CSI: Miami (2002–2012): Season 8, Episode 9 - Kill Clause - full transcript

I didn't hire you for
aquarium security, Wolfe.

You know, those are box jellyfish?

They can kill you.

Yeah, well, you're
supposed to be looking

for the killers in the crowd.

Yeah, I feel like at ten grand a plate,

there aren't many, uh,
murderers in the bunch.

Don't let the clothes fool you.

I know you're new to the security beat,

but if you want to move
your way up from temp,

you need to learn to ID the bad
guys no matter the camouflage.



Okay, all right.

Well, do you see any
bad guys in the crowd?

I do right there.

Why him?

The way he moves.

Looks like he's stalking prey.

Yeah, that one's trouble.

I'll tell you what, boss.

I'll go follow that one.

May I have your attention, please?

Hi.

Everyone, thank you.

Thank you. Look,

if you've had as much to
drink as I've had, you're,



you're probably not going to
remember what I'm gonna say,

so I'm gonna make this short.

You're welcome.

Miami Tomorrow

couldn't provide textbooks

to our city's neediest
children without your support,

but I would also like us all
to thank Renovation Warehouse.

They've been our biggest
contributor, and, they...

Excuse me, sir, I'm
gonna need to see some ID.

What are you doing here?

I'm, uh... I'm moonlighting.

I need a little extra cash.

But you don't seem to. Look at this tux.

You look gorgeous.

This thing is rented.

- I'm here as somebody's plus one.
- Is that right?

You don't? No.

She sure seems to know who you are.

Help me!

Help me!

Help me!

This is Wolfe! Call 911!

I'm headed to the balcony!

Sir, hold on!

Hold on, sir.

Help me!

Ladies and gentlemen, move
over to that side of the room.

Let's go! Move! Move! Move!

Help me!

Help me!

Oh, my God!

All right, listen up.

I'm with MDPD.

I need everyone to
gather next to the stage.

No one's leaving here until an officer
takes your statement. Understood?

Let's go! Move!

Careful, gentlemen.

We need to preserve his injuries.

So, our victim is Jeff Lofton.

I would say, based on his uniform,

he's a custodian employee
of Renovation Warehouse.

Must have been here working the party.

Look at all these welts.

He was stung hundreds of times.

This may be an obvious question, Tom,

but is that what killed him?

No doubt.

Chironex fleckeri are the most
venomous beasts in the world.

Ryan said they swarmed him.

They would have.

Unlike most jellyfish,
box jellies are predatory.

Once he hit the water,
they hunted him down.

Their tentacles have over

500,000 nematocysts.

And nematocysts are stingers?

And each one injected
venom, causing immense pain.

With so much in his system,
he had a cardiac arrest.

Would you excuse me?

So, Horatio wanted me

to get a statement from you about today.

Why don't we start with,
um, who's the girl?

What girl?

The girl you were stalking.

Okay, you and Ryan really
need to stop texting so much.

What's wrong?

You were stung.

Yeah, it's nothing.

Well, they're poisonous.
We should get you to the ER.

No, we shouldn't. I've been
stung by jellies surfing before.

I just need to find some vinegar.

Acidic acid neutralizes the poison.

Will balsamic do it?

Yeah. Pour it on.

Yeah.

That's better.

I think somebody should look at that.

Tell you what, okay?

I'll go home, I'll change,
I'll put a bandage on it,

and you stop asking me about
the women in my life. Cool?

All right, tough guy. It's your arm.

See what I mean?
Something happened up here

before Lofton went over, and
this glass is pretty thick.

Someone had a full head
of steam to get through it.

Walter, this railing is too high

for somebody to fall on their own.

We've got blood here,

here and there.

Bet it's from our vic's fingers.

That's probably why he couldn't hold on.

Help me! Help me!

This railing- it's
been wiped clean.

If we find any prints, they'll be fresh.

Gentlemen, may I help you?

Hang on a second. Excuse me.

You can't be up here.

I'm Max DeSalvo. I'm the CEO.

I don't think I need
clearance to be anywhere.

Mr. DeSalvo, this is
an active crime scene.

It's also my building.

So then, Mr. Lofton, our
victim, worked for you.

Yeah, he was with our maintenance
department for 15 years.

He always worked our parties.

Walter, would you hit those
pants with the light, please?

What are you doing?

It smells like ammonia.

Maybe some kind of cleaner.

Maybe...

like this cleaner.

Mr. DeSalvo, were you up here today?

Well, yeah, my office is
just right here. I was...

I was in a hurry to get downstairs.

My wife says it is rude
of me to leave her alone.

