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FOR SALE
Come again.
- BP's 90/70 and dropping.
- What happened?
Guy was working a landscape gig.
They were trying to move a giant
saguaro without using the right gear.
Fell over on him.
Any chance he's got insurance?
About the same chance
he's a legal immigrant.
No!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, e-easy.
You're not gonna need that right
now, my friend.
Est* bien.
Est* bien.
- Gracias.
- Dame, dame, dame, dame, dame
Start oxygen, give him two milligrams
of morphine and prep him for surgery.
Oh, so much for pro bono.
Got to go.
Day job's calling.
Chill out, Conrad.
You'll have it on your
desk by the end of shift.
Yes, I've included a
Just make sure there's 10%
less crime, and we'll be fine.
What do we have here?
Business as usual.
Trucker spotted the bodythis morning.
TOD was sometime last night.
A single GSW to the back of the head.
Looks like a good sized
wound, I'd say medium caliber.
Sooting and stippling
make it a close shot.
Execution, body dump?
That'd be my guess.
Looks like the car
skidded to a halt here.
Killer dumped the body and then
accelerated back up onto the road.
The body is well forward
of the rear tire divots,
about where the driver's door would be.
Which means the victim was
probably behind the wheel.
Maybe he picked up the wrong hitchhiker.
Okay, ready to roll.
That's a lot of slogans.
Guess he liked advertising.
Wonder how he felt about epitaphs.
Ah, the '70s.
Recession, energy crisis,
conflict in the Middle East.
My, how times have changed.
At least we don't have
to put up with disco.
Looks like concrete
dust under his nails.
Yeah, he seems to be covered with it.
It's even up his nose.
His hands are heavily callused.
I'm guessing construction worker.
Okay, he's not in AFIS.
Let's put him in the system.
So we have two distinct
sets of shoe impressions
leading away from the vehicle,
neither of which belong to the victim.
So that means at least
three people in the car.
These look like sneakers.
The others, boots.
Let's see where they went.
The strides are all long, so
they both must have been running.
Sneakers was limping, dragging
his leg, bleeding, wounded.
I guess that means Boots had the gun.
Sneakers turns around, comes back,
gets back in the car, takes off.
Boots heads back toward the
road, disappears into the night.
I guess we're looking for a cowboy.
Hey, Nick.
- I'll see you next week.
- Where are you off to?
Lee Goff's entomology
workshop in Honolulu.
Entomology.
Nice.
Wait, I thought Ecklie cut all
funding for outside training.
Yeah, he did, but I've been waiting
on this workshop for, like, a year,
so if I got to go out
of pocket, so be it.
We need a new bug man.
- Hold down the fort.
- Will do.
******
The bullet fragmented in his skull.
The lead core exit, but the
copper jacket shed inside.
Cannelured.
Probably
a .
38 or .
357 revolver.
Did you recover that
piece of his forehead?
Might save the mortician some spackle.
What's up with you?
Ah, things are tough all over.
Our vic's name is Huston Dobbs.
How'd you figure that out?
I didn't.
Brime County Sheriff's Department
found a burnt-out car outside of Elba.
R.
O.
was in the wind,
house foreclosed, etcetera,
so they ran him through Missing Persons
and matched him with our unknown DB.
They develop any leads in the case?
They told me where he was working.
Morning, sir.
Oh, good morning.
Booth or counter?
No, I need to speak to the manager.
I can do you one better
than that.
I own the place.
What can I do for you?
I'm Detective Jim
Brass, Las Vegas Police.
Do you know this man?
Sure, I do.
Huston Dobbs.
I give him employment here from
time to time.
He's a fry cook.
He, uh, get himself in
some kind of trouble?
Well, it's a little more
serious than that, ma'am.
- He's dead.
- Oh, my Lord.
You get all that, Walter?
Because that's why I'm paying
you, to stand there, right?
What did Huston do? He get drunk
again and run himself off the road?
No, he was shot.
Who'd want to shoot Huston?
Well, that's what I'm
trying to find out.
When was the last time you saw him?
A couple of days ago, I guess.
Bruno's the one you want to talk to.
Oh, yeah? Bruno? Bruno who?
Bruno Curtis.
Them two hung out together all the time.
And he didn't show up
for work today either.
