R.J. Decker

Previously on R.J. Decker...

Levi Brenner, he just got out of Apalachee.

Well, if he comes looking for me again, he ain't gonna find me here. I'm going home.

-You want a tour. I can tell. -Call it morbid curiosity.

When I tried to apologize for what I said at your trial, you didn't want to hear it.

If you think I don't know it was under orders from your father...

It was. But it was still wrong. I'm sorry.

That house where your pretty ex-wife lives,

with her pretty new wife and their pretty little daughter?

Never come within miles of it.

I didn't break in.

-That's bull. -I'm telling the truth.

Three, two, one!

-Yay! -

The playground at Rosa Ramiro Elementary reopened today,

welcoming students for the first time

since Hurricane Martin tore through the area six months ago.

Florida State Senator Victor Ochoa made the playground's restoration

a key part of his broader storm recovery initiative.

Recovery isn't about bricks or budgets.

-It's about investing in people. In hope. -

Hey, just a couple more things.

Yeah, and then I'm gonna go to the lottery line.

Okay. Okay, bye.

Customer assistance to Dairy.

Price check on aisle 217.

[employee 2 speaking indistinctly on PA]

Thanks for shopping at Whitby's.

Sir?

Excuse me, sir?

I think you forgot to pay for that.

Oh, sorry, dude. Did I miss something?

Yeah. The whole cart.

Your friend in the lotto line, she bagged them up

so it looked paid for when you walked out.

Dude, how is this any of your business?

My name is R.J. Decker. Loss prevention detective.

That sounds made-up.

It's not made-up. I'm under contract with the Whitby's chain.

I blend in and I watch. I make sure nothing goes out unpaid.

So, you're a undercover supermarket cop?

Most days, I'm a PI.

Produce inspector?

I'm a...

I'm a priv... You know what, why don't we go back inside?

We'll sort this out quietly. No cops.

Right. Yeah, why wouldn't you call the cops?

Because cops mean reports. And statements.

And a court date six months from now

where I gotta wear a tie and explain shrinkflation to a judge.

I don't want that. You don't want that.

Don't take the eggs, man. You take the eggs, I gotta chase you.

Please.

Oh, honey! I haven't paid for those yet.

There she goes.

I'll just pay for the eggs.

-Another runner? -Yep.

-Weak morals. But strong legs. -This is true.

Now, leave everything here. I'll put it back on the shelf myself.

-Okay? -Okay. Thanks, Arturo.

-Now smile. You'll catch the next one. -

-Yeah? -You forgot about dinner.

I forgot about dinner.

I waited 30 minutes.

That reservation wasn't easy to get, even for me.

Long day. Have a beer with me.

An apology beer. Please.

Coming right up.

- Here you go. -So, what happened?

-Hmm? -Grand theft avocado at work today?

No. I was working on the robbery at Mel and Cath's house.

I thought that was your old prison buddy, the guy who robbed the armored truck.

Well, it turns out he and his partner, they had an alibi.

He says someone else must be coming after us.

I think he might be just messing with my head,

'cause I've been at it a week now

and everything says run-of-the-mill burglar to me.

A lot of work for "run-of-the-mill."

Well, Mel's daughter, Sofia, she's been having nightmares since it happened.

So I figured, catch the guy, we, uh, we both sleep better.

Mmm.

Is this a suspect?

To be determined.

Yeah, a neighbor reported seeing a suspicious man in the neighborhood.

But she's the type who sees a lot of suspicious men in the neighborhood.

- Yeah. -So, who knows.

You look amazing, by the way.

I know.

Ugh, this tastes like hot yoga.

Yeah, it's the, uh, it's the hops.

Buy better beer at the supermarket tomorrow.

Hey. That's it?

Let me make it up to you, the dinner. Please.

Good luck with your side quest.

Night crew never tosses their boxes.

Who closed? Wait, let me guess.

