Night ShiftEpisode 322 (056) - May 13 1998
In a seedy part of town at night, a young punk named Johnny Macado is lured to steal a shiny red Cadillac parked in an ally. The Caddy belongs to crooked lawyer Charles Kaplan who is nearby with his muscle Victor Smallwood talking to a "client" Walter Miller on a deserted railway platform. Miller was subpoenaed to give evidence and now represents a threat to Kaplan's shady dealings so while Kaplan pretends to give him money to disappear, Smallwood strangles him from behind. Macado sees the whole thing and panics, jumpstarting the Caddy and screaming away, while Smallwood takes Miller out quickly with a couple of bullets and puts another couple in the Cadillac. Kaplan quickly takes Miller's wallet and ring to make it look like a simple mugging, and runs off in the opposite direction. From within his nest of old boxes, a homeless man watches with a beautify smile on his face. Meanwhile back at the police station, Jim is bringing in a junkie when a red Cadillac tears up the street and crashes into the front entrance of Cascade PD. Jim cuffs both suspects, the junkie and Macado, and escorts them up to Major Crimes, but when he arrives Brown informs him that office services have joined the city-wide social services strike and along with a car-sized hole in its lobby, Cascade PD is rapidly turning into bedlam. Macado won't talk so Simon takes over while he sends Jim out to an anonymous 911 homicide call near a railway station in a seedy part of town. Blair, who has been furiously working nearby on a college project, quickly gathers up all his papers and continues to work on them in the truck under the dome light as they drive out to the scene. When Jim complains that the truck has an alternator problem and Blair is draining the battery, Blair responds that he's on a heavy deadline. If he doesn't get the introductory chapter of his dissertation into his committee the next day he stands to lose all his grants. Jim reminds him that they agreed that Jim could read the paper before publication, but Blair assures him that it's not for publication, just peer review, and Jim's reading of an ongoing study would invalidate his research. But when Blair starts chuckling about some of the text and teasing Jim that he can't see it, Jim begins to feel very uncomfortable. At the homicide scene, Megan has reviewed the evidence and decides it is a mugging. Blair comments that the gunshot wounds are strange in the presence of strangulation marks and Jim theorizes that it was instead an interrupted hit. Megan is skeptical of Jim's conclusion and they leave her to it while Jim notices some red paint on a far off dumpster and submits a sample to forensics. But when they try to leave, the battery is flat. When Blair takes a look under the hood, he is surprised by the sudden appearance of a bum who introduces himself as Gabe and begins spouting biblical references about being "an angel" and coming to "bear witness". Jim thinks he's just another fruitcake but Blair believes he might have witnesses the murder and convinces Jim to take him back to the station. Suddenly the truck springs back to life and Gabe is bathed in the glow from the headlights. In the meantime, the PD has become overrun with Cascade's homeless with the Mayor decreeing that the police and fire department should take on the responsibility of housing the itinerants during the strike. Simon assembles Jim and Megan in his office to present their theories on the as yet unidentified homicide victim and Megan is taken aback to hear Jim and Blair apparently have a witness. Simon agrees with Jim's theory of a professional hit and assigns Jim as primary on the investigation, telling Megan that her last couple of cases were a little too "improvised" and she needs to become appraised of local homicide procedures. Undaunted, Megan proceeds down to the garage where Rafe and Brown are unloading a truck full of stolen property to ask them whether they noticed Jim bringing in a witness. Just then a live alligator leaps from the dark recesses of the back of the truck and disappears into the station's ventilator shaft. When Megan mentions that she used to go "Croc-spotting" in Australia, Simon puts her on the job. Kaplan sends Smallwood to look for Johnny Macado and Smallwood reports that he's in the police lock-up charged with Grand Theft, Auto. Smallwood tells Kaplan not to worry, he will take care of the hit. Macado's records proves he's a 15 year old juvenile and not a hardened criminal, DMV records also reveal the Caddy is registered to shady defense attorney Charles Kaplan, which as far as Simon and Jim are concerned, almost makes Macado a hero. Jim questions Macado to trade the names of his associates for probation, but Johnny is more worried about making money for his mother, who he says works at the hospital. Blair has also been pursuing his own line of investigation, and shows Simon that Gabe filled out his witness report in Aramaic, an ancient biblical language. When Simon asks Blair if he really believes Gabe is an angel Blair denies it, but does point out that supposed states of possession are common in many cultures and are a documented coping mechanism for modern street people. Simon sends Blair off with an authorization to dig through Missing Persons files to try and come up with an ID for Gabe. In the meantime, Jim notices Blair's dissertation intro lying unattended in a folder on his desk -- "The Sentinel: Genetics, Mythology and Ontology of Our Tribal Protectors" -- and he gives in to the temptation to swipe it and slip into the Men's room. To add to Simon's mounting troubles, Channel 2 News sends a Carrie Kingston to do a warm and fuzzy piece on Cascade's displaced homeless but she becomes immediately enraptured by the lost alligator story instead. When she promises to make sure Cascade's "fearless cops" are