Épisode La mort en otage S04E18 - Crossing Jordan Saison 4

[Scene: Old City Hall. Lily and her lawyer are walking down the corridor. Garret is following behind.]

LILY: Two years? That's all my mother's life is worth?

LAWYER: It's not done yet. The judge has a lot of latitude. We'll know tomorrow her sentence.

LILY: Two, four, twelve. She murdered my mum.

LAWYER: That's a technical point. Your mother died from a staff infection. A jury might find the driver guilty only of the hit and run and not of the death.

LILY: This is...

LAWYER: This woman's plea to relative man slaughter is a good outcome, Miss Lebowski.

(They see a guard taking the driver out of the courtroom.)

LILY: She deliberately ran my mother over with her car. I don't see any remorse. Doesn't that matter or is that just another technical point?

LAWYER: You want her to get the maximum? Be here tomorrow morning for the sentence. Write a statement. Tell the judge how your mother's death has affected you. The loss, the emotional pain. See you at 9:00.

(He walks away.)

LILY: Judge feels sorry for her. I can see it in his eyes.

GARRET: He doesn't feel sorry for her. He just accepted her plea. Statement's a good idea though.

LILY: Of course I'm getting a statement, Garret.

[Scene: ME's Office. Trace Evidence. Jordan and Nigel are there. Jordan takes a photo of a man laying on a gurney. Woody walks in.]

WOODY: Afternoon, fellas. Present company accepted. Any chance of getting a COD on this guy any time soon?

JORDAN: What's the rush?

WOODY: I'm currently juggling three homicide cases and I'd love for this not to be the forth.

NIGEL: Well, it might help if you fill us in on what we're looking at here.

WOODY: Okay. Alberto Guzman, 51. Dominican National. Worked as a body guard at the consulate. Found this morning in an alley behind some bar in Little Dublin. No witnesses.

JORDAN: Well, it smells like it could be alcohol related.

NIGEL: Everything appears normal here. No visible fractures or trauma.

WOODY: Music to my ears.

JORDAN: Perfectly healthy looking guy drops dead in an alley way. I need to run a full tox, full autopsy. (Garret walks in.) Oh, hey, Garret. How'd it go with Lily?

(Two men follow Garret in the room.)

GARRET: These gentlemen are with the Dominican Consulates. That Alberto Guzman?

NIGEL: It is, yeah.

GARRET: They're taking the body.

JORDAN: They? Who are they?

DANNY: Danny Artega. My father is the Consulate General. He asked me to take care of this.

JORDAN: I'm afraid I don't understand.

GARRET: It's on the epinop, Jordan. All the paper work's here.

DANNY: His family, they're devastated. They've asked for his body to be taken back to San Juan for burial.

JORDAN: Sir, we're about to perform an autopsy here.

GARRET: Under UN guidelines, they have the right to act as executor of the man's body.

DANNY: I know this is a strange request. I really appreciate you making this as easy as possible. We're stunned by Alberto's death.

WOODY: Okay, well, that was easy.

(He tears a page out of his notebook.)

[Cut to the Conference Room. Lily is trying to write the statement. She writes a sentence then crosses it out. A woman stands at the door.]

NICOLE: Maybe you can help me. Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.

LILY: What can I do for you?

NICOLE: I'm looking for my husband. His name is... was Alberto Guzman.

LILY: I'm sorry, your husband is passed away?

NICOLE: Passed away, no. He was murdered.

[Cut to the Crypt. Danny and the man are wheeling Alberto's body into the elevator.]

NIGEL: I'm sure this will go a long way to maintaining diplomacy.

WOODY: Wanna all join hands? A little "We Are The World"?

(Lily and Nicole walk in.)

NICOLE: Oh my god. Danny? (Danny closes the elevator.) No, stop!

(She tries to open the door. Garret walks in.)

GARRET: What's going on, Lily?

LILY: I don't know.

NICOLE: How could you let them take my husband?

WOODY: Lady, calm down. What is it?

NICOLE: He murdered Alberto.

JORDAN: What?

NICOLE: Danny. That son of a bitch. He killed my husband.

OPENING CREDITS

[Scene: ME's Office. Lobby. Jordan, Lily and Nicole are there.]

JORDAN: We don't know how your husband died. What makes you think this man murdered him?

NICOLE: Last night, Alberto left a message on my cell. Said Danny had finally gone too far, he wasn't gonna let him get away with it. This morning he was dead.

(Woody walks out of the elevator.)

JORDAN: Did you stop him?

WOODY: Yeah, and then I let him go.

LILY: You let him go?