He's just one of those
part-time guys.
He
He wasn't so part-time
back in high school, Barbie.
You two tore it up pretty
good, as I remember.
That was a long time ago, Clem.
You don't think Bruno's tied
up in any of this, do you?
How can I find him?
I don't know.
He took a couple days off.
Said something about going
up north looking for work.
Unskilled labor, no doubt.
I thought he worked here.
Well, he does, but these days, sir,
it just ain't enough to live on.
According to the deputy in Elba, the fire
would have completely consumed the car
if it hadn't been for the weather.
So unlike Huston Dobbs, we
seem to have caught a break.
Toothbrush.
Razor.
Lavatory.
Guy must have
been living in his car.
It is a Chrysler LeBaron.
A babe magnet.
You should make an offer.
Um, I think it's safe to say that the
victim did not drive this thing back to town.
Agreed.
Thank you.
This looks like a piece of skull.
We know the last thing that went through
his mind was a copper-jacketed .
38
These keys are pretty charred.
I doubt Mandy's going to
get any prints off them.
It's an old Hux Club casino chip.
Hampton Huxley, the dead *** mag guy?
It's not ***, it's a lifestyle.
For one brief, shining
moment in the 80's,
*** clad Hux Club Kittens
serving cocktails and dealing blackjack
was the pinnacle of
Las Vegas high society.
How'd you get in?
Sadly, only through the
glossy pages of the magazine.
- Which I purchased for the articles.
- Okay.
- Wendy, I got blood on the backseat.
- Okay.
Along with something else.
.
22 L-R.
A peashooter round.
- So there are actually two guns involved.
- Yeah.
And I've got one of them.
- Hodges.
- Relax.
It's just a belt buckle.
- For people who love guns.
- I love guns.
There's a print here
etched into the metal.
Salts and amino acids from fingerprint
oil can chemically etch metal over time.
Heat greatly accelerates the process.
You sometimes see it
in arson investigations.
The print belongs to Wiley Schindler.
He's in the system off a work card.
This buckle looks so familiar.
Is this a Vanderfield Arms mi .
22?
Why, yes, it is.
It's a concealable revolver.
Perfect for the man who trusts no one.
My dad had one.
Schindles address is
listed as Kansas City.
He's a collectables dealer.
I Googled him.
I'll be hightailing it to Las
Vegas from May 11 to the 18th
for the World Collectables Trade
Fair at The Green Valley Ranch.
If you want to sit down to
talk turkey, give me a call.
What do you know, he's in town.
I'm ready to talk turkey.
Yes, sir, those are the original crystal
doorknobs handpicked by Bugsy Siegel himself
for the bathroom suite that he
personally customized for Lana Turner
at the Flamingo back in
Lana had to be naked as a jaybird
when she fondled those knobs.
You have exquisite taste.
I'm prepared
to let you have the entire set for--
let me see Oh, thank you, darling.
- Wiley Schindler?
- That I am.
Just give us a moment, friend.
Doing a little business here.
So are we.
We need to talk.
- Nice boots.
- Thank you.
- I just got 'em.
You looking for a pair?
- Excuse me.
You know these two guys?
Can't say I know 'em well.
Just met 'em the other day.
Where and how?
A little greasy spoon in Elba.
I just pulled in to get some grub.
And much to my surprise, I
saw something there I liked.
I told her I admired her earrings and asked
her if there was any more where those came from.
She said she'd make a call.
So there's 200 chips in here.
the whole kit and caboodle.
We ain't taking a penny less.
I don't know, fellas.
That's a lot of money.
See, you got to make the other
fella think he's getting over on you.
My wife and I got married
at the Hux and, now
You do not want to
go cheap on your wife.
Loretta's gone.
The
chips are just for me.
See, I knew we were going to settle on a dollar
a chip the minute they opened their mouths.
apiece.
You got a deal.
Let 'em see your pain.
Make
'em feel good, and then
Okay, deal.
There's few things in life that'll make an
old man's nipples hard, and that qualifies.
You tell 'em you're
a collectables dealer?
It never came up.
That's the last time I
saw either one of them.
Just out of curiosity, what
would you say the chips are worth?
Whatever the market will bear.
Well, it is pretty much
a bear market these days.
So this guy's dead
and this guy's turning out
to be pretty hard to find.
