Hey! Hey, Rob.
Rob McCann?
Yes?
Victim's Robert McCann.
He took one to the heart at 10:34.
Pretty specific time of death.
Yeah.
Two citizens heard shots fired and called 911.
We don't usually get called to the party for a shooting.
This isn't just a shooting.
It's way bigger than that.
Black victim and...
"vermin."
Written in the guy's blood.
We're thinking maybe we have a hate crime here.
Yeah, you were right to call and loop us in.
Any witnesses?
We're canvassing, but none so far.
What about physical evidence?
It's early days, but we found a dark blue fiber
transferred from the killer's shirt.
That pin.
Units gave these to embedded journalists in Iraq.
He was a reporter.
That could explain "vermin."
Puts a new spin on this, doesn't it?
Yeah, it does.
Maggie?
Hey, Paul. It's been a while.
Since Jason's-- Yeah.
My husband used to write freelance pieces for Paul.
Special Agent Zidan.
So Rob McCann.
We're all in a state of shock. It's such a terrible tragedy.
How well did you know him?
Well, I worked with Rob every day for seven years.
I watched him grow into one of our star reporters.
You know if he had any enemies?
Well, that's an understatement.
He wrote exposés for us. Mostly about public corruption.
He upset a great many people. Powerful people.
What about threats? We all get 'em.
It's part of the job these days.
You know, angry calls.
Reader comments, but some of Rob's were truly vile.
Any of them more than just words?
As a matter of fact, yes.
Two days ago, a man tried to force his way in here,
demanding to talk to Rob.
Rob McCann. Shot dead.
Possibly because he was a journalist.
These are troubled times for the Fourth Estate, folks.
Exhibit A.
This guy who crashed "Ledger" offices to confront McCann.
He bolted before security could grab him,
but he is described as tall. 40, salt-and-pepper beard.
See if McCann's coworkers know who he is,
and have your team start looking into McCann's articles.
Who'd he call out? Whose toes did he step on?
I want names, people. JT, where are we on the wife?
Linda McCann--she was at a medical conference in L.A.
Flight lands at JFK in two hours.
Jubal? Yeah?
I was checking posts on the "Ledger" website.
I think I found something.
Besides vitriol? I don't know what's wrong
with these people... especially this guy.
Crusader86 here.
He posted 30 comments on Rob McCann's articles
in the last two months,
and here is what he posted yesterday.
"McCann is vermin, and he deserves to die."
He used that same word in two other posts.
Can you get me his name?
I'm assuming it's not crusader86.
It looks like the account is tied
to an email registered to an Edgar Santos.
Edgar Santos.
That sounds familiar, because--where is it? Yes.
Santos was a building inspector who took bribes to look
the other way on code violations.
Two months ago McCann wrote that story.
Now Santos is facing major prison time.
He certainly matches the description:
tall, 40, salt-and-pepper beard.
How about that?
Hi, I'm here with FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell.
She's radiant with lustrous hair
and brown eyes that gleam with sensual promise.
She's clad in a low-cut bloue which,
in this reporter's view,
is not quite low cut enough.
Oh, boy. Hot and cut.
What are you watching? Nothing.
Let's go. What? We have a lead?
Better yet. We have a suspect.
Edgar Santos? We need to talk.
What about? We want to talk to you about
where you were last night.
Hey, hey, I didn't give you permission to do--
I don't need your permission. Check this out.
The address for the New York "Ledger"
and Rob McCann's apartment.
And he got a ticket,
at 10:00 last night, two blocks from Central Park.
You know what? I'm not going anywhere with you people.
It's voluntary questioning, and I can say no.
Not anymore. You're under arrest.
That look familiar?
Some comments I posted. So what?
Calling Rob McCann vermin. Hey. Freedom of speech.
Not when you threaten his life.
What about my life, huh?
Look what he did to me with that article of his.
I lost my job, my wife,
my reputation, my freedom.
I lost everything, because of him.
Yeah.
Did he make you take those bribes too?
It's not like I was the only one.
Right. This is all his fault
which is why you drove down to the New York Ledger.
Give him a piece of your mind, right?
But when that didn't work,
you took it to the next level.
Not sure what you mean.
Rob McCann was murdered last night.
