to catch an officer.
AGENT OWENS: (V.O.) Petty Officer Toner was a hottie.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. PASSAGEWAY - DAY
AGENT OWENS: If you know what I mean.
TONY: Oh, yeah.
GIBBS: You investigate this hottie?
AGENT OWENS: It's in my report.
GIBBS: So is the assumption that Lieutenant Schilz left his shoes onboard so he could swim ashore.
AGENT OWENS: That's not in my report!
GIBBS: No, that was in your attached notes.
AGENT OWENS: I didn't think the Navy was going to look at my notes.
GIBBS: You didn't think about anything except getting ashore.
AGENT OWENS: That's not fair, Gibbs.
GIBBS: Neither is convicting a man in absentia for a sloppy investigation.
AGENT OWENS: Lieutenant Schilz was the only one who could have done it. Wiles was in an all night poker game and Erin was already in her quarters.
TONY: How do you know?
AGENT OWENS: That cruise was the first time females were deployed at sea. If they weren't at chow or at work, they were in female country. The Navy ran that area like it was a sorority. No men allowed.
GIBBS: I'll bet you all you did was take her word. How many women got pregnant on that cruise, Special Agent Owens?
AGENT OWENS: Quite a few, Agent.(SFX: PHONE RINGS)
TONY: I guess the house mothers weren't on top of the log book.
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Gibbs.(BEGIN TELEPHONE INTERCUTS)
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Lieutenant Commander Farnsworth and Ensign Lynch died in a ramp strike two years ago. I won't say it sounds like Abby's curse of the mummy but...
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Well, if they were still in the Navy two years ago, we could cross them off our list...
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (V.O./FILTERED) ...of millionaire accomplices.
KATE: (INTO PHONE) You mean suspects.
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Lieutenant Schilz was probably killed by an accomplice.
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Or killed catching the thief in the act.
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Are you interested in clearing him or catching the bad guys?
KATE: (V.O./FILTERED) Both.
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) If we exonerate him then his wife and daughter will get the death benefit they deserve.
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: Did you locate Petty Officer Toner?
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Traced her to Westchester, P.A. On the way now.
(END TELEPHONE INTERCUTS)
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. PASSAGEWAY - DAY
GIBBS: The pilot and his RIO are dead. I don't want to hear the word "curse" out of your mouth, DiNozzo.
TONY: Would I say that, boss?
AGENT OWENS: You said it to me.
TONY: You said it first.
[SCENE_BREAK]
EXT. GOLF COURSE - DAY
ERIN TONER: (V.O.) Nice drive, Ben.
BEN: Oh, yeah.
ERIN TONER: For someone with your swing.
KATE: Miss Toner?
(ERIN SWINGS)
KATE: The pro told me you were teeing off.
ERIN TONER: I was trying to.
KATE: Sorry. I just drove in from D.C. to speak with you. It'll only take a few minutes.
BEN: Do you know anything about golf etiquette, young woman?
KATE: Not really.
BEN: This is a private club. How did you get in here?
KATE: I showed these at the gate.
[SCENE_BREAK]
EXT. CLUB PATIO - DAY
ERIN TONER: I'm sorry to hear Mark's been dead all these years. I always imagined him on some beach in Mexico sipping marguerites.
KATE: You believe he stole the money.
ERIN TONER: Oh, he and Randy were the only ones who had the combo and Randy was playing poker all night. It had to have been Mark.
KATE: Well, if that's true then his accomplice got away with the money.
ERIN TONER: Easy to see where you're going with this, Agent Todd. You said you saw my house. Nice. This country club. Also nice. Both expensive. I didn't marry money...yet. And with the losers in my family, I sure as hell didn't inherit it. So you're wondering if I was in on it with Mark. Killed him and took the money.
KATE: Well, either that or you won the lottery.
ERIN TONER: Two million. I uh... I carry this for good luck.
KATE: You can laminate a losing ticket.
ERIN TONER: (LAUGHS) Oh, come on home with me honey. I'll show you the write up from the Canton Gazette. It's too big to laminate, though, I had to have it framed.
KATE: Let's go.
ABBY: (V.O.) Fore!
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY
ABBY: Ooh!
