Thursday 6th August 9.00pm
Continuing this week is the hit US drama series following the work of CBI consultant Patrick Jane. In this episode, the execution of a former mafioso in the witness-protection programme leads the agents to a retired mob boss, an unethical US Marshal and a jealous widow. Elsewhere, Lisbon receives a surprise gift on her birthday.
The agents are called to a riverbank in the rural town of Sierra Vista where amusement arcade employee Ed Didrikson has been shot dead. The victim’s boss explains that Ed was a good shift manager who kept a low profile, but a conversation with the kids at the arcade tells a different story. When questioned by Jane, one lad claims that Ed sold marijuana at work, often spoke about respect and kept his customers in check with violence.
When Lisbon and the team visit the Didrickson house, they are met with hostility by the victim’s widow, Jenny. Refusing to believe they are police officers, the woman draws a shotgun and a tense standoff ensues – until armed US Marshals burst through the door. With peace restored, Lisbon explains the situation. It emerges that Ed Didrickson, formerly Eddie Russo, was a mafioso until he testified against his boss, Sonny Battaglia, and was moved to California under the witness-protection programme. The US Marshals had been assigned to look after Eddie and his wife. “So you people are witness protection – that means you are supposed to protect people?” asks Jane, sarcastically.
At the station, Jenny, formerly Gina, is in no doubt as to who killed her husband. “It was that pig Sonny Battaglia and his people,” she spits. “They swore they would get [him] and now they have.” Against Lisbon’s instructions, Jane visits the supposedly retired mob boss at a golf course. By offering to help him with his game, the wily consultant manages to gain an audience with Battaglia and tells him about Russo’s murder. The gangster claims he had nothing to do with the crime, but asks that Jane keep him informed of the investigation and hands over his mobile phone number. “Sonny Battaglia’s clean,” says Jane upon returning to HQ.
Rigsby and Van Pelt question a biker thought to have been involved in Eddie’s recent drug-dealing activities. The biker, known as ‘Tiny’, is not surprised by Eddie’s death. “Eddie was a rat. Rats get dead,” he says. After being caught dealing on the street by local police, he and Eddie were arrested – but the charges against Eddie mysteriously disappeared. “He’s a narc or a snitch,” says Tiny. “He’s dirty, lowdown scum – but that doesn’t mean I killed him.”
Back at HQ, Cho theorises that the missing drug charge is central to the case. “The key is who sprung Eddie from that charge – and I’m betting it was those Marshals,” he says.
Cho’s theory gains credibilitywhen it emerges that Marshal Christy Knox collected Eddie from work on the day he disappeared. Local police then confirm that it was Knox who asked them to drop all charges against Eddie. Could the crooked Marshal have turned her charge over to the mafia in exchange for cash? Knox’s partner, Marshal Exley, is furious at the suggestion – until Lisbon explains that the officer has gone AWOL. When Knox is finally found, she is semi-conscious in her car, having taken a number of pills in an apparent suicide bid.
It seems that Sonny Battaglia and his crew are back in the frame, but Jane suspects that the murderer may be closer to home. With Van Pelt and Rigsby on stand-by and the former mob boss on the end of the phone, Jane heads to Jenny’s house. “Tell me the truth,” he says to the widow. “You found out Eddie was cheating, you snapped and you shot him.” Does the consultant have good reason for this accusation, or has he been duped by Battaglia?
Elsewhere this week, Jane buys Lisbon a very special – if a little impractical – birthday present. Could the secretive consultant be holding a torch for his boss?
