- A Navy Commander is murdered near the White House, it is learned that he was on his way to talk to the President. Gibbs and his team must determine if it is because of his relationship with the President or because of his marital problems.
- Navy lieutenant commander Wallace, a regular personal guest of the president, is found, fatally stabbed, by White House square visitors who report it to parks service sergeant Burt Moore, a hunk to Abby's taste. He informs NCIS, adding there was a recent series of non-violent robberies by a 'gentleman thief', who is soon tracked down and eliminated, being just a penniless criminology student with an alibi. The victim's wedding to Trish however was crumbling, his girlfriend Courtney Reed, an employee of Colford's defense-contracted ICT company, seemingly drowned in a possibly staged car accident.—KGF Vissers
- A dad and his pre-teen daughter take lots of pictures on their sightseeing tour of DC. When they pause near bushes in the ellipse near the White House, the daughter finds a Naval officer's hat. The dad peers into the bushes and sees the dead officer lying there.
Back at NCIS, Ellie and Tony take down the most wanted photo of Benham Parsa and put up Sergei Mishnev. McGee comes in exhausted from his 3 a.m. video chat with Delilah. Then Gibbs is in for the body of the week.
At the crime scene, a DC park police sergeant Burt Moore tell Gibbs there have been five muggings in the area in the last week. The mugger carried a knife but was very polite. Sgt. Moore mentions a photo a tourist took that shows the back of the mugger's head and Gibbs asks him to send it to Abby.
The victim is Lt. Cmdr. Edward Wallace. His wallet and watch are missing. Duckie says Wallace was stabbed by a large knife two hours ago. The victim's phone rings from a secure number. The caller is the President.
Later back at the office, Gibbs comes from visiting the President with Vance. Wallace shadowed the president for four years as an aide. He played in a pick-up basketball game at the White house every week. Last night he called the president to ask for a minute of his time, but then didn't show for breakfast, the president called him.
Time for victim rundown. After leaving the White House, Wallace was assistant director of policy and plans for the Navy.
Ellie brings Sgt. Moore down to Abby's lab. He's mesmerized by her neck tattoo then shows her his own grim reaper ink -- she recognizes the artist. Abby looks at the photo of the fleeing mugger and sees that he's reflected in the Vietnam War Memorial. She asks Moore for the digital file.
Wallace's widow, Trish, meets with Tony and McGee. She admits she hasn't seen Wallace in a few weeks because of a trial separation, but she says they were working things out. Ned was staying on his yacht. She says the watch he was wearing was priceless. His maternal grandmother was an heiress.
In the morgue, Duckie says the murder weapon was a tactical knife. The mugger was left handed and about the same height as the victim. As Gibbs is leaving, Vance comes down to ask Duckie about something on a disc.
McGee is shocked that Tony believes the widow. Ellie reports Wallace's phone records show calls from a woman named Courtney Reed, who works at a tech consulting company called Colford-Webb. It was founded by a former CIA officer named Richard Colford.
Down in the lab, Abby is on the phone with McGee so a very impressed Sgt. Moore tells Gibbs that Abby was able to get a name for the mugger from his sharpened reflection run through facial recognition. His name's Nicholas Dunne. Gibbs answers Moore before he can ask, telling him Abby is available.
Dunne reports that Dunne is a student at John Hamilton University. Gibbs and McGee go visit him during field hockey practice. Dunne is a Criminology major and doesn't want to go with them, until they mention the murder. He admits to the muggings but lets them search his backpack to prove he didn't kill anyone. The knife is a rubber training knife.
Later that night, Vance stops by Gibbs' basement. Vance says he's recently been in for tests but his doctor thinks it might be advanced stage lymphoma. He's having a CT scan tomorrow. Vance admits he's scared.
Duckie had to admit it didn't look good. Vance is worried about his kids.
At NCIS the next morning, Abby races up to escort Sgt. Moore to take a statement from Nicholas Dunne.
McGee reports the Wallaces had a prenuptial agreement, giving her a lot in the event of his death.
Gibbs wants more info on former Navy Lt. Courtney Reed, who went to school with Wallace. She's not at her apartment, called in sick to work and isn't answering her phone. They put a BOLO out on her.
