Morning.
How you doing?
Dragging ass, man. Kid had me up all damn night.
You expecting a breeze?
You're puffy.
Why do you look so tired?
I have a kid.
He never sleeps.
Like a shark.
What's up with the paperweight?
It weighs down paper.
You know what? That's your thing. I don't even care.
We got a fresh one.
Royal Bubbles car wash on Lambert.
The tape's gone.
Always is.
The safe's empty, too.
Guy's trying to run a business
and he's jacked up for what, a couple hundred bucks?
If that.
Perp tossed this place pretty good.
It looks like he was trying to find something.
Wife and kid, too.
Okay. Vic gets forced back here for the contents of the safe and whatever else.
They struggle, they struggle,
then the fight spills out to here, into the store.
Guy put up a hell of a fight.
Yeah.
Who called it in?
Repair guy. He was supposed to fix the wheel-scrubber.
Spoke to the victim at about 6:00 AM to get directions,
came here, found this.
He didn't come inside?
No. No. He said the door was locked.
He saw the blood through the window and called 911 around 6:37 AM.
Perp shows up sometime after 6:00,
so we're looking at about a 30-minute window.
Yeah, watch out.
Cell phone.
We need a tech in here.
Right away.
Blood trail starts in the parking lot,
comes all the way in here.
Or it starts in here and ends out there.
You see the tail on the blood drops?
They point in the direction of travel.
Not the victim's blood.
The perp got injured then leaked all the way back to his getaway car.
Don't beat yourself up.
You're probably just sleep deprived.
Thomas Jackson, 35.
One in the head. One in the thigh.
His hand is demolished.
Every finger's smashed and covered in grease.
Probably shoved his hand in the tow chain.
They tortured him.
They were looking for something and it wasn't cash,
because his wallet's full of it.
Victim's cell phone.
He called his wife, Brooke Jackson, at 6:17,
about the same time he was getting attacked.
One last dying call. Maybe he told her who shot him?
If he did, why didn't she call 911?
And why isn't she here?
Unbelievable.
Ugh. Excuse me.
Thank you.
Christopher Roberts, 22 years old.
Looks like he got into some kind of scrap
before he fell from the parking structure.
And someone painted the word "fraud" on his car.
Figure he was in the record shop, came out,
caught the perp trashing his car,
struggled, then took a header.
Sounds personal.
Kid's 22-years old. What's he doing with an $80,000 ride?
I wonder what he's doing with these records.
This is old school. Obscure, too.
Half this stuff I've never even heard of before.
Chris paid for his records,
picked up a turntable I fixed for him and that was it.
What can you tell us about Chris?
He was a producer, rapper, DJ.
He wrote all his own stuff.
Came in every Tuesday morning to crate dig.
Crate dig?
Yeah, you know, these hip-hop guys like to sample old records.
So, his stuff is right here.
Dropped this off this morning.
That's his music? Mmm-hmm.
Very interesting stuff.
Folks in the neighborhood said he was about to break out.
Blow up. You know, be a star.
Then...
It's just sad. He really knew his music.
He have any people you know of?
Mentioned his mom out near Delray.
Bought her a Chet Baker record.
Thanks for your help. You got a great place here.
All right. Quality stuff.
Hanging by a thread, brother.
My wife loved vinyl.
Said it was like listening to a warm fire.
Nothing sounds quite the same, huh?
Yeah. All right, why don't you finish up here?
I'll try to locate the mother.
Yeah, I'll follow up on that car, too.
This might be one of those bling bling Biggie Tupac murders.
What?
Look, baby, I gotta run.
Call your mom, she'd know.
Give my boy a squeeze.
Gotta go. Bye.
You know, we're about to tell a woman her husband's been murdered.
She looks out that window,
sees you laughing and carrying on like that,
how you think she's gonna feel?
You're right.
Is that ringer off?
It's on vibrate.
Off.
Brooke Jackson, Detroit PD.
Anybody here?
It's clear upstairs. Bedroom was ransacked.
She made her kid breakfast.
Somebody kicked down the door and snatched them.
We could be looking at a triple.
Jill Roberts? Yes.
Sergeant Jesse Longford,
DPD Homicide.
