Original subtitles

In Toronto's war on crime, the worst offenders are pursued by the detectives

of the Specialized Criminal Investigations Unit.

These are their stories.

On behalf of the crew at 104, I just want to say how honored we are to be

here with you today.

And when I ran into this building a year... When I ran into this school...

No. We... When we ran into this school a year ago, when we ran into this school a

year ago, we weren't thinking about...

appreciation, or thanks.

We were thinking about your safety.

Pinewood Elementary and the family of Penny Campbell would like to formally

thank the firefighters of Station 104, and who better to do that than one of

our students?

Ben?

When our school was on fire last year, you came to help us. We remember all the

smoke and being so scared, and how you came and got us out safely.

You will always be heroes to us.

Lieutenant Reese Manning, would you please come up and accept this painting

and this plaque?

Thank you to everyone for coming out today.

On behalf of the rest of the crew at 104, I just want to say how incredibly

honored we are to be here with you.

When we ran into this school a year ago... This one, five bedrooms, four

bathrooms, media room, gym in the basement.

You're going to love it.

Rear windows face west, so the light hits perfectly.

Right at cocktail hour.

More like bedtime.

Three kids under 10, I'm not making a lot of cocktails.

Your wife could make them.

Yeah, she could at her house.

Holy God.

I've been in the annex for too long. I wouldn't even know what to do with a

yard this big.

Pool, patio, potato patch.

Everyone figures it out once they have the space.

I was going to say putting green, but potato patch.

There's an idea.

So, Blair, tell me, what are the schools like around here?

Hey, Sim. Yo. That sock caught on the garage door last. Check the blade for

me? Aye, Captain.

Acting, Captain. I'm not dead yet.

Detached garage fire. We knocked it down before and made an extension to the main

house. No injuries. That's what I like to hear. Hey, listen. Those conference

people called again.

Cap, you know I don't want to do that. I don't want to hear it, Hollywood. You're

the one who sent your five-point rescue leadership strategy up the chain. They

want you to go to Vegas this time.

One hour talking to a bunch of keeners, the rest you are carousing in Sin City.

Cap, you know me, though. I'm just going to spend the whole time talking shop

with these guys. No one's choice but your own. You're allowed to have a

little fun once in a while.

Okay, Smokey.

You get your fix.

And I get mine.

You're jittery.

Second cup?

I thought you were off work today. Yeah, well, my coverage booked off sick last

minute.

So, working today.

I'm fine, though. Still got enough time to prepare.

Vegas isn't until the weekend.

Right. Vegas.

Come on. Don't look at me like that.

You know I don't want to go, right?

Yeah.

Ooh. What?

It's your first grade.

Pursuing you're going to be all salt and pepper like old Smokey there.

Hey, I'm trying to reach Reese, but he's not picking up. Would you grab him for

me? He's not in today.

He said he was working today. Well, he's not on the schedule. Where is he?

Blair, I have no idea.

I know he's seeing someone, Easton.

I just want to know who it is. What's her name?

What are you talking about?

Forget it.

What brings you to town, Chief?

Uh, speaking at a conference.

Fire safety.

See, plenty of guys start the day at a seminar and end it at a chapel.

I'm already married.

We got the call at 8.08 last night.

As soon as we heard the address, we moved double time, but it's too late by

the time we got in here.

What is it about the address?

The house belonged to one of our senior crew. He's at a firefighter conference

in Vegas.

Left the night before last.

Thanks. Yeah.

We believe the victim is Blair Manning.

34 years old, real estate agent.

Wife of Lieutenant Reese Manning. He's a firefighter at Station 104.

Firefighter's wife dying in a house fire. That's a little strange, isn't it?

Must have heard all the horror stories from her husband.

It's not like she was racing down the stairs in a panic. Exactly.

One or two reasons why I called Bibb Wholeness.

Requested her best.

What's the other reason?

Well, the burner was still on when our fire crew arrived.

And cooking is the leading cause of residential fires. But as you say, she's

a firefighter's wife. It'd be highly unusual if she'd leave food on the stove

unattended.

Where's the cat? Oh, he didn't find a carcass, if that's what you're asking.

So if it wasn't the food, what do you think it was?

Well, when you've been on the job as long as I have, you develop a pretty

good nose.

