Joelle. I thought you said you were gonna stay in the garage.
I thought you said you were a securities trader.
What do you wanna know about me?
- How about your first name? - Heh, heh.
That bring back some memories? Is this my father?
Maybe he is, maybe he isn't.
Detective Jacqueline Rivera, L.A.P.D., Internal Affairs.
The L.A.P.D. Has decided to open an investigation into you.
Ripped By mstoll
You're a big boy, Arkady.
You should know not to play with other people's toys.
What the hell does that mean?
- Who sent you? - Friends.
Heh, heh. Friends don't make friends wake up this early.
These kind of friends do.
Go home. I won't tell.
- I promise. - Arkady, this is not going away.
Call 911.
What's going on?
Get the cops.
Wow. Sure you got everything?
I know. Even my kindergartners have started calling me "the Bag Lady."
- It's a problem. - I'll see you tonight?
What?
How's your day looking?
You know...
Each day has its own surprises.
No, Callen, my days have surprises,
often having to do with bodily functions.
Your days...
On the bright side, at least I won't be in prison.
Well, that's a plus.
I take it you haven't dated an ex-con before?
Mm... The whole bad-boy thing never really appealed to me.
Well, except when Marky Mark was in those underwear ads.
Joelle,
you can trust me.
I know I can.
I'm just still getting used to all this.
To you.
The real you.
So I'll see you tonight?
Be safe.
What do we have?
Play him the video.
This is security footage from a parking garage downtown early this morning.
Arkady. What's he done now?
Just keep watching.
The vehicle that exploded was registered to Arkady Kolcheck.
Because of the circles he ran in and the people he knew,
we need to figure out who wanted him dead and why.
Well, he had a lot of enemies.
Guess it was just a matter of time before his past caught up with him.
We don't actually know what happened this morning.
Security cameras at the parking garage didn't catch it.
So we just have video of the before and crime-scene photos of the after.
Looks like he was running away from somebody in that alley.
And his security detail was not with him.
Only reason he'd do that is if he didn't know who he could trust.
- Would you two check out his house? - Okay.
Let's go pay our respects.
Was Arkady in any kind of trouble?
- You mean any more than usual? - The last time we spoke to him,
he hinted the water might be getting rough.
Looks like the storm finally found him.
Do you really think it's a good idea
to keep Kensi and Deeks in the field together?
Well, their extracurricular activities don't seem
to have caused any problems yet.
No, I'm talking about the L.A.P.D. Internal investigation into Deeks.
- We need to make sure he's protected. - Ah.
Frankly, I'm more concerned with Mr. Callen at the moment.
Was Arkady a close friend?
Does anyone have close friends in our line of work?
So, what's the problem?
Arkady Kolcheck may have been Callen's last chance
at finding out who his father was and where he came from.
Looks like we're not the first ones here.
One, two, three.
- Clear. - Yeah, clear.
I may be going out on a limb here,
but I'm pretty sure they were looking for something.
- Thanks. - Go ahead, sir.
Thank you.
You good?
Of course I am.
Why?
I can't ask my partner how he's doing?
Just making conversation, being friendly.
Polite response would be for you to ask me how I'm doing.
Just doesn't feel right.
There's no way of knowing who this is.
Dental records are gonna take forever to come back.
Maybe Arkady's not dead.
- It's fascinating. - What?
You're not sure how you feel about your friend Arkady being dead.
Let's get one thing clear. We weren't friends.
I was ready to pull the trigger on him myself a few times.
Don't let me get on your bad side.
I just...
I got mixed emotions about it.
What's that mean?
"Loyalty to party. Loyalty to motherland."
It's a rite of passage.
KGB used to give this to all their agents.
Arkady?
Wore his every day I knew him.
- There you go. - Thanks, man.
Hey. You sure you're okay?
I really wish you'd stop asking me that.
Look, Arkady knew a lot of people, knew a lot of secrets,
about you, about your family.