Terry. Man works hard all night making sure none of this gets done.

Mmm.

- What the hell? -That didn't sound like boxes.

Uh... Um...

[indistinct police radio chatter]

Hey.

I know you weren't supposed to work today.

-That's okay. -Thanks for coming in.

Yeah. What happened?

Heist. Not a smash-and-grab...

-Uh-huh. -...an honest-to-goodness coordinated op.

Clean entry and egress.

They got away with close to ten grand in inventory.

Okay. That's a lot of cops for a robbery, huh?

Well, the crew that did this, they didn't just rob us.

They killed one of our employees.

- What? -Arturo Correa.

Arturo? The sweet old guy that works at the front? They killed him?

-85 years old. Been with us for decades. -

And get this, he was just three weeks from retirement.

Yeah, I'm confused. Why was he working at night?

Can't wax the floors while the store's open.

Perps restrained him in an office chair, killed him,

then threw his body in the baler.

The baler? The thing that crushes up the boxes?

Sara, the stock clerk, found the body.

She worried that she killed him when she turned the baler on.

But I told her liver temp indicated

he'd been dead for at least four hours prior.

How do you know all that?

I've heard a couple of the CSU guys talking.

-Okay. -Also, I watch Bones .

Of course.

There were ligature marks on Arturo's neck.

Strong evidence of strangulation as cause of death.

ME still needs to confirm, but bruising doesn't happen postmortem.

-Sir, step away from the tape. -Yeah, yeah, of course.

-I'm not gonna warn you again. - My bad. Yeah.

Gavin. Just to be clear, my fee structure changes

when a job goes from loss prevention to homicide.

Oh.

You're not here to solve the murder. You're here to find my stolen inventory.

Oh.

Okay. So... Watch what happens at 11:56.

Mmm.

So, I'm thinking EMP device. Like in Ocean's Eleven .

An EMP device? To rob a supermarket?

Well, Danny Ocean stole what?

A couple hundred mil?

Retail theft is a hundred-billion-dollar industry.

Okay. Well, let's assume for a second this wasn't the work of Danny Ocean.

The cameras can only be shut down from the inside.

Pull up the backroom feeds.

-We talked about this. -I know.

Cameras in the backroom. We talked about this day one. We--

I-I-I know, I know, but I've been waiting for corporate to approve the request,

and that takes time.

All right, well, what about Arturo?

Maybe the guys who did this, they coerced him,

he turned off the cameras?

First thing the cops and I checked.

Yeah, I see.

All right, pull up all the feeds, the-the sales floor, all of them.

Pull them up for me.

-May I? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There. Watch the bottom shelf on the left there.

You said the police didn't find any evidence of a break-in.

That's 'cause it wasn't a break-in. It was a breakout.

Okay, so he camps on the shelf till closing, kills the cameras,

then signals his crew to roll in.

But they hit a snag. They weren't alone. And Arturo stumbles onto them.

Yeah, it's the tidy version.

I checked out the electrical room.

Panels, breakers, circuit boards everywhere.

This guy's not finding the switch to cut the power by accident.

You think it was an inside job?

Actually, I know it was. Watch this.

Mira , if I didn't know a guy died last night, I would post that.

Yeah, but watch. Same time, different part of the store.

See? Arturo hears the cans, but he goes right on working.

Check his face. It's the same look you give me

when I move the thermostat by, like, one degree.

-Irritation. -Yeah.

You think our victim was the inside man?

I talked to the guy that hired me.

Arturo was weeks away from retirement. But I dug deeper.

He was getting pushed out.

Arturo decided to stick it to the store, and then his partner stuck it to him.

Store closes at 10:00. 9:50.

- Mmm. - And then...

This was planned. It was coordinated.

If Arturo was involved, we need to talk to his family.

See who he's been hanging out with lately.

The supermarket thinks you're out looking for their groceries,

but the truth is you're just using that to glom onto a murder investigation.