This came for you, Mr. Grissom.
What's this? An anonymous package from county lockup? Yeah, well, hey, just a second. Wait a minute. Give an innocent bystander a chance to clear out, will you? What are you worried about? One minute, I'm eating tomato salad. The next... I'm gazpacho.
With any luck it'll be the next episode of G-String Divas.
My name is Frank Damon... and I'm awaiting trial for the murder of... my wife and son. That's an arson case-- a few months ago. The DA is asking for the death penalty.
I didn't kill my family... but my lawyer says the evidence is against me. I was a good father. I loved him. I would have given my life for Toby and Jeannie. They were my world. Mr. Grissom, you are my last hope. Please... help me. An innocent man. Jail's full of them. It only takes one. Captioning sponsored by PARAMOUNT PICTURES ♪ Who... are you? ♪ Who, who, who, who?
♪ Who... are you? ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ I really wanna know ♪ Who... are you? ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ Who... ♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪ ♪ Oh, you!
Am I disturbing you? Yeah. Good. Oh. Great. Sorry. Uh, I was supposed to pass out some supervisor evaluation forms. Where are they? Here they are. Mm. Get to rate the boss. I dig this. Give him a perfect ten or your ass is out of here. No, it's not. All right. Assignment: parking lot of the sportsbook at The Monaco. Caucasian male found dead in the front seat of his car. Two days before the Super Bowl. I'll take a piece of that. No. Uh, Nick and Catherine. What else you got? GRISSOM: You and Warrick are working with me. WILLOWS: The prisoner plea. Brass told me about the video. Yeah. If we take the case we have very little time to work it. The trial starts in three days. How did he find you? 1-800-GRISSOM...? WILLOWS: Wait a minute. Ecklie was the CSI on that arson. I see a bad moon rising. Can a CSI take over another CSI's case? Only if they're of equal rank and they're looking for trouble. No trouble. We're both colleagues searching for the truth. Okay, that's it. Look... onward. You have to start by looking at this. Hey, what happened to that, uh, meeting the other day? Meeting? Yeah, the department heads were voting on an extra vacation day or something? Yeah.
Hmm. "Organization"... minus one.
Yo, cousin. I'm going to save you some gas here. I did some checking on your pal Damon. I don't remember asking you to. Eyewitness saw him running from his burning house. Inside was his wife and kid. Now, wife's a big spender. Maxed out on the credit cards. They just bought the place and already he's late on the payments. Couple's always arguing about money. No surprise. Well, how does killing his family solve his money problems? Maybe he didn't mean to. Maybe he needed the insurance dough and things got out of hand. Too many maybes. I think we should go with the evidence. Well, I got something for you on that, too. Gasoline found in the master bedroom closet. Yeah. Hydrocarbon. I read Ecklie's brief. Did you skip the page that had Damon's credit card receipts? 'Cause he bought a gallon of gas a week before the fire. Do I seem like the kind of guy who skips stuff? Read my lips. There is no compelling evidence to suggest Damon was wrongfully charged. Well, then, it'll be a short interview, won't it? ( car starts )
STOKES: Whew! Two days before the Super Bowl and they're already killing each other. Hey, O'Riley, anyone put their meat hooks on this vehicle? How long have we worked together? Still got to ask. Sergeant. What's up? Oh... Gunshot wound to the head, point-blank range. Just a baby.
Tap city. Empty. WILLOWS: Killer was probably in the back seat waiting for him.
Kid never stood a chance.
Check this out. Hearing aid? Maybe he was deaf. Possibly.
Got some condensation on the window. You should get a shot of this.
( chuckles ) You hungry, Nick? Got a burger. Extra lettuce. A rule of thumb: $2,500 an inch. There's got to be... $15,000 there? "Giants... negative nine."
"Giants minus nine." It's a Super Bowl ticket. Straight bet-- $30,000. What does a kid doing walking around with a wad like that betting 30 grand on a football game? Who wrote the ticket? Teller 12. Yeah, I wrote the ticket. So what? So, it was found with the kid killed in your parking lot. Yeah. 30 dimes. It was 517's. 517? What's that? That's his number. He was a runner. A runner? Yeah, a gofer-- runs from book to book places bets with other people's money. Kid wasn't a day over 16. Isn't that illegal? Lady, he's not buying a pack of cigarettes. He's betting $30,000. Vig for the house is three grand. We look the other way. I'd be willing to bet there's a mother out there that wishes you hadn't. Hey, what do I care? I'm out of this job by the end of the week. Tired of looking at scumbags. Well, does 517 have a name? I only know them by their numbers. Well, you've been very helpful. Thank you.
