A Year of NCIS, Day 230: Chasing Ghosts (Episode 10.20)

Episode: Chasing Ghosts, Episode 10.20.

Air Date: April 9, 2013.

The Victim: Noah Daniels, a military spouse.

Emotionally Traumatized, But Ultimately Irrelevant, Witness Who Finds the Body: A woman comes home with a suitcase.  She announces to her husband, Noah, that she’s home.  She’s mad about the flight and her noisy seatmate.  She continues talking until she notices that her living room is wrecked.  She tries to call her husband, and the call rings to his cell phone, abandoned amidst the carnage.  She hears a sound and thinks it’s an intruder, so she dials 911 and approaches her back door with a warning that she is calling the police.  But it’s Ben, the neighbor.  He calls her Callie and says that he saw the door was open and tried to call Noah, but couldn’t get him.  He has no idea where Noah is.

Plot Recap: Tony is looming over McGee’s desk, compulsively clicking a pen.  He is nervous about Ziva being late for work.  And about her all-hours calls to Shmeil, her friend.  And about Ziva coming back from lunch smelling like Thai and beer, even though she hates Thai.  And drinks on the job about as often as she gets Tony’s movie references.  Tony fancies himself a good citizen.  McGee fancies Tony a stalker and wonders if Tony will advance to a Ziva-cam.  Tony likes the idea.  But he conveys to McGee that Ziva’s father’s killer, Ilan Bodnar, is still in the wind.  And while McGee says that’s CIA’s jurisdiction now, they both wonder if Ziva would pursue Bodnar on her own.

Ziva arrives and Tony’s pries.  But Gibbs arrives with a missing persons report.  The team scrambles into action, but Vance wants a word with Gibbs.  DHS has called twice saying that Ziva has been sniffing around for Bodnar.  Gibbs knows that Vance has been looking too.  Vance doesn’t deny it, or take issue with Ziva’s conduct.  He’s just giving Gibbs a heads up.

At the scene, Ziva reports that Noah is a Noah Daniels, a realtor.  His wallet, watch, and cell were found in the house.  Lt. Callie Daniels is the wife we already met.  She is being evaluated for shock.  Gibbs enters the home and sees signs of a fight- blood stains, spilled coffee grounds- in addition to the overturned furniture.

Tony is interviewing Ben the neighbor.  He describes a sedan, but no driver or plates.  He saw it, went to sleep, then heard a door slam and saw it roar off around 2:00 AM.

Inside, Gibbs notes the blood trail stops at the door.  The kitchen is untouched and there’s no blood or signs of a struggle outside of the living area.  But then McGee sees blood on the trash can.  Inside is a severed finger. 

In autopsy, Palmer is looking at the finger and gushes over his and Ducky’s teamwork.  Palmer thinks it was the ring finger.  Ducky gets ready to do a psych profile.  Palmer wants to help, but Ducky thinks profiling is beyond his reach and just wants peace and quiet.  Palmer leaves, feelings clearly hurt.  But then he storms back in and says it’s not OK for Ducky to dismiss him.  He wants to get better at all aspects of the job, and he wants to learn profiling.  He rants for a bit, prompting a standard, “Are you through?” from Ducky.  Ducky tells him to pull up a stool, and says they need to work fast.

In the squad room, the usual BOLO-style scenarios are running re: Noah and the sedan.  Tony hopes they get hits before it turns into a body part meat puzzle situation.  Gibbs wants to know about Noah.  He’s a realtor with deceased parents and no criminal record, his credit score is 810 and his mortgage is up to date, so there’s no issue with money the team can find.  As to Lt. Daniels, she served two tours before joining the reserves.  She’s working on a classified op and her CO confirms that this is why she was in San Diego prior to returning home to find her husband missing. 

McGee has traffic cam footage from near the Daniels house, and the team can see Noah in the window of the sedan looking bound and terrified.  The timing matches Ben the neighbor’s telling of events. 

Gibbs visits Abby in the evidence garage.  She has r-created the family room.  There’s no evidence of Noah’s abductor forcibly entering the house, or of a chase.  Meaning Noah likely knew his abductor.  The finger was severed near the overturned couch.  The tissue from the finger is a match for the blood.  There were no weapons or prints at the house.  Abby also notes that the finger was severed right at the joint, almost surgically.  So the person wielding the blade has training.  He also left some of his own blood at the scene.  Find a match, find the suspect.

In the conference room, Gibbs and Ziva are updating Lt. Daniels.  She called him the previous night and he sounded fine on the phone.  He had the news on, like he always does before bed.  Lt. Daniels says her husband isn’t into any of the usual vices like gambling or drugs.  She’s not aware of any friction with others, or in their marriage. She makes clear that she wants her husband back and seems convincing.

