- While investigating a possible arson case, Horatio discovers that Yelina is back in Miami working as a private investigator. Meanwhile, Wolfe's prior relationship with one of the suspects gets him in hot water with his superiors.
- A man dies in a fire following an explosion in the luxury home. His fiancée Claire Gibbs can only save her own life by jumping into the pool. She suspects her ex Anthony Bryant as arsonist. Trailing him, Horatio finds Yelina Salas is back in Miami, now as P.I. The late Brett Morrison has taken a bite of flesh out of Michael Lipton, who only wants to talk to Ryan Wolfe because he owes Lipton a fat poker debt; he had a sister-motive but makes bail, so Horatio has Yelina tail him, who videotapes him getting money from Wolfe. A lighter in the sister's home points to Brett's business partner Jeff Zader...—KGF Vissers
- Burned
The sun is rising over a serene Miami when a woman suddenly wakes and shakes her fiancé awake, fear in her eyes. He rises to check on the noises outside their bedroom and upon opening the door is knocked backwards by a wall of flames. In a state of terror the young woman tries to drag him to safety but can't carry him, and is forced to leap from the bedroom window to the pool below.
By the time the CSIs arrive, the fire is out and the body count has been totaled-one victim, Brett Morrison (Rib Hillis), and one survivor, Claire Gibbs (Rebecca Gayheart). As Lieutenant Horatio Caine (David Caruso) walks over to talk with her, the firefighters yell a warning moments before a water heater rockets through the air and lands on Frank Tripp's (Rex Linn) vehicle. Standing nearby, Frank just shakes his head at his luck recently: could it get any worse?
Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez) joins Frank on the scene, laughing at the rocketing water heater as Frank scratches his head. Horatio is interviewing Claire Gibbs, who is shaken but unharmed. Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Procter) and Eric Delko try to enter the home to process the scene when they are stopped by the firefighters. The home isn't stable yet, so they will have to wait to enter until later. Calleigh agrees to stick to the perimeter of the house. At the front door, they find a broken glass panel. The glass is scattered on the inside of the room though: could this be the point of entry for the arsonist? They won't know until they can process the house in its entirety.
Horatio sits down with Claire at the station. He tells her the CSIs believe that someone deliberately set the fire and asks her for suspects. She tells him about her ex-boyfriend who has been stalking her: Anthony Bryant (Ron Reznik). H has an APB put out on Bryant's vehicle and when they find it, Horatio discovers Yelina (Sofia Milos) by the car, not Bryant. Yelina tells him she is working as a private investigator trailing the guy who owns the car, an Anthony Bryant. Horatio tells her he is looking for Bryant in connection with the fire, but Yelina can testify that Bryant was nowhere near any fire as she followed him yesterday and hasn't lost sight of him since. Then both realize that she must have been hired to provide Bryant with a convenient alibi. Horatio tracks Bryant down. It's time for him to answer some questions.
Bryant denies any involvement in the fire and claims he hired Yelina to watch him on a hunch that something might happen. He won't go into more details, leaving Horatio with more questions than answers, and a lot of suspicions. This guy has an excuse for everything, but Horatio has a hunch of his own: this guy is involved, and he's going to find out how deep.
Alexx (Khandi Alexander) is still working on Morrison's (Rib Hillis) body when Natalia Boa Vista (Eva La Rue) drops in for an update. Not having access to the crime scene means that Natalia has nothing to examine and is hoping that Alexx can offer up something for her to start working on. The vic's COD wasn't from being burned. The man inhaled super-heated air which immediately cooked his lungs, suffocating him.