Evening. Here you go. Thanks. MAN: Yo, Grissom! This guy's the reason I'm in here. Shoe print. Yo, man, next time I'll go barefoot! Even better. Footprints.
So, you're the Grissom they wrote about in the newspaper? I thought you'd be older. Why did you contact me, Mr. Damon? Arson specialist gave me your name. Well, six of them, actually. They all turned my case down. Will you help me? Fires are very complicated. It wasn't too complicated for the guy who put me in here.
You think if you stare at me long enough, you can tell if I'm innocent? I don't mean to stare... but, yes, I can learn some things. For instance the back of your hands are smooth. You read a lot. You have indentation marks on your nose from reading glasses. Your speech tells me that you're well-educated. Your occupation's not listed in the file but I think that you had a white-collar job. Paper-pusher for the phone company. I don't know yet whether you're left- or right-handed, though.
Now, you want to tell me what happened?
It was about midnight. Okay, baby. My wife, Jeannie-- she was hungry. She had a food craving. She sent me out to the store to get her some ice cream. My son, Toby, he was in the bed with us. He couldn't sleep. I was going to take him camping the next day.
Toby was eight. Why don't you tell me about the fire.
I got back from the store in under 20 minutes. I saw smoke coming out of the back of the house. I could hear the alarm. Jeannie! The house was filled with smoke. Jeannie! I checked the door for heat. I knew not to open it. Why? Flashover. Flashover? That's right. When the fire reaches about 932 degrees Fahrenheit you add oxygen and the smoke will burst into flame. I know how fire behaves, Mr. Grissom because I'm a volunteer fireman. I was hoping to make the department this spring. So I couldn't open the door. I ran outside to my car to call a rig. Well, if you're a volunteer fireman then you must be familiar with the use of accelerants. Yes. According to the report there were traces of gasoline found on the floor of your bedroom closet. That's right, and I don't know how it got there. We didn't keep anything like that in the house. Our homicide department has a credit card receipt for gasoline-- your receipt-- and there's no other suspects. I didn't burn down my house, Mr. Grissom. I bought the gasoline for the lawnmower and kept it in the garage. Now, if there was gasoline in our closet someone else put it there. Find them. I don't chase criminals, Mr. Damon. I just evaluate evidence. I need someone to believe me-- to figure this out. How did you burn your hand, Mr. Damon?
I don't remember. People with third-degree burns don't forget how they got them.
You're not going to help me? I'll take your case. I don't know whether I'll help you or not.
Nothing harder to investigate than arson. If the fire hasn't ruined your crime scene... SIDLE: The firemen have. Yeah. Funny place for a mattress. Overhaul. Post-blaze, firemen remove charred items to neutralize the hot spots. Prevents flare-ups.
( camera shutter clicking )
Looks like the kid was going camping. ( unlocking latches )
Waterproof matches. Bag those. What do you think? The kid might have started it?
We don't rule anything out. GRISSOM: Yeah.
The fire was contained inside this room... but the outside doorframe is severely charred. Well, fires take the path of least resistance. I mean, they feed off of oxygen and combustibles. We're going to take a piece of this back to the lab. It's a weird place for such a thorough burn especially since the door isn't scorched. Huh.
Look at this. Rubber?
Firemen wear rubber gloves.
According to Ecklie's report, which was filed in record time the point of origin for the fire was the closet. Of course, there's nothing left here.
More than you think. "V" pattern on the outside wall. Fires like to go up and out. That's why you can always count on seeing a pattern. This one's narrow. This was a very intense, rapidly moving fire. Well, that confirms Ecklie's findings about the use of an accelerant. The apex of the "V" usually indicates the point of origin. You want to call it? Damon doused the closet floor with gasoline, lit it and got the hell out of Dodge.
Shards of glass. Bag a sample. I'll put it through the lab. Can't. It's melted into the concrete.
So that's why the concrete's discolored? From the heat? It's called "spalling." It confirms the presence of an accelerant. Why would there be glass in the middle of the hot spot? Good question. BROWN: Who cares? The guy torched his wife and kid. Really? Where's the trailing? An arsonist would spread the gasoline around to maximize the burn area.
He still did the job. Listen, you guys. You're like Dodger fans. The ball game's only in the seventh inning you're already out of your seats.
Mrs. Hillman?
Is this your son?
( inhales )
( sobbing )
( whimpering )
Mrs. Hillman? Was your son hearing-impaired? Joey was wearing a hearing aid.
