CSI: NY Episode 9.10 The Real McCoy

The team finds Jason Black, the co-owner and bartender of an exclusive speakeasy called The Real McCoy, murdered and robbed of only a portion of the large deposit he was going to make. Dr. Hawkes finds blood on Jason's watch and matches the DNA to a man named Nathan Brody, but Nathan tells them the blood was from a scuffle he had with Jason at the bar earlier that night. The toxicity report reveals that Jason had a buildup of formic acid in his system, a possible result of methanol ingestion. Lindsay finds a brand of vodka containing methanol in the stockroom of the speakeasy, concluding that they were serving counterfeit alcohol as methanol causes reactions similar to extreme drunkenness. Jason's girlfriend Courtney handled the bar's purchase orders and made the switch to counterfeit alcohol to save money. A background search on Jason leads back to Nathan as he had previously hired Jason to lay insulation in his house before he opened the bar. Nathan believed Jason had stolen ten thousand dollars from his attic and confronted him to get the money back, inadvertently killing him in the process by pushing him into a fence that punctured through his neck. Flack tells Courtney about the stolen money, triggering her memory that Jason's best friend Eli had told her he won ten thousand dollars in Atlantic City and used that money to help with starting up the bar. She realizes Eli was the one who stole the money from Nathan's attic as he had worked the insulation job with Jason. Meanwhile, Adam struggles with his relationship with his Alzheimer's afflicted father.