High Potential

Hey, buddy.

Updates on Willa Quinn?

Still keeping a low profile since she landed in LA.

I checked with county.

She tried to visit Erik Hayworth in jail two days ago.

You were right to put her on the restricted visitors' list.

-They turned her away. -I'm sure she loved that.

Let's put Hayworth in protective custody.

You think she'd send an inmate after him?

I don't know what that woman would do.

Hayworth mentioned her in Roman Sinquerra's abduction.

I'm sure she wants to silence him.

Let's not give her a chance.

What about our wiretap? Are we up yet?

I put in the request, but the DA's dragging their feet as usual.

-I'll stay on them. -Captain Wagner also pulled some strings

and got a surveillance detail on her hotel.

They're keeping track of who's coming and going.

Nothing notable yet, but they'll keep us posted.

Ooh, in the meantime, duty calls.

Body spotted on a building in Mid-City.

-You mean in a building? -No, on.

Multiple 911 calls about it dangling off the side.

I'll text you the address and have Morgan meet you there.

This building is...

I don't know what this building is.

Looks like somebody dropped some spaghetti on the blueprints

and just kind of went with it.

Hmm. Tyler Villanueva, 24, extensive rap sheet.

Hmm. Let me guess. Vandalism?

-Looks like he's been busy, huh? -Yeah, blunt force trauma.

Vic was hit with a hard cylindrical object

before he fell. Not sure what yet.

Been dead for a few hours, so killed early this morning.

They found him hanging off the side of the building?

Witnesses spotted him caught on an architectural feature there.

Unis think he was two floors up when he was struck, fell over a balcony.

Poor guy.

Ready to take a look?

You said a cylindrical object to the head, right?

I don't think spray cans are hard enough to cause that kind of damage.

-Wow. This is very-- -Disgusting.

Mmm. No, I was gonna say cool because it's art.

Vandalism is not art, Morgan.

It's a misdemeanor and misdemeanors are not cool.

Right. Yeah, no, totally right, misdemeanors are not cool.

You never painted over anything when you were a kid?

Right, I forgot. You weren't a kid when you were a kid.

Man, it is hot in here, huh?

No wonder Tyler tagged at night.

Well, it's an abandoned building. That means no utilities.

You can't just turn on the AC.

Hey, we've got blood over here.

Looks like the vic was struck here, fled his assailant that way,

probably disoriented, already losing blood,

hit the ledge and went over.

Sound about right?

This is the last piece Tyler was working on before he got killed.

The colors match the paint on his hands.

Defunct. Must be his tagger name.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, but check this out.

This is not Tyler's.

He was ragging somebody else's work before he got killed.

-What's ragging? -Ragging, capping, painting over.

-Ah. Roman, huh? -Mm-hmm.

Yeah, the LA graffiti scene is how he got his start as a muralist.

He said that taggers live by a code.

Does that code mean some spray paint can get you killed?

Well,

if the tagger does some quick line work and somebody rags it,

- not a big deal. - Oh.

But if the artist did line work, and started to add some shading

and then somebody paints over it,

not cool, but also not the end of the world.

But painting over a completed piece that took time and skill...

that's a problem.

And that could get violent.

Or in this case, deadly.

Okay, well, I'll have forensics process this area,

and tell everybody else what we're thinking.

Yeah, okay, I'll see you when you land.

Morgan and Karadec are coming back from the crime scene.

The victim was a tagger, went by the name Defunct.

Sadly prophetic.

Yeah, and they think the killer might be a rival artist.

You got a name of the rival?

Not yet, just some graffiti they left behind.

The gang unit keeps a graffiti binder

to track activity throughout the city.

I'll put in a call.

Hello, Selena.

Catch you at a bad time?

I wonder how long Soto's gonna let her sweat in there.

She look like she's sweating to you?

We're gonna figure out the connection between Willa and Roman.

We just don't have the answers yet.

No, we certainly don't.

So, maybe we're asking the wrong questions.

