07x16 - Nyle Hatcher

[bunniefuu]

Hey, Hatcher.

Coroner's finished with the scatter at the tree line.

Probably got another seven or eight down there.

So they're released?

Yep. All yours.

The feds say we're clear. Start bringing the victims up.

Take a team to the tree line and start moving 'em to the morgue.

Here's the next one, Hatcher.

Hello, Mr. Geller.

Hey. Hello.

You must be Crystal.

One and only.

You look different than your profile picture.

You look the same.

Better.

Please. Why don't you come in.

I don't understand. Over the phone, you said...

I know what I said. If you're a cop...

Please, I didn't ask you here for sex.

Not like you think.

It's something different.

I'm leaving.

Angela, sit down.

How do you know my real name?

Who are you?

I'm someone who knows more about you than you might want to believe.

I know about your father.

I know about the medical debt, the collectors.

I said who are you?

Angela, there is something that I would like to tell you.

Something very special that might just change your life.

Would you like to hear about it?

_

Already looked there.

There, too.

You do know I'm a private investigator.

You were made.

Ilya obviously knew you were watching him.

Maybe that wouldn't have happened if you'd been honest about why you hired me.

I was honest.

I hired you to find Koslov so I could question him.

Does this look like a man who's running from questions?

He's running for his life.

Now, why would he do that?

They came here to the mosque, said that some of our members are communicating with Syrian jihadists.

The FBI came?

Counterterrorism division.

They wouldn't tell me what they know.

Maybe they'll tell you.

He knows about the Task Force.

Does he?

I wouldn't be much of a shepherd if I didn't know the hearts and minds of my flock.

Excuse me.

I'll see what I can do.

Is it done?

My job is to find people, not to keep them from being found.

Is it done? It is.

Wherever Koslov went, she's never gonna find him.

Good.

Imam Asmal is grateful for the help.

We both are.

Elizabeth knows I'm not Ilya.

I wonder what else she knows.

Perhaps you should ask her.

She's waiting in the park.

You have a case.

From my days in the Mobile Psych Unit.

I'd like to dig into it.

If it's important to you, then it's important to me.

You're sure you don't mind?

Of course not.

That's what's so nice about us finally being on the same side of things, same agenda.

No subterfuge.

What you want, I want.

And you're okay with my involving the team.

I am. In fact, I insist.

Idle hands and all that.

But I would like you to look into something for me.

Of course.

It's about Dembe's... imam.

Is there something wrong? I don't know yet.

That's what I need to find out.

But first, tell me about this cold case of yours.

They called him the Boneyard k*ller.

His first victim was found just outside Rehoboth Beach when local police exhumed a body for autopsy.

What they found was a second body buried in that same grave.

A young woman four feet below the surface, resting just above a freshly buried coffin... m*rder*d and hidden in the last place anyone would ever look for her.

Since then, three women have been discovered this way in graveyards in Virginia and West Virginia.

He was using the cemeteries as dumpsites.

Anything significant about the graves that were chosen?

They were fresh. Easy to dig. And the victims?

All young women with a history of sex work.

Okay, this is, uh, terrible, but sex workers are like 20 times more likely to be targeted by serial K*llers.

True, but none of his victims were sexually assaulted, no sign of defensive wounds, no pre- or postmortem mutilation.

But the way he k*lled them... we found dirt in their airways.

They were alive when he buried them.

Alive, yes.

And unconscious.

Pumped so full of sodium thiopental, they'd never wake up. I don't understand.

He drugged them so they'd die in their sleep?

Why would he do that? He didn't want them to suffer.

The case went cold until a week ago, when flash floods hit Montgomery and upended a few graves at Greenfare Cemetery, including one unidentified body that wasn't supposed to be there.

Initial forensics suggest she was sedated and buried alive just like the others.

Has the Bureau reached out to you?

No, and they're not going to.

They asked me to leave the case.

They said my profile wasn't... additive.

So this is your cold case. Yes.

What do you mean they thought your profile wasn't "additive"?

I don't think he wants to k*ll.

I think he's mimicking these profiles in order to hide some other agenda.

What, I don't know, but I think he finds satisfaction in something other than the act of the crime itself.

Whatever his motive, these bodies were found by chance, and we can't wait for another.

Talk to the M.E. See what he knows.

