♪ ♪
Look out!Get out of the way!
Move!
( ship horn blaring )
Hold on!
Here we go. Stop! Hold on!
( ship horn blaring )
Son of a bitch!
MAN:Later, day trader!
Maybe next time!
Wear your water wings!
( ship horn blaring )
Oh, my God.
MAN:I need a little more slack.
Give me a little more.
All right, that's good.
All right!
BONASERA:Mac, are youseeing this?
Yeah.
A mermaid, why not?
No throwingthis one back.
This one's a keeper.
BONASERA:I thought the mermaid parade
wasn't for another month.
The what?
TAYLOR:Mermaid parade.
The annual whacko-fest
held every June downin Coney Island.
Kicks off the summer.
Got a homicideon 88th and Columbus.
Lindsay, you and Dannystay with the body.
Let us know ifyou need anything.
Montana.
You see a view like this?
Huh? Beats the wheat fields, no?
( ship horn blaring )
Have you ever evenseen a wheat field?
What's to see?
It's just wheat.
( horn blaring )
( camera clicking )
BONASERA:That's not pretty.
What do we got?
Single gunshotwound to the eye.
Stella?
How you holding up?
I'm okay.
This type of precision,I'm guessing close range.
Bottom of the stairs, maybe.
( gunshot )
I'd say the shooterwas waiting for him.
But where?
As far asthe neighbors know,
Mark Jeffrieswas a model citizen.
Normal job, normal guy,
helped old ladieswith their packages.
I'll check to seeif he was a Boy Scout, too.
Any witnesses?
Not a lot of pedestrian trafficup here, Mac.
That's my husband!That's Mark!
Oh, my God, it's Mark!
That'smy husband.
That man is my husband!
( sobbing )Oh, God.
I hate that part.
It's like beingback in the morgue again.
Take a d( sobbing )
It's hard to walkup and see that.
WOMAN:No!
No! That's my husband!
What happened to Mark?!
( woman sobbing )
Let me through.Let me through.
What happened?!
It's okay, baby.Shh, it's okay.
It's okay.
Well, I think that answersthe Boy Scout question.
Captioning sponsored by CBS and CSI PRODUCTIONS
♪ Out here in the fields ♪
♪ I fought for my meals ♪
♪ I get my back into my living ♪
♪ I don't need to fight ♪
♪ To prove I'm right ♪
♪ I don't need to be forgiven,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah♪
♪ Yeah. ♪
MESSNER:There's no trace underher fingernails.
Doesn't look like she wasin the water long.
Seaweed could have kept her frombeing completely submerged.
No obvious signs of bluntor sharp force trauma.
Petechial hemorrhaging.
She was strangled.
Yeah.
So whoever did this,
did it the old fashioned way--
with his bare hands.
I'm gonna go see if someonefiled a missing persons.
You can handle the restwithout me?
Yeah.
♪ You can't stop yourself ♪
♪ Now you're out thereswimming ♪
♪ In the deep ♪
♪ Life keeps tumbling ♪
♪ Your heart in circles ♪
♪ Till you let it go ♪
♪ Till you shed your pride ♪
♪ And you climb to heaven ♪
♪ And you throw yourself off ♪
♪ Now you'reout there swimming ♪
♪ In the deep ♪
♪ In the deep. ♪
We're a committed threesome.
And how exactlydoes that work?
Well, you know howmost couples are monogamous?
We're trinogamous.
Trinogamous?
Yeah. We act likea married couple,
only there's three of us.
So you all live here together?
And sleep togetherand have sex together.
All the normal things.
And how long have you been
in this committed threesome?
A year and a half, formally.
Formally?
We had a commitment ceremony.
I now pronounce you husbandand wife... and wife.
( applause )
All right.
I get the picture.
Where were youcoming from
when you arrived at homethis morning?
I had breakfast with a friend--
Kevin Davis.
And where was Laura?
At the grocery store.
I was gone maybe 20 minutes.
Here's my card.
Contact you as soon aswe know something.
Okay.
Come here, sweetheart.
Think we need tolook a little
further intotheir arrangement.
I'm not sureI can take much more.
Were you able to ruleout drowning as C.O.D.?
