(male announcer) In New York City's war on crime,
the worst criminal offenders are pursued
by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
Josh, you're sick.
Stay home.
Oh, it's just a virus.
And I'm on a deadline.
I want to stay home too.
Nice try.
I can't believe Dr. K. hasn't called you back
about the tests.
Of course he hasn't called me back,
he's a doctor.
I'll call him again as soon as I get to the office.
Okay.
You, don't go near that juice.
Daddy's germs.
I'll pour you another one.
Hey!
Thank you.
[coughing]
[coughs]
Sit down, Mr. Lemle.
It's not my fault.
He asked me to leave so he could change.
Get me the City Health Department.
And then 911.
Tell 'em we need a Hazmat team.
Detective Logan.
Where's Detective Logan?
Mike!
Mike.
Logan.
Josh Lemle-- long time.
Are you all right?
I want to report a murder.
My own.
Josh Lemle is a dead man walking.
He has Polonium-210 poisoning.
Radiation poisoning,
like Litvinenko, in London.
Litvinenko was the first known fatality.
Josh is gonna be the first known American one.
He might never be known.
Homeland Security wants us to keep this quiet.
I know, just passing on the request.
Your Hazmat team called the Feds.
They already knew.
Mr. Lemle bolted out of a toxicologist's office
this morning.
Counterterrorism was quietly scouring the city for him.
Okay, okay, so how do we save him?
We don't.
What do you mean we don't?
It's irreversible multi-system organ failure.
He's got a week, tops.
Yeah, well, you don't know Josh.
He's tougher than he looks, okay?
You don't know Polonium.
It's five million times more toxic than cyanide.
How contagious is he?
It doesn't go through the skin.
You'd have to inhale it or ingest it.
Wear gloves if you have cuts.
And don't drink his urine.
You'll be fine.
Also, wear these.
Film badges, exposure cards.
They don't actually register Polonium--
that's alpha radiation--
but they make people feel better.
(Dr. Anderson) You're not pregnant, are you?
So how was he exposed?
There's no needle marks, no skin breaks.
Best guess, something he ate or drank.
Last night?
He's farther along than that.
I'd say he was exposed sometime between
Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday night.
Excuse me.
Where'd this Polonium come from?
It has minor industrial uses,
but this quantity, you're in the black market.
Spook territory.
Okay, a Hazmat team is heading to Lemle's apartment
to check rad levels.
Full suits-- could go level A.
Okay, Murtaugh, we'll catch up.
Josh Lemle, he was a friend of yours.
He used to write for the Post,
City Hall beat.
He stuck up for me when I punched out
that councilman.
Then his sources dried up, the paper fired him.
Last I heard, he was working for a business magazine.
So he wasn't a crusading international journalist?
I made a mistake, he paid for it.
And then, uh,
I didn't exactly keep in touch.
I can't just hand over my contacts.
I'm still a journalist.
Josh, if you can't cooperate,
why come to me in the first place?
To team up.
I want you to find out who did this to me,
and I want to work my last story.
We'll start at my office.
All right, look, I respect that,
but the first step is your family.
You didn't tell them, did you?
I...told Miriam I had a virus.
Your wife and son are about to get dispossessed
from their house
by 20 guys in space suits.
Call them right now.
It's okay.
It's gonna be all right.
There's an ambulance waiting downstairs
for you and your boy.
Oh, my God, Kenny drank
from Josh's orange juice this morning.
I didn't drink it, Mom.
You'll go in for further testing,
but Dr. Foster said
if the two of you had been contaminated,
you'd be showing symptoms by now.
Do you keep a family calendar?
We need to track your husband's movements
from last Tuesday on.
It's on the fridge.
Daddy!
Come with us, Daddy.
I can't right now, buddy. I gotta help the detectives.
Anything?
Hazmat's inside.
I'll see you in a bit, okay?
A few tiny hot spots.
The couch, the bathroom.
But the fridge, pantry-- all clean.
He was poisoned elsewhere.
There's a family calendar on the fridge.
We'll need that.
Okay, Josh,
Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning...
where else were you?
Say good-bye to your chair.
Otherwise, the office is okay to enter.
What about the thumb drive?
Did you check the thumb drive?
Yes, Mr. Lemle.
Here you go.