Smell it?

Is it gasoline?

Yeah. I'm gonna take some samples, countertops, the floors, test for

residue.

DNA test confirmed the victim's ID.

This is Blair Manning. Any soot in her airways? Good question.

And no.

She didn't die in the fire. She was dead before it started.

What's her actual cause of death?

All of her injuries are consistent with the fall down the stairs, except for

one.

Hyoid bomb. It was compressed inward.

Blair Manning died by strangulation.

Any idea when?

No. Too much thermal damage to narrow it down.

Okay, so strangle Blair, throw her down the stairs to mask any injuries, then

set a massive fire.

It's a distraction, sleight of hand, a real magician's trick.

So who's our magician?

Dead wife, I'm looking at the husband.

If we're talking fire, I'd be looking for a fireman.

I am Detective John Darcy.

And I'm Detective Dave Manning.

Thank you.

Um, I hopped on the first flight after I got the call, and the next thing I know,

I'm being escorted here by cops.

Mr. Manning, I'm so sorry to have to tell you, your wife was murdered.

I thought Blair died in a fire. It was an accident.

It sure looked that way. So what makes you think it was a murder?

We're still gathering the facts.

Maybe you could help us out.

Okay. Yeah, I want to help any way I can.

Great.

Blair was my best friend.

My biggest cheerleader.

Why don't you start by telling us how your wife was before you left? Was she

happy? Was she upset?

Was she alive?

Are you asking if I had something to do with this? Given the fact that she was

dead before the fire, it's a possibility.

Oh, my God.

We were texting.

All day.

That day.

Right up until I spoke at the conference.

A conference in Vegas.

2,000 miles away.

Mr. Manning, did your wife have any enemies?

Anyone who might want to hurt her.

No. No.

Everyone loved Blair.

I don't believe him. I hear you, but for now, let's go with the evidence.

Husband's alibi checks out.

Reese Manning was leading a seminar on rescue leadership in Vegas the same time

his house was burning down, and...

He was texting with Blair right up to the fire. Have you spoken to her

friends, family?

Did she have any enemies?

Reese said she didn't.

And her friends and family all agreed. No one saw her or spoke to her in the

last 48 hours, but everyone said the same thing. Reese and Blair had the

perfect marriage.

I had a nickel.

What's your problem?

Blair was my biggest cheerleader.

Is that the first thing you say when you find out your spouse has been killed?

It's a statement about him. It's not about his dead wife.

Do we have motive?

Not yet.

And I'm sorry, but how would he kill her all the way from Vegas?

We don't have time of death.

Reese could have strangled her before he left, walked out, got on a plane to

Alibi-ville, USA, could have paid someone to set the blaze. As a

firefighter, it can't be that hard to track down an arsonist for hire, right?

What about all the texting?

Blair's phone was a melted brick, but we did get her tablet from her office.

It's mostly work stuff, but like most people, she got her messages on here as

well. Day of the fire, Blair didn't text anyone besides Reese.

But a guy named Hendrix Lane texted her a lot.

Blair sold him a house three months ago.

Blair seems like the type of woman who went above and beyond.

Yeah, she was great.

She helped me find my house, sent flowers the day we closed, set me up

with a decorator.

Oh. Would you call her a friend?

Yep.

It's interesting because your text messages suggest you were something

more. Care to read those out for us, Hendrix?

No?

All right.

Blair, what the hell was that? Answer my call.

Blair, call me back. We need to talk this out in person.

Hey, call me please or else I'm coming over there.

Oh, Hendrix, I'm not going to lie to you. This does not look good. In fact...

It looks like Blair ended your friendship the day before the fire, and

you weren't taking it well. So what happened?

You've seen the texts.

Okay. Well, Blair won't write you back, so maybe you follow up.

You go over there, you try to make her talk to you in person, she says no, you

get angry, you probably didn't mean to do it, but once you did, you decide to

cover it up with a fire as some messed up nod to the hero husband she dumped

you for. He's not a hero, he's a fraud.

And you know what? I wish I had gone to her house, because maybe then she would

still be here. But it was my weekend with my kids.

After Blair broke it off on Friday afternoon, I picked them up from my ex

and I drove straight to my cottage in Halliburton. I've got a doorbell camera

and three kids who will tell you that I didn't leave the dock until this

morning. What did you mean he's a fraud?

