A dead man in a chimney chute on a Marine base leads the team to discover a serial killer's burial ground. They believe that the dead man was the serial killer until Abby uncovers something which proves he might actually be a victim while the whole team are in for a shock when the true killer is finally revealed. Meanwhile, Tony helps the director with a special project and makes time for his girlfriend as well while Ducky talks to Gibbs about how he felt betrayed when Gibbs left and after a heart-to-heart the two eventually repair their friendship, and McGee deals with the team's reaction to their portrayal in his best-selling book.
INT. FURNACE ROOM - DAY LARSON: (V.O.) Check that I-bolt. Let's hook that come-a-long. All right, get ready ladies. Put your backs into it. Come on, I could do this when I was your age by myself, huh!? VOICE: Sure you could. LARSON: See these pythons? I could lift a four hundred pound load back in the day, huh? RICK SAMSON: I even remember her name, Lisa Scarpizzi. LARSON: But she was a hell of a woman, now, huh? All right! Let's get this thing out of here! I've got a furnace waiting to go in. Push it out, guys! Come on, here we go. Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! (INTO RADIO) Hey Mannie? MANNIE: (V.O./FILTERED) Yeah. LARSON: Looks like a partial obstruction in the smoke stack. MANNIE: (V.O./FILTERED) Yeah, I can see it from up here, Boss. Probably carbon build up. LARSON: All right, clean it out. MANNIE: Do it right now. (SFX: LARSON WHISTLES) LARSON: Anybody who doesn't want to make an ash of himself, step back! (SFX: MOTOR B.G.) (VOICES: "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!") LARSON: (INTO RADIO) Hold it up, Mannie! We've got more than just carbon coming down here. MANNIE: (V.O./FILTERED) Copy that. (MUSIC UP AND OUT) (THEME MUSIC UP OVER OPENING TITLE/SCENES/ CREDITS AND OUT) MUSIC IN: INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY TONY: Finished McGee's book yet? ZIVA: Half way. You? TONY: I'm on... chapter seven, page one oh three. (READS) "Maybe someday Lisa would find the courage to tell Agent Tommy about her dream - the two of them together, their bodies covered in sweat as they made love on the crystal white sands of her homeland. ZIVA: I'm going to kill him. GIBBS: Kill who? ZIVA: McGee. Have you read this book? TONY: Apparently McGee thinks Ziva's in love with me. GIBBS: There's a reason they call it fiction, Dinozzo. MCGEE: Boss, just got a call from dispatch. Construction crew found a dead body. GIBBS: Where? MCGEE: Chesty Puller High School in Quantico. GIBBS: Student? MCGEE: Uh... not sure. GIBBS: Take the truck. I'll meet you there. (GIBBS WALKS O.S.) MCGEE: How many times do I have to tell you? It's not about you guys.(MUSIC OUT) ZIVA: I'm driving. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. VAN - DAY TONY: Comfortable back there, Gore Vidal? MCGEE: For the last time, Deep Six is fiction! ZIVA: Fiction based on us, yes? MCGEE: No! Look, if you don't believe me, read the disclaimer in the front of the book. TONY: Are you buying that... Lisa? (ZIVA CHUCKLES) TONY: Didn't think so. Nice knowing you, Probie. MCGEE: Ziva? (SFX: CAR TIRES SCREECH) (SFX: MCGEE FALLS BACKWARDS IN THE VAN) MCGEE: (SHOUTS V.O.) Ziva! It's just a book! [SCENE_BREAK] INT. BASEMENT - DAY (SFX: FLASH) TONY: You know, in chapter eight of McGee's book, your character does the exact same thing to Agent Tommy. It turns out she has this whole secret photo album of him. ZIVA: Fascinating, Tony, but I wasn't taking a picture of you. I'm more interested in the wild life. TONY: Euugh! LARSON: We've pulled rats, cats, and birds out of chimneys before, Agent Gibbs. Hell, one time even a Saint Bernard. But this is my first mummy. Reminds me of that urban legend. GIBBS: Which one's that? LARSON: Guy dresses up like Santa, you know, for Christmas Eve to surprise his girlfriend. But he never shows. She's convinced that the b*st*rd dumped her. Badmouths him all over town. DUCKY: Until they find the poor soul's body months later... still clutching the little box with her shiny new engagement ring. And the moral, of course, is... GIBBS: It's never a good idea to get married. DUCKY: No, it's best not to judge someone until all the facts are in. GIBBS: I like mine better. Any of your crew touch or move Kris Kringle? LARSON: Oh, most of them were half way to Manassas before the dust even settled. TONY: There's no I.D. on him. Judging by what's left of the mullet, I think it's safe to say he wasn't in the military. GIBBS: You think, Dinozzo? (TO DUCKY) Hey, I need a T.O.D., Doctor. DUCKY: Considering we've been working together for over ten years, I am well-aware of that, Agent Gibbs! GIBBS: Dinozzo, when he gets one, run it through missing persons over