There's been an incident involving your son Chris.
No.
I'm sorry.
No!
No! No!
No, no!
No!
I'm sorry.
It's just been me and Chris since he was about three years old.
His daddy died, didn't leave us with much.
But we did all right.
Was there anything going on in Chris' life
that could've led to something like this?
No. All he cared about was that music.
Never mentioned any enemies?
No. He wouldn't tell me something like that.
Wouldn't want me to worry.
I understand.
Maybe you could put together a list of friends for me?
People that he might have confided in?
What about a girlfriend?
Always seemed like there was some girl coming and going.
Got to be, I didn't even bother learning their names.
Little heartbreaker.
You work, Mrs. Roberts?
No. Disability. My back.
Chris was driving a $80,000 car.
Any idea how he paid for that?
He said it was from his music.
His music paid for that plasma TV
and that beautiful dining room set?
Yes.
Was Chris involved in drugs?
My son was talented.
He was getting some attention for it.
He was gonna have a record deal
and he got an advance and he bought us some things.
Is that not allowed?
Of course it is.
I just have to ask.
He was gonna get us out of here.
And now he gone.
Ma'am,
I work for you now.
We're gonna do our best to catch whoever did this.
Any sign of Brooke Jackson and her child?
Not yet.
We got a citywide out on her missing car,
we're on her credit cards, ATM, we're all over her phone,
but so far nothing.
Okay. Keep pressing.
Where are you two on the victimology?
Well, the decedent, Thomas Jackson, has a couple priors.
Possession of methamphetamine with an intent to distribute.
Recent? Couple years back.
You ever cross him in narcotics?
No, but I made a few calls.
He was selling just enough ice to get himself in trouble.
Two years ago.
Look, I've seen people get smoked for things that happened 10 years back.
You know what they say, the streets hold a grudge.
If you want, I can talk to some of my contacts from when I was undercover.
If Jackson fell back in the game, they will know.
Okay. Run with it.
Fitch, you and Washington keep tracking the wife.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, let me know as soon as they get here.
All right.
You getting anywhere?
Found the kid. Alive and well.
Great. Where?
Right where he's supposed to be. In school.
Their records list Brooke's sister, Keri Rader,
as the secondary emergency contact.
Patrol's bringing them in.
Did you touch my scorpion?
No.
Well, somebody did.
When I left, the stinger was pointing north and now it's the other way.
Fine, I picked it up.
Why would you do that?
Look at your desk.
You got a computer and a phone. Not a single personal artifact.
Then that thing appears?
How am I not going to pick it up?
You control yourself like a grown man.
Come on.
If you touch anything on my desk,
I will chop off your hands and lock them in the gun safe.
Roger that.
I did a little crate digging down at the record store.
My Girl by The Temptations, perhaps you've heard of it?
Man, I danced to this song at my wedding.
You don't think I got, like, 10 of these at home?
You do not have that one. Trust me, that is special edition, my friend.
So did you do any actual police work?
Yeah. I followed up on that car.
It was purchased in cash by a hip-hop manager named Russell Pitts.
Dude just gave Chris an $80,000 car.
Mom's house was decked out with big ticket items,
maybe he bought those, too.
Well, his office says he's shooting a video down at Grosse Pointe Farms.
Big pimpin'. Mmm-hmm.
Let's take a ride.
Hell, yes.
Excuse me. We're looking for Russell Pitts.
It's a shame what happened to Chris.
Any idea who killed him?
I wouldn't know about that type of thing.
Why'd you give Chris a car?
It was a signing gift. He was a client.
Really? That's pretty generous.
Can I be a client?
Yeah, 'cause everybody wants to hear the police rapping.
So you drop a mix by my office, you any good, we'll talk.
But it has to be in English though.
So let me see if I got this.
You give him a car, you buy his momma presents.
And in return you get what?
A client.
And what else?
The publishing rights for his music?
That's the real money, right? Motown pulled that crap for years.
Eighty thousand dollar whip's a hell of a gift.
Y'all act like I was mugging his ass.
Now, his music might not make one dime.
I'm the one on the hook here.
I'm sure your ass is covered.