WOODY: I called it in. I held him. The next thing I know the state department is on the horn threatening my badge. Turns out Danny's father was just appointed the Dominican Minister of Finance, which makes your allegations a political nightmare.

NICOLE: This isn't an allegation. Danny murdered my husband. I work at the Consulate. I'm a translator. That's how I met my husband. He was Danny's personal body guard. More like a babysitter. The spoiled little brat had to be bailed out of more DUIs, bar fights, car accidents.

LILY: He got away with that?

NICOLE: He has diplomatic immunity.

(Garret walks in.)

GARRET: I tried to pull some strings with the governor's office but it looks like the state department's putting up road blocks.

LILY: Pulling strings? That's the best we can do? Does diplomatic immunity cover murder?

GARRET: Lily.

NICOLE: Please, you have to do something.

GARRET: Mrs. Guzman, we're dealing with jurisdictional issues we can't override. This may take some time.

NICOLE: Danny and his father leave tonight for San Juan. If they take Alberto's body.

JORDAN: Come on, Garret, if we don't act on this now, this guy's gonna walk.

LILY: What is the point of doing what we do if we let this happen?

GARRET: Don't you have a project that's due tomorrow morning?

LILY: I'm sorry.

(Lily walks away.)

JORDAN: We're gonna do everything we can to make this right, Mrs. Guzman.

NICOLE: Don't bother. I've had enough.

(She leaves.)

GARRET: It's out of our hands, Jordan.

JORDAN: Yeah, sure it is.

[Scene: Alley behind a bar. Jordan and Woody are there.]

WOODY: Divining our killer for mud patterns, Kemo Sabe?

JORDAN: The smell of booze is coming more from Alberto's skin than from his mouth. Smells kind of like this mud too.

WOODY: With these leaky trash cans, you can probably get a decent buzz from that stuff. We got no witnesses in any of the bars, nobody recognises his photo. We got nothing.

JORDAN: Actually... (She pulls out a photo of markings on Alberto's side.) Alberto's shirt was hiked up. It was a lividity pattern from the surface he was laying on. This wasn't it.

WOODY: A checkerboard.

JORDAN: Yeah, like tile, not cobblestone. Nothing in this alley.

WOODY: So you're saying...

JORDAN: I'm saying that Alberto died somewhere else and his body was dumped here. Nicole was right. He was murdered.

[Scene: ME's Office. Lily's Office. Lily is sitting at her desk. Bug knocks on the door and walks in.]

BUG: Hey. I'm taking orders for a coffee run. (Lily holds up her cup.) Come on, Macy's buying. You have to order out of principle alone.

LILY: Fine.

BUG: These are your mother's medical records.

LILY: I'm issuing her death certificate.

BUG: Yeah, but this isn't a coroner's case.

LILY: Bug, I know the drill. I tell people every day. I ordered 20 copies of the death certificate. It's funny, I always thought it was excessive.

BUG: You know, you don't have to do this alone, Lily.

LILY: I know. Andy's gonna help.

BUG: Your brother. How's he gonna do that from Pennsylvania?

LILY: If I could actually get him on the phone, I would ask him the same thing. He needs to start pulling his weight. Add his thoughts to my statement for tomorrow.

BUG: So you haven't finished, huh?

LILY: Not even close.

BUG: Okay, then I will take care of the paperwork.

LILY: No.

BUG: Come on, Lily. I may not know the right words to say but that doesn't mean I don't care. The copies, did you say you needed 20? (She kisses him on the cheek and leaves the room.) Hey, Lily, did...

[Cut to Nigel's Desk. Jordan and Nigel are there.]

NIGEL: Okay, and the real crime scene will be wherever we find this tile pattern?

JORDAN: Yeah, somewhere between here and Cape Horn.

NIGEL: And you'll need it by tonight?

JORDAN: If not sooner before they get the body on the plane.

NIGEL: I do love a challenge. And am I right in guessing that this will be staying underneath the Macy radar?

JORDAN: What stays under the Macy radar?

(Lily walks in talking on the phone.)

LILY: I'm tired of talking to your answering machine, Andy. You can't dump this all on me. She was your mother too. Just call me back. (She walks into the break room. Jordan follows.) I'm fine. Why am I always the one that has to be the grown up? Probate courts, funeral arrangements, insurance, death certificate. My mother was thousands of dollars in debt. The cemetery wants to know what to put on her headstone and someone's using her credit card to charge electronics in Seattle. I'm sorry.

JORDAN: For what? Having feelings?

LILY: I should know how to process my anger without biting peoples heads off.

JORDAN: Ease up on yourself, Lily. Losing a parent is brutal. You can't get over it in a couple of days.

