'Miami Confidential' Raises Some Burning Questions

See Also: 'Miami Confidential' Episode Guide

A series of twists and turns really turns up the heat on this investigation.

According to CSI Files sources, "Miami Confidential" opens with Ryan driving up to a condominium in a cul-de-sac. There are patrol cars and crime scene tape, and he picks up his kit and heads for the front door. Once he signs in and puts booties over his shoes, he walks into the living room to meet Alexx, who is standing next to the body.

The woman, Rachel Hemming, was thrown backwards through a glass-top coffee table. Closer examination reveals that a wine glass that had been sitting on the table must have broken, the stem jabbing into her neck and killing her. Ryan puts up a fuming tent to try to get prints from the scene, but something goes wrong. An oscillating fan sparks, causing the tent to catch on fire, and Ryan and Alexx barely get out of the condo before there is an explosion.

Calleigh and Sgt Tripp survey the scene after the explosion. The fuming tent has melted to the victim's body, and she is covered with burns. Their evidence will most likely be compromised. Calleigh turns the body over and sees that Rachel's back, where it was pressed against the floor, was protected from the brunt of the fire and explosion. They might be able to get something after all.

Calleigh walks over to the cause of the explosion: a meth lab that was hidden from the rest of the living room by a partition that was destroyed by the blast. Card tables are turned over, and electric cook tops and glassware are strewn all over the floor. A spill in the lab caused chemicals to fuel the flames, but the fire had to get started somehow. She looks at the electrical outlet in the wall, which is charred.

Natalia examines the electrical panel. The circuit breakers were taped to prevent them from shutting off. The oscillating fan overloaded the circuit, and the power surge started the fire. Believing that the taped circuit breakers may have been part of an insurance scam, Ryan and Horatio question the landlord, Jeremy Broyles, but he says that he didn't know about the meth lab. He claims to have given Rachel privacy because she was a good tenant. Broyles has prior convictions in his record for drugs, but they need to prove that he was involved in this case.

In the morgue, Alexx is preparing to wash Rachel's body to begin her autopsy, and Eric comes in. He tells her that he is just in time--he wants to see if the fuming tent preserved any prints on her body before the fire started. He finds a print at the base of her neck. The print gets a hit in AFIS: Zach Hemming, Rachel's brother. Calleigh brings him in for questioning. He admits to coming down from Ohio to try to get Rachel to come home. She had run away several months earlier and he had finally tracked her down, but when she told him to leave, he claims that he went without a fight. Calleigh isn't convinced--why come all that way just to turn around at the first sign of resistance? She suggests that he might have pushed her to gain control, thus killing her accidentally, but he denies it.

A melted plastic box found on Rachel's body leads the team to a new conclusion: Rachel was a narc. They trace it back to Mike Farallon, the FBI agent that Natalia worked with in the past, who first appeared in "Chain Reaction" earlier this season. Mike says that he gave Rachel the chance to avoid jail time for possession with intent to distribute by getting him information. Could she have gotten too close and drawn the attention of the leader of the meth operation? Things become even more complicated when it is revealed that Rachel was hiding another secret: she was pregnant.

Please note that the above plot details have not been confirmed by CBS, Alliance Atlantis or Bruckheimer Films, and until such time you should treat this information as you would any other rumour. The above information comes from early script drafts and the details of the episodes are liable to change before the episodes are shown.

"Miami Confidential" will air December 17 on CBS.

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