NCIS: Sydney

If I beat us again, I will literally bury myself alive.

Mindy, we just have to visualise the win.

Be positive or the flowers will absorb your negativity.

What is there to be positive about?

Those moles have beat us three times in a row.

For a more positive take, we came second three times in a row. Because they're

cheating. You're wicking out.

It's a floral competition.

Just relax.

When they go low, we go high.

Or we go lower. Don't. I'm going to say it. It's time. We've been over this,

Mindy. Pesticide.

What? Everyone else was doing it.

If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?

What the actual... Did you hit something?

No, I think something hit us. Could you not kill us before we even get to the

competition?

Seriously, nothing.

Not even a scratch.

Are the flowers okay?

They better be.

Nice kicks.

I don't think you can bowl in those.

I'm just here for moral support.

You know, blow on some balls for good luck.

I think that only works for dice.

I mean, besides, who goes bowling anyway?

70 million Americans.

The only thing worse than sticking your fingers in a bunch of filthy holes is

doing it wearing clown shoes.

Yeah, so why'd you guys choose it for team bonding two years in a row?

What are you talking about? You've never been bowling before?

Yeah, I have, last year.

Says who?

Says Blue.

Mackey's orders, apparently, straight from the top.

She was obviously... joking.

Which everyone would have known, except for you.

So that's why JD responded to my invite with a laughing emoji.

Hook, line and sinker.

Later, sucker.

Yeah, no worries.

I might stick around and try and get through all this.

All the beers and snacks I bought for the team to have bombed up.

All good.

Catch you tomorrow.

Ensign Curtis Lee, 26, here on the USS Solomon.

Got into town two weeks ago.

Local cops think he jumped.

What do you think?

If he was going to kill himself, why come all the way out here to do it?

How'd he get out here?

State he find any abandoned cars?

Not yet.

It's a new take on pushing up daisies.

More like squashing down posies.

Garden snake impaled straight through his abdomen.

Shouldn't there be more blood?

It's hard to tell.

They might be plugging out the wound. I won't know more until I get him back to

autopsy.

D, get on the overpass. See what you can find.

Got it.

And get Evie to pull CCTV from nearby tollways. Around the time Curtis went

the side.

Will do.

If she ever shows.

You've reached Evie.

Text me like a normal person.

Yo, pick up.

Trying to save your ass from getting in trouble.

Unless your ass is already in trouble, which is why you're not picking up.

Or you're asleep, which means your ass ain't gonna be trouble picking up.

Just get me back.

No phone.

No way are dead guys more of a Luddite than Doc.

How very dare you.

Let me guess. Goodbye, crew world? More like hello, sleepless nights.

Wait, is this a paternity test?

Looks like Curtis was going to be a dad.

There's one night on the job and they've already locked you out. I was on the

job.

Bowling anyone?

Wait, you went to that?

Yeah, thanks for the heads up, partner.

Just feeling really bonded right now. Oh, man.

See, I love bowling.

Greatest participation sport in America. Should have called up with a cup. My

phone died.

Ooh, you're looking a little near death yourself.

You hungover?

Please, it takes more than half a dozen beers and an unspecified amount of

tequila shots to leave me dusty.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, you are hungover. Pardon me, sir.

Hi.

Don't worry, secret's safe with me. I got you, Matt.

What the hell happened to you?

Evie went bowling.

Sucker.

Our guy with the steak through him was Ensign Curtis Lee.

Enlisted at 18, completed his OCS training, got his commission last year.

Flamin'. Anything from the toll camps? Still checking.

Right?

Right, Evie?

Yeah, good work, Dave.

Hello?

I think the doors are playing up.

Oh, you've got your first job for the day.

You can stomach it.

Yeah, I'll get right to it, Skip.

D.

Oh, so, I spoke to Curtis' family back in Seattle. They didn't know anything

about the pregnancy.

As far as they knew, he was single.

The clinic that did the paternity test has no record of Mom either.

She didn't give her name, and they destroy all DNA after testing. But she

be in Sydney to test.

So why all the secrecy?

Curtis had been at sea for months.

Maybe Mom was a shipmate. So?

Self -fragmentation is a serious offense under U .S. naval law.

As an officer, if Curtis was caught hooking up with an NCO... It could

his career, which might give motive to suicide.

So Curtis's bank statements put him at a bar in King's Cross at 1800 last night.

Staff said he's with two women, both U .S. Navy.

Okay. We'll go talk to his lady friend, Evie D.

Huddle with Doc, see if you can find out cause of death. Hangover.

Oh, you mean the dead guy.

My bad.

Yeah, okay.

Laugh it up, D.

I'm a professional.

Watch and learn.

Hey, you chuck up, you clean up. I'm fine.

Just get on with it. Go easy, Doc.

Evie had a big night.

Trigger, too, by the looks of it.

Evie, Trigger, and Curtis.

Blood alcohol reading, 0 .12.

He's practically pickled.

You know what? I actually have the paperwork I need to do. Well, don't you

to hear the cause of death?

Text me no pics necessary.

Text me it's death.

Her phone's dead.

Multiple fractures and internal trauma caused by impalements on the garden

stake. All consistent with a fall from a significant height.

Yep, that'll do it. Well, except it didn't.

There's hardly any bleeding around the impalement and fracture size.

You thinking his heart stopped pumping before he fell?

I'd stake my life on it, so to speak.

Great, so the dead guy was dead before he went off the overpass. Then there's

the abrasions on his elbows, knees and hips, and I found carpet fibres too, my

guess, if he was dragged post -mortem. So what killed him?

Some arachnoid hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma to the head. Now, do

see that blue thing in the tray there? Pick it up for me, please.

That is a mould of the depression fracture in Curtis's skull. Match that

will find out.

I don't understand. Did he jump?

We don't think so. So what happened?

Oh, we're looking into it.

How well do you both know Curtis?

Three of us have been tight since basic training. Curtis and I catch up with

Chloe whenever we're in the same time zone.

You're based here, Chloe?

Yes, sir. U .S. Navy Logistics, based out of Sydney, going on two years.

And you were all out together last night?

How'd Curtis seem?

He'd been drinking before he showed up. Didn't slow down once he got there.

He seemed drunk?

More loose, really.

It got a little weird when Chloe suggested he slow down. Then he just

You guys had words?

Not really. I just told him to chill. He got annoyed and left.

You say where he's going?

No. Where best did you go afterwards?

I called it a night.

I put Chloe in a cab, then went bar hopping, had a meal.

With your other shipmates?

No, sir. Just me.

Was Curtis seeing anyone romantically? No. Absolutely not.

I'm pretty sure about that.

I'd have known.

We've been at sea for months.

Then how is it possible he was about to be a father?

Curtis never mentioned that?

Not to me.

No, ma 'am.

He did not.

Thanks for your time.

Are you really buying that Curtis wouldn't have told his best mates that

about to become a dad?

Not even one of them?

What if he didn't have to?

What if one of them already knew?

Really? Both Pia and Chloe are NCOs. I thought you couldn't mess around with an

officer. Trust me, fragmentation rules are the least of their worries.

Well, Curtis is dead, which means Mom's now a single parent.

A good chance you'll need to find someone to take custody while deployed