Unforgettable (TV Series)

Past Tense (2013)

Dylan Walsh: Al Burns

Photos 

Quotes 

• Al Burns : How'd it go?

  Carrie Wells : Oh, walk in the park. I'm starting to feel bad for these defense attorneys.

  Al Burns : Not the rest of us?

• Al Burns : Bashir Sajadi, 42, cab driver. Took a bullet in the back. These two gentlemen are the ones who found him.

  Carrie Wells : [seeing Eliot]  What's he doing here?

  Al Burns : Commissioner's Office has eyes on this one.

  Eliot Delson : Carrie. Al.

  Carrie Wells : How'd you get all the way to Brooklyn, Eliot? And please tell me it wasn't in that cab.

  Eliot Delson : I came with the commissioner's Joint Task Force. Turns out our victim was one of their informants.

  Al Burns : Sajadi was cooperating in an investigation of a radical mosque.

  Carrie Wells : A terrorist investigation.

  Eliot Delson : Now that they have a high-profile homicide on their hands, they called in Major Crimes.

  Al Burns : Theory is that the two targets of the investigation somehow made Sajadi as a rat and took him out.

  Carrie Wells : So where are the targets now?

  Al Burns : JTF's trying to get eyes on them as we speak.

  Carrie Wells : Trying to get eyes on them?

  Eliot Delson : Easy, Sparky. This is one of over a dozen active terrorist investigations they're running. You can't expect them to have 24/7 surveillance on all of them.

  Carrie Wells : Yeah, well, tell that to Bashir Sajadi.

• Al Burns : Trunk was open, but nothing's missing. Wallet, cell phone; all here. No blood in the cab, either. Looks like they just pulled him out and executed him. Not a place I'd choose to whack someone. Anybody could have made him.

  Carrie Wells : Well, whatever they were planning... it was worth the risk.

• Jay Lee : Man on the left is Farhan Hazara. One on the right is Babur Rashad. Hazara is an Afghan national; Rashad is strictly homegrown, born in New Jersey.

  Al Burns : If the guy's a suspected terrorist, how'd he get a work visa?

  Jay Lee : It's all about who you know, right? Rashad worked with Coalition forces as a civilian interpreter. He's currently assigned to the UN.

  Al Burns : What exactly were they being investigated for?

  Cherie Rollins-Murray : I reached out to an FBI agent who's on the terrorism task force; he says both were suspects in a potential weapons purchase. The idea was to set up a buy, and then flip the two targets and move higher up the food chain.

  Al Burns : How does our cab driver fit in?

  Cherie Rollins-Murray : Rashad and Hazara both attend mosque in Brooklyn. The task force believes the mosque was a source of money for the weapons buy.

  Jay Lee : Our cab driver was flagged as a potential asset when he applied for his green card. Basically, he was told his application would be fast-tracked if he agreed to infiltrate the mosque.

  Cherie Rollins-Murray : The problem is, we got nothing to link either of them to this.

  Al Burns : How about a dead cabbie who just happened to be informing against them? There's your link.

  Cherie Rollins-Murray : It's motive, yes. We're gonna need more.

  Al Burns : So let's get more. The task force has eyes on both of these guys now; they're not going anywhere. In the meantime, we work the case through forensics and witnesses just like any other, right? Guy offers to help his new country, takes a bullet for it.

• Al Burns : According to Sajadi's ride log, his last fare was a pickup here on Broadway, between 73rd and 74th. No traffic cams. We'll look for other video.

  Carrie Wells : All right. Let's say it was the two terrorists; what are they doing up here? I mean, think about it, there's no obvious targets, landmarks, symbols of New York, nothing.

  Al Burns : Are you kidding? There's a Mango Dog on 71st. Mango Dog *is* New York.

  Carrie Wells : They should use that.

  Al Burns : Busy subway station at 72nd. You could a lot of damage with a couple of assault rifles.

• Carrie Wells : 555-1246, that's your cell phone number?

  Moshin Aziz : Yes. Why are you asking me this?

  Carrie Wells : You called Bashir the afternoon he was murdered.

  Moshin Aziz : Yes, I called him.

  Al Burns : The thing is, we tried to find the records for that phone, only the number wasn't traceable. There a reason for that?

  Moshin Aziz : Untraceable? No. No, I just don't want to pay for an expensive cell phone plan. I pay in cash.

  [handing his phone over] 

  Moshin Aziz : Look, here's my phone. I have nothing to hide.

  Carrie Wells : Why did you call him?

  Moshin Aziz : To see if he wanted to watch a football game with me.

  Al Burns : Football? There's no football in the summertime, Mr. Aziz.

  Moshin Aziz : I mean soccer. There was a game in Prospect Park. It's not a crime to like soccer, is it?

  Carrie Wells : [ribbing Al]  Well, that depends on who you're talking to.

  Al Burns : I got nothing against soccer; I just prefer football.

• Al Burns : The passenger's fluency in Pashto probably means the assailant or assailants come from either of these regions in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Which matches the ethnic background of our two terrorism suspects.

  Eliot Delson : Okay. Where's all this coming from, Burns?

  Al Burns : Sorry?

  Eliot Delson : It's just, I can't imagine the 117th in Queens required any kind of geopolitical expertise.

  Al Burns : Oh, you'd be surprised. You want to know the capital of Azerbaijan?

• Eliot Delson : Okay, the problem is, according to the task force's surveillance reports, we can't definitely place their terrorist suspects at our murder scene.

  Al Burns : But nothing says they weren't there. The task force lost track of them for three hours that afternoon.