DUCKY: Never do that again!
ABBY: I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going to get all freaked out.
DUCKY: It's an automatic reflex when one's a golfer, Abigail.
ABBY: Please don't call me Abigail.
DUCKY: Then don't yell "fore" when I have a niblick in my hand.
ABBY: A niblick? Sounds like a s*x act.
DUCKY: Yes, that's what I thought it was the first time I heard the term. A niblick is what a nine iron used to be called when golf was the province of Scottish nobles, not the democratic lovely walk spoiled by the weekend duffer.
ABBY: So....what? You think he was killed by a niblick to the kidney?
DUCKY: No, no, no. The cat scan revealed a puncture would to the chest cavity caused by a thin sharp object that perforated the pericardial sack and then penetrated the heart.
ABBY: Ouch.
DUCKY: Ouch indeed.
ABBY: So what about your niblick?
DUCKY: Ah, I was trying to see if this could have caused these hair fractures to the pelvis and lumbar vertebrae. But it's too flexible to cause uniform fracturing across both sides of the pelvis. No, it had to be an object much more rigid.
ABBY: What about his abrupt stop on an E-ticket ride?
DUCKY: The faint traces of bleeding on the cat scan. No, these fractures occurred before or immediately after he expired. Are you sure you didn't find anything here in this area on his uniform?
ABBY: Mmm, no nothing that would cause these. But I wasn't looking closely.
DUCKY: Ah! Look closely my dear.
ABBY: Of course, my darling.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. DISBURSING OFFICE
FALLINI: The robbery is a legend on this ship. Knowing Lieutenant Schilz didn't get off with the cash is going to start a treasure hunt. Excuse me.
GIBBS: Bring back fond memories?
AGENT OWENS: Not so fond.
(BEGIN FLASHBACK SCENE)
AGENT OWENS: (V.O.) The safe hadn't been jimmied. Ensign Wiles and Erin said nothing was missing but the cash.
(END FLASHBACK SCENE)
GIBBS: Was something going on between you and Petty Officer Toner, Agent Owens?
AGENT OWENS: No.
TONY: You called her a hottie.
GIBBS: You keep referring to her by her first name.
AGENT OWENS: We're not allowed to fraternize with enlisted females. You know that.
GIBBS: You're not allowed to put assumptions in reports either.
AGENT OWENS: You've made your point, Agent Gibbs. I blew that. But I wasn't screwing around with Erin. She had something going on with one of the airmen.
GIBBS: That wasn't in your report.
AGENT OWENS: It didn't seem pertinent.
GIBBS: Name?
AGENT OWENS: Martinez. Martinez. Petty Officer Ted Martinez.
TONY: Hi. Excuse me.
AGENT OWENS: You think he's involved?
GIBBS: I don't know. But since it was his hottie working here, you should have looked into him.
AGENT OWENS: You're right, Sir.
(PHONE RINGS)
GIBBS: Do not "Sir" me. I work for a living. (INTO PHONE) Gibbs.
(BEGIN TELEPHONE INTERCUTS)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Erin Toner is living large. Nice house. Country club membership.
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Do not tell me that she has a rich husband.
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Hit the Ohio Lottery for two mil.
(SCENE CUT)
GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) You check that out?
KATE: (V.O./FILTERED) Yes. Saw the winning ticket and newspaper clippings.
(SCENE CUT)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) State lottery board's closed for the day.
GIBBS: (V.O./FILTERED) Call in the morning.(SFX: DIAL TONE)
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Can you hear me now?
(END TELEPHONE INTERCUTS)
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. DISBURSING OFFICE - DAY
TONY: Got him. Ted Martinez. Aviation Machinist's Mate, Second Class. Final discharge June second, nineteen ninety four. A lot of sailors left the Navy in June of ninety four. (SFX: COMPUTER BEEP TONES B.G.)
GIBBS: Aviation Machinists' Mate. That means he was working the flight deck.
AGENT OWENS: Petty Officer Second. Probably a plane captain. (BEAT) What?
GIBBS: Who would have had the ability to stuff a body into a cargo pod?
AGENT OWENS: Anyone on the hangar deck.
GIBBS: Who's most likely?
