CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Money for Nothing

Teleplay by Marc Dube
Directed by Karen Gaviola

Horatio is at a downtown Miami rental properties office with Suzie Barnum (the woman that was having an affair with his brother) and Madison Keaton (Suzie’s daughter and Horatio’s niece). Horatio offers to help pay for a better apartment in the city to keep Suzie and Madison close. Outside, the loud rumbling of an armored truck draws Horatio’s attention.

In the truck, driver Paul Dolan is talking to his partner John Klauser about the load of cash they are delivering to the Federal Reserve. They are discussing how late they are because of traffic when a brown van pulls in front of them. The back doors of the van swing open revealing a large .30 caliber rifle mounted to the bed. Kevlar-clad robber Danny Pilar opens fire with armor piercing rounds, killing Klauser instantly. Dolan is able to huddle on the floorboards and is knocked unconscious when Pilar blows the back doors off the truck with an explosive charge.

Horatio emerges from an alleyway and creeps up on the robbery in progress, gun drawn. As Pilar loads the money into the van, the getaway driver, Keeler, spots Horatio and takes off, leaving Pilar behind. Horatio fires three shots at the van and then sees Pilar drawing on him. Horatio aims and hits Pilar in the throat, the only area unprotected by Kevlar. As Pilar is dying, Horatio asks him to name his accomplice but the robber refuses. Horatio assures him that his dead body will tell the tale.

Later, as the crime scene is being processed, Yelina is suspicious of why Horatio was in the area and jokes that she is supposed to arrive first. Calleigh and Alexx are processing the bodies. For a brief moment, they believe that the dead armored truck driver Klauser may have been doing cocaine, but they quickly discover the residue is just powdered sugar from his doughnuts. Horatio interviews Paul Donan before he is taken to the hospital and assures him they will find the other man responsible for killing his partner.

Meanwhile, Suzie and Madison come to the crime scene and it is Yelina that they initially speak with. Horatio almost tells Yelina that Madison is Raymond’s daughter but can’t bring himself to do it. When they are left alone, Suzie asks if Yelina was Raymond’ wife and Horatio confirms it. Suzie assures Horatio that she would never say anything. Horatio is moved when Madison gives him a kiss on the cheek goodbye.

Back on the case, Speedle uses a GPS tag within the money to locate the van and is surprised to find it is stationary. Horatio tells him that he may have clipped a fuel line with one of his shots and they take off for the location. The CSI Hummer and a couple of uniform cars make it to the indicated site, but there is nothing there. Horatio realizes they are near a Navy facility that tests anti-jamming devices and the signal froze when it came in proximity. After a brief search, they find the van in a nearby crop field and discover Keeler has switched the money into new bags and taken off on foot. There is only one way he could have gone, however, and Horatio and Speedle are waiting for him when he emerges from the field.

Back at the lab, the CSIs make a surprising discovery. The cash from the robbery was counterfeit, printed on the paper from bleached Iraqi dinars. The Iraqi paper is the most similar in the world to US currency and the recent war has made the dinar practically worthless. Horatio interviews Keeler and quickly determines that he had no idea the bills were counterfeit. Keeler thinks that helps his case until Horatio reminds him the murder was real.

At Dade Mutual Bank, bank manager Robert Mackenzie walks Delko through the process of sending cash to the Federal Reserve. Mackenzie assures Delko that the money Paul Dolan signed for was real. Horatio interviews Dolan again, and while Dolan admits that they were behind schedule, it was because of traffic. Yelina drives the route and compares it with the odometer on the armored truck; it confirms Dolan’s story. Still, Horatio isn’t convinced and checks out the odometer cable. Powdered sugar on the cable suggests that Klauser messed with it just before he died. At the same time, Delko and Calleigh pull Dolan’s fingerprints off the GPS tracker in the moneybag.

Horatio confronts Dolan with the new evidence and he breaks down. He admits that he and Klauser switched the money, but only because his sister Mary Dolan had been kidnapped and they were forced into it. Evidence collected at the cash exchange site lead the CSIs to an abandoned house full of counterfeiting paraphernalia. They also find almost a pint of Mary’s blood in the basement.

As the CSIs rush to find Mary Dolan, a startling discovery turns Mary from an innocent victim into a prime suspect.