Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

1 In the nation's largest city, the vicious and violent members of the underworld are hunted by the detectives of the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
These are their stories.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Kathy? Elliot.
I didn't get to say goodbye.
What do we know? There's a war going on, and your wife, she's just another casualty.
But he can't be anywhere near this.
This is our case.
You're on borrowed time.
You need to stand down, Captain.
I need to make sure this son of a bitch goes down for murder.
[TENSE MUSIC.]
[DOOR BUZZES.]
What's going on? Who is he? Detective Elliot Stabler.
He led the manhunt in Puglia.
We flew him down for the trial.
Well, fly his ass out of here before he blows my case.
- I'm waiting.
- Stand down, Detective.
Detective! You're all dead men.
Every one of you.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
What the hell, Elliot? I just wanted to see their reaction when I said Lenski's name.
This isn't your house anymore.
You can't just bust in and put your feet up on the table and do whatever you damn please.
The connection to Lenski is the first concrete evidence that we've got that I may have been targeted Which makes keeping you on this even more of a conflict for me.
This program is my baby, Elliot.
You know that, and a lot of people wanted to shut it down before I recruited you.
You've been my poster boy for why this system works.
But what happened at the courthouse this morning could've blown that all to hell.
I want answers.
Closure.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
I need that.
For my children.
[PLAYFUL SHOUTING.]
So my evidence folder.
It's everything, up to the point when Intel took over.
I just wanted to give it to you, you know, in case In case they kick me out? - Uh - Thanks.
I'm still on there.
For the moment.
We don't do a lot of sledding in Rome.
- Eli's all about soccer.
- Fútbol.
Yeah, that's what they call it in Europe.
Italians call it "calcio".
They think they invented the damn game.
[CHUCKLES DRYLY.]
Yeah, I, uh can't believe you lived in Rome.
Had this great apartment.
Terrace overlooking this 15th century palazzo.
You would've loved it.
You know, Elliot, I I can't.
I get it.
They found a burner cell at the Lenski kid's apartment.
Now it's in the bag.
Our tech guys couldn't crack it, but maybe you know someone.
Yeah.
Okay.
Liv.
Thank you.
Again.
Uh, look, when I RSVP'd for your award ceremony, they asked me to say a few words, and, um, you know me and public speaking.
- [WEAKLY.]
Yeah.
- Yeah, so I wrote this, uh And I was gonna give it to you that evening.
Probably a better way to say what I was just about to say, so um Just take it, read it.
Don't read it.
Throw it away.
Um You know, whatever you decide, I understand.
Mommy! Mommy! Did you see that one, Mom? Oh.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, honey, I did.
You're amazing! - Should I try it, or no? - Yeah, you should try.
Here, or where? Let's go to the other one.
Yeah.
[SOLEMN MUSIC.]
Grazie, Roberto.
Si.
.
I'm I'm doing the best I can.
Tell me how I can help you, my friend.
Anything.
You remember the Ondrak case? I'm trying to find the hacker who tracked the Romanian drug dealers through that video game app.
You want me to hack this phone? Calls and texts have been wiped.
We can't get anything off it.
Copy.
And the owner's dead, so this is my last best chance at getting him to tell me what he was all about.
- Copy.
- [PHONE CHIMES.]
You're an artist, huh? [KEYS CLACKING.]
"We Have Nothing but Thoughts and Memory Between Us".
Say what? The name of the piece is "We Have Nothing but Thoughts and Memory Between Us".
Oh.
The burner left a trail on the IMSI catchers.
These are all the GPS hits from the two days before your person was offed.
Starbucks, Chamber Street.
Uzbecki diner on 4th and A.
Starbucks, Court Street.
Starbucks, Flatbush.
Last stop's gotta be a bathroom break.
Subway.
- He could've peed there.
- Hmm.
He spent a couple of hours at Securico Storage on Brighton Street.
All right.
Well, Securico Storage.
What's that all about? Can you blow this up? The building is registered to Hart LLC, an International Business Corp.
First listed November 13, 2014.
There was a bust there last August.
For a rave.
The company was cited for quarantine violations.
We had this place under surveillance? Not specifically.
Our Domain Awareness System has CCTV cams throughout the borough.
Very unpopular with the civil liberties crowd.
We know Lenski was in that storage facility.
The GPS data's inadmissible.
Without chain of custody, I got that, Counselor.
But we need to know what he was doing in that place the day before the bombing.
It appears Hart LLC would be a shell corp.
For? It's owned by Manfredi Sinatra.
He's doing a bid upstate.
He got out about six months ago.