He's dead?
You have his home address.
You were stalking him.
No. I mean I wouldn't say-- And then you caught up
with him in the park, and you shot him.
What? No. No, it wasn't me.
I swear to you I did not kill him.
He was a great reporter.
Happily married.
He had his whole life ahead of him,
and then just like that...
snatched away.
What has she told you about Jason?
That he was a reporter who died in a car crash.
That's why this case strikes such a chord in her.
Why she identifies so strongly with the victim.
It won't affect her objectivity as an investigator.
Well, I trust you'll keep me in the loop,
if you see that changing.
This puts you in the area when Rob McCann died,
so explain that.
Okay.
I saw McCann catch a cab, and I followed him,
but I ran a red light trying to keep up.
That's how I got the ticket.
After that, I drove around looking for him.
I was about to give up when I saw him walk into the park.
And you walked in right after him.
No.
I drove around to Central Park West
and waited for him to come out the other side.
I just wanted to talk to him, all right?
But he never showed. Okay.
Then give me a witness that saw you sitting
in your car, in Central Park West.
I can't. There was no witness.
First degree murder. Lying in wait.
Do you have any idea what's about to happen to you?
Wait. Wait.
There was somebody. Who?
A jogger. He came out of the park,
off the path that I figured McCann was on.
When was that? A little after 10:30 maybe.
What did he look like? Like a jogger.
I don't know. He was wearing a hoodie.
What color?
Dark blue.
There's your jogger.
No CCTV footage, but I did manage
to find a restaurant with security cameras
pointed towards the right stretch of Central Park West.
The blue fiber came back as a cotton-poly blend
which is consistent with the sweatshirt he's wearing,
and there's Santos, from 10:25 to 10:42.
He never left his car.
Which alibis him out.
I'm starting to wonder.
I mean you would expect a murder like this
to be more rage-filled.
You know, with signs of a beating
or gunshot wounds to the face.
We have none of that.
Maybe the killer saw Santos' post
and left that message to throw us off?
I was thinking the same thing.
In fact, aspects of this remind me of a case
I was consulting on last year.
What case?
The death of a Michigan state senator, in Lansing.
I read that. A mugging gone wrong?
Well, those were the official findings,
but this guy had some really shady dealings,
and I always thought that the murder was more planned.
Do you think we're dealing with the same killer?
I don't know, but the senator died
from a single shot to the heart,
and a jogger was caught on video fleeing the scene.
Here's the jogger from the Michigan case.
I mean it could be the same guy.
Yeah, but he's wearing a hoodie too.
You can't tell.
Unless we compare the gaits.
We have a software that can analyze
the biomechanics of how he moves.
Your gait can be as unique as your fingerprint.
91% match.
The Michigan jogger and the Central Park West jogger--
they're the same person.
Looks to me like Rob McCann's murder was a professional hit.
People, please turn your hymnals
to section 1958 of the federal code
with the snappy title "Murder for Hire."
We now believe McCann's killer is a pro
who also took out a state senator in Lansing last year.
Quantico's video analysis indicates that the suspect
is a white male, 30 to 40's, 6" tall.
Let's call Lansing area hotels.
Get the names of the guests that checked out
right after the senator's murder.
Our guy may be on that list.
I was doing my residency at St. Luke's
when Rob was embedded with the Marines in Fallujah.
That's when I was terrified I'd lose him.
Not now. Not here.
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
We're very sorry for your loss.
So someone hired this man to...
Why? Over something Rob wrote?
We're not sure yet.
Did he have any issues with drugs? Gambling?
No. Nothing like that.
Has he been worried lately or concerned?
If anything, he was excited
about a new story he was working on.
What story?
He wasn't ready to talk about it yet.
He said it was the sort of thing
that could win a Pulitzer.
Most reporters keep notebooks.
Did your husband have one?
Yes. Is it here?
He carried it with him. It wasn't found on his body.
Are you sure?
Rob never went anywhere without his notebook.
That's significant, isn't it?
It might be.
Do you have any idea why he was in the park last night?
I don't know exactly.
When we talked on the phone, he did say
he was planning to meet with a source.
A source on this news story?
Yes, I think so.
I talked to Rob's editor and his colleagues.
He didn't tell them about the story either.
