The Glades Episode 2.07 Addicted to Love

At a packed strip club, women dance around on stage, including Candy, who is dressed as a police office. Waitresses go around from table to table checking on guests. One of the waitresses approaches a man who seems to be asleep. She shakes him, attempting to wake him, but he topples over and falls to the ground dead.Detectives Jim Longworth and Samantha "Sam" Harper relax on the beach, post-workout. Sam rubs sun block on Jim and jokes about him participating in an upcoming Iron Man challenge. Jim asks Sam if she's heard anything from the Sugarloaf Police Department about the job she applied for. She tells Sam a lot of local talent applied for the job so she has some competition. Then her phone rings and she gets the good news - she got the job. Before the two can celebrate, Jim gets a call from Carlos Sanchez.

Jim and Carlos stand over the lifeless body of Dr. Pierre Toussaint, the man found dead at the strip club. Toussaint was a doctor from Haiti who came over to the U.S. three years prior on a work visa. Carlos says he collapsed over an hour ago from full respiratory arrest. Carlos points out the murder weapon: a hypodermic needle in Pierre's thigh. He tells Jim that the murder must have spiked him with it and it broke off in his leg.

Jim mentions there was a packed crowd at the club, but that no one saw anything. Carlos says they will need to do a toxicology screen to determine what was in the syringe. Jim notices Dr. Toussaint had no money in his wallet and wonders why someone would come to a strip club without any singles. Carlos chimes in that he hears the lunch buffet is really good there. He also mentions he heard Sam got the job in Sugarloaf, just as Callie approaches them. Callie asks Jim about the job, but Carlos interrupts, asking her to gather rule-out DNA from the employees and search the dressing rooms for any evidence of IV drug use. Callie continues to ask Jim about Sam's new job offer - she thought Sam was going back to Chicago. Jim tells her Florida is where the new job is. Callie walks away looking sad. Jim turns to Carlos, annoyed that he called Callie in on the investigation. But the subject changes back to Toussaint when Jim finds the victim's car keys.

Jim and Carlos walk outside to where Toussaint's car is parked. He opens the trunk to find a suitcase with a brand new gun in the front flap, filled with $100,000 in cash.

Jim and Carlos stand with the waitress who found Pierre dead looking over surveillance footage. She points out a suspicious-looking man wearing a baseball cap with some kind of dog on it who came into the strip club and spoke with Toussaint. She tells them that the Doctor Toussaint usually comes in for the gumbo at the buffet and keeps to himself. Daniel Green, who was examining the Toussaint's car, walks in, gawking over the women in the club, and hands Jim a parking pass to Citrus Spring Wellness that he found. Jim tells Daniel to download footage from the surveillance camera and to get a video capture of the suspect in the baseball hat. Callie comes over and says she didn't find any evidence of IV drug use or employees with diabetes but found a business card.

Back at the office, Jim tells Colleen Manus about the crime scene and says he thinks he was murdered over a drug deal because he found the glock in the trunk. The gun was unused and unregistered, so Dr. Toussaint probably just had it for show in case he needed to protect all the cash he had on him. Colleen mentions the Pierre Citrus Springs Wellness Group. Callie, walking by, overhears and tells them that Citrus Springs is a part of a larger pain management center which gets a lot of "doctor shoppers" which, as she explains, are addicts who go from doctor to doctor playing up their chronic pain in order to get refills on their prescriptions. Carlos tells the team that Pierre was spiked with a lethal amount of Oxycodone and died shortly after the injection. Manus tells the team that Daniel is downloading and cleaning up the surveillance footage from the club, as well as running background checks on everyone interviewed there. Manus n then asks Callie to go with Jim to question the people over at Citrus Springs. Jim reluctantly looks at Manus, slightly annoyed.

