Synopsis:
After getting knocked out by Pauwels, Witse awakens to the sight of Pauwels' corpse lying next to him. As he knows he's being framed, Witse flees from the police and tries to find the real culprit on his own. However, he's chased by the entire police force, including Dams and van Deun, which makes things considerably more difficult. Meanwhile, Witse has sent the evidence he found of Pauwels' corruption to Dimi, who tries to convince van Deun to investigate the lead. He allows further investigation into the corruption, which leads to the real killer. They might, however, be too late already, as the killer is rapidly moving towards his end game.Plot:
Witse comes to in Pauwels' apartment to the sound of police sirens. Next to him, he sees the corpse of Pauwels lying on the floor. Since Witse knows that he'll be framed for Pauwels' murder, he flees the scene, but is spotted and chased by the officers that were called in. Witse manages to escape and goes by his house to clean his wounds. He manages to sneak in and retrieves his spare gun from the basement. He can't stay long, however, as a police car shows up at his front door. Witse manages to escape his house through the backdoor without being spotted and drives to Brussels. Meanwhile, the rest of the team are searching Witse's home, as he's considered the prime suspect in Pauwels' murder. Dimi tries to defend Witse in front of Keysers and Wytinckx, but is told to back down. Not much later, he finds the murder weapon under Witse's mattress.Back at the station, van Deun calls prosecutor Hauspie to get a warrant to track Witse's mobile. Hauspie tells him he'll arrange the warrant as he's walking to his car. What Hauspie doesn't know, is that Witse is monitoring him nearby. As Hauspie gets into his car, Witse climbs into the back seat and threathens Hauspie at gunpoint. The two drive off to a nearby harbour site, where Witse confronts Hauspie with the compromising photos he found of him and Noëlle. Witse then accuses Hauspie of murdering both Noëlle and Pauwels, as he suspects the two were blackmailing him. Hauspie, however, has an alibi for the time of the murder, as he was at the opera with his wife. Nevertheless, he does admit that Pauwels blackmailed him with the photo and that he released both Smeekens and Witse on Pauwels' command. Witse then places Hauspie in the boot of his car, but has to flee the harbour site when he suddenly hears sirens.
Witse flees to the parking lot of a nearby supermarket, where he's nearly spotted by Dams and van Deun. He then receives a text message from Dimi, telling him that the police are tracing his phone. Witse ditches his mobile phone in the trunk of a nearby car and flees the parking lot. He subsequently calls Dimi from a payphone and tells him about the compromising photograph of Hauspie, which he plans to send to Dimi by mail. He also asks Dimi to check Hauspie's alibi and tells him that he suspects Smeekens to be behind everything. The call is cut short, however, when a police car passes by. Later that night, Witse shows up at Annemie's home, as he has nowhere else to go. He breaks down and apologizes to Annemie for causing her worry. She, in turn, forgives him, treats his wounds and lends him her car and mobile phone. Meanwhile, Mariman shows up at the station and tells chief commissioner Keysers about Witse's visit the prior day.
The next day, Dimi receives the compromising photo in his mailbox at the station. Dimi wants to show it to van Deun, but he's bussy with the balistics report, which shows that the murder weapon only contained Witse's prints. Dams, on the other hand, found that Pauwels called an anonymous phonenumber on the night of the murder. As van Deun and Dimi argue over Witse's innocence, Dimi shows him the photo of Hauspie and tells him that Witse found it at Pauwels' apartment. However, van Deun isn't entirely convinced yet that Pauwels was corrupt. Therefore, Dimi proposes another search of Pauwels' apartment for traces of corruption, which van Deun allows. Meanwhile, Witse is monitoring the entrance of Smeekens' club, when he sees him and his cronies arrive with supplies. When Smeekens' cronies leave to park the car, Witse sees his chance and enters the club. He breaks Smeekens' nose and threathens him with a shotgun. Smeekens, in turn, tells Witse that Noëlle worked for him and that her story was part of a Frame-Up with the intention of obtaining compromising photos of Witse. Furthermore, it was Pauwels' idea to use Noëlle for this and no one should have gotten killed as part of the original plan. When Witse subsequently accuses Smeekens of the murders, he swears that he truly has nothing to do with them and that he was double crossed by Pauwels, which Witse believes.
In the meantime, Dimi and Dams are searching Pauwels' apartment for traces of his corruption. They find a collection of compromising photos of various high-placed individuals on Pauwels' laptop. As they search the rest of Pauwels' apartment, they find a matchbook containing the phonenumber Pauwels' called on the night of his murder. Dimi then gets a call from Witse, who tells him that Pauwels tried to frame him on behalf of an unknown party and that the unknown party betrayed and killed Pauwels. When Dimi mentions to Witse that the matchbook came from "De Kassei", Mariman's local pub, things start to fall in place. Mariman wanted to take revenge on Witse, because he was put in jail by him, as well as on Noëlle, who testified against him at his trial. He subsequently killed Pauwels, as he was the only person who knew his identity, and framed his murder on Witse as well. Witse, who can count on a warrant for Mariman's arrest, rushes over to "De Kassei".
At "De Kassei", Witse is told by the barkeep that Mariman payed his tab and left. She also tells Witse that she despises him for what he did to Mariman and that she hopes the same happens to him. Witse suddenly realizes that this was Marimans plan all along: to make Witse suffer the same way he suffered. Mariman wanted Witse to lose his job, his reputation and his good health. When Witse calls Dimi to share his realization, Dimi brings him a piece of disturbing news: Mariman's wife commited suicide several weeks after he was convicted and Mariman was the one to find her corpse. Fearing for Annemie's life, Witse immediately leaves for her house, but Mariman gets there first and convinces Annemie he's a friend of Witse. When Witse arrives, he find the apartment empty and no trace of Annemie. Witse calls Dimi and hears from him that Mariman's wife hung herself at home. Realizing that Mariman took Annemie to Witse's house to recreate this scene, Witse rushes over to his home. At his home, Witse finds Mariman and Annemie in the hallway. As Witse appears in the hallway, Mariman threathens both him and Annemie with a gun and tells Annemie to hang herself. Witse manages to keep Mariman talking long enough for his team to arrive and Mariman is subdued. The episode ends with Mariman getting arrested, while Witse and Annemie go to the hospital for a check up.
