I'm a senior detective with the Battle Creek Police.
We are forced to make do
with sub-standard and out-of-date equipment.
Great news. We're getting help.
Our loss is Battle Creek's gain.
Good riddance, you miserable sack.
Big smile, big laugh, you love it here.
Big smile, big laugh.
I love it here!
- Detectives Russ Agnew... - Milt Chamberlain.
Hi.
He has asked to have someone team up with him.
Me.
Why me?
I think you get lucky.
Not because you trust people,
but because you're just really good looking, man.
Thank you.
In my experience, when you trust people, they trust you.
Have you actually met people?
You can't be a cop and be this naive. It's just not possible.
I agree.
No, no, no photographic evidence.
Yes. Come on, baby.
Shaylene cannot see any of this.
Turn 'em off.
Come on, guys. The bachelor party is over.
Girls checked out an hour ago.
But it's our man, Funk's big night.
We haven't even had the chance to see the headliner yet.
Hey, come on out here, sweetheart.
Don't be scared. Come on.
Come on, baby. That's right, darling. Let's see it!
Ladies and gentlemen...
Yeah, get out here!
Detective Russ Agnew.
Come on out here, sunshine!
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance!
Come on, you can do it. Dance, man!
That's terrible.
Hey! How much for a lap dance, sugar?
Lap that size, it's gonna cost you double.
Are you mocking my girth or complimenting my girth?
All units in the area please respond.
10-13, 10-13. Code three.
Really, you brought your radio to a bachelor party?
I'm 10-8.
Why, what is that, code for buzzkill? Come on, man.
Reported at 1315 Wentworth Avenue.
Copy that.
What? 1315?
That's Commander's house!
It's over here.
- You okay? - I'm breathing.
Are you okay?
He lost a bet. Can't hold his liquor like he used to.
Can't fit into those chaps like he used to either.
What the hell happened?
Fire burns upwards.
So, where you see this kind of V shaped mark,
you find the point of origin.
But where did it start?
There's no electrical outlets.
There's liquid present. Probably oil.
And there's glass fragments on the floor.
Could've been shattered by the heat or when my people put the fire out.
Did you have an oil lamp or something sitting here?
No.
Where else could the glass have come from, Kim?
I mean, the picture frames are intact,
the window's not shattered, but it's open.
I closed that before I went to bed.
Did you latch it?
I don't know.
Is it possible that someone on your team opened this window?
It's been fused up. Had to be open before the fire.
So, this glass wasn't in the house
and this window was closed when she went to bed.
This was arson.
Someone opened the window and threw in a Molotov cocktail.
Someone tried to kill me.
Ripped By mstoll
From now on, there's gonna be no parking tickets,
no street patrols, no more busts of nickel bags, gangbangers.
Hell, it could be The Purge out there, for all I care.
Right now, we have one case.
We're focusing our efforts on everyone the Commander put away
who was recently released and might be seeking revenge.
Funk, call the prisons and the PO's, start generating a list.
Niblet, check back in with the fire inspector.
Jacocks, I need the specifics on the accelerant,
the glass, any other trace evidence that might be help to us.
Doug, I need you to round up all the extra unis,
canvass the neighbourhood, see what you can find out.
Holly, who sent you those flowers?
I thought they were...
I don't know. There was no note.
All right. Well, get Milt.
- What? - You want her to get Milt?
They're the FBI. They were sent here to help us, right?
Russ, come on.
There's something else.
Jasper didn't bark when the arsonist slid open the window.
What if he didn't bark because the arsonist was familiar to him?
Someone I know.
Like Danny?
Danny? No. He's living in Fort Lauderdale.
- How long have you had Jasper? - Three years.
So, boyfriends in that time?
I made a list.
Seventeen?
In three years.
Not to judge.
It was a good three years.
We'll...
We'll bring them in, and check out their alibis.
- Hey. - Hey.
I need you to do two favours for me on the down-low.
The first is, I need you to run a check on a juvenile delinquent
named Danny Brackish.
See if he's back in Battle Creek.
Okay, why the down-low? Who is he?
He's Guziewicz's son.
