- A tanning butler is found murdered in a hotel bed next to a housewife-prostitute. However, the woman claims that she was drugged and has no recollection of the crime.
- Steve Howell is found, stabbed to death, handcuffed to a hotel bed. The woman lying next to him claims ignorance, being drugged. Despite an ill-considered hazing prank inside CSI, forensics gradually disclose both beauties were providing 'intimate services' besides 'days jobs' as sun cream attendant viz. housewife, and there were several people on the crime scene, with different roles and some criminal motives.—KGF Vissers
- Miami. Night. Neon. Salsa music. A hotel manager answers a noise complaint and finds a dead man handcuffed to a bed. The woman next to the body sits up in shock. "Where am I?" she asks. A crime scene, ma'am. And thanks for asking.
Caine, sunglasses perched snugly against his face, arrives on the scene. The confused woman claims she was in a hotel bar having a drink. The next thing she remembers, she woke up next to the dead man. "I must have been drugged or something," the woman says. Frank, meanwhile, points out a cute couple from Kansas who made the noise complaint. Why? So Caine can throw us to the opening credits.
"They're not in Kansas anymore, are they?" Caine growls.
YEEE-OWWW!!! Cue opening credits!
Back from an excruciatingly long commercial break, Eric takes photos of the crime scene. Ryan enters with news: the victim is a Steven Howell. The witness is a Christina Dodd, who tested positive for a date-rape drug. "So there was definitely a third person in here," Ryan says. Eric theorizes that Howell turned up the radio as a call for help before dying. Also: the hotel's logo is on the handcuffs. Perhaps the killer is an employee?
The concierge denies any knowledge of the murder but admits to catering to any client's need. "If they want kinky, well, I give them their choice from the toy box," he explains. The concierge, as it turns out, personally delivered the box to Christina Dodd. Wha-wha-what?
Seconds later, Calleigh interrogates Christina. The woman explains that a gorgeous guy once picked her up at the hotel bar, slept with her and then paid her as if she were a prostitute. "It made me feel so alive," Christina said. "I've been doing it ever since that night." Steve, it turns out, was just another trick. She admits to handcuffing the victim before losing consciousness. "I didn't kill him," she says. So who did? And who drugged Christina?
Natalia, meanwhile, runs a test on skin scrapings found underneath the victim's fingernails. One montage later, she presents the results to Caine: Audrey Yates. Seconds later, Ms. Yates is being questioned. "You have a history as a madam," Caine notes. She doesn't deny it -- but does deny any involvement in Steven Howell's murder. "I'm sorry he's dead because was an excellent tanning butler," Yates says. That explains the multiple DNA samples under his nails. Yates theorizes that a jealous John might be responsible. Caine isn't so sure -- but it's hard to be sure of anything when you're not wearing your lucky sunglasses.
Later, Valera makes a discovery: DNA from a man named Dan Becks has been discovered south of Christina Dodd's border. Caine and Frank immediately set out to pay Mr. Becks a visit -- and are shocked to discover that he is Christina's husband. Worse, the man doesn't seem to have any idea that his wife is a part-time call girl.
Back at the lab, Price does her part to advance the plot. She repositions the body to match the crime-scene photos in an effort to determine what weapon was used to kill the man. One positioning montage later, she fills the multiple wounds with silicone. When the casts dry, she should have a murder weapon. We can wait.
Another montage -- this one performed by Eric -- shows the piecing together of a shattered glass vial from the crime scene. Once reassembled, Eric discovers prints belonging to Lisa Radley, a real-estate broker. "I'll have patrol bring her in," Ryan says.
Seconds later, the skinny blonde is being interrogated by Eric and Caine. Radley claims to have been out shopping that morning. She even turns over a receipt to prove it. When Caine shows her pictures of the victim, the married woman confesses to sleeping with Howell a few nights ago. "When we got up to the room, he pulled out that little bottle," Radley says. "He said it was absinthe." Hours later, the woman woke up naked and robbed.
So the victim had been drugging and robbing married women. Eric points out that he could have pulled the con on countless people. "Which means any one of them could have been his killer," Caine growls.
A series of tension-building commercials later, Calleigh and Natalia theorize on what might have gone down that fateful night. Perhaps Howell mistook Christina for a regular ol married woman (instead of a married woman who was also a part-time prostitute), allowed himself to be handcuffed as a joke and found himself trapped when the drugs he slipped Christina took effect. Sounds reasonable enough -- for this show, anyway.
The two then search Howell's apartment for clues. One montage of searching later, Calleigh finds photographs of all the victim's victims tacked to the refrigerator. "What's that?" Natalia asks. "His wall of shame?" Har har. Turns out the married woman were scouted and chosen ahead of time. But who took the photos?
We're glad we asked. Bartlett isolates reflections in the photos to reveal that Audrey Yates held the camera. Seconds later, Yates is back in the interrogation room. "These women were horny soccer moms cutting in on my profits," she explains to Caine. "I had to do something about it. I just pointed them out. He did the rest."
Caine notices that Yates is wearing a ring that looks suspiciously like the one stolen from Lisa Radley. He asks (growls, really) that Yates turn the ring over. She agrees and then smirks. "We good?" For now, sister. For now.
Back at the lab, Price reveals the results of her silicone cast test while we view a short montage of said procedure. Long montage short: the murder weapon is a rare hunting knife of the Rambo variety. "Nice going, doctor," Caine growls. Calleigh searches the system for the knife and finds that it is military grade. And wouldn't you know it? Dan Becks used to be in the military.
Caine makes a return visit to the Becks/ Dodd home. Turns out Becks knew of his wife's part-time job all along. He went to the hotel that fateful day to discover his wife passed out and Howell handcuffed to the bed. Becks claims to have given the man a warning before storming out and dropping the knife in the process.
Calleigh and Natalia, meanwhile, have taken the sex-toy box from the hotel to examine its contents. No evidence points toward the concierge, Mario Vega, who admits to also selling alibis to women such as Christina and Yates, including phony receipts to restaurants and department stores. One of these pre-ordered alibis strongly resembles the receipt Lisa Radley handed over to Eric and Caine.
CUT to police cruisers pulling over Lisa Radley. Eric searches her car and finds the murder weapon. Radley's face falls. She explains that she had to get her ring back. "I just wanted what was mine," she says. Flashback! We see Lisa walking in on a handcuffed Howell, who taunts the skinny blonde. Lisa grabs Becks dropped knife and stabs the lothario again and again and again. "To see him doing that all over again to another woman he had to be stopped," she cries.
"Not by you," Caine growls. "Not by you."
Case closed.
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