McGee catches Tony looking through Ziva’s Bodnar file.  They argue, and then Gibbs arrives to ask about the BOLO.  The trail is cold on the sedan.  Bank records indicate that Noah was sitting on cash, though.  He inherited $2 million when his father passed.  Lt. Daniels enters the room and says that if this is a ransom play, the killer is out of luck.  Noah’s father worked hard his entire life and Noah will never hand that over.  Lt. Daniels does admit to being a signee on the account, but says it’s what Noah’s father wanted. 

Lt. Daniels gets a call.  It’s Noah.  McGee runs a trace.  Noah says it’s dark wherever he is.  Then another man tells Noah to shut up and tells Lt. Daniels to meet him or Noah dies.  There are sounds of a struggle.  Then gunshots.  McGee has an address, so Gibbs and Tony get moving. 

Gibbs and Tony have local LEO support as they approach the sedan.  It’s empty, but there’s a lot of blood in there. 

After a break, the team is processing the car.  Tony says there are no bullets or shell casings.  McGee texts a hit on the plates: the car is registered to Landers Orton. 

Orton is in interrogation.  He denies knowing Noah and plays dumb.  Gibbs runs out of patience even earlier than usual and tells Tony to lock Orton up.  Then Orton caves and says he thinks his brother, Darryl, might be involved.  Orton loaned Darryl a car, allegedly for a job interview, and when he didn’t return, Orton knew something was up.  Darryl might have stolen his debit card too.  Orton swears that Darryl isn’t capable of assault and kidnapping.  But, he does have a record and just got out of jail six months ago.

In the squad room, the agents show Lt. Daniels Darryl’s face.  She doesn’t know him.  Now she’s mad at Gibbs for…not catching up to a phone call in time?  Enh, it’s grief talking.  She storms off.

The team runs background on Darryl.  He’s 25, a high school dropout and a revolving door felon.  Shoplifting escalated to violence and the last conviction was for assault with a deadly weapon in 2011.  There is no debit card activity on Orton ‘s account, but some of the charges show a restaurant commonality with Noah, including them both being at the same restaurant two days prior.

Vance enters and thinks this means Noah was targeted.  He says the FBI has set up a tip line and has frozen Noah’s trust account.  Gibbs sends Tony and Ziva to the restaurant. 

Ziva is weirdly involved in this case, up to having a bathroom conversation with Lt. Daniels.  Lt. Daniels says she lied to NCIS.  The marriage has not been good.  She thinks she fell out of love with Noah.  But kidnapping has made the heart grow fonder.  And she’s freaking out over the inaction.  Lt. Daniels is not a passive personality.  She’s also not one to give up hope although she states that she saw the looks on the other agents’ faces and she believes they think Noah is dead. 

Tony and Ziva are at a Mexican restaurant.  They are discussing Lt. Daniels’s approach to the situation, and Tony thinks she’s headed for more grief by not adjusting her expectations.  Ziva thinks Lt. Daniels will not stop until she gets her closure.  Tony wonders if they’re really talking about Lt. Daniels.  Ziva asks him not to go there.  Fortunately, they have work to do.  They approach Rebecca Chidis, who is either the owner of the manager.  Ziva shows Noah’s photo and Chidis saw him the prior week.  She says he comes in every day for lunch, keeps to himself, but is friendly with the waiters and told them he came into some money.  Ziva shows Darryl’s picture.  Chidis knows him too and she has had to call the cops on him for fighting several times.  He also got into Noah’s face a few days ago and said he heard about the money.

Ziva gets a call and moves off to take it while Tony continues the interview.  She speaks to the caller in Hebrew.  Which Tony notices.

Gibbs checks in on Ducky and Palmer (who is wearing jeans and a button-up instead of the usual scrubs).  Gibbs gives him a kudo for learning some new tricks.  Ducky profiles Darryl as the third of nine children who was put up for adoption and told his whole life he was a waste of space.  As a result, he lives a life without fear of consequences.  Ducky and Palmer think Gibbs is headed for a violent showdown.  Gibbs reads from their white board that Darryl craves a sense of belonging and wants a real family.  Ducky thinks people run to what they know best, and Darryl will take a dysfunctional family over nothing.  Which makes Gibbs think he’s holed up in the woods of SW Virginia, near his brother. 

Gibbs leaves, and Palmer is very happy with himself for helping.          

Vance is hanging out with dilettante Director of DHS and former leisure golfer NCIS Director Tom Morrow.  Shocking no one, Morrow drinks prissy coffee and Vance mocks him for it.  They exchange pleasantries.  And then they stop.  Morrow tells Vance that CIA knows Ziva is nosing into the Bodnar hunt.  Vance says Ziva needs closure.  Morrow thinks Vance needs it too (for Jackie’s death) and if it were up to Morrow, he’d give Vance Bodnar’s coordinates and turn him loose.  Morrow says recent intel has Bodnar in Rome, but Vance needs to trust DHS and CIA to handle it.  Vance says he does, so Morrow says to warn Ziva off.

