Passed Pawns

Passed Pawns
Season	14
Number	6
Writer	Michael F.X. Daley, Christopher Barbour
Director	Phil Conserva
Original Airdate	October 30, 2013
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Passed Pawns is the sixth episode in season fourteen of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis

The CSI team investigates the death of a homeless man who had a huge winning streak at a small casino.

Plot

A man walks into a store and takes off his watch and ring to sell. He places the money he receives down on a blackjack table. The man continues to win and gains over $350,000. The dealers are switched and the man decides to stop. A pit boss offers to put him in a suite and come back later but the man wants to cash out now.

The next morning the man lies dead in an alley. Morgan photographs the crime scene when she is approached by Shawn Yeager from the day shift. He wants her to leave so he can take over the scene. Russell shows up and says that they can work together while he is gone to pick up his wife.

While Shawn looks through nearby dumpsters for the homeless man's wallet, Phillips searches the victim. The man was stabbed in the back 12 times and died around 3:00 am. Shawn shows Morgan and Phillips a suitcase covered in blood that he found in the dumpster. Morgan finds where the assault starts and notices blood under the victim's fingernails. On the ground the letters D and E are written in blood. Morgan suspects that the man may have been trying to identify the killer.

Russell apologizes for not picking his wife up from the airport. While they talk, Barbara gets upset that Russell keeps checking his phone and is so busy all the time. He is surprised that Charlie may be moving to Indiana for a basketball scholarship.

Robbins calls Greg into his lab to show him the tip of the blade that was found in the victim. He thinks he has seen the same wounds before. Greg agrees to look through old case files and see what he can find.

Morgan investigates the evidence and finds a bloody receipt from a pawn shop. She heads over with Shawn to question the owner. Ruby Banks is the owner but her sons are the ones who really run it. Morgan shows them the receipt and asks for the customer's name. One of the men remembers the customer as Jeremy Sikes. He had an expensive watch but was only given $200 for it. Morgan asks to take the watch and the ring with them too.

Finn reviews footage of Jeremy playing blackjack with Russell. The casino suspected that the dealer, Kristi Holt, was in on the action. Finn thinks that Kristi is the killer but Russell says it could have been anyone in that room. Morgan says he's wrong though and says the pawned watch belonged to Kristi's husband. Her husband was murdered two months ago and Finn thinks that Kristi hired Jeremy to murder her husband.

Russell reviews the murder of Simon Holt. Morgan says that the story was that Simon walked in on a burglar while Kristi was upstairs sleeping. Shawn says there was no reason to suspect the story wasn't true until now. Russell receives a text from Brass that says he picked up Kristi.

In interrogation, Kristi says there was no cheating the night Jeremy won all his money. Brass shows a picture of Jeremy's dead body followed by Simon's body. He asks her to tell the truth and she sticks with the old story. Brass suspects that Kristi hired Jeremy to murder Simon but she says that she didn't do anything wrong. She claims there was no cheating involved in the blackjack game.

The CSI team investigates the casino but can't find any signs that there was cheating. Finn shows Morgan that Kristi was interrogated by her boss for four hours so wasn't with Jeremy when he died. After reviewing footage, Morgan recognizes a man talking to the pit boss that she has seen before.

Morgan returns to the pawn shop to look at a few other items. In the footage they gave her, the man talking to the pit boss, is seen in the shop. The man is Alonzo Pierce and he was there to sell an old turn table and speakers. Morgan asks to see the items and opens up one of the speakers. Inside are stacks of money and Morgan thinks that someone left it at the pawn shop so that they could avoid a murder charge and then come back for the money.

Alonzo didn't show up for work so Brass and Shawn corner him in a parking garage. They stop a man but it turns out to be the pit boss, Bobby Esposito. Inside his car is the body of Alonzo.

In interrogation, Bobby tells Brass that something was going on between Kristi and Jeremy. He has seen people cheat and there's no way he could have done it alone. Bobby claims that he didn't tell Alonzo to kill Jeremy, just get the money back and scare him. He thinks that Alonzo lied and tried to steal the money and that's why Bobby killed him.