AGENT OWENS: You're asking me to make an assumption, Agent Gibbs.
GIBBS: I'm not asking you to write it down.
AGENT OWENS: The pilot. The RIO. The plane Captain.(SFX: COMPUTER BEEP TONES)
TONY: Don't strain your eyes, boss.
GIBBS: That's no coincidence.
AGENT OWENS: Don't tell me.
GIBBS: Petty Officer Martinez was the plane captain on the Tomcat that dropped the pod that had Lieutenant Schilz's body in it.
(MUSIC UP AND OUT)
MUSIC IN:
INT. NCIS LAB - DAY
ABBY: Whoa, I should have been playing Beethoven.
GIBBS: It's not Beethoven?
ABBY: It's "The Newly Dead."
GIBBS: What's the orange stuff?
ABBY: I don't know yet, but it's only off this part of the mummy's shirt.
GIBBS: Same area as Ducky's hairline fractures.
ABBY: You went to see Ducky before you came to see me!
GIBBS: Is there a priority here I don't know about?
ABBY: A girl likes to be thought of first.
(CAMERA ANGLE CLOSE ON SCREEN)
ABBY: I don't know if it's synthetic or natural, but it's definitely a fiber. What's orange in the Navy?
GIBBS: Lifejackets.
ABBY: Weren't the mummy's shoes found in a hold with old life jackets?
GIBBS: I never believed he was in there with them.
ABBY: You might have to change your opinion.
GIBBS: Did you match Petty Officer Martinez' partial prints on the pod?
ABBY: Yep. No big surprise, he was the plane captain.
GIBBS: I was hoping they wouldn't match.
ABBY: One of them didn't. I scanned the ridges and cleaned the garbage out. I got six Galton details. I like ten to twelve, but six is enough if you get lucky.
GIBBS: Doesn't look like we got lucky.
ABBY: Well, I limited it to Naval personnel who served between Ninety and Ninety four. Still a lot of ridges and curves.
GIBBS: I might be able to lower the threshold.
ABBY: How?
GIBBS: I could give you a name and a serial number.
ABBY: Oh, that might help.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY
AGENT OWENS: Whoa, we've got nothing like this at Pearl.
TONY: This is where the big boys play.
GIBBS: (V.O.) DiNozzo!
TONY: Speaking of big boys... yeah boss?
GIBBS: What are you doing here?
AGENT OWENS: Uh... well my flight's not till nine in the morning. Since I'm here, I thought that...maybe...
GIBBS: You know how to do a database search?
AGENT OWENS: Yeah. Yeah, I do.
GIBBS: Use that computer. Locate Martinez.
TONY: I'm looking for Martinez, boss.
GIBBS: Yeah? I'm getting coffee.
TONY: You got computers at Pearl?
AGENT OWENS: Yeah, but ours is on the beach so we can surf on breaks.
(TONY LAUGHS)
TONY: Breaks...
(SFX: KEYBOARDING)
(PASSAGE OF TIME)
(MUSIC OVER ACTION/KATE WALKS PAST A SLEEPING GIBBS AND TONY)
KATE: Didn't you have a flight to catch, Agent Owens?
AGENT OWENS: Hey. Um...you know, it's a little after two and my flight's not until um...there'll be another flight.
(GIBBS AWAKENS)
GIBBS: Coffee?
KATE: Uh-huh.
GIBBS: All right, what do you got?
AGENT OWENS: We got Petty Officer Martinez was a Mexican national when he joined the Navy. He was discharged at Norfolk on June second, nineteen ninety four where he had his mail forwarded to the... Plaza Hotel...
TONY: The Plaza Hotel in New York where he was from June fifth 'till the twenty second when he flew to...
AGENT OWENS: Manzanillo Mexico. He registered at Las Brisas with a wife, no first name. Just Mister and Missus Martinez.
GIBBS: They stayed at Las Brisas until the ninth of July. After that they uh...he uh...I lost him.
AGENT OWENS: Yeah, and I found him in Guadalajara at the Presidente Intercontinental. Stayed there for ten days and then... then I lost him, too.
(TONY LAUGHS)
GIBBS: Okay, find out where he was born. Check with the local police there. A guy usually goes home when he's separated. I'm going.