No. No, Joey's hearing was fine.
Why would he have that? ( softly ): I don't know.
Wait a minute. ( sighing ) Danny... swore to me he'd keep Joey out of that racket.
Danny? My older son. He's a runner, too. They wear remote earpieces. That's how they talk to the guy they worked for. We've had full-scale wars about him doing that-- carrying around that kind of money-- but does he stop? No. He gets Joey involved. Well, the police will want to talk to your son Danny. I haven't seen him in a week. And he hasn't returned my calls.
Do you think something's happened to him, too?
( Grissom sighs ) Grissom. I'll see you guys in the evidence lab. Night shift so slow you've got to pick over my cases? I'm just making sure that we've answered all the questions. Was it arson? Yes. No doubt about it. What accelerant was used? Let's see-- hydrocarbon residue, and a credit card receipt. Got to be gasoline. Yeah? Why was there no trailing? And why no evidence of an incendiary device anywhere in the bedroom? He's a volunteer fireman, Gil. He knows how to start a fire and hide the evidence. Don't you think, if this guy was remotely inocent his attorney would be involved in your little investigation? What are you so afraid of, Conrad? We're just a couple of science geeks. Why can't we work together? No, we are public servants. We investigate cases as efficiently as we can and then we move on. We're not a clearinghouse for defendants on the eve of trial who don't like what we've turned up. Yes, we are-- if it's our mistake that put them there. Fine. Spin your wheels. Hey, Eck?
What is the new policy on vacation days?
BROWN: Runners, huh? I know a little something about that world. Yeah, we thought you might. So? It breaks down like this. There's about a half a dozen runners in town-- they're mostly kids-- and they make about two "G's" a week. And they all work for the same guy. Well, that's more than a little something. I used to be a runner in college. It paid the bills. I had Route Five. Worked Boulder, Sunset, Vacation, and The Bay-- all of that. So, who was your boss then? The Voice. He didn't have a name? Runners go from bet to bet, they jot down their orders and they call them in to "The Voice." Guy runs the entire operation underground. I mean, he takes orders from back east and lays them off in Vegas. Pockets his vig, his commission. He's like a trader on the stock exchange. ( pager beeping ) I knew it. That's Grissom. I got to bail.
So... how do we find this, uh... "Voice"? You don't. He's not who you're looking for anyway. If you want to know who capped this kid then you should talk to another runner. I mean, they'll kill each other for a good route.
Uh... you might want to take three giant steps backward. BROWN: What's going on? Danger, Will Robinson. Three drops of gasoline, limited oxygen supply heat to ignition temperature of 932 degrees Fahrenheit. Same conditions in Damon's bedroom, night of the fire.
Smoke to fire. Flashover. So, that confirms the first part of Damon's story. Tell me you're here to confirm part two. As a matter of fact, here is your doorframe.
I had Collins analyze the burn depth. You see these rolling blisters? It's called alligatoring. See the way the wood's cracked? It looks like the skin of an alligator. Based on the depth of the allir... allo... Alligatoring. This wood burned very hot and very fast. Use of accelerant? Negative. But that piece was a doorframe outside of the bedroom-- which was a contained site. So, the only way this could've happened was... O2.
Damon opened the door.
He lied.
So what happens now? We chase the lie... till it leads to the truth.
That's my sister. She's the only one who stood by me in all this.
Anything else you want to tell me? What, about my sister? About the fire. I... told you everything. Your bedroom doorframe disagrees. If no one opened the door... the outside frame would not have burned. As a firefighter you know that.
May I see your hand, please? Palm up.
This is the same type of doorknob that you have on your bedroom door.
Mr. Damon... Please... I don't want anyone to know. Why? This places you outside of the fire. You're facing the death penalty. Why are you lying?
I'm a firefighter. And when my wife and my son needed me... I forgot everything. I didn't check for heat. Jeannie! I didn't look for smoke. All I could think about was getting them out. So I opened the door. I let a monster out. I could just about make them out through the flame. Jeannie! Jeannie! But I... I couldn't get to them!
What else? I had to close the door. The whole house would've gone up and the firemen would have never reached them.
I killed my family.
Carbon monoxide killed them long before the fire got to them. You know that. It doesn't matter what I know. My family died because I wasn't there to protect them.
You tried to save your family but that doesn't mean that you didn't start the fire. Are you lying about that, too? You tell me.