Alexx also finds residual evidence in the vic's teeth; it's up to Natalia to find out what it is. She takes the sample upstairs to CSI Maxine Valera (Boti Bliss), who identifies it as human tissue. Morrison must have bitten someone during a fight. Running the sample through CODIS, Valera gets a DNA match: the tissue belongs to Michael Lipton (Innis Casey). Natalia calls Frank with the news. He has Lipton picked up. But as soon as he comes into the station Lipton says he's only going to talk to CSI Wolfe (Jonathan Togo). Frank asks what the connection is. Ryan denies knowing Lipton but agrees to sit down with the suspect anyway. Once in the privacy of the room, it becomes clear that Ryan does know Lipton. In fact, he owes the thug $10,000 from a poker debt. Lipton says if Wolfe gets him off the suspect list for the crime, he will cancel his debt. Wolfe is trapped, but tells Lipton he's on his own in this case. He leaves the room, asking Natalia to take over.
Natalia takes a hard line with the suspect and asks to view Lipton's arm. She sees a recent bite mark there. Lipton confesses to a "disagreement" with Morrison after the guy stiffed him out of $100,000 dollars. He says he paid the money as a deposit for his sister's wedding and when he asked for it back, Morrison refused to repay it, saying his company was going under. Lipton didn't take his excuse lightly and during the ensuing fight, Morrison bit him. Natalia points out that Lipton has plenty of motive for killing Morrison when the man snaps and grabs her arm. Horatio arrives as Natalia and Lipton face off in a battle of wills. H offers to intercede but Natalia tells him she's fine, and Lipton backs down, outnumbered and outdone by Natalia's bravado.
Sometime later, outside in front of the station, Horatio runs into Yelina again. He asks her about Michael Lipton. Yelina watches the suspect as he leaves the building. He's just made bail and Horatio asks her to shadow him. He wants to know every step the man makes. Yelina nods and takes off after Lipton.
Delko is processing the fingerprint from the broken glass shard. Natalia asks if there's any ID on the print yet but the only thing Delko can offer is a consolatory remark for her stand-off with Lipton. Natalia changes the subject to ask about Calleigh's recent interest in Delko's recovery. Eric smiles and brushes aside her piqued curiosity over Calleigh giving him a kiss on the cheek and says she's just being helpful. Natalia raises her eyebrows in mock suspicion but is sidetracked by the beeping of the computer as it finds a match for the print. It belongs to Ron Cramer (Page Kennedy): he has a petty rap sheet but nothing to take him to the level of arson, until now.
Calleigh takes the lead and pays a visit to Cramer. She finds him working in his garden, but he's evasive, which rouses Calleigh's suspicion. As Cramer tries to brush her off, he turns to re-enter his house and Calleigh draws her weapon on him. He freezes as she searches him and finds a gun concealed in his pants. Cramer tries to explain he was driving by when he saw the fire. He went to the front door and broke the glass with his gun, yelling for anyone in the house. He claims he was trying to help, and besides, if he'd stuck around, who would believe a good Samaritan with a gun? Calleigh has to agree with him on that point.
The fire department finally finishes with the burnt house and releases the scene to the CSIs. Delko photographs the evidence as Calleigh logs the remaining samples on site. She has found evidence of gasoline poured all over the floor of the house. Delko finds a lighter on the ground. Perhaps it is the source of ignition? Calleigh takes it to the lab and runs it for evidence. As she works the item, Natalia asks her if she has seen Ryan. It seems he's been missing, claiming to be working an old case. Calleigh can't give her any clues about Ryan as she continues to run the fingerprint samples through the system. No matches come up amongst the male suspects, but then Claire's name pops up as a match. Calleigh brings Claire in for questioning again.
Claire claims her ex, Anthony, is going to get away with murder, but when Calleigh tells her that her prints were found on the lighter, Claire claims the incendiary device belonged to Brett's business partner, Jeff Zader (Chris Bruno). She says they had argued about a business deal before the other man left. Horatio pays Mr. Zader a visit to check out his story. Zader claims he wasn't involved in the crime, and instead informs Horatio that his business partner Brett was bringing Claire's personal problems to work, namely in the form of her ex-boyfriend, who was harassing their business clients. Zader and Morrison argued over the problems when Zader offered to buy his partner out to stop the harassment. Morrison refused and the men parted angrily. Zader's alibi is weak: he was at home alone. Horatio takes the man's information before heading back to the station.
