Hudson & Rex

That's what we need every night.

A W.

Deller. Good hard solid work out there.

- Yes! - Yeah!

Ming! It is a shame about that hat trick tonight.

This close, right?

And Luka!

It is good to see you come as advertised, son!

Agghhh!

Hey, pass! Yeah, pass, pass, pass!

Damn!

St. John's goal

with six seconds left in the third!

67!

Luka Sokolov!

So here we have the game puck!

Now around here, Luka,

this is a token of honour.

And tonight,

- it is yours. - Ooooh!

- Thank you, Coach. - You're welcome.

You deserved it.

Right?

Okay.

You guys have a good time tonight.

There's a list on the door of who's to be

at the optional practice tomorrow.

Okay? So have a good time.

- But not too much. - Hey, Coach.

- Oi! - If practice is optional,

- how come there's a list? - Oh, I thought you'd want a chance

to stop riding the pine, Clive.

- Okay! - All right?

- I guess we'll see you at practice! - Guess I will be!

- I'll see you there! - Okay!

- Welcome, bro. - Thank you.

All right, hey boys, boys!

I just realized something, eh?

We have yet to give our new Russian teammate a proper St. John's hello.

So, who's up for a midnight hike up Signal Hill, huh?

Yeah!

- Yeah, you into it? - I'm into it.

I'm with you!

Oh!

Oh, hey Rex!

Time to start working on your cardio, hey?

One of these coffees might be slowing me down.

Oh, thank you. I'll take that.

What have we got?

Luka Sokolov, twenty-five.

He's an NHL first-rounder who now plays for the Ice Pirates.

Apparently, he scored the game-winning goal last night

and came up here to celebrate. I think that's yours.

Oh. We got a murder weapon?

Look, I don't even know if we have a murder.

I mean, it's possible that he just fell

and struck his head.

There's a lot of dried blood.

I won't be able to get a good look at the wound

until we get it cleaned up.

So, he's been here for a while.

Time of death is anywhere between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m.

Find anything on him?

His wallet had $380 in it.

So, likely not a robbery.

Cell phone's on its way to Jesse.

Hold on, Rex. They just need a few more minutes.

- Who called it in? - Thomas Ming.

I'll take it from here.

So, Thomas Ming, what were you doing here last night?

Well, this hike is my team-bonding go-to.

Great way for out-of-towners to connect with the Rock.

Uh-huh. That always include vodka?

No. The vodka was Luka's idea.

But I'm the captain.

It's my responsibility.

When is the last time you saw Luka?

Around 1:00.

He with anyone?

- Yeah, a bunch of us. - Get specific.

Yeah, there was like,

maybe like five of us besides me and Luka.

Okay, and what, you were just up here enjoying the view?

No, we were talking. Passing the bottle around.

Everyone tried to keep up with Luka.

That was a mistake.

Anything else?

No, nothing I remember.

I came here because I needed to puke.

And then, must have laid down after and fell asleep.

You notice any friction between Luka

and any of your other teammates?

No, why would there be friction? Luka just got here.

None of us even knew him.

- I thought this was an accident. - You know that for sure?

No.

But there were four guys left who can probably back me up.

- I thought you said there was five. - Yeah, five. I don't know. I just...

It was a long night, okay?

I'd have to think about it.

I think it might have been... yeah, it was five of us.

It was five people from the team

and we were just hanging out.

Pull up your sleeve.

Yeah, it looks an awful lot like blood to me.

Well, it makes sense.

I was trying to revive Luka before I called 911, so...

Then why is there none on your hands or your jersey?

You know what? I'm going to need you to take that off.

I'm also going to need the names of all your other teammates.

- Seriously? - Yeah, seriously. Come on.

Okay, so Owen Blake, Amir Patel, and Clive Billington

shared an Uber home at 1:30 am.

The other guy, Jamie Wagner, walked home.

Leaving Luka alone with Ming.

Well, I mean, not completely alone.

There were a couple other guys according to Clive.

But he couldn't remember who.

Well, Ming was the only one to wake up with blood on him.

Okay, well, I'll just... I'll check with Owen and Amir

see if they can remember who was there.

So that was Isvestia, the Russian newspaper.

The press has been calling all morning.

I never realized that Luka was such a star.

Oh, a star is an understatement.

This guy broke all of Ovechkin's records

with Moscow Dynamo as an 11-year-old.

Why isn't he in the NHL?

Well, he was supposed to be.

He was scheduled to be drafted first overall

but then rumours of alcoholism

caused his stock to take a plummet.

Spent about half a season in the bigs.

Deemed an epic bust.

I heard he was looking pretty good last night.

Yeah, he was picked up on waivers. So he had incentive.

Uh, what are waivers?

Well, waivers are when an NHL team is interested.

So, it's an opportunity for him to get back to the show.

Yeah, that's the press again.

Good luck.

What are you thinking, Charlie?

Well, I don't want to jump to any conclusions

but Ming's looking pretty good.

He's the one that called it in though right?

What would you do if you'd killed somebody?

You'd just wait for the police to get there themselves?

Look, full disclosure. I um...

I know Ming. We went to high school together.

Jesse, why didn't you lead with that?

I don't know, I didn't think it was relevant.

Are you assuming innocence based on a personal relationship?

There's no relationship. I mean I haven't seen the guy in five years.

Okay. Well, I'm just letting you know

to be careful with this, okay?

Follow the evidence.

Well, actually, I just cracked Luka's phone.

Got a text from his wife at 2:00 am

saying she'd pick him up right around the time of death.

Is that evidence enough for you?

I can't believe Luka's gone.

I'm sorry. But I need to find out what happened.

You answered a text that Luka sent at 1:57 am.

- Something about picking him up. - Um, yes.

I got to Signal Hill around 2:15.

Found him singing Russian songs with the captain.

I don't think I've ever seen Luka so happy.

He apologized and said that he wanted to stay longer.

He wanted to make friends with his teammates.

Was anyone else with them?

One other. Slim.

Black or brown skin.

I've met him once only and

I have forgotten his name.

Did he have any other identifiable features?

Yes, he had a scar.

- A scar, you say? - Yeah.

All right, let's see here.

They kind of all have scars.

Oh. Okay, here we go.

Brayden Deller.

Took a puck above the brow a couple years back.

- Yeah, I'm going to need his number. - Okay, sure.

I doubt he'll get back to you until after the memorial though.

- What memorial? - For Luka.

The boys are going to want to send him off.

Here. Walk with me?

- Speaking of Luka... - Mm-hmm?

- How well did you know him? - Well, I mean,

I took him and his wife to dinner a couple of times

to make sure they were settling in.

- He seemed like a good man. - Yeah?

- You know, troubled though, but... - How so?

Well,

a lot of these Russian players come with a bit of baggage

if you know what I mean.

You ever see evidence of this baggage?

Frankly, Detective, we all have baggage. But...

nothing serious. No, sir. Not while I'm here.

I run a clean ship.