NCIS: Los Angeles

Where we going with this?

Right over here.

Turn around, turn around, turn around.

Okay.

What is that?

It's a Christmas tree.

You're joking.

No, no.

Douglas fir, Scotch pine,

bruce spruce...

these are Christmas trees.

This is LA, Hetty.

Wait till you see the menorah.

I am so alone.

Oh, Mr. GQ.

What's up with the big boy clothes?

- Somebody's got a hot date, huh? - No.

Mommy in town for the holidays?

No, thank goodness.

- Job interview? - You're leaving us?

Uh, whoa, who's leaving us?

- Nate's got a job interview. - Where?

Nowhere. I do not have a job interview.

I just thought that I would dress it up today.

You backed into Hetty's Jag.

Again.

No. Don't even kid about that.

Well, personally, I think you look fantastic.

God, I love men in suits.

- And uniforms. - And costumes.

When did I date anybody who wore a costume?

What about the pirate guy?

Didn't he make you wear a milkmaid outfit?

That was for a Renaissance fair, and I was a wench.

So much better.

Oh, dear Lord, Eric,

that shirt is wrong

- on so many levels. - Thank you.

What's up, ladies?

ATM footage from the bank in Westwood.

Asher Ross was withdrawing a hundred dollars

from his checking account 07 a.m. last Thursday

when he got a cell phone call.

It was his last.

He was killed by what appears to be some sort

of explosive device planted in his phone.

Now, Ross was no stranger to explosives.

He's a former staff sergeant

with a marine EOD unit...

Explosive Ordinance Disposal.

Six months ago, he was part of a convoy

hit by a roadside bomb in Fallujah.

Three marines were killed,

several others were severely injured.

Ross was given a medical discharge

because he lost the hearing in one of his ears.

All right, Eric, phone records.

Find out where the trigger call originated.

And, Dom,

forensics on Ross's phone and personal belongings.

We'll check out the ATM where he was killed.

We might be able to get some additional footage

from across the street at the store.

Maybe even a traffic cam.

Anything?

Yes. Ross got a coffee and a muffin,

then stopped to buy the LA Times

- before hitting the ATM. - What kind of muffin?

Seriously?

You can tell a lot about a person

by their choice of breakfast pastries.

Take Sam, for instance.

Spicy Cinnabon.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ignore him.

Now if Santa was working the day of the bombing,

he might have seen something.

Maybe our bad guy's on his naughty list.

Wait, wait, hold on. Sam, I checked already.

There's nothing.

Yeah, Eric, what do you got?

The call that triggered the bomb in Ross's cell phone

originated in the same cell site.

Which means that the caller was within

half a mile or so of the explosion.

Could have been closer than that.

He might have been watching.

The killer could have got a prepaid phone to make the trigger call.

Yeah, I already traced it. It's a dead end.

The killer used a prepaid cell phone,

placed the call, then threw it away.

There's no way to track it.

Eric, is the trigger phone still in service?

Uh, it doesn't appear to be.

Probably turned it off before he tossed it.

Eric, you can remotely reactivate it, right?

Yep. Do it.

All right, so I'll try to find the cell phone,

see if we can pull some prints,

track it back to where he purchased it.

- We'll go check out Ross's house. - Yep.

You know, the most obvious suspect

is going to be someone in Ross's bomb disposal unit.

But we cannot forget

that he also studied chemical engineering.

So what, one of his fellow students had a beef with him,

so he cooked up some explosive and wired his phone?

But I do think that Eric needs to do a background check

on everyone in his classes just in case.

You'll have to excuse the mess.

My wife was supposed to help me pack up his things.

Asher was our only son.

She's just not ready yet.

We're very sorry for your loss, sir.

Mr. Ross, there may be

some evidence in your son's belongings

that could help our investigation.

The police already went through everything.

Nothing here that will bring him back.

You have any idea who may have wanted to hurt your son?

I'd like to say my son didn't have any enemies, but...

I wasn't close enough to him to know.

You had a falling out?

No, just working a lot.

Trying to make sure my family was taken care of.

One day you're missing Little League,

and the next thing you know, they're moving out.

And all that time in between...

it's just lost.

Did Asher ever talk to you

about his time in the marines, or school?

No. The last time we talked...

argued...

it was about money.

Uh, he'd lent a lot of his savings to a marine buddy

and he wasn't paying him back.

Do you have a name?

King.

But don't ask me first, last, nickname.

I just know they were together in Iraq.

Ever since Asher was little he wanted to be a marine.

I just wish, uh,

he would be eight again.

We could start over.

Okay, Sam, I just reactivated the phone

that called Asher Ross.

I'm sending its GPS signal to your phone.

It should be accurate to within a couple meters.

See anything?

Got an alley, lots of garbage,

a couple of Dumpsters.

He probably tossed it in one of them.

All right, call the cell phone.

Well, what if it's booby-trapped, too?

Just do it, Eric.

Okay.

All right, it's ringing.

Aw!

Sam, are you all right?

It's restaurant garbage.

It's full of maggots.

I hate maggots! Ugh!

Well, don't think of them as the "M" word.

Think of them as the larval form of flies.

You know, sterile versions are actually used

in medical procedures as a form of wound debridement.

- The larvae eat... - Goodbye, Eric.

Hello?

Ugh.

Oh, this is worth it.

- Yeah? - Eric, run a search on a guy named King.

He served with Asher Ross.

Yeah, I'm on it.

All right, I got a Hastings King,

also a member of Ross's EOD unit.

He was severely injured

in the same convoy attack in Fallujah.

You got an address?

Yeah, just off Colorado Avenue.

Not too far from Sam.

Call Sam, have him check out King. We're headed back.

- I'm on it. - Okay.

Hey, Mr. King?

We're closed.

Get lost.

Your customer service needs some work.

I'm NCIS.

Asher Ross is dead.

Now show me your hands and come out before I pull you out.

Seriously, you need to get lost now.

I got a little problem here.

Hey...

Yes, you have.

I called LAPD. Bomb squad's on the way.

Great. Last thing I need is some civilian blowing up my garage.

The bomb's probably wired into the car's ignition.

See anything on the battery?

No.

But it looks like she's tied into the starter.

There's something the size of a cell phone wrapped in electrical tape.