Lost Son (CSI episode)

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Lost Son
CSI: Miami episode
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 1
Written by Ann Donahue and Elizabeth Devine
Directed by Duane Clark
Original airdate September 20, 2004
Episode chronology
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"Innocent" "Pro Per"

Lost Son is the first episode in Season 3 of the popular American crime drama CSI: Miami.

[edit] Plot

As a young couple drives across a bridge on their way to the Florida Keys, a large yacht slams into the bridge, causing it to collapse and sending the couple and their car into the water. They come out alive, but the captain is not as fortunate. He is found dead – but his death was caused by a gunshot to the head, not the accident. When Horatio and Yelina pay a visit to his widow, she assumes they've come about their son. She's devastated when they tell her that her husband has been killed. It turns out their six-year-old son was taken from his martial arts class and the kidnappers demanded three million dollars in jewels as ransom. The captain was to hand over the jewels on the yacht. The team soon discovers why the handover went awry. The diamonds were fake. The widow is shocked, claiming that all their jewelry is genuine and no one else had access to it, except for their diamond cleaners, McCauley Jewelers. When Horatio and Speedle go to the jewelers, they meet the skeptical new owner. Speedle moves past him into the store with his hand on his gun, which proves necessary.

A man in the back comes out shooting and exchanges shots with Horatio. The jewelry store owner runs out the front. Speedle has a clear shot at the gunman but his gun jams. As Speedle stands still and tries to clear his gun, he is shot. Horatio continues exchanging shots and hits the gunman. Another gunman comes out and more shots are exchanged and the man flees out the back. Horatio hurries to Speedle, who lies bleeding on the floor. Speedle shivers that "he's cold". Horatio tries to stop the bleeding, but it's useless. After several more seconds, Speedle dies.

Horatio hands Calleigh his gun and Speed's gun so she can process it. Rick of IAB arrives. The store owner, Rudy, was picked up two blocks away. He admits to swapping the stones but claims to know nothing about the kidnapping. The gunmen were his security.

Calleigh finds Speedle's gun needed cleaning badly. She claims she has not started examining the gun when Rick of Internal Affairs comes by and mentions that Speedle had trouble with his gun the last time he used it. Once is chance, twice is usually improper maintenance.

The palm print on the car leads them to Pete Keller. He claims it was Tawny's idea. One of Pete Keller's associates is a Sissy Huber aka the widow. She and Pete would con rich men for their money.

When she is questioned Sissy Huber, aka Tawny Williams, claims she fell in love this time and that she loves the little boy, too. She says she was only hiding her past. Caine questions Pete Keller, but he refuses to talk. Caine realizes that Pete is jealous.

The envelope Ken Timmons gave them has the imprints of an invoice from the karate place. He was in on the kidnapping. Mud from his bathroom has a specific tree. Ken is going to put the boy in Hell's Bay where he won't kill the boy. Either the sharks or alligators will do it for him.

Horatio see the boy sitting on a half sunken portion of dock. There is a bloody shirt and a flashback implies that just after Ken put the boy on the dock, a shark got him. Horatio wades out and gets the boy. The stepmother seems genuinely happy that the boy is safe. She expressed sadness at the loss of Tim Speedle.

The report says that Tim Speedle's gun malfunctioned. It doesn't specify whether it was poor gun maintenance, faulty mechanism or low grade ammunition because, supposedly, that would be speculation. (It was poor gun maintenance.)

Speedle is buried with full police honors. You see his parents sitting in the chairs off to the side of the grave. Caine and Delko do not attend their therapy sessions that they are ordered to take which causes some problems in the future.

[edit] See also