Well, whatever it is, I think it's the key to this.
What does his browser history show?
Mostly stuff for articles he had in the pipeline,
except for some searches on pediatric oncology.
Does Rob have a kid in his circle who has cancer?
Not that we can find.
Okay. What about this source?
Any phone calls that point to who that might be?
Rob did get some calls from a burner phone,
but we're still trying to trace who it belongs to.
And Rob McCann's autopsy report just dropped.
Looks like he had a 0.07 blood alcohol level.
Okay, so he met his source for drinks.
That is my takeaway.
Could you put any of those drinks on a card?
No. It looks like he paid cash.
He withdrew $100 from an ATM on 67th and Columbus.
Can you shoot us over a list
of all the bars and restaurants in the area?
Hold on. I might not need to.
Checking past credit card charges.
I see two visits to a bar a block away from that ATM.
Yeah, I remember him. He sat right over there.
Ordered two glasses of pinot.
Hey, my shift just ended. Is this gonna take long?
It will with that attitude.
Who was he with? He was alone.
It seemed like he was waiting for someone, but nobody showed,
so he paid up and split.
Anybody come in after he left?
Maybe looking for him? Nope.
There was a guy.
What guy? He was at the bar.
When pinot left, he left right after him.
Do you have security cameras?
Just the one pointed at the till to keep us honest.
The guy at the bar.
Have you seen him before? Maybe a regular?
Definitely not a regular.
Why are you so sure?
He tried to play a song on the jukebox.
The regulars know it hasn't worked in months.
The bad news is there's no cameras outside the bar,
so we couldn't get eyes on whoever followed McCann,
but here's the good news: ERT lifted a primo print
off the jukebox's coin return button
belonging to one William Patterson.
Patterson has a record? - No.
His prints popped because he signed up for global entry.
Could he be our jogger? - Same age and height.
On the other hand, he's a math professor at NYU,
so there's that. He lives in Scarsdale.
I just sent his address and photo.
Okay. Thanks.
Not a lot of hit men out there who are math professors.
Which makes it a pretty great cover.
Isn't it more likely
that Patterson was the source that Rob was meeting?
Then why didn't they actually meet?
Why didn't he show his face at the bar?
Why did he follow Rob out?
So our killer, whoever it is, just goes up to Rob,
has no idea who he is, and shoots him.
Cold blood.
Do you think he even thinks about the pain
he's left behind?
All the dominoes that fall? The wife he made a widow?
A thing like that must be hard.
It is.
Really wish you could have met Jason.
Me too.
You guys would have hit it off.
I would say
one of my favorite things about Jason is that...
In some small way, he believed
that, being a reporter,
he could change the world.
I think he did.
Jubal. What you got?
Hey, there's a flag on the play.
Forget Patterson's house. We got a hit on his vehicle.
Thirty yards, east southeast there.
Backed up.
The turnoff says a mile down the road.
Are you okay?
Fine.
Back about another 60 paces.
It's Patterson.
Looks like Patterson was going about 80
when the driver's side front tire blew, and he lost control.
Which is in keeping with the man's abysmal driving record.
Five wrecks in two years.
Doesn't exactly fit the profile
for your methodical hit man.
Well, that's because he isn't one.
Apparently, Patterson tore his Achilles tendon six weeks ago.
So he couldn't be our jogger. What else do we know about him?
Not enough. He's not married.
No kids. No family we can find.
But we do know he spoke to Rob McCann.
Those burner calls that Rob got?
We traced 'em to a phone Patterson purchased last week.
Okay. Thanks.
So Patterson is definitely Rob's source,
but what's the story?
Something sensitive enough that he bought a burner phone.
He took some major precautions here.
That's why he tailed Rob out of the bar,
so they could talk in private.
Yeah, he was afraid
someone might find out he met with a reporter.
So now he's dead in a car crash?
I know. The timing's weird.
Agent Bell, Agent Zidan.
It's part of a radio-controlled receiver
used to detonate a small IED that blew the tire.
This was no accident.
I bet whoever killed Rob also killed Patterson.
The hit man had to be tailing him to detonate the IED.
Yeah. Make sure the target was dead.
Country road. No traffic.
It's the perfect place to pull this off.
