 The naturally mummified corps of USNavy Lieutenant Mark Schilz is found by a hunter in an aircraft escape pod. He was dispersing officer of a Navy ship, and dishonorably discharged -bad news for widow and orphaned daughter- years ago as presumed thief of millions of dollars, which however were never found. The NCSI team soon determines from forensics, records and interviews that Schilz was not the thief, but a stooge who was murdered with a golf club and then dumped in the pod, but why precisely and by whom? The suspects include his assistant Randy Wiles, who married his widow Mary but left the Navy, his clerk Erin Toner and the Tomcat pilot Martinez.