Maybe this guy killed that
one and then took a powder.
Or maybe you killed this
guy and chased this guy away.
You can't be serious.
We did find the belt buckle of
your concealed .
22 at the scene.
Well, they admired it-- big,
handsome thing that it is.
So I gave it to 'em to seal the deal.
Well, I'm making you a new deal.
You're under arrest.
When the Hux Club opened in 1981, it was as
if the great men's magazine had come to life.
But like all gardens in paradise,
it couldn't last long here on Earth.
Hux had a falling out with his
partners and pulled out of the venture,
taking all his trademarks with him.
They remodeled the casino, but without
Hux and his Kittens to bring the ***,
so to speak, the New Babylon as they
renamed it, died a quick and painful death.
Now according to the
gaming commission records,
all of the chips from the
Hux Club were destroyed.
Well, it's the law
when you close a casino.
When Sam imploded the Rampart, he buried all
the old chips in the foundation of the Eclipse.
Which is precisely why surviving
chips become collectables.
You throw in a Hampton Huxley
aura and you have got an item
that auctions for up to
$10,000 in mint condition.
Apparently there's less than
a dozen of these in existence.
Until today.
We recovered these from
Wiley Schindler's hotel room.
$50,000 in cash.
So I spoke to so people
at the trade show.
Said that you sold more than a few Hux
chips to a bunch of different collectors.
I wasn't aware you could
put a man in jail for that.
- You're in jail 'cause I think you're a killer.
- Which I'm not.
Let's agree to disagree, okay?
You know, for about 30 years,
some people who care about
these things had to be consoled
because there were so few of these casino
chips from the famed Hux Club in existence.
And then you show up with
a couple hundred of them.
I told you how I got those.
Here's what I think happened.
I think you and Bruno and
Huston cooked up a scheme
to put some counterfeit
chips in circulation.
I never sold anything to anybody
that wasn't what I said it was.
So you end up in the car
going out to the desert.
Somebody says something,
somebody doesn't say something.
Things get weird.
And a guy gets a
bullet hole in his head.
- Does that ring a bell?
- Not even a ***.
Do you see a lawyer in here with me?
That's because I'm trying
to talk to you man to man.
I didn't kill anybody.
I didn't cheat anybody.
And the sooner you figure that out the
sooner you can stop wasting both our time.
Micro-FTIR confirms that they
are compression-molded clay
with impressed stainless steel inlays,
consistent with the specs
from the gaming commission.
They'reuthentic Hux Club chips
Sorry.
They were manufactured with state-of-the-art
anti-counterfeiting technology from 1981.
So Bruno and Huston must've found these
tucked away in the attic or daddy's old trunk.
You never know what people
keep for sentimental reasons.
Yeah, but why keep that many?
Even at face value, they
were worth thousands.
In any case, if Schindler got authentic
Hux Club chips from those guys for cheap,
he'd have no reason to
kill either one of them.
So where are we on Bruno?
The deputies have been sitting
on his house and the diner.
He's a no-show.
And no gunshot wound victims matching his
description have showed up at any of the hospitals.
Well, this isn't a guy with
a whole lot of resources.
Is there any other places he might be?
According to Brass, both Huston and
Bruno were doing odd construction-
destruction jobs around town.
I suppose he could be
hiding out at a work site.
So what do you want to
do, drive around Elba?
Get out every time we see a bulldozer?
The Bluebird Button Company.
The what?
The Bluebird Button
Company.
It's in Elba.
They made the Hux Club chips.
The company was primarily in
the pin-back button business,
but it was the only company
in the western United States
to be able to produce
metal-clay inlays.
They went bankrupt way back.
That
factory's been abandoned for years.
I'll lead this time?
Someone's been living here.
Yellow exudate.
Someone's nursing a
badly-infected wound.
There!
Go,go! I'll call it in.
Control,Officer Crawford.
Requesting a one-unit backup.
Officer two-one,we have units
in the vicinity.
Will notify.
Looks like he disappeared into thin air.
Yeah,it's like we're chasing a ghost.
Drop the gun!
I said drop the gun!
Drop the gun or I'll shoot!
Ray,stop!
This man needs medical attention.
Call it in.
Control,this is Charlie-Zero-Seven-Adams.
