The Glades Episode 4.08 Three's Company

At 4:30 a.m. Jim and Callie are awoken by a call from Darius Locke, in severe pain and needing Callie's help. She rushes off to him, while Jim complains that he should just go to a hospital instead of calling Callie so early. Callie says that Jim needs to get used to her being pulled away at odd times, since she's going to be a doctor. As Callie's leaving, Jim gets a call about his next victim: Mitch Buckner, a 41-year-old financial planner found dead in a house he was looking to make an offer on; it looks like someone bashed him in the head with a lamp. He also has a bruise on his jaw.

Callie calls Jim as he's about to have breakfast with his dad, Michael. She says Darius has a joint infection and that it must have been from the cortisone shot she gave him. When Jim says Darius still shouldn't have called her so early, she shoots back that she doesn't get on his case when Carlos calls Jim in the middle of the night about a dead body.

Jim and Carlos investigate Mitch's home office and find some blood and a trophy on the floor, which may have been used in a fight between Mitch and someone else. Jim gets testy with Carlos and blames it on his dad visiting; Michael doesn't bring out the best in him. Daniel says Mitch's phone records indicate that his last and most frequent called number is from Cindy Pavlin, who owns a jet ski rental shop.

Jim visits Cindy at work; she's sad to hear about Mitch's death because she loved him. They used to be engaged, but he broke it off because they wanted different things in life. She was forgiving, though, and started talking to him again once he became interested in buying a house on the lake. He thought since she was from the area, she could help him out. Jim thinks being dumped is a good motive for murder, but she says that the economy hasn't been good, so maybe one of his clients took it out on him.

Carlos confirms cause of death as blunt force trauma with the lamp being the murder weapon. The blood at Mitch's house wasn't from Mitch. Techs dusted for fingerprints, but they will likely be useless because the house has been on the market for two months, with people going in and out. Also Mitch recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital where his mother died during heart surgery. According to the realtor's sign-in sheets, Mitch had been to the house twice in the last two weeks, and both times signed in at the same time as someone named George Stavros, who is not his broker.

Jim goes to George's address and Ian Conners answers wearing only a towel. Jim finds George in bed with Cindy – the two of them and Ian are in a polyamorous relationship together. Cindy is in committed sexual relationships with both George and Ian. They don't have sex with anyone outside of their group. They were talking about bringing in Mitch, who Cindy says she was engaged to before she met George and Ian, as a fourth member of their family and possibly changing their living arrangements. Mitch was open to the idea. Cindy says that George was one of Mitch's clients, that's how she met him. Ian and Mitch have been members of the same golf and tennis club for years. Ian, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon, was at the hospital the night of Mitch's murder, while Cindy and George were at home having dinner.

Daniel discovers that George is a professor with a Ph.D. in psychology and wrote THE book on polyamory. Apparently Ian was the defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit Mitch filed; he was the surgeon who operated on Mitch's mother.

Ian explains to Jim that he had to perform an aortic dissection on Mitch's mother, a very complicated surgery. He was sad that he lost his patient, but the Mortality and Morbidity conference found no negligence on his part. Mitch's mother was 82 and could barely get out of bed. The surgery was the one shot she had at a better life and he did the best he could to save her. Ian's heart went out to Mitch because he was grieving. He wasn't happy letting a man who was trying to end his career join his family, but he was "letting it play out." The night of the murder, he was performing a transmyocardial revascularization. Eight staff members, his patient, and his patient's family can confirm he was there.

Callie talks to Michael by Jim's pool and they go through Michael's photos from Rio. He pulls up one photo of a beautiful woman named Avelina, who Michael says is his friend of 20 years. She works in city planning and has made it easier for him to do business. There's also a photo of him with Avelina and her daughter. Callie looks concerned that Michael is cheating on Jim's mother. She tells Jim to check out the photos, but Jim says he's seen them all before.

Manus calls Jim and tells him Mitch was on the verge of being financially tapped out. He lost a lot of money in a big foreign investment and took most of his clients with him. George also invested a large sum of money and lost it all. Carlos says the blood found in Mitch's office contained the trait for thalassemia, which is similar to sickle cell anemia. It's mostly found in people of Mediterranean descent, like George.

Jim arrests George as he presides over a love ceremony for a group of six people. At the station, Jim tells Ian that losing a six figure nest egg is a great motive for murder, but Ian claims he wasn't angry enough to kill Mitch. He admits he punched him because he has anger issues, but the poly lifestyle has helped him embrace his feelings. Although he lost money, he's hardly destitute and makes a good salary. Plus Cindy's aunt just passed away and left her a couple million dollars, which would belong to the entire family. They were all doing fine financially. Jim says that with Mitch coming along, they'd have to share the money, which is why someone in the family would want to kill him. But George reveals that Cindy wants a baby, which is why Mitch was going to join the group. George can't give her one because of his disease and Ian doesn't want kids because, in his line of work, he's seen too much pain and suffering.

