If It Bleeds, It Leads

♪ To my girls and boys who are feelin' naughty ♪ ♪ Raise a glass, the drinks are on me... ♪

Let's get this party going, ladies!

(whooping)

Oh, hell no!

This is your bachelorette party, bitch-- up!

Get up! Get up!

No.

Sleep. Must sleep.

No, party, girl!

Must party!

Okay? Come on!

Can someone give this woman a shot!

Get our drink on!

Take it down, girl!

El-- Ellie!

Hey, what the hell's going on back there?

Just a plastered bride!

(tires screeching)

Oh, my God.

(screaming)

♪ NCIS:New Orleans 2x18 ♪ If It Bleeds, It Leads Original Air Date on March 15, 2016

♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ ♪ Bang, bang, bang, bang ♪ ♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪ ♪ How, how, how, how ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ ♪ You gotta come on. ♪

(laughs) Oh, my God.

Please tell me you did not wear that shirt in public.

Oh, I wore it.

And I wore it loud and proud.

It's my lucky shirt.

You don't want to mess around with St. Patty's day.

I'm sorry, but this is one holiday I do not comprehend.

I mean, it's supposed to last a day.

Why does this city celebrate it for ten?

Well, we just need one reason to have ten days of fun.

Hey, what's your beef with St. Patty's anyway?

All right, you know how during the parades they sometimes throw potatoes off the float?

Yep.

Well, I may or may not have been knocked unconscious.

Top of the morning to you.

(laughs) Morning.

Look.

The problem is you haven't celebrated NCIS style.

All right, every year, King throws one heck of a party.

Yep, and this year, Brody's gonna make her family's famous Irish stew.

Well, that was the plan, but I might have to improvise a little bit.

I can't find my recipe book.

It must be in one of my boxes.

What do you mean “boxes”?

Boxes-- you know, where I keep my stuff.

Brody, you've been here two years.

Yeah, but you know, some of the stuff was shipped down after I had been here for a while.

But just to be clear.

You still haven't unpacked?

I've been busy.

(phone beeping)

We got a dead sailor in the Quarter.

Let's move.

(camera clicking)

According to the I.D., the victim is Chief Warrant Officer Evan Babish. Folks on the bus said he was in the middle of the road; no idea why.

Driver didn't see him till it was too late.

Doesn't look like our witnesses are very reliable.

I'm sure our man will get to the bottom of it.

Miss Loretta?

What's the word?

Can I have three?

Blunt force trauma.

Ten tons of bus running into 200 pounds of human can have that effect.

Brody: What happened here?

Wade: A wound.

And some sort of rash.

It's the first unusual finding thus far.

Can I add another one?

The road's a straight shot.

Babish would've seen the bus coming a thousand yards off.

So why be in the road just as it's coming?

Suicide?

Or...

(camera clicking)

...he was pushed.

These look like scratch marks, like he was in a struggle.

Possibly, but it might also have been from the collision.

Well, whatever it was, we owe it to Babish to find out.

Brody and Sonja, track down security camera footage.

Meantime, I'll help Lasalle canvass for witnesses.

Sonja: Well, maybe Chris learned something from his new friends.

One less daiquiri and they could've been useful.

Sure you don't want to give it another try?

Practice your enhanced interrogation techniques?

Y'all have dirty minds.

(laughs)

Yep, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Are you and Lasalle shopping at the same store now?

You guys buy underwear together, too?

No.

Triple P don't wear drawers.

Okay.

Fewer things I got to put on in the morning, the better.

TMI, my friend.

You, uh, have anything for us, Commando?

'Cause I'm getting nothing on these security cams.

In fact, I do.

According to Navy records, Babish was supposed to return to active duty yesterday, but dude was a no-show.

Why wasn't he active duty?

Oh, he was taking part in the Career Intermission Program.

Sonja: Oh, I know that-- lets, uh, burnt-out sailors pursue other career interests.

Babish's case, he went all Woodward and Bernstein.

Newspaper reporter.

My man was impressive.

He was working at The Houston Globe, working on their long-term investigative squad, Forefront.

“Forefront”-- are you, are you positive?

Yeah.

That mean something to you, Mer?

Maybe.

(phone chimes)

That's Pride.

“No luck finding other witnesses.

But Wade has info for us.”

I'll meet him there.

