Here we are with another recap for NCIS. The episode begins with a father and his daughter walking around Washington D.C. and taking photographs. After the girl photographs her father near some bushes, they catch a glimpse of a navy officer’s hat. When the dad spots a drop of blood, he has his daughter step away while he carefully peeks over to see a dead body.
After the credits, we see Ellie and Tony removing a photo off the wall where the ten most wanted criminals are listed. They put a photo of Sergei Mishnev just as Tim comes walking in. He’s tired and mentions how he stayed up at 3 am just to talk to Delilah because of the time difference. Tony inquires whether their calls were more intimate, to which Ellie asks if anyone really asks that. Tony talks about being single just as Gibbs comes over to inform them of their next case.
A police officer talks to Gibbs, telling him about a recent string of muggings by someone known as ‘The Polite Mugger.’ While a tourist did take a photo, it only showed the back of his head. Gibbs tells him to send it to NCIS.
McGee has identified the body belonging to Lieutenant Commander Edward “Ned” Wallace. He’s missing his wallet and watch, and Ducky estimates he had died two hours previously. Ellie comes by and mentions she had asked the police for video surveillance, but the trees block any view. When a phone begins to ring, they look around but none of their phones are ringing. Tony realizes it’s coming from their evidence box and pulls out the victim’s phone. He answers and tells the person on the other end to reveal who he is. After telling the ‘wiseass’ to go first, he gets a shocked look on his face. He holds it to Gibbs, telling him it’s the president of the United States.
Gibbs and Vance arrive in the squad room and Gibbs tells them he had visited the President and the Lieutenant had been a presidential aide and still went to play basketball with the president. The victim had called the President the night before to ask for a couple minutes of his time. Tony is in shocked that he called the president a wiseass. Vance gets a phone call while Gibbs tells the team that Wallace was going to meet the president at breakfast, but never arrived. Vance tells the team he has to be somewhere.
The team tells Gibbs about the victim, including his work at the Pentagon and his Naval family history. While it is a suspected mugging, the president asked the team to keep him in the loop around the investigation.
Ellie and Sergeant Moore from earlier arrive in the lab as Abby is checking out shoes. When Abby sees Moore, she notices him staring at her neck, admiring her tattoos. He pulls up his sleeves to reveal his own tattoos, as well as one on his chest. Abby apologies to Ellie, who suggests she may have a tattoo. However, she balks at showing it in favor of seeing the photograph. Abby blows up the photo and can see a distorted shot of the mugger’s face on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. She asks for the original digital copy.
In the interview room, Tony and McGee are with Wallace’s wife. She reveals she and her husband were separated and she hadn’t seen him in a couple weeks, as he was living in his yacht on the Washington Channel. When they inquire about his watch, she mentions his grandfather’s, which is worth a lot of money. Apparently his grandmother is an heiress. McGee asks if the couple saw a counselor, but she says no.
Ducky tells Gibbs that the knife used was a tactical knife and the mugger was about the same height as Wallace. As Gibbs is leaving, Ducky asks if he ever expected he would talk to the president when he got up that morning, but Gibbs only smiles. Vance comes down and surprises Gibbs, who doesn’t have anything yet. Vance reveals he came to talk to Ducky about something else. As Gibbs is leaving, he sees Vance hand something to Ducky.
McGee and Tony are arguing over whether the wife is a suspect or not, with Tony saying no since her eyes appeared truthful. Ellie tells them about a woman named Courtney Reed, who apparently called him the night before, once from her office at a consulting firm called Colford-Webb. The company dealt with security and was founded by Richard Colford. McGee suggests an affair was going on and Mrs. Wallace found out, but Tony tells him to slow down.
Gibbs goes down to Abby’s lab, where she is in her office talking to McGee. Moore tells Gibbs about the findings and that the mugger’s name is Nicholas Dunne. He is excited about Abby’s work and is smitten with her. He is about to ask Gibbs something, who tells him that she is not married or dating. Abby comes over to let Gibbs know the suspect lives in a dorm and McGee has an address.
They arrive at a football field where guys are practicing for a game. Dunne comes up to McGee and Gibbs, who tell him he was photographed leaving a mugging. Dunne denies doing the robberies and refuses to let them search his backpack. However, when he finds out about the navy officer murder, he immediately backtracks and tells them he wouldn’t actually hurt anyone and they could look in his backpack. McGee looks inside and finds a knife, but it’s rubber.
Gibbs is in his basement when Vance comes down. He asks Vance if he wants a drink, but he declines. Vance reveals that he had gone in for a routine physical and felt fine, but his doctors wanted to do tests. Apparently, he has spots on his lungs and his doctor had guessed it could be an advanced stage of lymphoma. Vance had shown Ducky, who didn’t think it looked good either. When Vance begins talking about his children and late wife, Gibbs reminds him to stay positive.
In the squad room, the team tells Moore that Dunne has an alibi for the murder and confessed to the robberies. Ellie offers to take him to holding where he is, but Abby comes running in and offers.
Tim tells Tony and Ellie that the commander and his wife had a prenup and that she would be a rich woman on his death. Tony still doesn’t think that the wife did it and they go back and forth before Gibbs comes in. They tell him about Courtney Reed, who is a navy lieutenant and was a midshipman with Wallace. Ellie has been unable to locate her since her cell phone is off and she’s not at her apartment. Gibbs tells her to put out a BOLO, but Tim says they did and they have a warrant to search the yacht. Gibbs tells Tony and Ellie to go to the yacht and Tim to go to the Pentagon.