Jim and Callie ride over to the Wellness Center. Jim points out that the fact that they're working so closely together isn't working for him. He asks her to consider taking up extra shifts at the hospital but Callie tells him that she enjoys what she's doing, it will make her more marketable as a doctor, and that she's not going anywhere. Before their discussion can escalate, Jim gets a call telling him that Citrus Springs Wellness Group just got robbed.

Jim and Callie arrive at the Wellness Center and talk to Dr. William Grant, the head of the clinic. Shocked about Toussaint's murder, he tells them Toussaint normally ran the clinic, but that he came right over when the police notified him about the robbery. He also said he got a call from Toussaint saying that he was taking an early lunch and he was closing up and sending everyone home for the day. When Jim asks Grant if he knows of someone who might have had a gripe with Toussaint, perhaps a "doctor shopper" who was cut off, Grant says that isn't the kind of clinic they operate. Grant then tells Jim and Callie that he met Pierre on a mission in Haiti three years ago and sponsored his work visa and medical license. He wasn't sure whether Toussaint had a family because he was a hard worker and kept to himself. When Callie asks for Toussaint's patient list, Grant balks, saying it's confidential. But Jim hands him a search warrant. Grant says since the staff was sent home, he has no way of accessing the files. But Callie recognizes the software the clinic uses and is able to log in with her own user name and password to access the information.

Walking out of the clinic, Jim wonders why Grant hasn't had security cameras installed outside of the clinic, despite having been robbed before. Callie tells him that they would only scare away the cash customers. She then explains exactly how the system works - the addict walks in and knows exactly what to say. 10 minutes and $500 later, they have a script for Oxycodone and they haven't even been examined. There's a drugstore he owns, conveniently located across the street from the clinic where these patients can have the prescriptions filled. Jim notices an ATM across the street, likely not owned by Grant, and calls Daniel and tells him to collect its camera footage to review.Jim and Callie arrive at Pierre's apartment. Inside, the walls are bare and there is little to no decoration or furniture. Callie speculates that maybe he was sending money back to Haiti. Jim says he's going to have Manus check with the Haitian Birth and Marriage Records department to see what they can find out from his financials. Jim sees one of the pieces of mail is a letter from CostSmart telling Pierre about the reward points he has earned. Callie notices a photo of a young girl on his night table and Jim speculates on who it could be. His sister or daughter, perhaps? Daniel calls to tell Jim that he just got a call from a local pharmacy where a patient is trying to get a refill of 160 mg of Oxycodone. The name on the prescription pad is Pierre Toussaint.

At the pharmacy, a well-dressed, noticeably impatient woman named Laurie Fisher waits at the pharmacy counter for her refill. Jim and Callie her she needs to come to the station for questioning in the murder of Pierre Toussaint. The woman then sprints off, pushes Callie aside and runs towards the door. Jim chases after her, and is able to stop and cuff her before she can get outside.

Jim arrives at the station where Daniel and Sam are going over the surveillance footage, comparing the suspicious-looking man with the dog image on his hat to the business cards found in Pierre's wallet. Jim points at Laurie and asks Daniel whether he has seen her in the footage. He says no, but says he'll keep checking. Daniel also says he'll focus on the business cards that are dog-related and cross check them with Pierre's patient list. Jim picks up Michael Caldwell's card, who works for Road Hound Trucking. Sam says he's on the patient list and was suffering from whiplash. Jim calls the office number on the card and finds out that Michael hasn't been at work for a couple of days. He asks Daniel to contact the DMV and get Michael's license and registration and to put out a bolo (be on the lookout) for his car.

Inside the interrogation room, Laurie swears that she didn't kill Pierre. She explains that she had an injured disc from her college gymnastic days that recently acted up again after a company softball game. She is a loan officer at Federal Merchant Bank and Trust. She got hooked on Oxycodone after consulting a pain management specialist, Grant, who put her on the meds. He suggested a surgical option but couldn't fit her in for the procedure for a month so he gave her the prescription to keep her comfortable. After she became hooked, he dropped her as a patient and sent her to Pierre, who helped wean her off the medication. She swears to Jim that Pierre was saving her life and she just recently had a relapse. Dr. Toussaint knew she had a setback and was trying to help her and save her life. She asks Jim, "Why would I kill someone for saving my life?"