At the station, Manus and Daniel look though Mitch's computer files and find Cindy's ovulation calendar. She was breaking the main rule of her closed marriage by cheating on Ian and George. There is also a letter from three months ago addressed to Cindy from an attorney representing her deceased aunt - Mitch's address was Cindy's last known address from when they were engaged. Apparently, Mitch knew about Cindy's inheritance before she did. He emailed Cindy the pdf of the letter.

Cindy admits to Jim she was cheating on George and Ian with Mitch. Even though Mitch waited so long to tell her about her huge inheritance, she would never kill the man she was trying to have a baby with. Besides, the money would belong to the family as a group, anyway. She wants a baby more than anything. She says she, George, and Ian were supposed to get together for dinner that night and discuss their loss, but Ian was called to another Mortality and Morbidly conference. She doesn't know where it is, though, because Ian has surgical privileges all over.

At the hospital, Callie looks up Ian Conners in the hospital's database for Jim. She tells him that Darius finally signed the consent form and is starting to trust her. Callie also tells Jim about how his dad is close to Avelina. But Jim isn't worried – she is just his "work wife" and the family has known about her for years. There's nothing going on with her. But Callie isn't convinced. Perhaps work isn't what Michael is having a hard time giving up. Callie says Ian has surgical privileges at her hospital, but there isn't an M&M conference scheduled there that day. Ian hasn't been there in two weeks. He also has a different address listed as his contact.

Jim visits Ian at his other address, a secret condo that Cindy and George don't know about. He just wants some peace and quiet every once in a while. It doesn't mean he killed Mitch. He wanted Cindy to be happy, so he was OK with her sleeping with Mitch. He didn't even mind that she was cheating before they all officially agreed to take Mitch into their family because he had his secret condo. He says George was very angry that Mitch and Cindy were sleeping together without their consent. He left Ian three angry voicemails in which he threatened Mitch.

Jim interrogates George and he admits to getting angry, but not to killing Mitch. He says trust is the lifeblood of polyamorous unions and Cindy broke it. But he is OK with her having a baby. She isn't getting any younger, so he understands that she wanted to start right away. He is upset that the night of Mitch's murder he waited at home all night for Cindy so they can talk, but she didn't show up until after 10 p.m. They did not have dinner together.

Annoyed, Michael gets off the phone with Jim's mom. Michael says he's working things out with Jim's mom. Jim is upset that Michael is not retiring as he promised Jim's mother. He asks his dad if he is having an affair with Avelina, but Michael denies it. Jim says he feels his dad is cheating his mom out of what she really deserves - a life together.

Carlos tells Jim he discovered Mitch had a vasectomy three months ago, around the same time he learned about the inheritance and came back into Cindy's life. He also found out that Cindy called up the urologist and was able to get an email confirmation that Mitch had the procedure by lying to the urologist and saying she was Dr. Ian Conners' wife and also his assistant. Also last week Cindy downloaded a marriage certificate form from the city hall website.

Jim interrogates Cindy about the marriage license. She says Mitch thought that her lifestyle was preventing them from conceiving. She was frustrated and willing to try anything. Jim thinks Mitch loved the money Cindy was about to inherit, but Cindy probably didn't care because she was going to get a baby, until she found out about Mitch's vasectomy. Cindy concedes she was angry at Mitch and he only wanted her money, but she didn't kill him. He wasn't worth it. Cindy admits she was at an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic until 10 p.m. the night Mitch was murdered. Jim can call and confirm.

Jim investigates the outside of the house where Mitch's body was found. He sees a piece of tape covering a motion detector and sends photos to Carlos. Daniel calls and confirms Cindy was at the IVF clinic the night of the murder.

Jim visits Ian at the hospital. Jim says that as much as Ian likes his beach condo, he needs Cindy and George to feel loved. Mitch would ruin everything, so he killed him. He did perform the surgery the night of the murder, but left early and had his staff close the patient for him. He used surgical tape to cover the motion sensor at the rental house, which left a fingerprint. Ian is taken away.

Callie, who is suspicious of Darius' motive for signing the consent form, visits him at home. He says he trusts Callie, which is why he signed the form. She says she'll help him, but he can't continue on the path he's on. He's risking his life with cortisone shots just to buy himself another season. It will eventually catch up with him, but he doesn't care. It's his life. He expects Callie to keep his information confidential from the press, the team doctors, and Dr. Hardy. Callie looks upset.

At home, Jim finds Michael upset after a call with Jim's mom. He says after 42 years together, she doesn't trust him and wants him to give up his 20-year friendship with Avenlina. He said no. He and Jim's mom are calling it quits. Jim is devastated.