No activity.
What is that thing?
It's a thumb drive.
It's like a floppy, sort of.
Why did you think that would be contaminated?
Well, because I use it in my research,
and they want to stop me.
No offense, Mr. Lemle,
but your articles are mostly CEO interviews
and company--
Puff pieces, I know.
But not this one.
My death sentence.
The Afghan pipeline story.
And you think this is why you were poisoned?
Billions go into this pipeline.
It barely makes any headway.
The money gets siphoned off.
Half the government's in cahoots
with the Russian mob.
Best story I've had in years.
It's big.
And, yes, they killed me for it.
You see--
(Logan) Josh.
More about the thumb drive.
Right, sorry.
I picked it up Tuesday from my Deep Throat, Yuri.
Yuri.
And do you think he poisoned you?
[coughs] No.
He's on my side.
Former KGB.
He sees every document on the pipeline
because he's a lawyer
at their U.N. mission.
I saw him Tuesday,
and I will bet...
someone...
contaminated our drop site.
You have a drop site?
We checked the whole area.
Sewers, benches, this coffee cup.
All clean,
just like the office and the home.
That coffee cup--
That's your drop site?
Yeah, if Yuri has something for me,
he puts a thumb drive in, I collect it.
Last pickup was Tuesday night, 7:00 P.M.
You two didn't go out after that?
No, Yuri can't be seen in public with me.
It's too dangerous.
I must have gone home.
No, not for dinner.
Your family calendar says you were working late.
Right.
I had dinner with an editor from another magazine.
Miriam gets nervous,
you know, if I'm thinking about changing jobs.
So I left it off.
Where'd you eat?
This guy has nothing to do with--
Josh, you might have been followed.
Where did you eat?
Pretty romantic place for a business dinner.
He was wooing me.
Who was she, Josh?
Her name's Rebecca.
But my wife--
Detectives!
All clear?
No, just the opposite.
The whole place is hot.
But the kitchen and a table in the back,
they're on fire.
I'll get back to you. Bye.
This is ground zero.
They poisoned him here.
We've got a bus coming to take the staff
to the medical command center,
and we're tracking diners through credit card receipts.
I see the FBI's engaged.
Do me a favor, tell 'em it's too hot to go in.
I already did that.
No one's going in the hot zone.
But what should we tell the press?
Tell them it's a drill,
like you should have done with that gas leak in January.
Is the dead man talking?
Looks like it.
Make sure.
I've got everyone from the Mayor to Homeland Security
wanting details.
Ross.
Wheeler. This is Alana Binder.
She served Mr. Lemle.
Actually, I just took the order.
And Willy, the busboy, he serves and clears.
Willy?
Which one is he?
It's Willy Septima,
and he hasn't been in since Thursday.
Get a squad car up to his apartment.
Thank you.
There's no way Rebecca was involved in this.
We met in Chechnya.
We've known each other 15 years.
She's a friend.
So why didn't you tell your wife
you were having dinner with her?
There's a...past.
That spilled over?
Maybe once a year, one of those.
Well, we need to be in contact with her.
I mean, if you were exposed, she was exposed.
I don't know, she disappears when she has a deadline.
Okay, Detectives,
it's too hot for me to take you in.
Let me walk you through the radiation trail.
We got activity from the dishwasher
and the trash.
But by far, the most contamination
is a pickup table in the kitchen--
Where the busboys get the food.
And this table in the back.
Where we sat.
I had blintzes.
With sour cream and applesauce.
So what did she have to eat?
She didn't eat.
She didn't eat?
So you're just telling us this now?
It's irrelevant.
You're right, someone must have followed me
from the U.N.
[coughs]
We need to talk to Rebecca and Yuri,
and we need to talk to them right now.
They found the busboy.
Sit tight.
The family said he had nausea and diarrhea.
First guess,
he perforated his gut from acute radiation poisoning.
So that's what, uh, Josh has to look forward to, huh?
He's on a slower, progressively downhill track.
We got something.
A medicine dropper.
A coffee cup stuffed with hundreds.
Very high emissions.
We've seen that cup before.
This is so unethical.
Yuri trusts me.
Unethical?
Josh, the guy killed a busboy
after paying him two grand to spike your sour cream.
You don't know him.