Okay. Y'all being rude now, y'all got to go.
Right, well...
Give me a call if anything suddenly occurs to you.
Okay. And you can call my attorney if anything suddenly occurs to you.
That's Brooke's son, Kevin, and her sister, Keri Rader.
Take the kid, get him a snack.
What, I'm babysitting now?
Brooke dropped Kevin off at my place a couple of days ago.
She asked if I could watch him for a little while
until things cooled off between her and Thomas.
She tell you what they were fighting about?
Money, mostly.
They had sank everything into that car wash and it wasn't making a dime.
We know Thomas had drug problems in the past.
Is there any chance that he slipped,
and got in trouble that way?
He relapsed.
It took him years to get clean,
and my sister stood by him every step of the way.
She went through hell and back for him.
Then for him to start using again?
She wasn't having it.
What do you think happened to your sister?
I don't know.
Where do you think she could be?
I have no idea.
You haven't spoken to her in the last 12 to 24 hours?
No. No texts, no email?
No. Are we done here?
'Cause I still haven't figured out
how I'm going to tell that little boy his daddy's dead.
My drink's gone.
If I get you another, you can't tell your aunt, all right?
How much longer do we have to be here?
Not much longer.
Are my parents in trouble for hitting each other?
Why do your parents hit each other?
Because my mommy wouldn't give Daddy her book.
What kind of book?
The one she writes stuff in.
What kind of stuff does your mommy write?
I don't know.
But my daddy said it was going to get us killed.
Artist's name is Josh Deacon.
Chris' mom says the two of them were close.
People actually go to school for this?
Seriously? I could paint that.
Everybody says that.
Uh, I met Chris, like, a year and a half ago.
He saw some of my work
and asked me to do cover art for his mix-tapes.
These paintings are all based on his music.
It was genius.
Any idea who might've done this?
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, he was feuding, or whatever, with this other hip-hop guy.
What was his name?
Uh, some guy called Shredder B.
Do you know his real name?
Do these guys even have real names?
So what was the beef between them?
He thought Chris was ripping off his sound,
stealing his beats.
Chris' music was better,
and he was getting a ton of attention, and B was jealous.
Lot of people were probably jealous, why are you so sure it was Shredder B?
Well, Chris was DJing a party last Saturday night,
and when we were leaving,
B came up to him and he put a gun in his face.
He made him get on his knees and beg for his life.
Said he wanted everyone to see what a bitch Chris was.
This is messed up. I can't be seen talking to ya'll.
Especially not you.
Come on, Chito.
We're old friends, remember?
Well, you ain't so popular around here.
Not since you came out as an undercover narc.
Okay. I'm not too worried about that.
Well, I am.
What have you heard about that murder that happened at Royal Bubbles?
I heard somebody got shot.
Excuse me? No. His name is Thomas Jackson
and I know you know this dude, all right?
The dude used to run meth in this neighborhood a couple years back.
So, what, 'cause he sells dirt, I gotta know him?
Yeah.
Don't make us drag you in.
You're already on parole.
All right, look.
I don't know what Thomas was using or if he was selling or what.
But I do know that he used to have bangers
coming in and out of that car wash all day.
And only half the time they was their car getting washed.
Who are these bangers hooked up with?
I don't know and I don't wanna know.
Then who would?
Pup would probably know. He's the man around here.
Wait, wait, hold up, hold up.
Pup Clemons? Yeah.
Little Pup Clemons?
Pup is making moves, man.
He's trying to take over this whole neighborhood.
I want to talk to him. Can you set that up?
Look, I like you, and all, you know,
even though you screwed over a lot of folks around here.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.
But Pup ain't that forgiving, so...
Just set up the meeting.
Whatever. Your funeral.
So, three days ago, Brooke Jackson has
a violent fight with her husband,
most likely stemming from the contents of her diary.
Do we have any idea what she was writing?
No, not yet, but they were also fighting about the car wash,
so we dug into the financials. It's all out of whack.
Go ahead.
Yeah. The Jacksons set up a joint LLC for Royal Bubbles with a corporate account.
Over the past few months
we found a ton of cash flowing through that account.
Yet somehow they still weren't clearing a profit.