(Garret stands at the door.)

GARRET: We gotta go.

JORDAN: Go where?

GARRET: Nicole Guzman has just taken hostages at the Dominican Consulate.

[Scene: Outside the Dominican Consulate Building. Police cars have pulled up on the street. They have blocked the street off. Jordan, Garret, Lily and Woody have arrived.]

LILY: I don't understand. How was she able to do this?

BEN MORGAN: She works in the Consulate. No one suspected her having a gun. It's a small office. Couple of aids, security guard who she shot.

GARRET: Is he alive?

BEN: I don't know. She cut surveillance. All we know is she's got five hostages. The Consulate General's son among them.

JORDAN: She said she wanted her husband's body autopsied?

BEN: That's the demand. We're going along with it for now.

WOODY: Well, let's get them equipped.

BEN: No, not them. Glenys, Logan.

(A man and a woman walk over.)

GARRET: Who are they supposed to be?

BEN: You. Brief them on everything morgue. I want them looking natural when they carry out the body. No suspicions.

JORDAN: There's only one problem with that. Everything.

LILY: Nicole spent the morning in our office. She knows our faces.

GARRET: I'll go, I'll get the body.

JORDAN: Oh, yeah, she really liked you. I'll go.

WOODY: This is a police matter, I will go.

LILY: We should do what she wants the way she wants it. All she's after is making sure Danny Artega pays for what he did.

(Diego Artega over hears their conversation.)

DIEGO: You're talking about my son. Last I understood, in America, you're believed innocent until proven guilty. I want my son out of there. He's not the criminal here.

JORDAN: Let's go.

[Cut to inside the Dominican Consulate. Nicole has her gun pointed at Jordan and Garret as they zip up the body bag.]

NICOLE: Wait.

(She takes one last look at Alberto and Garret zips the bag up all the way. Near by, the guard who has been shot sits on the ground next to the other hostages.)

GUARD: Don't worry about me.

JORDAN: He needs medical attention, Nicole.

NICOLE: And they know that so that lights a fire.

GARRET: We can only do the autopsy as fast as we can.

NICOLE: I'll wait. I'm as much a hostage here as they are.

DANNY: Yeah, the gun's a dead give away.

JORDAN: That'll help your cause.

NICOLE: As long as he doesn't get away with murder, they all go free. Do you understand?

GARRET: We all want a fast safe end to this.

NICOLE: Don't placate me. Just get the evidence.

(Danny speaks in Puerto Rican. Nicole says something back.)

GARRET: Let's go.

(Jordan and Garret push the body towards the door.)

NICOLE: You go. She stays.

JORDAN: What?

NICOLE: You stay. No offence, but it's insurance.

GARRET: Dr. Cavanaugh's my best ME. It's her you want to do the autopsy. If you need insurance, I'll stay.

NICOLE: You're the chief, I'm sure you can handle it. Pull some of your strings.

(She cocks the gun and points it at Jordan's head.)

JORDAN: I think she's serious, Garret.

(Garret wheels the body out of the door.)

[Scene: ME's Office. Corridor. Garret, Nigel, Bug and Woody are wheeling Alberto's body through the corridor.]

WOODY: The longer a hostage crisis takes, the more chance it has of ending bloody.

NIGEL: Oh, thanks for the pep talk.

GARRET: We just have to be quick. We need to find the cause of death and the crime scene. Bug, you and I do trace together. Double our speed.

BUG: Okay, I'll prep him.

GARRET: Nigel, start with tox. And I want everything Jordan had you working on this morning that I wasn't supposed to know about.

NIGEL: Oh, I wasn't working on... all right.

(He goes into a room.)

WOODY: I'm going back to the Consulate.

GARRET: No.

WOODY: I gotta get her out of there.

GARRET: Don't be a cowboy, Woody. We all wanna make sure Jordan gets out. So the best thing we can do right now, all of us, is to do our jobs like we know how.

WOODY: I'm gonna look under every rock that son of a bitch Danny was under yesterday.

GARRET: Do it.

(Woody walks away. Nigel comes back with a file.)

NIGEL: Everything Jordan had me dig up this morning. What's wrong?

GARRET: What if we find this kid didn't kill Alberto Guzman? What happens to Jordan then? Go.

[Scene: Dominican Consulate. Jordan is handcuffed to the stairs beside Danny.]

DANNY: I'm sorry you've been put in this on my account. I didn't kill Alberto, he was my friend.

JORDAN: According to Nicole he was your liarchy. Always bailing you out of trouble.

DANNY: Okay, so I'm no boy scout. I didn't murder anyone. I'm not the one who shot an innocent man and took hostages.

