The Glades Episode 3.04 The Naked Truth

A man wearing swim trunks trudges out of the water, dragging a canoe behind him with one hand and holding a paddle in the other. He drags the boat ashore and he sees a rogue canoe left lying upside down a few yards away. He heads over, grabbing it by its bow. As he lifts it, he discovers a woman's naked body underneath. Visibly startled, he screams and drops the canoe.

Detective Jim Longworth and Callie Cargill lie in bed, their eyes locked in a passionate gaze, grinning and giddy and sweaty. Callie tells Jim that she feels guilty for telling Jeff her flight back to Atlanta left earlier that morning just so she could spend a few hours alone with him. Suddenly, they hear someone come in through the front door: it's Jeff. Jeff lets himself into the house with a key Jim had given him and calls out for him. Frazzled, Jim throws on his pants and heads out to greet him. Jeff tells Jim that his mom forgot to give him the $75 he needs for soccer camp before she left and asks to borrow some money. The two head over to the kitchen. Meanwhile, wearing only bedding, Callie moves towards the bedroom door to quietly monitor the situation. Jeff tells Jim that while he's there he needs to tell him something, but that he has to promise not to tell his mom. Jim nervously agrees while Callie, now by the door, listens anxiously. Jeff confides to Jim that he almost "did it" with a cute junior named Tina from his high school. Aghast, Callie hangs on his every word. Jeff says that he could have gone "all the way" (he got to second base) but didn't feel comfortable. Somewhat relieved, Jim tells him that he made the right choice. Jeff heads to the door to go to school, reminding Jim not to tell his mother. Jim smiles, saying she won't hear it from him.

Jeff heads for the door to leave, but he spots something in the bedroom and stops. Whatever he sees has him a little miffed. He goes into the bedroom, while Jim stands behind him, freaking out, thinking that he's spotted Callie naked, and grabs his X-box controller off the nightstand. He had been looking all over for it and forgot he lent it to Jim. Then he heads to the front door. In the backyard, still wrapped in bedding, Callie breathes a sigh of relief. Feeling a pair of eyes on her, she turns and sees a neighbor watching her and smiling as he sprays his hose.

At a peaceful lakefront that is now a crime scene, Jim and Medical Examiner Carlos Sanchez stand over the victim. Carlos says she is in her late 20s and has blunt force trauma to the head. Given that the victim is naked, they may have a sexual predator on their hands. Jim looks around when something catches his eye. Carlos looks up and sees that standing behind the crime scene tape is a completely nude crowd, trying to get a glimpse of the victim. Carlos immediately looks away, but Jim forces him to read a nearby sign: Swann Lake Naturist Resort. The sexual predator theory is out. The victim was in a nudist colony.

Carlos continues his examination of the body as Jim gives FDLE Regional Director Colleen Manus an update over the phone. Manus, who's standing with Bureau Chief Jennifer Stark, tells Jim that Swann Lake is one of the states' oldest nude beaches. Jim reports that Swann Lake is more than just a beach; it's a full residential community. Manus informs Jim that Florida has the largest population of "clothing optional" communities in the county and to keep her posted. Manus gets off the phone and asks Jennifer, who is setting up her office space in the conference room, if she'd prefer more privacy in an office upstairs. But Jennifer reassures her that she wants to be down in the heart of things, especially since this substation has the highest rate of arrests in the entire state; it has even outperformed substations five times larger. She tells Manus that she wants to observe the operation, review files on past cases, and conduct interviews with staff to see how they handle investigations. Manus assures her she hasn't done it alone; it's thanks to her great team that they've been able to accomplish that. Jennifer nods, and tells her she wants to see how everything works.

Back on the resort, Jim and Carlos stand over the body. Carlos wants to take her back to the lab to start the autopsy and determine the cause of death, but Jim wants him to stay and help him investigate some more. Carlos is reluctant because he's nervous about what his wife will think, but he goes along with Jim anyway.

Inside the resort's lobby, Jim and Carlos look around and see a list of activities posted on a bulletin board. They realize Swann Lake is just like any other community development, with Homeowners Association fees, security, a Board of Directors and everything else. A door opens to reveal a naked Leslie Vonn, a young woman completely at ease with being so exposed. Embarrassed, Carlos immediately looks away while Jim shows her a picture of the victim on his cell phone. Leslie gasps and tells them that it's Maggie Garret, a resident there. Leslie, who's on the Board of Directors for Swann Lake, tells Jim and Carlos that she's known Maggie for about two years and that she was one of the most well-liked residents. She says they do an extensive background check on everyone that applies to join the community and if the board doesn't trust the applicant, he or she isn't accepted. Leslie has lived at Swann Lake her entire life and can't recall a single act of violence within the community. Leslie says that she last saw Maggie the day before, when she was having lunch with Phil Levine, another member of the colony. While Leslie gets Phil's address, Carlos turns to Jim and tells him that he's on his own with that part of the investigation.