Great.

It's a $1,000 tux.

Sorry, Mr. DeSalvo.

But that was before the party, and...

I don't know what all this is.

- H?
- Yeah.

I got a palm print here, sir.

- Well, if I can help you gentlemen.
- You can.

I need your palm print.

Walter?

Left palm, please, sir.

You can place your hand
firmly on the paper.

Thank you.

Now wait downstairs, please.

Baby wipe?

You smell like a dinner salad.

Yeah, yeah.

So did you find anything
other than jelly bites?

I'm still in the prelim,
but I can already see

Mr. Lofton has a lot more wear and tear

than a
40-year-old should.

Wore this brace on his right knee.

The man could barely walk.

Well, 15 years of maintenance
work takes its toll.

I was just about to take a few

infrared pictures to
see if anything else did.

The welts obscured them,

but he is covered with
subdermal hematomas.

And this isn't high-velocity
trauma from the fall.

More like the bar room brawl variety.

Okay, that confirms our theory

that he was in a fight
before he went over.

It's sloppy.

No vulnerable areas were targeted.

Whomever he was fighting
didn't really know how to.

The only reason they had
a leg up on Lofton was...

because he had a bad one.

So, basically you're saying
that this could've been anyone.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Ms. Lofton?

Hi, I'm Calleigh Duquesne.

Hi.

I just wanted to come and
see you and let you know

that you don't have to
worry about coming down.

We're gonna call you as
soon as we know anything

about what happened to your husband.

I came down to get
Jeff's death certificate.

Ms. Lofton, your husband's
only been gone a couple hours.

I know.

But-But I heard
somewhere that you need it

before you can get the money
from the life insurance.

I- I was looking through his stuff and,

I- I saw something about a policy.

Okay. I'm just going to be
perfectly honest with you.

Life insurance companies sometimes

take several months to pay out a claim,

and this is not what you need
to be worrying about right now.

And how am I supposed to pay for
all the bills without his income?

I have three kids.

Jeff took care of all this.

None of this makes sense to me.

Are these your insurance papers?

Yeah.

Okay, why don't I take a
look, see what's inside,

and maybe I can expedite things.

You would do that?

Yeah.

You should be with your children,

not worrying about this right now.

Did you get a hit?

No, not yet.

A couple names left to go.

Maybe I should get a print of your palm.

You were there, too.

Yeah, but I didn't lie
about why I was there.

You told me you were a plus one.

You paid to be there. You're a donor.

No wonder that tux
looked so good on you.

It wasn't rented. You owned it.

It was for a good cause.

$10,000 a plate on a cop's
salary? I sure hope so.

You know what, Wolfe? If
you were this curious about

the case, you'd have solved it by now.

I haven't gotten a single
hit off the list yet.

I'm going to go see
what Calleigh's doing.

So, what angle are you working?

Well, it's not really an angle.

I offered to look at Lofton's
insurance policy for his widow, but

it turns out the only thing I can
find is a change of address form.

She's already asking for the insurance?

She have an alibi?

You know, I was
wondering the same thing,

but it really seems to me like
she's just a stay-at-home mom

who's in over her head.

Yeah, I bet an insurance
policy payout would fix that.

Did she bring this in?

She did. Why?

Because Mrs. Lofton's
palm print would be on it.

Where you going?

Hey, you remember how
she was holding it?

- Was it like this?
- Yeah, I guess.

Hey, Ryan. Where's the ninhydrin?

It's over there.

You know she wasn't on the guest list.

Doesn't mean she wasn't there.

Compare this with the, print
you found on the balcony.

Well, they both have transverse palmar.

That's pretty rare.

The bifurcations and
the crossovers match.

If I was in court...

I'd say she was on that balcony.

You want to call her, or should I?

You think I pushed Jeff?

Can you think of any other reason
why your handprint would be there?

Yeah.

Because I was.

But it was earlier,
before anybody else was.

I was helping Jeff
clean before the party.

Thanks.

And so, you left before
the party started?

We couldn't let anybody
else know I was helping.

Warehouse would fire him if
they knew he couldn't do his job.

He had a bad knee.

ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament)

What about your health insurance?

Their health plan
doesn't cover anything.

We had to buy his brace
out of our own pocket. $200.

Ms. Lofton, is there anyone
who can corroborate your story?

Hate to say this, Mrs.
Lofton, but right now

you're the only one who benefits
from your husband's death.

I'm sorry,

we're going to have to ask you
to stay here with the officer.

Would you make a phone call for me?

Hi. Yeah. I was wondering
if I could talk to somebody

regarding my Allied Pledge
life insurance policy.

