CSI: Miami

Tim and Eric are among the guests enjoying a night at Club Descent. The crowd cheers as DJ Scorpious sets off spectacular tall pyrotechnic sparklers. Their enthusiasm turns to terror when the sparks ignite a large stage curtain and then the ceiling. Within minutes, the club turns into a raging inferno. Tim, Eric and bouncer Danny Maxwell feverishly rush people outside, their efforts slowed by two of the building's exit doors being illegally chained shut. Horatio is one of the first responders to arrive at the hellish scene.

Ronnie Jameson, the Miami-Dade County fire marshal, tells Horatio that the exit doors had been free and clear when the club's permit was granted five months ago. However, a month ago there had been a compliance issue with the soundproofing.

Scorpious tells Eric that he uses the pyrotechnic sparklers every weekend. They're no more dangerous than Fourth of July sparklers. Nothing had ever gone wrong before.

Horatio talks to Quentin Haid, owner of Club Descent. The chained doors were to keep non-paying guests from sneaking inside. H wonders if Haid might have been trying to get out of his lease. Most clubs fail after six months, and Descent had been open for five. Haid finds that his office safe has been emptied of $15,000 in cash. The only other person with the safe's combination is bartender Johnny Brosnan, who's currently missing.

After ordering background checks on the club's employees, Horatio is called away to the home of Miami-Dade County Judge Javier Ojeda. Jill Susan, a prostitute, lies dead in the bathroom. Widowed the previous year and not interested in dating again, Ojeda had made a standing weekly arrangement with Susan. When she arrived that night she seemed disoriented and agitated, and asked to take a shower first. A few minutes later Ojeda heard a loud noise, and ran in to find that Susan had fallen. He turned off the water and immediately called the police. Ojeda specifically requested Horatio in hopes of handling the matter both properly and discreetly.

Alexx, also specifically requested by Ojeda, finds soot in Susan's nose and mouth and an invisible ink stamp on her hand. Susan had been at Club Descent during the fire. Her forehead skull appears to be fractured, and bloody mucus and blood is in the shower. The adverse effects of smoke inhalation can take some time to strike. Susan apparently began coughing violently in the shower, causing her to pitch forward and hit her head on the wall.

The car Susan drove to Ojeda's house is registered to Haid. His club employs two bartenders, one bouncer, and 33 cocktail waitresses including Susan. Haid was running a prostitution operation out of the club. While being questioned by Horatio, Haid expresses concern only about his car. H lets him go, then gives orders that the police impound lot not allow Haid near his car for 24 hours.

Examining the rubble near the club's stage, Calleigh finds a damaged tape recorder which Scorpious apparently used to record his programs. She is able to salvage the tape, which contains a swift whooshing sound of the pyrotechnics igniting the stage curtain. The speed indicates the presence of an accelerant. Since the police scent dogs didn't detect anything , the substance used was something they aren't trained for.

From remnants of the stage curtain, Tim determines that the accelerant was rum. Scorpious had been standing closest to the stage, and was the first one to escape from the club. He denies having poured the rum.

Horatio questions Ronnie Jameson, who says he had given Haid two weeks to replace the non-fire resistant ceiling soundproofing material. Haid later showed receipts indicating that he'd purchased the proper material, but Jameson did not retest to confirm that it was actually installed. Similar to a fix-it traffic ticket, the fire marshal accepts on faith the proof of purchase as proof of compliance. H shows Jameson samples of the burned ceiling material, which is charred more deeply than it should be.

After the club's stage area is cleared of debris, Tim and Calleigh return to investigate further. Tim spots a pattern on the floor where the rum was poured onto the curtain. They follow the trail into another room which hasn't yet been cleared, where they are joined by Horatio. Under the debris they find the body of Johnny Bronson, the missing bartender. He was stabbed to death with a broken bottle, and died before the fire started. Alexx comments that stabbers usually cut themselves on their weapons during the act.

As expected, Haid repeatedly visits the impound lot trying to retrieve his car. Horatio finally allows the car to be released, then watches as Haid opens the trunk to reveal a strongbox containing the cash "stolen" from his office safe. H arrests Haid, who'd been skimming his club's receipts, for pandering.

The debris removed from inside the club is stacked outside, grouped by room. Tim finds a broken bottle in the pile from the room where Brosnan was found. As the body is wheeled out through an emergency exit door, Tim notices that the door doesn't close automatically as it should. He then remembers trying to go out that door the night of the fire, and it hadn't been closed then either. The stabber could have exited that way after killing Brosnan.

Tim also remembers that the door handle had been hot, and he had used his shirt sleeve to protect his hand. Any blood the stabber may have left on the door was destroyed in the fire. But Tim still has his shirt, which has blood on it. However, the DNA doesn't match anyone in the system.

The background checks on the club's employees come in. Although his background is otherwise clean, bouncer Danny Maxwell was rejected three times in the past year by Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue. Horatio theorizes that Maxwell wanted to be a hero, and started the fire so that he could rescue people from it. Eric, who formed a strong bond with Maxwell during their lifesaving efforts that night, is sent to obtain a DNA sample from him.

Eric arrives at a blood drive for the fire victims just as Maxwell finishes donating. They chat briefly, during which Maxwell removes the bandage from his arm and discards it in the trash. Eric says that Haid will face criminal charges, and asks if Maxwell is willing to testify. Maxwell agrees, and Eric asks him to go to go to CSI headquarters to give a formal statement. Under the pretense of donating himself, Eric stays behind and then retrieves the discarded bandage.

Calleigh determines that the club's soundproofing material was the correct flame-resistant type. However, it was painted after installation. Horatio tells her that Haid made bail just that morning, and the first thing he did was check on his business insurance policy.

The blood on Tim's shirt matches Maxwell. Fire and Rescue had rejected him because nothing in his background made him stand out from other applicants. Maxwell had doused the club's stage curtain with rum, knowing that scent dogs wouldn't detect it because alcohol normally isn't used as an accelerant. Brosnan saw him, and Maxwell cut himself on the broken bottle he used to kill the bartender.

Maxwell comes from a family of firefighters, and wanted to continue the tradition. He had intended to cause only a small fire which he could easily put out. But countless variables can turn a controlled fire into a raging inferno. When the curtain ignited, DJ Scorpious toppled a burning sparkler to divert the shower of normally harmless sparks. But he knocked the sparkler toward the curtain instead of away from it, unintentionally making things worse. Then the illegally chained exit doors prevented people from escaping more quickly. Maxwell wanted to stand out from the crowd; now he does.

Horatio goes to the club, where Haid is meeting with his insurance agent. With great pleasure, H tells the agent about the illegally painted soundproofing material. That unauthorized change invalidates Haid's insurance policy. He will never get insurance again, or open another club. Furthermore, several of the fire victims and their families have filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Haid; and that number will only grow. Even if he manages to avoid criminal charges, Haid will be tied up in court for years.

Outside the club Horatio runs into Ronnie Jameson, who says he's resigning from the fire department. Jameson feels responsible for the tragedy, since he didn't retest to confirm that the proper soundproofing material was actually installed. H earnestly tells Jameson that he couldn't have prevented what happened. More good people, not fewer, are needed, and now more than ever. The guilt they feel in situations like this is what keeps them sharp.

Jameson finally agrees to Horatio's request that he at least think over his decision before acting on it. He leaves, and H watches as a couple place flowers at a makeshift shrine near the club's entrance.