CSI: Miami

Stephanie and Lisa, two teenage girls, are out driving when something happens to cause Stephanie to lose control of the car. They end up going over the bridge, crashing into the water below. Stephanie manages to get out of the car, and as Horatio watches the car being dragged up from the water she asks him if they have found Lisa. They haven't. Stephanie tells Horatio that they heard a bang and the car went off the road.

Lisa has been found and is being saved from the water. But it turns out there was a third girl in the water. Lisa doesn't know who she is, but Horatio does. The girl is Rachel Turner; Horatio was with her two nights ago. Alexx concludes that she has been in the water for at least a day. She was murdered, stabbed in the belly. Horatio is the last person to have seen her alive, which means he's the only suspect.

Tripp is having a hard time viewing Horatio as a suspect, but Horatio wants them to follow procedure to the letter. Tripp unwillingly questions Horatio, who tells him that Rachel is an attorney he met recently at a pre-trial hearing. There is no bad blood between them, quite the contrary. They had a date two nights ago. He hands Tripp his badge and his gun. He is a civilian on this case.

Wolfe and Calleigh arrive at Rachel's apartment, talking about the situation with Horatio. It's clear that he cared about Rachel; she's the first woman he's dated since Yelina. Wolfe notes that there are no signs of forced entry and the security alarm is de-activated. They find signs of a struggle and blood on the table. Calleigh points out that if Rachel was killed here there would be a lot more blood.

Delko is working on the car that crashed into the water. He wants to discuss the case with Horatio. He thought it was a little too convenient that the car went over at the exact same place where Rachel's body was dumped, so he checked the tires. He shows Horatio that the tire ran over a spike strip. It seems like someone is out to set-up Horatio. Delko plans on taking Wolfe with him to find where the spike strip was.

Wolfe tells Delko he'll be right with him, but first he has to stop by Valera to see if she's found the person who bled at the crime scene. She's found whose blood it is, but it's not good news. The blood is Horatio's. Wolfe calls Calleigh to tell her the news, then hands it over to Tripp.

Tripp questions Horatio, who can't explain why his blood was on Rachel's dinner table. Tripp points out that Horatio's last girlfriend, Yelena, also disappeared. Horatio is surprised by the unspoken accusation and assures him that Yelena is safe and sound. She has recently retired from the police force, and with her family. Tripp wants to apologise for the questions but Horatio won't have it. Tripp is only doing his job.

Wolfe and Delko arrive at the bridge where the girls drove over the spike strip. It's now gone, which means someone came to pick it up. Wolfe brings up a check that Delko gave to him. They were all supposed to hand in a check and together make a deposit to a children's shelter, but Delko's bounced. Delko is annoyed that Wolfe brings this up when Horatio is in trouble. Wolfe knows what's on the line with this case, but he has student loans and his credit is on the line. Delko tells him he'll take care of it. They get back to the task at hand and use the skidmarks to determine where the car hit the spike strip. They find an elevated tire mark which doesn't match the car the girls drove. The wheelbase is 122.6 inches, same as the CSI Hummers. Wolfe finds a rubberized pebble which doesn't belong on this part of the road.

Calleigh is working on the blood sample from Horatio that was found in Rachel's apartment. Wolfe arrives and tells her that things aren't looking good for the boss; if he doesn't start putting things into context he might be in serious trouble. Calleigh discovers that Horatio's blood as high levels of EDTA, an anti-coagulant which is used when people draw blood or store it for a long time.

Horatio is dealing with memories from when he worked in Manhattan while he looks through a file on the Wilson family which was left at their lab a week ago. Calleigh pays him a visit and asks if he was ever injured on the job before he moved to Miami ten years ago. Horatio reveals to her that on his last investigation in Manhattan he was stabbed badly. It appears as if someone has saved his blood from that incident for ten years in order to frame him. He shows Calleigh the Wilson file and tells her he thought Stetler left it, but now that doesn't seem to be the case. He tells her about Walter Dresden, a man who locked children in the closet while he tortured the parents. Horatio almost caught him in New York and now he's back with a vengance. He wants revenge on Horatio for nearly capturing him and ruining his life.