No water in the lungs,petechial hemorrhaging,
bruising around the neck.
Your mermaid waskilled on dry land.
Can you estimate how longshe was in the water?
Usually with prolongedimmersion, we'd see
extreme wrinkling of theepidermis or washerwoman ski.
The absence of any skindetachment suggests she wasn't
in the water morethan eight hours,
give or take.
So, overnight.
Doesn't look likeshe traveled far either.
No drag marks,
scrapes, cuts.
No postmortem injuriesconsistent with
being at the mercy ofthe East River's current.
So she was dumped
close to wherewe found her.
Mm. I prepareda sexual assault kit,
just in case,but the water
likely diluted any evidence.
The only thingI did find...
was unique scarring and calluseson both of her hands.
They appear old,
difficult to tellwhere she got them.
Rawhide braiding.
I'm sorry?
Weaving together untanned hides
to make reinsfor horses
or lassos to herd cattle.
The friction and the pressure of the leather
cuts you up pretty good.
My dad taught mewhen I was ten.
You think Danny calls me Montana'cause I'm a 49ers fan?
He calls you that'cause he's got a crush on you.
So your victimtraveled far after all.
Jane Doe's a country girl.
♪ ♪
FLACK:Who did you writethat check to, sir?
Her name wasSara Butler.
She's dead?
Murdered.
What was the checkfor, Mr. White?
I, uh, I hired her to sing.
Last night was...
I-I'm sorry, shewas murdered? How?
No, no, no.
"Last night was..."
My daughter's birthday.
She turned eight--I threw a party
for her on the corporateboat, a slumber party.
♪ Somewhere out there ♪
♪ Beneath the pale moonlight ♪
♪ Som( children giggling )... ♪
Sara was part ofthe entertainment.
My daughter loves mermaids.
A friend gaveme her number,
said that she'd be perfect.
We found $100 in her dress.
Her bag with allher clothes,
fell off the boat,sank like a rock.
I felt bad, I had alreadywritten the check,
so I just gave heran extra hundred.
And she walked homewearing mermaid clothes?
I offered her my coat,but she said she didn't live far
and she'd be fine.
Where do you keep the boat?
Just off the Fulton Ferry.
Can you tell me whathappened to her?
I'll sum it upfor you.
She was on your boat,
you gave her an extra $100because you "felt bad,"
her bagis conveniently missing,
and she wound up deadin the river
not far from whereyou were docked.
FLACK:Mr. White,
we're gonna need to take a lookat your boat.
♪ ♪
Looks like Paul Whitemay have hired Sara
for more thanjust her singing.
SID:Normally, I would saythat Mr. Jeffries
was the luckiest manon the planet,
but giventhe circumstances...
HAWKES:Wow. It's badly deformed.
That's odd,considering
the depthof penetration.
Yeah. I didn't have to digvery far.
The bullet didn't strikeany hard tissue.
Which means itwasn't traveling
at a high velocity.
Probably shot froma great distance.
Your shooterhad pretty good aim.
You ever havea threesome?
( chuckling ):It's not as gloriousas you might imagine.
It's complicated dealing withthe different personalities.
And, hey, sometimes,you're just not in the mood,
if you know what I mean.
It's hard enough explaining thatto one woman, let alone two.
Sid.then there's...
Anything else?
Oh. Just some trace
on Don Juan'sright fingers.
I'll send a sampleto the lab.
Okay.
There were these two vivaciousyoung ladies.
Of course, I was much youngerthan I am now.
Sid, I got to go.
I got to go.
Hey, what areyou looking at?
The bullet retrievedfrom Mark Jeffries.
The sum of one land and grooveimpression is 0.165 inche.
Consistent with a .32 automatic.
Good, so now weknow what kind of Ygun.
It shouldn't be that deformed.
Now, the bullet penetratedour vic's eye,
but didn'thit the bone.
Implies it hitan intermediary target.
But there was no evidenceof that at the scene, Hawkes.
Well, then...
our bullet transformed
in mid-air.
For the last time, Paul,this was found in your bed,
on your boat, along with semenand vaginal fluid,
both of which are being testedwhile we speak.