All right. What's the second thing?
I need you to find out who sent Holly those flowers.
- Seriously? - I'm concerned for her safety, okay?
Who sends flowers anonymously to a police department?
- Apparently, you do. - No.
- Yes. - No.
They were sent to her here at work,
which means that whoever sent them doesn't know her home address.
Which means that they know her from here.
Which means it's a deadbeat.
A vagrant, a criminal, or a lawyer.
Or it's someone who works with her, like you.
Knows she spends a lot of time here, like you.
And can watch her enjoy them at work, like you.
You were so drunk last night, you don't remember sending them.
You wanna solve this mystery, call your credit card company.
Please, just call the florist for me.
Hey, hey.
So, I hear you asked for my help.
Here's a gentleman that Guziewicz arrested in 2010,
for a string of fires at abortion clinics.
Listen, some guy going around lighting abortion clinics on fire
isn't gonna retaliate against a police officer.
A congressman? Yeah. A judge? Maybe.
A cop? No way.
You had quite the night last night, huh?
It's called a bachelor party.
It's what you do.
What the hell was that?
Nothing.
This guy lit his ex-wife's trailer on fire.
Did he use a Molotov cocktail?
'Cause arsonists tend to use the same methods.
A model rocket igniter.
So, unlikely.
Was it because it was a bachelor party?
Why are you in Battle Creek?
You're very in touch with your anger.
You love your anger.
You have no trouble expressing any negative emotion.
But romance?
Romance? You're...
You're running from your feelings, Russ.
"Love is the highest expression of the human soul."
Oh, my God. Did you just say that?
Actually, I was just quoting the Panchen Lama.
Did you have him for dinner last night?
God, no. He's been dead since the 17th century.
Here we go. Wait a second.
Michael James Rossi. Run a check.
Guziewicz arrested him 12 years ago for murdering his business partner.
They had a restaurant together, money laundering operation.
Rossi suspected him of skimming the cash.
So he knocked him unconscious, burned the restaurant down
with a Molotov cocktail, with him still inside.
Wait, this guy was just paroled last week,
and then missed his check in last night.
I'm gonna pull a list of his known associates.
The blessings of the Lama what's-his-name are upon us.
Yo.
Vito Rossi?
Your cousin, Mike, tall, dark hair, likes to burn people.
He skipped parole. Is he here?
No. And you know how I know?
'Cause I'm not dead yet.
Why do you think I'm putting the bars on the window?
You testified against him 12 years ago.
What, he still holds a grudge?
Mike's not the forgive and forget type.
You know, he's been out a week, and they just called to tell me?
If I live, I'm writing a letter to the mayor.
Well, governor would be more appropriate.
Any idea where he spent last night?
What do I get if I tell you?
- You get to live. - Protection.
No, we don't need to. He wants to tell us.
No, I wanna help him. FBI has the manpower.
FBI. Now you're talking.
No. Now you're talking.
Where is he?
If I had to guess, I'd say he's with that shorty he had.
Tina.
None of your exes seem particularly hostile.
Just kind of perplexed.
We'd been dating a couple of months and we were supposed to go camping.
And she called and said she couldn't make it.
That was it.
She stopped returning my calls after that.
No, she cut it off, just like it wasn't personal,
just like, she had an appointment she couldn't make.
Well, I'm sure I had my reasons.
There was one guy I interviewed who stood out.
Your neighbour, Steven Hanson.
Our break up? Why are you asking me about that?
I thought you guys had me down here
so I could tell you what I saw this morning.
Suspicious vehicles, that kinda thing.
You were there?
Yeah. I live right across the road.
Why are you asking me questions like you think I did something wrong?
I called 911. I would never hurt Kim.
- Did you confirm that he called 911? - Yes.
If he wanted me dead, he wouldn't call 911.
There is one more guy who could be good for this.
Your contractor, Joe Meyer.
You dated your contractor?
He moved in while he renovated my front entrance.
No, that isn't a euphemism.
Why did he stand out?
Kim's a great lady. She's really down to earth and funny.
She's a terrific cook.
You know, we're talking to people
because there was a fire at her house last night.
