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A murder of a 42-year-old wife and mother took place

on Singaporean-owned property this weekend.

The man who committed that murder is also threatening my life

and the life of the president of the United States.

That guy pays me 500 dollars to rent that place for him in my name.

- What guy? - I've never been to Sugarloaf.

They were using an encrypted chat to communicate.

He wanted us to reach out.

Why?

'Cause he wants us to read that.

You ever thought about moving up the ladder?

Lieutenant? Captain?

Oh, me? Are you joking?

You know me to make jokes?

No, I mean... No, not really, no.

Your main problem...

- I have many main problems, sir. - ...is you sell yourself short.

You make jokes because you're insecure.

I didn't realize we were doing a whole FBI psych profile.

When what you really are is a natural leader.

Don't have disdain for ambition.

No, I mean, I don't know if disdain is the right word.

- Might use a-- - Ronnie.

That's the end of that conversation.

Hi, Nancy.

Yeah.

Yes, press conference is at 11:00.

Though, they'll probably want ten to 15 minutes of picture-taking before.

Yeah, I should be there on time.

Traffic out of Sacramento was nonexistent.

Okay. Yeah, just straight down the five.

Oh, we still need to lock in the location for the fundraiser.

Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Nancy.

Bye.

We are running language analysis now on where some of these key phrases come from.

Are they biblical? Are they on news programs, talk radio?

Did they come from websites, literature?

If we can pinpoint how he arrives at his wording,

what sources may be feeding his mania,

then we may be able to open new avenues of investigation.

That's book purchases, where stations broadcast, what time...

When would he have heard those words.

Similarly, do these hieroglyphs show up in any other popular works?

Did he come up with these intersecting triangles on his own or did he have help?

That's some good work.

- Detective Finau. - Sir.

Where are we with the canvassing in Sugarloaf?

I'm exchanging with local PD daily.

They're talking to restaurant owners, grocery chains,

anyone near Hammerhead Cabins.

- Any progress? - Slow going.

Did they give 'em the dates when T.K. rented the cabins?

Yes, sir. Confirmed.

Okay, good. Stay on it.

Sir, CHP officers in Kern County are on the phone for you.

The governor's press secretary was killed at a gas station 20 minutes ago.

The CO?

Sir, back there.

How are you doing?

Detective Mark Meachum, LAPD.

This is Oliveras with the DEA. Special Agent Bell with the FBI.

- And, uh, Detective Finau. - Sergeant.

Also LAPD.

Damn. That's a lot of acronyms thrown at us.

Yes, it is. We're a federal task force working a case that might be related.

Lucky us.

Val Sparks. Detective from Bakersfield.

Along with Smitty here.

Tooks and Gambol are CHP officers.

What do we know so far?

Uh, victim turned from the pump after filling her tank.

Took a high caliber bullet to the forehead.

Shot from where?

Not exactly sure where.

None of the witnesses heard the shot, so shooter may have been using a suppressor.

But angle of entry and exit suggest somewhere out towards the hillside.

We're still trying to locate the exact site of the shooter's nest.

Looking for shell casings, footprints, tire prints, hair, fiber.

But, you know, big area.

Eyewitnesses?

Collecting statements. Others fled.

Any idea on ballistics?

We haven't recovered the round. Likely broke apart after exit.

We'll put a rush on the coroner postmortem.

Do you think this might be some kind of DC sniper thing?

What makes you say that?

Uh, just that I read about task forces,

and I know that means a real FUBAR type of scenario.

Uh, Tooks, right?

That's right.

All right, Tooks. Well, uh, we can't disclose details of the case right now,

but if and when we do decide to bring other departments up to speed,

we'll make sure CHP is involved.

I appreciate that.

Detective Sparks, can we help with witness statements?

Absolutely. This way.

I'm Special Agent Nathan Blythe with the FBI.

This is Ryan Fitzgerald, with Secret Service.

- Is there anyone here I can speak to-- - Hi.

I'm, uh... I'm one of the managing partners.

Kara Gonzalez.

We're just devastated.

I can imagine. I'm very sorry for your loss.

I mean, who would wanna hurt Hope?

Well, that's what we're here to investigate, ma'am.

We're just... We're all in shock.

Can you tell us what she was working on?

Um, yeah, she was helping to nail down the logistics

for President Hanover's fundraiser in a few weeks with Governor Shelby.

We assist Hope now and then on a purely volunteer basis

ever since the governor started ramping up his--

Was this gonna be at a private residence or a public venue?

A private residence,

but she was keeping that schedule, so I don't really...

- Oh, God. - If you have access

to any files you think might have some--

Yeah. Um, we have a branch out of Sacramento that Hope works out of

just to be closer to the governor,

and I'm sure that they would have any of that information.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Reilly, I'm so, so sorry.

I can't. Why would...

Reilly, these are FBI agents.

How the hell did this happen?

Why weren't you protecting her?

- You and Hope are... - Married.

- How can... - It's okay, Reilly. You're gonna be okay.

Ma'am, we're very sorry for your loss.

W-Was this a hate crime?

Make it make sense.

We will be investigating it with every resource available.

Let's get you some water, okay? Find you a chair.

Find who did this.

Come on.

This is the clerk that was manning the cash register at the time of the shooting.

Hey, what's your name?

Troy.

- Troy what? - Ballard.

Okay. Why don't you tell us what you saw, Troy Ballard?

Yo, man. Can I, like, ask a question though for real?

Can I go talk to those news cameras over there when you guys are done?

- Why? - Just, like, that would be sick.

Why would you want whoever did that to know who you are?

I didn't think about that.

All right. Let's start over. Tell us what you saw.

Oh, uh, yeah. Sure, man.

So, uh, you know, keeping it straight up.

I didn't hear nothing, you know?

No gunshot, just, uh, some screaming started.

I heard that, and then, uh, I saw some of them people running,

like high-key bolting away from there.

And then, uh, someone came in and screamed "Active shooter," like that.

I used to do these, uh, shooter drills at Kern High,

so I just got down behind the register and stayed down.

I was not getting up.

You didn't see where the shot came from or who was hit?

- I saw nothing. - What about those cameras?

We have video of everything?

Y-Yeah. Yeah, we got a security room,

but, uh, Mr. Dockman keeps the keys, so...

So you just stayed down?

For, like, 20 minutes for real, until the cops showed up.

It wasn't 20.

Yo, it was.

More like ten.

Nah. Twenty. It was.

Hey.

Oh, that's him. Mr. Dockman. He's the owner.

Mr. Dockman. Mr. Dockman.

- Yes. - Do you have keys to the security room?

Sure, yes. Follow me.

Great.

So, the bullet comes in from here.

Head snaps back at this angle,

so shooter had to be in the hills east of the freeway.

That's what we believe, yes.

Yeah, it's definitely a sniper shot.

Can you run it forward? I wanna see our response time.

It was 20 minutes.

It wasn't 20 minutes.

Uh, yeah. Yeah, hang on.

Okay.

Sixteen minutes, 12.

- Not 20. - Wait. Bell, go back a few minutes.

Yeah.

What do you got?

I saw something.

- There. - Yeah.

Who is that?

Holy shit.

Did he take something from her car?

We're gonna need to confiscate this video.

We've used every bit of enhancement software that the bureau has,

plus a few from open source AI, and this is as clear as the video's gonna get.

Great. Can't tell if the beard is fake, if he wears glasses...

Can't even tell what color his hair is.

Well, these cameras are ancient.

I mean, this one had a bug die in front of the lens who knows how long ago.

Looks like Todd knew where the cameras were. You see that?

Never turns his face flush.