It's true.
But if Eric has taught me one thing,
it's that origin stories tend to disappoint.
And in this scenario, you're the superhero?
I've been known to stop a speeding bullet for you.
Okay, Super G. Well, let's hit up Kensi, see what they've got.
Hello, boys.
- What's the word? - We decided to start in the study
because that seems to be what the intruder did.
- Any luck? - They stole his hard drive.
Arkady was old-school. He never trusted technology.
He had a paper backup for everything.
Old KGB habits die hard.
Kens, there's a painting in his house of a tree.
See if you can find it.
- A painting of a tree? - A tree.
He was always going on
about the provenance of this painting or that painting...
But he never said squat about the tree.
It was also in a different frame every time I was there.
- Well, how often was that? - He had a nice pool.
Guys? I'm gonna find the tree.
So our fearless leader has instructed us to...
Find a tree. Yeah, I definitely heard that.
But I did something much better. I found fingerprints.
Yeah, there are many of those where people live.
Unless you find them on something that couldn't possibly
have had fingerprints on it until this morning.
Dramatic pause, dramatic pause.
I present you with something that could not possibly
have had fingerprints on it until this morning. Exhibit A.
Take a look. Ready? Fingerprint one, fingerprint two.
Watch and learn. This used to be here. You can tell by the dust line.
And then it fell, or was knocked over, down here,
which is why there's glass on the floor.
At which point, someone picked it up and put it up here.
And by "someone" I mean the intruder,
and by "sometime" I mean this morning.
And if they're not Arkady's, they belong to our bad guy.
Which is why I am now gonna take a picture and send it back to Eric in Ops.
Mm-hm.
Oh, yeah? You like that, don't you?
I do. I do love when you talk detective.
Oh, yeah? Well, I can talk detective to you all night long.
Oh, I know you can.
- I can talk search warrants. - Mm-hm.
- Chain of custody. - Mm-hm.
- Forensic DNA evidence. - Mm-hm.
I can talk about some severed pinkies.
Mm... Mm-mm.
No. Moment's gone.
I'm gonna go find a tree.
Forget the tree. God, son of a...
Note to self:
Severed and amputated pinkies, too far. Who would have thought?
Wow. All right, we're in business.
- Did you ID the guy chasing Arkady? - Uh, not yet.
But this photo that we got from Arkady's house
might tell us something.
Deeks apparently figured it out.
I'm running a search on the prints now.
"Apparently"?
Eric, do you have something against Deeks?
No. But, you know, he's just, uh:
- Deeks. - The man does love his hair.
- Ooh. That was quick. - Yeah.
Uh, too quick.
It's Arkady. One down, one to go.
- Arkady had some eclectic taste. - Think he paid money for that?
I think he lost a bet.
I thought I'd feel guilty destroying a piece of art,
but this might be the right thing to do.
Ready?
Hello, ladies.
Let's see what we got.
- It's a deed to a yacht. - That belongs to Arkady.
Did Callen ever mention Arkady having a yacht?
No. I didn't even think he had yacht money.
That's true. He's not Jay-Z.
Maybe it wasn't his money.
So...
I...
I have looked through every single piece of traffic and security footage
from before the car explosion this morning.
I'm guessing that didn't go so well.
No one followed Arkady into that parking garage.
And that man certainly didn't run for his health.
It's like he was spooked.
So Arkady was killed by a ghost.
Well, I'm certainly not telling Hetty that.
I got a lot to live for.
Okay, Eric, maybe you're just looking at it the wrong way.
I've looked everywhere.
So we know this guy knows how to avoid the cameras. Right?
- What if...? - Oh, my God, that's it. I love you.
And by "you" I mean your mind. Your beautiful, gorgeous mind.
Thank you.
Sometimes I feel like I wanna just take a little piece of it home with me.
Home with you?
Yeah. I mean, just part of the prefrontal cortex, right here.