Way I see it, the extra $100
wasn't because Saralost her bag.
You were gettinga little mermaid on the side.
No.I right?
I'm a married man.
Okay.
So we'll get a DNA samplefrom your wife.
All right, all right,all right... listen.
The semen inthe bed is mine.
Your tests will prove that.
But I wasn'twith Sara.
Your testsshould prove that, too.
Now is the partwhere you give me a name.
That girl was19 years old.
I'm begging younot to tell my wife.
I was with Leslie Shieldsduring the party.
She was one of the parentson the boat.
♪ Someone's thinking of me... ♪
FLACK: While your little girl is blowing out candles,
you're in the other room cheating on your wife,
Not one of my better moments,I agree.
No, and it still doesn't tell me
how Sara's sequingot in your bed.
I let her get dressedin the stateroom.
I don't know,it must have fallen off.
I never touched Sara Butler.
I swear.
Our lovely threesomedidn't start out that way.
Mark Jeffries waslegally married
to Elle Jeffriesthree years ago.
Laura was an add-on.
Okay, so our vic and Elle weremarried for about a year,
and the sex got routine.
They added Laurato spice things up.
Look at this.
l didn't thinkthis case could get
more interesting,but it does.
Five years ago,
Laura shot her boyfriendin self-defense.
D.A. chose not to prosecute her.
She kill him?
Shot him right in the chest.
She pulled thetrigger once before,
maybe the secondtime was easier.
Let's go see what Laurahas to say.
Coming?
Yeah. Yeah.
( siren wailing )
Are you lookingfor Laura or Elle?
And you are?
Uh, Kevin Davis;I'm a friend of the family.
Kevin Davis.
Elle said she and youwere having breakfast
yesterday morningwhen Mark was shot.
I make a mean eggs Benedict.
Detectives.
Uh, we were just aboutto take off.
That's okay,you should take care of this.
I'll call you later.
Laura Jeffries.
It's actually
Laura Wise, isn't it?
You and Markweren't legally married.
BONASERA:But Mark and Elle were.
When I met them,
they were married a year. So?
Did you ever pressure Markto get a divorce?
What?
I'm sure he treatedyou differently.
You weren'this lawfully-wedded wife,
and it's perfectlynatural for him to paymore attention to Ell.
What are you implying?
That I killed my husbandover a marriage license?
We're gonna needto test your hands
for gunshot residue.
You're out of your mind.
Both of you can go to hell.
Oh... Laura!
If you didn't do it,
you should have noproblem with the test.
You're not doing anything to me.
I can't believe this.
That's why you're here,to accuse me of murder?
Wouldn't bethe first time
you've beenaccused of murder.
What did you say?
Five years ago, you shotand killed your boyfriend.
It was self-defense--the district attorney
didn't go forwardwith the case.
Oh, even so, you pulledthe trigger once.
I'll bet you had no troubledoing it again.
WhHow dare you!!
You know what you just did--you assaulted an officer, Laura.
You understandwhat that means?
It means we can testyour hands now.
Get her out of here,put her in the car.
Nice going, Mac.
How'd you knowshe was gonna slap you?
I didn't, I justthought she'd give me
a little punchin the arm.
He would have killed me.
My ex-boyfriend.
If I didn't shoot him,he would have killed me.
I believe you.
No, you don't.
It's all right, I don'texpect you to understand.
Laura, trust me.
I know what people you loveare capable of doing.
You probably think I'm crazy,don't you?
A committed threesome,
commitment ceremony...
Life can get monotonous,
so you add a little adventure,mix it up.
You're wasting your time,Detective.
No, Laura, I don't thinkI'm wasting my time.
You just tested positive
for gunshot residue.
This isn't happening.
So you got any ideawho did this to my girl?
Not yet, no.
I always told her the cityis no place for a Montana girl.
Did Sara have a boyfriend
or anybodyshe was having troubles with?
I wouldn't know.
When was the last time you spokewith her?
I haven't spoken to Sarain over a year.
Why?
I'm sorry.
Sara had this dream...
being in New York,being a singer.
You know, I told herit was a pipe dream.
One day, she comes to me,she says...
she says, "Daddy I'm doing it.
