CSI: Miami

Season 4 - Episode 13 - Silencer

Written by Sunil Nayar
Directed by Ernest Dickerson

Claire Trinner is among the crowd moving to the music at Miami’s Latin festival, captivated by the rhythmic Samba dancers.  Jose Sambrano makes his way through the crowd and slides up behind Claire and the pair move together as one.  Soon, the crowd scatters in horror as Claire and Jose fall to the dance floor, both shot to death.  Horatio arrives at the scene and notices the red tattooed point on Sambrano’s chest, a Mala Noche gang insignia.  Calleigh finds two casings by the curb and is convinced the killer used a silencer and the hit was not a drive-by shooting.  Alexx finds a white powder on Claire’s thigh, and notes the red tattoo on Sambrano’s chest was fresh.  Delko visits Hector Ramirez, the Mala Noche’s tattoo artist of choice.  There, he notices a photo on the wall – of Sambrano and an unidentified male.  Delko ID’s the faceless guy as Carlos Mojena.

 Mojena doesn’t give Horatio much to go on, but Horatio is able to determine that Claire was a target.   Marisol expresses her concern to Horatio about their budding relationship and how that will affect Delko and Horatio’s professional life.  He assures her he’ll talk to Delko about it.  Wolfe catches a glimpse of Delko and Natalia flirting in the lab.  Claire worked in PR for Cantor Pharmaceuticals, and the white powder smudge found on her thigh was a drug Cantor is developing.  Delko and Wolfe interview Alyssa Prince, Claire’s boss.  Alyssa identifies the white powdery substance as Xorax, a Cantor product that is currently awaiting FDA approval.  Paul Burton, head of research for Cantor, tells them Claire was teaching him to dance on their lunch hour so he could impress his girlfriend.  Burton also reveals a company blog that is circulating.  Calleigh’s investigation traces the silencer used in the shooting Mario Pilar, who is being held on a separate armed robbery charge.  Pilar did landscaping and had some very wealthy clients.  Pilar tells Calleigh he didn’t commit the robbery; he was set up by the Mala Noche.  One of Pilar’s clients happened to be Claire.

 Horatio finds Claire’s husband, Jim Trinner, in the couple’s swimming pool engaged in a passionate kiss with his neighbor Cindy, but he swears he didn’t kill Claire.  Wolfe traces the Cantor blog back to Sally Jansen, Alyssa’s assistant.  Delko discovers that Sally is doing insider stock trading in addition to writing the company blog.  Wolfe confronts Burton again, this time about his involvement with Sally and the insider trading. Calleigh’s discovers three of Pilar’s clients work at Cantor Pharmaceutical.  Pilar confesses he ID’d Alyssa as one of his clients to protect himself from the Mala Noche.  Horatio uncovers an arsenal in Alyssa’s shed, but she denies any knowledge of the guns or any connection to Claire’s murder.  Calleigh and Wolfe find a substance on the silencer that is used in the manufacture of needles; Horatio makes the connection with the fresh tattoo and revisits Ramirez, the tattoo artist.  Ramirez confesses Mojena ordered him to kill Sambrano because Sambrano hadn’t “earned” the new insignia tattooed on his chest, and to take care of Claire at the same time.  Delko deciphers the blog, and figures out that Alyssa and Burton are romantically involved.  Alyssa confesses she was jealous when she heard that Burton and Claire were sneaking off together at lunch, so she hired Mojena to murder Claire.  Horatio tells Delko he’s seeing Marisol.  Delko assures him he has no problem with that, but Marisol is much sicker than she knows and only has a couple of months left.  Horatio assures him he’s in it with her for the long haul.