Motive: Detour

SYNOPSIS

The killer: Torontonian Barry Ketchum, who recently celebrated his one year sobriety at his AA meeting. The victim: Eric Chase, a mortgage broker, who was killed one evening outside his office by strangulation. Homicide lucks out when Betty discovers the killer's DNA under Eric's fingernails. Homicide looks at Eric's family life - including his new marriage to Ronnie Chase, and being awarded sole custody of his son Chad Chase over his ex-wife, Claudia Powell, an activist who lost custody largely because of her chronic unemployment - and his professional life, where potential clients may have despised him for turning down their mortgage requests. Eric was a seemingly well liked man, so Homicide believes that the tension between Claudia and Ronnie played some role in Eric's death, especially as Claudia has open hatred for the police, although they also know that both women are physically incapable of the killing. Partly through eyewitness accounts, Homicide is led to a low level Toronto drug lord named Tony Denato as the killer. Homicide eventually learns more about Denato which causes some problems in the investigation. Angie decides to go out on a limb to capture the killer on her own. Meanwhile, Manny, for the first time, asks Angie about the identity of his father, that information which Angie still does not feel ready to divulge to him.