CSI: Miami

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Nothing To Loose

Teleplay by Elizabeth Devine & Marc Dube
Directed by Karen Gaviola

The CSI team is called out to the Everglades, where a fire rages out of control. Fish and Wildlife Conservation officer Mac Mackern witnessed a gator with a body in its mouth and noticed pellets from a shotgun wound on the victim. The gator is found and the body retrieved while Delko searches for other clues when a dry lightning storm sparks yet another fire. To get everyone out alive, Mackern drives the airboat straight through the wall of flames. Horatio arrives and announces they’ll have to work quickly before the fire destroys their crime scene.

Caine negotiates with Fire Chief Kyle Donaldson, who is reluctant to let Caine and his crew enter the fire area to continue their investigation. Calleigh and Delko watch as a jail bus arrives and inmates with “bracelets” are paired up to help the firefighters contain the blaze. Delko recognizes an ambitious videographer named Claire Bushnell trying to get footage for her newscast and escorts her back to the media area. Craig Adams, one of the hotshot firefighters, insults one of the inmates, Rico Garza. He pushes Adams and they begin to fight. Caine breaks it up and reassures Donaldson they’ll be quick with their investigation.

Caine notices shards of glass scattered throughout the crime scene and suspects they might be from an alcohol still. Alexx determines the victim was killed by a shotgun, and a plastic key card found in the victim’s pocket indicates he was a College of Miami student. While Delko is bagging the last bit of evidence, Caine realizes the fire line has been broken. Caine and Tripp work their way over to the break and discover Garza lying against a cypress tree, bludgeoned to death with a shovel.

Caine questions Adams about Garza’s murder. Adams denies knowing anything about it. Tripp is notified that another inmate, Cyrus Everson, is missing. Everson is doing time for bringing a gun into the courtroom at the trial of his nine year-old son’s alleged rapist, Hollywood celebrity Ty Radcliffe. Radcliffe was acquitted but Everson swore he wouldn’t give up. Checking with the prison, Horatio discovers Everson is still in jail; he switched his bracelet with cell neighbor Todd Kendrick, a spree killer.

Calleigh and Ryan trace keys found on the victim’s body to Pam Carpenter, a student at the College of Miami. Pam had loaned her boyfriend, Jeff McGill, her car. She claims he went to pick up some ninety-proof alcohol from a maker in the Everglades. Pam is shocked at the photo Calleigh shows her of the victim, Paul Travers -- McGill’s fraternity brother. Calleigh listens to McGill’s voice message on Pam’s phone. He is running and says someone is chasing them; there is a gunshot in the background. Calleigh traces McGill’s call to Dale Buford’s place in the ‘glades. There, Calleigh and Wolfe discover a double barrel sawed-off shotgun and a shot shell reloader. Buford admits he makes his own shot, but says he didn’t kill anybody or know anything about a dead college boy. His brother used his last shot.

Caine and Delko warn Ty Radcliffe about the possibility Kendrick could come after him as part of a deal Kendrick made with Everson. Radcliffe and his lawyer, Mort Shapiro, however, refuse police protection.

Suzie, the mother of Ray Caine’s illegitimate daughter, Madison, unexpectedly shows up at the station, seeking Ray’s pension. Horatio discovers Madison has been diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia. Faced with mounting hospital bills, Horatio assures her he’ll cover all the costs.

Delko discovers the shovel used to kill Garza has fish food on it. Tripp and Delko scan a nearby fish pond for fresh dig marks and find a gun case. Now they are certain Kendrick did it and is now armed. They also discover Claire, the videographer’s, body with a bullet wound to the head -- and her car missing. Checking Kendrick’s list of visitors at the prison, they ID his ex-girlfriend, Patty Johnson, who admits to burying the gun case containing money and a machete. Kendrick had been harassing her and promised if she did this for him he would leave her alone. She swears she thought the stuff was for Larry Van Owen, Kendrick’s former cell mate, released a month prior, who they find at his place with a machete embedded in his torso.

Calleigh gets a call from the hospital about a shotgun wound. Jeff McGill, Pam’s boyfriend, is being treated for a wound to his backside. Calleigh shows him a photo of Dale Buford; he says Buford is not the shooter, but it’s someone who looks like him. Calleigh questions Norm Buford, Dale’s brother. She finds gunshot residue on hiss hands, and Travers’ wallet in his pocket. Buford says he was hunting and came up on Travers who was already dead. Calleigh determines Buford’s ammunition killed Travers.

Caine and Tripp arrive at Ty Radcliffe’s place to find him dead on the floor. The SWAT team arrives and begins to comb the grounds. They set up roadblocks everywhere.

Calleigh is surprised when Pam comes to collect Travers’ personal belongings. Pam reveals she and Travers were actually in love and were going to tell McGill but couldn’t find the right time. Calleigh questions McGill and takes a sample of his hair. She matches it with the paperboard pieces inside the Buford reloader. She confronts McGill with the evidence and he confesses to killing Travers. He says the whole campus knew about Pam and Travers -- except him.

Caine visits Suzie at the hospital, where he learns Madison is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant and Suzie’s marrow doesn’t match. Caine rolls up his sleeve and undergoes testing to see if he matches, since he is a blood relative. He is not. Caine approaches Yelina about Madison. He tells her that Madison is actually Ray’s child, not his as he has always led her to believe. Yelina is shocked and, of course, very hurt. Caine asks her if Ray Jr. can be tested to see if he could be a match, but she flatly refuses.

Alexx and Delko discover Radcliffe’s secret room – loaded with electronic detection devices and kids’ video games – just what any child molester would need. With Radcliffe’s body loaded into the van, along with another gurney, Alexx must drive the van back to autopsy herself due to the heavy caseload. On the road, a wounded, though very-much-alive Kendrick, sits up from the gurney and holds a gun to Alexx’s head. He forces her to pull the van over and stitch him up.

Horatio figures out that Kendrick is in the van with Alexx. He activates the mileage tracker in the van and tracks its location to Everson’s home. There, Kendrick searches for something, but can’t find it, so he takes Everson’s son, Joey, hostage along with Alexx. Knowing they are as good as dead, Alexx bolts and tells Joey to run. As police sirens approach, Kendrick jumps on a motorcycle and takes off, just as Caine arrives to comfort Alexx. Both Joey and Alexx are okay.

Caine questions Everson about his files. Everson installs security systems for a living and told Kendrick his clients were among the wealthiest in Miami, and Russell Chan was his richest client. Delko and Caine catch up with Kendrick as he departs Chan’s house in an airboat. They chase Kendrick into the burning Everglades, going deeper and deeper until, faced with surrender, he charges into the flames. Later, in autopsy, Alexx is only able to identify Kendrick’s charred body from the bandage she applied at gunpoint.

Horatio stops by the hospital to check on a very weak Madison, when in walks Ray Jr. and Yelina, who has, obviously, had a change of heart.