Baseball scout Barney Sloop is found dead in his Zen garden, the victim of a fatal head wound from a baseball bat. Barney's business partner Freddy Fitch discovered the body upon his return from a high school baseball clinic in Portland. As Jane starts into the investigation, he is knocked out by a fly ball. Throughout the investigation, Jane goes in and out of flashbacks to when he was a boy growing up in the circus scamming patrons out of money with his father. With a bag of ice to his head, the CBI investigation is back underway as Freddy talks about how Barney buried his head in his work after his son died and his marriage subsequently collapsed. Barney's life insurance is valued at 20 million, which is motive for his wife, Leslie to kill him. Also when the team discovers that Freddy is the sole beneficiary to their business, Jane accuses Freddy of the murder but he denies any wrongdoing. Two of the baseball prospects staying at the compound Scotty Sinclair and Snake Gallidos are interviewed, but their response is that Barney was a friend and mentor to them and they would never hurt him. Van Pelt and Rigsby track down Barney's wife, Leslie Sloop, at her son's grave with a gun to her head. Van Pelt talks her down from killing herself and when questioned, her alibi the night of Barney's murder checks out. With the investigation still open, Jane heads back to the baseball academy to prove his theory correct and uncover the killer. When the topic of age came up earlier with Snake's father, Jupiter, Jane realized that Snake was using his younger brother's birth certificate so that he appeared younger to scouts making him a more viable prospect. When Barney found out about this deception and told Jupiter he was going to send Snake home, Jupiter killed him.
