Teenagers out skinning dipping in a sulfur spring discovered a dead body floating in the water with them.  Nick and Ray discovered that the body was dead before it hit the water, and an autopsy revealed that the victim, Walter Burns, was riddled with disease, but died from drowning.  Burns had been in contact with a reporter, Rosalind Johnson, investigating a gas company, Conservo Solutions, in the Cable Springs region.

Meanwhile, an abandoned vehicle brought in to the lab leads Nick and Detective Reed to the body of Richard Adams, a Conservo Solutions employee.  Richard Adams’ last phone call was made to Rosalind Johnson.  Adams’ wife was afraid to talk too much about her husband’s work with the gas company, but Nick eventually convinced her to admit she had been threatened. Someone had left a severed goat head on her front porch.

A necropsy of the goat head showed that the goat suffered the same sort of disease as Walter Burns. Nick, Ray, and Detective Reed journeyed to the ranch that the goat had come from, and found a rancher at the end of his ropes. Inching toward his gun the rancher, Bill Gibson, related that he had lost everything and he blamed the gas company. Having nothing to lose Bill Gibson tossed a cigarette butt into his spoiled well and it immediately exploded.

A reluctant Ecklie got the CSIs a warrant to search the Conservo Solutions fleet in an attempt to find the murderer of Richard Adams and Walter Burns. A piece of torn shirt was discovered that matched the shirt Walter Burns was wearing when he died. 

The truck of a Conservo Solution worker was found as well as the dead body of its driver, the victim of an apparent hit and run. The inside of the truck revealed the gun used to kill Richard Adams, and hit Walter Burns. The CSIs suspected a cover up, but with no other evidence the case had to close there.

Ray offered Rosalind Johnson encouragement to continue with her story to blow the whistle on Conservo Solutions. He also gave her the card of a colleague that could help her with her illness, as Rosalind was also a resident of Cable Springs.