Shawn realizes that the jewelry store and the convenience store used Derrick Poole, of Poole Construction, to put up drywall in their stores and likely tampered with the alarms while working. They head to Poole's construction company, but Juliet is already there arresting Poole. Shawn asks to question him first before the SBPD, but Juliet tells him no. They agreed to work this investigation separately and she is going to question him first.

While Juliet questions Poole, Shawn learns from McNab that Poole hires Day Laborers to get most of their jobs done. Shawn then gets the idea to question the Day Laborers that Poole hired for both jobs. The Day Laborers give them a clue that leads them to their co-worker Carl's house, however Carl's dad Fred tells them Carl isn't there. They believe Carl is the culprit, but he is nowhere to be found.

Juliet, who has been investigating on her own, is having DNA of a blood droplet she found at the jewelry store crime scene analyzed. Lassiter tells them that once they run the DNA analysis, they will have the real culprit. Juliet is happy she is a step ahead of Shawn, and since they agreed earlier on that they were working separately, she denies Shawn's plea to get in on her findings.

Shawn and Gus then go to question Mercer again but are shocked to discover he has been killed and that Thane is the #1 suspect.

Thane is arrested, but is released after Juliet says she found an eyewitness who spotted someone else running out of the restaurant at the time of the murder. Thane is absolved of the crime, and he thanks Juliet for helping him and apologizes for not trusting her in the first place. He admits he should have hired her over Shawn and Gus.

Juliet alerts the team that the real robber will soon try to fence the diamonds he stole from the jewelry store. Shawn and Gus put it together that the diamonds he stole were conflict-free and therefore carry a laser-etched I.D. that would lead them to finding the person who stole them. Juliet admits that is an excellent lead and decides to follow up on it.

The diamonds lead Juliet and Lassiter to an apartment where they discover Carl hiding out. She arrests Carl, but her car gets hit by another car on the way back to the SBPD, and Carl escapes with the driver that hit them.

Back at the SBPD, Juliet is devastated that Carl got away. They can't get Thane his restitution money until they find and convict Carl.

The DNA analysis comes back from the blood found at the jewelry store, and sure enough, it belongs to Carl, however the DNA also matches evidence on file from an unsolved murder that took place in 1981. Carl was only 8 years old in 1981 and couldn't have committed the murder, so the SBPD figure this is a familial match. Shawn then realizes that Carl's dad Fred has been covering up Carl's robberies to keep Carl's DNA out of the national database so that Fred would never be found out for the murder he committed in '81.

The SBPD track down Fred and learn he planted the gun in Thane's car and paid Mercer to lie about Thane being the culprit. Carl is devastated to hear his father is a murderer and decides to turn himself in for the robberies. Carl and Fred are arrested, Thane is finally given his restitution, and Shawn and Gus are awarded their hard-earned $10,000. Thane uses the bulk of his restitution money to open a new restaurant.

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