And They're Offed


And They're Offed

Season	7
Number	13
Writer	Barry O'Brien
Director	Matt Earl Beesley
Original Airdate	January 19, 2009
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And They're Offed is the thirteenth episode of season 7 of CSI: Miami.

Synopsis

A murder is committed at a horse race, and Horatio finds out that Ryan is connected to the case.

Plot

A wealthy racehorse owner named Robert Banyon is gunned down in his luxury viewing suite while watching his horse, Backdraft, pull ahead to victory in the race. Dr. Price finds an entrance wound in the back of his head but no exit would, prompting Horatio to ask her to recover the bullet. Delko and Calleigh sweep the suite and Delko discovers that Banyon's pair of binoculars also functioned as a camera. Calleigh notices a box of pricey truffles from Chicago on a table, suggesting that Banyon had a visitor. The CSIs question Wayne Tully, a businessman from Chicago who owns the truffle company, and he admits to paying Banyon a visit to try to get him to sell him a stake in Backdraft. Banyon refused, saying he didn't need a partner and Tully left. Back at the track, Tripp catches Scott Aguilar, a "stooper," sifting through the trash looking for winning tickets that may have been discarded. While Tripp questions Scott, a patrol officer brings a young boy named Billy Gantry to Horatio, and shows him that the boy had Ryan Wolfe's card on him. Horatio takes Billy back to his home, only to find Ryan and the boy's father, Mark, engaged in a fight with a man sporting a Russian mafia tattoo. Before Horatio can corner and question him, the Russian man cuts his own throat! Ryan tells Horatio that Mark is his Gambler's Anonymous sponsor, and that he's been looking after Billy while Mark sorts out some problems. Ryan insists that Mark isn't involved with the Russian mafia. In the morgue, Dr. Price shows Delko there's no bullet in Banyon's wound and posits that he was killed with a weapon called a captive bolt gun, which is used to kill livestock.

Wondering if someone didn't like the way Banyon treated his animals, Calleigh and Delko go to to see his groom, Terrance Chase, who tells Calleigh that Banyon treated his animals right. Nonetheless, when Delko searches the stable, he discovers a captive bolt gun wrapped in a rag hidden in a feed bucket. Jane Bartlett shows Calleigh the pictures from Banyon's camera, which reveal that the jockey riding Backdraft was using an electric prod known as a jigger on him to get him to race faster. Calleigh and Delko question Colleen Flanagan, the jockey, who tells them that Backdraft was unusually sluggish out of the gate and she used the jigger to get him to pick up the pace. Though she begs the CSIs not to tell, Delko informs her it's too late. Ryan is surprised when Trace tech Michael Travers finds a racing program among Mark Gantry's possessions and identifies cocaine on his clothes. Ryan confronts Mark about the program and the drugs, and Mark tells him he's been using "a little" and that he owed the Russian mobster money. Ryan is floored. Though Ryan gets no ID off the dead Russian from AFIS, Horatio suggests trying the immigration database. This leads to an ID: Nicholas Brinks, and a connection to Ivan Sarnoff, the Russian mafia leader who also sponsored Brinks' visa. Horatio questions Sarnoff, but the man says nothing other than that Brinks was a "loyal friend." In the trace lab, Travers identifies a substance on the rag the bolt gun was wrapped in as a special polytrack used to replace dirt at racetracks. Only four tracks in the U.S. have adopted it, including one in Chicago. Horatio and Natalia track down Tully and become even more suspicious when they see the man's bolt gun is missing, despite his apparent surprise at finding it gone. Natalia also discovers a ticket for a different race than the one Backdraft competed in alongside the gun case.

Calleigh brings the tox report on Mark Gantry to Ryan, who is surprised to see that Mark had no trace of cocaine in his system. Calleigh theorizes that the cocaine may have been used to dose horses and make them sluggish. She believes Mark lied to Ryan about using in order to cover up a bigger lie: he was fixing races. Calleigh goes back to the stable and examines Backdraft, finding traces of cocaine under his bridle. Ryan confronts Mark, who admits than Ivan Sarnoff came to collect on a three-year-old debt. He tried to force Mark into dosing Backdraft, but Mark claims that though he went so far as to sneak into the stable, he couldn't drug the horse. Ryan promises that Mark and Billy will be able to disappear and escape the Russian mob. Natalia examines the ticket found near Wayne Tully's bolt gun case and finds an odd circular mark on it, which Tripp thinks may have come from the stooper he caught sifting through the trash. A little digging into Scott Aguilar's background reveals that he was the original owner of Backdraft. He tells Horatio and Tripp that he was tricked by Banyon into selling Backdraft, and when he confronted the man about it, Banyon just brushed him off. Tired of seeing Banyon getting rich off of Backdraft's wins, Scott decided to take matters into his own hands and grabbed the first available weapon--Wayne Tully's bolt gun--and killed Banyon. Mark Gantry meets Ivan Sarnoff in a parking garage, promising to fix a race for Sarnoff. Sarnoff says he'll be fixing a lot of races to make up for backing out of dosing Banyon. Before Sarnoff can finish his threat, Horatio comes out of the shadows: he set Sarnoff up. Ryan grabs his playbook and sees pages of fixed races. Sarnoff scoffs at Horatio, promising that the CSI is bringing a world of hurt onto himself and that trouble is coming for him and his team...all of whom he has under surveillance. As Sarnoff's men look on, Ryan helps Mark and Billy Gantry pack up and get out of town, Delko tries to call Calleigh and leaves her a box of truffles and Calleigh takes a ride with Terrance Chase.

Cast

Main Cast

Guest Cast

Samantha Quan as Jane Bartlett

Trivia

After several complaints about Emily Procter's cleavage on the show, the executives at CBS decided that they would dress her in a suit instead to help raise viewer ratings.