It could explain why Patterson was speeding.
The hit man was chasing him.
Suspect might have touched this vehicle.
I want to get it checked for prints.
Driver's side door. All around the body.
Got it. Wait.
Where are the keys?
There's no key in the ignition.
Maybe the hit man took 'em.
I bet he's headed to Patterson's house.
Clear. Clear.
Clearly our hit man beat us here.
First, he takes Rob's notebook.
Then he tears this place apart.
This guy's tying up loose ends.
But what's he looking for? I don't know,
but whatever it is might still be here.
I'm gonna call T and have him run a search.
Hey, check this out.
It's Patterson's ER paperwork for when he tore his Achilles.
So? So we need to find people
who knew him, right?
Lists his emergency contact.
Russell Donovan.
I can't even begin to process this.
Mr. Donovan, what was your relationship to Mr. Patterson?
William and I met at Yale.
He was my first love.
It didn't last, but we stayed close.
I think I was one of the few friends he had.
When was the last time you two spoke?
Three or four days ago it must have been.
It was a strange call.
Strange how? He was being paranoid.
Saying that he thought people were following him.
What people? I don't know.
He was eccentric.
I thought he was just being William, so I humored him.
He was trying to tell me something, and I didn't listen.
What else was he involved in, besides teaching math?
Statistical analysis.
William was sought after for his ability
to parse huge sets of data. It was all a bit over my head.
"Sought after"? By whom?
I know that he was working on at least one research project.
Do you know what the project was?
No, he didn't tell me. He was very tight-lipped.
Okay.
Thank you for your time. You'll be hearing from us.
That was the head of NYU's math department.
Patterson's project was funded
by a grant from the Defense Department.
Which project? It's classified.
A hit man? Classified projects?
What the hell is going on here?
I don't know, but we're gonna need
a warrant to check out that research.
We just got a lead on his murder.
Hey, watch and learn, kids.
This is yeoman's work by young Kristen here.
Or yeo-woman's.
Drone? Car crash?
The killer used a drone to kill Patterson?
Yes, but not in the way that you're thinking.
Remember that
remote-controlled receiver that blew the tire out?
Yeah. Our killer repurposed it
from a Bluehawk 2 quad copter,
so our techs traced the serial number
and tracked the purchase to him.
He paid cash, so no digital trail.
Damn. Still can't see his face.
'Cause he's staying turned away from the camera.
This guy's good.
Wait, what's on his neck? Is that a scar?
AFIS logs scars and tattoos.
Did you run it through the system?
Nice, but she found a better way,
by going back to the senator's murder.
These are all the people who checked out of
Lansing hotels the day after the senator's death.
I filtered through for white males 30 to 40,
6" tall, staying alone,
which narrowed it down to 200 people,
but only one of them booked a ticket to New York
in the past week.
Frank Cutler.
That's him. Same scar on the neck.
Good work, Kristen.
Let's put out a wide BOLO for Frank Cutler.
It's a little too early for a victory lap,
but at least now we have a face.
What?
Maggie, you recognize him?
No. Excuse me.
This is Jason Bell reporting live.
You're the biggest nerd.
Hot and cut.
Hey. What's going on?
Is that a picture of Frank Cutler?
No. It's nothing. Maggie?
Maggie, what's up?
Look.
The day that I lost Jason, we were having lunch together,
and I took this video of him.
I don't know how many times I've watched this, but...
Is that Frank Cutler?
I mean the hat's similar,
but there's no scar on his neck.
Yeah, but that's just because of the angle.
OA, it's him. I'm not so sure.
Besides, your husband died in a car crash.
So? We thought Patterson did too.
You said that he was broadsided.
That the other driver
went through a light, so what are you saying?
Okay. I'm saying that that's the day Jason died,
and Frank Cutler is right there staring at him.
If that's even him. Let me ask you this.
Was there any sign of foul play with Jason?
Any indication that someone was after him?
One time, I got detained by TSA,
because some guy on the terror list
had my name and looked enough like me to be my brother.
This stuff happens all the time.
Yeah, no, I get that,
but what if this really is Cutler?
I mean he's just walking down the street.
Look, Maggie, I can't imagine what you've been through.
When you lose a loved one,
it's human nature to look for answers.