JORDAN: Her husband's dead. Someone killed him.

DANNY: If his body had gone back to San Juan, they would've found that out there. Boston doesn't have a monopoly on forensics, doctor.

JORDAN: You want the truth?

DANNY: I want to know why she really took this place hostage. I mean, that's my father's office. What's she doing in there? What's she looking for? We're in the midst of major trading cords and my father's appointment puts him in the centre of it. If someone were to get all of those figures...

JORDAN: That's a bit of a stretch.

DANNY: Alberto, he caught her going through some papers, you know, that he was holding for me. He started to get suspicious, now look what happened.

(The guard groans.)

WOMAN: Hey, this guy's not doing so well.

(Nicole walks in.)

NICOLE: What's going on?

JORDAN: If you let me out I can look. (She uncuffs Jordan from the stairs. Jordan goes over to the man.) I think his artery ruptured. He needs a hospital. Now. You gonna let him die? You have to let him go, Nicole. Let these people take him out.

NICOLE: They're my leverage.

JORDAN: You only need me and Danny. You lied to the negotiator when you kept me. Now she them some good faith. You want to be the injured party of the killer? Make them believe in you, Nicole.

[Scene: ME's Office. Corridor. Bug catches up to Garret.]

BUG: Dr. Macy, could you take a look at this?

GARRET: It's gonna have to wait.

BUG: Arlene Lebowski. Look at her blood type.

GARRET: AB. So?

BUG: Lily's is O positive.

GARRET: You sure?

BUG: I checked her file. You did the blood typing test yourself.

GARRET: Has Lily ever mentioned being adopted?

BUG: No. So what do we say to her?

GARRET: Nothing. It's none of our business.

BUG: Well, what if she doesn't know?

GARRET: Well, who says she doesn't and if she does, she's obviously decided not to tell us. Leave it alone, Bug. She's got enough on her plate right now.

(Garret walks away.)

BUG: Sure.

[Scene: Outside Dominican Consulate. The hostages walk out of the building.]

BEN: Hostages are coming out!

LILY: Where's Jordan?

BEN: She released everyone but Dr. Cavanaugh and your son.

DIEGO: What now?

BEN: She wants food. Which is good, she's hungry. We withhold it, keeps her off balance.

LILY: She just released hostages. We should give her something in return.

BEN: We send in food, this goes from being about a couple of hours to a couple of days.

LILY: She's grieving over her husband's death. She's impatient, she's hostile.

BEN: This isn't a committee meeting.

LILY: She's feeling desperate, angry. Any little thing could set her off. She could kill them both.

BEN: Officer, Miss Lebowski is leaving.

DIEGO: She's right, Mr. Morgan. Send in whatever Nicole wants.

BEN: This isn't your decision either, Mr. Artega.

DIEGO: Yes, it is. The Consulate is sovereign ground. I can make a phone call and get this done.

BEN: It's your son.

DIEGO: And Miss Lebowski stays.

(Ben walks away.)

LILY: Thanks. About what I said before, about your son...

DIEGO: You believed a woman who is untrustworthy. Danny is not a murderer.

LILY: Thanks for getting them to let me stay.

DIEGO: You don't want to lose your friend. I don't want to lose my son.

[Scene: ME's Office. Trace Evidence. Garret and Bug are there. Nigel walks in.]

NIGEL: Toxile, Alberto Guzman. He had flumitrazepam in his system.

BUG: Isn't that rufies, the date rape drug?

NIGEL: Yeah. 30mg. Non-lethal dose. But enough to knock out a bodyguard. Or a rhino.

BUG: So Danny knocks him unconscious and then kills him.

GARRET: Don't jump to conclusions. We don't even know cause of death. Let's say objectives so we don't make mistakes.

NIGEL: Fine. But it all adds up, doesn't it? Diplo-rat thinks he's above the law. How much do you wanna bet Danny always had rufies around so he could have his way with whoever he wanted. Check out the pattern.

GARRET: Particles are sifting downward towards the shoes.

BUG: Looks like he was dragged. Out of the crime scene?

NIGEL: And then dumped in the alley. We're lucky the gutter water didn't wash this evidence away.

GARRET: So what's the powder?

[Time lapse. Results of the powder show up on the computer.]

GARRET: Gypsum bonded asbestos.

NIGEL: It's dry wall. It's used in commercial buildings. Microscopic powder sticks to the floor.

BUG: So the crime scene we're looking for was recently renovated. That doesn't really help us.

NIGEL: Gypsum bonded asbestos contains negligible amounts of custinigens, but enough that the state, I think, requires a permit.

(Woody walks in.)