Tony takes Ellie to search Wallace's yacht. Gibbs sends McGee to the Pentagon to talk to Wallace's CO.
On Wallace's boat, Tony finds pictures of Trish Wallace hidden in drawers. She has short hair, but Ellie found a hair band and shampoo for a blonde, like Courtney Reed.
At NCIS, McGee reports that Wallace's CO said he was well-liked and didn't have high clearance. McGee gets a call from Delilah but doesn't answer, which Gibbs finds odd.
Down in the lab, Abby reports finding a draft of divorce papers on Wallace's computer. She confirmed Reed's fingerprints were all over the boat.
They get called into MTAC where Marge Fields, the Harford County Sheriff, reports they found Reed's car crashed into a river. The window was smashed, so she got out, but they haven't found her.
Up in Vance's office, he tells Duckie that a thoracic surgeon reviewed his CT scan and said it looks like lymphoma. Vance is having surgery for a biopsy tomorrow. The surgeon asked Vance if he had his life in order. Vance says he doesn't -- he hasn't redone his will or determined a caregiver for his children.
At Courtney's office, her boss Bryce Tolson speaks highly of her work with the government intelligence agencies they work for. Richard Colford, the CEO, joins them. He agrees to let NCIS look over Courtney's files as soon as they get proper clearance.
Vance remembers back to happier times with his whole family. Vance's nanny Lara comes by his office, at his request. He asks her to watch the kids while he's in the hospital for a few days. He's going to tell them tonight that he's been called away on business.
McGee escorts Trish Wallace to interrogation, where Tony shows her the draft of the divorce papers and asks about Courtney Reed. Trish knows her name as an old girlfriend of her husband. McGee mentions the prenup and asks Trish for her alibi. She asks for a lawyer and leaves.
In the office, Special Agent Tony Francis (Tony Gonzalez) stops to ask Ellie about working for Gibbs, the "hard ass." Naturally, he is busted by Gibbs standing right behind him. "Don't you have some place else to be, Francis?" Gibbs says. (Yes, on the CBS Sunday NFL pregame.)
Ellie tells Gibbs she found a credit card charge on Wallace's account for the night before he was killed, an Annapolis hotel room under the name Regina Lambert. Tony recognizes the name as Audrey Hepburn's character from "Charade." A woman using that name and fitting Courtney Reed's description checked into the hotel two nights ago.
Tony hears McGee's phone ringing with a video chat from Delilah. With McGee escorting Trish out of the building, Tony answers and gets an eyeful of naked Delilah.
Gibbs sends Tony and McGee to the hotel, where they see Courtney outside. She runs when she sees them but after a good amount of chasing, they catch her. She screams at anyone nearby to call the police.
She doesn't believe Tony and McGee are really with NCIS. She didn't know Wallace was dead.
Back at NCIS, Duckie shows her Wallace's body. She says she and Wallace were going to get married.
Up in the conference room, she tells the team that she discovered Colford-Webb's security had a flaw that any hacker could exploit, revealing government secrets. She told her boss, Bryce Tolson, who wanted to cover it up. So she told Colford, who assured her he'd fix it. The company would lose billions if it was exposed.
Tolson started excluding her from meetings and she thought she was being followed. Then she made her "tragic mistake" of calling Wallace from her work phone, which must have been bugged. She was on her way to her parents' cabin, at his suggestion, when a car ran her off the road.
She barely made it out and to the hotel room, where she called Ned and he told her he'd speak to the president.
At Colford-Webb, Gibbs confronts Bryce Tolson and notices he's left handed. He arrests him.
Back in the office, Tony apologizes profusely to Delilah.
When Abby wanders by, she's not sure why she hasn't gone out with the park ranger yet. She wonders why Duckie and Gibbs aren't around.
At the hospital, Lara brings Vance's daughter Kayla by. Duckie talks to Vance's surgeon then happily reports that Vance doesn't have cancer, but sarcoidosis, which mimics cancer on x-rays. He probably won't even need treatment.
Kayla goes in to see her dad. She overheard Lara on the phone with Duckie. Assures her dad she can handle it. Gibbs promises to look out for Vance at work.
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