Yeah.
This is him.
NYPD-- hands in the air, Yuri!
Now! Put 'em up!
Bingo.
Of course the U.N. mission denies
that I am ex-KGB, what do you expect?
What do you do for them again?
Economic research.
Josh thinks you're a consulate lawyer.
No.
I told him I had access to contracts.
He misunderstood.
The funny thing is, our State Department
has no record of you working for the mission
in any capacity.
Tell me why any of this is your concern.
Because Josh Lemle has been poisoned with Polonium.
Polonium?
Is this joke?
No.
No, it's not a joke. He's dying.
And you're our prime suspect.
Me?
No.
I swear-- I swear!
Maybe someone followed you to the drop off,
then followed Josh?
No, impossible.
I was very cautious.
We use secret signals.
In the subway, five transfers before I surface.
Yeah, you told Josh
you were a spy, right?
So let me get this straight.
You were with the KGB,
but you didn't make our four undercover units
by the U.N.?
Okay, maybe not KGB.
In Russia,
everyone spies on someone, you know.
So you're not KGB,
and you're not at the U.N. mission?
No.
I live in Brighton Beach.
I used to be musician.
Now I'm piano tuner.
[groans]
Listen, I want someone to write this story.
If I approach reporters as an immigrant,
they walk away.
So I--so I embellish.
What about the info on the trans-Afghan pipeline?
I translated articles from Russian papers.
Blogs.
Everything I gave to him,
I took off the web.
[scoffs]
A Brighton Beach Walter Mitty.
What do we tell Josh?
All right, now wait a minute.
I mean, this might not be the whole story.
I bet Josh isn't the only one who fell for his spy games.
Someone might've followed Yuri to Josh and--
He played your friend-- I doubt
anyone else fell for his act.
Friend or not, someone still poisoned him.
Or do you think that's an act too?
I know you think you owe him,
but Josh hasn't been straight with us.
Especially about Rebecca.
If he keeps telling us
that she couldn't be behind this,
we should look real hard at her.
(Josh) There I am, stringer for everybody.
Gorbachev.
He made me tea.
Huh.
How was it?
Stick to Polonium.
[chuckles]
He made us tea.
Rebecca and me.
I couldn't keep lying to my wife and kid.
Look, I'm one of these people who,
has the person he marries,
whom he loves, you know.
And the person he could have married,
whom he never stops loving.
You show me that person on the street,
I spit on him.
I am him.
It--it's not Rebecca.
Look, Josh...
I understand, but you gotta help me here.
Where is she?
Just tell me-- where is she staying,
where does she work, anything.
We're 0 for 4.
Rebecca's editor says he hasn't seen her for days,
and he wants to know what this is about.
Make that 0 for 5.
She checked out of the University Club
this afternoon.
We missed her by three hours.
Maybe Josh tipped her off,
and she's on the run.
What else is on Josh's list?
Her parents' house in Great Neck.
Richie and a squad car are on the way.
Looks like someone else got there first.
The car was registered to Rebecca's father.
Lucky for him he had a remote-control starter.
So where's Rebecca?
We're not sure-- we can't get inside.
Is Rebecca inside?
Major Case?
Yeah, who are you?
Call Ross.
You have no jurisdiction here.
Well, we need to talk to Rebecca Slater.
Thank you for your help, Detective.
We'll take it from here.
Huh, don't give me that line.
What are you, a cr--
Jeez.
All of a sudden, the men in black
are crawling out of the woodwork.
They knew all along Josh was never the target.
It's Rebecca.
The Feds won't confirm or deny
Rebecca was at her parents' home
when the bomb went off.
They won't confirm or deny an investigation.
Oh, boy, that's some cooperation.
They're not looking for cooperation.
They've told us to back off.
And are we?
We're proceeding on a separate track.
We need to go back to your friend Josh.
And what?
Tell him that he's collateral damage?
You need to tell him the truth.
Yuri's a fake,
and Rebecca was the actual target.
That's not really a call I want to make.
We need to know if she told him about
any stories she's been working on.
Do you want me to talk to him?
No.
Guy had my back when everyone else
hung me out to dry.
I owe him.
I'm dying because someone made a mistake?
What about Yuri, my story?
I'm sorry, man.
That guy wasn't what he claimed to be.