featured in the story, Simon decides the publicity can't hurt their reputation. When they send "Nitro" the bomb squad robot into the ventilation system to get pictures on the alligator, Channel 2 faithfully records it for the evening news, especially when the alligator decides to take a bite out of Nitro. When Macado makes his phone call and Kaplan subsequently shows up at the PD, Simon and Jim are shocked to find that Kaplan will be representing the boy who stole his car. Kaplan says the publicity is invaluable. But when admitted to question his client, Macado says he saw the murder, wants Kaplan to organize his release, and also wants $75,000 to keep quiet. Kaplan thereafter tells Simon that you can't put a kid in general lock-up, so Simon agrees that he can stay in Interrogation until morning - which is exactly what Kaplan wants to ensure an easy hit. When Jim questions Kaplan about the circumstances surrounding the theft of his Cadillac, he determines that Kaplan is lying. As the Channel 2 News airs that night, Megan, Rafe, Ricardo and the others gather in front of the TV to witness their fifteen minutes of fame, but to their dismay reporter Carrie Kingston has turned it into a "poor defenseless creature" story with footage only on the alligator. But in a seedy bar on the other side of town, Kaplan's hitman Victor Smallwood also witnesses the report, and knows exactly how he'll infiltrate Cascade PD. Blair accompanies Jim to the station garage to check on the red Caddy that has been brought in, but Jim barely speaks a word to him, concentrating on securing some paint samples for analysis against the paint chips from the dumpster at the homicide. When Jim accidentally bumps into Blair and tells him tersely to get out of the way, Blair finally asks what's wrong. Jim starts to reel off a string of grievances lifted straight from Blair's dissertation -- "territorially threatened to the point of paranoia", "fear of intimacy". Blair can't believe Jim read his dissertation when he asked him not to. Jim can't believe Blair spoke to his ex-wife Carolyn about things Jim feels are too personal. Jim is furious at what he sees as a betrayal of their friendship. Blair is adamant that he doesn't want to shade or manipulate his data, the result of three years of their lives, because Jim has started to feel threatened by it. Jim is adamant that Blair doesn't threaten him. Coming from two totally different sides of the dissertation issue, they part in anger. In another part of the garage, Victor Smallwood assaults the officer from Animal Control and donning his uniform, sneaks into the PD to look for Johnny. The fingerprint report spits up a positive ID on "Gabe" and he turns out to be a Harold Blake who once taught ancient history at Fordham University. Blair tries to remind Gabe of his former life, but Gabe only quotes passages from Exodus and says that Blake was "gathered up" and Gabe uses his body to "walk amongst men". He tells Blair "I'm here to work a miracle" and at that moment Blair looks like he needs one. The slug from the Caddy matches the bullets from the hit and Miller is identified, possibly tying Kaplan to a jury tampering investigation. They decide to look for a link between Miller and Kaplan and bring Kaplan in to share their new evidence with him. Still angered and frustrated, Jim has another attempt at questioning Johnny Macado to try and get him to roll over on Kaplan, but this time Jim threatens him with the unsavory realities of being the fresh meat in prison. During interrogation Kaplan holds firm, even offering to sell out Macado to the DA. At a loose end, Jim tries to apologize to Blair but still feels violated by Blair's conclusions in the dissertation. Blair tries to explain that he said Jim's choices were "fear-based" which is not the same as saying he's a coward. Blair says Jim can either bottle his fears up inside, or they can work with it, but Jim asks if they can after this. Blair asks Jim whether he wants to call it quits, and says that he's probably lost his objectivity anyway. He offers angrily to destroy his notes instead, and leaves. Suddenly Gabe appears and tells Jim prosaically, "what good does it do for a man to have ears that will hear a thousand miles, if he cannot listen to the whispers of his own heart." Gabe tells him to begin by listening to the hearts of others. Jim begins by listening to the heart of Johnny Macado and realizes he is lying. His mother doesn't work at the hospital, she's an AIDS patient and Johnny needs money to pay for her treatment. Jim appeals to Johnny to think about his mother and wins Johnny's trust enough for him to agree to testify against Kaplan. They then discover that Miller was jury foreman on the trial of a Victor Smallwood and Jim recognizes him as the Animal Control officer wandering round the building. But Smallwood is still planning his hit. As he sets a bomb in the basement and everyone is in confusion trying to escape the building Smallwood closes in on Macado. Johnny escapes down the hall and just as Smallwood raises his gun to fire and Blair grabs for him, Gabe moves calmly into the line of fire and takes the bullet. Smallwood grabs Blair for cover until he makes his escape to the roof with Jim in hot pursuit. During the struggle, the alligator chooses that moment to reappear and assists in Smallwood's "arrest". The alligator is captured safely, Carrie Kinston gets a great coda for her story, Kaplan gets to go in the back of the wagon with all the other crooks and Megan reveals that the injured Gabe just "disappeared" from the hospital. She also reports that records reveal Professor Harold Blake died last winter. Jim asks Blair if he can get his dissertation in on time and he admits he actually thinks it's good, as long as his identity can remain a secret. Credits:
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