CSI: Miami

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Pirated

Teleplay by Michael Ostrowski & Steven Maeda
Directed by Duane Clark

It’s a beautiful day on the water off the coast of Miami. Underneath the surface, a pair of divers enjoy the beauty of nature at its finest, until one of them comes face-to-face with the rotting corpse of a dead fishing captain, followed closely by four more bodies, each one tied to the next.

 On the surface aboard a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, Horatio learns that the point of discovery makes the case his. Delko is underwater surveying the scene with a video camera, reporting what he sees. Initial findings point to piracy.

 In order not to disturb the ocean floor, the initial underwater investigation is slow going. An empty loop in the rope chain tying the bodies together indicates one missing corpse, which Delko retrieves after detaching it from an anchor. In autopsy, Alexx discovers water in their lungs, indicating that they were thrown overboard alive and left to drown.  Trace found on a corpse’s band-aid comes back as Bluefin Tuna, a very expensive catch.

 Wolf queries the harbourmaster and learns that only one boat is still out – the Eileen.  Caine and Delko question the boat’s owner, who seems to be hiding something, yet discloses that the Eileen went out with a crew of nine, not six. Searching the logical current patterns by helicopter, a pair of survivors and a dead body are found floating on a raft. The three are college students who paid to intern aboard the Eileen for a Semester at Sea. Alexx discovers that the dead boy has human bite marks, along with those caused by a shark.

 One of the survivors, Adam, says that he saw lights approaching the night of the attack on the boat, and that he got his pals off by using the raft.  He points the finger at his buddy, Brian, when questioned about the cannibalism. Meanwhile, Calleigh presents Brian with a warrant to pump both boys’ stomachs in order to learn who ate flesh from the third student’s leg.

 Delko discovers non-U.S. military paint transfer on the life-raft, and Horatio correctly concludes that the Eileen was involved in the transport of illegal arms. They begin looking for the Eileen by searching for a large quantity of marine paint that was recently purchased in order to repaint it.  After discovering such a sale, Delko also learns of a likely spot for the overhaul of the ship – the Miami River.  The 80-foot vessel is located and a well-executed SWAT attack sends thugs fleeing the scene as MDPD boards the ship where they discover custom-made hiding places for eleven rocket-propelled grenade launchers, but only one launcher. Horatio figures that the guy who used this one dropped it after using it once – totally unprepared for the fierce recoil – which means he is probably nursing a considerable eye injury at present.

 Yelina has locates a suspect at a hospital who fits the eye injury description. He is uncooperative when Horatio questions him and insults Yelina’s ethnicity. His father, Wesley Morgan, shows up and is extremely apologetic and embarrassed over his son’s behaviour.

 Calleigh and Ryan confront Adam, whom has been proven to be the cannibal. He is, however, released as the State Attorney declines to file charges. Calleigh is not yet finished with him

 though, and suspects that Adam might have hastened Chip’s death.  Alexx helps them to prove an overload of sodium in Chip’s system, and DNA on the raft’s bailing cup indicates that Adam poured seawater into a dying Chip’s mouth. Brian still won’t betray Adam, who he credits with saving his life, in the dark, in the middle of the night. Ryan realizes he’s just heard the clue to the whole case – darkness.

At the aftermath of a drive-by grenade explosion into a small Latino grocery store, Delko nabs a guy about to leave the scene who has a black eye. Like the Morgan punk, he refuses to cooperate with questioning, and is hauled in. But a scrap of paper stuck to a shard of glass proves to be more than helpful.

 Working with the fact that it was pitch black on the water and that Adam could not have seen the pirates approaching, Ryan and Calleigh theorize that he must have had prior warning. Investigation turns up a $5,000 deposit to his bank account, exactly six days ago, so they are certain Adam is involved. Finally, Adam’s facade crumbles and he admits that someone paid him off to simply call in the boat’s location.

 The paper scrap is revealed to be part of a sticker from a used car on a car lot. When he hears that it is a Ford, Delko realizes that Wesley Morgan owns a used car lot, and after a car-by-car check, Delko discovers one with traces of nitroglycerin on the roof and carpet.  During questioning with Morgan, he unwittingly invites Delko to “prove” that he was in a car where a grenade was fired, and Delko obliges with a nasal swab, providing the evidence that puts Morgan in the car when the rocket launcher was fired into the store.  Morgan’s strong, anti-ethnic rhetoric confirms to Horatio and Eric that they’ve gotten the right guy, and they soon set out to tear apart Morgan’s subversive network of operatives, one creep at a time.