Let's hope this newest tragedy will help you find this guy.

Uh, sir, can I ask for another favor?

Reddington says that counterterrorism is sniffing around Dembe's imam.

He wants to know what they found.

What were they looking for?

Syrian jihadists.

Some of the congregants may be involved with Tahrir al-Sham.

But Dembe thinks that's impossible.

I'll make a few calls.

Ilya Koslov is out there somewhere, and I have no idea where.

Do you know what your mother wanted from him?

I don't. But she said her life depended on it.

You were right.

I looked at the original case files, and this does appear to be the work of the same k*ller.

I have ID'd her as one Mara Lynne James.

Now, the forensic evidence on your previous victims was limited, but this woman... the cold slowed the growth of bacteria, so I have a better picture of what happened.

Suffocation?

With sodium thiopental to sedate her beforehand.

Soil in the lungs.

Same lack of any defensive wounds.

Was there any evidence of sexual as*ault?

No, but she was sexually active.

She had a baby.

The degree of scarring around the incision suggests she gave birth no more than a month before she was k*lled.

Okay, now one more big push.

C'mon. You can do it. Come on. Push.

You did it.

Is everything okay?

Isn't he supposed to cry or some...

Yes, she is.

It's a girl.

Rest. Please.

We have work to do.

I tried to get off the streets.

We both did.

We had every resource to help her.

We apologize for coming at such a difficult time.

We're sorry for your loss.

We want you to know that we've deployed our Child Abduction Response team and alerted every law enforcement agency in the country.

What for?

To find Mara's child.

Mara didn't have a child.

According to the M.E., she gave birth a month before she passed.

A baby?

Did she have a man in her life?

A man?

You do know what she did for a living?

Did she talk about anyone in particular?

Yeah, she talked. She talked all the time.

None of it was ever true.

Nancy James, if you know something that could help that child...

A year ago...

10 months maybe, she said she met a guy, a big fish.

Did she tell you his name? No.

Just that he had a plan.

A way for her to get out.

CTD and MPD will be here in 20.

I can't hold them off any longer.

Did the Bureau do this?

Has my imam been arrested?

CTD says no, but based on their findings, maybe they should've.

The case file Agent Keen asked for.

Apparently, two members have been smuggling shipping containers in and out of Syria.

For Tahrir al-Sham? Unclear.

We don't know what's being shipped or by whom.

These members in the file. I've seen them at the services.

I don't see them as a thr*at. Then where are they?

As soon as you called about the abduction, we put out a BOLO.

But it appears as if they're long gone.

Along with Imam Asmal.

The Bureau didn't do him any favors by questioning him here in the mosque.

Made it appear as if he knew something and might talk.

Can you be sure he didn't know?

If he said he didn't know, he didn't know.

What was the port of origin?

Latakia, Syria. Why?

Ironically, smuggling on a large scale is a profitable yet surprisingly small club.

And ever since civil w*r broke out in Syria, the margins on everything from weapons to medical supplies to narcotics to food going in and out of the country have been particularly bodacious.

As such, there's plenty of room for all the players.

Turf has been designated. Territory agreed upon.

Who got Latakia?

A Greek fellow from Queens.

A-And Greece.

How's Mom? You doing okay?

Great.

Can't stop staring at her.

She is adorable. You're blessed.

I'm gonna run to the store, but there was a call while you two were asleep. I didn't want to wake you.

An attorney. Geoffrey Entz.

He said you would know what it was regarding.

Such a cute baby.

I'll see you soon.

I talked to him.

The lawyer? What did he say?

That he got the letter, but he didn't want to discuss it over the phone.

Did he ask to meet?

Yes, but I-I didn't think it would be this soon.

I'm not prepared. I told you, Angela.

I have it all worked out.

Like a script.

I'll coach you through everything.

Listen, I'm not in a good place to talk right now, so let me call you back.

I think I may have something.

As you may know, genetic material passes from mother to child during pregnancy, but what you may not know is it also happens in reverse.

Fetal cells cross the placenta and enter the mother's body, making up as much as 10% of the free-floating DNA in her bloodstream. How does that help us?

Well, with the M.E.'s help, I was able to run the fetal DNA from Mara James against databases from genetic testing services.

And with almost absolute certainty, the father of her child is...