Because it's not their cash.
Exactly. Somebody was using Royal Bubbles to launder money.
That could explain why the sister was being so cagey with Fitch.
That's true. If Brooke is washing drug money,
her sister might be covering for her.
Any idea whose money the Jacksons were cleaning?
No, I'm still working on that.
Trying to set up a meeting with a local player,
his name is Pup Clemmons.
If it's not his money he's gonna know whose it is.
But if Thomas was cleaning their cash, why would they kill him?
Well, he was using again.
Maybe he stuck his hand in the cookie jar, skimmed some money for himself.
We got a hit off that citywide for Brooke Jackson's car.
Found it in a motel parking lot off East Grand.
Thanks.
Well, manager says a woman matching Brooke's description
checked in earlier today,
paid in cash.
That ain't Brooke Jackson.
Laceration on his upper-arm.
The blue residue on the bandage is a high alkaline base,
some kind of industrial soap.
From the car wash.
He probably gashed his arm while he was torturing Thomas.
That's the blood flow you found leading out to the parking lot.
So this guy killed Thomas, went to the house looking for Brooke,
eventually caught up to her here.
But she was waiting for him and blew his ass away.
Maybe that was Thomas' dying call to his wife.
He was warning her.
The meeting with Pup's on.
When?
Right now.
Braxton Baines.
Otherwise known as...
Shredder B.
Oh, man, he's grimming me.
You know he did five years in Wayne County.
I mean, Shredder B's no joke.
Mmm-hmm.
Okay. So, Braxton,
we're looking into a homicide.
And unfortunately, your name came up.
Look at my man.
Sitting back with that gangster lean.
Got his lips all pursed and turtled up.
We ain't cracking his shell. No, sir.
Well, we hauled him in here, I mean, we gotta talk about something.
What about that name? Shredder B.
I love that name. Wasn't I saying that?
You were indeed. Too bad his music sucks.
Mmm. - Dude's got no flow.
He got a sweet name though...
You know who's got flow? Chris Roberts. Mmm.
Kid rhymes sweet as hot butter on a biscuit.
The ladies knew it, too.
Yeah. Can you imagine how much tail he plowed through?
And then that car he was driving? Good lord.
Look, man, that car was fake juice, man!
This whole kid act was phony.
Is that why you punked him out and made him beg for his life?
I was just playing with the kid.
You hold a gun to his head,
and then three days later somebody else kills him?
What are odds of that, Braxton?
Must be pretty good, 'cause I ain't do it.
Then why does everybody keep saying you did?
'Cause they're afraid of the real dude, that's all.
Who's the real dude?
It's now or never, Braxton.
Russell Pitts, man.
He signed Chris, hooked him up with that car,
he even hooked his moms up, man,
but Chris tried to back up out of the deal.
Why'd he try to back out of...
Look, man, I don't know.
Chris was a moody little bitch, that's all.
He messed up, got himself killed.
That's all I gotta say about it, man.
Damn.
Your partner's fine.
How you been, Pup?
All right.
Man, last time I saw you, you were a lookout over on Puritan.
Yeah, well, times change. You want to talk to me?
Yeah. What do you know about that murder over at Royal Bubbles?
Detective Stone.
Yes, sir, you caught a lot of people slipping, didn't you?
You want to cry about it?
That's the game, Pup. You know that.
True.
Look, I don't think you did this murder.
I mean, frankly, you're not pulling enough profit
where you gotta launder money.
But if you don't help me here,
I'm gonna assume that you were involved.
That ain't gonna get you anywhere, homeboy.
Maybe not,
but I can make you the focus of a DPD task force.
Lock down your business.
You guys steal a pack of gum, I'm gonna violate your ass.
Is that what you want?
Royal Bubbles.
Yeah.
I might've heard something.
You know this guy?
Oh, yeah. That's Skeebo. That's one of Luther Daniels' boys.
Luther's the guy that's running money for the car wash?
Yeah. He move a lot of dope, too.
He got Schoolcraft, Grand River, most of Schaefer.
Luther bring death to your doorstep,
he don't care nothing about dropping no bodies.
Why's he gonna kill a guy that's laundering money for him?