So what's it take for a guy like me to get a warrant these days? [TENSE MUSIC.]
Hey, yo, it's the police.
It's 5-0, it's 5-0.
- Hey, 5-0.
- NYPD! - Don't shoot! Don't shoot! - Relax.
Nobody's doing any shooting.
You! Hey! - Not a good idea.
- Come here.
Come here! - Man.
- I told you.
What, yo? Hi.
This your place? Nah.
Ain't no one in there.
It shut down after Raffi the Poet got blasted.
Raffi the Poet? This was his spot.
Some kind of hookah joint, but he's dead now.
Okay, well, me and my friends are gonna take a look around, so I need you and your friends to get out of here.
- Come on, yo.
- See ya.
[INDISTINCT ORDERS SHOUTED.]
Stack on the door.
You're up.
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING.]
I need the perimeter covered.
What language is this? Italian.
And we need to get those analyzed.
Hey.
Rafiq Aaron Wheatley.
Raffi the Poet.
That's a good guess.
Where have you been? Where were you going? Also, let's see if that kid's story checks out.
Make sure you really are dead.
Stabler.
- - It was there, secure in the lock box where you left it.
So the one we found is a duplicate.
Someone betrayed us.
Someone that works for me in my department.
I will find who did this, Elliot.
I give you my word.
I know you will, Roberto.
What about the certificates? Documents found in the safe Certificates of Conformity.
All of them are counterfeit, and they match exactly ones that we found during a raid in Puglia a few months back.
Those were being used to move substandard face masks and PPE across international borders.
PPEs, meds, ventilators.
From the get-go, organized crime has been making bank off this pandemic.
I need to meet with Sinatra.
Slow your roll, Elliot.
We don't have enough to pin anything on him yet.
I agree.
Just want to look him in the eye.
Pat Sharkey.
What about him? He's a mob lawyer, locked up at Green Haven.
He was on Sinatra's payroll, had his ear more than any of his own guys.
He was who we used to talk to when we wanted to get a message to the boss.
I'll see if I can get you and Stan to talk to him.
Okay, there's just one thing that doesn't quite jive with me.
Rafiq Wheatley Raffi the Poet was a smalltime Black drug dealer.
The Mafia's not as white as they used to be.
All the families use gang members at the street level.
No.
Not Sinatra.
He's a dyed-in-the-wool racist.
Notoriously doesn't like Blacks.
- [INDISTINCT SHOUTING.]
- A few details, Mr.
Sinatra? Just a few details.
You know what, I ask you guys, why are the authorities locking up an Italian gentleman like me? Right now, they should be out there focusing on locking up those mentally deficient BLM lowlifes and thugs.
That was six months ago, right after he got out of prison.
So what was Raffi doing up in that warehouse? Rafiq Wheatley have any living relatives? The colored Jones polynomial at the nth root of unity has this simple expression.
So next week, we'll use The Riemann sum for the Lobachevsky function to express the hyperbolic volume of the knot.
It's a very beautiful computation, guys.
I'm looking forward to it.
Professor Wheatley.
Hi.
I'm Detective Stabler.
I need to talk to you about your son, Rafiq.
No.
Don't you want to know who killed him? - Do you know? - Not yet.
But I'm your best shot at finding out.
I know why Rafiq was murdered.
I don't know what good it would do to learn who who did it.
I'm fairly certain it was some other woman's son, which makes two mothers already in pain.
Isn't that enough? Last week, my wife was murdered.
"I am reminded of a woman in grief.
Her son divided by land, by triggers and blood".
Really was a poet.
Yeah, a gifted poet.
He was the love of my life.
So I'm just trying to figure out what this was doing in the warehouse safe along with Rafiq's passport.
- Rome? - I was working there.
My wife and I were just in New York on a visit.
I'm sorry.
But I have no idea.
Do you know what he did? Who his business associates were? Rafiq's father was an addict.
And I made a conscious choice years ago not to live in that darkness again.
I'd like to get in touch with your ex-husband.
We were never married.
And he died in 1997 of a heroin overdose.
The only thing he ever gave my son was a genetic predisposition for substance abuse.
Fun, huh? Is there anything else? No.
- Thank you for your time.
- Of course.
Actually, there is one last question, if you don't mind.
Sure.
How long does it take? [SOLEMN MUSIC.]
[SIREN WAILING.]
[PHONE CHIMING.]
Stabler.
On my way.
I don't know, Detective.
You don't strike me as the kind of person that can afford my services.
I think it was meant to be an insult.
I think maybe it was.