WOODY: Seems our friend Danny Artega went on quite a little bender yesterday. Around 11:37 a Roxbury traffic cam has his SUV running a red light at the corner of Comm. Ave and Leek. 11:37. That's somewhere around Alberto Guzman's estimated time of death.

NIGEL: Okay, I've got twenty permits this past month. One right near that intersection. Get this. Yeah, permit holder is one Jose Arcadio. (They look at him blankly.) Colonel Jose Arcadio Pontius. The ambitious patriarch from 100 years of solitude?

BUG: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

NIGEL: Right. Which every South American school boy would know. It's an alias. It's Danny's alias.

GARRET: Chances are it's where Alberto Guzman was murdered.

[Scene: Dominican Consulate. Nicole offers some pizza to Jordan.]

JORDAN: Looking down the barrel of your gun kind of killed my appetite.

DANNY: I'll take one.

NICOLE: It's not your stomach you should be worried about.

DANNY: You know all those parties Alberto told her about? Yeah, well, what he didn't tell her was how much he enjoyed them too.

JORDAN: Don't make things worse.

DANNY: He was just happy to be out of the house. You know, away from that bitch.

NICOLE: Shut up!

(She points her gun at him.)

JORDAN: Nicole, don't. You kill him, you don't get justice. You just become as bad as him or who murdered your husband.

NICOLE: He murdered my husband.

JORDAN: Then let them prove that at the morgue.

NICOLE: They were kidding. They're just buying time. People like him. They never get what's coming to them.

(She walks over to Danny and points the gun at his head.)

JORDAN: Look, put the gun down. If he did kill Alberto, there's bound to be some evidence on him. At least let me try to find it. It's called a live autopsy. I look for samples, hair, fibres. Try to connect the dots.

NICOLE: One way or another, you're not walking out of here.

DANNY: I didn't kill him.

[Scene: Alberto Guzman Crime Scene. Nigel and Woody are there.]

WOODY: See anything in the dust, Nige?

NIGEL: Gypsum bonded asbestos. Drag marks towards the door.

WOODY: Take a look at this tile pattern.

NIGEL: Lividity matches. This is our crime scene.

WOODY: We need to find a link to Danny.

(Nigel finds a hand print on a table.)

NIGEL: I got a print.

WOODY: This place is clean, Nige. Too clean. What was Danny using it for?

(Nigel takes a photo of the hand print. He types on the computer and Nicole's file shows up.)

NIGEL: I'm not sure it's Danny's.

WOODY: Nicole. What was she doing here?

(Woody looks through the desk drawers. One drawer is locked so he finds something in the ME bag to pry it open.)

NIGEL: Hey, hey, that's a $1000 thermometer. Don't, don't do that. Woody, you'll break it. (Woody gets the drawer open.) Oh, you broke it. Great.

WOODY: Bill me. (He pulls out a digital camera.) Check this out.

(He hands it to Nigel.)

NIGEL: Digital single lens reflex. 8 mega pixel digicam. Nice. (He takes out a memory card.) Hello. (He inserts the memory card into the laptop. Documents show up on the screen.) Dear Consol Artega. Confidential documents. Import-export. Agreements trade quoters. So Nicole is stealing Danny's father's documents?

WOODY: If it walks like a duck.

NIGEL: It's the first three rules of industrial espionage. Gather, transmit, destroy.

WOODY: Camera, fax, shredder. She's all over the crime scene, not Danny.

NIGEL: So if Mata Hari killed her husband, what is she really up to?

WOODY: How many others is she willing to kill?

[Scene: ME's Office. Garret, Nigel and Woody walk down the corridor.]

WOODY: We found confidential documents addressed to Artega. Dozens of audio cassettes.

GARRET: She's a translator.

NIGEL: Yeah, but she photo'd the documents with a micro digital camera, top of the line. And I decrypted this log of her computer. She sent files, confidential government documents out as file attachments. Multiple times. I mean, the shoe phone fits.

GARRET: Fellas, I love James Bond as much as the next guy but this is not the movies.

NIGEL: Yeah, well, today's espionage is not James Bond. Email viruses are stealing secrets from hard drives all the time. The information business is booming.

WOODY: Bottom line, that office was the murder scene and she was there.

GARRET: Then why take hostages and insist an autopsy?

NIGEL: Well, maybe she's buying time. Maybe she's trying to pick the Consulate clean before Artega moves off to his new gig.

WOODY: I am gonna go bring the negotiator up to speed.

GARRET: Wait, wait, wait. Listen. Jordan's still inside. If you give Morgan some half bit theories, he'll go in there with guns blazing. Let me finish the autopsy, figure out what killed Alberto. Maybe it'll tell us who. Nicole, Danny.