In the office room at the station, Carlos, Jim, Daniel, and Manus sit around the table looking over the clinic's records. Carlos mentions that the Florida Department of Health had Toussaint on a watch list for overprescribing. In three months he had moved 250,000 Oxy pills alone, plus other hard prescription drugs that brought the Wellness Center about $50,000/day in profits from prescriptions alone. Manus says that the Haitian government doesn't have any of Toussaint's records because the recent earthquake had destroyed most of them. Daniel mentions that even with all that money coming in, Grant wrote the clinic off as a loss on his tax returns. Jim suggests that he either knew this was going on and found out Pierre was skimming money off the top, or didn't and killed Pierre.

Jim arrives at Grant's posh office where Grant tells him that he had no idea of any financial irregularities at any of his clinics. He said the board operates the corporate tax returns and if there was anything untoward going on, he's completely in the dark about it. When Jim questions Grant about the $50,000 a day being pulled into the clinic, Grant gets defensive, saying "Am I supposed to apologize because the pain management business is healthy?" Jim then suggests Grant killed Pierre because he was making money off his patients and Grant wanted a piece of his profits. Grant then says that he understands why Pierre may have been profiting off of the clinic by writing too many prescriptions - he grew up poor in Haiti. Then Jim starts to question him about Laurie. Grant tells Jim that when she was his patient, he suggested she get surgery for her pain. After looking over x-rays, he later realized that her pain wasn't physical and he referred her to rehab for her addiction. When Jim asks him for his alibi, Grant says he was in his office giving post-op surgical notes to his dictation service. According to Grant, all pre and post op surgical notes are required to be recorded by a certified dictation service for insurance purposes.

Back at the office, Daniel, Manus and Jim look over surveillance footage from the clinic break-in. Jim identifies Michael Caldwell in the videos. He has a criminal record, including charges for assault and DUIs. Manus points out that when Caldwell left the clinic he came out empty handed, which seems strange. Why break in and take nothing? Jim gets a call and tells Manus that Caldwell is now looking to the street for pills. He leaves the station telling Manus a swat team won't be necessary.

Jim arrives at a retirement home where he approaches a flirtatious older woman on a lounge chair. He shows her a photo on his phone of Caldwell and the woman recognizes him as Regina's "nephew." The woman says Regina has "a lot of nephews, if you know what I mean." Jim finds Caldwell talking to Regina, trying to make a drug deal. Jim approaches Caldwell, who takes Regina by the neck and presses a dull comb against her throat in an effort to hold her hostage. Jim tells him to let her go and Caldwell throws Regina at Jim and runs in the other direction, only to be stopped by police officers with their guns drawn. Jim takes Regina and cuffs her, arresting her for selling her Oxy.Jim sits with Caldwell in the interrogation room. Caldwell, who looks like he's going through Oxy withdrawal, sweats profusely and begs Jim for water. Jim sits across him and taunts him with a cold bottle of water while he asks him questions. Caldwell tells him that he got prescriptions from Pierre for $500/sheet. He says he needs the drugs because he has bad sciatica and Oxy is the only thing that will ease the pain enough for him to drive (he drives a truck for a living). And now a task force in Kentucky tracks how much Oxy you buy and now doctors won't write it and drugstores won't sell it. Jim suggests he killed Pierre after he cut him off. Caldwell fidgets in his chair and swears to Jim that he didn't kill Pierre. His sweating increases. He says he needs help and that his bones are on fire. He falls from his chair, hitting the ground hard and passes out.

At the hospital Caldwell is rolled in by EMTs. Callie says it will be 48 hours before Jim can talk to him. She also says Caldwell is looking at about a week of hell to detox from the Oxy. When Jim says he thinks Caldwell killed Pierre because he cut him off after seeing how badly addicted he was, Callie counters that addicts usually fixate on their source, not kill them, because they control the drugs and that's all they care about.