Your former client, Manfredi Sinatra, have you been in touch with him lately? Yeah, I went out dancing with him last night.
[CHUCKLES DRYLY.]
Arrange a meeting for me with him, and maybe we can, uh, work something out with your unhappy marriage here.
You saying you can get me a transfer? Or at least a new toothbrush.
[CHUCKLES.]
Now, that's funny.
Assuming I was able to get a message to Mr.
Sinatra, what would I tell him? You tell him what happened in Puglia didn't stay in Puglia.
[DARK MUSIC.]
It was Elliot that introduced me to Kathy 37 years ago.
He was 14 years old.
She, 13.
He says to me, "Father, this is [SOLEMN MUSIC.]
Eli.
Eli.
I just miss my mom.
- Hey, I'm here.
- My mom I got you.
I promise, I got you.
Yeah.
Thanks for coming.
[PHONE CHIMES.]
Hold on a second.
Hold on a second.
Guys, start dinner without me.
I just gotta make a stop.
[STAMMERS.]
Eli, go with Maureen.
Go with Maureen.
Okay.
Here I am.
What am I doing here? You know why I'm dressed like this? I just buried my wife.
My condolences.
I'll ask again.
What am I doing here? You know who I am.
I don't know you from Adam.
I'm here because an old friend who's fallen on hard times asked for a favor.
How about this? You ever seen this? I found it in your warehouse safe.
Pfft, I own a lot of warehouses, Detective Stabler.
Yeah, this is the one that had a hookah joint in it.
Run by a drug dealer.
Raffi the Poet? I don't get involved with my tenants.
I'm a very busy man.
My friend mentioned something about Puglia.
Yeah, Puglia, it's where I picked up these two dirtbags trying to move fake N95 masks and ventilator parts - across international borders.
- [CHUCKLES.]
Now why would I get involved in something like that? I can think of a couple million reasons why.
I'm a building contractor, so what do I know? But it sounds to me like some very smalltime, worthless crapola.
Small enough to try and take me out? [DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Unfortunately, your bomber made a big mistake.
My bomber? You took my wife from me.
You got all wrong, son.
I don't make mistakes like that.
If I wanted you dead, you'd be the one in the ground right now.
[TENSE MUSIC.]
You should know how the new security tech works.
It's a biometric entry system.
Fingerprint activated.
Cool.
So that startup idea I was telling you about.
Me and Gavin know a pretty connected group of B-list hip-hop artists, outta Il Sounds like a moneymaker.
What pairs better with Pavé Ocre and Emmental? The La Jalousie, or the Gaja Gaia and Rey? No idea.
Have you talked to Dana lately? We're moving new product development to her division.
Richie, your sister is killing it at Contrapos.
Dad, that's Dana, all right? See, I want to start something of my own, like you did.
I also raised the startup capital on my own.
$250,000.
I was BOTH: 23 years old.
When I started the company.
- Dad - Ryan.
The La Jalousie, or the Gaja Gaia and Rey? With Pavé Ocre and Emmental? Uh-huh.
I would go with the Gaja.
Put it away.
You want an unoaked Chardonnay to offset the buttery cheeses.
You're amazing.
Dad, Pop-pop is here.
Go tell your mom.
[MATCH CRACKLES.]
No smoking in the house.
Pilar's rules.
Where I come from, the wife doesn't make the rules.
Mom would've begged to differ.
Let's go to the game room.
[CHUCKLES.]
Hey.
[SPEAKING SPANISH.]
That's enough.
Go outside.
Come on.
Go outside.
Go lay down.
Come on.
Go ahead.
Dogs, they don't listen.
You know, it wouldn't hurt you to come visit me, Richard.
You know, just for appearances.
I realize you think you're better than me.
You know next to nothing about what goes on inside my head.
Just tell me why you're here.
I wanna know what that lowlife street thug was doing throwing parties in my warehouse.
- "Lowlife"? - Yeah.
Are you referring to your grandson? Hey, hey.
You adopted him.
I didn't.
I mean, at least the other three have some of my blood in them.
I mean, that flat-nosed junkie's no grandson of mine.
Get out of my house I heard we had a unexpected visitor.
- Manfredi.
- Pilar.
To what do we owe the pleasure? Nice to see you.
Everything okay? Everything's sweet, my love.
No worries.
You look lovely as ever.
I I really like that painting of you in the living room.
The Mickalene Thomas.
[CHUCKLES.]
That's not me.
Ah.
So lovely to see you too, Manfredi.
Good to see you.
Rafiq was working for me at Contrapos.
