CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 23 - MIA/NYC - NONSTOP

Written by Anthony E. Zuiker - Ann Donahue - Carol Mendelsohn
Directed by Danny Cannon

Fifteen-year-old Laura Spelman returns home to her family home late at night to discover her parents have been murdered. Later Horatio and the CSIs are processing the scene. Horatio determines that the mother was killed before the father, a strange move since the father posed more of a threat. Horatio also determines from the blood droplets that the father struggled to make it to his daughter’s room even after his throat was slit. Laura Spelman is terrified when Horatio tells her that she will have to go into protective custody, but he swears to her he will bring the killer to justice.

Calleigh finds a gob of spit beneath the window where the murderer entered. She discovers a combination of particles in the spit that indicate the murderer spent a great deal of time in the vicinity of the World Trade Center during and after the September 11 attack. Yelina tells Horatio that there are no dark secrets in the Spelman family and no apparent motive for the murders.

Speedle pulls fibers from the father’s body that appear to have been transferred from the murderer. The fibers appear to be from a blanket and are two distinctly bright colors. A small piece of laminated paper found at the scene contains the logo of a Miami airport car rental company and the colored fibers match the blankets used by an airline that flies from New York to Miami.

At the car rental location, Horatio and Speedle arrive just in time to stop the murderer’s car from being cleaned. The car was rented by a Nick Murdoch of New York City; Horatio is off to the Big Apple.

In New York City, DETECTIVE JOSEPH “MAC” TAYLOR (Gary Sinise,) the head of the CSI unit in New York, is on site of the murder of an undercover NYC police detective. Horatio shows up, surprised to find an active crime scene. He introduces himself to Mac and tells him about the double murder in Miami. Mac invites Horatio into the investigation and they quickly discover that the real Nick Murdoch was killed before the murders in Miami and that the killer was simply using his identity.

Murdoch was working undercover as a drug dealer and Mac surmises that the killer came to Murdoch’s apartment pretending to want drugs. One of Mac’s men, DANNY MESSER (Carmine Giovinazzo), is able to pull a partial print off of Murdoch’s wallet.

Back in Miami, Speedle was able to pull a partial print off the rental car and the two teams combine their work to create a usable fingerprint. The fingerprint comes back to a Danny Penrod, also from Manhattan. Mac and Horatio race to Penrod’s apartment and catch him escaping out the window. The police give chase but Penrod escapes by dropping down a fire escape.

Back at the apartment, Horatio and Mac start looking for evidence. They quickly find an airline ticket that proves Penrod was just back from Miami. Mac finds blood in the drain, but it is far too fresh to be from any of the murders they are investigating; somewhere in New York there is a fresh crime scene.

Horatio finds the address of the Miami murders written on a slip of paper, but two of the numbers were transposed. The killer hit the wrong house. Horatio calls in the proper address and discovers the owner is Michael Hanover who has another address in New York City.

Mac and Horatio make it to the Hanover’s building and get the doorman to let them in the apartment. They find both Michael Hanover and his wife murdered, but their son Michael Hanover, Jr is still alive.

STELLA BONASERA (Melina Kanakaredes), another member of Mac’s CSI team, arrives on the scene in time to get photos of Michael Jr.’s wounds before he is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Horatio and Mac are looking over the blood evidence. Horatio comments that the killer seems much calmer at this crime scene and that he killed the husband and wife in the right order; they suppose Penrod may have had an accomplice. Mac discovers sleeping pills on the wife’s bedside and guesses that she didn’t put up a struggle because of the pills. Stella speaks to the doorman who claims that no one suspicious went up to the apartment last night, but the family has a private back entrance that may have been used. Only the three family members and the doorman have a key.

As Mac and Horatio delve deeper into the Hanover family’s secrets, several possible accomplices present themselves. But Horatio Cane is not going back to Miami without the murderer in custody.