I got this.

Okay...

Wade: Whenever a coroner sees elevated blood alcohol levels, alarms start going off.

You think it must be a contributing factor.

I can see why you'd go there.

Babish clocked in at .15.

Well, if he was that drunk, it would explain why he didn't see the bus coming.

It could.

And you could easily write this incident off as an accident.

But I decided to dig a little deeper.

What you find?

Unidentified DNA inside the scratches.

They weren't from the collision.

These were fingernail scratches.

They were fresh.

And that very same DNA was also under Babish's nails.

So someone grabs his wrists, he tries to fight them off?

And the same person pushed him into the street as the bus was coming?

Sebastian: To make it look like an accident.

It's not the first time we've seen that.

Are you offering something?

Uh, no.

I just wanted to note that this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

I'm gonna call Babish's commanding officer.

See if he has any idea why Babish missed his check-in.

I'll catch up with you later.

Everything all right?

Hey, um, Hey. are we both thinking the same thing right now?

I think so.

Are we being crazy?

I don't know.

All right, you talk first.

Okay, uh, first of all, there's Babish's work.

Newspaper reporter, Houston Globe.

Just like my sister.

Forefront team.

Just like my sister.

Both killed by vehicles.

And both deaths were made to look like they were accidental.

Sebastian, do you think this case is connected to my sister's murder?

I mean, statistically speaking--

No, I mean, I mean, your gut.

I think maybe.

Yeah.

That means if we're right, and we solve Babish's murder...

Maybe we can solve my sister's, too.

Warrant Officer Evan Babish, 38 years old, stellar Navy record.

But three years ago, he needed a break.

Found new horizons at The Houston Globe.

Now, yesterday he was supposed to return to service, but he didn't show up.

The C.O. had no idea why.

Soda bread.

Neither did Babish's family.

Now, they live in 'Bama, but they raised Babish in Lafitte.

They still have a house there.

Said maybe he went there to check it out?

There's one thing we do know for sure, and that's Babish made a phone call two minutes before he died.

Yes, to a Jessica Levy.

Now, she's a fellow employee at The Globe, and Facebook says they're in a relationship, so maybe we should ask her.

Other than that, we got nothing?

I may have something.

What is it?

You guys need to see this.

Now, just here me out.

Let me just say it.

I think my sister's death may be connected to Babish's case.

What are you talking about?

You know that Emily was run over by a drunk driver named Edward Lamb.

And you know I was sent these photos.

What you don't know is that each one of them contained a hidden number, which formed an IP address, which led me and Sebastian to Emily's page on an unsolved murder site.

What if her death wasn't just an accident?

I mean, what if she was targeted?

Think about it.

Both she and Babish worked at the same paper on the same team, and they died in a similar way.

I mean, we...

(sighs) we could have something here.

We need to talk this out.

We know that Lamb drove the car that killed your sister.

Have you found some connection between him and Babish?

Not yet. I wanted to question Lamb, but he's MIA, released from prison six months ago.

He's been off the grid ever since.

Well, have you found evidence other than these photos that Emily's death was not an accident?

Believe me, I have tried, but it is an eight-year-old case.

It's not exactly easy for us to open it up for reinvestigation.

You and Sebastian?

Yeah.

Well, I hate to say it, but I think we all know he's prone to conspiracy theories.

Well, I'm not.

And I know when something is off.

And you may be right.

Emily may have been murdered.

But we know Warrant Officer Babish was.

I'm gonna pay a visit to The Globe.

That's where Babish worked.

That's where we'll learn things about him.

In the meantime, you all stay here.

Track anything that Babish might've been up to here in town.

Pride.

If there is any connection to Emily, I will not be able to spot it from here-- can I come with you?

Look, Brody-- Listen.

My focus will be on Babish.

I promise.

Okay.

Get your stuff.

Doing all right?

Yeah, I'm good.

Brody?

Answers you want--

I've seen a lot of grieving people chase the same thing.

And they chase it... right down the rabbit hole.

That's a dark place to be.

I don't want that to happen to you.

It won't.

Just to be sure.

Emily's fiancé still runs Forefront.

His parents are still the publishers.

Last thing you want to do is reopen old wounds.

Woman: Meredith?

It's been too long.

Hi, Nancy.

No, no, listen.

I got to go. I got to go.