Ah, Morgan. Whatever you're thinking about doing, don't.

She's not under arrest. There's no reason I can't speak to her.

I know that this is extremely frustrating,

but you need to let Soto handle this.

Any luck on the binders?

- Flagged a few that could be the tagger-- - But they're not.

-You sure? -Yeah, I flipped through it.

Tagger styles are very specific. Letter shape, spray speed.

Our guy's not in there.

If we want to find that guy, we need someone connected to the graffiti scene.

Taggers aren't known to help the cops.

I know someone who will. I already called her.

I know. I know it's hard for you to take a back seat on this.

Hayworth didn't pull her name out of nowhere. She knows what happened to Roman.

You're right, and I have a plan. Trust me.

I hope our interrogation room isn't too unpleasant.

Our ballroom is being renovated.

A room's a room.

So, what brings you to LA?

Well, after what you told me in New York, I had to come and clear my good name.

Is that right?

If Erik Hayworth is making accusations against me,

I need to get to the bottom of it.

I need to clear it up and put it to bed.

Well, Mr. Hayworth is unavailable.

Yeah. So I noticed.

So, I come with an offer.

You told me that you had an old case, a missing person, um...

Roman Sinquerra.

Well, I have contacts and I can help you.

And then we both get what we want. You get Sinquerra

and I... I get to prove that I had nothing to do with whatever happened to him.

See, I think that you're scared that we'll get to him first

and that you won't be able to make sure that he's gone forever.

Trust me, Selena, you want me as a friend.

I have enough friends. Thank you.

Including Erik Hayworth these days.

He's been very cooperative.

You remember that BlackBerry

I found in Roman Sinquerra's backpack?

I told you my techs were working on it.

We pulled these messages off of it.

They're in some sort of code,

so we can't really read them just yet,

but the days and the times

match the night that Roman disappeared,

like they're instructions. See that?

So, I put a call in to the DA.

They're setting up a talk with me and my new friend, Erik Hayworth.

I'm pretty sure he'll help us read them.

Wow.

Now I'm invested.

So, do tell me how that all goes for you.

And if you change your mind about working together, let me know.

Offer still stands.

I am free to leave, right?

This time.

What is she doing? Wait, she's just gonna let her go?

Hey! Hey! We are not done here.

-Morgan, calm down. -Don't tell me to calm down, okay?

-Morgan! -Let go of me!

-This is your plan? -Morgan! As a matter of fact, yes,

I needed to see her face, and now I'm sure Willa Quinn is scared.

And with Hayworth's help, we're about to find out why.

Make anything of them?

No.

Well, Soto will get it out of Hayworth when she talks to him.

Hey, we're close.

- Hmm. - Mmm.

That's a fancy restaurant.

That's Lucia's favorite. We're celebrating.

She put in an offer on a house in Lafayette Park,

and the seller just accepted it.

Wow, that's a good school district.

- Think she'd mind if my family moved in?

Unless she's already planning on maybe having a roommate one day?

-Well, we talked about it. -What?

Okay.

You guys have been back together for, like, five minutes.

Isn't that kind of rushing things a little bit?

I said we talked about it. That's it.

But if that changes, you'll be the first to know.

I don't need to be the first to know.

You might want to notify your utility companies.

Nicole, hi.

Aw.

-Morgan. -It's so good to see you.

God, it has been forever. Last time I saw you, you were pregnant with your daughter.

Ava. She's 16 now.

-Sixteen? It doesn't seem possible. -Ah. Tell me about it.

- And you know what else? - Hmm?

She's an artist as well.

Like her dad.

- Yeah, like her dad. - Aw.

Uh, Nicole Heisler, this is Detective Adam Karadec.

-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.

Nicole is a professor of urban art,

but when I met her, she went by the name Nicole-Angelo.

-I was hoping you'd forgotten that. -It's a tough one to forget.

-Thank you for coming in. -Yeah.

We wanted to see if you could help us identify a tagger.

This is what our victim was working on when he was killed.