For a reason why. But sometimes--
All right, listen.
I just asked you if you thought it was Frank Cutler.
Okay? That's all I wanted to know.
Agent Bell. We searched the Patterson house.
Nothing much stood out, except for this.
Thank you.
He rented a safe deposit box.
The First Central Savings Bank. That was a week ago.
Maybe whatever he put in there
the killer was searching for. All right.
Let's go check it out.
Maggie, may I have a moment?
I'm a profiler. I read people.
Is there anything I need to know?
No, ma'am.
I ask because a personal bias can affect one's instincts.
Make an investigator move forward too soon
or move away too late.
I'm right where I need to be on this one.
You should know that Frank Cutler
is a fake identity,
but the trail of bodies he's left is very real.
He's killed other people? So far we've found
nine suspected contract killings in six states
where Cutler just happened to be in the area.
We're taking a fresh look at all those cases,
including the killing of that state senator.
I know you want to take this man down, Maggie,
but he is lethally dangerous.
If you find out where he is, I need you to call in SWAT.
Okay.
Thank you.
All that's missing is a drum roll.
I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.
There's no imprint on them, so not pharmaceutical.
Street drugs? Why rent a box to stash those?
Well, maybe it'll make more sense once the lab IDs them.
I'm sorry, but I have a situation.
Mr. Patterson's here.
What? He wants access to his box.
He has proper ID, so--
Can I see that?
What should I tell him?
You're not gonna tell him anything.
How many customers are in the bank right now?
We were closing.
Mr. Patterson and the two of you.
What about employees?
Six, including me,
plus the security guard. What's going on?
I know Dana said to call in SWAT,
but it's gonna take 'em forever to get here.
Did you say SWAT? If she's gone too long,
he's gonna start getting suspicious.
You're gonna stay here. Do not leave.
We're gonna go up there.
Try not to look like feds.
Excuse me.
We're not gonna ask your mother for money now.
Frank Cutler, freeze.
FBI. Don't move.
Get down. Take cover!
You too. Down!
Take cover!
Slowly put your hands in the air.
Put your hands in the air, and get down on your knees,
on the ground. Now.
Don't turn around.
Do not turn around! Get on your knees.
Get down on your knees, on the ground,
or I will shoot you.
Someone call 911.
Get an ambulance here immediately.
If Cutler dies, the truth about the case--
everything he's done-- dies with him.
Maybe not.
Look what I found in his jacket pocket.
Right now, the car's the best lead we got.
Yeah, and hopefully those pills.
In spite of the rather rushed timeframe,
I was able to identify the pill's active ingredient
as a variant of cytarabine which is an anti-metabolite.
Very impressive.
Care to translate it for me? Yeah.
It's a hot new cancer drug. Just came out.
If the pills are a cancer drug,
so then why no name or brand imprint?
FDA requires that.
Hmm, well, that's only once
it's been made available to the public.
Okay, so maybe these ones are for testing or drug trials?
Yeah, could be.
Whoa. What? What is it?
The results on the pill's inactive ingredients.
Something is way off.
Hey, OA. I got something.
Found it under the seat.
Rob McCann. The missing notebook.
Yeah, well, there's a problem.
Looks like some kind of code.
A lot of reporters use their own shorthand.
Jason did the same thing.
You can't read it? There's no way.
Hey, Kristen. What's up?
So the pills you guys found? It's Lucasil.
It's a recently approved drug for treating
childhood leukemia.
Why would Patterson have those?
I don't know, but it explains
why Rob was researching pediatric oncology.
Yeah, especially if there were problems with the drug.
The pills?
They show impurities. Like, serious ones.
Who makes Lucasil? Morrowick Medical.
In fact, the drug put them on the map.
They just went public with a huge IPO.
Okay. Look into Morrowick. Let us know what you find out.
On it.
You thinking what I'm thinking?
Morrowick had issues with Lucasil.
Rob was gonna tell the world.
And bring down the company, so somebody
hired Cutler to stop him,
and the evidence might be in this notebook.
We just can't read it.
Maybe Rob's wife can.
It's been a while,
but some of this is coming back now.
What does it say? These are Rob's notes
from an interview with someone.
No name. Just an initial: Q.
