Breaking GroundEpisode 311(045) - Dec 17 1997 While Jim and Blair are lazing at home in front of the news, Blair notices a report on a homicide at a city archeological dig, headed up by his friend and colleague, Rainier University archeology professor Emily Watson. At the same time Jim receives a phone call from Cassie, whom the news footage simultaneously reveals is already at the scene. Jim and Blair race down there before she can get into any trouble. The news report states that a graduate assistant, Martin Gillman, is missing and has possibly been buried in a tunnel collapse, but they've found the body and Cassie thinks it's murder. Down at the Cantor Construction site where the archeological dig is situated, Blair and Jim catch up with Dr Watson at the tail end of a tense discussion with Mark Cantor the landowner, who has told her he is pulling authorization for her project. She is distraught and distracted, apologizes to Blair and races away. Cassie then reports what she has discovered so far. The digging of the foundations for the Cantor complex revealed the foundations of Cascade's old waterfront, and Dr Watson's team had permission to excavate further. Although the homicide looks like a simple accident, Cassie says that Gillman didn't have permission to be on site after dark. When Jim asks her for a motive, she shows them Gillman's car, which has been broken into and rifled. Not yet convinced it was an isolated incident, Jim points out a row of parked cars along the street in a similar condition, but Cassie suggests that maybe the killer didn't know which car was Gillman's. While Jim takes a phone call, Blair takes the opportunity to continue to work on Cassie, inviting her out on a "not date" so as not to violate her "I don't date co-workers rule". He also tells her he thinks she's right about Gillman. Later Blair catches up with Emily in her office to express his sympathy and she apologizes for her earlier attitude, but she is very depressed about the closure of her project. She admits that she and Martin weren't really friends, Mark Cantor insisted on Gillman heading up the dig. Back at the PD, Cassie dumps the autopsy report on Jim's desk, insisting that she was right. The ME found water in the lungs containing cement and Cassie believes the body was repositioned to look like an accidental cave-in. Jim says they need to find proof and Cassie thinks this is an invitation from Jim to join him in the investigation. When Jim corrects her and says he meant him and Sandburg, she gets angry and storms off, crashing into an oblivious Blair on the way. Cantor agrees to allow Jim and Blair onto the dig site that night, and Jim takes the opportunity to question him about his appointment of Gillman to the project, but Cantor admits to nothing more than a belief in Gillman's promising future and leaves, restating that the dig is to be closed. At the bottom of the excavation, Jim notices cement from the construction work by detecting its phosphorescence in the moonlight. It allows him to trace where the body was dragged from the site of the murder and to identify a metal cap on the heel of the boots worn by the killer. Suddenly a loud creaking heralds the collapse of the floorboards and Blair disappears into the darkness below. Frantically Jim climbs down to rescue Blair, and discovers him sore, embarrassed but essentially unharmed. The undiscovered room below however reveals a thick, cast-iron door covered with strange symbols. Blair's curiosity gets the better of his discomfort and he takes a rubbing, hoping that Dr Watson may be able to use the import of a significant finding the get the University to petition keeping the site open. Blair stays up all night trying to decipher the curious symbols, and when Jim joins him in the morning, Blair explains that there appear to be elements of Greek, Egyptian and Hebrew in the lettering. He believes it is a form of secret writing, designed to keep something hidden. Blair's calls and messages to Dr Watson have gone unanswered. Just then Jim answers a knock at the door and Cassie walks in, eyeing Jim's half dressed state up and down admiringly and then saying she has arrived to help Blair decipher the symbols because she minored in cryptography. Jim retreats dejectedly back up to his bedroom loft, leaving Blair and Cassie puzzling over the symbols. Arriving at the PD from the library that day, Blair and Cassie are surprised to find Jim working on his day off. They have tracked down the mystery writing and the history of the dig site. The writing is an old code used by an order of Free Masons. Blair explains that in 1893 the Cascade waterfront was wiped out by fire, and the area was rebuilt straight over the top of the old buildings. An old masonic lodge was located beneath the current dig site and the order included a subversive sect called the "Illuminati", who used to infiltrate masonic lodges and used the influence of the members and their resources to gain political power. Cassie has a friend modeming her an advanced cryptography program and she leaves to see if it has arrived. Jim is unimpressed with all the time Blair is spending with Cassie, but Blair is attracted to Cassie's enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge. They are interrupted by a call to get down to Rainier