Complete story — includes the ending
Jane and the team head to a small farming town to investigate the murder of a National Guard veteran, Rich Garcia, who was killed in an arson fire. After learning Rich's fellow veteran buddy, Dave Martin, was killed in a house fire a few years back, the team goes to question the town's police chief, also a veteran from Rich's unit, only to find his house ablaze. With three out of four members from the unit killed by fire, the CBI digs deeper and learns Dave discovered something more valuable than gold to the drought-stricken farming community – a limitless water supply on land purchased for him by his fellow soldiers. When Dave would not cut them in on the potential profits, his "buddies" set his house on fire. Evidence points to the only surviving soldier, Ben Machado, but when someone tries to set him on fire, the team realizes the killer they're after is not motivated by greed but is instead out to avenge Dave's murder.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history · Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Mentalist season 1. HTML formatting and reference markers removed. · Content license