Well, from what I heard,
dude's wife didn't want him to clean that dope money.
She started acting out. Pushing back against Luther.
Hollering at his boys and whatnot.
So Luther killed her, 'cause she's mouthing off?
Nah, nah. She started acting foolish.
She started keeping an account of all of Luther's money,
started writing down deposits and everything.
She kept it in this little book.
She threatened Luther with it,
and I guess he figured, you know, "That's enough of that,"
and just took care of it, you know.
All right, man. Appreciate the help. Thanks.
Hey, you know there's a price on your head around here, right?
Fifty K. Easy money.
If it's so easy, why don't you take it?
Because you look funny in that suit.
And I figure it won't be long before you're back on the take again.
I could use a man on the inside.
I never was and I never will be on the take.
Never say never.
Brooke Jackson threatened to take down a drug dealer.
If she's not dead yet, she will be soon.
Luther Daniels runs a crew called Cash Money Players.
Now, these guys deal mostly crack cocaine, but also heroin and meth.
Brooke Jackson was keeping a detailed accounting ledger
of all of that guy's dope money.
That's the diary.
That's what they were looking for at the car wash.
And when they couldn't find it,
they tortured Thomas to find out where his wife was.
Have we located this Luther Daniels?
No. No, we can't find him.
He's gone completely underground.
Probably gearing up to take another run at Brooke.
Then we need to find her before Daniels.
I got an idea, but, uh...
You may not like it.
Are you crazy?
No. I'm not crazy.
You must be, if you think I'm going to dangle my nephew
as bait in front of these killers.
No, I want to use your nephew to find Brooke.
How long, you think, before these animals get the same idea I got
and snatch that kid to get at your sister?
You ever been to Florida?
Florida?
Years... Years ago.
My family used to go every summer.
Fort Meyers.
Anyway, this one time,
me and my little brother were walking along the beach, right?
And we come up on this row of surfboards stuck in the sand.
They're upright, you know, like a row of dominos.
And for some reason, my brother, impulsive pain in the ass that he is,
he decides to tip one over,
and they all fall down, just like dominos.
Well, we start booking it down the beach,
six pissed off teenagers on our ass,
and these are Florida kids, so they're already a little nuts.
So they catch us, and we are terrified.
But when they asked who pushed over their surfboards,
without a thought, I said it was me.
I took that beating for my little brother,
because that's what I always did.
I protected him, because...
Because if anything happened to him, I couldn't handle it.
My point is,
I know you're trying to protect Brooke,
because you're scared
that she's gonna go to prison for laundering drug money.
Thomas said that they had to, they didn't have a choice.
They didn't have a choice. That's why we'd never charge them.
In fact, we know your sister was trying to stop it.
That's what the diary was about.
I know you've been talking to her, okay?
There's no way she would disappear without her son.
She hasn't answered my calls or my texts.
She said she doesn't want me to get involved.
That's why we gotta bring her son into this.
She'll kill me.
I promise you, Kevin will not be in any danger, okay?
Call Brooke, say her son needs to see her.
Say he's begging for his mother, okay?
She'll respond to that.
You gotta step up and gotta do what you've always done.
Protect your sister.
I didn't kill that boy. I got no cause to.
He was gonna make you a lot of money until he backed out of the deal.
We went back and forth on the deal, but eventually he saw it my way.
Show him the papers, man.
That's Chris' signature.
Even if he wanted out, he was legally bound to my client.
I'm gonna throw you a bone just to get you out of my face.
We're listening.
Your boy was on the DL.
On the down-low? As in, he was gay?
Man on man love.
That's why we went back and forth on the deal.
I can't sell a openly gay hip-hop artist to a major label.
So I told him I wouldn't take him on
unless he stopped with all this foolishness.
If he was on the down-low, how'd you find out about it?
You don't give a man a $80,000 car without doing due diligence.
I had a couple my guys follow him around, find out what he's into.
They saw him carrying on and holding hands with some white boy.
Where was that?
Downtown. At the art school.
Josh Deacon.
Way they tell it,
love was in the air.
Where's Kevin?
Where's my son?
Brooke, I'm sorry, I had to.
Brooke, we're police. Your son is safe.