U, where Emily Watson's body has just been discovered. Simon explains that the evidence at the scene indicates that Dr Watson appears to have fallen and hit her head while trying to give herself an insulin injection. Cassie is enamored of the theory, going into rather graphic detail to describe how the homicide may have occurred. When Jim questions the theory that this is another "accidental" death, Cassie becomes angry, asking Jim if his ego is so big that he can't let someone else "kick a field goal" once in a while. Blair leaves the room, upset by her callous treatment of the death of his friend. Much to Cassie's further dismay, Jim then decides that the killer injected Dr Watson in the same spot as the insulin, and races outside to follow his own evidence, finding a second hyperdermic in a drain outside the building. Jim decides to check out Gillman's car, hoping to find something forensics missed, and discovers a computer disk and an angular shape made of gold containing more of the secret writing, wedged under trim of the glove compartment. The disk is encrypted so they pursue a warrant to enter Gillman's apartment to try it on Gillman's own computer, and although the gold in the strange object is not worth enough to kill two people for, it appears to be part of a puzzle. Dr Watson's killer may have been after more puzzle pieces. In another part of town, the killer presents Mark Cantor with Emily Watson's piece, telling him it is part of a treasure map. Later that day, Blair stops in to Cassie's office where she is using her new program to decode the writing on the underground door and the partial symbols on the puzzle piece. He arrives bearing Chinese food, trying to reinitiate their "non-date". Simon stops by to tell them the warrant on Gillman's apartment came through and Jim is nowhere to be found. Simon also takes the opportunity to tell Blair privately that fraternization on the premises is frowned upon, and reminds Blair sternly of the video surveillance. Just then, the cryptography program spits up the translations. The writing on the door reads "Beware, there is no escaping the maze of the sacred chamber" and the partial symbols on the piece say "take the passage to -- left, then right and -- to your right and -- the chamber at the end." Cassie decides to take their warrant and get over to Gillman's place to test the encrypted disk, but Blair reminds her she's not a detective. Cassie insists however that she is a "duly authorized agent of the Cascade PD, empowered to collect evidence based on a specific crime" and part of the team investigating Gillman's murder. With Blair reluctantly in tow, they head out to Gillman's place while all the while Blair is trying to contact Jim on his cell phone. Eventually Jim picks up, saying he was out with a friend. Jim reads Cassie the riot act and tells them to stay put. Cassie goes in anyway while Blair waits obediently in the Volvo, opening Cassie's laptop to work on the symbols some more while he waits. The killer is also heading for the apartment and when he sees Blair working on the familiar symbols, kidnaps him and drives him out to the dig site. He and Cantor force Blair to decipher the rest of the instructions on their stolen key and all then retreat into the depths of the vault, following the instructions from Cassie's laptop program. When the killer accuses Blair of deliberately misreading the instructions and Blair punches a few keys, the laptop starts bipping its low battery warning. When Jim arrives at Gillman's he finds Cassie inside the apartment and Blair nowhere to be seen. Cassie suggests offhandedly that he might have gone for coffee. Nevertheless she has come up with lots of information from Gillman's research. The old fire not only took out the masonic lodge, but all of the leadership. But the journal of an elderly mason from 1903 reports that there is a huge vault with the mason's collected assets in gold bars hidden beneath the foundations of the building. There are also two golden keys containing the secret instructions to find the vault. Gillman must have found one of the gold keys and went straight to Cantor, who although considered to be one of the wealthiest landowners in town, actually has debts run up everywhere. It is believed Cantor may have gone to the mob. Outside, Blair is still not back, and Cassie realizes her computer is also gone. Then Jim finds the metal boot cap he remembers from the dig site and knows the killer has Blair. They race back to the Cantor construction site and Jim convinces Cassie to remain outside and call for backup while he goes below. He is able to track Blair's whereabouts by the steadily bipping computer. They have found the vault and the killer is forcing Blair and Cantor to dig out the rubble by hand at gunpoint, dislodging more and more of the precariously balanced masonry. Jim shoots the gun out of the killer's hand and then hears the roof start to collapse. As they all race for their lives as the tunnels collapse like house of cards, the killer runs back towards the vault. Back at the station, Simon congratulates them but again reminds Blair and Cassie not to fraternize. Jim suggests smugly that they should all set some ground rules, and agree to "just be friends." Credits:
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