the same time period. TONY: Where are you going, Boss? GIBBS: To the roof to figure out how he ended up there in the first place. (TO MCGEE) What happened to you? MCGEE: Uh... creative differences with my co-workers, Boss. GIBBS: A lot of that going around these days. (GIBBS WALKS O.S.) ZIVA: Don't you think it's about time you and Gibbs made up, Ducky? DUCKY: Made up? I wasn't aware we were fighting, Ziva. TONY: Come on, ever since he retired-- DUCKY: Gibbs didn't retire, he quit! TONY: Okay, so he quit. But he's back now. ZIVA: You need to cut the man some slack, Ducky. TONY: I agree. Except the term is slack. DUCKY: Judging by the decay and the condition of his skin, I tentatively place the time of death at two to four months ago. TONY: Works for me. (SHOUTS) Time of death was two to four months ago, Boss! (TO MCGEE) Bag and tag the ashes, Probie. We'll pick you up after we coordinate with the MPs. JIMMY: (V.O.) Doctor, I'm going to be laying the bag out here and ... the burrito over here. MCGEE: Palmer, I need a favor. JIMMY: You want a ride back with us. MCGEE: How'd you know? JIMMY: I read your book. And for your information, I've never had sexual relations with a corpse. MCGEE: That character was not based on you. JIMMY: His name was Pimmy Jalmer, McGee! MCGEE: Well, he's French Polynesian. JIMMY: Doctor, I'm going to get the gurney now. MCGEE: It was only a dream! Come on, haven't you ever heard of symbolism? DUCKY: The life of an artist is never easy, McGee. They'll all get over it eventually. MCGEE: (SIGHS) Thanks, Ducky. DUCKY: By the way, do you know if Tony has finished it yet? MCGEE: Not yet. DUCKY: Well, him I'd watch out for. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY ZIVA: None of the local missing person reports match our John Doe's description, Tony. And there's no record of anyone going missing on base, civilian or military during that period. Are you even listening to me? TONY: I'm getting close to the end, Ziva. You know, McGee is really starting to nail your essence here. (READS) "Stakeouts. Long endless hours fueled by cheap food and even cheaper coffee. But tonight, Mossad Officer Lisa didn't seem to mind because she was getting to spend it with Agent Tom..." - you're behind me again, aren't you? ZIVA: Lucky guess. You know, I think McGee's right. TONY: He was, was he? ZIVA: It takes almost all of my willpower to resist the urges I have when I'm around you, Tony. Maybe it's about time to just give in, yes? TONY: And by "give in," you mean... ZIVA: Letting loose. TONY: Ah. ZIVA: Doing what comes naturally to me. TONY: Yeah, I thought I was picking up that vibe the first time we went undercover together. ZIVA: You were? TONY: Uh-huh. ZIVA: In fact, I almost did it the first night in the hotel room. TONY: Hmm. Really. ZIVA: But my father wouldn't approve. TONY: Because I'm not Jewish? ZIVA: Because he gets very angry when I kill my co-worker. TONY: (LAUGHS) Like I believed you for even a second! ZIVA: (LAUGHS) I'm sure you didn't. GIBBS: Are you two done playing grab-ass? ZIVA: Oh, he started it. GIBBS: I'm ending it. TONY: Oh, I-- GIBBS: The next person who mentions this book will be deep-sixed by me. TONY: I can completely live with that, Boss. GIBBS: My point exactly, Dinozzo. You ID our victim yet? ZIVA: We're running him against missing person cases reported over the last six months, Gibbs. TONY: No hits yet. DUCKY: I'm afraid that's my fault. It seems my initial time of death wasn't completely accurate. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY DUCKY: As you will see, his body is almost perfectly preserved. Perfectly reserved for a rotted corpse, that is. TONY: The guy looks like a piece of beef jerky, Duck. DUCKY: Gum tissue rots faster than the outer flesh due to the high degree of bacteria inside the mouth. As you can see, his gums are almost intact. TONY: Maybe he was just a good flosser? Shutting it, Boss. GIBBS: How'd he die? DUCKY: Well, the how I'm still working on. It's made particularly difficult by the means by which his body was preserved. He was quite literally smoked inside that chimney. ZIVA: Smoked? DUCKY: Yeah, like a fine cut of meat. TONY: So he really is a beef jerky. DUCKY: In a manner of speaking, yes, Tony. It's also the reason why my time of death was so far off. ZIVA: More than two to four months, Ducky? DUCKY: (CHUCKLES) It would seem so. GIBBS: How many? DUCKY: I would say we're looking at closer to five or six. GIBBS: Ah, don't be so rough on yourself, Doctor. We're already running the past six months. DUCKY: Not months! Years! [SCENE_BREAK] INT. ABBY'S LAB MCGEE: (V.O.) Abby, they hate me. ABBY: They don't hate you, McGee. MCGEE: Ziva tried to kill me yesterday. ABBY: Well, you did base all the characters in your book on us