KATE: For coffee?
GIBBS: To the head.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. NCIS OUTER LAB - DAY
GIBBS: Still no match?(DOORS SLIDE OPEN)
ABBY: Nothing good enough to take to court. But if my life depended on it, I'd say it was her right middle finger that made that. Thanks.
GIBBS: Yeah.
ABBY: Oh, I spectroed the fiber. Its cotton canvas dyed orange number seven, but it's not from a life preserver. They're made out of urethane coated nylon.
(INTERCUT FLASHBACK SCENE)
GIBBS: It's the mailbag, Abby!
ABBY: Orange mail bag. Cool!
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. SQUAD ROOM
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Right, I understand. Are you sure?
GIBBS: Ohio Lottery?
KATE: (INTO PHONE) Uh-huh. Okay, thank you.(HANGS UP PHONE)
KATE: Erin Toner was telling the truth. August ten ninety four she hit a pick six. Bought the ticket at a Seven Eleven outside of Canton, Ohio. She hit for thirty seven thousand. She lied. She and Martinez stole that money, not Lieutenant Schilz.
TONY: Kate, incriminating her doesn't exonerate Schilz. She could have played him.
KATE: No. They forced him to open the safe. They murdered him and they stuffed him in a pod.
TONY: Unless Martinez or Toner admit Schilz had nothing to do with the robbery, there's no way to exonerate him.
KATE: I'll get them to confess.
GIBBS: How are you going to do that?
KATE: I don't know... yet.
AGENT OWENS: Whoa! Martinez was murdered in a Piedra Negras motel.
KATE: My god! She's a Black Widow!
TONY: I don't think she was ever married.
GIBBS: We got her. Kate, go back to Pennsylvania and bring Erin Toner in.
KATE: How? I can't arrest her, can I?
GIBBS: No. No. She has to come voluntarily.(ERIN LAUGHS B.G.)
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
EXT. PUTTING GREEN - DAY
ERIN TONER: Why the hell would I do that?
KATE: Latent prints off Lieutenant Schilz's uniform match Petty Officer Martinez's. He was the plane Captain of the Tomcat that dropped the pod.
ERIN TONER: You pull prints ten years later?
KATE: The pod was hermetically sealed. We believe that Martinez forced Lieutenant Schilz to open the safe, murdered him and stuffed his body in a cargo pod.
ERIN TONER: I think I knew Martinez. But I uh... I knew a lot of sailors on that cruise.
KATE: Martinez is hiding in Mexico. We will find him. And when we do, we want a solid case for extradition.
ERIN TONER: Do I look like a Mexican judge?
KATE: We'd like your help in doing a virtual recreation of the theft for the hearing.
ERIN TONER: Why me?
KATE: We can't locate Ensign Randy Wiles. You're the only one that worked in Disbursing back then.
ERIN TONER: Honey, are you working something you're not telling me?
KATE: I want to exonerate Lieutenant Schilz so that his wife and his daughter can get the money due them.
ERIN TONER: Tell them to play the lottery.
KATE: I can call you back to the Navy, Petty Officer Toner.
ERIN TONER: The hell you can.
KATE: These are orders re-calling you to active duty as a material witness in a capital offense. All I've got to do is ink 'em Honey, and your ass is back in the Navy. Or you can voluntarily help us.
MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:
INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY
TONY: Lieutenant Schilz finished a call to his wife and newborn daughter at zero five forty five.
ABBY: (GIGGLES) I threw that little heel click to show he was really happy.
TONY: Yeah, well not for long. Petty Officer Martinez surprised him with a knife, ransacked the safe and forced Lieutenant Schilz to carry the money to a Tomcat where he murdered Lieutenant Schilz, stuffed him in a pod and left with the money.
KATE: So what do you think?
ERIN TONER: I think you could use some help from Disney.
ABBY: Oh hey, come on! I wasn't finished with it yet.
GIBBS: We wanted to make sure we had the right scenario first.
ERIN TONER: That one works for me.
GIBBS: Not for me. No, Lieutenant Schilz would know that Martinez was going to kill him. He'd have resisted someplace... especially in a passageway full of sailors. Martinez had to kill him at Disbursing, but how did he move him to the pod if he was dead?