Jim arrives at a nicely maintained tract house set between similar looking homes. A steel gallon drum sits in the middle of the yard, with small flames licking the top. Phil Levine, wearing only boots, vigorously whacks away at a large overgrown bush with a machete. Jim tells him that Maggie was found murdered on the beach earlier that morning. Totally taken aback, Phil stops the yard work. Phil tells Jim that Maggie went to the beach by herself to get some sun after they got lunch. Jim says Phil was the last person to see Maggie alive and asks him if he murdered her. He says no, and that she was one of the sweetest, kindest people he ever met. She approached him about applying to become a member of the colony, and he helped her navigate the housing board. Everyone loved Maggie so much that she sailed through the selection committee and was even asked to help settle a land dispute the resort was having - she had her MBA and had previously worked as a loan officer. A condo development company wanted to break ground on some land next to the community, so Maggie would meet with them on Swann Lake's behalf. Phil tells Jim that the board's vote was split, with half who wanted to sell off a few acres of the land to the developer and half who did not. Maggie was caught in the middle. Jim asks which side he was on and Phil tells him that he had not made his mind up.

Daniel Green and Jim search Maggie's home as Jim talks to Callie on the phone. She tells him that she forgot her patient notes at his house since she was rushing out the door and that her new boss Miranda was going to kill her when she finds out. Jim calms her down; when he gets home, he'll read the notes to her. Relieved, Callie thanks him and hangs up. Jim asks Daniel, who is gazing out of the window at the nude residents, if he's found anything; he holds up a refillable mass transit card. Jim tells him to find out which public transit system it's used for. Jim flips through a book of Seminole art that he found, while Daniel extols the virtues of nudity. He says that the concept of a perfect body is a myth and that the stress caused by the unrealistic expectations of society is psychologically damaging. Nudity is not about looking at other people's bodies; it's about appreciating the human form in all shapes, sizes, ages and colors. With his usual snark, Jim says that even the people most in tune with themselves give in to human emotions, like murder and fighting. On Maggie's desk, he spots a bouquet of flowers with a note that reads "Sorry about the fight." It doesn't have a name. He hands it to Daniel, telling him to find out who sent it.

Standing over Maggie's body in the autopsy room, Carlos tells Jim that the time of death was yesterday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and that the confirmed cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. He also found trace amounts of some polymer in Maggie's head wound. He was also able to determine there was some alcohol in her system, though not a lot, as well as traces of skin tissue underneath her fingernails. Jim tells him they'll need to get DNA swabs from all of the residents of the colony. Carlos says that it sounds like a great job for Daniel, just as he walks in. Daniel tells Jim that he found out where the flowers came from: Leslie Vonn.Back at Swann Lake, the residents stand in line, waiting to get swabbed by a nervous-looking Daniel. Jim walks with Leslie, who's wearing workout clothes and carrying a gym bag. She denies that she and Maggie had a fight; she says it was a disagreement. She says that Maggie was acting as the negotiator between the colony and Donald Glandon, a developer who wants to buy 30 acres of the land from the colony to build condos. Leslie says that she is against building the condos because she wants to maintain a safe and free environment for the colony's residents, which would be disrupted if residents of a condo could peek into their backyards. She admits she got upset, but says Maggie was acting in a completely fair, professional manner - she didn't get a vote anyway and wasn't taking sides. But Jim thinks that with half of the board willing to sell it meant it was possible Leslie wouldn't get her way. She couldn't risk a newcomer ruining her way of life so that she needed Maggie out of the way. Leslie claims that the members were on the fence were only thinking about the money. Maggie believed she could come to a compromise in which both sides would be satisfied. Leslie got more upset with Maggie than she should have. That's why she sent her the flowers to apologize. When Jim asks Leslie if she is so passionate about her community that she would murder Maggie, she denies it. Before Jim lets her leave to go to an aerobics class, Leslie tells him that the board decided to end talks with Donald about selling the land.