I
have a 421.
Roll paramedics to my location.
There's gold in them there
button factory parking lots.
Or at least there was until Schindler
started slipping his chips into the market.
The collectible price has dropped
Okay,so you're telling me that this hole in
the ground was filled with Hux Club chips?
That's our theory.
When Hampton Huxley pulled out of the
casino,the state had to destroy all the chips.
the gaming commission.
About 50 cubic feet worth.
Hole was plenty big enough for that.
And they were all sent back to the
Bluebird Button Company for destruction.
Why?
Well,apparently,there was a clause in the original
manufacturing contract that obligated them to do it.
Because of the way the chips were made,they
would've been extremely hard to destroy.
Brutal on the machines.
So somebody probably figured,why bother?
They dig a hole,they fill it with the
chips,put a layer of shreds on top of it,
and then seal it with
a layer of concrete.
Nobody ever would've known.
If it hadn't been for a couple of
down-on-their-luck guys who finally got lucky.
How is he?
As well as you could
expect,under the circumstances.
Brass was in there with
him for half an hour.
The guy didn't say a word.
That was a really stupid
thing that you did back there.
He could've shot you.
I could have shot t you.
He needed help.
He had a gun in his hand.
I didn't stop being a
doctor when I became a CSI.
Well,if you keep treating suspects like patients,you're
gonna get yourself or someone else killed.
Things aren't looking
too good for you,Bruno.
We have your shoe treads in the desert.
And when we run your DNA against the blood
we found in the backseat of your friend's car,
that's gonna come back you,too.
The best you can hope for
is accessory to ***.
But I guess the detective
told you all of this.
Those are phantom pains.
They'll pass,after a while.
How would you know that?
Because I'm a physician.
And I also work at the Crime Lab.
You're that guy that jumped
into the hole with me.
Why did you do that?
You looked like you needed help.
Would you like to tell me
what happened that night?
I'll believe you.
Just between you and me,the day
you walk into court with one leg,
the jury will want to believe you,too.
But you have to tell me what
happened,and it has to be the truth.
I wish we'd never pulled those
stupid chips out of that hole.
Huston and me got hired to bust up
this parking lot at the old factory.
It was a cash deal,off the books.
That's how we found 'em.
We figured they had to be worthless.
Otherwise,why would somebody
just dump 'em like that,right?
We still had to get rid of them,so
we gathered 'em all up and
But that Hux Club chick was pretty
cool,so we kept 'em for souvenirs,gifts.
I knew Barbie would like it for
her arts and crafts and stuff.
Anyway,about a week and a half later,
Barbie called me and said she had some guy
over at the diner that wanted to buy some chips.
So Huston and me loaded up
a box and we went down there.
That Schindler dude
gave us a buck apiece.
Me and Huston,we pulled thousands
of those things out of that
out of that hole,so we're
thinking,"Holy Mother
we're rich!"
But then when we went down
there the next morning
That son of a *** Schindler had swiped
'em right out from under our noses.
He left us his phone number in
case we had any more chips to sell.
So we called him up and we said we did.
And we met him in Vegas,and we
told him we wanted our chips back.
The lying *** denied everything.
So you took him for a ride.
Those chips are ours.
You gonna show us where you put 'em
nobody gets hurt.
Little late for that,boy.
We ran the car off the
road and Schindler got away.
I tried to chase after him,but
'cause of my leg and all
Schindler killed Huston.
He shot my best friend down.
Two shots.
The .
38 revolver in Bruno Curtis' possession
fired the bullet that killed Huston Dobbs.
No surprise there.
No,but according to Mandy,the only prints
on the weapon belong to Bruno Curtis.
Schindler's prints
weren't even on the weapon?
No.
So,despite Bruno's statement,and even though
the belt buckle could place Schindler in the car,
the only direct *** evidence
we have implicates Bruno.
I guess those boots
were made for walking.
I'm justappy to be free and,uh,I'm
very pleased that justice was served.
Oh,and,uh,I wanna warn any
collectors that might be out there.
Don't be taken by anybody trying to sell
you any rare collectible Hux Club chips.
There's thousands of
those things out there.
To a collector they're not
worth a plug nickel.
Thank you.
The collectibles trader was
released from custody earlier today.