Sara helps Morgan out by pointing out an irregularity. If Alonzo stabbed Jeremy 12 times why didn't he have any blood on him at the pawn shop. Morgan says the case isn't closed yet.

Greg tells Morgan that Jeremy was also shot twice and one knife wound was used to dig out the bullets. He looked into old cases and found Louis Delgado did the same thing two years ago. Greg thinks that a month ago Jeremy robbed Delgado and he was back for revenge.

Brass finds Delgado at the strip club he owns. He's there to show Delgado that Jeremy is dead and had pawned his ring. Delgado says that two nights ago he was with his sick mother. Back at the office, Finn shows Russell proof that Delgado was with his mother. Finn thinks they have the right motive but wrong person. Russell thinks that maybe Jeremy had also robbed others who may have been out for revenge.

At the pawn shop, everything that Jeremy pawned is taken to investigate. In five break and enters, the homeowners walked in on the burglar. Delgado was the only one who lived though. Morgan suspects that the robberies are a cover story for something else. All these items were left off the insurance list and Shawn suspects that they were payment for assassinations. The broker thought that Jeremy was a liability since he was now homeless and desperate. Shawn says the only question left is who the broker is.

Russell and Morgan show Kristi the items that she forgot to report after her husband were murdered. One of the items was given to Simon by another woman. Russell hypothesizes that Kristi found out that Simon was cheating or beating her. She may have tried to make a final stand against Simon for what he did to her. Morgan offers her this chance to tell the truth and get rid of some of her guilt. Kristi admits that it's all true and a friend gave her the name of the broker, who told her how to pay the hitman. Kristi says the broker is a woman that she met at the pawn shop. Russell receives a call that someone just shot the pawn shop up.

At the pawn shop, Morgan learns that two armed men entered the store and shot Ruby's son, Kyle, and took her other son, Zeke. Morgan thinks that Ruby knows who did this. She denies murdering Jeremy and says that it was Delgado. Shawn disagrees with her and says she is the murderer. She admits to killing Jeremy and says her sons didn't know anything about the side business. Jeremy pawned a cigar box that had $100,000 worth of heroin inside. Ruby has already sold the drugs though. Zeke wanted to protect her and promised the armed men he would take them to what they wanted.

Brass shows up at Delgado's club and asks where Zeke is. Delgado doesn't want to say anything and threatens Brass with his bodyguards. Brass is forced to shoot one man in the leg to make Delgado talk.

At the police station, Zeke is led by a police officer past Morgan and Shawn. Morgan congratulates Shawn on the case but he tells her she deserves it. The two promise to see each other around.

At dinner, Russell talks to Barbara about Charlie. He still hasn't made a decision but Barbara has. She's thinking about buying a house in Seattle and says that he can't work in Las Vegas forever. He says he's fine but she thinks the job is getting to him. He apologizes and says his work isn't done yet. When it is he promises they will look for houses in Seattle together.

Cast

Main Cast

• Ted Danson as D.B. Russell
• Elisabeth Shue as Julie Finlay
• George Eads as Nick Stokes (credited only)
• Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
• David Berman as David Phillips
• Wallace Langham as David Hodges
• Elisabeth Harnois as Morgan Brody
• Jon Wellner as Henry Andrews
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Guest Cast

• Peri Gilpin as Barbara Russell
• Larry Sullivan as Officer Akers
• Matt Davis as Sean Yeager
• Illeana Douglas as Ruby Banks
• Max Adler as Kyle Banks
• Harrison Thomas as Zeke Banks
• Shannon Lucio as Kristi Holt
• Steven Bauer as Bobby Esposito
• Eric Frentzel as Jeremy Sikes
• Jason Manuel Olazabal as Louis Delgado
• Trina Martica as Casino Prostitute
• Tino Struckmann as LVPD Officer
• Meli Alexander as Homeless Outreach Worker (uncredited)
• Anne McDaniels as Pole Dancer Svetlana (uncredited)
• Cassandra Starr as Pole Dancer Jessica (uncredited)

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 14
• Category:Images from Passed Pawns