Since you were in prison with a bunch of other lowlife thugs, I didn't think you'd object to me using the warehouse for a legitimate business enterprise.
- Legitimate, huh? - Yeah.
You like to throw it in my face how you're a legitimate businessman.
You don't think I know what's going on with you in Puglia? No idea what you're talking about.
Anybody who does business in Puglia, they come to me first to ask for permission.
[CHUCKLES.]
Why would I ask permission from someone who doesn't even deserve perception? You know what your problem is, Richard? You were born smart, and you think that's all there is to it.
But being smart doesn't make up for being a meatball.
You're not fat anymore, polpetto, but you're still a stupid, little meatball.
- Are we done? - No.
Someone killed a cop's wife a few days ago.
Evidence was found in my warehouse, in a safe belonging to some dumbass named Raffi the Poet.
Let yourself out.
[TENSE MUSIC.]
Narco thinks the Certificates of Conformity have something to do with the COVID vaccine.
Well, that makes sense.
How was your meet with Sinatra? Not giving anything away.
Well, here's the good news.
Upstairs is giving us the task force.
That's fantastic.
Who've I got? Hey, give me Stan Fairey, if you can spare him.
Elliot, you're not in charge of it.
Who is? Detective Stabler.
Nice to see you again.
[SIGHS.]
Look, I know I didn't make a great first impression on you.
And you thought jumping me on a street corner would be a good way to change my mind? - I'm not jumping - You're the spouse of a murder victim connected to this case.
Which means I'll work my ass for you.
I also checked your records and your psych eval.
Six shootings.
- All of them good! - Not every one.
You skipped town before they did the review on the last one.
Hold on a second.
You wanna know something? I'm getting pretty sick and tired of everybody judging who I was from 12 years ago.
I was a damn good cop then.
I'm a better cop now.
You talk to my people in Rome.
You talk to anybody I've ever worked with.
- I already did.
- And? And I observed you firsthand threatening witnesses that are essential to my case.
That won't happen again.
Oh, it will happen again.
Guys who came up when you did, you guys never think you really need to change your ways.
Really? You know you're profiling me right now? Detective Stabler, you don't know a damn thing about being profiled.
I checked your notes.
I saw you talked to Angela Wheatley.
That's right.
You know Professor Wheatley? Not personally.
Impressive woman, though.
I'ma need to know everything about that conversation.
Does that mean I'm on your task force now? Meet me at The Met tomorrow morning and we'll talk about it.
You know The Met? I hope you don't think I'm profiling you again.
Museum or opera? You know, I've lived here all my life.
I've been to this museum twice.
My first year in Italy, my wife and I Kathy went basically every week.
Vatican Museum, Borghese Gallery, The Uffizi in Florence.
Why do you think that is? We don't appreciate what we have.
So despite all my warts, what made you decide to take a chance on me? I figured, you wouldn't have invited me here if you hadn't.
Well, for one, I've been looking into Manfredi Sinatra's son for almost two years.
Sinatra has a son? He started one of the first online pharmacies back when Sinatra was making his way up as a capo.
Contrapos RX.
He tries to pass off as a respectable businessman, but the fact is, he's one of the world's biggest distributors of illegal narcotics.
I just haven't been able to prove it yet.
He also goes by a different name.
He endowed this exhibit.
- - It should be pretty easy.
To be continued.
Ah.
Bye.
You didn't tell me you were married.
And divorced.
Aren't you a detective? Isn't it your job to know these things? Which is why it's so interesting I didn't.
I mean, how do you bury something like that? Especially if you're the son of a mafia don.
Oh, I didn't know who Richard's dad was when I married him.
I mean, he loathes the man with every fiber of his being.
That why he changed his name? Uh, Wheatley's actually mine.
He did it because he knew how much it would piss off his father.
Marry a Black woman and take her last name.
And how about your kids? What happened to them? [SIGHS.]
Richie and Dana chose him.
And I got Rafiq.
End of story.
That's rough.
Any chance after the divorce your ex had a change of heart? Maybe wound up in business with his father? Well, we're not particularly chatty these days, but I can't imagine a world where he'd get into business [MOTORCYCLE ENGINE REVVING.]
- [GUNSHOTS ECHOING.]
- [SCREAMING.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[HORN HONKS.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Am I in the right place? Would you mind handing me that printout? With the label "Oklahoma City"? You were at 1PP till almost midnight debriefing on that drive-by with Angela Wheatley.
Yeah, well, just like old times.
Yeah, well, this is a new day.
In the future, I need you to be more careful and methodical.
That's the way I like to do things.