At the station, Daniel hands Manus and Jim files of Pierre's finances that he gathered. They notice outrageous claims in Pierre's finances for the clinic (such as $3,000 a month for toilet paper) and assume he was trimming off the top. Jim asks Daniel to check Pierre's CostSmart membership to see if he was double-dipping by paying twice for everything and hiding his debt. Daniel points out there was no paper trail for any of the extra funds and that either he's hiding his cash somewhere or he's some kind of financial wizard. Jim realizes that he must have had someone helping him.

Jim arrives at the bank and approaches Laurie at her desk. He says that he knows that Laurie helped open three of the clinic's bank accounts. She says English was Pierre's second language. Jim tells her that he thinks Laurie was helping Pierre steal from Grant and hiding it offshore for him. That's also how she got Oxy. Jim holds up a group photo, a Halloween office party, with Laurie in a platinum wig, dressed as Lady Gaga. She snatches the photo away as Jim asks about Pierre's personal accounts. Laurie opens up Pierre's account information on her computer and Jim notices that a small amount of money is being deducted from his account, probably a service charge from the bank. He guesses it's for a lockbox. He serves her with a warrant for access to the lockbox.

Jim and Manus stand over Daniel's computer talking about how they still don't know what the $100,000 found in Pierre's car was for. They then start to watch a DVD Jim found in Pierre's lockbox, which was the only thing in there. On screen, a drugged-out topless woman, back to the camera, kneels by a glass coffee table, chopping and snorting a powder. Jim recognizes her as Laurie. A man walks into the shot on the other side of the table, his top half cropped by the fixed frame of the camera. They both sit down and start kissing. Manus recognizes Grant as the man. Jim speculates the $100,000 was hush money for Pierre after finding out Grant was extorting patients.

In the Citrus Springs parking lot, Jim confronts Grant about the video tape, Grant tells him he had no idea it existed. He also says that a month after he dropped her as a patient, she came to his office. Grant admits that he made a mistake with Laurie, but what he did wasn't illegal. He says unless Laurie is filing a complaint, he has a room full of patients to attend to. He gets in his car, drives away, swipes a magnetic card at the gate to get out. Jim calls Daniel and tells him to call the parking pass company and compare it to the pass he found in Pierre's car.Back at the bank, Jim speaks to Laurie about the video he found inside of Pierre's lockbox. She tells him that Grant made her have sex with him for the Oxy. Laurie tells Jim that Pierre was afraid of Grant and not following Grant's instructions. If Pierre didn't do what Grant said, Grant was going to send him back to Haiti. Jim realizes Grant was running a "pill mill" and says Laurie wanted to do something to help Pierre since he was trying to help her. She admits she made the tape and gave it to Pierre to use as blackmail. But she wasn't going to file any charges against Grant because she didn't want to risk losing her job.

Back at the hospital, Jim walks towards Caldwell's room, but Callie stops him and says he's completely delusional. She tells Jim that the crimes Caldwell committed were because he was desperate for drugs, but that doesn't mean he killed Pierre. She explains that Oxy abusers become so obsessed with the people they get it from, they believe they can't live without them. They create a relationship based on dependency. Why would Caldwell kill his source? Jim and Callie share a stare until Jim is distracted by a doctor dictating notes into his iPad. Callie tells Jim that doctors used to have to be at their office with and use a dictation service to record their notes, but apparently there's an app for that now.

At the station Daniel tells Manus and Jim that according to the parking pass company, Grant left at 10:37 the morning of the murder and wasn't back until 1:23, after lunch, which gave him enough time to slip out and head to the strip club. So he lied about his alibi. Also, Daniel found out the strip club only has one working surveillance camera. They cut the wire on the other one because the girls were going in and out of it for smoke breaks. So anybody could have sneaked in. Daniel also found out that Grant got in trouble, though just a slap on the wrist, for overprescribing three years ago. Jim realizes that was the same time Grant brought Pierre over from Haiti - he needed a straw man for the "pill mill." He was setting up Pierre.

