- Patrick reluctantly helps his brother-in-law with whom he has an uneasy relationship, when one of his marks in an investment scam turns up dead and he claims to be innocent.
- Wealthy San Francisco investment broker Landon Wale (45) was shot in the Sacremento company K-Ram's HQ. Patrick is criticizing the questioning technique of the detective Reece, who arrested him, holding the smoking murder weapon, having responded to a call for help from his own, dodgy brother in law Danny Ruskin. The SPD was responding to an anonymous call. Widow Concetta Wale realizes a solid golden Aphrodite statue is missing from their home safe. K-ram was a fake company, part of one of Danny's financial scams. Patrick is released in Lisbon's custody but dumps her to find and protect Danny first while the team tracks down the financial scams.—KGF Vissers
- When Patrick Jane receives a phone call of his estranged brother-in-law Danny Ruskin asking for help, he heads to the place and stumbles upon a murder scene. Immediately after, police Detective Reece arrives at the scene and arrests Patrick, who is holding the murder weapon, but Lisbon resolves the situation. They identify the victim as the investor Landon Wale and they head to his house, where they interview the widow Concetta Wale and learn that a valuable Aphrodite statue is missing in the safe. Soon the team discovers that Danny was planning a financial scam with an associate and Landon was broken and eager to invest with Danny. Danny also informs that he had not killed Landon. Who might be the murderer?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- When Jane's brother-in-law returns to town and gets mixed up in a murder investigation, Jane must come to his aid despite personal reservations.—CW Publicity
- Jane gets a call from someone named "Danny," who calls him "boy wonder." He needs Jane's help.
Police pull up to the K-ram office building and go inside. They come up on someone holding a gun and tell him to drop the weapon. It's Jane . "Hey guys, it's not what it looks like," he says, standing over a dead body.
Later, Jane is handcuffed and gives the detective advice on how to interrogate him. Rigsby finds the whole thing very entertaining. CBI is working the joint investigation. The victim is Landon Wale, a real estate mogul. He was killed in the K-ram brokerage.
Jane tells Detective Reece and Lisbon he was taking a walk and ran in when he heard the gunshot. An anonymous call tipped them off. Lisbon asks Jane if he made the call. He says no. Rigsby finds a ruby in the victim's pocket. Lisbon asks Detective Reece to release Jane, saying she's sure he's telling the truth.
Outside, she asks for the actual truth. He says his wife's brother called him and asked for help. He gave Jane the address and he found the dead guy when he got there. He assumes his brother in law Danny called the cops on him, either to force his involvement or to try to avoid justice. He wonders if the county fair is in town.
At the Wale residence, the victim's sister Melanie says she'd never heard of the brokerage where he was found, even though they were business partners. They ask his hot blonde assistant about the brokerage and she hasn't heard of it. They show his wife the ruby.
She checks her safe and her ruby encrusted statue from their honeymoon is gone. It's worth over $200,000.
At CBI, Jane confirms the carnival is coming to town. Van Pelt finds that K-Ram isn't a real company, but it traces back to Jane's brother in law Danny. He has a long record, he's a con man.
Detective Reece calls, he knows Jane got a call from the K-Ram offices. Lisbon tells VP to stall him.
County Fairgrounds, Sacramento Jane and Lisbon check out the carnival. He says his wife was "carnie royalty," but she didn't want to be part of it. Jane tells Lisbon not to mention Danny til he does.
A giant (MC Gainey) carnie yells at Jane to scram, but then recognizes him and greets him with a bear hug. Pete guesses easily that Jane's there because of Danny. Everyone can tell Lisbon is a cop. "You look like Cagney and Lacey had a baby and called it Pepper," says Pete's woman Sam.
Pete takes Lisbon to feed the elephant while Jane talks to Sam, trying to convince her to help because Danny asked him to.
"A few hours ago, I was wiping a murder weapon clean in case it had Danny's fingerprints on it," he tells her.
She tells him to talk to Nikki. He says Pepper is going to need a ride.
While Lisbon is distracted with the elephant, Jane takes off.
Lisbon regroups at the office, but VP isn't there.
Cut to VP in a super fancy dress and hat and jewels, sitting down at a restaurant outdoors.
Cho talks to the victim's sister and wife. The sister knew Danny socially, met him at a country club. She says a man named Murphy Traver introduced them.
At Murphy Traver's office, he says he introduced Danny to the victim. He's fidgety and nervous. They notice he has no assistant and there's no one else around. They open a door over his objections and find a recording of background office noise playing. It's a front.