How can you be sure Rebecca--
Someone tried to kill her tonight.
With a car bomb.
[breathing heavily]
Is she all right?
We don't know.
The Feds wouldn't let us talk to her.
Josh, what was her story about?
She'd never tell me.
We were lovers, but--
[coughing]
But if she had a big story,
I-I would have to find out about it on TV,
just like everyone else.
Could you email her?
Uh, bourbon, please.
Rebecca, I'm Detective Wheeler.
Josh is on his way.
Son of a bitch.
He set me up?
We pressured him.
Just a few questions.
Same thing I told the FBI.
Forget it.
Rebecca.
Oh...
He's gone, isn't he?
There's nothing you can do?
Maybe find his killer.
We need to know what you're working on--
who you saw the day Josh was poisoned.
I gotta get back to work.
Rebecca, you're in danger.
I've been doing this for 17 years.
I know how to take care of myself.
Rebecca.
Rebecca, at least tell us
who your story might be pissing off.
I cover the Middle East.
Relationships are complicated.
And your relationship ended Josh's life.
He deserves to know why.
Are you familiar with Sarah Myers?
The young teacher from Brooklyn,
who was shot by the Israeli army.
Now she's a martyr for the Palestinians.
Her face the perfect photogenic symbol
of Israeli brutality.
Well, no offense,
but I've--I've seen 100 stories about her.
Not this one.
If I get you something,
do not share it with the FBI.
Sarah Myers,
a young international Teachers For Peace volunteer,
had only been in the West Bank for a few weeks
when she decided to approach the Israeli tanks.
She was hoping to convince the Israeli army
to spare a Palestinian children's school
from their advancing bulldozers.
What Sarah didn't know
was the Israeli army had just received a tip
that a suicide bomber,
dressed as a blonde American woman,
was going to target them.
They ordered her to halt,
she continued on,
flashing them the peace sign.
Then...
So Rebecca's saying
the Israelis got a false tip.
That the Palestinians set Sarah Myers up,
and created their own martyr.
Could be true.
Could be Israeli spin.
Either way, kill Rebecca, kill the story.
If someone in the Middle East wanted her dead,
why wait till she got to New York?
They waited till she was dining with Josh,
they used Polonium.
They wanted to throw suspicion onto Josh and the Russians,
and away from Rebecca's report about the Middle East.
"They."
On American soil, who is this "they"?
Al Qaeda, Syria.
How do you even begin to count the groups
that wouldn't want this story to get out?
You don't. You go the other way.
I know someone who'd love to see this story
lead the evening news.
I wouldn't be surprised
if he was one of Rebecca's sources.
The Palestinians sent Sarah Myers
to her death?
Yes, I know all about it.
And no, it's not Israeli spin.
It's true.
And it's also the last story we want made public.
Back up.
You're the chair of the U.S./Israel Friendship PAC.
You're telling me you want the story kept quiet?
What's done is done.
I'm asking you as an old friend--
let this one go.
I can't do that, Artie.
It's a murder investigation.
Not yours.
Our understanding is the Feds asserted jurisdiction.
Where'd you hear that?
It's my job.
Now, I'm asking you as a Jew,
and as a friend of Israel,
don't let this story out.
I'll take it under advisement.
Now I have a favor to ask you.
You know this guy?
He was at the scene
of a car bombing last night.
What agency?
That, nobody knows.
His name is Nick Flanders.
And I believe he's on our side.
What side is that?
U.S.A., Danny.
U.S.A.
[laughs]
I need you both inside now.
Close the door, please.
Okay, stuff your notes in your desk--we move on.
It's our case.
Not anymore.
Now, wait a minute.
I'm not closing out this case.
Your friend Josh has been an obstacle
to his own murder investigation from the get.
He won't even tell us what Rebecca told him,
because he's protecting his story.
Let me go back to Rebecca.
Rebecca won't talk.
The Feds have blocked us out.
Even the Israeli government--
which you would have to think would be interested
in clearing their name--
Even they want us to drop this.
What, did your PAC guy tell you that?
Come again?
Is that what this is about-- Israel?
Logan-- Wait a minute.
Are you afraid that Israel's
gonna look worse than it already does?
We've been ordered off.
By who?
The Feds? Or Israel?