NIGEL: Or what's behind door number three. I'll just see what I can make out of all this.

WOODY: I'll hold up, but the longer we wait, the longer Jordan's at risk.

[Scene: Outside Dominican Consulate. Nicole puts a First Aid Kit on the table.]

NICOLE: How about this?

JORDAN: It's not a forensic kit but it'll do. You know, for a translator, you sure know your way around a gun.

NICOLE: Alberto used to take me to the shooting range. When Alberto first came here he could barely speak English. I was his tutor. He'd read Gabriel Garcia Marquez to me in Spanish and I'd help him translate. Most people thought he was croof, hard. But when he read to me... The sooner you start, the sooner he gets what he deserves.

(Jordan takes the kit and sits next to Danny on the stairs.)

DANNY: So you believe her?

JORDAN: She's got the gun. And if I don't find anything, you've got nothing to worry about.

DANNY: What are you looking for?

JORDAN: I'll tell you when I find it.

DANNY: You're not gonna find anything. (Whispers) There's a taser gun under the desk behind me. You can reach it. Hurry.

JORDAN: (to Nicole) Do you have any swabs?

NICOLE: No, only what's there.

(Jordan pulls Danny's shirt collar back and finds a large bruise.)

JORDAN: What's this?

DANNY: I got into a fight at a bar. A guy took offence to my buying his girlfriend a drink.

NICOLE: Did you find something?

JORDAN: Yeah. But I'm gonna need a real forensics kit to get some proper samples.

(Nicole goes to the phone.)

[Cut to outside. Lily and Diego follow Ben around.]

LILY: Why does she need a forensic kit?

BEN: She thinks she found some evidence on Danny. She wants to test it.

DIEGO: I won't allow it. She's trying to frame my son to save her own life.

LILY: Dr. Cavanaugh is not a coward.

DIEGO: Danny is not a killer.

LILY: Then let us prove that.

DIEGO: Fine. I believe my son.

(Lily's phone rings.)

LILY: Hello? Andy, you're finally calling me back at 3:00 in the morning? Think I wouldn't pick up and you could just leave a message? There are things to be done, there are decisions to be made. Andy, I don't want your excuses, I want your help. Fine, whatever, I'll take care of it. As usual. Mum didn't do you any favours, did she? Cuddling her little man your whole life.

(She hangs up.)

DIEGO: Seems you're having a bad night all around. That call. The letter you've been writing.

LILY: It's not a letter, it's a statement, to the judge. So the woman that killed my mother won't get off light.

DIEGO: Your mother? I'm sorry.

LILY: Thank you.

DIEGO: So like Nicole, you want vengeance.

[Scene: ME's Office. Garret and Bug are there. Woody walks in.]

WOODY: You find the smoking decoder ring yet?

BUG: No, no cause of death at all. And his MRI is clean. So the rufies didn't cause the stroke.

GARRET: Coronary artery's undamaged. He didn't die from myocardia infect.

(Nigel walks in with a forensic kit.)

NIGEL: Here. Everything Jordan needs.

GARRET: What are you gonna tell Morgan?

WOODY: I told you I'd wait.

GARRET: Look at that.

WOODY: What is it?

GARRET: Arched blood clot in the right atrium.

BUG: This carbon dioxide's off the charts. He was suffocated.

GARRET: We know Alberto was drugged. All someone would have to do is close off his airway. Fibres can be inhaled. (He puts a camera down Alberto's throat.) If we're lucky we might find one. Got something. Hang onto this.

NIGEL: Yeah.

(Garret pulls out the fibre with tweezers.)

GARRET: Looks like a suede fibre.

NIGEL: Calfskin leather is treated with collagen, becolor and combined with spandex and polyester for durability. Commercial suede has its own signature. We can trace this.

BUG: Hydroxyproline ACE would confirm collagen content. (He squirts the chemical into a small test tube and places the fibre into it. The chemical turns blue.) Well, it's definitely suede.

NIGEL: Wait a minute, wasn't our gun-toting hostage-taker wearing a suede jacket this morning? Yeah-yeah, it was like a caramel brown, four pocket safari number. What? What?

[Time lapse. Forensic Laboratory. They are looking at the surveillance tape of the morgue.]

NIGEL: See, you mock me but nice jacket.

GARRET: The only way to know it's our murder weapon is to test it with that chemical ACE.

BUG: Put it in the forensic kit. Get Jordan to sneak a test.

NIGEL: If it turns the same colour, Nicole's our killer.

WOODY: And then what? She starts shooting? Forget the test. We've gotta take out Nicole before she takes out Jordan.

