Sergeant Jay Landsman walks into the homicide unit office humming a carol. His Christmas spirit is rapidly dispelled when he sees several red names being added to the case board. He quizzes Detective Ed Norris about the board; Norris tells him that Lester Freamon is responsible, having received the go-ahead to search vacant houses for concealed bodies. Landsman is angry at the sudden drop in his squad clearance rate and calls Freamon a Hun, a Vandal and a Visigoth. Landsman next asks what Norris is working on and is dismayed to find out that he is also working a new case: that of a deliberate killing using poisoned narcotics. Landsman is somewhat forgiving when Norris tells him that he has the perpetrator in custody as he came in and voluntarily confessed to the crime.