Ships in the Night - Recap

Coast Guard Special Agent Abigail Borin is on a date with a complete
boor. She excuses herself and does some shots. A man in uniform starts
chatting with her. They introduce themselves, he's 1st Lt. Jeremy Nolan.
If her date continues to suck, he'll meet her at the bar. Her date finds
her just as shots ring out. She grabs her gun from her purse and heads
out to the deck. A trail of blood leads her to Jeremy. Dead.

Tony is not amused to find himself at work at 2:00 a.m. on a Friday
night. He starts digging for information about Ziva's guy. She tells him
she is going to go see her guy, using comp time. Tony had no idea that
was what it was for. McGee is surprised to discover Tony didn't know
that. Even if they are salaried, they work overtime. Said overtime is
either compensated financially, or as time off. And the powers that be
prefer they take the time off. Had Tony known, he would have taken the
time. He doesn't need the money. As Tony is about to tally his
overtime, Gibbs tells him he's about to accrue some more. They head for
the scene of the crime.

Gibbs and Borin cheerfully squabble about whose case this actually is.
He brought her a change of clothes since she has blood on her cocktail
dress, and it is now the next day. She brings Gibbs up to speed. Nolan
was having dinner with his sister Kimberly and their uncle, Wayne
Grossman. The killer could still be on board, since none of the
passengers has been allowed to disembark.

McGee and Ziva question the family members on board. His uncle says
Jeremy survived 18 months overseas only to be gunned down here. Kimberly
gets a text that the paparazzi already know about Jeremy's murder, and
are outside the marina. McGee finally realizes that she's THE Kimberly
Nolan. The family is worth millions.

Borin takes pictures of Nolan's body as she and Gibbs talk some more.
Ziva tells her that Jeremy Nolan was the son of the late Jack Nolan.
Jeremy left the family business to become a marine. Abigail realizes
that he really was one of the good guys.

McGee tells Gibbs it's obvious that he and Borin have a lot in common.
She shows up bearing coffee, black. Jeremy was being groomed to take
over the family business. He was cut out of the will when he joined the
marines. Nolan Radiation Systems is a huge company, and Jack started it
in his back yard. Then Kimberly went viral. Gibbs assumes illness, but
McGee and Borin explain the concept of cyber = viral, sex tapes etc to him.

Jeremy had no enemies. He got a ton of citations.

Tony and Ziva are interviewing the last of the passengers form the
dinner boat. Borin's blind date, Steve, claims they were really hitting
it off. When he excuses himself to 'hit the head', Tony tells Ziva
she'll find one like him. Borin arrives and says that if she does, she
should run. Any new news? No sign of the weapon anywhere on board, and
nobody tested positive for gunshot residue. Borin blows that news off,
all the shooter would need to do is wear gloves and change clothes.
Nobody was on deck to see the shooting. However, one couple remembers
seeing a man in a marine uniform get in an argument with a member of the
waitstaff. This was about ten minutes before the gunshots, which would
be about the same time she met Nolan at the bar.

She tells Tony that as long as they have contact info for everybody, the
passengers can go home. Her blind date from hell asks her if she wants
him to drive her home. She gives him a look that could kill.

Duckie is talking to Jeremy about celebrities as he tracks the bullets
through the body. Gibbs asks about the bullets. 9 mm, and judging by
trajectory, both were fired from an unusually low angle, and from at
least 20' away. All else considered, the shooter did an impressive job.

The waiter who got into the altercation, Doug, is being questioned by
Tony. You can't say there's no such thing as an ex-marine if you are
one. Conduct unbecoming, discharge. Tony notes that Doug owns a 9mm, and
has a bad temper. Tony goads him, and Doug yells "stop talking to me
like that!" Tony retorts "stop lying to me like that." He claims he was
on the other side of the boat when he heard shots. Tony tells Doug that
he's their prime suspect.

Abby shows Borin and Gibbs a 3D model of the shooting she created. She
believes that the shooter wasn't even on the boat, but rather that he
fired from a boat nearby.

McGee asks Abigail if she needs anything. Aspirin, maybe? She tells him
she earned her headache because she screwed up. She didn't notice a boat
last night, and she should have. The captain of the dinner craft didn't
remember seeing a boat, either. They wonder if it's possible that Jeremy
wasn't even the target.