ERIN TONER: He couldn't.
DUCKY: Ah, but he could, my dear. You see, I found hairline fractures on Lieutenant Schilz's pelvis and lumbar vertebrae which Abby here matched to orange can...
ABBY: (OVERLAP) ...orange canvas fibers from Lieutenant Schilz's uniform.
GIBBS: I saw an orange mail bag being dragged over knee-knockers when I visited the ship.
(SFX: COMPUTER BEEP TONES)
GIBBS: Ah, I'll get back to that in a minute. Where was I?
TONY: Dragging an orange mail bags over knee knockers, boss.
GIBBS: Ah yeah, that bothered me. If Martinez did stuff his body in a mail sack, and dragged it across the ship, how come nobody noticed anything that was ah...
ABBY: Hinky?
GIBBS: Yeah, hinky.
AGENT OWENS: And that's when I remembered how you used to turn heads when you walked by.
ERIN TONER: I'm out of here.
KATE: Not till the show's over.
GIBBS: Now who would have noticed a sailor dragging a mail bag over knee-knockers with you walking by?
ABBY: How's that animation?
ERIN TONER: Much better. However, it's not evidence. You touch me again and I will have you arrested for assault, and the rest of you for unlawful detainment.
GIBBS: You're free to go. Oh, I said I'd get back with that fingerprint. It's yours.
ERIN TONER: Oh. Okay, it's mine. Where'd you find it? On Mark's uniform? All that proves is that we got it on.
GIBBS: We didn't find it on his uniform. We got it from the Federales. They found it on the pistol that killed Martinez in Piedro Negras two days before you hit the lotto for thirty seven thousand dollars.
TONY: Now we could extradite you. Mexican courts really don't like it when gringos kill one of their own.
GIBBS: I don't know if it was you or Martinez who killed Lieutenant Schilz. You can tell it any way you want. We'll take it down.
[SCENE_BREAK]
INT. SQUAD ROOM ELEVATOR
AGENT OWENS: You know, in Hawaii it takes forever to get anything from the Federales.
TONY: Same way here.
AGENT OWENS: (BEAT) No, no no, guys. Don't tell me that...that fingerprint match was faked!? Okay, you guys are crazy.
GIBBS: Yep.
(SFX: ELEVATOR DOORS SLIDE SHUT)
(MUSIC OUT)
Plan: A: Gibbs; Q: Who is called in to investigate the murder of a lieutenant? A: a mummified lieutenant; Q: What is found in a cargo pod? A: 1.2 million dollars; Q: How much money was the lieutenant believed to have stolen? A: nine years; Q: How long ago did the lieutenant abscond with Navy funds? A: his position; Q: What did the lieutenant receive a dishonorable discharge for deserting? A: half; Q: How deep was the cargo pod in which the lieutenant was found buried? A: Navy markings; Q: What was on the cargo pod that the corpse was found in? A: a deer hunter; Q: Who found the corpse of the lieutenant? A: St. Mary's River State Park; Q: Where was the corpse of the lieutenant found? A: Two; Q: How many former shipmates of the deceased are suspected of the murder and theft? A: suspicion; Q: What do two former shipmates come under for both the murder and the theft? A: the murder; Q: What do Gibbs and Tony work on investigating? A: Kate; Q: Who is charged with tracking down the missing funds? A: his death benefits; Q: What does Kate want to make sure the former wife and daughter of the dead lieutenant receive? A: Abby; Q: Who uses a computer reconstruction to work a confession out of a possible suspect? Summary: Gibbs and the team are called in when a mummified lieutenant, who was believed to have absconded with 1.2 million dollars of stolen Navy funds nine years previously and later received a dishonorable discharge for allegedly deserting his position, is found in a half-buried cargo pod with Navy markings on it by a deer hunter deep in the woods of St. Mary's River State Park . Two former shipmates who served with the deceased come under suspicion for both the murder and the theft. Gibbs and Tony work at investigating the murder, while Kate is charged with tracking down the missing funds, although she is more devoted to ensuring the dead lieutenant's former wife and young daughter receive his death benefits. Abby uses a computer reconstruction to work a confession out of a possible suspect.