Wearing her glamorous outfit and jewels, Van Pelt is approached by an old woman who asks her if she saw two boys run by. She says they took her purse and she needs to visit her sister in the hospital. Van Pelt offers to take her to the train station.
Then Jane peeks out from behind his nearby menu and says hi to Nikki, the old lady's game is up. She gives back the bracelet she lifted off Van Pelt. Jane tells her what's up and that he needs to find Danny.
At CBI, "Murphy" tells them about the con he was running with Danny, letting someone invest in some surefire deal. Landon was on the hook, planning to use the statue.
They accuse him of killing Landon, but he says there's no point because he was going to give it to them in the morning.
Murphy doesn't know where Danny is, but says he's with a hot rich chick named Trixie.
Jane calls Lisbon, only because Grace made him. He refuses to come in. "May the best man win," Jane says.
Cho finds that there's a Trixie on the sign-in sheet at the building, her dad owns it. Lisbon calls Detective Reese, saying they have a line on Danny.
Cut to Danny packing furiously as the hot chick who's obviously Trixie asks him where he's going. Danny opens the door to find Jane standing there.
Jane asks what happened with Landon and Lisbon and Detective Reese start pounding on the door. Danny pulls out a gun, saying he's never going back to prison.
Lisbon prepares to kick in the door, but Trixie opens it. She says Danny's not there. She says he went out the window. Then she privately tells Lisbon that Danny's with Patrick.
Cut to Jane and Danny sitting in a barn or something. Jane tries to get him to just tell him what happened and promises to take him to Mexico if he did it. Danny mocks him, saying Jane's a "boy wonder" who never makes mistakes.
Danny says he didn't kill Landon and Jane can't tell if he's telling the truth because he's "kind of a sociopath" like all the best con men.
Jane gets up, saying he's going to call the cops. Danny pulls a gun on him. Jane's not sure if he'll fire, but says he wouldn't blame him if he did.
Lisbon meets with Detective Reece in front of Hightower. He's ready to arrest Jane.
Lisbon goes to see Pete and tells him Jane's in trouble.
Wale's assistant Heather comes to talk to Rigsby. The company was going broke. She says Melanie and Landon's wife didn't know. Rigsby is distracted by her legs. She shows him a new policy on Landon, Melanie is the beneficiary. It's worth $2 million.
Lisbon tries to convince Pete and Sam to help her, saying Jane will lose his job. Pete swears he doesn't know where they went. She watches him drive off.
Danny blames Jane for taking his sister away from him. Jane tells him she wanted out of the life. Danny says it's Jane's fault she's dead and Jane doesn't disagree. He tells Danny to let it go and get on with his life.
Danny finally tells him about Landon, saying Landon called him that night to move up the deal. When Danny got there he was dead. Landon was supposed to show him the statue. He planned to fly to Brazil with his hot assistant.
Lisbon follows Pete to the old house where Jane and Danny are. They come out with their hands up.
Rigsby talks to Melanie about the insurance policy. Lisbon pulls up with Danny and Jane. She checks with Reece that they have a deal. He immediately slaps cuffs on Danny and throws him into the back of the police car as Melanie watches. Danny shouts at Jane that he'll kill him for betraying him.
In the back seat, Danny spits out a paper clip.
Jane asks if Reece had to be so rough with him and they start arguing. Danny escapes from the car and runs off.
Jane pulls up to the Wale's house. He tells Melanie he wants to speak to Mrs. Wale alone. He tells her that they think Danny intends to kill her because he figured out that she killed her husband and set up him.
Jane tells her that Landon was being conned. She thought he was going to give her honeymoon statue to his mistress so she followed him and killed him.
She insists Danny did it. He asks where the statue is then races upstairs. She tells him to get out, but when she opens the door, Danny is standing there with a gun. Jane tries to reason with him, but Danny says Jane backstabbed him. Danny shoots Jane, who holds his chest and slumps to the ground bleeding, asking Danny why he did it.
Mrs. Wales backs away but Danny picks up the gun and aims it at her, saying she ruined his life. She offers him money. She gets the statue out of the dresser drawer.
Jane pops up off the floor. It was all a con. (Cackle bladder from the episode title is apparently a type of stage blood.)
Cho and Lisbon come in to arrest her.
Lisbon tells Danny that Sacramento PD is on their way. She waits for him to figure it out, so Jane tells him she's telling him to scram. Danny leaves.
Jane and Danny visit his wife and daughter's graves together. It's Jane's first time there since the funeral. Danny tries to comfort him. "Guilt is for marks, you know that right?" Danny asks Jane. Jane says he does, as he fights back tears.
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