Q. Who the hell's Q?
In Jason's notes, he used to manipulate the alphabet.
What if we shift the letters back by one character?
Okay, so Q is really P, for Patterson?
Okay.
Looks like this Patterson is talking about a drug.
Initial M.
L? Lucasil.
He's telling Rob about a factory in China,
I think, that made a batch of tainted pills.
They found the mistake, but the pills had already
been distributed to patients in drug trials.
Does Patterson say how he knew about this?
Here it is. A major shareholder hired him,
secretly, to run data
to see if patients had been affected.
Were they?
He found a 29% rise in mortality.
Wow.
And the company kept it quiet.
Yep.
He wanted to go public, to make sure no one else
took the tainted drugs,
but the shareholder refused and threatened him,
so he reached out to Rob.
Rob was gonna expose this, wasn't he?
This was his story.
In his way, he was gonna change the world.
Does it mention anything about who the shareholder was?
It's just initials again. S.E.
Which is really R.D.
We know who that is. Patterson's friend.
Russell Donovan of Donovan Partners.
The VC firm that invested big in Morrowick Medical.
We hit his home and office, but he's in the wind.
Now, a little context here.
Not only did Donovan hire Cutler,
but he also gave meds to cancer patients
without bothering to mention they were contaminated.
Let's lean on his family, his colleagues.
Let's issue another round of BOLOs.
Let's find this dirt bag.
Hey.
Tell me you have a 20 on Donovan.
I might: I just found a satellite office in Brooklyn
where Donovan parks his chopper.
Pilot just filed a flight plan for Montreal.
He's making a run for the border.
Russell Donovan, we need a few words.
I've done nothing wrong. Really?
What about the tainted pills in the cancer trials?
There's no proof of that.
We have Rob McCann's notebook.
That has the whole story.
And we have two payments of 100 grand to Frank Cutler
that we tracked back to you.
You can direct any further questions to my attorney.
Russell Donovan, you're under arrest.
Good work out there today. I'm sorry.
I know you said to call in SWAT,
but I was worried that we would have lost Cutler.
Well, we might lose him anyway.
He's out of surgery, but it's touch-and-go.
You faced down a monster today, Maggie.
A case a little too close to home.
How are you?
I'm fine.
I used to think that things would never catch up to me.
I don't want to see you make the same mistake.
This woman helped me through things.
She can help you too.
Thanks.
Hey. Hey.
Um, listen, so I've been looking into Cutler.
That's definitely him in your video.
He was in New York.
Maybe it's what you said. He was just walking by.
Yeah. That's what I thought too.
But then I looked into his financials
and a wire transfer for 100 grand
hit his account the day Jason died.
You were right. Maggie, he was involved.
I'm sorry. You can't be in here.
This man is critically ill.
I need the room. Get out.
Cutler, wake up.
You remember me?
Not just from the bank though, right?
Last year. I was sitting at a café on Amsterdam.
I was with my husband.
Jason. I was sitting there with Jason.
That's you. Isn't it?
You killed my husband.
Why did you do it?
Look at me.
Why did you kill my husband?
Do you even understand what you took from me?
The life that we were going to have?
Who hired you?
Do one decent thing right now,
and tell me who hired you.
Please. Please tell me.
Tell me.
Cutler.
I'm sorry. You need to leave. What's happening?
His BP's cratering. Vessel may have opened up.
Let's run a CT angio, and prep the OR.
Where are you going? Back into surgery.
If we're lucky, we can save his life.
Where's the OR doctor on call?
Dr. Denton! I'm right here.
Page Denton.
I keep thinking about how Jason wanted to have kids.
I was the one that wanted to wait.
I was worried about my career or whatever.
I just wish I'd have taken that leap, you know?
Then maybe part of him would still be with me.
Or if I was at home pregnant,
he wouldn't have been on the road that night.
What happened to him is not on you.
How did I not see that it wasn't an accident?
How could you? No one else did.
I'm an FBI agent. I should have seen the signs.
Not if there weren't any.
OA, I think I've been too afraid to look.
To really face that he's gone.
Did you know that I still have
all of his clothes in his closet?
I just don't open the door.
Wherever this goes...
I'm with you.
Agent Bell?
I'm sorry, but Mr. Cutler didn't make it.