Blair sent me this message the day before she died.

We can't do this anymore.

Reese is freaking me out. I'm just, I'm actually very scared. I don't want to

drag you into it at all. I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Does that sound like a good guy to you?

Someone she was terrified of? He was completely self-absorbed, super

controlling the way that she looked, what she ate, what she wore.

I'm sure he promised that he would change after he found out.

He knew about the affair?

Yeah, Blair said he found out last week.

I told her that she could leave him and come and live with me, but she couldn't.

She was afraid that he was going to kill her. I just thought she was being

hyperbolic.

If there's anyone that you should be investigating for Blair's murder, it's

her husband.

So much for the perfect marriage.

Trolling husband who thinks it's God's gift to public safety.

Imagine what that affair did to his ego.

Tell me that guy strangled his wife in a jealous rage.

That's something I'll believe.

I just got a message from Adams.

They want to meet us back at the crime scene.

Reese, you'll never guess what.

Six years on the job, first goddamn time saving a cat from a tree.

Smokey, hey.

Hey, uh, I should take my room tonight. You need some sleep, all right?

I can take the couch.

I can't close my eyes without picturing what happened to her.

Just tell me what it was like in the house with

Blair.

If the cops think someone hurt her, I need to know why.

And what happened exactly.

What I could have done.

You sure you want to know?

Yeah.

I want to know everything.

Our test confirmed it. There were traces of gasoline on the countertop and the

floors.

See the clean spot here?

It's what we call a protected pattern.

That's what happens in a fire when a heavy object blocks the airflow and it

protects the surface underneath.

This is our true point of origin.

May I? Yeah.

Huh. Very good.

Could someone put gasoline in this coffee maker and then use it as an

ignition device?

Well, if they filled the reservoir with gasoline, it would drip onto the heating

element and vaporize. The vapor would hit the open flame on the stove.

Flash fire.

I'll have to test the coffee maker to be sure.

BRA. It's Brava Brew. It's a high-end coffee machine.

And the timer to turn it on can be delayed up to 24 hours.

It's the exact amount of time between when Reese left for the airport and when

the fire started.

It was the husband.

Guys, we're talking about a decorated firefighter. Exactly. His house burning

down in an arson isn't...

It's a cover-up by a man who murdered his wife after finding out about her

affair, an affair he didn't tell us about. This is a man who stands to

collect $3 million in insurance if this was an accident. This motive times two.

What about the timeline?

According to your case notes, Reese was in Vegas the day of the fire. The fire

marshal confirmed they found traces of gas in the reservoir of the coffee

maker. Reese killed her, set the 24-hour timer on the coffee maker, then walked

out the door.

but he was texting with his wife the day of the fire.

You gonna get that?

What is this? I scheduled those texts to go out to you

ten minutes ago.

Reese could have easily scheduled those texts from Blair's phone to himself to

make it look like she was still alive when he left.

That's clever.

But it's not a confession.

We're not getting a confession. We've already questioned the guy three times.

He's exercising his right to remain silent. He's already got Lee Hines on

retainer. He's circling the wagons.

Which is why we need you to get him in court.

Let the evidence do the talking.

Amanteo, we're telling you, Reese Manning murdered his wife. He had the

means, he had the motive, he had the opportunity.

Reese Manning, you're under arrest for arson and for the murder of Blair

Manning.

What do you think you're doing? This man just lost everything.

Not everything.

He still has his right to due process.

You performed the autopsy on Blair Manning.

So which came first?

The fire, the fall, or the strangulation?

There was no soot in Mrs. Manning's airways, and there was no bleeding

associated with any of her fractures from the fall.

The only injury with any localized hemorrhaging was the hyoid bone in her

neck. It's a small U-shaped bone right here.

The fracture pattern indicates strangulation, and the blood around it

proves that she was alive when it happened.

Mrs. Manning was dead before she hit the stairs and before the fire started.

This was a homicide.

So is it possible that Mrs. Manning could have been killed before her

husband Reese left for Vegas?

Yes, it's absolutely possible.

Thank you, Doctor.

No more questions.

Doctor, a charred body presents one of the most challenging scenarios in

forensic pathology, does it not?

