Fahrenheit 932
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| “Fahrenheit 932” | |
|---|---|
| CSI:Crime Scene Investigation episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 12 |
| Written by | Jacqueline Zambrano |
| Directed by | Danny Cannon |
| Original airdate | February 1, 2001 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "I-15 Murders" | "Boom" |
This is the twelfth episode from the first series of the popular American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, set in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A tape is delivered to Grissom from a man accused of killing his wife and son in an arson fire. With Sara and Warrick's help, he discovers it was originally Conrad Ecklie's case in which Ecklie did some sloppy work. Meanwhile Catherine and Nick investigate the death of a teenage 'runner', who was shot at close range.
[edit] Plot Details
At a prison, a man writes an address on a package; it's for Grissom. He drops it in the mail bag, it's x-rayed and contains a video tape. It's delivered while Brass and Grissom are eating lunch; Brass warns Grissom to be careful opening it. Grissom watches the video; Frank Damon tells Grissom that he's awaiting trial for the murder of his wife and son; Brass says it's an arson case from a few months ago. Damon asks for Grissom's help.
The team comes into Grissom's office for their assignments: a dead male in the front seat of his car is given to Nick and Catherine; Warrick and Sara are with Grissom. Catherine comments that Ecklie worked the CSI on the arson case; Grissom says that they're both looking for the truth. Brass tells Grissom that eye-witnesses saw Damon running from the burning house, and his wife was maxed out on her credit cards. There was also gasoline found in the master bedroom and Damon bought a gallon of gas a week before the fire; there is no compelling evidence to suggest that Damon was wrongfully charged.
In a parking garage, Nick and Catherine examine the body of a young male with a gun shot to the head. Catherine finds his wallet, empty, and speculates that the killer was in the back seat, waiting for him. Nick finds something in the victim's ear, and thinks it's a hearing aid. There's condensation on the rear window, and a bag full of money on the floor, Nick guesses that it's at least $15,000, and there's also a ticket saying "Giants -9," written by Teller 12. At the casino, Teller 12 tells them that the guy was a runner; Catherine says he was only 16 and that's illegal. The teller says that he's out of the job at the end of the week, and he doesn't really care, and he only knows the runner's number, not his name.
At the prison, Grissom meets with Damon, who says that 6 specialists have turned him down. Grissom says that he can tell by looking that Damon reads a lot, and he's well educated, and he had a white collar job, and asks about the fire. Damon tells him that at midnight, he went out for ice cream, as his 8-year old son couldn't sleep, they were supposed to go camping the next day. He got back in 20 minutes and saw smoke coming out of the back of the house, he knew not to open the door because of flash-over - at 932 degrees Fahrenheit, the smoke will flash into fire, and he knows this because he's a volunteer fireman. He left the house and called in the fire from his car. Grissom mentions the gas found on the floor of the closet; Damon says he doesn't know how it got there. The gas receipt is mentioned; Damon says that he bought it for the lawnmower, and kept it in the garage; and someone else put the gas in the closet. He puts his hand up on the glass and Grissom sees it's burnt; Damon says he doesn't remember how he got it, but Grissom doesn't believe him.
Grissom goes to the house, which is still taped off as a crime scene, with Warrick and Sara. Grissom comments that if the fire hasn't ruined the crime scene, the firemen have. They find a mattress in the living room, and a backpack with camping things in it, including waterproof matches, which Sara bags. Grissom says that the fire was contained in the bedroom, but the outside of the door frame is burned, although the door itself isn't scorched. Sara finds something on the door knob, and thinks that it's rubber; Warrick comments that firemen wear rubber gloves. Ecklie reported that the point of origin for the fire was the bedroom closet. Grissom finds a narrow V-pattern on the wall, which indicates the point of origin for the fire and also means that it was an intense, rapid fire. He finds shards of glass at the apex of the V, which are melted into the concrete. He notes that spalling on the glass confirms that an accelerant was used, but there's no trailing to indicate that the accelerant was spread around, which would usually be the case in an arson, to maximize the burn. Warrick and Sara have both decided that Mr. Damon is guilty.
Catherine talks to Mrs. Hillman, who identifies the body of her son. She says that Joey wasn't hearing impaired, and doesn't know why he'd have a hearing aid, then realizes that Danny, her other son, got Joey into "that racket;" of being a runner. She tells Catherine that she hasn't seen Danny in a week, and he won't return her calls; she wonders if something has happened to him as well.
Grissom comes back to the lab with evidence from the house, and Ecklie talks to him, saying that the case is closed, but when Grissom mentions the lack of trailing, the end up arguing over what the evidence shows.
In the locker room, Nick and Catherine ask Warrick about runners; he tells them that they make 2 Gs a week and they have routes, but they don't know who their boss is; it's only "the Voice," and is never seen. Nick wants to find the Voice, but Warrick says that's probably impossible, and they'd be better off talking to another runner, adding that the runners would kill each other for a good route.
Grissom runs tests on the flash over point; Sara has the door frame, and the burn depth shows that the wood burned hot and fast, but there's no accelerant. They discover that the only way for the door frame to have burned was with oxygen, which means that Damon opened the door, and Grissom tells them to chase the lie until it leads to the truth.