A fire? That's awful. I'm sorry.
As soon as I mention the fire,
he starts speaking in two-word sentences,
like he doesn't wanna say too much or give too much away.
Does he have an alibi for last night?
He was pulling an all-nighter renovating a house.
A drywall guy named Fred was working with him.
I assume you've called Fred.
I think I'll go see him in person.
Yeah, he was with me all night.
- All night? - Yeah.
Had to work straight through to finish the drywall
'cause the painters were showing up at 7:00 a.m.
We just made it, too.
You remember him leaving at any point during the evening?
Maybe he went out to grab some food or something?
No, he was with me all night.
- Mind if I take this? My wife. - Go ahead.
Hey, sugar.
How's he doing, is he good?
All right.
Hey! Is this the drywall you were replacing?
All right, let me call you back. Say what?
Is this the drywall you were replacing?
- Yeah. - Looks like it's burned.
Yeah. That's why they hired us to renovate.
Half the place burned down about a month ago.
We think Joe is burning down houses to generate income.
You think that he burned my house down
so that I would hire him again?
Well, you were happy with his services the first time, apparently.
It's all right.
I appreciate the difficulty of investigating your boss's life.
You don't need to be here to run this investigation,
all you need is a cell phone.
Why don't we take you to a safe house?
You can have a shower, get some sleep.
No, no, no. I wanna be here.
So, if your theory is correct,
then the fire at the house that you just saw,
that should've been caused by arson also.
No investigation was done.
Well, they're opening one now.
Going over insurance photos for any evidence of foul play.
If Joe's making his living burning and rebuilding,
then he didn't just do the two of us.
Follow up on the houses that he's currently working on
and get some unis to keep an eye on his past renos,
'til we either rule him out or arrest him.
I haven't seen Mike Rossi since he got busted for arson and murder.
He's a jerk and a creep.
And the love of your life.
He used to be my boyfriend.
He also used to pick me up by the hair and throw me around.
He was scary.
So, why did you go out with him?
He'd be Prince Charming, too.
One time, he sent me roses.
One time.
You know that saying about fish oil?
Yeah, I don't believe that I do, no.
You get fish oil on your skin, and you can never... Something...
My dad used to say it. Anyway, that's what Mike was like.
Once he gets under your skin, you can never get him out.
So he got under your skin,
but after he got out of prison, after 12 years,
you didn't wanna see him even a little bit?
Maybe have coffee with him or something?
I told you, no.
So, if you weren't having coffee with him,
then who was he having coffee with?
Who are his friends? Who are his enemies?
I've got no idea.
You know, Tina, your baby is adorable,
but appears to be a lot younger than 12.
Does Rossi know you had a kid with another guy?
I wrote to him.
Didn't want him to find out from somebody else.
And how did he take that news?
He was happy for me.
Please don't tell me you believe that.
I want to believe it.
And I know you wanna believe it, too.
Tina, who's the baby's father?
Rossi's gonna go after him, too.
Yeah, Detective Agnew.
I called the florist. They refused to say who sent Holly the flowers.
Client confidentiality. Who knew they cared so much?
Did you check your credit card records?
There was no purchase from a...
What? I'm just saying that there was no purchases...
But you've checked because you knew that there might be.
You wanna solve this mystery, Russ? Call tomorrow.
Sometimes it takes a day for the charges to show.
Would you just pull the flower store's phone records,
and trace all calls made to them?
Whatever. In more relevant news, I've been looking into the...
I'll tell you later.
Why are you investigating my son?
I called Danny's former case worker earlier today
and asked him to please call me if he heard from anyone from this office.
I just spoke with him.
He said he spoke to a Detective Jacocks.
I'm sorry. I know I should've told you.
I blame Russ, I don't blame you.
But you can stop investigating Danny.
He moved to Florida a couple of years ago,
he is not involved with this.
Commander?
His Battle Creek caseworker confirmed he was in Fort Lauderdale.
But his Fort Lauderdale caseworker confirmed he was in Battle Creek.
Danny has been living here in a halfway house
for a couple months now.
I'm going with you.
He could never keep still, even when he was a kid.