- So like a lobotomy. - No, not like a lobot...
Oh, my God. Exactly like a lobotomy. I'm a monster.
You're picturing my brain right now, aren't you?
Yeah.
- Maybe I should just... - Get back to work?
- Yeah. - Great idea.
I'm trying to think of something I could say right now
that would make this less weird.
- Hmm. Not possible. - Okay.
- Ah. - What is that?
That is tofu. I think.
It's Joelle's idea.
I know what it is, G, but what's it doing on your plate?
We only come here because you like their Achin' Bacon Burger.
Well, I'm trying to eat a little healthier, that's all.
Oh. You know soy converts into estrogen, right?
I can't win with you, can I?
No, because you take everything to extremes.
Hold on a second. Name one thing I do that's extreme.
You're a grown man. You sleep on a mattress on the floor.
I like sleeping on the floor.
Depriving yourself like that, living like a monk,
it's gonna catch up with you.
- Make you do something you regret. - Like what?
I don't know. Join a cult.
Oh, you mean like the Office of Special Projects for NCIS?
- Burn through your savings. - I already did that.
- To save my cult leader, no less. - Exactly.
You know what, at least I don't practice shooting the gun left-handed
or deactivating bombs on train tracks.
- Those are valuable skills. - That are also extreme.
Yeah, but it's work. It's not personal.
- Is this about Joelle? - No, this is about you
and how you live.
I think this is more personal than I prefer at a work lunch.
Oh, this is a work lunch.
So why do you think Arkady had a yacht?
A decent-sized yacht like that could move a decent amount of guns, drugs.
Think Arkady had it in him to smuggle drugs?
I wouldn't put anything past Arkady.
Now, whoever killed Arkady
- knew where the cameras were. - Mm-hm.
But I think this is who we're looking for.
Now, I was able to find pieces of his face in window reflections,
car side mirrors, what have you.
It's all very Picasso-esque.
All right, here goes nothing.
Maybe you should tell Hetty it was a ghost.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Easy, tiger. - Sorry. Sorry.
We just identified the person who blew up Arkady's car.
- And? - And you'll never guess who it is.
Why is your team so hell-bent on finding the drama in everything?
Oh, lighten up, Owen. Sheesh.
I'm not giving you the Heimlich. You chose to eat that. What?
You boys miss me?
Callen, don't look so surprised. I'm like grizzly bear.
- Nothing can take me down. - Oh, I can think of something.
- Arkady, what the hell's going on? - What?
I came to visit my friends, find out what you planned for my funeral.
Please, tell me... bagpipes.
- Did you fake your own death? - You ransack your own house?
No, no. Someone genuinely tried to kill me this morning.
What the hell is that, tofu?
Did you give up meat to mourn my death?
I didn't know you felt so strong.
What happened this morning?
I was out early. Does not matter why.
My sixth sense tells me I'm not alone.
So I start running and this nutjob follows me.
He pulls gun, I protect myself.
- I shoot him. - With his gun?
Was only gun I had.
That's it?
Yeah, more or less.
At what point did your car explode?
I forgot that part.
Hold on.
Your car was already rigged to blow?
Ahh. It pays to be prepared.
You have any other cars preloaded with explosives parked around town?
- You don't? - What about the pocket watch?
Ah, that was special for you, Agent Callen.
Dramatic, but I needed you to know the dead body was me,
buy me some time.
Buy you some time for what?
To find out who tried to kill me. What else?
Then enlighten us.
Uh, pshh...
Could be Chechens.
Could be Albanians.
Iranians.
- Could be somebody else. Mm-hm.
- So why are you here? - You want protection?
I can take care of myself.
You sure about that?
Because we can't protect you
if we don't know who we're protecting you from.
Could be North Koreans.
Do the North Koreans know about the yacht?
What yacht?
The one whose paperwork was hidden in a frame at your house.