I'm going to New York."
You knowwhat I said to her?
"You walk out that door,there's no coming home."
That's the last thing I saidto my daughter.
( sniffles lightly )
You didn't have anycontact after that?
It was...
She'd call and talkto her mom.
At the end of every call,
my wife would say, "I will."
I-I knew she was saying...
"Tell Daddy I love him."
MESSER: Talk about regret.
Yeah.
What's the storywith the DNA?
Turns out that Paul Whitetold Flack the truth.
DNA from the boatdoesn't match Sara.
And it's plausiblethat the sequins
we found in the bed fell offwhen she was changing, you know?
So what do we have left?
You're looking at it.
Where's the sequinyou found in Paul's bed?
Sequins fell off this thread.
This was the only sequinwe found on the bed, right?
That's it.
So all the sequinshad fallen off this thread.
But the others are out there.
Maybe they can point usto where Sara was attacked.
♪ ♪
She was killed right here.
♪ ♪
Hello, James Vackner.
His palm printwas on the hair comb.
Score.
Public intoxication,menacing, assault three,
on parole for assault two.
His violence keeps escalating.
Looks likehe skipped assault one
and went straight to murder.
Let's check it out.
I got a rap sheet,
I'm on parole--
I got the perfectresume, am I right?
I fit the profile.
What do you say weget this over with
and you just lock me up?
Tell me where you were
I was working..
Then I walked home.
Through the park?
Why do I get the feeling
if l answer that question,I'm gonna be in big trouble?
You know what? You're alreadyin big trouble, okay?
We found your print
on a hair comb, Mr. Vackner.
Yeah, okay, I was walking.
I see this thing,
it looks like a gold braceletor something in the grass.
So I pick it up.
You know, maybe it'sworth something.
Turns out to be nothing,so I drop it.
There's a problemwith that story.
You see, it'sa unique print, okay?
It's not yourrun-of-the-mill thumbprint.
Your palm touchedthat hair comb.
That doesn't happenjust from picking it up, James.
Look, I picked the thing up.
Obviously, my palm touched it.
( glass breaking )
And the hitsjust keep on coming.
MAN:That's coming out ofyour pay, Vackner!
MESSNER:You wear those boots
to work every day?
Yeah, the whole getup.
Are we done?
Hey, Jose,I ain't payingfor nothing!
It wasn't my fault.
Yeah.
We're done.
You think there's a large enoughsample here from Vackner's boot?
Shouldn't take much.
I found the tiniest bitof tree bark in the sample.
Tree DNA.
Insane, huh?
MONROE: Match the sample from his bootsto the soil at the crie scene,
and we can put Vackner's boots
in the dirt impression.
MESSNER: And Vackner himself at the scene of the crime.
And we got him.
GSR pattern on Laura's handswas strange.
I've never seenanything like it before.
The only residue l found ran along her pinkie line,
and then down her wrist.
Same pattern, along thepinkie line of both hands.
I've never seen thatbefore either.
But it's enoughfor a warrant.
Grab a .32 and see if you canreconstruct the pattern.
Hawkes and I will check outthe vic's apartment.
Maybe Laura was stupidand hid the gun.
All right.I'll meet you back All right.
Detective Taylor.
Counselor.
You start returningphone calls?
( clears throat )I've been busy.
So I've heard.
My client, Mr. Pratt,
says he's being harassedby someone in your department.
DJ Pratt is a suspect in anongoing criminal investigatio,
but I don't have anyone assignedto surveillance at this time.
So you're sayingmy client's making this up?
Your client's a rapist,Counselor.
DJ Pratt.
Detective Burn, CrimeScene Investigator.
I know who you are.
You've turned this into apersonal vendetta, haven't you?
It's not a vendetta,it's my job.
Let me remind youof something, detective.
You've already gone downthis road twice before.
Both times, you hit a dead end.
First case, your victimwouldn't testify.
Second, you had no evidence.
You know what they sayabout third times.
I'm filing a civilian complaintof malicious prosecution.
You do that.Are we done?
For now.
Good.
Get the hell out of my building.
Welcome to the houseof trinogamy.