Gibbs returns to the squad room and Tony reports that a search of the woods near Orton’s home yielded nothing.  McGee has nothing on the BOLO.  Ziva reports that calls to Lt. Daniels have stopped and she is safe at home.  Tony suggests Darryl disposed of the body.  McGee wonders what happens if they never find the body.  Ziva angrily says the keep looking until they do, and Gibbs wordlessly notes her vehemence.  Vance walks in and agrees with her. 

McGee reports that Noah’s trust account has been compromised.  It’s empty.  Which means hacking, because the FBI froze the account.  And it looks like Darryl has opened an account in southern Virginia and made a deposit of $37,000.00.  Ziva concludes that Darryl wiped out the account and is spreading the money around.  But Gibbs and Tony both think that’s too complex for a high school dropout. 

Gibbs re-visits the evidence garage.  Abby has news.  She has prepared a computer simulation of the fight in the living room.  Presumably Noah would be kicking and screaming.  And the rugs would be compromised and there would be scuff marks on the walls.  But…there’s none of that.  There is nothing to indicate that Noah struggled on the way out the door.  Gibbs suggests he was passed out and had to be carried.  Abby agrees, but says Noah was six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than Darryl, so there’s no way Darryl carried him alone.

In the squad room, all three agents report that Landers Orton has a work alibi, supported by his supervisor and the camera.  Darryl has kept to himself since he got out of prison.  No cell phone, no girlfriend, and the restaurant owner never saw him come in with anyone.

McGee gets a phone call and it’s a tip being passed along from the FBI.  Someone matching Darryl’s description was just seen checking into a motel an hour prior.  Gibbs grabs Tony and Ziva.

At the hotel, the agents announce and then use a room key to enter.  Darryl is lying dead on a bed.  It looks like a suicide and Darryl left a note apologizing for all that he hurt.  It also says that he killed Noah and threw his body into the Potomac. 

In autopsy, Ducky quickly disposes of the suicide theory.  Someone murdered Darryl.  There’s no GSR on his hands and the angle is all wrong.  F for effort.

Gibbs leaves and heads to the squad room, where he asks about Noah’s body.  Police are still dragging the river, but no results yet.  There’s no surveillance from the hotel. 

Abby appears, and she’s excited.  She has a picture frame from the Daniels’s house that allegedly fell from the wall.  Yet, it’s not damaged.  There’s more.  McGee puts up some pics Abby sent, and she reveals that the Daniels’ couch is too bottom-heavy to get flipped over during a fight.  The crime scene was staged.  And the only person with motive to stage the kidnapping and the suicide…is Noah Daniels.

Gibbs asks and McGee reports that the tip to the FBI was anonymous.  McGee has the recording.  It’s a woman and Tony looks at Ziva as they listen.  Ziva rolls her eyes.  It’s Rebecca Chidis.

Whom we join at her restaurant.  She’s having a phone argument accusing the other person of saying no one would get hurt when Tony and Ziva arrive.  Tony figures it’s her boyfriend.  She calls it business.  Ziva says they know this is her second restaurant to fall into debt in five years and that Noah was trying to bail her out.  Tony says they have flirty emails and phone records.  Chidis says they’re just friends.  Friends who fake deaths.  Tony is impressed with the finger.  Such a clean cut, and who knew that culinary school would come in handy.  Chidis plays it off, but the looming specter of being accused of Darryl’s murder causes her to cave. She says Noah has lost control.  They were just trying to get away from wife, although Chidis claims she thought Lt. Daniels couldn’t touch the trust money.  So, Noah lied to her.  She sits, dejected.  But Tony thinks they can help each other, and asks where Noah is.

Off to the bus station.  Gibbs and McGee board a bus and find Noah.  McGee thinks he looks good for a dead guy.  Noah plays dumb, but Gibbs gets furious and hauls Noah out of his seat.  They cuff him and perp walk him off the bus.  Ouch.  They even brought Lt. Daniels to the bust.  He doesn’t speak, so she goes for him.  But Ziva holds her back.  She walks off and Ziva turns to find Tony.  They stare at each other.

Yeah, we’re not done.  It’s night and Gibbs joins Tony in the squad room.  He’s the only one there and he’s staring at Ziva’s empty desk and compulsively clicking that pen.  Gibbs asks what’s on his mind.  Tony asks if Gibbs would want to know if Ziva was up to something.  Gibbs says he’d want to know she was safe.  Tony asks if he would respect her privacy.  Gibbs qualifies “unless she was in too deep.”  And for once, Gibbs is sort of out of the loop, and asks what Tony is thinking about.  Tony asks for permission to look around.  Gibbs says if Tony is worried, he needs to go find Ziva.  Tony stares at Ziva’s desk again, and Gibbs clarifies, “Now.”