It complicates the examination, yes. Because intense heat can cause all kinds

of damage, like contractions so intense they can snap the fragile hyoid bone.

Yes, but in this particular case... Yes, let's get specific.

In this particular case, were you able to determine the exact time of death?

No, the heat damage was too severe. So you can't say for certain that Blair

Manning was dead before her husband left for his work trip?

No, I cannot.

You cannot.

No further questions.

Investigator Adams, your report states that you found gasoline residue...

in this coffee maker's reservoir.

Is that true?

Uh, yes, as well as the countertop around it. The fire was called in

exactly 24 hours and 8 minutes after the defendant left for the airport.

So in your professional opinion, is it possible that an experienced firefighter

like Mr. Manning could set this incineration device to burn down his

house while sitting in a casino in Vegas?

Calls to speculation and leading the witness.

I don't require an answer, Your Honor.

No further questions.

That is a remarkably complex hypothesis investigator.

A Rube Goldberg machine made of coffee timers and gasoline.

But let's look at what else you found in that kitchen. On page three of your

investigation report, you noted severe heat damage on and around the stove,

correct? Yes.

And you found a skillet with charred food in it on the active burner, did you

not? Yes, but it was the gasoline. According to Statistics Canada, 32% of

all residential fires, nearly one-third are caused by cooking accidents. Does

that sound accurate?

Statistically, yes, but that doesn't... Simple, tragic accidents.

You yourself never left a pan on a burner a minute too long. I certainly

know I have.

Objection. Irrelevance.

With John.

Blair said her husband was very controlling.

Withholding. Said that he only cared about his job. Said that she felt like a

prop.

She wanted out. And yet she ended things with you.

Does she give you a reason?

She said she wanted to end things because she was afraid of her husband. I

asked her for an explanation.

The day before the fire, she said that Reese had found out about us and that

she was scared that he would kill her if she tried to leave.

No further questions.

Your Honor.

Defense has no interest in dignifying the fan fiction of a jilted lover.

No questions.

Heinz is a bulldog.

Hendricks just laid her client's motive bare for the entire courtroom to see,

and she passes up his throat?

Doesn't make sense.

Well, she didn't want to dignify the affair in front of the jury.

Or she wants them to hear about it from someone else.

I think she's going to put Reese on the stand.

Well, that's defense suicide.

So I certainly hope she does.

First of all, Mr. Manning, I want to offer you my condolences on the loss of

your wife. Sir, I only have a few questions.

The Crown alleges you discovered your wife's affair three days before you left

for Las Vegas. Is that true?

No, it's not. The truth is I learned of Blair's affair a month before she died.

Objection. Self-serving narrative.

Mr. Forrester does not have a monopoly on the narrative of this tragedy.

My client's state of mind's a very definition of relevant, Your Honor. I'll

allow it. Proceed, Mr. Manning.

About a month before she died, I asked Blair what was going on with her, and

that's when she told me everything.

And your reaction?

I was devastated.

I wanted to be the man Blair married, you know?

But this job, it...

It can be tough sometimes, as you can imagine.

And what my wife saw as me being withholding was actually me trying to

leave the job at the fire hall, guided as it was.

So when she told me about the affair, I wasn't angry.

I sort of understood.

But Blair and I, we were trying to save our marriage.

And that's why she called it off with Mr. Lane.

Thank you.

No further questions, Your Honor.

Mr. Manning, when was the last time you spoke with your wife?

We texted back and forth while I was in Vegas, the day of the fire. Your Honor,

I'd like to show the witness exhibit 44.

Mrs. Manning's text messages.

Go ahead.

Please read the last two messages you received from your wife.

You're gonna smash it, babe.

Sending love and just cooking dinner. Nightclub.

Blair wrote love twice.

Spell it for the jury.

L-O-V-E.

Now flip back three weeks. Tell us how she spelled it then.

She spelled it L-U-V.

L-U-V.

Every single time.

Right up until the moment you left for the airport.

Then suddenly... your wife discovers the correct spelling?

No.

Because I suggest you wrote those texts after you strangled her. You scheduled

the text to send while you were in Vegas to give yourself a thousand-mile alibi.

True or false? False.

Okay, fine. Let's go back to the dang question.

There's a text message from your wife's cousin, Susan.