Jim arrives at Grant's office and grills him. He tells Grant that he uses people who are in pain. He controls them. But unlike Grant, Pierre had character and was the one person who knew just how dirty Grant was. A smug Grant smiles slightly and shakes his head.

Holding up a file containing the photo of the little girl found in Pierre's room, Carlos tells Jim that the photo is Kodacolor VR 1000, which they discontinued in 1986, making the girl in the photo about 25 years old today. Daniel then tells Jim that Pierre was a Gold Card member at CostSmart and he spent over $300,000 on various items, including diapers and baby formula. Daniel then tells Jim that the $30,000 cashier's check was made out to "Makandal Enterprise," though he couldn't find a bank or business with that name. Jim says that maybe Makandal Enterprise isn't a business.

At the Port of Everglades dock, Jim and Carlos stand with Captain Peralte, an old friend of Pierre's, in front of a boat called the Makandal Enterprise. He says the $30,000 he charged Pierre was for shipping costs only; he wasn't charging Pierre anything extra to ship his items. Jim looks at the shipping record and sees it contains baby formula, vitamins, ibuprofen, diapers, and other supplies. Peralte tells them that the girl in the picture is Pierre's daughter. Pierre came to America to make money for her and his wife's maternity clinic in Port au Prince. That's why he was shipping various medical supplies, including hospital beds, back to Haiti. The pieces begin to fall together for Jim and he realizes that's why Pierre didn't blackmail Grant; he wanted to go back to Haiti to be with his family and practice medicine. Instead, he acted as Robin Hood, skimming off the top and sending money and supplies back home. Peralte, realizing that they need to confiscate the "evidence" asks Jim if he should unload the ship, but Jim looks at Carlos, smiles, and they play dumb, allowing the items to take sail.

Back in the interrogation room, Jim sits across from somebody and begins talking.

"There's one thing about addiction I didn't get until recently. The pain I get...the destruction of lives. No, it's the delusion that addiction creates; the profound dependency that addicts have with the people who hurt them the most. And the people that try to save them. That's the part I didn't get, until a very smart forensic nurse explained it to me."

At the other end of the table, a broken and crying Laurie sits, her head down, as Callie watches from outside the room. Jim begins to tell Laurie that he thinks during her addiction and dependency, and while Pierre was helping wean her off the drugs, she fell in love with him. She confused his compassion for something deeper. When she found out that he had a family and was going back to Haiti, she felt betrayed and abandoned, and that's why she killed him. Jim holds up a photo from the surveillance footage of Laurie in her Lady Gaga wig, attempting to blend in with the dancers. Jim says Laurie knew he went to the strip club for the gumbo.

Sam approaches Callie, watching Jim interrogate Laurie, but doesn't say anything. Laurie, lost in the horror of what she's done, admits that as he started pulling away, she relapsed, and that's when she realized she needed him there to help her. She says he gave her four prescriptions of varying doses to help wean her off the drugs. She says he believed in her and loved her. Jim looks back at the glass and looks at Callie on the other side. Callie steps into the interrogation room.

Jim tells Laurie to help them stop Grant from doing what he did to her to someone else. Callie says they can help her get the medical help she needs. Jim says it won't get her off the hook for the murder, but if she helps them get Grant, he's sure a judge will look favorably upon her for that. Laurie doesn't say anything.

Callie walks out of the interrogation room with Jim. Sam approaches Jim and tells him there's been a slight change in her plans. Her old boss in Chicago heard about the job offer in Florida and offered her the Head of Homicide position back at home. She tells Jim that it's her dream job and she took it. Jim looks sad and disappointed. Sam asks Jim to move with her to Chicago, but that she didn't need an answer right away. Her cab is waiting outside and she has to leave now. She kisses Jim and leaves him standing alone.