McGee finds Jeremy in the police files. Three days ago, he was arrested
for assault. Charges were dropped the next day. His uncle, Wayne
Grossman, defended him. Tony and Ziva are sent out to the company. Upon
arrival, they meet with Tom Adams. He's been with the company since he
was working in the warehouse at 15. He's the CFO, Kimberly is on the
board. Tom tells them that while Jeremy was overseas, Kimberly started
dating someone named Devon Lodge. He was abusive. When Jeremy got back,
he took care of Devon himself. One punch. Ziva wonders if Lodge
retaliated by killing Jeremy.

Abigail found a picture of the mystery boat. It was from somebody's cell
phone. Borin's team is working on locating the boat.

Tony and Ziva arrive at a nightclub to question Devon. The bouncers
don't want to work with them until Tony offers to card the entire club.
Devon is manhandling Kimberly when David 'helps' him unhand her. Tony
and Ziva question him. He tells them that he was being filmed by the
paparazzi. They follow him 24/7.

Abby finds a blood anomaly from the crime scene. Jeremy's blood wasn't
the only blood present. She's working on it, but both blood samples were
tainted by virtue of being comingled.

Borin gets a call. Another body was pulled from the Potomac. She visits
Duckie in the morgue to get some results. It would appear he was killed
shortly after Jeremy died. The second victim had a .22 in his body.
Duckie found 9mm shells in his pocket. They posit that he was hired to
kill Jeremy, then was killed himself. His name is Kyle Dansby, and he
has a record. He's a suspect in two 'murder for hire' cases.

Borin says the body was dumped at National Harbor. McGee is tracking the
390+ boat registrations he was sent. One of them was registered to a
holding company that belongs to Devon's family. Ziva and Tony return to
the club and find Devon occupied with another blond. He takes a shot at
Tony, who ducks. David swings, and also takes out Devon's bodyguard.

Devon tries to flirt his way out of the questioning, but Tony and David
continue. Tony informs him that he was off the paparazzi's radar the
night of the murder. Where did he go? He claims no memory. McGee
interrupts to say the reason they couldn't find the footage is because
the pap sold it for $50,000 to ZMZ. It shows Devon entering a hotel with
a Senator's 17 year-old daughter. He's placed under arrest, claiming
that the young lady in question said she was 18.


Gibbs gets filled in on Devon's ironclad alibi. He snaps at them
"somebody get something", but before he can leave the room, McGee
announces that he's got something. Abigail notes that her guys never do
that, and Gibbs says she needs to get herself some new guys. McGee goes
on to say that probate closed at midnight on Jack Nolan's estate. Just
prior to his death, he changed his will. Everything went to Jeremy, and
he was about to convert everything from a private corporation into a
charitable foundation.

Abby tells Abigail and Gibbs that the uncle, Wayne Grossman, once
defended the hitman in court. Abby thinks that Grossman contracted
Dansby, based on their previous interaction. She'd also picked up Tom
Adams fingerprint, but he'd been on the boat many times. Also, Kimberly
will lose her $300k job once the company becomes a charity. She still
hasn't got a reliable ID off the compromised blood sample.

Agent Gibbs takes a meeting with the uncle, the sister, and the CFO, Tom
Adams. Abigail throws a boat key on the table, ordering Adams to pick it
up. He initially refuses. They tell him that his prints were on it.
Wayne orders Tom to give him the key and remain silent. Abigail asks how
much Dansby charged him. He says this is absurd, and starts to get up to
leave. She stops him.

Gibbs notes that Kimberly is being very quiet. Abigail asks her if she
has anything to say. She remains mute. Gibbs pours her some water and
tells her to pick it up. When she won't, Gibbs takes her arms and she
recoils in pain. A bullet grazed her. Gibbs says it must have been hard
to stand there and watch her brother die, and she starts talking. She
didn't want to do it. Tom and Wayne threatened her. If she didn't get
Jeremy out onto the deck, they were going to kill her. Tom calls her a
liar and says it was all Kimberly's idea, but Wayne is the one who
arranged the hit man. Wayne says Tom is the one who shot Dansby, and Tom
retorts "Prove it". Wayne used his cell to tape his conversations with
Kimberly, and plays the one where she sets up the idea. Wayne wants to
see the prosecutor, so he can cut a deal.

Gibbs and Abigail arrive at work, bright-eyed. The team is flagging,
since they've been up for 24 hours. Gibbs sends them home. Borin takes a
call and heads back to her home base. Dead body on a yacht in Baltimore.
Gibbs thanks her before she leaves.

An attorney serving in the military arrives to give Gibbs some
information which could have a bearing on the case. Jeremy changed his
will, removing his sister and drawing up papers of conversion, turning
the company into a nonprofit. He left everything to charity.

Tony has three weeks of comp time. He can't take it, he doesn't want
somebody assigned to his desk.


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