Jonathan McClaire.

The self-help guru? The same.

Author of six books.

He runs workshops all around the world.

A married man living a public life has a child with a prost*tute?

Bring him in. Find out what he has to say.

Right, uh, about that. Here's the thing.

He didn't k*ll her.

Well, how do you know that?

Because he d*ed 11 months before Mara James was m*rder*d.

Kendra, what I am offering you is a chance to change your life.

A way out.

And forget about debt or your car payments.

This is far more than that.

If you can imagine, I am the last man that you ever have to meet in a hotel room.

Ever.

How much are we talking about?

Tell me again how this works.

That's it!

Mr. Korba, what a pleasure!

Your reputation precedes you.

Mine may not, so allow me to introduce myself.

I know who you are. You don't scare me.

My heavens.

Is that A5 olive wagyu?

I didn't know you did business in Japan.

Or did these just fall off a truck somewhere on their circuitous journey to Nobu Damascus?

I'm a legitimate businessman.

Yes, I'm sure you are.

But as it happens, I'm not necessarily interested in your beef.

I'm really here to discuss Jalal Abbas and his friends, and whatever they're bringing into the country from Syria.

I may have the face of an angel, but I'm not telling you anything.

On the contrary, I think you're going to tell me where they are and what they're smuggling.

You think you're the first guy to thr*aten me?

I'm not threatening you, Costas.

I'm threatening your livelihood.

Did you know these cows that gave up their lives to be here today grew up on the island of Shodoshima?

And let me tell you, those cows had it good.

Frolicking over sun-dappled hillsides, dining on olive peels from Japan's oldest plantation.

I'm told one cow can sell for $40,000, $50,000 wholesale.

Rounding down, I'm probably looking at 30 quarters.

Given the average rate of cooling, once I k*ll the AC, you've probably got, what, 45 minutes before your half a million dollars of umami-flavored goodness will be worth less than a shinbone.

I don't know what they had in those shipment containers.

I don't.

But you know where they went.

Yes. Yes, I do.

I didn't know the FBI investigated car accidents.

We're not here about your husband's death, Mrs. McClaire.

We'd like to talk about his relationship with Mara James.

What did she tell you?

She signed a nondisclosure agreement.

Mara James is dead.

She was m*rder*d.

Oh, my God.

That's awful.

You said she signed a contract.

My husband had an affair that resulted in a child.

Ms. James approached our attorneys.

Jonathan had only recently passed, and so I settled.

We didn't find a record of any settlement.

It was sealed.

My husband's career was based on...

...the appearance of a happy marriage.

Even now, I live off the book sales.

And sales would dry up if anyone knew he'd been unfaithful.

So you agreed to a secret settlement.

Well, there was a DNA test, so I know it was his child, but... we were so happy.

I still can't believe he stepped outside of our marriage.

What am I looking at?

The victims we found eight years ago.

Their bodies were so decomposed they didn't have C-section scars like Mara's, but take a look at this.

Pockmarks along the pelvic bone caused by ligaments tearing during childbirth.

Our victims were all mothers.

If they all had babies, did they all have secret settlements?

The point of secret settlements is that they're secret.

It could take months to track down the right courthouses and secure warrants. That's what I thought, but it's a good thing we know a criminal who can cut through the red tape.

I'll be obliged to take a sniff in your company.

Yes, I understand your feeling of obligation.

Ahh!

Mickey, how long have you been the file clerk for the courthouse?

Must be going on 25 years.

Shepherding a national database of pleadings and motions, suits and countersuits.

Everyone's dirty little secrets.

Pearl's angina has been acting up.

Set us back a little more than usual.

Huh.

You're worth it at twice the price.

And Pearl is priceless.

Brother, you sure know how to wet my whistle.

Yes, sir, you most certainly do.

Mmm!

Ahh!

So, what can I do you for?

Mr. Reddington pays for his wife's angina medication?

Medication, hospital visits.

I get the impression he pays for whatever the file clerk needs.

What have you found in the settlements?

I'm hoping it's enough to justify the, shall we say, unorthodox way in which we obtained them.

The victims we're aware of all had children out of wedlock with very wealthy men, and they all made paternity claims against the fathers, which were all settled.

And within weeks of the agreements, each of the women were m*rder*d.

And the children?

We haven't found a single one.

