Major Crimes

Do you promise that the testimony you shall give

in the case before this court

shall be the truth, the whole truth,

and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I do.

D.D.A. Hobbs?

Thank you, your honor.

Detective Sykes, you were one of the investigators

working the crime scene of this murder, is that right?

Yes, that's correct.

And can you describe the victim, Thomas Edward Chandler,

as you found him that morning?

He had been shot once through the right side of his head.

Execution style from a 9-millimeter.

See the ring near the temple?

Yeah. Bullet just went right through his head.

And the cart of almond milk, sir.

Almond milk, well,

at least L.A. is living up to its cliches.

Looks like he slammed into this shelf,

falling backwards. - Yeah, time of death?

From the heavy coagulated blood,

full rigor and complete lividity?

Around 10 to 12 p.M. last night.

And he wasn't found until early this morning

when his wife, uh, Brooke,

came back from Santa Barbara.

His wife just happened to be away

when her husband was murdered.

Never heard of that before.

Sir, we checked all the windows and doors.

No sign of forced entry.

The only thing broken is that beer bottle there.

Like Mr. Chandler was grabbing a drink last night

after coming home from dinner.

We confirmed Mr. Chandler had a 7:00 reservation

at the Jones room with his work supervisor,

Uh, Lisa Kirk.

What kind of work?

Chandler was an engineer at Wescott Global,

$30 billion international defense technology company

based at Silicon Beach. - But not a federal employee.

Uh, government-adjacent with a fairly high security clearance.

Could be why he was killed.

His wife gave me his passcode to his laptop,

but it had encrypted files that I need permission

from D.C. to open, so I secured the computer

and sent it downtown to cyber.

Well, what about cameras?

I mean, a guy like this would have security cameras.

Mrs. Chandler said she prefers her privacy,

and she's lived here much longer than the victim.

Sir, her first husband, Richard Bloom,

bought the house in 2000.

Wife got it in the divorce in 2015

and remarried 11 months ago.

Newlywed divorcee.

Ah, well, does she have any children?

Uh, one from her previous marriage --

a 15-year-old boy, Danny.

Danny. Where was Danny last night?

Catalina island camping with his dad.

We have patrol waiting for him down by the ferry.

We're not making any kind of notifications,

just having 'em come downtown separately.

Well, it's just a little miracle, isn't it?

Everyone who lives here

was away when our victim is murdered.

Well, where is the newlywed widow?

The door was locked when I came home,

and no one has the password

except our family and our cleaning lady.

Wait a minute. Your door has a password?

They open via bluetooth.

It's keyless entry.

It's actually called offkey. - Offkey?

It's an app that manages security at your house.

My ex-husband installed it.

It was one of the startups that he was investing in.

Do you know your offkey security user name and password?

Yes. It's... chandlerfamily1,

and the password is, um, god.

Tom changed it every seven days.

Uh, he went to a military boarding school,

so we used that alphabet sequentially.

So the monday before last was charlie,

so that would mean... - "D" would be delta.

Yeah.

Uh, Mrs. Chandler, did the message

you just got on your cellphone come from offkey?

Yes, it does that when a new device logs into the network.

Did you get a message like that last night?

No. My last alert was when...

Tom moved in.

Thank you, detective Sykes.

No further questions at this time.

Ms. Rothman, your witness.

Thank you, your honor. Good morning, detective.

Since my client, Mr. Bloom, had an alibi

for the night of the murder,

placing him a ferry boat ride away at the time of death

on Catalina island with his son,

Did you consider other suspects

like, say, the victim's wife, Brooke?

We looked at Mrs. Chandler, yes,

but she also had an out-of-town alibi.

When did you leave for Santa Barbara?

Thursday, to help throw my sister a baby shower.

So you stayed with her this weekend -- your sister?

No, uh, I rented a room

at the Biltmore. I checked out this morning.

Visiting family and stayed at a hotel?

I'll contact the Biltmore and get their surveillance video.

Thank you. - ...High school, and, uh,

I see her all the time, and, uh...

I could afford the hotel room.

Take a second, ma'am. We know that this is hard.

No, let's just get it over with.

Okay.

How did your husband get along

with his co-workers at Wescott?

Like Lisa Kirk, the woman he had dinner with

before he was murdered.

I've never heard of her.

You don't know the name of your husband's supervisor?

No, Tom worked on super secret stuff.

He wasn't able to discuss personnel or projects

at Wescott with anyone.

So if we asked you whether this dinner he had last night

was professional or personal --

Oh, look, no one at Wescott was responsible for this...

This terrible thing.

I've thought about it...

And...

It was Richard.

Richard killed Tom. It had to be him.

Well, if by Richard, you mean your ex-husband,

We checked out his alibi, and he and your son

have been on Catalina since last friday.

That doesn't mean he couldn't have given

his cellphone to someone else.

Mrs. Chandler's right, isn't she?

If her husband didn't open the door himself,

the killer would have had to use a programmed phone to do it.

Is that possible, Mike?

Mr. Bloom giving his phone away?

I don't know yet. I'm pinging his cell, and right now

it looks like it's on its way back from Catalina.

...Richard could have left him on Catalina and come back

and shot him.

Your ex hated your new husband that much?

There were issues, like Danny's grades had dipped.

Tom and I had agreed

to take him off of the golf team at school.

And your husband and your ex had words about that.

Not just words.

Two weeks ago, Richard showed up to our house,

and when we wouldn't let him in, he took a swing at Tom

in the front yard. Our neighbor saw it.

Do you think Mrs. Chandler understands

that in accusing her ex,

she's also building a motive for her teenage son?

Maybe she's just desperate for us not to look her way.

Adding a new father to a family can be tricky.

Excuse me, Captain Raydor.

Commander Mason, what can I do for you?

It's regarding your victim. If we could speak privately...

Certainly.

Well, I had heard things about Richard's past,

but I had never seen anything myself.

Not a hothead?

No, Tom. Tom loved his work...

And yet another candidate for assistant chief

finds a reason just to drop by.

No matter who gets that job,

it's going to be bad for us.

I was put on alert this morning

that Mr. Chandler's personal computer

had left its residence.

When they tracked it to PAB,

Wescott immediately called my office.

Why you, commander, instead of me?

Well, criminal intelligence was helping Chandler develop...

let's call it new surveillance technology for the LAPD.

The feds allowed me to pull Wescott's confidential files

from your victim's computer and leave you

everything else.

Well, I'm surprised.

Usually, when criminal intelligence

takes possession of evidence...

No one ever sees it again, that's right.

But... Winnie Davis is watching you

as closely as she is me.

And I can't afford for the more classified element of this case

to throw you off track.

You want me to be assistant chief?

Commander, you are very much in the running yourself.

I'm happy where I am. - Me, too.

Look, I've thought about this,

and for one of us to keep our division,