What does it say?

Uh, it says, it's a boy.

It's a boy. Susan had a baby.

Yet your wife didn't answer, did she?

No congratulations, no nothing.

Your wife didn't answer her mother, her cousin, her work. She didn't go

anywhere. Send an email. She didn't use a bank machine for the last 24 hours of

Blair Manning's life.

The only thing she did was text her ever-loving husband?

Okay, can you explain that? Because to me it sounds like you sent those texts.

Objection, Your Honor. Counsel is testifying. I'm putting the Crown's

theory to the accused.

He can answer it.

Answer the question, Mr. Manning. I can't answer it. I can't answer it

because I didn't send those text messages. And I sure as hell didn't kill

my wife.

I didn't do it, okay?

Thanks, man. Yeah.

I was just thinking about that five alarm on Royal York three years ago.

Yeah, floor gave up right under me.

Still got a scar on my knee.

Smoked so thick I couldn't even see my own boots.

Didn't even know it was you when I grabbed you. I almost pulled you down

with me.

But, um, I knew you'd get us out.

I'm gonna miss it.

What are you talking about?

The job.

Guys? Standing on the front line with you?

Rhys, come on. You were there on the court today, Simms. You saw me.

I lost it on the stand. That's all the jury's gonna be thinking about when

they're deliberating.

I loved her so much.

The defense calls Easton Sims.

What do you think the play is?

Character witness?

Get Reese's crew to talk about his heroism in the film? Do you solemnly

affirm that the evidence being given by you to the court shall be the truth, the

whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Mr. Sims, how do you know the defendant?

We're both on A Platoon at Station 104.

Station 104 responded to the fire at the Manning residence, correct?

Yes, that's correct. And you were a first responder on that call. Define

your role to the jury.

I was part of the fire crew that attacked and suppressed the fire. Later,

under Investigator Adams' direction, I assisted in evidence recovery.

I removed sections of the kitchen countertop and flooring at the fire's

point of origin.

And what was the inspector looking for? Evidence of an ignitable liquid.

Like gasoline, for example?

Yes. And what equipment did you use to pull the samples?

A gasoline-powered saw.

Objection! The defense gave no notice they would present such evidence, and if

that's where we're going, I request an adjournment to review... If Mr.

Forrester looks at the fire marshal investigation report, which the Crown

itself disclosed months ago, it notes, a firefighter removed those samples. That

firefighter is my witness.

Request denied.

Defense may proceed.

So, Mr. Sims, are you saying...

that the gas the fire marshal found, the same gas the Crown claims Mr.

Manning used to burn down his own home, might have leaked from your power tool?

Yes. And where was the coffee maker when you were pulling those samples?

On the floor. On the floor near the gas powered saw you were using to take the

samples? Yes.

I'm sorry, I should have spoken up earlier. I was embarrassed by my

mistake. Yes, the truth is, I may have contaminated the scene.

Quiet, please.

Thank you, Your Honor.

So to be clear, Mr. Sims, based on your firsthand actions, this jury is looking

at a compromised crime scene. A fire of uncertain origins and an inconclusive

timeline, all of which points to reasonable doubt. Objection. Counsel is

presenting closing arguments mid-trial.

Withdrawn, Your Honor.

No more questions.

Be seated.

Will the defendant please rise?

Ladies and gentlemen, do you have a verdict?

Yes, Your Honor. On the counts of arson and murder, how do you find the accused?

We, the jury, find the defendant, Reese Manning, not guilty.

Quiet, please.

No.

Adam said they stepped away from the crime scene to grab their field kit

while Sims was pulling the samples.

But Sims was using a manual chisel at the time. Adam's never heard or saw a

gas-powered tool. So Sims perjured himself.

Because Reese convinced him to.

We can't just let this guy go. And what do you suggest we do? The Crown can't

appeal based on fresh evidence, even if it shows there was perjury. Double

jeopardy kicked in the second that jury gave their verdict. So the guy's guilty.

Oh, very helpful.

And no, he's not. You know why?

Because the jury said so. Rhys Manning is a free man. If you had just caught

Sims in disclosure... It was your crime scene.

This is over, detectives.

Theo, I'm sorry.

We all got played.