So, what have we found? Death certificates.

Turns out Jonathan McClaire wasn't the only father who d*ed before the mother of his child. They all did.

So five mothers who d*ed soon after giving birth, and five fathers who d*ed soon after conception.

The men d*ed in at least four states, all in crazy accidents... helicopter crash, a pileup on I-80.

Each event was investigated, but cleared.

No foul play. Nothing to connect them.

Nothing except for a name. Nyle Hatcher.

He signed one of their death certificates in Pennsylvania, which I thought was pretty odd, considering he's a mortician in Bethesda.

So I kept digging.

Turns out he ID'd another victim in Delaware and notified next of kin in West Virginia.

Doesn't make any sense.

A mortician from Bethesda dealing with bodies from places like Delaware and West Virginia.

According to his employment records, he used to operate a funeral home outside Rehoboth Beach.

Makes sense. He had access to the cemetery.

And no one would question why a mortician was hanging around.

Did you get an address? 452 Elm, the same as the mortuary he currently operates...

Sweet Rest Funeral Home.

Keen, Ressler, get going.

Aram, pull a warrant.

When you got the settlements from Reddington, did he say anything about Dembe's imam?

He got a lead on the smugglers, and I think he's going to pay them a visit.

I don't suppose it would do any good to remind him that's our job.

He knows.

He just doesn't care.

Mr. Hatcher's out today.

Said he won't be in until Monday.

Said it's a family matter.

Did he say where he was going? No.

He's not answering.

Do you have any other way of reaching him?

Not anymore.

He used to keep an apartment upstairs.

Now he only has his office.

We're gonna need his current home address.

And access to that office.

Um, okay, but it's private.

I'm not allowed in there.

Well, that's okay. I am.

This is a warrant.

What the hell?

This woman, he's following her.

He's got all kinds of data.

Keen, what is it?

I'm not sure I want to know.

Kendra. Hi.

I'm, um, Agent Mojtabai.

You're, uh... You're not under arrest.

Could've fooled me. Yeah. About that...

Let me... Let me get that for you.

If I'm not under arrest, why am I here?

To talk about a man named Nyle Hatcher.

In my line of work, I meet lots of men.

Right, um...

This one runs a funeral home.

And... he murders women.

Yeah, I know the guy.

Hatcher was in Baltimore yesterday.

The ferry-boat accident.

Sixteen people drowned.

DMORT was deployed to identify the victims.

The Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams.

When there's a mass-casualty event, morticians are brought in to help identify the bodies, assess cause of death.

The country is divided by region, and based on where the victims were found, Hatcher operates with Region III, which includes D.C., Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

Which is why a Bethesda mortician gets access to rich men at crime scenes up and down the East Coast.

Well, we know how Hatcher interacted with the dead men.

But we still have no idea what part he played... if any... in the paternity cases or the deaths of the mothers.

Actually, we do.

He didn't want to hook up.

I thought he did, but when I got there, he knew everything about me... family, money problems.

He said he could fix all that.

By getting you pregnant and suing the father for paternity.

He said no one would get hurt, that a rich dude would be a little less rich.

And the baby?

He told me about these safe-haven laws where you leave babies at fire stations and they get adopted.

Adopted.

Because the father would already be dead.

Run that by me again.

We found sperm in his office.

There was a thermos, and in it, uh, there was a sample.

Sperm from a dead man? The rich dead man.

The one Hatcher s-selected from his DMORT assignment.

Did the men use a-a donor bank?

Is that where he got the samples?

We don't think so.

Then what exactly do you think?

Hatcher inseminated the women using semen he extracted from the corpses.

Apparently, sperm is viable up to 36 hours postmortem.

He extracts the sperm, impregnates the mother, who then makes an embarrassing paternity claim that's backed up by DNA.

Now, rather than risk a scandal, the widow hushes it up with a secret settlement and no one's the wiser because dead men tell no tales.

Even about their seed.

What about Kendra Taylor?

Is she pregnant?

You never met Roger Ashby?

No, the hookup was supposed to be tomorrow.

Is that what Hatcher told you, it was gonna be a hookup?

He didn't exactly say. Why?

Because Roger Ashby d*ed yesterday in a ferry-boat accident.

Like I said, all I know is the hookup was gonna be tomorrow, and after that, I was supposed to make a claim for child support.