I don't even like yachts.
Way too flashy.
He's gonna need protection, all right. From me.
Coast Guard is always happy to help out.
Now, tell me about this yacht.
Vessel's name is Cairo Nights.
Hundred-and-twenty-ton category, 118 feet long,
with a sun deck, apparently.
- Know what country it's flagged to? - No.
- Do you know what port it left from? - No.
Owner's name?
Maybe.
But you're not at liberty to say.
It's part of an open investigation, so...
So you want us to find 118 feet of yacht
sailing somewhere in water that spans 71 percent of the Earth's surface.
When you say it like that, it makes it sound impossible.
Not at all. It's what the Coast Guard does best.
No.
You put me in here before with Henrietta.
So?
So your boss doesn't take up much space,
but she made room feel like coffin.
I'm not going back.
Ark...
Arkady. Arkady.
Interrogation room, now.
I feel like I'm talking to my kid.
But this is so much more comfortable. You've got couch, canoe, coffee.
Is fresh?
Double shot.
Please.
Okay.
Let's try this again.
- Okay. - Who tried to kill you this morning?
If I had a nickel for every time someone tried to kill me...
- You'd buy a yacht? - What yacht?
- Arkady, we're trying to help you. - The feeling is mutual.
Bet you're not feeling so ambivalent now, huh?
- Ambivalent about what? - About you being dead.
- Is true? - Yes.
- You hurt my feelings. - I'm sure I do.
So start talking. Because neither one of us will hesitate to turn you loose.
Callen.
What do you have, Eric? We're talking to Arkady.
Why is he on the couch?
New interrogation technique.
All right. I got a match for the second set of prints found at Arkady's house.
They belong to a Brett Edward Smith. Male, 42 years old.
No criminal record, but he's a former cop.
The really interesting part is he was suspended from the L.A.P.D. In 2008.
- Went into private security. - You got an address?
Last known address is in Redondo Beach.
And it's now a shopping mall.
Any luck ID'ing the body from the explosion?
- Still working on that. - All right. Thanks.
This the guy who tried to attack you this morning?
Is old police photo ID. I mean, may be him, maybe not.
- But the name rings a bell, doesn't it? - Smith is common name.
Like "Smirnov" in Russia.
What aren't you telling us, Arkady?
What you're not ready to hear.
I'll let you know, Callen.
Okay. Thanks.
Arkady is stonewalling them.
Of course he is. What fun would it be if he made it easy for us to protect him?
Fingerprints found at Arkady's house belong
to a disgraced L.A.P.D. Cop named Brett Smith.
You know him?
I don't think I remember a Brett Smith. Is he the one that went after Arkady?
Starting to look that way. They're trying to make a positive ID.
- Which leaves us with? - Arkady stonewalling us. For fun.
- Awesome. - I may have something.
Take a look at this.
I believe the vessel you're looking for left the La Guajira port
outside of Caracas yesterday.
I'm waiting on details from the Venezuelan government.
- Could be waiting for a while. - Anything else?
Yes. It has a transponder.
And the plot thickens.
Why does the plot thicken?
Because 118-foot yachts don't have transponders.
Cargo ships have transponders.
Arkady must have doctored the paperwork.
Mm-hm. - Can you track the boat?
As long as they keep the transponder on.
Think we can get a visual?
Not until we have a weather satellite positioned over it.
How long do you think that'll be?
Five hours, 22 minutes.
Know anything about a ship that left a port near Caracas yesterday morning?
Ships come in, ships go out.
Your yacht is suddenly a cargo ship.
- Why? - Mm, I don't...
Maybe we should just turn you loose, let you fend for yourself.
Fine.
- Give me your phone. - My phone, my private property.
You know what? While we're protecting you from whoever's trying to kill you,
- you don't have any personal property. - Hey. Give that back.
You afraid he might find something?
He's right.
Anna is a pretty girl.
Who is she?