He was always on the move, he was always on top of everything.
Did you read his charge sheet?
We got a weird job.
Read a printout, figure you know a person.
I was a rookie.
And I got called to this drug killing,
husband and wife, both shot.
No witnesses.
At least, that's what they thought,
until somebody found their
3-year-old boy hiding in a closet.
And Commander Pritchett, he picked him up,
handed him to me, and said, "Take him."
So I did.
Things were very different for female cops back then.
I can't imagine.
When he was eight, he pulled a knife on a kid in the playground.
By the time he was 16, things were so out of hand.
I let them send him to juvie.
I thought things would be better when he got out, but it was worse.
He started using.
And one night he got high and he got into a fight,
and he ended up putting a kid in the hospital,
and that was it.
I said I did not wanna see him until he got clean.
He raised the ante, and said he did not wanna see me again, ever.
I'm sorry.
That must have been so hard for you.
Let's go.
Danny?
Why didn't you tell me you were back?
She's one of your cops?
You think you need backup to talk to me?
That's why I didn't call you.
She brought me because my house burned down last night.
Our house.
And what? You think I'm involved?
No, but there are people in my office who are asking me where you are,
and I have been insisting that you were in Florida.
Am I under arrest?
No, of course you're not. Of course you're not.
But you came looking for me so you can ask these questions, just in case.
Screw you.
I need to know where you were last night at 4:00 a.m.
I was shooting pool with the guys.
We were here, at the house.
Just the three of us.
Guys, I'm gonna need your names and your statements.
This is a long shot.
Are you kidding me? She had a baby with this guy.
Rossi's got to be jealous.
You've never been jealous, have you?
You've never been talking to your girlfriend
and noticed her looking over your shoulder,
staring at someone else?
Of course you haven't.
Everyone has.
Have you ever even been in love?
I mean, you say that love is the highest whatever of the human soul,
but I don't see you putting yourself out there trying to meet anyone.
What happened to you, Milt?
Or don't you have a soul?
I think that was Rossi.
The car came from behind the house.
The house is on fire!
Special Agent Chamberlain requesting follow on a blue Camaro.
Anybody here?
Check the bedrooms.
Seriously?
All right, good to go.
- Hey. - Hey.
This crime has got Rossi's name all over it.
We found shards of glass inside
presumably a Molotov cocktail, hence the fire.
And the victim was found inside, beaten and unconscious.
Well, at least we know that Danny's not involved.
Danny is in Battle Creek. We went and we questioned him.
Sorry I put you through that.
You did what you had to do.
Good news.
They found the blue Camaro.
You see any footprints?
Hard to find a print in the pavement, Milt, but be my guest.
You know, I've revised my opinion
about your behaviour at Funkhauser's party.
Yeah?
'Cause my opinion of you has remained surprisingly stable.
You are a romantic, Russ Agnew.
You didn't get drunk at that party
because you were running from romance,
you got drunk at that party because you were running to romance.
Why don't you just save this...
You got your chance to analyse me, and now it's my turn to analyse you.
You like Holly.
You wanted to tell her how you feel,
but you didn't have the nerve to do it.
Sober.
When we're done with this case, I'm gonna follow up
on every human being who called the flower shop.
Then I'm gonna figure out who sent the flowers,
and then I'm gonna rub it in your face.
I know where Rossi is.
It's not a coincidence they both ate at Sly's.
- Sorry to interrupt. - You're not.
We got a warrant and seized Joe's company records.
Found another house he worked on where there was a fire.
They're opening an arson investigation.
That's interesting, but it's probably a coincidence.
Russ and Milt's suspect, Rossi, he looks good for this.
The evidence against Joe is really good, too.
Let me bring him in, see how he does in a formal interrogation.
Knock yourself out.
You're wasting your time.
Mike's not gonna show.
I told you, I haven't seen him, I'm not going to.
He's a jerk and a creep!
Would you give it a rest?
You're the girl who cried, "He's happy for me."
- You did lie to us, Tina. - I didn't lie.
Actually, you did. You lied twice.
So now we have no reason to believe you, so just stop talking.