Wow. I got to admitthis is not what I expected.
I'll bite.
What were you expecting?
I don't know.
Lava lamps, weird tapestries,
a robo-spanker,maybe a couple of big...
All right, all right.( chuckles )
I'm sorry I asked.
Check the kitchen.
We're looking fora .32 automatic.
Hey, Mac, there's threeof everything.
Except for the tub.
That's an odd chairfor this room.
( woman laughing )
I got nothing.
If Laura's the shooter,she didn't keep the gun.
I got something.
Apparently, Mark liked to watch.
Or possibly someone else.
Maybe this threesomewasn't all that committed.
BONASERA:Hey, Mac.
I tried to recreate thegunshot residue pattern
on Laura's hands, andit was impossible.
So it was secondary transfer.
She still must havehandled the gun.
I thought so, too,and then I started thinking,
she hit your chestwith a closed fist.
How dare you!, whoa, hey!
You want to test my shirt,don't you?
Swab away.
No GSR.
If there were residuealong her pinkie lines,
it would havetransferred to you.
So she didn'thave GSR
on her hands when she hit me,
but when you tested herat the precinct, she did.
Where was she in between?
Positive for GSR.
Who was in this carbefore Laura Jeffries?
Only had one arrest.
Guy named Laurence Jackson.
What'd you pick him up on?
Shooting by the railway yard.
He was cuffedjust like Laura was.
And that's when it transferred from his hands to the seat,
and the seat to her hands.
Laura isn't our shooter.
She never even handled the gun.
( cell phone ringing )
Thanks, Hendershot.
Hawkes.
What do you got?
All right, thanks.
Semen recovered from MarkJeffries' bedroom-- two donors.
One on the bed, whichbelongs to Mark Jeffries,
one next to the chair.
So our threesomeis actually a foursome.
We found semenon the carpet in the bedroom
that doesn't belongto Mark Jeffries.
Who's thesecond donor?
It's the pinch hitter's.
Pinch hitter?
We thought we needed to add
another levelto the relationship,
so we asked a friend to join us.
And you call himthe pinch hitter because...
Because he doesn't get to playunless we call him to the plate.
He just sits there and watches.
We liked being watched.
Even we get boredin bed sometimes.
So Kevin Davisis the pinch hitter.
BONASERA:Okay, so he's notallowed to touch you,
but clearly the same ruledoesn't apply to himself.
As long ashe didn't cross the line.
Maybe Kevin got a little tiredof watching.
All you got to dois press here.
Buzz him in.
( buzzer sounds )
All right,here we go.
Gun. Right hip.
TAYLOR:Mr. Davis?
Detective Taylor.
What can Ido for you?
Is there a problem?
No. There's no problem, sir.
TAYLOR:We'd like to ask yousome questions,
but we'd feel more comfortableif you weren't armed.
I have a licenseto carry this.
May I?
Yeah.
It's nine millimeter.
Vic was shot with a 32.
Is this the only gunyou own, sir?
Wait a minute.You think I shot Mark?
We know your rolein the happy threesome,
Kevin. Must be frustratingto sit on the sidelines
If Mark's outof the picture,
you get called upfrom the minors, right?
I didn't want Markout of the picture, okay?
I just... It was a matterof time
before one of the girlsapproached me.
It turned out to be Elle.
Elle I wouldn't say seeing.side?
It happened once.Couple of days ago,
she knockedon my door,
said she couldn'tstop thinking about me.
We did our thing, then againthe next day, and that was that.
The others find out?
Elle mademe promise
not to tell Mark or Laura,so I didn't.
Why ruin a good thing, right?
Right.
And for the record,that is the only gun I own.
Remind meto switch banks.
FLACK: The suspense is killing me.
What happened with, uh,James Vackner's pants?
Pants-- he washed 'em, the mutt.
You're kidding me.
So not even traceamounts of soilon the knees?
Nada, butI got something better.
TellOil.
Consistent with the oilthat leaked from the water taxi.
FLACK: So we place him at the dump site.
MESSER: Found drop-sized stains in the cuff of his work pants.
So what's next?
Arrest James Vackner.
It's timefor some answers.
Why Sara?