[Scene: Outside Dominican Consulate. Woody is putting on a bullet proof vest.]

BEN: Snipers are in position.

LILY: She just released hostages. She was negotiating.

WOODY: Lily, it's out best option.

LILY: Shooting her down in cold blood? How is that a best option? What if they hit Jordan? Or Danny? Mr. Artega...

DIEGO: How good are your men?

BEN: They hit what they aim at.

DIEGO: I want this over.

BEN: Get the suspect in position by the far left window. My guys'll do the rest.

LILY: They can't see in.

WOODY: Lily, the rifles have thermo imaging scopes.

BEN: Nicole's the only one holding a gun. That'll be our top. Good luck.

(Woody grabs the forensic kit and heads for the door.)

[Cut to inside. The phone rings. Nicole answers it.]

BEN: We've got your forensic kit.

NICOLE: Tell them to leave it.

BEN: If Dr. Cavanaugh finds anything on Daniel Artega, Detective Hoyt will need to conserve the chain of evidence. Otherwise this'll all be for not, Nicole.

NICOLE: Sorry, not good enough.

JORDAN: Wait a minute, you met Detective Hoyt. He's one of the good guys.

NICOLE: No. No, cops.

JORDAN: Nicole, please. We all just want the truth. If you let Woody bring in that kit, this could all be over.

NICOLE: (on phone) No gun, no wire, no tricks.

(Nicole holds the gun towards the door. Woody walks in with the kit.)

WOODY: (to Jordan) How are you holding up?

JORDAN: Just another day at the office.

(Nicole checks for guns on Woody.)

WOODY: I'm clean.

NICOLE: Put the kit down. Open it.

(He does so.)

[Cut to outside. The snipers get into position.]

SNIPER: He's in.

[Scene: ME's Office. Forensic Laboratory. Nigel is there on the computer. Garret walks in.]

GARRET: Lily said that Woody's just gone inside. Anything on those micro cassettes?

NIGEL: Uh, most of them are Nicole's. I'm running them through a translation program. They're dictations of documents. But this one, had Alberto's prints on it and the voice on the tape is Danny.

GARRET: Nicole said Alberto had something on Danny.

NIGEL: Maybe Nicole was right all along.

GARRET: You have a translation yet?

NIGEL: I'm working on it.

GARRET: Work faster.

[Scene: Dominican Consulate. Woody and Nicole are standing by the window.]

NICOLE: (to Jordan) You check it out.

WOODY: Uh, wait.

NICOLE: What?

WOODY: I think you should hear what Dr. Macy found. Your husband was drugged. Someone suffocated him maybe using a jacket. We think that jacket might be somewhere in here.

NICOLE: Then let's find it.

[Cut to outside.]

SNIPER: Damn it. I got a hostage in my line.

BEN: Number two?

SNIPER #2: Negative. No good.

BEN: Hold tight. Give Hoyt a chance.

[Cut to inside. Jordan walks towards the window. Woody holds out his hand to stop her.]

NICOLE: Wait a minute, what are you doing?

WOODY: Just calm down, calm down.

NICOLE: I'm sick and tired of being told to calm down.

[Cut to outside.]

SNIPER: I've got a clear shot.

BEN: Take it.

[Cut to inside. Nicole sees the laser dot on her arm. A gunshot is heard. She dives onto the floor and so does Jordan.]

WOODY: Jordan!

[Scene: Dominican Consulate. Woody helps Jordan up. Nicole gets up.]

WOODY: Jordan.

JORDAN: I'm okay. (She sees the gunshot wound on Nicole's arm.) Oh, god, you're hit. Let me...

NICOLE: No! (She points the gun at Jordan.) Leave me alone.

(She goes to the phone.)

[Cut to outside. The phone rings.]

BEN: This is Morgan.

NICOLE: All you had to do was wait for the autopsy results. It's all I wanted out of this.

(She hangs up.)

DIEGO: She's still alive, she'll kill him. Take her out now, storm it.

LILY: No, you'll push her over the edge.

DIEGO: She is over the edge. Get my son out of there.

BEN: (to Sniper) Get your team in position. We're going in.

[Cut to inside. The phone rings. Nicole pulls it out of the wall.]

NICOLE: That's it. All bets are off.

WOODY: We know all about you, Nicole. We know this isn't about autopsy results.

JORDAN: What are you talking about?

WOODY: We found your office on Edgewood Street. We found the documents, we found the micro cassettes. Your fingerprints were everywhere. We know you murdered your husband there.

NICOLE: Murdered my...

DANNY: See, I told you I didn't...

NICOLE: Shut up.