Evan Babish's death is just hitting the wires.

How are you, my love?

Hi, Robert.

Hi.

Mr. and Mrs. Nolan, I'm Special Agent Dwayne Pride.

How do you do?

Promise we won't take up too much of your time.

Oh, no, please, however we can be of service.

Well, first off, we'd like to know anything Evan was working on.

Um...

(cell phone ringing)

Oh, I'm sorry.

God, I got to take this.

I'm sorry, my apologies.

Nancy?

Yes, of course.

This is Robert.

Well, to answer your question, Forefront just published a major piece on a corrupt class-action lawyer.

Did you notice any unusual negative response?

Any threats made to Evan?

Well, there's always a negative response, but I think the folks at Forefront would know best.

Why don't I show you to their offices?

Uh, will Daniel be there?

Nancy: No, dear.

He's on assignment.

We also understand that Evan's girlfriend works here?

Jessica, yes.

She's our “I.T. guy” for lack of a better term.

She just heard the news.

Poor thing.

I'd like to chat with her, too.

Oh, okay.

Uh, Jonathan?

Could you please take Agent Pride to Jessica?

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Lasalle: I haven't seen you so invested in a case since you saw Elvis at the Napoleon House last year.

He was there, all right?

And I don't know.

This means a lot to Brody.

I just want to help.

Well, we all want to help.

Lasalle: And we could've.

All you had to do was ask.

So, what do you got, Miss Loretta?

Wait, wait, hold on.

I was respecting Merri's wishes.

Are you guys, like, mad at me?

No, dear, we're simply concerned.

Meredith is in a very sensitive position.

She's not in her clearest state of mind.

Yeah, especially with you in her ear.

You think I'm leading her on?

Well, you are the guy who said JFK got abducted by aliens.

I don't say that. The evidence does.

The point is getting someone's hopes too high can be a dangerous thing.

Yeah, but so is living your life in darkness.

Now, are you gonna tell me what you got or not?

All right, what we know is Babish was using a credit card in town the last two days.

He rented a car. NOPD found it.

Patton's running the GPS.

So, you're nowhere.

Great, so are we.

We are not nowhere.

We have already identified Babish's rash.

Well, what we thought was a rash.

It's actually a staph infection.

Likely caused by that puncture wound.

Based on the shape and depth of the injury, I'd venture he recently made contact with some sort of metal spike.

Yeah, like I said-- nowhere.

I can still hear his voice.

Evan had this, like, really funny way he talked.

Sort of “country cool.”

He was from the sticks, different from most people here.

Jessica, you got a call from Evan right before he passed away.

What'd you talk about?

We had just broken up.

He was going back to the Navy.

And I was begging him not to.

It wasn't easy for either of us.

Might explain why he was drinking.

Was he?

He didn't seem drunk.

Well, his blood alcohol level was pretty high.

Did Evan tell you what he was up to yesterday before you spoke?

The-the last few weeks, something was off.

Evan was just preoccupied with something, like obsessively.

I-I-I think he was trying to finish something before he was going back to the Navy.

What was going on?

He wouldn't say.

But all-all I can think is that it had something to do with one of his stories.

Nancy: Well, the last story he was assigned was already published.

The corrupt lawyer piece?

(groans)

Jared Zorn.

Works out of Louisiana.

Specializes in getting compensation for Gulf Coast communities affected by oil spills.

But what we proved is that Zorn was siphoning vast amounts into his own account.

That's a big story.

Mm-hmm.

Keeps people reading us, instead of some blog.

Without pieces like this, The Globe would go the way of the dodo.

And my husband would have to curtail his Cuban cigar habit.

Merri?

Daniel, you're supposed to be on assignment.

Yeah, yeah, I just, I just heard about Evan, so I came right back.

It's good to see you.

Yeah, it's...

(chuckles)

Why don't I go find Dad?

Ooh, wow, I, uh, haven't seen you since the, uh--

The funeral.

Yeah.

How you been?

Uh, you know, not bad.

You?

Yeah.

So, uh, I assume that you're, uh, you're here for work.

Yes.

Right, well, let's talk about that.

How can I help?

Okay, uh, Jared Zorn.

Mm-hmm.

What do you know about him?

Did he ever make any threats to Evan?

(sighs) I doubt that he'd single Evan out.

The team works these pieces together.