That's hername, Sara.
Why her?
You know,let me show you something.
See, these items...
right here, James?
What they do is,
they tellus a story.
Each one of them.
A story that ends with the death
of a beautifulyoung girl
at your hands.
MONROE:She was an easy
target, wasn't she?
♪ ♪
MONROE: She probably never knew you were behind her.
MESSER: And I bet you it didn't take much
to force that little girl to the ground, did it?
That look familiar?
No!
( muffled groaning )
( muffled groaning continues )
♪ ♪
MONROE: Then when it was all over,
you dumped her body in the river.
So it goes.
Why'd you doit, James?
Why Sara?
( car horns honking in distance )
Hey, Mac, what does thatlook like to you?
Oh, it's the .32 slugpulled from the vic.
Yeah. I analyzed the lead.
It had trace amounts of copper.
It was jacketed?
The sum of one land and grooveon a .32 slug is
0.165 inches.
Add a copper jacket--0.17 inches.
Making it a nine millimeterbullet consistent
with Kevin Davis's firearm.
Exactly.
The round must have passed
through something, stripping the copper jacket
before entering the victim.
We need to findthat copper jacket.
I don't see anythingthe bullet could havepassed through.
We need to widen our scope.
Increase the number ofpossible obstructions.
All right, evenif the shooter wasn't lined up
with the front door...
HAWKES:Hey, Mac! Stella!
Hey, you guys,you're gonna want to see this.
Looks likegunshot residue.
TAYLOR:And blood.
Shooter was right here.
Collect samplesand get them to trace.
If the shooterwas there,
what did the bulletpass through?
Well, bullets are more fragilethan you think.
It doesn't take much
to strip the jacket.
Metal, wood.
Hawkes, you saidthat the, uh...
the vic had newspaper inkon his fingers?
Yeah.
All five fingers, right hand.
Even paper could do it.
( gunshot )
Ripped from the headlines.
TAYLOR: Do you know what "limp wrist" is
in policejargon, Elle?
A totallydifferent meaning
in your world, I'm sure.
It's whena person
doesn't have the strengthto keep a gun from kicking.
The blast
overpowers the wrist,causing it to move erratically.
You have a limp wrist, Elle.
( laughs )
That's it? That'swhat you've got?
Look. Well,we've got your blood.
On the wallwhere you fired the gun.
It's over.
Your onlyaccess to a gun
was Kevin Davis, so you wentto his apartment, seduced him,
and stolehis gun.
Next morning you waited
across the streetuntil Mark came out.
( gunshot )
Then you went back toKevin's, and as he was
preparing his famouseggs Benedict, you returned
the gun unnoticed.
What did Mark doto deserve a bullet to the head?
( sighs )
I was always second.
When the three of us werein bed,
Mark always had sexwith Laura first.
You have no ideahow much it hurt to know
that I wasn't something newanymore.
I became an afterthought.
Why not just leave?
Cut your losses?
I loved him.
And when I told him how I felt,he laughed.
Said I was being stupid.
Told me to get over it.
Well, I was going to make surehe never laughed again.
And now I'm over it.
You okay?
Yeah.
Just, uh, finishing upsome stuff.
Nice work on theButler case.
Danny said youdid a great job.
Thanks.
He also saidyou were
struggling a bit with this one.
It's natural towant to know why.
To understandthe whole story.
Well, what if youdon't get any answers?
Sometimes
bad things happento good people,
and you don't get to know why.
That doesn't work for me.
Not gonna lie to you. It's hard.It eats at you.
We rarely
have all the answers, Lindsay.
I still lose sleepover the onesthat got away.
( sighs )
( ship horn blaring )
I want to know why.
Why did you do it?
Why Sara?
You came all the way down herefor that?
♪ ♪
These are the,uh, DNA results
from all the openrape cases in the city.
None of them come backto D.J. Pratt.
But there are five cases
where the evidence was eitherdegraded or non-existent.
One has a similar M.O.
Maybe Pratt, but...
maybe not.
You canleave those.
Thanks,All right. night.
You're gonna catch this guy.
I know it.
Good night.
Captioning sponsored by CBS and CSI PRODUCTIONS
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org