- I know lots of pretty girls. - That's a good comeback.
A friend.
She has nothing to do with the boat. It's true.
You just admitted that there is a boat.
A few months ago, I introduce some Russian friends to American friends.
Russians have cargo, Americans have empty ship.
There's no law against that.
Actually, there is a very specific law against that.
American economic sanctions against Russia.
Did you broker the deal before or after the sanctions came down?
- Eh. It was close. - What was on the ship?
Well, whatever it is, you're worried about it.
What makes you think that?
Because you've been staring at that same page since you got here.
Okay.
I will tell you everything you need to know.
And, hopefully,
you will never have to hear the rest.
So I found the company that owns the cargo ship.
It was hiding behind a shell corporation.
P&E Berkeley Shipping.
Established in 2002 by Patrick and Elia Berkeley.
- Husband and wife? - Brother and sister.
Oh.
All right, running them through the database.
Looks like their company's been in and out of financial distress.
Oh. Things are about to get worse.
They're under investigation by the DOJ.
Hmm. For what?
They're suspected of circumventing U.S. Sanctions
for the last ten years. Cutting deals with Iran, Burma,
Cuba, North Korea.
Guessing we can add Russia to the list.
Yeah.
Got something else.
A certain Brett Smith has been on their payroll since 2009.
Head of security.
That's the same guy who ransacked Arkady's house.
- Better tell Hetty. - No need. I will.
This fish keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Find out everything you can about Berkeley Shipping.
- Hmm. - Now what?
So the reason Smith was suspended from the L.A.P.D.
Was for excessive force.
Looks like another officer was suspended along with him.
Tom Keefer.
After the two were suspended,
both Smith and Keefer worked together for two private security firms
before Smith became head of security at Berkeley.
He's not on Berkeley Shipping's employee list.
Maybe not officially.
Maybe Keefer's Smith's go-to man when he needs to go off the books.
I have an address for Keefer in Atwater Village.
Have Kensi and Deeks bring him in.
No probable cause, no warrant.
Then we wait.
Apartment A.
That means he's gotta be close.
Wanna take a picture of that license, send it to Eric,
- see if it's registered to Keefer? - I'd love nothing more.
All right, got it.
Okay, so we have two suspended L.A.P.D. Officers,
we have one dead body and one cargo ship.
- All leading to Arkady. - Huh.
- Is it Keefer's? - Yeah.
But also, the body from this morning was identified as Brett Smith.
Well, then Keefer has some big shoes to fill.
- You okay? - Yeah.
Ahh. Fantastic.
- Deeks? - Hmm?
Penny for your thoughts.
I was just thinking about stakeouts.
Not as much fun as they used to be.
Not when the cat becomes the mouse.
I know what you meant.
Detective Rivera, did she contact you again?
No.
I would have told you if she had.
Right. Of course.
I know you don't wanna talk about this,
but if Detective Rivera keeps digging, is she gonna find anything?
Kensi, don't ask me that question.
Why not?
Because I honestly don't know how to answer it.
You're in trouble now.
Henrietta. Pleasure to see you again.
I'm sorry I can't say the same,
but my mother didn't raise me to be a liar.
He's all yours.
So if you want this agency to lift a pinkie finger to help you...
I don't know what it is about you, but I really like you.
The shipping company that came to you for help
is now coming for your head. Why is that?
Sanctions were bigger headaches than I thought they'd be.
I don't suffer fools gladly.
Try again, please.
I spent all the money they gave me.
I doubt they even paid you for your efforts up front.
Last chance, Arkady.
Why do they want you dead?
Because I would not give them their ship back.
They wanted to pull out of the deal.
Why?
They found out about the DOJ investigation.
But it was already too late. Ship had left port.
What was on the boat?
More than $100 million.
- In what, shrink-wrapped bills? - No.
The only true currency accepted everywhere in the world.
- Oil. - Yeah.