As Donald reacts to the news of Maggie's death, Jim moves around his fancy office and checks out his collection of sports memorabilia. Jim picks up a hockey stick, or rather part of a hockey stick, and examines the ends. Donald gets up from his desk and takes the stick away from Jim. Jim muses that the stick was probably worth something before the player snapped it in half. Jim walks up to an easel holding the condo plans. Donald tells him that the company was planning on developing 250 acres of prime lake front property, but in order to break ground they need Swann Lake's 30 acres to get access to a sewage system. The offer for the land went up to $5 million before negotiations were cut off. When Jim suggests that Donald killed Maggie over her not being able to get the board to support the plan, Donald denies it. He says that he respected her and before she started working on negotiations, he was dealing with "a bunch of naked crazies." Jim asks what the net profit for him would be if the condos were developed and Donald tells him around $500 million. The wheels in Jim's head turn as he reacts to hearing this: Who wouldn't kill for that much money? Donald continues to deny killing Maggie and says that he knew that he had half the board ready to sell and that he just needs to find the right person at the right price. He's confident he can still make the deal happen; everyone has their price. Donald heads to his desk to take a call. While he's turned away, Jim takes out his cell phone and snaps a picture of a framed photo on a bookshelf.

Daniel sits in the conference room with Jennifer, who's asking him questions about his time with the FDLE. Daniel tells her that thanks to Jim, who brought him in to help with a herpetology case two years ago, he's grown to really love and respect the department and police work as a whole, even though Jim's detective methods are pretty unconventional. This sparks Jennifer's interest and, after seeing this, Daniel backtracks a bit, saying that Jim just thinks outside of the box sometimes. Jennifer just smiles and nods while Daniel keeps tripping over his words, thinking he may have said too much. She brings up a case in which Jim shot and killed an endangered caiman alligator and Daniel admits he didn't tell Jim it was endangered until after he shot it. He freaks out a bit, but Jennifer comforts him. While she can't condone detectives killing endangered animals, it ended up solving the case. She tells him, "nicely done." Standing outside the conference room on the phone with Jim, who is at Swann Lake, Manus tells him that Daniel is in a meeting with Jennifer. Jim, who is somewhat surprised to hear this, tells her that he needs Daniel to run the DNA swabs to see if he can find a match for the skin tissue found under Maggie's nails. He asks Manus if Jennifer is going to "harass all his assets" and Manus explains Jennifer is just there to evaluate what everyone's been doing for the station to have become so successful.

At Swann Lake, Phil stands in the buffet line. Jim approaches him and asks how well he knows Donald. Phil tells him that besides what he reads and hears about him on TV, he doesn't know much and has actually never met him. The board said that Maggie as the official negotiator should be the only person to have personal contact with him. Jim gets Phil to admit that he was on the pro-development side and Phil says that it wasn't a secret and that it was a small enough piece of land. They don't even use it. He didn't see the harm in selling it because they have infrastructure needs they have to take care of and money from the sale would help. When Jim presses Phil again on whether he knew Donald, saying loudly, for the residents to hear, that it would be in violation of the boards no-contact rule and look to the others like he was selling them out, he denies it. But Jim whips out his cell phone, showing Phil the photo he took in Donald's office. It's of Donald and Phil together at a hockey game in Donald's luxury sky box. Phil looks at the photo, clocks the suspicious looks he's now getting from nearly everyone in earshot, drops his tray, and runs. Jim takes off after him. He soon catches up, and tackles and cuffs him.

A nervous Phil sits in the Swann Lake security office. Jim walks in and throws him a pair of sweatpants to cover himself up. Phil tells him he ran because he panicked; there isn't a lot of contact with the law inside the colony. Jim tells him that the DNA found under Maggie's fingernails was a match with his. Phil looks surprised but calm, and maintains that he didn't kill Maggie. He suggests his skin was under her nails because he asked her to scratch some bug bites on his back. Jim picks up a picnic basket he brought in with him and pulls out a neoprene wine sleeve, a shattered bottle of champagne, and an engagement ring, pointing out that a broken champagne bottle is the perfect murder weapon for a crime of passion. Jim asks Phil if he and Maggie were more than friends. Phil shifts in his seat uncomfortably for a second, and then admits that, yes, he loved Maggie and was planning on proposing to her, but it never happened. He tells Jim that the champagne bottle isn't broken because he killed Maggie with it, but because put it in the freezer to chill and it exploded. When Jim said reveals that Maggie had alcohol in her system, Phil says it is because she had a couple of beers at lunch. Jim considers this, but then shares his theory: maybe Phil was trying to seduce Maggie into doing his bidding by encouraging the board to vote in his favor, and to play Donald for cash. Phil denies this, saying that he didn't care about money; he loved Maggie. But Jim isn't buying it. He says his team was able to extract residue from the wound that killed Maggie. It's a polymer, just like the kind used to make the wine sleeve.