Once the settlement was finalized, Hatcher would take the money, and you'd end up dead.

That's the last of it.

The money for you and your meal ticket will be wired to the account by end of business today.

Her name is Lily.

We're done here.

Hey, um, guys, so, uh...

Kendra says that she and the target never met.

But that Hatcher told her she'd be impregnated tomorrow.

By a man who d*ed yesterday.

So what am I missing?

The birds and the bees?

Lemme tell you, there's a whole new wrinkle.

I accessed Hatcher's hard drive.

He had a list of the fathers and how much the widows agreed to pay.

We know all that from the secret settlements.

You know almost all of it.

There was another name. Abraham Geller.

Wealthy hedge-fund guy.

d*ed in a plane crash 10 months ago.

Which might mean someone just gave birth to his child... and may have signed a settlement offer.

Or her death warrant.

You two, find the lawyer who handles the Geller estate.

See what he knows.

Um, the birds and the bees?

What's the new wrinkle?

Did the transfer go through?

Just. You did well.

The hard part's over.

Your cut's over a hundred thousand dollars, Angela.

So drop off the child and meet me at Cedar Wind.

I promise you, when you get what's coming to you, your life will change forever.

Agents Ressler and Park, FBI.

Uh, what can I do for you?

Was a paternity claim made against Abraham Geller?

I don't discuss my clients' cases.

This isn't about your client. It's about a woman's life.

I'm sure you can appreciate this is privileged information.

Yes, but it's a life-threatening situation.

What you know could save Angela Hendrickson's life.

Has she been here? Yeah.

To chisel a decent family out of a small fortune.

So she signed a settlement agreement. You wired the money?

I did. Less than an hour ago.

Mm.

I thought you'd be alone.

I... couldn't leave her.

I know it wasn't what we agreed to.

Oh, no, don't give it another thought.

I'm glad she's here.

I think every child should have a loving home.

Just not yours.

I found her. Angela Hendrickson.

Now, she's not answering our calls, but she received a call outside a Rockville Fire station 30 minutes ago, and her cell just pinged a tower off county road 75.

What's the green area?

That is Cedar Wind Cemetery in Livingston.

Oh, cemetery. That's bad.

Ressler. That's, uh... That's really bad.

Ressler, we have a location.

Keen will meet you on-site.

Aww. Hey, baby.

We're almost finished. We'll be home soon.

Oh, my.

Angela, I am so sorry.

I never meant for you to see this.

Yeah? Jalal?

Who are you?

A friend from the mosque.

Aah!

Don't sh**t! Don't sh**t!

Okay, okay! Okay!

Go ahead.

Where is Imam Asmal?

I don't know. I don't.

I'm sorry. You do.

Answer the question.

Hello, little girl. We'll be home real soon.

Good heavens.

Hands! Put your hands in the air!

Got a baby here.

Where is she?!

Angela Hendrickson ...where?! I don't...

I don't know who that is.

Where is she, Nyle?

Which grave? I have no...

Answer me!

I have no earthly idea what you mean!

He doesn't want her to suffer, so she's sedated, but she may still be alive.

We need to fan out.

We're looking for a fresh grave.

There can't be many.

How do we get to the basement?

I don't have a basement.

Morgan.

Hey! I got something!

I feel something!

She's got a pulse.

Get on the radio! Call the paramedics!

What the hell?

_

_

Womens were brutalized, how many were they?

I try not to think about them.

It wasn't personal.

I needed hosts willing to break the law, and they did that just by showing up at my hotel room.

Desperate and broke...

And what... dispensable?

It isn't my fault that nobody cares when a prost*tute dies.

No, people care. Families care.

This was never about k*lling those women.

Agent Keen, I have spent my life surrounded by death... surrounded by the pain that comes with life's end, the futility of it all.

It's a lonely existence.

One that I thought money could change.

So I came up with a way to steal money from people that wouldn't care that it was missing... the dead.

I like to think of them as "donors."

But the donors required hosts... women who, sadly, needed to die to protect the plan... which is why I chose women who needed to be freed from their otherwise insufferable lives.

Finally, the plan requires a child.

What did you do with the children?

Well, I tell all the mothers that I plan to give the newborns away.

Some mother don't like that, and some, like Angela, even try to keep their babies.

