21.00–22.00Continuing this evening is the third season of the hit drama series following a team of special agents who investigate Navy and Marine Corps-related crimes. In tonight’s instalment, a Pentagon cryptographer is found dead amid suspicions that she may have committed suicide after leaking information. But when it emerges she was murdered, the team must find out who killed her – and why.It has been discovered that a mole is leaking information out of the Pentagon, so the NCIS agents have been interviewing “code geeks” – in the words of Tony – in the hopes of identifying the traitor. One of these, Lieutenant Lara Hill, has failed to turn up to her NCIS appointment, so Tony and Ziva head to her house to find her – and are confronted with the sight of Lieutenant Hill lying dead on her sofa, seemingly killed by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The agents also find over $50,000 hidden in the house, which begs the question: was this apparent suicide the last desperate act of a guilt-ridden mole? McGee and Gibbs head over to the Pentagon’s cryptography department, where they pass on the bad news to Hill’s commander, Navy Captain Kevin Dorn. He explains that the mole-hunt has made his already “naturally paranoid” staff even more onedge than normal, but quickly puts the department on lockdown when he hears that the dead woman may have been the mole.Back at the lab, Ducky and Palmer are performing the autopsy on Hill’s body. Palmer is still leaning towards a verdict of suicide, but Ducky sternly tells him never to make assumptions like this, before leaving him in charge of completing the autopsy. Abby and Gibbs, meanwhile, are reconstructing the crime scene using the furniture and carpeting from Hill’s home, and have come to an interesting conclusion: someone else was in the room when Hill died, shown by a twin footprintshaped void in the microscopic blood spatter. Who was really holding the gun that killed Lara Hill? When the serial number on the murder weapon is traced, the team may have found themselves a suspect: Lieutenant Keira Napleton, another Pentagon cryptographer. She denies being the mole, insisting: “I am not a traitor to my country”, and has an alibi for the night of Lara Hill’s death.

However, questions are asked when it emerges that she was one of two people with access to a piece of sensitive information that has gone missing – the other was Lara Hill.

After a long search, Gibbs and the team find the missing information stored on a memory card hidden in Hill’s house. However, a partial print on the card suggests that it was planted there by her killer. The print is identified as belonging to Simon Roca, a protocol officer for the Venezuelan embassy.

Unfortunately, not only does Roca have diplomatic immunity meaning that he cannot be questioned without proof that he was directly involved in Hill’s death, but he is also booked on a private plane that is leaving the country in a matter of hours. Can they find the proof they need before Roca gets away with murder?

Executive Producers Mark Horowitz, John C Kelley Writers George Schenck, Frank Cardea Director Leslie Libman A Belisarius Production in association with Paramount Network Television

Tagged in