The second episode of NCIS Sydney brings another task for Agent Mackey, where she has to take on a complicated homicide case on Australian soil. Jim Dempsey had been asked to work under Mackey and solve any cases involving a US connection. The AFP team was gelling nicely with NCIS, but the usual banter kept things charged, and the fact that NCIS couldn’t have their firearms on Australian soil made them the butt of the joke throughout the episode. The latest case was perhaps made more complex by the ‘snake’ situation, which Australia has no dearth of.
Spoilers Ahead
How Was The Body Discovered?
Jim had already started to wear the NCIS cap in order to soothe Mackey, who behaved in a stern manner all the time. Jim was smart enough to make the situation a little less explosive, but his partner Evie called him out on his ‘yielding’ behavior. Soon, a case came their way where Jim and Mackey had to work together to solve it. Staff Sergeant Lee Mitchell was working at the U.S. Shipment Base in Sydney, but something rather mysterious happened, and he ended up dead in a river. Two Australian men, just goofing about near the side of that river, saw his corpse that had washed up to the bank. Mackey and Jim took cognizance of the matter, and it turned out he was bitten by a snake, had a heart attack, and then perhaps fell into the river. But what was a compliance officer doing in the middle of nowhere? Forensic expert and assistant Blue found out that the snake he had been bitten by isn’t even generally found in Australia, except perhaps in a nursery. It was one of the most venomous snakes in the world and worth a lot of money on the black market. The selling was done illegally, of course. Considering all the facts, Evie and DeShawn approached Natureland Animal Clinic, who had reported two robbers having stolen the venomous snake, while Mackey and Jim paid a visit to the shipment factory where Mitchell worked.
Where Was Mitchell Murdered?
CCTV footage from Natureland Clinic showed two masked men stuffing their vans with several rare birds and that snake. They had to be connected to Mitchell somehow. Mackey and Jim interrogated the workers, and Frank, a man, came forward, saying what a great guy Mitchell was. Mackey remembered her time in America, where a compliance officer had been a headache for the workers as he was a diligent worker, and that’s what happens when a compliance worker is good at their job. Tommy was singing praises about Mitchell, which meant either that Mitchell was corrupt and not too hard on the workers or that Tommy was hiding something. Blue found something important that diverted the case. She found that Mitchell had been at a community hall, as suggested by his mobile’s GPS, moments before he was murdered. Evie and DeShawn visited the space and found the venomous snake in the crawlspace. The space had to have been used as a stash house by the two men seen in the CCTV footage. Roy had found pieces of wood buried under Mitchell’s fingernails, and further investigation revealed that the inside of the crawlspace’s entrance was all brutally scratched. The inference was obvious: the two men had put Mitchell in the crawlspace with the venomous snake, and he’d tried to get out but was bitten. He died in the crawlspace, and the two men dumped his body in the river.
Why Was Tommy Killed?
Evie had been given a cool gadget to solve cases or at least help with the investigation. The device could identify people just by recording and measuring their gait. Mitchell had to have some connection with the two men in the CCTV footage, and the factory was a good place to start. Evie took a scan of everyone’s gait, hoping they would compare it against the CCTV footage and get a match. Tommy’s gait matched perfectly, and he was approached for questioning. Before he could confess to any of his crimes, he was shot by a sniper. The other man involved in the murder of Mitchell was now the prime suspect, as he knew Tommy could be investigated, and hence he killed him.
Who Was The Mastermind Behind The Murder?
The other murderer was suspected to be another guy from the factory. Mackey and Jim searched Mitchell’s house and found a table where he had done all kinds of complex calculations. After all, he was a compliance officer, and the math could be a clue for something much more sinister. Perhaps he was in on the illegal smuggling of animals and had been killed because of the partners’ greed. When no one could figure out what Mitchell was calculating, Blue came to the rescue and figured it was someone’s weight. It was exactly equal to Tommy’s weight—135 kilograms. Mackey and Jim had been told that the shipments were calculated by weight so as to keep cognizance of a missing item, but there had been an error. Whenever Tommy brought his van onto the weighing machine, he never got out of it. So Mitchell had figured that Tommy and whoever he was working with were smuggling items weighing about 135 kilos. Mitchell had placed a GPS tracker on Tommy’s van, which is how he ended up at the community hall.
Evie and DeShawn ended up following the tracker, and it led straight to Natureland Clinic. Evie had a hunch, and she mapped Naturland Clinic’s owner Jenny’s gait with that of the CCTV footage, and it was a match. But before Mackey could be informed, they were caught. They saw that Frank and Jenny were a team, and they had made a deal to smuggle the rare animals abroad. Tommy was also in on it, but he never wanted Mitchell to be killed. Mackey and Jim figured that Quartermaster Rennie was allowing Tommy to stay on the van while the van was measured, so Tommy could smuggle out guns belonging to the US Marines. Quite a few of them were found missing, and Rennie had to be arrested. The guns were now with Frank, who didn’t hesitate to use them against Mackey and Jim when they arrived at Natureland, looking to save Evie and DeShawn. Frank had a fear of snakes, and when DeShawn managed to shoot down a glass box the snakes were in, Frank was left petrified, giving Mackey and Jim the opportunity to arrest him. NCIS and AFP had done it again. They busted the ring and caught all the other players in the game, saving the poor animals and birds from further abuse.