I will. TONY: Hey, you didn't hear this from me, all right? But, um... see the guy over there-- blue sweatshirt with the orange hood? 702. He's a runner. He used to hang with 517-- the kid who was killed. He's not talking to himself, is he? Talking to his boss on a wire. It's illegal to use two-way communication in the sportsbook. As long as you don't get caught. I got to get back to work.
Lakers are minus 11. Total is 189. Yeah. Bulls pick. Kings are down to nine from 11.
Done.
Lakers. $50,000. Give me as much at 11 as you can. You like the Lakers today? Here you go.
So do I. Yeah, Joey Hillman, 517. Yeah, he was a good kid. It's too bad about him getting shot. Yeah, I guess all the runners heard about it by now, huh? I guess. So, who got Joey's route? I don't know. The only thing I know is my own route. What was Joey's route, exactly? You guys are asking a lot questions here for not being cops, huh? Are you interested in helping us better understand Joey's crime scene, or... ...not? I only know what I see on the news.
Later.
( sighs )
You got me. Sorry. What are you doing here? Sifting through this debris. You mind? No. Give me a hand with this mattress.
Space heater.
Janko Electric, Model... ...220. Or it was. I figure it must have burned up in the bedroom and the firemen threw it out here with the rest of this overhaul. GRISSOM: This is heavy-duty, high voltage. This thing could heat our whole lab. Or overload a house.
Breaker box.
BROWN: Circuit overload. Master bedroom. You know what to do next? Yeah. ( drilling )
The condensation inside Joey's back seat window is nasal mucus. From a sneeze. Most likely. You're thinking... the shooter was in the back seat? Mm-hmm, with the sniffles. Mm-hmm. So what is the DNA like in mucus these days? It's pretty good. I'll start a DNA profile. Thanks. Catherine? Oh, hi, David. What's up? There's someone waiting for you in reception.
Detective?
She came in with her son. Thought you'd like a conversation before we sat down with him. Yeah, thanks. Did you call Nick? Yeah. Uh... come on. This is my son Danny. He heard about Joey and came home.
So I took some of my runner money and I hit the blackjack tables. I lost... so I doubled up. I ended up losing 30 grand in eight minutes. Well, I can see why you ran. I was scared. You know, it wasn't my money. NICK: Did you think to get back to your boss? Try to make amends?
You guys don't even know who your boss is, do you? STOKES: Did you tell Joey to get out of town-- that someone might try to harm him on behalf of your boss? I should have. But, no... DANNY: I only worried about my butt. They killed Joey to send a message to me.
Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't know.
WILLOWS: Danny... ...do you have any idea who shot your brother? One of the runners. Probably a guy... No! No. No names.
DANNY: One of them killed Joey. You know, they'll do anything for money. It's like a-a disease. And if you talk, they'll come after you. No. No, I'm not losing another child. Joey died because of me. Either they find his shooter, or I do. STOKES: Whoa, whoa! Hold on, now. Nobody's going after anybody. Okay, he doesn't have to give us a name, Ms. Hillman, all right?
Danny, you wear an earpiece, right? Just give us the frequency your runners operate on.
What the hell are you doing? Something you probably should have done. You're checking for faulty wiring? Waste of time, Gil. Fire started on the floor in the closet not in the wires in the wall. Yeah, that was your report. This is an electrical socket from the closet where a space heater was plugged in. A heater? There was no heater there. I found it in the living room, melted. And I suppose you happen to know which outlet it was plugged into? It was a cold night. The outlet in the closet was closest to her bed. That's a little far-fetched, don't you think? Look... if this wire burned from the inside out then the fire started in the wall not on the closet floor.
GRISSOM: Discoloration throughout the conductor. It burned from the inside out. The cause of this fire was an electrical overload in the wall. All right, you say wall, I say floor. We differ on points of origin. The jury's only going to hear one word: gasoline. Speaking of which... where's your accelerant analysis work? I personally swabbed the closet floor found traces of hydrocarbon chains confirming gasoline. Leave it alone, Gil. The DA agrees with me on this. Too many unanswered questions, Conrad. This case should not be going to trial yet. No, there's only one unanswered question. Why was there accelerant in the closet? Only one person knows. And that's why he's looking at the death penalty.
DAMON: Look, I told you... I don't know why it was there. You've got to do better than that. I can't! It doesn't prove you didn't start it. Until we can explain why there was gasoline in the bedroom closet the charges stand.
Then I guess I'm a dead man.
