Tuesday, January 13, 1998

With Intent to Die - 50

Vice Admiral Bill Clancy, a post Vietnam mentor of Chegwidden's from the USS Farragut, was shot while hunting and it was ruled a suicide. C didn't believe it for a minute and had Harm and Mac investigate despite their obvious prejudice toward the suicide evidence. They talked to the hunting guide, Craig Allenby, and hunting partners Admiral Paul Whelan and Deputy Secretary of Defense Mitchell Schoenfield. Allenby said that Clancy had gone behind a tree to relieve himself when he heard a shot. The others said that Clancy was depressed and despondent over loosing funding for a pet project. Whelan was arrogant and rude about Clancy's weakness and being "in over his head" and told C that he though C was "made from the same mold." When H and M reported back that they thought it was suicide C still didn't believe them and took over the investigation himself. H seemed distracted with Annie so she used an analogy and asked what if someone told you that C had committed suicide. H couldn't even comprehend the concept so he realized what C was going through. Clancy's wife, Evelyn, told C that her husband didn't have much "joy to share" and she believed that it was suicide and she felt responsible.

The SECNAV enticed C with Clancy's DCNO job and told him to "give up the investigation." H offered to continue to help C and told him of Annie's analogy. C asked if he would investigate even at cost of his career and H said he would. Bud found that Clancy had been on Carbamazepam (anti-depressant) so Evelyn admitted to C that Clancy had been injured in the head on a ship several years previous and had begun having temporal lobe seizures- Carbamazepam is also an anti-convulsant. Then Whelan was also found stabbed to death. C kept having dreams of Clancy that made little sense. The dead Clancy awakened and told C that "there are bees on the bridge" and then "move on, he was innocent, it's too late, take your staff, run." When they were leaving Evelyn's house they saw Schoenfield drive up so they staked out the house through the night and talked. C admitted to H that after Vietnam, aboard ship, he had been one "fractious SOB" and Clancy had taken him to the fantail to "straighten me out." C won but realized if Clancy had been willing to get his nose broken he deserved listening to. H called Annie who had apparently been waiting anxiously for H to return. When he came out, Schoenfield admitted having an affair w/ Clancy's wife but called C and H "poor detectives."

H, M & B found that Allenby was father to Allen Broat a seaman on Clancy's ship, the USS Jim Bridger, with Whelan as the XO & C as JAG. Broat had been wrongfully imprisoned for setting a fire aboard ship then died in prison before he was exonerated by a subsequent similar fire aboard another ship caused by design flaws. Allenby was in prison at the time and became obsessed with "getting even" with his boys "killers." C went to Allenbys cabin and surprised him. He said he had been watching them all for years and had talked Clancy into letting him guide for him; but was cagy enough not to admit directly killing them both. They fought and Allenby pulled a gun. C had remembered to "bring his staff" so was rescued by M & H but was shot in the arm. NCIS told C that Allenby had claimed C started the fight and would be out in a year because there was "no forensic evidence."

Dalton was still pursuing M and challenged her for not answering his calls. He said he didn't want to loose her and asked if he should stop calling. M said NO (believe it or not!). C called his daughter Francesca but said there was nothing wrong. Annie was "blitzed" comparing Hs missed supper with her waiting for her husband to come home from a mission. H told her, "I'm a lawyer, what can happen, a paper cut?"

Tuesday, January 6, 1998

Someone to Watch Over Annie - 49

Mac was made acting head of section by Chegwidden which would change her career path to administration instead of legal investigation. She tried to refuse but C wouldn't accept any of her excuses and assigned her first project to be upgrading all the office's computers. Harm could tell she wasn't happy and felt C was "paying her back" for her resignation.

Annie Pendry, widow of Harm's best friend Jack Pendry, asked for help after her son Josh witnessed a murder while sneaking aboard an F14 during a school trip. She was now working in a bank in Maryland and Josh had been caught coming out of the hanger. When he said that he had seen some sailors fighting, probably killing another and loading him into a van, no one would believe him. When H was trying to downplay Josh's inquisitiveness - Annie shot back, "I don't need you to defend Josh against me!" H requested leave to investigate and was initially refused. But when he explained about Annie C granted the time off. Feeling that he was on a roll with C, H asked if he could speak to him about what's going on between him and M. C hollered, "are you out of your mind?" H interviewed the maintenance chief at the airbase, Harley Marks, and told him of what Josh had seen. The chief asked why Josh had gotten into the Tomcat and H responded, "for the same reason I would have… to get inside the dream." While talking on the porch of Annie's house, Josh spotted the same van coming down the street and barely escaped the gunfire from the drive-by shooting. Of course, now, everyone believed Josh and H took them to his apartment overnight and became amorous with Annie.

H found that Webb was involved investigating an arms theft ring with an inside contact, PO2 Elvgrin, who had gone missing. They had Josh identify the people he saw and Elvgrin was recognized along with Marks and a man named Gunter Harvak, an arms buyer for SadDAM. They found Elvgrin's car with his body in the trunk. H granted them all the investigation and reluctantly said that Annie and Josh could stay at JAG during the day. C was found wrestling with Josh in his office by Annie who bristled when Josh said that C knew 3 ways to kill someone with his bare hands. She said she hoped his offer to write a letter of recommendation to Annapolis for Josh would never happen. M, Harriet, Bud, and Annie had planned a party at Hs apartment to which C came. When Annie said she had honeymooned in Naples Italy, C let slip that he had also- to the daughter of the Mayor who went back to her mother because "she was lonely.".

Josh "escaped" from Ws distracted watch to go the restroom and was kidnapped by Harvak who took him aboard the ship Tanager which was bound for France. W refused to tell them any more information which would compromise his sting that had taken many months to set up. C "aggressively" reasoned with W who told him that he wasn't in his chain of command. C retorted, nose-to-nose, "No, but you ARE in my line of fire." W told them the ship information but refused to have anything more to do with it. C bullied his way into obtaining ships blueprints and boarding the ship. He and M stood back to back and fought off several bad guys together. H killed Harvak, who was about to stab Josh; then, W unexpectedly appeared and saved H from being bushwhacked. C was impressed with Ms skills and said they were too good to waste. He apologized and said "let's start over." M said there had been something she had always wanted to do and kissed him on cheek. H played his guitar & sang in the episode and Annie told him: "I'm not loosing my son to Navy too."