Let me ask you something.
On this one, are you a Jew first and a cop second?
Is that the story?
We're done here, Logan.
There are good guys, and there are bad guys here.
We're dealing with car bombs, terrorists.
Hamas, P.L.O.-- they blow people up
in cafés, busses, shopping malls.
Who are you kidding?
You think Sarah Myers is the first innocent
the Israelis have killed?
Captain. Logan.
Thank you for your help, Detectives.
We're off this case.
Miriam's coming in.
We're gonna decide if I should die
in a hospital, or at home.
Go home to your wife and kid.
We've been called off.
I'm not even sure
if the Feds want this solved or buried.
[weak chuckle]
Have you heard from Rebecca?
Deep background?
She's trying to tie my poisoning
into her story.
She's meeting someone at a safe house
in Brooklyn.
A friend of Sarah Myers
from the International Teachers.
Where is this safe house?
I'll get my chair, we'll go.
Josh, go home.
It's my turn to help you.
Captain was asking where you were.
Yeah?
Did you tell him?
No. I'm your partner.
But he wants us off the case.
Well, all I was doing was visiting a sick friend.
The Captain's feeling is if your friend
was as loyal to his wife as you are to him--
[scoffs]
Oh, is that what the Captain was thinking?
Jeez, if only life were so neat and simple.
Look, I have a ten-year gap
in my relationship with Josh.
And the only reason Josh was going to meet Rebecca
was so that he could break it off with her.
Okay.
I gotta get out of here.
Listen to this.
Josh has it Rebecca's doing an interview
with one of Sarah Myers' friends
in a safe house.
A friend of Sarah Myers?
Yeah. Here?
Yeah.
I'll get our coats.
CSU and the M.E. are on their way.
Poor Josh.
The last thing he needs to hear
is that he outlived Rebecca.
(Rodgers) She was defenestrated.
Not just out the window, but through it.
The ligature marks on her wrists and ankles
indicate two people did it.
We're barely done testing, they're kicking us out.
Detectives...
sorry you made a pointless trip.
You got here awfully fast.
And a little too late.
You should have called us the second you got the address.
I didn't realize we were coordinating.
We're not.
You're done here.
Isn't that right, Captain?
Actually, Mr. Flanders,
there's been a change of plan.
We're going to have to share jurisdiction
after all.
I need a word with you.
Excuse me.
Hey, Murtaugh, I need a favor.
We have a protocol, Captain.
Our agreement was for the Lemle case.
Till I get a call from my commissioner,
this is an NYPD crime scene.
(Flanders) Do I have to repeat myself, Captain Ross?
We are the authority here.
What are you doing?
This laptop's registering high alpha rays.
How long were you handling this? Excuse me?
(Murtaugh) Sir, you may have been contaminated.
Captain Ross, step aside.
We need to get you down to the medical command center
right away.
[quietly] Huh.
It's weird, he's not poppin' at all.
Well, better safe than sorry.
Where's my laptop?
(Wheeler) Rebecca's?
It tested clean too.
The hard drive was scrubbed.
Someone overwrote data on the swap partition.
Seven times.
Meaning what? I thought you'd know.
It's the new Department of Defense standard.
Get me the laptop, Detectives.
It's on the way, Nick.
Oh, uh, by the way, the Captain sends regard
from a mutual friend-- Artie.
Artie Ableson?
From the Israeli PAC.
Not a name I'm aware of.
That's strange, he's aware of yours.
He fed it to us.
That proves he's not my friend.
Yeah.
(Ross) Why was Nick Flanders at the crime scene?
(Artie) Best guess--
coming to broker a deal.
A deal?
Danny, breaking news,
reporters will write for fame or principle.
But they're sometimes willing to not write
for cold cash.
Obviously, someone who didn't believe
in negotiation
beat Nick to the meeting.
So Rebecca Slater had hard evidence
vindicating those Israeli soldiers?
She did.
Naive Sarah Myers,
in her glorious Palestinian solidarity red scarf,
was set up to be martyred.
Then why wouldn't you or your PAC
or the state of Israel
want the whole world to know that?
Because if people dig around,
they're also gonna learn that Sarah Myers was a mole
for Mossad.
Israeli secret service.