In the police station's conference room, Carlos tells Jennifer that the administration in place before the current one was a mess, and that Manus really shaped things up around the office by bringing in a quality team. He says a good amount of Manus' success can be attributed to Jim, even though he hates to admit it. Jim can be a real pain in the ass. Jennifer smiles and takes this in. Pulling out a file, she points out that there were three murders committed by people who worked for the station that were solved by Jim: Mike Ogletree, Jim's former partner, and Dr. Silvia Perez, Carlos's former student and prot�©g�©, who committed a double murder while under his review. Carlos retracts, explaining that it was his daughter's Quinceanera and he was distracted. With a sly smile, Jennifer says Jim really is a pain in the ass for having arrested Carlos's prot. Carlos looks a little taken aback. He's not sure what Jennifer is trying to get at.

Over the phone, Jim attempts to read Callie the patient notes she left behind at his house, but he's having trouble because of her sloppy handwriting and the medical terms. Callie groans and tells Jim that if she reads her notes wrong, she could potentially kill somebody. Jim tells her that he'll just fax over the notes instead, which Callie thinks is a great idea. Manus walks into the Jim's office with a box of Maggie's. She was keeping tabs on all of the colony's board members. She questions why she would do this: Was it extortion to try to pressure them to vote a certain way? Jim looks through them and notices that Leslie's file is missing. Daniel appears in the doorway, telling the team he got another hit on the DNA swabs he's testing. It turns out that Leslie has a prior drug conviction from when she was 19.Jim and Carlos sit in Jim's car outside of Leslie's house talking about nudity, waiting for her to arrive. Jim changes the subject and asks about Carlos' meeting with Jennifer. Carlos jokes that at first she's sweet and friendly Jennifer, until she turns into Bureau Chief Starke and grills the hell out of you. He tells Jim that he doesn't know what she's after, but it can't be good. But Jim thinks she's just doing what Manus said she's doing: figuring out how and why the station has been performing so well. Leslie's car pulls up, interrupting their conversation. Dressed in workout clothes, she gets out of her car. Jim and Carlos approach her, with Jim wasting no time in asking her why she didn't reveal her arrest record. She tells him that she was ashamed. Jim tells her that she knew that if anybody else found out about her past, she'd lose her membership to Swann Lake. That's why she took the file. He looks in her bag and notices her neoprene dumbbells. Carlos reaches in and takes them as Jim takes Leslie's arm and leads her to his car.

As FDLE officers march Leslie into the interrogation room, Jim pours himself some coffee. He notices Jennifer in another room in front of a table full of files. He watches her as she rubs her neck - she's strikingly beautiful - then catches himself. He walks into the room, asking her how she's doing. Their eyes meet and, for a second, there's a startling moment of electricity. Jim tells her he has an interview to get to and asks if they'll be meeting to talk later. She tells him that he can count on it as he slowly, and awkwardly, backs out of the room.

Jim sits across from Leslie in the interrogation room, who swears her innocence. But Jim says the rules of the colony are clear that no one with a criminal record can be a member. She could have been kicked out if Maggie had exposed her. Regarding the drug charge, she was young and it was her first time away from the colony. She got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Her parents decided to cover it up so that she could come home again. She wasn't a threat to anyone. She explains that she didn't take the file from Maggie, but rather Maggie gave it to her. Maggie found out about the conviction, but wasn't going to expose her. The flowers that Leslie sent Maggie weren't about the condo deal, but the file. Maggie came to her with it and Leslie assumed that she was going to expose her, but that never happened. She gave her the file instead and told her that she understood why Leslie had to lie because Maggie grew to love the colony as well, and not for the deal or the money, but the closeness of the community. She had a change of heart and could no longer be impartial. Jim tries to read Leslie. He gets up and walks out of the room, telling her the results from the dumbbell will tell the tale.

Over speakerphone, Carlos and Daniel tell Jim, who is back at the crime scene, that neither Phil's wine sleeve, nor Leslie's dumbbells were a match to Maggie's wounds. Daniel says that after going through Maggie's bank account, he noticed that a lump sum of $10,000 per month was being deposited into her account at Community Trust and Loan on a regular basis. The bank Maggie worked at was a subsidiary of one of Donald's financial holdings. The transit card they found in her apartment was used for the New York City Transit Authority. It was last swiped at a subway station at 54th Street and Broadway, where Jim think is where Donald's corporate offices are located. Jim sees something in the water. It's a broken paddle with a neoprene handle: the murder weapon.