and didn't ask our permission. MCGEE: Deep Six is a work of pure fiction. ABBY: You described everything in my bedroom. MCGEE: Not everything. You still have those. ABBY: Fantasize later, Hemingway! I got a match on two of old Smokey's fingerprints. (SFX: COMPUTER BEEP TONES) ABBY: Whoa! MCGEE: What's wrong? ABBY: The match file is restricted. I can't access it. MCGEE: That's not possible. NCIS has top-level clearance. ABBY: Duh, McGee. I work here, too. MCGEE: Can you tell who's blocking it? ABBY: I could. If they weren't in the process of deleting the file from the server. MCGEE: What the hell is this? GIBBS: I was wondering that myself. ABBY: We've got two matching fingerprints from the victim, and AFIS just kicked us out. And now they're deleting the file! GIBBS: How? MCGEE: Working on it, Boss. ABBY: It looks like some agency doesn't want us to know who the mummy is, Gibbs. (MUSIC OUT) MUSIC IN: INT. MTAC - DAY SHEPARD: (V.O.) Inbound G-Five from Ibiza, Spain. Tango-Eight, I want every (ON CAMERA) bag coming off that plane tagged with a GPS marker. Eagle-Six, remain in over-watch. Tango-Eight is on his own, unless I clear you for back up. EAGLE SIX: (V.O./FILTERED) Solid copy. Eagle Six, remaining in over-watch position. (INTERCUT SCENE OF PLANE LANDING) SHEPARD: Bring up Tango-Eight's feed on the big screen. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY (DOOR OPENS) TONY: Hey, there! How you all doing? Toss them down, bro'! Oooh! [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MTAC - DAY TONY: (V.O./FILTERED) Louis Vitton. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY TONY: Y'all aren't too friendly, are you? (TONY JOGS TO THE LIMOSINE) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MTAC - DAY EAGLE SIX: (V.O./FILTERED) This is Eagle Six. Cabin crew are exiting. SHEPARD: Tango-Eight, La Grenouille's people are about to deplane. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY (MUSIC OVER ACTION) (SFX: KORT CLEARS HIS THROAT) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MTAC - DAY KORT: (ON MONITOR) Miss Burrow is for me, dear boy. There's more luggage. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY TONY: Yes, Sir. (MUSIC OVER ACTION/TONY RUNS TO THE PLANE) KORT: Good flight? WOMAN: Very nice, Kort. Very nice. KORT: Bellison, where's he been keeping you? BELLISON: The African market. Cape Town, mostly. Not bad. KORT: Good. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MTAC - DAY SHEPARD: I need to see the passengers. (INTERCUT SCENE OF PASSENGERS) SHEPARD: Isolate and freeze frame.(MUSIC OVER ACTION) [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY KORT: How long have you been here? TONY: Well, long enough to put your luggage in the trunk. KORT: How long have you been working the line? I haven't seen you before? TONY: Oh, about five months, I'd say, you know. Part time, weekends, nights... that sort of thing. KORT: Can you keep your eyes off her next time? TONY: Probably not. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MTAC - DAY KORT: (ON MONITOR) An honest man. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY TONY: Thank you, Sir! MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. MTAC - DAY SHEPARD: Eagle-Six, confirm four GPS markers. EAGLE SIX: (V.O./FILTERED) Eagle-Six, four GPS markers confirmed. Signals are long and strong. SHEPARD: Bravo zulu, Tango Eight. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. TARMAC - DAY TONY: Two hours. Gibbs is going to murder me. MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY GIBBS: How long's Tony been doing errands for the Director? ZIVA: Pretty much since you retired. She trusts him. GIBBS: To do what? ZIVA: You'd have to ask Tony that. ABBY: Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! I did it! MCGEE: What? You mean we! ABBY: There's no "we" in McGee! I traced the connection back to the system that deleted the fingerprint patch. MCGEE: It's a government server in Arlington, Virginia. ABBY: Routed into AFIS, directly at the source. MCGEE: Our mystery hacker is... GIBBS: The F.B.I. ABBY: Uh... yeah. Sounds a little anti-climactic when you say it. MCGEE: How did you know that? GIBBS: I'm looking at them. FORNELL: You've got something that belongs to me, Gibbs. MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY DUCKY: Petri dish, Mister Palmer. There's something weird in this young man's stomach. JIMMY: Is that... is that what I think it is? DUCKY: A distal inter-phalangeal joint. (SFX: DOORS SLIDE OPEN) DUCKY: A human toe. FORNELL: He was a cannibal, Ducky. SACKS: And a serial killer. FORNELL: I've been hunting this b*st*rd for twelve years, Gibbs. GIBBS: What's his name? (BEAT) You don't know. SACKS: We know the prints you ran through AFIS matched two of