That upset me at first, until I realized that the money those children provided me wasn't the solution.

The children were the solution.

What does that mean?

It means I couldn't leave them at the fire station like I thought.

Means I needed them.

Means I couldn't let them go, that they needed me.

Needed you?

Forging the adoption paperwork wasn't cheap, but money isn't a problem for me.

I just didn't want any of those kids to grow up alone...

...like me, without a family.

They needed sisters and brothers.

Where are the kids, Nyle?

They're home.

They have all they need.

A loving father.

Unbelievable financial resources.

What's gonna happen to those kids?

What are they gonna say when they find out what you did?

Oh, don't tell them what I did.

They don't need to know.

They gave me such a precious gift.

I mean, I was dead.

They brought me back to life.

All that matters are those kids' lives.

And with you in prison, they're gonna be a whole lot better.

Imam Asmal.

I'm telling you I don't know.

Who are they?

Refugees seeking asylum.

Imam Asmal knows nothing of this.

I thought the FBI took him because they thought he did.

And you have no ties to Tahrir al-Sham.

Me? I'm trying to save them from Tahrir al-Sham.

The United States has made it illegal for them to come here.

But the Prophet Muhammed teaches us not to obey the created if it means disobeying the Creator.

Harold? CTD traced a cellphone belonging to one of the extremists.

They traced it to a safe house in West Adams.

Units are en route.

They're not extremists. They're humanitarians.

Humanitarians took the imam?

How long do we have before the troops arrive?

You are at the safe house.

It's feeling less and less safe with every second.

Looks like your cold-case theory was right, Liz.

I confirmed it.

He set the money aside for the children.

A guy with a conscience who does what he did, that's way scarier than a straight psychopath.

We should tell the widows their husbands didn't cheat on them.

And the kids?

What's being done about the kids?

Child Services is reaching out to the families of both parents.

Hopefully someone will step up.

Hi.

I'm Margaret. Mm-hmm.

I'm your grandma.

Aren't you the sweetest?

You have your mother's eyes.

What about Angela?

Will she get to keep her child?

She's under house arrest, awaiting trial.

But mothers can keep their infants with them in prison for up to 18 months.

Ah. Please tell me you're hungry.

Tonight's special is wagyu beef.

So this is what it's all about. Asylum seekers.

Counterterrorism division is looking for extremists that don't exist when they should be looking for Dembe's imam.

His kidnapping is completely unrelated and, as yet, unsolved.

I checked with MPD on my way over.

They've got nothing.

No forensics. No witnesses.

Sakiya said the same.

I told her to double-check everything, but...

I'm afraid it's a diminishing return.

How's he holding up?

It's hard for him.

Especially since he knows I'm to blame.

You?

People close to me are often in harm's way.

Dembe's imam is not close to you.

No. But Dembe is.

I don't think whoever did this is interested in extremists or clerics and refugees.

I think they're interested in me.

At first, I thought you screwed up, that Koslov ran because he knew you were following him.

But then I realized Ilya wasn't scared of you.

You're the one who's scared.

Reddington got to you.

Ilya Koslov has information that could save my mother's life.

And you helped prevent me from finding it.

The least you can do is tell me why.

You have powerful enemies.

I had no idea he was one of them.

The Sikorsky Archive.

What's that?

Before Reddington warned me off, I had a mic trained on Ilya's apartment.

That archive, whatever it is, he's obsessed with it. If Koslov has information that could save a woman's life, my guess it's in that archive.

We have a lot to talk about.

Who are you?

How about you let me ask the questions?

What, you change your number?

That's cold.

I got nothing to say to you. Maybe not.

But I got something to say to you, and, trust me, you're gonna want to hear it.

That's Ray Field... until next week, when they break ground on the strip mall.

Digging up Ray Field?

Yeah, baby brother.

And all the secrets under it.

Yes.

I'll tell him.

They're at the safe house on Vermont.

Jalal asked me to thank you.

Happy ending for them.

For you, not so much.

Raymond.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I found something.

A fingerprint on the corner of the imam's desk.

Could you identify it?

I could. But, uh...

But what?

Belongs to a man who's been in prison for 15 years.

Arturo Ruel.

How can that be?

I don't know. Perhaps Raymond will.

Raymond.

Raymond!