Jim busts through some office doors, interrupting a board meeting Donald is leading, which catches him completely off guard. Jim shows off the broken paddle he found and asks him to tell him the real story of how he knows Maggie. He tells Jim it's not a good time to talk. Unless Donald wants to be arrested in front of everyone, Jim says he'll make it a good time to talk.

In the interrogation room, Donald screams that it's insane that just because Jim found a broken paddle, it makes him a killer because he broke his hockey stick. Jim says it would be crazy, but things do tend to break when they're in Donald's hands and it's not the only thing pointing to him as the killer. Jim asks Donald about his and Maggie's relationship. Donald says they met six months prior while negotiating the land deal. But Jim knows he's lying and tells him that, according to his credit card statements, Donald used to frequent a strip club called The Lumber Yard, where Maggie used to work. Shortly after that, on six separate occasions, Maggie submitted her resume to him and eventually got hired to work at his bank as an intern. Donald continues to deny ever knowing her, but Jim keeps dishing the facts, saying that he needed somebody on the inside of the colony, who was comfortable with nudity, to help con the 30 acres out of the residents. But what Donald didn't know was that Maggie grew close to the residents and even gave Leslie her file so that she could keep her drug arrest a secret. Jim thinks after all that time, money, and planning, Maggie just torpedoed the whole thing, so Donald killed her. Donald folds and admits to knowing Maggie, but swears that he didn't kill her. He explains that he knew he'd have pushback from Swann Lake about the deal, so he gave Maggie a job at his bank where she could become part of the community, and then apply and move into the colony. She came to New York so that she could discuss her progress or would call late at night. That was it. Their relationship was strictly professional, though. They weren't having an affair and he didn't kill her. Jim gives Donald a long look before heading out of the room. He turns back and says he may not be guilty of the murder, but he's definitely guilty of corporate espionage.

As Jim walks toward Phil's house, Daniel tells him over the phone that Maggie was into anything related to Native American art, not just coffee table books. She loved furniture, pottery, and more. Jim asks him to find a shipping address for him. Apparently she had made some purchases before her death. Jim approaches the gallon drum in Phil's front yard, where, inside, he finds the other end of the broken canoe paddle. He walks towards Phil's door, which opens before Jim can even knock. On the other side, Phil sees Jim holding up both ends of the paddle; it's a perfect match. He knows it's over for him.

In the interrogation room, Phil tells Jim that he planned on asking Maggie to marry him, but recently she started acting funny. Not her usual open, honest, funny self. That's when he did some snooping and found out about her trips to New York and late night phone calls. She was cheating on him. He says he tried to talk to her about it over lunch, but she just got mad at him and said he was crazy. She said as much as she loved Swann Lake, she didn't love him anymore. Getting a bit angry, Phil tells Jim that Maggie was leaving him for Donald. Jim reveals the hard truth to Phil. Maggie was having pieces of Native American art shipped to an out-of-state address in La Jolla, California, where she signed a lease. She felt she needed to start over after getting involved with Donald's scheme and screwing the colony out of their land. But after spending time at Swann Lake and getting to know everyone, she realized she wasn't a cut-throat, money-hungry person after all. Maggie wasn't cheating on him; she was just leaving. Realizing what he's done, Phil begins to crumble.

At her apartment, Callie tells Jim on the phone that she got the fax, but unfortunately Miranda happened to be right by the fax machine when it came in. Luckily, she wasn't upset. She thought she would get upset, but apparently Miranda had forgotten her notes before too, during an interesting escapade of her own. Jim says it seems like they had some sort of "bonding moment." Well, as close of a bonding moment as you can get with her. Callie tells Jim that she misses him, just as Jennifer appears in his office doorway. He pauses when he sees her, and Callie senses he is distracted by something. With his eyes still on Jennifer, he tells her that he'll call her later. Their eyes meet, and Jennifer tells Jim she's in a long distance relationship as well, so she knows how challenging it is. Jim asks how the evaluations are going and she tells him that the general consensus is that he brings everybody's game up a notch. They share a smile and she says that she may have to stick around a little while longer and keep her eyes on him to find out if that's actually true. She turns around and walks out as Jim sits there with a dumbfounded look on his face.