Meanwhile back at the house, Delko reports to Calleigh that the point of origin for the fire was not where the lighter was found. The fire started after the pilot light from the water heater ignited the fuel vapors in the other room. This meant the arsonist was either interrupted midway through the crime or they were an amateur. Calleigh compiles a list of the suspects to check for anyone who might have fuel spilled on them or might have made other mistakes. Calleigh sifts through the debris for more evidence and cuts herself on some glass. There's no smoke stain on the glass, meaning the glass was broken before the fire started. Delko realizes Ron Cramer has more to tell than just being a good Samaritan passing by. Once in the room with Horatio and Delko, Cramer confesses to breaking into the Morrison home but not to starting the fire. Delko reminds him he went to the home with his gun and Cramer finally cops to being hired to kill Morrison by Anthony Bryant.
Frank heads out to the streets to find Bryant. He corners him by the waterfront and confronts him with his connection to Cramer. Handing the man a search warrant, Frank searches the car, finding a pair of black lacy underwear in the glove-box. Bryant claims innocence, but Frank has him booked.
Yelina meets with Horatio with a report on Lipton. She tells him there was nothing out of the ordinary in the man's dealings except for one incident. She plays a video tape of the encounter-it is between Lipton and CSI Wolfe. On the tape, Ryan hands Lipton an envelope full of money. Horatio is livid, knowing it is time to confront Ryan. Once H has Ryan in his office, he asks him for the truth about Lipton. At first Ryan tries to step around his behavior, but when Horatio informs him of the videotape, Ryan crumbles. He admits to Lipton being a friend of his, a friend who is having financial problems. He says he was trying to help him out. Horatio asks point blank if there is a problem with gambling and Wolfe denies it. H's face is grave as he tells him to level with him now or there will be no second chance. Ryan assures him and he leaves the meeting.
Horatio doesn't believe Wolfe's claim and informs Internal Affairs man Rick Stetler (David Lee Smith). There will be far-reaching ramifications for Ryan's behavior and Horatio knows it. The future seems bleak for the young CSI, but he didn't take the one chance on offer to come clean. Now Horatio will have to do it the hard way.
Back at the house, the firefighters show Calleigh their find: two more bodies. These bodies are not victim's of the fire however, as they have already been autopsied as evidenced by Y-stitching across their chests. Calleigh wonders if the fire was a cover-up and thinks that another conversation with the lone survivor of the fire might be a good move. Claire plays dumb to the presence of the bodies in her home, but when Calleigh tells her they found gasoline on her clothing she finally comes clean. Claire confesses that it was the couple's idea to burn down the house and fake their own deaths to get Anthony to finally leave them alone. Claire explains that Brett was the one who got the cadavers from the Science Department at Dade University. She poured the gasoline before they went to bed and they waited until Anthony showed up that night when they would light the fire. But Anthony didn't show up and the couple fell asleep. When they awoke in the morning, the vapors had already ignited.
Claire is arrested and led away under the watchful eyes of Anthony and Horatio. Anthony is smug, thinking he's gotten away with his stalking and attempted murder of Morrison-that is until Horatio tells him Ron Cramer cut a deal with the police and they now have a copy of the check he used to pay Cramer for the hit. He's going down for the crime and now he's going to do the time.
Stepping from the elevator, Ryan arrives for work only to be told he's fired by Stetler. He asks for his gun and his badge, and Ryan tries to excuse his behavior by saying he was trying to protect everyone else in the lab. But Stetler points out that due to Ryan's actions, cases would now be reopened and criminals would be back on the streets. Wolfe hands over his weapon and ID. When he asks what he is supposed to do now, Stetler tells him to get out of the building. Ryan leaves a broken man.
Horatio meets Yelina outside the station. He asks her to be careful in her new profession of Private Investigating. Yelina smiles, reassuring him she can look after herself. Horatio can only hope she is right.
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