Meanwhile Delko learns that the pebble Wolfe found on the bridge is tarmac. There is only one rental car company located near an airport which offers Hummers for rent. Delko goes over there and learns that someone rented a Hummer recently. The car has GPS and they track it to Coral Gables. Delko calls Horatio and tells him where the car is. Horatio is alarmed to learn that it's parked on the street where Jennifer Wilson lives. He hurries over there and finds her alive and well. He wants to move her to a safer place, but she's unwilling. She can't spend the rest of her life hiding. Horatio tells her it's for her own good, but she replies that Dresden said the exact same thing. Her parents' murder is still vivid in her memory, but so is Horatio's role in the events. He shielded her from seeing her parents' bodies and took her from the closet to a place where she could feel safe. He wants to do the same now. She agrees to be in hiding until it is safe for her again.

Calleigh hands the Wilson file over to Wolfe. He takes a swab from the cover and finds an embalming fluid. Calleigh asks Alexx about it and she tells her that it's used for organ storage during autopsies. She's never seen the file before but her assistant Foster has. He tells them that a detective Phillips gave it to him and asked him to hand it over to Boa Vista.

Tripp talks to Phillips, whose car was broken into. Someone stole his ID and his badge. He didn't report it because the breakin happened when he was with his mistress and he doesn't want his wife to find out about it. Tripp doesn't care about his personal life. He impounds Phillips' car and Delko and Wolfe get to work on it. They find a red fiber which doesn't belong in the car.

A closer examination of the fiber shows that it comes from a carpet, and they track it down to a company in Buffalo which went out of business a few months ago. But before it did it sold over a hundred thousand yards of the same carpet found in Phillip's car to a company called Spirex Builders. Calleigh brings Horatio up to speed and he goes over to a nearby construction site where Spirex Builders are currently contracted.

At the construction site Horatio comes face to face with Dresden. Dresden has been waiting for him. He's been leaving traces for Horatio to find and now he's content to have him at gunpoint. Police sirens are heard and Horatio takes the opportunity to punch him in the face. Dresden is furious, but doesn't plan on killing Horatio. He is going to let him wait for the cops. He pulls the curtains from the windows, letting the light in, and Horatio finds himself standing in front of a pool of Rachel's blood. Tripp arrives with backup and is surprised to find Horatio there.

Stetler arrives and wants to know what's going on. Horatio tells him he came there to confront Rachel's killer but Stetler doesn't buy it. He thinks Horatio came to clean up the scene and when the police surprised him he claimed Dresden was there but escaped. Delko arrives and Stetler orders him to process the scene. Delko ignores him and asks Horatio for instructions but Horatio tells him to do what Stetler asks. Delko points out that there's no carpet on the site, which means no fibers. Dresden planted evidence. Stetler doesn't care. He arrests Horatio, who doesn't put up a fight.

A while later Wolfe has arrived to help Delko out. Wolfe is worried that Dresden might be too smart for them but Delko begs to differ. He left evidence behind earlier; why not now? Wolfe looks out the window that Dresden must have escaped through and finds a dumpster below, and a trash chute which Dresden used to escape. Delko finds the murder weapon, a butcher knife, which has a bloody print on it. Wolfe doesn't believe Dresden would be so stupid as to leave his print there and Delko replies that he might be so smart as to do that.

Stetler has put Horatio in a holding cell, to Calleigh's disbelief. She is worried that the press will find out and make it look like there's blood on Horatio's hand. He tells her that there is in fact blood on his hands. A smile appears on Calleigh's face. He asked her to bring the kit; the blood on his hands belongs to Dresden. Dresden is constantly one step ahead of them in this game, but now it's time for the CSIs to make their move.