Uh, my name's Jeff Lofton.

Policy number...

Yeah.

It is
C- F-10983.

Social is
905-36-8217.

Yeah, yeah, no, I can hold.

Why am I pretending to be a dead guy?

Because the insurance company

will only talk to the policy holder.

Probably already know he's dead.

No, they don't. Tom hasn't
filed the death certificate yet.

Okay, look, if she took out the policy

then for sure she's guilty.

But I don't think she knew anything
about it until this morning.

Yeah, no problem.

No, I was just wondering,

who originally took out the policy?

Was it my wife Deedee?

Really?

And who's the beneficiary?

No, no, that...

That's it. Okay. Thanks.

She didn't take out
the policy, did she?

No, it was his company,
Renovation Warehouse.

Lieutenant, Renovation
Warehouse takes out

life insurance policies
on all of its employees.

I don't see what this has
to do with Jeff's death.

The bottom line is,

anybody who benefits from
that policy is my suspect.

Well, then you're going to have
to arrest the entire company.

It's a very common policy, Lieutenant.

They're called dead peasant policies.

It's an unfortunate name,
but completely legal.

So why didn't you inform the employees?

Lofton's wife didn't even know.

Why? 'Cause they-they're
for the company's protection.

We've invested in Lofton.

This policy offsets our loss.

What you should've invested in
was a decent healthcare plan.

- Do you have a point, Lieutenant?
- As a matter of fact, I do.

If you have nothing to hide

I want you to open your books to me.

Sure, you can see
Lofton's employee files.

But other than that,
everything's confidential.

That's a 5,000-gallon water tank.

Well, we're running out of evidence.

Where else do you suggest we look?

We know that the killer
was up on the balcony.

Yeah, when the body falls,
the evidence falls with it.

So...

let's get to work.

So, I checked the filter.
Nothing out of the ordinary in it,

except for about three
dollars in change and a thong.

I think the thong would be
considered out of the ordinary.

I agree.

But, I doubt it belongs to the killer.

Find anything in here?

No, not yet.

What about inside the coral?

Inside?

What are you talking about?
Breaking open the coral?

They're little filters.

Okay. When the EPA comes after us

I'm going to tell them it was your idea.

Hey.

What is that, fish scales?

Yeah, of the man-made variety.
Sequins off of a dress.

Don't know that that helps us much.

There were a lot of ladies in
black sequin dresses at the party.

I guess we'll have to
invite them to our own party.

All right, next.

It's what we're looking for.

Thank you. No.

Thank you, though. Next.

Pretty dress.

Got a few black sequins
missing there and there.

Can we keep this for our investigation?

Really?

Yeah. You'll get it back.
I'll give you a receipt.

I better not see a picture of
you wearing it in Ocean Drive.

Thank you.

Don't come between a girl and her dress.

In... I mean, you know what I...

Next, please.

Okay. Thank you.

Excuse me.

No. Thanks.

Next.

Well, well.

When I saw you at the fund
raiser, I couldn't believe it.

So, you followed me
all the way from L.A.?

You probably put this
whole thing together

just so you could harass me again.

- I'm working a case, Anna.
- I know exactly what case you're working.

We called every woman
who was at the party.

Look, if you'd like to talk to her
instead of me, that's totally fine.

Here.

Wait.

This isn't what we're looking for.

I'm not surprised.

It's always a dead end with you,

isn't it?

Got a little history there?

Okay.

It's business, not personal.

It is for her.

If I promise to explain
to you over drinks,

will you please get everyone to
stop giving me the third degree?

Drinks?

Yeah.

Next.

Okay.

These appear to match.

Let's see.

Nope. That is a glossy octagon.

We are looking for a
circle with a flat finish.

They look the same to me.

What, did you skip colors
and shapes in kindergarten?

Okay, fine. That means
we don't have the dress

that these sequins came off of.

No, and it looks like we're missing one.

- A dress?
- A girl.

Caroline Berston, she never came in,

according to this file.

All right, well, I'll call
patrol and have them bring her in.

There's the guy from Renovation
Warehouse with the files.

Fastest I've seen a corporation
respond to a warrant.

Maybe they're not
trying to hide anything.

Maybe that's what they want us to think.

Hello, Officer.

I'm Garrett Yates. I'm an
actuary at Renovation Warehouse.

M. DeSalvo asked me to
personally deliver this to you.

Appreciate that.

I think you'll find we're in full
compliance with the warrant's orders.

You now have all of our records
concerning employees, earnings

and insurance claims.

All in one box?

More like 102.