We're here to help you. It's okay. It's okay.
Let's have a seat.
Luther got my husband hooked on drugs again.
Thomas had fought for years to get clean.
I got so mad when I found out he was using again.
But he wouldn't stop. I mean, he couldn't stop.
Pretty soon he was into Luther for a whole lot of money.
And that's how he got his hooks in us.
He forced you to start laundering drug money?
Yes. Yes. He said if we did him this one favor, he would forget the debt.
But we have a son.
What kind of example does that set
if the family business is a front for a drug dealer?
I wanted it to stop.
But Thomas was scared.
And we fought, it got ugly,
you know, so I took Kevin to my sister's.
And then I did what I had to do.
I stood up for my family.
And that's when you confronted Luther. Yeah.
Told him I'd been keeping track of the money
and that if he didn't leave us alone, I was gonna go to the police.
Every cent of that thug's drug money is in that book.
The deposit slips, account numbers, everything you need is in that book.
Why didn't you bring this to the police in the first place?
I thought I could handle it.
I thought Luther would just back off and leave us alone.
He came looking for that book,
and Thomas called to warn me.
I heard him get shot.
You're a brave woman.
You better get that son of a bitch.
He took my son's father.
Shots fired! Shots fired!
Officer needs assistance at 1523 Dexter Avenue.
Stay down! Don't move!
How many?
I don't know! I can't see anything!
He's going around back! He's going around back!
I got him.
Don't make me do it!
It's Luther Daniels.
I'm in.
Sit down, son.
Why am I here?
What happened with you and Chris? Nothing.
Josh, I know the two of you were sexually involved.
I don't pass judgment.
I know the heart wants what the heart wants.
It had nothing to do with the heart.
We were having fun. It ran its course.
I didn't tell you, because I didn't think that it was relevant.
Were you with Chris the morning he was murdered?
No, I wasn't.
Are you sure?
Okay, you take a second...
I don't need a second. If I was there, I'd remember.
You destroyed my painting? - Sit down!
Sit your ass down.
Wasn't me, it was the lab techs.
The paint used on your canvas matches the paint
used to write "fraud" on the side of Chris' car.
That puts you at the crime scene.
That means you're not going home tonight.
Now, Josh, you have a decision to make.
You can either give us your side of the story
or you go out a cold-blooded killer.
You're not like that.
And I can tell you care for Chris.
I think your emotions just got the best of you.
Come on.
What happened, Josh?
A year and half, and he just cut me out like I was nothing.
It was so easy for him.
Stay with me, son.
Walk us through it.
He wouldn't take my calls,
and I knew he was gonna be at the record store Tuesday morning,
so I went there.
I just wanted to trash that stupid car,
but then he came out.
And I lost it.
Josh. Did you push him off that parking structure?
It was an accident.
But I loved him.
And he just left me.
You feel like Chinese tonight?
No. I'm gonna stick around and type this up.
Should I feel guilty about that?
You don't even know the meaning of the word.
Goodnight, man. Goodnight.
Thank you much.
You all right?
Yeah, I caught some glass.
Nothing a few cold beers can't fix.
I'll be all right.
Well, you earned it tonight.
If you want to take off, I can handle it here.
Okay.
I guess I'll see you tomorrow.
Hey.
Seriously, you handled yourself really well in there.
Kevin! Mommy!
That's good, man.
You see that?
That's nice. That's my jam, that's why we do this.
Hey, man, you cool?
Yeah, I'm cool.
I didn't see that guy coming.
But I'm good.
I'm all right. Thank you for asking.
Can I ask you about the paperweight?
It's just killing me.
What would you like to know?
What does it mean? Did you go to the Grand Canyon?
You got people out there? Did somebody send it to you?
Hell, if it's just your favorite canyon or whatever, that's cool.
I just... I gotta know, what's up with that paperweight, seriously?
Why did you choose Crazy to be my song on your phone?
Man, you're still thinking about that?
I just picked a country song. It's a white boy thing.
Still, but Crazy, that's very specific.
You're reading way too much into that.
Am I?
Crazy's actually a love song.
So, if you want to pull that thread,
this conversation's gonna get real weird, real quick.