CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Dead Zone

Teleplay by Michael Ostrowski
Directed by Joe Chappelle

Horatio and Delko meet Yelina at the Sea Tide Marina, where she introduces them to the corpse of Paul Jackson – hanging from a titanium spear embedded in the hull of his boat.

A nearby bottle of top shelf tequila indicates a celebration – and a single glass next to it says he thought he was doing it alone. As Alexx arrives with a Sawzalle to cut the body down, Horatio turns to Delko: “I want to find the one that got away.”

Back at the labs, Calleigh takes the spear to firearms - knowing that even with a spear gun you have ballistics. Somewhere out there is a gun that belongs to that spear. As Alexx begins her work on the body, she finds fire coral scrapes on Jackson’s hands, indicating that he must have been diving within the last 24 hours. When she points out the inky black stains on his fingertips, Horatio quickly puts it together… When silver reacts with seawater it releases black sulfide. Paul Jackson was no ordinary salvager. He was a treasure hunter.

Delko and Yelina consult with the Florida Director of Marine Archeology. As a two billion dollar business, the Florida laws for treasure hunting are quite strict. You have to lease a quadrant of ocean, splitting your finds with the state 80/20. Paul Jackson and his partner Marty Jones have been working a standard two-mile by one-mile quadrant and have reported nothing to the state.

Delko dives down to investigate the quadrant, only to find the figurehead of the long lost ship La Nuestra Senora de Zaragoza; a ship lost since 1649, said to have gone down carrying Spain’s greatest riches in gold, silver, art and jewels. All signs point to Marty, until they realize their modern day pirate has a hook for a hand… and a spear gun takes two hands to fire.