We'll just sit here and wait for Mr Wonderful to come home.
Special Agent Chamberlain.
Yeah.
Thank you.
That was the agent that I detailed outside of Rossi's cousin, Vito.
He said there's a truck creating a disturbance in front of the house.
Okay. Don't let her leave, and don't let her use the phone.
Tell Guziewicz we got a 10-37
at the home of one of Rossi's known associates.
And we're on our way there right now.
Jacocks, what ever happened to the phone records from the flower shop?
Turns out there was a call placed to the florist from The Happy Trap.
What?
Yeah, isn't that where Funkhauser had his bachelor party?
Yeah, yeah.
So, maybe one of Funk's friends has a crush on Holly,
or maybe they were ordered by some stripper,
someone who got hauled down to the station, Holly did a favour for.
Pretty lame theories, if you ask me.
Or maybe someone's trying to screw with me.
Hello?
Russ, I admire the way you see things other people don't see.
And I admire the way you see what those things represent.
Please don't compliment me.
It doesn't matter if it helps your case or hurts your case,
you just follow the evidence.
And you know the evidence on the flowers is clear.
Yeah.
Apparently, I sent 'em.
Now you need to tell her.
Officer down!
He's breathing.
Okay. One, two, go.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Hands in the air where we can see 'em.
It's quite the bag of tricks you got here.
Duct tape.
A brick.
Who carries a brick? One brick.
Does this brick have sentimental value?
That's your mother's blood covered brick, Mike?
This is fun. What else you got here?
Kerosene.
Some torn rags, some matches.
So, there's no question that you're going away
for the attempted murder of your cousin Vito.
So what?
Well, and since I'm pretty sure that you used this same bag of tricks
for the fire this morning at Sean Markel's,
I'll bet that's his DNA on the brick.
Which means that you're going away for that attempted murder, too.
So what?
Well,
we've got the forensics report from Guziewicz's house.
And once we match the kerosene to the glass,
man, you're going away for that fire as well.
For what?
The fire,
last night.
- At Guziewicz's house. - Guzawho?
Guziewicz. The police detective who put you behind bars.
I never went after him.
Rossi is a killer and a firebug, but he's not my firebug.
It must be my contractor, Joe.
It's not Joe.
He's guilty of something, but not what we thought.
About a year ago, hired his sister's kid,
some pothead, to work for him.
The kid did a crap job,
and his faulty wiring set three houses on fire.
Joe's been working at cost to repair the houses.
That's why he got nervous when we mentioned the fire.
And you've confirmed this with his clients?
They did have unusually low repair bills.
He says he didn't say anything earlier
because he assumed that he had caused your fire
and he didn't think he could afford to fix another house for free.
Two crimes solved, but neither of them mine.
Can I speak with you alone, please?
It's not Danny.
Danny's our main suspect now.
We have to interrogate him, and we have to search his house
and we have to treat him like we would treat any other suspect.
So you bring him in,
you interrogate him,
and when you're wrong,
my son never speaks to me again, Russ.
If you weren't his mother,
what would be your call?
Hi, Danny.
What's going on, Russ?
Sorry, man.
It's a warrant to search your home and person.
And I'm gonna require you to accompany me downtown.
Russ...
You remember when you were 12
and you got mad at your mom,
and you ran away from home?
You remember that?
Remember I...
I let you stay on my couch for the night?
I remember waking up that night to this sound,
and I went out to the living room,
and there you were.
You were standing facing the wall,
kicking it,
getting madder and madder.
I'm not 12 any more.
No, I know.
But you still have all this rage,
this fury at the world
because you think you've been screwed.
I know what that anger can do.
I was on the scene that day when you put that kid in the hospital.
He swung at me first, man.
Yeah, maybe.
But he stopped swinging
and you didn't.
Well, I wouldn't do this.
Why, 'cause you love your mom so much
that you don't call her when you're back in town?
The first time you see her, you get pissed off at her?
Look at me.
I'm trying to help you, I'm trying to make this
as easy as I can for you, but to do that I need you to confess.
I need to know that there's not a monster out there
trying to kill your mother.
I need to know it's just a kid who made an angry mistake.