- Hundred million dollars' worth of oil? - Yeah.
- That's not a cargo ship. - That's a supertanker.
That's enough to finance a war.
You brokered a deal to supply a supertanker
to break our economic sanctions with Russia,
and you have no idea where it is or where it's headed?
- It is truth. - Wrong answer.
Is not my ship. I'm broker, middle man.
Nobody tells me, and I sure as hell did not ask.
When this case is over, you and I are going to have a little chat about ethics.
Berkeleys may know where it's headed.
- Gonna have to flush them out. - How?
With a sacrificial cow.
No one would ever mistake you for a lamb.
Set it up, Arkady. Somewhere public.
Deeks.
That's our guy.
Too late.
We'll take him when he stops.
Here you go.
Berkeleys 1 and 2 headed your way.
Get them talking, Arkady. Need to know who, what and where.
Not my first rodeo.
"Rodeo." It's "rodeo."
I swear, you two sound like an old married couple.
Is only because he loves me.
Ah, Patrick, Elia. Sit, let's have a drink.
This is hardly a social visit.
Listen, we got the DOJ breathing down our necks.
I don't know what it is you gotta do or what strings you gotta pull but...
You need to turn our ship around.
You look upset. Sit. Sit, sit, sit.
What's the street the hotel is on where Arkady's meeting the Berkeleys?
- Argyle. - About to cross Wilcox.
- So the hotel, is it left or right? - It's on the right side.
All right. Call Eric.
Hey, Eric, tell Sam and Callen
it looks like Keefer's gonna show up to the party.
Callen, Sam, Keefer's on his way to you.
Thanks, Eric.
Looks like things are about to get interesting.
There's Keefer's car.
Kens, does that look like blood to you?
- Ready? - Yep.
One, two, three.
- That's Keefer. - So who've we been following?
Stairs will be faster.
Callen, Sam, it's not Keefer.
I repeat... Keefer.
- Get that, Sam? - Something about Keefer.
- We go down, you go down. - It won't come to that.
Gun!
- Ambivalent, huh? - Just doing my job.
- Ah, sure. - Come on.
- Sam, you good? - Good.
- Callen? - Good.
Oh, my God.
Eric, we need an ambulance.
Elia!
- You good? - Good.
- You know this guy? - Never seen him before.
He didn't come for me. He came for them.
I have a question.
What's in it for you?
What do you mean by that?
This makes no sense.
Your name is all over the paperwork of that ship.
You didn't get them to say much.
Was winning their confidence.
Few more minutes, you have everything you need.
- Is Elia going to live? - Yeah.
And the idiot shooter?
Russian. Nikolai Brantov. Contract killer.
You got a theory, Arkady?
Do you?
Berkeleys couldn't stand the heat.
They wanted to shut the deal down, turn the ship around.
They sent Smith to kill you.
That didn't work out good for Smith.
Russians wanted to proceed with the deal,
sent Brantov to kill the Berkeleys.
One more question.
Who's Anna?
A nice Russian girl.
- Am I free to go? - For the time being.
Arkady.
But loyalty to family
trumps them both.
Every time, my friend. Every time.
- Heading for home, gentlemen? - Dinner with Joelle, actually.
We're having some, uh, Chinese vegetarian thing.
Not my first choice.
I'm going home to kiss my wife and kids.
Today's been exhausting.
Never a dull moment, is there, Mr. Hanna?
Never.
In fact, I have a hunch this one isn't quite over with.
That's just you being pessimistic.
And to think, my parents almost named me Pollyanna.
Nell, any update on the oil tanker?
Yeah. It's not there.
- What do you mean, it's not there? - Weather satellite couldn't find it.
And the ship's transponder has been turned off.
I think it might be a good idea if we brought Arkady back
for one more little chat, Mr. Callen.
I have a feeling he's gonna be difficult to find, Hetty.
Oh.
You don't say.
Ripped By mstoll