- You're the boss.
- Mm-hmm.
So you think the hit was on Angela Wheatley or you? It could've been either.
I'll tell you one thing, though.
She knows more than she's saying.
Hmm.
You're pretty deep into Richard Wheatley, aren't you? Yeah.
Richard Wheatley is why we're here.
And just to be clear, when we cast out our net, we might end up dragging in the people who hired your wife's killer.
I sincerely hope we do.
But our charge is to bust an international drug cartel that's skated under the radar for two decades, okay? Understood.
[SOMBER MUSIC.]
Who else is on the task force? So far, you're it.
I'm, uh, vetting a couple candidates later this afternoon.
Well, without overstepping, I can give you the name of the best hacker I've ever worked with.
Jet Slootmaekers.
- Spell it.
- [NOTIFICATION CHIMES.]
- [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
- Stabler.
[STAMMERS.]
Yeah, it's S-L-O-O-T Uh You're early.
Don't worry, Dad.
He's just the attendant you hired to run the Ferris wheel.
Come on.
Get in.
Don't be a sissy.
[GEARS CLANKING.]
So damn nostalgic.
Isn't it, Dad? We used to come here practically every weekend.
Such a different world.
A better world, if you ask me.
[CHUCKLES.]
Hmm, things are pretty sweet right now.
Who knew a worldwide pandemic could be so profitable? [CHUCKLES.]
What I was trying to tell you the other day, unfortunately, it didn't go very well.
What do you think about you and I getting into business together? I'm intrigued.
What are you proposing? - A partnership.
- Partners? You and me.
Father, son.
I know we had our differences in the past, but I know in my heart, we could overcome it.
Oh, it's hard to overcome the fact that you're planning on serving me up to a cop tonight.
That's not true.
Are you telling me you're not here for a meet with a cop? That cop is coming after you, Richard.
I'm meeting him to protect you.
I wanted to see if he had any vulnerabilities.
I'm your father.
Look in my eyes! I would never betray you.
A man doesn't betray his family.
Hmm.
I really want to believe that.
Look.
I know I made things hard for you.
I I mean, I could never understand that why someone would want to mix, you know, with other races.
I [RATTLING.]
Remember how the guy would do this for us every time we got to the top? He would stop the wheel.
- And we'd look down.
- Yeah.
Sun shining, my chubby, little legs swinging.
- [LAUGHS.]
- [LAUGHS WEAKLY.]
And we'd see all these tiny, little dots running around.
I couldn't believe they were human beings.
That's what I'm trying to say.
From up here, they all look the same.
You can't tell the difference from the Blacks and the whites.
Or anything else, for that matter.
That's what I've learned from this tragic, terrible time.
But now, you're suddenly woke.
"Woke"? You're not a racist anymore.
What I'm trying to tell you is, I regret the ugly things I said about your children my grandchildren.
Especially about your beautiful wife.
How could I say [FERRIS WHEEL WHINING.]
Love is love? Indeed.
Love is love.
The problem is, ya big meatball [BOTH LAUGH.]
That's the one thing I can't ever forgive you for.
[EERIE MUSIC.]
[PHONE CLICKS.]
I thought you said we were going to Babula for dinner tonight.
They're keeping it open for us.
And what about this bitch? I'll take that as a compliment.
Can you please get these foul beasts away from me? [CHUCKLES.]
They think you're foul.
Go get ready, baby.
I'll be right there.
[SPEAKS SPANISH.]
You all right, Ang? What do you think? I told you I could handle it.
You didn't need to send your goons.
They opened fire out in the open, on the campus of the school where I teach.
It's reckless, Richard.
You're still reckless.
It used to be kind of cute when you were a young buck.
Not so cute anymore.
You can't talk to me like that in my own house.
It used to be my house.
Actually, where is Florinda? I think I'm gonna have her make me something.
You know that's why I divorced you, right? [TENSE MUSIC.]
NYPD.
1PP.
How can I help you? [MUFFLED.]
I wanna report a body at Coney Island at the Wonder Wheel.
Elliot.
[SHAKILY.]
Hey.
What are you doing here? What just happened? What do you mean? You okay? I'm fine.
What's going on? Why are you here? I was just out at Hunt's Point, and I, uh I read your letter, and I thought we'd talk about it.
[PHONE CHIMING.]
I wanna talk.
I just, um I can't right now.
- Hey.
- Yeah? Are you working? I gotta go.
Stabler.
Yeah, I'll meet you out front in 20.
Okay.
[ELEVATOR DINGS.]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
[WOLF HOWLS.]