Three, counting that one.

I hope there's more than just you two.

There's over half a ton of
paper that you guys asked for.

I don't know what you're looking for,

but you're going to
need help finding it.

I just wanted to make sure
you had everything you need.

Horatio, take a look at the monitor.

I inputted all the life insurance claims

filed by Renovation Warehouse
in the past five years.

Now, this is countrywide.

Look at where it spikes every year.

Spikes every year in June.

When is the end of their fiscal year?

Bingo! June.

Okay, so, let's focus on
all the claims in June.

June...

Mitchell Kurwood, 39...

Drowned in his own pool in Michigan.

Okay.

I got two ladies here.

One's upstate New York.

Died in a car accident.

The other is in Vegas.

Fell down some stairs.

All right, you guys, get this.

Fargo.

31-year-old
security guard

fell off the Renovation
Warehouse parking structure.

And this one's a local. Broward County.

A 23-year-old receptionist
hanged herself by her pool.

Okay.

All right, so we've got
four accidents, one suicide.

That brings us to a total of a
cool nine million easy profits

for Renovation Warehouse.

All of them Renovation workers.

Certainly would put the company
in the black, wouldn't it?

Add 500 grand to that...
Jeff Lofton's death

could easily have been made
to look like an accident.

Yeah, but we know it
wasn't, so maybe these others

aren't as they appear to be, as well.

Here's what we do. Let's
start with the suicide, okay?

Hannah Wilcox, Broward County.

Hold on here.

Are you guys saying this company

is possibly killing its own employees
to collect their insurance money?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

Was this, Hannah Wilcox's residence?

I'm Evan Wilcox, her brother.

- Who's asking?
- MDPD.

Were you, uh, living with
your sister when she passed?

You mean killed herself.

Call it what it was.

This was our parents'
house. Hannah left it to me.

Finally getting around to moving in now.

What do you guys want?

We're reopening the investigation.

It's a little north of your
jurisdiction, isn't it?

Do you know her employer took
out an insurance policy on her?

Look, I'm not interested
in collecting any money,

if that's what this is about.

Well, that's a good thing, because it
turns out you're not the beneficiary.

Renovation Warehouse
got the million dollars.

They made money when she died?

That may have had something
to do with her death.

Are you saying she was murdered?

We need to exhume her
body to determine that,

and we need your permission.

That might be a problem.

Why is that?

She donated her body to science.

Walter Simmons, MDPD.

We're here for Hannah Wilcox.

He means body #13349.

The dean said you'd be coming.

I'm afraid I'm not
going to be of much help.

Our director of bequeathals
handles the records.

Students aren't allowed to know
anything about their cadavers.

In fact, they're encouraged
to give them new names.

Good thing we brought a photo.

It's the lady in the picture.

Well, class is now
in session. Follow me.

It's Hannah.

I'll go get the gurney.

Why? We have everything right here.

- You want to do the autopsy now?
- Gloves, please.

So, Broward's autopsy
listed the cause of death

as asphyxia by hanging.

Ligature marks are at an inverted
V under the jaw, just above

the thyroid cartilage. Scalpel.

Thyroid cartilage, also
known as the Adam's apple

in male anatomy, is still intact,

as is...

the hyoid bone above it.

We learned in pathology that's
consistent with a suicide by hanging.

Top marks. But this...
this gives me pause.

Take a look at her eyes.

What do you see?

Looks like hemorrhaging.

It's called petechial hemorrhaging.

Which is typical of
manual strangulation,

not a hanging.

That's a big miss, isn't it?

I don't fault Broward's M.E.

Distinguishing a hanging from
strangulation is very difficult.

So, there's a chance she was murdered.

"Chance" being the operative
word. It could be a strangulation

made to look like a hanging, but as
of now, the evidence is equivocal.

But there's no way to know for sure.

Too bad you can't travel back in
time to the original crime scene.

You're a genius.

see you back at the lab.

I don't understand. You got a look
at her body. Why are you doing this?

We believe the autopsy
may be inconclusive.

So, Broward PD was right
about it being a suicide?

Well, we have an open mind.

So, you're going to recreate her death?

I would, I'd wait inside if I were you.

What do you see?

I got a distinct rope burn up here, sir.

Okay. Lace it across the beam.

Wait a minute.

I got another rope burn
across a different beam.

Which one did she hang from?

That's a very good question, Walter
Lace it across the second beam

with the rope positioned at two points,

it creates a mechanical advantage.

Should make it easier

to lift up the body.

The rope burns were caused
from someone pulling her up.

She didn't hang herself.

She was dead already.