One man loses his life and another one loses
his leg,and all for worthless pieces of clay.
What are you gonna do?
So,um,Riley thinks that
you're a little reckless.
And I think she's a
little trigger happy.
Catherine?
Ray,his is Clayton Ferris
from the gaming commission.
As you are aware,the Hux Club chips were
supposed to have been destroyed 28 yea ago.
But it was never officially verified.
In any event,since the disposal
was improperly carried out,
the existing chips continue to be bearer instruments and
the State of Nevada is on the line for their face value.
You mean anyone holding those chips can
just walk in and trade them in for cash?
Yes.
Wait a minute.
The window for all chip
redemptions is 120 days from the original recall.
The
attorneys who drafted the original Hux Club
contract apparently left that provision out.
The Great State of Nevada,of course,will
honor its obligation to redeem the chips.
However,the argument can
be made that the chips are,
in fact,stolen property and still outstanding
evidence in a *** investigation.
So,you want us to find the chips before
anyone else does and tries to cash them in.
We feel that that would be in the
best interests of all concerned.
Yeah,what's up,professor?
Have you talked to Wiley Schindler yet?
No,we're looking for him.
He checked out of the hotel,he
wasn't at the trade show.
If he left town with the
chips,he's got a big head start.
Did Barbie from the
coffee shop say anything?
No,I,uh
just arrived at her house
about 15 minutes ago.
And,unfortunately
She's not talking.
Single large-caliber G.
S.
W.
There's no lividity; she's
been dead less than an hour.
You must've just missed the bad guy.
She's got defensive wounds on her arms.
I found a box of 44 caliber
shells,six were missing.
Haven't found the weapon yet.
There were no signs of forced entry
which suggests that she knew her killer.
Yeah,but it looks like a robbery.
To steal what?
Everybody outside of the gaming commission and the
Crime Lab thinks that these chips are worthless.
Jim?
Okay.
Thank you.
P.
D.
ust picked up Wiley Schindler at McCarran
trying to board a plane back to Kansas City.
His carry-ons were packed with
two cases of Hux Club chips.
And we let him out the door.
Well,I'm going back to the lab.
Why don't you finish up here?
So,tell me something,Wiley.
Where'd you get the chips this timime?
From that gal at the
diner,Miss,um,Aubrey.
I went by her place this
morning,made a fair deal for them.
You know,her buds,you member
stumpy and hole-in-the-head.
They were the ones who found them.
So,what made you think Barbie had any?
Because she was their bud.
I figured she might
know where the stash was.
And I have a sentimental
attachment to the Hux Club era,so
Come on,man,don't lie to me.
You're not a sentimental guy.
Okay,I've got a friend
in the gaming commission.
And I heard that the chips might
still have cash value with the state.
Right
So,you went to Barbie and got all the high denomination
ones before she found out what they were worth.
Yeah.
So what?
So,shs dead.
When I left her,she was smiling
and holding $2,000 in cash.
You got a knack for
making dead people happy.
I put my damn business
card on the bank roll.
If I killed her,why in
the hell would I do tt?
Hey,Catherine,I got
something you'll want to see.
Remember those online
auctions we were tracking?
Yeah.
Well,a significant number of Hux Club chips were put
on the market while Schindler was still in custody.
I know that Barbie Aubrey
had some.
It was probably her.
That's what I thought,too.
So,I checked in with a couple people
at the collectibles show to confirm.
Nobody recognized Barbie,but several
described a man-- not Schindler--
who was peddling Hux Club chips.
This is surveillance
video from the venue.
The guy on the left was
apparently there for hours.
Eventually made several cash sales.
Any idea who he is?
No,but
lucky for us,he paid his
bar tab with his credit card.
No,I got units on it.
Hello?
I don't care who called in sick,you can't just
change the schedule on me at the last minute.
I'm in Vegas on
business,like I told you.
Stop hounding me!
All right,his name is Walter Ellis.
He's a busboy at the diner.
The address on this statement
is the same as Barbie's.
They live together?
Or they're married.
Maybe Schindler was telling
the truth the whole time.
What if Barbie stole the chips from Bruno and
Huston and Walter then stole them from her?
What are you doing?
These are my chips,moron!
- They're half mine,you ***!
- No,they're not!
I'm getting out!