Reese instructed justice in his own trial. It's not murder, but it puts him

in a jail cell. No, no, no. This department just suffered a very public

loss. You're not going near him.

Wait, what if we don't have to?

Reese wasn't the only one who lied on the stand.

If Sims talks, we can make sure the next front page has Reese in a jumpsuit.

Okay, talk to the friend, but if he doesn't give you anything to move on in

the next 24 hours, I'm with Forrester, and this is over.

Go ahead.

Ask any one of my guys on the crew. They'll tell you I had the saw. Oh,

right, the Sacred Brotherhood. You guys always have each other's backs on the

job, on the witness stand. You want to generalize. Look at you guys. Dead wife,

so it has to be the husband.

That's a little lazy.

The man's job.

is saving lives doesn't mean he's incapable of taking them reese didn't

kill blair oh right and you didn't purge yourself under oath come on give me your

name who killed her you want suspects have a closer look at blair why she was

the one with the secret life cheating sneaking around being a complete

hypocrite hang on what do you mean hypocrite she called me a few days

before the fire said she was looking for reese at the station and when i told her

that he wasn't there. She asked me who he was seeing. And what did you tell

her? I said I didn't know what she was talking about.

Reese just wants to put this all behind him and get back to work. I mean, we all

do.

So can I please go now?

Sit tight.

Okay, if Blair was right about Reese seeing someone else, then maybe she

wasn't the only one who wanted out of the marriage.

Divorce costs money. A dead wife pays three million.

What we know for sure is that Blair was looking for answers.

Let's find out if she got them.

You sure this is it?

Yeah. This is the address Blair put into her GPS the day she talked to Sims.

Mark said that she checked Reese's location before she got here.

Owner died two years ago.

No family.

Properties in limbo with the trustee office.

Police?

Anyone there?

Whatever Reese was doing in here, it was not getting luckier.

Yeah, there's something under here.

These look like burn marks.

Circles are...

Protected patterns.

Numbers must be variables.

I'm starting to think Reese's house isn't the first fire he set.

I've seen these grids before at training seminars.

Reese was experimenting with spontaneous chemical combustion.

Delayed arson like his house fire. Yeah, except this is a totally different

method. The circular protected patterns, they all represent different sized metal

containers like cans.

You add a drying oil like teak or linseed, and then you pack it really

tightly with a cotton rag.

The oil oxidizes until the cotton rag heats up until the point of ignition.

What about the numbers on the grid?

It looks like Reese was calculating the math of the countdown.

Small versus large, 100 milliliters versus two.

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Is there any record of any

arsonist in the city ever using this method? No, I mean, that's the clever

thing about it. The evidence incinerates itself. All you're left with is a

container. And if the can is small enough, it'll be displaced by the high

pressure of a fire hose. Especially if the arsonist is the one holding it.

What if the reason Reese was trying to get the delay down to a science was so

that he could plant the ignition device and make sure he was on duty when the

call came in?

We should start with his schedule.

Jodi, do you have the forensic files for the fires that Reese responded to?

Yeah.

Guys?

I got it. All right, Cap?

Welcome back, brother!

Are you serious, man?

Come on!

Come on!

You're gonna squish the doughnuts!

Now, looking at the area of origin in all four of these fires, they all have

the same small circular protected pattern, the same as the last row in

Reese's test grid.

It looks like that's the size of the container he settled on. Now, all of

these fires started in storage rooms. They would have been packed with

combustibles. They would have accelerated the flame and hid the

ignition source.

And Reese was the lead on all four.

Uh, make that five.

A restaurant on Kipling.

Wow, these go back two years.

Any casualties?

No.

We've only just scratched the surface.

I'm gonna text Mark. Get him to dig into every fire that Reese was ever at.

I've seen this before.

Can you pull this restaurant fire up on your monitor?

Bottom left corner. Can you zoom in?

The cutest carnivore? It's the same brand of cat food at Risa's house.

That's what caused all those protective patterns.

This guy lights fires so he can be the hero who put them out.

And maybe Blair knew it.

That's why he killed him.

I give you guys 24 hours to prove that Reese Manning tampered with a witness,

and you come back claiming that he started several unrelated fires instead.

Factfully, they're not unrelated.

We lost that trial because the jury didn't believe that Reese started a

delayed fire at his own home. But we had the wrong motive.