Although, Zorn is facing federal prosecution because of us.

We've been trying to bring this b*st*rd down for ten years.

“Ten years”?

Mm-hmm.

Emily didn't work on it, did she?

Emily?

No.

That wasn't a Forefront story then.

Why do you ask?

It's possible that Evan and Emily's deaths are connected.

What are you talking about?

Emily was killed by a drunk driver.

The guy plead guilty.

It might not be that simple.

Lasalle: Hey, Brody.

How was Houston?

Promising.

What you guys find?

Well, Patton ran the GPS on Babish's car.

Now, in the two days he was in town, he went to the same house five times.

Including the night he died.

Sonja: Now, we went over there ourselves.

The owner wasn't there, but we noticed a spiked metal fence.

And we found dried blood on it.

So now we're thinking that Babish wasn't there for a friendly visit.

The housekeeper gave us security footage on the night Babish died.

We think that's Warrant Officer Babish.

And that here... is the owner of the house Jared Zorn, who is now MIA.

Babish wrote an exposé on Zorn.

Pride: Which gives Zorn motive to kill Babish in retaliation.

And no motive to kill my sister because Zorn and Emily had nothing to do with each other.

So I am back to square one.

Everything good?

Jared Zorn... where we at?

Got the BOLO out.

Nothing popping.

Maybe we should put one out on Brody, too.

Haven't seen her yet this morning.

Yeah, I tried calling-- voicemail.

Yeah, well, once you get your hopes up that high, coming down isn't an easy thing.

That's why I gave her the morning off.

Well, what can we do?

We let her know that we care, that we're there for her.

All you can do.

Meantime, we got lots of questions to answer.

Looking like Zorn might've killed Babish for writing that story.

But why would Babish go to Zorn's house?

Ask and you shall receive.

Okay, footage had a whole lot of stink on it.

But with a little bit of Irish luck, I cleaned it right on up.

Seems that Babish broke in to get his hands on that laptop.

But the story on Zorn was already published.

The damage was done.

Why would Babish still want Zorn's laptop?

Yeah, we're missing a big piece here.

We find that laptop, we find our answers.

I'll get a warrant to search Zorn's house.

What if Babish got away with it?

Well, you two go and search his family house in Lafitte.

Likely Babish was staying there.

Work, P.

Wade: Love what you've done with the place.

It's a work in progress.

(kettle whistling)

You want some tea?

That's why you're my favorite tenant.

Ah, now that girl looks like she was fun.

Yeah, she was.

I was always the shy twin.

And she brought me out of my shell.

Uh-huh.

Even after all these years, I...

I still feel lost without her.

Oh, that's a dark place to be.

Pride sent you, didn't he?

I felt like I was this close to finding the truth, and I just, I can't...

I-I don't know how to move on.

You know... some folks say whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

What they should say is whatever doesn't kill us can make us stronger if we let it.

If only it were that easy.

You say, “I will move on, because my life matters, too.”

But only you can do that.

(phone beeps)

Is everything okay?

Yeah.

Just old friend in town.

Oh.

Hey.

What are you doing here?

I needed to talk to you.

What you told me yesterday, it kept me up most of the night.

I shouldn't have told you. I'm sorry.

I-I didn't, I didn't mean to upset you.

Yeah, I'm sure that you didn't.

But now I just can't stop thinking about it.

I'm sorry, Daniel.

I don't need you to be sorry.

But I do need you to stop looking into Emily's death.

You came all the way from Houston to tell me this?

You're Emily's sister, okay?

And I care about you. I'm worried about you.

And I know what it's like more than anyone to be stuck in the past.

But this is not healthy.

You got to let it go.

“Let it go”?

Emily may have been murdered.

How can you brush that off?

Merri, you're looking for answers that just aren't there.

Okay?

I can't dwell on this anymore.

I'm getting married.

Congratulations.

Oh, don't-don't be like that.

No, you know what? I am so glad you're able to put Emily behind you.

You won't hear from me again.

Have a safe trip back to Houston.

Lasalle: I was thinking we could do something for Brody.

You know, cheer her up?

Yeah, I don't think a pizza party's gonna do the trick.

Well, could raise the bar a little higher.

Look, I don't think there's a bar high enough for what she's going through.

It's just gonna take some time.

Hey.