the prints from his crime scenes. FORNELL: Fourteen kills. All women. Drugged, strangled and left to rot in your rural interstate highways. SACKS: Every one of them missing the toes on their left foot. They were gnawed off. FORNELL: How'd he die? DUCKY: We were still working on that. FORNELL: I can tell you when. Sixty-six months ago. DUCKY: Five and a half years is a pretty accurate guess. FORNELL: It wasn't a guess. It was the last time he killed. (GIBBS AND FORNELL WALK TO THE DOOR) FORNELL: You want to know why I restricted access to his prints? GIBBS: For starters. FORNELL: We didn't want local LEOs trying to bring him down on their own. GIBBS: That sounds like the F.B.I. FORNELL: This guy was a ghost, Jethro. Fourteen murders. All we ever got from him was two partials, and a single strand of hair. We never even got close. GIBBS: I am more interested in what he was doing on my Marine base, Tobias. FORNELL: As soon as I find out, you'll be the first to know. We got a deal? I'll have my M.E. swing by and pick up the body. GIBBS: After I find out who he is and how he died. FORNELL: I spent twelve years working on this case. GIBBS: Well, then waiting a few extra days shouldn't be a problem. FORNELL: Is there anything else I can do for you, while you're grinding the knife in? GIBBS: I'm going to need a sample of hair, and copies of your file. A few bottles of bourbon would be a nice gesture. FORNELL: What do I get besides a headache? GIBBS: Tobias, I am going to show you what your serial killer looks like. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. ABBY'S LAB ABBY: I've been rehydrating Smokey-the-Bear's head since yesterday. It makes it easier for identification. MCGEE: And I've uploaded every local missing person's sketch and photo into the comparison field since the killing stopped. ABBY: As soon as their rendering algorithm is complete, we should have a fairly accurate likeness of what Slim Jim looked like when he was still alive. MCGEE: As long as the quadrant system and scales are within the program's prescribed.... GIBBS: McGee, less talk. More the computer chip doo-da. MCGEE: Making with the Doo-da, Boss. FORNELL: Doo-da? GIBBS: Yeah, it's a technical term, Tobias. You wouldn't understand. ABBY: He's pretty cute for a serial-killing cannibal. MCGEE: Oh, I've got an eighty-six percent match on a Charles Bright, reported missing from Dale City, five years, seven months ago. FORNELL: Our profiler was convinced he'd have at least one body buried near his home. ABBY: Why? GIBBS: Something for him to gloat over, Abs. Relive the rush any time he wanted to. FORNELL: That's good, Gibbs. We need an address. (SFX: ABBY AND MCGEE HUM/ SING: "Doo-da") GIBBS: Is that address still good? MCGEE: Uh, wife still lives there. Karen Bright. She's the one who reported him missing. GIBBS: There you go, Fornell. FORNELL: You're turning the case over? GIBBS: No, I just want you to get my search warrant for me. MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY (ELEVATOR DINGS/ DOORS OPEN/ CLOSE) (SFX: SACKS GIGGLES) SACKS: (INTO PHONE) I do miss you. I do. Stop! Oh... oh... oh... TONY: What's wrong with this picture? ZIVA: Besides being late over two hours? TONY: Why is the spawn of the F.B.I. sitting at my desk? LEE: Warrant just came in via the F.B.I. I made sure NCIS was a co-server. TONY: Warrant for what, Lee? LEE: The serial killer's home. It covers the grounds and residence. TONY: Serial killer? I only missed like two hours. GIBBS: You snooze, you lose, Dinozzo. (V.O.) Grab your gear! TONY: I already have my gear! ZIVA: I'll fill you in on the way. Let's go. GIBBS: (V.O.) Today, Dinozzo! LEE: Geez! [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. HOUSE - DAY FORNELL: What do we tell her? GIBBS: The truth. We found her husband. FORNELL: And the whole serial killing/cannibalism thing? (KNOCK ON DOOR) GIBBS: Not until we have to. (DOOR OPENS) FORNELL: Hi. Is your mom home? KAREN: (V.O.) Who is it, Amy? AMY: It's the police, Mom. FORNELL: Mrs. Bright, I'm.... GIBBS: (LONG BEAT) He's F.B.I. Agent Fornell. I'm NCIS Special Agent Gibbs. KAREN: You... you found him, didn't you? You found my husband Charlie? GIBBS: His body was discovered yesterday in Quantico. KAREN: It was an accident, wasn't it? He was a building inspector. GIBBS: The cause of death is still undetermined. KAREN: He would have never abandoned us. Everyone else thought it, but I always knew it couldn't be true. (TO KIDS) They found Daddy. They finally found him. (SFX: KAREN CRIES B.G.) [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. BACK YARD - DAY FORNELL: Sorry about that, Jethro. She could have been a twin to some of his victims. GIBBS: The loving husband murdering and eating women who look like his wife. It'll probably be