I wouldn't do this.
I don't care about her.
I don't think about her.
I'm just trying to live my life.
I know you're lying, Danny.
Because I've got a mom who is not half as decent as yours,
but I still care about what she thinks.
So you cared
and you hated.
Your alibi?
Billy says you won three games in a row,
but Johnny says he did.
Johnny says you were betting 10 bucks a rack,
Billy says you were playing for fun.
You wanna get your friends to cover for you, Danny,
you gotta get your stories straight.
Man, we weren't keeping track. We were just drinking, man.
Why are you lying to me?
Because you keep accusing me of something I didn't do!
So you admit that you're lying?
All right, I wasn't playing pool, okay!
You went to your mom's house,
you didn't think the fire was gonna get that big.
You just wanted to scare her, right?
Yeah?
This is where I was.
We can check out his alibi.
But I believe him.
It's an address on Fullerton.
It's a crack house.
We're looking at something the wrong way, but what is it?
I mean, somebody opened the window,
someone threw in a Molotov cocktail.
And we know that kerosene is untraceable,
but what about the glass?
The material is typically used in household products.
Sold by a variety of retailers in Michigan.
Fragments define two spheres, each with a curvature of five inches.
Yeah, well, were there two Molotov cocktails?
Why the redundancy?
There's no reason for it.
Look, we've been down this road.
There are too many different types of bottles, Russ.
I'll be right back.
- Hey. - Hi.
So, the flowers.
I know, I know, you're worried.
E told me.
It was very sweet of you to worry, and...
But I know who sent them.
How'd you find out?
He called.
He did?
Yeah, it's the guy who runs the coffee shop down the street.
Well, I go in there to get my coffee every morning, and we always chat.
So, he...
- So... Yeah. - So...
- Now you know. - Yeah.
I'm so happy for you.
Okay. Thank you.
You told me that call came from inside the strip club.
I made that up. I'm so sorry, Russ. I was sure it was you.
I figured it would help with the romance.
Move over.
What if the shattered glass wasn't a bottle or a jar?
Or what if it wasn't a Molotov cocktail at all?
What if this guy wasn't trying to kill Guziewicz?
Oh, my God.
He was trying to seduce her.
We know the fire was started by two oil candles like these.
And we know that last week you ordered two of them
from a company in Grand Rapids.
We have a warrant to search your home,
but we're not gonna find them because they're right here.
I know you're responsible, I just want to understand why.
I wanted to do something bold and romantic.
It was the anniversary of our first date.
I wanted to leave some lit candles
next to a letter that I had written you.
They would be there waiting for you when you woke up.
But as I was turning to leave, I guess
I knocked one of the candles over.
I didn't notice until I smelled the smoke,
saw the wallpaper on fire. I went back,
I tried to put it out, but I couldn't.
I had to climb out the window just to get away.
And as soon as I got out, I called 911.
Kim, please, I just wanted to win you back.
I never understood why we split up.
Everything was going so good and you just dropped me.
And I know you don't owe me anything because of what I did,
but can you tell me what went wrong between us?
Nothing was wrong. I liked you. We had fun.
Then why did you end it?
Good things change,
become not good things.
I like to leave while they're still good.
I didn't wanna see you again until you were clean.
I didn't know how to help you, and it was a cop out.
Maybe I'm... Maybe I give up on people too often,
maybe I'm screwed up like that, but I'm not giving up on you.
I'm gonna keep coming by.
Every day. Just to see how you're doing.
Let you know that somebody cares.
See you tomorrow.
- The coffee in your office is better. - Yeah, I know.
You know, one of the pieces of evidence
you used to conclude that you sent the flowers,
was your feelings for Holly.
Look, even if the flowers weren't yours,
it doesn't mean the feelings weren't.
And I have been in love.
How many things in your life have you lied to me about?
I'm not lying.
But even if I was,
would anything I've said about you and Holly be less true?
Good night, Russ.
- Good night. - Good night.
Hi.
You didn't have to come all the way here.
- I wanted to. - Thank you.
- You ready? - Yeah.
- All right. - You're looking good.
Ripped By mstoll