  Eliot Delson : That's not enough.

  Al Burns : And you already have motive. Sajadi was helping to set these guys up.

  Eliot Delson : Al, I understand you want to go get these guys. I j... I don't think we're there.

  Al Burns : Okay, you don't think so or your task force buddies don't think so?

  Eliot Delson : I don't think I like what you're implying.

  Al Burns : Then I won't imply it; I'll just say it straight up. JTF wants to keep these guys on the street so they can make their weapons sting.

  Eliot Delson : Which makes sense. They've been building it for six months.

  Al Burns : And my guess is they don't give two cents about a dead cabbie. Even one who may have died trying to help them.

  Eliot Delson : Oh, please, it is not that simple.

  Al Burns : What is simple is I got a murder investigation, and I got two suspects I want to talk to.

  Eliot Delson : Fine. I'll see what I can do.

  Al Burns : Not good enough.

  Eliot Delson : Excuse me?

  Al Burns : When you hired me, the deal was I make the tactical calls and you back me up. I'm making this call. Now it's your turn.

• Jay Lee : Live feed incoming. They got them up in the Bronx.

  Carrie Wells : How did you get Eliot to agree to this?

  Al Burns : I believe you've experienced my powers of persuasion.

  Carrie Wells : Oh, so you plowed him with mai tais?

  Al Burns : What? That's not how I...

• Al Burns : A soldier?

  Jay Lee : Well, according to Carrie's theory, whoever killed Bashir Sajadi put him on his knees with his hands on his head, which is why, when he was shot...

  [playing a computer simulation] 

  Jay Lee : ...he couldn't reflexively brace his fall.

  Al Burns : Interesting theory, but at this point, it's just a cartoon.

  Jay Lee : Whoa, whoa, whoa. A cartoon? No, a cartoon is a series of drawings, my friend. This is a computer-generated, digital-sequenced animation. You really can't compare the two.

  Al Burns : Like comparing "Pinocchio" to, say, "X-Men".

  Jay Lee : Exactly. All right, can I proceed?

  Al Burns : Please.

• Jay Lee : So, I talked to an Army attaché and described the arrest protocol. He said the American military trains its personnel out in the field to place a captive on their knees, with their hands clasped on their head. And to have prisoners lift their shirts to see if they're wearing a suicide vest.

  Al Burns : All right, but anybody could've learned that protocol.

  Jay Lee : I thought so, too, so we checked the bullet. I got Ballistics to trace the firing pin markings on the back of the brass shell, and guess what. The pin most likely came from a Beretta M9.

  Al Burns : Standard issue for the U.S. Army.

• Eliot Delson : God, I don't know which is worse, having a terrorist on the loose or accusing one of our own. I don't know. Guys, this seems pretty thin.

  Carrie Wells : It's the best theory we've got right now.

  Eliot Delson : Yeah. If I remember, yesterday's best theory was that our two terrorism suspects were the shooters, who - we now know from questioning - both had alibis.

  Al Burns : Which we never would've known...

  Eliot Delson : When the feds went in after the arrests, they found a weapons stash and, like, a zillion connections to other al-Qaeda operatives, so... I kind of look like a genius.

  Al Burns : [sarcastic]  Oh, you're welcome.

• Eliot Delson : So you're saying our shooter's possible U.S. military?

  Carrie Wells : Yes.

  Eliot Delson : We run with this, there's gonna be pushback.

  Carrie Wells : Well, pushback is my middle name.

  Al Burns : Actually, it's not. Your midde name is...

  Carrie Wells : Okay, don't say it.

  Al Burns : Well, it's a lovely name.

  Carrie Wells : Don't say it.

  Al Burns : Her middle name...

  Carrie Wells : June 5, 1999.

  Al Burns : Oh, you wouldn't.

  Carrie Wells : I have two words for you: Murphy bed.

  Al Burns : Wow.

  Eliot Delson : Guys...

  Carrie Wells : Murphy bed. Oh, yeah.

  Eliot Delson : Guys. Guys, if this is some weird thing you're doing to make me so uncomfortable that I go along with you just to get you out of my office, it is working.

• Al Burns : An assault rifle and a semiautomatic pistol. Looks like this guy Curtis is getting ready to start his own war.

• Al Burns : What's this?

  Carrie Wells : Video surveillance from a drone the day of Curtis' suicide bomber. Jay got it from a cheerleader at the Pentagon.

  Al Burns : There are cheerleaders at the Pentagon?

  Jay Lee : It's a long story.

• Al Burns : You can't go in there.

  Carrie Wells : Curtis thinks he's got the guy who killed his friend. If he doesn't get an answer, he's gonna kill him. I can help him find that answer, Al. You know I can. Here.

  [handing over her gun and seeing his look] 

  Carrie Wells : He's got an M-16 and half a pound of C-4. If he wants to kill me, this isn't gonna stop him.

• Al Burns : June 5, 1999.

  Carrie Wells : Really?

  Al Burns : A Saturday night, as I recall.

  Carrie Wells : Just... you should just let this one go.

  Al Burns : That Murphy bed was actually pretty comfortable.

  Carrie Wells : Yeah. It was really comfortable until you flipped it up into the wall with us inside of it. Ouch.

  Al Burns : That's not what you said at the time.

  Carrie Wells : That is what I said. Are you actually challenging my memory?

  Al Burns : I'm challenging your memory.

  Carrie Wells : I said "ouch", and then...?

  Al Burns : Distinctly recall...

  Carrie Wells : I recall something, too.

  Al Burns : A kind of yell.