I thought no one was supposed to be living here.

NCIS.

Federal agents.

Clear.

Clear.

Ah, looks like the Babish family needs a new interior decorator.

Eh, more like Jared Zorn was here looking for his laptop.

Well, if it was here, it's gone now.

(phone ringing)

Patton, tell me some good news.

(laughs) Why you think they keep me around?

I went deep diving through Zorn's credit card history.

Turns out, he bought his laptop six months ago.

And that particular bad boy has built-in geo-location software.

And I tracked it right to Babish's pad in Lafitte.

Sonja: Yeah, I don't think so, buddy.

We're in said pad, and it ain't here.

(rapid beeping)

That's the pinging locator sound.

The rest should be self-explanatory.

Sounds like it's in the chimney.

You want me to come down there and get it?

Or maybe you don't need me to do everything?

Hold your taters, Patton.

B-I...

N-G-O.

(chuckles)

Lasalle: You're a genius, Patton.

Sebastian: So, Lasalle and Sonja just brought the laptop back.

Did you get anything off it?

No, I just started a diagnostic on it.

Patton went to go get us some snacks.

That usually helps.

You know that someone sent you those photos for a reason, right?

Your sister's death wasn't just about Edward Lamb.

For whatever it's worth, I... I still believe.

That means a lot.

(clears threat): Uh, yeah, you know, it's, uh... it ain't no thing.

(alarm beeping)

Dude, what the hell is going on?

I don't know, man-- all I did was put it online.

Something's funky.

Yeah, well, it ain't just Brody kissing you.

Dude, your laptop is being hacked.

Hacked? What are they looking for?

Patton: Well, it's unclear, but they haven't gotten through the firewalls yet, so maybe we can trace who's doing it.

All right, let me know what you find.

So, this is really strange.

Someone's trying to hack into Zorn's laptop.

Right now?

Yeah.

Any idea who?

Patton and Sebastian are looking into it.

They don't have anything yet.

Okay, well, I got something pretty strange, too.

BOLO on Zorn came back.

He's dead.

What? What happened?

Zorn was crossing the road, vehicle ran into him.

NOPD got the call.

They think it's an accident.

Okay, another person accidentally killed by a vehicle?

I don't think so.

Yeah. Lasalle and Sonja are meeting Wade at the crime scene.

If there's foul play, we'll find out.

Okay, so Zorn catches Babish stealing his laptop.

Babish ends up dead that same night.

Then Zorn tries to get the laptop back, fails, ends up dead, too?

Now third person's trying to hack in.

What's on that laptop?

And how is this hacker involved?

Well, now you can ask him.

So, I traced the hacker's IP address, connected it to a physical address in Baton Rouge.

I'm texting it to you guys right now.

All right, let's go.

Pride: NCIS!

Federal agents!

♪ ♪

(clattering)

NCIS.

Put your hands where I can see them.

Show 'em to me.

Easy.

Okay, okay, okay.

Easy, hands out.

Oh, my God.

Edward Lamb.

He's the one who killed my sister.

Percy, you see this now, don't you?

Emily and Babish's cases have to be connected.

Lamb killed my sister, then he hacked into the laptop that Babish stole-- now, what else could that mean?

Yeah, I don't disagree with you.

There is a connection.

Lamb murdered my sister.

I am betting he killed Babish and Zorn, too.

Maybe, but that's a big leap.

This is what we know.

Lamb was released from prison six months ago.

Living off the grid ever since.

Psych evals are normal.

And he was an I.T. dude, which explains the hacking.

But that's all we got.

That's not all.

Patton scanned Lamb's computers, found something that I think you're gonna want to see.

Photos.

Lamb sent me the photos.

Why the hell would he do that?

I got to talk to him.

Brody.

Remember what we spoke about?

About you going down a rabbit hole-- you're down there.

And I got to be frank-- I don't trust your judgment.

You may not trust me, but I have been right all along.

I said there was a connection, and there is.

So please, don't shut me out right now.

Look, Tie may need to go to the runner on this one, King.

Lamb says... he's got to talk to Brody.

I know you hate me.

I understand.

My sister is dead because of you.

No, she isn't.

I did not kill her.

This is a one-month sobriety coin.

I got it at an AA meeting the night Emily died.

I swear to you...

I never would have had a drink that night.