McGee's next best seller. FORNELL: It amazes me how the truly sick ones are always the best liked, the pillars of the community. GIBBS: They're successful because they blend in, Tobias. They go to church, they coach Little League baseball. FORNELL: I was on the team that nailed Bundy, Gibbs. And I'm familiar with sick, charming bastards. GIBBS: That's probably why we get along so well. TONY: (V.O.) Oh, I found something, Boss! Found some bone fragments. (MUSIC UP AND OUT) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY TONY: Our serial killer spent the last five years getting smoked and tenderized in the Puller High School chimney, only to fall out during the installation of the new furnace. GIBBS: I want to know how he ended up that way, Dinozzo! MCGEE: Boss, he was a building inspector for the D.O.D. When he disappeared in April two thousand one, he was checking structures at Quantico and Little Creek. Puller High School was on his list. ZIVA: It could have been an accident. He could have fallen to his death while inspecting the school. GIBBS: How? Think about it. He couldn't just walk onto a military base. If he drove, they would have found his car. MCGEE: Two thousand Honda Accord disappeared with him. ZIVA: Fourteen victims spread out from nineteen ninety-three until his death. GIBBS: All of them looking pretty much like his wife. TONY: Number fifteen found in his own back yard by yours truly, with the F.B.I. digging for more. Why exactly are we letting the F.B.I. dig for more? GIBBS: They're doing our manual labor. [SCENE_BREAK] EXT. BACKYARD - DAY TONY: Well, this is the last one, Ducky, unless they find more. DUCKY: Well, this one's also female, judging by the width of the pelvic bones. With the almost complete lack of tissue, I think I'll refrain before I offer a tentative time of death. ZIVA: Especially after the last time. DUCKY: Yes, I do deeply apologize for that. ZIVA: No problems, Ducky. We all make mistakes, yes? DUCKY: Did I ever tell you about the time I shoved a French police officer off a cliff? TONY: There was a lake below. DUCKY: DUCKY: Yes. The man was all right. But they still issued a warrant for my arrest. Gibbs and I managed to keep two steps ahead of them. (CONT.) Eventually we escaped across the English Channel in a sailboat. JIMMY: You and Agent Gibbs were fugitives? DUCKY: Yes, for a short while. Until a young upcoming NCIS agent had the charges dropped. TONY: Jenny. (LONG BEAT) I mean, Director Shepard. DUCKY: She was the one who commandeered the boat. MCGEE: Director Shepard stole a boat? DUCKY: She wasn't the Director of NCIS at the time, McGee! [SCENE_BREAK] INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY KAREN: (V.O.) Everything's going to be okay. This is all a big mistake. GIBBS: Mrs. Bright, I need to know how your husband ended up in Quantico. KAREN: He worked at all the bases. Don't you people understand you have him confused with someone else? Some kind of monster! Sweetheart, go get your brother, okay? We're going to go to Grandma's house. Go! AMY: (V.O.) Can't they just leave?!(AMY WALKS O.S.) KAREN: My husband was one of the most loving men on the planet, Agent Gibbs. He treated everyone with kindness and decency. Ask anyone who knew him, Agent Gibbs. Anyone! GIBBS: They're removing four bodies from your backyard. KAREN: Do you know how many old, unmarked graveyards are in Virginia? GIBBS: When was the last time you saw him? KAREN: He was driving to Little Creek. He was... supposed to call when he got to his hotel. GIBBS: That's a long way from Quantico where he ended up. KAREN: I knew. I knew something was wrong when he didn't call. You ever have one of those feelings? When you know something terrible has just happened? GIBBS: Once. KAREN: And did it? (LONG BEAT) He didn't do these things, Agent Gibbs. And I'm sorry, but there's nothing you people can do or say to ever make me believe this! (SFX: KAREN CRIES B.G.) (GIBBS WALKS TO FORNELL) FORNELL: Stashing four bodies in the yard - that's more than just gloating, Gibbs. GIBBS: Well, they could be his first kills. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - NIGHT JIMMY: I think we're running out of room. DUCKY: Yes, it won't be lonely in the Mallard Inn tonight. JIMMY: How could someone do the things this man did, Doctor? DUCKY: Oh, in some cases, there's a physiological defect in the hard-wiring of their brains. Yeah, a mechanism that precludes the ability to feel genuine emotion. JIMMY: Did you find anything weird in this guy's brain, like a tumor or a physical abnormality? DUCKY: I did not. JIMMY: Then how do you explain him? DUCKY: I can't. There is also evil in this world, and even armed with all our science and degrees, it remains impenetrable. Perhaps because its depths are unfathomable. There's a very good book that - oh, I seem to have left my bag in the van. Be a good lad and fetch it for me before you leave for the night? JIMMY: You got it, Doctor. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. AUTOPSY GARAGE - NIGHT (ELEVATOR DINGS/ DOORS OPEN/ CLOSE) (DOOR OPENS/ CLOSES) (SFX: LEE GIGGLES) (DOOR CLOSES) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - NIGHT DUCKY: I thought you might be needing a refill. GIBBS: Thanks. DUCKY: Oh, today certainly brought back a lot of memories. GIBBS: Yeah. DUCKY: It also made me realize that since your return, I've been acting a little like a ... GIBBS: An ass? DUCKY: Well, something like that. GIBBS: I didn't notice. DUCKY: Yeah, you and I have been through a lot over the years. Look, I hate to use marriage as an analogy... GIBBS: Then don't. Just tell me what I did to piss you off. DUCKY: The night you retired, you asked me to drive you home. You didn't say a single word the entire trip. No explanation. Not even a goodbye. GIBBS: I was kind of still recovering from the coma, Doctor. DUCKY: And Kelly? And Shannon? All those years of friendship together, and somehow you failed to mention that you have a family. GIBBS: Had. Had a family. You know how I feel about apologies, right? DUCKY: They're a sign of weakness. GIBBS: Not between friends. I am sorry, Ducky. I should have told you. DUCKY: Well, I should have told you something months ago. Welcome home. GIBBS: Thanks. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT (SFX: MUSIC B.G.) (SFX: KNOCKING ON DOOR CONTINUES) TONY: I hope you had a better day than I did, Ms. Jeanne Benoit. I've been thinking a lot about you lately. And I'm really, really trying to figure out a way to not screw this up. (TONY WALKS DOWN THE HALLWAY) (DOOR OPENS) JEANNE: Tony! TONY: Hey. I thought you were sleeping. JEANNE: I was. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT JEANNE: So... how was your day? TONY: Well, did you ever see the Texas Chainsaw Massacre? JEANNE: Original or remake? TONY: Either. JEANNE: Neither. TONY: It was a lot like that. But worse. How about you? JEANNE: Kind of like a cross between Trains, Planes, and Automobiles and The Muppets Take Manhattan. TONY: That is a heady, heady brew of strange cinematic references, and I don't know what to make of it. JEANNE: I interned at the children's ward today. TONY: Ah. JEANNE: I felt kind of like that, too. TONY: Beautiful and clever. JEANNE: So why aren't you kissing me? TONY: And she's a mind reader. JEANNE: I'm not exactly stop -- (MUSIC OVER ACTION/ PASSIONATE KISSING) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY (SFX: TONY WHISTLES) ZIVA: Are you on medication? TONY: Just had a good night last night. ZIVA: Doing what? TONY: The usual. ZIVA: The usual what? TONY: Night. ZIVA: (LAUGHS) You had s*x, didn't you? TONY: What? ZIVA: It's okay to admit it. I mean, we're all adults here. FORNELL: That's a subject I'd be willing to debate, Officer David. Where's Gibbs? TONY: Well, he must have known you were coming, because he's not here. FORNELL: It was really more of a courtesy call, Dinozzo. Letting him know about these orders from Justice. The ones where the F.B.I. is taking over your case. Are you sure he's not around? SHEPARD: (V.O.) These are pretty clear cut-- [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SHEPARD'S OFFICE - DAY SHEPARD: (V.O.) .... orders, Agent Fornell. (ON CAMERA) (READS) NCIS is hereby ordered to turn over full jurisdiction of the Bright case to the F.B.I. by end of business today. Who'd you have to sleep with to get these? FORNELL: Director, please! A serial killer falls down the chimney on a Marine base. Is that a logical way to decide jurisdiction? SHEPARD: It's been working for us since around eighteen eighty-two. FORNELL: Sadly, Justice didn't see it that way. The F.B.I. has invested twelve years in this investigation. SHEPARD: And my people made more progress in just three days. Now, I can see how that would be embarrassing. FORNELL: I'll get over it. No hard feelings, Jethro? GIBBS: Nope. Just need you to look at something before you leave. FORNELL: You've got that moustache in a box, don't you? [SCENE_BREAK] INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY (SFX: DOORS SLIDE OPEN) DUCKY: It took more time than I care to admit. But I finally managed to solve the riddle of how our friend died. GIBBS: You may need this. DUCKY: Look closely... in the area of his abdomen. Do you see anything resembling wounds? FORNELL: No. DUCKY: Well, neither did I until I took a second look at the CAT scan. You see, smoking desiccates flesh. Which is why it is the preferred method of preserving meat in less technologically advanced society-- FORNELL: (OVERLAP) Whoa, whoa, whoa! How did he