Wolfe processes the trash chute and finds an electronic processor. The construction has not gotten far enough for electronic devices to have been installed so it must have come from Dresden.

Meanwhile Delko is out on a personal errand. He gets in a car with Johnny Nixon, a drug dealer, and buys marijuana from him. One gram less than what makes a felony.

Calleigh asks Boa Vista to run the results from the blood on Horatio's hands. Boa Vista points out that she works in Cold Case, and this case is not cold. Calleigh wants her to do it anyway, to see if Dresden has been involved in any unsolved cases in the past ten years, possibly outside Miami. Boa Vista reluctantly agrees. She could get into a lot of trouble if the feds find out she's working on a hot case.

Delko returns and Wolfe wonders where he's been. He's a little annoyed with Delko for going off on personal errands after giving him a lecture on focusing on personal stuff while Horatio is in trouble. Delko turns the topic back to work. The print on the knife had glycerin on it, meaning someone planted it there. The glycerin was used to lift prints off a surface and place it on another. Wolfe recalls only finding one wine glass in Rachel's apartment. It had lipstick on it, so it must have been Rachel's. Dresden took Horatio's glass with him and lifted a print off it. Wolfe can't help but be impressed by Dresden's handywork, but unfortunately for him he's not good enough.

Delko goes to Horatio's holding cell and tells him that the print was forged and as soon as they get a warrant for Dresden's blood they can confirm that the blood on Horatio's hands belonged to him. They now have proof that Horatio and Rachel are not the only two people involved in this crime and Tripp sent Horatio's badge with Delko. Horatio is released from the holding cell.

Calleigh is down in the parking garage when a red dot appears on her throat and Dresden is holding the weapon. He doesn't want her to look at him even though she knows all about him. He tells her she doesn't know all that much. She thinks that his last victims were the Wilsons but that's not exactly true. He tells her to ask Horatio about Jennifer Wilson's mother. A car passes between them, giving Calleigh the chance to draw her gun. But Dresden is gone.

Calleigh goes to talk to Horatio. He tells her that Dresden went for happily married couples, but it turned out not all couples were that happy. Horatio's partner was having an affair with Judy Wilson. That's why Horatio feels the responsibility to look after Judy's daughter. He leaves Calleigh and goes to Boa Vista. She has found a match to the blood they suspect belongs to Dresden. A young couple in Orlando was murdered by him with their son locked in the closet. Like with Rachel's murder there was no sign of forced entry, but there was a similar safety alarm. This leads them to believe that Dresden installs these alarms, and a call to the security compant tells them what house Dresden is working in at the moment.

Horatio takes Wolfe with him and they take Dresden by surprise. Wolfe is more than happy to put him in handcuffs and he's brought in to the station. Horatio and Tripp question him and he smugly claims that he was innocent of the Wilson killings. He claims that the actual murderer was Horatio's partner, and Horatio knew about it but kept quiet. Horatio doesn't deny that he knew Judy Wilson was his partner's mistress and that he resigned from the NY police force to avoid having to tell his superiors about the connection. Dresden is pleased. They can't tie him to Rachel's murder so he's free to go. He is shocked to learn that that's not the case. They have been able to tie him to the Orlando murder instead.

Unfortunately for Horatio, Dresden is not the only one who's about to get an unpleasant surprise. The DA is bringing the case against Dresden in front of Judge Ratner. Horatio arrested him a year back for murder, and the case is still pending, with Ratner out on his own recognizance. Ratner is vindictive and only too happy to get back at Horatio. Nevermind the fact that Horatio was cleared of Rachel's murder, his own team should not have investigated it. Horatio points out that this concerns the Orlando case, which he was not a suspect in. That doesn't mean anything to Ratner. An Orlando judge will have to hear that evidence. Dresden is free to go until then. Horatio is furious and tells Ratner that the blood of Dresden's future victims is on him. Ratner replies that Horatio should not have messed with him. A frustrated Horatio turns to see Dresden waving to him on his way to freedom.