Taxi Brooklyn Episode 1.04 Precious Cargo

Cat has no shortage of ex-partners in her life - professional and personal - but perhaps Leo will be the one that sticks? He is the yin to Cat's yang, and this week, we see the two perfectly complement each other during the search for a missing murder witness: a 10-year-old boy.

The Case of the Son on the Run

Who says you can't mix business and pleasure? When a man's bag is snatched right before her, Cat finds herself chatting with a handsome British man. Though she is unable to stop the burglar, she does grab the man's - named Rhys Richards - attention. Surprisingly, Rhys admits he staged the theft so Cat would notice him.

Their conversation is cut short when duty calls and Cat summons Leo to drive her to the latest crime scene: the home of a foster couple and their many kids. Foster mother, Nancy, is found shot dead after what looks like a home invasion. Cat is faced with the uncomfortable task of questioning the kids.

She begins with Tristan, who called 911 after he found Nancy unresponsive. He says he and his siblings were all watching TV in the basement and didn't hear a thing. Cat is unconvinced, but her attempt to intimidate Tristan backfires. During a break, Dr. Monica informs Cat that, based on Nancy's blood spatter, a child was standing behind her when she was shot. Cracking the case is just a matter of figuring out which kid it was.

Switching tactics, Cat attempts to butter up Tristan with a hot dog. Precocious child that he is, Tristan is not fooled and reasserts that none of the kids saw nor heard anything. Cat turns her attention to his siblings, this time with pastries, but she is interrupted when Nancy's husband Kevin arrives. He asks for Tristan, but Tristan is nowhere to be found after escaping through a bathroom window.

Amber Alerts are issued; Tristan's photo is sent to every police station, and Leo has Ronnie send out Tristan's info to all the cab drivers in the tri-state area. While Ronnie's happy to help, he's more excited to give Cat a makeover. Her trip to the nightclub aside, Cat's not interested. And her current look proves it's working just fine when Rhys makes a surprise appearance at the precinct - with flowers.

Sensing humiliation from her fellow cops, Cat nips Rhys' lover boy act in the bud. Proving he's handsome, romantic and also quick thinking, Rhys pawns the flowers off on Esposito saying it is a British tradition to thank those in power. Evidently, he's off to see the mayor next.

Capt. Baker breaks up the fun with the news of a suspect. Security cameras caught Sammy, a drug dealer, at Tristan's middle school threatening the boy. Sammy says he was after Tristan for stealing his tablet computer and several hundred dollars. Cat and Esposito are skeptical, but Sammy's sleazy alibi - that he was enjoying the female company at a massage parlor - checks out.

Cat gets a lead when a N.J. cab driver phones saying he has Tristan. She arranges for him to bring Tristan to the state police office, but when Cat and Leo arrive, they are told the cabbie never showed. Pretending to be a passenger offering a quadruple fare, Leo lures the cabbie to them. The cabbie at first claims Tristan jumped out of the vehicle, but when Cat and Leo discover a tablet like the one Sammy described, the cab driver admits Tristan bought his silence with the computer.Cat and Leo find Tristan hiking up a road. Tristan explains he's searching for his Aunt Laura's house, which he last visited when he was five. Cat pulls Leo aside to tell him Tristan has no living relatives, but while they're talking, Tristan hops behind the wheel of Leo's cab and takes off. Cat commandeers a passing motorcycle and she and Leo chase the boy. It's a terrifying ride for Leo.

Tristan pulls up at a secluded house; could a happy reunion with a long-lost relative finally be in sight? It's never that easy when it comes to Cat's cases.

When Cat and Tristan are invited in, Sammy jumps out brandishing a gun. He ties up Cat and the boy's aunt and demands that Tristan return what he stole from him. Outside, Leo discovers Tristan's backpack is full of cocaine. Leo approaches the home at the same time Sammy comes out still pointing a gun at Tristan. Inside, Cat wriggles free of her restraints and comes outside to find Sammy about to shoot Leo. Fortunately, Cat is a much quicker shot and sends Sammy to the ground.

Back at the precinct, Tristan has changed his original story considerably. He explains that Kevin and Nancy take in troubled children so that they can teach them to break into homes, pick pockets and smuggle drugs. If the kids fail to come through, Nancy locks them in the basement, starves them or beats the youngest of the group, Janie, while making the others watch. Tristan stole Sammy's drugs with the hope that selling them would raise enough money for all the children to run away.

But the plan went awry after Sammy discovered that Tristan broke into his apartment. Sammy immediately called his boss, Kevin. When Tristan got home from school, Nancy was going after Janie with a knife. Tristan shot Nancy to save Janie, then staged the evidence to look like a home invasion. At the precinct, Tristan realized the children would be returned to Kevin, so he went looking for his Aunt Laura to get help.

It's startling testimony, but before Cat and Capt. Baker can put Kevin away, they want to hear what the other children have to say. Kevin attempts to keep them quiet, but Tristan admits to killing Nancy and encourages the other kids to speak up. Janie leaps to Tristan's defense, saying that's not what happened, but a comforting hug from her big brother leads Janie to back up Tristan's story.

Leo gets the last word when Kevin is being dragged off, saying there's only one thing every prisoner agrees on and it's that child abusers are the worst. It's a proper send-off for a properly terrible human being.

At court, Tristan is acquitted, and Aunt Laura is given custody of all of the displaced foster children. Once again, a happy ending seems in sight. But Leo can't let Cat's quiet moment lie; he believes it wasn't Tristan who killed Nancy but Janie. Leo believes Janie's outburst at the precinct proves his point. Cat realizes he's right, but decides not to put the kids through the trauma of another investigation. "You're a good cop, Cat," praises Leo, "but you're a better person."

The Case of Cat's Dead Dad

One case is solved, but another remains on Cat's mind: her father's. Citing the intel she got from Gregg, Cat urges Capt. Baker to open an investigation into Annabella Capella, Cat's childhood best friend. He is dumbstruck by the idea and again orders Cat off the case. The Captain also makes a mysterious phone call advising someone to keep an eye on Cat.

Cat's anonymous texter (an undercover federal agent) warns her that her life is in imminent danger. Whoever killed her father wants her dead too.

Cat meets with Gregg to find out if the agent the FBI has undercover with the Capella family is the same one texting her. Though he knows it could land him in trouble, lovestruck Gregg agrees to look into it.

Is Cat really about to come face-to-face with her informant? Will Gregg's feelings get in the way of his better judgment? We'll definitely be tuning in next week to see what comes next.