Tony begins asking Ellie about her personal life with her husband, and Ellie asks if he missed the sexual harassment seminar. They both begin searching the yacht, with Ellie talking about arguments she had with Jake over bigger houses and Tony asks about kids. Ellie refuses to answer and Tony mentions the commander hid pictures of his wife and possibly had women on the boat. Ellie had found a hair tye that was left behind and shampoo for someone with blonde highlights. Tony tells her she’s doing some good thinking, then when she surmises an affair, he says she sounds like McGee.
At the office, Gibbs sees Vance and Ducky walking off. Tim comes in and tells him that Wallace’s CO said he wasn’t handling any top-secret documents and he was well-liked. He also hadn’t heard Courtney Reed’s name before. Tim gets a call from Delilah, but he ignores it.
Tony and Ellie come to Abby’s lab bearing food and she tells them she found an e-mail on Wallace’s computer from his lawyer. Apparently divorce papers were being drafted and Tony wonders if McGee was right after all. He gets a call as Abby begins gushing about Moore to Ellie. Tony tells Ellie they are going up to MTAC and that they got a hit on the BOLO.
The sheriff of Harford County, Marge Fields, tells the team that Reed’s car was found submerged in a body of water after what appeared to be a crash. It appeared she got out of the car, but her body wasn’t found. She tells them a unit is at her apartment. When she inquires about their interest in Reed, Gibbs tells her she’s connected to a navy officer who died. They are unable to respond when she asks what the connection is.
Vance tells Ducky a surgeon reviewed his CAT scans and spoke with other colleagues who agreed it could be lymphoma. He tells Ducky that he has surgery tomorrow so the doctors can get a tissue sample for biopsy. His doctor had asked if his life was in order, but he hasn’t changed his will or figured out care for the kids.
McGee and Gibbs are talking to a colleague of Reed’s and he mentions what a hardworking woman she is. When Richard Colford comes down, he is informed that Reed is missing. Neither of them have ever heard of Wallace’s name and Gibbs tells them they need access to Reed’s work. When they ask why that would be needed if it was a car accident, Gibbs responds they don’t know for sure what happened.
Vance is in his office having a flashback of a moment between his children and his wife after coming home from a trip. His kids’ babysitter, Lara, comes in after he had requested she meet him at his office. At first she is worried she may have done something wrong, but Vance assures her she’s been great. He informs her he is having exploratory surgery and needs her to watch the kids for a couple days and asks that they not be told since they’ve already gone through so much. She assures him that the kids, as well as himself, will be fine.
Tim and Tony bring Trish Wallace in to the interrogation room. She notices they are being recorded and when they confront her with the evidence they have, she reveals she did know about Courtney Reed, as she was an old girlfriend of Wallace’s. When they press her about the money she would lose in a divorce, she refuses to speak without a lawyer.
In the squad room, one of the employees asks Ellie how it is working for Gibbs and he is known for being a hard ass. Ellie doesn’t answer and he realizes Gibbs is there. He quickly exits and Ellie tells Gibbs that Wallace had booked a hotel room for a Regina Lampert. Tony recognizes the name as a name from a film called Charade.
Ellie reveals that the description of the woman matches Courtney Reed and she had checked in two days prior. Tony suggests that she was in on the murder with Wallace’s wife and tells them she lawyered up. He hears a phone ringing and goes to answer it. It’s McGee’s and he sees it is Delilah. However, when he answers the video call, he realizes she’s naked. Gibbs tells Tony to go to the motel with McGee.
Arriving at the motel, McGee angrily asks Tony what he saw, to which Tony replies that he saw enough to know how lucky Tim is. Tim spots Courtney Reed walking. When they identify themselves, she begins running away and the guys have to chase her. But when they grab her, she begins screaming for the police even as they identify themselves.
Reed doesn’t believe they are cops and that someone is after her. She refuses to talk to them even as they tell her about her car. Once she hears Wallace is dead, she pays attention. They take her to see his body and she realizes he never got a chance to see the president. She reveals that she and the commander were going to get married.
In the interview room, she tells the team she had discovered a flaw in her work’s computer system that could leak documents to the public. She had gone to talk to Bryce Tolson, her superior, since the leak could be bigger than previous leaks. Courtney had decided to talk to the CEO, Richard Colford, but it was never taken care of.
Tolson ended up leaving her out of meetings and took away her files. Reed thought someone was following her and asked Wallace for help, making the mistake of calling on her work phone. He had told her to go to his parents cabin and she was run off the road on the way there. When she was able to finally get out of the water and to the farmhouse, she called Ned, who got her a motel room and said he’d call once he talked to the president.
Gibbs goes to Colford-Webb, where he sees Tolson entering security numbers with his left hand, the same hand that used the knife to kill Wallace. He asks if they found Courtney and she appears before him. Gibbs arrests Tolson.
Tony is on the phone with Delilah, apologizing profusely for what happened. Tim tells Ellie you do not want to get on her bad side and she figures he’s been there. Tony tells Delilah he’s learned his lesson and he takes a message for McGee. When he tells Tim that Delilah will call him later, he adds ‘we know what that means,’ showing Tim lesson not learned.
Abby comes in looking for Gibbs, but can’t find him. When asked if she’ll go out with Moore, she says she will. She’s still focused on wondering where Gibbs is.
Gibbs is in the waiting room at the hospital when Lara and Kayla arrive. Vance was moved out of surgery and Ducky is talking to the surgeon. He comes out to tell them Vance is fine and he had a viral condition that could mimic cancer on X-Rays. Kayla asks to see her father and when he sees her, he wonders why she isn’t at school. Lara reveals she overheard her on the phone with Ducky. Kayla reminds Vance she is the woman of the house and is strong enough like her mom. Gibbs comes in and tells Kayla he will let her know if Vance doesn’t take it easy.