Grissom goes back to the prison, where Damon is talking to a woman; she hugs him and leaves. Damon says she's his sister, who stood by him in this. Grissom asks about the fire; Damon says he's told Grissom everything. Grissom mentions the door frame being burned, and says that the door was opened, and looks at Damon's hand and matches the burn to the door knob. Damon begins to cry; he doesn't want anyone to know that he opened the door because he's a volunteer fireman and should have known better. Grissom points out that this places him outside the fire, but Damon doesn't want to admit publicly what he did, because, he says, by opening the door, he let loose a monster, and killed his wife and son. Grissom tells him that CO killed them, not Damon. Grissom asks if he's lying about starting the fire too?
In a casino, Nick and Catherine talk to teller 12 again, who points them to runner #702 who used to hang with #517 (Joey). They talk to 702, who's talking to his boss as he places a bet. He tells them that Joey was a good kid. Catherine asks who got Joey's route, but he doesn't know. He tells them he only knows what he sees on the news, and can't help them.
Warrick looks over the house, Grissom sneaks up on him. They move the mattress and find a heater, which Warrick figures it was in the bedroom, and Grissom says it was high voltage, which might have overloaded the house. They check the breaker box and find an overload.
Catherine gets the test results from the condensation on the car window; it's nasal mucus, from a sneeze. Mrs. Hillman arrives with her son Danny and talks to Catherine. Danny tells Catherine and Nick that he took his runner money and played blackjack and lost $30,000 in 20 minutes, so he ran because he was scared. He didn't warn Joey that someone might try to harm him as payback for him; he didn't think about that. He has no idea who did it, and is about to speculate but his mother tells him not to say any names; that if he talks, they'll come after him. Nick says that he doesn't have to give them a name, just the frequency for the ear piece.
Grissom looks at the electrical system; Eclkie says its' a waste of time, and there was no heater in the bedroom. Grissom says that it was in the living room after the fire, that there was an outlet by the bed, and that could change the origin point for the fire. The wires show that the heater overheated, and that the fire started in the wall, not on the floor. Ecklie is still certain that the accelerant in the closet is the answer. Grissom talks to Damon again, who still can't explain why there was gas in the closet, so the charges stand.
O'Reily brings in the runners; Catherine and Nick get voluntary swab from them; #702 bets Nick 100 dollars that it's not one of his guys. They test the swabs and none match the mucus in the car. They release the guys, Nick promises to pay the guy later.
Grissom counts the matches from the backpack; there's 20 of them, which means that none of them were used in the fire. He tells Sara that he doesn't know what he's doing. She has a theory: the melted glass proves that the fire burned at over 1000 degrees, but the conclusion of gas isn't based on finding any in the closet, it's based on the receipt. The water from the fire hoses washed all the evidence away, and the hydrocarbon in the closet could be something other than gasoline. They go back to the house and discover that there's a clean up crew there, carting out the evidence. They go back to the lab where Grissom yells at Ecklie, who says that he didn't send the clean-up crew; they've been on the schedule for months. Ecklie offers Grissom some coffee; Grissom knocks the pot out of his hand and it shatters on the wall, dripping down the door, which gives him an idea. He goes back to the prison, where he sees the woman talking to Damon again. He speaks to her as she leaves and asks about Damon's relationship with his wife and son; she says he was a wonderful father, but doesn't mention his wife. He talks to Damon, and tells him about the coffee pot, saying it happened because he lost his temper. He asks if Damon has ever done anything like that? Damon is silent, and Grissom is about to leave; Damon tells him that he didn't leave to get food, he was leaving for good. He says that he and his wife argued, and she was throwing things at him as he was packing, so he left the house to drive around and cool off. He drove around for about 20 minutes. Grissom wants to know specifically what she threw at him; Damon says a phone, a bag, a vase... Grissom asks if it was glass; Damon remembers that it was, and that it wasn't a vase but a lamp with a wick. He says that it was a kerosene lamp, and it shattered. Grissom tells Damon that the space heater caused a spark in the overload, which ignited the kerosene and started the fire.
At the casino, Nick asks teller 12 where he can find runner 702, then notices the watch that the teller is wearing; he also asks about the teller leaving for a new job. Teller 12 tells him that today is his last day. As Nick turns, the teller sneezes, and Nick turns back; he envisions the crime happening with the teller being the shooter in the back seat of the car. He asks if the new job is Joey's old route, then asks if he got so scared when he shot Joey that he forgot to take the money? The teller says he wants a lawyer, and Nick tells him to get one who knows forensics, because they've got him.
At the prison, Grissom shows up to offer Damon a ride, but the woman is there as well. Damon hugs and kisses her, then comes over to talk to Grissom; he explains that she's not his sister, she's his girlfriend, and asks if Grissom would have helped him if he knew that Damon was leaving his wife for another woman? He tells Grissom that he thought that when he got out, he'd feel free, but he feels... as he trails off into silence, Grissom asks, "Responsible?"