WOODY: You drugged him and then you smothered him.

NICOLE: No.

WOODY: With your suede jacket.

NICOLE: That's what you think? That's what they all think out there. That I did this. I was gathering information from this Consulate but that has nothing... I didn't kill my husband. He did that.

JORDAN: I wanna believe you.

NICOLE: That makes two of us.

JORDAN: There's still time to change their minds. I've got the kit now. Let me find the truth.

[Time lapse. Jordan is testing Nicole's jacket. The liquid turns red.]

WOODY: The other sample turned blue.

NICOLE: What does that mean?

JORDAN: This wasn't the murder weapon.

(Nicole puts handcuffs on the table.)

NICOLE: Cuff him. Over there. (Jordan and Woody walk over to the stairs and Woody sits down.) Let me hear the click.

(Jordan handcuffs Woody to the railing.)

JORDAN: What now?

NICOLE: You and I are gonna go search Danny's room.

[Cut to outside. The snipers surround the building.]

[Cut to inside. Jordan and Nicole have left the room. Woody tries to get out of the handcuffs.]

DANNY: What are you doing?

WOODY: Trying to get out of these cuffs.

DANNY: Do you have a key?

WOODY: What kind of cop would I be if I didn't have one? Sit tight.

DANNY: Yeah, no problem. I'm not going anywhere.

[Cut to Danny's Room. Jordan is looking through the closets for the coat.]

[Cut to outside. The snipers are in place.]

BEN: We'll move on my word.

DIEGO: What's she doing? Where's my son?

[Cut to inside. Jordan looks under the bed. She finds a suede coat.]

NICOLE: Test it. He needs to pay for what he did.

JORDAN: He will. Not at your hands.

[Cut to outside. It's raining.]

BEN: Team two. Upper floors. You ready?

(Garret walks up to them.)

GARRET: Wait. You've got the wrong target.

BEN: We don't have time for this.

GARRET: Nicole's allegations against your son never held up because we couldn't find a motive.

DIEGO: Because there was none. Alberto was his friend.

GARRET: Okay, you need to hear this. (Garret plays the tape. It's Danny's voice.) Danny was selling drugs using your diplomatic power to smuggle them in. Alberto Guzman found out about it and made this recording. Do you need to hear more?

LILY: You can stop this. Tell Nicole she can have what she wants. Tell her you'll revoke Danny's immunity.

DIEGO: He's my son.

LILY: All the more reason. They storm the Consulate, she could kill him before they get to her.

[Cut to inside. Woody unlocks the handcuffs.]

DANNY: Hurry up.

(Woody uncuffs Danny.)

WOODY: Shut up. (Jordan and Nicole walk down the stairs. Woody and Danny sit back in their original spots.) Found our smoking gun?

JORDAN: He's our man.

(Danny grabs the gun off Nicole and pushes her and Jordan down the stairs.)

WOODY: Danny, Danny. Put the gun, put the gun down.

DANNY: You think just because you've got some evidence on me you can touch me? I got diplomatic immunity.

JORDAN: Way to take it like a man.

WOODY: What are you gonna do? Kill us all? Add three more notches to your bet?

DANNY: I'll claim self defence. You know, I'll claim self defence. It's a shame you two got caught in the crossfire.

JORDAN: They can tell jujectary. You won't get away with it.

DANNY: Already have.

NICOLE: I should have killed you when I had the chance.

DANNY: Right.

(He points the gun at Nicole.)

DIEGO'S VOICE: Nicole. Nicole Guzman. This is Diego Artega, Nicole. The police have stepped down. I have revoked all rights of diplomatic immunity from my son. Whatever he has done, he will answer for in the American court system. Please.

JORDAN: It's over, Danny.

DANNY: (to Nicole) Get up. Get up! You're my ticket out of here!

(Jordan grabs the taser gun from under the desk and shoots Danny with it. Danny falls to the floor. Woody walks over and takes the gun from him.)

WOODY: Looks like you're a man without a country.

[Scene: Outside Dominican Consulate. Jordan and Woody walk over to Nicole who is laying on a stretcher getting her bullet wound bandaged up. Near by, the police put Danny in a police car. Garret walks over to Lily.]

GARRET: It's 20 to 9:00.

LILY: I know.

GARRET: Sentencing's at 9:00. So if you took Boylston to Tremont this time of the morning you might be able to make it.

LILY: Yeah, probably.

GARRET: You're not gonna go, are you?

LILY: Couldn't write the statement, Garret. How do you put a whole life in a few words?

GARRET: You know how it affected you?

LILY: I look around. I just don't think more vengeance is what we need.

(They hug.)

END