In the lab, Abby is also working late, and thinks it’s unethical to help Tony track down Ziva via her cell.  But Tony is desperate and can’t find McGee.  So he name-drops Bodnar and talks Abby into it. 

Tony is in an apartment building corridor, or something similar, and tracking Ziva while talking to Abby on the phone.  She tells him to stop at a door, and he thanks her and hangs up.  He hears Ziva talking within and knocks.  Ziva answers the door with a gun.  Tony says he wants to help. 

Ouch.  A familiar voice asks if it’s the food, and Tony enters to see McGee.  He and Ziva have set up a war room.  McGee said Ziva was waiting for the right time to tell Tony.  Ziva says things got out of hand, one phone call led to another, and now they’re running their own op.  Tony is not impressed.  Tracking a CIA target with NCIS resources is a good way to be unemployed.  McGee says it’s all off the books, no resources.  Tony thinks that’s worse.  But Ziva says they’re not tracking Bodnar.  Her contacts are gathering all the intel.  She and McGee are just splicing things together.  Tony and Ziva are having a whole passive aggressive thing while McGee watches.  Ziva reveals that, based on surveillance camera footage, Bodnar, shortly after Eli David’s death, exited a parking garage at Dulles Airport.  Then he took a flight to Rome.  There have been sightings in Prague and Switzerland as well.  Bodnar is in Western Europe, exhausting his bases, and Ziva will not stop until she finds him.  Tony wonders when she plans on telling Gibbs. 

We join our foursome in the squad room.  It’s still dark.  They’re all at their desks.  Ziva stands up, walks over, and tells Gibbs about her and McGee’s shenanigans.  But, contrary to my prior assessment, he knew.  And he also knew Ziva needed to be ready to tell him.  Gibbs confirms Bodnar is in Rome and tells Ziva to take Tony.  As she turns back to her desk, she sees Vance standing on the stairwell.  He just nods at her.   

Quotables: Nothing much.

Ziva-propisms: None.

Tony Awards: Abby’s reference to the perp having “special skills” is probably a riff on Taken (2008).  Tony refers to Abby and McGee as the Wonder Twins, from TV’s Super Friends.

Abby Road: Mercury is in retrograde.

McNicknames: McHelenKeller.  Tony calls Ziva “Crying Tiger Beef.”

Ducky Tales: Ducky would like us to know about Roman wedding rings.

The Rest of the Story:

-We met Shmeil in Gone, Episode 10.8.  He appeared again to help Ziva through her grief over her father’s murder in Shiva, Episode 10.12.

-The last female Navy lieutenant to come home to an assaulted (and dead) husband ended up being OK with it.  You Better Watch Out, Episode 10.10.

-I think Ducky learned profiling in two episodes so I’m not sure how it’s supposed to be entirely beyond Palmer’s grasp.  See Escaped, Episode 4.2 and Singled Out, Episode 4.3.

-Tony’s reference to a meat puzzle refers to an old episode.  The Meat Puzzle, Episode 2.13.

-Unsurprisingly, Tony suspects the wife.  It’s a thing he does.  See Guilty Pleasure, Episode 7.19; Jurisdiction, Episode 7.18.

-Tony gets a headslap.

-Abby complains about McGee pinging her.  It happened in Hit and Run, Episode 10.13.  The less said, the better.

Casting Call: Chidis was played by Lourdes Benedicto.  She has made the rounds on Dawson’s Creek, NYPD Blue¸ the V remake, and 24.

Man, This Show Is Old: This isn’t Scrubs (man I loved Scrubs) and it isn’t 2013.  Gibbs referring to even the male members of his team as “ladies” is probably not acceptable in the here and now.

MVP: Abby figured out that the fight was faked.

Rating: With episodes, like this one, that I only saw once on first run, I can never tell if some hazy part of my brain remembers the plot or if some of these schemes are that obvious.  But it feels obvious. 

Also, there’s got to be an easier way to ditch your wife and keep your money.  So, no points for the caper, and precious little for characterization or humor.  This was a paint by numbers episode designed primarily to keep the pieces in play while we slowly move toward a Bodnar denouement.  No thanks.

Four Palmers. 

Next Time: Tony and Ziva go globetrotting in search of Bodnar.  NCIS meets the new Mossad Director.

Shameless Plugs:

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Alex Barfield is an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. When not practicing law or writing about NCIS, he chases his children around, volunteers at his church, grumbles about exults over Atlanta sports (Go Dawgs! Go Braves!), and looks for other television shows to obsess over. He can be reached at albarfie@hotmail.com or on Twitter at @AlexBarfield1 or on Facebook.