We're supposed to believe that?

You pled guilty, Edward.

Now we're supposed to... believe you were framed?

If there was any chance I thought someone would've believed me, I wouldn't have taken the plea bargain.

But yes, yes, I think I was drugged. I was knocked out.

Someone else ran over your sister, and I was put in the driver's seat.

Why choose you to be the patsy?

Because I was an alcoholic with an old DUI.

An easy target? I don't know.

All that matters now is clearing my name.

That's all I have left.

I have to prove it.

I have to.

That's why you sent me those photos.

So I'd prove it for you.

But you didn't find anything.

I had to take it on myself, do my own investigating.

What have you found?

Mostly I've been grasping at straws.

But I thought maybe Emily's death was related to her work.

So when Evan Babish died, i-it got me thinking.

Babish worked at the same paper on the same team.

And both deaths were made to look accidental.

I thought the exact same thing, too-- that whoever killed Emily killed Babish, too.

Lamb: And if I find who killed Babish, I find who did this to me.

That's why you hacked Zorn's laptop?

Of course.

Babish published that story about Zorn.

I thought maybe he was responsible.

I was looking for proof.

Sonja: You think he's telling the truth?

He served his time-- why would he be doing all this if he wasn't innocent, if he wasn't looking for who framed him?

So everyone thinks the same person's behind all these murders.

Now all we need to do is find evidence proving the connection.

Well, we might be able to help you with that.

We just ran Jared Zorn's blood work, and surprise, surprise-- he also had elevated blood alcohol levels, just like Babish.

Sebastian: Which made us wonder if someone was trying to make them look like drunks who couldn't notice oncoming vehicles.

Which would be pretty smart considering how often coroners close their books when alcohol rears its head.

Yeah, so we dug a little deeper, and it turns out that both Babish and Zorn were drugged.

Alprazolam-- it's a medication that when combined with alcohol drastically increases intoxication levels.

And as I was digging deeper, I went even further back-- to Edward Lamb's blood work.

He, too, was drugged.

Alprazolam every time.

My guess-- they were all injected with an alprazolam-alcohol cocktail.

This is the proof.

So it is the same killer.

Yeah. Which is a nice way of saying, “Boom, we told you so. What? Bro-astian for the win.”

That's “Brody” and “Sebastian” combined.

You just...

We're done here.

Sounds like our killer has a very specific M.O.

Could be a pro.

Well, if he's struck before, there may be a record of it.

All right, you two start with the NCIC database.

Hey, we're almost there, Mer.

Almost there.

And I'm about to get you closer.

If Mr. Lamb knew how to hack into this puppy, he'd have found something interesting.

Turns out someone put remote-monitoring software on Zorn's laptop.

Otherwise known as a bug.

So someone was spying on Zorn?

Oh, and here's the kicker.

All the information on the laptop was being transmitted to a server at the Houston Globe.

I would love to tell you who was receiving it, but too many firewalls on their service.

Impossible to track.

Come on. We're going back to Houston.

Look... I don't know anything about it.

Come on, you're the I.T. guy-- if anyone knows what's going through those servers, it's you.

Here's what we know, Jessica.

Your ex-boyfriend, who you spoke to right before he died, stole that laptop from Jared Zorn's house.

Now we know it was bugged and sending information through your servers.

So forgive us if it's hard to believe that you don't know anything.

Look, we know you're hiding something.

What is it?

Sorry. I just don't know who's listening to me in there.

(sighs)

I did lie before... about what Evan and I talked about on the phone.

I'm just... I'm scared.

Jessica, we can protect you.

Evan told me he stole Zorn's laptop.

He wanted to prove their lies.

That story on Zorn...

Evan had him working on it for months, and then it died.

Evan couldn't find the smoking gun.

And then suddenly Forefront had all these files proving Zorn's guilt, all from anonymous sources-- no one could say where they were from.

They got the files from the bug.

That's what Evan wanted to prove.

Did Evan know who was behind it?

Of course.

Who's in charge of Forefront?

Who ran the story?

Whose family loses their business if we don't keep people reading?

Daniel Nolan.

(sniffles)

Daniel knew Evan was onto him.

(sobs): He did it.

(crying): Excuse me.

This makes so much sense now.

Daniel wanted me to drop the case.

I... I hadn't thought about this until just now, but right before Emily died, Forefront ran the State House corruption piece.

