The Rookie

What are you doing here?

I just wanted to see how you're doing.

Never better.

Right.

Mind if I come in? Maybe we could talk.

I heard you've been skipping physical therapy.

So?

Why do you care all of a sudden?

I've been thinking a lot over the last few months

about how I handled things between us,

and I'm ashamed.

My mama, she taught me how to be the bigger man,

and I fell down.

And I heard you've been trying to make amends with people

and, well, this is me doing the same.

With the help of your favorite breakfast burrito

from El Plato.

Hey, do we have any vegan bacon?

Oh, God, I hope not.

- What? - Uh, I don't think so.

I found the "fakon."

The fake bacon.

Oh, great.

Well, you don't have to eat any if you don't want.

- After work... - Mm-hmm.

I think we need to seriously finish unpacking.

And by finish, I mean start.

Oh. Well, I mean... oh.

- Sorry. - Sorry.

I think we're making progress, you know?

Moving in takes time.

It only takes as much time as you let it.

I moved constantly when I was in the Army.

Here's what I learned.

If it's not unpacked in 48 hours,

it will never be unpacked.

If art sits on the floor longer than two days,

it lives there now.

Oh, we're well past that.

I'm aware.

This is killing you, isn't it?

I think we should buckle down and get it done.

OK.

I'm sorry.

It just... it won't feel like you've fully moved in

until all the boxes are gone.

That's nice.

Look, if we rush the process, we're just gonna make a mistake

that we'll have to go back and fix later.

So trust me, if we move slowly and carefully,

then it will be much more efficient in the long run.

OK.

Yeah, the shelters were full and I just needed

a place to sleep, you know?

I really wasn't hurting anyone.

Well, it is still illegal to break into a rec center,

even if it's just to find a place to sleep.

- Yeah, no, I get it. - You understand that.

All right.

Over here for your mug shot, please.

OK.

- Face the camera. Stand still.

To your right.

I didn't really break in, because the door was unlocked.

So it's fine, you know?

I'm... and I'm... I'm sorry.

I just got really desperate for...

am I, um, going to jail, or...

You know what, you're probably gonna cite out

in just a couple of hours.

- Okey-dokey. Thank you.

Is there any food?

Um, just... I haven't eaten in a while.

Uh, not normally, but I can go

check the break room for you.

- All right. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I'd offer you something to drink,

but both glasses are dirty.

Oh, I can help with that.

- No. Hey, no, no, no, no.

That's... that's... that's OK. You don't have to do that.

Oh, it's no problem.

You know, a clean space, it really helps, trust me.

You know, after I blew out my knee, my place,

it looked like a tornado tore through a...

a frat house.

I didn't realize how much it was contributing

to my depression until my mama came over

and insisted on cleaning.

- That's OK. You're not my mom. You're not my mom.

I can... I can do that myself.

What I'm trying to say is,

you know, I've been where you are.

After my injury, I couldn't see how anything mattered.

You know, I couldn't play football again,

- so why bother cleaning up... - Professionally.

You can never do it again professionally.

Right.

It's not like I had a fallback career, man.

Like, I majored in physical...

Can you please just shut up?

You hurt your knee.

I lost my leg.

I'm not saying it's the same.

Yes, you are, Miles.

You didn't go to the NFL.

You lost your million-dollar contract,

but you can still run.

What happened to you is nothing like what happened to me.

I think we started off on the wrong foot.

I... I didn't mean anything by that.

You're right.

I don't know what you're going through.

But I want to.

So how about I stop talking and I start listening?

Oh, no.

What?

Today is my wedding anniversary,

and I totally spaced.

Oh, yeah, that's not great.

But Wesley must have forgot, too,

if he didn't say anything this morning, right?

No, Wesley remembers everything about us.

If Wesley remembers everything,

and he did not say happy anniversary to you

this morning, then that means...

It means it was a test, and I failed.

- Wow. - What?

Nolan!

Yeah, what's up?

You arrested a guy this morning, Ezra Kane?

Uh, well, that's the name he gave me.

Didn't have any ID, though.

There was a triple homicide in Oregon three years ago.

A husband and wife were

brutally murdered in their home.

Their 15-year-old daughter was dragged into the woods.

They found her bloody clothes a week later

but no burial site.

All they had was a fingerprint

that didn't match anything in the system.

Until I ran Ezra Kane.

Yeah.

The victims were the Poston family,

Craig, Ava, and 15-year-old Samantha.

They lived on the edge of a state park

outside of Portland.

The working theory is,

the killer broke into their house

in the middle of the night, killed the father immediately

and then brutalized and executed the mother.

Samantha most likely was dragged out into the woods

and killed there.

So what do we have on our suspect?

Literally nothing.

He says his name is Ezra Kane.

That could be an alias.

I caught him trespassing at the Willoughby Rec Center

in the early morning.

He said he came in to get out of the cold.

- Any ID? - No.

He had a little bit of cash on him

and a bunch of credit cards under various names.

Haven't run them yet. We can assume they were stolen.

Any in the name of the murdered family?

No.

So how do you want to handle this?

We have a window here.

He doesn't know that we have connected him to the murders.

He still thinks that he is here on trespassing charges,

and it's in our best interest to keep him in the dark.

So you should do the interview.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

OK.

Any advice?

I mean, you read him his rights.

- Yeah, but not for this. - That doesn't matter.

As long as he acknowledged, didn't ask for an attorney,

anything you get in your questioning,

it's admissible.

The key is not to push.

Use your famous Nolan empathy to dig

without seeming to dig, OK?

The second that he suspects that you are onto the murders,

he's gonna bail.

- Got it? - Got it.

Um, can someone track down a sandwich?

Give me five or ten and then bring it in.

- Smart. Can do.

Remember, go easy.

The more comfortable he feels,

the better the chance he slips up.

- Understood. - Right, but not too easy,

because we don't want him to feel like

he's being handled with kid gloves.

Just Goldilocks this thing.

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.

Sorry, I thought you said I was gonna cite out?