She had ligature bruises on her neck.

The rope wouldn't have left a
mark if she was already dead.

So, they used a rope
to strangle her, Walter.

That means Broward County neglected

to take epithelials, doesn't it?

Sit down, Mr. Yates. No, no, no, no.

You can't prove I didn't
touch that rope somewhere else.

Someone could've stolen it from my shed.

No, we know that you strangled her,
because we have DNA that proves it.

Okay, here's the thing
: you're going to go away

for Hannah Wilcox's murder,
there's no doubt about it.

There isn't a jury in the world

that is going to find any sympathy

for a corporate executive who's
killing for a profit sheet.

And you're not going to last
one day in prison, because

executives are right down there
on the food chain with pedophiles.

You can make this smoother for yourself.

But you get one chance.

How?

Have a sit.

If you tell us everything,
we will offer you protection.

I have got a list of
all of the policyholders

who were employees that have
died in the last five years.

Circle all the names
you're responsible for.

Let me ask you a question, Mr. Yates.

You're just the numbers
cruncher here, right?

So you didn't come up with this
plan on your own. Who's behind this?

You'll tell the judge
that I helped you?

Yes.

My CEO, DeSalvo.

He said, "We have the
policies, why not use them?"

He told me I'd have

"lifetime employment" if I did this.

Do you have anything
that can prove that?

Like a little trail of bread
crumbs? DeSalvo's not that stupid.

You forgot to circle Jeff Lofton.

Because I had nothing to do with that.

I swear.

Excuse us for a moment.

This guy just gave us half a
dozen murders. What's the problem?

Here's the thing: if we
don't have any hard evidence,

it's going to be
DeSalvo's word against his.

- Well, then our CEO walks.
- Exactly.

And we still have to figure
out who killed Jeff Lofton.

- Hey, did you get my message?
- Patrol found our missing girl.

They also picked up her dress.
They found it at her apartment.

Okay. Well, I'll take her.

I'll take the dress.

Do you know who I work for?

I'm the executive assistant to
the CEO of Renovation Warehouse.

They have a team of
lawyers who will help me,

because I haven't done anything wrong.

Well, why didn't you
return our phone calls?

I was busy. I had errands to run.

Sequins match the dress.

You see, these sequins here were
found with our murder victim.

They came off of your dress.

Just tell us what happened.

I don't want to lose my job.

I'm not saying any more, okay?

Well, Caroline,

you may want to rethink
your company loyalty.

What's this?

That is an insurance
policy that your company

took out on the guy who got murdered.

They also have one on you.

Your company killed Lofton so they
could collect the insurance money.

Which means, you could've
been the one in that aquarium.

No, it wasn't like that.

I was with Max.

And I'm guessing you
weren't taking a memo.

Someone's going to catch us.
We should get back to the party.

So you don't want me to give
you, uh, your year-end bonus?

Are these actual diamonds?

We had a very good year.

What the hell is this, DeSalvo?

You say the company can't
pay for decent health care.

But it can afford
diamonds for a secretary?

Go down and order me a drink.

I went downstairs after that.

Okay, how long after that
did Lofton fall in the tank?

Couple minutes, maybe.

But there's no way Max
killed that janitor.

I think we'll let Mr.
DeSalvo speak for himself.

Step onto the butcher paper, please.

What is all this?

If you pushed Jeff Lofton off

the balcony, there will
be evidence of him on you.

I told you that my run-in
with him was before the party.

But a witness places you on the
balcony before he was pushed.

And by "witness," you mean Caroline?

We're going to start with your
clothing, so take your jacket off.

Why don't I save you guys the trouble?

I may have told a little lie.

I was up on the balcony with
your witness when Lofton arrived.

I ask her to leave, and he
went Christian Bale on me.

You guys won't pony up
decent health care for me,

but the new girl gets
a diamond bracelet?

That young lady works very hard, mister.

Mr. what?

I've busted my ass for
this company for 15 years,

and you don't even know my name?!

If you pushed him off the
second floor, that's murder.

I had no choice. He attacked me.

He did this to me.

The pattern of the bruising

matches Lofton's knee brace.

So you're claiming self-defense?

You know, all you've got is
circumstantial evidence, Lieutenant.

And my story's just as good as yours.

We also believe that you are responsible

for the insurance policy murders.

Really?

It's my understanding that one
of my actuaries confessed to that.

His word against mine.

And again, I like my story better.

Take him, please.

I'll be out before sunset.

He's right.

Everything we got could
support self-defense,

and we've got nothing connecting
him to the other murders.

These things have a way
of working themselves out.