die, Doctor? DUCKY: Well, as the moisture was lost, the victim's tissue - which protected the vital organs - shrank. You see these little black dots? FORNELL: Um.... um.... oh, yeah. DUCKY: He was stabbed repeatedly and fatally. FORNELL: With what? A safety pin? DUCKY: As I just explained, the shrinkage of the flesh is deceptive. Most likely it was an ice pick or a Phillips-head screwdriver. GIBBS: Somebody killed your serial killer, Fornell. SHEPARD: On a Marine base. Which means, it is still our jurisdiction. (MUSIC UP AND OUT) MUSIC IN: INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY TONY: I've seen a lot of things since I became a cop, Ziva. But this? Guy tortures and murders nineteen women, and then gets off on eating their toes? Whoever whacked this sick freak did us and the world a favor. ZIVA: And our job is to arrest them. It makes perfect sense to me. MCGEE: Justified or not, it's still a crime, Ziva. In this country you cannot take the law into your own hands. TONY: Unless it's your little sister wanted for murder, right, Probie? MCGEE: You know what I mean. TONY: What if this was your sister? Or her? MCGEE: My point is that we cannot just investigate the crimes that we want to. GIBBS: McGee's right. Does anybody have a problem with that? TONY: No, Boss, it's just... GIBBS: Just what, Dinozzo? TONY: Some days this job really sucks. GIBBS: Yeah? Well, it's about to get worse. Ziva, you and Tony are with Sachs on this one. TONY: Doing what? GIBBS: Coming up with a list of people who wanted Bright dead. ZIVA: Besides everyone in this room? TONY: Except for McLawyer over there. MCGEE: Tony, all I was saying... GIBBS: Go check on Abby. See if she needs any help. (TO FORNELL) Running a little late today, are we, Tobias? FORNELL: You're enjoying this, aren't you? GIBBS: Oh, only slightly more than a lot. Come on. FORNELL: What? GIBBS: Ducky's got something for us. DUCKY: (V.O.) There wasn't any ... MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY DUCKY: .... recoverable tissue from any of the remains. All four bodies were completely stripped to the bone. GIBBS: Yeah, I can see that, Duck. How long were they in the ground? DUCKY: Shallow graves. Exposed to the elements. All four women could have been there for, oh, decades, or for as little as six months. FORNELL: We know it's got to be at least five years. DUCKY: Do we, Tobias? FORNELL: Yes! Unless Bright figured out a way to climb in and out of that smoke stack. DUCKY: For what it's worth, I agree with you. But down here we deal in facts. GIBBS: Meaning you don't know? DUCKY: Well, not yet. GIBBS: You couldn't have told me that on the phone, Duck? DUCKY: Yes, I could have, Jethro. But that's not the reason I asked you down here. I took the liberty of reviewing the profile that the F.B.I. prepared on our serial killer eight years ago. In order to disguise his predatory nature, Bright had to be methodical, precise, cautious almost to a fault. FORNELL: Your point? DUCKY: Well, if the F.B.I.'s finest couldn't get him, it makes me wonder who did? GIBBS: He knew his killer. That's good work, Ducky. (SFX: DOORS SLIDE OPEN) DUCKY: Well, how else could someone get close enough to him to stab him to death with a screwdriver? GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Dinozzo. TONY: (V.O./FILTERED) Yeah, Boss. GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Concentrate on the high school. Someone there had to have a personal connection to Bright. TONY: (V.O./FILTERED) On it. GIBBS: (INTO PHONE) Find him. MUSICAL BRIDGE TO: INT. ABBY'S LAB ABBY: I'm a forensic scientist, McGee. I don't need anyone checking up on me. What I do need is to date those bones, the ones that we found in Beef Jerky's backyard. MCGEE: Marty? ABBY: Yes! Why didn't I think of that? Marty got his degree in forensic botany at Penn State. The roots grew into the bones. So if Marty can I.D. the plant, he can probably give us a rough estimate as to when they were buried. Way to go, McGee! How did you know what Marty majored in? MCGEE: I didn't. Who is he? ABBY: He's .... just a friend. MCGEE: (READS) "Being with you makes me believe size truly doesn't matter, Abby." ABBY: Okay, he's a really good friend. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - DAY (SFX: TONY TYPES SLOWLY) SACKS: Where the hell did you learn how to type? TONY: Do you mind? Your breath's taking the starch out of my collar. GIBBS/FORNELL: (IN UNISON) What have we got? ZIVA: Um, the teaching staff's still present from five years ago. All claim not to have known Bright. FORNELL: Well, if they murdered the guy and stuffed him down the chimney, that's not surprising. GIBBS: Tony? TONY: Running down a list of substitutes who used to teach back then. GIBBS: His wife's a teacher. Third grade. See if she ever worked at Puller. TONY: We check for Brights already, Boss. There are none. GIBBS: Check her maiden name. ZIVA: Her maiden name is Burris, Tony. TONY: Burris. B.U.R.... okay, got one hit. Karen Burris. Subbed for Social Studies and Western History in two thousand and one. (V.O.) Social security number listed is the same as Bright's wife! [SCENE_BREAK] INT. MARTY'S LAB - DAY ABBY: Wow! My mom always told me big things come in small packages. PEARSON: What a coincidence. Mine always warned me about tattooed girls bearing... samples. ABBY: I'm talking about your lab! I love it! PEARSON: Yeah? Pretty sweet, huh? ABBY: Sweet? I'd kill for half this equipment. PEARSON: Really? What would you do for all of it? [SCENE_BREAK] INT. OBSERVATION ROOM TONY: What's your crazy ninja sense telling you? ZIVA: She's scared. TONY: I mean, about whether she shanked Beef Jerky and dropped him down the wishing well? ZIVA: What would you do if you woke up one day and you discovered you were married to a monster? TONY: Happened to my father all the time. We usually just moved. ZIVA: Ah, that explains it. (DOOR OPENS) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. INTERROGATION ROOM GIBBS: Karen, you were a substitute at Lieutenant General Lewis Puller High School.(DOOR CLOSES) KAREN: I've.... I've worked at a lot of schools in the area. What does that have to do with this? FORNELL: Considering we found your husband petrified in the chimney there? Quite a bit. GIBBS: Karen, we know this is hard. But we're here to help. And it's important that you tell us the truth. FORNELL: When did you find out? KAREN: Find out? FORNELL: That your loving husband... was murdering women who looked just like you. KAREN: I told you. My husband didn't do those things. GIBBS: He removed the toes from their left feet. We think that you know why. Would you mind taking off your shoe and showing us your left foot? KAREN: Please. GIBBS: Karen. (MUSIC OVER ACTION/GIBBS REMOVES HER SHOE) FORNELL: Your husband was an evil man. KAREN: That thing was not my husband! It wasn't the man I married. It had to be stopped! Don't you see? I had no other choice. FORNELL: You could have gone to the police. KAREN: (CRYING) And have my children live the rest of their lives knowing that monster was their father? No! I had to! I had to protect them from it. (SFX: KAREN CRIES B.G.) [SCENE_BREAK] INT. PEARSON'S LAB - DAY PEARSON: Gaultheria procumbens. Evergreen shrub. More commonly known as wintergreen or checkerberry. I need to see the photo where the sample was recovered from. ABBY: It was taken from between the fibula and the tibia. PEARSON: Go back to the wide shot. Now go to that quadrant. That's a wintergreen. About five meters from the remains. Judging from the thickness of the root, annual growth rate, and the soil samples you brought me, you can calculate roughly how long the body's been buried. Plus or minus six months. You can tell it was a live sample by the tiny little offshoots forming off the main root. Want to see? (BEAT) Abby? [SCENE_BREAK] INT. OBSERVATION ROOM ZIVA: In her position, I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing, Tony. TONY: McGee was right... about taking the law into your own hands. She's lucky she wasn't his last victim. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. INTERROGATION ROOM (KAREN CRIES B.G.) (DOOR CLOSES) FORNELL: Karen, no one should have to live through what you did. Believe me when I tell you that there's no jury in the world that wouldn't sympathize with you. (SFX: PAGER BEEPS) FORNELL: (BEAT) It's not me. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. OBSERVATION ROOM GIBBS: (INTO PHONE/FILTERED) What? TONY: What do you want to bet that's McGeek? Rule twenty-two. Never ever bother Gibbs in interrogation. ZIVA: (LONG BEAT) Tony, I don't think it's McGee. GIBBS: (INTO PHONE/FILTERED) Got it, Abs. Thanks. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. INTERROGATION ROOM FORNELL: You'll be okay, Karen. You can get through this. GIBBS: Get away from her, Tobias! The bodies in the yard are not from five years ago. FORNELL: They're older? GIBBS: No. They're more recent than that. Her husband wasn't the serial killer. She is. [SCENE_BREAK] INT. SQUAD ROOM - NIGHT FORNELL: I've got to tell you, Jethro, that was... that was... GIBBS: Mm-hmm. FORNELL: How in the God's name could we miss that? GIBBS: I don't think God had much to do with it, Tobias. FORNELL: You know what's really got me freaked out? If her husband's body hadn't gotten hung up going down that chimney five years ago, she'd still be out there. We'd never have caught her. GIBBS: I can do you one better than that. FORNELL: Nah. Can't top that, Jethro. GIBBS: What was the toe doing in her husband's stomach? (MUSIC OUT)
Smoked