Israel inadvertently shot their own spy,
and turned her into a Palestinian martyr?
Mm.
Tell me that doesn't say "Middle East"
all over it.
Okay, so either the Palestinians
didn't want it revealed
that Sarah was an Israeli spy,
or the Israelis
didn't want their spy nest...
disclosed, is that it?
We're still not sure if Rebecca even knew
Sarah Myers was an Israeli spy.
She knew.
Right, Josh?
This isn't a big surprise
to you, is it?
Because you have Rebecca's notes.
At our last supper at Vechera,
we were talking shop, and she...
let it slip that she had a cyberstorage account.
So when you told me she was a target, I, uh...
[chuckles]
I guessed her password.
You guessed it?
We had a dog...
in Chechnya...
named Pucinella.
I got it on the first try.
Okay, if Josh could get into her cyber account,
her killers could too.
When did Josh and Rebecca make their date?
Over a month ago.
They kept a private email account.
So they thought.
Killers knew her whole schedule.
They could've struck at any time.
They purposely chose her dinner with Josh,
and Polonium,
to throw suspicion onto Russia
and off of the Middle East.
Then all they had to do was bribe the busboy.
How did they know which busboy to go to?
I mean, this was too well-planned
for them to leave that to chance.
You're right.
They would've planted someone else in the restaurant.
It's a small staff.
All long-term employees.
I can't picture any of them
collaborating with terrorists.
Well, there's another possibility.
Maybe somebody was duped.
Your busboy was paid by someone
to plant the Polonium.
Do you, uh, recognize
any of these people?
Maybe friends of Willy's?
I'm sorry, I don't.
That's a beautiful ring.
From your boyfriend?
Leo.
I've never had much luck with guys,
till now.
Huh.
Do you have any pictures of him?
No.
We only met three weeks ago.
When's the last time you saw him?
Last week.
He had some family problem to deal with.
Hmm.
You have his address?
Maybe his cell phone number?
Queens somewhere.
I have his cell phone memorized.
Oh, could you write it down?
Leo's a good guy.
And he has his green card.
He's a gentleman. Big tipper?
Oh, yeah.
He tipped me double.
Willy, my busboy, he tipped him triple.
Leo, he drives a limo,
so he understands the service industry.
He used to walk me to the ATM
to deposit my cash.
Which ATM?
The one around the corner from the restaurant.
(Flanders) How'd you get this photo?
(Wheeler) Leg work.
We checked cash machines near the restaurant,
cross-checked photos with the staff.
When he was there, he didn't eat.
Okay, this is a good lead.
Thank you.
Oh, hey, Nick, uh,
we didn't have to call you,
so one hand washes the other here.
You know what I mean?
This is an espionage matter
involving information sensitive to the U.S.
Sensitive?
We have a U.S. citizen sitting in the basement,
about to go into total organ failure.
His blood's on your hands.
So screw the political fallout,
I want to know his name.
Okay.
The name we have is Leo Brezner.
Sometimes he uses Andreas Mirko.
An international terrorist, sometime hit man.
Travels with a Maltese passport.
Thanks.
Leo's cell phone, last used Friday
at Newark airport.
We checked every limo on the concourse,
and then someone remembers this town car's been parked
for an awful long time.
40 bucks a day.
Found him shivering in his trunk.
He's barely alive.
Doesn't look like your guy.
It's an old picture.
I was instructed not to care
about the woman reporter's companion.
She was the contract.
So when she didn't eat...
I tracked her down-- fulfilled it.
How did you know the waitress?
I told her she had pretty eyes.
Bought her a fake emerald.
She introduced me to the busboy.
Who you bought with cash.
How'd you get infected?
They must have poisoned me
when they gave me the Polonium.
Who's "they"?
Does it matter?
They killed you too.
Why would you protect them now?
There are two businessmen in Germany.
Said they were Russians.
Though these days, who knows?
Could be Hamas...
to stop the story.
Or Syria or Israel.
For its own reasons.
[breathing with difficulty]
Rebecca would have figured this out.
I'm not in her league.
She thought you were.
Oh, right.
Hey, Josh, it's no accident that Rebecca mentioned
her cyberstorage account to you.
If anything was gonna happen to her,
she wanted you to finish her story.
Logan...
Yeah?
Thank you.