The story was dead.

And somehow it came back to life.

Which means Emily knew about the bugging.

(exhales): Pride... please don't tell me he killed her.

(phone rings)

Yeah, Chris?

We got a pop in the NCIC database.

Same M.O. as our killer.

Sonja: A dude named Martin Gorman.

Private investigator with a background in military security.

Lasalle: Yeah, in 2002 and 2006 he was unsuccessfully tried for murders.

Both victims had alprazolam in their system.

And we got Gorman's addy.

We're on the way.

I think we got an idea who might've hired him.

When you find him, ask him if he knows the name Daniel Nolan.

♪ ♪

Martin Gorman! NCIS! Open up!

Son of a bitch!

(tires squealing)

♪ ♪

This is as fast as you can go?

No, ma'am.

(tires squealing, siren wailing)

♪ ♪

(revving motor)

Hey, he's like the Energizer Bunny.

I'll cut him off.

♪ ♪

(grunting)

How you doing, Mr. Gorman?

(Gorman groaning)

Yeah. That sounds about right.

Step out, my man.

You got a lot of explaining to do, Mr. Gorman.

That might be the understatement of the century.

Three murders in eight years-- it'd take all week.

(chuckles): You got two things on me-- jack and squat.

We do have two things, actually.

Yeah, bugging software and alprazolam found in your house.

Now, I wonder what you could use those for.

I think he would use it to drug Edward Lamb and frame him for Emily Brody's murder.

And then he took care of Evan Babish, and last but certainly not least, Jared Zorn.

And after Babish stole his laptop, he couldn't risk Zorn finding out what was on it, could he?

Mm-hmm.

I want a lawyer.

Oh, you'll get your lawyer.

But he's not saving you from the death penalty.

No, sir. See, we got you for murders in Louisiana and Texas.

Best way you can help yourself is if you tell us who you're working for.

Now, the name Daniel Nolan, does that ring a bell?

Daniel.

Merri. Hey.

What's going on? What are you doing here?

Robert Nolan... you are under arrest.

Under arrest?

What are you talking about?

We're talking about Martin Gorman, the man you hired to kill three people, including Babish and Emily.

Wh... Come on, this is crazy.

No, it's not, actually.

These murders were all part of a cover-up so your father could steal information for Forefront.

No, that's not true.

You're lying.

I know it's hard to hear, but it doesn't make it any less true.

Who got you the files on Zorn after the piece went dead?

Ask your father where he got the information.

If you think I'm lying... ask him.

Dad?

Nobody was supposed to get hurt.

What?

Brody: Get hurt?

You had my sister killed.

How could you?

No, no, Merideth, i-it wasn't that...

Don't make this harder than it already is.

Wait, wait, Dad, It's over. what are you doing!

No!

Those stories... they had to be told.

The truth had to come out.

The truth? What truth?

You just did this so you could save your precious paper!

I did it to save your future.

Emily was my future!

Pride: Robert... this is not the answer.

It won't solve anything.

Actually, it might make things worse.

Maybe not for you, but for Daniel, for Nancy.

They'll never have their questions answered.

They will always be... longing... hurting... wondering.

They deserve closure, Robert.

And we deserve justice.

Don't deny us that.

Robert... it's the least you can do.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

(sighs)

Happy St. Patty's.

(indistinct shouting)

♪ ♪

Hey.

There you are.

No stew?

(laughs) I'm sure the recipe is in one of my boxes.

How you doing?

So, we got to the truth of it all, but...

I still feel this... hole in my heart... and it's... it's just as big as it was before.

(softly): Yeah.

You just got to take it one day at a time.

One box at a time.

It's okay to start living your life again.

You got the strength.

And I'm proud of you.

♪ ♪

Emily would be proud, too.

Thanks.

Come on.

Come inside.

(laughs softly)

Thank you, Pride.

Sure.

Ah. But I'm not the only one who has to take it one day at a time.

♪ ♪

Hi. Uh, I'm Edward.

I'm an alcoholic, and I have recently celebrated my eighth birthday.

Others: Hi, Edward.

Uh... these last few years have not been easy.

For a long time, uh, people thought the wrong thing about me.

(door opens)

But, uh...

♪ ♪

...I think... finally, my-my life's starting to turn a corner.