Hey, this is bull. I thought I was showing up to win a trip. Oh, one of you is going to win a trip, all right. Everybody clear this is voluntary? Yeah, sure. Then she just calls the cops to come and arrest us. So everyone is clear. Yeah. Yeah. Okay... here's what we're going to do. Open your nostrils. You know, look, I got a hundred bucks that says none of us are the shooter. Well, if you're that confident it's not one of your guys you must know who it is. Even if I did, you think I would tell you? STOKES: You're on Cool Breeze. A hundred bucks. Okay.
Head back.
( sighs )
Okay. You're all free to go. STOKES: This way, gents. You owe me a C-note, baby. Yeah. I don't have it on me. I'll have to bring it to you. Okay. I'll be holding my breath. Mm-hmm.
( growls )
SIDLE: Counting matches? Yeah. From the kid's room. I counted them yesterday. And I counted them this morning. 20. They're all there.
I really don't know what I'm doing anymore. I got a theory. You want to hear it? Sure. You know the melted shards of glass we found on the closet floor? They prove that the fire burned at over 1,000 degrees, right? But that temp, combined with the water used to douse the flames would have destroyed most of the accelerant. That's what happens. So, Ecklie's conclusion of gasoline wasn't based on any physical evidence. It was based on Damon's credit card receipts. I can't fault him for that. The burn pattern is consistent with a gasoline accelerant. But... hydrocarbons are found in all kinds of things: oils... kerosene, polyethylene- based compounds like laxatives-- even the foam used in push-up bras. Yeah. Under the right conditions, any hydrocarbon can be an accelerant. Thank you. Warrick, you're driving.
You ever worry about professional suicide? Not while I'm committing it, no.
Crime scene cleanup. Let's go.
You son of a bitch. You swept my crime scene. You sent cleanup! I didn't send anyone. It's been on the books for months. So you knew, and did nothing about it even with a man's life on the line? If you'd have checked the docket like everybody else you would've known what was happening. Coffee?
( glass breaking ) Guess you don't want cream with that.
Thanks, Ecklie.
Hi. Hi. Excuse me. My name's Gil Grissom. I know. You're helping Frank. Thank you. May I ask you a question? Sure. Anything to help Frank. You're his family. What was his relationship like with his wife and son? Frank was a wonderful father. Toby adored him. Uh, I'm sorry. I, um... I have to get back to work. But thank you.
I broke a coffee pot today. Lost my temper. Anything like that ever happen to you?
We found shards of melted glass on the floor of your closet. You want to tell me about it?
Okay, you can explain it in court. It's all part of the report now.
I didn't leave that night to buy ice cream.
I was leaving Jeannie. I warned you. Just a few things. You can have the damn state! I told you this was the last time. You going to leave us now? I'm leaving. You can be broke by yourself! You want to leave? Fine! Okay! Get out! What the hell are you doing? So I just got the hell out of there. Drove for about 20 minutes and then thought, how could I end ten years of our life like that? I mean, we had a son, so I turned around. Wait a minute. Go back. What did she throw at you? Be specific. Man, I just ducked and covered. I don't remember. Think. Uh... a-a phone. A-A bag. Uh, a vase maybe. What kind of a vase? A flower vase? I don't remember any flowers. Was it even a vase? Look, I don't know. I can't remember. Was it glass? Could it have been glass? Yes. It was glass. It was a glass lamp, because it had a wick. Get out! What the hell are you doing? Get out! I'm leaving! Just get out! Like a kerosene lamp? Yeah. She bought a lamp like that. I found kerosene on the floor of your closet.
The space heater overloaded the circuit causing a spark to ignite the kerosene. Can you prove it? In court? The evidence can.
Hey, how you doing? Hey. Who do you want? The runner... um, 702. I owe him a little cash. Uh, this isn't the only place he hangs out but if you want me to give it to him... Um... you have an envelope I could use? Yeah.
( sniffles ) Nice watch. Thanks. Thought you were getting out of this business. Yeah, uh... it's my last day. Got a new job. Later. Yeah. ( sneezes )
You're out of business, Joey.
( sneezes ) New job, huh? Joey's old route?
Did you get so scared when you shot him that you forgot the money? I want a lawyer. Well, you better get one that knows forensics... 'cause we got you. Dispatch, Victor 19. Code 462 on the 4-20 suspect Monaco.
Thought you might need a ride. Thanks. DAMON: I'm okay. Your sister.
Who is she?
Would you have helped me if I told you that my wife and I fought that night that I was leaving her for another woman?
For Rachel? I don't judge people. It's funny. When I got out, I thought I'd feel... free. And? I feel... Responsible?
Captioning sponsored by PARAMOUNT PICTURES eel...