Say more.

His wife found out he was an arsonist.

After we realized what Reese was doing, we found a folder for a fake property

listing on Blair's tablet.

She created it the day after she tracked Reese's location.

It had photos of his garage lab, hardware store receipts for rags, teak

oil, all kinds of... Oh, wait.

If Reese was a teak oil rags guy, why didn't he use that method in his own

house? Because it would take too long to ignite.

Reese's experiments gave him a 36- to 48-hour window. If he used his usual

method, he would risk arriving home from Vegas before his house burned down.

He needed to pivot to something faster.

That's where the coffee maker came in. This changes nothing about his

acquittal. You can't try the guy a second time for the same murder.

I know.

But we can get him on arson.

So what? Put him away for a few years, hope he comes out a changed man?

Theo, it's not just one fire.

He's escalating. He's doing this for the praise, for the attention.

He's sociopathic.

Fire after fire after fire after fire.

He murdered his own wife just to protect his own mythology.

I went elementary.

Last June.

We covered that with Adams.

Reese wasn't working that day. He wasn't working that fire, so why was he there?

Reese was originally scheduled to work the day of the Pinewood fire, but he

rolled his ankle the day before, so I sent him home with a week. But he came

back. Crew told me he showed up the next day with a box of donuts, ended up

sticking around, which was a good thing, too. That school fire got out of control

real fast.

Yeah, so we heard it. Took out a few classrooms.

Yeah, well, it could have been worse.

We only lost one.

What do you mean you only lost one?

Mr.

Manning?

A few words?

It's fine.

Depends on the words.

How about we're sorry?

Look, Rhys, cops and firefighters, we're not that different.

We're all here to save lives, right?

Yeah.

Appreciate the apology.

But that's all I got work to do.

Hey, Toronto Fire passed you over for left-handed three times before you

finally made the cut, right?

Apparently there was an issue with your leadership abilities.

You were more of a crew guy.

But you didn't like that, so you found a shortcut.

You started setting fires yourself so you could be the hero and put them out.

And it worked.

You got promoted.

Conferences started calling.

What are you talking about?

Oh, he knows. No idea what these guys are talking about. Is that what you told

Blair when she figured it out after she called Sims here, followed you back to

your little fire lab?

Your wife finally saw you for what you really are, a sociopath and an arsonist.

And so you killed her. I was acquitted of my wife's death. You're right.

Legally, you can't be tried for it again.

But the Crown hasn't tried you for the death of Penny Campbell.

Remember Pinewood Elementary?

Everyone made it out safely, except Penny. Eight years old, she snuck off to

the supply room off the library to read over lunch. She ended up with third

-degree burns all over her body.

There were cover stories.

With your face on it.

But none about that little girl who died three months later when she got sepsis

from the injuries that you caused.

She got two paragraphs in a local paper.

I saved 12 kids that day. I was the first one in the door and I didn't stop.

You were a hero. Yeah, actually. I was.

I am. We are.

You couldn't do what we do.

Neither could you.

It takes a certain type of person to run into a burning building.

You know why?

Because it's counterintuitive.

Bonnie just doesn't want to do it. So you have to override that instinct, and

you have to run into that fire to save lives.

And you know what? The little kids thank you for it.

Yeah, they do.

Everyone thanks you for it. Everyone except you two. You have no idea who I

am. Oh, we do, actually. As a matter of fact, catch.

You were so busy pulling kids out for your photo op.

You forgot to retrieve the ignition device you left behind.

That's the stuff you feed your cat.

Imported from California, it's actually quite hard to find.

This is ridiculous.

You realize that, right? Because I have no idea what he's talking about. I've

got five more photos just like that.

Your lieutenant here has been setting the fires you're risking your lives to

put out.

Reese, look at me.

You really think your brotherhood's going to protect you this time?

Cap, come on.

Come on. You can't believe this, right?

Come on. Hey, get your hands off me.

Today marks the beginning of the Crown's prosecution of Reese Manning for the

arson at Pinewood Elementary and for the resulting death of eight-year-old Penny

Campbell. We also hope that these proceedings will bring a measure of

justice to Blair Manning's family.

You think this gets us back into those good books?

I don't know.

Let's wait for the smoke to clear.