FBI

Hey.

Sorry about all the confusion.

I didn't want to say too much on the phone, you know?

That's always a good idea.

So, what's up, my friend?

What are we doing here?

- My boss is getting suspicious, which,

of course, is making me nervous, so...

I think it's best if I step aside.

Before something bad happens.

But we already paid you.

- I know. I'll give the money back.

No problem.

I need a few days, though, I--

I have to sell my car.

Sure, that's your call.

Hey, thanks for getting over here so fast.

- What do we got? - DOA, Cher Wilkins.

Female, white, 32.

Recovered her wallet, and her keys are still in the ignition,

so I'm guessing it wasn't a robbery.

Three shots to the back.

Find any casings?

- Naw, the killer-- or more likely the killers,

they policed up their brass.

- What makes you think that there was more than one?

- Two sets of tracks right next to the body.

Huh.

Well, looks like after they shot her,

they got close enough to make sure that she was dead.

It's not really much to go on,

but I'll send them over to ERT for analysis.

- In case you need me. - Yeah.

Still in her uniform.

- Cher was a good kid, but if I'm being honest,

I was getting a little suspicious of her.

- Suspicious of what? - She was always broke.

Then a few days ago, she rolls up

in a brand-new Mustang.

Said her father just died, came into money.

- You weren't buying it? - No, not for a second.

Whenever some broke employee starts flashing lots of cash,

it always means the same thing.

They're waving drug mules through the security line.

- All right, so Cher Wilkins, 32,

single, no kids, lived in Queens.

Been working for TSA for the last three years.

What else do we know? - Background check is clean.

No priors, not even a jaywalking ticket.

- Mm-hmm. What about her family?

Supervisor said her dad died recently,

left her some dough. Is that true?

- Last known address for her father

is Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

And he's very much alive-- he posted about

his daughter's murder 12 minutes ago.

- Okay, so the supervisor was right.

She was lying about where she got the money for that car.

- Used Mustang was purchased four days ago with cash.

$46,345 to be exact.

- Huh, that is a lot of cheddar for a TSA agent

to be throwing around.

So maybe the supervisor was right.

Kid got caught up in the drug game.

How are we doing with the vehicle's GPS?

Need to find out where Wilkins spent time the last few days.

- Besides going to work and the industrial park

where she was killed, the only other place she went to

was this restaurant in Queens.

Sumac House, it's a Mediterranean joint.

- There's nothing suspicious about liking Mediterranean food.

Yeah, but she went there

three times on the day of the murder

and four other times over the past three days.

No one likes Mediterranean food that much.

- So maybe this restaurant is a front

for a drug trafficking ring, huh?

All right, throw it up.

Start digging the financials, permits.

All right eyes up, party people.

Anyone got anything on this Mediterranean joint in Queens

called Sumac House?

Don't be shy.

Hey Elise, call Nina and OA,

tell them to cancel their lunch plans.

- Hey. - Hey.

Thanks for picking me up.

Sure thing.

Those your friends?

Ex-teammates.

We were deployed together in Afghanistan.

This looks good.

Thank you.

It looks like Lebanese food,

or Egyptian, I'm guessing.

- The menu seemed to have a little bit of everything,

so I tried to take it easy on you.

Well thank you.

So, the, uh...

guy at the bar,

according to the JOC, is the owner.

He seems on edge.

And they have security cameras everywhere.

Mm.

Wanna tell me the story behind the string?

- Today is the 10th anniversary of my friend's death.

He died in Afghanistan.

His name is Tom. Tom Keller.

I'm so sorry.

- So once a year, me and a few army buddies,

we get together, we go to the cemetery,

pay our respects, and then we grab breakfast,

and we tie a string around our finger

as a way to make sure that we never forget.

To Tom, then.

Something up?

Just looks like...

someone I used to know.

- Guessing you weren't a big fan of this person.

Um...

I wasn't.

I'll be right back.

Hey.

What was that about?

I was just following a hunch.

I need to get a closer look.

I think he got nervous and ran out the back door.

- Look, I don't want to pry, but now that

you're following people into bathrooms,

I need to ask you what the hell is going on?

- The guy in that restaurant resembled a man

named Tamir Hazara. They called him "the rat."

He's a high-level target of ours from Afghanistan,

and my squad spent about 14 months pursuing him.

- And you think he's here in New York now?

What, that he's somehow a part of the TSA agent's murder?

- I don't know, but I had this feeling in my gut

that it was him, that it was Tamir.

It had to be him.

- Okay, or maybe it was just some patron

who was dining and dashing-- Look, I--

- I know what I saw. I know what I felt.

I know what I felt.

Tamir Hazara.

- Okay, I see the resemblance, but I...

- He could've had plastic surgery, changed his features.

It's the best way to avoid

all the facial recognition software out there.

Dude, that's a good plan,

but Tamir is dead.

He was killed in a drone strike

three years ago outside of Kabul.

Yeah, it's possible, but...

Possible?

- Yeah, the State Department records

aren't exactly foolproof.

I have a friend in Intel. I'll reach out to him.

Hey, who's this?

- Someone OA was chasing over in Afghanistan.

- Connected to the current case?

Well, he's dead.

Okay.

Can you talk?

Yeah. What's up?

- Well, just between us, I think that OA

might be struggling a little bit right now.

Oh, really.

Because of the sarin gas exposure.

No, uh...

today, when we were doing recon

at the Mediterranean restaurant he shared with me

that it was the anniversary of his army buddy's death.

Not sure how he died, but it seemed pretty traumatic.

- I know this partnership is new.

You want me to talk to him? - No.

No, no, no. I got it.

You know, he's strong and focused.

I just felt like you should know.

Yeah.

Okay, good. I'll keep an eye on it.

So, did you find anything interesting

at the restaurant? - No, not really.

- We got techs putting up pole cams outside just in case,

but we searched the victim's apartment,

found 10 grand in cash and a laptop.

Ian's scrubbing it for evidence now.

So maybe we'll get lucky. - Finger's crossed.

- All right. Found a few encrypted messages

from a guy calling himself "BALLER22."

It looks like he sent our victim 50K

to wave a man in a red puffer jacket

through airport security yesterday.

- Okay, so the supervisor's hunch was correct.

Wilkins was playing ball.

- And I found a message from Wilkins to that same person.

"Got a problem. Boss is suspicious.

Need to discuss."

BALLER22 responds,

"Okay, let's meet where we met last time."

- So it looks like ol' BALLER22 is our shooter.